Buchanan, sole voice against free trade?

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Tue Mar 2 13:48:05 PST 1999


I have been against free trade way before Buccanan entered politics. He switched his positon (under Nixon, he was pro free trade), not me. Just because Buchanan likes claean air, should all progressives embrace air pollution. A "possibility of collapse--at the heart of imperialism" brought about by free trade? Don't be naive. This type of argument went on also in 1830 in British politics when the cronservatives argued against British imperialism and British "progressives" pushed for government support of privat British capital overseas. What the world needs is more US isolationist policies, regardless who is promoting it domestically. If it comes from reactionaries, so be it. If the US stops trading with Asia, particualrly Japan and China, it would be very good for Asia.

Henry C.K. Liu

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


> Henry C.K. Liu wrote:
> >Persoanlly, I am against "free trade" because it has been a vehicle to
> >globalizing unregulated and "destructive" capitalism and inhuman labor
> >pratices.
>
> Whatever one thinks of propaganda about 'free trade' or actual practice of
> 'free trade,' politics organized mainly around opposing 'free trade' seems
> to consist of strange bedfellows, many of whom are downright reactionary,
> in the United States. Populism doesn't work here. (It may work elsewhere,
> depending on its content.) Encouraging right-wing populists at a time when
> many of us expect spectacular effects of global deflation--not to mention a
> possibility of collapse--at the heart of imperialism doesn't sound like a
> great idea to me.
>
> >What free trade has done for the Third World is to pop up corrupt
> >governments, abuse the environment and lift a small part of Third World
> >labor from desperate poverty to statsitical poverty. It also
> >neutralizes scial and political pressure for national development.
> >I know that the "better than nothing" arugment of neo-liberals like
> >DeLong.
> >Sometimes, "nothing" is better than disguised slavery.
> >A total collapse of free trade would be a very progressive development.
>
> Are you also against the emigration of the Third World people and people of
> formerly socialist countries into the USA and other core states, which also
> does a whole lot to 'neutralizes social and political pressures for
> national development' at the periphery, via brain drains (i.e. of
> discontented intellectuals who could have become leaders), money sent back
> home by emigrants that alleviates deprivation, etc.?
>

Yes!

Henry C.K. Liu



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