"Labor's campaign has zero to do with the history of U.S. militarism in Asia. All of the fulminations on this list have no connection with what is happening on the ground in Washington this week. There's an evolving movement, and you ain't in it. Tough. Either shape up or find a hobby."
Gee, thanks Max. I've been active in international worker solidarity movements since the late 1970s, when I first got involved in an Oregon labor-religious coalition focused on plant closures. With a small group of trade unionists in the San Francisco Bay Area, I co-founded a Korea Support Committee in 1981 to work with the then-suppressed independent Korean labor movement that the AFL's backward institutes refused to even acknowledge until recently. I've seen this movement ebb and flow over the past two decades - that's been my 'hobby' I guess - and like I said, the China rally was a low point. If trade unionists (or economists like you) ignore the very serious dangers and repercussions of US militarism as they did during Vietnam, this movement is going to become mired in chauvanism and racism. Yesterday's rally made that clear. If this is your 'evolving movement,' you can keep it.