Joseph McCartin Responds to Lance Compa, Gay Seidman, and Richard McIntyre

Extract

First, I would like to offer my thanks to Lance Compa, Richard McIntyre, and Gay Seidman for their thoughtful responses to my essay. One could not find three more accomplished scholars with whom to engage in this discussion. Each in their own way has sharpened our thinking about the relationship of labor rights to human rights—Compa through a lifetime of inspiring organizing and writing, Seidman through her eloquent defense of human rights-based labor activism, Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights and Transnational Activism, and McIntyre through his sharp interrogation of this activism in Are Worker Rights Human Rights? Not only do they bring well-honed critiques to bear in discussing my argument, they are generous and fair-minded. I'm grateful to them for prodding me to clarify my thinking.