Dems question Colombia trade pact after shooting of activist labor lawyer

[Enrique]

Source: The Hill

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/161981-senior-house-dems-question-colombia-trade-pact-after-shooting-of-activist-labor-lawyer-

A pair of top House Democrats is questioning a pending trade agreement with Colombia following last week's shooting of a prominent labor lawyer in that country.

Rep. George Miller (Calif.), senior Democrat on the Education and Workforce Committee, and Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), said the apparent assassination attempt on Hernán Darío, who represented Colombian sugarcane workers, raises questions about the Colombian government's commitment to protecting its labor force.

"Violence and intimidation are utilized to silence labor rights defenders in Colombia," the lawmakers wrote Wednesday to Kirk. "When high-profile figures like Mr. Dario are attacked, it becomes evident that there are no guarantees for workers that peacefully and legitimately defend basic labor rights.

"Their vulnerability," they added, "is symptomatic of a labor environment where the rights of workers do not matter."

(...)

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/161981-senior-house-dems-question-colombia-trade-pact-after-shooting-of-activist-labor-lawyer-

[daggahead]

1. This is right out of the pages of ...

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman"

[freshwest]

2. This needs more attention. It's what unions have been saying for years, but they were accused of...

Being against business, people in other countries, any slur the media was paid to utter at the behest of the US CoC and the rest of them.

If nothing else, those who don't support labor must be made to understandthat resistance and overcoming oppression to workers is the true road to prosperity and freedom.

Not the faux version of 'the free market' that enslaves workers! I'm going to tell everyone about these good Democrats staying close to our progressive ideals.

[Judi Lynn]

3. They are so right. Hope they will raise hell about this. It keeps getting swept under the rug,

because Colombia is important to the US corporations which use it for gross profit, plunder its work force, paying them almost nothing, hiring assassins to torture, slaughter, terrorize them if they try to protest, and the US wants Colombia as a launch pad for aggression to keep the other countries in line, the ones who are struggling to get free of the very old, overbearing tyranny of their northern, more powerful neighbor.

Recommending.

[rfranklin]

4. SOP for capitalists and Republicans...

Don't like our terms? Eat lead !

[Citizen Worker]

6. And far too many democrats, including some of the most liberal, like Jim McDermott from WA.

[texshelters]

5. Unfortunately, our Congress as a whole doesn't care if

Colombia has the highest murder rate against union members in the world. If they are their cronies can make money, the lives of humans are irrelevant.

Let's hope they bring out the real dirt about the murdering Colombian elite.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/07/uscolombia-rights-conditions-crucial-trade-deal

Peace,
Tex Shelters