[mbs] If I guess right on who it is, do I win a prize? Free copy of the next book?
>>>>>>>
Yes, absolutely I'm nervous about this, on three fronts.
First, the Trumka/Patterson strategy on using 'working capital' to influence
how funds invest their money has been very slow to get off the ground . . .
>>>>>>>
[mbs] The worst thing you can say about investor activism is that it will be ineffectual and a waste of time. Not the first time a project was ill-conceived. The office politics side is even less important.
>>>>>>>>>
. . . As a union activist told me the other day, "this is a strategy
against a country, not a company." . . .
>>>>>>>
[mbs] So what's your point? This is a country trying to lead the world to lower labor standards.
>>>>>
Third, there's the 'yellow peril.' . . .
>>>>>
[mbs] This is pretty unfair, even to the labor bureaucrats. The quotes suggest somebody is using that term, but nobody is. More generally, yellow peril connotes an irrational fear of foreign invasion or domination by an alien race. That has zero to do with the anti-China/WTO campaign, which speaks to the increasing domination of capital over labor, world-wide, through expansion into labor-unfriendly areas. Like China.
>>>>>>>>>
China is the easiest of targets. It
leaves everyone at the AFL, from the left-liberal crowd to the old Cold
Warriors, tingling with excitement because they have this illusion of
political power. . . .
|>>>>>>>>>>
[mbs] Yeah we might actually have a victory. What a disaster.
>>>>>>>
But its dangerous - the AFL's new 'campaign for global
fairness' quotes approvingly speeches by Tom Delay denouncing Clinton on
China while AFL lobbyists work hand in glove with the right-wing
Republican/CIA crowd that now sees China as public enemy #1.
>>>>>>>>
[mbs] Rubbish. There is a right-wing that is exploiting the trade issue to ventilate anti-Red China rhetoric. They will vote against China in the WTO, which votes would be a good thing. So what.
>>>>>>>> A lot of the
better people at the AFL are wary of this campaign too. Yeah, China has its
problems - unions have very little power, workers are under strict control,
executions multiply by the day etc. But hey, that's sounding like the USA.
>>>>>>>>>>
[mbs] If we can't distinguish between labor and other social conditions in the U.S. and China, then things really are hopeless.
>>>>>>>
Putting all of labor's eggs into fighting China's entry into the W
TO instead of developing a true cross-border strategy of corporate campaigns
and organizing is, in my view, a wasted and hypocritical effort. I hate to
see The Nation (Greider and Katrina in particular) describing this as
oh-so-progressive - but nobody on the Left, it seems, wants to believe that
Sweeney can do anything wrong. Its the Nader syndrome all over again.
>>>>>>>>>>
[mbs] The implication here is that syndicalism -- or pure grass- roots organizing -- is superior to engaging the political process and policies under debate. But a moment's reflection should indicate that each complements the other. If the WTO scheduled a conference to determine that Rakesh should be confined and forced to write articles for the National Enquirer on space alien babies, and that issue proved a stimulus to the labor movement, there would be no reason not to exploit it, even though the world would probably go on pretty much as before despite Rakesh's suffering.
The evolution of trade regimes is a good deal more important than the kidnap of Rakesh, much as we would miss him here. Keeping China out of the WTO is destructive in a sense, but so is a garden-variety strike. Stuff doesn't get done, workers lose money, little old ladies' shares lose value, scabs get beaten up, etc.
The corpos (love that term) want China in the WTO. Obstructing this is a way to exert pressure for labor's agenda. What's not to like?
On the more narrow maneuver in question, I am a little surprised at those who condemn the placement of obstacles before China's move to privatize part of its state sector. Seems like in order to defend socialist China, we have to defend the right of its leaders to sell off assets to capitalists. Go figure.
mbs