>After all, why shouldn't’ workers in China, India, the
>Philippines and so on enjoy the modernization effects
>and material benefits (tenuous though they may be)
>capitalism offers? The questions I’ve never stopped
>to ask (and I feel quite stupid for missing this basic
>bit of analysis) are a.) How widely dispersed are
>these benefits? and b.) What structural adjustments
>in favor of capital that erode workers’ position are
>being made to welcome this FDI?
If the Chinese gov's smart, they'll institute some kind of reforms that would help mute (in tandem with open repression) labour militancy and (we can only hope) an awakened consciousness.
It'd be a great legacy for the old folks (from the revo and before) to leave the kids: what is communsim, and why their government isn't now into it.
Assuming that bit of knowledge got properly dispensed and absorbed.
>How should progressives of all types – but folks with
>socialist and communist aspirations in particular –
>interpret these events, which are often applauded as
>signs of progress?
With outer calm and inner rage. But always with hope and stubborness.
How long until the contradictions really start to shake Chinese society again? "We" should certainly be there for the immanently appearing socialists and communists (although it'll be as dangerous for them [if not moreso] as 19th-century Europe was for commies; I'm currently reading M&E's Tribune descriptions of the revos in Germany) in whatever capacity they need (and "we" can handle). It's doubtful "we"'d have much say on the international scene; maybe unions, working in concert with progressive NGOs, might be able to get some reforms going, so as to give breathing space to nascent progressive movements and parties.
To be honest, I'm a bit more worried about "inter-imperial rivalries" involving China as a new "imperial player."
Todd
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