Carrol Cox wrote
>I think, in fact, this is one of those situations where the infamous
>adjective/adverb "Objective/Objectively" is called for. Opponents
>of China's entry into the WTO are objectively racist, *regardless*
>of their subjective motives or feelings.
and this is what Robert Naiman had to say on ZNet...
See particularly his stuff on the wonders of the Union position on China. ------------------
A16: Sweeney Crosses the Rubicon, and a New Movement Takes Its First Steps By Robert Naiman
As a participant in the planning for the April 16-17 mobilizations against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, I have this to say about all the hype around the April demonstrations and the "new movement for global economic and social justice": the hype is entirely justified. Occasionally in this life one is blessed to observe and participate in truly historic events. The decision by the AFL-CIO, the Steelworkers, other major unions and Jobs with Justice to participate in mass demonstrations attacking the destructive colonial power of the IMF and the Bank marks a decisive turning point. The participation of Rich Trumka of the AFL and George Becker of the Steelworkers gives the events a completely different, more powerful political character. The AFL-CIO is being swept forward by the social forces that organized labor itself did so much to set in motion. Nothing will ever be the same.
snip...
It is increasingly apparent that some of the top people at the AFL, including most especially John Sweeney himself, fervently believe in what they are doing. At the Jubilee 2000 USA demonstration last Sunday, Sweeney gave the best speech of the American speakers. Unlike the leaders of Jubilee 2000 USA, who refuse to discuss the role of the IMF, the World Bank, and U.S. Treasury in imposing anti-worker "structural adjustment" economic policies as part of the "debt relief" program currently before the U.S. Congress, Sweeney vigorously attacked the policies of the IMF and the World Bank, and their role in driving the global "race to the bottom" in living standards. He explicitly linked the destructive impacts of the IMF and the Bank in developing countries to declining living standards in the United States.
The significance of such statements from the head of the AFL-CIO cannot be overestimated. The IMF and the World Bank are the most destructive institutions in the world today. But unlike the WTO, they have no direct impact on working people in the United States. The strong opposition of the AFL-CIO to anti-worker "free trade" agreements, under strong pressure from the industrial unions that are being decimated by globalization, was already a big step forward. But organized labor opposition to the IMF and the Bank is a huge leap forward.
Recall that in the 1980's, many of us organizing against U.S. military interventions in Latin America and elsewhere tried to make the case that U.S. foreign policy was not in the economic interest of the majority of people in the U.S. Now we have AFL-CIO President John Sweeney saying what we were saying in the 1980s: that U.S. foreign economic and military policy is hurting workers abroad and workers at home.
The Mobilization for Global Justice has also been a learning experience for non-labor groups. Many who were skeptical at first of the AFL's focus on the U.S.-China trade deal have come to see its importance. The AFL-CIO position is the progressive one: approval of the U.S.-China trade deal would be bad for workers in the U.S. and bad for workers in China. But it is also the strategically correct one - given the ironclad commitment of big business and their Republican and Democratic allies to the agenda of removing any restrictions on the flow of capital, nothing less than vigorous opposition to bad trade deals will have any impact.
The Mobilization has also been a learning experience of respectfulness about diversity of tactics. During and after Seattle, there was a fair bit of recrimination about window-smashing and other property destruction and whether it was morally reprehensible or politically counterproductive. Within the current Mobilization, however, there has been a respectful dialogue about different tactics among different camps. This led to the creation of a legally permitted demonstration, designed to facilitate the participation of organized labor, community people, and other groups not willing or able to risk confrontation with the police or association with militant tactics in the context of this particular action. It also led to a real dialogue with anarchist groups supportive of property destruction, not based on dogma, moral condemnation, or marginalization but a real dialogue based on shared values of political effectiveness and not undermining the political work of others; and even though property destruction is outside of the action guidelines for the Mobilization, we expect that if property destruction does take place in Washington, it will have a different political character than it did in Seattle.
We have already won major victories in building and sustaining our movement and delegitimizing the policies and funding of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The boycott of World Bank bonds has been launched (www.worldbankboycott.org), and many other political initiatives have begun (see www.a16.org).
But of course, the more people come, the more history we will make. If you are reading this on April 13, there is still time for you to come. Join us. Make history. Come to Washington and help shut down the meetings of the IMF and the World Bank; or join us for the most massive legal demonstration against the IMF and the World Bank that has ever taken place in the U.S.; or both. Be able to tell the story of how you were there when students, environmentalists, trade unionists, and anarchists made history and took on the most powerful institutions in the world.