About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2011)
Ricky, Just What You (and Your Hair) Have Been Looking For! 706.552.1515 100 AthenstowrrBlvd. Citysalonandspa.com GNAT'S LANDING 1 fi H 1 1 . inms- Saturday, September 3 UGA vs. Boise St. Beer & Food Specials To Hell with the ATI, stay in Athens to ring the BILL! Sunday, September 4 Live Music with RISING SUN Call us lor your catering needs! Mon 4pm-until • Tue-Sun 11:30am-Until • Plenty of Parking 1080 Baxter St. • 706-850-5858 • www.gnatslanding.net The University of Georgia College oUVeterinary Medicine Community Pet Clinic Helping to train tomorrow's veterinarians We are a full-service small animal clinic offering: • Routine spays/neuters lor dogs and cats • I )ermatology and Behavior services • Competitive pricing • Easy relerral to the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital il needed Open Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5 p.m. By appointment: 706.542.1984 Drop-offs and walk-ins welcome C*1ton Strut - vvww.vet.uga.edu/CPC % HEIRLO®M cafe & fresh market ' if J "I YOUR NEIGHBORS YOUR FARMERS YOUR FOOD BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER WEEKEND BRUNCH BEER & WINE 706.354.7901 Corner of Chase and Boulevard Wi heirloomathens.com FT ... % . ' ---4> B David W. Griffeth — ATTORNEY — 220 College Ave. Ste. 612 Athens. Georgia (706) 353-1360 Admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court since 197(j> And lesser courts Auto Accidents. DUI. Drug Cases. Under-Age Possession Personal Injury. Wrongful Death. Criminal Defense. Credit Card Debt Relief HI! r LOUNGE Home of the STROflG£ST Drinks! 2455 Jefferson Rd. in Homewood Hills 706.546.0840 Open 2pm M-F 12pm Sat Karaoke £uery UJednesday 8 FirsL Friday Blues nighF Thursday Liue Band Friday 8 SaLurday friendly neighborhood Bar • Pool • Free Popcorn • Jukebox Haiti minimum wage Hi there, young American. Would you like to know why your generation will be the first in this nation's history to experience a lower standard of living than that of your parents? And why it will continually get worse during your lifetime? Would you like to know what no politician dares admit, that even if the unemployment crisis is remedied, we will still be on a downward economic trajectory? It's called capita 1 ^ •dobalization. The expansion of the so-called "free market." h. re's the secret: it's not "free" at all. Never was intended to be. It's only a myth that government is at odds with the free market. Governments work in the ser vice of corporations. That's the way it's always worked, really. Washington's guiding concern during the early days of Hitler's reign was not the increasing abuse of Jews, but Germany's outstanding debts to American banks. The Mexican debt crisis of 1982 (Google that shit!) was another instance of Wall Street determining the direction of politics and further concentrating its wealth at the expense of an entire nation. The whole thing came home to roost in 2008 with our own economic crisis. The Tea Party crowd couldn't be more off the mark when they moan about the dangers of government regulation on corporations: the problem is the corporations' regulation of governments. The good folks at Wikileaks provide a small window into the functioning of this system. Uncovered in a series of leaked State Department memos, it can now be seen that the United States government, doing the bidding of a number of massive transnational corporations, overrode Haiti's democratically (and unanimously) decided minimum wage increase to ensure more profit for the corporations with factories in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. We're talking Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Levi's and others— companies that used to employ unionized U.S. citizens at fairly decent wages. Over the past 35 years or so, those companies and many others strategically moved their factories to coun tries whose citizens were desperate, poor and not protected by unions. So-called "free trade" deals were arranged so that prod ucts and materials (but not people) could move freely across borders. (Google "Free enterprise zone" or "FTAA" for more.) The great coup (so to speak) was that, while being called "free" trade, the newly arranged circumstances were often predicated on the power of the United States government to ensure permanently desperate, permanently powerless and poor workers in those countries. We Americans, then, were forced to compete with the citizens of countries whose lead ers kept them poor and relatively powerless, willing to work for anything. For many years, and continuing into the present, attempts by workers to challenge their conditions have often been met with "death squads," some of which are U.S.-trained in Columbus, GA, of all places. Google "killer Coke" to find harrowing accounts of Colombian paramilitary forces gunning down union organizers at Coca-Cola plants in that country. Colombia's guerrilla killers are in some cases both U.S.- funded and -trained, ostensibly to curb the cocaine trade. But the guerrillas are now in the business of killing hundreds of union organizers who dare challenge the orthodoxies of "free trade." The Washington-backed coups in Venezuela in 2003 and Haiti in 2004 suggest that this decades-long story is not over. (Google "Jacobo Arbenz" or "Salvador Allende" for a brief introduction to some of that history.) Controlling the economies of countries like Haiti, Honduras, Chile and Nicaragua is ultimately a way of controlling our own. In a global economy, workers in the United States are ultimately competing against everyone else. By forcefully maintaining poor conditions for citizens and workers in these countries, corporations tamp down global wages. Manufacturers will never repatriate factories to U.S. soil as long as Washington is helping to maintain wage-slave environments in places like Haiti. So, when you hear politicians talk about their "jobs plans" in the coming months, pay attention to what they're not saying. Matthew Pulver 8 FLAGPOLE.COM -AUGUST 31, 2011
