Re: Lenin Quote
Can you please suggest some readings on the political economy approaches to the study of structural adjustment, world bank etc.? Raju J Das
Comment on "Jewish Art, Jewish Politics"
(posted originally on apst newsgroup) As both a Jewish artist and communist, I wanted to throw in a few words on Proyect's comments on the Jewish cultural and political scene. My band has performed on one of John Zorn's "Radical Jewish Culture" Festivals at the Knitting Factory. And in case anyone wants to romanticize the Knit, it is run by a typically scummy club owner (Jewish to boot), who happens to be a bit more hip than many of the other club owners in town. I think what Zorn is doing, and the revival of Klezmer music is a fine thing. However, Proyect romanticizes this cultural trend and the supposed political awakening among younger Jews that goes along with it. Another element of what is going on in this current is the revival of Yiddish and Yiddish art forms. Many of my arguments are based on Isaac Deutscher, so anyone interested should read "The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays." Deutscher noted that the Yiddish cultural movement in Poland was particularly tied in with working class political currents, particularly the Bund. He argued that any attempt to transplant that movement into the US would fail because the social conditions, particularly the segregation of Jews, were completely different than in Poland. Since Deutscher's time, this is even more true. One could argue that there was a social basis for a Jewish cultural movement in the '20s and '30s, because there was in fact a mass Jewish working class. However, social mobility has erased the working class base which the Bund, Forward and other Jewish leftist organizations were based on, leaving them with merely cultural projects - Jewish cult/nats, if you will. This is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Bund, so there is quite a bit of nostalgia. But it is merely that. For all its faults, the Bund was staunchly anti-Zionist. All the present-day Bundist types criticize the Zionists for is that they don't believe that Jews of the Diaspora have any role. They hardly ever level even tepid attacks on the policies of the Zionist state. If they do, it is only to support the "Labor" Party. Proyect says: >Perhaps the recent awakening in Jewish culture and the left-wing >politics of previous generations will reach a whole new generation of >Jews. The Israeli state has long ceased to act as a pole of >attraction. He is deluding himself. Zionism is as strong as ever. Even in the supposedly "progressive" Jewish milieu, it is still taboo to be staunchly anti-Zionist. If there is hope for younger radical Jews, it is in revolutionary Trotskyism and socialist revolution, not in some warmed-over revival of Bundism/Jewish cultural nationalism. Jeffrey Schanzer Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
RCN: Paramilitary group slaughters 21 people in Colombia
=== ...the paramilitaries accused all the population of being guerrilla collaborators, and warned the survivors to abandon the vicinity, therefore the people have begun to prepare to flee. _ === RCN- RADIO CADENA NACIONAL Tuesday, 5 May 1998 Paramilitary group slaughters 21 people in Meta As a result of a raid by a paramilitary group in Puerto Alvira, in the department of Meta, 21 people were slaughtered, 6 injured and 8 disappeared, according to statement released late today by the government secretary for the region, Narciso Eduardo Matus Diaz. The new massacre was initially made known by the priest of Puerto Alvira, Ernesto Diaz Junca, who communicated with the Red Cross to report that the arrival of the armed group had left "many dead". A commission of the Red Cross that arrived today at the settlement, that is accessible only by river or air, undertook a census of the victims, according a member of the mission. Jose Giraldo, Telecom operator in Puerto Alvira, confirmed to RCN that the victims found in the city were executed after they were gathered in the center of the settlement, and added that there are 8 people more whose fate is unknown. He added that the paramilitaries accused all the population of being guerrilla collaborators, and warned the survivors to abandon the vicinity, therefore the people have begun to prepare to flee. --- | Translated by Dennis Grammenos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | | with apologies for any shortcomings | _ *** * COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK: To subscribe to CSN-L send request to * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUB CSN-L Firstname Lastname * * (Direct questions or comments about CSN-L to [EMAIL PROTECTED]) * * Visit CSN's website http://www.igc.org/csn Read COLOMBIA BULLETIN * * For free copy and info contact CSN, P.O. Box 1505, Madison WI 53701 * * or call (608) 257-8753 fax: (608) 255-6621 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ***
knocking unions out of the initiative process (fwd)
Forwarded message: Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 14:12:56 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Bacon) Subject: knocking unions out of the initiative process PROPOSITION 226 WOULD KNOCK UNIONS OUT OF THE INITIATIVE PROCESS By David Bacon SAN FRANCISCO (5/4/98) -- Proposition 226, the Political Contributions by Employees initiative, might not spell the end for union participation in politics entirely, as some of its opponents fear. But it will have a very large impact on the initiative process itself. It will essentially end the ability of unions to use initiatives to raise the minimum wage, for instance, or to oppose measures like the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 or those favoring school vouchers. Proposition 226 will cut drastically the amount of money labor has available for politics, by requiring unions to get the signature of each member, every year, before any portion of their dues money can be spent on political action. Today, unions endorse candidates and adopt political programs for lobbying by indirect vote. Members elect their union's executive board every two or three years. They in turn decides by majority vote to make endorsements or support legislation. Those members who disagree with their union's actions can "opt out." Courts have upheld their ability to withhold that part of their dues which pays for political activity. Proposition 226 would reverse that process, requiring members to "opt in." In order to collect money for politics, unions would have to get permission from every member, every year, on every issue. The process would be so cumbersome and time-consuming that it would vastly reduce the money collected each year for political purposes. In the state of Washington, voters adopted a campaign reform initiative in 1994, Proposition 134, which had provisions similar to those of Proposition 226, but which applied only to public sector employees. After it passed, public employee unions were able to collect only 20% of the money they collected previously for political activity. If California unions were faced with the same reduction, union campaigners say the first thing to be eliminated would be the funding unions have provided over the last decade for initiatives affecting issues from immigration to the minimum wage, affirmative action and school funding. In 1996, for instance, California unions decided to try to raise the state's minimum wage, after it had been frozen at $4.25/hour for over a decade. They wrote and qualified Proposition 210. Other groups contributed to the effort as well, But of the $1.6 million which paid for collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures, and then for the campaign to win its passage, unions came up with about $1.25 million, according to Richard Holober, who ran the campaign for the state AFL-CIO. The opposition campaign spent about $1 million directly. In addition, the state Chamber of Commerce sponsored TV ads against "job killing" proposals, one of which targeted the minimum wage increase. Holober estimates the minimum wage ad alone cost $3-400,000, for a total exceeding that spent directly by labor. Hiking the minimum wage proved to be popular issue, and it won with 62% of six million votes cast. "But if our political action budget was cut by 80%, we wouldn't even have considered spending what it took to get 210 passed," Holober warns. Ironically, it's not union members who would have suffered, but the state's lowest-paid employees. Of the 2.1 million Californians receiving minimum wage, over 90% don't belong to unions. And when the wage floor went up to $5.75/hour this January, not everyone celebrated. Employers had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in higher wages, giving many of them a big interest in getting unions out of the political process. Other labor-backed initiatives over the past decade include Proposition 98, financed by teachers' unions, which required the state to devote a minimum percentage of its budget to schools. The state labor federation used the initiative process to reinstate funding for Cal-OSHA, after it was removed from the budget by then-Governor George Deukmejian. That one cost unions about $1.4 million. Labor dollars passed Proposition 162, which forced Governor Pete Wilson to stop raiding the Public Employee Retirement System, which funds the pensions of state workers. Not all labor efforts have been successful. Measures to introduce universal health care (Proposition 186) and to control HMO abuses (Propositions 214 and 216) were vastly outspent by corporations, and lost. Labor also weighed in on the hottest issues before California's electorate - immigration and affirmative action. Unions provided the majority of the funds that were used to oppose both Proposition 187, which barred schooling and
Re: BLS Daly Report
Is this article available electronically? If so, does anyone have a location for it? Thanks. Peter Dorman Richardson_D wrote: > > BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1998 > > Labor economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago say workers' > anxiety over job security, driven primarily by increasing rates of job > displacement, could be responsible for slowing the pace of wage growth > during the 1990s. The Fed article is "Displacement, Anxiety, and Their > Effect on Wage Growth," published in the Chicago Fed's "Economic > Perspectives" magazine The authors noted that rates of > displacement, based on data culled from the BLS Displaced Worker Survey, > have been increasing in recent years, despite a strong economy > (Daily Labor Report, page A-8).
BLS Daly Reportboundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BD786B.909C1A90"
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. -- =_NextPart_000_01BD786B.909C1A90 BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1998 RELEASED TODAY: In February 1998, there were 969 mass layoff actions by employers as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 81,381 persons. Both the number of layoff events and initial claimants for unemployment insurance were higher than in February 1997 Labor economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago say workers' anxiety over job security, driven primarily by increasing rates of job displacement, could be responsible for slowing the pace of wage growth during the 1990s. The Fed article is "Displacement, Anxiety, and Their Effect on Wage Growth," published in the Chicago Fed's "Economic Perspectives" magazine The authors noted that rates of displacement, based on data culled from the BLS Displaced Worker Survey, have been increasing in recent years, despite a strong economy (Daily Labor Report, page A-8). A poll of more than 2,120 graduating seniors found medical insurance and pension plans ranking as the most important job benefits. Next in the National Association of Colleges and Employers survey were yearly salary raises and dental and life insurance (Wall Street Journal, "Work Week," page A1). In the current boom, some time-tested economic tenets are turning out not to be true, writes Sylvia Nasar in "Unlearning the Lessons of Econ 101" (New York Times, May 3, page 1 of "Week in Review") Nasar gives five economic principles -- some called laws, others merely rules of thumb -- that seem to have broken down: Low unemployment = high inflation, shrinking deficits = slower growth, rapid money growth = higher inflation, world growth = higher oil prices, and stock prices = earnings expectations DUE OUT TOMORROW: Multifactor Productivity Trends, 1995 and 1996 -- =_NextPart_000_01BD786B.909C1A90 b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQWAAwAOzgcFAAUAEQAbAgANAQEggAMADgAAAM4HBQAF ABEAFAABAAIABwEBCYABACEAAABEMTZBMjFDMjBFRTREMTExODg4RTAwMjBBRjlDMDMwOAAGBwEE TopseL0BHgBwAAEQQkxTIERhbHkgUmVwb3J0AAIBcQABFgG9eGtLacIhatLk DhHRiI4AIK+cAwgAAB4AMUABDQAAAFJJQ0hBUkRTT05fRAADABpAAB4AMEAB AAoBDwIVAqQD5AXrAoMAUBMDVAIAY2gKwHNldG4yBgAGwwKDMgPFAgBw3HJxEiAHEwKAfQqACM8f CdkCgAqBDbELYG5nMTgwMzMK+xLyAdAgQoJMBfBEQUlMWQfwAEVQT1JULCBUqFVFUxjAWRmATRnw hCA1GYAxOTk4CoUDCoUZIExFQVNFREUZkE8Z4TogSQOgRtBlYnJ1CsB5GpMZgER0aASQZSB3HgI5 ODY5IADABBELYHlvZQ3QIADQdGkCIAQgYskdYGVtC1BveQSQBCB7HuAewGUe4AhwCYAgAm7tB9Fm AxALgGcEIAIQBcDedSHQIFMHgAIwIAuAIUE1AHBjHiBiCfANwGl0fQQgZAhxFuAd0h7AAiFo0C4g IEUA0GgfhSORqnYG8HYhcWEFQGwhIfUFQDUYYHAgoR/SA1IfgP4gAJAW4CeAIDAnsAGgIjB8c2gj UhmAAHAhgCVCbnZ1BtAEkCAfUB4wBbBrcyCiJsd0bwGQJ4AhgDi4MSwzLRAoBiXRQiyg9yYwKqwf JWUnEAIwIMEqcecLgCSQBzEgYwthA4EkoccinyOoHkNoaWcd8R3R5wORC4Ac6zcuNVEl4Brs7kwB oAWxBZFuA3AEACSh3wPwLkUc8ASBMMFSB5AEkFcnEBhwAHBrK0JDM5BjuGFnbyjwHzArdicqUWp4 CJB0HWBvJxAFwGp8b2Io8AWQCHE7UBmAZL8FEC/RKAAFEADABRBsHWC/IBELgAUAISElAiPgdAeR +ytRO9JkBAALUSQQKgQFoHx1bCGBHiAVMD+QH9Fp9wJgHiAxknMUwAPwJRUKsP8kEStSOfAeIAnA QgAuQSTZ9RqhMC3iVDgEH4AAIDnQoylBBAAgIkQ/i0E7FOsqREURaQXARQ3QBZAFQJUmkVdDMkdD gywiKAB+dSmzIXE0USVCObY4MSfFRiFFNwRjIFAgoSgQGx+hJxBzScAAwGdhes0LgGU1VEUSYXUd 4AWwfwQgNyA+wCqCJ1E+pz98Ynce4CFxJpFkJ1Ao4DwwbL8s0iiTJUIYgz+FIYBXK5P/BgAIcCcQ PIERwDkBJEA88f89+TRRFTAkECNxIJAR0TyR70DxJJBOUSjwdANgJRE29PJ5NVQoRAtwPZE2lDiw H0EQACAZgAqwQ0FBLTj0KS4a7EEoAAbwAyArUccEYB4RNAMyLDEYUQnA/mEk0CdQJQIR8AMATrIC EP8x0CGAB4A/cDngAyAjqCpivygQAIEmkQtRBjEj4WslAv8g4SVEJ7EHcFnyMUE7wyRG2yXRB8B4 I4IlM05dwQIg5TDBb2MHMCZzOYLtXAFlQ0AwFEUgVyFBVHH/HjRWsj2ROjALYB1RI+AEAP9m tQ2wAjAwwSpiIjBIgCOYd1ilSQBcEVNX0AngBUBKdwhhZSEZgCJT0kjwCeBr+0myWmMxWt4cwSVC PDEVMP8jcQbgA3AZgChAB4Ad0Adx/i0+wU8SNvVMUD7AIdAwAv9ckmzxJQIIYAVATvEsgUCi91fQ ClAZgHc8UQeRBrAnAB8HMGTBOjAFwDRRIlVu9yeBc2QlQkwHkChDK1FL4qkakDAxScAoB8JZbYL3 B2MaETpBM1o1LWArUW1g323RNEI4sHWgB9AiWtA1Y/115GdM8iIBOQFyBz0hJADnBSAngAQgLS1w 5F9BLNL9C2B3VvEuMSCiB4AVMD2R/x0gfmIrUR3gKvF+kk9TEfB/IEB0MlTEA2ArsFGBQgBu7Ryg TEIAMcw9M4MjkRax+x+ycNFoJPFhcw2xOdAkkv+E8EHiKyFDdBmAI+BXUF7h/wIgaAFDdYT0KyGF aSuBQIH9iR5vAxE9ISQQVvEqYiew/2WQOWCMZIThdrUEIGQgTLJfZOMt4DVjj6Ea7EQZsCAoT1VU HEFNGVBST9pXHKBNQHAfsGYfkQWxflADYCTQTNI8YRmQcEFk21bxGqE1KlMaoTYKjxfoC5TVFFEA lzADAPE/CQQAAAMA/T/kBwAmAAADADYAAAIBRwABMGM9VVM7YT0g O3A9QkxTO2w9RENQQ1NNQUlMMS05ODA1MDUyMTI3MDBaLTEzMDY5AB4AOEABDQAAAFJJQ0hB UkRTT05fRAAeADlAAQ0AAABSSUNIQVJEU09OX0QAQAAHMHDGTIpseL0BQAAIMJAa nJBreL0BHgA9AAEBAB4AHQ4BEEJMUyBEYWx5IFJlcG9ydAAeADUQAQAA c2IuYmxzLmdvdj4ACwApAAALACMAAAMABhBbPx/VAwAHECsGAAADABAQAAMAERAA HgAIEAEAAABlQkxTREFJTFlSRVBPUlQsVFVFU0RBWSxNQVk1LDE5OThSRUxFQVNFRFRP REFZOklORkVCUlVBUlkxOTk4LFRIRVJFV0VSRTk2OU1BU1NMQVlPRkZBQ1RJT05TQllFTVBMT1lF
Re: Lenin Quote: Thanks!!!
The concept of "animal spirits" goes back at least to Descartes and has had a long and tangled history as to how it got to Keynes. Barkley Rosser On Tue, 5 May 1998 15:52:11 EDT Jay Hecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks to all those that set me straight on the Keynes' "Lenin Quote." > > BTW, I am fairly certain that JMK got the phrase "animal spirits" from Marx!! > > Thanks again, > > Jason -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Ganja III
valis writes: >I don't think you've gotten a good look at the enemy, from the drug cops >on up: I've seen higher forms of life crawling on shithouse walls. >You can have visions of Gandhian masses shaming courtly Etonian Brits into >capitulation if you want, but this is America, trump card of the globalizers, >and I know that quite a wicked demolition derby will necessarily precede >whatever you (or I) would prefer to see. I don't deny that the "drug warriors" are slime. But it's good politics to have as deep and as wide a movement to confront them before violence is necessary. The alternative is to have types who use violence "in the the name of the workers" or "in the name of the people" without being accountable to the workers or the people. (Unfortunately, violent people often get attracted to violent campaigns -- not because of the goals as much as the means.) Sometimes this stuff is necessary (e.g., El Salavador) but it should be delayed as much as we can. The bad guys have more guns than we do (plus all sorts of wonderful explosives and gasses) and can only be defeated by mass strikes and the like. When they find that killing workers is much the same as sabotaging their own economy and society, their firepower stops being effective. The ideal image burned into my brain is not of Gandhi as much as William Morris, "How the Change Came" in NEWS FROM NOWHERE. Plus a lot of real-world history... in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
Re: Is Socialism Dead? - a reply
At 11:32 AM 5/5/98 -0400, Lou Proyect quoted: >Socialism's Dead by Roger Burbach > >(Reprinted from the November/December 1997 issue of NACLA Report on the >Americas. For subscription information, email NACLA at [EMAIL PROTECTED]) > >Twentieth century socialism is moribund. -- snip >My general thesis is that twentieth century socialism has been defeated >for two contradictory reasons. In those socialist experiments that were >the most democratic, like Chile from 1970 to 1973, the United States was >able to exploit relatively open political and economic processes to >destroy them from within. On the other hand, in those centralized and >verticalist socialist projects such as Cuba, the lack of authentic >democratic processes weakened their popular support and led to the >implementation of inefficient state-dominated economies. This provided >grist for the ongoing U.S. ideological campaign against Communism and >socialism. I disagree. Undeniably, the processes described above are real, but I do not see them as the main root causes for the 'demise of socialism' meaning the electoral defeat of parties labeled as socialist. My own view of the 'death of the 20th century socialism' is that in actuality the '20th century socialism' consists of two very much different animals forced to dwell under a single label. One of those animals died of the old age, the other one moved to new pastures, so the dwelling labeled 'socialism' is now empty. The animal that died of the old age is the nostalgic longing for social solidarity that existed in pre-industrial peasant society -- which capitalist industrialization destroyed. That longing gave the momentum to such 'abominations' as utopian socialism advocating alternatives to, or escapes from capitalist industrialization to idyllic comunes. Needless to add that Marx blasted those sentiments as escapist. I am pretty sure that he would say the same thing about many 'alternative' or local projects Roger Burbach mentiones in his article, but that needs to be examined more carefully. The animal the moved to the greener pastures is the legitimation of the managerial rule in the industry, or managerial ideology. The spiel about efficiency migght be appealing to the woners or stockholders, but it is hardly appealing to the toiling masses, that neurotic idiot Frederic Winslow Taylor notwithstanding. The captains of industry needed a secular religion that would explain to the masses the necessity of the austerity measures imposed by the industrilization, and also tell them that their fate is in good managerial hands that well represents the masses. Hence the '20th century socialism' was born that combined rapid development of national industry, populism, the vanguard party, central planning, and socialist eschatology of building peasant-worker heaven on earth. It is not a coincidence that this form of socialism found its greatest support in predominantly agrarian societies of Eastern Europe and Latin America. It essentially promised the extension of the peasant values, solidarity and populism into the industrial era. It was the history repeating itself as farce Marx is talking about in _ 18 brummaire_ -- and old social symbols and forms transferred to a new socio-economic reality. It was transfered quiote deliberately by the new managerial class as a form of identity politics. Peasants-turned-workers felt familair with it as an extension of their old cultural values, and it gave the legitimacy to the new managerial elite. The fake populism engineered from above: peasant culture, peasant dances, peasant festivals, peasant solidarity thriving in factories (better known as informal networks or shadow economy) -- this was all identity politics, a populist farce created by the managerial elite to appease the masses and legimize the government policies. That conslusion is difficult to miss for someone who, like myself, grew up in Eastern Europe and eyewitnessed all that crap. For those who had the misfortune of being born on this side of the big pond, I suggest the novel titled _The Joke_ by Milan Kundera - the unabridged version (warning: there is a lot of sexist stuff there). Kundera's description of the interplay between culture and power in Czechoslovakia is brilliant. So as the peasants-turned workers moved to the higher echelons of the 'socialist' society, thanks to the generous policies of providing accessible education to everyone, they and even more so their children were not peasants anymore, and the nostalgia for the old time peasant communitarianism started dying. In this context, it is difficult to miss another Marx's observation that a mode of production (central planning) sowing the seeds of its own destruction. So as the appeal of nostaligic communitarianism died of natural causes, the other animal living in the same barn, the managerial ideology, moved to greener pastures -- the rationalist mythologies of freedom and choice imbuded by th
Re: The trance on campus
Ellen, Obviously you were not at San Francisco State University in the Sixties, or the University of Wisconsin, or Kent State, or Jackson State, or any number of other junior and state colleges where the majority of college-bound working class kids went. You may have spent too much time at Wellesley. In solidarity, Michael At 09:17 AM 5/4/98 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Maggie Coleman's comment that her student's come from upper-middle class, >if not wealthy, families, is telling. When people talk about student >apathy today, they're generally comparing the Harvard's and Yale's of the >sixties to the Harvards and Yales of the nineties. Students at >community colleges and state colleges were never terribly engaged >in protests, since they were likely to work --even 30 years ago. > >So what's changed at the Ivies and other private liberal arts type schools? >Well, the real cost of attending these places has soared; needs-blind >admission policies have been curtailed or eliminated. So the proifle of >the student body is increasingly upper-crust. The Harvards and Wellesleys >and Princetons and Penns, after a brief (and disastrous)flirtation with >meriticratic admissions in the 1960s, have reverted to their original >function -- to educate the children of the ruling class to rule the >capitalist economy. > >When I taught at Wellesley College, I was explaining the term >"discouraged worker" and a student asked me how the BLS counts >people who recieve money from a corporation but don't actually >work for it. "You mean like a shareholder?" I asked. "Well, yeah, I guess >so," she says. "Would they be considered unemployed?" > > > Ellen Frank > >
Re: Query: Kim Moody
Friends, Kim Moody can be reached at Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 48210. Phone: 313-842-6262. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] michael yates Thomas Kruse wrote: > Dear PEN-Lers: > > Anyone have an email (or regular mail) address for Kim Moody? Much appreciated. > > Tom > > Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia > Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Lenin Quote
I had written: >> IMHO, the complete Marxist theory of inflation would see inflation as reflecting societal conflicts (cf. Burdekin and Burkett). << Patrick asks: >Jim, what about a theory of inflation that takes as a starting point the overaccumulation tendency, the displacement of crisis into the sphere of credit, and the role of inflation as a form of devalorisation of overaccumulated financial K? When US banks were relatively weak during the 1970s (compared to today), wasn't that the basis of "societal conflict" (personified by G.William Miller at the Fed, later to be replaced by Volcker)?< right. The societal conflict aspect is mostly about how inflation persists. It shouldn't be seen as the whole story, especially since we need an explanation of why and how societal conflict goes from being latent to being manifest. (It's a mistake to see capitalism as _nothing but_ conflict.) But I don't have the time to limn the whole story today... Among other things, the story of how conflictual inflation works in conjunction with other factors has to be specific. BTW, one of the best stories of conflictual inflation is in Albert Hirshman's article on inflation in Chile in his JOURNEYS TOWARD PROGRESS. He sees hyperinflation as a substitute for overt civil war. >Same line of argument for the roots of currency devaluations? ditto. happy Karl Marx's birthday & Cinco de Mayo, too! in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
RE: Jewish art, Jewish politics
At 06:12 PM 5/4/98 -0400, Max Sawicky wrote: >> . . . >among Jews today. Secularist Judaism in mixed marriages >looks to be a one-generational affair. I don't see the kids >I know of in such marriages turning out Jewish in hardly any >respects. My hunch is they will look at us as lovable but quaint. >They'll remember our jokes. Well, I guess my father would belong to this category -- although the only identity he espoused for his entire adult life was that of agnostic hard-nosed self-made technocrat pulling himself by his boot starps. But in the pandemonium of today's identity politics characters, that is a rather positive trait. But the Yiddish culture is having a nostalgic comeback in Poland. Klezmer is getting hip in the bohemian circles, and one of the hippest cafe's in my 'old world' college town (Lublin) is styled after a place in an Isaak Bashevis Singer novel, and regularly features a Klezmer band. regards Wojtek Sokolowski
Re: Lenin Quote
> IMHO, the complete Marxist theory of inflation would see inflation as > reflecting societal conflicts (cf. Burdekin and Burkett). > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & > http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html Jim, what about a theory of inflation that takes as a starting point the overaccumulation tendency, the displacement of crisis into the sphere of credit, and the role of inflation as a form of devalorisation of overaccumulated financial K? When US banks were relatively weak during the 1970s (compared to today), wasn't that the basis of "societal conflict" (personified by G.William Miller at the Fed, later to be replaced by Volcker)? Same line of argument for the roots of currency devaluations?
Query: Kim Moody
Dear PEN-Lers: Anyone have an email (or regular mail) address for Kim Moody? Much appreciated. Tom Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: The Karl Marx Question
> I would like to get some information on the following: > > the literature on the critical studies -- preferably from a political-economy > standpoint -- of World Bank and IMF policies in the Third World in general > and in India and the Caribbean in particular. > > Raju J Das
Remembering the prophet from Trier
** || | /\ | || |_ | || |_| | | \ |__| / | | _ \ CAPITAL / _ | | $$$ | || | HAPPY 180th BIRTHDAY, KARL!! MAY 5, 1818-1998 | |...and many increasingly relevant returns of the day. | || WW To the standard celebratory boilerplate I've added more than just the turn of the year, for there has been a massive turn of the screw worldwide as well in the past year. Particularly poignant is the ongoing ordeal of the Russians, as they continue to suffer and die like flies, bereft of whatever supports a highly flawed attempt at socialism nevertheless accorded them. A few weeks ago an acquaintance asked (so assertively that it was no longer really a question), "Isn't he (Marx) just your Jesus?" I replied, "When have I belabored you with him in that tedious way, or treated his name as though it had some intrinsic magical power?" He conceded these and other points of rebuttal I made, but he still has not opened the Manifesto to the first page, fearing plague. The real plague, the global race to the bottom, has yet to touch him personally. Happy trails, partner! valis
Social movement against Indian dam (endorse, please!)
Comrades, You regularly get mail asking for a quick read and endorsement. Can I appeal to you to take this one seriously, as many thousands of people are today putting their lives on the line for social and environmental justice in India, and your signature below -- as an individual even -- can amplify their efforts in the international fora where these struggles often get decided. In the event you haven't seen anything about the Save the Narmada movement, this will inspire you. Since on Pen-L there has been interesting debate about the merits of the LM-linked movie Against Nature, and since that film described opposition to the Narmada dams as essentially coordinated from the offices of Northern environmental groups, the documentation here of extraordinary mass mobilisations -- particularly led by women farmers -- helps to set a crucial record straight. We had a seminar earlier this year in Johannesburg about this movement, and it helped to stir up terrific energy and opposition to massive, unnecessary World Bank funded dams in Southern Africa. The Save the Narmada movement is one of the world's finest, at present. Please do give this a look-over and send a note of support to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks much! Patrick Bond --- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 14:14:01 -0800 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Patrick McCully) Subject: Reminder: Maheshwar Declaration Endorsements To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] NB The deadline for endorsements is this Thursday. List of endorsements received by Monday May 3 is appended at end of message. A translation of the Declaration in German and summary in Spanish are available. PLEASE ENDORSE THIS DECLARATION! International Rivers Network and Narmada Bachao Andolan/Save the Narmada Movement have prepared the following declaration on Maheshwar Dam. The declaration will be addressed to all Indian and foreign public and private sector bodies supporting the project. We are seeking endorsements to the declaration from groups in India and around the world. If you are able to add your endorsement please send us your name and institutional affiliation by Thursday, May 7. Please reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The NBA is currently working on raising awareness and support within India for the Maheshwar struggle and are planning their next mass action at the dam site. THANK YOU! - DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PROMISED SUSPENSION OF CONSTRUCTION ON THE MAHESHWAR DAM, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA NOTING THAT: 1. Maheshwar Dam would submerge 5000 hectares of land, displacing 2200 families and harming the livelihoods of thousands more. Families whose land has been seized have received inadequate - and illegal - levels of compensation. No resettlement plan exists. Local people have opposed the seizure of their land and have requested the Narmada Bachao Andolan/Save the Narmada Movement (NBA) to join them in their struggle to defend their rights. 2. Following a year-long struggle, the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) on January 30, 1998, issued a written order announcing that it would suspend construction on the dam pending a comprehensive review of its costs, benefits and alternatives. This announcement met the demands of the NBA who called off a dam-site occupation by thousands of local people and a hunger strike. A Task Force previously established to review the Narmada Valley Development Project, and including representatives from the GoMP, NBA and academia, has been directed to carry out this review. 3. At a special meeting of the Task Force on March, 4, 1998, the project developer, S.Kumars, urged to be allowed to restart construction at Maheshwar for "safety purposes". The NBA opposed this request believing that it is a ruse to allow work to continue and thus reassure investors that the project will not be significantly delayed. However on March, 11, 1998, GoMP issued a notification allowing "any work for the purposes of safety and resettlement". 4. In early April, S.Kumars restarted work, including blasting, at Maheshwar under protection of a force of around 1500 police and prohibitory orders banning protestors from the dam site. On April 22, several thousand people recaptured the dam site. Police arrested hundreds of villagers and prevented drinking water tankers from reaching the protestors despite the 42 degree centigrade heat and lack of shelter, forcing people to drink oil-contaminated river water. In the evening police arrested those remaining at the site, bringing the total of the day's arrests to around 1200. 5. The following day, hundreds more people dodged police barricades and once again took over the site. The police, without warning or provocation, reacted with brutality, repeatedly beating the peaceful protestors with batons an
RE: Jewish art, Jewish politics
One other consideration on this question of Jews who have "made it" and forgotten their humble roots, as Max alluded to yesterday. At the risk of sounding like an economic determinist, it is important to take note of the fact that recent college graduates--including Jews--don't have a red carpet into the job world like they did when Max and I were young. I ran into a guy named David Strauss at the Knitting Factory event, who I had sold a bunch of phonograph records to a year ago. He is a youngish graduate of Bard College, my alma mater, who is trying to carve out a career as a freelance writer. He is an occasional contributor to Salon and the New York Observer. He, like many young aspiring artists and writers in their twenties, have a tough time making ends meet. 25 years ago you could work as a welfare worker or a teacher and write on the side. These kinds of jobs have dried up and the corporate jobs simply don't exist for liberal arts grads like him. In 1968, I went to work as a programmer trainee after short stints with the welfare dept. and the board of ed. The Jews of this generation of 20 somethings don't regard American society as a cornocupia, nor do they regard the state of Israel as "socialist" as I did when I first came around the radical movement in 1967. They tend to be rather cynical about left politics, but just as cynical about bourgeois society. I ran into David again last night at a critic's screening of Ken Loach's horrid movie on Nicaragua "Carla's Song" (more about that later). I got into a conversation with him about the research I had been doing on the American Indian and specifically tried to get him to understand the mascot question from the point of view of a Jew living in Germany in 1952 who was confronted by soccer teams called the Hamburg Jewboys. He shrugged his shoulders, grinned and said, "I am too much of a postmodernist to let things like that bother me. I'd just make a joke about the whole thing." What a revelation. In that instant I understood the difference in sensibility that divided me from this generation. Louis Proyect Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
Lenin Quote: Thanks!!!
Thanks to all those that set me straight on the Keynes' "Lenin Quote." BTW, I am fairly certain that JMK got the phrase "animal spirits" from Marx!! Thanks again, Jason
Re: BLS Daily Report
Does anyone believe this. Gingrich's friend, Richard Berman, just won't quit. Richardson_D wrote: > BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1998 > > More than 146,000 jobs were eliminated in the restaurant industry as a > result of the minimum wage increases in 1996 and 1997, the National > Restaurant Association says. Restaurant operators also postponed hiring > 106,000 employees as a result of the increase in the minimum wage from > $4.25 to $5.15 an hour, the association said. Employees most affected > by the job losses were cooks, according to the research The > findings are based on interviews with 1,001 restaurant owners and > managers nationwide, conducted for the NRA by International > Communications Research, Media, Pa. (Daily Labor Report, page A4). -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Rental Housing Assistance report -Reply
John, you are essentially correct regarding the torrid rental market in the Bay Area. Job growth is outstripping housing supply here, and really has (statistically speaking) since the 1970s. This is compounded in Berkeley (where I work as a housing planner) by the state legislature's pre-emption of strong rent control (vacancy control on rental units) in 1996. Landlords are finding that if their units come vacant they can jack up the rents on vacant units 15 percent a year through 1998 in compliance with state law; after January 1, 1999, they can seek "market" rent. In terms of housing programs, this means that the Section 8 program is having great difficulties retaining landlords and finding new ones for Section 8 tenants (whose incomes are at or below 50 percent of the area median income - $22,150 for one person, $25,300 for two people, etc.). Landlords can do better in this housing market renting to college students and can afford to skip Section 8. Under strong rent control here, the situation was the reverse (because Section 8 units were exempt from rent control). This has directly led to a decline in "low rent units." Perhaps not a decline in absolute numbers of units, but in the number of units rentable at a given price, this is definitely the case. Using Rent Board data for our recent draft homeless housing and services plan, we figured out here that there were some 10,000 rental units in Berkeley in 1990 renting at or below $400; 6 years later (1996), there were 1,300 such units. The fact that the federal government has reduced to a trickle the supply of new public housing units and Section 8 certificates or vouchers means that there is very little new assistance out there for folks who could really use it to stay afloat (bad El Nino joke there). This trend was begun by Reagan, and has been continued by the Republican congress (and a lack of real passion for urban policy from the Clintonians). Berkeley has a rental removal ordinance that prohibits removal of housing units in town; but other communities in the Bay Area rezone residential housing and land in response to non-residential development pressures (read: "fiscalization of land use" in the wake of prop 13) and then demolish housing (often apartments) to make way for jobs that increase the traffic on the region's freeways because people have to live 80 to 100 miles away in order to own housing, etc. The processes you've identified compound this exurban trend in northern California (including the Sacramento region). I haven't heard that the housing market has cooled at all resulting from the "Asian flu," especially if the San Francisco Examiner is to be believed. I tend to think it would cool nearly overnight if Greenspan and the FOMC raise the prime rate anytime soon. I leave it to others to read those tea leaves. Cheers, Tim Stroshane
BLS Daily Reportboundary="---- =_NextPart_000_01BD7853.2BB0D5E0"
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. -- =_NextPart_000_01BD7853.2BB0D5E0 charset="iso-8859-1" BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1998 A peek into Washington paychecks -- The average hourly wage for all employees in the region, as of February 1997, was $16.29 Now comes a survey of wages paid by Washington area employers, the first ever collected by BLS, to satisfy salary curiosity -- at least in a general way In this survey, lawyers top the list (Washington Post, "Washington Business" section, page 37). Economic activity in the manufacturing sector grew at a slower pace in April, compared with March, as the Asian economic crisis began taking its toll, the National Association of Purchasing Management reports. Exports acted as a drag on manufacturing activity in April, although the purchasing managers' index indicated continued growth in the manufacturing sector (Daily Labor Report, page A-1; Washington Post, May 2, page E1; New York Times, May 2, page B2)_Manufacturing growth eased a bit in April, but new orders continued at a healthy clip, indicating that the slowdown was more of a pause than a halt (Wall Street Journal, page A2). More than 146,000 jobs were eliminated in the restaurant industry as a result of the minimum wage increases in 1996 and 1997, the National Restaurant Association says. Restaurant operators also postponed hiring 106,000 employees as a result of the increase in the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour, the association said. Employees most affected by the job losses were cooks, according to the research The findings are based on interviews with 1,001 restaurant owners and managers nationwide, conducted for the NRA by International Communications Research, Media, Pa. (Daily Labor Report, page A4). Construction spending in March edged down 0.5 percent, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, the Census Bureau reports First-quarter construction spending represents a 5.2 percent gain over the same three-month period in 1997 (Daily Labor Report, page A-5; New York Times, May 2, page B2). Americans' personal income rose just 0.3 percent in March, half that of the previous month, while spending increased 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department reports (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; New York Times, May 2, page B2). In a world where nearly every American who wants a job has one, why aren't workers getting bigger raises and forcing companies to raise their prices as happened so many times in the past? In a word, the answer is productivity. The evidence is now overwhelming that U.S. businesses are continuing to find ways to get more output from their workers, their machines, and their technology, long after the initial wave of downsizing and cost-cutting. Redesigning products to make them cheaper to produce, reengineering processes to take out unnecessary costs - such activities have become a permanent focus of Corporate America, imposed by a competitive marketplace and encouraged through compensation programs at all levels of the company. At the same time, as a result of outsourcing and a wave of corporate mergers, more and more economic activity is being shifted out of inefficient firms ... and into the hands of large, specialized companies that have figure out the best way to do things and can take advantage of the economies of scale (Washington Post, May 2, page A1). The Wall Street Journal's feature "Tracking the Economy" (page A2) forecasts that the April unemployment rate will be the same as March's, 4.7 percent, when it comes out on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls are predicted to increase by 275,000. Nonfarm productivity for the first quarter, due out Thursday, will be unchanged, after rising 1.6 percent in the previous quarter. DUE OUT TOMORROW: Mass Layoffs in February 1998 -- =_NextPart_000_01BD7853.2BB0D5E0 b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQWAAwAOzgcFAAUADgAgABcAAgAmAQEggAMADgAAAM4HBQAF gAEAEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAkAUBDYAEAAICAAIAAQOQBgA8DAAAHEAAOQCQ jC0lVHi9AR4AcAABEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAAgFxAAEWAb14UufT wiFqv+QOEdGIjgAgr5wDCAAAHgAxQAENUklDSEFSRFNPTl9EAAMAGkAAHgAw QAENUklDSEFSRFNPTl9EAAMAGUAAAgEJEAEAAAB8CQAAeAkAABsQAABMWkZ1 JTQXk/8ACgEPAhUCpAPkBesCgwBQEwNUAgBjaArAc2V0bjIGAAbDAoMyA8UCAHDccnESIAcTAoB9 CoAIz8UJ2TsVLzI1NQKACoEDDbELYG5nMTAzM0cK+xLyAdAgQkwF8EQQQUlMWQfwRVBPSFJULAXQ T04aEFkTGtEbMCA0GtAxOTlGOAqFCoVBIHAJ4GsCIAuAdG8gV2FzumgLgGcdkAOgCrB5EbCFBZBr BCAtLSBUHrBIIGF2BJBhZx9gaOEIYWx5IHcfwgIQBcCTB0ADIGVtC1BveQngMwQgC4AgdB9RFTBn aQcCIBrQHdAgb2YgRnBlYnJ1CsAgUBvhNwca0CBwBCAkMTYuMtQ5LiTBIAewbwfgBaDxB4JhIHMI cB+QIFAjAYcgcgQgCrBpZCBiIFD7HckKwGUlwCFFEeAa0CIS7GZpEeAFQGUfkSVRIRB9BZB0CYAn IhnRKPEdoHP0YXQEAGYgUCtQC2AjkepjCHFvAJB0IFAfEStgfiAqMB3QBUAh4SXAH9Bu1x+hAyAg cHkkxEkh8gQAtyXVGtALYHcosisRcCIDqmwEAHQkxCgdyVAsgMp0GtAiHclCdQCQLhB9BBAiJdAq QSKDCrAf
CHIQUITA BANANA EXPOSE
I encourage netters to visit Cincinnati Enquirer's webpage where that newspaper has an 18-page expose on Chiquita Banana (used to be United Fruit Company). The address is: http://enquirer.com/chiquita/index.html Solidarity, Dennis Grammenos Urbana, Illinois *** * COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK: To subscribe to CSN-L send request to * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUB CSN-L Firstname Lastname * * (Direct questions or comments about CSN-L to [EMAIL PROTECTED]) * * Visit CSN's website http://www.igc.org/csn Read COLOMBIA BULLETIN * * For free copy and info contact CSN, P.O. Box 1505, Madison WI 53701 * * or call (608) 257-8753 fax: (608) 255-6621 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ***
Re: Ganja III
Quoth Jim D: > valis, who are you kidding? do you really think that "propaganda of the > deed" (to use the old anarchist phrase) works? do you think that the media > couldn't easily put a reactionary spin on the sabotage of a TV relay tower, > especially since McVeigh is/was a reactionary of the worst sort? valis, old > buddy, your conception of politics sounds like it hasn't progressed much > since the Weatherman "days of rage." Thanks for the lecture, Jim, but none of that mapping applies. I wasn't into political violence back then and I don't consider McVeigh to be a reactionary, just a swindled working class boy who unaccountably failed to bump into the right academic Marxist in time. > Unfortunately, it's not individual acts of violence that change history for > the better. It's mass movements like the civil rights movement or the > anti-war movement (to name two). No -- change the word at the start of this > paragraph to "fortunately." If people like the Unabomber could have a big > impact by sending letter bombs, you'd have everybody doing it. The > "freedom" would be more of a Hobbesian war than socialism, a dictatorship > of the violent rather than a democracy of the proletariat. I don't think you've gotten a good look at the enemy, from the drug cops on up: I've seen higher forms of life crawling on shithouse walls. You can have visions of Gandhian masses shaming courtly Etonian Brits into capitulation if you want, but this is America, trump card of the globalizers, and I know that quite a wicked demolition derby will necessarily precede whatever you (or I) would prefer to see. valis "I didn't just screw Ho Chi Minh. I cut his pecker off." -- LBJ to reporters (August 5, 1964)
Re: Ganja II
In a message dated 98-05-05 00:14:59 EDT, Jim Devine writes in response to Valis: << do you really think that "propaganda of the deed" (to use the old anarchist phrase) works? do you think that the media couldn't easily put a reactionary spin on the sabotage of a TV relay tower, especially since McVeigh is/was a reactionary of the worst sort ?>> I agree with Jim -- for example, The Unabomber targeted corporate heads and upper class technocrats, people whom the generalized an amorphous left has been critical of in many respects. Yet these actions of a single individual had not progressive impact that I can see. I think there is a huge difference between the violence of a mass movement in reaction to violence from a reactionary state or in pursuit of self-protection, and the violence of individual mavericks without the political grounding of a movement. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Query: Kim Moody
Kim Moody is the Director of Labor Notes. You might reach him there. The e-mail there is [EMAIL PROTECTED] and the editorial e-mail is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Gene Coyle >Dear PEN-Lers: > >Anyone have an email (or regular mail) address for Kim Moody? Much >appreciated. > >Tom > >Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia >Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Is Socialism Dead?
Socialism's Dead by Roger Burbach (Reprinted from the November/December 1997 issue of NACLA Report on the Americas. For subscription information, email NACLA at [EMAIL PROTECTED]) Twentieth century socialism is moribund. In the Americas, socialist- oriented movements were dealt severe blows by the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, the general impasse of Central American revolutionary movements, and the crisis of Cuban Communism with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Radical grassroots movements, as Judith Hellman noted in a previous anniversary essay, have by no means disappeared in the Americas, but those that enunciate socialist goals are few and far between.1 Can socialism be reborn? And if so, what might it look like? Over the years NACLA has played a critical role in reporting and analyzing the four major socialist or neo-socialist experiences in the Americas-Cuba, Chile, Grenada and Nicaragua. The latter two were not self-proclaimed socialist experiments, but the processes were anti-imperialist and the governments enacted policies designed to alleviate or eliminate economic and social inequalities. Moreover, the dominant political parties of these two revolutions-the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the New Jewel Party-were powerfully imbued with socialist concepts and ideals. The reasons for the failure or demise of each of these experiences are varied, although if there is one overriding cause it is that U.S. imperialism proved to be very flexible and adaptive, developing a variety of interventionary strategies in the economic, social and political spheres. Interestingly, it was not direct U.S. military intervention that defeated them. The 1961 invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs was an abysmal failure and led to the consolidation of Cuban socialism, while the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 came only after the revolutionary movement had self-destructed and executed its own leaders. My general thesis is that twentieth century socialism has been defeated for two contradictory reasons. In those socialist experiments that were the most democratic, like Chile from 1970 to 1973, the United States was able to exploit relatively open political and economic processes to destroy them from within. On the other hand, in those centralized and verticalist socialist projects such as Cuba, the lack of authentic democratic processes weakened their popular support and led to the implementation of inefficient state-dominated economies. This provided grist for the ongoing U.S. ideological campaign against Communism and socialism. Yet before a new socialism can be postulated, we need to understand the nature of late capitalism and imperialism as we approach the new millennium. Here, I maintain the starting point is that capitalism in recent years has undergone an epochal shift with globalization.2 Briefly stated, those who view globalization as a new stage of capitalism argue that the economies of the world are now integrated under the aegis of transnational capital and that the nation state is losing much of its autonomy to international institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The state is still a very powerful entity, but now it responds to the needs of transnational capital rather than national interests. In a sense this newness is a matter of degree. A century and a half ago, Marx argued in the Communist Manifesto that capital was an inherently universalizing system that continually internationalized itself, breaking down regional and national barriers as it advanced. Certainly this process has deepened since Marx's time, but for over a century, the Manifesto's corollary-the growth of an international struggle for socialism generated by the expansion of capital and its contradictions- has been undermined by the nation state and its ability to coopt the working class into national and chauvinist conflicts among nations. Yet with globalization, the conditions that facilitated the cooptation of national working classes are changing, and we are seeing the emergence of an array of social movements, many of which have internationalist perspectives. For socialists, the epochal shift to globalization also means that the historical argument of Lenin and other Marxists that imperialism nurtured a labor aristocracy is losing its validity. In the era of globalization, transnational capital is now free to roam the world, tapping the cheapest labor markets, thereby undermining wages and the standards of living in the core countries. The two wealthiest countries in the Western Hemisphere-the United States and Canada-have experienced a growing economic polarization and a decline of the influence of their working classes and trade unions. These processes have also had adverse effects on the middle classes of these nations. Both the United States and Canada have become "third worldi
Blackfeet declare confederacy
Press Release - for immediate release - May 4, 1998 Chief Yellow Horn descendants and others announce re-creation of Blackfoot Confederacy. The Blackfoot Nation - For many years members of the Blackfoot people and others have been meeting in what now is called Canada and the United States. Their discussions have centered upon the necessity of re-creating the ancient Blackfoot Confederacy that once numbered many thousands of people. Among them the Blood, Blackfoot and Peigan. Among the members this group there has always been included the descendants of Chief Yellow Horn. Today his modern day descendants carry on the discussions and are among the many hundreds of people who seek the revival of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The Yellow Horn family is represented by Vern, George, Rocky and Howard, and their wives, of Brocket, Alberta. Rocky Yellow Horn said, "We seek ways to bring our people out of the grinding poverty we find ourselves in today. We are in this situation because we have no control over our present or our future". One idea we have" Mr. Yellow Horn continued, "is to create a situation where we use our existing land base to use ourselves instead of leasing it out to non-members of the Blackfoot Nation". He said, "We must use our resources to stop the growth of welfare rolls and create an nation of self-supporting native people". Mr. George Yellow Horn said, "We appreciate the welfare support of our white relatives to this time, but it is time for all of us to recognize that the whiteman's welfare system has been a gross failure". "There are other things we must discuss with our white brothers and sisters in Canada and the United States", George Yellow Horn continued. "This is the fraudulent nature of Treaty 7 that has divided the Pikanii into two different groups, the so-called Blackfeet of Montana and the Peigan of Alberta. We are actually one people". "We also have to discuss this Treaty 7 situation with our American relatives", said Yellow Horn. "They have land rights in Alberta. We want them to come home, so to speak, because they are separted from us by an imaginary line". Vern Yellow Horn said, "Our father, Albert Yellow Horn, found in 1985 that Treaty 7 was not signed by all 54 men whose names appear on the fraudulent treaty. His research confirmed that the supposed signers of Treaty 7 had their names put on the paper by the same whiteman who made all the "X" marks". And he continued, "The research of Albert Yellow Horn is further collaborated by a Father Constantine Scollen who wrote the RCMP Major Irwin that the Indians who were at Blackfoot Crossing in September of 1877, did not even understand why they were there" These are but a few of the reasons we announce the re-creation of the Blackfoot Confederacy." The declaration reads as follows: Declaration: The Blackfoot Confederacy and allied nations is re-created as a means of bringing the people back to a great and beautiful heritage, a time when people honored each other and felt their native spirituality at the center of their being. We are the children of the Great Holy Being, iit-tsi-pah-tah-pii-oop (the Source of Life) We gather together of our own free will because the Creator made us to be free and to live in harmony. We announce to the world that we hereby take our place among the nations of mankind, responsible to no one person or authority, because there is no one greater than ourselves except the Great Source of All Life. We call together those who have been members of our alliance in the ancient past. We welcome those who wish to join us from among the other nations. We call you home to be our relatives in the shining light of knowledge and the love of our Creator. Once again, we shall live by our sacred vows, spirituality, traditions, and beliefs. We have created a great and powerful nation based upon respect and honor for all beings of this Earth and beyond. Among the many purposes of our confederacy are these: l. We join together to freely associate with all people in honor and respect. There is no greater way. 2. We gather together to help each other in good times and hard times. 3. We seek our rightful share of the Earth's resources and to correct the greed that has denied us this right. 4. We seek to correct those political, religious, economic, social and other policies of those who have sought to enslave us. We call upon all people to stop their genocidal pursuits that seek to kill us and destroy our cultures and we ask them to finally give honor to the teachings of their holy books. 5. We come together, each of us, to offer our skills, knowledge, resources, and whatever abilities we possess to put them to work in the communities of our people so we may live together and raise healthy families as the ii-tsi-pah-tah-pii-oop intended. 6. We come together because we reject the dogma of mankind which enslaves the human mind and kills the human spirirt. W
