WSJ on A16

Max B. Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Mon Apr 10 05:41:53 PDT 2000



> Our free- trade anti-imperialists repeatedly accuse labor's trade
> critics of racism. The only thing that has been cited here to support
> that are some unspecified allegations towards one dude -- the infamous
> Michael Dolan -- who is not a labor union person to begin with.

Bob Borosage is a labor union person, yes?
>>>>>

[mbs] Not exactly. He is Jesse Jackson's chief aide and runs a liberal org that mainly dispenses information. He is pro-labor but is left of the AFL. His org is probably supported by labor to some extent.


>>>>>>>>>
His real audio interview, available at the labor union affiliated website www.ourfuture.org, has as its two basic themes the unique perfidiousness of China and the need to pry open its markets -- which he thinks the WTO can't do properly because they don't understand point one.
>>>>>>>>

[mbs] I will give a listen to that and get back to you. Chauvinism and anti-communism would be the last thing I would expect from Bob. If anything, he would tend to err on the side of radical McGovernism. His whole career has been in the service of non-interventionism and anti-racism.


>>>>>>>>>>
There's another point of the labor union argument I don't understand, which that "if we let in China, it will be impossible to ever have a working labor clause." There are already 100 third world authoritarian governments in the WTO representing 2 billion people. Why would it be easier to get them to abide by a labor clause than 1 authoritarian government that rules over 1 billion people? Especially one that's got a relatively tight grip on economic regulation for a third world government. Michael
>>>>>>>>>>

Politics. Symbolic events have real political effects. This tends to be lost on people (present company excepted) who see everything as controlled by a monolithic ruling class. Elites are divided and the decisions 'They' make are the creature of bargaining, jawboning, public opinion, and the workings of their own legislatures.

A no-strings admission of China is a way of saying, forget about labor/enviro standards. A denial keeps the ball in play.

mbs



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