Thread: NAFTA protesters raise awareness around economic injustices in Mexico, U.S.

NAFTA protesters raise awareness around economic injustices in Mexico, U.S.

By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/01/2012 04:24:21 PM MST

About 30 people protested this afternoon at the entrance of the Paso del Norte bridge to raise awareness of what they say are economic injustices in Mexico and the United States associated with free trade.

Joe Heyman, a border expert at the University of Texas at El Paso and spokesman for the event, said the group represents the "99 percent" that got left out of the economic prosperity that Wall Street and several big U.S. corporations gained since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.

"We're here to let people know about the economic injustices in Mexico and the United States," Heyman said. "This is not a U.S. versus Mexico issue. We are all in this together. NAFTA cost El Paso 35,000 jobs, and is responsible for 15 to 25 percent of the wage inequality in the U.S.

"About 500,000 workers enter the United States each year as economic refugees, and about 500,000 children on the U.S.-Mexico border live in poverty."

The protesters held up signs that said "NAFTA favors corporations," "work, justice and dignity," and "NAFTA creates poverty."

The group chose the 19th anniversary of NAFTA to conduct the protest.

The free trade accord between the United States, Canada and Mexico went into effect Jan. 1, 1994, and was designed to increase trade by eliminating tariffs or import taxes between the three countries.

The protesters included members of Occupy El Paso, Occupy Las Cruces and the Brown Berets.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_19654537

The US has been the big loser on NAFTA. We've lost jobs, currency, taxes, technology and so much more because of the loss of manufacturing that relocated to Mexico and Canada as part of NAFTA. It is outrageous that our government would force the American People into such a loss and the devastation those losses created for millions of Americans. We need to withdraw from NAFTA and every other free trade treason agreement that even resembles it and restore fair and reasonable protected trade policies that benefit the US as well as the other country.