>Of course, in Columbia the life expectancy of oppositional candidates was
>rather short. Then again, what does democratically elected mean? Does
>that include W, Salinas, or Yeltsin? Supposedly the president of Haiti
>was not democratically elected. Isn't it a relatively elastic term?
Absolutely- which was a bit of my point. Large parts of the Left have planks in their eyes in denouncing the AFL-CIO for supporting undemocratic regimes over the years. Not that the post-war Cold War labor politics wasn't appalling, but so were the support by many leftist laborists for Communist regimes that suppressed and even murdered independent labor organizers.
As Tim's comments show, there are a bunch who, despite China's nearly complete capitulation to capitalist economics, continue to defend their brutal anti-labor policies. At this point, China is far worse than almost any country's economic policies, since they combine capitalist laissez-faire towards workers with brutal undemocratic anti-union policies.
Sweeney seems to have adopted a far more consistent standard than many leftists in supporting independent unions in countries across the world, including those opposing neoliberal regimes.
-- Nathan Newman
On Sun, Apr 14, 2002 at 01:47:22PM -0400, Nathan Newman wrote:
> And does that mean all support for the FARC in Columbia is evil, since
they
> are trying to overthrow a democratically elected government?
>
> -- Nathan Newman
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu