Although I was aware that West Coast radio host Sasha Lilley, a kind of
radical version of Terry Gross, had come out with a book on
“Catastrophism”, I had no plans to read it or comment on it until I
spied a review in Brooklyn Rail, a free monthly you can find at better
bookstores.
Titled “The Bankruptcy of Doom and Gloom”, reviewer Robert S. Eshelman
writes:
Lilley observes that while the New Deal did, in fact, originate in
response to the Great Depression, the great American strike waves of
1898 to 1904 and 1916 to 1920 occurred during periods of relative
economic prosperity.
I found so many things wrong with this that I decided to have a look at
more of what comrade Lilley had to say. Fortunately, you can read her
entire chapter in “Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse
and Rebirth” on Google books. And I did. To start with, I have no idea
which “great American strike wave” of 1898 to 1904 or 1916 to 1920 Sasha
can possibly be referring to. I am fairly well versed in American labor
history and have no idea what she is talking about.
Workers struck throughout the early 1960s for that matter. This was a
time when the UAW, the Teamsters, and the railway unions went out on
strike for substantial wage increases. For that matter, during the brief
time I was a public school teacher in the late 60s, Albert Shanker was
one of the most “militant” trade unionists in the U.S. if going out on
strike is some kind of litmus test. This was the guy after all who
resulted in civilization being destroyed after he got his hands on a
nuclear weapon, as the Doctor told Woody Allen in “Sleeper” after he
awoke. That’s pretty militant but I don’t think that’s the sort of thing
Lilley had in mind.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/catastrophism-and-the-left-a-response-to-sasha-lilley/
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
