capitalist governments almost always favor narrow craft-type unions that don't rock the political boat. They may not get what they want, of course, but that's what they favor.
On 10/13/06, Marvin Gandall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
As I noted earlier on Louis Proyect's list, the context in which these moves are being made can't be ignored. Apart from concerns about urban and rural social unrest, the Chinese leadership wants to become less dependent on export-led growth by rapid development of the home market, which requires stimulating domestic demand. Strengthening the unions is an integral part of the process of improving wages and benefits, beginning with the largest, most profitable, and more politically vulnerable foreign firms. Since the state has been and will continue withdrawing from the economy, transferring these responsibilities to the burgeoning private sector has become essential. The Chinese measures are not the result of the "socialist" political character of the regime, as some might suppose. Capitalist states have for some time recognized the role unions can play in boosting mass purchasing power. The most notable example was New Deal passage of the depression-era Wagner Act which gave workers a legal umbrella under which to organize and raise living standards which aided the recovery. A ubiquitous poster circulated by the unions famously proclaimed: "The President wants you to join the union!". The FDR adminstration didn't object.
-- Jim Devine / "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." -- Nuremberg Tribunal
