Re: South Korean fire sale
On Sat, 22 Apr 2000, Louis Proyect crossposted New York Times, April 22, 2000 Renault Agrees to Buy Troubled Samsung Motors [text deleted] Actually, a fine example of the new hegemons at work. Samsung got into the auto biz way late, I think in 1995 or so, and has pretty limited industrial facilities, plus debts of $5 billion. You could think of Renault-Nissan as the mutant product of the Mizuho super-keiretsu (IBJ plus Fuji plus Dai-ichi Kangyo) and that other keiretsu... oh, what's the name again.. ah, of course: *France* (Renault is 44% state-owned). R-N will take a bath, of course, but South Korea's industrial base will remain largely intact. Round 2 of the post-Cold War East Asian-EU slugfest goes to the EU on points. -- Dennis
Labor Disputes in China on the Rise
Chinese Workers Are Showing Disenchantment Official Statistics Show Number of Labor Disputes Has Soared as Workers Complain of Late or No Pay, Layoffs, Corruption By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, April 23, 2000; Page A23 BEIJINGThe number of labor disputes in China has skyrocketed--to more than 120,000 in 1999--as workers in unprecedented numbers get laid off, are paid late or not at all and feel cheated by corrupt officials who sell state property for a pittance to friends, relatives and colleagues. Official Labor Ministry statistics passed to a Western diplomat and a recent article in the journal Legal Research showed 14 times more labor disputes--from simple contractual disagreements to work stoppages and strikes--last year than in 1992. The article and labor officials' willingness to speak about the issue marked a departure for the Communist Party, which has struggled to maintain stability in Chinese cities in the wrenching transformation from a planned economy to something akin to a market economy. The strains were highlighted in late February when tens of thousands of workers erupted in a violent protest at China's biggest nonferrous metal mine near the Bohai Sea in the northeast. Workers there burned cars, broke windows and kept police and the army at bay for several days as they protested what they said was an unfair and corrupt handling of the mine's bankruptcy. Chinese labor conditions have been the subject of increased international scrutiny in advance of a vote in the U.S. Congress on granting China permanent normal trade relations, a major stepping stone to its accession to the World Trade Organization. U.S. labor unions, led by the AFL-CIO, have argued that entry into the WTO would result in a deterioration of China's already limited labor rights. Chinese law does not provide for the right to strike and bans independent unions. The statistics show a jump from 8,150 labor disputes in 1992 to more than 120,000 last year, answering a question posed often by China scholars: Is the urban labor situation getting tenser, or is it simply that China's increasing openness allows for more information about a fixed number of disputes? "This is significant. It shows things are getting more difficult," said Anita Chan, an expert on China's labor relations at Australian National University in Canberra. At the same time, the statistics also helped explain why the increased unrest has yet to translate into a movement challenging the Communist Party's monopoly on power or seeking to establish independent labor unions. While collective labor disputes, in which workers seek to bargain in a unit, are increasing rapidly, they still make up a minority of the overall disputes--7 percent in 1998, the last year available. And no evidence exists of workers uniting to strike at several businesses at the same time. Besides unrest over wages, labor disputes typically involve unpaid pensions to laid-off employees, poor working conditions and the sell-off of state enterprises that workers believe involved fraud by management. Andrew Walder, an expert on Chinese urban workers at Stanford University, said a key reason the unrest hasn't translated into a broader movement is that strikes remain scattered and workers are unwilling or unable to unite to pursue broader goals. "There have been periodic press reports for most of the last 10 to 15 years or so that labor disputes are on the rise in China," he said. "It makes a great deal of sense that they would be: Wage issues came to the forefront in the 1980s and increasing job insecurity and layoffs [became] a big issue in the 1990s. Should we get worked up about such reports? Probably not. Scattered strikes are politically meaningless. If and when a national or regional trade union is organized and survives openly for a while--which is very unlikely--we should then begin to read political significance into all this." Some researchers suggested that the 1999 figure for labor disputes, which represented a 29 percent increase over 1998, was limited by massive government subsidies. Last year during the 50th anniversary of China's Communist revolution, party officials were told to stress stability at all costs. "Labor relations in 2000 will deteriorate as special subsidies fade out, the economic and labor 'reforms' intensify and more and more workers are laid off," said Tak Chuen, an expert on China's labor issues at Hong Kong Baptist University. Chuen said Chinese workers face a difficult situation because accession to the WTO will do nothing to improve their livelihood, at least in the short run, but failure to do so will not help either. The Legal Research article, written by retired scholar Shi Tanjing and published in November, called on the government to end its ban on strikes. The right to strike was removed from China's constitution in 1982. Shi said labor disputes in China are
Re: Re: RE: plateaus
Rod Hay wrote: Doug was stretching it a bit. The downturn in the market hit in 1913, before the war started. Here's the real (CPI-deflated) annual average of the Cowles Commission index, the SP 500's predecessor: 1900127.27 1901162.27 1902167.47 1903138.19 1904134.96 1905172.36 1906184.96 1907150.43 1908149.14 1909186.37 1910173.02 1911170.92 1912170.24 1913148.28 1914135.36 1915142.40 1916152.42 1917116.46 191888.01 191989.27 192070.01 I don't think Mark has a 20% decline in mind; the 1916-20 slide is more like it. Doug
Globalization by Samir Amin
Al-Ahram Weekly, 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478 http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2000/478/in4.htm Democratising globalisation By Samir Amin The European Union and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) had two different agendas prepared for the Africa-Europe summit held in Cairo on 3-4 April. The European agenda was almost restricted to political issues formulated in their usual wording -- "human rights", "good governance" -- while the African agenda focused on conditions for relaunching meaningful development in the region -- including, of course, the debt issue. The final communiqué shows how some of the views of the weaker partner have been watered down in order to reach a formal consensus. The summit was not considered the proper place to deal with the crucial debt issue since the problem involves "other partners" -- the United States, that is. But Africans were quick to point out that this position is hypocritical of Europe, as Europeans have no less weight in the international institutions responsible (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) than the US. Instead of ignoring their voting power within the IMF and the WB, Europeans could express views different from those of Washington if they felt strongly enough. Nonetheless, Africans were still able to impart some of their views on the summit -- positive steps that were no doubt achieved thanks to the fact that Africa, represented through the OAU, could speak with a single voice. One has to recall here that the major European powers were not favourable to a summit format focusing on an "EU-OAU" meeting and tried, rather, to impose the usual format of "Africa" being represented by the "head of states and governments of Africa," the existence of the OAU being forgotten. The usual rhetoric on "globalisation" (never qualified as it should be) reads through the final communiqué, but four aspects of globalisation nevertheless made their way to the table. First, the principle of differential treatment for developing countries. Second, the need for Africa to industrialise. Third, the legitimacy of regulatory actions aimed at stemming the flow of capital out of Africa. Fourth, the fundamental need to relaunch basic social expenditures (education, health, infrastructure) -- in itself an indirect critique of the policies pursued in the frame of so-called structural adjustment. More important, perhaps, on political issues the communiqué has adopted the African point of view that peace and security on the continent remain the responsibility of the United Nations and the OAU. This view directly conflicts with the decision adopted by NATO after the Kosovo war at the end of April 1999, which expanded the "responsibility" of the Western military alliance beyond Europe to include Asia and Africa. This conflict in views was clearly spelled out by the African contingent. Will this document remain simply ink on paper? Or does it announce the beginning of an evolution toward meaningful cooperation between Europe and Africa? The answer depends on how Europe and Africa choose to move beyond the present neo-liberal concept of globalisation, which in its turn assumes acceptance of US hegemony. Until now, the EU has not questioned this pattern of globalisation and seems to accept its consequences; for example, the double dilution of Europe's political autonomy into NATO and the European common market into a globalised open market. This choice leaves little room, if any, for meaningful Euro-African cooperation. The alternative -- pluricentric, regulated globalisation -- makes possible the building of organised regions in Europe, Africa and elsewhere that empower economic development and social progress. The only way forward is to build partnerships in a negotiated process aimed at regulating globalisation to the benefit of all peoples. We are still quite far from starting to move in that direction. -- Mine Aysen Doyran PhD Student Department of Political Science SUNY at Albany Nelson A. Rockefeller College 135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 Albany, NY 1
