What is free trade, what is free trade under the present condition of society? It is freedom of capital. When you have overthrown the few national barriers which still restrict the progress of capital, you will merely have given it complete freedom of action. ...
But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
Marx & Engels, On Free Trade (1848)
Marx & Engels, On Free Trade (1848)
6 comments:
I'm curious. How precisely is a "trade unionist" defined? And, did these folks met their untimely demise as a direct result of their being so, or was/were there other factors that influenced that demise? As an elucidation, if one drives a truck and belongs to the Teamsters and gets in a bar fight and is stabbed to death, is that death categorized as a "trade unionist" demise, or because of a bar affray and alcohol consumption?
Not that I'm challenging the voracity of the information per se, I'm just skeptical about statistics since I know how datasets can be manipulated.
you may want to read the report:
http://survey.ituc-csi.org/Colombia.html?lang=en#tabs-5
I personally try to avoid drinking Coca Cola because unionists who are trying to syndicalise their colleagues have been murdered by right wing death squads on the shop floor. The Colombian govt (and Coca Cola corp) say that this is not related to union activity. I disagree with them.
I read it. The questions linger in my mind, but that's okay.
These are figures of reported crime related to union activity; I suppose the only way to know for sure how the data was compiled is to go there and talk to the police, judges, and ppl involved.
There is that much opposition to union organization and labor contracts here as there seems to be elsewhere, it just hasn't come to asassination... yet. And in that regard, it makes no sense whatsoever. Corporations want a written agreement with every aspect of the business they conduct, with the exception of labor. They want written guarantees on raw materials, delivery of end product, transport, machinery, you name it, except labor and people which is most likely their one biggest expense conducting business.
That is what I find so gripping concerning the report and what Carl said. The fact that it still happens. It doesn't seem likely and yet, I know in reality it is. The politics of money.
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