Baobab
Baobab's JournalIndia's side of the Labour Mobility-GATS Mode Four guest worker jobs issue
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.461.1532&rep=rep1&type=pdfClinton rakes in cash overseas
Source: TheHill
Hillary Clinton's campaign has held more fundraisers on foreign soil than any other candidate running for president in 2016.
The Clinton campaign has held at least 13 fundraisers overseas so far, involving celebrities such as jazz singer Tony Bennett and fashion editor Anna Wintour, according to tracking of political fundraising invitations by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.
Clinton’s offshore fundraisers, which tap wealthy U.S. citizens and permanent resident living abroad, have spanned from London, where the campaign has held at least eight fundraisers, to Munich, Mexico City, and Durban, South Africa.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/273575-clinton-rakes-in-cash-overseas
Hannah Arendt, "'The Decline of the Nation State and the End of the Rights of Man"
which is Chapter Nine of The Origins of Totalitarianism "One of the best political books of the 20th Century"
http://www.havenscenter.org/files/Somers_1_arendt.pdf
This is a heavy and thought provoking examination of what are human rights.
Written before the Corporate State, however Fascism was already declared to be corporatism.
what rights didwe have in a world where peoples rights to exist are conditioned on their country and that alone. that was never resolved satisfactorally in the maelstrom at the end of WWII, leaving us with the seeds of another potential Holocaust .
What is wrong with this world is that when the corporation is the highest form of organized life (as is becoming the case now) people are left with little besides an illusory captured state that only exists at the beck and call of the Corporation.
In the superior world they inhabit, humans who do not create wealth for them, which will be almost everybody in the jobless future, because most people wont have an income, don't exist.
Advertising industry and to a lesser extent many politicians already think that way, seeing those over 55 as dead weight, since they do less buying than the young.
India files case against the US for limiting workers here under trade visas, likely to win
This is more important than the election to US workers in skilled trades and also to the future of the youngner generation, whether they will be able to get entry level jobs ever.
The numbers of Mode Four workers could potentially become huge. It works both ways, US corporations would also get to use whatever workers they wanted in foreign countries, they could bring in low cost workers from anywhere they wanted.
Google "not more burdensome than necessary to ensure the quality of the service"
http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges/news/india-files-wto-challenge-against-us-visa-fee-increases
Filing of WTO case by India against US on L1 visa quotas could radically change US workplaces
This dramatically ups the ante for the US election, because a decision by WTO in India's favor will likely impact the US more than any other country. It would effectively eliminate the minimum wage for skilled professions, allowing companies to move workers into the US for five years at a time and pay them anything they agree upon, with no quotas.
This is the article I am referring to.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141384549
The GATS agreement was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1994 and went into effect in January 1995. its been under negotiation off and on since then but GATS Mode Four has always been intended to allow transparent operation of corporations across national borders without interference from countries.
this change would likely make business substantially more profitable and leave smaller businesses struggling to compete in huge service sectors like education and medicine/nursing, construction, IT, even law and energy. The lowered costs of skilled wages will benefit larger corporations more than small firms because small firms cannot afford to commit to subcontracting contracts internationally. the result of this could be a lot of international immigration and emigration as companies are expected to locate where the regulatory environments are most favorable to them.
I think that US workers have been living the last two decades on borrowed time and that time is almost up. these changes will likely leave millions of families homeless with no hope of a brighter tomorrow unless they emigrate somewhere which is not part of this system or which treats workers better. The Presidential election may be seen in part as a referendum on these things but the real battle is in Geneva and its out of our hands, the WTO has told countries to lower their wages in the past and I am sure they will do it again. Americans have been follish to suppress such important news, its literally playing with fire to deny such important news from the public when it promises to literally tear so many lives apart. There will be hell to pay.
India Files WTO Challenge Against US Visa Fee Increases
Source: ICTSD Bridges Trade News
India has brought a WTO challenge (DS503) against certain measures involving the US’ non-immigrant temporary working visas, filing a request for consultations on Thursday 3 March. At issue in the complaint are the increased fees imposed on certain applicants for two categories of non-immigrant temporary working visas, specifically “L-1” and “H-1B,” as well as numerical commitments for the latter visas, according to the consultations request.
The L-1 and H-1B visas
Citizens of foreign countries wishing to work temporarily in the US as a non-immigrant must have their prospective employer file a petition with the country’s federal immigration agency. The types of visa fall under different categories, with these having their own individual qualification requirements. L-1 visas allow a US employer to transfer certain types of high-level employees from an affiliated foreign office to an American one.
The H-1B visa applies to people who wish to work in a specialty occupation, for certain Department of Defence (DOD) projects, or as a fashion model, subject to certain conditions.
Read more: http://www.ictsd.org/bridges-news/bridges/news/india-files-wto-challenge-against-us-visa-fee-increases
Read this carefully. Mode 4 deals with the movement of short-term service providers by a WTO member in another member-country on a non-immigration framework. (intra-corporate transfer)
There is no clear time limit but generally they are thought of as lasting no more than 5 years. Since this is an already existing trade deal there is no legal way for a President or Congress to change it.
I have read estimates of the number of Mode Four subcontractor workers eventually reaching 30 million or more. Wages are unclear and may not be under US jurisdiction, although its expected that applicable taxes will be paid.
Negotiations on GATS have been ongoing for 20 years off and on but the recent decision against local sourcing on solar panels makes it clear that countries no longer have the right to spend their taxpayers money only on their own companies to create local jobs in their own countries, and I think this next decision will make it clear countries can no longer can tell multinational corporations where their workers need to be from.
The Mathematics of Voting : Its Time for a Change!
As we head into what is likely to be the most diasagreeable to virtually everybody election ever, its time to reflect on the horrible plurality voting system and the fact that it is really oe of the worst voting systems out there, and there are several better alternatives to it.
http://www.ctl.ua.edu/math103/Voting/mathemat.htm#The%20Mathematics%20of%20Voting
SAVE THE WORKER BEES! -some high level links on Pollinators, Neonicotinoids and Neonic Seed Coatings
- Unknown Benefits, Hidden Costs: Neonicotinoid Seed Coatings, Crop Yields and Pollinators
- A Farmer and Landowner Guide to Pollinators and Neonicotinoids
- Guest Blog: Pollinators & the rigged neonic seed market
Thank you!
bees thank you!
Senators: Education Dept Should Cut Off Aid to Colleges That Deny Students Their Day in Court
Source: Huffington Post
"In their letter to Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell, the senators note that many for-profit colleges, and almost no non-profit colleges, use enrollment agreements containing mandatory arbitration clauses — fine print provisions that require students to pursue any legal claims against their schools before a private arbitrator, rather than in a courtroom.
The Senators argue that the Higher Education Act’s provisions requiring schools to enter into program participation agreements with the Department can be used to require a ban on mandatory arbitration as a condition for schools receiving federal funds.
“If a for-profit college deceives students about cost, transferability of credits, program quality, job placement, salary after graduation, or other claims,” the Senators wrote to Mitchell, “these students should have the right to hold them accountable.”
Mandatory arbitration requirements tend to favor the corporations that impose them, rather than individual consumers or students, because the parties must often pay high fees to the arbitrator, and arbitrators can have incentives to rule for the corporation in hopes of getting repeat business. These fine print provisions often also bar students from joining class action lawsuits or otherwise combining their claims with other students, thus making it harder to find a lawyer with enough financial incentive to take a case. If wronged students can’t recover from their schools, they may be more likely to seek forgiveness of their federal loans, increasing the burden on taxpayers. To make matters worse, arbitration agreements are conducted behind closed doors, so the public, including other students, don’t learn about any wrongdoing. Denying individuals the option of filing a lawsuit thus reduces the deterrence that encourages corporations to comply with the law and treat individuals fairly."
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/senators-education-dept-s_b_9213618.html
Here are some additional resources:
Education Department May Ban Mandatory Arbitration: (Inside Higher Education)
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/03/14/education-department-may-ban-mandatory-arbitration
Coalition Letter to Dept. of Ed.:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/coalition-letter-to-ED-title-iv-arbitration-mar.4.2016.pdf
Recent petition on Forced Arbitration Issue:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/DeptofEdPetitionSigners_3.16.16.pdf
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