>On Behalf Of Patrick Bond
>The fact that it comes from Cosatu doesn't
> mean it's a genuine line from the South African working class. I'd
> say the same about the ICFTU endorsers from African trade unions.
>
> Do you get my point about distinguishing a genuine people's sanctions
> strategy from the wheeling-dealing associated with trade debates?
The problem with the argument about "peoples sanctions" versus trade debates is that it means that you are siding with Ronald Reagan on opposition to anti-apartheid sanctions by the US government.
As well, while unions are not always democratic, they also don't survive very long given employer resistance unless they have some real employee support (unless the government is propping them up for their own reasons.) Are you arguing that all these African unions, from COSATU on, do not have broad support from their members? This seems like a long stretch that is a way of avoiding the fact that disputes on the WTO are not "North-South" but a more complicated strategic division among good faith progressives in both the North and the South.
Of course, even if COSATU is a pure channelling of the working class in South Africa, that doesn't mean they have the correct strategy and that you and your allies are wrong on the WTO. But it does mean that you have to justify why global capitalism without the WTO would be so much better than global capitalism with a WTO with a social clause.
-- Nathan Newman