Labor

A new trade deal with Peru that passed in the US Congress last week boasts non-binding concessions in terms of labor and environmental concessions, and promises more of the same damages to both countries. 

Borders melt in this increasingly globalized world. Modern capitalism has generated mutual dependencies between nations. The tempting nooks and crannies of foreign climes have been battered open in the name of progress, enterprise, and a healthy profit margin. In this thriving global market, foreign goods and foreign investors are often welcome. Foreign workers, on the other hand, are all too often branded as "illegal".

A major debate is underway in China on a proposed Draft Labor Contract Law that would grant new rights to Chinese workers.

It took four years for Taco Bell's parent company to agree to demands that the restaurant take responsibility for the wages and working conditions of migrant laborers who pick its tomatoes. It took another two years for McDonald's to accept a similar deal.

For many, Russia is now a land of dashed hopes and profound disappointment. After the heady days of the Solidarnosc, the resounding defeat of the August 1991 coup, and the eventual collapse of the USSR itself, a feeling of numbing disillusionment has set in. For those who had held out hope of a new dawn of social equality and, dare I say it, economic abundance, the current epoch lies in stark contrast to the times of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the intense political enthusiasm they brought with them.