Arthur:
> Maybe I missed it, but have we adequately explored the creation of strong
> trade unions in these countries, trade unions that are part of a movement
> aimed at upward harmonization of living standards??
>
No, I don't think we have. But I do wonder if they would fit. It's now a
decade and a half since I was in India, but what I recall is a highly
entrenched class system and a lot of vested interest in keeping it that way.
People with power, privilege and wealth do not want to share it. There is
very little flexibility in the system and very little chance of anyone borne
into the lower classes rising above them. Any movement by the poor to shift
power and wealth downward would likely encounter strong resistence. India
prides itself on being a democracy and so, perhaps, it should. But Indian
democracy is still little more than a veneer which covers a rigid
hierarchical system, which, if it bends at all, bends only a little.
We mustn't forget that unions are a distinctly western phenomenon, the
product of a long history of social change and experimentation. They are
possible where there is a fundamental belief in the equality of man and a
willingness to bargain and negotiate. They are far less likely to be
possible where the fundamental assumption is inequality and force or corrupt
backroom deals can be used as means of suppression.
Simply assuming that third world countries can adopt our systems and
standards or even that they would want to adopt them will not get us very
far. When I was in India, I saw ever so many poor children begging on the
street. Some of them had been maimed, deliberately I was told, to give them
an upper hand as beggars. Third world poor families knowingly sell their
daughters into prostitution. If there are no options other than begging and
prostitution, wouldn't working in a Nike sweatshop be preferable? Well
perhaps not for everyone, but if one asked the little kids who are begging
on the street or the little girls who are bound for prostitution (or their
parents), I believe I know what the answer would be.
My apologies to the Washington protesters. I'm sure many of them are there
out of deep conviction and high ideals. However, what upsets me a little is
that going after agencies such as the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF has
become something of a blood sport. Not everything these agencies do is bad,
and I for one do not believe they are totally in bed with the MNCs. Perhaps
partly, but not totally. They are responsible to governments, and many
governments continue to be responsive to the whole of their constituents.
But in saying that, perhaps I'm simply revealing that I'm Canadian, and
therefore naive.
Ed Weick
