Corporate Courts — A Big Red Flag On "Trade" Agreements

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/58336/corporate-courts-a-big-red-flag-on-trade-agreements

Corporate Courts — A Big Red Flag On "Trade" Agreements
Corporate America | Trade
by Dave Johnson | September 16, 2014 - 7:15am

Think about everything you understood about our system of government here in the United States. We’re governed under a document that starts with the words, “We the People.” Right? When We the People agree that something should done to make our lives better, it’s supposed to get done. Right?

You didn’t know it, but that whole system thing changed several years ago. Our government, in our name, signed a document that placed corporate profits above our own democracy. The “investor-state dispute settlements” chapter in NAFTA (and similar agreements) places corporate rights on above the rights of people and their governments.

As a result of “NAFTA-style” investor protections that are part of so-called “trade” agreements, giant corporations can and do sue governments for trying to pass laws that protect their citizens from harmful chemicals, ban harmful products, and protect the rights of working people, among other things. Corporations even sue governments for passing laws that might cause the investors in the corporations to make a bit less money — like raising the minimum wage.

But wait, there’s more. The suits aren’t even heard in courts. They are settled by corporate-controlled tribunals set up by these trade agreements. AFL-CIO’s Celeste Drake writes about these tribunals, in “AFL-CIO and Uruguayan Workers in Solidarity to Protect Democracy From ‘Corporate Courts’”:

This mechanism bypasses all democratic processes, such as domestic courts, to directly sue a host country in an unaccountable private tribunal in order to receive compensation for government actions that could potentially harm corporate profits.

[djean111]

1. Mmmmm.....stuff Hillary shills for. Although objecting to this stuff will be labeled wanting a

unicorn or some other dismissive thing very soon, methinks.

[pipoman]

2. Thank you Democrats

I would expect this shit from republicans, the labor party is dead. We need a populist movement and candidates. I have wondered many times what things would have been like if Perot would have won the presidency.

[pscot]

3. +this