Willie referred to Brother John three times in his speech--more than to anyone else present, reported the NYT or WSJ today. In the latter Robt Bartley suffered a paroxysm in response to the respectability bestowed upon anti globalisation leaders at Davos, though he knows full well that Brother John's newly won respectability allows Willie to use the threat of protectionism to wrench from indebted third world states every imaginable anti social and destructive TRIP/TRIM regulation that makes Bartley and his class' mouths water.
Again the rest of the world will be forced to make painful adjustments for the disequilibrium from US high life deficits bound to keep on growing with a strong dollar. Note that Sweeney said not a word against the real imperialist agenda while focusing on the need for a new pseudo solution, like the Baker plan, to the problem of third world debt. Nathan may continue to focus on the virtues of union leadership in a hostile legal environment; I say it's not only rotten to the core, it's a pivotal part of the system that's rotten to the core.
And the consequence: as I have said, US labor will school itself in learning how in the name of social protection to call for sanctions or bans on some country (China today, someone else tomorrow) every time Sweeney gets a call from the president about how that country is backing down on TRIP/TRIM regulations needed by US capital to bolster exports and reduce the trade deficit. Sweeney will be in the business of lowering other countries' trade barriers; he'll take US labor down that route; class struggle will be further attentuated.
yrs, rakesh