Burying Tom Delay - Saipan Sweatshops

Every chance I get, I'm going to write something about Delay and the sweatshops. It's connected to the Abramoff scandal, Mexico guest worker, free trade, and even abortion. This CNMI thing is absolutely sickening and we should have buried him with it years ago. Help spread this around, especially the fact that Tom Delay supported a government that turned its eye to forced abortions.

Mariana Islands – “A Model of Reform”
5 April 2005

Those are the words of Tom Delay in 1997 during the scandal surrounding the horrific treatment of textile and other workers on Saipan and the Mariana Islands.

The Bush Administration announced Monday that it will bring trade cases against China after 40 years of quotas on textile exports were dropped at the beginning of the year. Countries around the world are expected to suffer and textile manufacturers say 14 plants in 5 states have closed since the beginning of the year.

Sounds pretty gloomy; until one considers plants have been closing in the US at this rate for years. According to figures at the National Council of Textile Organizations states, 336 plants have closed since 1997. A variety of factors have contributed to the close of textile plants in the US; including that “model of reform”, the free market experiment on the Mariana Islands. Before we rush to replace quotas on China, thinking that we are saving US jobs, we need to remember who has been making the clothes for the majority of US brands in the first place.

“Instead of trying to impose redtape and mandates on the people of the CNMI , we should look to the CNMI as a model of reform. Like the CNMI , Washington should provide tax relief for the American people. We should recognize that pro-business policies create jobs. And we should recognize that free trade creates prosperity. The CNMI is proof positive that these policies work.” Tom Delay

So how did this play out in the Mariana Islands? After years of reports of corruption and abuse, an undercover Interior Dept investigation brought 400 reports from CNMI workers to the halls of Congress. Among the “free market” practices of the Mariana Islands was the ability to label garments “Made in the USA” and ship them to the US, duty free, while dispensing with all US immigration, minimum wage and labor standards. Unscrupulous manufacturers brought Chinese workers into the CNMI and kept them under harrowing conditions. The Chinese workers were lured into signing contracts that promised them work, housing and health care in the US, many paid $5,000 - $7,000 fees for the privilege. The contracts also stated they would be deported if they complained of working conditions, practiced their religions, engaged in political activity, became pregnant or even got married. Underage girls in nude clubs, forced prostitution and coerced abortions were routine. Even after a 3 year investigation, Tom Delay continued to hail the “free market” of the CNMI and said “the United States should establish an identical “guest worker” program ‘where particular companies can bring Mexican workers in.’ The Mexicans would be paid ‘at whatever wage the market will bear.’”

Quotas on China are not the answer for the American worker, at least not the total answer. It sickens me to know that I have worn clothes sewn by people who were treated in a way that we haven’t seen since the Lowell Mill Girls. American workers will never be able to compete when there are 850 export zones, forced and slave labor, and 15 million children producing textiles, gold, diamonds, agricultural exports, and other commodities. The real solution is the same one that lifted millions of American workers into the middle class, supporting international unions in implementing human rights laws, labor laws and collective bargaining.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=668

but this did it! He is beyond words. This is part of the leadership of the party with moral values? I wish the Democrats were spending a fraction of the time they are spending on looking at their problem with "moral" values on communicating what how the Republicans practice their values.