Re: Future Is Up To Us
FYI - there's a typo in the URL that was posted for the page for Nelson
Peery's book "The Future is Up to Us". The correct URL is:
http://www.lrna.org/speakers ("L" rna, not "I" rna)
jd
Paper on speculative capital, comments welcome
I did a presentation for the "Globalization and Social Justice" conference last May at Loyola U. in Chicgao on "speculative capital". The paper is available at: http://www.scienceofsociety.org/discuss/speccap4.pdf (a PDF file). Any comments would be welcome. jd
May 10-12 Globalization & Social Justice Conference at Loyola Water Tower Campus
May 10-12 Globalization & Social Justice Conference at Loyola Water Tower Campus This spring Loyola University will host an international conference on Globalization and Social Justice. This will be a progressive conference embracing a variety of critical, and radical perspectives on globalization. Participants will explore such topics as the effects of neoliberal capitalism in its globalized form on inequality, injustice and environmental despoliation, how globalization has impacted race, gender and identity, and will also examine new forms of domination in relation to the growing role of computers and the internet in fostering greater inequality as well as social mobilization. Join a number of leading scholars from all over the world in exploring the many effects of globalization as well as alternative visions. There will be a number of plenary sessions and workshops. Loyola University of Chicago Water Tower Campus Rubloff Auditorium 25 East Pearson St Chicago IL 60611 Keynote Speakers at the Opening Plenary, Friday, May 10 at 6:30 pm: Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago and an expert on the place of cities in the global economy Richard Longworth, Senior Writer at the Chicago Tribune, Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Northwestern University and author of "Global Squeeze" Leslie Sklair, Reader in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, author of "The Transnationalist Capitalist Class" and "Sociology of the Global System" Additional speakers and presenters (partial list): Abdul Alkalimat, Carl Davidson, Nick Dyer-Witherford, Jerry Harris, Bukart Holzner, Doug Kellner, Lauren Langman, Tim Luke, Peter Marcuse, Robert McChesney, Kate O'Neill, Mark Poster, Dave Ranney, María Cristina Reigadas, William Robinson, Mel Rothenberg, Kim Scipes, Dan Swinney, Harry Targ, Iris Young. Sponsors: Department of Sociology, Loyola University Global Studies Association UK Networking for Democracy USA Registration fee: $50 Register in advance by mailing your check or money order (made out to Networking for Democracy) to: NFD / May Global 3411 W Diversey Ave Suite 1 Chicago IL 60647-1281 You may also pay at the door. We cannot accept credit cards, but checks and money orders are OK. We still encourage you to notify us in advance by sending an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Registration begins at 12:00 Noon on Friday, May 10 at Rubloff Auditorium, 25 East Pearson St, Loyola's Water Tower Campus. For more information, call Networking for Democracy at 773-384-8827, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit www.net4dem.org/mayglobal
[PEN-L:380] Economic Human Rights Freedom Bus Update
Economic Human Rights Freedom Bus Update June 1, 1998 Day 1 of the Freedom From Unemployment, Hunger and Homelessness Bus Tour! [Pictures and more information are available on our website: http://www.libertynet.org/kwru ] The day started with a prayer vigil at 7 AM, as the freedom riders gathered with their friends and supporters. The group then marched from the Liberty Bell to Schmidt's Brewery, an abandoned factory that is a symbol of the decay caused by our changing economic conditions. At the Brewery, a panel of prominent allies of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union served as judges in an economic human rights tribunal. The crowd chanted "indict, indict, indict!" as people fought through tears to give their testimonies of economic human rights violations - being denied education, having their kids taken from them, being homeless, being unable to find a job that pays a living wage. After this powerful event, the freedom riders stepped onto the bus. Later in the afternoon, the bus arrived in Boston Massachusetts, where it joined a rally at a lot in the South End of Boston where neighbors were fighting for the lot to fill the desperate need for affordable housing, in the face of Northeastern University's efforts to buy the lot for student dorms. At the rally, they were joined by many supporters, including Dottie Stevens of the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union (and first VP of the National Welfare Rights Union), Ed Bruno of the Labor Party and State Representative Byron Rushing, among others. SEIU Local 285 provided a space to camp for the night. The story from the Philadelphia Inquirer: 47 touring nation over basic human rights A mock trial was held at the old Schmidt's brewery. The tour will travel the nation for a month. By Herbert Lowe INQUIRER STAFF WRITER They prayed yesterday at the Liberty Bell. Then the 75 supporters of the National Welfare Rights Union marched to the abandoned Schmidt's Brewery, where they condemned the government for what they called economic and human rights violations. "I am here to testify about . . . every human being [ being denied ] the right to a standard of living that protects the health and well-being of their family," Edna Winters said during a mock tribunal. After the trial, Winters and 46 others boarded a chartered bus to begin a month-long tour of America's poor communities. The tour is part of a national campaign to draw attention to the 50th anniversary of a U.N. declaration that guarantees basic human rights to food, housing, medical care and living wages. Winters and all but three of the self-described "freedom riders" belonged to the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, the flagship of the national group's 25 chapters, said Cheri Honkala, Kensington branch executive director and national co-chairwoman. The riders, including 15 children traveling with their parents, are or have been on public assistance or are homeless, Honkala said. Tour organizers said the bus would visit about 30 cities, including Boston; Detroit; Pittsburgh; Atlanta; Los Angeles; Denver; Chicago; El Paso, Texas; and Little Rock, Ark. At each stop, the riders will participate in marches and tribunals, and collect more testimonials of economic human rights abuses. The tour will swing back through Philadelphia on June 29 to meet two more busloads of freedom riders, and end June 30 in Fort Lee, N.J. On July 1, organizers said, poor people and their allies will march across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan and on to the United Nations. There, they will present anecdotes collected on the tour, and they hope that volunteer lawyers will help initiate a "formal case" against the government. Honkala said last week that her group raised $30,000 to pay for the tour. Riders expect churches, labor unions and community groups to provide food at each stop. They plan, if necessary, to sleep on the roadside under tarps. "We've got the bus covered, and that's about it," she said. "It's scary and overwhelming, like nothing that I've ever imagined in my life." After the tribunal yesterday morning, Winters and other riders told their hardships to a panel of activists and union leaders, who served as judges. "The government knows what can be done to stop the homelessness and the poverty in this country, but they refuse to do anything about it," said Galen Taylor, an Army veteran who is unemployed. Taylor also told the panel, which included Henry Nicholas, president of the Hospital and Nursing Home Employees Union, District 1199C, and Marilyn Clement of the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom: "As long as I can walk, talk and breathe, I'm going to speak about economic human rights violations until they are resolved." --- For more information, visit our webpage at: http://www.libertynet.org/kwru Or contact us at: Kensington Welfare Rights Union NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO PO Box 50678 Philadelphia, PA 19132-9720 215/203-1945 215/203-1950 FAX email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:108] Economic Human Rights Campaign '98 Bus Tour
Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 09:49:02 -0400 From: Chris Caruso <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: kwru-announce SUPPORT THE NEW FREEDOM BUS! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY The Economic Human Rights Campaign '98 is a national effort to highlight the economic human rights abuses caused by welfare reform and poverty in the United States. The Campaign is led by the National Welfare Rights Union, an organization of poor and homeless women, men, and children from all races struggling both to survive and to end poverty. The Campaign is spearheaded by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. (Kensington, located in North Philadelphia, is the poorest area in the state of Pennsylvania, USA.) The new freedom bus - freedom from unemployment, hunger and homelessness - will travel around the country visiting economic human rights tribunals where documentation of these economic human rights abuses will be collected and the efforts of poor communities to survive and fight back will be spotlighted. The bus will take all of this documentation to the United Nations for an international economic human rights tribunal on July 1st, where a formal case against the United States will be initiated. The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), signed in 1948 by many countries - including the United States - guarantees the basic human rights of every man, woman and child. The Economic Human Rights Campaign '98 focuses on articles 23, 25 and 26. These articles guarantee the right to - a job with safe conditions of work and a living wage, join and form a trade union, housing, food, healthcare, childcare and education. As a result of recent federal and state welfare reform in particular, and global economic and political pressures in general, welfare recipients, homeless families, temporary and under-employed workers, immigrants, down-sized families, students, and injured workers are just some of the many in this country who are experiencing economic human rights violations. The New Freedom Bus - Freedom from Unemployment, Hunger and Homelessness: Philadelphia, PA - June 1 Send-off Rally Boston, MA - June 1 Springfield, MA - June 2 Albany, NY - June 3 Rochester, NY - June 3 Lorain, OH - June 4 Cleveland, OH - June 4 Pittsburgh, PA - June 5 Welch, WV - June 6 Durham, NC - June 7 Knoxville, TN - June 8 Highlander Center- New Market, TN - June 9 Atlanta, GA - June 9 Macon, GA - June 10 Dublin, GA - June 10 Waycross, GA - June 10 Columbia, MS - June 11 Jackson, MS - June 11 Little Rock, AK - June 12 Louisville, KY - June 13 Detroit, MI - June 15 Ann Arbor, MI - June 15 Chicago, IL - June 16 Milwaukee, WI - June 17 Minneapolis, MN - June 18 Denver, CO - June 19 San Francisco, CA - June 21 Los Angeles, CA - June 23 El Paso, TX - June 25 Houston, TX - June 27 Washington, DC - June 29 Philadelphia, PA - June 29 Elizabeth, NJ - June 30 Fort Lee, NJ - June 30 Encampment in NJ, March to the United Nations New York, NY - July 1 International Tribunal at the United Nations 9am March over George Washington Bridge 12noon Rally in New York City Against Workfare 4:30-6:30pm International Tribunal at United Nations Please join us! For more information on any of our stops, to get involved or make a financial contribution to the trip, please email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call us at 215/203-1945. Visit the Economic Human Rights Campaign Webpage at: http://www.libertynet.org/~kwru
[PEN-L:104] Re: On the status of the pen-l list
Two advantages that the PEN-L list has is that it (a) provides a way of receiving posts in digest form, and (b) it has a great archiving and search function via the pen-l web site. So one can search for discussion via specific key words going back months. I don;t know if Panix provides those services for its lists -- the list confirmation/instructions I received when I subbed to lbo-talk didn't mention anything, as far as I cd tell; and the subsequent flood of messages was too much, so I unsubscribed, hoping that anything of consequence wd show up on pen-l. jd
Globalization symposium in Chicago 5/9
For folks in the Chicago area... ** GLOBALIZATION, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ASIAN MELTDOWN: A Symposium on Current Politics and the Impact of World Markets ** Saturday, May 9, 10 AM to 4 PM Roosevelt University, Room 236 Congress & Michigan Registration: $10 ($5 Students) Morning Session: 10 am to 12 noon TECHNOLOGY & GLOBALIZATION Jim Davis, cy.Rev Editorial Board and Co-editor of _Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution_ THE IMF, FINANCE CAPITAL AND NATIONAL INTERESTS Rhon Baiman, Union of Radical Political Economists and Professor of Economics, School of Policy Studies, Roosevelt University A SURVEY OF THE ASIAN ECONOMIC MELTDOWN Kim Scipes, Veteran Labor Activist and PhD Student in Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago, author of a book on the Filipino labor movement PARASITIC CAPITAL VS. THE PRODUCTION OF NEW WEALTH Dan Swinney, Executive Director, Midwest Center for Labor Research Afternoon Session: 1 pm to 4 pm ALTERNATIVES TO NAFTA AND MAI Dave Ranney, Great Cities Institute, Board Member Chicago Jobs With Justice PROMISES & PERILS: CLASS RESPONSES TO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Brooke V. Heagerty, Ph.D., Rally Comrades!/Agrupemonos Camaradas! Editorial Board, co-author, _Moving Onward: From racial division to class unity_ THE POLITICS OF GLOBALIZATION Jerry Harris, Professor of History, DeVry Institute of Technology Moderator Carl Davidson, cy.Rev Managing Editor, Director of Networking for Democracy Co-sponsored by: Union of Radical Political Economists, Rally Comrades! / Agrupemonos Camaradas!, cy.Rev: A Journal of Cybernetic Revolution For more information, call Carl Davidson at Networking for Democracy, Telephone: 773-384-8827 / Fax: 773-384-3904 / Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Update to Shaikh's _Measuring the Wealth of Nations_
Does anyone know of any work that has been done that brings the figures in Anwar Shaikh's _Measuring the Wealth of Nations_ as up-to-date as possible? jd
Chile, once more
Since Chile has been in the news and on this list lately, folks might be interested to note that The Battle of Chile, the remarkable three-part film from the mid-1970's that chronicled the overthrow of the Allende goverment, has just been released on video. The first two parts were filmed in the months leading up to the coup, and the footage smuggled out of the country. In an interview with Patricio Guzman, the director, he said that he and his crew knew something was going to happen, but not what exactly, so they filmed and filmed and filmed to chronicle the events -- almost three hours of film. I haven't seen the re-released video, but as I recall the film did a very good job showing how the Chilean economy was undermined by the U.S. in setting the stage for the coup. The web page for the video (institutional prices) is http://www.echonyc.com/~frif/new98/boc.html jd
Asia's Economic and Currency Crisis web page of resources
>From the Scout Report: 2. What Caused Asia's Economic and Currency Crisis and Its Global Contagion? [.pdf, .ps] http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/asia/AsiaHomepage.html Nouriel Roubini, Associate Professor of Economics and International Business, Stern School of Business, New York University, has put together an impressive collection of articles relating to the Asian economic and currency crisis. The articles include news reports, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working papers and also research articles by Professor Roubini himself. The site is divided into several sections including basic readings, global effects, country analyses, the role of the IMF, systemic risk and short-term capital flows, case studies of exchange rate collapse, and the debate over flexible and fixed exchange rates. [THN]
Re: U.S. productivity
How exactly are these productivity figures arrived at? jd --- >There was a question the other day about productivity performance in the >U.S. Here are some numbers, current through last week's downward revision >of the 1997Q3 stats. Though there was a bounce in the 1997Q2 & Q3 figures, >performance over the whole cycle is underwhelming. >
Re: contingency
>From the BLS release it looks like contingency means a worker thinks the situation will end w/in a year. The release says the proportion of "alternative work arrangement" workers (contractors, temps, on-call, workers provided by contract agencies) in the tota workforce has remained the same (about 10%), but they now seem to see this as a permanent state. jd
Carchedi
I was interested in seeing G. Carchedi's name raised in some recent posts. I thought his _Frontiers of Political Economy_, although tough-going, worth the read. More recently, he co-edited (w/ Alan Freeman) a collection of pieces titled _Marx and Non-Equilibirum Economics_, published by Edward Elgar. I am curious what others think of Carchedi's work, and this the above-mentioned titles in particular. Jim D.
Re: technology
What's the significance of the distinction between more control vs. less labor, which I assume means less labor cost? Underneath both is the compulsion to introduce technology to increase profits. A controlled labor force is a labor force which presumably yields up more profit for the boss in one way or another; just as Mr. Capitalist hopes to make more profits with fewer workers working with more advanced technology. jd >Hardly. Labor saving may be important, but it's not the only consideration. >Control over the labor process may, in a given circumstance, be decisive in >the choice of one technical process over another. David Noble argues along >these lines, perhaps to excess. I would strongly suspect that there is no >correlation between 'labor saving' and 'degree of control over the labour >process'(why?). A technical change could fall anywhere on the diagram below. >Whether capital adopts a particular technology is a matter not only of >efficiency but also of strategy in the class struggle.
Re: technology
>Jim Davis writes: >Electronics (broadly defined) represents technology of a >new quality capable of at least drastically reducing the need for labor >power in the production process (because they replicate more and more of >the functions of the worker in the technology, especially the command >control functions), technically making possible at least some of the things >that Marx hinted at in the Grundrisse. No variable capital, no value, no >surplus value, no realization, etc. etc.< > >the problem with this is, as Marx points out in vol. I of CAPITAL, the >mechanization of production also reduces the demand for labor (if the rate >of growth of demand for output stays constant but output per worker starts >growing faster), which encourages wages to stagnate. That discourages >capitalists from advancing mechanization further. Also, why mechanize when >there's cheap & pliable labor available in China? Or cheap labor in U.S. prisons or among former welfare recipients in the U.S. Capitalism puts people in a race w/ the robot to see which can work cheaper. Obviously, though, the process doesn;t stop, or even seem to slow down -- i.e., capitalists in general do seem to be interested in advancing automation in their own constrained way. Also, capitalists must also compete w/ each other, so are compelled to introduce more advanced tech (or seek out still cheaper labor, which can be replaced by still cheaper technology, etc. etc.) >BTW, a Turing Machine has never been created. I don;t think that that is entirely true. Doing a web search of "Turing machine" turns up several links to examples of TM's -- most seem to be Computer Science exercises. It is true that the Turing Machine was a theoretical construct, introduced several years before the first actual computers. Here's Howard Rheingold on the Turing Machine: "Although the machine itself didn't exist as a working model, Turing emphasized from the beginning that such machines could actually be built. His finding was a milestone in the effort to formalize mathematics and, at the same time, a watershed in the history of computation." (http://www.well.com/user/hlr/texts/tft3.html) That is, modern day computing machines are a kind of implementation of the TM. >Also, I wouldn't take >anything from WIRED magazine very seriously. > Perhaps. The Feb. 1996 Forbes ASAP supplement had a survey of executives, engineers, vc's, etc. asking about the "road ahead". The general consensus matches Moore's -- asked "How many years will Moore's law play out?" estimates range from 5 - 20 years, but the higher number is from an "oft-quoted analyst" so I discount that. Most are around 10 years. But, other chip technologies are under development, so who knows when Moore's observation will no longer be valid. jd
Re: Book announcement
>>In said book, Caffentzis ("Why machines cannot create value, or, Marx's
>>theory of machines") notes that the significance of the Turing machine is
>>that, with a few notable exceptions, any mental activity can in theory be
> ^^^
>>automated.
>
>Fascinating! But still hard for me to envision a convincing argument for
>this. I've got to get a copy of the book. Much appreciated if you could
>briefly summarize his points.
Re Turing: I will send the section separately, as it probably is of not
general interest here. But the summary is...
...
"For Turing machines can replicate the behavior of any human "worker" who
is following (consciously or not) any fixed, finite decision procedure
whether it involves manipulating numbers, discrete physical objects or
well-defined, publically identifiable environmental conditions. "
(Caffentzis)
>
>I am still waiting for the news of a feasible model of house-cleaning robot.
I assume this was meant facetiously, but nevertheless, from an Associated
Press report that I believe ran in the _Washington Post_ of 10/10/97
("Handmade Maids: Cleaning companies turn to robots to do drudge work"):
Dottie takes the elevator to her cleaning job, turns on her vacuum and
spends the next five hours sucking ip dirt from office cooridors. And she
doesn;t earn a penny. That's because Dottie is a robot." [Some discussion
of difficulties in creating a cleaning robot...] "By the end of 1996,
Cybermotion [a company that makes robot security guards and robots for use
in nuclear plants] and Cyberclean [a Richmond, VA office-cleaning company]
had built a robot that could clean a building on its own... Several other
companies also make cleaning robots, including Kent Co. of Wlkhart, Ind.
and Von Schrader Co. of Racine, Wis."
>Haven't heard of it yet. BTW, a friend of mine just told me about the
>physical limit of Moore's law, something to do with the dimension of silicon
>molecules. Has anybody out there seen such literature recently?
>
Check out http://.wired.com/wired/5.05/features/ff_moore.html -- it's a
short interview w/ Gordon Moore that appeared in the 5/97 Wired.
Wired: How long will Moore's Law hold?
Moore: It'll go for at least a few more generations of technology. Then,
in about a decade, we're going to see a distinct slowing in the rate at
which the doubling occurs. I haven't tried to estimate what the rate
will be, but it might be half as fast - three years instead of eighteen
months.
Wired: What will we be able to do with these superchips?
Moore: Even with the level of technology that we can extrapolate fairly easily
- a few more generations - we can imagine putting a billion transistors
on a chip. A billion transistors is mind-boggling. Exploiting that level
of technology, even if we get hung up at a mere billion transistors,
could keep us busy for a century.
>
>>An important question, which the original quote is referring to, is -- what
>>are the broad implications of introducing quantities of computer and
>>robotic-based production into the overall production mix?
>
>Besides decrease of the proportion of variable capital in the total
>composition of capital, what else are there? I don't mean there's nothing
>new. I just wanna know.
>
Electronics (broadly defined) represents technology of a new quality
capable of at least drastically reducing the need for labor power in the
production process (because they replicate more and more of the functions
of the worker in the technology, especially the command control functions),
technically making possible at least some of the things that Marx hinted at
in the Grundrisse. No variable capital, no value, no surplus value, no
realization, etc. etc. While these are theoretical limits, I think the
system breaks down way before the limits are reached as capital tries to
deal with the new environment. Of course there are a lot of
counter-tendencies pushing in the other direction which Morris-Suzuki wrote
about over 10 years ago, as does Carchedi, and several of the other authors
in the collection.
jd
The end of the McJob?
[This was fwd'd to me. Not sure of the headline it went out under. - jd] ..c The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) - McDonald's Corp. next year plans to begin rolling out a new store format that aims to put the ``fast'' back in fast food and lure more customers into its U.S. restaurants. Analysts attending a meeting at company headquarters were shown demonstrations of the new technology being tested in 500 stores across the nation that virtually automates the ordering process. In plain sight of the customer, a computer-monitored machine dumps frozen fries into a basket that in turn is dunked into hot oil for cooking. Then the machine shakes the fries and dumps them into bins for serving. Robot machines elsewhere prepare drinks, and computers instantly convey orders to preparers. Many restaurants carrying such technology promise to deliver orders in two minutes; most arrive in far less time. The computer even ``senses'' increases in customer traffic and orders workers to make up particular sandwiches in advance. It also can perform analyses that tell owners the right number of workers for any given hour of the day or week. The technology promises to change the way the company does business in the United States, executives told analysts attending the biennial meeting. McDonald's did not give an exact timetable for the rollout because there still are a few logistical issues to iron out, but it will begin sometime next year, said James Cantalupo, chairman of the company's international division. ``Most of the major issues are resolved, and it looks like a big positive for our system,'' Cantalupo said in an interview Tuesday after the two-day meeting had ended at the Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters. The world's largest fast-food chain spent much of its time during the gathering trying to reassure Wall Street the company is back on track following a series of missteps that included a failed discounting promotion. The chain for the first time ever announced its targets for profit growth, saying it expects to see per-share earnings climb 10 percent to 15 percent each year through 2002. For the first nine months of this year, per-share earnings have risen only 8 percent from the same period in 1996. But Cantalupo said with the international division now representing more than 60 percent of the company's revenues, the targets are comfortable. The company is beginning to see a turnaround in comparable store sales in its major overseas investments, including in France, Germany and Japan, he said. Domestic comparable store sales also have increased for the first 10 months of this year, Cantalupo said, although he didn't reveal figures. Analysts have speculated comparable store sales have risen an anemic 1 percent, largely on successful promotions such as Teenie Beanie Babies earlier this year. McDonald's stock rose 93 cents Tuesday to $45.68 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. AP-NY-11-11-97 1918EST
Re: Book announcement
In said book, Caffentzis ("Why machines cannot create value, or, Marx's
theory of machines") notes that the significance of the Turing machine is
that, with a few notable exceptions, any mental activity can in theory be
automated.
Whether the technology is yet available to automate a given task, (or deal
with a "sufficient degree of uncertainties"), or whether the technology is
cheap enough to warrant replacing human labor in command and control
positions are separate questions. On the other hand, as Moore's law
continues to hold, and the general consensus is that it probably will hold
for at least another 8 years or so, computing power is doubling every 18
months or so. So new areas of human activity, once beyond the pale of
technology, will be able to be replicated in the technology.
It's not love of workers by capitalists that prompts them to hire workers,
but capitalist love of their easily programmable brains that can react to
"uncertainties", and their marvellously dexterous hands, and less and less
their muscle power -- i.e. their labor power; their ability to work in all
its varied meanings.
An important question, which the original quote is referring to, is -- what
are the broad implications of introducing quantities of computer and
robotic-based production into the overall production mix?
jd
>>> ++
>>> A robot can build a car. But a robot cannot buy a car... The
>>> explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based
>>> manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of laborless
>>> production systems.
>>
>>Robots can NOT (presently) build cars. While it is true that many
>>operations in an auto assembly plant can and have been robotized
>>(especially within the paint and body shop departments), an auto assembly
>>plant still requires significant amounts of human laborers. "Laborless
>>production systems" (e.g. flexible manufacturing systems) are mostly used
>>in small batch manufacturing plants rather than assembly plants.
>>
>>Jerry
>>
>
>Correct about the auto assembly line. But the idea of the FMS is NOT
>"laborless production system" in today's business-school textbook. Instead,
>it is even more "labor intensive," in terms of the importance of human
>intervention in the production process, than the comic-book version of
>Fordist assembly line. Small batch manufacturing is the key. Exactly because
>model change and task adjustments are constant affairs, direct workers'
>intelligent initiatives are crucial for those kinds of production. That's
>one reason why "human relations" talks are in fashion in today's business
>schools.
>
>Robots cannot presently build cars, and I don't think it can build cars in
>the forseeable future either. Maybe I am myopic, which is physically true
>anyway, but if we look closely, any material production involves a degree of
>uncertainty which cannot be exhausted by previous rational designs. Thus
>dead labor (machine) can never replace live labor of thinking human beings.
>Just try to design a robot to pick up trash on the floor and feel the pain,
>then you know you'd better have some human being do it. I did not learn this
>from Marx, but from classmates in my master study who work as engineers and
>managers in the Ford plants in the Detroit area.
>
>When I took my quality-assurance and lean-production classes in business
>school a few years back in the US, I am always amazed at the degree of
>agreement of my straight-arrow meat-and-potato professors's ideas and my
>supposedly Marxist ones, such as the irruducible centrality of human labor
>to any kind of production. It seems that only a weird segment of the
>academics (and Sci Fi authors) hold that machine CAN replace human beings.
>The robots-gonna-do-it-all theories always sound like fetishism to me, but
>also always taken as a matter of fact by Daniel Bell & co., and even some
>progressives.
>
Book announcement
++ Book Announcement CUTTING EDGE Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution Edited by Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl and Michael Stack Published by Verso, Fall, 1997 Available at bookstores now ++ A robot can build a car. But a robot cannot buy a car... The explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of laborless production systems. Such systems create enormous instability, both for the overall economy where money previously paid in wages is now invested in labor-saving technology and therefore cannot be spent on goods, and for workers whose jobs are being deskilled or are simply disappearing. Bringing together contributions from workers employed in the new electronics and information industries with work from theorists in economics, politics and science, Cutting Edge provides an up-to- the-minute analysis of the complex relations between technology and work. Paperback 1 85984 185 6 £15.00 / $19.00 Hardback 1 85984 830 3 £40.00 / $60.00 ++ >From the introduction to _Cutting Edge_: "How is one to make sense of the world today? Contemporary political and economic events as well as recent technological developments defy conventional analysis. The general breakdown of the post-World War II social order is well underway, visibly evident in the dramatic dissolution of the Eastern European and Soviet socialist economies. The dramatic polarization of wealth and poverty -- not just between the technologized and under- technologized nations, or north and south, but also within the technologized center -- exposes the "capitalism has won" and "history is over" pronouncements as rather premature. The socioeconomic polarization matures as the powers of science and technology leap ahead at breakneck speed. "While the traditional Left has lost much of its appeal, and the world's labor unions are on the defensive, new forces have stepped onto the world stage. Scenes from this drama are as diverse as the Los Angeles rebellion in 1992, the Chiapas uprising beginning in 1994, the regular eruptions in the industrial heart of the U.S., the tent cities and marches of the welfare recipients and the homeless in Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Oakland and other U.S. cities, the labor strikes in France, Korea, Canada, Germany, Russia, and the new student movement emerging in the U.S. and elsewhere. The world has entered a period of upheaval. "This collection of essays attempts to make sense of trends and developments as the 20th century draws to a close. The pieces share an attempt to confront the contradictions of society today, and put them on a firm material footing. Despite the many gloomy signals as this is written, they betray a spirit of optimism about the future." [The complete introduction may be found online at http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/ce/intro.html ] ++ CONTENTS: 1. Introduction: Integrated Circuits, Circuits of Capital and Revolutionary Change 2. Robots and Capitalism Tessa Morris-Suzuki 3. Why Machines Cannot Create Value; or, Marx's Theory of Machines George Caffentzis 4. Capitalism in the Computer Age and Afterword Tessa Morris-Suzuki 5. High Tech Hype: Promises and Reality of Technology in the 21st Century Guglielmo Carchedi 6. Value Creation in the Late Twentieth Century and the Rise of the Knowledge Worker Martin Kenney 7. The Information Commodity: A Preliminary View Dan Schiller 8. The Digital Advantage Jim Davis and Michael Stack 9. The Biotechnology Revolution: Self-Replicating Factories and the Ownership of Life Forms Jonathan King 10. Structural Unemployment and the Qualitative Transformation of Capitalism Tom Hirschl 11. How Will North America Work in the Twenty-First Century? Sally Lerner 12. Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism Nick Witheford 13. A Note on Automation and Alienation Ramin Ramtin 14. New Technologies, Neoliberalism and Social Polarization in Mexico's Agriculture Gerardo Otero, Stephanie Scott and Chris Balletto 15. The New Technological Imperative in Africa: Class Struggle on the Edge of Third-Wave Revolution Abdul Alkalimat 16. Heresies and Prophecies: The Social and Political Fall-out of the Technological Revolution A. Sivanandan 17. The Birth of a Modern Proletariat Nelson Peery ++ (please repost as appropriate)
[PEN-L:12609] Re: Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation was a political gesture to win moral support for the war in the North, and to make it more difficult for England to come to the aid of the South. Passing the Land Grant act, liberalizing homesteading laws, providing federal funds to build harbors and railways, and raising tariffs-- all carried out in the early years of the Lincloln administration -- give an idea of the political agenda of the northern industrialist/small farmer coalition that was the backbone of the Republican party. Those efforts had all been blocked by the political stranglehold the South had on the presidency, the congress and the courts. _Battle Cry of Freedom_ by James McPherson is a very readable history of the Civil War in the U.S. jd > >Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 17:10:58 -0700 (PDT) >From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: re: Civil War >Message-ID: <199709240010.RAA25441@fraser> > >The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, if memory >serves -- two years into the Civil War. > >Sid Shniad > >
[PEN-L:12121] Re: LABOR-L Digest - 2 Sep 1997 to 3 Sep 1997
It doesn;t seem that there is enough here to comment on. What is her methodology? What does a "job" mean? What does "job loss" mean? How is tenure determined? (And what wd that mean?) In any case, the polarization of wealth wd seem to be a more relevant statistic than employment data to describe the transformation taking place (which I think is happening) in the economy. jd > >Though there are some complexities and contradiction in the >details, basically it appears that there's no great increase in job loss >(and no decline in tenure) over the last 15-20 years. > >So what's going on? Is the literature wrong?
[PEN-L:12024] Labor Day, 1997
LABOR DAY 1997: FULL-TIME, PART-TIME AND UNEMPLOYED WORKERS INTENSIFY THE STRUGGLE By General Baker DETROIT -- The year 1997 has sparked an intensification of the class struggle here at home. Labor Day 1997 follows the first anniversary of the so-called welfare reform bill, which ended the historic social safety net dating from the New Deal of the 1930s. Different states are still competing on the basis of which of them can cut the safety net the deepest and fastest, beyond the federally demanded cuts. But this section of society is fighting back, as shown by the National Welfare Rights Union, with its Kensington branch, when they marched from Philadelphia to the United Nations. With the support of AFSCME and other unions, they protested the welfare reform bill as a violation of human rights. In Detroit, the newspaper strike is entering its 26th month. Here, Labor Day has been bottlenecked since a federal judge refused to issue an injunction that would have forced the newspapers to hire back all of the strikers at an estimated $50 million in back wages. This marked a severe setback to the union, whose strategy for victory lay solely on the legal channels of the NLRB and the courts. The United Parcel Service strike and its aftermath show some tremendous lessons for the upcoming period. No matter how importantly UPS or the Teamsters viewed the pension package, the issue of the part-time worker continued to take center stage in the walkout. In the eyes of the general public, the strike became a battleground for a new and growing section of society. In the wake of the partial victory of the UPS struggle, President Clinton quickly imposed a 60-day cooling-off period on employees of Amtrak, in an effort to thwart an outbreak of strikes there. With these struggles before us, we salute each other on this Labor Day as a new class of impoverished proletarians begins to assert its leadership of the social upheavals of our time. [General Baker is the chair of the Steering Committee of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America and a member of Local 600 of the United Auto Workers] ** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition), Vol. 24 No. 9 / September, 1997; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or WWW: http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html For free electronic subscription, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "Subscribe" in the subject line. Feel free to reproduce; please include this message with reproductions of this article. **
[PEN-L:11998] More on UPS
The following is an exchange that took place elsewhere; given the recent query as to why the UPS strike made a big splash and the miners and NYNEX strikes didn;t, thought others here might find it of interest... jd To: Danny Alexander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: FW: UPS Cc: Bcc: Thanks Danny. I think what I was trying to say was re: "the rise of UPS" was more in relation to the increase in the market for package delivery services. That is, regardless of whether or not UPS as a company came out of the effort to privatize government services, it could not grow without a growth in the overall market. If this had all remained under the arm of the US Postal Service, the phenomena itself wouldn;t have been different, or the role of package delivery in the just-in-time/atomized economy would not have been any less strategic. I suppose a more relevant service to the restructuring economy like Dave says is the "just-in-time" and "fast economy" stuff, of which the 2-day and next-day service probably is more representative; and UPS as I recall lagged behind in that area. I agree with Dave re: the other aspects of UPS in the economy that should have been mentioned (namely (a) the process of privatization as an aspect of the restructuring; (b) the attack on unions; and (c) concentration within industries; all towards how to maximize profits under these conditions). On a related note, a lot of the privatization stuff is only possible, I think, _because_ of new technologies -- that is, it had not been possible for private industry to make a profit off of, say package delivery to all points in the U.S., without a technical infrastructure (both transportation and communication) that cheapened costs to the point where a UPS could be profitable, and hence push the USPS out of the way. (Or private toll roads with computerized toll collection or privatized welfare services with highly computerized systems that reduce transaction costs etc. etc.) I don't know if it is right to say the interstate system was a "new technology" or not (if new construction techniques or automotive technologies came out of WWII that made a large scale system like that feasible, or if it was purely driven by the military, or the military and the road construction companies and the oil companies, or excess productive capacity coming out of the war, or even if UPS pushed something like that from the beginning to help make it happen using techniques that had existed for quite a while), but definitely it provided part of the technical infrastructure UPS required. I suppose underneath Dave's comments is a general warning to be conscious of the details of how history is made; that we are not just being blown along on the winds of history, but that "we make our own history" (but not to forget either that they do it "under very definite presuppositions and conditions"). Re: the other points he makes vis-a-vis what's next: these are very important. jd P.S. If you think it's okay, I wd like to fwd this to the league-discuss list, and maybe another list or two. >Jim, > >I shared your comments on UPS with this other listserve I'm on, and Dave >wrote this response. I thought it was an interesting perspective. > >Danny >-- >From: Dave Marsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Monday, August 25, 1997 7:16 PM >To:Danny Alexander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: UPS > >Danny, >If you think this is of any value to Jim Davis, you might pass it along: > >He wrote: < The rise of UPS itself I think is tied to the restructured >economy, >where large industrial >units are broken up into smaller specialized units that are held together >economically by a transportation/communication intensive network. UPS is >at the >center of that transportation network; that is, holding together the atomized >production regime.> > >Actually, the rise of UPS is directly tied to the conscious plan to privatize >all government services, starting with, for instance, the Post Office, which >began in the Carter regime. This is not then the product of a process >nearly so >anonymous as that described above. It was a *deliberate* destruction of that >which served the many, for the profit of the few. Today, I cannot mail a >package >weighing 16 oz or more without standing in line at the post >office--because of a >"terrorism" law which cannot prevent letter bombs from being delivered to the >United Naitons, a law passed in the wake of a "terrorist" passenger plane >bombing which is either the result of a) shoddy airline maintenance, the >direct >result of the "deregulation" of that industry (ask the Machinists if you doubt >this) or b) an accidental or deliberate U.S. gove
[PEN-L:11789] Welfare Rights Union opposes use of homeless as strikebreakers
>August 13, 1997 >Contact: Cheri Honkala >215.763.4584 > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: > > > HOMELESS RESIDENTS OF CITY SHELTER USED > TO CROSS TEAMSTER=92S PICKET LINE: > >Kensington Welfare Rights Union Stands United With Teamsters > to Stop Use of City Shelters to Throw Other Workers into Homelessness > >Press Conference: >3 PM Wednesday, August 13 >Ridge Shelter >1320 Ridge Avenue > >Homeless residents at Ridge Shelter have come forward stating that a >brown UPS van regularly visits Ridge Shelter to pick up homeless >residents, sneaks them into UPS, and pays them $5 an hour to cross the >picket line and work at UPS. > >The Teamsters and the KWRU demand an investigation by the Mayor as to >why city-subsidized shelters and being used to recruit homeless >individuals to break a strike and eventually throw striking workers into >the ranks of the homeless. > >The UPS workers on strike are fighting part-time work, slashed benefits >and the possibility of becoming homeless themselves. The KWRU stands in >unity with organized labor and the striking Teamsters and calls for an >end to using welfare recipients and homeless people to replace union >labor. We stand together for the right of all people to have full-time >jobs at a living wage with benefits and union protection. > > >Speaking at the Press Conference: > >Cheri Honkala Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union > >Jim MerrittSec/Tres Teamsters local 623=20 >(UPS Workers Greater Philadelphia) > >Henry Nicholas President, National Union of Hospital and=20 >Health Care Employees > >Jim Moran Chair, Labor Day Committee;=20 >Chair, Labor Party of Greater Philadelphia > >-- >Kensington Welfare Rights Union >a statewide organization of the poor >NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO >PO Box 50678 >Philadelphia, PA 19132 >http://www.libertynet.org/~kwru >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >215.763-4584 >215.763-7575 FAX > > > >
[PEN-L:11293] Article on globalization
[Given some of the discussion on this list recently re: imperialism vs. globalization; and the comments on Grieder, on whom the following relies somewhat, folks on this list might be interested or have comments on the following... -- jd] ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION: CAPITALISM IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONICS [The following is the Political Report from the April 19, 1997 meeting of the Steering Committee of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.] Every exploiting ruling class has had its global dimension and "global" aspirations. The level of the development of the productive forces and the economic relations of a society determine the form of this imperial oppression and exploitation. The Romans with their highly organized slave empire subjugated the world as they knew it and extracted taxes and slaves as their main source of wealth. Similarly, every stage and phase of development of capitalism has had a corresponding form of global activity. At the beginning of this century, Lenin described the stage of the development of capitalism at that time as "imperialism." Developing from major technological breakthroughs like electric generators and motors, the internal combustion engine, new steel- making processes, the telephone and the radio, the 19th-century system of competitive, industrial capitalism gave way to a global form of monopoly capitalism. This new stage of development of capitalism was characterized by the concentration of production such that monopolies controlled the economy; the emergence of "finance capital" as the decisive form of capital; the growing importance of the export of capital, as opposed to the export of commodities; and the territorial division of the world among the major capitalist powers. Today, this system of imperialism is giving way to globalization - a new stage of capitalism characterized by electronics-based production; the desperate attempt to maintain value and surplus value production by whatever means possible; the internationalization of capital; and the replacement of productive capital with speculative capital as the dominant form of capital. "Imperialism" was capitalism in the age of electro-mechanically based monopoly capitalism; "globalization" is capitalism in the age of electronics. THE END OF IMPERIALISM World War I and World War II grew out of the struggle among the imperialist powers to territorially redivide the world. The end of World War II, with the European and Japanese economies in ruins, marked the beginning of the end of direct colonialism, a system which had seriously constrained the ability of capitalist countries to invest outside their own colonies. The process of the dismantling of direct colonialism lasted over the next several decades. Led by the efforts of the United States, which had emerged as the economically dominant power by the end of the war, the agreements made at the Bretton Woods meetings in 1944 formalized the new international economic order. The U.S. dollar, fixed in relation to gold, was made the chief international currency. The United Nations was the political counterpart of the institutions made possible by the Bretton Woods agreements - the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. With the revival of the European and Japanese economies by the mid-1960s, the period of U.S. economic hegemony was over. The end of this period was signalled by the dissolution of the Bretton Woods agreement in the early 1970s. Capitalism is driven by the maximization of profit. The drive for profits requires both a constant advance in technology to cheapen production and eliminate competitors, and a constant expansion of the markets in which to sell the commodities. This demanded the ultimate expansion of the market to encompass the entire world, free of national barriers; and, at the same time, the lowering of the cost of production to the absolute minimum. This expansion demanded the end of a territorially divided world, which was accomplished by dismantling direct colonialism. At the same time, the introduction of labor-replacing technology means the beginning of the end of productive investment capital. All value (and profit) comes from the exploitation of labor. Laborless production means valueless production - and hence, profitless production. With laborless production, capital can no longer be utilized to create more value and more surplus value. So, capital is being shifted into purely speculative investment. A critical portion of capital is no longer "exported" (in the sense of being invested overseas for the production of more commodities). It is merely shifted, moved, transmitted around a global roulette table. Imperialism extended industrial production throughout the world. The introduction of electronics into capitalism is ending the stage of imperialism, and opening the new stage of globalization. ELECTRONICS-BASED PRODUCTION The stages of development of capitalism are defined by specific developments in th
