‘New NAFTA’ is an old story, a lousy one

Bill Knight column for 9-26, 27 or 28, 2019

Another fight about another trade deal can seem hopeless – at least until you realize that lousy pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, in effect since 1994) resulted in more than 950,000 U.S. jobs lost, according to the U.S. Labor Department, and for those still employed, it held down pay.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that “trade flows with low-wage nations were reducing wages for workers without a four-year college degree by roughly 5.6 percent. For a non-college-degreed worker making the median hourly wage and working full time, for a full year, this translates into just under $2,000 annually.”

Labor opposes such deals, like the proposed “NAFTA 2.0” (USMCA, negotiated in 2017-18).

Signed by President Trump and leaders of Mexico and Canada last November, the 1,809-page draft document still must be ratified by each nation’s legislature, and though Mexico ratified it in June, neither Canada nor the United States has.

The administration wants to submit USMCA to the House of Representatives this month, according to White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, who said they’re waiting for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote.

“Our hope is in September she will give us a green light,” Kudlow told Bloomberg News.

USMCA arguably has some improvements over NAFTA, which it could replace: Country of Origin rules require autos to have 75 percent of their parts made in the U.S., Canada or Mexico (up from NAFTA’s 62.5 percent); Canada will open up its Dairy market to U.S. producers; a Sunset Clause sets expiration at 16 years, and Labor language provides that 40 percent of auto parts must be made by workers earning $16 an hour or more, and workers could unionize.

However, unions and Democratic allies want tougher enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

“Wages in Mexico have been virtually flat since NAFTA took effect in 1994,” said recently retired Steelworkers President Leo Gerard. “American manufacturing workers should not be put in the position of competing for jobs with Mexican manufacturing workers laboring for $2.30 an hour. [The USMCA] is better than NAFTA, but not good enough.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this month met with Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to clarify Mexico’s leader’s commitment to workers.

“The proposed new NAFTA is simply not enforceable,” Trumka said. “Mexico has yet to demonstrate that it has the resources and infrastructure to follow through on its promised reforms. Trade without enforcement is a windfall for corporations and a disaster for workers. If Mexico can’t ensure workers’ ability to bargain for higher wages through real unions, the entire deal is a non-starter.

“We need Obrador to show us how Mexico will guarantee the right to raise wages through free and democratic unions,” he continued. “If that doesn’t happen, working people across North America will suffer. It’s clear that without the support of the labor movement – in the United States, Mexico and Canada – the new NAFTA will meet the same fate as the Trans-Pacific Partnership” (which wasn’t ratified in the United States).

Besides having no mechanism to enforce labor rights, the USMCA has other problems. Food that doesn’t meet U.S. standards can still be imported; the pharmaceutical industry gained 10 years of monopoly protections from generic competition beyond U.S. patent laws’ 20-year price-setting exclusivity, and Big Oil retains the controversial “Investor-State Dispute Settlement” boards that can circumvent local, state and federal governments. These tribunals could override health and environmental regulations, for example.

Opposition may be weakening.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline) told the Associated Press that Pelosi “understands the sense of urgency. The hope is that we can get to yes.”

That may indicate a willingness to compromise, but Trumka argues that there’s no reason to surrender to a stampede mentality.

“The U.S. Trade Representative’s emphasis should be on making the new NAFTA enforceable rather than creating a rush to a finish line that is little more than an illusion.”

The USMCA is just one economic obstacle out of many, Trumka said in August.

“While we can’t fix the economic rules if we don’t fix NAFTA, we also can’t fix the rules if we only fix NAFTA,” he said. “America’s workers aren’t interested in slivers of change. We’re not interested in gestures.  Working people are rising to meet this moment in history because we know something is deeply wrong.”

Trial by film

Bill Knight column for 9-23, 24 or 25, 2019

Enjoyable movies like “Erin Brockovich” and “The Lincoln Lawyer” recall Hollywood’s long-time love for courtrooms, and this week (the 50^th anniversary of the Chicago Seven trial stemming from conspiracy charges against activists tied to 1968’s Democratic National Convention) is a fine time to revisit such pictures online, cable, streaming, etc.

Trial films – “Legal Eagles,” “My Cousin Vinny” and “The Rainmaker” or “The Firm, “Liar, Liar” and “Suspect” – are in several genres, but most are dramas exploiting the system’s adversarial nature, serious outcomes, the potential for surprises, and the influences of attorneys, witnesses, juries and the public.

“Courtroom scenes have been the suspenseful saving grace of more films than can be counted,” critic Leslie Halliwell once wrote. “They also figure in some of the best films ever made.”

Whether settings are on TV’s “Boston Legal,” “L.A. Law” or “Perry Mason,” or in movies (“The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell,” “Town without Pity” or “Twelve Angry Men”), movies and courts have a natural tie.

“Which are more long-winded – lawyers or actors?” asked Los Angeles Times reviewer Philip K. Scheuer. “For Spencer Tracy, a lawyer in ‘Inherit the Wind’ and a judge in ‘Judgment at Nuremberg,’ the ideal of every thespian must have been reached: an opportunity to be both.”

Hoping readers don’t shout, “I object,” I offer a dozen gems:

“Adam’s Rib” (1949). In one of their best team-ups, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play husband-and-wife lawyers on opposing sides of a case in this screwball comedy. David Wayne and Judy Holliday are featured.

“Anatomy of A Murder” (1959). Jimmy Stewart defends a soldier (Ben Gazzara) accused of killing the man who assaulted his wife (Lee Remick). A wily prosecutor (George C. Scott) and a drunken colleague (Arthur O’Connell) are as difficult as the proceedings. Otto Preminger directed.

“… And Justice for All” (1979). Al Pacino occasionally goes overboard in this satirical drama, but the climax is a doozy. Norman Jewison directed the inspiring. saddening film, which becomes a bittersweet indictment of the legal system. Lee Strasberg, Jack Warden and Craig T. Nelson co-star.

“The Caine Mutiny” (1954). Humphrey Bogart was nominated for an Oscar in this Stanley Kramer production based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a Navy crew relieving their captain, and his pressing mutiny charges. Defense attorney Jose Ferrer steals much of the last act, especially a court-martial confrontation comparable to the clash between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men.” Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray co-star.

“Class Action” (1991). Gene Hackman is a crusading attorney representing people harmed by cars that explode on impact, facing formidable opposing counsel: his daughter (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). Lawrence Fishburne and Fred Thompson co-star.

“Inherit the Wind” (1960). Stanley Kramer’s screen adaptation of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s fictionalized version of 1925’s “Scopes Monkey Trial” features fine performances by Spencer Tracy, Fredric March and Gene Kelly. Dick York and Harry Morgan co-star.

“Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961). Filmmaker Stanley Kramer took Abby Mann’s script and an all-star cast to create a 190-minute drama about justice for Nazi criminals. Richard Widmark is an abrasive prosecutor, Maximilian Schell a sympathetic defense lawyer, and Spencer Tracy a calm judge. Helping convict Germans (including Burt Lancaster) are witnesses Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich. Schell and Mann won Oscars.

“The People v. O.J. Simpson” (2016). This edition of TV’s “American Crime Story” relies less on the familiar tale’s plot than vivid characters brought to life by terrific actors including Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Courtney Vance, John Travolta, Nathan Lane and David Schwimmer.

“Presumed Innocent” (1990). Alan J. Pakula adapted Scott Turow’s bestseller and cast Harrison Ford as a married prosecutor suspected in the death of a colleague with whom he’d had an affair. Co-starring are Raul Julia, Brian Dennehy, Paul Winfield and John Spencer.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” (1962). Gregory Peck won an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, an Alabama lawyer defending a black man (Brock Peters) from charges he raped a local girl (Collin Wilcox) and from community racism. Based on Harper Lee’s bestseller, Horton Foote’s Oscar-winning screenplay addresses hard truths in a soft manner. Besides three outstanding child actors, it features Paul Fix, William Windom and Robert Duvall.

“The Verdict” (1982). Paul Newman is a boozy Boston lawyer trying a medical-malpractice case and battling attorney James Mason (“the Prince of f***ing Darkness,” says colleague Jack Warden). Working from David Mamet’s screenplay, Sidney Lumet directed one of Newman’s best performances.

“Witness for the Prosecution” (1957). Based on a play by Agatha Christie, this Billy Wilder potboiler stars Charles Laughton as an infirm British barrister who defies medical advice and defends a drifter (Tyrone Power) from a murder charge. The cast includes Elsa Lanchester and Marlene Dietrich.

‘They can’t stop all of us’

Bill Knight column for 9-19, 20 or 21, 2019

It was somewhat of a joke when people proposed gathering Sept. 20 at Area 51, the secret but real U.S. Air Force base in Nevada, but then 2.1 million people on Facebook said they intend to “Storm Area 51.”

It’s neither a joke nor a secret that human activities contribute to the climate emergency, and also on Friday – three days before the UN Climate Summit in New York – youngsters have invited (for the first time) adults to join them in a global protest to demand action.

Organized in this country by the Youth Climate Strike coalition of nine youth-led climate groups, the mobilization (https://globalclimatestrike.net/ or https://strikewithus.org/) could be the largest in human history.

“The climate movement has a new tactic: disrupting business as usual,” said Bill McKibben, author of “The End of Nature” and the new “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?”

Although called a strike, “no one is demanding better wages,” McKibben said. “We are demanding better conditions, in the most literal sense.”

The demonstration demands five responses: passing a Green New Deal, respecting indigenous land and sovereignty, promoting environmental justice, protecting and restoring biodiversity, and implementing sustainable agriculture.

Worldwide, millions of young people have protested the existential crisis weekly for months.

“We are at a crossroads,” the coalition said. “Are we going to choose money or power, or the future?”

McKibben added, “It began in schools. Young people around the world were striking for days at a time. Their logic: If the institutions of our planet can’t be bothered to prepare for a world we can live in, why must we spend years preparing ourselves?”

The protest is inspired by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, who in the last year spoke in London and Rome, to lawmakers in Italy, the EU and UN, and met with Pope Francis.

“We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules,” Thunberg said.

Partners in Friday’s protest include:

* environmental groups (Sierra Club, Greenpeace, National Resource Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund);

* scientists (Union of Concerned Scientists, Science Alert, Physicians for Social Responsibility);

* workers (the Teachers union, SEIU, the San Francisco Labor Council, plus trade unions in Germany and South Africa). At Amazon, workers plan to walk out and issued a statement: “Playing a significant role in helping to reduce the sources of human-induced climate change is an important commitment for Amazon. We have dedicated sustainability teams who have been working for years on initiatives to reduce our environmental impact.”

* social advocates (Moms Clear Air Force, Public Citizen, Black Lives Matter, MoveOn, the Hip Hop Caucus, Oxfam); and

* religious affiliates (Jews for a Renewable Future, Global Catholic Climate Movement, Unitarian Universalist Association, United Church of Christ’s Council for Climate Justice, Quakers’ Earthcare Witness, and the evangelical Christian Sojourners). “Genesis is clear that we have been entrusted by God with the keeping of all God’s creatures and Earth itself (Genesis 1:26). Yet we have too often confused dominion for destruction,” commented evangelist Jim Wallis. “Christians are called to climate action on behalf of caring for other people. Jesus is clear: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 22:35-40).”

Thunberg said despite key issues of justice (“Those who have caused the climate crisis the most are those who often are going to be the least affected,” she’s commented), it’s common sense.

“Unite behind the science,” she said. “We need to listen to the scientists.”

In Illinois, about 20 protests are set Friday, from more than a dozen in Chicagoland to actions in Carbondale, Charleston, Normal, Peoria, Rock Island, Springfield and Urbana.

“Sept. 20 will not be just one day of demonstrations,” Wallis said, “but the start of a movement that will emphasize the importance of climate action throughout the 2020 U.S. elections.”

Friday is an invitation, organizers say, “to choose the kids, choose humanity, choose the future.”

Bill Knight was honored with an award for 2018 General Commentary from the Society of Features Journalism, whose annual convention was in Detroit this week.