JUST SAYIN’-I must say I was both surprised and chagrinned that there was little or no coverage by television, radio, or the print media about last Saturday’s March against Monsanto—hence the need for this article.
Quite the opposite of an unremarkable story, there were newsworthy rallies in 400 cities in 52 countries with more than a million passionate protestors waving signs, passing out flyers, and giving speeches. Nearly every state in the Union witnessed enthusiastic crowds.
You might remember that in 2012 there was a proposition on the California ballot requiring mandatory labelling of GMO food products. Proposition 37 failed after the influx of overwhelming campaign money from such companies as Monsanto. They flooded the airwaves with advertisements that misled the public about the true vision behind this measure.
That Proposition may have gone down, but the activists became even more motivated to enlighten legislators and voters to accomplish their goal. As a consequence, State Senator Noreen Evans has introduced a new bill for consideration (based on the earlier one)—SB 1381, which again asks for labelling.
The purpose is not to ban GMOs but to give the consumer an enlightened choice. If food items contain genetically modified organisms, the public has a right to know before purchasing them.
The promise of organically grown foods is that they are free of pesticides and herbicides and other “unnatural” additives, but the downside is they are more expensive. Nonetheless, the customer should still be offered an alternative—to buy, at lesser prices, fresh (and any) foods that are free of doubtful content. On the other hand, if others want to eat GMO products, they should also have that choice.
I was asked to speak at the rally held at the Van Nuys Civic Center last weekend where there were presentations followed by live music and even dancing—quite a festive atmosphere—followed by a march.
My part was to address the TPP issue—the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Partnership (about which I wrote an earlier article).
At first blush, there may not seem to be an obvious connection between the GMO issue and the TPP, but, in reality, the two clearly overlap.
The proposed Free Trade Agreement is said to be like “NAFTA on steroids.” Most of us were deceived two decades ago about how NAFTA would “lift all boats,” but as Ross Perot famously put it, we would hear jobs sucked out of the U. S. as a result.
What transpired did not turn out to be a healthy import-export ratio. In fact, a good example is what happened to the average Mexican farmer—grievous consequences. Most could not maintain their farms—many went bankrupt, thus encouraging great numbers of the undocumented to cross our borders in order to find employment opportunities to sustain life for their families and themselves.
America now has the worst trade deficit in the world. NAFTA didn’t help but, instead, cost us millions of good jobs and caused the closure of thousands of businesses (including scores of our manufacturing facilities—one reason why it is said that America no longer makes anything).
And who is the chief negotiator for the TPP? None other than a former Monsanto lobbyist! Monsanto and Dow Chemical are the very companies that made Agent Orange which barbarously murdered far too many Viet Namese and soldiers during the Viet Nam War. Should they be in any position to negotiate on our behalf?!
It is more than unfortunate that we are putting Monsanto-ites in charge of negotiating a “fair and just” trade pact?! An agreement whose contents are kept from the public and for which there is really no transparency even for the Congressmembers who must vote on it. I am so saddened and surprised that President Obama has not learned from the NAFTA debacle and seems all too ready to support the TPP.
The Partnership would increase income inequality here and bring back and/or increase child labor (with all its horrors) elsewhere. We would have no ability to enforce the safeguards over our foods or regulations that we have previously put into place. There would be even more wage stagnation. Food safety would be at risk and the Monsantos would be able to use toxic pesticides and herbicides (such as neonics) at will. The pact could also lead to the increased cost of prescription drugs.
Wall Street against Main Street all over again but with even worse consequences. If approved, the TPP could lead to a third such pact, an Atlantic Trade Agreement.
If TPP goes into effect, we can lose our middle class altogether and are, regrettably, already well on our way to seeing that transpire. That top one percent is getting smaller as it rests on the backs of the ever-increasing 99%--that’s us, folks--you and me.
Do you remember what Edwin Markham’s poem presaged in “The Man with a Hoe”? [I freely paraphrase.]
Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans upon his hoe and gazes--
the emptiness of ages in his face.
Who made him? . . .Slave of the wheel of labor. . .
O . . .rulers in all lands,
How will you make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?
And what Langston Hughes warned?
“What happens to a dream deferred? . . .
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun. . .
Or does it explode?”
Let’s give our leaders the chance to remedy the mistakes of the past and present. If we do not act before it is too late, what will be left for us?
Each of us, in the best way possible, must get involved, just as the marchers worldwide did last weekend. It is imperative that we move beyond those actions. Our voices must not be silent. We need to be heard, and with the primaries and elections ahead of us, we will be heard!!
Let us stand for socio-, economic, and environmental justice. We must put a stop to any consideration of the Tran-Pacific Trade Partnership!
As Bob Marley said so aptly so many years ago, “Stand up, get up, stand up for your rights!” You can make this possible! We can do this together!
Let’s get fired up and ready to go. We must contact our representatives in California to support GMO labelling and those in Washington to demand a NO vote on the TPP.
We can do it. Yes, we can.
Just sayin’.
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. She is also a representative of The Repower LA Coalition. IBEW … the subject of this column … is a partner of The Repower LA Coalition. Jenkins has written Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, A Quick-and-Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 44
Pub: May 30, 2014