US, Mexico, Canada Renew NAFTA, Increase Exploitation. Let’s Mobilize the Masses for Communism!
MEXICO, July 2020 — The North American Free Trade Agreement (Canada, the US and Mexico) has been renewed with a new name. Between 1993 and 2016, Mexico’s trade increased almost fourfold (from $290 million to $1.1 billion). US investment grew almost eight times (from $15 billion to $114 billion).
Workers in the US lost 350,000 jobs. In Mexico, two million small farmers were forced off the land, unable to compete with cheap US grain. Poverty increased. So did the migration of millions of workers to the United States.
Trump said that capitalists in Mexico benefited more from NAFTA. He called the trade deficit “unacceptable” and threatened to withdraw from NAFTA. But he renewed it with a new name!
This is an attempt to stop the decline of the USA relative to other imperialist powers (China, the European Union, Russia). It aims to secure Mexican markets and the support of Mexican capitalists and their government in the trade war against China.
The Agreement continues to subordinate Mexico to the US in technology, energy (oil and gas), and migration. Its “Sunset clause” mandates periodic review to guarantee US investments and advantageous dispute settlement. It seeks to reverse US deficits in the balance of payments.
It modifies the “rules of origin” (regional composition) to reduce Chinese and even European components, ensuring purchases from the US. Wages are supposed to be competitive. 45% of the cars must be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour (but not right away).
Mexico City, August, 2017: “NO TO NAFTA”
Defeat Imperialism with Communist Revolution
How has wage slavery developed in the last 140 years? Into imperialism, including the carnage of two world wars. Its characteristics include: The monopolization of businesses. The predominance of finance capitalism (the fusion of banking and industry). The export of capital from the imperialist powers. The division and redivision of the world among the great powers.
Capitalists sharpened these processes at the end of the 20th century. They “deregulated” markets and reduced tariffs, accelerating the circulation of goods and capital. This intensified the exploitation of workers’ labor power.
Each group of capitalists sought their own advantage to make the greatest profit extracted from the workers’ labor power. They were not unified.
The World Trade Organization, which replaced the GATT, was set up to “regulate” the “deregulation.” “Common markets” such as MercoSur and the European Common Market were replaced by the European Union and the Free Trade Agreements (which did not freely accept just anyone).
Nationalists denounce “deindustrialization”, “dismantling of agriculture”, “loss of sovereignty”, “territorial cession (including coastlines and subsoil).” They propose to reform capitalism. But the working class must fight for its own emancipation.
These reformers seek a national capitalism that develops its own industrial technological base. That does not import outdated machinery and technology. That doesn’t overexploit natural resources (mines, oil, gas, agriculture).
That cannot be the goal of the working class. The working class must understand that it has been marching on a false path for too long. That the current labor movement, whose sole purpose is to increase wages and reduce working hours, keeps it in a vicious cycle from which there is no way out.
The basic evil is neither “foreign capitalists” nor low wages, but the system of wage labor itself. Only communism can end that system and create the world we need. Join the ICWP!
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