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Monday, September 01, 2008

DIGGING LABOR'S GRAVE

by Bill Costley


To Karl Kadie, for reading me
Alice Winters’ poem “The Displaced of Capital



Americans can't call a spade a spade;
they criticize the economic crisis now
upon us, without ever indicting vicious
neoCapitalism, still shielded by Cold War

ideological armor, no matter what it does
to whom or where: Red China’s relentless
neo-Capitalism’s sweat-shopping millions,
just like all the other Asian-Pacific 'tigers'

as once-American multi-nationals contract
with them for the world’s cheapest labor,
driving a vicious race to the bottom, digging
labor’s grave with neo-capped spades.


Bill Costley serves on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco chapter of the National Writers Union.
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