From Pittsburgh, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) is calling for a Congressional investigation into "a massive police state" the union said was created to intimidate union members and others critical of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and limit their rights during FTAA meetings in Miami last week.
USWA also said it condemns the "use of federal Iraq reconstruction funds" to subsidize "homeland repression" at FTAA meetings
"Last week, the fundamental rights of thousands of Americans ... were blatantly violated, sometimes violently, by the Miami police, who systematically repressed our Constitutional right to free assembly with massive force, riot gear and armaments," said Leo W. Gerard, USWA international president, in a letter to Congressional leaders.
Gerard called it doubly condemnable that $9 million in federal funds designated to reconstruct Iraq were used toward what he called a despicable purpose.
Citing "countless instances of humiliating repression in which the Miami police force disgraced itself," Gerard said Miami police chief John Timoney should be fired, all charges against peaceful demonstrators should be dropped and a Congressional investigation into the Miami police department's "systematic repression" should immediately be launched.
"To do less would be to endorse homeland repression in the guise of homeland security," Gerard's letter concluded.
The full text of Gerard's letter is available through the USWA Web site.
Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez has said the department stands by the arrests it made. The police were working, in part, to prevent the type of violence other free trade events have hosted, such as riots at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.
Promoters have said the FTAA treaty, due to be completed in 2005, will create the largest free trade area in the world, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, with a total gross domestic product of more than $14 trillion and 800 million consumers.
Critics of the treaty, which include many trade unions, say the treaty would destroy or hurt the quality of U.S. jobs, including manufacturing jobs, by sending those jobs to Latin American countries where companies would pay workers lower wages and offer fewer benefits.
The economic counter-argument: If the administration for the FTAA is located in Miami, the state has said the agreement will create nearly 90,000 jobs, boost Florida's payrolls by about $3.2 billion each year and add about $13.6 billion a year to Florida's gross state product.
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