Re: query: unemployment insurance.
Jim: In the Green Book, i.e. the compedium of data produced by the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. They were doing them annually, then biennially, and now I think they haven't done one since 2001 (pending a longer-term consensus on welfare reform). But I think the data is there, and it is usually on line if you can't get a hard copy. You might also try to Bureau of Labor statistics website. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:02:35 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: query: unemployment insurance. where can I get data on the percentage of wages that would be replaced by unemployment insurance (for different types of workers and overall averages) over time in the US? jim devine mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: welfare-warfare state
This term has three different associations. The first is the fiscal stimulus effect, whereby both warfare and welfare boost aggregate demand, but as a famous editorial from Fortune in the late 1940s noted, warfare has the advantage of increasing profit without raising the social wage, i.e. it effects the maximum stimulus with the mininimum disruption to the private sector. 2) the shared tendency of both welfare and warfare to centralize power in the national government, where it can be most effectively administered (Nixon, who raised social security payments , indexed them to inflation, federalized the states' old age, blind, and disabled program (now SSI), and enacted the Comprehensive Employment Training Act is the preeminent example of this trend); 3) the use of increased welfare as a incentive to mobilize the population for a war. Britain after World war II best illustrates this phenonoma, because the 1943 Beveridge Report promised that a victorious Britain would have a national health service and other welfare goodies. The clear message here is that despite the divisions of class, we'll all benefit if we all pull together. Though less tied together in advanced, one might also note the long list of connections between warfare and various after the fact social welfare initiatives : Lloyd George and the passage of health insurance in England (1911) after the ruling class became distressed at the inability of the British working class to fight in Boer War (leading to George's famous quote You can't have an A-1 Empire with C-3 population'); as well as enactment of school lunch programs in the U.S. (1946), and establishment of the NAtional Institutes of Health (1948), both of which link concerns about the physical and mental health of the population in the United States to its rising imperial ambitions. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 21:32:12 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: welfare-warfare state A friend has a question: I have a question for you: what is the welfare-warfare state thesis? I thought it had been advocated by some left faction in the 70s, but also know that Austrian and ultra-rightists talk about this. What do you know about this term? I would be very grateful for any ideas that you may have. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: super-size me!
Either they work too hard, or they eat badly... Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 11:46:54 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: super-size me! actually, the web-site was http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNewsstoryID=4881596§i on=news. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine From Reuters: McDonald's CEO Cantalupo's death [at age 60] follows the untimely passing of others in the industry. In January 2002, Dave Thomas, 69, founder of No.3 U.S. hamburger chain Wendy's International Inc. died of complications from liver cancer. In December 1999, Wendy's CEO, Gordon Teter, died of a heart attack at age 56. from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25958-2004Apr19.html [luckily, my kid no longer insists that we go to McDonald's.] Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: Wal-Mart vs. Costco Again
Costco certainly looks like a better place to work than Wal-Mart, although it does not take much for that to be true. But is Costco more attractive to big money that cares only about making more money? The Business Week article tries to make it seem so, with the implication that good treatment of workers is good business, too. However, over the last five years, Wal-Mart has exceeded Costco on these ratios that matter to investors: Return on equity: 40% to 80% higher Return on assets: 35% to 60% higher Return on invested capital: 16% to 50% higher Operating profit margin: 50% to 75% higher Reinvestment rate: 20% to 50% higher (Source: Thomson Financial) In other words, businesses make money by sweating the most they can out of employees, and a comparison of Wal-Mart and Costco is no exception. Charles Andrews http://www.laborrepublic.org mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: Bush/Greenspan tax increase?
Sure, but just for the record, the 1983 Social Secuirty Commission already raised the retirement age to 67 so that anyone born in and after 1960 will have to wait until 2027 to collect social security. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Eugene Coyle [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 09:57:27 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Bush/Greenspan tax increase? The notion of raising the retirement age for full Social Security benefits is popular in conservative circles. Shouldn't it be described as a tax increase? Say the retirement age is raised from 65 to 67. An individual continuing to work pays income taxes for two additional years, pays payroll tax for two additional years. That is a lot of additional tax dollars that would not be paid absent the change. The individual, furthermore, does not collect SS for two years -- thus losing maybe $10,000 to $20,000 a year. That is money taken away by the Bush/Greenspan idea. Why not call both parts of this a tax increase? Plus two more years of working like dogs. Gene Coyle mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: the future of social security/medicare
The social security crisis is much inflated. As with any social inusrance system, the ratio of workers to retirees flattens as the system matures. But talk of a crisis is merely a wedge to open some political space for privatization, a scheme that would speed, rather than delay, the day of reckoning. Faster economic growth, lower unemployment, ora higher income cap, (roughly $88,000 this year) would make the crisis disappear. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: ravi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 14:16:09 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: the future of social security/medicare andie nachgeborenen wrote: I do not expect to have Social Security or Medicare, for example. what did you folks think of kuttner's piece in business week (march 2004): if you have a BW online id (i do not): http://www.businessweek.com/premium/content/04_11/b3874042_mz007.htm?se=1 essentially, if i understand him correctly, he quotes a few reports, based on which he suggests that the funds will not run out by ~ 2025 (as feared), unless bush continues his tax cut strategy including making cuts permanent. --ravi mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: talk
Jim: Clicking on your talk, I get file not found. Do you know what happened? Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 14:09:29 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: talk To see the notes of a talk I just gave to the Progressive Alliance at Santa Monica College, see http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine/talks/SMC03-16-04.htm. Thanks to Doug Henwood, who found an (obvious!) error in my calculation of the profit rate in my first graph. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: FW: Who do you favor for the next president? Take our online poll.
I think we're really playing with their heads. As a result of the left's participation in their poll on gay marriage, one e-electorate has replaced another in the polling of the American Family Association, and they have been severed from their base. Joel Original Message: - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 20:44:53 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FW: Who do you favor for the next president? Take our online poll. FWIW, in this on-line poll, Ralph is beating George! but John is #1 by far. So if you want to wow the right-wing Xians, vote! -Original Message- From: American Family Association [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 3/9/2004 12:52 PM To: Devine, James Cc: Subject: Who do you favor for the next president? Take our online poll. AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION ONLINE POLL YOUR VOTE IS NEEDED NOW! You help is requested in gaining the opinion of on-line voters to the following question. Whom do you favor for the next President of the United States - John Kerry, George W. Bush, or Ralph Nader? Go to http://www.onlinepolls.net/pollv1/default.aspx?pid=10 to express your opinion. Cast your vote. Forward to a friend. Help us feel the pulse of America. Thanks, Don Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman American Family Association You are receiving this message because you took action on a previous AFA-sponsored poll or petition. If you do not wish to receive future mailings from us, click here http://lists.afa.net/u?id=7950090Nc=Fl=petitionsalt to unsubscribe. http://lyris.afa.net/db/1516688/7950090/1.gif mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: The economy - a new era?
As in the corporatist model, it also makes cross-sector negotiations more likely--one omnibus business group negotiating with an umbrella labor organization. If, Doug has pointed out, larger businesses have bigger markets and are better able to pass on their costs to consumers, then cross-sector negotiations are the likely vehicle with which to do this. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 09:47:38 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: The economy - a new era? Lenin applauded large factories for just that reason. On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 09:44:13AM -0800, joanna bujes wrote: The other reason is that more concentration make it easier to organize labor...they're all in one or a few places. I remember reading somewhere famous that the mammoth factories of early 20th century Russia made it easier to organize the workers. Today, I guess it would make strikes more effective. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: the next wedge issue
Um, let's see, because it is child abuse? Joel Original Message: - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:43:17 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: the next wedge issue In a message dated 11/20/03 12:08:23 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Like: I swear, if the girls do not clean up my stove I am going to kick their asses. Why should I not kick their ass. Do you have kids or just stupid? Melvin P. mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: question about Iraq
I am out of town right now using remote access, so I will only give a limited reply - yes. This was first established by the big Security Council Resolution at the end of the war. The readiness of the French et. el. to withdraw the embargo and turn the UN role to the U.S. was a major and unacknowledged (in the US press) concession (or cave-in, if one is less generous). The second shoe dropped when the US announced the import role of the UN program (the program actually covered food and all other imports)would actually be taken over by JP Morgan and a consortia of Banks from (mostly) the other coalition countries (I believe I posted the announcement). Nomi Prims has pointed out that each of these banks has specialized in exotic ways to turn assets (read petroleum reserves and future income streams) into current debts. It is not expected that this phase will be discussed before the non-US donors are pressed to announce pledges from their development funds at the upcoming Madrid Donors Conference next week. Paul Original Message: On his radio show yesterday, satirist Harry Shearer said that the British GUARDIAN reported that the US was going to end the UN food program in Iraq in January. Is there any truth to this? Jim mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Re: Heavy pressure to back a Democrat
Well, not really. The mix of state subsidies is somewhat different with the Democrats--more social welfare-y, even if the social welfare itself is increasingly designed on a market model. People can debate whether this difference qualifies as significant, but it is misleading to deny that it doesn't exist at all. Joel Blau Original Message: - From: John Gulick [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 09:53:24 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Heavy pressure to back a Democrat From Richard Goldstein's Left-Handed Compliments in the Village Voice: The coalescing of free marketeers and fundamentalists into a potent right-wing political force has driven the left to reconsider its usual strategy of divide and be conquered Gulick sez: Regardless of whether one endorses the anybody-but-Bush electoral strategy or not, the Repubs are no more or less free market then the Dems, a fact for which Bush is earning great scorn from (right-wing) economic libertarians and (left-wing) opponents of corporate welfare -- agribusiness subsidies, steel tarrifs, cost-plus national security state contracts, insurance schemes for nuclear power industry, etc. This is idiotic sloganeering subsitituing for critical political-economic analysis of the conjuncture. Gulick _ Share your photos without swamping your Inbox. Get Hotmail Extra Storage today! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Turkish Military finally spoke..
. *Turkish army backs US troops* http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/europe/2822061.stm Turkey's top general supports the deployment of US troops, saying a northern front against Iraq will make the war shorter. mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
RE: Re: Turkey
Original Message: - From: Sabri Oncu [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 19:25:21 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:34048] Re: Turkey More than that. I read somewhere a while ago that Turkey has the third largest military on earth, although I don't know which country is the second. I also find it unbelievable. It is very sad but it is true. Sabri Here is a source The following report from the US State Department is not a very recent one, but contains a lot of comparative data http://www.state.gov/t/vc/rls/rpt/wmeat/99_00/ Another staggering fact, based on this report, Turkey is the second largest armament importer ($3.2 billions) after S. Arabia ($7.7 billions), the third is unexpectedly Japan ($3 billions) as of 1999. Turkey's unacceptable ranking becomes more intolarable when you compare its GNP per capita with the other two countries' figures --2.3 times less than SA, and 12 times less than Japan. S. Arabia is hard to beat, it is spending 36% of its GNP for arms imports whereas Turkey and Japan are spending 32% and 7%, respectively. As to the sizes of the armies, I checked China first, expecting to have the largest. According to this document, China's army is 2.4 million, wheras the US, Russia, and Turkey have 1.49, 0.9, and 0.79 million, respectively(as of 1999). Greetings from Porto Alegre... As you might have heard this, the Social Forum will be in Delhi in 2004! Ahmet mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
iht.com article | More on Call Centers in India
- In Bangalore, Pretending to Be Chicago Mark Landler New York Times Service Thursday, March 22, 2001 http://www.iht.com./articles/14201.htm
New Demand Planning Management System
If you believe this mailing to be of no relevance to you then please accept our apologies and delete it from your mailbox. To remove your email address from our mailing list, please send an email with the word unsubscribe in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Trilogy Environmental has announced the launch of LV DAMS demand planning and management system, its latest integrated module within LV Environmental, the 'off the shelf', fully integrated water quality information system. LV DAMS Demand Analysis and Management System has been designed to integrate with the already well established LV TAPS advanced sample scheduling system to provide quick and easy capture of local regulations and calculation of the yearly sample requirement. Once the advanced demand has been defined LV DAMS allows for automatic pre-schedule set-up and provides for fixed point sampling, reporting and enquiries and complete demand control and management. Full details of LV DAMS and the other modules of Trilogy's LV Environmental portfolio of water quality and environmental IT solutions and services, are available via their website at www.trilogyenvironmental.com Trilogy Environmental sales manager Mr Simon Jones commented that "LV DAMS was result of our ongoing consultation with water utilities in the UK and overseas and addresses a recurring issue that consistently presents problems for laboratory managers and sample program co-ordinators. We have taken on board such concerns and addressed them with an effective solution that integrates with our existing information systems portfolio." LV DAMS is scheduled to be implemented at a number of its existing customers' sites, including Thames Water, over the coming months and a full demonstration of LV DAMS and Trilogy's other LV Environmental modules is available for interested parties both on and off-site. For further information, contact Trilogy Environmental on [EMAIL PROTECTED] or via the website at www.trilogyenvironmental.com If you did not intentionally add yourself to this list or feel you have been added in error please remove your email address from this list please send an email with the word unsubscribe in the body of the email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:9890] Y2K HOAX
Y2K HOAX About some misinformation An e-mail message being circulated re: Windows software and Y2K about changing the short format date in Windows is a hoax. Read on to see what one of the contributing writers/editors at Windows magazine (Fred Langa) has to say about it and other Y2K issues. Windows' "Short Date Format" Scare I've gotten maybe 50 emails in the last week about a "new" Y2K issue---maybe you got one too. The heart of the letter is something like this: Every copy of Windows in the world has default settings that will make it FAIL on Jan 1, 2000 I'm not kidding Check for yourself PASS THIS LETTER ON! TEST: Click on "START" Click on "SETTING" Click on "CONTROL PANEL" Double click on "REGIONAL SETTINGS" icon Click on the "DATE" tab at the top of the page. Where it says, "Short Date Sample," look and see if it shows a "two digit" year (yy). That is the default setting for Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT This date RIGHT HERE is the date that feeds application software and WILL NOT rollover in the year 2000. It will roll over to 00. Click on the "SHORT DATE STYLE" pull down menu and select the option That shows, mm/dd/. (Be sure your selection has four Y's showing and not two.) Click on "APPLY" and then click on "OK" at the bottom. Alas, this note is mostly wrong--- in fact, Microsoft calls it an outright hoax. The worst part of the email is that it fails to distinguish between the way dates are calculated and the way they're displayed. The "date format picker" above affects only how Windows displays dates and interprets the way you type in dates. It tells you nothing about the underlying software calculations or about your PC's date-keeping hardware. If your PC hardware is Y2K compliant and if you're running a newer version of Windows and/or have applied the Y2K patches available (for free) from the Microsoft site, Windows will calculate Y2K dates correctly regardless whether or not the date is displayed in two- or four-digit format. On the other hand, if you don't have a Y2K-compliant PC, or if you haven't applied the Y2K patches, then changing the date-display format is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: Changing the format does nothing except to give you a false sense of security. In fact, using four-digit dates won't do you any good at all if the rest of your version of Windows, or the rest of your software, or your PC itself has any of about five completely separate Y2K issues. This "set a four-digits date format and you'll be fine" approach is way too simplistic. It's totally misleading. It's wrong. Fortunately, the real Y2K tests, and the real fixes, are ridiculously easy: To fully address this issue (which has alarmed many of you; and caused others to have false sense of Y2K security) I've made this the topic of my Dialog Box column on the WinMag site this week. There, in more detail than I could fit in this newsletter, I'll give you the full scoop on the "Date Format" scare, and why it can be perfectly fine to continue using two-digit dates. I'll show you where to get free fixes and patches for any Y2K problems your copy of Windows may have, and I'll show you a simple, free, five-minute do-it-yourself test anyone can do to ensure that your PC is fully Y2K-safe at every level. Y2K scares---and bogus emails--- abound. But don't be taken in: Come get the facts, starting midday (EDT; GMT-4) Monday Aug 9, 1999 via the front page at http://www.winmag.com .
Re: [PEN-L:6924] Crapulinski?
Hi all, As the participants in right-wing talk-radio say "first time caller, long time listener"--last eight or so months, anyhow. I just want to say I have found this list an invaluable tool in assessing NATO's ongoing bloodletting and the Asian Financial Crisis (remember that?!) , and have enjoyed listening to the talk on all the other incidental topics that have come up. Being too young to have witnessed, let alone participate in any of the sectarian battles of the left, which seem to me to be responsible, if only in part, for our collective incapability of seizing the momen or the popular imagination, I've been able to glean a little history from the list as well. As for myself, I'm an undergraduate in both Speech-Communication and Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature (sounds like 4 majors, but its only two) when I have the dough... I'm also a great fan of the Eighteenth Brumaire, and since my copy was handy... Quoting from footnote 13 of the New World Paperbacks edition by International Publishers (I have to see if my copy has that touchy mistranslation of petit/petty): Crapulinski--the hero of Heine's poem, _Zwei Ritter_(Two Knights)_, a spendthrift Polish nobleman; the name Crapulinski comes from the French word _crapule_--intemperence, gluttony, drunkenness, and also--loafer, scoundrel. Here Marx refers to Louis Bonaparte--26 Rg (Randy) Religion: the world's oldest comedy.
[PEN-L:1720] labour studies position available -- pleasae circulate
Please circulate among potential applicants: The Labour Workplace Studies Program in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor to commence on 1 July 1999 or soon thereafter. This interdisciplinary program provides courses leading to three- and four-year B.A. degrees and an Interdisciplinary M.A. degree. The successful applicant will teach a core course in the field of industrial relations, supervise student field placements, and teach in at least one of the following areas: labour history, labour law, workplace health safety, labour process, sociology of work, labour economics, labour markets. Besides teaching, research and administrative duties, s/he will provide liaison with the local and provincial labour, business, volunteer and government communities in matters of labour and workplace studies. By the time of appointment the successful applicant must have a Ph.D. in industrial relations or a related area, and must have demonstrated competence in teaching and research. Starting salary range is $41,277 - $48,500. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The University of Manitoba encourages applications from qualified women and men, including members of visible minorities, aboriginal peoples, and people with disabilities. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, this advertisement is directed to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Curriculum vitae, two samples of the candidate's scholarly writing, evidence of teaching skills, and three letters of reference should be submitted by 19 February 1999 to Prof. Jesse Vorst, Chair, Hiring Committee, Labour and Workplace Studies Program, 448 University College, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg MB R3T 2M8.
[PEN-L:1391] Fields on Wheels Conference
Ken, You should know that it is the very superior efficiency of the Canadian single desk system of the wheat board that completely discredits the neo-cons (and Charles Mueler on the PKT net) and which requires these economists, (including my colleagues) to rail against the marketing system -- simply because it works, and works well and more efficiently that the private enterprise system. I used to teach the seminars in ag ec on the marketing boards because there was no one in the ag ec department at the U of M who knew enough about them to teach it -- and they wouldn't learn because the marketing boards produced superior results to open markets and since that was contrary to neoclassical ideology, it must necessarily be wrong. The wheat board has had its failings, though moderate ones I would argue, but on the whole it has been a great benefit to the Canadian farmer for over half a century. That is the essense of the beef of the American farmers. They can't have a wheat board because the cappos won't let them. As to Jims complaints about Indian exports -- sorry Jim, but I can't support an interpretation of aboriginal rights that serves a small (and I would argue, questionable) economic interest at the expense of the rest of rural society. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba.
[PEN-L:1238] Re: pen-l questions
Gil, I await with baited breath. I hope it is out before I retire ;-) On the issue of efficiency wage, I think in its institutional form (gift-exchange model) it has been around for a long time in fact, if not in theory, in the workers demand from the 19th C for "a fair days work for a fair days pay." It also means taking wages out of competition, which is the historic demand of labour unions. But all this hinges on the rejection of marginal productivity theory of wages -- a very good discussion and rejection of the neoclassical version of which can be found in Lester Thurow's book on inequality. I have some difficulty in accepting the short- run -- long-run dicotomy in labour markets. All decisions are made 'in the short run' -- cost markup investment decisions are made on the basis of existing wages (often institutionally set) and the expectations of what will happen to those wages over the expected life of the investment. This is Galbraith's reverse sequence as it affects labour and wages. In any case, this will be my last post on this subject as I will be off-list beginning next week until the new year studying labour markets and wages in Slovenia. Have a good holiday season. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:1215] pen-lquestions
Jim asks why we don't debate/explore theoretical questions more. To me the answer is easy. For the political, ephemeral questions that dominate the list (and which I enjoy as much as anyone else), it is easy to drop a line or two in response. For the kind of issues Jim wants us to debate, it is both time consuming and 'difficult' to respond -- by difficult I mean one has to almost write a paper to respond. I (for one) just don't have the time to respond to these questions and I admire Jim, Barkle, Michael and others who do seem to find both the time and inspiration to do so. This does not mean that I don't appreciate the input of others. I just this evening finished teaching a continuing ed course for human resource managers on the political economy of labour markets in which the prime source of materials was Pen-l and PKT lists in addition to Canadian sources. Next week I am off to Slovenia to study further the effect of market conversion to worker involvement in self-management so I don't have much time to respond to Jim's queries and concerns. Nevertheless, I will respond a little beyond the brief comment I made to Jim previously. The neoclassical labour market model is so hopelessly irrelevant to the real world that trying to 'justify' minimum wage, unions, etc. to the determination of wages and employment in neoclassical terms is a waste of time and effort. Richard Lester (1940s or 50s) i in his empirical work showed that managers, faced with rising wages, readjusted their labour processes to increase the productivity, at given prices, to validate wages. Thus, contrary to the neoclassical view, productivity adjusted to wages, not employment. Maclub, of course, disputed this view on neoclassical grounds, but, I would argue, Lester had it right. The basic problem with neoclassical economics is its static, equilibrium model. (Well, actually, there are so many basic fundamental problems with the neoclassical model that it would take much too long to elaborate.) But, what (in the context of minimum wages, unions, etc.) it fails to deal with is the dialectic between wages, organization of work, worker productivity, and macro- economic acitivity within the community. It also assumes things like positively sloping supply curves of labour (empirically falsified), competative labour markets, (also empirically falsified) and all of the other mysifications of the neoclassical labour market. Jim and I face the same problem when we try to teach labour market economics (I hope I am not presuming on your teaching Jim?) The text books all show an upward sloping supply curve of labour and a downward sloping demand curve for labour. The fact that neither is empirically correct, nor is there any consideration of the interaction between wage, participation, work organization, or hours employed in the theory is a scandal on economics (perhaps not the least scandal). Jim, I see your point and I agree with it. But are we just to be a crying circle of misunderstood dissidents -- or what do we do about it. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba.
[PEN-L:1071] Re:Living Wage book
Just as a footnote to Jim's interesting post, on page 61 of Kaufman's *The Economics of Labor Markets* (4th edition) is a graph of five empirically estimated labour supply curves, three are backward sloping throughout, two are backward bending above $6 and $9 resprectively. In short, only one has a forward sloping labour supply curve in the minimum wage range. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:960] Re: unemployed Ph.D.
In response to Michail's critique of my response to the original post let me offer the following. 1. I don't think/believe that university teaching is the only unalienated application of academic training. Indeed, I spent three years working as an intellectual worker for the unions, and another year working for the government in which I was less alienated than I have in my 30 some odd years teaching at the academy. 2. There is no evidence in my experience that the existing professoriate attempt to restrict the entry of new, intelligent recruits. We have just averted a strike, the most important issue of which was our demand that the university hire replacements for retirees and not fire older members just because they were 'old'. (i.e. over 69) Within hours of our strike deadline, the Univerisity administration was willing to concede on ++every issue++ except hiring young members to replace retiring members. We were willing to go on the picket line for this principle, ** the last principle the administration was willing to concede**. I am not sure of the details but as a last 11th hour compromise we got a promise that in a letter of agreement (for those less familiar with industrial relations, a letter is less enforceable than a collective agreement clause) would ensure replacement of retirees with new, tenure stream employees. What bothers me is this alegation that existing faculty is either protecting its position somehow or its elite status by descriminating against new, particularly brilliant, hires. From my experience, this is a crock! I have been on our hiring committee for 4 or 5 of the last several years and _never_ have we ever turned down any candidate whose credentials were even adequate, never mind superior. Sometimes we have ranked a woman ahead of a man for reasons of gender equality, but not because of competence. This idea that we discriminated against someone because the applicant was superior to our faculty members, is such nonsense that it hardly deserves to be recognized. What pen-l members must recognize is that labour market discrimination, whether it appears in academic labour markets or in primary or secondary labour markets, is a function of capitalist discrimination and has nothing to do with the preference of workers, academic or otherwise. This association of adademic discrimination with the professoriate is the same as the association of slavery with slave ship owners. Who owns the ship determines the terms of passage. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba Ps. We still need to support the profs at the university of Brandon who went out on strike today on many of the same issues we fought for, and won, her at Manitoba.
[PEN-L:949] UofM Strike Settlement
Just to let you know that the strike scheduled for 12:00 midnight of faculty at the U of Manitoba was settled at the 11th hour -- well actually around 3:30 this afternoon. I will post relevant details when they become available. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:933] unemployed Ph.D's
Though one can sympathise with someone who always wanted to be a prof and took the appropriate training before finding out that there were more candidates than there were openinings, I find the condementory tone and accusations of elitism to be off the mark. Both my wife and my daughter are 'ABT's, one in English, one in religious studies. Both had intended to be profs but when the possibilities were shipwrechted on the rocks of reality, they chose alternative careers which utilize their academic skills. Both have had/now have rewarding careers. And when they see my stress and disappointment with academe, they are somewhat derisive in my loyalty to the academy. Besides which, Monday we are scheduled to be on the picket line trying to force the university to hire new profs rather than 'just in time' sessionals. So I guess I resent those recent grads that think we 'old white men' should jump of the bridge just so that the new, young brilliants can have a secure and tenured job -- until someone asks them to jump off the bridge. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:909] Another gem
Pen-l-ers, Another gem from 'Texas North' and the redneck right. "Albertans prepare for winter in dark" "Blackouts imminent in energy-rich province" by Carol Harrington, Winnipeg Free Press, Nov.2, 1998 Dr. Michael Harvey is so afraid of the dark, he bought his own generator. The Calgary chiropractor has ominous visions of the power blackouts predicted for Alverta this winter -- patients being zapped during electrical muscle treatments, someone tumbling down a dark stairwell. Like many Albertans, Harvey is scrambling to find his own power in this energy-rich province. "This is just ludicrous having to do this in this modern day," said Harvey, who doled out $10,000 for his electric generator. "But I have to do this to protect my business." Calgarians recently got their first tast of the imminent blackouts, when 15,000 homes and businesses were unplugged for 37 minutes. The dark reality has prompted 150 people to phone a small genrator supply store each day, looking for ways to keept their pet birds worm or their oxygen machines running during a blackout. "I hear blankets, flashlights and candles and I think, holy moly, it's Third World country stuff," said owner John Corbett. Just how did Canada's energy province come to this? The answer is simple: deregulation. Alberta has dismantled the safeguards of a regulated system and is going through the painful birth of an open market. "It's a very deliverate and consultative process," said Allen Crowley, director of power marketing for Aquila Energy. "They are in absolutely new territory," said Crowley, whose company is the fourth largest marketer of American electricity. "They don't have a texbook to find the right answer. They are writing each chapter as they go along." Those are not reassuring words for Albertans, particularly when electricity demand is precariously close to total supply. 7,640 megawatts Generation capacity within the Alberta grid is 7,640 megawatts. In a pinch, the province can draw another 850 megawatts from neighbouring provinces. With power consumption peaking at 7,222 megawatts during last year's mild winter, the energy industry and the Alberta government agree there likely won't be enough to go around. A deep-freeze winter is forecast for Alberta, where both population and industry have been growing by leaps and bounds. Most observers agree the shortage wouldn't be happening under the old regulated system, where utilities operating as a monopoly were responsible for building power plants to ensure a reliable supply. To safeguard against an electricity shortage, a provincial body monitored population growth and energy supply, and told utilities when to build new generators. But that watchdog was put down in 1994, when the Alberta government announced dreregulation plans." -30- Perhaps the Alberta Government should seek advice on how to solve its problems from the Russians. They've got lots of experience with deregulated markets and the consequent screwups. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba (and scheduled to be on the picket lines -- again -- come next monday.)
[PEN-L:793] Income disparities and economic crises
In support of some of the discussion of the crisis of distribution both here and on the PKT semimar list with Jamie Galbraith's _Created Unequal_, I offer the following that appeeared in the Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 30, '98. "MDs prescribe better pay for the poor" "Meagre wages linked to lousy health, medical officers tell review board." By Catherine Mitchell "Manitoba's medical officers of health are pusing the province to raise the minimum wage, saying the current rate contributes to the depressed health status of the working poor. Raising the minimum wage is as important to community health as inoculating people against diseases such as hepatitis B and influenza, said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health for the Burntwood and Thopson regions. [i.e. northern Manitoba] Sutcliff, her 13 colleagues and four residents in training signed a submission to the minimum wage review board outlining the numberous studies that show the gap between the rich and the poor directly impacts the well-being of those at the bottom of the income scale. It is the first time the doctors, employees of various levels of government, have spoken out as a group about the wage level, she said. The submission says the wage, as soon as possible, should be raised, incrementally, to meet the low income cutoff for a single person. That cutoff -- considered the level at which a person spends about 54 per cent of their income on basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing -- is $7.85 and hour for the city of Winnipeg, Sutcliffe said. She said the doctors felt compelled to voice their opinion given the weight of evidence documented in recent years relating income to population health. The doctors' submission cites almost 40 studies and reports that indicate, generally, that the poor and working poor suffer from more diesease and ill health. It also outlines research that found that much the same as poverty and unemployment, the distribution of society's wealth affects health and well-being. It is the job of medical officers 'to promote, preserve and protect the health of Manitobans,' and speaking about income disparity is part of that responsibility, Sutcliffe said. 'Certainly its's just as important as a hepatitis B campaign,' Sutcliffe said. 'I agree with her and maybe it (minimum wage) is more important,' said Joel Kettner, medical officer of health for the Winnipeg Community and Longterm Care Authority. 'If we can resolve the problems of inequity in income and social status we'll go an enormous way to solving our health problems.' The doctors stressed raising the wage obviously would not alone address the health issues of the poor, but it would definitely help. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:1217] Labour and Aboriginals
I resisted the temptation to contribute further to the previous debate with Bhoddi, Louise and Jim and have no intention to reignite it, but I thought all might be interested in this announcement released today by the Canadian Labour Congress. "Labour and Aboriginal groups enter into ground-breaking partnership" Two national organizations, one representing 2.3 million unionized workers, the other more than 800,000 Aboriginal people, signed a historic partnership agreement today pledging to work in solidarity on social justice issues. Bob White, Pres. of the CLC, and Harry Daniels, Pres. of the Congress of Aboriginal peoples (CAP) signed a Partnership Agreement committing their organizations to respect and work in concert on Aboriginal and workers' rights. 'Given the systemic barriers and the racism faced by Aboriginal people, it's important that we form alliances to support Aboriginal peoples' access to social and economic rights -- and that means encouraging Aboriginal voices within the Labour moement,' noted White. 'The signing ... is of vital importance to the more than 800,000 off-reserve Aboriginal peoples,' said ... Daniels. 'It marks a new beginning in the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and organized labour in Canada, one that bodes well for the future' The partnership agreement includes a commitment to develop and strengthen the Aboriginal presence within the structure of the labour movement by working to address the high rate of unemployment within the Aboriginal community, workplace racism, the under-representation of Aboriginal peoples in the collective bargaining process, and other inequities in labour force participation. A key aspect of the agreement is the establishment of a joint committee mandated to work toward the elimination of systemic barriers to Aboriginal employment and economic, political, social and cultural rights. The Congress of Aboriginal peoples is the national, advocacy organization that serves and protects the interests of its constituents -- Metis, Indians, registered, unregistered, treaty and non-treaty persons of Aboriginal ancestry living off- reserve" Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:969] Re: 3 Articles on Russia
Surely the most destabilizing aspect of the current Russian collapse on top of the continuing crisis in Asia is the demonstrated abject failure of the IMF bailouts and the structural adjustment (Washington) model, a model so recently rejected in toto by Stiglitz as V-P of the World Bank. In short, if the rescue packages we are financing so heavily through the IMF are merely perpetuating and making more severe the economic crisis, then it is difficult to see why the fundamental instability would not continue to spread -- with a 'Ponzi' recourse to the 'safe' American dollar. But how long can this last? Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:723] re Bhoddi vs Proyect
It seems to me that lost in the invective of this debate is some of the history of the 'expropriation of the aboriginal commons', at least as I understand it in the NA context. First, with regard to the intermingling of the (mercantile) capitalist mode of production with the aboriginal domestict mode of production during the period of the fur trade, the conclusion of most of the recent research work (as expressed by the 'articulation of modes of production literature') is that the process of the subjegation of native economies and social structures (including European technology) came quite late in the contact period, largely after the European began the forceful expropriation of land (and resources) with the spread of settlement and the agricultural frontier. For Canadian plains indians, the end of the buffalo economy came quite late -- between the first and second Riel Rebellions, the end result of which was the final movement (outside BC) of the Indian population onto reserves (but not the Metis, Innuit or Dene). Even then, a year or two ago I finished supervising a superb thesis on the economic fortunes of the Indians on reserves in the period from the 1870s to the 1940s. Through much of this period, the natives population did adjust to the market economy and, while hardly prospering or growing rich, did actually quite well; so much so that the government and local business conspired to buy, seize, expropriate or otherwise dislodge Indian land because, in many cases, the Indians were out competing white farmers (such as in hay markets.) Indeed, the federal government in canada denied the Indians their money to buy farm machinery because the government argued that, to maintain their way of life, the Indians had to use traditional, labour intensive, non-machinery mathods. That is, the natives were denied the right to chose to adopt modern technology and when they did and out competed the whites, they had their land and/or resources restricted. The real collapse of the native economies came, according to this thesis on Saskatchewan (and a similar book on Manitoba) during the depression when the aboriginals suffered the same fate as the white farmers. The difference was that the native economies never recovered with the war and the rise of paternal welfarism led to the dependency of the reserve structure which was not (the reserve resource base) sufficient to maintain or increase the income level. Nevertheless, Bhoddi is right in the sense that even if we restored to all the aboriginals all that we have expropriated since the original treaties, and even allocated all or most of the unallocated crown lands, it would do little now to bring the native peoples up to a decent standard of living. Just to give an example, Canada is now overrun with Beaver -- aboriginals can catch as many as they want and most of us wish that they would as they have become a nuisance and a hazard -- but the price of beaver pelts is so low (thanks in large part to the so-called animal rights activists) that the cost of catching beaver is greater than the revenue. Look at what has happened in BC with the salmon fishery. The combination of overfishing by US and Canadian fishers, pollution from logging and mining, etc. has driven the salmon dangerously close to extinction such that, even returning the exclusive fishing rights to the Indians on most rivers would barely provide for a subsistence fishery, etc. etc. Plus, the fact that many Native people don't want to live by the traditional ways -- i.e. want to come to the cities, get good educations, become doctors and even economists, or get good trades jobs. The preservation of traditional (and in many cases isolated) economies denies those kids who want to integrate the tools (social and educational) to do so. I certainly don't have the answer to this problem -- but it surely is not as clear cut as either Louis or Bhoddi make out. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:24] Win one once in a while
The following article appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press, Tues June 16, 1998. JOB CUTTER FIRED AS STOCK SINKS Sunbeam Corp. chairman Al Dunlap, nicknambed "Chain Saw" as the cutthroat king of corporate job cutters, now knows wht it's like to be on the receiving end of a pink slip. Sunbeam's board unanimously vooted to remove the surpercharged Dunlap after the home product maker's stock sank, sales lagged and confidence disappeared. In announcing Dunlap's ouster yesterday, Sunbeam's new leaders also disclosed the company would not meet profit forecasts and would have an operating loss in the current quarter. Sunbeam shares, already at a 52-week low, plunged almost 13 per cent in a broadly decling market. -30- I wonder if there was a golden handshake, "a sunbeam of beneficence", bestowed upon the worthy Dunlap to ease his passing? By the way, it is reported that the worthy Canadian capitalist Conrad Black has equated downsizing and the handing out of pink slips with "drowning the kittens." Aw, now that is an image I can relate to. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
Re: sayles movie
Magic realism or fantasy in one form or another has been a factor in most John Sayles films. The most obvious example was "Brother From Another Planet." It would be possible to bypass its role in "Men with Guns", but I think that would be a mistake. The device of the mother telling the story to her daughter that appears throughout the film and is wrapped up at the end reminds us periodically that something out of the ordinary is happening in this story. It seemed fairly clear that each of the characters is more or less an archetype. That said, they also have some very human and at times amusing interactions. The doctor's relationship with the American tourists is the best example of this. Their interactions reveal that the tourists -- for all their gauchery -- actually know more about what is really happening in the country than the highly insulated doctor. Other events make it fairly clear that the doctor is truly an alien in his own country. It also seemed to be a nice twist at the end to realise that the doctor was not the central character but merely a device to save and bring the central character to his destiny. There is a lot of ambiguity in the film - like life - so there's lots of room to discuss / argue its meaning and merits. Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Re: Section 7(a)
There are a few sources for information on these events that have not so far been mentioned. James Gross (Cornell labor historian) has written a multi-volume history of the NLRA and NLRB. Jim Pope (Rutgers Law school) is currently doing an analysis of s.7(a). And related but slightly off topic: Daniel Ernst (Georgetown law / history) wrote Lawyers Against Labor about two years ago. It looks at influences on the drafting of the NLRA. Another who has written recently on this era include Thomas Kohler at Boston College Law School. Jack Getman (Texas Law School) has what should be a very interesting book coming out through Cornell called The Betrayal of Local 14 -- about the Paperworkers strike at Jay, Maine. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Bronfenbrenner
Thank you for your support. We have received nearly a thousand endorsements. Based on these we have put our a press release and expect coverage on this situation. We have also sent the material to the congressional representatives who attended and called the Town Hall meeting at which Kate Bronfenbrenner spoke and which led to the defamation suit. We are no longer taking signatures. Now I need to ask a favor. If you sent the original request for endorsements to someone, would you please follow up with this thanks and also a notice that we are not taking more signatures. My system is receiving about 150 or more emails a day now with no sign of let up. This has the potential to shut it down. So please help me out on this. Best, Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Follow up on Kate Bronfenbrenner (fwd)
We have had an enormous outpouring of support for Dr. Bronfenbrenner. At this point, we don't need further endorsements. We will be going to the media today (Wednesday, February 23, 1998) with the petition and the hundreds of endorsements. We will try to provide updates as newsworthy events transpire. Thanks, Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Kate Bronfenbrenner
We urge our colleagues to join with us in protesting Beverly Enterprises' attack on Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner's academic freedom and first amendment rights. Michal Belknap, Professor of Law, California Western School of Law Clete Daniel, Professor of American Labor History, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University Ellen Dannin, Professor of Law, California Western School of Law Julius Getman, The Earl E. Sheffield Regents Chair and Professor of Law,University of Texas Law School and former President, American Association of University Professors Lois S. Gray, Alice Grant Professor of Labor Relations, NYSSILR, Cornel University Harry C. Katz, The Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining, NYSSILR, Cornell University Risa Lieberwitz, Associate Professor, School of Industrial and Labor Relations,Cornell University Richard Lempert, Francis A. Allen Collegiate Professor of Law and Chair of the Department of Sociology, University of Michigan Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood W. St. Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair, University of Texas Law School Deborah Malamud, Professor of Law University of Michigan School of Law Ray Marshall, former Secretary of Labor Scott Powe, Anne Green Regents Chair, University of Texas Law School James Rundle, Labor Education Coordinator, Industrial Labor Relations Conference Center The statement, including background information, is set forth below. If you are willing to add your name to the Statement of Protest, please e-mail Ellen J. Dannin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please add my name to the Statement of Protest: Name: Title for identification purposes: Address: Phone number: Email address: -- Statement of Protest On February 9, 1998, Beverly Enterprises, a company with a deplorable record in labor relations matters filed a defamation suit in federal court against Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner. Dr. Bronfenbrenner is well-respected academic who has done important research on a variety of labor issues. Beverly seeks both compensatory and punitive damages. With the complaint, Beverly's attorneys, Pietragallo, Bosick Gordon of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Walter Haverfield, of Cleveland, Ohio, served a massive request for production of documents. Among the documents requested, Beverly seeks copies of all documents and confidential survey data relating to Dr. Bronfenbrenner.'s research on union and employer behavior in union organizing campaigns. It also seeks documents concerning Cornell's policies concerning the faculty research, speeches, presentations, lectures and seminars. The circumstances and background of this suit make clear that this is a thinly veiled attack on Dr Bronfenbrenner's academic freedom and her rights under the first amendment. The lawsuit is based on remarks made by Dr Bronfenbrenner at a May 19, 1997 Congressional Town meeting sponsored by several western Pennsylvania congressional representatives and Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill). They were joined by Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA). The meeting was called for the express purpose of investigating Beverly's employment policies. Beverly is one of the country's largest nursing home chains. Four days before the Town Hall meeting, Rep. Lane Evans had introduced the Federal Procurement and Assistance Integrity Act (HR 1624), which would give the labor secretary the authority to debar or suspend companies from receiving federal contracts if they have a clear pattern or practice of violations of the National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or the Fair Labor Standards Act. Of the more than 750 nursing homes Beverly Enterprises operates, 42 are in Pennsylvania. Beverly is defending itself from hundreds of unfair labor practice complaints brought by the National Labor Relations Board. It also has been identified by the U.S. General Accounting Office as a serious labor law violator. In January 1993, the NLRB issued its decision in Beverly I, finding that the chain had committed some 135 unfair labor practices at 32 facilities in 12 states between mid-1986 and mid-1988. Two other Administrative Law Judge decisions found Beverly had committed additional unfair labor practices between mid-1988 and early 1992 at a number of nursing homes. In the most recent Beverly decision issued November 26, 1997, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Robert Wallace found that Beverly's "wide-ranging and persistent misconduct, demonstrat[ed] a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights." Dr. Bronfenbrenner's testimony at the meeting presented the results of her past decade's research concerning union organizing. Based on her studies, she concluded: "Beverly stood out in my findings, both for the high level of
Re: union free
On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Doug Henwood wrote: I got a flyer in yesterday's mail announcing a series of seminars on "How To Stay Union-Free into the 21st Century" (printed with "UNION FREE" in red in what looks like 96- or 100-point type, in contrast with the rest of the phrase, which was merely in 30-point black type). It's sponsored by Executive Enterprises of New York, along with the law firm of Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler, and Krupman, and will be offered in 8 U.S. cities and Toronto this spring. Take a look at Confessions of a Union Buster for some idea of what they would talk about. The general scuttlebutt is that they tell employers to violate the law, that it is cost-effective, and then give them specifics as to how to do it. Evidence would tend to suggest that this might be the case, since one sees a wave of tactics pass through during a particular time period. If this is the case - that they are advising employers to violate the law - they would certainly want to keep these sessions close: they could be disbarred. Plus telling folks that these are super- top secret probably makes them seem more enticing. The Practicing Law Institute publishes a Jackson, Lewis, Krupman book called, " Winning NLRB Elections: Management's Strategy and Preventative Programs." They also have a reputation as a union-busting firm that has allied itself with non-attorneys who do not risk disbarment if they advise breaking the law. Has anyone ever been to one of these things? What are these secret tactics? Has anyone ever written up one of these things? Any volunteers to infiltrate it for LBO (sorry, we can't cover the $1,500 "tuition" fee)? It would be interesting for the Right person to infiltrate. It would obviously have to be a man, someone who of a hail fellow well met variety. Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Re: Ecology and the American Indian
A visit to Cahokia (across the river from St. Louis) is fascinating in and of itself and also for the evidence it provides that the large number of residents there overused the local resources, which then led to its decline. There may have been other factors, such as climate, but the decline took place sufficiently recently -- i.e. just before contact -- that climate records should be sufficiently revealing to decide whether this was a factor. Just as it's wrong to assume that an Indian is an Indian with no variations, it is also wrong to assume that all there is to the Judaeo-Christian tradition can be summed up in one sentence of Genesis. Other parts of the bible make it clear that parts of a field had to remain unharvested and that every seventh year the land had to be allowed to rest. It was forbidden to cut down fruit trees in time of war, for example. Not paying workers on a daily basis was a crime against the community because it could lead to poverty and anti-social behaviour. There were lots of rabbinic exegeses on these and other points which expanded the protections. There is a whole line of analysis on baalei chayot - the pain of living things - and of the demand that humans not cause pain to animals or other living things. How much or how little individuals observed these is open to debate, just as it seems likely that not all Indians, even members of a very ecologically oriented tribe, likely behaved in a fully reverent way towards nature. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
re: Analyzing Technologies
On Mon, 29 Dec 1997, Louis Proyect wrote: * * * I have to confess that the discussion about "technology" sort of baffles me since it seems detached from the broader question of how society is organized. There is no question that automation of blue-collar and white-collar work has led to increased misery under capitalism. And not just amongst the workers who are hired to do the work. Now technology is making us all do the work -- unpaid at that. Last night while calling to check on some flight details, the automated phone system first put me through trying to figure out whether I fell into the "press or say 1" or "press or say 2" category as we went through the menu (and I knew I did need to speak to a real person), I was put on hold because there weren't nearly enough people working to handle the customers (thanks probably to "right sizing"). I couldn't even mark exams while on hold - something I am avoiding at this second - because I had to be a captive audience for their ads. And this is not the only place in which we all are doing unpaid work for corporations as they use technology to turn us all into their virtual staffs. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101
Re: Pen-l's Dannin writes!
On Sun, 21 Dec 1997, Tom Walker wrote: Ellen Dannin wrote, Suppose you were an employer whose employees were represented by a union. Now suppose that the labor laws you bargain under state that when the parties reach an impasse, you, the employer, get to impose your final offer. What would you do? -- snip -- The best that unions can do under this system is make concessions in an effort to show that the parties are not at an impasse. Ellen's article raises important questions about labor laws in the U.S. but it also begs important questions about union strategy in the face of those labor laws. I can think of at least two alternatives to making concessions: civil disobedience and organizing for insurrection. Actually, I (Ellen) can think of a lot more alternatives. But you have to realise that this was written to be an op-ed piece, not a treatise on ways to deal with this particular issue. The piece was geared to be readable and comprehensible (in 600-800 words) by a general audience. I write all sorts of pieces geared to all sorts of audiences. Each has its advantages and limits. Before you attack what I wrote in this very short piece with the assumption this is all there is, why don't you do me the kindness of either read the other more scholarly things I've written on this issue (there are 4-5 out there) and / or ask me what the rest of my thoughts are on it. I'll warn you, though, that each of these is also limited, even though some are at about 20,000 words. Admittedly, neither of these is easy or guarantees a favourable collective agreement. But doesn't compliance with bad law invite more of the same? The real problem in this area is not that there is compliance with bad law but that no one is writing about it or doing research on it or raising a ruckus about it or even recognising that it is a problem. We're at a very basic level with this issue. Tom Kochan of MIT is typical. He told me this problem doesn't exist. Look through every IR book out there and see how much space is dedicated to discussing this issue. The answer is 0. Even unions and others I know who deal with this problem in bargaining have yet to face up to its pernicious effect. That this is the case raises fascinating questions about why this is happening. Kind regards, e Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Re: the superiority of economics ...
On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, James Devine wrote: * * * Lately, I've been wondering about the social-psychological basis of these claims of "superiority." Why make this kind of outrageous claim at all? Is it because we're working at a liberal arts college and have to rub shoulders with all sorts of theologians, social scientists, etc.? does our department's status at the bottom of this University's hierarchy invoke feelings of inferiority that encourage such assertions? But I feel that economists as a profession feel superior to non-economists. * * * any thoughts? William Jay Gould in "The Mismeasure of Man" argues that this tendency to quantify and rank human beings, with the instrument for measurement being defined to the measurer's advantage and measuree's disadvantage, is a persistent feature of at least European thought. And it seems to me that lawyers are patently superior. After all, our standard of analysis is so complex, all embracing, and difficult to penetrate for the uninitiated (more work for lawyers is our mantrum) that it defies quantification. Plus we have the best jargon. Quasi in rem jurisdiction anyone? Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Re: contingency
On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Doug Henwood wrote: Continuing a discussion from several months ago, the opening of a BLS news release published today. The full text is on the BLS web site at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.toc.htm. I welcome discussion as to what it all means. Doug Doug, several months ago I noticed the first business articles suggesting some disenchantment with the contingent workforce. To now, most articles in the business press has suggested that all aspects of the contingent workforce are wholly positive. The critical pieces focused on two problems: the problem of dishonesty and outright theft by contingent workers because they have no commitment to the job and the inability of contingent workers to do as good a job as regular employees and as draining work resources because they need guidance as to how to perform their jobs. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
Re: Global Financial Crisis II
On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Doug Henwood wrote: It's magic: lower incomes + higher labour force participation = a lower rate of unemployment. This precisely confirms the right-wing nostrum that there is no such thing as involuntary unemployment. At a low enough wage, there is a job for everyone who wants to work. Kick out the "barriers" to "labour flexibility" and unemployment will fall. The "right-wing" analysis is not entirely untrue. Provide no welfare state, or dismantle an existing one, and you can force lots of people to work any kind of crappy job at any kind of crappy wage. The problem with this isn't its untruth but its brutality. Anecdotal evidence at least from New Zealand's experience with the Employment Contracts Act 1991 would seem to confirm what Doug is saying. At least in its early days as employers were dismantling penalty rates (overtime, shift premiums, etc) workers were lining up for no-wage, experience-only jobs. The problems was especially acute for younger workers for whom the law provided NO minimum wage. By 1993, even the conservative National Government, the author of the law, recognized that conditions were so bad they had to enact a Youth Minimum Wage. I have copies of some contracts that, aside from wages, provide some amazing provisions. My personal favorite is the contract that exists minute to minute and can be terminated at any time. One can only speculate about the meanness of the company that would want to employ its workers in this way and the conditions of the workers that makes them willing to accept this. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
New Zealand Employment Contracts Act
Symposium on the New Zealand Employment Contracts Act The California Western International Law Journal is publishing a special symposium issue that will explore the impact of the New Zealand Employment Contracts Act of 1991 (ECA) on labor relations both in New Zealand and abroad. The authors in the symposium include a wide range of New Zealand employer representatives, labor leaders, jurists, as well as leading New Zealand academics in the fields of law, industrial relations, and economics. In addition several articles by United States and Australian authors provide an international perspective on the ECA. The ECA has been the subject of international attention and controversy. The following are some opinions on the ECA: "If we pay attention to the experiment known as the ECA, we are confronted with fundamental questions. How can and should work in modern society be organised? Why do or should unions exist? How must and should labour law be drafted?" - Ellen J. Dannin, Working Free: The Origins and Impact of New Zealand's Employment Contracts Act "[The draft ECA] is designed to ensure that New Zealand has an industrial system that will allow workers to enjoy genuine increases in living standards and that will increase productivity. It is designed to take New Zealand away from the adversarial mentality of the nineteenth century" - National Minister of Commerce Philip Burdon, Parliamentary Debates on the ECA "So, it comes down to what we want as a society. Do we want a society that has a great spread of incomes so you have very poor or very wealthy, or do we want a society which treats everybody with some respect and dignity. And if we want to treat everybody with some dignity, then I think the state has to intervene on behalf of those who are less powerful and the most open to exploitation, the most vulnerable in society." - Service Workers Union National Secretary Rick Barker, first anniversary of the ECA Introduction by Ellen Dannin, California Western School of Law Contributors: Gordon Anderson Business School, Victoria University of Wellington Anne Boyd New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Brian EastonEconomic And Social Trust On New Zealand Richard Epstein University of Chicago Law School Maxine Gay New Zealand Trade Union Federation Malcolm MacLean University of Queensland / New Zealand Trade Union Federation Clive GilsonDepartment of Strategic Leadership and Management, University of Waikato Terry Wagar Wilfred Laurier University Thomas Goddard New Zealand Employment Court Raymond Harbridge Graduate School of Business and Government Management, Victoria University of Wellington Aaron Crawford Graduate School of Business and Government Management, Victoria University of Wellington John Hughes Department of Law, University of Canterbury Jane Kelsey Department of Law, University of Auckland Roger Kerr New Zealand Business Roundtable Anne KnowlesNew Zealand Employers' Federation Andrew Morriss School of Law and Department of Economics, Case Western Reserve University Erling RasmussenDepartment of Management Studies and Labour Relations, University of Auckland John Deeks Department of Management Studies and Labour Relations, University of Auckland Chester Spell Department of Strategic Leadership and Management,University of Waikato Nick Wailes Department of Industrial Relations, University of Sydney, Australia If you would like to order copies of the Symposium issue on the Employment Contracts Act you may do so by either subscribing to the Journal or purchasing the single volume. The California Western Law Review and International Law Journal are published twice a year by the California Western School of Law. Annual subscriptions are $20.00 per volume. Foreign subscriptions are $25.00 (surface mail). Single issues of our previous volumes are available at the Law Review offices. Please contact the Review to determine the price for these issues. Single issues of the current Law Review and International Law Journal are being offered for $12.00 per volume or $15.00 for orders outside the U.S. Please send check to: California Western Law Review/International Law Journal California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Or contact us directly at (619) 525-1477 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Origins of the term wage slavery
On Wed, 22 Oct 1997, William S. Lear wrote: Can anyone fill me in on the origins of the term "wage slavery"? I can't fill you in on its origins, but there is a great example of the comparisons you made in the 1960's movie "Burn" or "Quemado" starring a thin Marlon Brando with a British accent. A must-see on all accounts. Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:12758] Re: Science Society, Fall 97
On Thu, 2 Oct 1997, David Laibman wrote: The Fall 1997 issue of SCIENCE SOCIETY (vol. 61, no.3) is now out on selected newsstands and available from the publisher [...] Books reviewed include...Barney Dews and Carolyn Law's THIS FINE PLACE SO FAR FROM HOME (on academics from the working class), reviewed by David Herreshoff [...] I happened upon the above title about a year ago. This book, illuminating some largely unprocessed personal experience, convinced me that a massive increase in the number of working-class bred academics is one of the wanting developments that will save this horrifically skewed society. Until this happens the universities will go on talking to themselves, while the like of Buchanan and Limbaugh effortlessly make hay. valis
[PEN-L:12737] Re: Unions and Globalisation
The now defunct labor research review out of Chicago has done several research volumes on the topic. These are usually written by union activists, so they present a more hands-on approach. If you wanted to talk to people deeply involved in this work, contact the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers to learn of their experiences, mainly in cross border work in the S. CA - Baja California, MX area. (619) 542-0826. There have been some stories on their work in the national papers. e Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:12725] Re: CWA Organizing Win
In Big Victory for Labor, Workers at US Airways Vote to Unionize In the biggest union organizing election in private business in a decade, nearly 10,000 reservations takers, gate agents and ticket sellers at US Airways have voted to join the Communications Workers of America, federal labor officials announced on Monday. [...] "The victory at US Airways is very significant," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell [...]. Not really, Ms B; the job categories described above can't compare for indispensability with delivery driving at UPS. A few more such victories and we can expect to see totally computerized airports, presided over, perhaps, by a few living and breathing Wackenhoods on the lookout for 21st-century Luddites. The structure of our civilization is altering itself in ways, and to an extent, more basic than we may care to admit. There are times when I think meditation teachers are more relevant to the situation than organizers. The real fun, of course, will come when not enough people with disposable income exist anywhere to underwrite the core assumptions of the business culture with dollars, francs, yen, emus, unilars or what have you. valis "Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union." -- Joseph Stalin (1935)
[PEN-L:12717] Samir Amin and Arab-Muslim prospects
Quoth John Gulick: I always thought Amin was not assailing Arab-Muslim culture per se, but was merely claiming that the rise of so-called "fundamentalist Islam" bears a direct relationship to the crisis of the sort of national developmentalism Louis chronicled, although it can not and could never resolve this crisis. ^ The last thing I want is to get involved in a debate on Arab-Muslim prospects, though I wouldn't mind following if others decide to extend the thread. Yes, fundamentalism arose pursuant to the crisis Louis addressed, and since its exhaustion will leave the Arab peoples with no further untried options, they will be obliged to dance with a corpse well into the future. In a part of the book other than the one you refer to Amin states flatly that the Arab-Muslim culture will not survive its encounter with Western civilization, so there is some considerable space between what he would prefer and what he actually anticipates. (Be advised that I read the book 7 years ago and have not been back.) It seems to me that Amin's realistic utopia would be polycultural and would respect or at least tolerate progressive elements of Arab/Muslim thought and practice (how one makes these distinctions I don't know). Exactly, how: Progressive elements of Arab/Muslim thought and practice occupy innumerable prisons or graves when not cafes in London and Paris; by their fruits ye shall not know them. As for the countries themselves, nothing is more difficult than finding information that one can feel confident of. I believe he has written quite extensively about how a model world political economy would consist of several self-determining blocs, with each bloc having some coherent common cultural history. Again, Amin is allowing himself the luxury of hope here, but it appears that Arab societies cannot put aspects of their traditional identity much at risk before a certain panic seizes them at the throat and they then plunge everything into reverse gear (with the blessings of highly reactionary elements, of course). One might ask, though futilely, what the circumstances of the Palestinians would be today if 10 years ago, before the defeated insurrection and the walking bombs, they had decided to behave like a radical working class. I just don't expect anything good to happen in that part of the world. I hope I'm wrong. valis
[PEN-L:12713] Re: Algeria Samir Amin
On Tue, 30 Sep 1997, john gulick wrote: Thank you [Louis] for the extraordinarily enlightening disquisition on post-independence Algerian political economy. Has Samir Amin written anything specifically on this subject ? Your analysis sounds very much like what I imagine Amin's would sound like. In "Eurocentrism" (Eng. trans. 1989) Amin turns his attention to the cultural / psychological side of "delinking." This is a very rewarding book despite the wooden quality of the prose, which might equally well be attributable to the translator or to Amin's relentless reductionism. A man apparently devoid of nostalgia, Amin shows no pity for the Arab-Muslim culture that produced him, seeing it now merely as a vast artifact that categorically dooms hundreds of millions to poverty and political dysfunction in a world of Western hegemony. valis
[PEN-L:12698] Re: Algeria II
Reading Louis Proyect's analysis prompts this question: What, if anything, can prevent a poor country's campaign of socialist development from degenerating into a coercive 20th-century retread of mercantilism? I ask because this is what appears to happen, again and again. valis
[PEN-L:12692] Re: Question: The USSR and the Great Depression
On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, michael perelman wrote: During most U.S. depression, capital has succeeded in preserving part of its prior gains by bearing down harder on workers, farmers, etc. Such was not the case during the Great Depression. Was there any reason, other than the existence of an alternative system, that made these concessions possible? -- Prior to the wave of ameliorative New Deal legislation the individual states may have been institutionally more capable of secession than thereafter. Also, since modern production, communications and amenities had by that time penetrated every part of the country, outright warlordism here and there might have been quite feasible. The Federal government did not have much means for projecting its will in those days; for instance, nothing remotely like today's Air Force existed until shortly before WW2. This is purely speculative, of course; at this distance it's hard to know whether such thoughts gave pause to anyone on Wall Street or in Washington. valis "[There] is looming up a new and dark power; the enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economical conquests only, but for political power. The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine, which shall rule - wealth or man; which shall lead - money or intellect; who shall fill public stations - educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital" -- Edward G. Ryan, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in an address to the 1873 graduating class of the University of Wisconsin Law School
[PEN-L:12657] Can't we let her go?
Katha Pollitt in The Nation (courtesy of Jim Devine): "What depresses me about the outpouring of emotion on the death of Diana is what it says about how little so many millions of people expect of life. It's pathetic, really, all those grown men and women telling reporters about how much it meant to them that Diana visited some relative's hospital room, or shook their hand at the opening of a supermarket, or just 'meant something' or 'made a difference' of some never-exactly-specified nature. It's as if people had abandoned any hope of achieving justice, equality, self-determination, true democracy, and want nothing more than a ruling class with a human face." I don't know whether Ms Pollitt descends from the former British CP leader of the same name, but I see something like a party line intruding here. Actually I doubt that Ms Pollitt can be British, since she demonstrates, along with so many others commenting in the past month, a total blindness to the possibility that Diana just might have represented something else, something more, in the context of her own society than we customarily saw in her from these shores, and that even Brits of a radical stance might have shared that perception. That the Spencers were a burr under the saddle of their own class can be further assumed from Diana's brother, who had evidently had it with Britain, preferring the openness of the new South Africa despite all the fearsome questions still hanging over that society. As for the implicit notion that Diana was a more or less willing decoy in the service of the ruling class, a prism through which the thwarted dreams of millions were cynically refracted into mollifying rainbows, I invite Ms Pollitt and anyone of like attitude to research Diana's meaning a year from now, when the UK press is long occupied elsewhere. valis "Where an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place." -- Goethe
[PEN-L:12634] Re: ethnic terminology
Quoth Ellen Dannin: One of my colleagues who has worked on rights of indigenous peoples told me that the preferred term was Indians and not Native Americans in the eastern US as well as elsewhere for decades. He explained to me that the predominant feeling was that the latter term was regarded as almost insulting because it implied that they had the same status as all other hyphenated Americans when, in fact, they were here first. Even more to the point, the term is inane re its initial purpose from an etymological standpoint, since it covers anyone who manages to be born here. valis (From now on I'll use my full sig only when jabbing The Power in its ribs with my trusty halberd)
[PEN-L:12628] Re: ethnic terminology
On Sat, 27 Sep 1997, James Devine wrote: Doug reports poll results: half of "American Indians" called themselves that, 37% "Native American"; My wife has worked a lot with the "Native community." She finds that most of them call themselves "American Indians," thinking that "Native American" is too academic. On the other hand, a lot would rather have whites call them "Native American" until they get to know trust you. Native American is more encompassing, she says, since it includes the Inuits (Eskimos) whereas American Indian traditionally does not. One of my colleagues who has worked on rights of indigenous peoples told me that the preferred term was Indians and not Native Americans in the eastern US as well as elsewhere for decades. He explained to me that the predominant feeling was that the latter term was regarded as almost insulting because it implied that they had the same status as all other hyphenated Americans when, in fact, they were here first. Ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:12598] Re: Warning from Wolfensohn
HONG KONG -- World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn has challenged governments and development agencies to join him in a new approach to narrow the gap between rich and poor, or invite a time bomb which "could explode in our children's faces". Isn't this The Little Wolf Who Cried "Boy"? Yes, along with that deeply concerned Nebraskan in the Senate and the Drug Czar, a professional killer who is permitted to strike disarming avuncular poses on shows like "Fresh Air." Such people must be disposed of, for the sake of the very children behind whom they hide their schemes of domination. valis Occupied America -- Without death there is no evolution --
[PEN-L:12580] Re: Tax break for Student Loans?
Having just received the reassuring call to easy wealth shown below, I worry about the mock blandishments preceding Michael Eisenscher's petition. Once escaping the modest gravity well of our sensible little planet Pen, it will no doubt crash through eons of cyberspace as an acceptable chain letter. Question: Will we recognize and laud the fruits of our own fond desire for total democratization of access to the Net, or will even today's half-wits @alt.fan.vannas-teeth damn us to hell for tossing bandwidth before swine? Did Papa Karl leave so much as a paragraph to cover something like this? There is much yet to ponder before the cyber-millennium is born through labor feverishly induced by the market. valis Occupied America -- Forwarded message -- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 97 22:06:55 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: hello hi im to quit but not stupid
[PEN-L:12596] Re: Warning from Wolfensohn
WORLD BANK HEAD ISSUES CHALLENGE OF NEW AGENDA HONG KONG -- World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn has challenged governments and development agencies to join him in a new approach to narrow the gap between rich and poor, or invite a time bomb which "could explode in our children's faces". Bless you for your Paul Revere number, Mr W, but, considering the financially and politically august nature of your listeners, I'd say it's distorted by something like temporal parallax. Yes, I suppose someday that bomb will explode at Eton, Choate and the Wharton School of Business, but I can show you middle class neighborhoods already strewn with fragments and faceless corpses. Once again the money changers get some religion only when the temple threatens to slide off its foundation. valis Occupied America "Being right too soon is socially unacceptable." -- Robert Heinlein
[PEN-L:12534] Non-business as usual?
I am amazed at the lack of interest shown by all, not only the list's indefatigable anthropologists, in the UN's easy acceptance of a billion dollars from a media tycoon whose further ambitions are likely not limited even to this solar system. I always assumed, without any coaching from the militias, that the UN was a developing world government, and that assumption puts Turner's gift? / investment? / bribe? into an uncertain and troubling perspective. I had thought that a recent report on the UN by the eminent David Korten reeked of paranoia (and he responded with some real grace when I told him so); now it looks like he was right on the beam. Is the UN due to be a thrift shop for magnates, like the Senate after the Civil War? True, the Turner / UN event is new, and still devoid of detail, yet I expected that the mere mention would be catnip here. Does this measure the degree to which the UN is already discounted? Wondering, valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:12529] John Sessions Memorial Award (fwd)
To all librarians working with the labor community! ---or with labor collections! Nominations are being sought for the JOHN SESSIONS MEMORIAL AWARD. This award recognizes a library or library system which has made significant efforts to work with the labor community and by so doing to bring recognition to the community through the library of the history and contribution of the labor movement to the development of this country. Such efforts may include outreach projects to local labor unions; establishment of, or significant expansion of, special labor collections; initiation of programs of special interest to the labor community; or other library activities that serve the labor community. Nominations are due no later than December 31, 1997. To receive an application form, send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or write to: Carol Krismann 4900 Qualla Drive Boulder, CO 80303 or call me at 303-492-3194. If you would like more information, contact the above or you could call ALA/RUSA at 1-800-545-2433. Thanks you---I hope to hear from you. Carol Krismann, Chair John Sessions Memorial Award Committee
[PEN-L:12452] Re: language-t
On Wed, 17 Sep 1997, tom wood wrote: Richard Duchesne wrote: What about pre-linguistic mental capacities, say in the first two years of a child? This is possible, but should we call that "thinking"? Are you saying learning is possible without thinking? I wanted to wade in just to the edges here, because this is way out of my area. Events the last few weeks as we have started law school have brought back to me the interesting process of teaching students to think like lawyers. Every year I see the students come in, unable to make certain logical connections or arguments. Slowly, they see how. I recall as a student how one moment I couldn't grasp a way of reasoning and then the next I could. I saw a student doing this yesterday in my office. There is certainly language involved in this process, so it's not the same as Tom Wood's example. What is intriguing is that there seems to be some development -- actually physical development in the brain -- that takes place and thereafter makes it possible to see things in a wholly different way. Year before last I had a tenured psych professor from SDSU in my first year class, and he confirmed that this is how it felt to him as he went through the experience. It is far different from memorizing concepts or laws but seems to go to the roots of how to think. And, now, before this gets me into trouble, I'll bow out. e Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:12458] ***FoI Act invoked in pen-l!***
Quoth Bill Lear: I realize that you are being brief, but can you tell us what, in plain English, pomo offers that cannot be found elsewhere?[...] [...] How would pomo help us enrich our understanding of class---or race or gender, for that matter? Convince me, a non-academic remember, that we really need this stuff. Tell me what the domain of its application is---is it for internecine academic struggles that mean nothing, or is it [...] HEAR, HEAR!!!
[PEN-L:12413] wriston@paradise.com
This week I have been reading Walter Wriston's feisty little 1992 book "The Twilight of Sovereignty, etc," an exuberant paean to a galactic world of knowledge workers the "limits to growth" people never knew. Wriston takes a whole chapter to trash the common instruments of economic measurement, especially the GNP. Listen to a representative riff from that chapter (Where We Stand): The standard industrial codes that once told how industry is organized are now out-of-date. Of the twelve major code divisions, only two reflect the service industry, although about 80 percent of Americans work in a service business. Accurate numbers are available on the number of brakemen on American railroads but not on the number of computer programmers. This is but one example of why today's econ- omy cannot be fitted into yesterday's standards. If basic macroeconomic measurements, such as the GNP and productive capacity, do not mean what they once did, the question then becomes: Can we construct new, more reliable measures of the kind of economy we now have? Well, I always thought there was something hokey and astigmatic about the GNP, but I wasn't ready to call it out on Main Street like Wriston, and long before computers appeared in every office Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem were already around to tell us that every year billions of woman-hours of housework and child-rearing were disappearing into The Great Bit-Bucket In The Sky without so much as an audible whimper. No doubt many books have appeared since Wriston's with the same thesis. Just how are labor and its yields figured in present company, pray? valis Occupied America -- By viewing economic issues as subordinate phenomena and securing the freedom of all to sleep beneath the bridges of Washington, the GOP has convinced at least itself that the very best of good societies will be conjured --
[PEN-L:12369] On Bill Lear's Website offer
On Thu, September 11, 1997 at 12:29:14 (-0700) michael perelman writes: Bill Lear said that he would help to set up a pen-l web site. Earlier Bill L had said: Perhaps now would be a good time to get everyone's opinion on what they'd like to have for the web site. I thought it would be cool to have a sub-site containing summaries of some of the better debates that have raged here; what's the point unless you set up a spot where the average thug can learn something?! Most of the membership consists of Eco profs, yes? I suppose a few people would have to become yet one more committee (Whatever cyberspace is, it's no refuge from the committee lifestyle), charged with determining which debates actually concluded in a plain and communicable consensus; otherwise we'll just have a new place to revivify old hung juries. My 2 bahts. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:12388] Re: Prisoner to Prisoner
One would have to be a stone to remain unmoved by this news account. Alas, the sentiments expressed can't have much effect in the context of the massive retrograde forces at work there, nor could their author, one Imad Sabi, be sufficiently representative to make much difference. The fact of his letter's being published at all, however, suggests that many people of good will are grabbing at straws to hobble the juggernaut of polarization and the horrors looming at the end of its path. Until the adversaries resolve to turn the tables on their manipulators near and far, such stories will continue to be merely good footnotes to bad history. valis Occupied America "Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to." -- Mark Twain
[PEN-L:12348] The beautiful torched
Yes, this revolting practice is more common than any patriotic Indian will admit. Aside from women's groups, general and _ad hoc_, there is little consistent concern, government and police included. A victim's family must have some clout to obtain even a glimmer of justice. We might wonder whether the reassuring doctrine of reincarnation, adhered to in some convenient variant by the scrambling petit bourgeoisie, lends a shabby metaphysical cover to this behavior, not to speak of its likely effect on the prospects for revolution. Can someone on the list argue otherwise? Mother India, you have some nasty warts! valis Occupied America Women [in India] are no longer burned alive at the death of their husbands--the problem is that they are burned in kitchen accidents while the husband is still alive so he can remarry. If he divorces his wife, he has to return her marriage portion, and there's no profit in that. Apparently, a man and his family can live quite well on the successive dowries of multiple wives. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:12331] Re: Asia's future
On Sun, 14 Sep 1997, Doug Henwood wrote: Any thoughts on whether the financial crises in Thailand and Malaysia mark the end of the Asian miracle, or are just a little bump in the road with minimal real world fallout? I could prattle, but I really have no idea. I do know that for the past few years SE Asia has been doing more trade internally than with any outside bloc; to say that it's all a periphery-core relation with Japan would be to oversimplify, considering the product mix involved. Any serious consideration of Doug's question finally compels a study of Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, Malaysia's quite messianic PM. The absolute sovereign who gave the world Versailles had nothing on _this_ guy, who's moving to make over this mostly Muslim state of 20 million into Silicon Valley Sons by 2020. Since this mega-project is probably sucking investment capital out of Thailand, the fate of both countries may be wrapped up equally in Mahathir's limitless vision. If you don't mind some Pentium chip TIMEese, the gent is waiting for you at www.wired.com/wired/5.08/malaysia.html. Hang onto your checkbook. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:12315] Desperately Seeking Superlatives
Tom, after furtively glancing around: Does anyone know where I can get some of those backward batteries? Apparently the energizer bunny has died. The cause of death? Sexual overstimulation. When the bunnie's batteries were changed, they were put in backwards. Instead of going and going and going, the bunny kept coming and coming and coming. Why bother? Even with them you won't be able to mate in one move like Sky Blue. valis Occupied America "God has sufficiently revealed His true character by combining the genital organ with the urinary tract." -- Bertolt Brecht
[PEN-L:12300] !Oiga! (Listen! in Spanish)
Will members of slur-l please stop crossposting here so that the rest of us can get back to business? While this increasingly diaphanous debate rages, here's my message to the Honcho Principal de Mexico. Did anyone else support the Chiapas march today? It's still today, still time to be relevant to the matter at hand. valis Occupied America -- Forwarded message -- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 19:53:57 -0500 (CDT) From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: !Oiga! Quienquierra sea perseguidor del EZLN es nuestro enemigo. !Que no olviden! That goes double for the rest of us.
[PEN-L:12234] Re: Slurs
Said Max S: [...] over-sensitivity tends to backfire and legitimate truly bigoted speech and elevate truly conservative critics of such a position. It reinforces the cultural isolation of the left. Hear, hear! I hate to lose any friends over this, assuming I have any to begin with, but I'd rather have a few less friends and live in the world I'm trying to change than dissolve into identity-politics ether. By now a whole cornucopia of identity politics jokes must have developed, since satire is the best medicine for that particular runaway madness. Really good ones should be posted here, paid for with our favorite URLs. The sanctimonious flap over Chinagate (as I suppose it must inevitably be called by some) I find painfully hilarious, considering the number of evolving societies this country has turned into police state prisons, kept pre-industrial and otherwise buggered beyond any response during the past blood-soaked century or so. Pray for at least two of the plagues of Egypt, so that our Bible-(t)humping fellow citizens may learn at last the meaning of true violation. valis Occupied America - All lies have the same pedigree -
[PEN-L:12220] Picking up on Thurow
On Tue, 9 Sep 1997, Thad Williamson wrote: In his last book "The Future of Capitalism" Thurow is deeply pessimistic and has a chapter comparing the present to the Dark Ages--total breakdown of public goods. I wonder if that makes lists such as this one the effective equivalent of the monasteries then, or would that be those raggedyass cyberpunk 'zines? He writes "Internal reform is very difficult in capitalism, since it has a set of beliefs that deny the need for conscious institutional reforms." Well, sure, market mechanisms will conquer all woes: extricate the bottom 20% from the garbage can, lift the middle 30% off the cross of marginal solvency, enable the rest of us to buy books and also eat rye bread. Why should anyone's faith waver? Ironically, he flat out says capitalism needs a coherent competitor on the left in order to be prodded into making the reforms he wants. Ah me, that little word "coherent" contains worlds within worlds of windswept improbables, unfortunately. He doesn't mean us folks, does he? If so, I'd say that what capitalism really needs is to feel the press of a hard, cold gun barrel against its fevered brow. Anyone up for marching 100,000 students into the Idaho panhandle in April, and not just as a healthy alternative to spring break in Fort Lauderdale? It's time for the two wings of populism to properly meet, and end the era of default dominance by the Buchanan-Limbaugh sound bite empire. Am I kidding? Never. valis Occupied America "The French people are incapable of regicide." -- Louis XVI (1789)
[PEN-L:12186] Re: Slagging Di [ad nauseam]
The issue I think isn't Diana but the common understanding of her, which is deeply flawed, to say the least. Though this addressed a comment of Sid's, my answer is that Diana, for reasons I've already mentioned, was and is a profoundly British phenomenon. Let the Brits sort her out; the best we can really do is follow that debate. My suggestion is that the public is far from "sorting this out"; rather, it seems to be in the midst of constructing the grossest of fantasies. During a certain gray weekend in 1963 JFK fared even "better." Give time a chance. [...] It took Robert McNamara's book tour _culpa mea_ in 1995 to confer legitimacy upon the anti-war movement, something that the whole American left had been unable to achieve in the preceding 20-30 years. Would any of you have him recant because of who he is or what he was? Good grief. The anti-war movement became legitimate when the last US helicopter left Saigon. We sure didn't need Robert McN. No, we of the movement certainly didn't need his take on reality then, but that's just when antipathy toward us reached a high point. That point remained a static perception in the country's VA wards and GI bars for the next two decades, with aging vets still yelling "We could've won except for those goddamn students," while getting no deeper into the question of just what winning meant in that situation. McNamara's admission helped somewhat where that was still psychologically possible. It was the sort of thing that China still demands from Japan, Armenia from Turkey, etc. Abbie Hoffman had more influence than Diana. He didn't leave behind anyone who can dissolve Parliament, or who can wreck the C of E by becoming a Buddhist. I defy anyone to specify concrete, noteworthy social changes resulting from her existence. I suspect you're ideologically committed to the idea of her worthlessness, so I won't waste time challenging your defiance. No hard feelings, of course, but I'm past this debate. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:12157] Re: Can You Top This[?] If you insist.
Max Sawicky wrote, shagging debutantes. The bottom line is they can't stand to think about their own lives and the real problems of the mundane world, so they are drawn to fantasy. To which Tom Walker, in a rare moment of unalloyed yeehaw, replied: I couldn't agree more. Really now, gents, must the opposite of A always be Z? It seems to me that the left has suffered some pretty bizarre cults of personality in its time. Can't the admiration of a famous person's good qualities be accepted as more than a subconscious evasion of one's troubles? Generations of black children have been given George Washington Carver as a role model (no points for _de rigueur_ tirades about his name); would you prefer they get Farrakhan or Shaque O'Neill? Get the idea? And I'd gladly pay to see a jacquerie. Hollywood will be happy to oblige you, provided you go home when it's over. valis Occupied America "People don't eat in the long run, Senator. They eat every day." -- Harry Hopkins
[PEN-L:12136] Re: Can You Top This
This sort of derision is unnecessary, and possibly outsmarts itself; a majority of the British population is telling the royal family to shape up or ship out, and that _is_ almost a social revolution. Though you might prefer to see the cobblestones ripped up and Parliament stormed in one grand jacquerie, in an old monarchy that has presided over much glory it's first things first. valis Occupied America Dumbest comment I've heard on Diana: Bob Edwards on NPR this a.m. (Friday) about the situation in London: "It's almost a social revolution." MBS == Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute
[PEN-L:12046] Poverty is violence!
Just thought I'd quote my favorite line by Julianne Malveaux, since the USA Today offering hardly suggests the power of this lyrical and penetrating poetess of the human condition. valis Occupied America Michael Eisenscher said: As a rule I decline to post articles published in Gannett papers like USA Today. This will be an exception, because it demonstrates the utter amorality and hypocrisy of this scab-herding, union-busting, law-breaking corporation. Julianne Malveaux is a progressive academic and syndicated columnist. USA Today, in honor of Labor Day, published the following commentary by Dr. Malveaux. One might ask why Dr. Malveaux would lend herself to this despicable corporation under any circumstances. But given their record in Detroit and elsewhere. . . . on Labor Day -
[PEN-L:12045] Re: Disney Globalization
You probably won't believe this, but I always knew that Darth Vader was really Michael Eisner. A question, though: how does traditional and widely known fantasy qualify as proprietary information? valis Occupied America --- from Disney's contract with SUBSCRIBERS to its for-pay Web site: Disney shall exclusively own all now known or hereafter existing rights to the Information of every kind and nature THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Information for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the provider of the Information. . . (emphasis added)
[PEN-L:12035] Re: ADC = BullShit (fwd)
On Fri, 29 Aug 1997, Doug Henwood wrote: Shawgi A. Tell wrote: In short, on matters political and historical, ADC has become a kept woman of the Arab regimes. Now that's not a very nice way to put it, is it? Au contraire, Doug, that's the very breath and soul of objectivity!
[PEN-L:11966] Your taxes in action
Even from 5,000 feet up, I found evidence of American arrogance. The U.S. Army's First Division, the famous Big Red One, had been stationed at Lai Khe, the base near An Loc, until shortly before my arrival in Saigon. From my vantage point inside the helicopter, I looked down and discovered, carved out of the thick forest, a huge "1" surrounded by the outline of a shoulder patch; it was the Big Red One's insignia, cast on a Brobdingnagian scale. The Army apparently used bulldozers to cut a swath many yards wide; the insignia must have covered several square miles. It infuriated me more than most killing did. It was simple defacement, the ultimate in graffiti, made by a division of Kilroys. From page 70 of "The Mark" (New York / London: 1995) by Jacques Leslie, LA Times correspondent in Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-3. Just one outrageous thing that happened when private adolescent storms were harnessed to a murder machine and a highly simplified agenda. The final cost of all that is something I'm still trying to discover. About a year ago I posted Victor Perlo's $518B figure (1960 dollars), but there were no takers, pro or con. Now, anybody? There are lots of vets today who ought to be reminded that switching off one's brain can cost as much as the welfare bill and achieve far less. The work of reminding has been occurring in-house. For instance, in 1991 the Maine VVA Quarterly published the full text of General Smedley Butler's classic 1935 bean-spiller "War is a Racket," with a front page biographical lead. Butler made all too clear who it is that picks up the tab after the banners and bugles are stashed away and the old men have made their dirty deals at the conference table. (In the same issue is the seditious sermon that earned Martin Luther King his bullet. Has something been overlooked here?) The general's divine blasphemy should be scanned and sent without apology to every war dog site on the Net. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:11929] Visit pen-l, see the pyramids
Speaking at some possible peril to myself as a non-academic lurker, I suggest that this list, whose server apparently is automatic, is far too easily misused. Do we really want pyramid schemes like #93 carefully explained to us on this list, as if they were entirely new in concept? Unless the moderator acts now to alter the means and standards of posting, this list will soon go the way of Usenet, which is one ghastly fate. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:11842] Dispatch from an internal picket line
=== It's soul-baring time for true and truer apostles of revolution. Here's my reply to a guilt-ridden correspondent with several left labor connections, currently sidetracked by family problems. valis Occupied America -- Armed forces recruits are disguised defectors from capitalism -- I think most of us, even if lacking your credentials, are asking ourselves the same question. It will be interesting if the majority of the public continue supporting the strike even as the secondary effects bite more deeply into their own lives. Since most of those 12 million daily UPS packages represent store and mail-order purchases, to me the strike poses, however fortuitously, the very large question of what a socialist America would live for. It's not enough that labor be organized and sophisticated to the point where it can take power in a fairly organic fashion: there also should be no fantasy entertained within or propagated without to the effect that the national consumerist orgy would not be interrupted or even mildly degraded. Indeed it would be interrupted big time, therefore a major shift in attitude toward the ever-changing, ever-improving baubles that fill the malls must _precede_ revolution, not be one of its diktats. (Germany might be closer to that philosophic space; most of the Germans among the world's billionaires are listed as retailers, suggesting that the Germans may be further along in both satiety and alienation.) Of course that question connects in one jump with people's jobs, though in the academy this remains largely a deferred issue, understandably. Remember the New Yorker-type understated cartoon showing a bedraggled form standing up at a spare, CP-like meeting (A large wall placard says "Workers Arise!) to ask, "What happens to my unemployment check when we overthrow the government?"? That's no joke, and if such conundrums are simply swept under the rug the time is not ripe at all. My line has always been, "Look, you have the choice between suffering for something and suffering for nothing (the succession of system crises): it doesn't sound like much of a pick but there's a world of difference!" Until that clearly resonates with a flat majority, including 15 or 20% of the bourgeoisie, we might as well spend our time reading escapist fiction, the way I am this summer. Hey, chum, I'm just saying that the American revolution has yet to be imagined, and few sane people will dive into an opaque body of water.
[PEN-L:11667] Re: GEO Gets Mass Support From Rallying Unionists in Chicago
IN CHICAGO UNIONS RALLY FOR JUSTICE URBANA-- Friday, 8 August 1997 On Thursday, 7 August 1997, a delegation of Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) unionists, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, traveled to Chicago to participate in a major "Justice For Janitors" union rally, sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Nearly 800 unionists gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago's Loop to demonstrate their solidarity with the campaign to gain recognition for janitorial employees that have been attempting to organize against great corporate opposition. Sounds good, but forget thee not that GEs, janitors and UPSers are all service workers. Until what remains of industry on these shores decisively joins in, risking summary relocation to Laos or Mozambique, and until the slacker paralysis of the general student body is penetrated, it's just a munchkin picnic (Ask the cops). valis Occupied America "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." -- Steve Biko
[PEN-L:11648] RE: Puerto Rico, Democracy and Anti-colonial Struggle
Puerto Rico, Democracy and Anti-Colonialism in a Post-Colonial World? Ted Goertzel [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: I was disturbed by Victor Rodriguez's comment that: Recently, the Machetero Guerrilla Army which since its dramatic attacks during the 980s (including the bombing of several U.S. Air Force Corsair planes, FBI offices) has not conducted military operations, warned that it would retaliate if the sale was finalized. I can understand the frustration of statists who are frustrated when the democratic process goes against them, but if the elected government of Puerto Rico decides to sell its telephone company, this is not a moral justification for armed terrorism. I know Victor did not actually advocate this, but using it as a threat is also morally wrong in my view. Democracy is very important in Latin America as elsewhere, and people should respect the results of the democratic process. --- Ted is absolutely right when he says I am not advocating a military response I am just sharing information about the nature of anti-colonial dynamics in this wacky post-colonial, globalized etc. world. However, it seems to me the moral issue is quite different from the way Ted frames it. Particularly in these post-cold war times when the victorious capitalist consumer culture has even "commodified" Ernesto "Che" Guevara ( I saw a nice coffee cup the other day with chic red letters "Che!") who probably was the most eloquent proponent of military (violent etc.) response by the oppressed. Poet Adrienne Rich's recent piece rejecting the National Arts medal makes a call for re-understanding Marx, indeed Lenin's finance capital concept seems quite insightful today, maybe deserving of a critical re-reading. Maybe we need to think through some of the cliches about democracy in this new era? When is democracy truly democratic? Probably most would agree that the formal process of voting is a necessary but not a defining element of a democratic system. Most communist, and other capitalists dictatorships have had elections. At the very least a democratic process would insure that the will of the people is heard and implemented and that there is protection of dissenting views. Puerto Rico's colonial system does not satisfy these principles. First of all, at a time when the world nations are discussing the interdependence of national political and economic systems Puerto Rico is still grappling with the 19th century issue of colonialism or the lack of democracy (with the devolution of Hong King P.R. remains as the last major colonial possession). Puerto Ricans have served (been drafted) in to the U.S. armed forces in every military conflict (war) since 1917 however they have not voting representative in Congress. Puerto Rican land is held by U.S. armed forces for military outposts, communications centers etc. without any local sanction. Despite Puerto Rico's constitution prohibition and Puerto Rican cultural values abhorrence of the death penalty, federal law imposed it on federal-related cases. Puerto Ricans can't choose their currency, with whom they trade (unless permission is granted by a federal bureaucrat) or decide what kind of standards are applied to local, Puerto Rican (in Spanish) television and radio communication, environment, or health regulations unless a non-Spanish "American" authorizes it. To top this off, the process to "define Puerto Rico's status" (Young Bill in Congress) does not follow basic international law guidelines, including allowing "foreigners" (Non-Puerto Ricans residing in the island and whose resident status is determined by the U.S. not local "democratic" authorities) to vote in deciding the island's future but not allowing Puerto Ricans who had to migrate to the US. to vote (similar to tactics of settler states to dilute indigenous population strength). A significant portion of the exiles are in some sense political exiles who experienced repression in their own homeland by federal agencies (See Ronald Fernandez' "Disenchanted
[PEN-L:11629] Neoliberalism, Privatization: Puerto Rico
Neoliberalism and Latin America: Puerto Rico's Workers' Fight Back Martha's update on Argentina reminded me of Puerto Rico's workers recent response to privatization. Last July 11, tens of thousands of telephone company workers converged on the island's capital to protest the local colonial government's decision to sell the Puerto Rico Telephone Co. Contrary to the experience of other Latin American countries' the island's phone company was bought from ITT in 1974 when it became a public corporation. Since then, and despite earlier attempts (1990) to sell the public enterprise the phone company has become a profitable enterprise More than a million and a half Puerto Ricans have phones, Puerto Rico has the highest rate of Internet users in Latin America, extensive and modern fiber optic lines, cell phones, beepers etc. From 1993 to 1996 profits increased 33% for a total of more than a $1 billion dollars. However, blinded by the rush toward "free markets" the island's colonial government seems to believe that selling the island's national resources will aid in leveraging statehood for Puerto Rico as well as subsidize the deficit of other failed privatization efforts. All major labor federations have supported the call of phone workers to stop the "sellout" and have promised another national strike similar to one that brought the 1990 attempt to sell the public corporation process to a halt. As Puerto Rico prepares to "commemorate" 100 years of colonialism in 1998, the phone privatization process has also served as a catalyst for the island's nationalist and socialist forces that support Puerto Rican independence. The major left and nationalist forces have called for a national effort to stop the sale. Recently, the Machetero Guerrilla Army which since its dramatic attacks during the 1980s (including the bombing of several U.S. Air Force Corsair planes, FBI offices) has not conducted military operations, warned that it would retaliate if the sale was finalized. Victor M. Rodriguez Irvine, CA
[PEN-L:11620] Re: OJ and a full moon II
To James Craven: Many thanks for your exhaustive answer to my query. I now understand the legal logic connecting and separating the two Simpson trials, but I still feel a cloying sense of wrongness about it on a deeper level. Re your later rant on commodification: Here in Milwaukee it seems that every week the number of rolling billboards in the city bus fleet is increasing. The transit authority (or whoever it's in hock to) has been pushing this particular envelope for about 2 years without arousing any organized opposition, so a full fleet of totally commercial trompe l'oeil may be in the cards. Since this treatment darkens the interiors and makes it harder to maintain one's external bearings, the contempt being shown toward hapless passengers could hardly be more blatant. This is my "favorite" example of ever-plunging commodification; Chris Whittle's attempted coup with Channel One runs a close second. valis Occupied America -- All lies have the same pedigree --
[PEN-L:11440] Millennium takes a short cut?
This report caused amazingly little stir when it hit
the FutureWork list 16 days ago, and I'm pretty sure that
no variant of it arrived here.
Has a volte-face truly occurred at the World Bank, much less
one of astonishing proportions? Any thoughts, anyone?
valis
Occupied America
From: "vivian Hutchinson" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Ian Ritchie [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 10:53:10 +
Subject: World Bank in surprise policy U-turn
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
from The Guardian Weekly Volume 157 Issue 1
for week ending July 6, 1997, Page 19
World Bank in surprise policy U-turn
Charlotte Denny
IN an astonishing volte-face, the World Bank in Washington has
abandoned its long-running support for minimal government in
favour of a new model based on a strong and vigorous state.
Its latest report on world development*, published last week,
calls for "reinvigoration of public institutions" and says the
role of government has been vital in making possible the
"dazzling growth" of East Asia. "An 'effective state' is the
cornerstone of successful economies; without it, economic and
social development is impossible," says the report. "Good
government is not a luxury [but] a vital necessity for
development."
The bank says an effective state "harnesses the energy of
private business and individuals, and acts as their partner and
catalyst, instead of restricting their partnership". With the
collapse of the communist economies and the crisis in welfare
spending in the industrial world, the role of the state is in
the spotlight around the globe, it adds.
"For many, the lesson of recent years has been that the state
could not deliver on its promise," said the bank's president,
James Wolfensohn. "Many have felt that the logical endpoint of
all of this was the minimalist state. The report explains why
this extreme view is at odds with the evidence of the world's
development success stories."
But the bank itself has been identified with policies
that have seen developing nations cut essential government
services to try to balance their books. Aid recipients must meet
stringent budget targets under its structural adjustment
policies.
The bank now says that building an effective state is
vital for development. It lists key tasks of government as
including investing in basic social services and infrastructure,
providing a welfare safety net, protecting the environme! nt and
establishing a foundation of law.
Chief economist Joseph Stiglitz said the bank now believed
markets and governments were complementary. "The state is
essential for putting in place the appropriate institutional
foundations for markets," he said.
The irony of this U-turn was not lost on many of the bank's
critics. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) said the bank had toured the globe during the 1980s
recommending the paring down of government, the civil service,
education and health services in the developing world.
Bill Jordan, leader of the Brussels-based ICFTU, welcomed the
change of heart, but he added: "I regret that public
institutions, public morale and essential services like health
and education had first to be considerably eroded before the
World Bank could come round to its current view."
For its report, the bank surveyed businesspeople around the
world and found that the countries that scored low marks for
government effectiveness also suffered from low growth. "Many
countries lack the basic institutional foundations for markets
to grow," the report says.
Corruption and crime emerged as serious problems. The bank found
countries with high levels of corruption had low investment and
growth. The report says the consequences of bribery do not end
with paying off the officials and then getting on with business:
"Government arbitrariness entangles firms in a web of
time-consuming and economically wasteful negotiations."
*The State in a Changing World; The World Development Report,
1997 (The World Bank)
vivian Hutchinson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone 06-753-4434 fax 06-759-4648
P.O.Box 428
New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand
visit The Jobs Research Website at
http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/
[PEN-L:11254] The Street sends an assassin
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Multiple recipients of list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11253] Re: bingo Well doug, now you know you are in the know, with a pathetic review like this one. All the typical shit of the pro-capitalists: bash you by comparing the worst of socialism with the best of capitalism, conveniently forgetting slavery, the slaughter of Native Americans, etc., etc., etc. Yeah, not merely politics stops at the water's edge, as we were reminded ad nauseam during the media crank-up to the Gulf War, but evidently consciousness itself. From the 16-hour "days" in New England's mills to the internal maquiladoras of one brutally squeezed immigrant wave after another, from the super-exploited domestic colony of Appalachia to the hellish reports now filtering in routinely from the Third World, there is a problem perhaps closer to myopia or astigmatism than overly protective analysis. Maybe a good optometrist is all that's really needed by the like of Isaac to cure this peculiar arbitrariness in the perception of shorelines and boundaries. For a good litmus test all around, how about soliciting a review from Soros? That might go a long way toward finally determining just what weird breed of cat the Kurrency King has become in his gathering years. valis Occupied America "The French are holding Indo-China, without which we would lose Japan and the Pacific." -- Thomas E. Dewey, 2/19/52
[PEN-L:11193] A work on monopoly and its antidote
== The public library system here in Milwaukee holds 14 copies of "The first $20 million is always the hardest: a Silicon Valley novel." This level of representation is almost unheard of for a new author working with a less than universal theme, and redeems the unfortunate title, which misleads about the book's focus and literary flavor. Though author Po Bronson is associated with Wired magazine, this work does not reflect the tendentious theorizing and messianic hype that sometimes make Wired an exhausting and dubious reading experience. Here's Bronson in his own epilogue, which tells as much as any browser needs to know for an informed choice. valis Occupied America Author's Note When I told people in Silicon Valley I was writing a novel about their industry, so many of them asked me, "Is it about Bill Gates?" that for a while I considered titling this novel "Not Gates." I guess if you were going to let some air out of the business, he would be the biggest doughboy. A lot of people wanted me to bring him down, but I was more interested in writing about today's entrepreneurs than today's moguls. There is an important double entendre to "Not Gates," though. The basis of the computer is the silicon transistor, three layers of silicon that can hold a small electrical charge. Transistors are connected into three types of simple logic gates: the AND gate, the OR gate, and the NOT gate. The function of a NOT gate is to turn a 1 into a 0. When electrical power comes into a NOT gate, the charge is canceled. While investigating the power dynamics of Silicon Valley on assignment for Wired magazine, I kept hearing stories that repre- sented, in effect, NOT gates: entrepreneurs who had been impeded, cheated, or canceled by the gatekeepers of power. Unfortunately, their experiences were also NOT stories, certainly not magazine stories, which are more about the powerful than the powerless, more about those companies who went public than all those who went belly-up. So in order to expose the NOT gates, I turned to fiction. Maybe this book is about Bill Gates implicitly. By having masterminded a near monopoly on desktop computer operating systems, he is the ultimate gatekeeper of power in Silicon Valley. More than any other person, he decides which gates are AND, which are OR, and which are NOT. What was going on in Silicon Valley in 1995 was that thousands of enterprising minds were busily negotiating his gates, attempting to pass through. By 1996, though, things were different. Quite suddenly, so many of those enterprising minds were attempting to bypass Gates's gates entirely, inventing a new paradigm of technology that ignored operating systems. If they couldn't go through, they would go around. It was an inspiring surge of can-do ingenuity. As of this writing, those efforts may or may not succeed. This book is for all those who are making the attempt and to all those who remind us that the human creative spirit is irrepressible.
[PEN-L:11083] Swarm alarm
"In our view, the competitive edge that led to the rise of the ants as a world-dominant group is their highly developed, self-sacrificial colonial existence. It would appear that socialism really works under some circumstances. Karl Marx just had the wrong species." --B Holldobler EO Wilson, "Journey to the Ants," 1994, p. 9 The above comment, incredibly stupid, potentially inflammatory and wildly irresponsible, demonstrates once more the peril inhering in social-philosophical excursions by world-class scientists. No, gentlemen, you just have the wrong bias (or is that the wrong funding source?). valis Occupied America "Where an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place." -- Goethe
[PEN-L:11033] ***NEBRASKA SENATOR EATS EXCREMENT***
By a 7-2 vote the CDA is history, but be not complacent, folks: while that law is dead, people like Ollie North and Louie Freeh are still alive. valis Occupied America "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt
[PEN-L:10969] Re: K/Y ratios
I hope you ultimately have an answer to that question, Doug. Though not quite sure that I really understand the concept, I looked for interesting correlations. All I could find was that Ireland and the Netherlands, next lowest to the US in the list, are also becoming service economies. Does that get the brass ring? valis Occupied America Anyway, what, if anything, does it mean that the U.S. has the lowest capital/output ratio in the OECD? Here are some numbers for 1996, from the OECD in Figures, 1997 edition: CAPITAL/OUTPUT RATIO, BUSINESS SECTOR, 1996 Australia 2.87 Austria 3.71 Belgium 2.89 Canada 2.46 Denmark 3.87 Finland 3.57 France 2.93 Germany 2.75 Greece 2.48 Ireland 2.09 Italy 2.82 Japan 2.55 Netherlands 2.18 Norway 3.43 Spain 2.60 Sweden 2.89 Switzerland 3.21 UK 2.81 US 1.91
[PEN-L:10813] A light shines out of DC
== Gosh, this kind of thing could give hypocrisy a bad name, especially if somebody somewhere recalls what Operation Paperclip was. Any hands, class? Don't worry, folks, if the Russians come alive again Uncle Markus will be rehabilitated and brought over with a private cardiac unit. valis Occupied America _ No U.S. Visa for German Spy Chief Monday, June 9, 1997 6:35 pm EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The man who served as East Germany's top spy need not apply for a U.S. visa because of his long history of sponsoring international terrorism, the State Department said Monday. Spokesman Nicholas Burns said Markus Wolf, who directed his government's espionage branch for 34 years, was deemed ineligible for a visa when he applied last year. Burns made no reference to a new visa request by Wolf but The New York Times said he has been seeking admission to the United States to promote a book he has written, ``Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster.'' Burns said Wolf had spent his entire career working against West Germany and the United States. ``Why would we give him a visa?'' he asked. In an interview with the Times, Wolf insisted he never orchestrated a terrorism act. He said the United States should treat him as it has others who had once been denied visas, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. _
[PEN-L:10747] Re: historical question
On Wed, 11 Jun 1997, Michael Perelman wrote:
James Devine wrote:
Michael Perelman asks if labor has ever been so weak with such low
unemployment rates ("tight" labor markets). I'd say yes. The 1920s was a
period of labor weakness, but low U rates:
Jim D. correctly notes that union participation was low in the 1920s.
In part, that did reflect a strong assault on labor with the Red Scare,
etc. In part, it reflected employers' strategy of welfare capitalism,
where they offered certain "union-like" benefits to labor In that
sense, I would rule out the 20s. What do you think?
I'd like to suggest again that you not ignore the law and its impact
here. David Montgomery's book, Citizen Worker, reviews how the law was
enforced by the courts to weaken any rights workers had to act
collectively. At the same time the corporate form was being given the
rights of persons under the constitution and thus strengthened.
ellen
Ellen J. Dannin
California Western School of Law
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619-525-1449
Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:10740] Re: tight labor markets -- a historical question
One thing that seems to be affecting union power and thus the attractiveness of unions to members has been the expansion of the legal doctrine which allows employers to implement their final offers upon reaching impasse. Beginning in the mid-1980's the NLRB became increasingly willing to find impasse, leading in some instances to the "instant impasse." [Employer comes to first bargaining session, says "Here is my offer. It is very firm. I will negotiate, but this is what I must have and you will be unable to change my mind." The employer declares impasse and implements.] Employers can't lose and unions can't win under this doctrine. To get to impasse an employer must propose and insist upon terms unacceptable to the union, and those may be the very terms the employer would like to implement. The union can only stave off impasse by making concessions. 20% of cases decided by the NLRB over the past five years concern this issue. The rate is increasing. In a pre-survey I did with a couple others, we found that union negotiators were making concessions in +60% of cases SOLELY to stave off impasse and implementation. Along with implementation, employers may be able to replace the workers if they have struck. All this makes unions very weak. You can't only look at economic factors to try to figure out why unions are so unable to avoid concessionary bargaining. The law plays an important part. So far very little research has been done into the issue of implementation upon impasse and its impact on collective bargaining. It's enormously important, and the area is currently wide open. ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:10692] (Fwd) Top NEWSPEAK Stories of the Week #72 ( (fwd)
Dear Mr Cohen,
I just found out about your company's exciting new Hygiene Guard{tm}
system through the admittedly somewhat biased means reproduced below.
Gosh, I certainly hope that you don't offend against common sense in
your spare time by worrying about a fascist takeover of this country.
I suggest that you develop a product variant called Olive Guard for the
Israeli government, which for the past decade has apparently believed
that nothing is quite so dangerous as an olive grove, and whose
bulldozers have acted accordingly.
Yours for better living through consciousness,
valis
Occupied America
[...]
AMERICAN NEWSPEAK. Inflicted weekly at http://www.scn.org/news/newspeak
Celebrating cutting edge advances in the exciting field of Doublespeak!
Written by Wayne Grytting
[...]
Big Brother Comes to the Washroom
Corporations can now insure their employees have clean hands thanks to an
invention called Hygiene Guard. For a mere $1,500, Hygiene Guard can be
installed in any washroom. Employees need only wear a small badge. When
they enter the restroom an infared sensor is triggered. A second sensor at
the washstand is triggered if the employee stands in front of it for at
least 15 seconds. This information is then relayed to a computer. Failure
to use the soap dispenser causes the badge to blink, alerting all to the
unhygenic condition. NetTech International says this system will alert
employers to "miscreants who don't enter the lavatory all day or use it
too much." Obviously this is just the beginning. The mind reels at the
possibilities, like monitoring coffee consumption or the use of toilet
tissues. NetTech CEO Glenn Cohen defends their invention on public health
grounds, actually declaring, "Our belief is its time for Big Brother to be
concerned." Well, he is. (WSJ 5/20, AP 5/20)
[PEN-L:10597] Re: labor films
One excellent film on the globalisation of labor is "The Emperor's New Clothes" from the Canadian Film Board. Its main focus is NAFTA, viewed on many levels, concluding with a visit by Canadian auto workers to a Mexican plant where the work Canadians did is now being done. This is a very stylish film visually and in all ways. Not your usual documentary. Has anyone mentioned American Dream? Before showing it, read other work about the Hormel-P9 strike to get background on the complexities which are only sketched out in the video. My students are always bowled over by this one. ellen Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax:619-696-
[PEN-L:10419] The dirty truth at last?
= I recall when this onus was on fast food, but I'm still excited. So we replace two-thirds of the cops with chemists and field biologists and civilization is saved after all, probably at a significant profit. valis Occupied America __ Polluted water can cause brain damage that leads to a life of crime, researcher claims __ Copyright © 1997 Nando.net Copyright © 1997 Reuter Information Service LONDON (May 29, 1997 00:49 a.m. EDT) - New Scientist magazine reported Thursday that polluted water can cause brain damage that turns ordinary people into violent criminals. It quoted a U.S. researcher who said he had made a careful analysis showing that toxic metals in drinking water were linked to crime rates. Roger Masters of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire compared crime figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with information on industrial discharges of lead and manganese from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He found a definite link between pollution figures and levels of murder, assault and robbery. Counties with the highest pollution levels had crime rates triple the national average. "The presence of pollution is as big a factor as poverty," Masters told New Scientist. Masters has written about his findings in a book, Environmental Toxicology, to be published later this year. He says there is a physical basis for the phenomenon. Experiments have shown lead can inhibit the action of glial cells, which help clean up unwanted chemicals in the brain. Other tests have shown manganese can interfere with levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine -- chemical messengers linked with mood and behavior. "It's the breakdown of the inhibition mechanism that's the key to violent behavior," Masters said. "This quite likely has something in it," Ken Pease, director of the Applied Criminology Research Unit at the University of Huddersfield, told New Scientist. "But I think the approach badly needs individual data to nail it down." _ Copyright © 1997 Nando.net
[PEN-L:10301] Soul economics
Last night I was present at an event deemed historic: the biggest crowd in all the years that Centennial Hall has been a vital part of Milwaukee's cultural life. The SRO crush was for wilderness writer Jon Krakauer, whose new book, Into Thin Air, somberly recounts the Everest climbing disaster of May 10th and 11th, 1996, to which he was an intimate and barely surviving party. Why did so many endure the wait, the stifling conditions, the unrelieved trauma of the story, and on a night of perfect weather when much happier diversions were available? My personal theory is that there was an almost cellular need being felt for a hero, and Krakauer's heroism lay in his obstinate refusal to wear the Homeric nimbus that the audience was only too willing to confer. Last night, in prior radio spots, and in the book itself, Krakauer made it quite clear that his survival was a matter of plain shithouse luck, and not attributable to superior intelligence, stamina, will, bravery, experience or any other laudable quality. Of course you have clean forgotten, but 2 years ago Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady was America's Hero For A Day, though his descent into the hateful slaughterhouse of former Yugoslavia was hardly as willful as Krakauer's climb up Everest or, for that matter, the incursion of the _ad hoc_ team that volunteered to bring him back. However, in a society where everything imaginable, now even our precious Net, is being minutely commodified in a frenzy to bring us many dubious goods and services, we occasionally need to be confronted with the exclamation point of obvious heroism, to be reminded, as once by both Gramsci and Sorel, that men kill and die for pregnant symbols and not for wage hikes. However, Krakauer is not only an ancient legend but also a heavily engaged contemporary; he has much to say about the increasingly blatant and sloppy commercialism that has engulfed the traditions of the Everest climb, trashing the mountain and blighting the lives of the indigenous Sherpas with a paradoxically deepening poverty. He has set up a foundation to deal with both problems, funded in part by royalties. In an earlier book Krakauer explored the life and death of an idealistic young man from suburban Washington who expired in the Alaskan bush while seeking a purer existence. In a country ruled by scum, where you can lose your house for a weed's presence in its vicinity, and where a 12-year-old girl just hung herself in a local "juvenile facility," I want to make clear that Jon Krakauer heads my slim list of heroes. valis Occupied America -- All lies have the same pedigree --
[PEN-L:10260] Re: Business as usual II
[D Shniad:] Nope. It's those who strike a neutral stance at a time of fundamental crisis among conflicting value systems. Am still awash in existential nausea brought on by the State Dept's appalled discovery, after 32 years of wedded bliss, that Mobutu is one evil dude who should have been hung out to dry in the Sixties. In Dante's Inferno, isn't it the hypocrites that rate the hottest spots? Being no Dante buff and having no text at hand, I'll have to give your correction a provisional acceptance, BUT: unless you're talking about plainly theatrical posturing for tactical purposes, I'd count the striking of a neutral stance as _an honest and integral part_ of said fundamental crisis, indeed one of its basic ingredients. North America is chock full of people who foresee - or even currently experience - the depredations of finance capitalism, yet have sincere doubts of the most agonizing sort about what arrangement should follow it. If all such people are _per se_ candidates for the Inferno, that place would make Calcutta look like a stretch of Wyoming. I have nothing to add to this problem, important as it is, but I hope that others have thoughts warranting an extension of the thread. valis Occupied America
[PEN-L:10240] Business as usual
Am still awash in existential nausea brought on by the State Dept's appalled discovery, after 32 years of wedded bliss, that Mobutu is one evil dude who should have been hung out to dry in the Sixties. In Dante's Inferno, isn't it the hypocrites that rate the hottest spots? valis Occupied America "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt
