Labor against the FTAA: Building Solidarity in the Americas

Abstract

During the twelve years following the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade policy became the central focus of the AFL-CIO’s international work. Starting from a position of defending the interests of U.S. workers, the AFL-CIO developed a broad critique of “corporate globalization” that focuses on the linkages between trade, aid, debt, and immigration, and critically appraises the roles of key actors in the global economy—states, multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and multinational corporations.