The Selling of "Free Trade" shows how Washington works to accomplish political or economic goals, even when confronted with widespread popular opposition. John R. MacArthur chronicles the brutal and expensive campaign in 1993 that led to passage of the poorly understood, highly controversial law creating the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Even at a moment when all of us are searching for comfort, the time hasn't passed for books that bring discomfort. "The Selling of 'Free Trade' is a book for American patriots who choose to be brave: citizens who refuse to be misled."--"Hartford Courant, Best Books of 2001 "If there is spin, there is counterspin: The Selling of 'Free Trade' is a devastating unraveling of yet another Bill Clinton con job. MacArthur tells the NAFTA story in the voices of those who did the spinning and those who suffered from it. It doesn't get much better." Seymour M. Hersh "A gripping and fresh analysis of the corporate construction of an onrushing NAFTA and the human damage in its wake. MacArthur demonstrates what happens when an underdeveloped democracy is confronted by an overdeveloped corporation-governmental oligarchy." Ralph Nader, consumer advocate. "If there is spin, there is counterspin: The Selling of 'Free Trade' is a devastating unraveling of yet another Bill Clinton con job. MacArthur tells the NAFTA story in the voices of those who did the spinning and those who suffered from it. It doesn't get much better."―Seymour M. Hersh "A gripping and fresh analysis of the corporate construction of an onrushing NAFTA and the human damage in its wake. MacArthur demonstrates what happens when an underdeveloped democracy is confronted by an overdeveloped corporation-governmental oligarchy."―Ralph Nader, consumer advocate. John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine, is an award-winning journalist and author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War (California, 1993). The Selling of "Free Trade" NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy By MacArthur, John R., Jr. University of California Press Copyright © 2001 MacArthur, John R., Jr. All right reserved. ISBN: 9780520231788 Chapter One DEATH OF A FACTORY: LONG ISLAND CITY The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation?if I may use that biological term?that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism . ?Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy "You see, Charlie," he said, "not so very long ago there used to be thousands of people working in Mr. Willy Wonka's factory. Then one day, all of a sudden, Mr. Wonka had to ask every single one of them to leave, to go home, never to come back ." ?Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory From time to time during an ordinary workday in my office overlookingGreenwich Village in New York City, I find myselfhefting a shiny black, all-steel, one-pound-two-and-a-half-ounceSwingline "747 Classic" stapler. I might be on the phone andbored, in need of a distracting toy; I might have picked it up becauseit was blocking my jar of paper clips, dread competitor ofstaples. Occasionally, I will gesture with it to underscore a pointwith a subordinate. I sometimes revert to childhood curiosity andlift the stapler cap to examine the "magazine" containing the staplesthemselves, still pleased after all these years that I can see intoone of the mysteries of everyday mechanical objects. Now andagain (for my secretary frequently does it for me), I stack some papersor newspaper clippings together, place them under the staplerhead, and experience the crunching satisfaction that comeswith binding the ephemera of office life into semipermanenttogetherness.     As promised in the Viking Office Products Discount BuyersGuide , my Swingline "Classic" has proven durable over theyears?testimony, I suppose, to the quality of design and workmanship:"MADE TO LAST. Tough, all-steel construction takespounding?keeps stapling for years." I don't doubt the ad copy,for I'm reliably informed that my stapler is at least nine years old,one model removed from the current version of the 747 Classic,which has a slightly different base. But I suspect that it's closer tofifteen years old, roughly the span of my career at Harper's Magazine .I'm confident I could drop my stapler on a hard floor quite afew times before it showed any serious wear and tear. Not that itwould be costly or difficult to replace. In December 1998, youcould buy the newer model of the 747 Classic from Viking for$17.99, $15.99 each for two, and $12.99 each for three. When I was a child my father had a stainless-steel stapler?Ican't remember th