hi Hari, > On May 19, 2024, at 5:26 AM, hari kumar via groups.io > <hari6.kumar=gmail....@groups.io> wrote: > > I realise this can be labelled as glib. But while the TU movement moves in > this type of economist thinking, is this what the socialist movement should > do?
I hadn't thought it through. My response was visceral. It feels like a Chinese wave of imports will deliver a crippling blow to the US auto industry and the UAW, a crown jewel of the US labor movement, as tarnished as it is. Also, why do we need tankers polluting our seas and disrupting world-wide ecosystems shipping cars made by burning coal? This system of trade is totally subsumed by capital and operates to maximize surplus value by exploiting foreign workers, who are much cheaper than the domestic models in the imperial center. I lived protectionism not unlike what Peter Rachleff described. But for me, it was during 1977-80, in a KC steel mill, which I commuted to in the Datsun 510 that Louis Proyect sold to me before he left for NYC. I was concerned that the car might be vandalized in the ARMCO parking lot as other Japanese cars had. There was no fight back at ARMCO Steel's Kansas City Works, which management and USWA Local 13 deemed to be under great stress from Japanese basic steel and steel-products manufacturers. In fact, ARMCO under invested in that mill as was happening across US steel plants. But it feels different for me today. And not only because of the environmental dimension of the problem: We don't need to increase production or consumption of cars or anything else. Today feels like a much different point in time than the 70's and 80s. Peter's story was set in a time when neoliberalism was expansive and producing economic surplus with average yearly growth above 4%. Kotz and others noted that the neoliberal SSA was in a growth phase in the 1980s and is today in a crisis phase. Let's not allow financiers to short the US working class to turn a profit in such hard times. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30415): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30415 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106146595/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
