Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 4, 2012

One of the oddest lines in the 2012 Republican National Platform calls for the Mariana Islands to be exempt from the federal minimum wage. Since the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to impose a minimum wage anywhere, the principled thing would have been to call for its total abolition. Why focus on a tiny, obscure territory?

For several years, high-profile Republican lobbyists, led by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and convicted felon Jack Abramoff have used their influence to exempt the Marianas ? especially Saipan ? from minimum wage laws and other workplace regulations. This has benefited a Chinese-owned fabric consortium that uses slave labor ? mostly female workers.

The raw materials come fromChina. The factory is owned and operated by the Chinese government. The workers are Chinese nationals subject to that country?s obscene population laws, including compelled abortion. They are forbidden to practice Christianity or any other religion. Yet owing to the influence exercised by Reed and Abramoff, the clothing manufactured in Saipan is labeled ?Made inUSA.?

Reed and Abramoff raked in a substantial amount of money lobbying on behalf of the people running this slave labor camp ? and their corrupt influence is now inscribed in the Republican Party Platform.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.