Re: on the anti-globalization movement (fwd)
On Wed, 26 Apr 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] crossposted: UNDERSTANDING THE BATTLES OF SEATTLE AND WASHINGTON By Dick Platkin and Chuck O'Connell* Lemme see if I get this right: they're arguing that the anti-WTO and anti-IMF protests are financed by nationalist bourgeois pig foundations, organized by nationalist bourgeois pig unions and staffed by nationalist bourgeois piglets -- we'll call 'em NBPs for short. anti-globalization groups. They are (unknowingly) recycling Kautsky's argument when they claim that the WTO, IMF, and World Bank represent a new capitalist consensus to override national sovereignty and democracy when they impinge upon profitability. Not only are NBPs nationalistic and vaguely porcine, they're also revisionist Kautskyites. FAIR TRADE ARGUMENT 3: THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS ON THE STREETS OF SEATTLE CAUSED THE FAILURE OF THE WTO MEETING. The Battle of Seattle was moving, it was exciting, it was headline grabbing, it was revealing of fascist police violence, but it did not sink the WTO. NBPs failed in Seattle, anyway, so we don't need to bother with the historically new linkages forged there between labor, enviros, culture-workers and micropolitical groups. Nor do we need to rethink what global capitalism is, what the keiretsu are doing in East Asia, how the relations of production are being restructured in the EU, or concretely organizing the global proletariat in this informatic culture of ours. Why think through the year 2000 when you can recycle polemics from the 1920s! -- Dennis
Re: Re: on the anti-globalization movement (fwd)
At 02:12 AM 04/27/2000 -0700, you wrote: UNDERSTANDING THE BATTLES OF SEATTLE AND WASHINGTON By Dick Platkin and Chuck O'Connell* anti-globalization groups. They are (unknowingly) recycling Kautsky's argument when they claim that the WTO, IMF, and World Bank represent a new capitalist consensus to override national sovereignty and democracy when they impinge upon profitability. this isn't Kautsky's argument (is it?). Rather, didn't K argue that a world government (seen in embryo, perhaps, in the form of the WTO, IMF, WB, but especially the US/NATO which stands behind them) would solve the problems of the world-wide anarchy of production, dealing with world disproportionalities and preventing crises? It seems to me one could believe that these organizations could "override national sovereignty and democracy when they impinge upon profitability" without believing that they could abolish crises. BTW, it's really too bad that the debates amongst Kautsky, Lenin, Luxemburg, Bukharin, et al weren't thrashed out on a theoretical level instead of getting into the sectarian biz about "renegade K" and the like. (I know that Lenin started out as a follower of K and that his later verbal attacks on him occurred because Lenin was a mite peeved by K's weak position on WW1 and his later attacks on the revolution. But the whole set-to was the beginning of a process that shut down serious theoretical debate for a generation.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
A.G. Frank and his critics
Many thanks to Mine for info on the 1999, number 3 of "Review", published by Wallerstein's Braudel Center. I ordered it because I was extremely interested to see what Arrighi, Wallerstein and Amin had to say on A.G. Frank's "Re-Orient" which I had just finished reading. I wasn't disappointed. It is a real eye-opener and would be of particular interest to anybody who participated in threads on PEN-L about the Brenner thesis or Jared Diamond. (BTW, Jim Blaut's new book "8 Eurocentrist Historians, available soon from Guilford, has a chapter on Diamond.) I had no idea that the divisions between Frank and the other 3 were so deep. There's a tendency to assume that anti-Eurocentric thinkers, because they share a critique of the Asiatic Mode of Production theory, etc., might be united on the question of how capitalism emerged. Nothing could be further from the truth. The useful thing about the "Review" is that it encapsulates the thinking of key figures in this current and shows how they contrast with an extreme dialectical pole within it. Amin comes from a Marxist perspective and argues that Frank fails to appreciate the radically different nature of the industrial revolution, which is not too surprising when you consider Frank's argument in "Re-Orient" that there is no such thing as capitalism () Arrighi notes that there is almost zero concern with military and political matters in Frank's book, which would go a long way in explaining the rise of the west. I have Arrighi's "The Long 20th Century" and plan to tackle it before long. Wallerstein is probably the most devastating of the 3. With dry polemical style, he points out that Frank's obsession with "trade" in some ways is a hearkening back to his roots as a U. of Chicago Friedmanite economist. The Review costs $10 and can be ordered from http://fbc.binghamton.edu/. Louis Proyect (The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
Re: Poor in US more likely to face tax audits (fwd)
Poor in US more likely to face tax audits By Shannon Jones 22 April 2000 Another side of this issue is that the General Accounting Office did a report to follow up on the infamous Roth hearings that ventilated citizen tales of IRS abuses. GAO found that none of the anti-IRS charges held water. GAO was prevented from releasing the report, purportedly on the grounds of citizen confidentiality. A copy leaked out anyway and it turns out there was little or no confidentiality issue -- any personal stuff was blacked out and there wasn't much of it. mbs I'd like a copy,if you know where I could find one... Brad DeLong
Re: Re: Re: Krugman attacks the EPI! (fwd)
At 04:40 PM 4/26/00 -0400, you wrote: ... Galbraith endorsed technocracy, no ? The private corporations have technocrats/bureaucrats too, yet they claim liberal capitalism means some kind of anti-bureaucratic democracy. it's a "democracy" that follows the one dollar/one vote principle. John Kenneth Galbraith emphasized the role of a specific kind of technocracy (the "technostructure"). As I understand it, he saw corporations as largely insulated from market competition (an assumption that seems to be valid during the period of "Baran Sweezy's Monopoly Capitalism" in the U.S, which stretched from roughly the publication date of Baran's POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GROWTH to that of BS's MONOPOLY CAPITAL). Given this insulation, the corporate bureaucracy could be "soulful" and could take on other interests besides crude and crass profit maximization, such things as aesthetics. JKG hoped that the technostructure would heed his call and turn to such interests. But I don't think he saw the technostructure as always and everywhere a good thing. Nowadays, JKG's vision seems quite dated, with corporations continually dogged by market competition and pressure from stock-holders and creditors. Instead of aesthetics, the main concern seems to be stock options. The corporate bureaucracies seem to have lost their relative autonomy and mostly reflect the untrammeled market, with all the negative consequences that implies (though there are all sorts of government regulations and PR concerns that moderate this result). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: Re: Poor in US more likely to face tax audits (fwd)
Poor in US more likely to face tax audits . . . A copy leaked out anyway and it turns out there was little or no confidentiality issue -- any personal stuff was blacked out and there wasn't much of it. mbs I'd like a copy,if you know where I could find one... I've got it. It's a 2.7 meg PDF file. Anyone who wants it e-mailed, let me know. An alternative is I could send the first ten pp -- the letter summarizing the report -- which is 487K. mbs
Re: Re: on the anti-globalization movement (fwd)
Dennis R Redmond wrote: [Nothing Intelligible] Dennis, for someone who wants us to believe that you have successfully construed Adorno, you certainly have your troubles with a fairly simple and straightforward post. I haven't decided yet my own response to Platkin O'Connell but your commentary belongs in a pile of rejected scripts for third-rate stand-up comics. As a paper in an Intro to Lit class for non-majors I would give it at best a C+. No one (regardless of his/her specific politics) is going to contribute much to building a left movement by indulging in happy daydreams about the strengh of the movement. Platkin O'Connell at least raise serious questions on an important topic,. Carrol
FW: [baker-data-commentary] GDP BYTE, 04/27/2000
-- From: Joyce Kim[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 10:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [baker-data-commentary] GDP BYTE, 04/27/2000 GDP BYTE, April 27, 2000 by Dean Baker SURGING CONSUMPTION AGAIN DRIVES GROWTH Another huge burst of consumption spending propelled growth in the first quarter. Real consumption spending grew at an 8.3 percent annual rate providing the basis for a 5.4 percent rate of GDP growth in the quarter. While this growth rate is down somewhat from the 7.3 percent growth rate of the fourth quarter, the slowdown is entirely attributable to inventory fluctuations. The growth of final demand actually accelerated from 6.0 percent in the 4th quarter to 6.9 percent in the first quarter. There is some evidence that this more rapid growth is being accompanied by higher inflation. Higher oil costs caused the implicit price deflator for gross domestic purchases and personal consumption expenditures to rise at a 3.2 percent annual rate. This is the highest rate of inflation for consumption expenditures in the GDP data since the third quarter of 1994. While higher oil prices have been the largest factor in this acceleration, there is evidence of more rapidly rising prices elsewhere. The price of consumer services rose at a 3.3 percent rate in the quarter, compared to a 2.1 percent rate in the previous two years. More rapidly rising housing and medical care costs are the biggest factors in this acceleration. The growth in consumption purchases was driven by a 26.6 percent jump in durable goods purchases, as automobile and home computer purchases soared in the quarter. Purchases of non-durable goods and services rose at a 6.9 and 5.4 percent annual rate, respectively. This surge in consumption pushed the personal savings rate to yet another record low of 0.7 percent. Investment also grew rapidly in the first quarter, rising at a 21.2 percent annual rate. This was largely a bounceback from weak growth of just 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter. The underlying rate of growth of investment is probably about 10 percent, approximately the same rate as the last three years. Perhaps the most striking item in this report is the 23.7 percent growth rate in residential housing. This number is consistent with recent reports on housing starts and construction spending, but it demonstrates that the Federal Reserve Board's rate hikes have had very limited impact on the economy to date. The strong growth in the quarter led to another huge leap in the trade deficit, which hit 3.5 percent of GDP, a new record. Half of this story is explained by a 9.5 percent real increase in imports accompanied by a large rise in oil prices. But the more surprising part of the story is the stagnation of real exports, which declined by 0.2 percent in the quarter. This decline, occurring at time when most of the rest of the world is experiencing healthy growth, suggests that the dollar is seriously over-valued. The rise in the trade deficit lowered the growth rate for the quarter by 1.3 percentage points. The other big drag on growth in the quarter was the slower pace of inventory accumulations. Non-farm inventories had increased at a $72.3 billion annual rate in the fourth quarter as firms built up stockpiles as a precaution against Y2K problems. The rate of inventory growth fell to a more normal $31.1 billion in this quarter. This slower rate of inventory accumulation brought down the pace of GDP growth by 1.4 percentage points. This report shows that the economy continues to grow at incredibly rapid pace, but it is being driven by two unsustainable trends: a plunging savings rate and corresponding build-up of personal debt, and a surging trade deficit. To date, the Federal Reserve Board's efforts to slow the economy have had little effect. Yet, inflation remains mild, except for the surge in oil prices, the continuing problems in the health care system driving up medical costs, and the demand driven rise in housing prices. Dean Baker is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. ** The Center for Economic and Policy Research's GDP Byte is published quarterly upon release of the Bureau of Economic Analysis' report on the Gross Domestic Product. For more information or to subscribe by fax or email contact CEPR at 202 293-5380 ext. 206 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Now the best and coolest websites come right to you based on your unique interests. eTour.com is surfing without searching. And, it's FREE! http://click.egroups.com/1/3013/7/_/92028/_/956847112/ application/ms-tnef
Naiman v Krugman: the cashew round
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- From: "Robert Naiman" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: PEN-L and Mozambique cashew nut case Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 13:16:32 -0400 Patrick: I'm only half-on PEN-L at the moment, but I see there's been some discussion on the cashew nut case. I think it's important for people to know that Krugman didn't bother to read the details of the case; we have him on the economics. No reference to capitalism necessary, Krugman is just wrong. As I said in my letter to the NYT -- they refused to run this part -- Krugman's sloppiness shows why it's a bad idea to let foreign economists dictate economic policy to developing countries. Could you post something on the list -- like the link to the article by Joe Hanlon that set Krugman off -- the article clearly shows why the World Bank -- and Krguman in defending it -- were wrong on the economics. http://www.a16.org/resources/cashew.txt And here is FAIR's page on the dispute. http://www.fair.org/articles/naiman-krugman.html -bob
Re: Re: Re: on the anti-globalization movement(fwd)
Carrol Cox wrote: I would give it at best a C+ There's no such thing as a retired professor Doug
Re: Re: on the anti-globalization movement (fwd)
I am excessively under rush now. but 1) I will come to Dennis and Jim's comments on the anti-globalization movement. I don't seriously disagree, except that R Kautsky's position was more like leaning towards the ultimate freedom of the market (ie.,capitalism unleashing its own contradictions, so let the market go.), he beleived intervention in markets by any means would postpone the collapse of capitalism. thus, he was orthodox. Bernstein fellow was interventionist strictly speaking (ie., state cartels faciliating the evolutionary transition to socialism), not Kautsky. they were differently bourgeois economists, and distorted Marx ... but let's discuss this later.. (time problem..) 2) i will also come to yesterday's article.. Geras' book on this issue is great _the legacy of Rosa Luxemburg_. he clearly sets out the polemics among the trio (Lenin-Trot-Rosa), and their critique of renegade Kaustky. i have to go. Mine -- Forwarded message -- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 07:27:23 -0700 From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:18376] Re: Re: on the "anti-globalization" movement (fwd) At 02:12 AM 04/27/2000 -0700, you wrote: UNDERSTANDING THE BATTLES OF SEATTLE AND WASHINGTON By Dick Platkin and Chuck O'Connell* anti-globalization groups. They are (unknowingly) recycling Kautsky's argument when they claim that the WTO, IMF, and World Bank represent a new capitalist consensus to override national sovereignty and democracy when they impinge upon profitability. this isn't Kautsky's argument (is it?). Rather, didn't K argue that a world government (seen in embryo, perhaps, in the form of the WTO, IMF, WB, but especially the US/NATO which stands behind them) would solve the problems of the world-wide anarchy of production, dealing with world disproportionalities and preventing crises? It seems to me one could believe that these organizations could "override national sovereignty and democracy when they impinge upon profitability" without believing that they could abolish crises. BTW, it's really too bad that the debates amongst Kautsky, Lenin, Luxemburg, Bukharin, et al weren't thrashed out on a theoretical level instead of getting into the sectarian biz about "renegade K" and the like. (I know that Lenin started out as a follower of K and that his later verbal attacks on him occurred because Lenin was a mite peeved by K's weak position on WW1 and his later attacks on the revolution. But the whole set-to was the beginning of a process that shut down serious theoretical debate for a generation.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2000 The average person in the United States holds 9.2 jobs from ages 18 to 34, according to a longitudinal study by BLS. More than half of these jobs (5.6 positions) are held between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the study. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). The consumer confidence index declined for the third straight month in April, but the level of optimism remains high, according to figures released by the Conference Board. ... The decline was caused by a modest decrease in optimism about the present economic situation. ... April survey responses showed that the proportion of households claiming that jobs are "hard to get" rose to 12 percent from 10.6 percent in March. Consumers who said that jobs are "plentiful" declined from 53.3 percent in March to 52.4 percent in April. Looking ahead 6 months, the job outlook was positive. The percentage of households expecting more jobs to become available rose marginally -- from 15.7 percent in March to 15.8 percent in April. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-1)_Consumer confidence weakened in April for the third consecutive month, suggesting there could be some slowing of the spending that has fueled the nation's growth. But American's expectations about future business and job opportunities remained strong, and economists said they expected this would cause the Federal Reserve's policy setting committee to raise interest rates the sixth time since June 1999 when it meets on May 16. ... In a separate sign of economic strength, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose 1.5 percent in March, the second consecutive monthly gain despite rising mortgage rates. ... (New York Times, page C10)_Rising interest rates, signs of resurgent inflation, and a volatile stock market have done little to shake the confidence of the American consumer. But there are faint signs that spending may cool modestly in the months ahead. ... Sales of previously occupied or existing homes rose 1.5 percent in March. Many economists had been looking for sales to flatten out or drop slightly as rising mortgage rates make it more expensive to buy a home. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). A stunning turnaround has restored Asia's status as the world's fastest-growing region, but its recovery "masks substantial problems," warns the Asian Development Bank. ... (USA Today, page 1B). By 2025, one-third of Europe's population will be pensioners, creating a heavy burden for workers paying taxes into government pension systems, says The Washington Post (page A1). ... Financing pensions will become more difficult as populations age in Europe as well as in the United States. The situation is worse in Europe, where people depend solely upon government pensions and officials have been slow to enact reforms. ... The Post includes graphs that show that the number of elderly will grow compared with the working population, more and more people are retiring before age 65, public pension and health care spending will continue to grow, and raising taxes to finance pension systems is an unpopular solution since contributions are already quite high. Recruiting the elderly -- men and women who want to occupy their day, battle loneliness, or top up their pension -- has become a Dutch growth industry. While unemployment hovers around 10 percent in other parts of Europe, the Dutch now have the opposite problem: With only 2.7 percent jobless, the country is seriously short of workers. Forecasts through 2040 show that the population of Dutch seniors is on the rise, while the 20-64 workforce is not, allowing many retirees to return to work. ... (New York Times, April 25, page NE6). DUE OUT TOMORROW: Employment Cost Index -- March 2000 application/ms-tnef
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2000 Manufacturing overtime, most prevalent among high-skilled workers, is still near its January 1998 decade high. In contrast to previous economic booms, employers now find overtime cheaper than training new hires. ... Data in the accompanying chart are attributed to BLS (Business Week, April 24, page 8). Four years ago, workers under 50 needed a median 2.8 months to find a new job, while 50-plus workers needed a full month more, at 3.8 months. That gap has nearly disappeared, notes the Chicago search firm Challenger, Gray Christmas. Under-50 workers searched 3.58 months in the first quarter, while over-50s had to look "only a matter of days" more, at 3.85 months (Wall Street Journal "Work Week" feature, page A1). Thirty-somethings bear the brunt of transfers. Fully 58 percent of all the employees transferred by their companies are in their 30s, finds the latest Atlas Van Lines relocation survey. Employees older than 45 make up just 4 percent of corporate transfers (Wall Street Journal "Work Week" feature, page A1) The way computer technology is being used and taught in the nation's classrooms is a turnoff for many girls and ought to be changed, according to a study by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. The 2-year study says female undergraduates are underrepresented in computer science to an alarming degree. For example, they represent only 17 percent of students taking the Advanced Placement test in computer science, 9 percent of those getting engineering-related bachelor's degrees, and roughly 20 percent of the information technology work force. Violent electronic games and programming classes that cater to boys are making girls uninterested in the computer, the study found. ... (Washington Post, page A11). The 1990s shine because of economic stability and return on stocks, say researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Even with the hefty productivity pickup in recent years, the decade's average productivity growth still lagged behind that of the 1960s and the 1970s. The decade did do significantly better on the unemployment and inflation fronts than either of the prior 2 decades. Still, it was no match for the peerless 1960s, which posted an average jobless rate that's a percentage point lower and an inflation rate that's over 20 percent below the 1990s' pace. ... (Business Week, April 24, page 32). application/ms-tnef
Naiman on Krugman
for the record, here are Bob Naiman's letters.
Krugman's Sloppy Economics
April 20, 2000
Paul Krugman ("A Real Nut Case") is right about one thing: the destruction
of Mozambique's cashew nut processing industry
by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is my favorite
example showing why the destructive power of these
institutions must be dramatically reduced. It illustrates that the IMF and
the Bank exercise colonial power over developing
countries; that, like Krugman, they are sloppy economists; that dogmatic
trade liberalization also hurts developing countries; and
that the "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative" of the IMF and the
World Bank is unworthy of U.S. funding since it
preserves the destructive power of the IMF and the Bank over poor countries
like Mozambique.
On the paramount question of democracy, Krugman doesn't contest that the
IMF and the World Bank imposed their policies on
Mozambique-- contrary to their claims about "negotiation" and "dialogue."
As to whether the World Bank's diktat was good economic policy for
Mozambique, it is Krugman who needs to do his
homework. Krugman ignores the 1997 Deloitte Touche study commissioned by
the World Bank, which found that
Mozambique's peasants did not gain anything from liberalized exports of raw
cashews. This single fact demolishes Krugman's
entire defense of the Bank's policy. The study also found that Indian
subsidies to its cashew nut processing industry made
competition unfair, and that Mozambique earns an extra $130 per ton
processing its own cashews, "sufficient reason to support
the processing industry against competition from India."
Mr. Krugman's arrogance in defending such errors on the basis of abstract
principles, without knowledge of crucial facts,
illustrates why it is not only immoral, but also unwise, to allow foreign
economists to make such crucial decisions for developing
countries.
-- Robert Naiman
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Robert Naiman's letter as edited and printed by the The New York Times,
April 26, 2000:
World Bank's Power
April 26, 2000
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman (column, April 19) is right that World Bank policy with
respect to Mozambique's cashew nut processing industry
is my favorite example of why the World Bank's power must be reduced.
Mr. Krugman suggests that the World Bank's policy was in the interest of
Mozambican peasants, ignoring a 1997 study
commissioned by the bank that found that Mozambican peasants did not gain
anything from the liberalized exports of raw
cashews. This fact undermines Mr. Krugman's argument.
It is not only immoral but also unwise to allow the World Bank to make
crucial decisions for developing countries.
ROBERT NAIMAN
Washington, April 20, 2000
The writer is a senior policy analyst, Center for Economic and Policy
Research.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: [Fwd: New British Empire of the Dammed]
A damning and highly instructive report. Note what we are really seeing here are the extreme features of finance capital. The British company is a front for the US company. The finance has already been earmarked for the unbuilt dam and that is why the price of the water has to be so high for the poor working people of Bolivia. Note the strong monopoly features of this finance capital. It uses influence on governments to get monopolies. Bechtel aims to control the world's water supplies! Chris Burford London Bolivia's water supply is the latest acquisition of thirsty British firms in the service of Uncle Sam New British empire of the dammed by Gregory Palast demonstrators opposing the 35% hike in water prices imposed on the city of Cochabamba by the new owners of the water system, International Waters Ltd, of London. IWL, like many of Britain's multinational operators, is controlled by a larger US corporation, in this case, construction giant Bechtel. San Francisco-based BECHTEL, known here as builder of the Jubilee Line, recently set off on a quest to own and operate water systems worldwide. United Utilities (Cheshire), originally co-owner of IWL, now merely "strategic partner" in the venture, plays Sancho Panza to Bechtel's financial Quijote. It is a basic tenet of accounting that investors, not customers, fund capital projects. The risk-takers then recover their outlay, with profit, when the project produces a product for sale. This is the heart, soul and justification for the system called "capitalism." That's the theory. But when a monopoly operator gets its fist around a city's water spigots, it can pump the funds for capital projects (even ones that cost 600% over the market) from captive customers rather than its shareholders. Britain is re-establishing imperial reach, albeit in the shadow of Americans, through rapid low-capital takeovers of former state assets, concentrated in infrastructure where monopoly control virtually guarantees outsized profit. From BG's takeover of the Sao Paolo, Brazil, gas company to United Utilities' buy-out of the Manila water company, it all seemed a riskless romp – until a few thirsty, angry peasants in the Andes decided they could stop the New Imperium in the streets. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 18 Apr 2000 -- 4:33 (#414)
__ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 18 April 2000 Vol. 4, Number 33 (#414) __ CONTENTS Ira Glasser (Executive Director -- ACLU), "Could We Lose the Fourth Amendment?" 12 Apr 00 Real Political Correctness: People For the American Way, "Far Right Fails to Gather Signatures To Repeal Human Rights Ordinance," 10 Apr 00 Rightwing Quote of the Week: Rightwing Science Fiction via the Nationalist Observer, 13 Apr 00 -- Could We Lose the Fourth Amendment Ira Glasser (Executive Director -- ACLU) 12 Apr 00 The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects us against searches and seizures when there is "no probable cause." But that fundamental pillar of liberty has been steadily eroded for more than a decade now as a result of the government's "War on Drugs." Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear what could be the most important Fourth Amendment case to come before it in more than a quarter century. The case, City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n022200a.html?s2, was brought as a class action suit by the ACLU on behalf of two individuals and the citizens of Indiana, all of whom are subject to random roadside searches. We brought this case because the authorities in Indianapolis decided not to bother just searching people they had a good reason to suspect of wrongdoing, as the Fourth Amendment requires. Instead, they decided to set up roadblocks on selected highways to stop all motorists in order to look for drugs, without any reason to believe that any car was carrying drugs. In short, what the Indianapolis police were doing is precisely what the Fourth Amendment was meant to stop: searching everybody to find the guilty. And, in a 2 to 1 decision, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with us that the Fourth Amendment requires that criminal investigatory searches and seizures must be based on particular cause, or some good reason to suspect the people to be stopped and searched. But the city appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. As someone who has demonstrated your concern for our civil liberties, you understand that it is essential that the ACLU mount the most compelling defense of the Fourth Amendment possible. Because if we should lose this case, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Fourth Amendment would cease to exist once you're outside your home. To find out more about the threats to the Bill of Rights and to all of our traditional values of liberty, fairness and justice, visit our special web- based campaign on Liberties at Risk at http://www.aclu.org/liberties.html?s2l. P.S. Your support is critical to the ACLU's ability to turn back this and other threats to our rights. If you are not already a member, please considering joining the ACLU today by visiting https://secure20.client- mail.com/aclulink/forms/support_aclu.cfm?EID=808241X0X2 Thank you. -- REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been Far Right Fails to Gather Signatures To Repeal Human Rights Ordinance People For the American Way 10 Apr 00 An alliance of radical religious right groups calling itself "Take Back Miami-Dade" failed to gather the needed number of signatures to place the question of repealing an amendment to Miami-Dade's Human Rights Ordinance that protects lesbians and gay men from discrimination on this fall's ballot. The group missed its deadline for filing 32,582 signatures - 4% of the voters -- with the Miami- Dade County Commission on Friday, according to PFAW Florida Director Lisa Versaci. "What this shows is that there is no constituency for intolerance in Miami- Dade. Any candidate or campaign who is organizing on an agenda of hate, bigotry or division would be wise to re-evaluate their strategy," said Versaci. PFAW is a member of SAVE Dade, a coalition of organizations and individuals who have pledged to fight discrimination in Miami-Dade. "The Human Rights Ordinance is there to protect everyone's basic rights to fair treatment. By failing to join in the far right's petition drive, the voters of Miami-Dade have reaffirmed their community's rich tradition of diversity and mutual respect," said Ralph G. Neas, PFAW President. -- RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past Rightwing Science Fiction via the Nationalist Observer 13 Apr 00 Yesterday Augustus 17, 2064, Pontifex Maximus Chrysostom II arrived in St. Karlstad to consecrate the Memorial to the White Race as the Holiest site in Universal Churchdom. His speech
Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Louis Proyect crossposted: Conclusion to "Not A Happy Ending" by Samir Amin, published in Al-Ahram. http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/1999/462/samir.htm US HEGEMONY ATTACKS --THE 21ST CENTURY WILL NOT BE AMERICAN: There are no European TNCs: only British, German, or French TNCs. Capital interpenetration is no denser in inter-European relations that in the bilateral relations between each European nation and the US or Japan. Nokia, Daimler, Renault, SAP, Deutsche Bank, BNP etc. all went global decades ago. Eurocapital has been merging like there's no tomorrow. There probably will be a tomorrow for this world-system, but it'll be transacted in euros. -- Dennis
No Subject
Interested listers might check out below website for documentary entitled "Roll on Columbia: Woody Guthrie and the Bonneville Power Administration." Film explores great piece of musical, political, economic history. My friends Denise Mathews and Bill Black were involved in the project. Denise was co-producer/director on the film and Bill designed the website. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/med_svc/wguthrie/index.html Michael Hoover
Tom Kruse reports/photos from Bolivia
Go to http://www.americas.org/ and click 'Bolivian Water War'. Louis Proyect (The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
[fla-left] [labor] Taco Bell Action Alert! Justice for Tomato Workers!! (fwd)
forwarded by Michael Hoover From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 17:35:23 EDT Subject: [ciw-announce] Taco Bell Action Alert! Please distribute the following Action Alert as widely as possible - Thanks ... ACTION ALERT... ACTION ALERT... ACTION ALERT... Coalition of Immokalee Workers needs your help to make Taco Bell a part of the solution in Florida's farmworkers' fight for dialogue and a fair wage New Initiative in Tomato Pickers' Campaign! Today we are in the process of developing an important new initiative in our Campaign for Dialogue and a Living Wage, an initiative intended to address the major corporate buyers of Immokalee tomatoes. We need your support to make this new initiative a success. More and more every day, the tomatoes we produce in Immokalee go to supply major, multi-national corporations. Long gone are the days when small, family farmers supplied area stores and chains with locally-grown tomatoes in season. Today, huge corporate growers with multi-state operations sell tomatoes year round to even bigger corporate buyers. The tomatoes Immokalee workers pick end up in Whoppers, Chalupas, and Big Macs across the country, and even overseas. Those fast food giants receive cheap, high-quality US tomatoes, thanks to the sacrifices of thousands of hard-working Florida farmworkers who pick tomatoes at a piece rate that has remained virtually unchanged for over two decades. We believe that the large corporations that buy Florida tomatoes must step up to their responsibility by demanding, and obtaining, changes in the shameful pay and working conditions suffered by the men and women who pick their tomatoes. Why Taco Bell? Taco Bell is part of Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., together with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. These three major chains control more than 29,000 restaurants around the globe, forming the world's largest restaurant system in terms of units, according to Tricon's 1998 Annual Report. Also according to that same report, Tricon's system-wide sales reached over $20 billion in 1998, with Taco Bell alone reporting over $5 billion in system wide sales that year. Tricon reported more than 3/4 of a billion dollars in ongoing operating profit in 1998 ($768 million). At the same time, according to the agricultural industry journal The Packer, Taco Bell is a major client of the Immokalee-based Six L's Packing Co, one of the biggest tomato producers in the United States. Indeed, fresh tomatoes are a featured component of many of Taco Bell's best-selling products. Given the sheer volume of Immokalee tomatoes it buys to supply its worldwide operations, and given its size and economic strength, Taco Bell has the power to help bring about more modern, more equitable labor relations in Immokalee's tomato fields, and with power comes responsibility. What Can Taco Bell Do? If Taco Bell were to express its support for dialogue with the Coalition to Six L's representatives, talks might finally have a chance. Six L's would be hard pressed to ignore such an important client's wishes. Furthermore, if Taco Bell were to voluntarily pay just 1 cent more per pound, and the growers would agree to pass that penny along to the picker, that one penny could almost double the picking piece rate overnight. Communication with Taco Bell Stalled: After learning that Taco Bell is a key client of the Six L's Packing Co., we wrote to their executives in Irvine, California. In that letter, dated January 12, 2000, we wrote: We would like to talk with representatives of your company to discuss the conditions that we face picking tomatoes for Six L's and other companies in our area, and to share our ideas as to how Taco Bell could help bring about much-needed change for the workers who pick your tomatoes. We attached a thick collection of articles so that the executives at Taco Bell might have a fuller idea of the farmworkers=92 situation as it is today. We finished by saying: We truly believe that Taco Bell is a responsible corporate neighbor and that your company understands that conditions like those you will find in the attached articles are no longer acceptable. Taco Bell never responded. Indeed, we have learned through a TV reporter that Taco Bell has declined to get involved, deciding rather to allow the farmworkers and the growers to work out their problems. Unfortunately, we've been working for nearly three years now just to talk with the growers, yet the vast majority of agribusiness leaders in Immokalee have flatly refused to meet with representatives of their workers. Taco Bell can, and should, help end that impasse. What You Can Do: Please, call, write, or fax Taco Bell today and ask them to: meet with representatives of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to discuss how Taco Bell could help bring about long-denied justice for Florida's
Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
Conclusion to "Not A Happy Ending" by Samir Amin, published in Al-Ahram. Full article online at: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/1999/462/samir.htm US HEGEMONY ATTACKS --THE 21ST CENTURY WILL NOT BE AMERICAN: In this chaotic conjuncture, the US took the offensive once more to reestablish its global hegemony and to organise the world system in its economic, political and military dimensions according to this hegemony. Has US hegemony entered its decline? Or has it begun a renewal that would make the 21st century "America's"? If we examine the economic dimension in the narrow sense of the term, measured roughly in terms of per capita GDP, and the structural tendencies of the balance of trade, we will conclude that American hegemony, so crushing in 1945, receded as early as the 1960s and '70s with Europe and Japan's brilliant resurgence. The Europeans bring it up continuously, in familiar terms: the European Union is the first economic and commercial force on a world scale, etc. The statement is hasty, however, for, if it is true that a single European market does exist, and even that a single currency is emerging, the same cannot be said of "a" European economy (at least, not yet). There is no such thing as a "European productive system"; such a productive system, on the contrary, can be spoken of in the case of the United States. The economies set up in Europe through the constitution of historical bourgeoisie in the relevant states, and the shaping, within this framework, of autocentric national productive systems (even if these are also open, even aggressively so), have stayed more or less the same. There are no European TNCs: only British, German, or French TNCs. Capital interpenetration is no denser in inter-European relations that in the bilateral relations between each European nation and the US or Japan. If Europe's productive systems have been eroded, therefore, weakened by "globalised interdependence" to such an extent that national policies lose a good deal of their efficiency, this is precisely to the advantage of globalisation and the forces that dominate it, not to that of "European integration", which does not exist as yet. The US's hegemony rests on a second pillar, however: that of military power. Built up systematically since 1945, it covers the whole of the planet, which is parcelled out into regions, each under the relevant US military command. This hegemonism had been forced to accept the peaceful coexistence imposed by Soviet military might. Now that the page is turned, the US went on the offensive to reinforce its global domination, which Henry Kissinger summed up in a memorably arrogant phrase: "Globalisation is only another word for US domination." This American global strategy has five aims: 1) to neutralise and subjugate the other partners in the Triad (Europe and Japan), while minimising their ability to act outside the US's orbit; 2) to establish military control over NATO while "Latin-Americanising" the fragments of the former Soviet world; 3) to exert uncontested influence in the Middle East, especially over its petroleum resources; 4) to dismantle China, ensure the subordination of the other great nations (India, Brazil), and prevent the constitution of regional blocs potentially capable of negotiating the terms of globalisation; 5) to marginalise the regions of the South that represent no strategic interest. The favoured instrument of this hegemony is therefore military, as the US's highest-ranking representatives never tire of repeating ad nauseam. This hegemony, which guarantees in turn that of the Triad over the world system, therefore demands that America's allies accept to navigate in its wake. Great Britain, Germany and Japan make no bones (not even cultural ones) about this imperative. But this means that the speeches with which European politicians water their audiences --regarding Europe's economic power --have no real significance. By placing itself exclusively on the terrain of mercantile squabbles, Europe, which has no political or social project of its own, has lost before the race has even started. Washington knows this well. The principal means in the service of the strategy chosen by Washington is NATO, which explains why it has survived the collapse of the adversary that constituted the organisation's raison d'ètre. NATO still speaks today in the name of the "international community", thereby expressing its contempt for the democratic principle that governs this said community through the UN. Yet NATO acts only to serve Washington's aims --no more and no less --as the history of the past decade, from the Gulf War to Kosovo, goes to show. The strategy employed by the Triad under US direction takes as its aim the construction of a unipolar world organised along two complementary principles: the unilateral dictatorship of dominant TNC capital, and the unfurling of a US military empire, to which all nations must be compelled to submit. No other
Re: Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
Dennis R Redmond wrote: There probably will be a tomorrow for this world-system, but it'll be transacted in euros. Living in the shadow of the dollar Mark Milner, deputy financial editor The Guardian Thursday April 27, 2000 How low can the euro go? ... Today the currency slumped to fresh lows on the foreign exchanges despite a rise in interest rates by the ECB. Since its launch at the beginning of last year the euro has lost a fifth of its value against the dollar and a similar amount against the Japanese yen - the heavy weights of the global currency markets which the euro was meant to rival. When it was launched the euro bought $1.16. Parity - where one euro bought one dollar - was deemed unthinkable. Today, however, one euro is worth just over 91 cents. . The problem for the euro is that throughout its life there has been a very attractive something else - the dollar. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList
Re: unsubscribing
HELP
Re: Re: Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
On Fri, 28 Apr 2000, M A Jones crossposted: Mark Milner, deputy financial editor The Guardian Thursday April 27, 2000 How low can the euro go? ... Today the currency slumped to fresh lows on the foreign exchanges despite a rise in interest rates by the ECB. This is known as a buying opportunity of historic proportions. Some future George Soros out there is going to make an unholy killing by snapping up EUR and dumping USD. Exchange rates bounce all over the place -- the yen was as low as 85 to the dollar in 1995, then zoomed to 142 to the dollar quite recently, now it's around 106 (long-term averages put the yen at 110 to the dollar). The euro could go as low as 80 to the dollar and as high as 130, but as long as the EU keeps running big trade and current account surpluses vis-a-vis the US, investing in its currency is a no-brainer. As someone said, somewhere, one should not mistake a data point for an inflection point. -- Dennis
Re: Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending (fwd)
Dennis R Redmond wrote: There probably will be a tomorrow for this world-system, but it'll be transacted in euros. so should we give up the struggle? i don't see the point.. Mine Doyran SUNY/Albany
Re: Re: Re: Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList Dennis R Redmond wrote: This is known as a buying opportunity of historic proportions. Some future George Soros out there is going to make an unholy killing by snapping up EUR and dumping USD. Hey, Russia posted a whacking bal of payments surplus last year and has done almost every year since 1991. Is it also a no-brainer to buy up some roubles right now? Mark 'no-brain' Jones
Fw: Re: Re: Re: Samir Amin: Not a Happy Ending
- Original Message - From: "M A Jones" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 3:57 AM Subject: Re: [PEN-L:18398] Re: Re: Re: Samir Amin: "Not a Happy Ending" Hey, Russia posted a whacking bal of payments surplus last year and has done almost every year since 1991. Is it also a no-brainer to buy up some roubles right now? While I think about, the US has run a b of p deficit for at least two decades, so obviously we should have been piling into roubles since at least 1973, when one rouble was worth 1.7 US$ (unlike today when one dollar buys a kilo of dried roubles). The UK (which recently overhauled France in GDP, thus proving again the superiority of Anglo-Saxon methods) ran a deficit for most of the 19th century; no doubt the brainless thing then was to bale out of Nepalese rupees, Bahamian cowry shells etc and jeopardise your children's inheritance by buying sterling. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList
Re: Re: unsubscribing
you can send your command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe pen-l if i am not mistaken, btw. Brick Menz wrote: HELP -- Mine Aysen Doyran PhD Student Department of Political Science SUNY at Albany Nelson A. Rockefeller College 135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 Albany, NY 1
Re: Re: Re: unsubscribing
Here is the list of commands. Dear Penners, This is an occasional reminder of some of the listserv commands at your disposal. The commands have been capitalized for emphasis. These commands should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you are going to be away and want to postpone messages from pen-l send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the message type: SET pen-l MAIL POSTPONE== postpones one's mail SET pen-l MAIL ACK == unpostpone one's mail To unsubscribe from pen-l, please mail listproc the message UNSUB pen-l == two word command Most common mistakes: 1. The inclusion of personal names with the unsub request. 2. Punctuation marks near the two wordsE.g., "unsub pen-l" rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l. rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l rather than unsub pen-l 3. Trying to unsubscribe from an (internet) .edu address when your subscription is registered under a .bitnet address. To determine the address under which you are subscribed, send [EMAIL PROTECTED] the two word request. This request will also give you a list of all subscribers. REVIEW Pen-l If your efforts to unsub have been frustrated, please write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] rather than taking your problem to the list. It is helpful to forward a copy the of mail from [EMAIL PROTECTED] that shows the source of your problem. If you would like to receive pen-l messages in batches or digests several times per week instead of message-by-message, send the following command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] SET pen-l MAIL DIGEST If you want to return to message-by-message mail, use the command SET pen-l MAIL ACK If you want to see an index of the logs of past messages and other files send (to [EMAIL PROTECTED]) the command INDEX pen-l The list of files returned from the index command are retrievable with the get command. If, for example, you are interested in messages from January 97, you send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the body of the message type GET pen-l JAN97 For friends who would like to subscribe, please have them send the four/five word cmd SUB pen-l Firstname Lastname REMEMBER: All of these commands should be sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
