During his time in Congress, Peter voted against every single job-killing "free trade" agreement (and their ugly cousins, the “most favored nation” designations) that came to the floor. No matter whether they were pet projects of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or Donald Trump, they were all bad ideas. They sent good-paying U.S. jobs overseas, destroyed the U.S. manufacturing industry, exploded trade deficits, undermined U.S. sovereignty and eroded U.S. environmental laws.
Peter also fought hard against the creation of the WTO, which is one of the most craven and destructive of the "pro-business, anti-democracy, anti-worker, anti-environment" pacts the U.S. has ever been involved in.
In 1999, Peter went to the WTO protest in Seattle, along with a team of colleagues opposed to globalism, free trade, and the impacts on American jobs. They joined more than 50,000 union members, environmental advocates, human rights activists, and working people gathered in downtown Seattle to protest the multi-day meetings of the WTO. By the end of the first day, police had arrested hundreds of people and tear-gassed hundreds more – including Peter.
While it was an outrage to be tear gassed by our government for exercising the constitutional right to free assembly, Peter’s proud to have been on the ground – and on the right side of history – that day.
