Doug wrote,
has Blair taken the Labour Party that far to the right
that class is utterly verboten?
Hey, wait a minute, here. I have no control over the Labour Party
whatsoever, so I am absolutely not to blame for this sorry state of
affairs. Furthermore, if it were up to me class would be one
I also have heard from various sources that many thought
they were voting for affirmative action when they voted yes on 209. The
wording said that it was a vote against discrimination. You had to get
past the way it was worded to understand it. Even though there was a lot
of publicity on it,
"POLITICS AND LANGUAGES OF CONTEMPORARY MARXISM"
December 5-8, 1996
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Full logistical information and preliminary schedule can be found at our
web site: http://www.nd.edu/~plofmarx
For
Or
read the first paragraph or two of Sokal's piece, which claims that
physical reality doesn't exist - more music to the social constructionists.
Ain't true either. That Social Text fell for the hoax was funny, but it
also revealed some serious intellectual problems with the social
At 1:56 AM 11/15/96, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
(1) No "social constructionist" that I know of denies physical reality.
"However, consistent with his philosophical Leninism, [Bhaskar] insists on
epistemological arguments for the objectivity of the material world. That
is, against the idealism's
At 8:58 PM 11/15/96, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
A quote from Sokal's "hoax" is supposed to constitute evidence that social
constructionists deny physical reality? Doug, please. He sets up a straw
theory to criticize. This is my point.
They published the damn thing, didn't they? If someone
The small dictionary on my computer has, as one possible etymology for the
term, the 16th century *cant roger* "a vagabond pretending to be a poor
scholar." But these days there are so many poor scholars pretending to be
poor scholars that perhaps we've no more use for the genuine vagabonds.
Do
Here's the history of U.S. employment gain and loss over the last 15 years.
TOTAL EMPLOYMENT (thousands)
loss 1981-82 - 2,761
gain 1982-90 +21,229
loss 1990-92 - 1,394
gain since 1990+12,150
total since 1981 +29,224
What's the trend, and what's the cycle?
Doug:
the estimates of the difference b/tw :"northern" and "southern" diets are also
very thought provoking, especially when you see the number of fat people
walking around in western societies.
that is all i was hoping to do with this.
If this is the point, read, HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH, Worldwatch's
But do allow me to indulge a slight digression on the 'nothing new here'
theme. In October of last year, the Atlantic Monthly carried a cover story
criticizing the use of the Gross Domestic Product as a surrogate measure of
national prosperity. Conventional economists arose with such a uniform
Along those lines, there's a pull-quote in the new issue of Socialist
Review that describes capitalism as more racist and patriarchal than ever.
Is that really true? On a global scale, Third World elites are being
brought into the club, and in the First World, women are increasingly all
over the
I have posted many posts on the DPRK's position on various
events and developments, including a couple of lenghthy posts on the
DPRK's account of the submarine tragedy.
Shawgi Tell
I know that, Shawgi, that's why I'm interested in your opinion about this
latest development, which the Times and
Social constructionists come in so many forms
From the latest Rachel's weekly newsletter, titled Political Science:
On the other hand, in the arena of environmental regulation, the
same corporations (and their same representatives in Congress)
are working hard to undermine the credibility
Having committed the venal sin of actually having read Rifkin's book as well
as Aronowitz DiFazio's, Yates' and several others I would second Michael's
opinion of Aronowitz Difazio's book. Rifkin's is more interesting than
AD's, but mostly because of the material he gleans from (and jazzes up)
Original message
- Forwarded message follows -
Banned by Borders
-- By Michael Moore
On November 9, as I write this, I was supposed to have been at the Borders
bookstore in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, speaking and signing
Shawgi, I would like to hear your take on the official North Korean
statement of regret regarding the sub incident.
Blair
Blair Sandler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On 30 Dec 96 at 4:54, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Shawgi, I would like to hear your take on the official North Korean
statement of regret regarding the sub incident.
Blair
And Max replied,
Naughty, naughty.
No, Max, perhaps you're projecting. I've been interested in reading
Shawgi's pieces
On 30 Dec 96 at 4:54, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Shawgi, I would like to hear your take on the official North Korean
statement of regret regarding the sub incident.
Blair
And Max replied,
Naughty, naughty.
No, Max, perhaps you're projecting.
Evidently so.
I've been interested in
I don't believe everything I read in S. Tell, but to each his own.
Max, is this supposed to mean you think I believe everything I read from
Shawgi? If you think Shawgi has nothing interesting to say, fine. What's
the point of baiting him (or me)? You're just being a jerk. Grow up.
Temper,
If we could have a system without exploitation
of any individual or group of individuals by another, and with everyone
living off their own work, the whole of mankind would be emancipated.
"Everyone living off their own work?" But this is socialism, not communism,
according to the previous
At 10:13 AM 1/13/97, DICKENS, EDWIN (201)-408-3024 wrote:
I'm skeptical, but open to
anyone who wants to try and resolve the issue by constructing
an index of the relative strengths of financial and
industrial capital.
While I'd never go so far as Hilferding and argue that they've become one,
Third, the principle, "From each according to his abilities, to each
according to his work," is socialist. The principle, "From each
according to his abilities, to each according to his needs," is Communist.
This is quite well-known.
It's also sexist. The personal pronoun is entirely
Third, the principle, "From each according to his abilities, to each
according to his work," is socialist. The principle, "From each
according to his abilities, to each according to his needs," is Communist.
This is quite well-known.
It's also sexist. The personal pronoun is entirely
If we could have a system without exploitation
of any individual or group of individuals by another, and with everyone
living off their own work, the whole of mankind would be emancipated.
"Everyone living off their own work?" But this is socialism, not communism,
according to the previous
At 10:13 AM 1/13/97, DICKENS, EDWIN (201)-408-3024 wrote:
I'm skeptical, but open to
anyone who wants to try and resolve the issue by constructing
an index of the relative strengths of financial and
industrial capital.
While I'd never go so far as Hilferding and argue that they've become one,
Sid Shniad quoted,
"Karl Marx argued that capitalism needs a 'reserve army' of unemployed
labor to restrain wage demands and safeguard profits. Most economic
policy makers still think the same way, but recent experience in the U.S.
and Britain suggests the army might need fewer troops than it
I received the following phone number and made a quick call to let Chrysler
know that I think they SHOULD have retained their sponsorship of the April
30 "Ellen" episode. Simple -- you just push a couple of buttons (1 for
their Media/PR line; 2 for their "Ellen" line, and then 2 (but double
Does anybody on pen-l know of any good references on (or special insight
into) the subject of the Marxian theory of "uneven and combined
development." I am specifically thinking of the theory that the Bolsheviks
invoked in the early 20th century, rather than the dependency school's
"uneven
Do not forward this message to anyone. The message itself is the scam.
Email cannot execute a virus. A Microsoft Word file attached to an email
can do lots of things to Word and Word files, but only if you open it. (And
anyone using Word 6 or later can install free Word Macro protection as easy
Because it's pathetic? Because it's tragic-comic? Because if we weren't
laughing we'd be crying? Because, this guy's a *Marxist*??!!
Why does this make me laugh?
It's from that commercial working paper abstracting service that most
PEN-Lers seem to hate. Note there's a fee for this paper.
As an aside it is inaccurate to state that Ms Waring was the
only women member of parliament at the time of her election and
I would be interested in the source of this particular
statement.
I thought this was stated in the video. I could be mistaken.
I happened to watch this Marilyn Waring
I would like to thank Shawgi for posting Fidel's speech and
the Granma article on the net. I would also like to point out,
in furtherence of his previous posting about Walmart's decision
to take Cuban made PJ's out of their Canadian stores, that the
company under Canadian pressure decided to
At 12:42 PM -0800 3/14/97, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Doug, I sure hope you didn't get the impression I was *endorsing* the WSJ
newsitorial?! Because if you did, perhaps I will post a clarification.
Heavens no Blair. I was reacting to the celebration of the American way of
life that's all the
At 9:03 AM -0800 3/14/97, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
"Mr. Soros, who worries so much about an anticapitalist backlash, thinks
the new boom 'will be constantly tested' by crises, but nevertheless 'might
last a century.' "
So,... aren't you all just *thrilled* by the good news...?
Where is the
Jim writes,
BTW, I am not predicting that the key factor that M E predicted in the
MANIFESTO will automatically come about, i.e., that the working class will
rise up and transform capitalism into a socialist system. Their prediction,
in retrospect, seems to be based on mere optimism and
In what strikes me as an important editorial piece (masquerading as a first
page news article), the WSJ today opined that a new global social structure
of accumulation (they don't use that term, of course) is in place for a
sustained period of high growth rates it several times refers to as a
Last night (Tuesday, March 12, 9:30-11:30, PST) on KQED Public TV
in San Francisco a video presentation featuring Marilyn Waring
was aired. Waring is the author of the book "Who's Counting,"
internationally published. In some countries the title is "If
Women Counted." (The computer at Stacey's
If you're using Schiller's text, I hope you're getting "Political Economy
and Social Justice" for free for your students. If you order the module
along with the text it comes wrapped with the text at no extra cost to
the students. You need supplemental material on income and wealth
distribution,
Okay, folks: stupid macro question v.32.a4:
I'm teaching intro macro, using Schiller's THE MACROECONOMY TODAY. Nowhere
that I can see does it mention the national accounting categorization of
government payroll expenditures: wages and salaries of all the various
"civil servants."
It's not "G,"
And what's your time horizon for
"new-fangled"? Since the death of Christ?
Mid 19th century for capitalist work discipline (see E.P. Thompson, "Time,
Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism"). 1920s for consumer orientation
(See Benjamin Hunnicutt, _Work without End_). But I guess from the
At 10:06 AM 2/17/97 -0800, Max wrote:
Maybe we differ in that one impulse is devoted to
creating a legacy of a vision which future
generations will find illuminating and useful,
and frankly I'm interested in work whose
beneficial, tangible effects I will live to see,
not least because I would
Michael wrote,
Besides, markets are not a lot of fun.
Am I just wrong, perhaps overly romanticizing, if I suggest that markets
can be fun when they are highly contextualized, a small part of an
extensive network of non-market relations? I have fun going to the farmers'
market, seeing people I
To say that capitalism is "odd", by itself, is not a very meaningful
statement. For Marx, the object was to discover the _logic_ of capitalism
("the economic law of motion of modern society"), rather than mere
oddities. It is easy enough to talk about "oddities" -- more difficult is
developing a
What Blair described is the ocassional human contract that manages to
seep into market society. Such events are so extraordinary that they
need to be singled out for comment.
I am off to Walmart
Michael Perelman
Michael, was that "human *contract*" or "human *contact*?"
Serious
Anders, thanks for your response to my comments about "academic dreamers"
and all that. I think/hope if/when you see my paper you'll find it
interesting, relevant and useful.
Blair
Blair Sandler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is astonishing what foolish things one can
Hi Doug,
Before I give this out to my intro macro students, did you ever get
confirmation, or more info, about these questions?
Thanks. Hope you are well.
Blair
Each year about this time there is a discussion on the "lists" about
who won the "nobel" prize in econ., altho this year the
The December 2 NEW YORKER carried an article by John Cassidy, "The Decline
of Economics." Basically, he trashes monetarism for unrealistic assumptions
(supply always equals demand and everyone has perfect knowledge about the
economy), its hyper mathematical formalism and its irrelevance to public
Max Sawicky writes,
Self-interest pervades all human behavior ..., so I don't see how
you can imagine a movement which leaders or people in authority did
not seek to exploit for some narrow purpose. The real question is
how the process can work to yield constructive reform.
Well, here's an
Mark Weisbrot writes,
I haven't seen anything like this on the front page of the NYT for at least
20 years. I think the end of the cold war is finally opening some space in
the media for some truth on these matters. It is very limited, of course,
but it appears to be a qualitative change.
I'm
Jerry,
One important difference is that people who play the Monopoly board game
usually would have a rich set of different kinds of social relations
amongst themselves, of which playing Monopoly would presumably constitute
only a very small portion. The game described below would involve people
Why is Yugoslavia any different? It represents a perversion
of the socialist idea. "Self-interest" was one of the guiding principles of
the original project, a dubious one in light of the original Marxist vision
of "from each according to their needs, to each according to their ability."
This
For example:
I know you're trying to be constructive after your recent
personality crisis - focusing on the positive can be very therapeutic.
And:
You certainly have a way of raising the quality of discussion.
I would like to suggest that those who wish to trade snide and petty
insults do
On Tue, February 18, 1997 at 16:22:18 (PST) [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Am I just wrong, perhaps overly romanticizing, if I suggest that markets
can be fun when they are highly contextualized, a small part of an
extensive network of non-market relations? [...]
And Bill replies,
Excuse the venom,
Still bothering me in the "market socialism/planned socialism" dichotomy is
a little demon I'll call by the code name of the teleology of reason. Isn't
Hegel standing on his head _still_ Hegel?
Was this not Althusser's precise point? ("overdetermination and
contradiction" -- or vice versa -- in
At 6:45 AM -0800 2/17/97, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Prior to agriculture, people hardly worked
at all, and didn't have a sense of "work" as separate from leisure (as far
as we know). The economy as a separate sphere of the world, in particular,
is an invention of capitalism.
And please don't
Maybe we differ in that one impulse is devoted to
creating a legacy of a vision which future
generations will find illuminating and useful,
and frankly I'm interested in work whose
beneficial, tangible effects I will live to see,
not least because I would like to be assured they
are indeed
He's referring to our simian origins. -- Follow the bananas = follow the
money of watergate fame.
J. Fred Max = J. Fred Muggs(sp) - a monkey.
Don't go ape now.
Is J. Fred Max perchance related to U. Max, famous homo economicus?
Blair Sandler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:8639] Re: market socialism, planned socialism
And what's your time horizon for
"new-fangled"? Since the death of Christ?
. . .
Even "since the death of Christ" is only 2000 years -- of 2 million years
of human beings. This is
I just heard a description of the "Rethinking Marxism" conference that
occurred in Amherst late last year. The reporter (Olga Celle de Bowman, a
sociologist from Peru) said that there was a tremendous amount of (verbal)
conflict between the audience and the speakers at the plenaries, something
I
What a romantic account!
I don't think anybody in their right mind came to the Amherst conference
looking for an activist focus. The conferences have been around long enough
for people to know what's up. Back in the late 1980s a friend of mine who
was active in Sister Cities Projects and who
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Several people on PEN-L were at the conference and will undoubtedly offer
different perspectives, but the bottom line is that a bunch of orthodox
marxists were upset that suggestions from speakers were not the same as the
answers offered by orthodox marxists. Because we
Louis, there was nothing "snide" or "patronizing" about my private message
to you. I don't play games. When I like what people are doing I say so;
when I don't like it, I say so. Pretty straightforward, I think.
It's absurd to say I'm "dissembling" about my connections to RM (I had
nothing to do
I just heard a description of the "Rethinking Marxism" conference that
occurred in Amherst late last year. The reporter (Olga Celle de Bowman, a
sociologist from Peru) said that there was a tremendous amount of (verbal)
conflict between the audience and the speakers at the plenaries, something
I
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Several people on PEN-L were at the conference and will undoubtedly offer
different perspectives, but the bottom line is that a bunch of orthodox
marxists were upset that suggestions from speakers were not the same as the
answers offered by orthodox marxists. Because we
Louis, there was nothing "snide" or "patronizing" about my private message
to you. I don't play games. When I like what people are doing I say so;
when I don't like it, I say so. Pretty straightforward, I think.
It's absurd to say I'm "dissembling" about my connections to RM (I had
nothing to do
What a romantic account!
I don't think anybody in their right mind came to the Amherst conference
looking for an activist focus. The conferences have been around long enough
for people to know what's up. Back in the late 1980s a friend of mine who
was active in Sister Cities Projects and who
Consumers "are like roaches -- you spray them and spray them and they get
immune after a while," says David Lubars, chief executive of the Los
Angeles office of BBDO
-- Yumiko Ono, "Marketers Seek the 'Naked' Truth in Consumer
Psyches," WALL STREET JOURNAL, May 30, 1997.
Absolutely, Paul, please post the final list. Thanks.
Pen-l-ers,
At a benefit dinner for Canadian Dimension the other night, I was
asked by a retired United Church minister who is now part of a
collective of clergy who publish a progressive newsletter on
social issues, if I could give him the
BTW, I don't think it was Dresden where GM or Ford had its factories, since
that city was flattened by fire-bombs and as far as I know US-owned
companies' factories were mostly spared by US strategic bombing.
As I recall from Charles Higham's TRADING WITH THE ENEMY, Du Pont, GM
(recall that GM's
Does anyone else fine this to be more than a bit off?
At 11:59 AM 6/6/97 -0700, Richardson_D wrote:
BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1997:
Fueled by the issue of quality changes, the CPI debate rolls on, says
Business Week (June 9, page 68). Among the quotes is one that says a
Boskin panel
Shawgi: actually, I thought your comments below very clear and very
interesting. The changes you propose in the political process are quite
close to much of what the Green Party is focusing on in the US (along with
proportional representation). Thanks for responding.
Blair, briefly,
Blair Sandler wrote,
-- trying to drive in San
Francisco has become much more difficult, not to mention harrowing, since
legislation was passed making it illegal to stop at stop signs or for red
lights, or to use one's turn signals (the cops always set a good example
regarding these new laws)
Doug raised the question of snobbery on this subject. While Schor's style
might be lacking, her point was correct. I know pen-l is split on the
relevance of sustainability, but there is no way that our environment
could sustain a world where everybody lived at the level of the U.S.
autoworker.
As Larry Kudlow says, it's a wonderful time to be alive.
Doug
I thought that was MCI.
Blair Sandler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Shunning is better than cutting someone out of the list, but it takes a
high degree of agreement and self-discipline among listers.
I sometimes despair at the little room that is often allowed for (what I
think are) ideas worth hearing, or if not worth hearing, at least better
heard than held
First, off-the-top, shallow proposal: the rate of exploitation is higher?
Given the higher social wage elsewhere, this would make sense, no?
Sorry if the subject heading seems racier than it turns out to be...
Anyway, what, if anything, does it mean that the U.S. has the lowest
capital/output
Blair, this was Jeronimo Ji Jaga (fka, Elmer Pratt), a then-Panther who
was framed in the early 70s for a robbery-murder along with Angela Davis.
Davis was acquitted, but Ji Jaga was convicted on the basis of testimony
from an FBI informant. The informant and the prosecution did not
disclose his
I was also wondering about this report. I thought (emphasize "thought") I
had heard on KPFA just the other day a news report that Mumia has been
released while he awaits a hearing of some sort. I didn't say anything 'til
now because I was only half paying attention -- trying to drive in San
I've not been able to keep up with the volume on PEN-L lately due to my own
work load. I've been trying to check in now and then just to keep an eye on
things, and occasionally read some of the shorter messages. I'm archiving
the discussions on France and limiting the working day for later
At 9:26 AM 1/30/97, Max B. Sawicky wrote:
In my perception of the political/media/public treatment of UE,
when UE breaches 7.0 it's a signal that there's a problem. Short
of that, we're in the de factor NAIRU zone, under the conventional
wisdom. If it is possible to make an effective stink
An article in yesterday's (1/28) WSJ says labor is divided over the GOP
proposal to allow employers to offer workers comptime instead of overtime
pay. I understand that there are legitimate concerns about employers
forcing workers to take comptime rather than paying them overtime, but
assuming
Second, some of the comments here (not Paul's) seem to imply that
rising wages, at whatever rate of unemployment they occur, are the cause of
inflation. In other words, some of the discussion even here on PEN-L seems
to be about the rate of unemployment at which rising wages trigger rising
At 2:57 PM 11/17/96, James Michael Craven wrote:
Gradually
through debate, cross-testing provisional hypotheses and data/data
sources, paradigm/power shifts, old-timers dying etc etc some of the
"constructions of truth" become patently untenable for all but the
totally warped, some become less
Another walk on the wild side. Three epigraphs from Judith Butler's Bodies
that Matter:
"Why should our bodies end at the skin, or include at best other beings
encapsulated by skin?" - Donna Haraway
Anyone who has any serious knowledge of martial arts should have no trouble
whatsoever with this
At 9:19 AM 11/16/96, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I refer to my other comment, that the quotes
cited do not deny material reality, but material reality "independent of...
humanity." This is what the quote actually says, and this last clause, not
the *existence* of material reality, is where all the
Fucking hell, how many times do I have to say this? Of course, reality is
socially constructed, observation affects results, yadda yadda hey, but to
deny there's a physical reality independent of human observation is to
flirt with psychosis.
Doug
Doug, if I understand the above, you're flirting
Hi folks:
I thought I sent this to the list already but I never got it from PEN-L, so
here it is -- again? FYI.
Blair
**
Rethinking Marxism Presents Its Third International Gala Conference:
"POLITICS AND LANGUAGES OF CONTEMPORARY MARXISM"
Hello, all:
I'm going to be incommunicado for a while, so please don't take my
temporary absence as sign of retreat :) or disgust. On the contrary, I
shall miss the ideas and the information.
Hope to see some of you at the RM conference, if not back here before then.
Regards,
Blair
Blair
Some of you may have been following the situation at Yale over the past
year. If not here's the short summary. Grad students have been trying to
unionize and the administration refused to recognize them. Last December
TAs staged a grade strike, refusing to turn in final grades. Yale responded
Philip Kraft discusses the new VW plant in Resende, Brazil. The special
section on technology in the Nov. 18 WSJ includes an article on Colgate
which suggests the the new intranet software connecting not only all
Colgate plants and employees around the world but also suppliers,
retailers, etc.,
Forwarded FYI
I wanted to inform and update you all about what has been happening and
will happen the rest of this week out here in the UC System. We have been
striking!
We are striking to gain recognition, as the UC System currently denies that
we have any collective
Last reminder (I promise!). The November 23 pre-registration deadline draws
nigh:
**
Rethinking Marxism Presents Its Third International Gala Conference:
"POLITICS AND LANGUAGES OF CONTEMPORARY MARXISM"
December
We also have pretty basic political differences.
The most relevant difference in this context
is that I view Stalinism as no better in its
works than fascism, and for all his innocent,
good intentions, Tell's posts are a paean to
Stalinism.
And the NYT and WSJ are paeans to capitalism (which I
93 matches
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