> I don't think anyone's suggesting that.
Hang on there Ted.
Comrade Max, there are lots of smart lefties in the Third World who do indeed think you inside-beltway big-labour fellas are useful idiots of imperialism by promoting a strengthened WTO with Social-Clause whitewash. Not that it matters much, but I am now in agreement with this position (though when I worked at IPS a decade or so ago, for John Cavanagh, one of the originators of the strategy, I was in your camp).
Let's say I pass along your note that these folk are "politically lost." I wouldn't, but what would their reaction be? A hearty guffaw. Deservedly so. Speaking personally, I was lost in Washington, found in Harare/Jo'burg. You should try it.
> I'm certainly not. My assumption
> with progressives is always that they want what's right, but they're
> apt to delude themselves into believing that a phony liberal in the
> White House will actually help bring about a better state of affairs
> for the working class.
Ted, the next logical step in the argument is that they thereby do more harm than good. This is often so, especially when it comes to reforming the int'l agencies. The website of my friends at http://aidc.org.za has lots of evidence from tough intellectuals across the Third World against well-meaning progressives' game-playing in int'l trade/finance. Maybe I've belaboured this too much, but aside from Rakesh, I'm not sensing that Doug has brought into this e-list enough of his Third World-based fan club.
Doug, when you go to 50-Years conferences and meet fantastic radical social movement strategists from the South, are you giving out free LBO subs? You should, and I think you'll have another big chance next month!
P.