Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:15:40 -0500 From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re: M-TH: Doug on Mattick Rakesh Bhandari wrote: >And yes, I am sorry to accuse you of chauvinism towards the US working >class. I am reacting to your suggestion that as the consequence of the >Asian crisis will be US recolonization, US wage struggles will have even >fatter profit margins to take a bite out of. Yes, this is only implied in >your posts, but I take it as a reasonable reconstruction of your argument. >If not, then correct me. If the crisis turns out as the U.S. elite publicly hopes, with the subordinate annexation of the former tigers ("Korea is now owned & operated by our Treasury - that's the positive side [of this crisis]" - Rudi Dornbusch), then this will probably fatten U.S. profit margins. Costs of production in Southeast Asia have been more than halved, and U.S. MNCs have less competition to worry about. How much of these fatter profits would be available for labor? I wonder. The profit inflation of the last 5 years has come with only minimal real wage increases. Despite fat profits and tight labor markets, which "objectively" should put labor in its strongest bargaining position in a genderation, unions are still fighting for their lives, and the U.S. working class in general has low expectations and no confidence. U.S. MNCs most likely to benefit directly from the Asian collapse have either a small domestic workforce (e.g. Nike) or aren't unionized (electronics - and lots of those firms have only high-end workers in the U.S.). Employers will be able to point to cheaper-than-ever competition in Asia, even if they're in no position to take advantage of it. Doug --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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