[PEN-L:5182] Re: Trade Sanctions

[glevy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I find Bill Mitchell's use of such terms as "us", "them" , and "we" to be
rather curious.  "We" are not the US government or the ruling
class.  "They" are not Japanese people.

What is needed is a class perspective, not a nationalist one. Individual
capitalist nations practice protectionism as one way of of their crisis,
"we" need to practice international working class solidarity.

On Mon, 22 May 1995, BILL MITCHELL wrote:

> Jerry replying to Doug said:
>
> >A short answer to Doug's question might be that there are divisions in
> >the ruling class as to what policies are in their class interests.  What
> >may be beneficial from the standpoint of capitalists in one branch of
> >production may not be desirable from the standpoint of some blocs of US
> >capital or from the standpoint of US capital as a whole.
>
>
> Over on this side of the pacific, things a looking rosy if the sanctions
> proceed. The country to gain most will probably be us (OZ) and we are
> just waiting to go in there. The US administration tried last week to
> suck us into supporting them against Japan. In our case, we run a surplus
> with Japan instead of the US's huge deficit. But probably more relevant
> is the perceived hypocrasy over here in the US position.
>
> (a) Why did they not go to the WTO first after having made such a fuss about
> it in the past? seems a little odd to say stuff the world regulatory body.
> i guess (from my chats with barkley) that this is indicative of the
> isolationist republican swing going on over in the US.
>
> (b) The US has been totally unsympathetic to our trading rights in the past
> and recent past at that. The decision by clinton to subsidise your farmers
> and undercut our markets when (i) we do not subsidise wheat and beef and
> (ii) the US would not have had a hope in hell of competing openly - hurt
> relations b/tw the US and OZ.
>
> it seems a little arrogant to say the least, to then say, come on and support
> us on this one. reinforces the stereotyped view that OZ has of the US - jerks.
>
> so while some capital interests will suffer, our capitalists are counting the
> days and hoping that the US keeps its word.
>
> kind regards
> bill
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