> you have to know about the profound difference between
> the ANC and SACP and murderous maoist thuggery of the
> CPP and NPA, which killed many dissident cadre in
> Mindanao. Screw Sison and his mechanical "marxist"
> simplicisms that will never succeed in gaining mass popular
> support.
(Zzzzzzzzzzz . . . )
Hm? Oh, I just woke up from a real snooze-fest. Anyway, what just happened? Did I just hear the sound of Pugliese saying abolutely nothing about my point that the KMU in the Philippines is a legitimate trade union, regardless of who leads it (and CPP cadre definitely play a role)? Was he trying to change the subject to suit one of his own irrelevant obsessions? That must have been what put me to sleep!
Meanwhile, at the opposite extreme, Lance Murdoch writes:
> The world needs the solidarity of AFL leaders like it needs
> Bush bringing democracy to Iraq. The best thing the AFL
> leaders could do for world labor solidarity is to stay the hell
> away with anything to do with labor outside the borders of
> the US
So in other words, US labor activists should completely give up on any hope of effective international solidarity. Note that Lance complains at length of the ACILS support for the corrupt CTV in Venezuela, but says absolutely nothing about union support for embattled trade unionists in Colombia, much of which is being done through ACILS. These things are happening at the SAME time, and if that seems contradictory, well, that's because it is!
I'll repeat what I said earlier, which is that I'd like to see a real analysis of US unions' international programs, that explains clearly where and how these decisions are being made, who are the progressives (because they exist) and who are the Cold War holdouts (because some of them are no doubt still around), and how we can change this. And how we can also work to build international solidarity, not succumb to the fatalism for which Lance Murdoch is arguing here, a fatalism that amounts to ceding the territory of international work to the most backward people in the labor movement. Barring better contributions in the future, I am consigning both Lance Murdoch and Michael Pugliese to my "useless" e-mail category folder when it comes to this topic, alongside Chuck Munson when it comes to just about any topic under the sun.
As for me, remember that old saying about the "workers of the world"? Well, some of us still believe in it, and there's only the question of putting some meat on the bones. Happy May Day, everyone!
- - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!