internationalism” 4 , focusing on what is feasible and not what is vaguely desirable. The network is to be both broadened and deepened, step by step, wherever practicable, without ever claiming to fully mirror the Nestlé structure. The aim is to create the broadest possible network but not a comprehensive one. The IUF calls on the individual national affiliate organisations to appoint delegates, subject to a quota system. The network is an offer which no-one is, or can be, compelled to take up. Two things are lacking when it comes to starting up a network encompassing most of the 85 countries where Nestlé has factories: firstly, the necessary financial, staffing and organisational resources within the IUF itself; and secondly, appropriate trade union organi­sation and structures in all these countries and factories. After all, trade union networking presupposes the existence of viable local or national union structures, which is not the case everywhere. This makes it inevitable that the trade union network will not include all sites, countries and regions. One entire region is currently not involved in the network: North America. This is due above all to the fragmentation of the North American trade unions within the Nestlé corporation. Within the other regions, a number of countries that have Nestlé factories(e.g. India, Thailand, Turkey, Cuba and Israel, to name only a few) are not represented either. China constitutes a particular problem: Nestlé is vigorously expanding its manufacturing activities there, but indepen­dent trade unions are not yet permitted. 2.2. Corporate strategy and organisation of production The organisation of business along national market lines will soon be a thing of the past as far as Nestlé is concerned. The company is engaging in regional rationalisation, which is in turn framed and 4 Reutter, Werner(1996), Internationale Berufsekretariate – Organisationsstruk­turen und Politik gegenüber Multinationalen Konzernen, in: WSI-Mitteilungen 9, 584-592. 10