Fw: [hydroinformatics-asia-pacific] Cimate Change

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 7:50 AM
Subject: [hydroinformatics-asia-pacific] Cimate Change


> -- eGroups Sponsor -~-~>
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>
> NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
>
>
> From the Office of the Chairman
>
> Worldwatch Issue Alert
>
> Alert 2000 - 7
>
> Embargoed for Release
>
> August 29, 2000
>
> 6 PM
>
>
>
>
> CLIMATE CHANGE HAS WORLD SKATING ON THIN ICE
>
>
> Lester R. Brown
>
>
> If any explorers had been hiking to the North Pole this summer, they would
>
> have had to swim the last few miles. The discovery of open water at the Pole
> by
>
> an ice-breaker cruise ship in mid August surprised many in the scientific
>
> community.
>
> This finding, combined with two recent studies, provides not only more
>
> evidence that the Earth's ice cover is melting, but that it is melting at an
>
> accelerating rate. A study by two Norwegian scientists projects that within 50
>
> years, the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the summer. The other, a
> study
>
> by a team of four U.S. scientists, reports that the vast Greenland ice sheet
> is
>
> melting.
>
> The projection that the Arctic Ocean will lose all its summer ice is not
>
> surprising, since an earlier study reported that the thickness of the ice
> sheet
>
> has been reduced by 42 percent over the last four decades. The area of the ice
>
> sheet has also shrunk by 6 percent. Together this thinning and shrinkage have
>
> reduced the Arctic Ocean ice mass by nearly half.
>
> Meanwhile, Greenland is gaining some ice in the higher altitudes, but it
> is
>
> losing much more at lower elevations, particularly along its southern and
>
> eastern coasts. The huge island of 2.2 million square kilometers (three times
>
> the size of Texas) is experiencing a net loss of some 51 billion cubic meters
> of
>
> water each year, an amount equal to the annual flow of the Nile River.
>
> The Antarctic is also losing ice. In contrast to the North Pole, which is
>
> covered by the Arctic Sea, the South Pole is covered by the Antarctic
> continent,
>
> a land mass roughly the size of the United States. Its continent-sized ice
>
> sheet, which is on average 2.3 kilometers (1.5 miles) thick, is relatively
>
> stable. But the ice shelves, the portions of the ice sheet that extend into
> the
>
> surrounding seas, are fast disappearing.
>
> A team of U.S. and British scientists reported in 1999 that the ice
> shelves
>
> on either side of the Antarctic Peninsula are in full retreat. From roughly
>
> mid-century through 1997, these areas lost 7,000 square kilometers as the ice
>
> sheet disintegrated. But then within scarcely a year they lost another 3,000
>
> square kilometers. Delaware-sized icebergs that have broken off are
> threatening
>
> ships in the area. The scientists attribute the accelerated ice melting to a
>
> regional temperature rise of some 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
>
> since 1940.
>
> These are not the only examples of melting. My colleague, Lisa Mastny, who
>
> has reviewed some 30 studies on this topic, reports that ice is melting almost
>
> everywhere--and at an accelerating rate. (See Worldwatch News Brief, March 6,
>
> 2000 http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/000306.html ) The snow/ice mass is
>
> shrinking in the world's major mountain ranges: the Rocky Mountains, the
> Andes,
>
> the Alps, and the Himalayas. In Glacier National Park in Montana, the number
> of
>
> glaciers has dwindled from 150 in 1850 to fewer than 50 today. The U.S.
>
> Geological Survey projects that the remaining glaciers will disappear within
> 30
>
> years.
>
> Scientists studying the Quelccaya glacier in the Peruvian Andes report
> that
>
> its retreat has accelerated from 3 meters a year between roughly 1970 and 1990
>
> to 30 meters a year since 1990. In Europe's Alps, the shrinkage of the glacial
>
> area by 35-40 percent since 1850 is expected to continue. These ancient
> glaciers
>
> could largely disappear over the next half-century.
>
> Shrinkage of ice masses in the Himalayas has accelerated alarmingly. In
>
> eastern India, the Dokriani Bamak glacier, which retreated by 16 meters
> between
>
> 1992 and 1997, drew back by a further 20 meters in 1998 alone.
>
> This melting and shrinkage of snow/ice masses should not come as a total
>
> surprise. Swedish scientist Svente Arrhenius warned at the beginning of the
> last
>
> century that burning fossil fuels could raise atmospheric levels of carbon
>
> dioxide (CO2), creating a greenhouse effect. Atmospheric CO2 levels, estimat

Fw: [toeslist] So Why Is Organized Labor Supporting Gore?

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 7:34 PM
Subject: [toeslist] So Why Is Organized Labor Supporting Gore?


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> -_->
>
> Study: U.S. prosperity stems partly from more family members working
> September 2, 2000
> Web posted at: 12:56 PM EDT (1656 GMT)
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The prosperity many American families enjoy is due
> not only to rising wages but to more family members working --
> especially among black and Hispanic families, a new study says.
>
> The study by the Economic Policy Institute, a union-supported think
> tank, found that an average middle-class family's income rose by 9.2
> percent, after inflation, from 1989 to 1998. But that family also spent
> 6.8 percent more time at work to reap it.
>
> Without increased earnings from wives, the study's authors concluded,
> the average middle-class family's income would have risen only 3.6
> percent over the decade.
>
> Government figures show that while the average full-time worker's work
> week has remained fairly steady at about 43 hours, the share of married
> women working full-time rose from 41 percent in 1989 to 46 percent in
> 1998.
>
> The EPI study said middle-class black families work an average of 9.4
> hours more per week than their white counterparts. Blacks work more
> hours than whites at every income level, said economist Larry Michel, a
> co-author.
>
> "To be black in America is to work more just to keep up," he said.
>
> The study also found that middle-class Hispanic families work five hours
> more per week than their white counterparts.
>
> Upper-income Hispanic families work the most of any group in any
> economic class, putting in 12.9 hours more per week than whites, the
> study said. Other ethnic groups were not profiled in the study.
>
> The statistics, based on Labor Department figures, are part of a
> biennial report, "The State of Working America," to be published in
> January.
>
> While advocates for workers portray the extra hours at work as a grim
> necessity to keep even, business groups say they more represent pursuit
> of the American dream.
>
> Martin Regalia, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said
> much of the increase in work time is voluntary, as workers choose to
> earn more and move up economically.
>
> "We're not the rats on a treadmill; we're the rats that built the
> treadmill," he said. "There's a very, very big difference between making
> a choice to run faster today so we can take it easy tomorrow versus
> being forced to run faster just to stay even."
>
> Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, called Regalia's
> comment "absolutely ridiculous," saying several recent strikes over
> forced overtime show that many Americans want to spend less time on the
> job.
>
> "The American worker wants to spend time with their family," he said.
> "They value that time and they're spending more and more time on the
> job."
>
> Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said she has heard many of those same
> claims.
>
> "I hear from working Americans that they're working, often times, longer
> and harder," she said. "I hear from working families that they need more
> help to balance work and family demands."
>
> The EPI study also found that:
>
> -- From 1995 to 1999, average hourly wages grew 2.6 percent per year,
> far exceeding annual gains in the previous six years. Wages for workers
> in the lowest 10 percent of the work force rose 9.3 percent, while wages
> for the top 5 percent of workers rose 8.5 percent.
>
> -- In 1998, 18.9 percent of American children lived in poverty, down
> from 19.6 percent in 1989 but still higher than the 16.4 percent it was
> in 1979.
>
> -- Middle-class families held 2.8 percent of the total growth in stock
> market holdings between 1989 and 1998, but accounted for 38.8 percent of
> the rise in household debt.
>
> Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
> may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
>
>  © 2000 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
>
> FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of
> which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
> owner.  I am making such material available in an effort to advance
> understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
> democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this
> constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided
> for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17
> U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
> pro

Fw: Labor Day cheer

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 10:15 AM
Subject: Labor Day cheer


> [Happy Labor Day, the holiday the U.S. celebrates instead of May Day, 
> which we're rebranded as Loyalty and Law Days.]
> 
> Financial Times - September 4, 2000
>  
> Booming US economy sees return of job security
> By Robert Taylor, Employment Editor
> 
> The full-time permanent job is back again in the booming US labour 
> market with a decline in the proportion of flexible workers in 
> temporary or part-time jobs - thanks to the return of full employment 
> since the mid 1990s which has strengthened workers' bargaining power.
> 
> This key finding in the latest biennial study of the state of working 
> America, published this week by the Washington-based independent 
> think-tank, the Economic Policy Institute, suggests a dramatic shift 
> is taking place away from flexible employment and towards the revival 
> of regular work.
> 
> The report also reveals that the growth in e-commerce and information 
> technology has so far not brought any significant increase in jobs. 
> Only 7.5 per cent of all new jobs created in the 1990s came in the IT 
> sector. Last year a mere 2.0 per cent of US workers were employed in 
> IT compared with 1.3 per cent in 1989.
> 
> "The long-term rise in job instability and job insecurity, which 
> continued well into the current economic recovery, finally abated at 
> the end of the last decade," claims the report. "Even the share of 
> workers in nonstandard - often substandard - work arrangements such 
> as temporary work and part-time work has declined as opportunities 
> for regular full-time employment have grown."
> 
> The study, which remains the most comprehensive independent analysis 
> of the US labour market, suggests the situation has changed since 
> 1995 with the prolonged decline in registered unemployment to under 
> 5.5 per cent for more than four years.
> 
> The percentage of workers in regular part-time jobs fell from 16.5 
> per cent of the labour force in 1995 to 15.5 per cent last year. The 
> proportion of "involuntary" part-time workers declined to 2.6 per 
> cent last year - down from 3.7 per cent four years earlier.
> 
> The number of those employed through temporary help agencies declined 
> over the same period from 1.0 per cent to 0.9 per cent and workers 
> employed on call from 1.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Those classified 
> as independent contractors dropped from 6.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent. 
> The proportion of workers doing more than one job dropped from 6.2 
> per cent to 5.8 per cent.
> 
> The proportion of US employees covered by non-standard jobs fell 
> between 1995 and 1999 from 26.4 per cent to 24.8 per cent of the 
> total workforce while those employed in regular full-time work 
> increased from 73.6 per cent to 75.1 per cent.
> 
> "Persistent low unemployment has allowed workers to move from 
> substandard jobs - temporary, part-time, or without benefits - to 
> better, more regular jobs," says the report. At the same time 
> low-wage workers and low income families have benefited the most, 
> reversing nearly 20 years of declining real incomes.
> 
> The study also reveals income inequality has narrowed between the 
> middle and lower income groups although those on the highest incomes 
> have continued to pull away. "The turnround from widespread wage 
> decline between 1979 and 1995 to widespread wage growth since is a 
> significant new development for working Americans," says the report. 
> "After more than 15 years of stagnation and decline, 
> inflation-adjusted wages began to rise in 1995".
> 
> It also shows that 5.4 per cent of black and Hispanic men have seen 
> their pay move above the poverty level with a similar shift of 4.3 
> per cent for women over the 1995-1999 period.
> 
> Other "remarkable" changes in the US labour market indicate a 
> substantial improvement since the mid-1990s. Labour productivity - 
> the value of goods and services that an average worker produces per 
> hour of work - grew an annual rate of 2.5 per cent since 1995, far 
> above the 1.4 per cent annual improvement experienced from the 
> mid-1970s to mid-1990s.
> 
> The report believes persistently low unemployment has played the "key 
> role" in the " recent and dramatic improvements in the labour market" 
> because it has strengthened workers' bargaining power. "When 
> unemployment is low, workers can more easily press for higher pay, 
> better benefits and improved working conditions because employers 
> cannot easily replace dissatisfied workers with less demanding ones 
> from the pool of the unemployed," says the report.
> 
> "When unemployment remains low for a prolonged period, the work 
> environment changes. Workers feel more and more empowered and 
> employers become more and more sensitive to workplace issues that can 
> effect recruitment and retention 

Fw: Cornell Study Finds U.S. Workers Basic Rights Routinely Violated (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Veronica <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 11:16 AM
Subject: Cornell Study Finds U.S. Workers Basic Rights Routinely Violated (fwd)


-- Forwarded message --

Ithaca Todayhttp://ithacatoday.com/ September 1, 2000

Cornell Study on U.S. Labor Law and Human Rights

   by Linda Myers

Workers' basic rights are routinely violated in the United States, asserts
a comprehensive study by a Cornell University expert on labor law.

U.S. labor law is feebly enforced, riddled with loopholes, and fails to
meet the basic human rights standards that the United States demands of
other countries, says Lance Compa, a senior lecturer at Cornell's School of
Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Compa, who teaches courses in U.S.
labor law and international labor rights, conducted the study for Human
Rights Watch with support from that organization and the Ford Foundation.

The report is being released Aug. 31, 2000, by Human Rights Watch, on the
eve of the annual Labor Day holiday in the United States.

Compa's 217-page report, "Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association
in the United States under International Human Rights Standards," was based
on field research he directed in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois,
Louisiana, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Washington and other states.
Compa and a small staff of researchers examined workers' rights to
organize, to bargain collectively and to strike under international norms.
It found widespread labor rights violations across regions, industries,
jobs and job levels.

"The significance of the report," says Compa, "is it's the first time that
workers' rights in the U.S. have been looked at through the lens of
international human rights law. The report shows the United States comes up
short in many areas. Unless we correct those shortcomings, it will be
difficult for us to pressure other countries to upgrade their labor
standards."

Compa points out that the U.S. government has called for "core labor
standards," including workers' freedom of association, to be included in
the rules of the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Agreement of
the Americas.

   Editor's Note: Journalists who want to access the report before the
embargo date can do so with username "labor" and password "rights2000" at
Human Rights Watch's web site. Compa is available to answer questions about
the report Aug. 31 - Sept. 4 at the Human Rights Watch phone number listed
at the top of this release. After that date he can be reached through
Cornell News Service. He identifies two key areas where the United States
fails to meet core labor standards:

1.employers commonly fire workers who try to form unions; and

2.millions of workers are excluded from the laws protecting the right to
organize.

   The report shows that each year thousands of workers in the United
States are fired from their jobs or suffer other reprisals for trying to
organize unions, says Compa. And millions - from farmers to domestic
workers to supervisors and managers - are excluded by law from organizing
and bargaining, and the numbers are growing.

   Some employers resist union organizing by dragging out legal proceedings
for years, the report reveals. In fact, Compa and his researchers found
U.S. labor laws have become so weak that companies often treat their minor
penalties as a routine cost of doing business, not a deterrent against
violations. Despite those hazards, however, some workers have succeeded in
organizing new unions in recent years, the report said, but only after
surmounting major obstacles.

   Compa is co-editor of the book Human Rights, Labor Rights, and
International Trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996). He was the
first director of Labor Law and Economic Research at the trinational
Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation in Dallas, Texas, where
he oversaw labor law and policy studies under the North American Agreement
on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), NAFTA's labor-side agreement.

   The report is available on the Human Rights Watch web site at
http://xmail.hrw.org/us-labor/ username: labor password: rights2000

Fw: NZ experiment

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Michael Pollak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 11:38 PM
Subject: Re: NZ experiment



On Mon, 28 Aug 2000, Bill Cochrane wrote:

> G'dday A while back Doug posted a denouncement of the NZ economic
> reforms. In the same vein though of a more academic nature I might
> recommend the following,

Here's another article in the same vein from the FT, yet.  Is NZ
becoming the anti-model?

Financial Times ; 30-Aug-2000

Downfall of an economic experiment: New Zealand's textbook programme of
liberalisation has left it poorer than before, argues John Kay:

By JOHN KAY

If ever a country has been run by economists, it is New Zealand. In 1984,
the colourful Roger Douglas became finance minister. He began the most
comprehensive programme of economic reform ever seen in a developed
country.

According to current orthodoxy, New Zealand has done everything right. The
central bank is independent and its governor's pay is linked to the
inflation rate. State industries have been comprehensively restructured
and privatised, with none of the regulatory supervision found elsewhere.

What was one of the world's most comprehensive welfare states has been
dismantled. The Employment Contracts Act insists that conditions of work
are a private matter between employer and employee. In surveys of economic
freedom, New Zealand ranks with Hong Kong and Singapore, ahead of Britain
and the US, and well ahead of continental Europe.

After 15 years, the electorate delivered its own verdict on the reforms by
returning an old Labour-style government, led by Helen Clark. If we look
coldly at New Zealand economic data, the voters are right. Since the
experiment began, economic growth has been much slower than in the rest of
the developed world. Productivity and living standards have barely risen,
while almost all other rich countries have enjoyed sustained expansion.

The last 15 years have completed New Zealand's transition into a very
select group of states: those that were once rich but are rich no longer.
The standard of living has fallen from 1.25 times the average standard of
living in high-income countries in 1965 to 0.62 last year. New Zealand is
the Argentina of the second half of the 20th century. What went wrong?

The world has certainly treated New Zealand badly. Its economy was
oriented towards Australia and Europe, especially Britain. It was, and is,
the most efficient producer anywhere of lamb, wool and milk. The rise of
agricultural protection, and the UK's accession to the European Union, was
deeply damaging.

But this happened some time ago. Between 1965 and 1976 the price New
Zealand received for its exports, relative to what it paid for imports,
fell by more than one third. Since then, the country's terms of trade with
the rest of the world have improved slightly. Economic performance since
1976 is the responsibility of New Zealanders themselves.

Between 1976 and 1984, Premier Robert Muldoon urged his compatriots to
think big, and gave them aluminium smelters and petrochemical plants. Most
of these schemes failed, at large cost to the taxpayer. The liberalisation
that followed was an understandable reaction but it was no more
successful.

The programme is still widely admired outside New Zealand. As was true of
Margaret Thatcher's Britain, the success of reform is often measured by
the extent to which it has occurred, rather than the benefits that flowed
from it. The US Central Intelligence Agency claims in its 1999 factbook
that the reforms have boosted growth and moved incomes towards the levels
of the big West European economies but its statistics show the opposite.

The more serious challenge is to those international economic agencies -
the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development - that have advocated elsewhere the reform
programme that New Zealand adopted so enthusiastically. Unable to ignore
the evidence, the OECD waffles.

"It is difficult to reach definite conclusions about why economic
performance has not improved to a greater extent in the light of the
substantial policy changes that have taken place, not least because it is
hard to be precise about the counterfactual to be used for comparison,"
(OECD Economic Survey, New Zealand, 1999). That means things have been bad
but they might have been worse. "The reforms are, on balance, commendable
for the application of a broad set of consistent principles and the extent
to which announced measures were actually implemented." You might equally
congratulate a man jumping off a cliff for his firmness of purpose.

Still, like all peddlers of panaceas, the OECD's conclusion is that the
patient has not believed strongly enough. "Despite the enormous strides
made to date, there is unfinished business as to structural policies," it
says. After 15 years, it cannot seriously be argued that more time, or
more reform, is needed before benefits

Fw: Internet Creates Millions of Jobs

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 7:32 PM
Subject: Internet Creates Millions of Jobs


> For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3 Optical
> Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net
> ---
>
> INTERNET CREATES MILLIONS OF JOBS
> A new study by Andersen Consulting predicts that the Internet will have
> been responsible for adding 10 million digital and traditional jobs in the
> U.S. and Europe by 2002. In a survey of the economies in the U.S., France,
> Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., the report found that 5.8
> million U.S. jobs will be directly attributable to the Internet by 2002,
> and in Europe the number is 3 million. When Internet-related jobs in other
> industries are factored into the forecast, the total number comes to 10
> million. "The good news is that the Internet is creating more jobs than it
> is destroying, even when you look at traditional business models," says an
> Andersen partner. The bad news is that hiring on both sides of the Atlantic
> is stymied by a lack of suitably skilled workers, posing the single
> greatest obstacle to future growth. (Internet News 28 Aug 2000)
> http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,2171,3_447441,00.html
>
>
>*
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an
> e-mail message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe'
> in the subject line. To subscribe to our new HTML version of NewsScan
> Daily, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with the word 'subscribe'
> as the subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically
> unsubscribe you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as
> explained above.)
> ---
>
>
> Find out more at CANARIE's 6th annual advanced networks workshop:
>
> CANARIE's 6th Advanced Networks Workshop
> Theme: "The Networked Nation"
>
>
> November 28 and 29, 2000
> Palais des Congrès
> Montreal, Quebec - Canada
>
> CANARIE, Canada's Advanced Internet Development Organization, is pleased to
> host its 6th Annual Advanced Networks Workshop.
>
> This year's theme, "The Networked Nation", will focus on application
> architectures ("grids") made up of customer owned dark fiber and next
> generation Internet networks like CA*net 3 that will ultimately lead to the
> development of the networked nation where eventually every school, home and
> business will have high bandwidth connection to the Internet.
>
> The conference will have 3 separate tracks focusing on how these fundamental
> concepts in next generation Internet will contribute to the building of the
> networked nation.
>
> The first track will focus on the latest development in customer owned dark
> fiber for schools, hospitals, businesses and homes. A number of invited
> speakers from municipalities, school boards and governments from around the
> world who are in the process of deploying, or are planning to deploy
> customer owned dark fiber networks will be featured. The speakers will talk
> about their real world experiences in deploying such networks and the
> significant new applications that are made possible by these type of
> networks.
>
> The second track will focus on next generation optical Internet
> architectures that will be a natural and seamless extension of the customer
> owned dark fiber networks being built for schools, homes and businesses.
> Speakers from advanced research networks around the world who are building
> next generation Internet networks will be featured in this track. Recent
> developments in optical Internet architectures including customer-controlled
> wavelengths will also be discussed.
>
> Finally the third track will focus on the deployment of "application grids"
> and high-performance applications running on networks like CA*net3.
> "Application grids" are a seamless integration of dark fiber and optical
> networks to support specific collaborative research and education
> applications. These grids allow users who have access to customer owned dark
> fiber or optical networks like CA*net 3 to undertake data collection and
> distributed computing which in turn will allow researchers, students and
> sometimes the broader public to participate in the acquisition and analysis
> of information. Invited speakers will talk about high-performance
> applications currently in use on research and education networks and
> application grids that are currently being planned or deployed for seismic,
> undersea, high energy, high performance and ecological applications.
> Application grids such as these might well point the way towards a new mode
> of science and education, one that is built on a much more distributed,
> network-enabled process of data collection and analysis, and a much more
> tightly coupled process of problem solving among researchers and educators.
>
> The following is a list of confirmed speakers 

Fw: Linking health, environment and profitability

[Michael Gurstein]

 
- Original Message - 
From: Susan Himel 

To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 9:19 AM
Subject: Linking health, environment and profitability
An Ounce of Prevention: Ford and 3M Seek to Balance 
Short-Term Profits and Long-Term ProblemsIn May, two major 
corporations made startling announcements that rocked the business 
world--and highlighted companies' growing awareness of the need to balance 
short-term profits with long-term environmental and corporate 
sustainability. William C. Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Company, 
acknowledged that sports utility vehicles--which account for more than 
20 percent of the company's U.S. sales-- contribute more to global warming, 
emit more exhaust, and endanger other motorists more than standard cars. 
Ford said that the company would continue to make SUVs to fill consumer 
demand, but that it would seek ways to mitigate the environmental damage 
caused by the vehicles.The following week, the 3M Company announced that 
it will voluntarily phase out many of its popular Scotchgard products. 
Company researchers found that a chemical used to protect fabrics, carpet, 
and leather from staining tends to accumulate in human and animal tissue. 
Over time, this chemical could potentially pose a health or environmental 
risk.In each of these cases, corporate leaders emphasized the 
link between environmental and health issues and long-term 
profitability. Ford told reporters that he didn't want his company to 
appear to follow the cigarette companies' lead by continuing to manufacture 
a dangerous product. The enormous financial judgments levied by juries 
against tobacco companies may have served as an additional incentive for 3M 
and Ford to burnish their public images through these recent displays of 
corporate responsibility.Sources: "Ford's SUV Shocker," Salon.com, May 
13, 2000; "3M Agrees to Phase Out Some Scotchgard Products" by Cat 
Lazaroff, Environment News Service, May 17, 
2000._Reference 
from:LEVERAGE POINTS for a New Workplace, New World 
_August 24, 2000 
Issue 3Welcome to LEVERAGE POINTS for a New Workplace, New World! 
This e-bulletin, free from Pegasus Communications, delivers news and 
ideas to help you create both a thriving business and a rewarding workplace 
community. LEVERAGE POINTS spotlights evolutionary advances in leadership, 
change management, personal development, and organizational design. 
Every issue delivers nuggets of innovative thought, practical knowledge, 
and pointers to key resources in the field. Please forward LEVERAGE POINTS 
to your colleagues and friends!--- If a colleague has forwarded Leverage 
Points to you and you want to subscribe, send a blank e-mail to:mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. 

Susan Himel , M.E.S.
Research Consultant
Prevention Dividend Project
E-mail/Courriel: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel/téléphone: 416-532-7177
http://www.prevention-dividend.com

Fw: Making Millions off the Homeless

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: radman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 12:57 PM
Subject: Making Millions off the Homeless


> Company Criticized for Making Millions Off Homeless Laborers
> Sunday, August 20, 2000
> 
> BY PEGGY ANDERSON
> THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> TACOMA, Wash.
> Labor Ready made more than $850 million last year linking unskilled 
> worker  -- often homeless men in desperate straits -- with small businesses 
> desperate for no-hassle part-time help.
> 
> But what exactly are they profiting from?
> "Labor Ready is making all that cash off the homeless," says Larry Geo, 40, 
> interviewed at a Seattle tent city of homeless people.
> The Tacoma-based company, which operates 839 "stores" in 50 states, Canada 
> and the United Kingdom, takes heat from unions and homeless advocates for 
> exploiting those with no skills, no prospects and nowhere else to turn.
> "They take too big a cut," added James Fradenburg, 43, like Geo a potential 
> member of Labor Ready's work force of low-income urban men.
> The company takes at least 30 percent of incoming wages to cover workers' 
> comp insurance costs, payroll taxes and other deductions and overhead, says 
> its general counsel, Ron Junck.
> But defenders say Labor Ready brings order and accountability to the 
> marketplace.
> "Welcome to the real world," says Christopher Jenks of Harvard University, 
> author of The Homeless. "This is called capitalism."
> Founded in 1991, Labor Ready went public in 1996, becoming the day-labor 
> equivalent of a fast-food chain. Business boomed, and its stock hit a high 
> of $23 last summer. The Utah office is located in Kearns.
> There have been some missteps since then founder Glenn Welstad has resigned 
> and shares these days fetch $4 to $5. But the company has opened more than 
> 150 new stores since January.
> For client companies, Labor Ready takes the risk and the paperwork out of 
> hiring from a high-risk labor pool.
> Many customers "are probably not making enough money to hire a full-time 
> person," says analyst Jeanne Ernst with First Security Van Kasper in San 
> Francisco. "It's probably a godsend to have somebody come in for two hours" 
> or a couple days a week.
> Advocates for the homeless worry Labor Ready is part of a 
> contingency-worker trend that could create a permanent underclass with no 
> job security, no health insurance and few rights.
> "People who are homeless need jobs that pay living wages," said Barbara 
> Duffield at the National Coalition for the Homeless.
> Labor Ready "is an interim kind of measure that grows and becomes the 
> answer, and then people don't look at the long-term answer," she said.
> But Junck counters that workers typically work for Labor Ready just 100 
> hours before they move on often to "full-time employment they've landed 
> through working with us."
> The company has organized what used to be street-corner operations with no 
> worker protections, said analyst Karan Sodhi with Stephens Inc.  in Boston. 
> "They're performing a valuable service."
> But Labor Ready is being sued over the cash-dispensing machines at the 
> heart of its "work today, paid today" slogan.
> Workers pay a $1-and-change fee to use the machines a worker who earns 
> $38.57 takes away $37. They can also be paid by check, but that is 
> problematic for those without addresses or bank accounts.
> The company's 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 
> characterized the fees as insignificant, but they brought in $7.7 million 
> last year.
> "The machines are . . . a convenience for our workers," Junck said.
> The Atlanta lawsuit over the machines is one of several salvos fired by
> the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department.
> The union agency, which holds 515 Labor Ready shares, also accuses the 
> company of "seriously misleading statements" to the SEC.
> 
> The typical Labor Ready customer wants two temporary workers.
> The typical daily payout is less than $50.
> But it adds up. The company had 254,000 customers in 1999 and filled 6.5 
> million work orders.
> 
> "Last year we employed 700,000 workers," Junck said virtually all earning 
> more than the $5.15 minimum wage.
> As the employer of record, Labor Ready handles government paperwork and 
> even safety training through videotapes when warranted. The company tracks 
> offices and workers by computer.  No-shows and substance abusers are 
> blackballed systemwide.
> Labor Ready represents "in some sense the privatization of employment 
> offices" without the accountability required of public agencies, says Cathy 
> Ruckelshaus at the National Employment Law Project in New York.
> There have been growing pains.
> A 1999 purge of middle managers about 300 account
> representatives who hustled prospective clients undermined morale and 
> growth, Ernst said, though "for several quarters they were performing above 
> expectations" as a result of the 

Fw: NZ experiment

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Bill Cochrane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2000 4:38 PM
Subject: NZ experiment


G'dday
A while back Doug posted a denouncement of the NZ economic reforms. In the
same vein though of a more academic nature I might recommend the following,

NEW ZEALAND STRUCTURAL POLICIES: OUTCOMES FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS
AND NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE NEXT. Bryan Philpott, Emeritus Professor of
Economics Victoria University of Wellington.

NEW ZEALAND¹S ECONOMIC REFORM PROGRAMME WAS A FAILURE
Dr Paul Dalziel, Department of Economics, University of Canterbury
Both papers are jam packed with nice little stats showing just how crap our
economy is, especially compared to Australia, and just who has made off with
the dollars.
Dalziel has a good chart showing the change in average per capita real
income by decile in the period 83/84 to 95/96 which I include below

Decile  Percentage change 83/84-95/96
Bottom  -8.71%
2   -3.95%
3   -3.21%
4   -3.41%
5   -0.54%
6   +2.14%
7   +4.66%
8   +6.65%
9   +11.54%
Top 10%+26.48%
Top 5%  +36.37%

Both papers are available on line, try going to www.nzctu.org.nz go to the
on line library link at the bottom of the page and search the library under
the author name. If this fails I could always e-mail interested persons a
copy.
If the debacle described enough isn't enough to plunge NZ into depression
Australia winning the Tri nation rugby and bloody Brisbane the NRL should
have us hurling lemming like into the tasman.
Bill Cochrane

Fw: Verizon: union win

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2000 10:53 AM
Subject: Verizon: union win


TheStandard.com - August 21, 2000

TOP GROKS
~
Zap! Union Win at Verizon Jolts the New Economy

Did something just happen? Unions goosed the new economy with their
power surge at Verizon. Now a deal has been reached and, as in any
outage when the lights go off and then come on again, the media are
rubbing their eyes and wondering what just happened.

The eastern establishment print media, that is. Most online outlets
went with wire service reports of Verizon's agreement with two unions
to end their 15-day strike. Unions for the middle-Atlantic region are
still waiting for management approval. Media reports emphasized that
the agreement isn't a garden-variety deal for wages. It hammers at
issues of job security, work-related stress and benefits.

The terms? Verizon may relocate just 0.7 percent of jobs to a
different region each year. Customer-service reps get five 30-minute
breaks a week to do something besides take phone calls. And since
Verizon is a Netco wannabe, the company is springing for a round of
stock options for everyone. Verizon will dole out 100 stock options to
each union employee by the end of this year, according to the Wall
Street Journal.

Did union organizers slip past the velvet ropes of Internetdom, or act
out a tedious tradition that inconvenienced East Coast dialers? The
New York Times pegged the deal as a victory for the unions: In
addition to the contract perks, they get the right to organize within
the wireless division, in which just 50 of 32,000 employees belong to
a union. No more fussy elections, the agreement specifies. Now
organizers get to hand out ballots. If more than 55 percent come back
with "yes" checked, the Times wrote, we have a union. (Note to the
Times: It's probably safe now to stop running the handy little
pronunciation guide that informs us it's "Vuh-RISE-en.")

Will workers at other telcos similarly jolt management by organizing?
The Washington Post's page-one coverage handicapped unions' hold on
new-economy venture as "tenuous." The New York Times chimed in that
there's no certainty that workers not yet unionized want to be. But
organizers lick their chops over the prospects, and the Times noted
that SBC Communications has the same provision for card-check
organizing. Small groups of workers have even been organized at
Microsoft and also at Amazon, the Times' Simon Romero reported. Paid
overtime at Amazon? Where working long and unpaid extra hours is
called "getting efficient"? Now that would be a shock. - Deborah
Asbrand

50,000 Verizon Staffers Go Back to Work (IDG)
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,17851,00.html?nl=mg

Accord Is Reached for Most Workers in Phone Walkout
http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/082100verizon-talks.html
(Registration required.)

Most Workers End Strike at Verizon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60918-2000Aug20.html

Verizon Reaches Tentative Agreement With Two of Three Bargaining Units
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB966713955320859066.htm
(Paid subscription required.)

Verizon Settles Strike (AP)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndssun03.htm

Verizon, Unions Cut a Deal
http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/08/21/news/verizon/

Verizon Reaches Deal With Most Unions (Reuters)
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2617483,00.html

Getting Connected
http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/news/monday/nd9355.htm

Verizon 'Strikes' A Deal With Unions in New York
http://www.nypost.com/news/35849.htm

Fw: TEACH-IN: TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: David Creighton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 9:18 AM
Subject: TEACH-IN: TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM


> Don't know how far you are willing/able to travel, but please consider
> ...  Hope to see you there. dc
>
>
> Subject:TEACH-IN: TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
> Date:Sun, 20 Aug 2000 05:57:32 -0400
>From:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Judyth Mermelstein)
>  To:(Recipient list suppressed)
>
>
> OCTOBER 20 AND 21, 2000
>
>
> TEACH-IN
>
> TRANSFORMING THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM
>
> PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT
>
>
> MONTREAL, CANADA
>
>
> Location to be announced
>
>
> The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and finance ministers
> and
> central bankers from 19 of the world's most powerful countries are
> meeting
> behind closed doors in Montreal, October 24 and 25th, 2000. Created by
> the
> Group of Seven industrialized countries in response to recent financial
> crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America, the Group of Twenty (G20) is
> discussing a narrow range of proposals to reform the international
> financial
> system.
>
>
> The public will not be invited to these secretive and exclusive
> meetings.
> Citizens will not be asked how the global financial system should be
> changed,
> although it deeply affects us all. In the wake of recent and devastating
>
> financial crises that left tens of millions unemployed in Asia alone,
> ideas
> are emerging that the ministers and bankers need to hear.
>
>
> If you want to learn more about how today's world of international
> finance
> increases inequity and corporate control globally,
>
>
> If you are interested in a new economic order that works for people and
> the
> environment,
>
>
> If you want to know how international markets can finance justice, not
> more
> injustice,
>
>
> If you want to send a message that the economy is too important to be
> left to
> economists,
>
>
> JOIN US! Come to a Teach-In organized by the Halifax Initiative, a
> Canadian
> Coalition for Economic Democracy.
>
>
> Friday,October 20
>
>
> 7:00 - 10:00 pm
>
> Finance Minister and Chair of the G-20, Paul Martin will speak and take
> questions from the floor. First come, first serve as space will be
> limited.
>
>
> Co-hosted by the Social Justice Committee of Montreal and Concordia
> University.
>
>
> Saturday, October 21st
>
> 9:00 - 6:00 pm (cost $10.00, $5.00 for low-income and students)
>
> Workshops given by activists from around the world on the international
> financial system, the real costs of financial liberalization and
> financial
> crises, how capital can be controlled, the Tobin tax, the IMF, the World
> Bank
> many other related topics.
>
> A full list of workshops will be made available as they are confirmed.
>
>
> Simulataneous translation in French and English will be available for
> most
> workshops.
>
>
> The Teach-In is geared to students, community activists and the public
> at
> large. All interested persons are welcome, but people will be required
> to
> register for the Saturday event. You can register by giving your name,
> number
> of tickets wanted, address and credit card information either by email
> at
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by telephone at 1-877-933-6797.
>
>
> You can also post your registration and send cash or a cheque to G-20,
> Social
> Justice Committee of Montréal, 1857 ouest de Maisonneuve, Montréal, Qc,
> H3H
> 1J9.
>
>
> You will be able to register on-line soon as we are setting up a
> conference
> site that will be linked to www.web.net/halifax
> 
>
>
>
> If you are interested in giving a workshop at the teach-in, please send
> a
> workshop title and summary, as well as contact and background
> information on
> the speaker/facilitator to [EMAIL PROTECTED] no later than August 26,
> 2000.
>
>
> For more information on the Teach-In, please contact Pamela Foster,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] in Ottawa, 613-789-4447.
>
>
> For more information on the G-20, visit < 
>
> http://www.g20.org>
>
>
> The Halifax Initiative is a coalition of development, labour, human
> rights,
> environment and faith groups. We are committed to the democratisation of
> the
> international financial system and its institutions as a means to
> achieve:
> poverty eradication, environmental sustainability and an equitable
> distribution of wealth. We work to achieve our goals through research,
> education, advocacy and alliance-building.
>
>
> The Halifax Initiative was formed in the context of an international
> movement
> of non-governmental organizations focused on evaluating the role and
> record
> of the Bretton Woods Institutions at the time of their 50th Anniversary.
>
> Canadian NGOs formed the Halifax Initiative in December 1994 to ensure
> that
> demands for fundamental reform of the international financial
> institutions
> were high on the agenda of the G7's 1995 Halifax Summit.
>
> __
>
> Derek 

Fw: Initiative for a truly new economy

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: <"Marco Visscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>"@bbs.thing.net>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2000 5:37 AM
Subject:  Initiative for a truly new economy
> > 
> > Economics - as if people matter
> > 
> > http://www.treatyofnoordwijkaanzee.com/treaty.html

> > Dear friend,
> > 
> > Ode Magazine - an influential Dutch alternative newsmagazine - recently
> > published a cover story on the effects of the global economy. After a
> > thorough analysis of the mechanisms of the economic system, we came up
> > with twelve practical suggestions to achieve a more humane economy.
> > These suggestions have been put in a treaty to be ratified on the 1st of
> > December 2000 in the Dutch village of Noordwijk aan Zee. The reason why
> > we came up with this village is because it accommodates a famous
> > hotel/conference centre at the seashore, much like Hotel Mount
> > Washington in Bretton Woods where - as you know - our current economic
> > system was designed by world leaders about half a century ago. So, we
> > think it is time to get together once again to redesign our economy for
> > the 21st century.
> > 
> > Ode Magazine organises a conference on December 1st and 2nd to adopt the
> > Treaty of Noordwijk aan Zee. We are inviting well known international
> > speakers, writers and thinkers to come to The Netherlands to work with
> > other participants on the treaty.
> > 
> > We invite you to read our story on our website
> > www.treatyofnoordwijkaanzee.com and to share your comments and
> > suggestions. Please forward this message to your circle of friends and
> > co-builders of tomorrow. And do come to The Netherlands in December. It
> > is time for a people's initiative.
> > 
> > With best wishes,
> > Jurriaan Kamp and Tijn Touber
> > 
> >  www.ode.nl
> 
> #  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
> #   is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
> #  more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 

There is an alternative

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Rob Schaap <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2000 1:11 AM
Subject: Re: this past week in Oz


>  There is an alternative
>  http://www.theage.com.au/news/2815/A3778-2000Aug14.html
> 
> 
>  By TOM MORTON
>  THE AGE (Melbourne)
>  Tuesday 15 August 2000
> 
>  It's time for politicians and
>  journalists in Australia to
>  'fess up. It's time for them
>  to come clean about their
>  affair with TINA.
> 
>  TINA stands for There Is
>  No Alternative. She is the
>  High Priestess of
>  Globalisation. Journalists,
>  in particular, like to repeat
>  her mantra over and over again: globalisation is
>  inevitable, it is a process that imposes the same
>  restraints on governments everywhere, and there is
>  nothing anyone can do to escape its iron embrace.
> 
>  TINA decrees that all governments have to submit to
>  the same basic rules: low taxes, small government, lean,
>  mean welfare, and less and less control over the
>  functions of the body politic.
> 
>  Though harsh, TINA is a comfort for her devoted
>  servants, because she relieves them of the need to
>  think. TINA is a queen of illusion, a murmurer of
>  half-truths and seductive simplifications.
> 
>  But if TINA really rules supreme, why is it that some of
>  the most open economies in the world, the nations most
>  deeply integrated into the global economy, also have
>  the biggest government sectors and the highest
>  spending on welfare?
> 
>  This is the startling, counter-intuitive truth discovered by
>  Dani Rodrik, the John F. Kennedy professor of
>  government at Harvard. Rodrik carried out an
>  extensive study of the relationship between trade flows
>  and government spending throughout the OECD and
>  came up with an extraordinary conclusion: countries
>  such as Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, which
>  have very open economies with high levels of trade
>  flows relative to GDP, also have high levels of taxation
>  and welfare spending.
> 
>  Rodrik's hypothesis about why this should be so is
>  simple, but compelling: "Societies seem to demand (and
>  receive) an expanded government role as the price for
>  accepting larger doses of external risk."
> 
>  In other words, governments in these countries have
>  realised that the price of openness, flexibility and the
>  greater insecurity that goes with globalisation, is a
>  strong safety net to catch people when they fall.
> 
>  His analysis is complemented by the work of Paul Hirst
>  and Grahame Thompson, British academics whose
>  book Globalisation in Question neatly pulls the
>  prayer mat out from under the knees of TINA's
>  worshippers.
> 
>  Hirst and Thompson show that Denmark and Holland
>  have been able to retain the best features of the welfare
>  state while running open, highly competitive economies.
>  Holland, in particular, has been "a crucial experiment
>  for the effects of globalisation on the welfare state,
>  since it is one of the most highly internationalised
>  economies in the world, and has been for some time".
> 
>  Like Australia, the Netherlands went through a period
>  of difficult and sometimes highly unpopular restructuring
>  of the welfare state in the late 1980s and early '90s. But
>  the results have been very different.
> 
>  Unemployment in Holland, according to the latest
>  OECD figures, is running at around 3 per cent. The
>  Dutch labor force has increased by 25 per cent since
>  the early 1980s but, unlike the Anglo-Saxon
>  economies, the price of a growing economy has not
>  been growing inequality. The Netherlands, conclude
>  Hirst and Thompson, "have achieved a remarkable
>  turnaround, boosting unemployment, reducing the costs
>  of welfare without fundamentally undermining the

Fw: [corp-focus] The Billionaire Mindset and Wealth Inequality

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 4:39 PM
Subject: [corp-focus] The Billionaire Mindset and Wealth Inequality


> The Billionaire Mindset and Wealth Inequality
> By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
> 
> Surely one of the most amusing developments of the 2000 presidential
> election campaign is the emergence of Billionaires for Bush (or Gore). 
> 
> With chants and slogans like "Vote for Bush (or Gore)  Because Inequality
> is Not Growing Fast Enough" and "Who needs day care, hire an au pair!" the
> Billionaires have highlighted not only the big money corruption of
> politics, but problems of growing income and wealth inequality in the
> United States.
> 
> (For more on the Billionaires for Bush (or Gore), a project of the
> Boston-based activist group United for a Fair Economy, see
> www.billionairesforbushorgore.com)
> 
> Far less entertaining, but somewhat more surprising is a recent report
> from the Conference Board that also highlights how the current economic
> boom times have left low-wage workers behind.
> 
> The Conference Board's answers the question in its report title, "Does a
> Rising Tide Lift All Boats?" with a telling subtitle: "America's Full-Time
> Working Poor Reap Limited Gains in the New Economy."
> 
> The report is important for two reasons.
> 
> First, it shows that distribution of the gains from the information
> economy have been extremely skewed, with benefits heavily concentrated
> among the wealthy and not shared among the bottom of the income and
> distribution curve.
> 
> "Poverty has risen in both the number and share of those employed
> full-time and year-round since 1973," the report finds. While the number
> of full-time workers making poverty wages declined dramatically in the
> 1960s and early 1970s (from just under 5 percent in 1966 to 2 percent in
> 1973), there have been no gains since then. In fact, the proportion of
> full-time workers making poverty wages rose to 2.9 percent in 1998, the
> most recent year for which such data is available.
> 
> The number of full-time workers earning poverty wages does not indicate
> the number of people in poverty, because it does not register the poverty
> rate among those without full-time work, nor does it take into account the
> effects of taxes, tax credits (including the important Earned Income Tax
> Credit) or government assistance for poor people. 
> 
> But by focusing on wages rather than ancillary government support and
> taxation programs, the Conference Board offers a unique insight into the
> failure of the current wage distribution to enable families to escape from
> poverty. (The numbers would appear far worse had the analysis focused on a
> living wage level, which is significantly above the artificially low
> poverty level.)
> 
> The second reason the Conference Board report is important is because of
> what the Conference Board is.
> 
> The New York-based organization is a business-backed research enterprise
> best known for its monthly Leading Economic Indicators and Consumer
> Confidence Index. It is viewed as a dispassionate research agency, not a
> front group for the corporations that fund it. 
> 
> Its trustees and officers represent a segment of the enlightened corporate
> class, those who are aiming to protect corporations' long-term interests.
> Among those corporations represented: Bestfoods, Phillips Petroleum, J.C.
> Penney, Excel, Texaco, Martha Stewart Living, Fidelity Management and
> Research, Goldman Sachs, British Airways, Unisys -- and yes, we know many
> of these may not seem "enlightened." But the point is that in their
> concern to head off social unrest before it develops, they may be willing
> to make significant concessions in an attempt to quiet social movements.
> 
> In a description of its historical origins, the Conference Board says it
> "was born out of a crisis of industry in 1916" when "declining public
> confidence in business and rising labor unrest had become severe threats
> to economic growth and stability." 
> 
> The decision to focus a report on the failure of the new economy to
> provide above-poverty wages to millions of full-time workers suggests that
> there may be, perhaps, an emerging concern with income and wealth
> inequality among foresighted business leaders.
> 
> "For too long, we've only counted our money, but today we stand up and
> count ourselves. Billionaires, stand up and be counted!" proclaimed Phil
> T. Rich at the Million Billionaires March outside the Republican
> convention in Philadelphia on July 30.
> 
> The Conference Board may not be ready to join such mocking efforts, but
> these and other stirrings of discontent do seem to be worrying the
> Conference Board's corporate members. 
> 
> Are the Conference Board members ready to support unionization and living
> wage regulations, among the obvious solutions to the problems highlighted
> in the organiz

Fw: Giving vs Economics

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Bob Wallace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 3:55 PM
Subject: Giving vs Economics


from: In These Times, August 21, 2000

Give It Away
By David Graeber

Have you noticed how there aren't any new French intellectuals any
more? There was a veritable flood in the late '70s and early '80s:
Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard, Kristeva, Lyotard, de Certeau ... but
there has been almost no one since. Trendy academics and intellectual
hipsters have been forced to endlessly recycle theories now 20 or 30
years old, or turn to countries like Italy or even Slovenia for
dazzling meta-theory.

There are a lot of reasons for this. One has to do with politics in
France itself, where there has been a concerted effort on the part of
media elites to replace real intellectuals with American-style
empty-headed pundits. Still, they have not been completely successful.
More important, French intellectual life has become much more
politically engaged. In the U.S. press, there has been a near blackout
on cultural news from France since the great strike movement of 1995,
when France was the first nation to definitively reject the "American
model" for the economy, and refused to begin dismantling its welfare
state. In the American press, France immediately became the silly
country, vainly trying to duck the tide of history.

Of course this in itself is hardly going to faze the sort of Americans
who read Deleuze and Guattari. What American academics expect from
France is an intellectual high, the ability to feel one is
participating in wild, radical ideas-demonstrating the inherent
violence within Western conceptions of truth or humanity, that sort of
thing-but in ways that do not imply any program of political action;
or, usually, any responsibility to act at all. It s easy to see how a
class of people who are considered almost entirely irrelevant both by
political elites and by 99 percent of the general population might
feel this way. In other words, while the U.S. media represent France
as silly, U.S. academics seek out those French thinkers who seem to
fit the bill.

As a result, some of the most interesting scholars in France today you
never hear about at all. One such is a group of intellectuals who go
by the rather unwieldy name of Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les
Sciences Sociales, or MAUSS, and who have dedicated themselves to a
systematic attack on the philosophical underpinnings of economic
theory. The group take their inspiration from the great early-2Oth
century French sociologist Marcel Mauss, whose most famous work, The
Gift (1925), was perhaps the most magnificent refutation of the
assumptions behind economic theory ever written. At a time when "the
free market" is being rammed down everyone s throat as both a natural
and inevitable product of human nature, Mauss  work-which demonstrated
not only that most non-Western societies did not work on anything
resembling market principles, but that neither do most modern
Westerners-is more relevant than ever. While Francophile American
scholars seem unable to come up with much of anything to say about the
rise of global neoliberalism, the MAUSS group is attacking its very
foundations.

A word of background. Marcel Mauss was born in 1872 to an Orthodox
Jewish family in Vosges. His uncle, Emile Durkheim, is considered the
founder of modern sociology. Durkheim surrounded himself with a circle
of brilliant young acolytes, among whom Mauss was appointed to study
religion. The circle, however, was shattered by World I; many died in
the trenches, including Durkheim s son, and Durkheim himself died of
grief shortly thereafter. Mauss was left to pick up the pieces.

By all accounts, though, Mauss was never taken completely seriously in
his role of heir apparent; a man of extraordinary erudition (he knew
at least a dozen languages, including Sanskrit, Maori and classical
Arabic), he still, somehow, lacked the gravity expected of a grand
professeur. A former amateur boxer, he was a burly man with a playful,
rather silly manner, the sort of person always juggling a dozen
brilliant ideas rather than building great philosophical systems. He
spent his life working on at least five different books (on prayer, on
nationalism, on the origins of money, etc.), none of which he ever
finished. Still, he succeeded in training a new generation of
sociologists and inventing French anthropology more or less
single-handedly, as well as in publishing a series of extraordinarily
innovative essays, just about each one of which has generated an
entirely new body of social theory all by itself.

Mauss was also a revolutionary socialist. From his student days on he
was a regular contributor to the left press, and remained most of his
life an active member of the French cooperative movement. He founded
and for many years helped run a consumer co-op in Paris; and was often
sent on missions to make contact with the movement in other

Globalization and the US Presidency

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2000 4:06 PM
Subject: United States - Presidential Campaign


> Stratfor.com's Weekly Global Intelligence Update - 14 August 2000
> _
> 
> Know your world.
> 
> The Waning Power of Indonesia's President
> http://www.stratfor.com/asia/commentary/0008112200.htm
> 
> Kuwait Threatens Troop Mobilization
> http://www.stratfor.com/MEAF/commentary/0008112217.htm
> _
> 
> The Next President
> The Unspoken Issue: The Impact of Globalization
> 
> Summary
> 
> Last week, The Weekly Analysis probed the underlying foreign policy
> challenges of the American presidential election. This week, the
> second part of this series examines the most potentially divisive -
> and unspoken - issue of all: globalization. As the Democratic Party
> meets in Los Angeles, this issue is at the root of the next
> president's choices on foreign policy. And this is the one thing
> neither major candidate will dare discuss.
> 
> Analysis
> 
> With the economy booming and foreign dangers distant, the American
> presidential campaign is unlikely to attempt to move many voters
> with issues of foreign policy. This reflects an elite consensus on
> U.S. foreign policy: The international system is driven by
> economics, which is increasingly global, integrated and
> interdependent, and this is all for the good. This has been the
> American elite consensus for a decade.
> 
> But there is a powerful undercurrent running both through American
> politics and politics abroad, one that angrily and profoundly
> rejects this narrow economic prism for viewing the world. The speed
> and power of the flow of capital in the last decade has raised
> economies - and destroyed them. In the United States itself, a
> small, noisy but potentially powerful movement is rising, rejecting
> the cliche that a rising tide lifts all boats. Some, the leaky
> ones, get sunk.
> 
> The effects of globalization are among the most important legacies
> of the last decade. And yet they are the ones that are either
> accepted as undeniable fact by proponents, in multi-national
> corporations and government, or swept under the rug.
> 
> This is the case in the American presidential campaign: Both major
> candidates running for office offer the same foreign policy. Only
> one man will be president, and he will have to wrestle with the
> effects of globalization, both at home and abroad. And yet neither
> will talk about it. It is unlikely that at any time this week in
> Los Angeles, Vice President Al Gore will stop to publicly dwell on
> how badly the Thai economy has been ravaged, or how dislocated U.S.
> workers will find their place in the information economy.
> 
> Would you like to see full text?
> http://www.stratfor.com/SERVICES/giu2000/081400.ASP
> ___
> 
> The primary mission of Washington's foreign policy has been to
> prevent side issues - like political-military ones - from
> interfering in the expansion of the world trading system. As a
> result, questions over Taiwan or human rights have been essentially
> shut out of the dialogue with China. Exceptions can be found in the
> rogue nations, led by governments impervious to economic pain and
> subject to sanctions and military action at the hands of the
> international community.
> 
> The result of this strategy is a remarkably contiguous U.S. foreign
> policy since the end of the Cold War, whether steered by the Bush
> or Clinton administrations. Both did everything possible to prevent
> the disruption of relations with China. Both have done everything
> possible to use institutions - like the International Monetary Fund
> - to diffuse power from individual nations. Under Republican and
> Democratic presidents alike, Washington led coalitions to war
> against rogue countries like Iraq or Yugoslavia, or to control
> dysfunctional economies, like Indonesia's.
> 
> In the 2000 campaign, both George W. Bush and Al Gore are
> completely committed to the pursuit of this same foreign policy.
> This is the ideology not only of the American elite, but the
> ideology of the global elite, as well. Indeed, it is not only an
> elite perspective. In advanced industrial countries, this ideology
> has mass appeal.
> 
> But it does not have universal appeal. Throughout the world, there
> are groups, though marginal, that are deeply opposed to this
> ideology. Moreover, the application of this ideology is
> increasingly difficult for major international leaders. Russian
> President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Prime Minister Jiang Zemin are
> examples of leaders torn by a globalist ideology they genuinely
> accept - but find increasingly painful to pursue at home.
> 
> Two forces are in play against globalization. First and most
>

Fw: cj#1116> Curitiba: A City Managed by Common Sense

[Michael Gurstein]

Not much about ICT but worth taking a look at nevertheless...

MG


Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 20:34:33 -0700
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (undisclosed list)
From: Tom Atlee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Curitiba: A City Managed by Common Sense

Dear friends,

It always gives me hope when I'm reminded of the remarkable
city of Curitiba, Brazil, which I've known about for about 8
years. If you are interested in more detailed information,
there's an extensive description in Bill McKibben's HOPE,
HUMAN AND WILD (Little, Brown & Co., 1995). Curitiba so
inspired me that I included it in my "imagineering" story
about the first major (future) experiment in co-intelligent
politics in http://www.co-intelligence.org/S-PatandPat.html
.  All of us could forward the Curitiba story below to
officials in our city governments, just to suggest what's
possible

Coheartedly,

Tom

_ _ _ _


A City Managed By Common Sense

Residents of Curitiba, Brazil, think they live in the best
city in the world, and a lot of outsiders agree. Curibita
has 17 new parks, 90 miles of bike paths, trees everywhere,
and traffic and garbage systems that officials from other
cities come to study. Curibita's mayor for twelve years,
Jaime Lerner, has a 92 per cent approval rating.

There is nothing special about Curitiba's history, location
or population. Like all Latin American cities, the city has
grown enormously - from 150,000 people in the 1950s to 1.6
million now. It has its share of squatter settlements, where
fewer than half the people are literate. Curibita's secret,
insofar that it has one, seems to be simple willingness from
the people at the top to get their kicks from solving
problems. Those people at the top started in the 1960s with
a group of young architects who were not impressed by the
urban fashion of borrowing money for big highways, massive
buildings, shopping malls and other showy projects. They
were thinking about the environment and about human needs.
They approached Curibita's mayor, pointed to the rapid
growth of the city and made a case for better planning.

The mayor sponsored a contest for a Curibita master plan. He
circulated the best entries, debated them with the citizens,
and then turned the people's comments over to the upstart
architects, asking them to develop and implement a final
plan. Jaime Lerner was one of these architects. In 1971 he
was appointed mayor by the then military government of
Brazil.

Given Brazil's economic situation, Lerner had to think
small, cheap and participatory - which was how he was
thinking anyway. He provided 1.5 million tree seedlings to
neighborhoods for them to plant and care for. ('There is
little in the architecture of a city that is more
beautifully designed than a tree,' says Lerner.) He solved
the city's flood problems by diverting water from lowlands
into lakes in the new parks. He hired teenagers to keep the
parks clean.

He met resistance from shopkeepers when he proposed turning
the downtown shopping district into a pedestrian zone, so he
suggested a thirty-day trial. The zone was so popular that
shopkeepers on the other streets asked to be included. Now
one pedestrian street, the Rua das Flores, is lined with
gardens tended by street children.

Orphaned or abandoned street children are a problem all over
Brazil. Lerner got each industry, shop and institution to
'adopt' a few children, providing them with a daily meal and
a small wage in exchange for simple maintenance gardening or
office chores. Another Lerner innovation was to organize the
street vendors into a mobile, open-air fair that circulates
through the city's neighborhoods.

Concentric circles of local bus lines connect to five lines
that radiate from the center of the city in a spider web
pattern. On the radial lines, triple-compartment buses in
their own traffic lanes carry three hundred passengers each.
They go as fast as subway cars, but at one-eightieth the
construction cost.

The buses stop at Plexiglas tube stations designed by
Lerner. Passengers pay their fares, enter through one end of
the tube, and exit from the other end. This system
eliminates paying on board, and allows faster loading and
unloading, less idling and air pollution, and a sheltered
place for waiting - though the system is so efficient that
there isn't much waiting. There isn't much littering either.
There isn't time.

Curitiba's citizens separate their trash into just two
categories, organic and inorganic, for pick-up by two kinds
of trucks. Poor families in squatter settlements that are
unreachable by trucks bring their trash bags to neighborhood
centers, where they can exchange them for bus tickets or for
eggs, milk, oranges and potatoes, all bought from outlying
farms.

The trash goes to a plant (itself built of recycled
materials) that employs people to separate bottles from cans
from plastic. The workers are handicapped people, recent
immigrants, and alcoholics.

R

Fw: phone worker strike looms

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Peter K. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 9:21 PM
Subject: phone worker strike looms


> New York Times
> July 31, 2000
>
> Phone Workers Fight for Place in Wireless Era
> By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
>
> In what would be one of the biggest strikes in a decade, 85,000 telephone
> workers on the East Coast are threatening to walk out next weekend in a
> struggle that, stripped to its essentials, pits old-line labor against the
> New Economy.
>
> The telephone workers are facing off with Verizon Communications -- the
name
> for the company formed when Bell Atlantic acquired GTE last month --
largely
> because they fear that the company's widespread use of lower paid,
nonunion
> workers in its fastest growing businesses, most notably wireless phones,
> will endanger the wages and benefits of unionized workers.
>
> Company officials say they are taking the strike threat seriously because
> the two unions involved in the dispute, the Communications Workers of
> America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, have
never
> been shy about striking. In 1998, they struck Bell Atlantic for two days,
> winning a no-layoff clause and improved pension benefits. And in 1989 they
> staged a 17-week strike against Nynex, which later merged with Bell
> Atlantic, rebuffing a company demand to have workers pay monthly health
> insurance premiums.
>
> "Right now the chances of a strike are better than 50-50," said Morton
Bahr,
> president of the communications workers' union, which represents 72,500 of
> the workers who might walk out.
>
> The walkout, threatened for 12:01 a.m. next Sunday, could cause problems
for
> 25 million businesses and households stretching from Virginia to Maine. It
> would involve operators, service representatives and repair workers, and
> could cause the same inconveniences that local and long-distance customers
> experienced in previous telephone company strikes: delays in repairs,
> installing new lines, ordering new phone service and getting questions
> answered about telephone bills.
>
> The stakes are large because Verizon, (pronounced ver-EYE-zon), with
260,000
> employees, has far more workers than any other American telecommunications
> company and is the nation's largest wireless company. But while close to
80
> percent of the more than 120,000 workers in the company's local lines
> division, which provides local telephone service, are unionized, a mere 46
> of the 32,000 workers in Verizon's wireless division are.
>
> The challenge for the two unions is daunting because they are finding it
> tough to keep pace with a fast-changing company in a fast-changing
industry.
> Indeed, Verizon's unions are struggling to adapt to many developments
common
> throughout the New Economy: new job categories, new types of compensation
> like profit sharing, and the increased use of contingent workers like
> temporary hires and independent contractors.
>
> The former Bell Atlantic now owns the telephone companies around the
country
> previously operated by GTE, whose workers will not strike next week
because
> they are covered by a different union contract. Verizon also operates the
> nation's largest wireless telephone network in a partnership with Vodafone
> AirTouch, a European company. In addition, Verizon, which long focused on
> local service as Bell Atlantic, has recently entered the long-distance
> market in New York state and hopes to win regulatory clearance in other
> states as well.
>
> In this maelstrom of mergers and reshufflings, of new businesses and new
> technologies, labor leaders fear unionized workers will be squeezed or
even
> laid off as Verizon attempts to pare labor costs by, for example,
> contracting out work to nonunion firms.
>
> The main issues in the dispute, union leaders say, are job security,
higher
> pensions, feelings of stress at work, and the union's demand for an easier
> way to unionize the workers in the company's wireless operations.
>
> Union officials voice fears that if they fail to unionize the wireless
> workers, Verizon will aggressively shift business -- and jobs -- from its
> unionized operations to its lower-paying nonunion operations. Union
> officials complain that many of the more than 5,000 jobs in Verizon's new
> and fast-growing business installing digital subscriber lines for
computers
> are nonunion.
>
> "The union is looking at a situation where the industry is changing very
> fast and with the advent of wireless and Internet services and digital
> subscriber lines, we are battling with the company over keeping that work
as
> union work," said Bob Master, a spokesman for the Communications Workers.
> "We want to see the industry change and grow, but we want the union to
share
> in that growth and we want those jobs to remain good jobs that pay enough
to
> support families."
>
> The communications workers estimate that Verizon's unionized service
> representatives 

Fw: education & pay

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 

From: Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: education & pay


> Michael Perelman says:
> 
> >Carrol, take heart.  60 minutes had a piece a few months ago about a
> >police department that refused to hire people that were too smart.
> 
> *   _NYT_  September 19, 1999
> 
> Help Wanted: The Not-Too-High-Q Standard
> 
> By MIKE ALLEN
> 
> NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Wanted: a few not-so-bright cops.
> 
> That is the official hiring policy in this former whaling village, 
> where Police Department officials refused to grant Robert J. Jordan a 
> job interview because they considered him to be too smart, then waged 
> a three-year court fight to protect their right to favor mediocre 
> applicants.
> 
> And won.
> 
> The City of New London contends that applicants who score too high on 
> a pre-employment test are likely to become bored in patrol jobs, and 
> leave the force soon after the city has paid to train them. Similar 
> cutoffs, it turns out, are frequently used by employers when they are 
> looking for workers who must follow rigid procedures, including bank 
> tellers, customer service representatives and security guards.
> 
> In 1996 Mr. Jordan scored 33 out of 50 on the exam, which is used by 
> 40,000 employers across the country, including National Football 
> League teams for potential draft choices. That was 6 points too high 
> to qualify for an interview with the New London police.
> 
> When Mr. Jordan heard about other people being hired even though he 
> hadn't been called, he went to the Police Department to protest that 
> he felt sure he must have passed. He says he was curtly informed that 
> he did not "fit the profile," which litigation revealed was a score 
> of 20 to 27.
> 
> "Bob Jordan is exactly the type of guy we would want to screen out," 
> said William C. Gavitt, the deputy police chief, who interviews 
> candidates.
> 
> "Police work is kind of mundane. We don't deal in gunfights every 
> night. There's a personality that can take that."
> 
> This month, a Federal judge in New Haven has ruled that the practice 
> was constitutional since the city treats all smart would-be officers 
> the same, and thus did not discriminate against Mr. Jordan. 
> "Plaintiff may have been disqualified unwisely but he was not denied 
> equal protection," Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States 
> District Court wrote.
> 
> Mr. Jordan, 48, is a life-insurance salesman who had dreamed of a 
> second career protecting and serving, with an eye on the pension. He 
> said he was astounded that he could be shut out on the basis of brain 
> power, but not gender, sexual orientation or race.
> 
> "Being reasonably intelligent does not make you part of a protected 
> class," he said, chuckling at his new command of legalese. For a 
> certified wise man, Mr. Jordan is remarkably modest about his 
> academic achievements, volunteering that it took him 26 years to get 
> a bachelor's degree in literature from Charter Oak State College in 
> New Britain, Conn. "I'm eminently trainable," he said. "I'm not up 
> there with Mozart."
> 
> At first the decision was greeted as a great punch line in New 
> London, a city of 27,000.
> 
> But as the news sunk in, many people said the rule was insulting to 
> their police force, and nonsensical at a time when law-enforcement 
> officers must deal with complicated social problems.
> 
> "Your average dunderhead is not the person you want to try to solve a 
> fight between a man and his wife at 2 A.M.," said Nick Checker, 35, a 
> local playwright. "I'd rather have them hire the right man or woman 
> for the job and keep replacing them than have the same moron for 20 
> years."
> 
> Millie McLaughlin, 82, the lunch lady at Harbor Elementary School, 
> worries that pupils will think that "if they study too hard, they 
> won't get a job."
> 
> And Gilbert G. Gallegos, the national president of the Fraternal 
> Order of Police, said that besides reinforcing keystone kop 
> stereotypes, the city's stance was self-defeating. "The better the 
> caliber of the police officer, the fewer problems you have in the 
> community."
> 
> Mr. Jordan had run afoul of turnover rates, which have been the 
> subject of decades of study by management theorists. The publisher of 
> the test, Wonderlic Inc. of Libertyville, Ill., has a section in its 
> "User's Manual" warning clients about the cost of replacing workers 
> who quit because they become dissatisfied with repetitive work. 
> "Simply hiring the highest scoring employee can be self-defeating," 
> the manual says.
> 
> Wonderlic's president, Charles F. Wonderlic Jr., said variations of 
> the 12-minute test used in New London have been given to 125 million 
> people since his grandfather founded the company in 1937. Mr. 
> Wonderlic said hundreds of employers have used his suggested maximum 
> scores to exclude overly qualified app

Fw: Mas on digital divide

[Michael Gurstein]

> >Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 10:05:13 -0600
> >From: Steve Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Subject: RE: [AIR-L] digital divide
> >
> >Now, I know the source of the article I'm forwarding is going to
> >provoke howls of derisive laughter, and that's not my intention.
> >Rather, the quotes from Levin are nothing if not frightening, and
> >particularly pertinent to Steve Biggs's concerns as expressed in the
> >second half of his post, and should be particularly pertinent to all
> >of us interested in not just the Net's future but the world's.
> >
> >Sj
> >
> > >http://www.drudgereport.com/mat28k.htm
> > >
> > >WASHINGTON -- JULY 27, 2000 22:09 UTC-- AOL chief executive Steve Case
and
> > >TIME WARNER chief executive Gerald Levin testified Thursday before a
> > >complete panel at the Federal Communications Commission.
> > >
> > >But candid comments made by Levin earlier this year during a media
> > >roundtable have some lawmakers in Congress concerned that something is
foul
> > >with the latest greatest media marriage.
> > >
> > >Levin recently warned: In the post-Cold War era there is only "American
> > >cultural imperialism."
> > >
> > >"There's no countervailing force, that's a significant problem,"
declared
> > >the man who will become the most powerful media executive in history if
an
> > >AOL/TIME WARNER merger is approved by federal regulators.
> > >
> > >Levin sees a future where major media corporations take on
responsibilities
> > >currently administered by governments.
> > >
> > >"We're going to need to have these corporations redefined as
instruments of
> > >public service because they have the resources, they have the reach,
they
> > >have the skill base, and maybe there's a new generation coming up that
wants
> > >to achieve meaning in that context and have an impact, and that may be
a
> > >more efficient way to deal with society's problems than governments,"
> > >predicted Levin.
> > >
> > >A summary of Levin's past comments were circulated behind committee
doors
> > >this week, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, including Levin's belief that
an
> > >"old-fashioned regulatory system" has to give way to a new "global
concern."
> > >
> > >"It does appear that Mr. Levin has greater designs than simply running
an
> > >entertainment conglomerate," said one Republican lawmaker, who would
like to
> > >question Levin on his fellings about "American cultural imperialism."
> > >
> > >At the TIMEWARNER Global Forum gathering in Shanghai last year, Levin
> > >introduced Communist China's President Jiang Zemin, calling him "my
good
> > >friend."
> > >
> > >Levin presented him with a bust of Abraham Lincoln.
> > >
> > >Levin, who refused to meet with human rights representatives during the
> > >trip, told vaunted visitors that Jiang can reel off the Gettysburg
address
> > >from memory.
> > >
> > >But can Jiang - or Gerry, for that matter - recite Lincoln's letter to
> > >William F. Elkins, November 21, 1864?
> > >
> > >"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes
> > >me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been
> > >enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the
money
> > >power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon
the
> > >prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands
and
> > >the Republic is destroyed."
> > >
> > >Thought not.
>

Fw: education & pay

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 4:46 PM
Subject: education & pay


> More stinking averages...
> 
> 
> 
> Unemployment and earnings for year-round, full-time workers age 25 
> and over, by educational attainment
> 
> unemploymentmedian
>  rate,  earnings,
>  1998 1997
>   1.3 Professional degree72,700
>   1.4 Doctorate  62,400
>   1.6 Master's degree50,000
>   1.9 Bachelor's degree  40,100
>   2.5 Associate degree   31,700
>   3.2 Some college, no degree30,400
>   4.0 High-school graduate   26,000
>   7.1 Less than a high-school diploma19,700
> 
> Source: Unemployment rate: Bureau of labor Statistics, unpublished 
> data; earnings, Bureau of the Census, unpublished data.
> 

Fw: (50 Years) South Africa Archbishop calls for debt repudiation

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 4:15 PM
Subject: Fwd: (50 Years) South Africa Archbishop calls for debt repudiation


> From: Soren [Ambrose] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> ARCHBISHOP ISSUES URGENT CALL TO STOP SERVICING DEBT
>
> Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has issued an urgent call to the
> world's  highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) to close ranks and refuse
to
> service their debt to the G-8 countries.
>
>   "The G-8 summit, held in Japan last week, was not only the most
expensive
> but a slap in the face to the many poor countries that have already paid
the
> capital amount owed several time over.  In South Africa our servicing of
> odious debts incurred by the apartheid regime is the second highest item
on
> our national budget. We must, in the interest of the whole world, divert
the
> R48-billion we repay annually to fighting AIDS and developing our country.
> It is the best way to turn the African Renaissance from a political
> catchphrase to reality.
>
> "If the wealthy G-8 countries lack the will to cross the Rubicon, we must
> take the initiative. It is time for us to recognise that we are dealing
with
> the same colonialists who have never acted voluntarily in our interest."
>
> Ndungane said the more developed of the emerging nations had understood
the
> wealthy countries' concerns regarding good governance.
>
> "This is precisely why we were so patient regarding the conditions to
> qualify for debt relief. These were in terms of an initiative announced at
> last year's G-7 summit and the intention was to cut the debt burden by
$100
> billion. But that momentum has fizzled out. As fat cat negotiators delay
the
> process and attend summits that cost as much as it costs to put 12 million
> children in a poor country in school, people - not obscure statistics -
are
> dying like flies. The AIDS  issue alone should have given some impetus to
> their sense of a moral imperative.
>
> The archbishop is a patron Jubilee 2000 International, Jubilee 2000 Africa
> and Jubilee 2000 Southern Africa. He added that while he fully backed
> statements issued by the organisation this week-end he was convinced that
> the time had come to act.
>
> "Steve Biko, one of my greatest heroes, used to say,  'Black Man you are
on
> your own'.  He was right and we must seize the initiative now. Within the
> South African context, the G-8 summit was a slap in our State President's
> face, especially in light of his appeals regarding the eradication of
> poverty."
>
> Ndungane pointed out that the British - who alone among the wealthy
country
> seemed concerned about the plight of the HIPC countries - had pointed the
> way by refusing to service their post-World War 2 debts.
>
>
>
> _
>
> Jubilee 2000 South Africa Press Statement On the G7 Announcement on Debt
>
> Johannesburg 24 July 2000 For Immediate Release
>
> Jubilee 2000 South Africa, on the occasion of the G8 meeting in Okinawa,
> fully endorses the call by Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Archbishop,
> for the poor countries of the world to close ranks and refuse to service
> their debts to the G-8 countries.
>
> It is now clear beyond doubt that the rich, having learnt nothing from
> history, continue to act on the morality of might is right.  President
Thabo
> Mbeki has had his face slapped by the leaders of the rich countries to
whom
> he made impassioned and carefully reasoned pleas for 'debt
> relief'.  Other than for publicity purposes, these leaders plainly have
> little interest in addressing the problems of the majority of the people
of
> the world.  They, who have spent more than $750 million (R5.25 bn) on
> themselves during their few days in Japan, then lecture the rest of world
> about the need not to squander money.  $750-million dollars is equivalent
to
> the total annual debt-servicing of Guyana, Rwanda, Laos, Zambia,
Nicaragua,
> Benin, Cambodia, and Haiti.  The $750 million dollars spent on the G7
> Conference is more than 500% larger than what our South African government
> has spent on its poverty reduction programmes in the six years
> since democracy came to our country.
>
> We, in South Africa spend some R48-billion each year just servicing what
the
> government recognises as the public debt.  We also inherited a direct
> foreign debt from the apartheid state of well over R100 billion.  In
> addition we are sitting on the huge assets accumulated since 1989 by the
> Government Employees Pension Fund of more than R161-billion.
>
> These apartheid debts are not the responsibility of the new South Africa.
> International law recognises them to be "odious" and therefore not the
> liability of the post-apartheid government.  Jubilee 2000, therefore,
again
> calls upon our government to negotiate for the cancellation of the
apartheid
> debt in terms of the Doctrine of Odious Debt, failing which to declare

Fw: brits think spending $122bn on missile defence systems is funny

[Michael Gurstein]

a gem...

MG

- Original Message -
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:59 PM
Subject: brits think spending $122bn on missile defence systems is funny


> GUARDIAN (London)Wednesday July 12, 2000
>
> Missile impossible, part two
>   This was a most expensive display, much like our own River of Fire
> John O'Farrell
>
> It has been a difficult few days for Lieutenant- General Ronald Kadish,
> director of America's Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation.
>
> At the weekend he invited friends over to show them his new
> intercontinental missile defence shield, and isn't it always the way; the
> bloody thing didn't work. A Minuteman II was fired from southern
> California. Another missile was fired from 4,500 miles away in the middle
> of the Pacific ocean to intercept the oncoming warhead, but apparently the
> necessary electronic signal was not received at the correct time or
> something. That'll teach him not to read the manual beforehand.
>
> It all happened so quickly; suddenly the missile was careering off target,
> billions of dollars of military hardware was heading in the wrong
> direction at 16,000mph and Ronald was frantically skimming through the
> chapter entitled Care of Your Minuteman Missile System.
>
> Then his wife had a better idea: "Quick phone the helpline!" And while the
> president was demanding to know what was going on, the poor general was
> stuck listening to a recorded message that said "Thank you for calling the
> ICBM helpline --.
>  If you wish to purchase other Minuteman missile systems, press 1.
>  If you are phoning about our direct debit payment plan, press 2.
>  If your intercontinental missile has malfunctioned and is hurtling toward
> southern California, press 3 and hold for an operator."
>
> Then they played a tinny version of Bolero as the general watched $100bn
> go up in smoke.
>
> It was the most expensive fireworks display of all time, but like our own
> River of Fire, it was a bit of a disappointment. Everyone went "ooohhh"
> but there was no "aaahhh". Not even Mrs. Kadish's delicious mulled wine
> and the packet of sparklers could offer much consolation. Hundreds of
> people covered their eyes in embarrassed disbelief. It was like the
> premier of John Travolta's Battlefield Earth all over again.
>
> This is not the first time America's missile systems have missed their
> target. During the Gulf war, a great deal was made of the Patriot
> missiles' ability to knock out the oncoming Scuds. The Patriots were
> declared a huge success because out of 22 Scuds fired, 21 were
> intercepted. But this is where the US military use a different language to
> the rest of us.
>
> As everyone remembers, lots of Scuds got through and caused enormous
> damage. So a Pentagon spokesman was forced to explain that when they said
> "intercepted", they meant that the path of the Patriot crossed the path of
> the Scud, though not necessarily at the same time. So "intercepted" means
> "missed". If modern defence strategists had planned the D-day landings,
> the allied forces would have found themselves wading ashore at
> Torremolinos.
>
> Despite the US spending $122bn on missile defence systems, they have yet
> to develop anything which actually defends anyone against missiles.
> Perhaps I'm being over-picky, but you would have thought that this wasn't
> really good enough. And even though it is no longer clear who is going to
> declare war on the world's only super-power, the man who may well be the
> next president, George W Bush, remains a great supporter of the Stars Wars
> project. America may have token enemies like Iraq or Libya, but they're no
> more likely to launch intercontinental missile attacks than Darth Vader
> himself.
>
> Instead of spending unfeasibly large amounts of money on the unworkable
> national defence shield, the Pentagon would be better off buying a Super
> Soaker XP 2000 (slogan, Wetter is Better). Admittedly it is unlikely that
> the Super Soaker would actually intercept any incoming nuclear missiles
> but it's got about the same chance as anything else they have tried while
> having the advantage of being cheaper. Even if the Pentagon eventually
> upgraded to the more expensive Super Soaker Monster XL with multiple
> nozzles and extra large reservoir, they would still save a fortune.
>
> Of course, when it comes to military spending the cash is always
> available. They could launch an aircraft carrier that didn't float and
> still get funding for another one. Why is it that enormous amounts of
> taxpayers' money are always available for defence spending, and yet if it
> is education or health we have to help make up the shortfall ourselves?
> You don't get soldiers' wives organising summer fetes to raise money for
> much needed nuclear warheads. "Tank rides round the square 50p." "Throw a
> wet sponge at the general - three goes for a pound." I suppose the sponge
> would only fly off in the wrong direction and l

Fw: the New Gay Economy

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 9:44 PM
Subject: the New Gay Economy


> -
>  Copyright 2000 IntellectualCapital.com,
> a service mark of VoxCap.com and part of the VoxCap Network
> -
>   http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue389/item9923.asp
> 
> 
> Thursday, July 06, 2000
> 
> Different Worlds
> 
> by Bill Bishop
> 
> Want to know how complicated our politics have become? Consider the
> relationship between gays and the New Economy.
> 
> Gary Gates, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, used 1990
> census data to show that certain cities were more popular than others
> among people living with unmarried partners of the same sex. (His
> findings were published in the academic journal, Demography, in May.)
> Gates used the census information to construct a "gay index" of cities.
> 
> And the results are in!
> 
> Gates' gay index is based on the concentration of unmarried partners
> living in metropolitan areas of more than 700,000. The more gay couples
> per population, the higher the city ranks. There are 50 cities in the gay
> index. The top 10 are:
> 
> (1) San Francisco
>   (2) Washington, D.C.
>   (3) Austin
>   (4) Atlanta
>   (5) San Diego
>   (6) Los Angeles
>   (7) Seattle
>   (8) Boston
>   (9) Sacramento
> (10) Orlando
> 
> The bottom 10 cities in the gay index have the smallest concentration of
> gay couples:
> 
> (41) Detroit
> (42) Louisville
> (43) Cincinnati
> (44) Charlotte
> (45) St. Louis
> (46) Greensboro/Winston-Salem
> (47) Cleveland
> (48) Las Vegas
> (49) Birmingham
> (50) Buffalo
> 
> The accounting looked familiar to Richard Florida, a professor of
> regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon. Gates' ranking looked
> eerily like the Milken Institute's ranking of cities by concentration of
> high-tech businesses. So Gates ran the numbers.
> 
> The gay index did more than just follow the Milken rankings. Gates and
> Florida compared other measures that are thought to predict high-tech
> development: education levels; the number of scientists and engineers;
> various measures of quality of life.
> 
> Gates' gay index beat them all. "You're not going to find a stronger
> predictor of high technology than the gay index," Gates says. "One is
> clearly signaling the other."
> 
> 
> Why the link?
> 
> The match is uncanny. Six of the top 10 cities in the gay index were also
> in the top 10 of the Milken when it was adjusted to count only the cities
> over 700,000 (San Francisco, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and
> Boston). Similarly, of the 10 gay-poor towns, four (Greensboro/Winston,
> Las Vegas, Buffalo and Louisville) were also in the bottom 10 of the
> Milken.
> 
> Is there a connection to gay communities and the new economy? Is there a
> connection to gay communities and the New Economy?
> 
> Florida and Gates do not argue a direct, literal connection between the
> presence of gay couples and the growth of high-technology firms. Gays are
> not disproportionately represented in New Economy businesses. It is more
> complicated than that.
> 
> "There is something about cities that gays go to that is also attractive
> to high-tech firms," Gates says. For instance, gay couples "move to
> really nice places," Gates says -- places with a high quality of life.
> They also "go to places where in general there is a more progressive
> thinking." They seek out towns where there is a "diversity of thought and
> progressive attitudes, or at least tolerant attitudes."
> 
> Those attributes, it turns out, are exactly those sought by young,
> talented, high-technology workers -- both gay and straight. Florida has
> been questioning these New Economy workers and has found that diversity
> -- not rocks to climb or good jobs -- was the No. 1 attribute people
> wanted in a place to work and a place to live. "If you poison the
> environment with anti-inclusive rhetoric, these people will turn away,"
> Florida says.
> 
> This means that gay men and lesbians are the canaries in the New Economy
> coal mine. If gay people can survive in a place, then so will high-tech
> workers -- the people with the ideas and talents that are now making
> economies grow.
> 
> 
> Beneath the surface
> 
> The technology industry has realized the importance of diversity in
> satisfying the most important ingredient for their economic success, and
> its leaders are demanding these values be extended to our politics.
> "These industries don't come to me and say, 'We want you to be
> conservative on issues of choice or issues of sexual orientation or
> issues of diversity,'" says Ron Sims, chief executive of Washington
> state's King County, which includes Seattle. "They are saying to me, 'We
> want you to be out there talking abo

Fw: L.A. Times column, 4/17/00

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Gary Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 12:17 PM
Subject: L.A. Times column, 4/17/00


> Friends,
>
> Below is my Los Angeles Times column for today, Monday, April 17,
> 2000. As always, please feel free to pass this on, but please retain
> the copyright notice.
>
> Not much news to report here. The weather is beautiful, school is
> winding down, tonight we're going to see Bruce Springsteen (my 18th
> Springsteen concert -- I know, I know, I have a problem!).
>
> The column below was written before last week's "Black Friday"
> meltdown of the stock market, but it seems more relevant given that
> tremor. Although I didn't much care for the Times' headline, over
> which I have no control.
>
> Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a marvelous spring, like we
> are here in Austin.
>
> Best,
>
> -- Gary
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> --
>
> If you have received this from me, Gary Chapman
> ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), you are subscribed to the listserv
> that sends out copies of my column in The Los Angeles Times and other
> published articles.
>
> If you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from this listserv, send mail to
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], leave the subject line blank, and put
> "Unsubscribe Chapman" in the first line of the message.
>
> If you received this message from a source other than me and would
> like to subscribe to the listserv, the instructions for subscribing
> are at the end of the message.
>
> DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE -- the listserv is set up to reject
> replies to the sending address. You must use the command address,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], to either subscribe or unsubscribe, or
> use the address [EMAIL PROTECTED] to send back comments.
>
> --
>
> DIGITAL NATION
>
> Monday, April 17, 2000
>
> "Dot-Com" Energy May Be Doomed to Fizzle Into Midlife Stagnation
>
> By Gary Chapman
>
> Copyright 2000, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved
>
> In this election year, many Americans seem to be teetering between
> the contentment of prosperity and anxiety due to a turbulent and
> uncertain economy. Last week, the stock market was "groping for the
> bottom," as one analyst put it, rattling the nerves of shareholders,
> while at the same time an industry report predicted that more than a
> million and a half jobs would be created in information technology
> fields this year and that half of those would go unfilled.
>
> Most of my friends are now middle-aged, like me, and their careers
> started well before the current Internet craze. They're watching the
> "new economy" unfold with very mixed emotions. Some of them have
> found or crafted interesting and stimulating careers, while others
> are disappointed by where they find themselves now.
>
> A few of my friends' stories are good examples. The people below have
> asked that their real names not be used, so I'm using pseudonyms.
>
> Angie has a doctorate in English and has worked for a couple of
> decades as a journalist, author and magazine editor. Several years
> ago it became apparent that the number of publications that would
> publish her serious, probing articles were dwindling, and her income
> was following suit. So she took a breather from the stresses of
> freelancing by joining a small information services company as an
> editor and writer. It was her first 9-to-5 job in a long time.
>
> "It started out as a nice place to work," she said, "with a real
> family feeling. But then it was bought by a much larger company, and
> things changed very quickly.
>
> "When the company was bought, the new parent company sent these two
> guys down to our office for a pep talk -- they were like
> cheerleaders, they had this dog-and-pony show. They were very slick,
> but they didn't have a clue what we did or how their new acquisitions
> fit together." She added, "Those two guys later got fired."
>
> The working environment went downhill from there, Angie said. The
> parent company was clueless, she said, and the result was a series of
> stern memos from the remote home office about new employee
> requirements, new bosses and a new computer system that robbed the
> editors and writers of their creative input and turned them into data
> entry clerks.
>
> "Only the computer guys seemed to know what was going on," Angie
> said. While the computer technicians fiddled with their database
> program, the office's desktop computers crashed several times a day.
> Morale started to sink and eventually layoffs and departures set in.
>
> Angie quit before things got worse. She looks back on the experience
> as an example of what it must be like to work for an information
> company, and she doesn't want to be part of that world again.
>
> Bob is an exploration geologist for a large oil company, with
> advanced degrees from Stanford and 18 years in the business. His
> personal horrors are the serial management fads that sweep th

FW: twilight of the crypto-geeks

[Michael Gurstein]

I think I here some mouse's roaring...

MG

-Original Message-
From: geert lovink [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 8:02 PM
To: Nettime
Subject:  twilight of the crypto-geeks


http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/04/13/libertarians/index.html

Twilight of the crypto-geeks

Lone-wolf digital libertarians are beginning to abandon their faith in
technology uber alles and espouse suspiciously socialist-sounding ideas. 

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Ellen Ullman


April 13, 2000 | TORONTO -- On the first day of the 10th Computers,
Freedom and Privacy Conference -- the unique annual meeting that brings
together an unlikely combination of programmers, activists and government
officials -- two very different events took place simultaneously. 

One: About 30 participants and 50 observers crowded into a hotel meeting
room for a workshop led by Lenny Foner -- computer guy in jeans and long
hair, Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab. Foner was trying to get the
group interested in starting up a new domain name system for the Internet. 
He was probably thinking Linux; he was most likely hoping for a Linus
Torvalds sort of role. His idea was to maybe "route around" the current,
dispute-prone system of matching Internet addresses to names. Maybe we
should make a superset of the DNS, the workshop considered, or an
alternative to it, or something -- no one could even agree on the precise
nature of the problem, let alone its solution. 

At any rate, this didn't stop Foner. He had a programmer's idea of how
things get done in the world: Forget about the government; don't form a
committee. Just write up a short proposal, give your idea a silly
hacker-ish sort of name (even he admitted that the name he chose,
"Smoosh," was somewhat unfortunate), talk about it to some very smart
people, get a small group of them interested, then just start hacking out
some code. 

John Gilmore, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
self-described libertarian, was at the workshop, and with terrible
succinctness he laid out the thinking behind Foner's vision of the
programmer-created world. Gilmore was opposed to too many people getting
involved in whatever Foner is going to do. "Almost everything that works
on the Net grew out of tiny groups of people working in isolation," he
said. 

Meanwhile, as Foner was talking about "how to prototype something new," 
there was event No. 2: The Canadian Parliament was passing Bill C-6, a
data protection act like the European Union's Data Directive -- leaving
the United States as the sole highly industrialized nation without legal
data-privacy protections. 

Ann Cavoukian, privacy commissioner for Ontario, was in the room with
Foner and other workshop participants when she heard the news. She clapped
quietly but with obvious signs of relief. Evidently, the process leading
to the passage of the C-6 was nothing like the "tiny groups working in
isolation"  that John Gilmore had described just a few minutes before.
According to Stephanie Perrin, who worked with the Canadian Department of
Commerce and Industry for 20 years and who took part in the drafting of
the bill, it had involved hundreds of people. It required concessions on
all sides. The resulting law is not perfect. "It was a long and difficult
process," she said, "where everyone fought." 

These two events -- the programmers workshop and the passing of a federal
data-privacy law -- are like the ends of a rope in a heatedly fought game
of tug-of-war, a game that has been battled at CPF over the course of the
conference's 10-year existence. 

On one side are the geeks, nerds, crypto-anarchists, libertarians and
cypherpunks -- mistrustful of government, suspicious of all attempts at
regulation, believers in the ability of technology, in and of itself, to
solve society's ills (maybe with a little marginally legal hacking on the
side, just to keep the political pot boiling). Austin Hill, president of
Zero-Knowledge, opened the conference like a true techno-believer, quoting
John Gilmore as saying, "I want to guarantee [privacy] with physics and
mathematics, not with laws." 

Opposing the technologists are the believers in law above all else: the
think-tank and activist lawyers; the privacy commissioners in their
well-cut European suits; the pragmatists advocating commissions and
studies and meetings -- participants in the rough-and-tumble of political
life, with all its confusions and compromises and imperfect results. 

In the past, the techno-believers ruled CFP. The programmers' vision of
creation -- the lone geniuses -- prevailed over the data-privacy
"bureaucrats" -- so hard to listen to, after all, with their thick foreign
accents and their tedious, confusing laws. 

But something different happened this year. The flag in the middle of the
tug-of-war rope moved. Two well-known technologists, known for their
belief in working code and skepticism about the workings of law, stepped
across the divide, movin

RE: Blaming the victors

[Michael Gurstein]

The issue of "self-censorship" is I think, rather beside the point.  The
current goal in organizations with their employees is to achieve
"alignment"...what that means is that somehow there is a fit/consistency
between the "values/outlook/worldview" of the employee and that of the
organization.  

Assuming that such consistency is achieved (through effective selection
processes, often including psychological evaluation, for example), then no
censorship, self or otherwise is required...

MG

-Original Message-
From: Timework Web [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 10:40 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Blaming the victors


The scum is in ourselves, not in our stars, methinks. It would be much
easier to "do something" about the injustice in the world than most of us
admit, either to ourselves or to others. It seems to me that the
self-censorship I encounter in people at the middle levels is far in
excess of what people need for their personal and career survival. I can
only understand it as a defense against getting so committed that they
would then overstep the actual taboos. And I'm talking about
self-censorship from people who are self-identified as political
progressives.

Tom Walker

FW: [bearslist] History shows paths to market crashes, but lessons seem forgotten

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: Danny Cox [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 4:59 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [bearslist] History shows paths to market crashes, but lessons
seem forgotten


From: Danny Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


 http://www.ardemgaz.com/tech/D4bcrashes6.html 
   
History shows paths to market crashes, but lessons seem forgotten

   LARRY ELLIOTT
   THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
   In the spring of 1720, when all of London was clamoring for shares in
   the South Sea company, Sir Isaac Newton was asked what he thought
   about the market.
   "I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the
   madness of the market," the scientist is said to have replied.
   Newton should have heeded his own wise words. Having sold his
   stock in the company at 7,000 pounds sterling, he later bought back
   more at 20,000 pounds sterling at the top of the boom and went down
   for the count with other speculators when the crash came.
   Little has changed in the intervening 280 years. Common to every
   bubble is the ingrained belief that this time things will be
   different, that the rise in the price of an asset is rooted this time
   in sound common sense rather than recklessness, stupidity and greed.
   Take the crash of 1929. In Devil Take the Hindmost, Edward
   Chancellor records how Wall Street's elite convinced themselves that
   the rules of economics had been rewritten and that the market could
   support ever-higher share prices.
   John Moody, founder of the credit agency that bears his name,
   intoned in 1927 that "no one can examine the panorama of business and
   finance in America during the past half-dozen years without realizing
   that we are living in a new era."
   And Yale economist Irving Fisher declared a few weeks before the
   October crash that stock prices had reached a "permanently high
   plateau." Why was this? Simple, he said. The creation of the Federal
   Reserve in 1913 had abolished the business cycle, and technological
   breakthroughs had created a "new economy" that was much more
   profitable than the old.
   As share prices continued their heady rise, traditional methods of
   stock market valuations were abandoned. It did not matter that many
   start-up companies of the late 1920s were not making any money; what
   counted was that some day they surely would. So share prices were
   justified by discounted future earnings.
   Investors mortgaged themselves to the hilt to buy stocks in exotic
   companies from brokerages houses, which proliferated in the 1920s. One
   analyst warned that "factories will shut ... men will be thrown out of
   work ... the vicious circle will get into full swing and the result
   will be a serious business depression" unless sounder minds were
   brought to bear.
   He was, of course, ridiculed by market experts.
   Sound familiar? It should, because the gravity-defying performance
   of stocks in London and New York is eerily redolent of 1929. And again
   those who warn that the stock market edifice is built on sand have so
   far been proved wrong. It is quite possible that they will continue to
   be wrong and that this time the rules really, really have been
   rewritten.
   It may be that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has abolished the
   business cycle, that Goldman Sachs' contented equity guru Abby Joseph
   Cohen is wiser than Irving Fisher, that Amazon.com is in a different
   league from RCA (the go-go stock of the 1920s).
   However, there are plenty of warnings there for those prepared to
   heed them.
   One is what is happening in the markets themselves. More and more
   money is being concentrated in a handful of stocks in the technology
   sector, while shares in "old industry" fall. An analysis by Peter
   Oppenheimer of HSBC showed that the price-earnings gap in London
   between the new economy stocks and the old economy stocks is the
   largest for any market ever.
   An analysis of the balance sheet of Amazon.com by Tim Congdon of
   London showed that liabilities were covered more than four times by
   holdings of cash and securities in early 1999. However, by the end of
   the year, high investment and trading losses meant that liabilities
   were higher than cash and securities. He believes that the rise in the
   Nasdaq index is being underpinned by firms borrowing money to buy each
   other's shares -- the equivalent of taking in each other's washing.
   Amazon.com's results, he says, give "a fascinating and alarming
   insight into the cost of building an Internet brand. Arguably, they
   also demonstrate that the high-tech element in the American stock
   market is now gripped by a speculative madness of a kind never before
   seen in the organized financial markets of a significant industrial
   country."
   Economist Robert Gordon has started to unpick the American
   productivity data in an attempt to 

FW: Canadian, eh?

[Michael Gurstein]

> -Original Message-
> From: Robert de Wit 
> Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 1:08 PM
> To:   staff
> Subject:  Canadian, eh?
> 
> For those interested in diplomatic relations with our pals down south...
> 
> -
> 
> The Province (Vancouver)
> March 8, 2000
> 
> FANS LOVE CBC POUTINE PRANK AT BUSH'S EXPENSE
> 
>OTTAWA - An on-air prank by This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC-TV's
> satirical
> sketch series, at the expense of U.S. presidential candidate George W.
> Bush
> has drawn tremendous response from the show's viewers, says producer Geoff
> D'Eon.
>D'Eon says he has also received "a deluge of calls" from U.S. media but
> there has been no official response from the Bush campaign.
>Last week's 22 Minutes aired a video clip showing comic Rick Mercer
> buttonholing the Texas governor during the recent Michigan primary.
>Holding a microphone with a 22 Minutes flash, Mercer told Bush that
> "Canadian Prime Minister Jean Poutine" had endorsed the Republican
> presidential hopeful "as the man to lead the free world into the 21st
> century."
>Bush said he was "honoured" to receive the support of Canada's prime
> minister, never realizing the surname given to him by Mercer was made up.
> After a rally outside a meeting hall in Canton, Mich., attended by about
> 300 Republicans, Mercer asked Bush to comment on "Prime Minister 
> Poutine's" endorsement.
>"I appreciate his strong statement, he understands I believe in free
> trade," Bush said seriously.
>"He understands I want to make sure our relations with our most
> important neighbour to the north of us, the Canadians, is strong and we'll
> work closely together."
>D'Eon says no one on Bush's staff pointed out that the Canadian prime
> minister's name was incorrect.
>"Nobody blinked or batted an eyelid over the Poutine thing'" D'Eon
> says.
> "The fact is they really don't know much about Canada."
>The Prime Minister's Office treated Bush's gaffe with humour, adding
> "Clearly, Canada is not in the Bush leagues." 
> 
> 
> [Cultural explanation for non-Canadian readers: poutine is a dish from
> Quebec. It's made from warm french fries, topped with some cheese cut in
> small pieces. The french fries and the cheese are mixed together. The warm
> french fries make the cheese melt. Then the entire mix is topped with
> brown
> gravy.]
> 
> 
> 

Fw: Why the US blocks Germany's IMF plans

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 4:46 AM
Subject: Why the US blocks Germany's IMF plans


> Does anyone understand this stuff?  Can choosing one IMF candidate over
> another have any effect on the possible demise of the capitalist system?
> Or is this a more abstruswe description of how Mr. Greed operates at my
> expense?
>
> Comments ?
>
>
> Cheers
> MichaelP
>
>
>
> =
>
> BBC Friday, 3 March, 2000, 16:01 GMT
>
> Why the US blocks Germany's IMF plans
>
> Larry Summers and Bill Clinton have their doubts about Germany's IMF
> candidate
>
> Using unusually sharp language, the US government has rejected the
> European Union candidate to take over as director general of the
> International Monetary Fund. The BBC's Rodney Smith explains the
> reasons.
>
> Whether he stays or he goes, there is one very good reason why the
> United States is rejecting Caio Koch-Weser to head the International
> Monetary Fund.
>
> There is some personal animosity. US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers
> and World Bank boss James Wolfenson are said to have been less than
> overwhelmed by his intellectual and management abilities, and are
> apparently positively discouraged by his ability to sway with
> argument.
>
> Caio Koch-Weser at the EU finance minister meeting on 28 February 2000
>
> Caio Koch-Weser still insists that he is the right man for the job
>
> However after 26 years at the World Bank, Mr Koch-Weser did achieve
> managing director level, and it takes more than languages and his
> allegedly suave manner to achieve that.
>
> His World Bank experience may count both for him and against him: For,
> sensitivity to the developing world; against, it also means he's
> unlikely to make the changes many now feel are needed at the Fund.
>
> Many of the IMF's critics believe this change of leadership offers an
> excellent opportunity to modify the Fund, get rid of the opaque
> practices and dictatorial habits that brought such opprobrium down
> upon it after the Asian crisis.
>
> Storm clouds
>
> But that may not be the main thing in the minds of America's economic
> planners.
>
> Rodney Smith
>
> Rodney Smith
>
> They may be looking farther ahead than their European counterparts -
> and seeing very unpleasant storm clouds on the horizon.
>
> Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has made no secret of his
> considerable anxiety about the overheated high-tech stock market. This
> has to an extent deflected general attention away from that other
> nightmare-in-waiting, the mountainous derivatives market.
>
> Mr Greenspan indicates that the New Economic Paradigm is a fragile
> flower, and may be much more unstable than Europe's planners may be
> aware.
>
> Conspiracy theories are flying
>
> An example of the underlying tensions is the shenanigans in the
> bullion market. American congressmen are deluged daily with
> conspiracy-speak from gold lobbyists convinced that the Fed - sorry,
> they changed their minds recently, now they think it's the US Treasury
> - has been depressing the gold price in collusion with other central
> banks.
>
> The trouble with conspiracy theorists and paranoids is that their
> behaviour sometimes masks a real problem. The ridicule they invite
> often obscures the message.
>
> So it may be with the bullion market. Rational gold miners who do not
> subscribe to conspiracy theories, say they do see evidence that unseen
> forces are depressing the gold price every time it pops.
>
> There may be good reason why this should be the case.
>
> Many of the so-called bullion banks, the banks which bought gold
> miners' hedge positions in the days before last October's rude
> awakening, are sitting, like some of the miners, on huge, even
> destructive potential losses if the gold price rises strongly.
>
> Some experts estimate they may be short 10,000 tonnes or more. You
> know the rule, if you owe the bank a dollar it will sue to get it
> back; if you owe a million it will lend you more because default would
> be too expensive.
>
> The abyss
>
> The Fed and other central banks are bound in the same way. When LTCM,
> Long Term Capital Management, collapsed 18 months ago, the Fed
> organised a rescue. The consequences of not doing so could have been
> huge and widespread financial damage as the derivatives house of cards
> imploded.
>
> The Fed looked into the abyss back in September 1998, and saw horrors
> other central bankers have been spared - so far.
>
> It's a theme never far from Alan Greenspan's musings these days.
> He takes hefty criticism from Americans who believe he should be much
> tougher with monetary policy - his only real tool - to rein in the
> excesses which are the overhanging cloud of potential fallout from the
> huge derivatives market.
>
> The end of Goldilocks
>
> Maybe he should. By allowing America's so-called Goldilocks scenario
> of high growth, low inflation and low unemployment to develop
> unchecked,

Fw: Declaration of Amsterdam

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Marja Harms <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 5:42 AM
Subject: Declaration of Amsterdam






EUROPEAN FOUNDATION ON SOCIAL QUALITY
c/o SISWO, Plantage Muidergracht 4 - 1018 TV  Amsterdam
Telephone +31 20 527 0600 / Fax +31 20 6229430

To colleagues interested in new approaches of European Social
Policies,

Concerning:
The 'Amsterdam Declaration on Social Quality'

Amsterdam, March, 2nd, 2000

Dear colleagues,

On June 10th, 1997 at a public ceremony in Amsterdam a group of
European social scientists made a solemn declaration on the future of
the European Union. At that time, the declaration was signed by 80
leading scientists from the fields of social policy, sociology,
political science, law and economics and was formally presented to the
Rectors of the University of Amsterdam, the Free University of
Amsterdam and the University of Tilburg as well as the mayor of the
City of Amsterdam. During the ceremony a copy of the Declaration was
also presented to four students, symbols of Europe's future, who were
asked to convey it to the President of the European Parliament. On 25
September these four students presented the Declaration to Mr Jos'
Gil-Robles, President of the European Parliament in Brussels. Copies
have also been distributed to all MEPs and will be presented to the
mayors of the capital cities of the EU's Member States. At the moment
more than 600 scientists signed this Declaration.

The intention behind the Amsterdam Declaration is to remind
policy-makers and citizens about the unique nature of the Western
European approach of development, which comprises both economic growth
and competitiveness and social justice. The promotors of the
Declaration are committed to the European Union, but fear that too
much emphasis on Economic Monetary union will lead to a downgrading of
the other, social, half of the European approach and, with it, a loss
of legitimacy for the Union. Thus the Declaration was made at the same
time as the Heads of State gathered in Amsterdam for the European
Council meeting under the Dutch Presidency.

We have chosen the concept of 'social quality' to represent the
essence of the social component of the European approach. Social
quality is defined as the extent to which citizens are able to
participate in the social and economic life of their communities under
conditions which enhance their well-being and individual potential.
The level of social quality experienced by citizens depends on: the
degree of economic security, the level of social inclusion, the extent
of social cohesion or solidarity and the level of autonomy or
empowerment and health of European citizens. The concept of social
quality is distinctly European in character and is Eur.Found designed
to assist in the development of social priorities within the EU. This
emphasis will ensure that the EU is inclusive, something that every
citizen can engage with positively. This concept and its background
are explored in a new book 'The Social Quality of Europe', published
by Kluwer Law International, The Hague/Boston, June 1997 (hard cover)
and by Polity Press, Bristol in July 1998 (soft cover).

The concept of social quality and the Amsterdam Declaration builds on
the work of the commission's Observatories on Social Exclusion and
Ageing and Older People and on the important contribution of the
Comit' des Sages (indeed the Chair of the Comit' has warmly praised
the Declaration as representing the next step in their work).
Especially, SISWO's three recent international expert-meetings paved
the way for this concept.

A European Foundation on Social Quality has been set up in order to
further the scientific research on this subject and to assist European
policy makers in developing new approaches to the quality of life and
to social protection. Our aim is to create a social policy which has
its own indepen dent rationale and legitimacy so as to counter-balance
the dominance of economic and monetary policy within the EU. At the
same time we are keen to work with the countries of Central and
Eastern Europe to see how far social quality may be promoted and
achieved.

The full text of the Declaration is printed below. If you agree with
it and are willing to sign it, please notify the Secretary of the
Board of the European Foundation, dr Laurent van der Maesen, c/o
SISWO, Plantage Muidergracht 4, 1018 TV Amsterdam, Netherlands (email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]). Please inform us in that case regarding your
name, title, institution and address. We hope you will invite your
colleagues to sign as well. And of course we shall be pleased to give
you more information with respect to our Foundation.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. dr Alan Walker (Chair European Foundation on Social Quality)

Members of the Board of the European Foundation on Social Quality are:
prof. dr Alan Walker (University of Sheffield), prof. dr Jos Berghman
(University of Tilburg), prof. dr Kees Knipsche

Fw: [bearslist] Microsoft's Stock Options

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Danny Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 9:46 AM
Subject: [bearslist] Microsoft's Stock Options


> From: Danny Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
> http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2000/rulemaker000217.htm
>
>
>  Why Microsoft's Stock Options Scare Me
>
>By [7]Rob Landley (TMF Oak)
> February 17, 2000
>
> Forget Windows 2000. As far as I can tell, the single most
> lucrative product Microsoft [8](Nasdaq: MSFT) sells is its
>  own stock. Microsoft makes almost as much after-tax cash
>income from the stock market as it does by selling goods and
>   services. Here's how:
>Basically, Microsoft receives cash by issuing employee stock
> options, after which the company then receives billions of
>dollars in tax deductions from the IRS for doing so. Add in
>the warrants it sells on its own stock, and the company made
>over $5 billion off the stock market last year (fiscal year
> ended July 1999), tax-free. For comparison, its after-tax
>net income was only $7.8 billion. Microsoft may not be much
>   in the programming department, but its accountants are
>impressive.
>  Let's run through that again a little more slowly, using
>Microsoft's most recent annual report. As with all annual
>reports, the most interesting stuff is in the tables at the
> end. In this case, search for the $3.1 billion dollar item
>  "Stock option income tax benefits," which occurs in the
>  Financing section of the Cash Flows Statement (the above
>link will take you there). Lemme detour for a sec to explain
>what "Stock option income tax benefits" are.
>  A significant portion of the wages Microsoft pays to its
>employees comes in the form of stock options rather than in
> cash. Compared to the rest of the industry, the amount of
>cash Microsoft pays its programmers is at best mediocre. It
> attracts and retains employees via stock options.
>These options give the employees the right to buy a certain
> number of shares of Microsoft stock at a tiny fraction of
>the current market price. Employees can even take an
>  automatic payroll deduction to make the token payment to
> exercise each stock option as it matures, and thus
> effectively get shares of Microsoft stock as part of their
>   wages.
>  Microsoft's options are "non-qualified," which means the
> employee is immediately taxed when an option is exercised
>  (i.e., used to actually purchase very cheap stock). The
>difference between the price the employee pays for the stock
> and the current market price for the stock they receive is
>counted as taxable income on the employee's W-2 tax form for
> the year, as if they'd received it in cash. The cost basis
> for the stock is adjusted accordingly, meaning that if the
>  employee immediately sold their newly acquired Microsoft
>  shares they wouldn't incur any additional taxes. They've
> already been taxed on that income anyway, and the only new
>  taxes to accrue are capital gains taxes if they sell the
> stock for a higher price than they bought it at. (Capital
> gains taxes apply to the extra money gained by selling an
>  investment for more than it was purchased for. Only the
>amount over the original purchase price -- the cost basis --
>is taxed, and this has nothing to do with options.)
>Corporations pay taxes on their own income (generally 35%),
> but money they pay out in salaries to employees is
>  deductible from the corporation's income. Since granting
>  options to employees results in taxable income to those
> employees, Microsoft gets to deduct that taxable employee
>  income from its own taxable corporate income, and that's
>   where Microsoft got a tax-free $3.1 billion in cash in
>  fiscal 1999: "Stock option income tax benefits."
>But if you stop and think about it, Microsoft didn't really
> have to spend actual money to provide the options. It even
> GOT a little money from its employees, in the form of the
>cash the employees paid (via payroll deductions) to exercise
> their options. All Microsoft had to do was issue new stock
>certificates, which more or less involves taking a vote in a
> board meeting and then firing up a laser printer.
>  So Microsoft got $3.1 billion of tax money back from the
>government, which at a 35% tax rate would be in exchange for
>a $9 billion tax expense it never had to pay. Its employees
>got taxed and paid that tax out of their own cash wages, and
>  Microsoft got the money refunded back into its corporate
>  coffers. It even got $1.3 billion of cash BACK from its
>e

Fw: French to sue US/UK over Echelon spying

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 9:08 AM
Subject: French to sue US/UK over Echelon spying


> The Times ( London ) February 10 2000 EUROPE

> French to sue US and Britain over network of spies
>
> FROM ADAM SAGE IN PARIS
>
>
>
> THE British and US Governments are to be sued in France after claims that
> they have spied on French companies, diplomats and Cabinet ministers.
> Lawyers are planning a class action after confirmation last week that a
> global anglophone spy network exists.  Codenamed P-415 Echelon, the
> world's most powerful electronic spy system was revealed in declassified
> US National Security Agency documents published on the Internet, and is
> capable of intercepting telephone conversations, faxes and e-mails.
>
> The system was established in the 1980s by the UKUSA alliance, which
> unites the British, American, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian secret
> services. In Europe, its listening devices are at Menwith Hill defence
> base in Yorkshire. French MPs claim to have evidence that the European
> Airbus consortium lost a Fr35 billion (3.5 billion) contract in 1995 after
> its offer was overheard and passed to Boeing. Georges Sarre, a left-wing
> MP, said: "The participation of the United Kingdom in spying on its
> European partners for and with the US raises serious and legitimate
> concerns in that it creates a particularly acute conflict of interest
> within the European Union."
>
> The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee will study a report on
> the Echelon network on February 23. The debate is certain to fuel
> criticism of Britain's role.
>
> Until this month, the network was an official secret recognised by none of
> the members of the UKUSA alliance. But the documents published by the
> George Washington University prove its existence and its capacity to
> intercept civilian satellite communications.
>
> Jean-Pierre Millet, a Parisian lawyer, said that Echelon tracked every
> mobile and satellite call, but only decoded those involving a key figure.
> "You can bet that every time a French government minister makes a mobile
> phone call, it is recorded," he said.
>
> M Millet said that Echelon's system leaves it open to legal challenge
> under French privacy laws. "The simple fact that an attempt has been made
> to intercept a communication is against the law in France, however the
> information is exploited." Yesterday he said that he would bring an action
> on behalf of French civil liberty groups.
>
>
> =
>
>
> *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
> is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
> in receiving the included information for research and educational
> purposes. ***
>
>
>
>
>
>

Fw: 7th Generation Bill: an opportunity for fundamental change

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Jan Slakov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 7:43 AM
Subject: rn: 7th Generation Bill: an opportunity for fundamental change


> Dear RN,
>
> Mike Nickerson, who is on this list, has been working for over 20
> years on the 4th "r" of environmental sustainability (Reduce, Reuse,
> Recycle, Rethink). At a certain point this project took on a name: The
> Sustainability Project.
>
> Currently, the project has taken the form of the 7th Generation
> Initiative.  The first move in the Initiative will be a parliamentary bill
> promoted by Joe Jordan the MP from Mike's riding.  The "Canada Well-Being
> Measurement Act" will be presented in the House of Commons as a Private
> Member's Bill likely this month (Feb.). This initiative has politicians
> from different parties working together (so not only does it fit the
> "sustainability" part of our Democratic Renaissance agenda, it also fits
> with our wanting to overcome superficial barriers that separate us).
>
> The "Canada Well-Being Measurement Act" calls for the development
> and implementation of a measure of progress that takes into account far
> more than GDP.  It would include such factors as: voluntary and unpaid
> work, underemployment, leisure time, forests, fish stocks and soil
> fertility, air quality, green house gas emissions, income distribution,
> durability of goods, health care, education and the costs of crime among
> others.
>
> What we count and what we measure signifies what we give value to.
> When all we count is money, talk about environment and social cohesion
does
> not produce action.  When we legitimize other factors by measuring and
> reporting on them in our core measure of progress, they become visible.
> Visibility enables anyone to see how policies and actions affect the
> measures.  Increased awareness of causes and effects will naturally
incline
> decision makers to consider how their decisions might affect the measures
> and the management process will evolve to seek well-being in the broader
> context.
>
> While it is especially important for Canadians to support this
> initiative, this is something that every one of us would do well to
> support. IF there is sufficient support for this bill, the Canadian
> government will set aside funds for improving our measure of well-being.
> What this means in practical terms is that a Nova Scotia (Canada)-based
> initiative to create a more honest and reliable way to measure well-being
> than GNP/GDP, the Genuine Progress Index, or GPI, would get some funding.
> (For months now, the GPI crew have been continuing their work, but with no
> pay!) Part of the funding plan would enable international experts such as
> Marilyn Waring, Herman Daly and Hazel Henderson together to come together
> with their Canadian counterparts to work on making this vision a reality.
> This, of course, would lead to the GPI initiative becoming something that
> can be of value not just for Nova Scotians, but for communities
everywhere.
>
> So, I urge Canadians to write letters to their MPs to say that this
> is one Canadian product we are eager to see our government develop and
> export.  People from other countries could write to say that you are
> excited to learn of this Canadian initiative and would like to know if the
> Canadian government will support it. (As many parents know, praise can
help
> bring out the very quality being praised. So, hopefully by praising this
> Canadian initiative to Canadian MPs, those same MPs will feel it is their
> patriotic (or matriotic!) duty to support this bill.)
>
> Please write to the  Joe Jordan, MP (who is bringing the bill
> forward),  the Hon. David Anderson, Minister of the Environment, the Hon.
> Paul Martin, Finance Minister and their Opposition critics:
> environment: Rick Laliberte, John Herron, Jocelyne Bujold, Rick Casson
> finance: Jim Jones, Nelson Riis,  Yvan Loubier, and Monte Solberg
>
> The whole spectrum of contact information for all MP & Cabinet
> Ministers is available from: 1-800-667-3355 (the government of Canada
> information line at the beginning of the blue pages of Canadian phone
books)
>
> You can also Fax-the Feds through the web site at:
> 
>
> Letters by mail are best, e-mail works too except with common knowledge of
> MPs emails ids, they receive up to 200 a day from every interest group in
> the country.
>
> Postal mail can be addressed to:
> [MPs Name], MP
> House of Commons,
> Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6  No postage is needed in Canada for thkis address.
>
> By e-mail: take the 1st 5 letters of the last name, 1st letter of the 1st
> name + this: @parl.gc.ca
>
> So, Joe Jordan would be: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and Nelson Riis would be
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
>
> What is this work all about?  In a nutshell, we are training
> ourselves/humanity to see the world differently. We are helping ourselves
> to evolve intelligently.
>
> Once, lo

Fw: [spiritof1848] WHO & Inequalities in Health (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: d.raphael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 7:33 AM
Subject: [spiritof1848] WHO & Inequalities in Health (fwd)


> Forwarded Message:
> From: Nancy Krieger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 09:47:14 -0500
> Subject: [spiritof1848] WHO & Inequalities in Health (fwd)
> To: Spirit of 1848 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: nancy krieger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> fyi ...
> -- Forwarded message --
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 14:19:34 +
> From: "Dave Gordon, School for Policy Studies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: WHO & Inequalities in Health
>
> The current issue of the Bulletin of the World Health
> Organization is devoted to Poverty and Inequalities in
> health and is available free of charge at;
>
> http://www.who.int/bulletin/tableofcontents/2000/vol.78no.1.html
>
> (details are below).
>
> In the editorial Richard Feachem, the Bulletin's
> editor-in-chief. Argues that "There is much evidence that
> public subsidies -- be they for health, education, water,
> power, food or whatever -- intended to promote equity and
> benefit the poor are largely captured by the non-poor,
> especially by the middle classes,".  Davidson Gwatkin
> from the World Bank, contends that health policy should
> aim directly at improving conditions among the poorest
> groups and at reducing the differences between those
> groups and others in society.  (If only the World Bank
> would practice what they preached!)
>
>
> Bulletin of the World Health Organization
> The International Journal of Public Health
> Volume 78, Number 1, Bulletin 2000, 1-152.
>
> Editorials
>
> Poverty and inequity: a proper focus for the new
> century by Richard G.A. Feachem:
> vol.78, no.1, 1. [Full text PDF]
>
>
> Special Theme - Inequalities in Health
>
> Critical Reflection: Health inequalities and the
> health of the poor: What do we know?
> What can we do? by D.R. Gwatkin: vol.78, no.1, 3-18.
> [Full text PDF]
>
> Socioeconomic inequalities in child mortality:
> comparisons across nine developing
> countries by Adam Wagstaff: vol.78, no.1, 19-29.
> [Full text PDF]
>
> Inequality of child mortality among ethnic groups in
> sub-Saharan Africa by M.
> Brockerhoff & P. Hewett: vol.78, no.1, 30-41. [Full
> text PDF]
>
> Defining and measuring health inequality: an approach
> based on the distribution of
> health expectancy by E.E. Gakidou, C.J.L. Murray, &
> J. Frenk: vol.78, no.1, 42-54. [Full text
> PDF]
>
> Inequalities in health care use and expenditures:
> empirical data from eight developing
> countries and countries in transition by M. Makinen,
> H. Waters, M. Rauch, N.
> Almagambetova, R. Bitran, L. Gilson, D. McIntyre, S.
> Pannarunothai, A.L. Prieto, G. Ubilla,
> & S. Ram: vol.78, no.1, 55-65. [Full text PDF]
>
> Public spending on health care in Africa: do the poor
> benefit? by F. Castro-Leal, J.
> Dayton, L. Demery, & K. Mehra: vol.78, no.1, 66-74.
> [Full text PDF]
>
> Round Table Discussion by Donald Acheson; George A.O.
> Alleyne; Juan Antonio Casas &
> Carlos Castillo-Salgado; Michèle Barzach; Paula
> Braveman; G ran Dahlgren; Geeta Rao
> Gupta; Yuanli Liu;  va Orosz: vol.78, no.1, 75-85.
> [Full text PDF]
>
> --
> Dave Gordon
> Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research
> University of Bristol
> 8 Priory Road
> Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK
>
> E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Tel: (44)-(117)-954 6761
> Fax: (44)-(117)-954 6756
>
>
>
> Visit our Web Sites for information and reports from all of our Quality of
Life
> Projects!
> http://www.utoronto.ca/qol http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors
>
>   **
>Where a great proportion of the people are suffered to languish
> in helpless misery,
>That country must be ill-policed and wretchedly governed:
>A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
>
>-- Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1770
>   **
>
> Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor and Associate Director,
> Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
> Department of Public Health Sciences
> Graduate Department of Community Health
> University of Toronto
> McMurrich Building, Room 101
> Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
> voice:(416) 978-7567
> fax: (416) 978-2087
> e-mail:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Fw: One Country Two worlds

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Original Message - 
From: John Hibbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 7:55 AM
Subject: One Country Two worlds


> == 
> Since the theme for GLD2000 may well be "Bridging the Gap", I thought it
> worthwhile to enclose this entire Thomas Friedman editorial found at: 
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/friedman/012800frie.html 
> 
> CAIRO -- I just had an interesting experience. I did an author's tour of
> Egypt, meeting with students at Cairo University, journalists at
> Egyptian newspapers and the Chambers of Commerce of Cairo and Alexandria
> to talk about the Arabic edition of a book I did on globalization. 
> Two images stand out from this trip. The first was riding the train from
> Cairo to Alexandria in a car full of middle- and upper-class Egyptians.
> So many of them had cell phones that kept ringing with different
> piercing melodies during the two-hour trip that at one point I felt like
> getting up, taking out a baton and conducting a cell-phone symphony. I
> was so rattled from ringing phones, I couldn't wait to get off the
> train. Yet, while all these phones were chirping inside the train,
> outside we were passing along the Nile, where barefoot Egyptian
> villagers were tilling their fields with the same tools and water
> buffalo that their ancestors used in Pharaoh's day. I couldn't imagine a
> wider technology gap within one country. Inside the train it was A.D.
> 2000, outside it was 2000 B.C. 
> The other image was visiting Yousef Boutrous-Ghali, Egypt's
> M.I.T.-trained minister of economy. When I arrived at his building the
> elevator operator, an Egyptian peasant, was waiting for me at the
> elevator, which he operated with a key. Before he turned it on, though,
> to take me up to the minister's office, he whispered the Koranic verse
> "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate." To a Westerner,
> it is unnerving to hear your elevator operator utter a prayer before he
> closes the door, but for him this was a cultural habit, rooted deep in
> his tradition. Again, the contrast: Mr. Boutros-Ghali is the most
> creative, high-tech driver of globalization in Egypt, but his elevator
> man says a prayer before taking you up to his office. 
> These scenes captured the dichotomy I found throughout Egypt: While its
> small, cell-phone-armed, globalizing elites are definitely pushing to
> get online and onto the global economic train, most others fear they
> will be left behind or lose their identity trying to catch it. Indeed I
> was struck, after a week of discussing both the costs and benefits of
> globalization, by how most Egyptians, including many intellectuals,
> could see only the costs. The more I explained globalization, the more
> they expressed unease about it. It eventually hit me that I was
> encountering what anthropologists call "systemic misunderstanding."
> Systemic misunderstanding arises when your framework and the other
> person's framework are so fundamentally different that it cannot be
> corrected by providing more information. 
> The Egyptians' unease about globalization is rooted partly in a
> justifiable fear that they lack the technological base to compete. But
> it's also rooted in something cultural -- and not just the professor at
> Cairo University who asked me: "Does globalization mean we all have to
> become Americans?" It goes deeper. 
> Many Americans can easily identify with modernization, technology and
> the Internet because one of the most important things these do is
> increase individual choices. At their best, they empower and emancipate
> the individual. But for traditional societies, such as Egypt's, the
> collective, the group, is much more important than the individual, and
> empowering the individual is equated with dividing the society. So
> "globalizing" for them not only means being forced to eat more Big Macs,
> it means changing the relationship of the individual to his state and
> community in a way that they feel is socially disintegrating. 
> "Does globalization mean we just leave the poor to fend for themselves?"
> one educated Egyptian woman asked me. "How do we privatize when we have
> no safety nets?" asked a professor. When the government here says it is
> "privatizing" an industry, the instinctive reaction of Egyptians is that
> something is being stolen from the state, says an official. 
> After enough such conversations I realized that most Egyptians --
> understandably -- were approaching globalization out of a combination of
> despair and necessity, not out of any sense of opportunity.
> Globalization meant adapting to a threat coming from the outside, not
> increasing their own freedoms. I also realized that their previous
> ideologies -- Arab nationalism, Socialism, Fascism or Communism -- while
> they may have made no economic sense, had a certain inspirational power.
> But globalism totally lacks thi

FW: Rainforest Travel with the Shiwiar

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: Patrick J. Frisco [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 3:14 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Rainforest Travel with the Shiwiar


The Shiwiar Indigenous People of the Ecuadorian Amazon are trying to promote
ecotourism as an alternative to oil exploitation.  This is a small tribe
in danger of loosing their land and culture.  This is a wonderful
oppurtunity
to see the flora and fauna of the rainforest with guides who are its
protectors! Especially at this time when the economy of Ecuador is in
jeopardy: the rainforest is in jeopardy.  Ecotourists should leave more
than footprints, they should leave the path open for the future!
Contact Pascual Kunchicuy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or me Pamela  www.members.tripod.com/jurijuri

--


 > To unsubscribe from GREEN-TRAVEL send a message to
 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with ONLY unsubscribe green-travel
 > in the message body.  If this fails, forward the message you
 > receive to the List Owner at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 > NEVER SEND UNSUBSCRIBE REQUESTS TO THE WHOLE LIST!

FW: [stop-imf] Camdessus on IMF's discovery of poverty

[Michael Gurstein]

 
-Original Message-
From: Soren Ambrose [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 9:12 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [stop-imf] Camdessus on IMF's discovery of poverty


Since announcing his resignation (effective mid-February), IMF Managing
Director Michel Camdessus has been making frequent speeches about the
necessity of combatting poverty and the role that the IMF sees itself
playing in that pursuit with its new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility,
the new name for its notorious Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility
(ESAF).  The following article is one of many detailing Camdessus's charm
offensive, but is particularly notable for the last few sentences, in which
Camdessus is asked to explain why it took so long for the Fund to recognize
that SAPs would win little support so long as they continue to oppress
people.
 
Camdessus urges developed nations to cut arms sales to Africa

LIBREVILLE, Jan 17 (AFP) - IMF Director General Michel Camedessus on Monday
urged developed nations to slash their arms exports to Africa, saying "the
other name for development is peace."

Speaking ahead of a two-day summit on poverty reduction in Africa, Camdessus
said: "A third of African countries are at war and 90 percent of the weapons
used are sold by G-8 nations," referring to the group of eight most
industrialised countries.

Camdessus told a press conference ahead of the summit, to be held Tuesday
and Wednesday under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund, that the
IMF was pressing African regimes to cut back their military spending.

"The other name for development is peace," he said, calling on rich
countries to cut exports "not only of heavy weaponry but also of the light
arms which are carried by children in the front line of the conflicts."

"When a country we support goes to war, we go into discussions with it: Do
you want war or development? It's a pretty tough dialogue," he said.

Some 20 African heads of state and government are expected to attend the
gathering along with top staff of the IMF, the World Bank and the African
Development Bank.

A preliminary ministerial meeting was being held Monday.

Ministers and experts from across the continent have already prepared a
document containing proposals for alleviating poverty.

Camdessus estimated that Africa should be able to reach sustained annual
growth rates of six to seven percent, rather than the current four to five
percent, with an objective of eliminating 50 percent of extreme poverty by
2015.

The IMF director general is confidently promoting a new facility for poverty
reduction and growth, through which the Fund is to abandon its "all
macro-economic" approach.

"The fundamental aspect of these programmes is recognition of the circular
relationships among the effort to reduce inflation, (to establish) good
macro-economic balance, and the reduction of poverty and inequalities," he
said.

"We have found that the more you obtain reductions in poverty and
inequalities, the more you give validity to your monetary and macro-economic
programmes, which become stronger and further reduce poverty and
inequalities," he added.

Asked how long the IMF had taken to draw this conclusion, Camdessus said
that such principles had only recently been recognised by economists.

"Economic progress takes time," he said. "Our institutions are serious
institutions which don't wish to sell illusions."

Fw: Online rights

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Eric Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 1999 4:02 AM
Subject: Online rights


> Over the course of the next 10 months, I'll be coordinating a research
> project entitled "Online Rights for Online Workers - Privacy at Work",
> organized by Labour and Society International on behalf of Euro-FIET and
> funded by the European Union.
> 
> The project focusses on best practice in the IT sector in Europe and at
> its core is a survey we're conducting of both employers and employees.
> 
> The Online Rights website, launched today, incudes:
> 
> * The online survey of the European IT industry
> * Latest news headlines about privacy at work and online rights
> * A discussion forum, open to all
> * Links to other sites and documents on the subject, including model
> agreements
> 
> The new Online Rights website can be found at:
> 
> http://www.labourstart.org/onlinerights/
> 
> Please visit it, fill in the survey (if you work in the IT sector in
> Europe), participate in the web forum, and help us on this project.
> Thank you.
> 
> Eric Lee
> 
> 
> --
> Eric Lee
> Information and Communications Technology Co-ordinator
> Labour and Society International
> Office phone: +44 2083491975 (in the UK: 020 83491975)
> Mobile phone: +44 7703933608 (in the UK: 07 703933608)
> ICQ: 49624912
> PGP Public Key: see http://www.labourstart.org/pgp.shtml
> 

Fw: (Fwd) Merry Xmas from Seattle!!!

[Michael Gurstein]

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen!

MG

> "Merry Xmas from Seattle"

> http://russell.flora.org/seattle.jpg
>
>
> --- Forwarded Message Follows ---
> From:  "Viviane Lerner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To:"Mai-not" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject:   Merry Xmas from Seattle!!!
> Date:  Sat, 18 Dec 1999 20:43:42 -1000
> Importance:Normal
>
> Hello,

> Russell just made room for this gem at
>
>   http://russell.flora.org/seattle.jpg
>
> Thanks, Russell and again, my apologies for not realizing it couldn't go
> through automatically. It needed your expertise, I hope it was worth it to
> you.
> All the best,
> Viviane
>
> ---
>  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: 
>  http://russell.flora.org/work/closed-wto.html [Current Paper in Progress]
>  http://www.flora.org/flora.mai-not/15816 Rebels in Search of Rules
>  http://www.flora.org/flora.announce/103 Linux users boycott AMAZON.COM
>
>
> --
> For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
> links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
>
>
>
>
>
>

Fw: WTO alert heads up from White House

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 1999 9:28 AM
Subject: WTO alert heads up from White House


>   THE WHITE HOUSE
>
>  Office of the Press Secretary
> 
> For Immediate Release  December 17, 1999
>
>
> US - EU SUMMIT STATEMENT ON THE WTO
>
>
> The United States and the European Union consider the multilateral
> trading system one of world's principal bulwarks of peace, sustainable
> development, and economic growth; and a primary engine for rising living
> standards and broad-based prosperity in the future.  As we approach the
> new century, we must ensure that the trading system retains its dynamism
> and ability to respond to changing needs of an increasingly diverse
> membership.
>
> Accordingly, both sides note their disappointment at the failure to
> reach agreement on a new Round of trade negotiations at Seattle, but
> they agree it is now important to find a way forward.  In this context,
> the EU and the US both pledge continued readiness to work with Director
> General Mike Moore and our partners to launch an inclusive new Round as
> soon as possible.  A new Round has to be definitively different from its
> predecessors.  It should encompass the built in agenda of agriculture
> and services, further and effective market access liberalization,
> support our efforts to harness globalization by strengthening and
> extending WTO rules, and address the concerns of both developing
> countries and civil society.
>
> With the Director General and all other members of the WTO, we need to
> take full account of the lessons of Seattle.  In particular, work should
> be directed towards a set of measures that will: provide better
> opportunities for wider participation by all members (including
> developing countries) in the decision-making processes of the WTO; offer
> greater transparency (both within the organization and vis a vis the
> outside world); and improve public access, including through broader
> access to WTO documents and enhanced consultation procedures with civil
> society. This work should also consider measures to improve the
> efficiency of the WTO, and to boost overall public support for the
> organization.  We should also seek agreement by all members on the
> separate review of WTO dispute settlement procedures, including measures
> to enhance transparency.
>
> The US and EU are committed to maximizing the benefits developing
> countries gain from being in the WTO. We agreed to take forward a
> preferential market access initiative for least developed WTO members,
> initially with our Quad partners. We will work with other WTO Members to
> establish as soon as possible a new, revitalized program for capacity
> building and technical assistance undertaken by the WTO, beginning with
> the Integrated Framework established in 1996, and in cooperation with
> other international institutions.  We also agreed to consider what we
> would do to address the concerns of a number of developing countries
> with implementation of existing multilateral trade agreements.
>
> On issues of interest to our civil societies, we agreed that changes to
> global economy have brought new challenges to the trading system.
> Nowhere is that more evident than the debate that is now joined
> regarding the relationship between trade and labor.  The US and EU are
> committed to working with our partners to engage the WTO and ILO in a
> constructive dialogue, including consideration of the relationship
> between core labor standards, further liberalization, trade policy and
> social development, in order to foster understanding and consensus.  And
> on trade and environment, we will work together to ensure that trade
> rules support and do not undermine the ability of governments to
> establish and achieve high levels of environmental protection.
>
> The cooperative relationship between the US and the EU has been crucial
> to the development of the multilateral trading system over the past 50
> years.  We recognize our shared responsibilities to continue this work,
> but also the need to involve all our WTO partners more directly.  This
> will pave the way for continued prosperity, whose? sustainable
development,
> and
> long-term growth for the 21st century.
>
>
>  # # #
>
>
>

Fw: Trading on child labour for profit -Dalton Camp, Tor Star Dec 8

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Janet M Eaton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 9:01 PM
Subject: Trading on child labour for profit -Dalton Camp, Tor Star Dec 8


>The WTO is not to be thought a moral force or even
> an amoral one; it is concerned with broadening the
> boundaries of free trade, however this can be done,
> even if on the backs of sweated children. ...But to make
> it easier to understand, I suggest when  reading these nobly detached
> editorials, or the academically sterile analyses of columnists, that
> the reader, whenever she sees the words ``child  labour'' substitute
> the word ``slavery.'' .It is mere sophistry for   WTO's
> apologists to argue that, in the end, all will  come out right, as
> though trade contained some  secret, magic moral ingredient. .the
> true  beneficiary of child labour is certainly not the child, not the
> impoverished nation that allows such  practice, but the employer, the
> shareholder and the consumers who live amongst us.
>   --Dalton Camp, Toronto Star, Dec 8, 1999
> 
> FYI,
> janet
> 
> -
> 
> http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/opinion/991208NEW02c_OP-CAMP8
> . html
> Toronto Star
> By Dalton Camp
> December 8, 1999
> 
>   Trading on child labour for profit
> 
>   I beg to be counted among those who
>   are opposed to the World Trade
>   Organization.
> 
>   My opposition can be simply stated:
>   The WTO's silent sanction of child
>   labour is to me insupportable. While it
>   may be said that the protests of the
>   North American labour movement are
>   somewhat self-serving, what then
>   could be said for the multinational
>   corporations - with a passion for the
>   WTO that is near idolatry - that are major employers
>   of child labour and who remain so protective of this
>   hideous practice?
> 
>   The argument is made, by WTO supporters, that child
>   labour is not a trade issue that is the exclusive
>   and only mandate of the WTO.
> 
>   The WTO is not to be thought a moral force or even
>   an amoral one; it is concerned with broadening the
>   boundaries of free trade, however this can be done,
>   even if on the backs of sweated children.
> 
>   Child labour is a cultural issue, we're told, or it
>   is a poverty issue, or third-worldly, and as such,
>   beyond our ken and competence to judge.
> 
>   But to make it easier to understand, I suggest when
>   reading these nobly detached editorials, or the
>   academically sterile analyses of columnists, that
>   the reader, whenever she sees the words ``child
>   labour'' substitute the word ``slavery.''
> 
>   While it is not strictly factual that these children
>   are slaves - their chains are only psychological or,
>   if you like, metaphysical - they are ``properties''
>   owned, nonetheless, by the ``culture'' and by the
>   system and cannot be freed from it. They suffer many
>   of the same restraints and abuses as did the slaves,
>   including the denial of their own personality, of
>   their own nature as children.
> 
>   Of course, almost everyone is against child labour,
>   including, apparently, the corporate executives who
>   employ children.
> 
>   Be reminded that Thomas Jefferson stated his
>   opposition to slavery, even though he owned slaves.
>   Jefferson believed, or so he said, the institution
>   of slavery would abolish itself, given time.
> 
>   We are now being told much the same thing, by allies
>   of the WTO and supporters of the necessity - the
>   present necessity - for employing children to do the
>   work of adults.
> 
>   They remind me of the pre-Civil War abolitionists in
>   the north who, while opposed to slavery, accepted
>   its permanence in the south. After all, the north
>   could not sell to the south, unless a slave economy
>   produced enough wealth to create purchasing power to
>   buy northern goods.
> 
>   England, then the most modern nation in the new
>   Europe, opposed slavery but embraced child labour in
>   condition

Fw: The Battle of Seattle

[Michael Gurstein]

> >-- Forwarded message --
> >Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 01:38:02 EST
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Reply-To: Michael Moore's newsletter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: The Battle of Seattle
> >
> >December 7, 1999
> >
> >Dear Friends,
> >
> >They never knew what hit them.  They had assumed it
> >would be business as usual, the way it had been for
> >decades.  Rich men gather, meet, decide the fate of the
> >world, then return home to amass more wealth.  It's the
> >way it's always been.
> >
> >Until Seattle.
> >
> >On the morning of November 30, 1999, as government
> >officials from 135 nations attempted to meet with the
> >largest gathering ever of corporate executives, tens of
> >thousands of average everyday working Americans shut
> >down the city of Seattle and physically prohibited the
> >hoped-for historic and official merger of the earth's
> >political and business elite.  I was there.  I saw it
> >first-hand.  It was a sight I had never seen.
> >
> >But there it was.  It was a massively representive body of
> >Americans (and Canadians and Brits and French, etc.),
> >all of us standing there on the streets between Pine and
> >Pike -- Teamsters and turtle-lovers, grandparents and
> >Gap clerks, the homeless and computer geeks, high
> >school students and Alaskans, nuns and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.,
> >airplane mechanics and caffeinated slaves from Microsoft.
> >A few were professional protesters, but the majority
> >looked as if this was their first exercise in a
> >constitutionally protected redress of grievances.  There
> >were no "leaders," no "movement," no idea of what to do
> >except stop the World Trade Organization from holding
> >its secret meeting.
> >
> >Only the anarchists seemed organized.  They even had
> >their own anarchist marching band!
> >
> >The big labor march grew so large (that's what happens
> >when so many workers are temps), it broke into six or
> >seven separate marches, choking off the entire downtown
> >area of Seattle.
> >
> >The beauty of all this is that it just happened.  And why
> >should anyone be surprised?  After two decades of
> >downsizing, wage stagnation, lost health benefits and
> >the deliberate destruction of the middle class, the bubble
> >sooner or later had to burst.
> >
> >The Fortune 500 brought this on themselves.  If they
> >hadn't been so greedy, if they had been willing to share
> >even a sliver of the pie, then maybe Seattle wouldn't
> >have happened.
> >
> >But the rich decided to take a piss on their biggest
> >supporters -- their loyal workers, those Reagan
> >Democrats -- and there's nothing uglier than a
> >Teamster who voted for Nixon realizing he's been had.
> >
> >It was funny watching how the media presented the
> >Battle of Seattle ("violent protests" was the mantra),
> >and while a McDonald's and a Starbucks had their
> >windows broken, the truth was that 99% of the
> >participants destroyed no property and took great
> >pains to treat the city of Seattle with endearing
> >respect. Seattle is, after all, the only city in the
> >history of this country to have a general strike (the
> >entire town refused to show up for work back in 1919).
> >
> >The liberal mayor of Seattle, who at first did not want to
> >be known as a West Coast Mayor Daley, eventually lost
> >his cool and let his police force run amok.  Tear gas and
> >rubber bullets started flying toward the grandparents and
> >the nuns.  All civil liberties were suspended. They even
> >had the audacity to use the term, "no protest zones."
> >Hey, this is America, buddy! Seattle may be considered
> >one of those groovy "Pacific Rim" cities, but that doesn't
> >make it Singapore.
> >
> >Clinton came to town on the second day. He was so
> >badgered by the protests, he ended up committing a
> >sin so serious, it was like he was burning his draft card
> >all over again. He completely changed his position and
> >called on all WTO countries to enact laws prohibiting
> >trade with nations that use children in sweatshops and
> >do not honor the rights of all workers to organize a
> >union. Whoa! You see, free trade is an absolute with the
> >WTO (e.g., trade must never be used as a tool to
> >accomplish "social" goals). So, for Clinton to climb the
> >space needle (or was he chased up it?) and then declare
> >that the human rights of workers were more important
> >than making a buck, well, this was nothing short of Paul
> >being knocked off his horse and seeing Jesus! You could
> >almost hear the collective seething of the hundreds of
> >CEOs gathered in Seattle.  Their boy Bill -- the politician
> >they had bought and paid for at so many coffee klatches
> >and Lincoln Bedroom stays --- had betrayed them.  You
> >could almost see them reaching for their Palm Pilots to
> >look up the phone number of The Jackal.
> >
> >It was a tremendous victory for everyone who lives from
> >paycheck to paycheck.  We owe a lot to those brave
> >souls who got arrested and spent t

Re: WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY?

[Michael Gurstein]

Ed's point is very well taken, but the other side of that argument is that
there needs to be mechanisms in place (the redistributive role of the
state?) to ensure that such product while "belonging" to society as a whole,
is in fact "possessed" by as reasonable a facsimile of "society as a whole"
as is possible.  The problem of course is that more or less since the
mid-70's, it is precisely this role of the state which has rather rapidly
been dismantled.

The dilemma here is that in a condition of open markets/open borders
(WTO) there seems to be a contradiction between productivity and social
redistribution since capital is free to roam away from requirements to share
its return.

Here as everywhere else in social causality, the challenge is to figure out
which way your causes are running.

MG

- Original Message -

From: Ed Weick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Michael Gurstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; futurework
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 1999 5:17 AM
Subject: Re: WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY?


>
> But surely these things can't be separated.  Since our productivity
downturn
> in the mid-1970s, unemployment has risen, real wages have risen only very
> slowly, if at all, and poverty and homelessness have become part of
everyday
> life.  My point is that increasing product belongs to society as a whole,
> not only to capital, and is shared by society by legislatively or
> contractually established rules.
>
> Ed Weick
>

Fw: WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY?

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 1:37 PM
Subject: WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY?


WILL A SOCIAL CLAUSE IN TRADE AGREEMENTS ADVANCE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY?
By David Bacon

This week the AFL-CIO will mobilize thousands of union members to
demonstrate in Seattle outside the meeting of trade ministers of the World
Trade Organization.  The labor federation is calling for incorporating the
rights of working people around the world into the text of future trade
agreements, and for treating the impact of trade on workers as a
fundamental issue.

But the AFL-CIO is proposing a way of dealing with trade with which a
number of unions disagree.  It proposes a social clause, which would
incorporate into future trade agreements core labor standards, including
prohibitions against child labor and prison labor, against discrimination,
and against violations of the right of workers to organize unions and
bargain.  The WTO enforcement process, now used to protect the ability of
transnational corporations to move investments and production freely across
borders, could then be used to protect workers' rights as well, the labor
federation argues.

But many unions, including leftwing ones in Europe and Canada, have serious
questions about the proposal for a social clause.  Some equate it with
proposals in Europe to make a social contract between labor and capital
part of the process of creating a single European economy.

The social contract has tended to be a proposal of Europe's more
conservative unions.  The more radical ones have argued for opposing the
process of merging economies itself, rather than negotiating worker
protections within an economic framework dominated by transnational
corporations and banks.  In Europe, the movement towards a single currency
and the merger of markets has brought with it austerity formulas for the
elimination of social benefits and protections won by workers over the last
fifty years.

Social democrats are now in power in Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
In some of those countries workers and unions have been able to reverse the
economic trend, and some governments have been more responsive to worker
pressure than others.  But all these social democratic governments argue
that for Europe to make it in the world economy, productivity has to be
increased, and social needs and benefits brought into line.  That often
brings the governing parties into basic conflict with the working-class
base which has brought them to power.  The conflict is not so different
from that which has taken shape in the U.S. between labor and the Clinton
administration.

The flaw in the social democratic argument is that its assumption and
purpose is wrong.  Society exists to serve the social needs of people, not
the productivity needs of capital.  Those two needs are in basic conflict -
a conflict of class interest.

The criticism made by the Canadian Labour Congress of the proposal for a
social clause in the WTO negotiations is similar.  "The struggle by unions,
social justice groups and environmentalists is about more than just winning
a seat at the table, or a 'social clause' or environmental rules," a CLC
statement declares.  "We're determined to change the entire trade regime."

But even assuming that negotiating a social clause is a good idea, in the
context of trade negotiations first of all it requires that labor agree on
a common agenda.  The social clause the AFL-CIO proposes reflects the
institutional needs of unions in a wealthy, industrial country.  Unions and
labor in other countries see other needs as well, especially the need for
economic development.  Parents of farmworker families in the Philippines
and Mexico, for instance, overwhelmingly agree they would prefer that their
kids had the opportunity to go to school rather than work.  But simply
prohibiting child labor doesn't provide that opportunity.  It just cuts the
income the family depends on to survive.

Labor federations in developing countries propose a large variety of
programs for economic development.  The more conservative generally support
foreign investment and the governments which encourage it.  The more
radical ones support a program of national development which seeks to
protect local industries, and even keep them in public, rather than
private, hands.  Those kinds of development programs are the antithesis of
the economic framework the WTO enforces.  Unless the international trade
structure is changed drastically, these national development alternatives
will not be possible.  So proposing a social clause to limit the
prerogatives of foreign investors lines up with the more conservative labor
federations internationally, and undermines proposals for nationalization
and national development less dependent on transnational capital.

Our definition of what the social clause should cover is 

Futurework

[Michael Gurstein]

What it's like down on the e-farm...

http://www.seattletimes.com/news/technology/html98/amaz_19991125.html

RE: e-mail surcharge by US Postal Svce??

[Michael Gurstein]

This is one of those urban legends that goes back and forth on the net
without any evident substance.

MG

-Original Message-
From: Steve Kurtz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 2:27 PM
To: futurework
Subject: e-mail surcharge by US Postal Svce??


I received this privately, and am skeptical. Anyone else hear about it?
I'll do a search for the alleged legal firm & report back.

Steve


  >Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay on-line and

>  >continue using email:
>  >
>  >The last few months have revealed an alarming trend in the
Government of
>  the
>  >United States attempting to quietly push through legislation that
will
>  >affect your use of the Internet.
>  >Under proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will be
attempting to
>  >bill email users out of "alternate postage fees". Bill 602P will
permit
the
>  >Federal Govt. to charge a 5 cent surcharge on every email delivered,

by
>  >billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would
then be
>  >billed in turn by the ISP. Washington D.C. lawyer Richard Stepp is
working
>  >without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming law.
>  >
>  >The U.S. Postal  Service is claiming that lost revenue due to the
>  >proliferation of email is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per

year.
>  >You may have noticed their recent ad campaign "There is nothing like

a
>  >letter".  Since the average citizen received about 10 pieces of
email per
>  >day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual would be an
additional 50
>  >cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year, above and beyond their

>  regular
>  >Internet costs. Note that this would be money paid directly to the
U.S.
>  >Postal Service for a service they do not even provide. The whole
point of
>  >the Internet is democracy and noninterference.
>  >
>  >If the federal government is permitted to tamper with our liberties
by
>  >adding a surcharge  to email, who knows where it will end. You are
already
>  >paying an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureaucratic
>  >efficiency.
>  >
>  >It currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from
New York
>  >to Buffalo. If the U.S. Postal Service is allowed to tinker with
email, it
>  >will mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States.
>  >
>  >One congressman, Tony Schnell (r) has even suggested a "twenty to
forty
>  >dollars per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and
beyond the
>  >government's proposed email charges. Note that most of the major
newspapers
>  >have ignored the story, the only exception being
>  >the Washingtonian which called the idea of email surcharge "a useful

>  concept
>  >whose time has come" (March 6th 1999 Editorial)
>  >
>  >Don't sit by and watch your freedom erode away!  Send this email to
all
>  >Americans on your list and tell your friends and relatives to write
to
>  their
>  >congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P.
>  >
>  >Kate Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger,
>  >Stepp and Gorman
>  >Attorneys at Law
>  >216 Concorde Street, Vienna, VA
>  >

Fw: NYT on the Future

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Bruce Podobnik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 1999 12:17 PM
Subject: NYT on the Future


> You may find this editorial from the New York Times interesting.
> It addresses Marxism, Gandhi, and forecasts of the future.
> 
> The Next Big Dialectic
> New York Times Editorial
> November 28, 1999
> 
> By KURT ANDERSEN
> 
> At this end of this century, as we bask happily and stupidly in the glow
> of
> our absolute capitalist triumph, no long-range historical forecasters
> are
> considered more insanely wrong-headed than Karl Marx and Friedrich
> Engels. Yet the death of Communism makes this moment a fine one to
> consider the emergence of Marxism 150 years ago as a historical
> phenomenon, economically determined, rather than as the social and
> moral debacle it became. In fact, looking back, Marx and Engels seem
> prescient about the capitalist transformation of life and work. Writing
> about globalization in "Principles of Communism" in 1847, Engels sounds
> very 1999.
>"A new machine invented in England deprives millions of Chinese
> workers of their livelihood within a year's time," he wrote. "In this
> way,
> big industry has brought all the people of the earth into contact with
> each
> other, has merged all local markets into one world market, has spread
> civilization and progress everywhere and has thus ensured that whatever
> happens in civilized countries will have repercussions in all other
> countries."
> In "Das Kapital," Marx also foretold the present cyber-age, in which
> 
> computers design toasters and skyscrapers, and software is designed by
> other software: "Modern industry had therefore itself to take in hand
> the
> machine, its characteristic instrument of production, and to construct
> machines by machines. . . . Machinery, simultaneously with the
> increasing
> use of it . . . appropriated, by degrees, the fabrication of machines
> proper."
>Marx and Engels were right in the middle of the transformation. Just
> before their births, during the final years of the 18th century, a
> handful of
> machinists and tinkerers -- John Wilkinson, Richard Arkwright, Eli
> Whitney, a few others -- had ignited the Industrial Revolution with
> their
> amazing devices to cut screws, pump water, spin wool and gin cotton.
> Those machines, hitched to James Watt's steam engine, begat factories
> and steamships and railroads, which begat industrial capitalism on a
> frenzied new global scale, which, just a half century after the first
> revolutionary mechanical marvels, begat Marx.
>Now, during the final years of the 20th century, a handful of
> scientists and
> tinkerers -- William Shockley, Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce, Jim Clark,
> Tim Berners-Lee, a few others -- have ignited the current technological
> revolution with their amazing new devices: the transistor, the
> integrated
> circuit, the microcomputer, the World Wide Web. The PC and the
> Internet begat a new fluidity of capital and information, which is
> begetting
> postindustrial capitalism on a frenzied new global scale, which will
> surely
> beget some radical and infectious critique of this radically new order.
> In other words, the 21st century will have its Marx. This next great
> 
> challenger of the governing ideological paradigm, this hypothetical
> cyber-Marx, is one of our children or grandchildren or
> great-grandchildren, and he or she could appear in Shandong Province
> or Cairo or San Bernardino County. By 2100, give or take a couple of
> decades, it's a good bet that free-market, private-property capitalism
> will
> be under siege once again, shaken as in 1848 and 1917 and the 1930's
> by the tremors that the magnificent and ferocious system itself
> unleashes.
> History does not always repeat itself, but as Mark Twain may have said,
> it rhymes.
>What will this next great "ism" look like?
> The ascendant revolutionary ideology of 2100 won't be Luddite.
> Theodore Kaczynski was the Ned Lud of this cycle, an angry, violent
> lunatic of no real historical significance. Marx, for his part, was not
> opposed to the new technology of the Industrial Revolution -- it was the
> 
> steam-powered weaving machines and railroads and all the rest that were
> going to allow his collectivist utopia to emerge.
> In "Das Kapital," he wrote that "improved communications" had been
> the
> key to increased productivity and prosperity, that the "last 50 years
> have
> brought about a revolution in this field . . . the entire globe is being
> girdled
> by telegraph wires . . . the time of circulation of a shipment of
> commodities to East Asia, at least 12 months in 1847, has now been
> reduced to almost as many weeks . . . and the efficacy of the capital
> involved in it has been more than doubled or trebled." It seems
> improbable that the next great world-historical agitator will demonize
> technology qua technology.
>The p

Fw: Robert Theobald Has Died (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Jim Dator <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 1999 11:34 AM
Subject: Robert Theobald Has Died (fwd)


> 
> He was one of the best of the early futurists, farsighted and active to
> the very end.
> 
> -- Forwarded message --
> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 05:58:05 -1000
> From: Robert Stilger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Robert Theobald Has Died
> 
> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
> 
> Yesterday afternoon, Saturday November 27th at 1:41pm, Robert Theobald's 
> body died and his spirit was set free.
> 
> He was surrounded by a very close circle of friends who held him in life 
> as well as in death.  We mourned his passing, and relished his living.
> 
> He came home from the hospital to his apartment just one week earlier.  
> While his body continued to fail, his spirits never did.  He was putting 
> things together at an astonishing rate, frustrated by his diminished 
> ability to give full voice to what he was coming to understand.  He 
> laughed and cried and direct us in his care.  And he told us that he 
> loved us -- as we each told him.
> 
> The energy and light and prayer that so many of you have poured into 
> Spokane over the last three weeks has been a marvel.  It held him.  A 
> gentle web which held him while he continued with his work and his 
> living.  It was precious, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 
> 
> Robert thanks you as well.  Reach out with your mind's eye and you will 
> feel him smiling.   May this web of connection continue, holding each of 
> us in our lives and in our work.
> 
> 
> Three items as we transform forward with all our lives:
> 
> 1. Full, current biographical information available.  You can view it 
> on-line at http://www.transform.org/transform/tlc/rtbio.html.  Other 
> information is available upon request if you are writing an article, 
> feature story or obituary for Robert.  Please e-mail me.
> 
> 2.  We're planning a Spokane celebration of Robert's life in two weeks, 
> on Saturday, December 11, 1999.  That date is exactly the mid-point 
> between Robert's 70th and 71st birthday.  We will see if we can make 
> part of the celebration "virtual".  More details as they happen.
> 
> 3.  The work that Robert and I and many others have been committed to 
> will continue.  New forms and new shapes, to be sure.  "Stay tuned for 
> further announcements".
> 
> Many Blessings 
> 
> Bob
> 
> Bob Stilger, Executive Director
> Northwest Regional Facilitators
> East 525 Mission Avenue
> Spokane, WA 99202
> Phone: (509) 484 6733, ext 139
> Fax: (509) 483 3045
> email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> homepages:
> http://www.nrf.org
> http://www.resilientcommunities.org
> http://www.transform.org/transform/tlc/
> 
> 
> _
> What's hot at Topica?  Sign up for our "Best New Lists" 
> newsletter and find out!  http://www.topica.com/t/8
> 

Fw: check out rtmark's wto site

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 26, 1999 10:08 PM
Subject: check out rtmark's wto site


> [: hacktivism :]
> 
> http://gatt.org/  looks  like the official sitebut.
> 
> 
> [: hacktivism :]
> [: for unsubscribe instructions or list info consult the list FAQ :]
> [: http://hacktivism.tao.ca/ :]
> 

Fw: Special Multinational Monitor offer

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Multiple recipients of list CORP-FOCUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 4:47 PM
Subject: Special Multinational Monitor offer


>  ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR FOCUS ON THE CORPORATION READERS **
>
> Multinational Monitor, a magazine edited by Robert Weissman, is offering
> one-year subscriptions to new subscribers for $15 -- a $10 discount from
> the normal one-year subscription rate.
>
> If you are looking for holiday gifts, you can give two subscriptions for a
> total of $25, or four subscriptions for $40.
>
> Multinational Monitor appears 10 times a year (monthly, with two double
> issues). Founded by Ralph Nader, it is the leading source of critical
> reporting on the activities of multinational corporations. If you want to
> get a sense of the magazine, older issues are archived at
> http://www.essential.org/monitor.
>
> To take advantage of the special Multinational Monitor offer, send a check
> or credit card information to:
>
> Multinational Monitor
> PO Box 19405
> Washington, DC 20036
>
> If you are paying by credit card, make sure to indicate whether you are
> paying by Visa or Mastercard, the card number and its expiration date.
>
> Make sure to provide us with your address.
>
> Or, if you are giving the Monitor as a gift, make sure to provide us with
> the address of the recipient(s). We'll send a card out letting them know
> that you have given them a gift subscription and that their subscription
> will begin soon.
>
> Finally, please note that you are responding to the special Focus on the
> Corporation offer.
>
> This offer expires December 31, 1999.
>
>
>
>

Fw: Online Pioneers: The Buzz Never Stops

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Dave Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 1999 3:57 AM
Subject: IP: Online Pioneers: The Buzz Never Stops


>
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/21roundtable.html
>
>
>
> Four Silicon Alley chief executives talk about building and running
fast-growing companies without a moment to breathe, let alone enjoy the
rewards.
>
>
>

Fw: Bell Labs Predictions for 2025

[Michael Gurstein]

Ready or not...

MG

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 9:47 AM
Subject: Bell Labs Predictions for 2025


> For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3
Optical
> Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net
> ---
>
>  From Dave Farber's IPer list
>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 00:51:52 -0500
> From: The Old Bear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Bell Labs Predictions For 2025
>
> Bell Labs predicts a "Global Communications Skin" by 2025
> MURRAY HILL, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1999 NOV 12 (NB) -- By Steven
> Bonisteel, Newsbytes. If you think you are plugged in now - with
> your Internet connection, your wireless phone and your Palm Pilot -
> just wait until 2025. By then, say experts at Bell Labs, the
> research arm of Lucent Technologies Inc. [NYSE:LU], you'll be wired
> into a global communications network through devices as small as a
> lapel pin.
> What's more, they say, that global network will be more like a
> "communications skin" capable of sensing everything from weather
> patterns to how much milk is in your refrigerator.
> "We are already building the first layer of a mega-network that
> will cover the entire planet like a skin," Bell Labs President Arun
> Netravali said today in a document loaded with prognostications
> from lab staff. "As communication continues to become faster,
> smaller, cheaper and smarter in the next millennium, this skin, fed
> by a constant stream of information, will grow larger and more
> useful."
> Netravali said that "skin" will include millions of electronic
> measuring devices - thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution
> detectors, cameras, microphones - all monitoring cities, roadways,
> and the environment.
> "All of these will transmit data directly into the network, just
> as our skin transmits a constant stream of sensory data to our
> brains," he said. "Such systems might be used for anything from
> constantly monitoring the traffic on a local road, water level in a
> river to the temperature at the beach or the supply of food in a
> refrigerator."
> Bell Labs spokeswoman Wendy Zajack told Newsbytes that the
> predictions for the future of communications technology were
> released, in part, to mark the approaching Millennium. In addition,
> she said, with Bell Labs facing its 75th anniversary, the
> prognostications underscore the organization's reputation for
> "brain power."
> And that's no idle boast. Bell Labs researchers have garnered at
> least two Nobel Prizes in physics (including one in 1956 for the
> 1947 discovery of the laser). Zajack notes that Bell Labs, bundled
> with Lucent when that company was spun off from AT&T Corp. [NYSE:T]
> in 1996, files applications for more than three patents a day and
> has more than 30,000 inventions to it credit since it was formed 75
> years ago.
> Netravali said some recent breakthroughs at Bell Labs, particularly
> in areas that are boosting bandwidth and reducing the size of
> electronic components, will help bring about their vision of
> communications in the new Millennium.
> Noting that Bell Labs researchers recently demonstrated the first
> long-distance (300 kilometer) transmission of data at a trillion
> bits per second over a single strand of optical fiber, Netravali
> said that, in 10 years, a single fiber will carry a quadrillion
> bits per second.
> "This will put nearly limitless amounts of bandwidth at users'
> fingertips," the document stated. "It is this plentiful and
> inexpensive bandwidth that will enable high-quality
> videoconferencing and faster, 'always-on' Internet connections in
> the next century."
> Netravali said the huge bandwidth will be able to support the
> massive amount of data required for all the devices wired to the
> global communication "skin" to communicate as machine-to-machine
> and object-to-object communication increases. By 2010, he said, the
> volume of this "infrachatter" will actually surpass communication
> between humans.
> "At home, your dishwasher will be able to call its manufacturer
> when it is malfunctioning and the manufacturer will run diagnostics
> remotely," Netravali said. "Or your lawn sprinkler could check the
> Web site of the National Weather Service before turning itself on,
> to make sure the forecast doesn't call for rain."
> The Bell Labs researchers said waiting by the phone, surfing the
> Internet, and face-to-face business meetings will go the way of
> eight-track tapes.
> "Software-driven intelligent networks and wireless technology will
> enable people to be reached wherever they are and will give the
> consumer the power to choose if a message will be an e-mail, voice
> mail or video clip," said Rich Howard, wireless research director.
> Joseph Olive, director of language modeling, said system-on-a-chip
> technology that will lead to communications devices - "metaphones"
> - the size of jewelry that will be voice operated.
> "Di

FW: my design me

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: wade tillett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:46 AM
To: Nettime
Subject:  my design me


http://www.surgery.com/topics/body.html

A computer generated golden metallic female body with unbelievable
proportions is shown over the faded background of a keyboard.  Clickable
cyan boxes are shown over specific areas of the body with the following
text: 

*Pick the area you would like to improve

*   Head (face, neck, and hair)
*   Arms (sagging skin, excess fat flab, etc.)
*   Breast (sagging, too big, too small, uneven, etc.)
*   Abdomen (excess fat, excess skin hanging down, etc.)
*   Buttocks (too fat, saggy, etc.)
*   Thighs (excess fat, cellulite, etc.)
*Calves (too small, too fat, etc.)

The examples in parentheses suggest what could be wrong with your body -
that is, what varies from the perfected computer generated model.  We can
no longer be compared to the ideal naturally occurring body, but rather to
a computer generated model - a utopic persona based on a conglomeration of
the best.  We can no longer be compared to the naturally occurring body
because we are no longer reliant on natural means for obtaining
(maintaining) this body.  Now this increased power and ability to change
our body makes the body we live in a design of our own - choosing not to
modify our body is just as much a design as modifying our body. 
Abstention is as much design as creation, if we have the ability to
design.  And we have always had the ability to design.  We constantly
design our selves - by eating (or not eating, also what we eat), by
walking (or not walking), by reproducing (or not reproducing), by our
actions (or non-actions).  "Where nothing is in its place, lies disorder. 
Where in the desired place there is nothing, lies order." (Brecht qtd. in
Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 155) 

* Thigh Liposculpture
*  What would you like to do?
*   See Before and After Pictures
*   Find out about usual Costs
*   Read about this operation
*   Find a doctor near you that would be glad to explain your
options

What has changed is the transferability of our actions.  We can now sit at
a computer instead of walking; the money we make while sitting at the
computer can be transferred into a liposuction (or 'liposculpture' as this
web site calls it).  The action attempts to correct its own non-actions
through a design transference. 

* Pick the area you would like to improve 

*Hair (for baldness, thinning hair, etc.)
*Upper Eyes (tired looking eyes, sad, small etc.) 
*Lower Eyes (tired looking eyes, bags, extra skin, etc.) 
*Ears (excess fat, excess skin hanging down, etc.) 
*Nose (too big, too small, too wide, too narrow, etc.) 
*Mouth (enhance the lips, improve wrinkles, etc.) 
*Neck (fix sagging skin, take away excess fat, etc.) 
*Face
*Facelift
*Skin Resurfacing (Laser) 
*Skin Resurfacing (Chemical Peel) 

We have also increased the limits of our designs, the possibilities of our
design.  There are a lot more choices here than on the barbie my design
site.  This is beyond mass production.  There are a lot more choices now
than were previously possible through actions as design, deterministic
choice.  We didn't used to be able to design noses.  Now with surgery,
prosthetics, eugenics, genetic engineering, we can modify the design of
life itself.  We have modified deterministic choice, natural selection,
evolution.  We are now our own gods - products of our own design. 

>"Are we adapting our bodies to the dress, or the other way around?" 
(Thanks to Tjebbe van Tijen for the quote) 

We still operate within the limits of our design, within the program,
although we are constantly expanding these limits.  What limits our
designs the most is our social program of utopia.  This is the definition
of utopia: the exclusion of possibilities.  (No possibilities of adding a
third arm.  The body is limited to our utopic idea of it.  Detachable
prosthetics such as the internet or airplanes are used to extend our
bodies' possibilities without modifying our utopic definition of self.) 

"But let there be no misunderstanding; it is not that a real man, the
object of knowledge, philosophical reflection or technical intervention,
has been substituted for the soul, the illusion of the theologians.  The
man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself
the effect of a subjection much more profound than himself.  A 'soul'
inhabits him and brings him to existence, which is itself a factor in the
mastery that power exercises over the body.  The soul is the effect and
instrument of a political anatomy; the soul is the prison of the body."
(Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 30) 





#  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
#   is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text

FW: Effective Demand

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: William B. Ryan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 2:37 PM
To: DEBT Discussion List
Subject: Effective Demand


FIRST INTERIM REPORT Submitted to His Majesty's Premier and
Legislative Council of Alberta, at Edmonton, Alberta, May 23, 1935.

...Effective demand originated in the barter system, that is to say,
individuals parted with a surplus of real wealth in their possession
to obtain in exchange real wealth of a different variety for which
they had a need...In the modern world, however, the preponderating
feature in effective demand which is universally employed to carry on
the world's business is what is technically called a "credit
instrument," of which there are several forms. For the purposes of
this preamble it is only necessary to consider the cheque...

While it is clear that under a barter system there is always
sufficient effective demand although it may be inequitably
distributed, under a money or cheque system both inequitable and
ineffective demand are certain unless production and demand are
consciously and systematically related.

Cheques are drawn upon deposits, and it is admitted by all responsible
authorities that deposits are created, to a major extent, by purely
book-keeping transactions on the part of banking institutions. It is
therefore correct to say that banking institutions are in a position
to create, claim as their property, and to lend upon their own terms,
effective demand which is the only method by which real wealth
produced by the general public can be transferred from the producer of
it to the user...At the moment it is sufficient to emphasise that the
whole economic environment of the individual, his level of education,
and to a large extent the conditions of his physical, mental and moral
development, are controlled by the provision or withholding of this
effective demand which is in essence merely a book-keeping process...

Without going too far into this aspect of the matter, it may be said
that the financial system in its orthodox form has worked fairly
successfully during an age of expansion in which preponderatingly
large quantities of capital goods, not intended to be used directly by
individuals, have been produced, and the purchasing power or effective
demand which has been distributed to individuals as an inducement to
produce other capital goods has been available to them as effective
demand for a sufficient quantity of consumable goods. Since this
process of expansion is beyond question proceeding at a much slower
rate, while the debts which have been contracted in regard to previous
expansion are becoming increasingly onerous, sufficient purchasing
power for the use of the general population does not become available
through orthodox methods, and if it did, by excessive concentration
upon capital production or Public Works, the breakdown of the system
owing to intolerable debt charges would only be accentuated.

In regard to the Province of Alberta, therefore, it appears to me to
be evident that little which is effective can be done to relieve the
economic difficulties which exist unless a departure is made from
methods which were moderately effective in the past but are no longer
suitable to conditions which have changed fundamentally. Any attempt
to deal with the situation, which does not recognize its fundamental
cause, must discredit the Administration and eventually result either
in an abolition of organized forms of government in favour of a pure
financial hegemony, or in a continuous disintegration of social
morale, possibly ending in something approaching anarchy...

It is clear, and all experience confirms this view, that if credit
instruments can be issued under the sanction of the constituted legal
authority, in this case the Province, no difficulty arises in
obtaining their universal acceptance within the range of the
jurisdiction of the governing body. This has been successfully
demonstrated beyond question in many instances and under the most
unfavourable conditions, during the past twenty years. In Great
Britain, in 1914, the whole population was accustomed to handling
actual gold coins, and in fact, strongly disliked the only existing
paper money, the Bank of England note. Within a week of the outbreak
of War a complete change from gold metallic currency to a paper
currency was instituted without visible shock, in spite of the well-
known existence of enemy agents-provocateurs, using all possible
efforts to destroy confidence in the new money. Under conditions which
could never be paralleled in this country, and after calculated
inflation never before known in history, one series of paper Marks
after another has been accepted and has functioned in Germany with no
tangible backing other than the mere declaration that it was legal
tender. No difficulty might be expected, therefore, if certain cheques
were made legal tender.

A difficulty does arise, however, where a considerable porti

FW: Electronic Forum at www.globalpublicpolicy.net

[Michael Gurstein]

 
-Original Message-
From: Electronic Forum GPP [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Monday, October 18, 1999 8:08 AM
To: Christina Bishop
Subject: Electronic Forum at www.globalpublicpolicy.net




The Global Public Policy Project 
Invites You to Participate in 
an Electronic Dialogue 
Featuring the Topic of 
International Labor Standards 
 
Click Here
  to
Enter the Forum 
or Go to Our Web Page at 
www.globalpublicpolicy.net  

Greetings from the GPP Team! 


We are launching an electronic dialogue on Monday October 18, 1999. 


Our first topic covers the controversial issue of international labor
standards where we hope to address several questions including: 


*   Should the issue of labor standards be part of the World Trade
Organization negotiations? 

*   Does the International Labor Organization have the capacity to
generate widely accepted international labor standards? 

*   Given that effective international labor standards require the
consent of all interested parties (corporations, workers, international
organizations i.e. the WTO and ILO), how can their equitable representation
or participation be assured? 

*   Can existing organizations accomplish this, or do we need a new
organization? 

We intend the electronic forum to be a place of free and open dialogue.  We
welcome you to raise your own topics or questions in the forum.  You can
even seek advice or help with your research in our researchers'
 bulletin board. 

For more information about our research projects and upcoming events, visit
our web page at  www.globalpublicpolicy.net
  or email us at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
. 


Thanks and hope to see you there! 


The GPP Team 
  

Fw: Dow Jones down by 1,266 points

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: nettime's_roving_reporter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 1999 12:15 AM
Subject:  Dow Jones down by 1,266 points


> 
>
> October 17, 1999
>
> FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>
> Reality Bytes
>
>Is this a story we will read sometime in the next year?
>
>NEW YORK (NYT) -- The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1,266
>points today after Amazon.com announced that it had inadvertently made
>a profit.
>
>After years of having persuaded investors that its business model
>called for it to consistently lose money until it had built up its
>market share, Amazon stunned Wall Street by announcing earnings of 1
>cent per share this quarter on sales of $1.1 trillion, or 10 percent
>of U.S. G.D.P.
>
>The reason these earnings rattled Wall Street was that investors began
>to realize that no matter how big Amazon's market share became its
>profit margins were going to remain razor thin because it is now
>competing with everyone -- not just booksellers. And therefore its
>market capitalization -- the company is valued at more than Fort Knox
>-- was simply not sustainable.
>
>"Pie in the sky is always great as long as the pie remains in the
>sky," said one Wall Street broker, "but when the pie actually comes
>down to earth and you get to see what a real slice looks like -- well,
>you have a problem. Amazon's whole strategy was to keep the pie in the
>sky. But now they've blown it by accidentally making a profit."
>
>The Seattle-based Internet retailer issued a statement following its
>quarterly earnings report, saying: "The Amazon board wants to
>apologize to shareholders for completely missing its quarterly loss
>target and inadvertently making a profit. The board has been assured
>by management that this problem will be rectified in the coming
>quarter. Amazon intends to increase both its advertising budget and
>the number of books it will sell at a loss to insure that it returns
>to unprofitability by the next quarter. Our shareholders can rest
>assured that our primary goal remains market share and our business
>motto remains: 'Amazon.com: We took the 'E' out of P/E.' "
>
>Said one Wall Street Internet analyst: "Look, I believe the Internet
>changes everything. I've taken the Kool-Aid. But I think the question
>of whether Jeff Bezos [Amazon's founder] will ever make the massive
>profits that his stock price implies is really uncertain."
>
>It will depend on at least three things, the analyst said. The first
>is, Are Amazon's competitors dead or are they just behind? Has Mr.
>Bezos killed Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Borders, Toys "R" Us
>and Circuit City -- all of which he is now competing against? Or, has
>he just showed them the power of the Internet as a retailing tool and
>all these brick-and-mortar companies will now become clicks and
>bricks?
>
>"If that is the case," the analyst said, "all Amazon will have done is
>to build market share for the day when its rivals catch up. If it
>hasn't made money up to now, with its huge head start on the Internet,
>how is it going to make big money when the others catch up? The cost
>of switching from Amazon to another retailer is zero on the Internet.
>
>It's just one click. Wal-Mart hasn't even come into cyberspace in any
>serious way yet -- and those guys are meaner than junk-yard dogs. You
>think they're going to let Amazon just put them out of business? No
>way."
>
>The second thing Amazon's future depends on, said this analyst, is
>what inning we are in.
>
>If we are still in the first inning as far as Internet retailing is
>concerned, maybe Amazon, or another Amazon soon to be born, will come
>up with yet another innovation for using the Internet to sell things
>at a profit. But if we are already in, say, the fifth inning, if the
>basic Internet revolution in retailing is now in place and the rest is
>just execution, then the Wal-Marts will eventually learn to execute.
>Amazon might still be a winner -- it is a phenomenal marketer -- but
>not a winner-take-all.
>
>The third unknown, the analyst said, is whether Amazon can use its
>high stock price to buy one or more already profitable
>brick-and-mortar retailer in order to go head to head with Wal-Mart.
>At first people thought all business was moving to the Net; now they
>see that the Net is moving into business. The next big merger wave
>will be between virtual companies and real ones.
>
>"I swear, I thought Bezos' actual plan was to skip making a profit and
>go directly from being an I.P.O. to being an N.G.O. for distributing
>books cheaply," said another analyst. "I don't know what Amazon's

Most young workers have missed out on the boom

[Michael Gurstein]

 Most young workers have missed out on the boom

 By David Moberg, 10/16/99

  he world of work that young people face today is starkly different
from what their parents
  encountered a few decades ago. For the vast majority, it is also
unlike the heavily hyped
 image of youthful ''new media'' or Internet whizzes, bouncing comfortably
from job to job on their
 way to their first million-dollar-stock-option deal.

 Soren Schulien is more typical of the ''entrepreneurial'' young worker. A
25-year-old college
 dropout, he has moved from one part-time service job to another - from Java
Central to Borders
 Books to Havajava Bagel, never making more than $7 an hour, with few or no
benefits. Now he's
 living in a Chicago suburb with his parents (''The number of people I know
who live with their
 parents is insanely high,'' he says), taking technical courses and hoping
to find a better-paying job -
 but far from the Web.

 Schulien wants to clean up hazardous waste, like asbestos, or become an
apprentice electrician. He
 also wants his new job to be unionized. ''I thought if retail workers had a
union, they might make
 more,'' he said, reflecting on his hopes that the union formed at one
Borders store would expand to
 his. ''Now they're completely expendable.''

 The hype is that we have entered a post-industrial knowledge economy, but
three-fourths of
 workers aged 18 to 35, such as Schulien, do not have college degrees. It's
hard to argue against
 more and better education, but one big, largely ignored problem is that the
majority of new jobs
 don't require advanced education - or allow the use of much intelligence on
the job.

 The people filling them are expendable, easily replaceable - depending on
their industry - by
 computers, low-wage workers overseas, desperate immigrants or the churning
sea of other young
 workers.

 Just as American society has grown more unequal over the past quarter
century, there is also a
 widening gulf in the experience of young workers, between those with and
without college degrees.
 Workers without a degree are far more likely than grads to have
substandard, unstable, poorly paid
 jobs.

 According to a recent survey by Peter D. Hart Research, conducted for the
AFL-CIO, 71 percent
 of young college graduates have full-time, permanent jobs, but only half of
young nongraduates do.
 Roughly 62 to 68 percent of young grads earn more than $20,000 a year and
have
 employer-financed retirement and health plans, but only 36 to 39 percent of
nongrads do.

 Young workers are the prime victims of a growing trend toward nonstandard
work - part-time,
 temporary, leased or contract jobs. Half of all temporary workers are 20 to
34 years old,
 according to the Department of Labor, and about one-sixth of young people
will work as a temp
 before they are 35.

 Some nonstandard workers (especially contractors) prefer the flexible
arrangement, but many more
 (including most temps) would prefer a full-time, permanent job, which
almost always pays
 significantly better in wages and benefits.

 Despite divergent experiences of young workers, they all share something in
common: No matter
 what their education or occupation, they are likely to be making much less
than their counterparts
 did two decades ago. Even young technicians made 9 percent less in 1996
than in 1979, adjusting
 for inflation, but the noncollege workers suffered a bigger hit. Young
skilled or semi-skilled factory
 workers make one-fourth less, compared to the late 1970s, and laborers make
about 30 percent
 less. Education helps the young worker in the job market, but even college
can't compensate for the
 forces of globalization, corporate downsizing, anti-unionism and
laissez-faire government that are
 squeezing most Americans' incomes.

 As they watch the top 1 percent prosper (chief executive pay is up 480
percent since 1990, the
 S&P 500 index up 224 percent), young workers are even more likely than
older ones - 77 percent
 of those under 24, according to Hart, compared with 67 percent over 35 - to
think that America's
 wealth is unfairly distributed.

 They also view unions more favorably than older workers, and 54 percent
told the Hart pollsters
 that they would probably or definitely vote for a union, compared to 36
percent of workers over
 35.

 They also want government to play a bigger role in raising standards for
corporations and providing
 education, child care, health insurance, and a higher minimum wage.

 Despite boom times, work for most young Americans in the ''new economy'' is
looking pretty old,
 even if they use computers or wear ''business casual'' to work. Indeed,
they're looking a lot like
 jobs before the labor movement lifted standards for most workers earlier in
this century.

 That may help explain why, even though unions are unfamiliar, young workers
such as Schulien are
 increasingly concluding that there's nothing hip about being stuck in lousy
jobs while a few people at
 the top get rich.

Fw: ER9910-#1 Are We Missing a Heaven-sent Opportunity?

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Silver Donald Cameron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 5:29 AM
Subject: ER9910-#1 Are We Missing a Heaven-sent Opportunity?


> Greetings all:
>
> The newsletter which follows is a fairly technical economists' publication
> which I (sometimes) wrestle my way through with some difficulty. (Not all
> its issues are technical or difficult.) But Mr. Krehm seems to know his
> stuff, and the lunacy of recording the government's acquisition of, say,
an
> office building on the books at $1, and writing it off in one year, flies
> in the face of everything I understand about intelligent accounting
> practices.
>
> Krehm has often made the point that poor accounting has sustained poor
> financial policy, which in turn has supported the structural changes which
> are causing us all so much grief.
>
> What follows are two issues of the newsletter -- one from two months ago
> announcing an important change in the way the government keeps its books,
> and a current one commenting on the failure of people like us to grasp
what
> the means,  and to take action.
>
> I'm thinking of trying to sort my way through this current change in
> accounting procedures in Ottawa and doing a column on it. Any comments
> which might help me?
>
> Cheers,
> Don
>
> >WELCOME
> >
> >
> >  Welcome to erMail, the email subscription service of the
> >Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER). Thank you for your
> >interest.
> >  erMail is the electronic edition of "Economic Reform," COMER's
> >print edition monthly journal. erMail contains article extracts from the
> >monthly print issues, and may occasionally include additional material.
> >  You are receiving this electronic service currently to
> >encourage wider distribution of COMER material, with its timely
> >commentary on economic and monetary matters not necessarily found in the
> >mainstream press, but equally valid and necessary to public debate and
> >discussion.
> >  This complimentary distribution is subject to change at any
> >time.
> >  You may re-distribute this message. Proper acknowledgement is
> >appreciated.
> >
> >  Also note that this message may be forwarded. Please check the
> >header information carefully before sending a message to COMER to
> >request removal.
> >
> >Subscribe:
> >mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=subscribe
> >Unscubscribe:
> >mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe
> >
> 
> Capital Budgeting at Long Last Limps into Ottawa
> 
> Ideological bias postponed the arrival of capital budgeting to Ottawa
> for forty years after Royal Commissions and occasional auditors-general
> had recommended it. That meant that when the federal government acquired
> a building or equipment that was bound to last for years, its total
> purchase price or cost would be written off in the year of acquisition.
> Underlaying this non-accountancy was the deeply rooted prejudice that
> governments could do nothing but waste money and hence were not really a
> serious part of the economy. On the balance sheet of the government
> should the cost of such capital assets was shown as debt, but there was
> no asset on the other side of the sheet to balance against this.
>
>   In the second issue of ER (then known as Comer Comments) in
> the fall of 1988 wrote: "Today the federal government has no capital
> budget. The public accounts...are a cash-flow exercise. It writes off
> purchases of land, buildings and equipment in a single year."
>
>   Were private firms allowed such write-offs they would have to
> hoist their prices drastically. There is no reason to believe that such
> flawed accountancy has a different effect on the public sector.
>
>   The resistance of the government to carrying out the
> recommendations was disastrous for the country. During the sixties vast
> investments had been made in physical and human capital. To educate the
> baby boomers who were reaching post-secondary schooling age new
> university and college campuses sprang up throughout the land. The
> health and social insurance welfare systems were brought in. Inevitably
> this involved immense capital investments, and writing them off in a
> single year could only push up prices. Trying to pay for the
> infrastructure for these or even writing off the increased stock of
> education in a single year loaded prices needlessly with taxation.
> Monetarist ideology ensconced in the Bank of Canada exploited the price
> rise that began in the sixties without even to push up interest rates to
> the mid-twenties in the early 1980s. That created the jump in the
> federal debt, that in term served as a pretext for keeping interest
> rates high.
>
>   T

FW: Today's Times on WTO Protests

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: Susan Hunt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 1999 7:12 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Today's Times on WTO Protests


FYI. -- Susan Hunt

THE TEXT OF FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS:
> Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 01:24:28 -0400
> From: Mike Dolan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Today's Times
>
> 1678 words about the Mobilization against Corporate Globalization in the
> venerable NYT.
>
> October 13, 1999
> New York Times
>
> For Seattle, Triumph and Protest
> By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK
>
> EATTLE -- When Seattle beat 40 other U.S. cities early this year for the
> right to be the host of a meeting of the world's governing trade
> organization, local leaders were exultant. Here in what is often called
the
> most trade-dependent region of the nation, they said the conference would
be
> a chance to showcase Seattle as a world-class center of high-tech
innovation
> and a friend to global trade.
>
> All that may still happen when 5,000 delegates and dignitaries from 134
> nations -- including President Clinton -- gather to start a new round of
> global trade negotiations here in November. Those negotiations will
> encompass some of the most politically sensitive issues facing the world's
> trading nations, including rules on agriculture and new technologies. But
it
> is increasingly clear that the largest free-trade meeting ever held in
this
> country has also become a giant protest magnet for a broad array of
> environmental, labor and other groups that say the trade body is a
handmaid
> to corporate interests whose authority should be sharply curtailed.
>
> Three hundred groups are vowing to bring 50,000 people or more to downtown
> Seattle to picket, demonstrate, hold teach-ins and cause general
disruption
> during the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 meeting that could turn the city's streets into
a
> carnival of protest and, perhaps, a morass of gridlock.
>
> It is a sign of how crucial trade issues have become to average people
that
> a meeting once might have excited only policy experts now has drawn the
> attention of a cross-section of America that includes farmers, fishermen
and
> assembly-line workers.
>
> The W.T.O. has already been entangled in spats over items that include
> Caribbean-grown bananas, hormone-fed beef from the United States, gas
> refined in Venezuela and Japanese imported liquor.
>
> Even more contentious issues loom: over loss of price supports for
American
> farmers and over rulings about what kinds of genetically modified foods
> countries can offer to consumers on supermarket shelves.
>
> Underlying all the individual issues is a fundamental disagreement about
the
> proper role of the trade organization. Proponents say it serves a crucial
> role in bolstering the world economy by tearing down trade barriers all
over
> the globe. But opponents believe that the W.T.O. is using its power as an
> arbiter in trade disputes to systematically undermine laws passed by
various
> countries to promote health, food safety, environmental protection and
> better working conditions.
>
> It is from those diverse concerns that a vigorous protest movement has
> emerged. Just how extensive or disruptive any protests will be is
difficult
> to gauge, partly because even the groups themselves, more than 300 at
latest
> count, are not exactly of one mind. Some say they have no plans to be
unduly
> raucous and simply want their perspective to be heard by the trade
> negotiators, while others are boasting that their goal is to bring the
city
> to a standstill with guerrilla-like tactics like scaling skyscrapers to
> unfurl huge banners, lying in the street to stop traffic or chaining
> themselves to buildings and trees.
>
> But the city is already budgeting $6 million for a major security
operation
> and Mayor Paul Schell, noting the potential for disruption, has taken to
> joking: "I'm hoping for rain, frankly." While Seattle is indeed likely to
> get some rain at that time of year, it may not dampen the fervency of the
> protesters.
>
> "I'm in the camp that wants to shut the W.T.O. down," explained John
> Sellers, director of the Ruckus Society of Berkeley, Calif., which
recently
> helped to lead what was called a "Globalize This!" training session for
> protesters at a farm near the Cascade Mountains, outside Seattle.
>
> "I think this is the largest gathering of unaccountable corporate power
that
> has ever occurred on this planet, and it should be stopped," said Sellers,
> who described his group as "open to work with anyone who is working for
> progressive social change on the left side of the spectrum."
>
> In some ways, the protesters have already scored important victories and
in
> Seattle, a city with a long history of union activity and a decidedly
> favorable bent toward environmental causes, they are clearly generating
some
> sympathy. The local King County Council, for instance, recently haggled
over
> and nearly failed to approve wording for a routine resolution 

Fw: European Jnl of Social Quality

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 1999 3:03 AM
Subject: European Jnl of Social Quality


> Members of the european-social-policy list may be interested in the
following
> new journal, first issue available in December 1999:
>
> THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL QUALITY
> Managing Editor: François Nectoux, Professor of Contemporary European
> Studies, Kingston University.  Published under the auspices of Kingston
> University and in association with the European Foundation of Social
Quality,
> Amsterdam
>
> The European Journal of Social Quality aims to:
>
> Explore practices and discourses on, and to raise crucial issues with
regard
> to, social quality in contemporary societies.
>
> Engage in ongoing debate on perceptions and expectations of social quality
in
> different societies and look at in what way these are affected by factors
> such as religion, class, gender, and others which are shaping individual
and
> group identities.
>
> Evaluate how economic policies or political decisions affect social
quality,
> encourage research that identifies and examines policies and identify and
> access policies that enhance or threaten the quality of life.
>
> Each issue is devoted to a theme selected from key issues, especially
those
> of the evolving new stage of the European Union.  Discussions are
> wide-ranging but will focus on social and political questions, social
> attitudes and cultural issues. Forthcoming themes include: Age and
Autonomy
> and Health and Work.
>
> The first issue of The European Journal of Social Quality will be a
> double-issue including articles as follows:
> Social Quality and the Future of the European Union - Professor Alan
Walker,
> Dr Wolfgang Beck and Dr Laurent van der Maesen
> Politics and Policy of Social Quality - Professor Göran Therborn
> The 3rd Sector and Social Quality in the EU - reflections on the
perspectives
> of NGO's in the process of European Integration - Dr Peter Hermann
> The Social Market, the Social Quality, and the Quality of Social
Institutions
> - Dr Ota de Leonardis
> Economic Restructuring: the impact on Social Life: Fate or Choice? -
> Professor Jan Berting and Professor Christiane Villain-Gandossi
> Social Quality in Everyday Life: changing European experiences of
employment,
> family and community - Dr Sue Yeandle
> Social Quality - a new Concern in Hungary - Dr Zsuzsa Széman
>
> EDITORIAL BOARD
> Professor Chung-Si Ahn, Seoul National University; Professor Jean L.
Cohen,
> Columbia University, USA; Nr Nick Hewlitt, Oxford Brookes University, UK;
> Professor Jane Jenson, Université de Montréal, Canada; Dr Feiwel
Kupferberg,
> University of Aalborg, Denmark; Professor Dr Graham Lock, Nijmegen
> University, The Netherlands; Laurent van der Maesen, Vrije Universiteit;
> Professor Elisabeth Meehan, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern
Ireland;
> Professor Anne Showstack Sassoon, Kingston University, UK; Professor
Carlota
> Solé, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; Fleur Thomese, Vrije
> Universiteit; Professor Alan Walker, University of Sheffield, UK;
Professor
> Sophie Watson, University of East London, UK.
>
> CONTRIBUTIONS
> The European Journal of Social Quality welcomes submissions for
> consideration.
> Potential contributors of articles should contact:
> François Nectoux, Professor of Contemporary European Studies
> Kingston University
> Penrhyn Road
> Kingston-upon-Thames
> Surrey, KT1 2EE
>
> For subscription rates or further information please contact your nearest
> Berghahn Books office:
> Berghahn Books, UK  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Berghahn Books, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>

FW: [467] ILO-UNAIDS Conference on HIV/AIDS in Namibia

[Michael Gurstein]

-Original Message-
From: AF-AIDS - AF-AIDS [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 1999 11:43 AM
To: AF-AIDS
Subject: [467] ILO-UNAIDS Conference on HIV/AIDS in Namibia


*
'AF-AIDS' is an independent forum provided by
the Fondation du Present http://www.fdp.org
*

Two reports on the ILO & UNAIDS 3-day conference in Windhoek, Namibia, on
the social and labour implications of HIV/AIDS

-
1. From AfricaOnline News:

ILO to Address HIV/AIDS Situation in Africa 
The Media Institute of Southern Africa, October 11, 1999 

Windhoek - The following document was released by Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA): 

Some 80 percent of people aged 20 to 49 in some African countries-or the
majority of economically active adults-are living with HIV/AIDS, strongly
indicating that the pandemic is "affecting and ultimately killing the most
productive members of the labour force" in many African countries with
increasing rapidity, the International Labour Office (ILO) said today. 

In a report to be presented to representatives of government, workers and
employers from sub-Saharan African countries meeting here on the social and
labour effects of HIV/AIDS, the ILO provided a global overview of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic, showing that HIV/AIDS is increasingly threatening all
sectors and levels in the world of work. 

"HIV/AIDS has now become the single most important obstacle to social and
economic progress in many countries in Africa," the report said. "AIDS is no
longer a health problem. It is a development problem with potentially
ominous consequences." 

Added the report: "The true cost of this pandemic is almost incalculable and
its repercussions in terms of deteriorating child survival, diminishing life
expectancy rates, overburdened health care systems, the increasing number of
orphans and substantial financial losses in the business world are
enormous." 

Faced with mounting evidence on the extent of the threat of HIV/AIDS to
economic and social progress in Africa, the ILO will seek to forge a new,
comprehensive strategy aimed at providing a "social vaccine" for sub-Saharan
Africa to slow transmission of HIV and protect and promote the well-being of
those already affected by the disease. 

The meeting was organized in collaboration with the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and stems from calls for urgent action by an
Organization of African Unity (OAU) meeting held here recently. It will be
the first such tripartite conference to gather such a wide range of
representatives of governments, workers, employers from the region. 

"Much of the work in the ILO in the past focussed on rights and
discrimination issues, and much has been done in terms of country or
regional programs, legislation and rights in the workplace," said ILO
Executive Director Mary Chinery-Hesse. "Clearly, more needs to be done. This
is high on the priority list of our Director General, Juan Somavia.
Therefore, we are stating categorically that the ILO will urgently pursue a
wider, more comprehensive and effective strategy on HIV/AIDS in
collaboration with governments, employers and workers." 

HIV/AIDS threat to the world of work:
In past the two decades, nearly 50 million people have been infected with
the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. As of the end of 1998, UNAIDS said over
33 million persons were living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Some 14 million
people have died of AIDS, with some 2.5 million deaths recorded in 1998
alone. 

Of the global total, UNAIDS said 95 percent of all HIV-infected people live
in the developing world. Globally, women comprised 43 percent of all people
over 15 with HIV or AIDS. HIV infections occur at the rate of 11 every
minute of every day. About two-thirds of the world's people with HIV/AIDS-or
22.5 million-live in sub-Saharan Africa. In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and
Zimbabwe, between 20 and 25 percent of all persons aged 15 to 49 are now
infected with HIV or have AIDS, although in some areas infection rates are
as high as 50 percent. 

UNAIDS says that in 1998, 90 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV infections
occurred in Africa, despite the fact that the continent has only 10 percent
of the world's population. Some 95 percent of all AIDS orphans in the
world-children who have lost their mother or both parents before their 15th
birthday-live in Africa. ILO and UNAIDS data indicate that AIDS has now
become the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa, surpassing
malaria. 

An ILO study carried out on the labour force in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia showed that 80 percent of persons infected in those countries are
between the ages of 20 and 49. "In other words, AIDS is affecting and
ultimately killing, the most productive labour within the formal sector.

Fw: (Fwd) Limits of Growth in the US -Hindustan Times Oct 7

[Michael Gurstein]

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Rex Wycherley
> Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 1999 3:01 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list OK-SUSTAINABILITY
> Subject: US economy
>
> The following article was published in an Indian(the Asian
> kind) newspaper.  Just another possible scenario of what will be the
> crash of capitalism.
>
> Note: "Zamindar" means landlord.
>
>Rex
>
> -
>
> Limits of growth in the US(Hindustan Times, October 7, 1999)
> (Bharat Jhunjhunwala)
>
> THERE ARE limits to the present growth of the United States economy
> because it is predicated on a corresponding decline in other industrial
and
> developing countries. Its present growth is akin to a zamindars who has
> first grabbed all the land of the village, and then forced others to sell
> their vegetables cheap to him.
>
> The zamindars prosperity is then but a reflection of the poverty of
> others. So also for the United States. This is the conclusion one is led
to
> from the Trade and Development Report recently released by UNCTAD. The
> revival of the world economy today is entirely dependent on increased
> consumer spending in the US. The buoyant stock market has created a sense
of
> euphoria among the American people: Encouraged by their greater sense of
> wealth, households have increased their net indebtedness to the financial
> sector; consumer credit rose by four per cent in 1997, five per cent in
1998
> and six per cent thereafter, says UNCTAD.  But this buoyancy of the stock
> market is, in part, a result of inflow of global capital into the US
> economy. UNCTAD says that capital flows from Japan and Europe favour
> developed markets, notably that of the United
> States. Normally, such an inflow of foreign capital should overheat the US
> economy and lead to inflation. But this is not taking place because the
> price of imports is declining; For the developing countries as a whole the
> terms of trade fell by more than five per cent per annum during the 1980s.
> The more favourable trend around the mid-1990s has been more that offset
> by large losses since 1996.
> The stable prices have enabled the US to maintain low interest rates and
> this has further buoyed the economy. The present state of the economy,
> therefore, is based on (1) the willingness of US consumers to incur debt;
> (2) inflow of global capital into the US; and (3) declining terms of trade
> against the developing countries. Can this formula be replicated by other
> countries? The answer appears to be in the negative. The Japanese and
> European people do not appear as inclined to borrow.
> Secondly, a buoyant stock market in Japan and Europe will require an
> inflow of global capital. If that were to indeed take place, Japans gain
> would be Americas loss. If stock prices and consumption increases in
> Japan, it will fall in the United States. There will be no global revival.
> The developing countries cannot help either. An important reason of the
> recession in their economies is that their terms of trade are becoming
> adverse. If this were to be reversed and the prices of their exports were
> to rise, then there could certainly be a revival in their economies. But
> in the same breath the terms of trade of the US will become adverse and
> growth will suffer there. The gain of the developing countries will be
> loss of the United States.
> The conclusion is that the US economy is more like that of the zamindar.
> It is buoyant precisely because Japan and Europe are depressed (due to
> outflow of their capital to the US); and developing countries are
> depressed (due to fall in their terms of trade). Nor is the present US
> growth likely to be sustained. First, the declining of prices of commodity
> imports cannot go on indefinitely. Second, the flow of Japanese and
> European wealth into the US cannot take place indefinitely and
> consequently equity prices in the US cannot remain ever buoyant.
> In this circumstance there are two alternatives. One, we can persevere
> with the present strategy of free trade which has led to declining terms
> of trade. This, as pointed out by UNCTAD, has not yielded results for the
> developing countries. Two, we can reject free trade, resort to the
> formation of cartels and try to improve our terms of trade. Cartels would
> be our answer to the non-tariff barriers erected by the industrial
> countries.
> Our gain then will be the United States loss. And, according to UNCTAD, we
> will get four times the capital that we are presently securing from
> foreign investment. The increase in annual foreign exchange earnings from
> removal of non-tariff barriers in the industrial countries could be at
> least four times the annual private capital inflow in the 1990s.
> Once this truth dawns on our economic policy makers and we succeed in
> jacking up the pri

Fw: GPI Exec. Summary

[Michael Gurstein]

>
> GLOBE AND MAIL COLUMN - March 12, 1999[GLOBE 21]
>
> THE GROSS NATIONAL PROBLEM
>
> by Silver Donald Cameron
>
> One of our great hidden plagues is bogus accounting - measurements and
> tallies which are not only misleading but downright damaging.
>
> When an arts group obtains a grant, that's a &"cost&" to government. Yet
> the festival made possible by the grant yields tax revenues - income
taxes,
> entertainment taxes, sales taxes so on -- which often amount to two or
> three times the amount of the grant. The grant proves to be a rather
> brilliant investment which returns 200% or 300% within six months. But
> nobody notices, because the subsidies go out through one agency while the
> revenues come in through others.  Similarly, eliminating the &"cost&" of
> the Cape Breton coal mines also eliminates the industry's substantial
> revenues, leaving a large social cost still to be paid. Ultimately the
> public purse is emptier, not fuller.
>
> Bogus accounting calculates costs or benefits but not both, and often
omits
> important factors altogether. The worst example is the Gross Domestic
> Product -- an important element in our gross national problems -- which
> simply tallies up the value of all goods and services exchanged for money.
> Crime, war, pollution, tobacco smoking, house fires, car accidents - they
> all represent &"progress&" as defined by the GDP.
>
> On the other side of the ledger, a healthy environment, a caring community
> and stable families literally count for nothing. Trees and fish increase
> GDP when they are harvested and processed, but the forests and fisheries
> themselves are assigned no value. Yet when the fisheries collapse and the
> forests vanish, the social and economic loss is staggering. For the GDP,
> the &"cost&" of oil is merely  the cost of pumping it out of the ground;
> the intrinsic value of an irreplaceable resource never enters the
> calculation. That's like selling off your house board by  board and
> recording the proceeds as income.
>
> We wouldn't run our households this way. How can we run our country this
> way? Or our world?
>
> Happily, GPI Atlantic of Hackett's Cove, NS, a non-profit research group
> funded by Statistics Canada and the Nova Scotia Departments of Economic
> Development and Environment, is constructing an alternative. Unlike the
> GDP, the Genuine Progress Index measures development in terms of
> sustainability, and incorporates the difficult questions of value which
are
> ignored by the religion of economic growth.
>
> The GPI pilot project is directed by Dr. Ronald Colman, an economist. Its
> basic approach is &"full-cost accounting,&" which translates social and
> environmental benefits and costs into monetary terms, and assigns negative
> value to negative things. The GPI recognizes four forms of capital:
> natural, human, social and &"produced&" capital. &"A depletion of any form
> of capital,&" says Colman, &"imperils the future flow of services, and
> re-investment in all four forms of capital is necessary for economic
> health.&"
>
> Colman lists four clusters of underlying values which together describe
> sustainable development: security of the person, equity (among living
> people, and also between generations), environmental quality, and &"other
> human and social values,&" including freedom, knowledge and &"the social
> caring capacity of a community.&" The GPI thus deducts the costs of crime
> and pollution, but includes such assets as the intrinsic value of
> unprocessed natural resources and the economic value of  parenting,
> housework, and community service.  Even the early results are arresting.
In
> a 1998 report, GPI evaluated volunteer work in Nova Scotia at nearly $1.9
> billion a year -- as much as the whole Atlantic Groundfish Strategy. Last
> month, it reported a decline of 7.2% (a $60 million loss) between 1987 and
> 1997, attributable largely to growing time pressures resulting from
> downsizing and cutbacks.
>
> The GPI acknowledges realities which elude traditional economic
> measurements. Although a crime wave may boost the sales of security
> systems, crime makes life worse, not better. California lettuce can be
> competitively priced in Nova Scotia, Colman notes, only if one ignores
> &"the true costs of transportation, the cost of greenhouse gas and other
> emissions from refrigerated trucks and warehouse, soil erosion from
> monoculture growing methods, the health effects of pesticide residues, the
> loss of local jobs, the loss of potential local inputs into production.&"
> Those are real costs, and sooner or later all of us will have to pay them.
>
> The GPI &"is not rocket science,&" says Colman. &"It is street-sense
> economics.&" As Robert Kennedy once remarked, the GDP &"measures
everything
> except that which makes life worthwhile.&" The GPI, by contrast, measures
> our advances toward a future we might genuinely wish to inhabit. The
> agencies which fund it have shown an uncommon level of co

Fw: Fw: Terminator's termination backgrounder (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message -
From: Emilie Nichols <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 1999 8:00 AM
Subject: Fw: Terminator's termination backgrounder (fwd)


> -Original Message-
> From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: unlikely.suspects:; 
> Date: Sunday, October 10, 1999 12:21 AM
> Subject: Terminator's termination backgrounder (fwd)
>
>
> >Thanks KarlW
> >
> >
> >Guardian Specials on GM
> >
> >How Monsanto's mind was changed
> >
> >In spring the US giant was sure its GM technology was unbeatable. Then
one
> >man convinced the organisation that the game was up
> >
> >GM food: special report
> >
> >John Vidal
> >Guardian (London) Saturday October 9, 1999
> >
> >On July 14 a group of powerful Americans met secretly at the Willard
hotel
> >near the White House to listen to an English academic who had spent much
> >of his life working in developing countries with peasant farmers.
> >
> >The nine members of the Monsanto board of directors have serious
political
> >clout. Apart from Robert Shapiro, the visionary head of the $12bn a year
> >corporation, and senior bankers and Harvard academics, it includes Mickey
> >Kantor, former head of the US commerce department, and the former heads
of
> >the US social security department and the US environmental protection
> >agency.
> >
> >They were there to meet Gordon Conway, the president of the Rockefeller
> >Foundation in New York, whose remit is to help the world's disadvantaged.
> >Mr Shapiro, who vows he is working for the world's poor with GM foods,
had
> >invited Professor Conway, formerly vice chancellor of Sussex university,
> >to address the board as part of the corporation's commitment to consult
> >more widely following the GM furore in Europe sparked by the so-called
> >Terminator gene.
> >
> >Because Rockefeller had put more than $100m into public research into GM
> >crops, Prof Conway was thought to be an ally; he was expected to make a
> >friendly, gentlemanly speech, perhaps with some mild advice, that would
go
> >no further than the four walls of the Willard.
> >
> >But privately, Prof Conway, along with increasing sections of the US
> >intellectual community, deplored the corporation's style and global
> >strategy.
> >
> >Meltdown of confidence
> >
> >In Europe it had alienated millions, he believed, and was threatening a
> >trade war and long term damage to the prospects of the poor. The
> >corporation with a reputation for arrogance and secrecy was seen to be
> >responsible for a meltdown of confidence in science and big business and
a
> >backlash against US agriculture. Moreover, Monsanto's effective ownership
> >of Terminator technology would allow the corporation, the second biggest
> >agribusiness in the world, to develop plants that bore sterile seeds - a
> >move that had angered farmers in the developing world.
> >
> >Prof Conway had given Monsanto little warning, even when he had visited
> >the company's St Louis HQ a few weeks earlier. But at the Willard he went
> >straight for Monsanto's guts. For more than a hour, the professor
lectured
> >the board: change tack, or bring the wrath of the scientific, political,
> >and global community down on them.
> >
> >"Admit that you do not have all the answers," he said. "Commit yourselves
> >to prompt, full, and honest sharing of data. This is not the time for a
> >new PR offensive but for a new relationship based on honesty, full
> >disclosure, and a very uncertain shared future."
> >
> >Prof Conway argued that the possible adverse consequences for billions of
> >developing world farmers outweighed any social benefits in protecting the
> >Terminator technology. What the Terminator gene did, he said, was
> >effectively kill the process that let farmers sow their own seeds, and
> >subsistence farmers were too poor to buy new seed. The possible
> >consequences were terrible. In short, he told them, Monsanto was socially
> >irresponsible and the public was alienated. He urged a "global public
> >dialogue" that would air all sides of the issues.
> >
> >Terse statement The board were shocked. But they did not suspect that
Prof
> >Conway had warned the press what he intended to say. Within hours
> >Rockefeller had issued seven challenges to Monsanto. "It was like a boil
> >had been lanced, a milestone,"  said one person who was party to the
> >talks. "Someone in authority had for the first time held this monolithic
> >corporation up to public accountability." Monsanto was furious, and
issued
> >a terse statement: "The meeting was frank and productive. We will
continue
> >to reach out to people like Prof Conway to discuss the challenges and
> >opportunities of biotechnology applications in agriculture."
> >
> >The Conway meeting was seminal. Until then, about the only genuine
> >"reaching out" the company had done was to its lawyers, publicists,
> >lobbyists, and friends in governments. It had dismissed the social and
> >ethical critiques of environment, church

FW: [mai] French Unite Against U.S. Trade Domination - The Times(UK) (fwd)]

[Michael Gurstein]

Also check out the "slow food movement" in Italy...

http://detnews.com/1998/accent/9808/06/08060037.htm

MG

-Original Message-
From: Doug Hunt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 11:52 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [mai] French Unite Against U.S. Trade Domination - The
Times(UK) (fwd)]


The Times (UK)  September 24, 1999

FRENCH UNITE AGAINST U.S. TRADE DOMINATION

From Charles Bremner in Paris

The frontline troops in a rising French revolt against American
trade practices mustered in central Paris last night, sending a warning
shot to Washington and their own Government.

Small farmers, leftwing politicians, union leaders and green
activists united in a show of force to demand a halt to what is
increasingly seen in France as an American-led drive to rob nations of
their livelihood and identity under the banner of free trade.

The grassroots movement springs from old-fashioned French
antipathy towards American methods, especially over food and
entertainment. Seen from Paris, the anger over "globalisation" has the
feel of a Luddite rural revolt at a time when the country is reaping the
fruits of growth and booming exports. However, the simmering
rebellion has caught the Government offguard and seems to be
gathering momentum as a political force two months ahead of talks
on a new world trade pact.

The spur was a series of protests by small farmers against outlets
of the McDonald's restaurant giant in late August. The farmers were
angry over American sanctions against French food imports, imposed
in retaliation for Europe's ban on US hormone-fed beef.

To popular acclaim, the farmers have been calling for a national
struggle against "le mal bouffe" (lousy grub), which they say is being
foisted on France by American industrial interests. Jose BovT, the
moustachioed hero of the peasant-farmers revolt, was the star at last
night's Paris rally to denounce the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
as a plot to "enslave political power permanently to the interests of
transnational business".

Le Figaro said that the rebellion was "not folklore" but was the
sign of growing determination by people to retain their sense of
identity and quality of life. "Faced with the tyranny of modernity, the
revolt invites the powerful to obey morality and good sense."

With public alarm growing over genetically modified crops and
American-led "globalisation" of trade and culture, Jacques Chirac, the
Gaullist President, and Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Prime Minister, are
competing with tough postures ahead of the WTO negotiations in
Seattle on November 30. M Jospin promised last week: "We will be
extremely firm in the defence of our national interests and those of
the European community. We will make sure that the WTO embraces
the new problems of food safety and the environment."

M Jospin's stance is in part a response to growing discontent in
his own leftwing camp over what is seen as his surrender to the
principles of the "Anglo-Saxon" free market.

Taking a tough line at the United Nations this week, M Jospin
warned Washington that markets should not rule untrammelled and
world trade must be regulated for the benefit of all states.
...

Re: request for resouces

[Michael Gurstein]

Hi Anne,

You might like to take a look at the work that is coming out of the CED
program at the University College of Cape Breton a particularly the book "A
Roundtable on CED", edited by Gertrude MacIntyre (conflict alert:  I have a
paper in there) and published by UCCB Press.

Also, when I get my web-site transferred over, the work that we did with the
Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking at UCCB and the various
papers that came out of that work would probably be of interest.

Regs

Mike Gurstein
TechBC


- Original Message -
From: Anne Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 11:36 AM
Subject: request for resouces


>
> Hello
> I'm an adult educator following a graduate program in Community Economic
> Development at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC.  I'm hoping to
hear
> some thoughts on good literature to help me address a question I'm posing.
> My question is grounded in rural communities in transition.  The economies
> of small rural communities are often based upon single industries, which
of
> late, have been collapsing in record numbers.  These communities,
struggling
> for survival, are eager to change their traditional livelihoods to
something
> that promises to be more viable.  CED interventions demonstrate that this
> transition from one economy to another [or others] has had varied success.
> CED strategies and models in themselves are not enough to ensure that an
> intervention will be successful.  My question then is:
>
> What critical issues, factors and questions must be considered at this
time
> of transition to enable a small rural community to make a successful
> transition to a new economy?
>
> If anyone has any ideas about particular resources- books, journals,
> articles, and resource people - I would appreciate hearing about them.
>
> Anne Miller
>
>
>

Fw: The Swedish Ideology

[Michael Gurstein]

If anyone has been trying
 to send me an email please note my new e-address [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tks

Mike Gurstein

- Original Message -
From: t byfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Nettime <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 9:12 AM
Subject:  The Swedish Ideology


> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990921/od/yucca_1.html
>
> Yucca Plant Branches Out Into Stock Market
>
> STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A yucca plant is the latest investor on the
> Stockholm stock exchange, issuing buy and sell orders on the exchange's 16
> most traded shares.
>
> Swedish artist Ola Pehrson has attached electrodes to the plant's leaves
> and, through a sensor, can feel the plant's growth with movements linked
> to a computer program tracking the 16 most active stocks.
>
> When the yucca's stock recommendations perform better than the bourse's
> general index, it is given water and light.
>
> If the plant fails to deliver profits, it stays dry and in the dark.
>
> The yucca is part of an exhibition by seven Swedish artists in Stockholm.
>
>
> #  distributed via : no commercial use without permission
> #   is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
> #  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
> #  more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
> #  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>

Call for Papers- Baitworm Conference (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

From: Carol Brouillet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Call for Papers- Baitworm Conference

>> > Subject: Call for Papers - Baitworm Conference
>
> C A L L   F O R   C O N F E R E N C E   P A P E R S/ P R O P O S A L S
>
> SCIENCE AS IF THE WORLD MATTERED
>
> From May 10-13, 2000, the BAITWorM (Biology As If the World
> Mattered)Network will be hosting its first conference at the Ontario
> Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
> (OISE/UT).
>
> Biological science has brought us some wonderful insights:
> understanding of ecology, developments in medicine, the ability to grow
> food, and so on. But many scientists are increasingly worried that
> biological research is becoming hermetic: concerned with technical
> detail to the detriment of the big picture; not responsive to human
> needs; controlled by the agendas of pharmaceutical companies and
> chemical manufacturers in the rich nations of the North.
>
> We are professors in the natural and social sciences, women's studies
> and health professions who are committed to doing and teaching "science
> as if the world mattered." In this spirit, we invite traditional paper
> or poster proposals or innovative formats on the following topics,
> around which sessions will be organized:
>
> *genetically-modified crops/food
> *women and science
> *indigenous science
> *doing feminist science
> *teaching feminist science
> *sustainable science and professions
> *animal-human relationships in science
> *anti-racist,anti-sexist science
> *local/global knowledge
> *scientific literacy
> *science citizenship & democracy
> *spirituality & science
> *ecofeminism
> *environmental justice
> *worker science
> *methodology & science
> *science secrecy, intellectual property
> *public vs. private science
> *utopian and feminist science fiction
> *the cultural production of the scientist
> *critique of technoscience
> *academic science and globalization
> *how humans relate to nature
>
> Application may be made for partial reimbursement of travel expenses,
> with graduate students having priority.
>
> DEADLINE: 1 November, 1999
>
> The title, abstract and an accompanying one-page vitae should be sent
> (preferably by email) to the Conference Co-ordinator:
>
> Dr. Linda Muzzin, Higher Education Group,
> Theory & Policy Studies in Education,
> OISE/University of Toronto,
> 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto ON
> M5S 1V6
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> vmail: (416) 923-6641 Ext. 4490
> fax: (416) 926-4741
>
> For more on BAITWorM, see our webpage,
> http://vm1.mcgill.ca/~inmf/http/baitworm.html

Fw: The Criminal Element

[Michael Gurstein]

- Original Message - 
From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 5:04 PM
Subject: The Criminal Element


> 
> The Criminal Element
> By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
> 
> The criminal element has seeped deep into every nook and cranny of
> American society.
>  
> Forget about the underworld -- these crooks dominate every aspect of
> our market, culture, and politics.
>  
> They cast a deep dark shadow over life in turn of the century
> America.
>  
> We buy gas from them (Exxon, Chevron, Unocal).
>  
> We take pictures with their cameras and film (Eastman Kodak).
>  
> We drink their beer (Coors).
>  
> We buy insurance from them to guard against financial catastrophe if
> we get sick (Blue Cross Blue Shield).
>  
> And then when we get sick, we buy pharmaceuticals from them (Pfizer,
> Warner Lambert, Ortho Pharmaceuticals).
>  
> We do our laundry washers and dryers from them (General Electric).
>  
> We vacation with them (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines).
>  
> We buy our food from them (Archer Daniels Midland, Southland, Tyson
> Foods, U.S. Sugar).
>  
> We drive with them (Hyundai) and fly with them (Korean Air Lines).
>  
> All of these companies and more turned up on Corporate Crime
> Reporter's list of the Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s,
> released
> this past week at a news conference at the National Press Club.
>  
> Standing before a roomful of reporters and cameras (including a
> C-Span camera which took us live to our TV nation), we made the
> following
> points:
>  
> Every year, the major business magazines put out their annual surveys
> of big business in America.
>  
> You have the Fortune 500, the Forbes 400, the Forbes Platinum 100,
> the International 800 -- among others.
>  
> These lists rank big corporations by sales, assets, profits and
> market share. The point of these surveys is simple -- to identify and
> glorify the biggest and most profitable corporations.
>  
> The point of releasing The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade,
> on the other hand, was to focus public attention on the pervasive
> criminality that has corrupted the marketplace and that is given little
> sustained attention and analysis by politicians and news outlets.
>  
> To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, we used the
> most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have
> pled
> guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined. And
> still,
> with the most narrow and conservative of definitions of corporate crime,
> we came up with society's most powerful actors.
>  
> Six corporations that made the list of the Top 100 Corporate
> Criminals were criminal recidivist companies during the 1990s.
>  
> Exxon, Royal Caribbean, Rockwell International, Warner-Lambert,
> Teledyne, and United Technologies each pled guilty to more than one
> crime
> during the 1990s.
>  
> And we warned that we in no way imply that these corporations are in
> any way the worst or have committed the most egregious crimes.
>  
> We did not try to assess and compare the damage committed by these
> corporate criminals or by other corporate wrongdoers.
>  
> We warned that companies that are criminally prosecuted represent
> only the tip of a very large iceberg of corporate wrongdoing.
>  
> For every company convicted of health care fraud, there are hundreds
> of others who get away with ripping off Medicare and Medicaid, or face
> only mild slap-on-the-wrist fines and civil penalties when caught.
>  
> For every company convicted of polluting the nation's waterways,
> there are many others who are not prosecuted because their corporate
> defense lawyers are able to offer up a low-level employee to go to jail
> in
> exchange for a promise from prosecutors not to touch the company or
> high-level executives.
>  
> For every corporation convicted of bribery or of giving money
> directly to a public official in violation of federal law, there are
> thousands who give money legally through political action committees to
> candidates and political parties. They profit from a system that
> effectively has legalized bribery.
>  
> For every corporation convicted of selling illegal pesticides, there
> are hundreds more who are not prosecuted because their lobbyists have
> worked their way in Washington to ensure that dangerous pesticides
> remain
> legal.
>  
> For every corporation convicted of reckless homicide in the death of
> a worker, there are hundreds of others that don't even get investigated
> for reckless homicide when a worker is killed on the job. Only a few
> district attorneys across the country (Michael McCann, the DA in
> Milwaukee
> County, Wisconsin, being one) regularly investigate workplace deaths as
> homicides.
>  
> We pointed out that corporations define the laws under which t

A Law and Order Regulation for Corporations (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 17:39:01 -0700
From: Paul Adler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: A Law and Order Regulation for Corporations

For your amusement, I pass this along:

A Law and Order Regulation for Corporations
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

If you commit a felony, you lose the right to vote.

What happens to corporations that break the law? They don't have the right
to vote. But do they lose any rights or privileges?

In what may be one of its most important corporate accountability
initiatives (there haven't been many), the Clinton administration is
suggesting that chronic violators of labor, environmental, tax, antitrust
or employment laws should be denied the privilege of entering contracts
with the federal government.

Vice President Gore first floated the idea in a 1997 speech to the
AFL-CIO. A business outcry persuaded the administration to put the
proposal on hold, but two years later it decided to move forward.

In July the administration proposed regulations that would clarify federal
procurement officers' duty to ensure that government contractors have a
"satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics." Under the
regulations, corporations that repeatedly or seriously transgress worker
rights, health, safety, environmental, tax or antitrust laws would be
deemed ineligible for federal government contracts.

Big business is up in arms about the proposal -- a sign that it may be of
consequence. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with an alphabet-soup full
of business trade associations have organized the National Alliance
Against Blacklisting to block the proposal.

The Alliance is planning a full-blown campaign against the regulations. It
is revving up arguments about how the regulations would bestow on
procurement officers the power to act arbitrarily, how corporations could
be unfairly penalized for failing to comply with confusing and technical
federal rules, and how the regulations improperly side the federal
government with labor in labor-management disputes.

The business groups are right about one thing: the Clinton administration
has hit upon a potentially powerful tool to discipline large corporations.

The federal government spends approximately $200 billion a year on
procurement, buying goods and services from firms that employ
approximately 20 percent of the U.S. workforce. Government contracts make
up a significant revenue stream for many firms, including many of the
largest companies in the country. In refusing to contract with polluting,
consumer-cheating, racially or sexually discriminating, tax-avoiding,
clearcutting, price-fixing and other miscreant companies, the government
can leverage its buying power to promote more responsible corporate
behavior.

Consider the issues of worker rights and worker safety. A 1995 study by
the General Accounting Office (GAO), the congressional research agency,
found that 80 federal contractors, receiving more than $23 billion in
federal government business in fiscal year 1993, had violated the National
Labor Relations Act. Six contractors -- McDonnell Douglas, Westinghouse,
Raytheon, United Technologies, AT&T and Fluor -- received almost 90
percent of the $23 billion.

A 1996 GAO study found that 261 federal contractors, receiving more than
$38 billion in federal government business in fiscal year 1994, received
penalties of at least $15,000 for violating Occupational Safety and Health
Act regulations. The biggest of these contractors included General
Electric, Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, United Technologies, General
Motors, Boeing and Textron.

The current U.S. labor law regime imposes virtually no meaningful
penalties on businesses that violate worker rights. The standard sanction
imposed against a company that fires a worker for supporting a union is an
order to reinstate the worker with back pay -- there are no punitive
damages available. Serious violators of workplace health and safety
regulations typically walk away with small fines.

By contrast, the threat of losing major government contracts is a much
more serious and costly penalty. The proposed procurement regulations
would make federal contractors much more wary of recklessly disregarding
worker rights and worker safety.

Given the generally weak penalties for corporate law-breaking in the
United States, the same holds in other spheres. Too frequently,
corporations are able to brush off fines and sanctions for law-breaking.

When corporations calculate, overtly or implicitly, whether they should
respect the law, they consider the odds of getting caught and the size of
the likely penalty if they are caught. Other factors go into such
decisions of course -- potential civil liability, the social pressure to
comply with the law or simple respect for the law -- but no one seriously
doubts that enforcement vigor and the size of sanctions affect corporate
adherence to the law.

If the regulation, really a very

Re: Science Proves Money Makes You Stupid *8-/ (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

A lot of systems use motivators other than financial ones--religious
faith, ideological zeal, family/love relations, communal/ethnic/tribal
ties (and not surprising pace the 10,000 year history of the creative arts
and starving artists--creato-endorphins).

There are those who argue (cf. Sorokin following Kropotkin following
Tolstoy) that contemporary "material/capitalist" incentive structures are
in fact, the overwhelming historical exception.

The Free Software/Linux phenomenon should probably be seen as a very
contemporary exemplar of these older/alternative traditions.  

If anyone is interested in some extremely interesting playing out of
contemporary "value wars" see the "Linux Geeks meet E-Trade" (Red Hat does
an IPO) playing on a website near you e.g. www.slashdot.org, and
www.salon.org.  It's not quite the Roundheads vs. the Cavaliers, or
"Braveheart" but it is a "Matrix" for those of us stuck with literal
thinking processes.

M

On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Thomas Lunde wrote:

>Thomas:
>
>The following article provides  a most interesting set of observations.  It
>has long been a given truth that rewards are the motivators that increase
>performance, creativity and productivity - that is why we give CEO's such
>big bucks - it apparently makes them more creative - ha.
>
>If there is one tentative conclusion that might be drawn from this article,
>it is that perhaps a Basic Income might release a considerable amount of
>creativity.  Yes, we all need some money to exchange for goods and services,
>that is the token our economic system has devised to determine value and
>keep track of costs and profits.  However, when the striving for more tokens
>begins to exceed the pleasures of doing what interests you, then it seems
>apparent that what interests you becomes of secondary importance and value
>thereby decreases.  We might say that using money as a motivator dumbs you
>down.
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Thomas Lunde
>--
>
>
>--
>>From: Michael Gurstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>To: futurework <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>Subject:  Science Proves Money Makes You Stupid *8-/ (fwd)
>>Date: Wed, Aug 18, 1999, 9:13 AM
>>
>
>>
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:37:26 -0700 (PDT)
>> From: Bruce Sterling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Subject:  Science Proves Money Makes You Stupid *8-/
>>
>> From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> To: "Dave e-mail pamphleteer Farber"
>>
>> Dave: A most interesting article, which to me is the very spirit of The How
>> and The Why the Internet, Linux, etc. came to and continue to be so great.
>> For myself, it is the very core of why I enjoy activities such as DJ'ng
>> (which i don't accept money for) and even why I enjoy playing the stock
>> market so much (just to do it for its own sake, not for the money!). I
>> believe the word for these activities is "Autotelic", meaning "self goals"
>> (as opposes to extotelic "external goals", such as money or other reward).
>> -Geoff
>>
>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/motivation.html
>>
>> Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator
>> Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain
>> By Alfie Kohn
>> Special to the Boston Globe
>> [reprinted with permission of the author
>> from the Monday, 19 January 1987, Boston Globe]
>>
>> In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top students
>> get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get raises. It's an
>> article of faith for most of us that rewards promote better performance.
>>
>> But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as
>> ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that rewards
>> can lower performance levels, especially when the performance involves
>> creativity.
>>
>> A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task - the
>> sense that something is worth doing for its own sake - typically declines
>> when someone is rewarded for doing it.
>>
>> If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to be seen
>> as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed
>> as less enjoyable in its own right.
>>
>> With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence of
>> intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted among
>> psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly be squelching
>> 

Even the London Times thinks there's fun to be had in Seattle(fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 05:01:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "unlikely.suspects":  ;
Subject: Even the London Times thinks there's fun to be had in Seattle

The Times (London) 22 July 1999


Don't risk falling asleep in Seattle

The trouble with the European Union, as we Brits perennially complain, is
that people don't know when to stop. As soon as you agree to pool
sovereignty for a single market, they want monetary union. Then the
establishment pushes some other scheme for ever-closer union.

Now it is happening globally. The multilateral trade system, the world
equivalent of the EU, has become an engine driving us towards a particular
model of a single global economy, engineered in Washington rather than
Brussels.

We are all in favour of stopping France and Germany going to war again,
and have seen in our pockets the great benefits of economic co-operation
in Western Europe. But that wears thin when it comes to regulating paper
rounds or the umpteenth company law directive.

Similarly, we are all in favour of free trade. When the postwar
multilateral trade system was set up, it was designed to outlaw the
nationalistic trade protection that did so much to impoverish people in
the 1930s and to sow the seeds for war in Europe and the Pacific. And the
fruits of freer trade are there for most to see in two generations of
global economic growth.

As in the EU, however, political momentum is in danger of pushing the
trade agenda too fast, if not yet too far. It took eight years to
negotiate an end to most quotas and a step cut in tariffs in the epic
Uruguay round. Five years later it has yet to work properly.

Those EU/US disputes over bananas and beef suggest that the deal was so
complex that even the most clued-up did not know what they were signing.
The farce over electing a new director-general shows that the rules of the
new World Trade Organisation are hopeless. Poorer countries complain that
open trade was promised in textiles but not delivered.

The Asian crash raises worries about financial regulation and huge swings
in exchange rates. America, which has a better record than most, has just
authorised punitive anti-dumping tariffs on all its main steel imports
from all corners of the earth and has slammed lamb quotas on New Zealand,
perhaps the only nation that runs a blameless regime in agriculture.

Clearly, it will take years to make the Uruguay reforms work smoothly, let
alone to earn any respect for a WTO that already needs a rethink. we are
also trying to corral China into the system. On a pure trade view, making
China obey the rules is good for rich and poor traders alike. America
alone is running a $5 billion-a-month trade deficit with the
fastest-growing trade power. But China's entry will require many
adjustments.

Unbelievably, the WTO is about to start a new trade round. By skilful
planning and diplomacy Charlene Barshefsky, America's aggressive Trade
Representative, has cajoled the other members to a meeting at Seattle in
November that she will chair. Barring some last-minute rethink by those
who ought to know better, Seattle will give its name to a new negotiation,
as complex as and far more contentious than the last one. That marathon
ended only when we put off much of the food agenda and services to the
next time. Given the intervening explosion in communications, the
Internet, worries over turning forests into deserts and the implications
of genetically modified crops, that is now too much.

Even that agenda is being expanded to include industrial tariffs as a sop
to developing countries. That embraces forest timber and fisheries, two of
the most environmentally sensitive sectors. Many other testing issues are
fighting to be slipped in, including the imperialistic Multilateral
Agreement on Investment (MAI), which seems to spring back to unwelcome
life however often it is killed off.

The US, EU and Japan have agreed on one thing. The negotiations must end
within three years. That explains the battle over the new
director-general. Under a compromise, America finally managed to shoe in
Mike Moore, the no-nonsense New Zealander it is relying on to knock heads
together, for the crucial first three years. You have to feel sorry for
Supachai Panitchpakdi, the Thai who will then take over for three years.
He would have to enforce a mega-deal just as those press-ganged into
signing find out what they have done.

As a Swiss noted in a recent WTO symposium, trade regulation has now
emerged as the prime instrument of foreign policy. Any dismantling of
barriers now tends to be conditional on non-trade conditions, such as the
regime proposed in the MAI. This foreign policy has also been privatised.

That is why, for instance, America chooses to help domestic lobbies via
retaliatory tariffs against exporters in countries banning its
hormone-assisted beef rather than accept EU compensation. Global
multinationals, though still hugely mistrusted, are now recognised by many
as k

Science Proves Money Makes You Stupid *8-/ (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:37:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bruce Sterling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:  Science Proves Money Makes You Stupid *8-/

From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Dave e-mail pamphleteer Farber" 

Dave: A most interesting article, which to me is the very spirit of The How
and The Why the Internet, Linux, etc. came to and continue to be so great.
For myself, it is the very core of why I enjoy activities such as DJ'ng
(which i don't accept money for) and even why I enjoy playing the stock
market so much (just to do it for its own sake, not for the money!). I
believe the word for these activities is "Autotelic", meaning "self goals"
(as opposes to extotelic "external goals", such as money or other reward).
-Geoff

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/motivation.html

Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator
Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain
By Alfie Kohn
Special to the Boston Globe
[reprinted with permission of the author
from the Monday, 19 January 1987, Boston Globe]

In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom the top students
get A's, and in the factory or office the best workers get raises. It's an
article of faith for most of us that rewards promote better performance.

But a growing body of research suggests that this law is not nearly as
ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been finding that rewards
can lower performance levels, especially when the performance involves
creativity.

A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in a task - the
sense that something is worth doing for its own sake - typically declines
when someone is rewarded for doing it.

If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to be seen
as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed
as less enjoyable in its own right.

With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence of
intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted among
psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may unwittingly be squelching
interest and discouraging innovation among workers, students and artists.

The recognition that rewards can have counter-productive effects is based on
a variety of studies, which have come up with such findings as these: Young
children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely to draw on their own
that are children who draw just for the fun of it. Teenagers offered rewards
for playing word games enjoy the games less and do not do as well as those
who play with no rewards. Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's
expectations suffer a drop in motivation.

Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been performed by
Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at Brandeis University.
In a paper published early last year on her most recent study, she reported
on experiments involving elementary school and college students. Both groups
were asked to make ``silly'' collages. The young children were also asked to
invent stories.

The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers, were done by
those students who had contracted for rewards. ``It may be that commissioned
work will, in general, be less creative than work that is done out of pure
interest,'' Amabile said.

In 1985, Amabile asked 72 creative writers at Brandeis and at Boston
University to write poetry. Some students then were given a list of
extrinsic (external) reasons for writing, such as impressing teachers,
making money and getting into graduate school, and were asked to think about
their own writing with respect to these reasons. Others were given a list of
intrinsic reasons: the enjoyment of playing with words, satisfaction from
self-expression, and so forth. A third  group was not given any list. All
were then asked to do more writing.

The results were clear. Students given the extrinsic reasons not only wrote
less creatively than the others, as judged by 12 independent poets, but the
quality of their work dropped significantly. Rewards, Amabile says, have
this destructive effect primarily with creative tasks, including
higher-level problem-solving. ``The more complex the activity, the more it's
hurt by extrinsic reward,'' she said.

But other research shows that artists are by no means the only ones
affected.

In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored younger children
much less effectively if they were promised free movie tickets for teaching
well. The study, by James Gabarino, now president of Chicago's Erikson
Institute for Advanced Studies in Child Development, showed that tutors
working for the reward took longer to communicate ideas, got frustrated more
easily, and did a poorer job in the end than those who were not rewarded.

Such findings call into question the widespread belief that money is an
effective and even necessary way to motivate people. They also cha

Re: FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of computing (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Hi Ray,

Most of the people doing the software development are students or folks
working in public service contexts or people working on their own time (or
on their employers' time when they might otherwise be playing solitaire
;->

Increasingly though for a variety of reasons, some software and other
.com's are hiring "hackers" and letting them loose... as a sort of "giving
back to the net", p.r., getting the folks inside the tent etc.etc.
(e.g. IBM, O'Reilly, Red Hat etc.)

also...

On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, Ray E. Harrell wrote:

>Just a question.  Who pays the salaries for all of these
>folks doing free things and giving up their ideas for nothing?
>
>We give $123,000 in scholarship awards to worthy
>students and art projects but someone always pays
>the bill.  People do have to eat.
>

The terminology is probably less important here than the process which is
a rather unique one and is well described in a variety of places...

I posted something on this to the list a few weeks ago which can be found
at <http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca/articles/Cathedral.htm>l (a revised version
will be in the September issue of "First Monday"
<http://www.firstmonday.dk>.

If folks are interested in reading more about this, there is more
information in the various URL's cited at the end of this paper or in
the long article in the current Atlantic Monthly 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/99aug/9908linux.htm>

>Also the first post that ascribed this to communism
>seems strange since that involves committees.  It
>seems more accurately to be a Democratic process,
>not unlike the cultures of many pre-Columbian societies
>here.  But there was a social safety net built into the
>religion and family structure to protect those who
>"gave away".  By the way the word for a process that
>ascribes more value to giving away that to accrual is
>called a "potlatch."Maybe they should call the answer
>to Inktomi, (the Lakota word for the spider trickster)
>potlatch.

M
>
>REH
>
>Michael Gurstein wrote:
>
>> more...
>>
>> M
>> -- Forwarded message --
>> Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 17:22:43 +1000 (EST)
>> From: Ian Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: john courtneidge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Cc: econ-lets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: Re: FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of
>> computing
>>
>> On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, john courtneidge wrote:
>>
>>  > To: "Quakers (Britain Yearly Meeting) online meeting place"
>>  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>  > Cc: econ-lets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>>  > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>> (Response trimmed to econ-lets only.  If you wish to post it back to the
>> other lists to which I'm not subscribed, please feel free)
>>
>>  > Friends, all - for your entertainment/astonishment/whatever
>>
>> Hi John.  This is indeed an interesting post, with which I rather agree
>> on a level of sentiment, but I feel I must respond to a couple of issues
>> of fact, perception, and projection, raised by its author:
>>
>>  > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (heiko)
>>
>> [..]
>>  > and is suddenly valued at $6.4 Billion. All Red Hat have done is package
>>  > Linux, the free and open source software programmes made by volunteers
>>  > across the world and charged for it. What does this signify?
>>
>> In part it signifies that many people would rather pay someone to box up
>> a set of CDROMS, than spend maybe a hundred hours on the net downloading
>> the latest 'free' distribution :) and in another part it signifies that
>> the current insane prices for stocks with 'e-' or 'i-' in front of their
>> names is merely a huge bubble, just waiting to be pricked.
>>
>>  > For those who don't know, Linux is an operating system that works by
>>  > providing all the "source codes" for all programmes that run on it, so
>>  > there are no secrets, errors can be corrected immediately and development
>>  > has no limits. Unlike private copyrighted source codes of commercial
>>  > companies. In a word Linux can be made to run any computer operation you
>>  > can imagine, and an infinite variety you cannot yet thing of, AND IT IS
>>  > FREE.
>>
>> As are FreeBSD, OpenBSD or NetBSD, other open-source UNIX-like operating
>> systems that are based on a (once) free public release of the University
>> of California at Berkeley's source code.  Linux is getting all the press
>> admittedly, in fact it's the only one that mos

Re: FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of computing (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

more...

M
-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 17:22:43 +1000 (EST)
From: Ian Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: john courtneidge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: econ-lets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of 
computing

On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, john courtneidge wrote:

 > To: "Quakers (Britain Yearly Meeting) online meeting place"
 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
 > Cc: econ-lets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 > [EMAIL PROTECTED]

(Response trimmed to econ-lets only.  If you wish to post it back to the
other lists to which I'm not subscribed, please feel free)

 > Friends, all - for your entertainment/astonishment/whatever

Hi John.  This is indeed an interesting post, with which I rather agree
on a level of sentiment, but I feel I must respond to a couple of issues
of fact, perception, and projection, raised by its author:

 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (heiko)

[..]
 > and is suddenly valued at $6.4 Billion. All Red Hat have done is package
 > Linux, the free and open source software programmes made by volunteers
 > across the world and charged for it. What does this signify?

In part it signifies that many people would rather pay someone to box up
a set of CDROMS, than spend maybe a hundred hours on the net downloading
the latest 'free' distribution :) and in another part it signifies that
the current insane prices for stocks with 'e-' or 'i-' in front of their
names is merely a huge bubble, just waiting to be pricked. 

 > For those who don't know, Linux is an operating system that works by
 > providing all the "source codes" for all programmes that run on it, so
 > there are no secrets, errors can be corrected immediately and development
 > has no limits. Unlike private copyrighted source codes of commercial
 > companies. In a word Linux can be made to run any computer operation you
 > can imagine, and an infinite variety you cannot yet thing of, AND IT IS
 > FREE.

As are FreeBSD, OpenBSD or NetBSD, other open-source UNIX-like operating
systems that are based on a (once) free public release of the University
of California at Berkeley's source code.  Linux is getting all the press
admittedly, in fact it's the only one that most media people know about.

 > The Financial Times carried a major article today August 13 1999, p 14
 > asking whether co-operative made software can defeat Microsoft, and
 > concludes yes..!
 > 
 > According to the United Nations Human Development Report 1999 Linux
 > "Apache" programme on servers now runs over 50% of all web servers
 > world-wide, and the FT reports 70% of e-mail is sent on Linux "Send Mail".

This is just misleading.  Apache was not developed by, for or on Linux;
it's an open collaboration alright, but was developed for UNIX systems
in general, and has been 'ported' to many Unices, plus OS/2 and others.

And Sendmail has been moving most of the world's email for at least
twice as long as Linux has existed, or was even thought of; it too runs
on all UNIX-like systems.  The statement above suggests that Linux is
the operating system used by these >50% of web servers running Apache,
and the 70% of mail servers running sendmail, which is patently untrue. 

This is not to denigrate Linux in any way, it's one of a number of fine
open-source operating systems, but serves to illustrate the massive hype
surrounding Linux that has been generated by ignorant mainstream media,
and if you've represented the UN report accurately, ignorant UN people :)

 > In other words the Internet is being run by co-operative endeavour, nay by
 > the communist ideals that Marx spoke of "from each according to his
 > ability, to each according to his needs".

To invoke Marx here is to draw a very long bow indeed.  Familiarity with
open source communities suggests a more sanguine approach to guessing at
peoples' motivations for being involved with open source development.

There's an element of community, for sure, but there's plenty of ego and
oneupmanship involved too.  And software developers, as a 'class' are
far from a left-wing sort of mob.  Most are, it must be remembered, rich
people by any world standards, merely by possessing the necessary tools.

There are of course notable exceptions, some highly altruistic people
sharing their gifts for the good of humanity or the ecosphere, who are
developing free software to those ends - but they're a small minority.

 > Thank God!..because the implications of continuing and extending the
 > domination of private ownership of software managing the Internet are too
 > horrific to contemplate.

Another misconception.  While Microsoft may currently dominate mass
markets for home and office desktop computers, through sheer marketing,
it's been far from successful in penetrating server markets, which were
all UNIX before Microsoft was even started in the late seventies, and
largely remains so today.  Some percentage of large servers will be
Linux systems, but more are Sun/Solaris, various BSD,

FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of computing (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 21:01:25 +0100
From: john courtneidge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Quakers (Britain Yearly Meeting) online meeting place"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: econ-lets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: FW: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of  computing

Friends, all - for your entertainment/astonishment/whatever

Remember the South Sea Bubble, Tulipomania etc and etc ???
--
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (heiko)
To: subscribers:;
Subject: [Co-opNet] Co-operative work, Linux and the future of computing
Date: Fri, Aug 13, 1999, 6:09 pm


Co-operative work, Linux and the future of computing

The Market is mad….NASDAQ decides communism is more efficient than
capitalism

Within three days "Red Hat" a Linux software packaging and marketing
company which loses money and makes nothing of significance itself, floated
on the US stock market and increased it's share price more than four times
and is suddenly valued at $6.4 Billion. All Red Hat have done is package
Linux, the free and open source software programmes made by volunteers
across the world and charged for it. What does this signify?

For those who don't know, Linux is an operating system that works by
providing all the "source codes" for all programmes that run on it, so
there are no secrets, errors can be corrected immediately and development
has no limits. Unlike private copyrighted source codes of commercial
companies. In a word Linux can be made to run any computer operation you
can imagine, and an infinite variety you cannot yet thing of, AND IT IS
FREE.  

The Financial Times carried a major article today August 13 1999, p 14
asking whether co-operative made software can defeat Microsoft, and
concludes yes..!

According to the United Nations Human Development Report 1999 Linux
"Apache" programme on servers now runs over 50% of all web servers
world-wide, and the FT reports 70% of e-mail is sent on Linux "Send Mail".
In other words the Internet is being run by co-operative endeavour, nay by
the communist ideals that Marx spoke of "from each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs".

Thank God!..because the implications of continuing and extending the
domination of private ownership of software managing the Internet are too
horrific to contemplate.
 
But what does this mean for co-operatives?

First it means the rebirth of co-operatives on a high tech basis can defeat
multinationals, second that the Unions, Co-operatives and Labour movement
must promote co-operative software development, e-commerce and computing
operations, with HARD CASH. A little investment by the Government in these
areas, even if only £10-100 million in the UK for example, could destroy
Microsoft's position in the server market and create open source core
programmes to serve the whole world.

No doubt Blair and co and already planning to announce something like this
investment in co-operatives any day…because they don't want monopolies
controlling the world economy by their stifling stranglehold on the
development of software do they?

Co-operative or communist operations are winning the high tech efficiency
war, this we must shout from the rooftops and scream outside number 10, who
knows someone may listen.


Heiko Khoo
http://www.internetfuture.com

   


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The "Attention" Economy

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: 29 Jul 1999 19:27:25 -
From: Post-Industrial Issues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: List Member <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The Dream Life of Money

Post-Industrial Issues - http://www.well.com/user/mgoldh/

here is my latest column, whihc will also appear in the web magazine
telepolis The Dream Life of Money and the Coming of the Attention Economy

By Michael H. Goldhaber

Of late, aspirations of monetary wealth seem to have taken on a new life.
Here in the US, Internet stocks are the new routes to rapid fortune, and
the repercussions of their rise are felt throughout the money economy.
Everyone in Silicon Valley, and seemingly in the USA as a whole, is crazed
with visions of easy and endless wealth, eagerly counting millions,
waiting until they turn to billions, or, more likely admiring someone
elses fortune.There are jobs for almost everyone, and little or no
inflation, at least partly because  the lure of stock options and future
stock wealth is enough to hold salaries down. Stock averages and overall
investment are also sharply rising as the lure of new riches spreads.

The sense of new wealth on the horizon is so dramatic that in some Valley
startups the principals have walked away from millions of dollars they
could have collected from stock options had they stayed a little longer in
their old firms. Bill Gates of Microsoft (outside the Valley) recently
passed 100 billion dollars in wealth, and according to news reports the
Valley itself now has about 250,000 paper millionaires; 64 new ones hatch
each day.  (One drawback to life in the Valley is that an ordinary house
can cost you nearly that entire million; but of course you need only make
a down payment; with the promise of rapidly growing wealth, the mortgage
payments are not intimidating.) 

Does all this signal a glorious future for money as the blood and oxygen
of economic life? Quite the reverse, I think. Rather it is one more sign
that money as such is rapidly losing its centrality and importance, its
real usefulness.

It is precisely because money now means so little that
it can lead its new dream life. What actually counts, as I have been
arguing all along in this column, is, more and more, attentionthe
quantities of attention you have the capacity to pay to others, and the
quantities of  attention you can receive. If you garner a lot of
attention, you are a star, and traditionally stars are showered with
anything they want, certainly including money, from their awed fans. 

It is no different now, except that the Internet has helped create a new
class of stars, the ones behind Amazon.com, Yahoo, E-bay, E-trade and the
like. It is because those on line pay so much attention to the on-line
stars (either directly or by paying attention to their creations) that
they are willing to see them as the ones to hitch their wagons to. Of
course, it does become a circular process; in these last days of money,
like the end of the feudal period, the trappings of the old wealththen
armor, castles, and the like, now nothing more than dollar amountstake on
new luster. 

Money is no longer counted in bars of gold, or even dollar bills, but
rather in pure digits. While one cannot easily buy attention with money,
we are awed these numbers when they are large enoughenough so that there
are web sites which calculate Gates net worth from second to second.
Meanwhile, Yahoo and the other portals now will instantly tell you your
own net worth in stocks and cash if you have fed in the basic data just
once, and many users check theirs obsessively 

To grasp the fate of money in the near future, it will help to pause to
review the character of money as it used to be. Archaeological remains of
money as coinage of some sort go back several thousand years, but since
then money  has had its ups and downs. The Roman empire was an early high
p oint. Then came the medieval economy of western and central Europe,
which was one of many in which money had little importance in the daily
life of an average person; the large majority took part in monetary
transactions a few times in their lives; only the few in the towns made
much more common use of it.

In Western history, money came into its own again with the rise of trade,
and most fully only with the rise of standardized factory-made goods in
the 19th century. Only standardized goods are readily countable or
measurable, and thus only such goods can readily achieve a definite price
in standardized, countable money. Prices or goods such as a pound (or
kilo) of sugar or nails or a yard of canvas or 100 watt light bulbs rose
and fell with supply and demand, unless monopoly pricing prevailed.
Equally, only work under standard conditions promotes standardized rates
of pay, which also varied according to supply of and demand for workers.

But  supply and demand stops making much sense when material scarcity
hardly exists as an issue, which is increasingly the case today. Consider
th

Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 10:47:55 -0400
From: Doug Hunt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market

> Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market
>   Dennis Hans
> Tuesday, August 3, 1999
> ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
>
>  URL: http://www.commondreams.org/
>
>  (Transcript of the June 1, 1999, broadcast)
>
>  GOOD EVENING and welcome to the PBS ``Nightly
> Peoples Report.''
>
>  Trading was fast and furious today on the Ethnicities and
> Nationalities Market. The value of the American continued to
> soar as the world held its collective breath over the fate of U.S.
> bomber pilots flying 10 miles above Yugoslavia. News of their
> safe return to base sent Yankee bulls on a spending spree.
>
>  The upshot? At the close of trading, the life of an American
> held nine times the value of its closest competitor, the Brit.
> Elsewhere on the European Big Board, the German closed at
> 11 to the American, the Swede and Dane held steady at 12.5,
>  while the French fell to 22 as investors recoiled at the heavy
> volume of hairy legs along the Riviera.
>
>  The big news remains the volatile Albanian Kosovar. For most
>  of the decade, it sold at 10,000 to the American, but the
> Kosovar has fluctuated wildly since deregulation March 24.
> In the weeks that followed, both in Belgrade and the capitals
> of NATO, the Kosovar lost nearly all its value, plunging to
> 300,000. So it declared a split and relocated half its human
>  capital to foreign markets. The new offering, known as the
> Exiled Kosovar, became the darling of western investors and
>  skyrocketed to 25.
>
>  But that's not the end of this remarkable story. Wily traders
> caught with the crumbling Kosovo-based Kosovar discovered
>  that a Dead Kosovar was worth its weight in gold in western
> propaganda markets. It closed today at 15 to the American, and
> analysts see a bright future for the Dead Kosovar -- if it retains
>  political utility.
>
>  Elsewhere in the Balkans, more bad news for the battered
> Serb. It plummeted for a 70th straight day and now sits at
> 400,000. Investors left holding the worthless ethnicity blame
> London and Washington, but New York Times columnist Thomas
>  Friedman blames the market itself, saying that Serbs are
> subhuman and thus shouldn't even be traded in a humans market.
>
>  We'll be right back after this message.
>
>  Remember, this is pledge week at PBS. Donate $100 and we'll
> send you a copy of Gary Null's ``How to Live Forever If You're an
> American
>
>  --or Till 45 If You're a Kurd.''
>
>  Welcome back. In the Peoples of Color Market, the Angolan fell
> to 44,000 to the American while the Cuban closed up 500 points at
> 13,000, reflecting a strong rookie pitching crop that has scouts
> salivating. The Haitian climbed 800 to 22,000 after Disney's
> announcement of a summer blockbuster with textile tie-ins.
>
>  Today saw another big sell-off of Timorese as investors remain
> frightened by western support for intensified Indonesian repression.
> Analysts say the Timorese, which closed at 52,000, could go the way
> of the Iraqi.
>
>  Speaking of which, indifference to the Iraqi market is so great
> that in a recent poll of people value managers, 95 percent were
> unaware that eight years of economic sanc tions had taken a million
> or more Iraqis off the market.
>
>  Some analysts credit President Clinton for degrading the Iraqi to
> its true value (500,000 to the American), while others feel a hands-off
> approach might trigger a recovery. In any event, the Iraqi has been
>  demoted from the Peoples Market to the Commodities Market, where
> it is pegged at 200 to the cow and 25 to the soybean.
>
>  Word on the street is commodities queen Hillary Clinton will cash in
> her cows for 100,000 Iraqis and use them as shoe leather in her
> senatorial bid. If she does, a big win in the Big Apple could spark an
> Iraqi rally.
>
>  And now, tonight's commentary:
>
>  Once again, government intervention in the Peoples Market has
> reared its ugly head. While the Exiled Kosovar is a great story, the
> NATO-organized relief effort has artificially inflated its value. In a
> free system of freely traded humans, the Exiled Kosovar would be
> worth no more than the Rwandan or the Guatemalan. Let's allow
> the market to work its magic. In the long run, we'll all be better off.
> Thank you for watching the ``Nightly Peoples Report.'' Happy
> investing, and may you never sell people short.
>
>  Dennis Hans is a free-lance writer and an occasional adjunct
> professor of American foreign policy and mass communications at
> the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. His work has
> appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village
> Voice and Christianity & Crisis.
>
> ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle

** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, 

Susan George: WTO globalization (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 15:05:08 +0200
From: Andreas Rockstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Susan George: Globalising designs of the WTO

Le Monde Diplomatique, July 1999
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/1999/07/?c=05george

STATE SOVEREIGNTY UNDER THREAT

Globalising designs of the WTO


Header (Appendix of Monde Diplo redaction):

The Atlantic Alliance's intervention in Kosovo is a spectacular example of
the erosion of state sovereignty, helped along by globalisation and the
"right to interfere". This evolution is spreading to a growing number of
spheres ‹ first and foremost the economy. However, the principle of
sovereignty is not breaking down with any degree of uniformity: the social
and environmental spheres remain relatively unaffected, while a higher
economic order is emerging only too clearly ‹ founded on the primacy of
the markets and guarded by irresponsible and complicit international
organisations, led by the World Trade Organisation.
___

by SUSAN GEORGE *


   

Despite the victory against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)
- thanks to France’s withdrawal from the negotiations in October 1998 -
questions remain. Why were governments ready to sign this scandalous
treaty and renounce huge areas of their sovereignty, without any
discernible advantage in exchange? The only explanation seems to be, as
Marx and Engels put it, that "modern state power is merely the executive
committee charged with managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie" (1).

This "bourgeoisie", now embodied in huge transnational industrial and
financial corporations, makes itself heard loud and clear by "state power"
via multiple lobbies. Among these, the International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) has a special place, claiming, as it does, to be "the only
representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises
from all sectors in every part of the world" (2). It makes its demands
known directly to heads of state.

All matters concerning Europe and trade, including negotiations at the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) are handled by the outgoing European
commissioner, Sir Leon Brittan, who appears not to have noticed his
resignation and still speaks for all the governments of the European
Union. These governments have accepted their individual loss of
sovereignty in trade as in other areas because they consider that the
advantages of cooperation outweigh the drawbacks of limiting their room
for manoeuvre. But cooperating is one thing. Choosing the ultra-liberal
heir presumptive of Margaret Thatcher as spokesman is quite another. In
the case of the WTO, we risk witnessing a contest of
sovereignty-stripping, making the prospect of a social and political
Europe recede.

Sir Leon is after exactly the same thing as the ICC - a world ruled by
free trade. Their views on the big WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle next
November are interchangeable both in form and content (3). For the time
being, our "sovereign" European governments have fallen behind them with
gusto, making them look suspiciously like Marx and Engels’ perfect
executive committee.

The Brittan/ICC tandem believe that agriculture must be further
liberalised, which will put the future of rural communities in danger. The
poorest risk losing control over their peoples’ food security. The
Agreement on Intellectual Property - going under the banner of Trips (the
Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and including
patenting of life - is also up for discussion in Seattle.

Less well known than these two important dossiers is the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (Gats), which is also on the agenda. Here, Sir Leon
and the ICC seek the "breaking down of domestic regulatory barriers across
a wide range of services" in order to "expand the number and improve the
quality of countries' commitments on market access and national treatment"
(4). Services should be open to foreign investment worldwide, it being
understood that the agreement will include "commercial presence" and "the
movement of natural persons" in order to furnish the said service. We may
ask what is wrong with that? Here are some fine prospects for our own
firms. But do governments have any idea of the huge losses of sovereignty
they are likely to undergo?

"Services", which are about to fall under the yoke of the WTO, represent
thousands of billions of dollars worth of commercial transactions. This
seemingly innocent terms take in almost every imaginable human activity:
distribution, wholesale, retail and franchising; construction,
architecture, decoration, maintenance; civil, mechanical and other types
of engineering; financial services, banking and insurance; research and
development; real estate services, rental, credit and hire-purchase;
communications, postal services, telecommunications and audio visual,
information technologies; tourism and travel, hotels and resta

Indigenous Canadian Website (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 18:09:50 +1200
From: Jim Gladwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Indigenous Canadian Website

_

"At present the Pan Am Games are currently being held in Winnipeg. There
are 42 countries being represented - from North, Central and South America
as well as all the Caribbean countries. Over 6000 athletes.

Further information can be found at www.panamgames.org.

A rival site has been set up at www.panamgames.net which is being used by
indigeneous groups to show the world the injustices they feel they suffer."

--
For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/

[bearslist] "Psychopaths" fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt(fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999 17:40:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: Danny Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [bearslist] "Psychopaths" fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Danny Cox)

"Psychopaths" fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt
SUNDAY, AUGUST 01, 1999 7:47 AM
- Reuters
FRANKFURT, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt 
said in remarks published on Sunday that U.S. share prices were being 
driven to unsustainable heights by "psychopaths" on Wall Street and 
that a slump was inevitable.
Schmidt told Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the United States, despite 
being presented as a shining economic example to Germany, had a private 
savings ratio below zero and was creating an underclass of the working 
poor.
"Many people are enthusiastic about the United States at the moment. 
But people don't realise that the share price boom is totally 
overvalued and that psychopaths are driving the prices up," said the 
80-year-old Social Democrat who was West German chancellor from 1974 to 
1982.
"It's only a matter of time before the boom ends and prices tumble down 
again -- just as it happened in Japan."
Schmidt said that by psychopaths he was referring to "the young 
30-year-old dealers and 40-year-old fund managers who with their daily 
and hourly fund allocations have no other aim than to get the best 
possible performance."
"These people lack an overview of the world and world economy and also 
of the responsibility that entails."
Schmidt said the euro's depreciation by as much as 15 percent this year 
did not signify that the new currency was weak. He said he had 
witnessed the dollar trading at 3.47 marks and at 1.36 marks in the 
space of 1-1/2 years.
"No one ever got the idea that that meant the mark was weak."
((David Crossland, Frankfurt Newsroom +49 69 756525, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]))

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Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 19:46:26 -0700
From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century

/** labr.global: 223.0 **/
** Topic: Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century **
** Written  6:13 AM  Jul 29, 1999 by labornews in cdp:labr.global **
/* Written  2:59 AM  Jul 29, 1999 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] in igc:list.labor */
/* -- "Online Conference on Organized Labo" -- */
(Apologies for cross-posting)

ANNOUNCEMENT  

Juan Somavia and Bill Jordan to open online Conference on Organized
Labour in the 21st Century

Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO, and Bill Jordan, General
Secretary of the ICFTU, will launch a debate in an online Conference
"Organized Labour in the 21st Century". The Conference will be run by
the International Institute for Labour Studies, of the ILO, in
cooperation with the ICFTU, and will begin in mid September 1999.

Participation in the Conference, which is aimed at trade unionists and
labour researchers, will be open, and those who have signed up in time
for the opening (before mid-September) will have a chance to react and
put questions to the keynote speakers by e-mail, or over the web.

Anyone wanting to participate can learn more by going to the
Institute's website, where it is possible to sign up from today to
participate in the Conference:

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/130inst/research/network/index.htm

(Background documents are also available from this web address.)

The Conference focuses on the future of trade unions around the world,
and is expected to run for approximately twelve months. Guest speakers
will be invited to act as "panelists" every month. Each month, a new
topic (with new "speakers") will be launched. The topics will be
announced about a week in advance and are likely to include:

- Employment and development
- The law and trade unions
- Responses to globalization (trade, investment, labour standards)
- Unions and structural adjustment
- Transnational industrial relations
- Collective bargaining and social dialogue
- Informal sector and marginalised workers
- Social protection
- Recruitment and organizing
- Political strategy (party politics, alliances with NGOs, etc.)
- Women in unions
- Youth in unions
- Union structures and services (membership participation, mergers,
finances,
  etc.) 

If you do not have access to the World Wide Web, but
would like to participate, send an empty e-mail
message to this address, and you will be subscribed
automatically. 

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT 
  THE CONFERENCE ON LABOUR IN THE 21st
CENTURY 

  Please contact: 
  Mr A.V. Jose

  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

** End of text from cdp:labr.global **

***
This material came from the Institute for Global Communications (IGC), a
non-profit, unionized, politically progressive Internet services
provider.
For more information, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (you will get
back an automatic reply), or visit their web site at http://www.igc.org/
.
IGC is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable
organization.
***
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links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/

[CPI-UA] The Internet Solution for Workers' Rights (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 23:26:55 +
From: Kerry Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CPI-UA] The Internet Solution for  Workers' Rights

Occasionally Tom Friedman gets the picture:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/friedman/073099frie.html

July 30, 1999


  FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

  The New Human Rights


In this post-totalitarian world, the human rights debate needs an
update. While Americans are focusing on issues of free speech,
elections and the right to write an op-ed piece, people in the
developing world are increasingly focused on workers' rights, jobs,
the right to organize and the right to have decent working
conditions.

Quite simply, for many workers around the world the oppression of
the unchecked commissars has been replaced by the oppression
of the unregulated capitalists, who move their manufacturing from
country to country, constantly in search of those who will work for
the lowest wages and lowest standards. To some, the Nike
swoosh is now as scary as the hammer and sickle.

These workers need practical help from the West, not the usual
moral grandstanding. To address their needs, the human rights
community needs to retool in this post-cold-war world, every bit as
much as the old arms makers have had to learn how to make
subway cars and toasters instead of tanks.

"In the cold war," says Michael Posner, head of the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights, "the main issue was how do you
hold governments accountable when they violate laws and norms.
Today the emerging issue is how do you hold private companies
accountable for the treatment of their workers at a time when
government control is ebbing all over the world, or governments
themselves are going into business and can't be expected to play
the watchdog or protection role."

The impulse is to call for some global governing body to fix the
problem. But there is none and there will be none. The only answer
is for activists to learn how to use globalization to their advantage --
to super-empower themselves -- so there can be global
governance, even without global government. They have to learn
how to compel companies to behave better by mobilizing
consumers and the Internet. I'm talking about a network solution for
human rights, and it's the future of social advocacy.

  [...]

Forwarded mail....

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 10:26:01 -0400
From: Henry Milner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I received this on another listserve.What can one say?

Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1998

In California, more than 600 lawyer hopefuls were taking the
state bar exams in the Pasadena Convention Center when a
50-year-old man taking the test suffered a heart attack.

Only two of the 600 test takers, John Leslie and Eunice Morgan,
stopped to help the man. They administered CPR until paramedics
arrived, then resumed taking the exam.

Citing policy, the test supervisor refused to allow the two
additional time to make up for the 40 minutes they spent helping
the victim. Jerome Braun, the state bar's senior executive for
admissions, backed the decision stating, "If these two want to be
lawyers, they should learn a lesson about priorities."


Information about Inroads-L
The Inroads WWW Site is located at: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~inroads/
To post to the INROADS-L list, send e-mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" with the
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*

Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 11:42:38 +0200
From: Niki Best <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century

(Apologies for cross-posting)

ANNOUNCEMENT  

Juan Somavia and Bill Jordan to open 
online Conference on Organized Labour 
in the 21st Century 

Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO, and Bill Jordan, 
General Secretary of the ICFTU, will
launch a debate in an online Conference "Organized Labour in the 21st 
Century". The Conference will be
run by the International Institute for Labour Studies, of the ILO, in 
cooperation with the ICFTU, and will
begin in mid September 1999. 

Participation in the Conference, which is aimed at trade unionists and 
labour researchers, will be open,
and those who have signed up in time for the opening (before 
mid-September) will have a chance to react
and put questions to the keynote speakers by e-mail, or over the web. 

Anyone wanting to participate can learn more by going to the 
Institute's website, where it is possible to
sign up from today to participate in the Conference: 

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/130inst/research/network/index.htm

(Background documents are also available from this web address.) 

The Conference focuses on the future of trade unions around the world, 
and is expected to run for
approximately twelve months. Guest speakers will be invited to act as 
"panelists" every month. Each
month, a new topic (with new "speakers") will be launched. The topics 
will be announced about a week
in advance and are likely to include: 

- Employment and development
- The law and trade unions
- Responses to globalization (trade, investment, labour standards)
- Unions and structural adjustment
- Transnational industrial relations
- Collective bargaining and social dialogue
- Informal sector and marginalised workers
- Social protection
- Recruitment and organizing
- Political strategy (party politics, alliances with NGOs, etc.)
- Women in unions
- Youth in unions
- Union structures and services (membership participation, mergers, 
finances, etc.) 

If you do not have access to the World Wide Web, but would like to 
participate, send an empty e-mail
message to this address, and you will be subscribed automatically.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT 
  THE CONFERENCE ON LABOUR IN THE 21st CENTURY 

  Please contact: 
  Mr A.V. Jose
   
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

[CIVIC_VALUES] Fwd: Neal Peirce Column: Invest in Our Cities, NotTimbuktu? (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

>Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 08:31:16 -0700
>To: Colleagues:
>From: Neal Peirce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Column: Invest in Our Cities, Not Timbuktu?
>X-Status: 
>
>   NEAL PEIRCE COLUMN
>   For Release Sunday, July 25, 1999
>
>   Copyright 1999 Washington Post Writers Group
>
>   
>   INVEST IN OUR CITIES, NOT TIMBUKTU?
>
>   By Neal R. Peirce
>
>
>  SACRAMENTO-- Why should America's public pension funds -- the life 
>savings of America's state and local government workers -- be invested 
>overseas, when better returns are often available from investments in our 
>own cities?
>
>  That's the kind of disturbing question that Philip Angelides, 
>California State Treasurer since last January, has been asking.
>
>  It turns out that CALPERS -- the California Public Retirement System 
>in which Angelides plays a key role -- has $35 billion invested in 48 
>counties worldwide.  Altogether, U.S. public pension funds now hold $242 
>billion worth of foreign stocks. 
>
>  Yet Angelides, monitoring reports for the massive pension funds (value 
>$240 billion) his office manages, noticed a big flow in Indonesian and 
>depressed Japanese securities.  In some cases, CALPERS' 2-, 3-, and 5-year 
>returns from so-called "emerging markets" has even been negative.
>
>  "It's amazing to me," says Angelides, "how American investment in 
>volatile overseas areas is a  given' of our capital markets, even while our 
>own emerging markets -- inner cities, minority small businesses -- are so 
>often written off as risky and troublesome."
>
>  Yet there are ripe opportunities, he notes, for "infill" development 
>in cities.  The federal Community Reinvestment Act, he adds, proves that 
>lower-income, minority residents, given a chance to borrow for a home, "will 
>work hearts out to pay it off." 
>
>  Yet when Angelides asked a group of investment bankers why they hadn't 
>set up a secondary market in loans to small and minority firms, paralleling 
>the "Wall Street-ization" of today's large real estate investment packages, 
>their answer was the idea never occurred to them. 
>
>  It's not the first time we've seen such anomalies.  In the  60s and  
>70s, as American capital rushed into questionable (and later disastrous) 
>Latin American investments, our inner cities were effectively "redlined" to 
>exclude home mortgage loans.  Later, the multi-billion dollar savings and 
>loan scandals were perpetrated by institutions that pumped money into 
>fast-expansion suburbs while ignoring older cities.
>
>  But past may not be prologue, if Angelides has his way.  A 45-year old 
>former developer and state Democratic chairman elected Treasurer last fall, 
>Angelides has decided California faces a grim future unless it starts to 
>rebuild its decaying older cities and curb wasteful and environmentally 
>risky sprawl development at the urban fringe.
>
>  In June Angelides went on the road across California selling his 
>newly-issued "Smart Investments" report.  He argues California should set 
>clear, strategic goals for investing its billions of public infrastructure 
>funds and pension monies.
>
>  His own offices administers $450 million in yearly tax credits to 
>construct affordable housing, and Angelides has abandoned his predecessor's 
>lottery system of allocation.  Instead, he's instituted smart growth 
>incentives -- extra points for projects within a quarter mile of transit, or 
>walking distance to an elementary school, or in a depressed area with a 
>holistic community redevelopment process underway.
>
>  Angelides' central thrust is to avoid a "two Californias" future of 
>estranged economic classes and races.  It's the closest thing to a true 
>vision for California, observes veteran Sacramento Bee columnist Peter 
>Schrag, that any statewide official has articulated since Gov. Pat Brown 
>left office in 1966.
>
>  Initial reception is positive.  Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl 
>arranged an Angelides briefing before 25 top business leaders in Los 
>Angeles.  Angelides pitched his approach to credit rating agencies, 
>investment bankers, the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group and a "Smart 
>Growth" conference staged by the regional San Diego Association of 
>Governments.  He also received long and sustained applause when he spoke 
>before Gov. Gray Davis' Commission on Building for the 21st Century.
>
>  Angelides is getting welcome signals partly because old growth 
>assumptions -- the idea it's OK to build on greenfields and ignore the 
>cities -- are falling apart under the pressure of growth boundaries, hostile 
>voter initiatives, traffic bottlenecks and land shortage.
>
>  Sunne McPeak, president of the business-led Bay Area Council, welcomes 
>Angelides' initiatives because her council's already strong for sustainable 
>development.  It's a lead partner, for example, in a Community Capital 
>Investment Initiative to foster development in 46 of the Bay Ar

Job Insecurity and Work Intensification (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Too bad this one isn't a bit closer to home.

M 
-- Forwarded message --
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 22:52:44 + ()
From: DL10005 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Job Insecurity and Work Intensification

A one-day conference on job insecurity and  work intensification will be
held at Queen's College, Cambridge on  September 9. Papers will be
presented on work undertaken as  part of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation 
work and opportunity  research program.  Speakers will include Kate 
Purcell, Frank Wilkinson and Brendan Burchell. The conference sessions
will be introduced by Lord Eatwell,  Will Hutton, Margaret Prosser,
Richard Sennett, Oliver James and Simon Deakin.

More info can be obtained from
The Conference Website: www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/jiwis
The Conference Secretary: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: 01223 335244
Fax: 01223 335768

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The evidence suggests that job insecurity has spread throughout the 1990s,
particularly amongst professional workers. The findings from industry-wide
surveys commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation also indicate that,
over the past five years, there has been a marked increase in the
intensity of work. The conference will address the impact of these
developments on individuals, their families, the workplace and
the long-term health of the British economy. 

The conference will provide an up-to-the-minute review of current research
on flexibility, job insecurity and work intensification. It will be
structured around five sessions devoted to the following questions: 

* Why are jobs more insecure?
* Does just-in-time labour mean flexible contracts or flexible workers? 
* Does job insecurity entail a 'new workplace morality'? 
* How does workplace stress affect individual health & family
  relationships? 
* How can corporate responsibility and effective partnership be secured? 

The sessions will be chaired by prominent representatives of industry,
academia, medical science, the trades unions and the media. Papers
will be presented by researchers who took part in the research projects
funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and copies of their reports
will be available free of charge to conference participants.

Look forward to seeing you on September 9,

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Cdn brain drain confirmed - in National Article - Jul 21 (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 12:12:27 -0400
From: Jim Peers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Cdn brain drain confirmed - in National Article - Jul 21

Skilled talent leaving Canada,
Swiss study finds
High taxes blamed: Canada ranks 36th for ability to
retain well-educated people

Robert Fife Ottawa Bureau Chief
National Post

OTTAWA - A severe brain drain caused by high income
taxes is affecting Canada's
ability to compete with rival economies, says the
latest entrant to the debate about
whether the country's most talented people are
flooding south to the United States.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook, compiled by
Swiss business school IMD,
says that Canada is ranked 10th in the world for
competitiveness but is facing an
exodus of talent.

Among rich countries, Canada and Sweden, which have
high income taxes, are
facing the biggest problem with skilled
professionals leaving, says the widely
respected competitiveness report.

Of 47 countries featured in the 1999 yearbook,
Canada ranks 36th and Sweden 43rd
in their ability to retain well-educated people.

The report calls into question the rhetoric of Jean
Chretien, the Prime Minister, and
claims by the Canadian Association of University
Teachers that the brain drain is a
myth perpetuated by business interests. Even some
Liberal cabinet ministers are
conceding that Canada is h*morrhaging talent south
of the border.

In Toronto yesterday, Allan Rock, the Health
Minister, unveiled a $147-million
program to discourage top Canadian medical
researchers from moving to the U.S.,
where American researchers receive an average of
$260,000 for their projects
compared to $70,000 in Canada.

The Swiss report, based on a survey of 4,160
leading business executives, tries to
rank countries competitiveness according to 288
criteria, including taxes, education,
gross domestic product, science and technology and
overall productivity.

The United States is the leader in world
competitiveness, which the report attributes
to American breakthroughs in new technologies,
deregulation policies and low
corporate and personal income taxes.

The report supports a recent study by Standard &
Poor DRI, which warned that
rising income levels in the U.S. could tempt more
Canadians south of the border.

The income gap between the U.S. and Canada is now
an average of $7,000 and
growing.

Nonetheless, Jean Chretien, the prime minister, has
insisted that reports of skilled
professionals emigrating to the U.S. are
exaggerated by right-wingers lobbying for
tax cuts.

However, the IMD report gives Canada a poor score
for high personal income taxes
that it suggests discourages individual work
initiative. Out of 47 countries, Canada is
35th for low tax rates, while the U.S. is ranked at
seven. Hong Kong is the star
performer in keeping taxes low.

Scott Brison, the Conservative Party finance
critic, said the Swiss report should
serve as a wake-up call for the prime minister to
take seriously demands from
groups, such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce,
to slash personal and
corporate income taxes. Last week, the chamber
urged the government to cut taxes
by $9-billion over two years or $1,700 per family
annually.

"Jean Chretien says there is no brain drain but he
is ignoring the high quality people
that we are losing to the United States. We are
losing our best and brightest after
spending enormous amounts of money to educate
them," Mr. Brison said. "We are
going to keep losing these people unless the
Liberal government makes significant
tax reductions."

Walter Robinson, executive director of the Canadian
Taxpayers Federation, said Mr.
Chretien is making a huge mistake by ignoring t

High Tech Temps Aren't Mourning, They are Organizing (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 15:52:41 -0700
From: Michael Givel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: High Tech Temps Aren't Mourning, They are Organizing

Labor Group Wants to Organize Tech Temp Workers
It seeks benefits, security for Microsoft `permatemps' 

Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 16, 1999   

Mark Turner is a lifelong Republican who used to have nothing but
contempt for labor unions, including the teachers union and machinists
union that counted his parents as members.

``I have browbeat my parents my whole life because I thought unions
were a thing of the past,'' he said.

Now Turner, 39, is the most unlikely of union supporters. The
$31-per-hour computer programmer signed a petition last month asking
Microsoft Corp. to bargain collectively with his 20-person work group.
``Now I'm unable to go to my parents' house,'' Turner joked.

Turner and his colleagues at Microsoft -- long-term temporary workers
who have become known as ``permatemps'' -- are on the cutting edge of a
new effort by organized labor to penetrate the world of high tech.

Seattle tech workers have formed a group called WashTech that has
affiliated with the Communication Workers of America and is trying to
organize skilled computer professionals like Turner.

They clearly have got an uphill battle. High-tech employees not only
are independent minded, but they also often are well paid. Traditional
union elections and contracts can't be applied easily to temporary
employees, who make up a growing share of the tech workforce. And the
entrepreneurial culture of the tech industry means that many workers
see stock options rather than union cards as the ticket to financial
security.

But there are some growing murmurs of discontent within the ranks of
tech workers that could create opportunities for unions.

Programmers and engineers in their 40s and 50s commonly voice
complaints about age discrimination. And as companies rely increasingly
on contractors and temporary workers, some high-tech temps are starting
to rebel against what they see as second-class status.

``You read about everyone being a millionaire and ready to cash in
big,'' said Marcus Courtney, a former temp at Microsoft who helped
found WashTech.

``But my own experience after four years in the industry was that I had
no health benefits, no retirement plan, no job security. Every day, I
worried about whether it would be my last day on the job.'' WashTech so
far is focusing on contingent workers -- people employed on a temporary
or contract basis.

The number of such workers has grown dramatically both inside and
outside the computer industry.

The portion of the U.S. workforce employed by temporary agencies rose
from 0.5 percent in 1982 to 2.2 percent in 1997, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Together with independent contractors and
employees of contracting firms, temps now account for one of every 10
workers -- more than 13 million people.

And nowhere has this growth gotten more attention than at Microsoft,
which for several years has been fighting a class-action lawsuit by
temps seeking access to the same benefits as regular employees.

Microsoft counts 5,500 to 6,500 temporary employees in its workforce of
30,000, or about 1 of every 5 staffers on its Redmond campus.

Many have long-term assignments: 63 percent of the Microsoft temps
surveyed by WashTech have been at the company for more than a year.

Some Microsoft work groups are made up entirely of orange-badged temps,
with only the team's manager wearing the blue badge that marks
permanent employees.

Microsoft says it uses temps for reasons similar to other high-tech
firms -- to keep up with rapid product cycles and dramatic swings in
customer demands.

For instance, Microsoft might need hundreds of tech-support people when
it unveils a new version of Windows, but that need quickly would die
down as customers get used to the new product.

And many of Microsoft's longtime temps are, in fact, satisfied with
their status. They note that temps typically receive a higher hourly
pay rate than permanent employees.

Mark Dixon, 46, has worked as a multimedia producer at Microsoft on
three different temporary assignments for a total of 5 1/2 years.

``I like the flexibility and extra pay of being a contractor, and the
change of people and products,'' he said.

But other longtime Microsoft temps feel exploited. They say they're
being unfairly deprived of benefits ranging from discounts on Microsoft
software to sick leave, lucrative stock options and fully paid health
care.

In 1991, some disgruntled Microsoft contractors filed a class-action
lawsuit seeking benefits that continues wending its way through the
courts.

And in early 1998, a new generation of frustrated temps decided to form
WashTech and affiliate with the CWA.

They face some daunting organizational challenges.

The traditional kind of union election and bargaining pr

Susan George- How to Win the War of Ideas: (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 18:19:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "unlikely.suspects":  ;
Subject: Susan George-  How to Win the War of Ideas:

It's easier for me to find useful material than to think it out for
myself.  That being said, I think it's rather important for me to make
sure more people see this stuff.  As the author asks: why does the
progressive movement - or the multiple branches thereof - concentrate on
projects while the development and nurturing of ideas is left to the
conservatives ?

Cheers
MichaelP
===  

  -
 DISSENT / SUMMER 1997 / VOLUME 44, NUMBER 3
  -

How to Win the War of Ideas:
  Lessons from the Gramscian Right

Susan George

In Greek the hegemon is the leader, and from there it's just a linguistic
hop, skip, and jump to the notion of rule, authority, and dominance
expressed by the word "hegemony." Traditionally, the term was reserved for
states. In the 1920s and 1930s, the great Italian Marxist thinker Antonio
Gramsci took the concept further, using it to explain how one class could
establish its leadership over others through ideological dominance.
Whereas orthodox Marxism explained nearly everything by economic forces,
Gramsci added the crucial cultural dimension. He showed how, once
ideological authority -- or "cultural hegemony" -- is established, the use
of violence to impose change can become superfluous.

Today, few would deny that we live under the virtually undisputed rule of
the market-dominated, ultracompetitive, globalized society with its
cortSge of manifold iniquities and everyday violence. Have we got the
hegemony we deserve? I think we have, and by "we" I mean the progressive
movement, or what's left of it. Obviously I don't deny the impact of
economic forces or of political events like the end of the cold war in
shaping our lives and our societies, but here I intend to concentrate on
the war of ideas that has been tragically neglected by the "side of the
angels." Many public and private institutions that genuinely believe they
are working for a more equitable world have contributed to the triumph of
neoliberalism or have passively allowed this triumph to occur.

If this judgment sounds harsh, positive conclusions may still be drawn
from it. The Rule of the Right is the result of a concerted, long-term
ideological effort on the part of identifiable actors. If we recognize
that a market-dominated, iniquitous world is neither natural nor
inevitable, then it should be possible to build a counter-project for a
different kind of world.

EXCLUSION AND IDEOLOGY The late twentieth century could be dubbed the Age
of Exclusion. It's now clear that the "free market," which increasingly
determines political and social as well as economic priorities, cannot
embrace everyone. The market's job is not to provide jobs, much less
social cohesion. It has no place for the growing numbers of people who
contribute little or nothing to production or consumption. The market
operates for the benefit of a minority.

The Age of Exclusion engenders myriad social ills with which various
humanitarian and charitable agencies, established in an earlier era,
vainly attempt to cope. Vainly, because they have failed to understand
that their projects and programs exist in an ideological context that
systematically frustrates their aims.

The now-dominant economic doctrine, of which widespread exclusion is a
necessary element, did not descend from heaven. It has, rather, been
carefully nurtured over decades, through thought, action, and propaganda;
bought and paid for by a closely knit fraternity (they mostly are men) who
stand to gain from its rule.

An earlier version of this doctrine was called "laissez-faire"; today
Americans speak of neoconservatism, Europeans of neoliberalism, and the
French of "la pensee unique" (the dominant or single mindset). I shall use
"neoliberalism," bearing in mind that the modern version of the doctrine
is far removed from that of such great "liberal" political economists as
Adam Smith or David Ricardo. Neoliberals pretend to follow these
illustrious predecessors, but in fact betray their spirit and ignore their
moral and social teachings.

A HALF CENTURY OF HISTORY The victory of neoliberalism is the result of
fifty years of intellectual work, now widely reflected in the media,
politics, and the programs of international organizations. Reaganism,
Thatcherism, and the Fall of the Wall are often credited (or blamed) for
this state of affairs and they have, indeed, made neoliberals more
arrogant, but there is much more to the story than that.

Fifty years ago, in the wake of World War II, neoliberalism had no place
in the mainstream politica

The End of Work/The End of Jobs

[Michael Gurstein]

One thing seems to be overlooked in the "end of work" argument--both
pro and con.  While the evidence is still unclear as to whether
there is a net positive or negative impact of technology on the number of
jobs, there seems little doubt that technology is having a significant
impact on the manner and form of work and in this way on the nature of at
least some jobs.

How much impact and how many jobs are so impacted isn't, it's true, clear
but the old industrial work structures with master/slave authority
systems, repetitive and clearly definable/delimitable tasks, continuity of
work organization, stability of job content, and so on and so on has for
many disappeared and is for very many others disappearing.  I won't put an
evaluation on it... for many it is an improvement for many others it's a
step back but for most it appears inevitable.

I have a feeling, in response to the "End of Work" argument, that we may
only be seeing the end of "jobs" as we have known them and not the end of
"work" and in fact, the transformation in the nature of "jobs" may be such
as to increase the number of those "employed" while decreasing their
security, stability, continuity, and so on.

If this is the case, then the End of Work argument is not only a bit of a
red herring but also a diversion from the task of determining how the new
type of "employment" can or should be regulated, and what sort of safety
net/transition programs makes sense in the context of rapidly emerging
fluid, speedy, contractual, self-defining, skill/knowledge intensive,
job structures.

Mike Gurstein

IP: If you work at a California company, look out (AB60) (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

>From: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: FC: If you work at a California company, look out (AB60)
>
>
>The governor of California is about to sign a particularly pernicious bill
>into law. It says companies must pay their employees overtime if they work
>more than an eight-hour work day. 
>
>Obviously anyone of good conscience wants everyone to be well off as
>possible. The question is, though, how best to do it?
>
>This soon-to-be-law's counterproductive effect: Less efficient companies or
>startups already teetering on the edge of cashflow sufficiency will go out
>of business. To take this a step further, we'll have higher production
>costs in the near term, which means higher prices, which means people can
>buy fewer California products with the same paycheck.
>
>In the long term? Firms have hired the number of employees necessary to
>complete a certain amount of work. In the long run, employees could simply
>be given a reduced salary so their inflated overtime wages will roughly
>equal their old. (Actually depending on salary, the law may restrict this.)
>
>It means reduced privacy for individuals (though I don't see any privacy
>groups complaining). California firms covered by the law will be required
>to track their employees' behavior and put in a kind of time clock system
>with additional record-keeping and monitoring of workers. The additional
>staff-hours required to record time worked will also cost the firm more.
>
>It puts California firms at a competitive disadvantage compared to
>companies located in other states or other countries. In no case will this
>law reduce California companies' costs; it can only increase them and give
>a nice boost to firms in Seattle or Boston. Again, marginal companies who
>could barely survive before are history.
>
>It could reduce investment in California companies and cause would-be
>entrepreneurs to launch their firms elsewhere. Why go through the headaches
>of dealing with this bureaucratic nonsense when other jurisdictions are
>happy to be home to the next yahoo.com? California's tax base would be
>affected.
>
>It goes against the history of tech startups, where someone may be paid a
>pittance but rewarded with fat stock options. Companies can no longer
>employ, say, 100 people at $30,000 a year and expect 80 hours a week at the
>same salary. They can't cut wages in half and hire twice as many 40-hr/wk
>people because (based on my reading of the law) it sets a fairly high
>minimum-wage floor for salaried employees. If you have just $3 million in
>venture capital and you need those 80-hour workweeks, your company may not
>exist. Oops.
>
>The Industrial Welfare Commission (bureaucrats really are 50s relics,
>aren't they?) will decide what firms are affected or not. This would be a
>perfect opportunity -- I'm not saying it will happen, just that it could
>happen -- for well-connected lobbyists to try to screw over their
>competitors by immunizing themselves at the expense of their rivals. Will
>computer engineers be exempt but not software engineers? Who decides this?
>(Talk about a perfect catalyst for lawsuits...)
>
>It's not that California politicos are malicious; they may even be
>well-intentioned. But they clearly don't look at the long-term consequences
>of their favorite pieces of legislation. If they did, they'd see that if
>their goal really was to boost wages, they could just go ahead and cut
>taxes. But instead they're happy pandering to the economically-illiterate.
>
>The text of the bill:
>
>http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/ab_60_bill_19990708_enro
>lled.html
>
>A Wired News story on the bill:
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20692.html
>
>-Declan
>
>
>
>--
>POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
>To subscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this text:
>subscribe politech
>More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
>--

Inequality and globalisation - the UN reports (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 21:32:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "unlikely.suspects":  ;
Subject: Inequality and globalisation - the UN reports

"Among the biggest beneficiaries of globalisation are criminals, who can
now exploit worldwide markets for drugs, arms and prostitutes."

===
INDEPENDENT (London) July 12

INTERNET HELPS MAKE THE WORLD MORE UNEQUAL THAN IT HAS EVER BEEN BEFORE

IT'S MOST UNEQUAL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN 

GLOBAL INEQUALITY ACCELERATES TO THE WORST LEVELS IN HISTORY 

ACCESS TO THE NET: THE NEW INDEX OF DEPRIVATION FOR THE WORLD'S POOR

AVERAGE INCOME in the world's five richest countries is 74 times the level
in the poorest five, the widest the inequality gap has ever been.

The tenth anniversary edition of the United Nations Human Development
Report, which ranks countries according to their level of economic and
social development, describes the growing gap as "grotesque" and calls for
urgent action to make the world a fairer place.

A special message from Ted Turner, the media mogul who donated $1bn
(pounds 602m) to the UN last year, echoes the report's demand for poverty
reduction. "It is as if globalisation is in fast forward and the world's
ability to react to it is in slow motion," he writes.

Other figures show that the world's richest 200 (Mr Turner is 38th) have
more than doubled their wealth in the four years to 1998, to more than one
trillion dollars (pounds 602bn). The 20 per cent of the world's population
that lives in developed countries enjoy 86 per cent of the income.

The figures in this year's report show the UK climbing from 14th to 10th
in the human development ranking, which incorporates life expectancy,
literacy and educational indicators as well as the more conventional GDP
per head. The improvement, reflecting figures up to 1997, is due mainly to
increasing enrolment in higher education.

However, the UK fares worse on indicators of poverty. A high proportion of
the population living on less than 50 per cent of median income and a high
proportion unable to read and write well enough to function take it to
number 15 in the poverty rankings.

Canada, Norway and the US top the human development table, as they did in
1998. At the bottom of the table, dominated by sub-Saharan Africa, lie
Sierra Leone, Niger and Ethiopia.

A chapter on technology highlights the unequal spread of new technologies
such as the Internet and biotechnology. Only in the richest countries is
Internet access widespread, and even there it is mainly a white, male,
upper-income group phenomenon.

Basic phone connections are rare outside big cities in the developing
world, and can be poor in the rainy season. Thailand has more mobile
phones than all of Africa. The Human Development Report is highly critical
of the international rules that have allowed western multinationals to
corner intellectual property rights and patents. This is allowing
corporations to hijack traditional remedies. For example, two researchers
at the University of Mississippi were granted a US patent for using
turmeric to heal wounds, a practice which had been common knowledge in
India for thousands of years. The patent was eventually repealed thanks to
evidence provided by an ancient Sanskrit text. The exploitation of
traditional knowledge has created a new skill: "bioprospecting". A few
firms have agreed to pay royalties to countries on sales of drugs
successfully derived from indigenous materials.

Some multinationals are praised for their good global citizenship. For
example, Mattel, the Disney organisation and Nike are singled out in the
document for improving working conditions and pay in their Asian
factories.

The report, to be formally launched in London today by Clare Short, the
Secretary of State for International Development, says such voluntary
action will not be enough and pleads for "a rewriting of the rules of
globalisation".

Its action plan includes controversial proposals for new international
organisations such as a global central bank in addition to the IMF and a
world investment trust that could redistribute incomes globally. It also
urges a "bit tax" on Internet use to generate finance for the spread of
new technology.

However, Mark Malloch Brown, the administrator of the UN Development
Programme, takes issue with the report's findings. In a foreword he
emphasises the need to make existing institutions work better and says
markets must remain the "central organising principle of global economic
life".

THE WIDENING GAP: MAIN POINTS OF THE UN REPORT

* The three richest people in the world, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and
Paul Allen, have total assets - $156bn, according to Forbes magazine -
greater than the combined GNP of the 43 least developed countries. More
than 600 million live in these mainly sub-Saharan African states.

* The number of computers connected to the Internet was 36 million in
199

AFRO-NETS> The UNAIDS Report (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 08:01:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Pazvakavambwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: AFRO-NETS> The UNAIDS Report

The UNAIDS Report
---

Colleagues,

The UNAIDS Report is out. It is available on the UNAIDS web site in pdf 
format for viewing or downloading:
http://www.unaids.org/
In my attempt to whet your appetite to the report, I have reproduced 
the preface of the report from the Executive  Director of UNAIDS, Dr. 
Peter Piot, verbatim.

--

Preface to The UNAIDS Report

by Peter Piot
Executive Director
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

We live at a turning point in human history. AIDS spotlights all that 
is strong and weak in humanity: our vulnerability and fears, as well as 
our strength and compassion, especially for those more vulnerable, less 
able, or poorer than ourselves. 

There is still no cure and no vaccine for AIDS. In 1998, 16 000 
individuals were infected with HIV every day, and by year's end over 33 
million people, a number that exceeds the entire population of Canada, 
were living with HIV – although we estimate that nine-tenths of them 
are unaware of their infection. Most people with HIV or AIDS have no 
access to medication, even to relieve their pain and suffering. More 
than 12 million adults and children have already lost their lives to 
the disease.

These deaths will not be the last – there is worse to come. Every year
AIDS takes new directions: India and South Africa, both relatively 
untouched only a few years ago, now have among the fastest-growing 
epidemics in the world. New AIDS epidemics are emerging with 
frightening speed in Eastern and Central Europe. And sub-Saharan Africa 
remains the hardest-hit region in the world. Globally, young people – 
those who must build the bridges, create national wealth and conduct 
the research of the future – experience half of all new HIV infections. 
In many parts of the world, AIDS is the single greatest threat to 
economic, social and human development.

Even in countries where one adult in ten – or as many as one adult in 
four – is infected, a conspiracy of shame and silence surrounds AIDS. 
People who are known to have HIV often suffer rejection and 
discrimination. This stigma makes the AIDS challenge special. By the 
same token, people living with HIV have a special role to play in 
helping society to acknowledge and tackle the epidemic.

In the face of these enormous and frightening challenges, the strength 
to fight back comes from pooling our resources and working together. 
Founded just three years ago, in 1996, UNAIDS is an innovative joint 
programme that brings together the expertise and efforts of its seven 
Cosponsors – UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNDCP, UNESCO, WHO, the World Bank. 
Each of them has increased action against HIV/AIDS in its own sphere 
and is actively contributing to the UNAIDS response.

The UNAIDS Secretariat and Cosponsors can point to an expanding roster 
of advances based on partnership with one another and with governments 
and civil society around the world. For the first time in this 
epidemic, we can see progress on several fronts:

* In the developing world, strong prevention programmes are stabilizing 
  HIV rates in Brazil and Senegal and have turned around major 
  epidemics in Thailand and Uganda. Alongside these nationwide success 
  stories, there are innumerable community-level successes on all 
  continents.

* Political commitment has surged in several countries confronting 
  major epidemics, from Brazil to South Africa, from India to Cambodia.
* New partnerships have been forged with mainstream youth 
  organizations, religious groups, the corporate sector and global 
  entertainment media.

* Pilot projects for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV are 
  starting up in eleven countries, following the demonstration that a 
  short course of antiretroviral therapy can dramatically improve an 
  HIV-infected woman's chances of having a healthy baby.

* The first HIV vaccine efficacy trial began in the USA, followed in 
  March 1999 by the first such trial in a developing country, Thailand.

Every day, we must balance our fears about AIDS against the certain 
knowledge that human action can make a difference. This report outlines 
the challenges that all of us face, and illustrates the difference that 
individuals and organizations can make by working together.

It is my privilege to share with you, in this report, highlights of 
what our partnerships have achieved thus far.

--

Dr. Brian Pazvakavambwa
AFRO-NETS Co-Moderator
UNAIDS Geneva
Tel: +41-22-7914742
Fax: +41-22-7914741
Personal WWW: http://www.bpazva.8m.com/
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]


--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'.
Mail administrative requests to `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'.
For additional assistance, send mail to:  `[EMAIL PROTECTED]'.

[GKD] ICT and Jobs (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 99  20:34:04
From: Roberto Verzola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [GKD] ICT and Jobs

[***Moderator's note: Members may recall that in August 1998, we posted
a summary of the ICT-JOBS Working Group discussion, which EDC and ILO
hosted in May-July 1998, and which had over 700 members. The article
below is another excellent summary of the ICT-JOBS discussion, with a
somewhat different emphasis.***]

Philippine Journal
October 9, 1998
Second opinion

  ICT: job creator or destroyer?
   by Roberto S. Verzola

Are information and communications technologies (ICTs) a net creator or
destroyer of jobs?

This was the topic which more than a dozen scholars, consultants and
union officials debated in an online conference sponsored by the
International Labor Organization (ILO) from May to July this year.

 It is both

As can be expected, the discussants all acknowledged that ICT was both a
creator and a destroyer of jobs. That machines and computers are taking
over work previously done by human beings was something nobody denied.
All agreed that ICT was destroying some types of jobs. But all likewise
acknowledged that ICT introduced new ways of doing things, creating in
the process new types of work which did not exist before.

Despite very strong opinions expressed by both sides, however, they
could not agree which role dominated.

  A job creator

Some discussants asserted that ICTs create new goods and services as
well as new market opportunities and income sources. Thus, they
stimulate general economic activity, which translates into more jobs.
The new ICTs, they said, are no different in their effects from the
industrial revolution, which enhanced our productivity and improved our
living standards. Historical records since the 19th century, they added,
showed that productivity, output and jobs have all risen together.
Today, the argument goes, ICTs help businesses save money, which these
businesses then invest elsewhere, creating new jobs. There is even a
shortage of skilled ICT workers.

 ... and a job destroyer

Other discussants claimed that ICTs are selective in their positive
impact, and that they lead to unemployment elsewhere. When bosses
introduce machines and computers, some workers invariably get fired. In
many workplaces today, machines and computers are taking the place of
human beings, who are then left to fend off for themselves. A 1994 study
by the Communications Workers of America, for instance, showed net job
losses due to ICT over a 10-year period.

Not even statistics, however, could settle the issue. As one participant
noted, the available studies today are confined mostly to Northern
countries and a few Asian and Latin American NICs. The present data are
too ambiguous for a definite conclusion, and one can find data to
support either position. It is also difficult to capture in statistics
the effects of ICTs on the informal economy which in many countries, is
a big part of the whole economy.

Some insights emerged in the discussions which can help us better
understand the impacts of ICT on labor.

 Work-at-a-distance, manage-at-a-distance

ICTs facilitate work-at-a-distance. This could led to the increasing use
of teleworking, to which many workers react ambivalently.

It is true that teleworking provides new opportunies for women in the
home, for instance, or entrepreneurs in remote villages. But teleworking
also breaks up labor cohesiveness and weakens unions; furthermore, it
tends to exclude the teleworker from traditional social security and
other job benefits.

ICTs also provide management with new options in designing work
processes and the workplace. They can ask their workers to work at home,
or they can gather previously decentralized functions like
decision-making and put them all in one central unit, decentralizing
some functions and centralizing others, in whatever mix they find most
advantageous to the company.

Jobs: from large to small firms

ICT has also made the virtual firm possible, an enterprise that
outsources much of its requirements and relies on ICT to hold the
organization together. Much has been made of the advantages of the
virtual firm -- flexibility, efficiency, and competitiveness.

Outsourcing also tends to transfer jobs from large companies -- which
become virtual firms -- to smaller companies. What is a dream to
corporations is a nightmare to labor unions; small firms are more
difficult to unionize and tend to violate labor laws more often. One
effect of outsourcing is labor contractualization.

  Who decides?

The key, it seems, lies in the decision-making that leads to ICT use.
Invariably, it is management which decides when to introduce and when
not to introduce ICT into the workplace. T

Festival of Community Economics (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
** NOTE ** New E-Mail as of Sept. 1, 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ECBC/NSERC/SSHRC Associate Chair in the Management of Technological Change
Director:  Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (C\CEN)
University College of Cape Breton, POBox 5300, Sydney, NS, CANADA B1P 6L2
Tel.  902-563-1369 (o)  902-562-1055 (h)902-562-0119 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca ICQ: 7388855

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 17:19:20 -0700
From: Tompkins Institute <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Festival of Community Economics

This is a forwarded announcement. For more information, please contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

***

Festival of Community Economics

A Learning Vacation in Two Parts:
International and Atlantic Canada


Tompkins Institute, University College of Cape Breton
Dr. Greg MacLeod, Director


PART I:  Mondragon-Valencia Conference
19-20 August 1999

The Mondragon Co-operative Corporation, chosen by the United Nations as one 
of the top fifty social-economic innovations in the world, is the best 
example of worker ownership.  Forty thousand workers are shareholders in 
this $12 billion corporation, producing a wide range of products from 
refrigerators, auto parts, furniture, and machine tools.  Hosted by Dr. Greg 
MacLeod, author of From Mondragon to America, this international conference 
will feature guest speakers from Mondragon and Valencia, Spain.


PART II: Atlantic Federation of Community Development
Co-operatives/Corporations Workshop (Atelier)
21 August 1999

Community-based groups have a great deal of interest in economic 
development, but few concrete examples and models.  A network of community 
and investment co-operatives and corporations do exist but the need to 
communicate is great.  It is important that these groups share experiences 
in developing new business ventures and become aware of government 
programmes available -- also valuable to unemployed workers.  This workshop, 
designed to provide hands-on experience, will feature practitioners from 
Atlantic Canada who will share their know-how with fledgling groups.


Martin Donkervoort, Manager of Shareholder Relations, CROCUS Funds 
(Winnipeg), will be a festival reactor.  CROCUS is a $130 million investment 
fund sponsored by credit unions and labour unions in Manitoba.

Gerard Perron, manager of Quebec City regional development co-operative, 
will be another reactor.

Registration Fees (include meals):
Community Economic Development members (Affiliates):  $60.00
Others:  $100.00
Students/Unemployed: $50.00 (bursaries available)

To register, please send cheque or money order to:

Festival of Community Economics
Tompkins Institute
University College of Cape Breton
P.O. Box 5300
Sydney, Nova Scotia
B1P 6L2
Canada

All other enquiries:902.563.1266 (tel); 902.563.1366 (fax)
E-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Conference Programme will follow upon registration.

Supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Enterprise 
Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC), and BCA Holdings Ltd.
Stephen MacLean
University College of Cape Breton
P.O. Box 5300
Sydney, Nova Scotia
B1P 6L2

902.563.1266 (tel); 902.563.1366 (fax)

INROADS

[Michael Gurstein]

-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 12:06:56 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Inroads #8 is on the newstands. It is 248 pages long, and has more and,
overall, better articles than any previous issue. Inroads fills a void that
the daily press, driven by deadlines, and academic journals, stuck in the
jargon carved ruts of their disciplines, cannot. In Inroads, academics and
journalists write free of the constraints of their professions, and a broad
range of policy wonks make their case.

A major political event this year is the signing of a social union
agreement. Claude Ryan's lead article is the most thorough analysis yet
written of the agreement. INROADS #8 returns once again to the controversial
matter of language policy and the place of francophones in Canada. Charles
Castonguay takes on StatsCan's unwarranted optimism over the fate of
francophones outside Quebec. Linda Cardinal analyses how Ottawa's version of
official bilingualism has pitted francophones inside and outside Quebec
against one another. Ray Conlogue asks why francophones are absent from most
English-Canadian artistic production. Editor John Richards writes a eulogy
for Camille Laurin.

>From Quebec to the West. In this issue's Inroads roundtable, editor Arthur
Milner assembled a wide range of articulate Albertans and allowed them to
dissect the contemporary state of their province. Gordon Gibson tackles the
Nisga'a Treaty and helps those east of the Rockies understand why it has
become a subject of heated public debate in BC. Phil Resnick analyses
incidents of political correctness in three universities.

The third INROADS editor, Henry Milner, was out of the country during much
of the past year, which prompted him to solicit articles on contemporary
Europe. His personal contribution is a journalistic report from the campaign
trail in Germany and Sweden during their elections late last year. Axel van
den Berg reports on research contrasting attitudes among workers and union
leaders in Sweden and Canada. Eric Shaw explains why he prefers his Labour
Party to be "old" rather than "new."

In a chapter from his forthcoming book, Larry Pratt explores public
attitudes towards mental illness, and the struggle required to get sustained
public attention to the needs of the mentally ill.

There's more. Bill Schabas wrote in INROADS #6 on the aftermath of the
Rwandan genocide. In a moving account, he returns to the scene.  Paul Reed
and Gary Caldwell explain why people in Saskatchewan are more civic minded
than Quebecers. Robert Campbell explores why "snail mail" is more sluggish
in Canada than in many other countries, and Laurent Dobuzinskis compares
Canadian policy institutes' take on globalization.

There's also Harvey Schachter's selection from the Inroads chatline, in
which readers exchanged perceptions of Quebec politics in the runup to the
recent provincial election and indulged in some Proustian recollections of
their youthful political attitudes. For more information:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Henry Milner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Professeur Associé, Département de science politique, Université Laval
Fellow, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University
3777 ave. Kent, Montreal (QC) Canada, H3S 1N4

Information about Inroads-L
The Inroads WWW Site is located at: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~inroads/
To post to the INROADS-L list, send e-mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" with the
following in the body of the message: unsubscribe inroads-l
Questions for the list owners to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
*

C4LDEMOC-L: Rachel #657: The Uses of Scientific Uncertainty (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 19:35:02 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Rachel #657: The Uses of Scientific Uncertainty
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

===Electronic Edition
.   .
.   RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #657   .
.  ---July 1, 1999---   .
.  HEADLINES:   .
.  THE USES OF SCIENTIFIC UNCERTAINTY   .
.  ==   .
.   Environmental Research Foundation   .
.  P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD  21403  .
.  Fax (410) 263-8944; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   .
.  ==   .
.All back issues are available by E-mail: send E-mail to.
.   [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the single word HELP in the message.   .
.  Back issues are also available from http://www.rachel.org.   .
.  To start your own free subscription, send E-mail to  .
.  [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words   .
.   SUBSCRIBE RACHEL-WEEKLY YOUR NAME in the message.   .
.The Rachel newsletter is now also available in Spanish;.
. to learn how to subscribe, send the word AYUDA in an  .
.  E-mail message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]   .
=


THE USES OF SCIENTIFIC UNCERTAINTY

A revolution is occurring in the way science is used in
environmental regulation. Like most revolutions, this one is
causing some pain and some disruption, and of course it is being
opposed viciously by those who profit from the present system.
But the revolution is occurring nevertheless, and the ultimate
outcome seems assured. When the revolution is complete, it will
be a great day for public health and for the environment.

Scientists often define "scientific certainty" as "being 95% sure
that cause and effect have been correctly identified." It is
exceedingly rare for a large group of scientists to be 95%
certain about anything, especially about anything as complex as
an environmental problem. When you're talking about living
systems, great scientific uncertainty is the norm. Even in the
case of an ultra-well-studied chemical like dioxin, scientific
uncertainty far outweighs firm knowledge of cause and effect.

How is scientific uncertainty currently treated in environmental
protection? For 50 years it has been used permissively. It has
been used to postpone actions that would protect public health.
The classic case is the introduction of tetraethyl lead into
gasoline. (See REHW #539, #540.) When chemical and automobile
corporations announced they were starting to put highly-toxic
tetraethyl lead into gasoline in 1922, numerous public health
officials thought it was a dangerous idea and they urged delay
and careful study. But the corporations argued that there was no
scientific agreement about the threat; in the absence of
convincing evidence of widespread harm (which had not yet
occurred, so couldn't be documented), they insisted they had the
right to proceed. Basically, they argued, "Until you can line up
the dead bodies, we can do whatever we want." On that basis, the
corporations pressed ahead heedlessly with the new toxic
technology, thus setting the standard for corporate behavior over
the next 50 years. The consequences of that particular decision
are now a matter of record -- tens of millions of Americans
suffered brain damage, their IQs permanently diminished by
exposure to lead dust.

Because we have allowed scientific uncertainty to postpone
controls on dangerous activities, we now have hazardous levels of
mercury in most of the nation's fresh-water fish; the Earth's
ozone shield has been dangerously depleted; global warming is
upon us, with attendant droughts, fires, floods, hurricanes,
tornadoes and typhoons; the ocean's major fisheries are in
serious decline; the normal sex ratio of male-to-female babies
has been changed in numerous industrialized countries, and human
sperm counts have declined 50% in 50 years; immune system
disorders like asthma and diabetes are steeply rising; many of
the world's coral reefs are dying; cancers of the brain, the
lymph system, the blood system and the testicles are increasing;
cancer in children is escalating; many species have gone
extinct This list of contemporary calamities could be readily
extended.

But now people are waking up. They are waking up to the fact that
scientific uncertainty should be cause for caution, not for
plunging ahead recklessly. When flying blind, if you are not sure
whether that shape looming just ahead is a cloud or a mountain,
slow down. A stitch in time saves nine. If you aren't sure what
you're doing, you should proceed slowly and carefully, or perhaps
not at all. Better sa

Free Trade a qualified success (fwd)

[Michael Gurstein]

Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 15:58:47 -0700
From: angela w <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: mai-not <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Free Trade a qualified success

Free trade a qualified success: Royal study
GORD MCINTOSH

OTTAWA (CP) - Free trade can take credit for an explosion in Canadian
exports to the United States, but the 10-year-old treaty has done nothing to
stop disputes, the Royal Bank says in a study.

The document, obtained by The Canadian Press, says there's been only failure
on a top goal of the pact signed by the Conservative government of Brian
Mulroney - continued access to the U.S. market without trade disputes.

But there's no question about the success of Canadian exports, said the
study, to be made public this weekend at a Montreal conference.

Exports to the United States in the first decade of free trade have jumped
169 per cent and imports have grown 149 per cent.

"I would conclude that (Canada-U.S. free trade) has made a positive
contribution to the Canadian economy, but a contribution meriting only two
cheers rather than three," said John McCallum, the Royal's chief economist.

The bank said it was not been able to determine if free trade has been a
job-killer or a job-maker. Nor can the Royal tell if free trade has had much
impact on direct investment in Canada.

But the fact that U.S. imports to Canada grew almost as much as Canadian
exports south shows that trade success fortune cannot just be attributed to
a cheaper dollar, McCallum said.

A depreciated currency makes goods cheaper on world markets. Canada's dollar
has fallen to 69 cents US from 89 cents in 1989.

As well, that traffic in goods where tariffs were removed under free trade
showed faster growth than those unaffected by the agreement.

"It would be quite a coincidence if the explosion of Canada-U.S. trade after
1989 had nothing to do with the implementation of the Canada-U.S. free trade
agreement in that year," McCallum said.

Free trade was sold to Canadians on the basis of improved productivity but
McCallum concludes free trade appears to have under-delivered in this area.

Although there is some argument about how best to measure productivity,
there is enough evidence to show manufacturing productivity in Canada is
below the United States and the gap has been widening since 1989, McCallum
said.

On jobs, there is no question that export growth in industries affected by
free trade created employment, just as some jobs were lost along with
protective tariffs.

But McCallum said any credit for job creation must be shared with a 22 per
cent depreciation in the Canadian dollar over 10 years, just as the
recession in the early 1990s accounted for lost jobs.

"Overall I don't think we know whether (free trade) led to a rise or a fall
in total jobs," he added.

The Royal study is one of a handful on the impact of free trade, even though
it was an extremely divisive debate for Canadians.

Jim Stanford, chief economist at the Canadian Auto Workers, said there it's
difficult to separate the free trade phenomenon from general economic
numbers.

"Here we've had this gut-wrenching restructuring of our whole economy and we
can't find free trade in the productivity numbers."

Free trade has turned out to be neither the promised panacea nor the
predicted disaster, Stanford noted.

McCallum noted one thing is clear: when free trade was introduced there were
rumours Canada had a secret deal to keep its currency close to its 89-cent
value at the time. The drop in value over 10 years shows the conspiracy
theory was nonsense.



© The Canadian Press, 1999

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