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The Solidarity Center’s Tim Ryan reports that following recent tumultuous events in Pakistan, unionists there are keeping a close eye on our elections—speculating about what the result could mean for democracy in their country.
A few days ago, I was in Pakistan, discussing all the pressing issues facing union members there, such as privatization of the water and power system, erosion of the standard of living, freedom of association in industrial estates. When the topic turned to Pakistan’s national elections coming up Feb. 18—elections that will point the way to the future for this important, nuclear-armed state—the inevitable question came up.
“Who do you think will win?” asked Khurshid Ahmed, not about the Pakistan election, but about the U.S. elections. Ahmed is the general secretary of the Pakistan Workers’ Federation (PWF), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) affiliate in Pakistan. PWF represents 800,000 members—65 percent of the unionized workforce in Pakistan—and Ahmed has been on the governing body of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for more than 30 years. (The ILO is the labor organization of the United Nations.) These guys ARE the Pakistan labor movement, the largest civil society organization in the country besides the corrupt political parties.
In December 2001, Ahmed and PWF Vice President Zahoor Awan came to the United States with great personal difficulty to attend the AFL-CIO Convention and show solidarity with the union brothers and sisters who had lost their lives on Sept. 11. It was in the middle of Ramadan, which meant that Ahmed and Awan could neither eat nor drink from sunup to sundown.
“Who do you think will win?”
Well, Greg Schulze, Solidarity Center director in Pakistan since 2005, and I told Ahmed and the other Pakistani union leaders that we didn’t know—it was too early to tell.
To us, this question clearly reflected Pakistani workers’ deep concern about their own elections. Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in Rawalpindi in the last week of December 2007, had seemed to offer an opportunity for the return of a democratic government. But the PWF leaders always have been wary of promises by political parties in Pakistan to “restore democracy.” Many PWF leaders and other labor leaders have spent time in prison under both military regimes and “democratic” governments.
The PWF is one of the most progressive labor movements in Asia. In a South Asian context, where many unions are connected to or fronts for political parties, the PWF remains stubbornly, proudly non-partisan and a representative of its members’ basic interests—whether taking on the political parties, the Musharraf government, the Islamic fundamentalists or previous military dictatorships. We owe our support and solidarity to this independent labor movement, its members and their families.
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Three fourths of America’s GDP is in the service sectort. Can we really be called an economic power if we don’t produce anything for the world. It is time to rebuild our economy by shopping for the few remaining products produced in America. Choose Glad trash bags over generic. Choose name brand dog food over the store brand. Reward companies like Coleman, Wahl, Bose, Oreck, and Channellock Notice where your food comes from. We can make small choices to make a big difference.
http://www.freedomsringmall.com
In this time and troubles that lay ahead us and the economy please consintate on the good old U.S.A.. Personnal I really don’t care about Pakestain and their cheap labor and the business they will take from our labor forces. I myself will VOTE for Mr. Mccain because we need a strong detrimined fist to slame on the table and say we ARE doing this and ITis for the betterment of the county and our familys. The Clinton in my opion are the old story tellers and salesman of the 50 and 60’s, not extacly the truth and not really a lie, kinda open for anyuones interrupatation. Whomever does become President it is not time to complain but to UIONITE, stand behind them as our service people do and carry out he mission. A BETERR AMERICA!!!
Al. G.
Sadly it looks as if no matter who is elected president we’re probably going to have amnesty shoved down our throats. The three remaining ‘viable’ candidates all look to be pro-illegal. They want to reward the very people who have invaded our country ‘just looking for a better life’. Does anyone out there think they would be so welcoming and forgiving if it were their private residences that were being invaded by people ‘just looking for a better life’? Since when is it OK to break the law as long as it’s only being broken in search of a better life?
Shame! Shame on the johnny-come-latelys for espousing right-wing chatter against immigrants!
Had it not been for immigrant, militant, activist workers marching for the right to organize, some people who call themselves
“union members” would not have a pot to p_ss in! That is organized labor’s heritage. If you don’t like what organized labor stands for (and if you want to support antil-labor canidates like McCain) what the h_ll are you doing in a union?
Oh…I get it. It’s because the labor movement puts pork chops on your table.
What hypocrisy!
Our motto, “an injury to one is an injury to all” has been around much longer than the johnny-come-latelys who now want to re-define “solidarity” to mean “I got mine, now you get yours…but don’t count on any help from me”.
Read the history of labor! Read the books written by the brave man and women who fought and died long ago so that today workers and their families could live in relative comfort.
Fellow workers are not the enemy. The enemy is a sell-out Congress and all the sell-out pie cards who brown nose the sell-out Congress.
As a strong supporter of the American workforce, I have stopped shopping at Sam’s Club and at Wal-Mart stores since 2003. Now I strictly buy products with the label “Made in the USA” only; however, it is getting harder lately to find such product in the stores. The American CEO’s at the multinational corporations are shifting their manufacturing operations from the US to China without consulting their customers. Nevertheless, I will buy products made overseas if I know that they are made by a unionized workforce, not in an illegal sweat shop in India or a labor camp in China.
WHY BOTHER VOTING ?
Do any think our national security
Is better under Cheney or George Bush?
Do Christians think our national “impurity,”
From this administration, got a “shoosh?”
Impossible on both counts since corruption
Is in the fullest bloom of its eruption;
Yet both will go campaigning for McCain
Who’ll add new blemish to the human stain.
It’s not that I think Dems are any better.
A plague on both their houses, so say I.
Buy who, you’ll ask, will hear vox populi?
And that is just the point. The best vote-getter
Will never hear our cries since it’s the crux
Of politics: It’s won by megabucks.
To uscggmdv: The logic in your post is preceded by your spelling and grammar. Your post, to me, sounds like a plant. And what exactly is McCain slamming his fist on the table for. What is the “it” that is for the betterment of our “familys” (families) and our country. Look at your last statement : “…it is not time to complain but to uionite, stand behind them as our service people do and carry out he mission. A BETERR AMERICA.
Sorry, but you make no sense at all. McCain is a warmonger, and would rather follow Bush’s lead of propagated endless, senseless wars. Sorry, I want no part of that. McCain is not pro-union or pro-worker. He has no intention of making things better for this country. So we should follow him, what, blindly, to our own demise. Think again, and do you homework.
Personally, we should care about Pakistan and the ILO, because what happens in their union affects what happens here, and vice-versa. We are more interconnected than you think. You must remember that strong unions both here and abroad are better for all of us.
And PS. I wouldn’t vote for a Republican in this election if you paid me (and I’m talking a lot of money). My integrity and desire to support working class citizens cannot be bought at any cost.