The L. A. Labor News article was posted on the ILWUlistbot to give readers food for thought, a different perspective on the upcoming demonstrations in DC against the World Bank and IMF. I disagree with many of Smith’s uncritical, even idealized characterizations of China as some kind of “workers’ paradise”.
I also recognize that the Chinese revolution brought with it social gains to an impoverished country that benefitted working people like nationalization of the means of production, transportation and financial exchange, although under a repressive, bureaucratic regime. That bureaucracy is now busy privatizing sections of the economy and repressing strikes like that of the miners who bear the brunt of these “reforms”.
Let’s keep in mind that these so-called reforms are being aggressively implemented in preparation for China’s entry into the WTO, a precondition of U. S capital and its spokesman Bill “Fast Track NAFTA” Clinton.
What has not been made clear in discussions on the WTO is that there are differences among those unions that have protested WTO policies. AFL-CIO president Sweeney has illusions that with a seat at the table the AFL-CIO can influence labor and environmental addenda to international trade treaties. Now, to show his patriotism, he wants to target China’s admission to the WTO as the main focus of the DC demonstrations. The ILWU International Executive Board’s position is in opposition to any further international trade treaties and expansion of the WTO. It supports investigating the social impact of these treaties. ILWU International President McWilliams is sharply critical of the WTO but doesn’t call for its abolition because he sees it as only part of the problem. The World Bank and IMF he contends are other aspects of the same globalization problem for workers.
U. S. capital is the main power behind these global financial institutions, which is why their policies generally reflect the interests of U. S. big business in opposition to workers around the world. To jump on the flag-waving bandwagon against China can only serve to deflect criticism of the culprits here at home.
The ILWU should be calling for the abolition of the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. At the same time we should be taking solidarity action – like we did for the Liverpool dockers – to defend workers internationally against union-busting privatization.
