A Single Sparkle

Ho Ching Taiwanese critic in U.S.

I would like to congratulate ML on their first issue, and express my sincere hope that the magazine helps to pull the labor movement in Taiwan away from its narrow, national focus. There have been struggles in Taiwan that have pointed towards international solidarity, the correct way in struggling against international capital. We have a great deal to learn in this respect from Filipino workers. Many of the contradictions in Taiwanese society are directly linked to the alliance between global capital, local capitalists and the KMT. If capital is globalizing, can the labor movement afford not to? Don't forget, the struggles in 1988 among the local bus companies were linked to the KMT's transportation policy, and foreign capitalist pressure to export cars to Taiwan. Is the government's policy of "privatization" and entering the WTO not related to foreign efforts to break monopolies in Taiwan? ML provides us with an excellent chance for the labor movement in Taiwan to rethink these issues.