That's not my memory of Bill. He was very careful about what got out in the press (don't forget the RICO threat), but gave his people enormous space for creative research and yes, cheeky praxis. Extremely vibrant young folk (by DC policy wonk standards) could always be found on Bill's knee, learning tricks of the trade. I was involved in several bank campaigns with him from 1986-89 and in 1995; and have never met a better techie comrade in the labour movement.
But I'd go along with this critique. What's MBS got to say? This is exactly what he was denying was going down. Didn't Greider come up with a more nuanced strategy oriented to attacking US-based TNCs directly, anyhow?
> Third, there's the 'yellow peril.' 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. 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. 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.
>
> Putting all of labor's eggs into fighting China's entry into the WTO 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.
Patrick Bond email: pbond at wn.apc.org * phone: 2711-614-8088 home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa work: University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa email: bondp at zeus.mgmt.wits.ac.za phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729