http://themilitant.com/2015/7938/793860.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
(A page from communist continuity)
No such thing as an ‘American job’
As debate unfolds on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with both supporters
and opponents of the trade agreement arguing in a nationalist “American
interests” framework, it’s useful to look at how the communist movement
has addressed the questions of other economic and military pacts by
imperialist governments. The excerpt below from Capitalism’s World
Disorder by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers
Party, takes up a working-class approach to the North American Free
Trade Agreement. Copyright © 1999 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by
permission.
BY JACK BARNES
How do class-struggle-minded workers answer the trade union bureaucrats’
demagogic cry that NAFTA will result in losing “American jobs” to
Mexico? There is only one answer: There is no such thing as an “American
job” or a “Mexican job,” only workers jobs. Workers in the United States
have to get together with workers in Mexico and with workers in other
countries and organize ourselves to defend our interests as a class, as
part of the vast toiling majority of humanity. We must not support
policies that strengthen our common class enemy. If workers give any
other answer, the bureaucrats and the liberals and the reactionaries
will win the argument. If workers give any national answer, our
exploiters will only strengthen their power over all those who work for
a living.
Class-conscious workers oppose NAFTA, as we oppose all economic and
military pacts entered into by the imperialist government at home with
other capitalist regimes. But we do so from an internationalist
standpoint, rejecting any notion of common interests with the employing
class in bolstering their competitiveness against their rivals or
helping them reinforce the pariah status and superexploitation of
immigrant workers. The only “we” we recognize is that of working people
and our allies in the United States, Canada and Mexico — and the rest of
the Americas and the world. Not “we” Americans,” “we” English speakers,
“we” the white race, or anything else that chains us to the class that
grows wealthy off the exploitation of our labor and that of our toiling
brothers and sisters the world over.
Related articles:
Washington promotes Pacific trade pact as counter to China
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home