Proactive Americans: get involved: concerned Americans are becoming personally involved in the political process and finding success as they defend America's legacy of liberty.

Having watched the export of hundreds of jobs over the last decade at a large hi-tech plant in Corvallis, Oregon, Todd Wurster wasn't surprised last year when he was informed that his engineering job was being phased out by the struggling company. Todd's first-hand education in the world of global economic policy and political intrigue had officially begun.

On May 5, 2006, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced an $816,929 grant to assist 496 dislocated workers in Oregon. The grant was secured under the federal government's Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program as a result of the mass layoffs--the layoffs that caught up with Todd. As stated in Elaine Chao's press release, the current TAA program "assists individuals who have become unemployed as a result of increased imports from, or shift in production to foreign countries." Thus, the U.S. government tacitly acknowledges that its trade policies result in job loss.

His job gone, Todd headed to Oregon State University to study business and accounting on the TAA government assistance program. It was not lost on him that he was transferring from the county's second largest employer to its largest employer--government. Todd's engineering intuition suggested to him that what he was experiencing was not likely the result of a random series of economic events or the inevitable progress of history.

"I thought there just had to be more going on here," he told THE NEW AMERICAN. "Last fall, I was searching on the Internet for information on economic news and NAFTA and I ended up on the website of an organization I had not heard of before called the John Birch Society." His eyes were opened. "I started reading about the North American Union," Todd continued, "and decided to download the electronic version for the October issue of THE NEW AMERICAN magazine on the topic. As I read the articles in the magazine regarding the longstanding effort to create a North American Union under NAFTA, what I had been observing in my own life really started making sense."

Todd was not simply interested in learning about what was going on. He committed to take action. He subscribed to THE NEW AMERICAN and became a member of the John Birch Society. The result of his commitment has been to team up with fellow concerned citizens who share a desire to educate Americans on the threat to their livelihoods and way of life posed by the North American Union (NAU).

Todd's major contribution to the efforts of his compatriots around the country has been to produce a series of educational videos on the North American Union using material from a variety of sources both in the United States and Canada. He has posted these on Google Video, and in less than two months total views have already exceeded 20,000. And others are just starting to link up as the word of Todd's effort gets out.

Supporting his video work, Todd has built an attractive information web portal for news about the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the North American Union: www.stoptheNAU.org.

Battle in the States

The battle to stop the North American Union is not just being waged on the Internet, however. Ken Porter, co-chairman of South Carolinians to Stop the North American Union, put things in perspective: "When you are talking about moving a bill or resolution through a political body the Internet is like your air cover. If you want final victory, however, you are going to have to put boots on the ground. For us, that means getting our penny loafers and wingtips into the halls of our state legislature."

Ken and his team were the force that convinced South Carolina state Rep. Ralph Davenport to introduce a resolution in that state's legislature calling on the U.S. Congress to oppose the SPP, the NAFTA Superhighway, and any other activities to create a North American Union. As South Carolina activist John Perna noted, "Our state legislators need to act while they still have some sovereign authority left in our republic."

The South Carolina effort, like many similar actions across the country, is the result of a campaign launched by the John Birch Society aimed at passing resolutions by state legislatures urging Congress to stop the NAU and SPE On March 22, Idaho became the first state to have both houses of the legislature pass the resolution. As of March 26, 14 states in addition to Idaho had introduced the resolution into one or both houses, and in three states (Arizona, Montana, and Utah) it had already passed in one house.

In many of these cases, state legislators were completely in the dark before their constituents brought these important issues to their attention. "It was members of the John Birch Society in my district who made me aware of this issue," said Rep. Steve Sandstrom, who introduced the resolution in the Utah House of Representatives and carried it through to passage. "Then I did my own research," Rep. Sandstrom continued, "and found a lot of information outside the JBS material and realized that it was real and what a growing problem this was."

Holding Feet to the Fire

Citizens also are going directly to members of Congress concerning the NAU. Robert "Butch" Taylor, president of the Greenville County (S.C.) Taxpayers Association, arranged to have newly re-elected Republican Congressman Bob Inglis appear before Taylor's tax group. To his credit, Congressman Inglis, who had infuriated many constituents by flip-flopping on a "free trade" vote (he voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement after announcing he would vote against it), agreed to the meeting knowing that he would be facing a tough crowd.

There were 40 citizens in the downtown branch of the Greenville public library that night. Rather than opening with a speech, Congressman Inglis asked his audience to help him build a list of their top concerns. The list was short: 1) North American Union/Security and Prosperity Partnership (NAU/SPP); 2) Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean; and 3) the Real ID Act.

Before the last election, while on the top local talk radio show, Congressman Inglis had referred derisively to the North American Union and NAFTA Superhighway as an "urban legend." When speaking to the taxpayers of Greenville County, however, he conceded that work on a Trans Texas Corridor was underway. He tried to assuage the crowd by averring, "this project won't cost taxpayers money because it is being paid for with private funds." People in the audience who knew Congressman Inglis grumbled that they were sure he was smarter than this.

Rep. Inglis may not have been "converted" by the meeting with his constituents, but he and his congressional colleagues cannot help but be affected by such exposure to determined patriot activists.

The morning after the failed attempt of Congressman Inglis to relate to his constituents, down Interstate 85 a few miles, Congressman and GOP presidential candidate Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) addressed a Spartanburg, South Carolina, breakfast gathering. Taking a question from the audience regarding his position on the North American Union and the NAFTA Superhighway, candidate Hunter was gracious in admitting that he was not really familiar with the issue. Rep. Hunter noted, "Many people have approached me about this issue here on my trip to South Carolina." "While I can't give you an answer today," he continued, "I will commit to you that I will look into this and take a position." Several people in the room were taking notes on Hunter's response and said they would be following up with him on his next visit to the important early primary state.

That citizen activism of this sort is effective was proved by the major (though virtually unreported) David vs. Goliath victory in 2004 over the Free Trade Area of the Americas. As noted elsewhere in this issue (see pages 30-31), the effort to establish the FTAA was launched in 1994 and was planned to go into force in January 2005. John Birch Society President John F. McManus points out that the concerted two-year JBS campaign to "Stop the FTAA" paid off.

"Many people thought the FTAA was unstoppable, and its promoters thought they had it cinched," Mr. McManus noted. "But we poured it on, with petitions, letter-writing, speaker tours, pamphleteering, billboards, literature distribution. Finally, the White House even realized they couldn't twist enough arms to pass it."

While the major media, with the exception of CNN's Lou Dobbs, ignore both the efforts to create and to stop the North American Union, a single-issue nationwide coalition has been formed, calling itself the Coalition to Block the North American Union. The coalition, now including over 40 organizations, is led by a steering committee consisting of bestselling author Dr. Jerome Corsi, American Policy Center President Tom Deweese, Conservative Caucus Chairman (and chairman of the coalition) Howard Phillips, John Birch Society President John F. McManus, and Eagle Forum Founder Phyllis Schlafly.

The road to restoring American independence and preserving our freedom and American way of life must start at the grass roots, run through our local and state governments, and continue on to our U.S. Congress. As more Todd Wursters continue to awaken to the nature of the battle before us, our prospects for traveling successfully down that road improve significantly.

What You Can Do

Help Preserve Your Family's Legacy of Freedom

If you have read several of the articles in tiffs issue, you know that the North American Free Trude Agreement (NAFTA) and the North American Union (NAU) represent two interrelated threats to our freedom and independence. In September 2006, the John Birch Society initiated a campaign to convince Congress to block the NAU through encouraging JBS members and allies to work with their state legislators to get anti-NAU resolutions passed in their state legislatures. As the adjacent article shows. there has been a lot of progress with this campaign. THE NEW AMERICAN'S special issue about the NAU (superseded by tiffs issue of TNA) has served as a key educational tool for this campaign.

The John Birch Society is now going on the offensive by launching a "Repeal NAFTA" campaign. This campaign is not intended to replace the NAU campaign, but instead to complement it. Since the NAU is being built on the NAFTA foundation, one of the best ways to block the NAU is to convince Congress to repeal NAFTA by voting to withdraw U.S. membership. This special NAFTA issue of THE NEW AMERICAN serves as an educational tool for this campaign.

Bottom line: Get anti-NAU resolutions adopted by your state legislature, and begin working on getting "Repeal NAFTA" resolutions adopted by your states.

How You Can Help Block the NAU and Repeal NAFTA

* Tell your representative and senators that you want them to help preserve our American freedom and independence by blocking the North American Union (NAU) and repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). (Go to http://www.capwiz.com/jbs/home/for pre-written messages to Congress and for contact information.)

* Using this special NAFTA issue of THE New AMeRiCAN as an educational tool, work with your state legislators to get both anti-NAU and "Repeal NAFTA" resolutions introduced and passed in your state legislature. (To order additional copies of this issue, see the card between pages 38-39.)

* Go to JBS.org/freedom for model NAU and NAFTA state resolutions and other campaign tools and updates.

Jim Capo is national spokesman for the John Birch Society on trade policy.