Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 09:44:36 +1000 (EST)
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: M-I: final thoughts for the year


At 10:25 AM 12/19/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Gary writes:
><snip>
>> I have not joined the PLP but will work with them of course.  I dislike
>> their nationalism and their attachment to polices such as tariffs - i.e.
>> support your local capitalist.
>
>I'd like to hear more of your argument on this "nationalism." Many things
>the left does *overlap* what some or many capitalists also want, but that
>does not *necessarily* boil down to "support your local capitalist."
>Should not that charge be reserved for serious betrayals such as that of
>the 2d International Parties in 1914?
>
>Some forms of protectionism can be pretty obscene, such as the "Buy
>American" movment sponsored for many years now by the AFL-CIO, because
>that is  wholly individualistic, and asks individual union members to
>sacrifice without actually making any difference. But I don't believe
>the left in any nation should fall in step with the "Free Trade"
>slogan of neo-liberalism.
>
>Carrol
Hi carrol,

Of course this is a complex question.  I used to belong to the
International Socialist tendency and they had a mindlessly simple formula -
Tariffs -Bad.  what I think we have to distinguish is the support for
tariffs by a conservative Labor movement as in Australia and the measure a
genuinely radical government would take to protect its supporters.  

At present tariffs in Australia tend to prop up extremely backward
capitalists.  We provide them with a subsidy and they walk off with the
profits.  It seems to me that there is something wrong in all this.  But it
is as I said a complex question.  

regards

Gary



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