Here's the full version:
Communism finds a toe-hold in Wal-Mart's capitalist stronghold
Wal-Mart, the US retailer widely seen as a symbol of unbridled capitalism, is allowing the establishment of a Communist party committee in one of its Chinese stores.
The news comes weeks after the world's biggest retailer accepted trade unions in its Chinese outlets - something it would not countenance in the US - and is another step to accommodate the local authorities.
I have flagged the last sentence for the obvious reason: if a company wants to do business in your country, it will accomodate the local authorities, i.e. the desire to do business is not killed by vigorous State action if the market is otherwise attractive.
Which means several things:
- the first is that governments, local or national, do have the power to regulate companies, and companies WILL comply if forced to;
- the second is that such regulation, per se, is not necessarily an impediment to business;
- the third is that the attractiveness of a country or a market does not seem to depend (or not always, anyway) on the absence of a tough regulatory framework.
China, a poor country, can apparently afford to impose trade unions and even, gasp, communist cells in its stores. Why couldn't this be done in the USA? It's clear that it's not a question of affordability, but just one of priorities.
Not supporting unions simply means allowing companies and their shareholders to capture value created at the expense of workers. It does not help creating more value, it just influences how it's distributed.
Maybe it's time to learn a few things from China?
Wal-Mart has about 60 stores in China and has plans to open many more. Lee Scott, chief executive, has said China is the only country where Wal-Mart could replicate the size and success it enjoys in the US.
With unions, and with the communist party.
Update [2006-8-25 10:38:7 by Jerome a Paris]:
I'd like to make one thing clear, in response/acknowledgement to various comments in the thread. The Chinese Communist Party is not really there to defend workers these days (if it ever has been), and Chinese unions aren't really either. But that does not detract from two points:
- Big business will adapt to Government intervention/regulation, which means that regulation is not the bogeyman it has been made into these days by incessant rightwing propaganda;
- Unions (if not necessarily the Chinese kind) are vital to defend workers' rights and usually require government regulations (or at least a lack of government hostility) to be in a position to do so - and thus they should be defended on dKos.
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