AFL-CIO & WTO

Lisa & Ian Murray seamus at accessone.com
Fri Oct 8 17:43:36 PDT 1999


I'll vouch for the truth of the self-aggrandizing, ersatz radicalism of the misinforming Naderites. Their lead organizer in Seattle from DC is definitely a misogynist with a Napoleon complex who has turned off a lot folks here in town -- and the workers in the office want a union!

King County alone has 200,000 union members. We are working hard with the people on the KC labor council to call a strike for 11/30. So big John is scott-free on that count.

When Mike Moore [WTO] was in town last Friday we barbecued him; a deliberate misreader of history, yet quite capable of the self-deprecating aside. He is on public record in calling for the elimination of the "3rd world" debt. [he walked right into it!] By the end of the meeting he had his head in his hands and the WTO lead economist -- a guy named Peter Lowe -- was scrambling for documents and words for an attempt at an answer.

ian


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 1999 8:20 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: AFL-CIO & WTO
>
>
> 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 one reporting that labor had pretty much withdrawn from the WTO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
>



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