Students and Eugene community members gathered in 180 Prince Lucien Campbell Tuesday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. to hear Rep. Peter DeFazio (D) speak out against the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Many Rivers Group, the Lane County chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Survival Center, a campus organization, invited Rep. DeFazio to speak. A crowd of 150 students attended the lecture, which was one of many stops by Rep. DeFazio in the Eugene area during a two week recess of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. DeFazio was highly critical of the global trade organizations. Chief among his criticisms was his perception that corporate greed for profit would soon erase any chance for global protection of the environment and worker rights to be enacted.
“The WTO has very weak provisions for protecting natural resources and workers,” he said.
The speech comes in the wake of large scale protests against the WTO, IMF and World Bank in Seattle last winter and just recently in Washington D.C. Rep. DeFazio participated in both protests marching with members of labor unions, which he strongly supports.
Not only did Rep. DeFazio say he felt that the organizations have little regard for the natural world and laborers, he also said they facilitate the ability for U.S. companies to easily move into other countries and avoid this nation’s stringent labor and environment laws.
“Why are all the companies going to Mexico?” he asked the audience. “Because you can make a whole lot more money when you can dump [pollution] out the back door.”
Despite painting a bleak scene for the environment and third-world workers, Rep. DeFazio did argue that by tightening the flow of currency from nation to nation, relieving the debt of poor nations and devoting funds to sustainable development the progress of the organizations could be slowed.
Randy Newnham, a coordinator for the Survival Center, said he was pleased Rep. DeFazio came to campus to speak against the global organizations because it draws attention to the organizations, which he said helped only the elite classes.
“The fact that he’s [DeFazio] speaking out against these institutions just shows that he has not been bought and sold by corporations like so many other politicians,” he said.
Many Rivers Group’s conservation chair Shannon Wilson said that his organization will take suggestions from Rep. DeFazio’s speech to take action against the environmental disregard the group feels the WTO, IMF and World Bank exhibit.
“We will come up with solutions that he [DeFazio] and other congressmen can bring to the table,” he said.
Shannon said one of the major changes the Many Rivers Group would like to see is altering the current system that allows corporations and the WTO to sue countries for imposing strict environmental standards.