>NAFTA was (and is) principally about opening up Mexican markets, labor,
>and land to U.S. capital (exporters and direct investors, agri-biz/industrial/
>finance capital).
Well yes Nathan NAFTA's real achievement is probably a massive subsidy to the US automobile industry, but this kind of regional protectionism should not sour us on multilateral trading. We don't want to undermine the progressive work capital is carrrying out.
As I see it, capitalism has two historic tasks: one to develop the world market through trade on the basis of an advanced transportation and telecommunications network and thus create the material basis for universal human cooperation in culture, science and technology and the other to develop labor saving technology, which will provide the basis for universal creative leisure time (pure scientific pursuits, music, cooking, family, games, etc). These are the two most important aspects of the civilizing aspects of the method by which surplus labor (relative surplus value) is extracted in capitalism.
Now of course to the extent that the first task is carried out by FDInvestments that are actually replacing fixed capital with cheaper labor power and thus increasing overall work time, capitalism balks at its second task as it moves on the first. At present, it contribute nothing overall to its historic mission. Moreover, regionalism threatens to become as much an end point as transition point as respective capitals attempt to protect share of slow growing market at expense of others and thereby sow international discord. Plus, it seems that the instability of the international monetary system after US sabotage of Bretton Woods means so much currency instability that protection is resorted to and financial flows are overly hot (and complicated and fragile due to hedging)--this then impeding further the development of an integrated world.
All in all, capitalism seems quite unable to move forward on its historic tasks, and this is reason to begin to think about how we can push it off the historical stage. But we want to build on what capitalism has created, and I fear destruction of this in the anti globalization and -technology currents in the parochial left which the AFL CIO is now trying to exploit.
Yours, Rakesh