Maddow: Big Business and the "Child Labor Endorsing, Pro-Slavery Freaks"
By bluegal Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 7:00pm
Rachel Maddow wins my semi-famous "Don't Sugarcoat It" award for her talented muckraking in this segment. It's becoming abundantly clear to everyone in the left-wing activist community that without loophole-free campaign finance reform we are unlikely to change anything in Washington lobby/legislator love-fest. With an assist from blogger David Sirota, Maddow exposes the business lobby that would attempt to hide their desire to continue to import products made from child, slave, and prison labor. Given the American public's unending appetite for cheap plastic junk, it's easy to see why those profiting from that hunger would want their gravy train to continue. Sadly, Maddow must remind us, all of us, that, um, slavery is wrong, even when it occurs across the oceans.
Transcript from here.
...as Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress start lining up with corporate America and against new regulations now, consider the alliance that they are making.
Populist columnist David Sirota today made this catch from the business newsletter “Inside U.S. Trade.” This is a D.C.-based publication on trade issues. It‘s especially for people in international business.
What else are business groups worried about and lobbying against other than the new Wall Street regulations? I wouldn‘t believe this if I had not seen it for myself.
But check this out, quote, “Business groups are worried by the potential effects of provisions banning the import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor or forced or indentured child labor that were included in a recent customs bill. American business groups are concerned, upset.” “Worried” was the actual phrase, worried about laws against using slaves and child labor.
Quote, “Business sources say the bill could cause DHS to more actively seek out imported products made with child labor, forced labor or convict labor.”
Oh, no. How will the corporations save themselves from that onerous rule that you can‘t use slaves and prisoners and children to make your products if you want to sell that product in the United States? Darn that liberal red tape.
Quote, “Sources conceded that this was a sensitive issue because industry groups do not want to be seen as opposing strict measures guarding against human rights abuses. However, one source did expect a push from lobbyists closer to the finance committee mark-up of the bill.”
Wow. I‘m guessing that business interests are OK with something like this being discussed in a subscriber-only industry newsletter publication like “Inside U.S. Trade.” I‘m guessing they might not want to let it become widely known that they are lobbying to stop rules against slavery.
But actually, you never know. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank that is very high profile in Washington and that maintains all sorts of Web sites and educational public venues to promote their ideas.
And on the Heritage Foundation‘s “Overcriminalized” blog, the Heritage Foundation, too, singles out the Child Labor Safety Act, which levies fines and jail time for companies using child labor as an example of what they call “trivial conduct that is now often punished as a crime.”
I mean honestly, “Kids these days. In my day, you would be delighted to be chained to the loom for a few pennies a day.” For the record, the Heritage Foundation also singles out Neil Abercrombie‘s bill against war profiteering as another example of making something trivial into a criminal matter.
Business interests and their think-tank friends on the right have every right to lobby on anything they want to. Think that Wall Street, despite almost destroying the whole economy of the United States should be left to its own devices again? Go ahead, make your case. I would love to hear it.
You think that child labor and slave labor and forced convict labor are cheap and therefore cool with you? Go ahead, make your case. I would love to hear it.
But unless you‘re going to make your case for things like that in total secrecy, know that the case against you is there to be made, too and that that will apply to any member of Congress who sides with you as well, you child labor-endorsing, pro-slavery freaks.
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Forget this one
I deleted it
It's from a malicious site.
Why do we keep having to win the same fights over and over?
Because we (and I mean the collective "we"...the uninformed, uneducated, unconcerned Know-Knothing-Knation) refuse to learn from our mistakes.
Worse, we know all about what's right and wrong, but we simply don't care--just as long as it means cheap flip-flops at Wal-Mart.
I still call them thongs.
Of course, their answer is always, "it's the free market!"
assholes
You might not want to buy any Nestle's chocolate (or any other European variety). Most of it is made with cacao raised in Ghana and elsewhere in West Africa, where they rely very heavily on child slave labor to produce it. That is not child and slave labor, those are child slaves. You also want to avoid pretty much anything made of Brazilian wood, as that industry also relies heavily on slave labor.
and there's plenty of high-quality, well-labeled, fair trade organic stuff around these days. If we keep buying it, they'll make more.
They sold baby formula to natives in Africa, I believe, and told the mothers to mix it with polluted water. Convinced them that they were doing what was best for their babies. But, babies died. Once I learned this, I could never buy anything from them and never will. Nestle never apologized, and just gave everyone who cared the finger. Pay back is a bitch, Nestle. Count on it.
Sirota was a regular guest. Maybe he can sponsor a bill with Senator Sanders or someone. But, it probably wouldn't pass.
How else are retailers able to offer such ridiculously low prices? They need child labor to produce products as cheap as possible, because we Americans expect, no DEMAND stuff for dirt cheap!
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/08/news/companie...
....and they want to make a $100,000 grand a year, and not pay any taxes!
After all these years, they are too dense to figure out it doesn't work that way.
if anything, everything costs more. So I don't think it is for the low prices in the US, they use the child labor, but rather to allow for insanely elevated profit margings.
Because that is the stuff that bothers me the most, we're getting the same price. So I have no f*cking idea why they had to move all those jobs, unless their only goal in life is to find a way, any way to increase profit margins. And that is just insane, we're living in a society controlled by entities, corporations, which display clear sociopathic behaviors....
An excellent report on a very disturbing subject. But I think her point would be more forceful if she wasn't, I don't know, grinning and giggling.
Just a thought.
not kill someone. I'd like some specific names so I can abuse and vent.
She's the reporter. It's fine for you to laugh. When she does it, she makes it look like she doesn't take the story seriously. Kinda like all those morning-show "anchors" and the Fox News idiots.
She's not giggling and grinning because she thinks the topic is funny; Rachel's mocking the way in which "pro business" types just shrug off any atrocity for the sake of profits.
want a civilizing government and to make things right, but only if it does not deprive them of their standard of living. They know at some level that their material well being depends ultimately on these very evils that they protest against.
Oh THANK YOU THANK YOU! Cripes, I've been saying this for YEARS, and only a few months ago got (virtually) shouted down over on FDL for saying that the reason Health Insurance Reform is having so many problems is that we ought to have tackled Campaign Finance Reform FIRST. I was in fact accused of being some kind of paid Rahm Emmanuel shill trying to sabotage health insurance reform or somesuch nonsense (geeze I wish I could get paid for posting blog comments).
Without comprehensive loophole-free campaign finance reform, democracy in this country will remain dead. Well, and corporate personhood needs to be abolished too, but good luck getting that done without CFR first. We need a long-term grassroots campaign to elect CFR-committed candidates (whatever else their positions) to the House and Senate, and when we have supersaturated it with such candidates we must make bribing Congress illegal gain.
And this is the one vote where Congress could defy its corporate masters. Our representatives could free themselves from the onerous, endless, humiliating job of campaign fundraising and spend more time doing the people's business, which, as cynical as I am, I think many of them hoped to do when they took office.
have made over the last year or so concerning healthcare reform. You ideas would have been well-received. If there is anything that this health insurance scam that is masquerading as healthcare reform has demonstrated, it's that nothing of value is going to be achieved if campagin finance isn't reformed.
Congress has the power to set things to right almost over night, but they won't because they enjoy a system that allows them to personally enrich themselves using campaign finance as the cover for their illicit personal wealth building. It has always amazed me how some everyday shmoe can begin a career in politics as a poor starving politician, and after several years on government salary, walks away from office a multi-millionaire. They do it by prostituting themselves and their offices, and this health "care" "reform" travesty is only the latest example of the process.
Aside from finance reform, the doJ also needs to enforce anti-corruption laws that are already on the books. We need to start sending corrupt policians to prison in numbers that are representative of the degree of corruption that permeates our institutions. As long as the corrupt can indulge in their corrupt acts without fear of accountability, nothing is going to change.
americans want cheap
from factory farms to child labor to importing cheap workers
to eliminating unions
our standard of living is falling like a rock
must buy cheap to try and maintain same standard of living
in a nation that prides itself on individualism
this is a common occurance
but hey believe your politicans it is only a recession
they would not lie to you :-)
"American public's unending appetite for cheap plastic junk"
I sell cheap plastic junk out of China and trust me, American's are buying a lot less of it.
And the child labor and working conditions aren't normally much of a problem. Most factories are subject to inspection and though far from perfect, it really does stop most of the problems.
it's still a huge problem, and that's how places like Walmart are able to keep their so-called low prices.
the "free market" winds up being used to justify this horrifying behavior by corporate America while they offshore to places that allow horrible working conditions and wages.
It's a race to the bottom..
It gets rid of the cheap child labor. See I knew they were as stupid as they sound.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness that is killing the world!
you know, it was goods produced with unfair labor and product dumping that started this country;
the original boston tea party was not a revolt against higher taxes but a revolt against relaxing tariff
the founders knew we MUST protect local labor and we must relearn that lession
now, I do not believe we should tariff all products from any one country, but I do believe we need to tariff products produced with slave labor or the equivilant of slave wages, child labor of course, forced labor as well
I have no problem allowing goods from convict labor if the profit from that product goes directly to said convict and not to some holding company or agent's pocket
this is why our economy collapsed, we allowed and actually encouraged our producers to use overseas labor that amounted to slave wages
we also encourage our producers to go overseas to countries that allow for unsafe working conditions and equiptment, pouring cancer into my moms water and bronchitis into my sons air
those products must face tariff as well
what should those tariffs look like?
the should represent no less then the comenserate differance between what the company paid and what it should have paid, plus an administration fee of something like 20 percent
that will serve a host of purposes;
if a country wants to sell good here in the states they will have to pay fair wages, keep the envirnment safe
if they don't want to do those things they can pay the tariff
now thhis is not "nantionalism" it is protecting the class that produces the wealth in the first place
(though I personally have no problem at all with nationalism but some people do)
now, I have no problem with countries that place the same requirements on our goods, for instance france insists on a certain amount of paid vacation for every laborer, they should tax our products when they come from companies that do not allow for the same middle class protection or more
this will work, the problem is, our politicians are corporate bought, bothe democrat and republican...we really do need public financing for public office, it's the only thing I see as saving this country
in the Northern Marianas Island. Thanks to the joint efforts of Abrhamoff and crew and our own corrupt senators and representatives, we have effective legal slavery on Saipan. In the name of cheap goods, guest workers are enslaved in virtual prisons that are exampt from all labor laws. It should be a top priority to tear that system down, but instead, the whole thing cranks along under the radar of public scrutiny. While we are criticizing other nations, we have some house cleaning of our own to do.
Tom DeLay. That piece of garbage was involved.
God I love her. She pulls no punches. You go girl. Thanks to David too. I listen to him every morning. Thank god for these watch dogs.
So they don't mind child labor or slave labor or convict labor. Fits right in with Tom Colburn denying help for veterans.
Good job Rachel for catching that BS.
Please bear in mind that "the American public's unending appetite for cheap plastic junk" has been carefully cultivated by the very corporatists who've found ways to access 'cheap labor' around the world, in countries where working conditions--or anything else that might suggest these basturds give a rat's ass about their 'employees'--are completely irrelevant!
We're approaching the corporatists' favorite time of the year: the obscene marketing frenzy blithely called "Christmas." Their vile marketing blitz has started MUCH earlier this year--didn't anyone else notice?
I think it would be nice if all the broadcasters who tell us how F-ed up things are would offer us solutions instead of just painting a picture of how bad it really is. Use your popularity and following to provide a solution or way of fixing the problem and not just to sell us stuff during the commercials. Is there a head of committee we should all contact as a group? Why not use your following to make change? if 100,000 phone calls came in from angry americans, maybe they would vote the way we want?
Sick of hearing of the problems without anyone offering a solution,
Joe America
NYC
the ONLY way to get congress and senators on the right path, and the only way to save our nation IMHO is to make ALL campaign contributions and all lobbying AGAINST the LAW. I mean every penny, corporate or private. Nothing. Lawmakers should NEVER be fundraising for their re-elections and we do need real term limits, with NO career politicians (corrupt hacks).
this is my opinion, and the only solution our Founding Fathers would approve. Everyone who pays (not "donates to") a politician or party wants something in return that may not be good for our society at large. - thebassguy (www.thebassguy4u.blogspot.com)
A Van Heusen supervisor told me years ago, on a temp job, that they do not purchase from companies which use child labor, and I recollect that he said their Teamsters contract forbade it. Now, that was 15 years ago, and things might have changed.
The Oriental rug industry overseas uses child slave and indentured labor. Purchase domestic rugs and keep my redneck relatives and their Latino illegal, but adult, competition employed. Many of these Latinos are imports from the Guatemalan banana trade where near-slave conditions are common and where the murder of women was entirely legal until recently.
Nestle was supposed to be involved in a trade association agreement to get rid of child labor, but at last report, was dragging feet. This coincides with a Nestle-sponsored press release today, on a tiny research sample, claiming that dark chocolate reduces cortisol and stress. Seen bunches of these "research reports" lately, so boycotts of child-labor products must be cutting into their bottom line and they are trying to bolster it via junk science.
Grow yer own veggies and fruits--ours are in flowerboxes outside. Check with your agricultural extension service and find out where the family-owned you-pick farms are, and use those to fill your freezers. Buy your cheap import junk secondhand, when at all possible. This will take profits out of the slave-holders' hands.
I do support allowing physically/ sexually abused youth to work part-time to support themselves, when finances and lack of responsible support necessitate it, and relaxing the age limits if necessary, but under court supervision.
Always arriving at the turnaround point Late 6 .
This would be a pretty cool world if it weren't for man . What a pathetic species ... and we seem to be getting worse , not better . Some would sell their children and mother if it meant a profit and more bucks . Sometimes I feel we progressives and liberals are just butting our heads against a brick wall over and over again , can maybe slow this disintegration but can't stop it , can't change man's nature .
Not to burst anybodies bubble here, but does anybody have an actual copy of the page from overcriminalized.com that RM mentioned ? I can't find it. Perhaps they removed it, but surely someone bothered to make a copy of it.
I also looked up the piece of legislation she mentioned and it is a slight amendment to increase the fines on existing laws. The whole bill is about half a page of text and says nothing about slavery or any of the things claimed.
There is reference made to some subscription only article in the journal Inside US Trade, as well as a highly clipped set of quotes from it floating around. Does anybody have access to the whole text of the original article ?
Something is screwy about all this and I am inclined to think RM may be full of crap and making things up out of whole cloth here.
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