A couple of years ago Tim saw and seized a moment to open a big door to China, and that gesture really did change a bit of history.
In 2006 Tim had picked-up on an unusual struggle unfolding in China – a debate about strengthening labor rights which so provoked the American and European Chambers of Commerce they virtually threatened “capital strike” if the law were to pass. Fortunately, labor’s cudgels were taken up – by Tim, through excellent and effective writing on the Global Labor Strategies site and by a labor law scholar in China named Liu Cheng of Shanghai Normal University. As the open conflict between capital and workers’ interests became pitched, Tim and his fantastic GLS sidekick Brendan Smith helped organize a speaking tour for Professor Liu in the U.S. to defend the proposed law. It worked. The exposure put some gumption into the fight for workers’ rights in China, by surfacing and mobilizing labor allies from the west. Tim helped nail down a worthy plank in the platform we all, in the labor movement, try everyday to build.
Here (above) is a picture of Liu Cheng, me, my son Eli David Friedman (our translator and labor scholar in training) and Tim in front of the White House in March 2007… on our way to talk to someone important, no doubt!
I had surely hoped for more years of working on China labor issues with Tim. But the few are just as durable, and they are a foundation.
— Ellen David Friedman, Montpelier VT