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13. Immigrant Round-ups Gain Cheap US Labour Whatever the source, the amended provision was passed and is The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has now a part of US law. flooded Mexico with cheap, subsidised, US agricultural products (Source: Jeff Stein, "A Senate Mystery Keeps Torture Alive— that have displaced millions of Mexican farmers. Between 2000 and Its Practitioners Free", Congressional Quarterly, November and 2005, Mexico lost 900,000 rural and 700,000 industrial jobs, 22, 2006, http://public.cq.com/public/ 20061 122_homeland.html) resulting in deep unemployment. Desperate poverty has forced millions of Mexican workers north in order to feed their families. 15. Toxic Exposure Can Be Transmitted to Future The National Campesino Front estimates that two million | Generations on a "Second Genetic Code" farmers have been displaced by NAFTA, in many cases related to Research suggests that, contrary to previous belief, our the increase in US imports. behaviour and our environmental conditions may program The demand for undocumented labour in the US economy is sections of our children's DNA. New evidence about how genes structural. Migrants work in nearly all low-paying occupations interact with the environment suggests that many industrial and have become essential to the US economy in the age of global chemicals may be more ominously dangerous than previously competition. Part and parcel of the slide has been the replacement thought. It is increasingly clear that the effects of toxic exposure of unionised US workers with migrants. may be passed on through generations, in ways that are still not In the wake of 9/11, Immigration Customs fully understood. "This introduces the Enforcement (ICE) has conducted workplace concept of responsibility into genetics and and home invasions across the country in an inheritance," said Dr Moshe Szyf, a attempt to round up "illegal" immigrants. ICE researcher at McGill University in Montreal. justifies these raids under the rubric of keeping "This may revolutionize medicine. You However the real goal ofthese actions nto | a8ed onthe recent ri tinue” disrupt the immigrant workforce in the US and data, researchers The new field of genetic research, called ols ta ahs alte raion | are intrigued by the | sisi volves wha slats ae and the agenda behind this crackdown are notion that some of influences how genes act in the body. If alarming many unions. 4 DNA is the hardware of inheritance, the (Sources: David Bacon, "Which Side Are the genetic changes epigenetic system is the software; it You On?", Truthout, January 27, 2007, influenced by our determines which genes get turned "off" or http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/ 012907L.shtml, and "Workers, Not Guests", The Nation, February 6, 2007, http://www.truthout.org/issues_06 /020607LB.shtml; Laura Carlsen, "Migrants: Globalization's Junk Mail?", Foreign Policy in Focus, February 26, 2007, http://www. fpif.org/fpiftxt/4022) "on" and how much of a certain protein they produce. Now, it seems that this chemical switching system may also act in reverse. Based on the recent data, researchers are intrigued by the notion that some of the genetic changes influenced by our diet, our behaviours or our environment may be passed on from generation to generation. On average, 1,800 new chemicals are registered with the US federal government each year and about 750 of these find their way into products, all with hardly any testing for health or environmental effects. diet, our behaviours or our environment may be passed on from generation to generation. 14. US War Criminals Impunity A provision mysteriously tucked into the Military Commission Act (MCA) just before it passed through Congress and was signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006 (see story 1) redefines torture, removing the harshest, most controversial techniques The bad news about chemical contamination is steadily from the definition of war crimes, and exempts the perpetrators— mounting, while the number of new chemicals is steadily both interrogators and their bosses—from prosecution for such increasing. In 2005, the EU responded to this situation by trying to offences dating back to November 1997. enact a new law called Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation Author Jeff Stein asks: "Who slipped language into the MCA of Chemicals (REACH), which requires that chemicals be tested that would further exempt torturers from prosecution?" The before they are sold—not after. At the same time, US and White House denies any involvement or knowledge regarding the = European chemical industries—and the White House—began insertion of such language, leaving the origin of adjustments to working overtime to subvert the European effort to enact REACH. this significant part of the MCA a mystery. Motivation for this Their efforts failed, however, and the REACH Act was adopted by provision leads clearly to leadership in the Bush administration, as the European Union in December 2006. Chemical companies the passage effectively rewrote the US enforcement mechanism throughout the US and Europe are still struggling with how they for the Geneva War Crimes Act, which, upon sworn testimonies, will respond to the new requirements. would have held former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, (Sources: Anne McIlroy, "Chemicals and Stress Cause Gene Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush guilty Changes That Can Be Inherited", Globe & Mail, March 11, 2006, of active roles in directing acts of torture upon detainees held at —_http://www.precaution.org/lib/06/prn_code_2.060311.htm; Peter Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Montague, "Some Chemicals are More Harmful Than Anyone A Center for Constitutional Rights spokesperson commented: Ever Suspected", Rachel's Democracy & Health News, October "This amendment is designed to protect US government 12, 2006; "European Parliament OKs World's Toughest Law on perpetrators of abuses during the ‘war on terror' from prosecution." Toxic Chemicals", San Francisco Chronicle, December 14, 2006) Whatever the source, the amended provision was passed and is now a part of US law. (Source: Jeff Stein, "A Senate Mystery Keeps Torture Alive— and Its Practitioners Free", Congressional Quarterly, November 22, 2006, http://public.cq.com/public/ 20061 122_homeland.html) data, researchers are intrigued by the notion that some of the genetic changes influenced by our diet, our behaviours NEXUS #15 Based on the recent or our environment may be passed on from generation to generation. DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008 www.nexusmagazine.com