Bill Fletcher Jr. on Internationalism (Jim O'Connor)

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at oregon.uoregon.edu
Sat May 6 16:15:47 PDT 2000


On Sat, 6 May 2000, Nathan Newman wrote:


> In fact, the US system, because the population has been struggling against
> this model longer than the Europeans who are newer to it, has developed more
> extensive counter policies against global corporate exploitation. US
> securities laws are far tougher than Europe's just as every corporation
> would rather be sued for environmental torts in Europe than before a US
> jury. And the US courts are often far more willing to rules against
> companies in crimes committed by its companies outside its borders than
> Europe- the extreme example being some of the Alien Torts cases being
> launched against large companies for human rights violations in places like
> Burma and Ecuador.

This is hilarious. So what's IG Metall, chopped liver? Forty percent of Germany's banking system is state-owned. Is that irrelevant to the class struggle? Daimler's co-determination system is giving the UAW more clout than it ever had before in running Chrysler. The EU regularly gives tons of money to its semi-peripheries, via grants, cheap loans and access to markets, whereas we regularly bomb the living hell out of pretty much anyone we can. France's Government mandated a shorter workweek, not a longer one. Etc. etc. etc. The only thing the Euroleft has lacked, I think, has been radical cultural theory, where the US scene has been much livelier in many ways.

-- Dennis



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