Tom Lehman
Patrick Bond wrote:
> > From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> > [This comes from a friend who wishes to remain anonymosu who's
> > covered the AFL-CIO/China stuff. Persuades me.]
> > Plus Patterson himself
> > is one of these control freaks who can't let anything get done without
> > getting glory for himself (the guild unit at the AFL considers his shop the
> > worst place to work in that building).
>
> 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