Ross MacPherson wrote:
>
> At 11:08 PM 2/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> >Excuse me, but how does our refusal to buy from these countries help the
> >workers there obtain the benefits you spoke of? If they don't have a job,
> >they sure as hell can't have safety standards, health coverage, workers comp,
> >etc. And the six year old working 16 hours a day - does he and his family go
> >hungry if he doesn't work?
> >
> SNIP
> >
> >My only objection to buying overseas, other than quality, would be the
> >concern
> >that jobs are being lost here. If they are not being lost here, then it seems
> >to
> >me buying from these countries would benefit the world as a whole.
> >
> >Yes Geoff, thinking about six year old working 16 hour days makes me blow my
> >stack too,
> >but I fail to see how killing the economy in these countries by refusing to
> >buy from
> >them can help the working people there.
> >
> >I don't have the answers, but I don't think a boycott is appropriate. Surely,
> >there
> >must be a better way.
> >
> No offense Dan but I think you missed the big picture here. The
> aforementioned six year old is a symptom of a backwards and/or corrupt
> system. Working conditions in North America and Europe were not much better
> at the turn of the century but we had somethings that are missing from many
> developing nations. I refer to the fourth estate, effective and (more or
> less) independant news media with a wide readership, a (somewhat)
> responsible government and an already developed national economy.
>
> When organized labour first raised its uppity head it was promptly smashed
> back into place, it tried again with the same result, and again and again
> till finally the papers and the public started to get uncomfortable with the
> blood in the streets and things started to improve. The same is not likely
> to happen in many developing nations. For the most part they are exporters
> of consumer goods; manufacturing articles that workers have no hope of being
> able to afford. If they resist or protest against their working conditions
> they are pushed aside. Since there is no social infrastructure they have no
> recourse, they work or starve. In many instances the local governments have
> a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. It is these governments
> that will respond to a consumer boycott of their products. All of us who
> work in the "western-democracies" are covered by some kind of labour
> standards, some better than others but all protecting the rights and health
> of workers. These are state, provincial, or national laws or codes. Only
> by pressuring governments through diplomatic and economic pressure can these
> regimes be brought into the twentieth century and forced to introduce (and
> enforce!) reasonable labour standards.
>
> Witness the ongoing program to have products from developing nations
> labelled and certified that they're produced without child labour. It's
> pressure from the consumers that is forcing this change.
>
> I prefer to buy local and think global, I vote with my wallet. Boycotts
> work, but only if they're widely supported.
>
> Soap Box mode OFF.........
Again, right. The problem lies when the unionised labour has achieved
it's ends of raising the worker's standards, and they then become
political tools to be used by a country's enemies for the purposes of
destroying the social/economic structure of the country in which the
workers reside. Look at the way Britain has fallen from grace. The
miners union held the country to ransom for 40 years after the end of
WW2 as did the Electrical trade's Union, the shipbuilder's unions, and
the unions in the British car industry, to name but a few. In the case
of British Motor Corp. just after WW2 ended, there were over 100
seperate unions within BMC. The Trimmers Union, comprising of between
six and ten men could halt the whole of the company, bringing production
to a complete standstill. 10 years ago, Arthur Scargill, an avowed
Communist, was leading his miners into a confrontation with Mrs
Thatcher. The British mining industry is now down to 6000 men as
opposed to 150,000 30 years ago. The British shipbuilding industry
ceased to exist 20 years ago. Even the new Royal Yacht is likely to be
built in Japan!!! Beware, beware, beware, or better still, Be aware, Be
aware, Be aware.
Geoff Love.
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