AFL-CIO & WTO

[Doug Henwood]

I just spoke with someone with good contacts within the AFL-CIO who 
says the Seattle Weekly article I forwarded here the other day - the 
one reporting that labor had pretty much withdrawn from the WTO 
battle - is hogwash circulated by self-aggrandizing Naderites who 
want to position themselves as the authentic militants (and cardboard 
dinosaurs are an important part of any such strategy). The major 
difference, says my source, between the AFL-CIO and the other groups 
is that the Federation wants labor standards incorporated into any 
new trade agreements, and the others don't because to do so would 
lend the WTO legitimacy, when all they want to do is snuff the WTO 
entirely.

I'm not vouching for the truth of any of this, but it seems worth reporting.

Doug