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Part II of this video.

Professor Nelson Lichtenstein, Labor Historian UCSB

Wal-Mart has revolutionized marketplace economics in the Twenty-First century. The ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trade Unions), with whose representatives Professor Lichtenstein met on a recent trip to China, is a state run union that works on behalf of Chinese Manufacturers. Wal-Mart sources its merchandise in China and depends upon cheap labor for the goods sold here in the United States. Chinese workers are forbidden to organize independent trade unions. Our own Port of Oakland is a major link in the supply chain of Chinese goods to the United States for Wal-Mart. This is an important example of how "local" affairs can only be examined in their "global" context.

Nelson Lichtentstein is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Center for Work, Labor and Democracy and is a Fellow of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. He is an expert on U.S. labor, political economy and social thought. Mr. Lichtenstein has written five books, including most recently, "American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century" and "State of the Union: A Century of American Labor." He has also edited several publications, among them "Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism?" Mr. Lichtenstein is a fellow at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. He was awarded the Philip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2003.