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Dddddd0814 at aol.com Dddddd0814 at aol.com
Fri Aug 9 14:29:53 PDT 2002


It is not American workers who are "enjoying the bounties of imperialism." It is the global capitalist class, the bosses and CEOs, who really enjoy these bounties. Nonetheless, it is undoubtable that there exists an "aristocracy of labor" in the United States that has a higher standard of living than the third world proletariat. In a nutshell, this is caused by the mandates of neo-imperialism, which insure that the third world STAY in the third world. This explains in plain economic terms the pro-capitalist capitulations of the U.S. labor bureaucracy that we have previously discussed.

However, we in the United States often have a very skewed picture of labor. Indeed, this picture is much different from the "Archie Bunker" image that some would fantasize. The fastest-growing sector of U.S. labor has almost always been an influx of immigrants into the labor market (and, with the case of the Civil War and Civil Rights movement a century later, an influx of former slaves and their descendents into these markets). These are mostly low-level workers, service workers, and people of color-- people who aren't as easily "duped" by the "American dream," and have no foreseeable opportunity to go petty-bourgeois (i.e., start their own small businesses, etc.). By virtue of these economic hardships, and a history of radicalism in the home countries in the case of immigrants, this sector potentially has a much higher political consciousness than "Archie" (or even "Gloria" and "Meathead," for that matter). Even the most conservative aspects of labor (like the leadership of the AFL-CIO) understand that these are the people that need to be organized if workers as an entire class are going to benefit. A larger economic downturn at this juncture-- coupled with an end to the social protections brought on by the New Deal, and/or a large-scale war in which many working people could die-- could lead to a further radicalization of a larger section of the working class. Those factors, and an end to the anarchist-socialdemocratic-stalinist coalition of cynicism against worker organizing, that is.

-- David In a message dated 8/9/2 9:01:41 PM, you wrote:


>Chuck Munson:
>>> Let's face it, American labor is comfortable with its arrangement
>>> with capital. This is because it understands that its standard of
>>> living depends on U.S. workers exploiting the workers in the Global
>>> South.
>
>Jenny Brown:
>> Someone care to address that? It's sort of a first principle for a lot
>of
>> anti-globalization folks that regular U.S. workers are enjoying the
>> bounties of imperialism. How much is this really true if you count
>> the military costs, and examine the glorious 'standard of living' of
>the
>> bottom 70 percent or so, which would include nearly every union
>> household? And yes, I have spent time in countries the U.S. & IMF
>> beat up on.
>
>Excellent question. So, how would that be measured? Can it be?
>
>And how precisely are "U.S. workers exploiting the workers in the Global
>South"? They don't run sweetshops and aren't in control of the companies
>that due. What wealth companies due bleed from the Global South isn't at
>the command of workers.
>
>It sounds like collective guilt.
>
>-- Shane



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