Dialogue on Trade Breaking Down

 
While Mickey Kantor continues his mission to improve relations between US trading partners so that the "millennium round" can be launched, internal support for trade negotiations continues to diminish. At the winter meeting of the AFL-CIO executive council in New Orleans, the labor organization announced a grass-roots campaign to reject permanent normal trade relations with China. The campaign, "No Blank Check for China," is described on the organization's website, www.aflcio.org. It brings labor and its allies into direct confrontation with the Clinton administration and puts the Democratic Party's front runner, Vice President Al Gore, in a difficult position. As a result of the campaign, the three labor leaders on the White House Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and national union presidents Jay Mazur and Lenore Miller, resigned from their posts. They complained that while President Clinton talks about protecting workers' rights, actual trade negotiations do little to advance this agenda. However, the fact that the panel was about to endorse the administration's China position played a key role in their decision to step down.

As reported previously, Washington may be the scene of Seattle-like demonstrations during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Preparations for the April 16-17 demonstrations can be viewed on the Web at www.a16.org. At this point, the protest's organizers do not have the support of the AFL-CIO, revealing continued strains in the "Seattle Alliance." The question of rejection or reform sharply divides the free-trade opposition groups. The April 16th Nonviolent Direct Action and Organizer Convergence is co-sponsored by: Direct Action Network, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, Washington Action Group, Ruckus Society, National Lawyers Guild, 50 Years is Enough, Katuah, DC Earth First! Solidarity and many others. Ralph Nader's Public Citizen's Trade Watch is included in some of the announcements, but not all-it appears that the Nader group is considered "too reformist" by some of the rejectionists. The AFL-CIO is still considering its options for the Washington protests; in Seattle, the organization scheduled its own union events.

Large-scale demonstrations in Washington will continue to "educate" Americans on the negative role of fair trade and international financial institutions. The event promises to be another embarrassment for the Clinton administration, complicating its already poor efforts to show the American public that free trade is good for the United States. Meanwhile, the capital's Metropolitan Police Department is re-equipping and training 1,400 officers for crowd control, stocking up on less-than-lethal weapons like tear gas and rubber bullets, and arranging locations for detaining suspects if officers conduct mass arrests.