United We Fall
One has to look at the effects of the free trade agreements between US and Canada. They've been good for some powerful sectors and not at all good for poor, working people, for those that are not benefiting from corporate profits. So in Canada, for example, since they've signed the bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, two thirds of the Canadian families have experienced a decline in their real incomes.
Also the North American free trade agreement has displaced 2 million Mexican peasant farmers from their land. Some of them have migrated to cities and about half a million every year try to enter illegally into the United States to find work. So it's not so good for the people at the bottom of the social ladder.
One of the major concerns that Canada and Mexico had about NAFTA was that it might open their capital to being taken over by US multinational corporations. If you are a large corporation and you're given national treatment within any country you're automatically given the rights of a citizen within that nation and by that, as a citizen, you're allowed to challenge the laws in that country. And these are the provisions that allow a corporation to sue a national government if it feels that is not getting the treatment that would be entitled to under NAFTA.
United We Fall is a documentary about the North American Union and for years this topic has been debated in the news and in political circles as being a possible future for North America. In recent years, the mood has shifted and a rift is developing between those who want a Deeply Integrated North American Community, and those who wish to retain their national sovereignty. This film takes a look at both sides by interviewing both insiders and activists who have been at the heart of this heated debate. The film also looks to the broader agenda of building a world government and its implications.
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