With regard to the above, I posted the following on PEN-L, and allow me to reproduce it here:
Will trade unionists in America ever think about cutting off nefarious U.S. government ties with the rest of the world (bases, troops, military aids, economic sanctions, "economic aids," covert actions, helping the candidates of its choice in elections abroad, using the IMF, etc. to shape the global economic policy, etc.) in the interest of raising the labor standards abroad? Make America act like a "normal" country, not a hegemon. Give the workers of the world a fighting chance to demand and get better working conditions. Better than import quotas, etc., no?
And Seth, if we can't do the above, I think that the only "international labor standards" we'll get from the U.S. government will be the use of selective & unilateral economic sanctions on some poor nations whose domestic or foreign policy happens to get in the way of the American agenda. Capitalism doesn't work for poor countries, and it seems obvious that "developing" countries can't export their way out of poverty without using low wages & environmental destruction as "comparative advantages," -- and even this option is limited to a very small number of countries, given the context of overproduction. If American leftsts are serious about helping the Third World poor, they'll concentrate what little power they have into making America *a republic, not an empire*. Why not progressive isolationism (which should massively diminish the repressive powers of most governments in the world), coupled with debt cancellation?
Yoshie