Re: Another note from a travelling friend

["Amy N Macrellis" <macrell1 at pilot_msu.edu>]

> On Sun, 13 Oct 2002, Don Smith wrote:
> > Speaking of socio-political-economic, has anyone read "No Logo" by Naomi
> > Klein?  Picked it up in a bookstore on a whim and found it to be a very
> > informative, insightful, and enjoyable read about the growth of
> > multinational brands, loss of meaningful jobs, and the connection
> > between big name brands and third world sweatshops.  Fascinating stuff.

And Peter wrote:

> Haven't read the book, but my instincts tilt away from her POV, I think.
> FWIW, there's an essay at the URL below that has an interesting take on
> the reasons for Klein's current success and popularity.

To which I say:

I've read the book, and I read the hyperlinked article from your previous
message.  And I was even doing okay with it, right up until Mr. Johnathan Kay
said:

"The primary beneficiaries of free trade are the workers of the Third
World, who will get the chance to put their cheap labour to profitable
use; and First World knowledge workers, who will sell their intellectual
property and high-tech gizmos to a global market. The West's high school
educated blue-collar workforce can offer neither knowledge nor cheap
labour. This is why unions have suddenly become so concerned with human
rights and working conditions in Asia and Latin America. They hope to
destroy trade agreements by saddling them with labour and environmental
standards -- climate-controlled factories, 40-hour-work weeks,
state-of-the-art pollution controls -- that poor countries will be unable
to meet for decades."

And then I wondered why Mr. Kay would say such things when Ms. Klein cites
instance after instance where Third World workers are in fact *not* the
beneficiaries of free trade...unless you consider the "profitable use" that
large corporations get from paying them less-than-subsistence wages for unsafe
work in awful conditions.  Why should Third World workers, who are after all
EVERY BIT as human as you or I, not have the right to be treated as humans, or
at least with some small modicum of respect?

Please, Peter, I beg of you...read the book.  I'll even send you my copy.

--Raven

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