>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 04/11/00 03:28PM >>>
A modest proposal on World trade
By Fred Gabaoury . . .
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Fred's a good egg, but his argument has a couple of holes.
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CB: So, do yours :>)
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In principle the ILO is a more hospitable place to promulgate and enforce labor standards. Clearly that's one reason why it hasn't the power to do so. The question is, where is the incentive for any government to grant the ILO such power? Where is the leverage? There is none.
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CB: Yes, but in this case "who" enforces labor standards is as important as the labor standards. The WTO/US clearly cannot be the "champion" of labor in this area and the chief agents of the enemies of labor in everything else. This is one of the craters in your argument. _________________
I'd be curious to know which ILO conventions the AFL has not ratified, and what their arguments are. Assuming I disagreed with their position, sure I would support a campaign to reverse such a decision. But this is in no necessary contradiction to demanding that trade deals have social clauses, or that the WTO enforce them.
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CB: I'm sure you can find out very easily which ILO conventions the AFL has not ratified.
You've got to be clearer on the fact that the WTO is the enemy.
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The AFL is already involved in campaigning against sweatshops and out-sourcing. By and large the groups involved in such activities are backed by labor. Sure they could be doing more. I'd like to see them do more. But this is again beside the point.
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CB: As said before, the AFL has a very bad record in international labor issues for the last 50 years. It will take it a while of the new progressive international work to establish it as clear of its past.
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Trade agreements require political sponsorship. As such, they provide an opening to labor to press for its agenda. There is no reason to pass up such an opening. It's a rare weakness of the system and the way it operates. The indisputable fact that there are other things worth doing as well does not take away from the opportunity that trade deals represent.
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CB: The AFL and members have merged their agenda too much with that of capital for a long time to follow just yet the AFL as the "leader" of labor and proponent of the working class interests. We need a shift to the old "CIO" component and away from the "AFL" historical component before the working class should follow AFL-CIO lead .
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We can invent all the noble causes we like.
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CB: Speak for yourself. Nobles are part of the ruling classes.
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Why can't labor do such and such. Wouldn't that be nice. But the political problem is not to decide what we think is important, but to determine how to connect what we think is important with what everybody else thinks is important, and to find points of entry into the workings of the political system.
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CB: True. So what ? People interpret the world all the time. The thing is to change it. Communists already read that in Marx.
CB