Workers' Liberty

Whether you live in Mexico or Morocco, South Korea or Spain, you can buy food produced on the other side of the world. Toys made in China, jeans in Guatemala, trainers in Indonesia and cars made in Brazil are sold thousands of miles away. This is the golden age of world trade, if nothing else.

Many of the young people, NGOs and unions who mobilised for the big demonstrations in Seattle in 1999, or in Edinburgh for the G8 summit, argue that the alternative to the neoliberal, free trade agenda of the multinationals, the big powers and the WTO is some sort of “fair trade”. Three million people have signed Oxfam’s petition to “make trade fair”.

The most drastic alternative to free trade, popular on the green wing of the global justice movement, is localisation.

A revolutionary alternative to both “free” trade and “fair” trade is the perspective held by the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL). It is based on the core ideas of Marxists a century ago, applied to the circumstances we live in today.

In his notes on the history of economic thought in 1861-63, first published as Theories of Surplus Value (but in fact the second draft of Capital, volume 1), Marx comments on the way a rich country can exploit a poorer one.

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was a founder of anarchism and author of the book What is Property? (1842) to which he gave the celebrated answer, “it is theft”.

Workers' Liberty 3/17 examines the facts about world trade, the arguments about fair trade, the lessons to be learned from the writings of Marx and Engels, and the outlines of a socialist policy. Download pdf here, or read online.

And let's be honest about what our disagreements really are... If different sections of the left can work together to defend democracy in NUS, why can't we work together to present a united challenge in the elections at the next NUS conference?

I have been on many picket lines in my time but until today they have all taken place in the real world. Today saw the first ever strike and picket to take place in virtual reality.

By Stuart Jordan

AS the forces of the anti-capitalist movement began to mobilise for for the anti-G8 demonstrations on Saturday 2 June, Vladimir Putin set the tone for the week by threatening to visit nuclear genocide on the people of Europe.

“The credibility of the G8 is at stake,” warned Blairite charitymonger Bono on 15 May, in response to claims that the world's richest governments will use next month's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, to renege on promises they made on aid at the 2005 summit in Edinburgh.

The next G8 meeting takes place in Heilgendamm on 6-8 June and hosted by German chancellor Angela Merkel. What will be discussed?

By Joe Emersberger and Jeb Sprague for Z Net.

The most prominent and well funded international labor organizations active in Haiti, the ICFTU, AFL-CIO, ILO, and ORIT, worked to support and strengthen labor organizations that agitated for the ousting of Haiti’s democratically elected Aristide government (2001-2004). Simultaneously they refused to condemn the massive layoffs and persecution of public sector workers and trade unionists committed by its illegally-imposed successor (the interim government of Gerald Latortue).

The latest issue of Mexican Labor News and Analysis is now available online. I think this is one of the best sources on the real balance of forces in Mexico today.

Indonesia

The People’s Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia is to form a new political party at the end of November, according to website of International Viewpoint. Then the National Liberation Party of Unity (PAPERNAS) will hold a founding congress.

You can guess how bad John Rees’ new book, Imperialism and Resistance is from the first page, where George Galloway is described as “simply the most implacable and eloquent opponent of imperialism I know”. (2006 p.xi)

Mexican Police Kill Two Workers, Injure Dozens at Steel Plant

This appeal came from Labour Start.
There is also detailed background by Dan La Botz on the Mexico Labor News and Analysis website at:

As I have earlier mentioned on this blog, LAB (Bolivian airline) workers have been strike for some weeks over the failure of the state to nationalise the airline - Morales says he made no promises to mount an overall nationalisation of the economy, so refuses to save the industry, which is going to go bankrupt. 2,200 workers have already been mounting pickets of airports and hunger strikes to put pressure on Morales - no flights can come into or leave the country while their blockades are up. This is why the government has turfed workers out of airports using tear gas.