>WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY?
>By David Bacon
>
>The flaw in the social democratic argument is that its assumption and
>purpose is wrong. Society exists to serve the social needs of people, not
>the productivity needs of capital. Those two needs are in basic conflict -
>a conflict of class interest.
>
But surely these things can't be separated. Since our productivity downturn
in the mid-1970s, unemployment has risen, real wages have risen only very
slowly, if at all, and poverty and homelessness have become part of everyday
life. My point is that increasing product belongs to society as a whole,
not only to capital, and is shared by society by legislatively or
contractually established rules.
Ed Weick
