Report from Chile 4

[Thomas Kruse]

4. Imaginings

In Valparaíso I had the chance one afternoon to accompany a friend to his
interview with a leader of an urban Mapuche group.  Up and up the bus
climbed, often backing down to let descending buses pass.  Our destination
was a wood building, 10 feet below the edge of the road down wooden steps;
the bathroom another 30 feet below the house.

The interviewee -- we'll call him Raul -- had round, dark, features, calm
but expressive.  He spoke with a rhythmic cadence distinct from the
high-pitched, hell-for-leather Spanish of most Chileans (though bilingual, I
often had to tell people to slow down).  His house was basically two rooms:
one long open area with a kitchen and one room in the back for the family of
five.  Books and paraphernalia from many indigenous struggles in Chile lined
sparse shelves.  Clearly he was a working class Chilean; clearly too he was
different.  Over the next hour he would relate his struggle for respect from
institutions of society and state, a for recognition and self respect by
Mapuches of Mapuches, as Mapuches.  He spoke to us of the "old days" when
his father would get slapped for simply being brown and in public. Violent
public humiliation is now largely a thing of the past.  The sense I got from
Raul was that since the "old days" the Mapuche had been relegated to
invisibility before the census takers, the schools, employers, society in
general, traveling from ostracization to non-existence.

It is estimated that 10% of Chile's population (estimated at 14.2 million in
1995) is Mapuche, most of whom have either become cheap labor for
agricultural or forestry businesses, or migrated to the cities.  It turns
our that there are over 28,000 Mapuche in urban Valparaíso.  Among them,
Raul has dedicated his efforts to reasserting pride in identity, speaking
Mapuche at home, taking his children to their places of origin, and
organizing.  The organization seemed to have two basic lines of attack:
opening space for recognition and celebration of their identity as Mapuche
in the urban areas, and supporting the struggles of Mapuche in the rural
areas in their confrontation with lumber companies.  Apropos of recent posts
on native peoples and natural resources, there are ongoing conflicts in Chile.

Three months before our visit trucks belonging to the lumber company
Forestal Bosques Arauco were burned in Lumako.  The government's reaction
was a police occupation of entire regions to protect the company and crack
down on the local, mostly Mapuche, communities.  The result has been a
climate of violence and insecurity.  Police and company thugs wander the
region with impunity.  Houses have been ransacked, domestic animals killed,
money and tools stolen, shots fired.  Twelve Mapuche were also arrested in
Lumako, charged with torching the trucks.

The background to the conflict may resonate with experiences throughout
Latin America: in 1866 the lands in question were confiscated by law, and
auctioned off to criollos in 1878.  Haciendas ("fundos", as they are called
in Chile) were established, and the Mapuche were forced up into the poorer
lands on the slopes surrounding the valleys.  Since then the story is one of
communal disintegration, migration, and environmental degradation of local
resources, though a combination of irrational exploitation, deforestation,
and exhaustion of soils overworked by poor people for ever declining
subsistence.  According to a piece by Mauricio Buendía in Punto Final, in
the 1970s it was estimated that a Mapuche family needed 50 hectares for
reasonable subsistence, while the average holding was just 9.2 hectares.
Today, the average holding is undoubtedly smaller.  In short, the enclosures
are a fact; policing the boundaries still a day-to-day reality.  The article
noted at least 11 major land conflicts involving almost 10,000 hectares.

28,000+ Mapuche in Valpo, and I felt as if Raul were the first one I had
seen.  You must understand: where I live, in Bolivia, since the 1952
revolution the indigenous reality of the country's population has been
officially embraced/made present in various ways.  Indigenous people have
never been (pardon me for trundling out an overused, ill-defined term)
"empowered", listened to or really respected in any substantive way.  Racism
abounds.  But the white/mestizo minority ruling class could never ignore the
"indian problem", so great in number were they.  Thus, the "other" has
always been present, though variously "narrativized" and mistreated
throughout Bolivian history.

The nineteenth century in Bolivia witnessed a genocide frustrated: to pursue
the "US solution" to the "indian problem" would have meant the extinction of
available rural and mine labor, as well as a key source of state income (a
head tax on rural peoples).  Yet, while they depended on indigenous rural
population for their own exploitative livelihood, they desperately desired
to wrest from them their lands, and at another level transform the face of
th

Re: thought for the day

[Tom Walker]

Jim Devine wrote,

>as usual, time will tell.

Time never tells. People just move on to something else. Whoops, that's two
thoughts for the day. We're over our quota.

Regards, 

Tom Walker
^^^
Know Ware Communications
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(604) 688-8296 
^^^
The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/

EMUcharset="iso-8859-1"

[Rebecca Peoples]

Folks,
I have been examining the matter of the European single currency. Ireland is
poised to join it.
There are those that say that joining will entail surrendering the power of
the Irish state to more freely manage economic policy --monetary, interest
rate policies etc. They argue that single currency  that will lead to
declining living standards.
My view is that the conflict between those who are for or against joining up
is an inter-capitalist conflict or fight as to how best serve the interests
of capital. It is not the business of revolutionaries to opt for one or the
other means of "managing" the capitalist economy. It is the business of
revolutionaries to opt for socialism and thereby the abolition of all
currencies --neither one or the other but socialism.
Rebecca

thought for the day

[James Devine]

Awhile back, when I was a young 'un, one of the things that shocked
Puritanical citizens of the the US about President Nixon was the large
number of obscenities he used on a tape. This undermined support for him in
what his erstwhile Vice President, Spiro Agnew had called "middle America,"
and helped tip the balance toward impeachment proceedings and Nixon's
resignation.

I know things have settled down a bit on the Monica Lewinski (sp?) front,
but in some ways the brouhaha concerning her is on the same level. Neither
the use of obscenities nor nookie with someone 20+ years younger violate the
President's oath of office or fit with the idea of high crimes and
misdimenors. But it's quite possible that l'affaire Lewinski could tip the
balance against Clinton, coming as it does on top of six years of sleaze,
betrayal, and mediocrity. 

as usual, time will tell.

in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine

Re: EMU

[Max B. Sawicky]

> From:  Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> > My impression is that the Irish are underpricing the rest of
> > the EU in labor and other costs and benefiting for that reason,
> > thus for them in particular a lowering of trade barriers will help
> > more than hurt.
> 
> Max, aren't there one or two other issues of relevance in discussing the
> EMU other than whether one country or another will do relatively better
> vis-a-vis the others?
> 
> What about social policy and the role of the Bundesbank in imposing
> neoliberalism as the core of the European framework?
> 
> (Sorry to keep bringing up this distasteful subject.)

True enough.  I was responding narrowly to the post
because I wasn't feeling expansive.

In this vein, FYI, I wrote a piece in New Economy (the
Brit soc-dem/labour journal) criticizing the evolution
of EU tax policy.  By some odd coincidence, my advice
on EU policy seems to be solicited somewhat less often
these days.  Oh well.  Goodbye Paris, hello Detroit.

MBS



===
Max B. SawickyEconomic Policy Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  1660 L Street, NW
202-775-8810 (voice)  Ste. 1200
202-775-0819 (fax)Washington, DC  20036
http://tap.epn.org/sawicky

Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views
of anyone associated with the Economic Policy
Institute other than this writer.
===

Chile Report 3

[Thomas Kruse]

3. Valparaíso 1: Impressions

Much to my partner's chagrin, I have an aversion to what the urban planners
call "primate cities": usually 3 to 5 times larger than the second largest
city, they dominate the economic, political and cultural life of the country
(Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima, etc.).  She, on the other hand, is from a
small Bolivian mining town of 3,000 families at over 14,000 feet above sea
level, and would move to Manhattan in an instant.  Where we wound up,
however, was determined by the location of friends with free apartments.

Happily for me, that place turned out to be Valparaíso (a contraction, I'm
told, of "valle del paraíso" -- paradise valley, and affectionately called
Valpo), population 350,000.  Valparaíso was founded in 1536 as the port for
the capital (now "primate city") Santiago, population 5 million +, about an
hour and a half inland by bus.  Valpo became a major center of British naval
and commercial activity in the 19th century, though after the Panama Canal
was opened Valparaíso's importance declined.  Many indications of British
presence remain: monuments built by the British community, English family
names, and elaborate British porcelain bathroom fixtures in the older houses
(our loo was a beauty!).  The city was sacked on various occasions by
pirates, and leveled a couple more times by earthquakes (the latest in 1906,
1971 and 1985).  So buildings are mostly pretty low and pretty new, with the
exception of a knot of lovely republican architecture around the historic
center.

The city is geographically two: the narrow, gently curving flats by the sea,
and the hills that jut up abruptly in a ring around them. Below is the
center: banks, customs houses, import-export concerns, markets, and Chile's
bicameral Congress.  The latter is a monstrous semi-pomo edifice, opened in
1989, a combination of stabs at proto-Roman civic grandeur and Aldo Rossi on
a bad day.  Up above, on the hillsides, is an incredible jumble of houses
piled one atop the other, painted wildly different colors, all in different
states of (dis)repair.  Testament to somebody making money, and the
municipal authorities getting a piece of it, is a system of about 12
funicular cable cars built at the turn of the century.  These "ascensores"
(elevators) take people up and down the steep hills.  Each cable car has a
name, a history.  Each morning we took the Reina Victoria [Queen Victoria]
down to the flats.

The apartment lent us had a beautiful view of the harbor; we would sit for
hours some times, just watching ships come and go.  This may seem mundane,
but we were coming from a landlocked country, whose navy, such as it is,
operates on one lake and tributaries of the Amazon.  (The old joke: Chilean
to a Bolivian: "How absurd: a Bolivian Navy!"  The Bolivian to the Chilean:
"Even more absurd: a Chilean Ministry of Justice!")

Valparaíso is divided not only topographically, but socially as well.  "Us
and them" is pretty clearly demarcated.  The higher you go, the poorer it
gets.  Though tourists seldom venture up, we found that about 30 minutes
walking after where the "ascensores" stop puts you in marginal barrios
similar to what we saw in Arica.  When Malvina Reynolds wrote her song about
"little houses on the hillside made of ticky-tacky", she must have had Valpo
in mind.  (Incidentally, her song was later taken by Victor Jara, and
re-written for Santiago, where it is the rich who live above, the poor
below.  His version ridicules the idiocy of Chilean upper-class striving for
status and over-consumption, in the luxurious but vapid houses up on the
hill-sides. For those of you unfamiliar with the life and work of this
extraordinary theater director and troubadour, see the wonderful biography
by his wife Joan Jara, Victor: An Unfinished Song.)

The barrios: clapboard and plywood shacks, tin roofs, small dirt patios and
a mishmash of clotheslines, junked toys and animals all about.  In the
streets unemployed youth stand by shovels and hold out their hands for
money.  Implicit is that they are filling the potholes, in exchange for
which they are charging you a road tax.  Most people just drive by; at
night, though, we were warned that one pays.  Up behind us on the hill, and
looking down imposingly on the barrio, a modern prison complex was under
construction.

After the obligatory two days on the beach, we spent hours walking the
streets of the hillsides and some in the flats too.  One day, across the
street from the Congress, we spied a little run-down bookstore named "La
Crisis".  Ha!  Had to be good, and it was: a combination of used school
books (pays the bills), and lots of lefty sociological, political and
economic texts, and a pretty good selection of poetry.  My finds for the day
were a slim volume of Huidobro's last poems and an incredible
retrospective/prospective of Chilean photography called La Memoria Oxidada
[The Rusted Memory]: Chile 1970-2000.  The most powerful image for me was a
photo by He

The cm150-l-digest: Into thin air?

[valis]

I don't know how many of you are subscribed to the CM-150 list, 
but those who are should know that its digest is not yet being archived.
Anyone who, like me, has occasional disasters in hard file-management,
would much prefer to see this neat resource properly stashed on the Web, 
as well as down a snug gopher hole.

Shall we prevail upon Michael to crash the digest till a permanent home
is readied for it?  
Some hands, class.
 valis

Thank you to Ron Baiman

[Steven S. Zahniser]

Dear PEN-Lers:

Before the ASSA conference becomes a distant memory, I would like to thank
Ron Baiman for the wonderful URPE reception held at Roosevelt University.
The URPE gathering was certainly the "classiest" reception that I attended
during the meetings, replete with good food, interesting conversation, a
DJ, and even some live music by a jazz pianist named Miles Tate.

Thank you very much, Ron!

Steven Zahniser
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: EMU

[Max B. Sawicky]

> From:  "Rebecca Peoples" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> I have been examining the matter of the European single currency. Ireland is
> poised to join it.
> There are those that say that joining will entail surrendering the power of
> the Irish state to more freely manage economic policy --monetary, interest
> rate policies etc. They argue that single currency  that will lead to
> declining living standards.

My impression is that the Irish are underpricing the rest of
the EU in labor and other costs and benefiting for that reason,
thus for them in particular a lowering of trade barriers will help
more than hurt.

MBS

 


===
Max B. SawickyEconomic Policy Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  1660 L Street, NW
202-775-8810 (voice)  Ste. 1200
202-775-0819 (fax)Washington, DC  20036
http://tap.epn.org/sawicky

Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views
of anyone associated with the Economic Policy
Institute other than this writer.
===

Andre Gunder Frank, 1 of 3

[Louis Proyect]

This just showed up on the Communist-Manifesto mailing-list. I haven't had
a chance to read it, but it should provoke some discussion related to
recent threads on the role of capitalism, etc. It is pretty radical stuff.
Part 2 tomorrow and 3 the next day.

Louis Proyect

**

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The following passages are excerpted from the introduction and
conclusion of

ReORIENT: GLOBAL ECONOMY IN THE ASIAN AGE
[University of California Press forthcoming April 1998] 

by

Andre Gunder Frank


AN INTRODUCTION TO EURCENTRISM

  The really important lesson to be learned from Marx and
  Weber is the importance of history for the
  understanding of society. Though they were certainly
  interested in grasping the general and universal, they
  concerned themselves with the concrete circumstances of
  specific periods, and the similarities and contrasts of
  diverse geographical areas. They clearly recognized
  that an adequate explanation of social facts requires a
  historical account of how the facts came to be; they
  recognized that comparative-historical analysis is
  indispensable for the study of stability and change. In
  a word, it is these two extraordinary thinkers in
  particular, who stand out as the architects of a
  historical sociology well worth emulating; for both of
  them subscribed to an open, historically grounded
  theory and method. 
-  Irving Zeitlin  
   IDEOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL   
   THEORY  [1994]

  For Marx, the most general level of abstraction [is]...
  the concept of mode or production. The classics [were]
  innovatory both in their times and as regards world
  order today, and ... pointing the way forward... for
  study in the present and future. 
-  James Mittleman 
   INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMNATION IN INTRERNATIONAL  
   STUDIES [1997]

  The expectation of universality, however sincerely
  pursued, has not been fulfilled thus far in the
  historical development of the social sciences It is
  hardly surprising that the social sciences that were
  constructed in Europe and North America in the
  nineteenth century were Eurocentric. The European world
  of the time felt itself culturally triumphant 
  Every universalism sets off responses to itself, and
  these responses are in some sense determined by the
  nature of the reigning universalism(s) Submitting
  our theoretical premises to inspection for hidden
  unjustified a priori assumptions is a priority for the
  social sciences today.
   - Immanuel Wallerstein for Gulbenkian Commission 
   OPENING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES [1996]


My multiple choice is NONE of the above. My argument below is
that all Western social science of the past 150 years from Marx
Weber to Wallerstein himself is ir-remediably Eurocentric and NOT
universalist in any manner, shape or form. Contrary to Zeitlin
and Mittleman Marx and Co. are NOT worthy of emulation, and
certainly not for the present and still less for the future.

At least since Marx and Engles' COMMUNIST MANIFESTO 
"The West" has for some time now perceived much of "The Rest" of
the world under the title "Orientalism." The Western world is
replete with "Oriental" studies, institutes and what not. This 
Western ideological stance was magnificently analyzed and
denounced under the title Orientalism by the Palestinian American
Edward Said (1979). He shows how the very [Western] point about
"Orientalism" is that it attempts to mark off "the Rest" in order
to distinguish The West and its alleged "exceptionalism."  This
procedure has also been denounced by Samir Amin (1989) under the
title Eurocentrism.  Martin Bernal (1987) has shown how, as part
and parcel of European colonialism in the nineteenth century,
Europeans invented a historical myth about their allegedly purely
European roots in "democratic" but also slave holding and sexist
Greece, whose own roots in turn however are those of Black
Athena. This Bernal thesis, apparently against the original
intentions of its author, has been used in turn to support The
Afrocentric Idea (Asante 1987). In fact, the roots of Athens were
much more in Asia Minor, Persia, Central Asia and other parts of
Asia than in Egypt and Nubia. To compromise and conciliate, we
could say that they were and are primarily Afro-Asian. However,
European "Roots" were of course by no means confined to Greece
and Rome [nor to Egypt and Mesopotamia before them]. The roots of
Europe extended into all of Afro-Eurasia since time immemorial.
We will observe in this book how Europe was still dependent on
Asia also during early modern times, before the n

Re: EMU

[Sid Shniad]

So why are you holding out on us? Let's see the piece.

Sid

> In this vein, FYI, I wrote a piece in New Economy (the
> Brit soc-dem/labour journal) criticizing the evolution
> of EU tax policy.  By some odd coincidence, my advice
> on EU policy seems to be solicited somewhat less often
> these days.  Oh well.  Goodbye Paris, hello Detroit.
> 
> MBS

Re: copy of Pope's closing speech

[DOUG ORR]

A couple of days ago, someone posted a copy of the full text of the Pope's
closing speech.  I inadvertantly deleted it.  If someone still has it in
electronic form, could you forward a copy to MY INDIVIDUAL ADDR.  The list
probably doesn't want to see it again.

Doug Orr
 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Bear Market? (Formerly Japan's MoF)

[Dennis R Redmond]

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, Richardson_D wrote:

> Thus we get to the question as to what to replace it [the U.S. dollar as
> world reserve currency] with.  This is a
> very hard question for the individual but also for the monetary
> authorities -- there just aren't many currencies out there that look
> good just now.  

The yen and DM are a bit undervalued right now, mostly because their
central banks are more concerned with propping up the global financial
system -- which, incidentally, they own -- via superlow interest 
rates (yes, at 2.2% GDP growth, 1.7% inflation and 3.3% short
rates, even the Bundesbank has turned stimulative) than with stuffing
the portfolios of their rentiers. But consider this: Central Europe plus
Japan gives you $10 trillion of GDP and $20 trillion of rocksolid
financial assets -- or at least, solider than the US, which amounts to
the same thing. How about a caffeinated blend of the euro and the yen --
the "yeuron"? 

-- Dennis

Re: EMU

[Sid Shniad]

> My impression is that the Irish are underpricing the rest of
> the EU in labor and other costs and benefiting for that reason,
> thus for them in particular a lowering of trade barriers will help
> more than hurt.
> 
> MBS

Max, aren't there one or two other issues of relevance in discussing the
EMU other than whether one country or another will do relatively better
vis-a-vis the others?

What about social policy and the role of the Bundesbank in imposing
neoliberalism as the core of the European framework?

(Sorry to keep bringing up this distasteful subject.)

Cheers,

Sid

No comment

[Sid Shniad]

Reuters January 28, 1998

POPE HOPES FOR POLISH-STYLE CHANGE IN CUBA

By Philip Pullella 

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul said Wednesday he hopes his recent 
visit to Cuba will bear fruit similar to his 1979 trip to Poland when he 
helped influence events that led to the fall of communism in his homeland. 
"My visit to Cuba reminded me a lot of my first visit to Poland in 
1979," the Pope, speaking in Polish, said at his weekly general audience. 
"I hope for my brothers and sisters on that beautiful island that the 
fruits of this pilgrimage will be similar to the fruits of that pilgrimage to 
Poland," he added. 
Historians credit the Pope's first visit home a year after his election 
in 1978 with injecting Poles with the courage to form the Solidarity free 
trade union. Nine years later, it was the Pope's homeland that began the 
domino effect that toppled communism in Eastern Europe. 
During the historic five-day trip, which ended Sunday, the Pope 
brought an unprecedented whiff of freedom to Cuba. 
He defended human rights, criticized Cuba's one-party system, 
called for greater freedom for the Catholic Church and drew attention to 
the plight of political prisoners. 
In his main address, read in Italian, he said the trip was a "great 
event" of spiritual, cultural and social reconciliation. 
The Pope also said the trip showed that the island's culture had 
remained at heart Christian despite four decades of Marxism. 
"The pastoral visit was a great event of spiritual, cultural and social 
reconciliation that will not fail to produce beneficial fruits on other levels," 
the 77-year-old Pope said. 
"It must be recognized that this visit took on an important symbolic 
value because of the unique position Cuba has had in this century's 
history," he said. 
The Pontiff also several times condemned the U.S. economic 
embargo against the island but said Cubans could not blame it for all their 
problems. 
He told the pilgrims he was happy to have been able to preach the 
Gospel there, giving Cubans "a message of love and true freedom," and 
thanked President Fidel Castro for making the trip possible. 
Recalling his address at Havana University, the Pope said Cuban 
culture had undergone many influences in the five centuries since 
Christopher Columbus discovered it, including four decades of "Marxist 
materialistic and atheist ideology." 
"Deep down, however, it (Cuban culture)...has remained intimately 
marked by Christian inspiration, as shown by the numerous men of Catholic 
culture throughout its history," he said. "The Papal visit gave voice to the 
Christian soul of the Cuban people." 
"I am convinced that this Christian soul is for Cubans the most 
precious treasure and the surest guarantee of integral development marked 
by authentic freedom and peace," he said. 
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans attended the Pope's four open-air 
Masses, which were transmitted live on state-run television -- a first for 
religious events. 

Re: EMU

[Sid Shniad]

Taking this position -- that socialists have no interest in the issue of
the EMU -- ignores the fact that the influence of this organization will
have enormous effects on people's living standards, ability to regulate,
etc.

It's not as if other political/economic struggles will be unaffected by
the EMU.

Sid Shniad

> > Folks,
> I have been examining the matter of the European single currency. Ireland is
> poised to join it.
> There are those that say that joining will entail surrendering the power of
> the Irish state to more freely manage economic policy --monetary, interest
> rate policies etc. They argue that single currency  that will lead to
> declining living standards.
> My view is that the conflict between those who are for or against joining up
> is an inter-capitalist conflict or fight as to how best serve the interests
> of capital. It is not the business of revolutionaries to opt for one or the
> other means of "managing" the capitalist economy. It is the business of
> revolutionaries to opt for socialism and thereby the abolition of all
> currencies --neither one or the other but socialism.
> Rebecca
> 
> 

Nature's Less Than Forgiving Nature

[Steven S. Zahniser]

The U.S. National Park Service uses the following slogan to encourage safe
behavior on the part of its visitors:

"Nature doesn't care."

Steven Zahniser
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Thomas Kruse wrote:

> An anecdote:  An Aymara farmer once said here to a friend of mine:
> 
> "God forgives always, people sometimes, but nature never."
>

Re: Saving Ourselves - And Others - From The Global Economy

[Rakesh Bhandari]

Has anyone read Greider's chapter "The Ghost of Marx" in which  he
propounds a quasi-Schumpeterian analysis--that despite endemic excess
capacity, there is ever more investment and 'creative destruction' of
existing capacity.   As crises of apparent overproduction/underconsumption
are overcome then, even as prices remain depressed, by even more
production--not only does Greider recognize this, he suggests that
profitability per unit is brought down in the process--Greider still
retreats to an underconsumptionist or buy-back theory of crisis at odds
with said quasi-Schumpeterian analysis. On the basis of that neopopulist
crisis theory, he then recommends not only the national use of fiscal and
monetary stimuli but the internationalization of Keynesianism, as did
Walden Bello in another recent *Nation* essay, though Greider fears the
environmental consequences of run-away industrial production on a global
scale. I think there is a lot of theoretical confusion in Greider's work.
What do others think?
Rakesh

Re: correction

[Max B. Sawicky]

> From:  "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Barkley,

Who's to say that traditional societies were more
'ecologically conscious' only because they did not
have available to them more advanced technologies
which would have provided greater benefits from
exploiting natural resources more intensively, either
in an autarchical sense or in the sense of military
technology facilitating the formation of 'empires'
(including subjugation of neighboring ethnic groups)
that came to be associated with (cause?) similar
exploitation?  Or that improvement in living standards
leading to population growth would not have generated
similar pressures to 'cash out' natural capital?

That is not to say that such societies did not possess
discoveries which have since been lost, nor of course
to justify their casual, brutal extermination by capitalist
forces, but to say I think we're on a heavy romantic
trip here.

Cheers,

MBS

>  In my latest post I referred to a paper by myself as 
> being in the May 1975 issue of _Land Economics_.  That was 
> the May 1995 issue.  Among other things I noted the large 
> literature showing that many traditional societies handled 
> problems of managing common property resources very well in 
> contrast to the standard right-wing arguments about the 
> "tragedy of the commons".  This point has actually been 
> known since the 1975 article in _Natural Resources Journal_ 
> by Richard Bishop and S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup.  There is now a 
> burgeoning literature on this by people like Daniel 
> Bromley and others, many of them noting that colonialism 
> and European capitalism broke down these arrangements.  In 
> many cases nationalization by post-colonial regimes did not 
> improve matters and only led to continued overexploitation 
> with control in the hands of corrupt urban elites.
 


===
Max B. SawickyEconomic Policy Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  1660 L Street, NW
202-775-8810 (voice)  Ste. 1200
202-775-0819 (fax)Washington, DC  20036
http://tap.epn.org/sawicky

Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views
of anyone associated with the Economic Policy
Institute other than this writer.
===

Re: Flat Earth, Curved Sun

[Jay Hecht]

Tom,

What a great example!

I'm bring it to class next tuesday

Jason

What is a market economy?

[James Michael Craven]

This kid, little Johnny, was assigned to do a high-school paper on 
"What is a market economy?". At dinner, he asks his Father to help 
him. The father, somnewhat flustered, remembering the D he got when he 
took economics, said: "Well a market economy is a system in which 
people play different economic roles while producing and distributing 
things through markets." Little Johnny says "Huh?"

So the father, remembering that "economics" supposedly started out as 
the "science" of household management, says to Johnny: "Think of it 
in terms of our household. I am the father and make the basic 
strategic decisions so I represent "government". Your mother makes the 
basic operational decisions of the household, so she represents 
"management". Our maid, Esmerelda does the basic chores like washing 
dishes and laundry etc, so she represents "Labor". Your baby brother 
represents "the future" and you are asking basic questions, so you 
represent the "public".

Later, Johnny's baby brother filled his diapers and Johnny went to 
ask his mother to change the kid. He knocked over and over on his 
mother's bedroom door and finally after 15 minutes the mother half 
wakes up and tells him to go away. Johnny goes to look for his father 
and finds him in the maid's room in flagrante delicto. Finally, 
little Johnny just goes away.

The next morning at breakfast, the father asks "did you finish your 
paper last night?" Johnny says "Yeah" and the father says "let me read 
it."

The paper read "What is a Market Economy?" by Johnny Smith

"A market economy is a system in which the public asks basic 
questions, management is either asleep or tells the public to get 
lost, the Government is always screwing the workers while the future 
is left buried in deep shit."

 Jim Craven   

*---*
* "Who controls the past,   * 
*  James Craven  controls the future.   *  
*  Dept of Economics   Who controls the present,*
*  Clark College controls the past." (George Orwell)*
*  1800 E. Mc Loughlin Blvd.* 
*  Vancouver, Wa. 98663  (360) 992-2283  FAX:  (360)992-2863*
*  [EMAIL PROTECTED]* 
* MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION  * 

Call for divestiture campaign in Mexico

[Sid Shniad]

U.S. TAXPAYERS AND INVESTORS AND THE BLOOD OF 
ACTEAL, CHIAPAS TAKE ACTION ON FEBRUARY 9, 1998 --
THE 3RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE MILITARY ASSAULT ON
REBEL COMMUNITIES IN CHIAPAS.

"While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to 
Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the 
investment community. The government will need to eliminate the 
Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory 
and of security policy." 

Mexico Political Update, January 13, 1995, Memo by Riordan Roett to 
Chase Manhattan's Emerging Markets Group

"Investors appear to have been willing to take huge sums of money 
belonging to clients who may not have fully understood what is at stake, 
and to use those sums not just to bet on emerging markets but to leverage 
governments into potentially disastrous policies because those policies 
would maximize short-term profits. But when the bubble bursts at least in 
part because of those policies, we find them expressing their 'expert' 
judgment that the United States should come to the rescue." 

Douglas Payne, New Republic, "How Investment Bankers Ruined 
Mexico," March 13, 1995

Monday, February 9th will mark the third anniversary of the assault of the 
Mexican military against Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. The 
offensive came just days after President Clinton, by means of an Executive 
order, expedited a $50 billion bailout package in order to stave off the 
collapse of the Mexican economy and to protect increasing US financial 
interests. The CIA assisted Mexican authorities in gathering intelligence to 
develop the rationale for the arrest of  EZLN leadership. Zedillo announced 
the arrests which justified the penetration of many Zapatista villages during 
a press conference. The timing of the infamous Chase Manhattan memo, 
the US bailout and the February offensive against the Zapatistas began to 
expose the very real connections that the US and its financial interests have 
in maintaining "social and political stability" in Mexico.  The stranglehold 
began; the tanks rolled in, and terror and instability came with them.  The 
full year of self-governance which the Zapatistas had used to carry out such 
"radical" measures as the "elimination of drug and alcohol use" and the 
election of their own authorities came to an end with the military presence.  
A destructive siege began to form a river of blood. 

During the reign of interim governor Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro from February 
14, 1995 to January 7th 1998, more than 1,500 indigenous campesinos 
were assassinated, an average of 15 per week. In just the highlands region 
of Chiapas (including the municipalities of San Andres and Chenalho), 
more than 800 people have now fallen victim to the paramilitary groups 
supported by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the 
federal and state governments. (Joshua Paulson, *ZAPATISMO NEWS 
UPDATE*--Special Report on the Massacre of Chenalho).

In a weekly news magazine Proceso, journalist Carlos Marin printed 
excerpts from a Mexican Army document that lays out a government 
strategy for the creation of paramilitary "self-defense" forces in Chiapas in 
order to undermine the civilian support base for the EZLN.  Yet in a 
statement made by the Secretary of National Defense on January 21st, 
Mexican General Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, clearly denies finding 
evidence of any armed paramilitary group stating  that "their existence is 
one existing version". The Army is proceeding to enter Zapatista 
communities in a search for weapons because, Aguirre says they will 
"continue to apply the Firearms and Explosives Law without exception". .  
The Law for Dialogue which provides for the disarmament of the EZLN as 
a result of the negotiation process is again nullified .  

At the same time a leader of an identified paramilitary group "Peace and 
Justice" which issued at least 50 death threats before carrying out the 
attempt on Bishop Samuel Ruiz's life holds a press conference claiming 
they are neither armed nor a paramilitary group. Zedillo and his Foreign 
Relations Minister denounce any "foreign intervention" in reaction to the 
international outcry about the massacre.

"Intervention" does not appear to include the $60.2 billion of US 
investment in Mexico, NAFTA or U.S. military assistance given under the 
guise of the "war on drugs." Chillingly, this type of U.S. intervention 
designed the destruction suffered by Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador. 
U.S. military resources prop up brutal dictatorships, protect U.S. 
investments and  sustain counter-insurgency efforts.   As one commentator 
from MSNBC noted in reference to the massacre and continuing violence 
in Chiapas, "the CIA has left its footprints-again allying itself with 
questionable elements within a foreign country's military." ("Planning the 
CIA's Next Secret War," Michael Moran, MSNBC)

The implication of all 

Saving Ourselves - And Others - From The Global Economy

[Robert Naiman]

[I wrote this in response to the William Greider piece which appeared in the 
Nation and was also widely distributed on the Internet. The Nation refuses 
to run it, so I'm "self-publishing" it. Feel free to pass along.]



Saving Ourselves - And Others - From The Global Economy

We appreciated William Greider's latest intervention in the `globalization' 
debate ["Saving the Global Economy," The Nation, December 15, 1997.] Here 
and elsewhere Greider has done a great deal not only to educate us to the 
dangers of present global economic trends and policies but also to challenge 
the dogma that nothing can be done about it. We agree that the November 
withdrawal of fast track legislation - it's not quite buried yet - opens up 
new opportunities to challenge the fundamental premises that guide current 
policy. We agree wholeheartedly with his vigorous attack on bailouts - IMF 
or otherwise - of corrupt regimes that abuse workers and corrupt investors 
that privatize wealth and socialize risk while they impose austerity for 
workers, slow growth, and further concentration of economic power.

But it appears to us that Greider confuses things by adding some of the 
shibboleths of the liberal interventionist crowd to what is otherwise a 
straightforward call for progressive action. On the one hand, Greider 
suggests that we break open the fissure that exists between "free market 
reformers" and "working-class cultural conservatives" (presumably by allying 
with the latter on a populist economic program,) support capital controls, 
support trade-balancing tariffs, and generally challenge economic orthodoxy. 
On the other hand, he cautions us that "globalization of markets means 
there's no place to hide" and warns of us the "natural impulse to withdraw 
from the world" which will intensify and be encouraged by "right-wing 
protectionists."

As Greider says, we must clearly understand the principles we are defending. 
And likewise we should be clear in our analysis of the world. Globalization 
as we know it is neither inevitable, nor irreversible, nor desirable -- 
neither for the U.S., nor for any other country. In the case of the U.S., 
Greider does not seem to contest that workers in the U.S. would be better 
off if the U.S. economy were more closed. As Greider himself points out, 
much of the economic integration that exists now is artificially supported 
by public subsidies of transportation, tax abatements, loans, and so on. And 
as countries go, the U.S. is not yet that integrated into the global economy 
- we consume 88% of what we produce.

As for the rest of the world, one expects Madeleine Albright and Bob Rubin 
to warn of the dangers of isolation, but can anyone on the left argue with a 
straight face that the rest of the world would be worse off if the U.S. 
government -- or transnational corporations "based" in the U.S. -- left them 
alone? It is only as a result of unremitting economic and military pressure 
that the U.S. government has succeeded in toppling the government of almost 
every developing country which had the temerity to think that their chief 
responsibility was to tend to the economic welfare of their own people, 
rather than exporting resources and capital to the First World. There is no 
reason to doubt that, if such pressure were ended, popular governments would 
again direct the economic policies of these countries. The benefits to human 
welfare of this transformation will far outweigh any alleged loss from 
reduced ability to export low-wage products to the United States.

The greatest gift we could give to the rest of the world is to dismantle 
here on their home base the institutions that are currently imposing 
neoliberal globalization on the world at such terrible human cost: the IMF, 
the World Bank, the WTO, USAID, and the CIA. To collaborate with the 
apologists of that model  and those institutions in labeling such opposition 
with their bogey words of  "isolationism" and "protectionism" is to betray 
our progressive vision of more democratic and locally accountable economic 
and political structures.

Greider and The Nation  have done a great deal to call our attention to 
these issues - we should examine them - and act on them - without 
ideological blinders.

Robert Naiman, Research Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

FW: Bear Market? (Formerly Japan's MoF)boundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BD2BD5.B9E409C0"

[Richardson_D]

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-- =_NextPart_000_01BD2BD5.B9E409C0

Jay,
You are certainly right in the short term.  As far as I can see, the
point is that the medium-long term situation is quite different and the
dollar just cannot go on as the international currency under these
conditions.

Thus we get to the question as to what to replace it with.  This is a
very hard question for the individual but also for the monetary
authorities -- there just aren't many currencies out there that look
good just now.  Yet without a resolution the global financial system
will collapse.  Are they hoping for the Euro?

Dave

--
Sent:   Tuesday, January 27, 1998 10:23 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:Re: Bear Market? (Formerly Japan's MoF)

In a message dated 98-01-26 18:24:22 EST, you write:

<< 
 Yet what else can they try?  At some level of international
indebtedness
 the willingness of speculators to hold dollars will disappear, and it
 would appear from your chart that that day is fast approaching.  At
 least the low interest rate approach has some hope of saving the U.S.
 stock market from a true melt down and could provide benefits both
 domestically and internationally in propping up demand and staving off
 the global recession (depression?).
  >>

Dave,

While I agree that the dollar has been in a "medium-term" decline, for
the
short term, the "flight to quality" has been unambiguously into dollars.
The
Yen appears to be in trouble and is exposed in Korea.  Nevertheless, the
Japanese probably have the deepest pockets of liquidity - assuming they
can
get at their citizen's postal savings accounts.

I don't think the FRB is really ever in control as most people think.
Though
they can raise short-term rates, they can't go lower than the underlying
inflation rate for a prolonged period.  The BOJ pushed their 10-year
notes to
about 2% and can't get the Nikkei above 18,000.  Moreover, though we've
had
the greatest bond rally from 1980-1997, the volatility on the 30-year
bond is
an ever-present threat (look what happened in 1994).

Jason  


-- =_NextPart_000_01BD2BD5.B9E409C0

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BLS Daily Reportboundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BD2BD5.228630D0"

[Richardson_D]

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-- =_NextPart_000_01BD2BD5.228630D0
charset="iso-8859-1"

> BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1998
> 
> RELEASED TODAY:  On a seasonally adjusted basis, compensation costs
> for civilian workers rose 1.0 percent during the September-December
> 1997 period; for each of the two previous quarters, the increase was
> 0.8 percent Compensation costs for civilian workers (not
> seasonally adjusted) were up 3.3 percent for the year ended December
> 1997.  This compares with increases of 2.9 percent in December 1996
> and 2.7 percent in December 1995 
> 
> Bankers aren't out beating the pavement; despite takeover layoffs,
> jobs grow across the industry, says the Wall Street Journal (page A2)
> Despite huge layoffs in the banking industry from mergers and
> acquisitions, job prospects at commercial banks are improving, and the
> chance of landing a job at other types of financial firms is actually
> quite good.  In 1997, jobs at commercial banks increased slightly more
> than 1.0 percent, according to BLS, the first increase since 1989 and
> the largest since 1987 Positions at other finance companies, such
> as mortgage banks and investment outfits, jumped more than 6.0 percent
> last year, after years of considerably smaller gains A lot of the
> jobs available are the result of a strong housing and commercial
> real-estate market and the expansion of banks into investment banking
> and non-credit-card consumer-finance products Economists don't
> expect the stronger demand to be long term.  The industry is riding on
> the back of a record housing market, a booming stock market, and
> strong investment banking.  But when these things slow down, so too
> will commercial-banking jobs.  But for now, things look bright   
> 
> Economists from a range of industries reported that demand for their
> firms' products picked up in the fourth quarter of last year after
> slowing in the third, while employment levels remained high, according
> to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics
> (Daily Labor Report, page A-3).
> 

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[Fwd: A Wee Joke]

[Sid Shniad]

> >So Karl Marx dies and shows up at the gates of heaven to be met by
> >Saint Peter.
> >
> >"Name?" asks Peter.
> >"Marx, Karl Marx." replies the famous author.
> >"Hmm," says Peter to himself, "why do I know that name?"
> >"I am Marx," Marx said, beaming with pride, "founder of socialism
> >and the driving force behind the communist ideal called Marxism."
> >"I see," Peter said.  "I'll have to check with God."
> >
> >So Peter rushes off to confer with God.  God hears the name Marx
> >and immediately a look of disgust infects His face.  "Marx?" God
> >says, "He's nothing but a trouble maker.  Send him down to hell."
> >
> >So Peter happily signs the appropriate forms and deports Karl Marx
> >to Satan's firy hell.
> >
> >Some time later, a free trade agreement is forged between Heaven and
> >Hell.
> >The deal is hailed by all to be a great economic leap forward that would
> >revitalize both struggling economies.  But soon after the treaty,
> >God realizes that Heaven is no longer receiving any products
> >from Hell.  So he sends Saint Peter down to investigate.
> >
> >"Well?" asks Peter of Satan, "What's the hold up?  We have an
> >agreement!"
> >
> >Satan shrugs his shoulders, exasperated.  "It's that Marx fellow," Satan
> >replied.  "Ever since he got down here, all we've had are strikes and
> >labour demands.  Productivity has dropped to zero!"
> >
> >"So?" Peter asks, "What would you have us do?"
> >
> >"Take him back.  Take Marx back to Heaven, and I guarantee productivity
> >will sky rocket!"
> >
> >So Peter agreed, on God's behalf, to accept Karl Marx back to Heaven.
> >
> >Some time later Satan realizes that Hell has not received any orders
> >for product from Heaven.  In fact, very little communication at all
> >has leaked from Up Above.  So, concerned for the economic welfare
> >of Hell, he makes a trip to Heaven.
> >
> >"Peter!  Peter, are you there?" Satan demands.
> >
> >"Yes, what is it?" Peter answers.
> >
> >"What's the hold up?  What about the flow of trade?"
> >
> >"Oh I'm sorry," Peter said, "We have decided to adopt a Marxist
> >isolationist stance.  We are an intrinsic self-governed body that is
> >now based on the needs of the prolitariate.  It is our opinion that
> >this free trade agreement only benefits the bourgeois."
> >
> >"What?!" Satan was furious.  "I demand to speak to God!"
> >
> >Peter's eyebrow is raised in confusion.  "Who?"

Re: FW: Bear Market? (Formerly Japan's MoF)

[Tom Walker]

Dave Richardson wrote,

>. . . the medium-long term situation is quite different and the
>dollar just cannot go on as the international currency under these
>conditions.
>
>Thus we get to the question as to what to replace it with.  This is a
>very hard question for the individual but also for the monetary
>authorities -- there just aren't many currencies out there that look
>good just now.  Yet without a resolution the global financial system
>will collapse.  Are they hoping for the Euro?

My candidate for international currency is the SNL Hour. It would take a
Herculean effort to set up the surveying and statistical indexing to
calculate the Hour, but it would be worth it in terms of long term
stability. The BLS would displace the FRB!

Regards, 

Tom Walker
^^^
Know Ware Communications
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(604) 688-8296 
^^^
The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/

Report from Chile 2

[Thomas Kruse]

2. Crossing

At the day to day level, I am used to life in Bolivia, and true to form we
had to cajole a uniformed fellow out of his post-lunch lethargy to unlock
the gate so we could cross into Chile.  Five km down the road, the Chilean
customs and migration people were waiting, precise and overbearing.  Running
through my head were the stories related to me by Chilean political refugees
of the 70's and 80's, who told of evading border guards at such outposts.
Later, a women friend in Santiago told us how 11 September 1973 she found
herself in Arica with nowhere to run: to the north, Peru, and the
authorities were sending people back; to the west only sea; and to the east
and south the desert.  And what a desert!  Not even the odd sugauro cactus
or paloverde to hide under.  Without fine knowledge of the terrain, you can
easily die of thirst.

The border guards took away our apples (imports to Bolivia, from Chile),
mentioning fruit flies, and gave us a paper in return, replete with date,
location, materials seized.  I held on to the paper, just in case.

The descent by land into Arica is amazing.  One drops from just over 14,000
feet to sea level in about 200km, much of it hair-raising switchbacks.  In
places the terrain is ghostly, moonlike.  In the northern extremities of the
Atacama desert, 0cm rainfall in a year is not uncommon.

Just before arriving in Arica, you cut through the lush, green Azapa valley,
site of more than seven Tihuanaku (Bolivian highland culture of the
pre-Incan period) "outlier settlements".  How the valley remains green is a
mystery to me still.  How they farm it is not: mostly (50%, we were told)
absentee landowners, working it "a medias" -- the "half" system.  That is,
absentee land owners allow you to work the land in exchange for half of the
harvest.  Harvest time sees the arrival of many Aymaras from Bolivia, who
often speak only broken Spanish.  Those lovely peaches you see at the
supermarket may have come from Azapa.

Overlooking Arica, a port town of some 100,000, is the Moro, site of a
decisive battle in the War of the Pacific (1879-83), wherein Chile beat Peru
and Bolivia, and Bolivia lost access to the sea.  In the mid-1980's the
fortifications overlooking the sea were turned into a military museum,
celebrating the victory over Peru and Bolivia specifically, and Chilean
military prowess generally.  A plaque left from the inauguration bore the
name of Excelentísimo General, Commandante en Jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas de
Chile y Presidente de la República [etc. ad nauseum] ... Augosto Pinochet.
The slogan "por la razón o la fuerza" was emblazoned over the entrance.  "By
reason or force" -- it's also engraved in the side of each 100 peso coin,
the most common in circulation.  Naively, I asked a friend who had spent
some time in Pinochet's prisons, "Does that really mean...?".  He was
patient, answering simply "uh-huh".  (Los Prisioneros, a Chilean rock band,
just came out with a new album: "Ni por la razón, ni por la fuerza" --
"Neither by reason nor by force".)

Arriving Arica this time I had an uneasy feeling -- something was different,
but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Then it struck me: there are poor white
people here!  In Bolivia you may see darker people with money, but almost
never a light colored person in abject poverty.  Up the hillsides from the
sea, clapboard or plywood houses, brightly painted, clung in the sweltering
heat to sandy soil.  One good rain would have warped them completely out of
shape.  The heat was intense; if not for the strong afternoon breezes coming
in off the sea, the barrios of Arica would be uninhabitable.  And in and out
moved white(er) folks.

Arica is a poor town; jobs are hard to come by.  There is an explosion of
tourism at year end, mostly wealthy Bolivians in fancy cars, and the rest of
the year just limps along, we're told.  If you don't have a coveted job on
the docks, you might get part time in the fish meal plant; run a taxi with a
relative; some pick up work in the Azapa valley; etc.

Was this the clean poverty Pinochet boasted of?  On balance, one doesn't see
the kind of poverty in Chile that assaults you in Bolivia.  But cleaner?
Whiter, certainly.  Perhaps that's what Pinochet meant after all.

Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Report from Chile 1

[Thomas Kruse]

1. Baggage

Last "fall" (seasons in the northern hemisphere) my work running a semester
abroad program here, a sort of "3rd world 101" for US college students, left
me absolutely exhausted and doubting the usefulness of the enterprise
generally.  It was time to get out.

We set off by land to Arica, a town on the northern Chilean-Peruvian border.
>From there we would travel by plane to Santiago, and then on to Valparaíso
to visit friends.  

I carried powerful preconceptions of Chile with me, from two sources:
Bolivians identifying Chile with their own misfortune, and the stories
Chilean political refugees have told me over the years of the golpe (coup
d'é·tat) 11 September 1973, and ensuing capitalist modernization imposed
through a reign of terror.

The view of Chile from here (Bolivia) is that of a dangerous, aggressive
neighbor that robbed Bolivia's access to the sea.  Even today Chile is
construed as a threat.  Clearly this is part political convenience: any time
a president see his (with one exception, it has been a he) popularity
waning, he denounces the Chileans.  The most recent round was in October
1997, involving suspicion that in the highlands Chileans had moved border
markers and planted mines.

Children here are schooled in how Bolivia will not be whole as a nation
until the Litoral (the long strip of land lost to Chile) is returned.  In
the annual Miss Bolivia contest, there is always a Miss Litoral, "beauty"
standing in for a void.  Where the flags of the 9 departments are flown, one
will often see an empty tenth pole too.  Every noon just before the news, my
preferred radio station plays a spot with the sound of breaking waves ...
charangos sound in the background ... a stern voice proclaims "to the
usurpers we say: we will return to the ports of progress!"  It is like being
incessantly told that you came into this world with a limb amputated.

In other ways Chile's "successes" have spelled Bolivia's defeats (as implied
in "ports of progress").  When the rail lines between Arica and La Paz were
opened in the late 19th and early 20th century, Bolivian minerals (produced
in textbooks cases of the enclave/dependent economy) found easier access to
the sea.  At the same time, however, cheaper grains from Chile and the US
found their way into the Bolivian markets, decimating rural livelihoods.
Even today there is a children's ditty that goes:

Ferrocarril, carril, carril  Railline, line, line
Arica-La Paz, La Paz, La Paz Arica to La Paz, La Paz, La Paz
un paso pa'tras, pa'tras, pa'trasa step back, back, back

But it is not just the humiliation of defeat in commerce and war -- there is
also envy, especially among the governing classes. Chile daily presents
Bolivia with an image of what, according to reigning orthodoxy, it should
become. It is the rich neighbor, the model of "successful" capitalist
modernization, both economic and cultural, though admittedly fewer envy the
political system.  It is seen as more worldly, European almost, and
certainly lighter in complexion. Clever pundits have baptized Chile the
"Jaguar of the Andes", in league with the Asian Tigers (something about
totems here to be explored ... where is Levi Strauss when you need him?).
Simply by virtue of their country of origin, Chilean marketeers, pr folk and
sundry business types fill posh hotel conference rooms here for seminars on
this or that aspect of capitalist modernization, while Chilean goods are
held to be superior to Bolivian products (in the case of wine, it is true).

On par with (some) Bolivian's assumption of inferiority, some Chileans
appear to hold a concomitant sense of superiority.  In a filmed debate prior
to the 1970 elections, pitting a member of the Socialist Party against a
conservative, the latter blurted out, in exasperation with his opponent,
"¡Pero pareces un Boliviano! [You sound like a Bolivian!]".  Even poverty in
Chile is held (by some) to be superior.  You may remember an article I
posted not long ago, on the salubrious nature of the Chilean poor:

Pinochet says in Chile there is "Clean Poverty"

Quito, 3 December (AP)  In Chile, contrary to other countries, there is a
"clean poverty" and nobody dies of hunger, the ex-president of Chile and
general of the army Augosto Pinochet affirmed today.

Pinochet, who is visiting Ecuador since last Thursday, gave an interview to
Radio Quito, in which a journalist presented him with statistics showing
that 2 million people in Chile live in poverty.

"There are poverties and there are poverties.  You can't compare the poverty
of a German, from Germany, with the poverty that exists in Africa," the
former ruler responded.

"One poverty in clean, the other poverty is serious."

"Chile has clean poverty.  There you won't see poverty like what I have seen
in other countries," he added.

"There in Chile nobody dies of hunger.  Everyone has clothing, everyone has
recourse to health care," he indicated.

"There you won't ever find a man without 

Report from Chile Intro

[Thomas Kruse]

Dear Penners:

I returned from a trip to Chile not long ago, and intended to make some
quick notes for list on impresions and reacitons to the time there.  It
kinda grew, thorugh no fault of my own, of course  I will be sending
installments over the nex couple of days.  As I am still "processing" the
time there, this is far from a finished essay.  Instead, things that struck
me are lumped under rather random headings and explored.

I should note at the outset that as I hammered out these notes I found in a
book by Tomás Moulian some of the conceptual vocabulary I lacked to
understand my time in Chile.  In the process, what I've written has become
in part book review.  Or better put, an experience review, in light of one
very fine book (Chile Actual: Anatomía de un Mito [Chile Today: Anatomy of a
Myth]. Santiago: ARCIS-LOM, 1997.  All translations are mine.)

Some may feel the tone of what follows is too testimonial.  For others,
reviewing it is futile or too painful. Over dinner last night a Bolivian
friend related almost buying a book about Argentineans returned to their
country -- to their death -- during the Banzer dictatorship.  But, he said,
"why read all that stuff again?  We already know all that."  In respect for
what others have shared with me, stories in danger of being silenced, I feel
a need to look again at these histories.

I re-embrace these histories also because we are implicated in them.
Throughout the notes that follow I have not mentioned the role of the US in
producing the conditions that led to the coup and the coup itself.  You may
find this odd.  My reason is simple: I have been over all that in the past,
and presume most of you already know.  What I was learning this time was the
extraordinary capacity of certain Chileans -- under the tutelage and
direction of the US, yes, but still Chileans -- to wreak unspeakable trauma
on the fabric of their own society, and then systematically rewrite the
history of their deeds.  And I was learning for the first time what, for a
couple of other Chileans, surviving and living the legacy of that terror and
historical revisionism means today.

Far from dodging the responsibility of looking at what US foreign policy has
wrought, I feel this is very much to the point.  It means looking at how
those "macro" processes have had an indelible impact on specific people's
lives, and how they negotiate the terrain, survive in, and resist the
society produced by those processes today.

One can of course visit Chile without even getting a whiff of the things I
explore below.  We stayed in a touristy hotel in Santiago filled with such
travelers.  Later, with a new friend in Santiago who spent 18 years in
exile, we mentioned our sojourn to the monument to the disappeared in the
General Cemetery.  "You're interested in that stuff?" she asked, "I could
show you lots of things.  Right around from your hotel, in the Calle Paris,
there was a famous torture center"  Later, a block from our hotel an
enormous bus rolled past us, replete with tinted glass, windows shut for air
conditioned comfort against the blazing afternoon sun. We caught a glimpse
of nattily dressed youngsters on board.  In the windshield there was a sign
reading "Grupo MIT -- MIT Group".  What, we asked ourselves, have they seen
here?

For too long the right has had the upper hand on denouncing the crimes of
state in the imposition of "models".  What of the ongoing "capitalist
revolutions" and the havoc wrought by their impositions?  Chile is a key
case in point, ever more so as it is held up as an example of "success".  In
the face of rising GNP/cap and high levels of investment, do we relegate the
past to oblivion?  Is a reign of terror an acceptable price to pay for
access to overconsumption?  My negative answer -- a moral imperative -- is
implicit in the question.  I have spent too many evenings with the human
"collateral damage", who have been ever-patient in explaining to me what
transpired, and how they manage it today.  I realize that my way of putting
things elides some of the finer points of economic theory.  So be it.  I
tried to listen; below some notes.

Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

NETACTION: Microsoft and the DOJ: Expand the Investigation

[Nathan Newman]

The Micro$oft Monitor
$$
Published by NetAction  Issue No. 22January
28, 1998
Repost where appropriate. Copyright and subscription info at end of
message.
* * * * * * *
In This Issue:
One Small Victory Over Microsoft
Campus Technology Takeover Still On Hold
About the Micro$oft Monitor
$$

One Small Victory Over Microsoft
A report by Nathan Newman, NetAction Project Director

Advocates for open technology standards won a minor victory this past
week with Microsoft's agreement to honor the initial court order
pursued by the Department of Justice.  That initial court order
prohibits Microsoft from forcing computer makers to give Internet
Explorer automatic placement on every Windows desktop as a condition
for purchasing Windows itself.

Combined with Netscape's announcement that it will be giving Navigator
away free just like Explorer, there is now a glimmer of hope that
Microsoft's Internet juggernaut will be successfully challenged.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
E-mail the Department of Justice to Expand the Investigation

**  Thank DOJ for its pursuit of Microsoft's monopoly abuses
**  Urge DOJ to expand the scope of its investigation

Send E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or link directly to a mail form:
.

For more information, contact Nathan Newman, at:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, or
link directly to a mail form: .

Keep in mind that this victory should be acknowledged for the rather minor
step forward that it is, since the agreement addresses the rather
gratuitous coercive tactics used by Microsoft.  The Department of Justice
has not yet fully addressed the monopolistic advantages Microsoft has that
makes coercive agreements a sideshow to the real economic power it has
within computing. 

The fact that Microsoft has chosen to give Explorer away has always marked
the fact that this is not a traditional battle for "market share" between
competing products, but rather a battle for technological and economic
control of far more than just browser software. 

NetAction has maintained that Microsoft should be barred from giving away
its software as a prima facie act of monopolistic dumping. 

On one hand, if Microsoft is serious that it's only concern is with
"integrating" Explorer into Windows 98, its history of free browser
software giveaways up to this point must be treated as predatory pricing
aimed at enhancing the value of its existing operating system monopoly. 
The very fact that Microsoft is integrating Explorer into Windows should
be a basis not only for exploring monopolistic practices in the marketing
of browser software, but in the sales and building of Microsoft's core
operating system itself.  By integrating various kinds of software into
its operating system, Microsoft has liquidated whole areas of software
competition while increasing the Windows "tax" it collects on nearly every
personal computer sold.  The absorption of Explorer into Windows would
make its giveaway of "free"  Explorer software expensive for consumers
over the long term if history is a guide. 

The Department of Justice is emphasizing the monopoly aspects of
Microsoft's marketing of Internet Explorer, but the proposed
integration with Windows 98 should be cause to reopen the broader
issue of Microsoft's monopoly of the whole desktop operating
environment.  NetAction has called on the DOJ to push for Microsoft to
spin off its operating system as a separate company from its
applications and Internet divisions.

At its heart, however, the controversy over browser software is about the
most fundamental power issues of the information age -- who will control
the technical standards that underlie the Internet and who will control
Internet commerce for the new century. 

Microsoft's approach to giving browsers away is about controlling
Internet standards embedded in the browser not in order to win shares
in that "product" market but to sell to a whole slew of other market
areas through the raw exercise of the control of technical standards,
rather than through competition in those areas.

Dumping browsers on the market for free is not about gaining "market
share" in any traditional sense, but about controlling those standards and
the billions of dollars that will flow to the company that controls them.
If the dominant Internet browser is designed not to "read" a certain kind
of information -- a kind of graphics, software effect, etc. -- then web
page designers will be loathe to use that kind of information or
technology, while they will have to support software standards that are
compatible with the dominant browser. And if you are a software company
like Microsoft selling web servers and web design software, and are also
involved in an array of Internet commerce, you have an overriding interest
in controlling those Web standards. 

The Depa

correction

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

 In my latest post I referred to a paper by myself as 
being in the May 1975 issue of _Land Economics_.  That was 
the May 1995 issue.  Among other things I noted the large 
literature showing that many traditional societies handled 
problems of managing common property resources very well in 
contrast to the standard right-wing arguments about the 
"tragedy of the commons".  This point has actually been 
known since the 1975 article in _Natural Resources Journal_ 
by Richard Bishop and S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup.  There is now a 
burgeoning literature on this by people like Daniel 
Bromley and others, many of them noting that colonialism 
and European capitalism broke down these arrangements.  In 
many cases nationalization by post-colonial regimes did not 
improve matters and only led to continued overexploitation 
with control in the hands of corrupt urban elites.
Barkley Rosser

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Asian economic crisis & the US

[Rob Schaap]

G'day Penners,

I've just been reading *Business Week*'s (26/1) 'How to stop the currency
crisis and get Asia going again'.  Y'know, I don't think they can do it!
I'd love some comment on this (and shall offer mine as soon as I'm sure
they're not daft).

Here's the gist of it - in 9 phrases that may oversimplify the simplistic:

1. A New Team:  a task force of top private bankers, IMFers, accountants,
and G8 central bankers to design a region-wide solution.
2. Identify all hidden debts and all doomed firms.
3. 'short-term' punishing interest rates and currency floors.
4. Roll over the short-term debt of core banks in the region.  Issue bonds,
lengthen repayment schedules, governments (or even IMF) guaranteeing
interest payments, that sort of thing ...
5. Western banks swap debt for equity - everyone takes losses and it's got
to be quick.
6. More stabilisation funding - +/- $100 billion.
7.  Establish an Asian Reconstruction Fund to sell bad assets and speed up
private workouts to stregthen balance sheets.
8. A new regulatory authority to introduce uniform regional rules re.
disclosure, bankruptcy processes, supervision of banks, accounting
standards and securities laws.  Westerners train locals accordingly.
9. G8 nations, especially selfish ol' Japan, offer open markets and at
least growth maintenance.

Well, waddya reckon?

Cheers,
Rob.




Rob Schaap, Lecturer in Communication, University of Canberra, Australia.

Phone:  02-6201 2194  (BH)
Fax:02-6201 5119



'It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have
lightened the day's toil of any human being.'(John Stuart Mill)

"The separation of public works from the state, and their migration
into the domain of the works undertaken by capital itself, indicates
the degree to which the real community has constituted itself in
the form of capital."(Karl Marx)