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Resolution Adopted by
The Labor Party's
First Constitutional Convention

Fair Trade
Campaign

WHEREAS transnational corporations have the support of the two major parties to push anti-worker trade policies, treaties and treaty organizations like NAFTA, GATT, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and Fast Track Authorization;

WHEREAS these trade agreements and policies are designed to help multinational corporations gain access to the least expensive labor around the world in order to pit us against the poor in the developing world in a race to the bottom, competing over who will accept the lowest wages and benefits and the most miserable working conditions;

WHEREAS we recognize that our fight is against multinational corporations, not our brothers and sisters in other countries, and that a fair trade policy can help both workers here and in developing nations increase their standard of living;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Labor Party develop a new fair trade policy and campaign that levels the playing field and makes corporations, as well as governments, liable for adhering to the following principles:

1. Rejection of NAFTA, WTO, MAI and all such "free" trade agreements

2. Compliance by all governments and corporations with existing ILO (International Labor Organization) conventions, particularly Convention 138 banning child labor, Convention 87 on the right to free and independent trade unions, and Convention 98 on the right to collective bargaining.

3. No goods should enter this country unless the conditions of labor producing those goods adhere to ILO conventions. For example, no product should be allowed into the country that is made from child labor. In addition, no product should be accepted into the country that comes from countries or factories, in which workers do not have the real right to organize or where those that do are intimidated, threatened or coerced.

4. No goods should be allowed to enter this country unless they were produced under conditions that adhere to a basic set of occupational safety and health and environmental standards. We can’t allow products to enter the U.S that have been produced in ways that poison workers or pollute the air, land and water.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the enforcement policy of the new fair trade rules makes the corporation, as well as the government, responsible and liable so that the corporation that owns the product as it attempts to cross our borders should be made liable for how it was produced - liable for the conditions of all the production and subcontracting that went into the product. Not only would the goods be confiscated, but also the corporations involved would be subject to stiff fines.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that these new rules must allow working people to have the right to act so that we can become directly involved in enforcement. Any group of workers or citizens should have to have the right to investigate, present evidence and petition to remove goods in violation.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we restate our commitment to promote a strategy of international solidarity and cooperation with the labor movement and labor parties in other nations through the exchange of information, worker organizing, collective bargaining, and other actions and strategies that demonstrate our commitment to work together to confront the global attacks on our environment and living and working conditions.

AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Labor Party develop the details of such a policy and then wage a vigorous campaign of public hearings, education among our constituent bodies, an intensive training program for our cadres and that our education campaign be extended to the community at large.