Liberal groups who oppose the White House’s trade policy are not buying the Obama administration’s attempts to beat back their criticisms, casting doubt on whether President Obama can get his agenda through Congress.
“Thank you for lying to us,” said Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO labor federation, during a noon rally before the U.S. Trade Representatives’s Office Monday. Addressing Obama, he said, “We voted for you. We got you elected. It is time for you to hear us.”
Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, said the Trade Representative’s Office had nice things to say publicly about protection for U.S. workers, but that was really just a smoke screen for the “insider” deals. “On the inside is the Chamber of Commerce. On the inside is profits and investors,” he said.
The rally, which featured a few hundred people, underscores the difficulty the White House will have selling its trade agenda to Congress. While it has the support of the Republican leaders, liberal Democrats are staunchly opposed and some Republicans are expected to cross their leadership on the issue. The administration has tried aggressively to counter that revolt, arguing that while past trade deals haven’t lived up to hype, this time will be different.
Obama’s agenda includes Trade Promotion Authority, legislation that would prohibit Congress from amending trade bills, limiting it to a simple up-or-down vote, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-Pacific Rim nation trade deal. The White House recently concluded negotiations for the latter but wants Congress to first pass Trade Promotion Authority, also known as “Fast Track.” Approving Fast Track is widely seen as crucial to the Pacific deal’s chances.
After a bipartisan bill to revive Fast Track was introduced last week, President Obama issued a statement saying it included provisions that, “would level the playing field, give our workers a fair shot, and for the first time, include strong fully enforceable protections for workers’ rights, the environment, and a free and open Internet.”
Participants at Monday’s rally said that they did not believe it.
“Transparency? Yeah, transparency for bankers. Transparency for industry. But not for workers,” said Raymond Greaves, chairman of the Amalgamated Transit Union’s New Jersey State Council.
Mark Hardison, a United Methodist minister at the rally, noted that the AFL-CIO usually worked closely with the administration but nevertheless was opposing it on this issue. “What does that tell you if they don’t trust the administration?” he said. Protesters like him were frustrated, he said, because they had been promoting alternatives to the White House’s polices, “but we just aren’t getting listened to.”
A frequent complaint was the limited information about the Trans-Pacific trade deal that was readily available to the public. “All you need to know about TPP is that they don’t want you to know what is in TPP,” said Jim Hightower, a Texas author and liberal pundit. Hightower had the rally participants pull out their cell phones and call Congress simultaneously in an apparent attempt to jam the Capitol Hill phone system.
The rally also included a mock Trojan horse to represent the trade deals and numerous chants, one of which was, “Wipe your ass with TPP!”
