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U.S. Representative Alan Grayson says the right to organize represents “the last and best hope of the world” for a moral and functional economy.

In a speech to the Global Call Center Conference hosted by UNI and CWA in Orlando, Rep. Grayson said foreign trade agreements had given the U.S. one of the highest rates of wealth inequality worldwide.

He called on unions to grow in strength and to fight the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership, a huge new trade deal negotiated by the Obama administration.

Progressive lawmakers such as Grayson are working together to create a groundswell of opinion to block the deal - believed to allow multinational corporations to directly challenge government laws and regulations in international courts.

“The Trans Pacific Partnership was conceived in sin, is about to be born in sin, and will hopefully die in sin,” Grayson said. “It is a trade agreement that has little to do with trade. It purports to be an agreement between countries but it is an agreement between companies and millionaires to impoverish working people of the world.”

“If you want to know what trade does to a country, use the United States as an example,” Grayson said. “Let our experience be a warning. In the last twelve years, the U.S. ran the largest twelve trade deficits in the history of the world.”

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, Grayson said, 10 trillion dollars of American wealth transfered overseas. “It is equal to $30,000 for every man, woman and child."               

Details on the exact text of the Trans Pacific deal remain scant after the U.S. Trade Representative declared all trade agreements classified five years ago. “It was as if we were talking about a nuclear bomb and it was a very telling moment of truth,” Grayson said. In drafting the text of the Trans Pacific Partnership the U.S. Trade Representative used 600 “advisors.” “500 are corporate lobbyists and not a single union member is included."

Rep. Grayson warned that wealth inequality had created a fork in the road for the global economy. “The left road means freedom, opportunity, equality and a dignified life for everyone,” Grayson said. “The right means everything for one person and slavery for everyone else.”

“It’s up to you,” Grayson warned a conference hall packed with trade union leaders. “When you add five people to the roll of your union membership, you are taking the left road. You are helping people fight back. That’s the importance of what you do everyday.”

“The Trans Pacific Partnership represents the last final effort of corporations to take over the world economic system. Common sense tells us that this has got to go down. Every major multinational wants this passed. The Chamber of Commerce wants it and is pushing hard to get it. The Republican Party is anxious to deliver whatever it can to their owners – corporate America.”

“I’m going to fight, fight, fight. Your visionary leadership will do the same...What is answer? The answer is to organize, organize, organize.”