I suppose, Charles and others will never face up to how the PRC since the Deng years, under the leadership of the dominent wing of the Party, has been in partnership, in a subordinate status, with Western capital. I know it's confusing to some, that a Party which led a heroic revolution against feudalism and imperialism, has been transformed into the means by which the Chinese w/c are being exploited, but such is the case.
Michael Pugliese, that rascally ultra-leftist with a social democratic practice. Guess I'm not the only confused one! "Left in form, right in essence, "eh?! ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> To: <marxism-thaxis at buo319b.econ.utah.edu> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 8:45 AM Subject: M-TH: WW on imperialism
>
> > -------------------------
> > Via Workers World News Service
> > Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
> > issue of Workers World newspaper
> > -------------------------
> >
> > CHINA & NORMALIZED TRADE: WHERE TO WORKERS'
> > INTERESTS LIE?
> >
> > By Fred Goldstein
> >
> > Confusion, deception, and reaction reign in the public
> > debate over the vote in the U.S. Congress to grant
> > Permanent Normal Trade Relations to the People's Republic
> > of China.
> >
> > It is difficult for any worker or progressive person to
> > find an independent class orientation. Both sides of the
> > debate consider the Chinese government as an opponent. They
> > differ only on whether China has to be punished by
> > withholding PNTR, or be politically and economically
> > transformed through forced concessions granted to
> > imperialism in return for PNTR.
> >
> > It is the height of chauvinism that nowhere in the debate
> > is the sovereignty of the government of China even
> > considered. It represents one fifth of the human race,
> > liberated from centuries of oppression, invasion, and
> > occupation only 50 years ago by a socialist revolution.
> >
> > Whatever happened to the right of self-determination for
> > 1.2 billion people trying to overcome poverty and
> > underdevelopment? China's onerous legacy comes from the
> > very colonial interventionist powers--Europe, the United
> > States and Japan--who rule the World Trade Organization.
> >
> > WHY BILLIONAIRES PUSH FOR PNTR
> >
> > The corporate CEOs and the billionaires they work for
> > support PNTR because they don't want their European and
> > Japanese corporate rivals to gain any advantage in a
> > developing market that has twice the population of the U.S.
> > and Europe combined. They are palpitating over the prospect
> > of sales, particularly as the rest of the world's markets
> > grow more and more saturated with overproduction and the
> > capitalist expansion is perpetually in danger.
> >
> > President Bill Clinton and all the politicians promoting
> > PNTR and pushing for China to enter the WTO in return for
> > economic concessions say this is the way to strengthen
> > "economic reform" and "human rights" in China. The
> > translation of these catch words is that they want to
> > strengthen and deepen capitalist penetration of China,
> > subvert the political rule of the Chinese Communist Party,
> > and ultimately re-colonize China.
> >
> > All the more shameful is it that the leadership of the
> > AFL-CIO has spent over a million dollars of the workers'
> > money on a deeply chauvinist campaign of "no blank check
> > for China." It has frightened the workers into fighting
> > China as a way of protecting their jobs. But the
> > capitalists are forever taking away high-paying jobs for
> > low-paying jobs as well as eliminating jobs altogether.
> > This is the nature of capital.
> >
> > The way to protect jobs and wages in the present situation
> > is for the unions to fight against layoffs and plant
> > closings at home. The class struggle must be waged here.
> > The bosses have no right to lay off workers. If they want
> > to open up a plant in China, Indonesia, or Haiti, they
> > still have no right to lay off the workers who made them
> > rich and who built up the capital that created the plant in
> > the first place. The fighting slogan of "a job is a right"
> > should be made as fundamental as the slogan for a living
> > wage in the labor movement.
> >
> > AFL-CIO SHOULD ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH CHINA'S
> > UNIONS
> >
> > But equally important, the unions should begin by
> > establishing relations with the 103-million-member All-
> > China Federation of Trade Unions, and discuss the situation
> > in the spirit of class solidarity. So far the Sweeney
> > leadership has not even publicly considered such a course,
> > even though it was suggested by the general secretary of
> > the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
> >
> > In this regard it is very important to note that the
> > International Longshore and Warehouse Union on the West
> > Coast recently shone a ray of light in the labor movement
> > by passing an important resolution at its convention in
> > Portland, Ore., at the beginning of May. While expressing
> > opposition to PNTR and so-called "human rights" violations
> > in China, the emphasis of the resolution was to combat the
> > campaign of China-bashing. The resolution denounced
> > "racially tinged pronouncements" spoken at labor rallies as
> > " and causing "distress among all people of Chinese
> > descent."
> >
> > The resolution concluded "that the ILWU will prioritize
> > and prepare for a delegation of rank and file members to
> > travel to China to make contact with trade unionists from
> > China, including government-sanctioned unions as well as
> > opposition leaders, and report to the ILWU on
> > recommendations for enhancing worker conditions and human
> > rights in our two nations.
> >
> > It is to be hoped that this break with the official policy
> > of total hostility to China will reverberate through the
> > progressive ranks of the labor movement and the leadership
> > will be forced to pull back from Cold War style anti-China
> > and anti-communist baiting.
> >
> > In fact, the "human rights" argument being mouthed by the
> > Sweeney leadership was originated by the bosses and their
> > propaganda machine as a way of trying to undermine the
> > socialist camp. The unions and the workers must know that
> > "human rights" is a vague slogan concealing class aims.
> >
> > The capitalist class understands the "human rights" of
> > pro-imperialist intellectuals and religious leaders who
> > want to overthrow socialism in China, but they have a hard
> > time understanding the "human rights" of striking workers
> > here on picket lines who fight cops, scabs, and attempts by
> > employers to starve them into submission. They seem
> > unconcerned about the "human rights" of the two million
> > people, mainly Black and Latino, suffering from
> > incarceration in the U.S. prison-industrial complex.
> >
> > In fact, the bosses, although they are inconvenienced by
> > having to spend a lot of money and energy getting PNTR
> > passed over the objections of the AFL-CIO leadership,
> > really do not mind one bit seeing the minds of the workers
> > poisoned against socialist China. In fact, both sides are
> > condemning China in the same way. The difference is that
> > the bosses want the business and the profits.
> >
> > It is false for the labor leadership to compare the
> > struggle over PNTR for China with the NAFTA struggle. The
> > struggle over NAFTA was about deepening the exploitation of
> > a long-standing neocolony of the U.S. corporations-Mexico.
> > The struggle over PNTR for China is over the right of China
> > to enter the WTO, a right it should enjoy without having to
> > give any concessions whatsoever to the transnational
> > exploiters.
> >
> > DANGEROUS CONCESSIONS
> >
> > China's policy of concessions to U.S. and European
> > monopolies is complicating the entire question. Ever since
> > the ascension of Deng Xiaoping to leadership in 1976, the
> > government of the PRC has thoroughly retreated from its
> > earlier revolutionary road. The pragmatic use of the market
> > has now given rise to widespread unemployment, growing
> > discontent among the workers and peasants, and a dangerous
> > new layer of capitalists and bourgeois intellectuals, with
> > all the corruption and subversion that they purvey. The
> > dangers to socialism are all too apparent and are of the
> > deepest concern to all partisans of the Chinese Revolution.
> >
> > To make matters worse, the giant U.S. transnational
> > corporations, which have worked overtime to get Congress to
> > pass PNTR, have extracted concessions that, on paper,
> > further weaken the grip of the Chinese government over its
> > economy.
> >
> > Indeed, the agreement crafted by Premier Zhu Rongji in
> > April of 1999 and renegotiated in November seems to come
> > dangerously close to crossing the line that has been
> > followed up to now. From mutual concessions made by both
> > sides, in which China has gained much in national
> > development, the new agreement appears to have moved
> > heavily to one-sided concessions by China, in accord with
> > Zhu's line of "integration" into the world capitalist
> > economy. Such "integration" will surely end in disaster
> > when the world capitalist expansion inevitably ends in
> > collapse.
> >
> > Specific concessions in the new agreement include, among
> > others, giving up the demand that foreign auto companies
> > turn over blueprints of plant construction; allowing
> > corporations to bypass state distribution networks and set
> > up their own; letting imperialist banks make consumer loans
> > in Chinese currency; and a phase-in period of opening up to
> > U.S. agribusinss.
> >
> > Of course, this is all still on paper. China has a
> > powerful apparatus capable of finding ways to protect its
> > interests within the framework of any agreement. Only the
> > actual struggle will show what the real effects of the
> > agreement will be, should it be implemented.
> >
> > SOCIALIST FOUNDATIONS STILL STAND
> >
> > All this does not change the fact that China is still a
> > socialist country. The state still owns the commanding
> > heights of industry, although in diminishing proportions.
> > It still owns transportation, communications, finance, and
> > the land. All this was established by the revolutionary
> > transformation flowing out of the 1949 socialist
> > revolution, when the bosses, landlords, and imperialists
> > were expropriated and the masses took over under the
> > leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's
> > Liberation Army.
> >
> > The pillars of socialism--state ownership, the planned
> > economy, and the monopoly on foreign trade--have been
> > considerably eroded. But the Chinese Communist Party, which
> > has presided over this situation, is nevertheless the
> > inheritor of the socialist foundations and is trying to
> > hold on to them, while at the same time promoting economic
> > market reforms that seem to further undermine them.
> >
> > This contradiction must sooner or later be resolved.
> >
> > The worst thing that could happen to the world working
> > class and oppressed people, already impacted by the
> > collapse of the USSR, would be the overthrow of socialism
> > in China and its recolonization by imperialism. The
> > complete subjugation of 1.2 billion people by world
> > capitalism would have a truly devastating effect on the
> > wages, working conditions, and all other aspects of life of
> > all the workers, including the U.S. working class. Anyone
> > here who disregards this fact and adopts slogans that help
> > imperialism undermine the Chinese government is objectively
> > aiding reaction.
> >
> > Although there are clearly forces both inside and outside
> > the CCP that are moving in the direction of imperialism,
> > the true sentiments of the masses were reflected after the
> > U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during
> > Washington's war of aggression against Yugoslavia. This
> > sentiment will ultimately be reflected in the party. In
> > fact, in spite of rightist elements, the CCP and the
> > People's Liberation Army are the only real barriers to
> > counter-revolution in China.
> >
> > Profound hatred of colonial and imperialist domination
> > lies beneath the surface of Chinese society. But in the
> > long run the only way to secure China from recolonization
> > is to march firmly back onto the road of socialist planning
> > and put the material security and morale of the workers and
> > peasants back on the highest priority, along with national
> > development. This is the surest antidote to capitalist
> > subversion and the best way to fortify the revolution
> > against imperialist hostility.
> >
> > - END -
> >
> > (Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
> > copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
> > changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
> > Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
> > ww at workers.org. For subscription info send message
> > to: info at workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)
> >
> >
>
>
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