The Original Free Trade Agreement

I recently read an article that likened the U.S. Constitution to NAFTA. The article describes how the original states sent delegates to Philadelphia to address problems of interstate commerce under the Articles of Confederation. The delegates pledged themselves to secrecy. Their constitution turned a cooperative venture among soverign states into a setup where Congress would decide commerce and an unelected senate would approve treaties. Note: The 17th amendment, ratified in 1913, replaced selection of senators by state legislators with direct election.
Critics of the secretly created Constitution yielded when they were promised a Bill of Rights. Our Bill of Rights stands exposed as the first diversionary “side agreement”. Just as today’s free trade agreements have labor and environmental side agreements that do not alter NAFTA’s fundamentally undemocratic design, the Bill of Rights did nothing to change the very specific language of the constiution which empowered the propertied minority to rule.

The article goes on to say that the surface language of the constitution is about We The People, our delegated authority, consent of the governed, the blessings of liberty. But the coercive power of the constitution is directed towards limiting authority of the majority to make the rules for governing this country. The surface language of the WTO is about the free trade of goods and services across national boundaries, but the coercive power of the WTO is directed to limiting the authority of the majority in every country to govern-that is, to control their own labor, steward their natural wealth, use their property, conserve their resources, structure their communities, define their institutions. Backed by the Military power of governments controlled by men of property, the WTO is about enabling a few to rule over multitudes.

This idea was lifted entirely from the book Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy. I encourage everyone to check it out.