On Fri, 6 Nov 1998, Mark laffey wrote: > institutions. Pointing out that 'it's different in economics' or asking 'why > didn't you organize the clerical staff?' makes it sound as though, darnit, she > was just a victim of self-delusion, and now self-pity. I can't help but feel > that there is a gendered element to these responses. *Class* element, not gender -- the latter is the operating code or set of narratives, the former is the content of such, in the same way that ethnicity serves to denote deeper anxieties about who gets what in this society. I've had exactly the same feelings she had when I've gotten canned from various temp jobs -- you feel miserable, humiliated, deeply insecure; the marketplace shows what Heiner Mueller called the "iron face of its freedom" to you, and it hurts. Which is why it's important to bring that theory in, instead of talking about how the university is seductive but frustrating. It's not a question of organizing others, it's all about organizing ourselves in whatever workplace we happen to be, academic or otherwise. Her articles, though, are pretty cool, so she probably knows this stuff already, and was just putting on a show for Salon. -- Dennis
