Labor

A few weeks ago, I attended the premiere of "American Harvest," a new documentary by an independent Rochester, New York, filmmaker. The promotional materials for the film promised viewers an "even-handed," "non-political" look at the agricultural industry in the United States, with an emphasis on the role played by immigration. What we got instead was a naïve, incomplete, and shamefully ignorant portrait of agriculture in the United States-with the same skewed approach to the immigration question that has been all too popular in recent years.

The global debate around free-trade and its consequences has evolved tremendously in recent years, from tiny circles of leftist critics into a broad international protest movement. Although the movement began to bloom in response to the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the biggest demonstrations have been in response to the now-popular "bi-lateral" free-trade agreements that economically powerful countries sign with poorer nations. Once one has become conscious of the problems created by free-trade agreements, whether they are international or regional, an immediate task presents itself: finding a feasible alternative.

On a special May Day 2008 broadcast, we'll hear from worker's struggles around the world. We go to New York, where Abdulai Bah introduces us to domestic workers and day laborers asserting their rights and demanding justice. We'll hear from Rami Al-Meghari in Gaza, where worker's options are grim after the shutting down of nearly 4,000 industries due to Israel's closure of the territory since June 2007. Garegin Khumaryan takes us to villages in Georgia where an entire generation of children have no idea what their fathers look like - as their fathers have had to leave to faraway lands to find work. Finally, Marie Trigona gives us a tour of one of Argentina's best-known worker-run enterprises: the Bauen Hotel in Buenos Aires.

"Free trade" has produced some of the most contentious political debates of our times. In a famous April 2000 article in the New Republic, economist Joseph Stiglitz argued, "Economic policy is today perhaps the most important part of America's interaction with the rest of the world. And yet the culture of international economic policy in the world's most powerful democracy is not democratic." During the Bush years, economic policy received far less attention in political discussion than before; the use of military force took center stage.

In 2006, Filipino trade unionist Diasdado Fortuna died under suspicious circumstances. Nobody was arrested or charged. Later in the year, International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) member Brian Campbell arrived in the Philippines to investigate his death. After discovering the local police unconcerned and unwilling to investigate, Campbell's efforts to uncover the truth were met with opposition.