[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 30, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E665-E666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STUDENT CONGRESSIONAL TOWN MEETING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 30, 2002

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, today, I recognize the outstanding work 
done by participants in my Student Congressional Town Meeting held this 
spring at the University of Vermont. These participants were part of a 
group of high school students from around Vermont who testified about 
the concerns they have as teenagers, and about what they would like to 
see government do regarding these concerns.
  I respectfully request that the following testimonials be included in 
the Congressional Record.

        On Behalf of Sam Parker, Becca Van Horn, and Eli Brannon


                          Regarding FREE TRADE

                            (April 8, 2002)

       ELI BRANNON: Free trade is a method for countries to trade 
     internationally without having to worry about tariffs or 
     barriers. The first step towards free trade was taken in 1948 
     with the creation of GAT, the General Agreement Tariffs rate. 
     GAT was formed as a way to provide rules for countries to 
     dismantle trade barriers and organize a system of commercial 
     business. Unfortunately, it did not live up to expectations.
       GATT was transformed into the World Trade Organization, or 
     WTO, on January 1, 1995. Before the World Trade Organization 
     was created, North America had already created its own system 
     of trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. 
     NAFTA has grown to include Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Free 
     trade is supposed to help support the countries involved. It 
     does create more jobs, lowers taxes on trade, and makes some 
     Second World Nations like South Korea and Taiwan want to 
     attend trade liberalization. However, the advantages are 
     overshadowed by the numerous disadvantages, including worker 
     exploitation, job loss effects on the agricultural community, 
     and the obvious attempt for corporate profit.
       SAM PARKER: NAFTA was originally established to help solve 
     North America's problems, increase of trade surplus, standard 
     of living, and better jobs, among other things. Before NAFTA, 
     the U.S. agricultural trade surplus with Mexico and Canada 
     was $203 million. Since NAFTA was established in 1994, this 
     surplus fell $1.498 million.
       What NAFTA does not openly stop our economy's advancement, 
     it has set it far behind. NAFTA promised an increase in jobs 
     for Americans. Not only has this not happened, but more than 
     350 U.S. workers have lost their jobs. Many of these jobs 
     were given to Mexican workers being paid one-third of what 
     Americans are paid.
       Another promise of NAFTA was to boost the agricultural 
     economy. The farming community has been given nothing but 
     false hopes with the promise of more jobs. Farming income has 
     declined and consumer prices have gone up.
       Although NAFTA and free trade look appealing on the 
     outside, the effects are devastating to most working-class 
     persons.
       BECCA VAN HORN: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the 
     multinational corporations, and to the profit for which they 
     stand, one interlocking directorate under no government, 
     indivisible, with monopoly and cheap labor for all.
       This pledge epitomizes the only noticeable progress of the 
     World Trade Organization. Free trade, and therefore NAFTA and 
     the World Trade Organization, which attempts to globalize 
     economies without globalizing human rights, only leads to big 
     corporations exploiting the Third World. While supporting the 
     capitalists, the big corporations who benefit most from free 
     trade, the World Trade Organization advances by exploiting 
     the Third World proletarians, opposing human rights and 
     demands for adequate working conditions.
       The World Trade Organization thrives on maintaining the 
     status quo by taking American jobs and giving them to eleven-
     year-old Indonesian children working in a Nike factory for 83 
     cents per day. Free trade helps the First World, but leaves 
     the poorest with barely .4 percent of all global trade. That 
     is barbaric. You do not keep the standard of living for 
     America by exploiting one group of people. The Third World 
     has taken an incredible hit.
       The World Trade Organization supports groups like the 
     International Monetary Fund, whose only purpose is to loan 
     money to countries in dire situations, and then demand the 
     money back at an incredibly high interest rate. By supporting 
     organizations like the IMF, and only looking at how the rich 
     can flourish, the World Trade Organization is dooming the 
     Third World to never advance economically.
       This is not an impossible situation. If free trade focuses 
     on advancing all social classes, it will be beneficial to the 
     First and Third worlds. There would be more American jobs, 
     farmers could prosper, and, although big corporations would 
     lose money, they could begin to cleanse their moral values.
       If the Third World is able to focus on trading with each 
     other and the First World on an equal basis, their children 
     could go to school and their economy progress. If an 
     organization like the U.N. helped put that eleven-year-old 
     Indonesian child into a plausible trade, their population 
     would not be doomed to factory work at subsistence wages and 
     no benefits.
       Of course, it would be difficult. But free trade attempts 
     to globalize only one aspect of our world, increasing the 
     disparity in every other way. Free trade, and therefore NAFTA 
     and the WTO, globalizes economies, not for the betterment of 
     the world, but for corporations and consumerism, creating a

[[Page E666]]

     never-ending spiral of the rich remaining rich and the poor 
     remaining poor.

                        On Behalf of Ruth Blake


                    Regarding STRAIGHT TALK VERMONT

                            (April 8, 2002)

       RUTH BLAKE: Straight Talk Vermont is one of the programs 
     run out of the Community Justice Center, and some of the 
     things they are involved in is Arts are Wonderful, a group of 
     high school students getting together and working on art 
     projects and learning different types of art. They have a 
     Team Reaching In, which is like a song-poetry kind of group. 
     They have Art from the Inside Out, which is a group of UVM 
     art majors who are teaching majors, teaching middle schoolers 
     and young students art. And the Teen Expressions, which is 
     what I'm part of. It is a group of high schoolers from around 
     the area, and they get together, and plan different events, 
     and fun things to do, as something else to do besides 
     drinking and drugs and that kind of stuff.
       Straight Talk Vermont is the overall thing. They help 
     people at high risk, and it--they just help build and become 
     better. What I'm involved in is the Teen Expressions Dance 
     Company, and they're putting on a dance performance. It is a 
     group of young amateur performers. We are just getting 
     together and choreographing and dancing, performing.

     

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