I think we passed the high point of globalization about a year ago. Present
protests at the WTO are significant. Globalization carried out by the
multinationals for the benefit of the few has peaked. Can I prove it? No.
But this is what seems to be the case.
Another straw in the wind? The recent elections in NZ. A retreat from
Thatcherism.
arthur cordell
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From: Andrew Straw
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: torn
Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 1:03PM
I must admit that I am often torn between supporting those who want freer
trade and those who are interested in protecting workers in core countries
like the US.
On the one hand, laborers in the US have fought for decades to attain fair
wages and reasonable benefits for the hard work they do. Making trade
freer gives management a huge leverage and bargaining tool: either take
our offer or we will do a serious cost/benefit about whether we should
move to Juarez/Singapore/Thailand, etc. Of course this is a threat to the
livelihood of core-country laborers and their unions. I think of it as
macro-level union busting.
On the other hand, providing good jobs in other countries is not such a
bad thing either. How many workers in SW Indiana complained when Toyota
built a factory there? People were lining up to work there because jobs
are scarse in such rural areas. The same happens when an American company
moves to a rural part of another country: they line up for those jobs
because for them, they ARE good jobs. If the jobs paid a relatively awful
wage in that country, there would not be such a demand to become an
employee.
In my opinion, after listening to the many distinguished voices on this
list, we are in a period of turbulence which will last for some
time--perhaps another 20 years? After which time, the dust will have
cleared, and most jobs will have workers who are paid the rate that
benefits stockholders the most. Whether or not that result is a living
wage capable to sustaining a quality standard of living has yet to be
determined.
I don't see protests in Seattle as changing this verdict in the least.
It was happening before the WTO, and will continue whether that
organization is abolished or not. As someone who does care about workers
both in core and peripheral countries, I think the best thing is to use
what little nation-state power there remains to increase the diversity of
precisely the stockholding ownership that drives this system.
Make more people owners. Active owners. Both in core AND in peripheral
countries.
Any other answers? Concerns?
Andrew U. D. Straw
Fredericksburg, VA
