Thread: NAFTA Corridors: Dividing the Nation to Multiply Profits

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/vogel040206.html

NAFTA Corridors: Dividing the Nation to Multiply Profits
by Richard D. Vogel







The NAFTA corridors system currently under construction will irreversibly divide the U.S. geographically, economically, and socially for the sake of profit. The cumulative consequences of this "biggest engineering and construction project in the history of the U.S." promise to be more damaging than any natural disaster in modern times.

The largest of these massive transportation corridors, designed primarily to accommodate NAFTA traffic from Mexico across the U.S., will be 1,200 feet wide and consume 146 acres (almost 1/4 of a square mile) per mile. Because the corridors will contain high-speed passenger and freight rails and underground water, gas, and petroleum pipelines, as well as multiple high-speed truck and passenger vehicle lanes, they will be constructed at grade level and permanently divide the areas through which they pass. To make matters worse, the extensive grading and construction of barriers to protect the high-speed traffic will alter air currents and watersheds and prevent the movement of wildlife.

Dividing the Nation

The two priority NAFTA corridors under construction, I-35 and I-69, will divide the nation in half from south to north. The I-35 corridor, beginning at the international border at Laredo, will split the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa in half, and lop off the southeast corner and the eastern edge of Minnesota. The I-69 corridor will sever the Gulf Coast from the state of Texas and cut diagonally across Arkansas. It will then slice off the western margins of Tennessee and Kentucky before bisecting Indiana and cutting a big chunk out of southeastern Michigan.

The losses due to these divisions will be enormous:

• Ultimately, up to 1/2 million acres of land, much of it prime agricultural and undeveloped open spaces, could be permanently lost from U.S. land stocks to these two corridors alone (and several more are in the planning stages). These properties will also be permanently removed from tax roles, depriving local communities of critical revenues for education and infrastructure support.
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• Large tracts of private and public land will be practically inaccessible because of the blocking of county highways and farm-to-market roads and the high cost of bridging the corridors (bridges will have to span over 1/2 a mile and local bridges will have to be paid for by the local community). Consequently, where the corridors pass through inhabited areas, many communities, and even families, will be permanently divided.
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• Because the corridors will be toll roads and local entities have to finance the construction of access ramps, many small communities will be isolated from the mainstream economy. Consequently, the NAFTA corridors will have an exclusionary effect -- exactly the opposite effect of the existing Interstate Highway System.
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• The bigger trucks and faster speeds that will be permitted on the corridors and the increased volume of traffic mean that air, sound, and surface water pollution will all increase geometrically. Public Citizen reports that one consulting firm predicted a 400 percent increase in traffic on NAFTA highways between 1995 and 2020. Significantly, the towering barriers that are being erected along the route of corridors where they pass through residential areas, while muffling the roar of the traffic to a degree, will only aggravate air pollution, the most dangerous environmental impact of the corridors. [/*:m:3jtmj733]

Multiplying the Profits

A primary purpose of the NAFTA corridor system is to accommodate the flood of cheap manufactured goods from the Far Eastern Pacific Rim to the heartland of America. The strategy of many corridor backers is to bypass organized labor on the West Coast (primarily Long Beach and Los Angeles) and route the containerized freight south through Mexican ports and then north by rail and truck via the corridor system in order to save on shipping costs. These capitalists are willing to divide the nation with no concern for the collateral damage to the environment and communities along the route.

The NAFTA corridor system is meeting considerable resistance. Various environmental protection groups are campaigning against the project, and the powerful Texas Farm Bureau, citing the concerns listed above among others, has asked the Texas legislature to "scrap" the whole corridor project. Many local communities, including 35 counties in Texas, have passed resolutions against having the NAFTA corridors in their back yards. Ranchers in Grimes County, Texas, which will be divided by the I-69 corridor, have organized what they call a "direct action" network against the project. When I asked one rancher what "direct action" means, he nodded towards the scoped rifle in the gun rack in his pick-up and said, "We're ready for when they come to take our land."

It would seem that this latest scheme to divide the nation for profit has also deeply divided the people.

To join the resistance, go to http://www.corridorwatch.org, seek out environmental organizations that oppose the NAFTA corridors such as the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club at hoosier.sierraclub.org, or contact the Coalition Against NAFTA Superhighways at P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518.

The link would not work for me.

Were you referring to the corridorwatch link at the bottom of the article? I fixed it so it should work.

The way I feel about all the cheap items they are making in other countries and sending here for us to buy is this. We have to fight it and the one way we can fight it is to:NOT SPEND OUR MONEY ON ANY ITEM THAT IS NOT MADE IN AMERICA!!
I know we have to buy things like food and such. But America has turned into a want/get country. Before you go out and buy ANYTHING sit and think for a few minutes if you really NEED it. I stopped buying anything that is not NEEDED a few months ago. I know that is not having the impack that I would like to see, but maybe more American's will start thinking the same way and leave all items IN THE STORE that are not a need. When I go food shopping I buy the cheapest item that is an American product. I refuse to use my money to help in the downfall of America. I buy cheap since I don't have much money and if I have to pay a little more for an item that comes from America I do so gladly.

I don't know how old any of you are but I can remember when most if not all of the items in all stores were made in America. If you remember that time the items we paid our hard earned money for were well built, could easily be repaired if it broke. Now a days everything "wears" out in next to no time. WE ARE NOT GETTING VALUE FOR OUR MONEY. The way I see it is if we don't buy just to buy after a few months, the stores would wonder why their products are not moving and they will have to do things to try to get people into the store to buy.

Here is an example of one way the market place has changed the way most people shop: Just this week there was an ad in the paper for a playstation2 game for $149 with a game,and extra controller coming with it. Now you get to the store and they are out of the game and extra controller that advertised to come with it. What they have figured out is that 99.9% of the people who go into the store for the item will buy the game even though they don't have the extras that you read about in the paper. Way back when, we called that false advertising and there was a law against it. Now all they have to do is have one (1) of the item in each store, or like I have been told before by some: I'm sorry but it was not on the truck that was just unloaded today. It maybe sometime next week before we get that item. Knowing full well that the sale is only for a week so it would be off sale by "sometime next week". Sometimes they will give you a raincheck, but most of the time they have a tiny sign that says "sorry no rainchecks".
Untill American's start demanding well made, long lasting items that they buy we will keep getting the cheap items that are made outside our country and we will keep lossing our jobs to other counties.

yes thank you for fixing it for me.

There is just no end to the devastation of free trade agreements and globalism.

We have lost our way as a nation.

Judy,
There is a way out of it all. Each of us can do our part. Just don't buy anything that is not a NEED to make it each day, week, month. Just think if you don't go into the store and pick up something just because it "caught" your eye. We all have things we NEED but the companies who "sell" to us have train us over time that we "should" get any and every thing we "WANT" right now. If we want things to change we have to stop falling for their "selling" stunts.

You're right UBGold. I've been on a general boycott with my Don't Spend, Save program since last summer. I don't buy anything unless it's essential and American Made by Americans. We just need more people to get involved.

Hopefully they will....soon.

I won't buy anything made in China if I can do without. It's time we all stop buying anything made elsewhere....that will be the only thing that stops this invasion...and our jobs being sent overseas.

We have a new store here, Steve & Barry's, I have never heard of some of those countries, where his products are made!

If big business and Unions want to run this country, then the best way to get at them, is in the pocketbook.

So, the construction workers will be illegal aliens? Or newly legalized H-5B visa holders under the McCain-Kennedy AMNESTY bill? Or both?