A Left Vision for Trade

The 2016 election displayed unprecedented political opposition to globalization. Instead of simply rejecting trade deals or succumbing to Trump’s rhetoric that foreign workers have “stolen American jobs,” the left should use the political momentum around the TPP to call for policies that would ensure corporate accountability and empower the workers who produce goods for U.S. companies, wherever those companies site their factories. It is also a time when the left cannot cede debates on trade to conservatives. Ultimately, we must spend the next four years advancing a positive agenda for global labor that both rejects the neoliberalism that has dominated national debate for the past four decades and empowers workers around the world to fight for their rights.