A major congressional figure goes into a televised fit: “China made the dress uniforms for U.S. Olympic athletes? Burn ’em!” The hissy fit was occasioned by the brief brouhaha raised when it was reported that the clothes weren’t produced by Americans. How nutty. In this season of political play time the watch word is “jobs, jobs, jobs.” They know that jobs are the touchstone of American anxiety. They cry, “jobs, jobs!” But there are no jobs, for we live in the age of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Remember NAFTA? Most don’t. It was one of the prime achievements of the Clinton administration and one of the biggest political betrayals of the American working class in memory. Notice that the term NAFTA has not crossed the lips of any of the major presidential candidates. Not once, and without serious discussion of NAFTA and its destruction of millions of good manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and their export abroad in search of cheap labor, you know, places like China, “jobs, jobs” is just a cynical cry in a political wilderness. It is sound and faux fury signifying nothing. For jobs without a living, growing wage is but toil without adequate return. Whenever the next politician mentions “jobs, jobs, jobs,” you yell, “NAFTA, NAFTA!” That will shut him up. And who knows, you might spark a real discussion on jobs and the NAFTA effect, maybe. From in prison nation. This is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
