Teamsters, Hoffa Jr. and Rank Opportunism On The Left

LeoCasey at aol.com LeoCasey at aol.com
Fri Jul 13 14:01:37 PDT 2001


Doug wrote:
> Don't I recall Junior buddying up to Pat Buchanan at some point last
> year? Oh yeah, and wasn't there something about an audience of 5,000
> Teamsters "heatedly cheering"
> <http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/04/13/wto/>
> Buchanan's warning to China: "You stop persecuting Christians, you
> stop threatening my country, or you guys have sold your last pair of
> chopsticks in any mall in the United States"? Just rhetoric, right -
> nothing racist in the chopstick remark, no trace of Gompers'
> Asian-bashing?

Doug is correct here.

I took considerable exception to those who argued that _any and all_ opposition to China's entry into the WTO constituted a return to the anti-Asian labor movement racism of the turn of the century. I believe that such a contention is a cheap rhetorical sleight of hand that was used to avoid substantive argumentation on the issue. But when one makes the objection I did, it is necessary to draw a clear line of demarcation [oh my god, I sound positively Proyectish with that phrase] between those who did appeal to racism, such as Hoffa/Buchanan, and those who had a principled opposition to Chinese entry into the WTO, an opposition that had as one of its primary concerns the effect such a development will have on Chinese workers.

Leo Casey



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