Re: <nettime> Re: seattle: (a)moral colonization

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com>]

Alain Kessi wrote:

>clinton saw an opportunity to put protectionist measures on the agenda
>(social clause to be selectively used against colonized/dependent
>countries pressured to abolish workers' rights - and then punished for
>it) and attempt a new social contract between afl-cio and us government.

I agree with everything else you said in this post, and with most of 
what you say in general, but I've got to take exception to this. 
Clinton suggested making worker rights offenses sactionable under the 
WTO in a newspaper interview early in the WTO week. The next day, his 
negotiating team was inside the conference saying the president had 
"misspoken." Either he was deliberately lying in the interview or he 
knew the proposal would go nowhere within the WTO - but whichever is 
the case, he was trying to placate a domestic constituency without 
really intending to carry through. This is classic Clinton behavior. 
As the president of the Arkansas state AFL-CIO once put it, he'll 
shake your hand while he's pissing down your leg. He's a loyal 
servant of Wall Street and the Fortune 500, and they don't want labor 
rights in the WTO.

Doug

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