Banksy of the Frankel Steel shithouse

Pepe Escobar has a great "Free Trade" story on view at Counterpunch.

Escobar is one of the few tell-it-like-it-is guys to find face-time on something approaching the mainstream.

But I'd like to add a few personal observations to Pepe's take-down of free trade agreements.

I remember the debate that went on when Mulroney was campaigning for free trade. It was gonna be a bonanza! Jobs jobs jobs!...

American capital, Mexican labour, Canadian resources... what could go wrong?

Job Jobs Jobs!!!...

I was working at Frankel Steel in Milton at the time, where we fabbed up the structural steel for 7 World Trade Center. I tried to stir up a bit of shit about the free trade agreement. I had a great cartoon that graced the walls of virtually every shithouse cubicle on the premises; Brian Mulroney with his drawers around his ankles, and a fully erect appendage on view, with the caption, "I said jobs jobs jobs... you can start with a blow-job!"

Banksy of the Frankel Steel Shithouse.

Those Frankel days were around the middle of my welding career, which went from the early seventies into the nineties. In the course of that career I plied my trade at over two dozen shops from coast to coast, from huge factories like Budd Automotive to 12 man shops like Harjim in Victoria BC or B&M Engineering in Waterloo Ontario.

With one or two possible exceptions, every place I ever worked has gone out of business after NAFTA came in.

The jobs went to Mexico or even farther afield.

None of these "free trade" deals benefit workers. They're not intended to.