David Sirota: Cause & Effect: The Anatomy of a Big Progressive Victory

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Cause & Effect: The Anatomy of a Big Progressive Victory

Posted by David Sirota at 8:28 AM on April 16, 2007.

David Sirota: Progressives notch a huge victory on the biggest economic issue of all - globalization.


Cause and effect - it's always hard to precisely pin down this relationship in politics, but a stunning announcement late last week shows how the two are related, and how to use them for major movement victories.

Let's first start with the cause. In February, the Progressive States Network, Public Citizen, and the Citizens Trade Campaign worked with State Sen. Jim Elliott (D-MT) to push a resolution in Montana's State Senate demanding that Montana's congressional delegation oppose President Bush's request to reauthorize "fast track" trade negotiating authority - the lobbyist-backed authority that allows presidents to strip labor, wage, human rights and environmental provisions out of trade deals. This resolution is part of the Progressive States Network's ongoing national campaign to introduce similar resolutions in other states.

Elliott's resolution passed the State Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, garnering widespread media attention specifically because Montana Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) was bragging about his support for reauthorizing fast track and because he is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade policy.

Soon after Elliott's resolution passed, They Work For Us launched radio ads in Montana's major media markets citing the State Senate vote, and asking Montanans to call Baucus and tell him to back off his support for President Bush's job-destroying, wage-crushing trade policy. Big Money interests, led by the agribusiness-backed Montana Farm Bureau, tried to fight back with a big op-ed in the Billings Gazette, Montana's largest paper. But the Progressive States Network fought back, two days later penning an response op-ed with the Montana Farmers Union, which represents small family farmers and ranchers.

This fair trade cause has had finally had a major effect. Here's the report from the Hill Newspaper from Friday:

"In a significant change of position, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) now says it is not currently necessary to extend President Bush’s fast-track trade authority. Baucus, the top Democrat on trade, told reporters Friday there is no immediate need to extend fast-track, which makes it easier for the White House to negotiate trade deals...This is a shift from January when the senator, who has been under pressure in Montana to reject an extension of fast-track, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Congress should renew fast-track authority with some changes...Montana’s state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, approved a resolution earlier this year asking Congress to create a replacement for fast-track, which prevents trade deals from being amended."

To be sure, Baucus's decision to change course was probably the result of many things. But for a senator who publicly recites Tom Friedman's talking points about trade and who recently cheered on job outsourcing while on a trip to India, this is a major reversal, and one clearly brought on by grassroots, outside-the-Beltway pressure that used Baucus's imminent campaign for re-election as a fulcrum to force him to start representing his constituents' interests.

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