[PEN-L:8292] Mersey Bubble Set to Burst (fwd)
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 22:52:09 + Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Comments: Authenticated sender is [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: LabourNet [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mersey Bubble Set to Burst Comments: To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Length: 5323 The Mersey Bubble Set to Burst Around 80 ports in 15 countries are now expected to take part in this week's industrial action targetting Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, shipping lines calling in Liverpool, and the threats of casual labour, privatisation, and deregulation affecting port industries world-wide. Pledges arriving in the sacked Liverpool dockers' office spell trouble for Mersey Docks' customers ACL, Cast, CanMar, and Zim Line while other major shipping consortia face delays on both sides of the Pacific. International coordinator Terry Teague sees this week as the climax of 14 months work involving every man and woman in the dispute, since the decision to seek a global blockade was taken in November 1995, two months after nearly 500 men were sacked for honouring a picket line. Liverpool dockers have flown to stand at dock gates, occupy cranes and address rank and file dockers and union officials in 62 ports while over 100 international delegates have attended mass meetings and conferences or joined the picket line in Liverpool. Their direct contact with sacked dockers and Women of the Waterfront has unlocked the coordinated industrial action now backed by the International Transportworkers Federation. Currently, action is imminent in 15 countries. Faxes and phone calls will deluge Mersey Docks and assorted shipping lines, and work will stop in around 80 ports. Australia: although the new Liberal Government has singled out the Maritime Union of Australia which also has its own battle against privatisation by shipping line PO, the MUA intends to hit the "Zim Australia" in Sydney this week in view of Zim Line's continuing use of Liverpool. New Zealand: Seafarers will target Zim Line while wharfies (longshoremen) in Auckland have designated Monday 20/1 as their "picnic day" despite legal threats from the employers. Japan: The 40,000 strong National Council of Dockworkers Unions (Zenkoku Kowan) will hold workshop meetings on 20/1 at all 50 ports it organises. In 6 ports the meetings are expected to last all morning. Major shipping consortia including OOCL, Evergreen NYK, and PO will be affected. US West Coast: A demonstration outside the British Consulate in San Francisco was held on Friday 17/1 including the Labour Council, Union Pacific railroad workers, International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, and GCIU. The Consul General Mr. Malcom Dougal apparently claimed the UK Government had "no ownership" of Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, despite the Government's 14% shareholding. 10 ports organised by the ILWU will act, with 24 hour stoppages due in the key ports of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland on 20/1. The "American President" line is threatening legal action, claiming damages of $3,000--4,000 per hour's delay on each vessel. Quebec: A mass meeting of 1,000 longshoremen is planned to begin 8am Monday, organised by the Syndicat des Debardeurs. Canada: In St. John, New Brunswick, members of the International Longshoremen's Association local 273 will shut the port for 24 hours on Monday. US East coast: The International Longshoremen's Association is organising a major demo at the British Embassy in Washington. Rank and file longshoremen may honour Martin Luther King's birthday by staying off work Monday. Sweden: All ACL and CAST cargo will be stopped for 24 hours on Tuesday 21/1 in Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Malmo, and Stockholm. Denmark: Mass meetings will be held in Arhus, Copenhagen, and Odense on 20/1.by the Danish General Workers Union Belgium: The "Atlantic Compass" (ACL) was delayed 7 hours on 16/1 as the entire night shift, including ancillary workers, boycotted the ship which calls in Liverpool on a regular run. Dockers from the BTB and CVD unions will demonstrate at the British Embassy in Brussels on 20/1, and industrial action is anticipated in Zeebrugge and Ghent. Netherlands: Stop work meetings will be held by the FNV in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, while industrial action by the OVB in Rotterdam is expected later this week. Germany: Stop work meetings will be held by the OTV in Hamburg and Bremerhaven, where the rank and file are said to be ready to act against any CanMar or ACL vessels. France: A OOCL vessel involved in a slot-share arrangement with Liverpool is to be delayed 8 hours in Le Havre by the CGT from 11pm Sunday 19/1.
[PEN-L:8291] M-I: Michael Leibowitz on Market Socialism
Lou Proyect asked me to forward this. Both he I ask you not to take that as an implied endorsement. Far from it in fact Doug Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 12:44:04 -0500 (EST) From: Louis N Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: M-I: Michael Leibowitz on Market Socialism MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yesterday I took the 1991 Socialist Register up on the train with me to Jon Flanders big birthday bash up in Albany, New York. Jon's 50th birthday party brought out all of his relatives from near and far. Since he has 7 (or is it 8?) brothers and sisters, he needed to rent a church basement to make room for everybody. It was reassuring to see that old New England stock like his can produce a family that is just as dysfunctional, radical and operatic as any second generation Eastern European's like my own. That is all I will say publicly on the Flanders family. So there. Getting back to Socialist Register 1991, this was an issue devoted to "Communist Regimes: The Aftermath". Our very own Justin Schwartz has an article on Gorbachev in there, but it's odd that there's no mention of the magic elixir of market socialism in the whole piece. This must have been before he found religion. I want to spend the next couple of days commenting on some interesting articles in the journal. This is part of my ongoing effort to explore what went wrong in the former Soviet Union. After I am finished with this project, I want to start reading Neil Harding's "Leninism" and report on that. Today I want to examine Michael Leibowitz's "The Socialist Fetter: A Cautionary Tale". Leibowitz teaches economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He is on the PEN-L list and I remember once in the middle of a flame war I was having over there about market socialism, he asked me whether I had done any new original research on the NEP, a subject that I knew entirely from secondary literature like Deutscher and Carr. I couldn't admit to him that the only Russian I knew was a few curse words that I picked up from the old man Korniloff who used to sell minnows at Silver Lake in my home town where I used to fish for pickerel. That's when I decided that PEN-L was too refined a place for a lout like me. Michael (yes, I will call him Michael; that seems more intimate, doesn't it; like the second person familiar in Latinate languages) discusses some of the literature of market socialism in the light of the collapse of what he calls AES (actually existing socialism). He turns his attention first to "The Austrian Challenge". The core of the challenge of Ludwig von Mises and Frederick Heyek, according to Michael, is their argument that socialism lacks enterpreneurship. "Human beings tend to notice that which is their interest to notice," says a Viennese theorist by the name of Israel Kirzner. And guess what, the profit motive tends to make people even that much more on the lookout for what is more productive. I always had trouble understanding what the profit motive had to do with innovation and productivity myself. The Internet is an example of innovation devoid of the profit motive. I also have done my most creative work in my non-professional life. I virtually ran an employment agency out of my apartment in the 1980s matching volunteers to projects in Nicaragua. When I presented this evidence to Justin Schwartz, he said no problem. All of these efforts represent enterpreneurship just the way that Bill Gates' cutthroat drive to kill all competition does. Sigh! I just didn't get this at all. What Justin calls enterpreneurship, I call plain old-fashioned civic duty. I get my inspiration from Thoreau, Helen Keller and Dr. Spock, not John D. Rockefeller. The socialist rebuttal to the Viennese supposedly came from a certain Oscar Lange, who I've heard of but never read. Lange was a market socialist who tried to convince the world that workers could be just as "entrepreneurial" as the capitalist class. After AES started to fall apart, some market socialists found that Lange's arguments lacked the power that was needed and so they started to go back to the Viennese school for further inspiration and guidance. Two Polish economists, Brus and Laski, came to the conclusion that the problem with market socialism up till now is that it didn't go far enough. They argued that a labor market and capital market were necessary as well. The capital market would supply "access to venture capital and new spheres of activity." A labor market is necessary for the achievement of a *rational* price for labor. Is all this starting to sound fishy, like just another word for capitalism? Yes, dear reader, that's what comes next in the person of one Janos Kornai, a Hungarian economist and one-time market socialist who dumped socialism altogether. Kornai wrote a book called "The Road to a Free Economy" which is a full-blown sales presentation for capitalism in the Hayekian
[PEN-L:8293] Occupation of French Bank (fwd)
_ =20 HUNDREDS OF UNARMED EMPLOYEES OCCUPY=20 _ =20 Captors are holding the governor and six directors of the ailing Credit Foncier de France, Lara Marlowe writes from Paris =20 Mr Jerome Meyssonier, governor of the Credit Foncier de France (CFF), sat at the long conference table, flanked by six of the troubled bank's directors. Three heavy crystal chandeliers hung above them. The walls were covered in red and gold damask. The Place Vendome loomed beyond the high 18th-century windows, just a stone's throw from the Place de La Concorde, where aristocrats were guillotined during the French Revolution. Perhaps Mr Meyssonier and his colleagues were thinking about 1789, for there was a whiff of revolution in the air. =20 No, Mr Meyssonier said, he did not consider himself a hostage. "Do I look like a hostage?" he snapped. Did that mean he was free to go? "That's another question," he answered testily. =20 On Friday morning, bank employees burst into a meeting of the bank's directors and announced that no one could leave until the governor came in person. Reached by telephone, Mr Meyssonier arrived shortly thereafter. More than a dozen unarmed trade unionist bodyguards have ensured that he does not escape, and he is eating and sleeping in=20 his bank apartment. =20 The captors have offered to allow the governor's deputies to go in shifts to bathe and change clothes; the deputies have not yet accepted. No one but bank employees and journalists are allowed to enter the CFF headquarters. Yesterday was the third day of the occupation by several hundred bank employees, and the strain was beginning to show. =20 At least 1,800 of 3,300 jobs at the CFF will be lost if the plan by the Finance Minister, Mr Jean Arthuis, to cede the ailing bank to the rival Credit Immobilier is passed by the French Assembly next month. "I've always been shocked to see that journalists write only about the number of jobs being lost," Mr Meyssonier complained. "Why don't you write about the efforts we are making to save jobs?" =20 The CFF was founded in 1852 under Napoleon III. The conduit for low-interest government loans to disadvantaged home buyers, it was nonetheless a private bank. CFF employees have tried to stall the liquidation of their bank since 1995 results showed =A31.33 billion in losses. Over the past year, they have briefly occupied the stock exchange and two provincial government offices. They twice marched on the Elysee Palace, where they scuffled with riot police. =20 Last Wednesday, Mr Arthuis announced his intention to go ahead with the plan to dismantle the CFF. The employees decided it was time to take more dramatic action. =20 Did Mr Meyssonier feel any solidarity with his staff? "I understand their worries," he said. "But that doesn't justify the means they are using." Trade union leaders camping out in the bank's marblepillared central hall told The Irish Times they have contingency plans for a police assault. "I have no intention of asking the police to do anything," Mr Meyssonier said. "But there are limits." =20 Although definitive figures are not yet available, he conceded that the CFF probably made =A396.4 million in profits in 1996 - an argument used by his employees as proof their bank should not be dismantled. "We would need at least 3 billion francs, (=A3361 million)," Mr Meyssonier said. "The bank has to be restructured. It needs capitalisation, and the government has said it will not=20 recapitalise us." =20 Mattresses and clothing were piled along the walls of the bank's grand central hall, where men and women helped themselves to coffee, mineral water and sandwiches. =20 Mr Patrice Faucheux, a representative of the Communist CGT union, has worked for 23 years at the CFF, where he distributes mail. "I'm fighting not only for my job, but for the right of French people to buy their own houses," Mr Faucheux said. "The state is trying to shed responsibility for housing. That's why they want to break the CFF. The state is pulling out of all kinds of establishments with public duties. We'd be happy if our action sparked a broader movement. There's a deep social malaise in this country - even if we don't often see things like this. The trade unions have to work together to reject the fate the government is trying to impose on us." =20 =A9 Copyright: The Irish Times Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8294] FW: BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1997 ETA reports initial claims filed with state agencies for unemployment insurance benefits fell 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted total of 323,000 during the week ended Jan. 11 (Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_The level was the lowest in nearly three months (Washington Post, page G7). Federal Reserve Board Governor Laurence Meyer suggested that the central bank may have to raise interest rates if the nation's unemployment rate declines. "At the prevailing unemployment rate, the challenge is to be especially watchful for early signs of mounting price pressures and, if necessary, to be at least swiftly reactive to limit and then reverse any acceleration of inflation that might occur," Meyer told the Economics Club of Charlotte. "If the unemployment rate declines, however, a more forward-looking approach may quickly become appropriate." Meyer added that given current low jobless rates, he has "slightly greater concern" that inflation will increase than that the economy will lapse into a persistent, slow-growth period and face rising unemployment and further disinflation (Daily Labor Report, page A-7)_In reporting Meyer's speech, the Washington Post (page G1) says that senior Federal Reserve officials appear unlikely to raise short-term interest rates anytime soon as a precaution against a resurgence of inflation triggered by the extremely tight labor markets. The policymakers are still not entirely sure why inflation has remained so low despite a 5.3 percent unemployment rate. As a result, they will raise rates only if there are clear signs the situation is changing for the worse -- and at the moment there are none, according to a number of Fed officials A key figure for Fed officials will be the employment cost index for the final three months of last year, which is to be released Jan. 29. The ECI is widely regarded as the single best measure of trends in labor costs. Should it show a unexpectedly sharp increase, it might persuade Fed officials to consider raising rates when they meet for a two-day policymaking session starting Feb. 4 CORRECTION: The Wall Street Journal editorial cited in yesterday's Daily Report should have credited "Facts on Working Women" to the Women's Bureau rather than to BLS.
[PEN-L:8290] Afrilabor
Hi all, As some of you know there is an African labor-oriented e-mail list called Afrlabor, which was organized by Carolyn Brown of Rutgers, with a dual purpose of promoting discussion of African labor history, and supporting contemporary African labor movements. Never a huge or high-traffic list, we had a major technical problem with a feedback loop of self-stimulated automatic vacation reply messages from one subscriber's account this summer, that knocked us off-track pretty badly. A number of people left the list at that time. I am posting this message here in hopes that some who left may see it, as well as others not previously involved who might be interested. At the African Studies Association meeting in November, Harold Marcus of H-Africa approached several of us who were meeting about reviving Afrlabor with an invitation to join H-Net (H-Africa has been encouraging the formation of specialized related African lists) as something like H-Aflabor. The attractive features of this invitation include improved technical support, and likely improved visibility participation. However, there were also some conditions attached, particularly a need to put together an editorial board and to get at least two and preferably a few more people to commit themselves to moderating/editing the list on a rotating basis. So at this point we are trying to find out if there is enough interest to sustain that commitment. I have said that I am willing to be one of the moderators, but can't do so until April; Carolyn is willing, but won't be available until the end of this year. So at minimum we'd need at least one other person willing to be a co-moderator with me beginning in April, and I think a few more willing to be a sort of advisory committee (my memory's a little hazy on that point). If possible it would be nice if the pool of rotating moderators was 3 or 4 people, but we could build towards that. At the ASA meeting we also had some discussion about trying to shift the emphasis on the list a little bit, to make its contemporary and solidarity-oriented dimensions more prominent, although discussion of African labor history would remain important. Personally I am interested in trying to explore the potential of the list to facilitate the gelling of what remains a relatively latent constituency for solidarity with African workers and their movements -- the pattern of the burgeoning solidarity efforts tends to be either among unions from G-7 countries, or towards Asia and Latin America in the developing world. Africa is not yet much in the picture, except for South Africa. I have some ideas about that, and about trying to use the list to connect people (academics, unionists, labor educators, ngo people) and spread information to change it, which I'd be happy to talk about with anyone. Obviously though the balance between contemporary and historical discussions, and academic intellectual and practical intellectual ones, will depend on the interests of list-members. We would like to hear from people who used to be on Afrlabor and left, but would consider rejoining a re-invigorated list within H-Net, and also people who have not been involved previously but have an interest in such a list. Afrlabor in the past has included numbers of people who aren't Africa specialists, but who have either comparative or solidaristic interests, and we continue to welcome such participation. I'd appreciate it if anyone interested would send me a message at [EMAIL PROTECTED]; tell me if you'd just like to be a member, if you'd be willing to be on an advisory board, or if you'd be willing to be part of a rotating pool of moderators (we're trying to gauge interest at all levels). Other information about the nature of your interest, past experiences with Afrlabor/ reasons for leaving Afrlabor (if relevant) or anything else you think we should know also welcome. Thanks, Chris Lowe (Publications Editor African Studies Center Boston University) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Chris Lowe)
[PEN-L:8295] information please
Please send me some info. re: progressive economists, et al.
[PEN-L:8297] Interest rates, fincance vs.productive capital
At 04:28 PM 1/17/97 -0800, Doug Henwood wrote:
It's not so much that industry is shifting its surplus funds to finance;
it's more like it's just shipping huge wads of cash to Wall Street. I don't
remember the numbers exactly - buy my book - but over the last decade or so
US nonfinancial corps have transferred (through MA, stock buybacks, and
dividends) about as much money to shareholders - who have literally
contributed less than nothing to finance their firms' inestments - as they
invested tangibly. Though interest rates are down from the 1980s, rentiers
still extract great piles of additional cash through the servicing of debt
- which, for nonfinancial corps has been floated mainly to do MA and stock
buybacks. At the same time, portfolio managers, especially those of public
pension funds, have begun to intervene heavily in management, in the
interest of higher stock prices.
This is a useful perspective of the orders of magnitude (from the real
world, in the best LBO tradition).
1) I suppose its worth separating out the different channels taken by the
fleeing productive capital.
a) Stock buybacks do represent a shift from productive curcuits
to money-as-a-commodity curcuits (and rivals the financial institutions on
"their" turf). Mostly, the MA funds do the same (i.e. they commodify asset
control, although we will hear a lot of rationalizations over economies of
scale, synergies, x efficiencies etc). To society, there are leakages from
productive capital, but to the productive firms they are an effort inter
grate financial roles (and profits) into their orbit (Japanese-style would
be their dream??).
b) The increased leakages to dividends were also triggered by
the struggle with financial capital - a "defensive" move to prevent
takeovers, etc. But the funds are mainly sent into capitalist consumption
(except for the fraction capitalists re-invest).
2) If I am hearing right the comments from Patrick Bond, Eugene Coyle,
Michael Perelman, and Blair Sandler:
- Its pretty clear that the breakdown (in North America?) in roles
and rules are going to have large and global implications (driven by the
higher ROI on financial capital including "the interest rate").
- Financial capital has built on its gains through bringing
productive assets into the money-as-money curcuits. But so far shows only
sporadic desire to move into the productive circuit itself (Patrick do you
see this differently?). Therefore there seems little likelihood that there
will be a finance-led revival of the productive sector in N.Amer. (never
mind a Hilferding-style structuring). With finance capital retaining its
funds and with productive capital shifting its funds to the finance sector,
there is a real chance of an overheating\meltdown scenario
- Productive capital has massively reduced the proportion it
reinvests in the productive circuit (profits are up, but not tangible
investments). The tendency towards productive dis-investment was partly
offset by increased rates of surplus extraction, but the dis-investment rate
seems to be accelerating. If productive workers were squeezed further, the
new investment could presumably only be realized through the expanded
consumption of those getting income from dividends or the money-as-money
circuit. Baring government redistribution (these days??), the productive
sector faces either dis-investment or a further transformation of the U.S.
into a sharply 2 class society (and then facing a yet bigger realization
problem).
-The international sector is likely to see continued squeezes from
the U.S. money circuit (assuming U.S, finance can continue to successfully
draw on the enormous political control the now enjoy and translate it into
favorable policies). U.S. productive capital, excluded from the key parts
of the E Asia boom ("no one is making money in China"), will try to keep up
with financial capital, obviating the possibility of them playing a
transformative role abroad.
Does this sound sensible?
Paul Altesman
P.S. Doug: I missed the tittle\publisher of your book when it was posted way
back. Could you post it - some other might also be interested.
[PEN-L:8298] What Do The Imperialists Want from Serbia, Bulgaria And Other Such ,
When the people of Ontario and other provinces began their struggle against the anti-social offensive, the monopoly-controlled media and politicians let it be known that Harris and other governments across Canada had the "mandate" to do what they wish. The people, they said, have to wait till the next election to vote them out of office if they don't like what they are doing. It seems that they are not using the same logic when it comes to Serbia or Bulgaria and many other countries in the world. Why is this the case? It is as clear as clear can be that the complete restoration of capitalism in the countries of eastern Europe and the Russian Federation has plunged these countries into a profound all-sided crisis. Violence and anarchy have become the norm, the new Rule of Law pushed by the most reactionary sections of finance capital, especially by foreign imperialist countries such as those which belong to the European Union and North America. Monopolists from these countries cannot and do not want to see any left-overs of the old order. At the same time, they cannot afford to have a new rule of law. The working class is familiar with the stories of the kind of lawlessness which prevailed under capitalism in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s and since then. Finance capital cannot afford to accept any rule of law, even one of its own. Capital can only flourish on the basis of anarchy and violence. The aim of manipulation of the people in Serbia and Bulgaria and other such countries is the same: to smash the old rule of law while it is replaced with nothing. They openly practice the rule of lawlessness and give it the name of "democracy" and a "multiparty system." This is how the imperialists and their social props are seeking to serve their interests in these countries. Shawgi Tell University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8300] Re: Interest rates, fincance vs.productive capital
At 8:32 AM 1/21/97, Paul Altesman wrote:
a) Stock buybacks do represent a shift from productive curcuits
to money-as-a-commodity curcuits (and rivals the financial institutions on
"their" turf). Mostly, the MA funds do the same (i.e. they commodify asset
control, although we will hear a lot of rationalizations over economies of
scale, synergies, x efficiencies etc). To society, there are leakages from
productive capital, but to the productive firms they are an effort inter
grate financial roles (and profits) into their orbit (Japanese-style would
be their dream??).
But the Japanese system gives far less importance to financial markets in
the constitution of ownership control than the Anglo-American model.
Cross-ownership and bank power make for tighter, less volatile relations.
Obviously, partisans of Japanese deregulation would argue that what Japan
needs is more volatility, American style.
b) The increased leakages to dividends were also triggered by
the struggle with financial capital - a "defensive" move to prevent
takeovers, etc. But the funds are mainly sent into capitalist consumption
(except for the fraction capitalists re-invest).
Mainly/fraction? How come you think the stock market is climbing?
- Financial capital has built on its gains through bringing
productive assets into the money-as-money curcuits. But so far shows only
sporadic desire to move into the productive circuit itself (Patrick do you
see this differently?). Therefore there seems little likelihood that there
will be a finance-led revival of the productive sector in N.Amer. (never
mind a Hilferding-style structuring).
The consensus of the US bourgeoisie is that the productive sector is just
fine - that the acid of competition has worked just as advertised, and the
portions of U.S. manufacturing that survived the last 20 years is in pretty
fine shape.
With finance capital retaining its
funds and with productive capital shifting its funds to the finance sector,
there is a real chance of an overheating\meltdown scenario
Another optimist.
-The international sector is likely to see continued squeezes from
the U.S. money circuit (assuming U.S, finance can continue to successfully
draw on the enormous political control the now enjoy and translate it into
favorable policies). U.S. productive capital, excluded from the key parts
of the E Asia boom ("no one is making money in China"), will try to keep up
with financial capital, obviating the possibility of them playing a
transformative role abroad.
You make U.S. industry sound sicker than it is. Firms like GE are
flourishing. No one may be making money in China, but they probably will,
and the rest of the region isn't in such bad shape either. Profit rates are
high - no surprise really, since it's only the highest-profit projects that
are invested in. Margaret Blair did estimates of what Jensen called "free
cash flow" - the money firms can't invest for a return higher than the cost
of capital - at the firm level for the 1970s and 1980s. The sharp rise in
real interest rates meant that firms' cost of capital had risen, thereby
generating a rise in free cash flow - i.e., profits that couldn't be
reinvested at a decent rate of profit. Jensen argued that loading up firms
with debt would transfer the FCF to Wall Street rather than leave it in
management's hands to waste on things like investments, employees, and
perks. Debt proved an inflexible (though effective) instrument for doing
that, but stock buybacks and MA have done just fine as substitutes.
And some of this capital transferred from nonfinance to finance ends up as
consumer credit, capitalized wages, that workers use to compensate for
stagnant incomes. Then they pay back 18% of their after-tax income in debt
service
Doug
--
Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217 USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html
[PEN-L:8301] Re: M-I: Michael Leibowitz on Market Socialism
On 21 Jan 97 at 8:26, Doug Henwood wrote: Lou Proyect asked me to forward this. Both he I ask you not to take that as an implied endorsement. Far from it in fact I read this piece with great interest. What a pity Louie can't or won't behave himself. He would be such an interesting guy to have around. MBS === Max B. SawickyEconomic Policy Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1660 L Street, NW 202-775-8810 (voice) Ste. 1200 202-775-0819 (fax)Washington, DC 20036 Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone associated with the Economic Policy Institute. ===
[PEN-L:8303] Ebonics
Heard on Roach Limpbone: It seems that in order to promote the concept of ebonics recognized as a separate language from which to proceed to build foundations in "formal" english, the proponents have proposed a "Miss Ebonics" beauty contest. When the idea was pitched, 49 out of 50 States signed on and only one State held out. It seems no one wanted to be known as Miss I da ho... Jim Craven *--* * James Craven * "Reason is a narrow system swollen * * Dept of Economics* into an ideology. * * Clark College* * * 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. * With time and power it has become a * * Vancouver, Wa. 98663 * dogma, devoid of direction and * * (360) 992-2283 * disguised as disinterested inquiry. * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * Like most religions, reason presents* * * itself as the solution to the * * * problems it has created." * * * * * * (John Ralston Saul in "Voltaire's * * * Bastards") * * MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION *
[PEN-L:8296] FW: BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY, JAN. 15-16, 1997 _Spurred by a continuing rise in oil prices, consumer prices rose 0.3 percent in December, BLS reports. The CPI-U rose 3.3 percent in 1996, up from a 2.5 percent advance in 1995. But the core rate of inflation rose just 2.6 percent in 1996, a decline from a 3 percent gain in the previous year. This advance, along with an identical one in 1994, was the smallest annual increase in the core rate since 1965 The slow rate of increase in the core rate in 1996 is broadbased and reflects smaller increases in all major expenditure groups except transportation (Daily Labor Report, Jan. 15, pages 2,D-1). _Consumer price inflation, fueled by a big jump in energy prices and a lesser surge in food costs, rose 3.3 percent last year, the highest rate in six years. Outside of food and energy, inflation moderated in every other major part of the CPI (Washington Post, Jan. 15, page C10). _Sales grow modestly with inflation benign. Retail sales confirmed what merchants had suggested for weeks: The 1996 holiday season produced gains, but they were smaller than some retailers had expected With sales growth contained, stores have not had much room to raise prices (New York Times, Jan. 15, page D2). Retail sales rose 0.6 percent in December, despite department stores' weak holiday sales. Meanwhile, consumer prices, minus food and energy, rose 0.1 percent (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, page A2). After adjustment for inflation, the weekly earnings of most U.S. workers rose 1.1 percent seasonally adjusted in December, making the gain for all of 1996 a relatively strong 1.8 percent, BLS reports. The 1.8 percent gain for 1996 was the largest annual increase since 1983 when real pay rose 2.0 percent. On an annual basis, real pay increased in only two of the last 10 years (Daily Labor Report, Jan. 15, pages 1,D-16). Retail sales rose 0.6 percent in December after a revised 0.2 percent decline in November, Commerce Department reports (Daily Labor Report, Nov. 15, page D-13). Yesterday's "USA Snapshots" in USA Today (page 1A) shows the most lucrative majors for men -- engineering, mathematics, physics, pharmacy, and economics -- in terms of wages or salaries and again credits the Occupational Outloook Quarterly, Summer 1996. Census Bureau reports business inventories edged up 0.1 percent in November, for their fifth gain in a row, while sales jumped 0.6 percent (Daily Labor Report, Jan. 16, page A-2)_Inventories up only marginally (New York Times, Jan. 16, page D2; Wall Street Journal, Jan. 16, page A2). Manufacturing activity among firms in the Southeast weakened in December, with declines posted in production, new orders, and hours worked, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reported. In addition, the prices area manufacturers received for the goods they produce fell during the month, while prices paid for raw materials remained solid (Daily Labor Report, Jan. 15, page A-3). The steady hum produced by the South's economy in recent years is now being drowned out by a cry for help: Companies, high tech and low tech alike, can't find workers The South, like many parts of the country, has been wrestling with a shortage of lower-wage employees for its service economy. But a recent survey of companies by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond shows that the region's labor shortages are beginning to extend far beyond minimum-wage employees The pinch means that employers are having to pay higher wages. And higher wages translate into slower economic growth (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, page A2). "Trendlines" in today's Washington Post (page E1) is "Keeping Debt Down: Why This Expansion Doesn't Seem to Be on Borrowed Time." John M. Berry writes, "A major change in the U.S. economy during the 1990s is the far slower rise in the combined debt of federal, state and local governments, nonfinancial businesses and households. The increase in debt slowed sharply during the 1990-91 recession, but remarkably has not accelerated very much since. Some Federal Reserve officials regard this as one more sign that the economy is on a firm, low-inflation footing " An editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal includes the following: "`Women's Figures' is a new survey of economic data published by the Independent Women's Forum, a free-market nonprofit in Washington, and by the American Enterprise Institute. The volume brings good news Take the wage-gap stereotype. Back in the 1960s, women wore buttons reading `59 Cents' to call attention to the gap between women's pay and men's. By May 1995, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued `Facts on Working Women,' that difference had narrowed to 76.4%. The BLS authors wondered aloud about discrimination's role: They wrote that the existence or effect of discrimination `on the
[PEN-L:8304] Re: M-I: Michael Leibowitz on Market Socialism
On 21 Jan 97 at 8:26, L. Project wrote:
I always had trouble understanding what the profit motive had to do with
innovation and productivity myself. The Internet is an example of
innovation devoid of the profit motive. I also have done my most creative
work in my non-professional life. I virtually ran an employment agency out
It should be clear that there is damn little of this type of
innovation or entrepreneurship, in contrast to the profit-
seeking kind.
The socialist rebuttal to the Viennese supposedly came from a certain
Oscar Lange, who I've heard of but never read. Lange was a market
socialist who tried to convince the world that workers could be just as
"entrepreneurial" as the capitalist class.
I don't think this is quite accurate. Lange wrote a little book with
Fred Taylor called The Economic Theory of Socialism, or some-
thing like that, which I read in grad school. He also wrote some
Keynesian macro papers. It is quite possible he wrote other
things on market socialism but I'm not aware of them. I'm quite
certain his ETS book is NOT a brief for market socialism. Rather,
it is an effort to show that publicly-run enterprises could, in
cooperation with a central coordinating authority ("planning" isn't
quite the right word), comprise an efficient economy. As I recall,
this entails the central authority organizing a process which yields
the information the enterprises need -- namely the 'correct' prices --
to know what to do. This is in my view quite different from market
socialism in the sense of Yugoslavia, where labor-managed firms
engage in actual market transactions. The Lange book helped to
spawn an interesting literature on planning which convinced me,
at least, that comprehensive central planning is infeasible and ever
will remain so.
After AES started to fall apart, some market socialists found that Lange's
arguments lacked the power that was needed and so they started to go back
to the Viennese school for further inspiration and guidance. Two Polish
economists, Brus and Laski, came to the conclusion that the problem with
market socialism up till now is that it didn't go far enough. They argued
that a labor market and capital market were necessary as well. The capital
As noted above, there are no actual markets in Lange's scheme.
Is all this starting to sound fishy, like just another word for
capitalism? Yes, dear reader, that's what comes next in the person of one
Market socialism is a lot like capitalism, but if something like
capitalism is what we're going to live with, then it offers some
appealing features, namely the breakdown of hierarchy within
business firms, a potentially more equal distribution of income,
and more tolerable conditions of work, among other things.
Just because it doesn't solve all problems, or very many, does not
mean it should be dismissed.
Aaak! Civil society. Another nostrum imported from Eastern Europe in the
dying days of state socialism. Civil Society is bunk. Bunk, I tell you.
Civil society is as old as de Tocqueville. If we grant that not
all collective goods should be provided by the central government,
then civil society is simply the most decentralized scale at which
collective goods can be provided, short of families. It is bunk as
a substitute for governments that are required to provide certain
services (e.g., national health insurance), but not as an adjunct
to such governments with its own appropriate functions. The left's
blindness to this tends to lead it to a knee-jerk advocacy of
national prograns to solve every problem, irrespective of the
capacity of the Feds to do the job properly or efficiently.
The great need today is not for institutions like the YMCA, coffee shops,
and food coops that do not challenge the capitalist state power. What the
Obviously the purpose of civil society is not to challenge
state power, but to contribute to the general welfare.
workers and peasants need are *political* instruments that can unite and
coordinate all of their local struggles. They need socialist parties with
revolutionary programs, just as much as in the days of Marx.
In the past in the U.S., of course, institutions of civil society
have become politicized and involved in insurgency. One
need only consider black churches in the civil rights movement,
to take a recent example. There are plenty of other examples
in history as well. Trade unions originated in civil society as
well.
. . .
as much power as can be realized. A successful revolution in Germany in
1919 led by Luxemburg and Liebknecht would have produced just such a
society. The state led by the workers would have come immediately to the
aid of the encircled and isolated USSR. Thus a genuine socialism would
have become at least possible and all of the silly Hayekian ideas would . . .
Lots of would being chopped here.
With Civility,
MBS
===
Max B. SawickyEconomic
[PEN-L:8307] Re: information please
Dear Penners, This is an occasional reminder of some of the listserv commands at your disposal. The commands have been capitalized for emphasis. These commands should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you are going to be away and want to postpone messages from pen-l send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the message type: SET pen-l MAIL POSTPONE== postpones one's mail SET pen-l MAIL ACK == unpostpone one's mail To unsubscribe from pen-l, please mail listproc the message UNSUB pen-l == two word command Most common mistakes: 1. The inclusion of personal names with the unsub request. 2. Punctuation marks near the two wordsE.g., "unsub pen-l" rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l. rather than unsub pen-l unsub pen-l rather than unsub pen-l 3. Trying to unsubscribe from an (internet) .edu address when your subscription is registered under a .bitnet address. To determine the address under which you are subscribed, send [EMAIL PROTECTED] the two word request. This request will also give you a list of all subscribers. REVIEW Pen-l If your efforts to unsub have been frustrated, please write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] rather than taking your problem to the list. It is helpful to forward a copy the of mail from [EMAIL PROTECTED] that shows the source of your problem. If you would like to receive pen-l messages in batches or digests several times per week instead of message-by-message, send the following command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want to return to message-by-message mail, use the command SET pen-l MAIL ACK If you want to see an index of the logs of past messages and other files send (to [EMAIL PROTECTED]) the command INDEX pen-l The list of files returned from the index command are retrievable with the get command. If, for example, you are interested in messages from January 94, you send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the body of the message type GET pen-l JAN94 For friends who would like to subscribe, please have them send the four/five word cmd SUB pen-l Firstname Lastname REMEMBER: All of these commands should be sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 916-898-6141 messages E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8308] market socialism, planned socialism, utopian socialism
Questions have been raised in various posts about the class nature of market and planned socialism and whether either or neither of these is "utopian" in any sense. 1) Most tracts on how to carry out planned socialism say little about class relations, other than to have some vague handwaving about the workers controlling/owning the means of production. How they participate in planning is left rather vague, even in the most advanced such argument, that of Cockshott and Cottrell. A lot of such texts, such as the old Soviet math lit, including Kantorovich's Nobel Prize winning invention/discovery of linear programming, was/is strictly technical and mathematical with no class analysis at all. Those that focus on class are usually vague on how to actually plan, e.g. Engels in _Anti-Duhring_, or the naive, if possible sci fi advanced remarks of Lenin about "every man an accountant." 2) It is true that Owen and Fourier proposed small utopias within larger market capitalist settings, and this may have warranted the dismissive "utopian" label attached by Marx and Engels. But Saint-Simon proposed economy-wide planningl. He was the French rationalist father of the whole idea, as Hayek pointed out in his _The Fatal Conceit_. 3) Market socialism in its worker-managed form emphasizes very clearly worker control of the means of production. This is more of a class analysis than usually shows up in the planned socialist economy lit. Of course there are those who imitate Marx and Engels, who go on about all the bad class relations in market capitalism and declare planning to be the answer, but then have very little to say about how planning will be done. The planning in the actually existing socialisms did lead to stagnation and to bureaucratic elites controlling the means of production and the distribution of the surplus, if not actually owning the means of production. The claim that those advocating planned command socialism have answered how to have the workers controlling things and also having a viable system that remains dynamic over time remains a utopian claim in the sense of "never having existed anywhere" and remaining unexplained how it could anywhere. This is the original meaning of the word utopian, although as I have already said, without some utopianism, we are all without hope. Barkley Rosser -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8305] Re: vive le roi?
I used that pun for a chapter in my new book. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: a fragment from a recent pen-l discussion: Its pretty clear that the breakdown (in North America?) in roles and rules are going to have large and global implications (driven by the higher ROI on financial capital Given the French meaning of "ROI," can we say that financial capital is king? abas le roi! (is my French right? I didn't want to put "down with the king" in the subject line if it was wrong.) in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8311] Re: market socialism, planned socialism, utopian socialism
Rosser Jr, John Barkley referred to non-market socialism as utopian. We have never had a satisfactory socialist society. The same can be said for market socialism and even capitalism. Whenever a society begins to try socialism, the capitalist powers do everything they can to undermine it. In Nicaragua, the U.S. goals included the creation of the need for repression. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8302] vive le roi?
a fragment from a recent pen-l discussion: Its pretty clear that the breakdown (in North America?) in roles and rules are going to have large and global implications (driven by the higher ROI on financial capital Given the French meaning of "ROI," can we say that financial capital is king? abas le roi! (is my French right? I didn't want to put "down with the king" in the subject line if it was wrong.) in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
[PEN-L:8314] Re: A Deformed Wokkers' State
Forwarding and interesting piece to the lists. Bob Malecki I am reading a book by Simone Weil (1909-43) - publisihed post-humously in 1958 called Oppression and LibertyI have typed this peice - so hopefully not many typos. The sentences are long, but then that is her writing I suppose. I feel it quite correctly assesses the situation then (1932). The peice was probably written just before Weil went to the Spanish War. She was 23 at the time. Quoted from the Essay titled "Preospects" written by Simone Weil. (Published in "Revolution proletarienne Number 158" in August 1933.) "The Paris Commune was an example not only of the creative power of the working class masses in movement, but also of the fundamental impotence of a spontaneous movement when it comes to fighting against organised force s of repression. August 1914 marked the bankruptcy of proletarian mass organisations, both on the political and trade-union planes, within the framework of the system. From then onwards it became necessary to abandon once and for all the hopes placed in this mode of organisation. not only by the reformists, but by Engels. On the other hand, October 1917 ushered in new and radiant prospects.At least the means had been found of combining legal with illegal action, the systematic labours of discipli ned militants with the spontaneous seething of the masses. All over the world communist parties were to be formed to which the Bolshevik party would pass on its knowledge and technique; they were to replace social democracy, already described by Rosa Luxemburg, in August 1914, as a "stinking corpse", and very soon to disappear from the stage of history; and they were to seize power within a very short time. "The political regime set up spntaneously by the workers of Paris in 1871 , then by those of St Petersburg in 1905, was to become solidly entrenched in Russia and soon to embrace the entire civilised world. Of course, the crushing of the Russian revolution by the brutal intervention of foreign imperialism might blast these brilliant prospects; but, unless sucha thing occurred, Lenin and Trosky were certain of introducing into history precisely this particular series of transformations and nor any other. Fifteen years have elapsed. The Russian Revolution has not been crushed . Its enemies, both abroad and at home, have been vanquished. And yet nowhere on the surface of the globe - including Russia - are there any soviets; no where on the surface of the globe - including Russia -is there any communist party properly so-called. The "stinking corpse" of social democracy has continued for fifteen years to infect the political atmos phere, which is hardly the action of a corpse; if at last it has been largely swept away, this has been the work of fascism, not of the Revolution . The regime born of October, which either hand to expand or perish, has for fifteen years accommodated itself very well to the boundaries set by its national frontiers; its role abroad now consists, as events in Ge rmany clearly demonstrate, in stifling the revolutionary activities of the proletariat. The reactionary bourgeoise have at last perceived that it has very nearly lost all force of expansion, and are wondering whether they could not now make us of it by arranging defensive and offensive all iances with it with a view to future wars (cf. the "Deaust Allgemeine Zeitung" for 27th May). The truth is that this regime resemblkes that which L enin thought he was setting up in so far that it excludes capitalist property almost entirely; in every other aspect it is the exact opposite. I nstead of genuine freedom of the press, there is the impossibnility of ex pressing a free opinion, whether in the form of printed, typewritten or hand-written document, or simply by word of mouth, without running the risk of being deported; instead of the free paly between parties within the framework of the soviet system, there is a cry of "one party in power, an d all the rest in prison"; instead of a communist party destined to rally together, for the purposes of free co-operation, men possessing the high degree of devotion, conscientiousness, culture, and critical aptitude, t here is a mere administrative machine, a passive instrument in the hands of the Secretariat, which, as Trostky himself admits, is a party in name only; instead of soviets, unions and co-operative functioning democratically and directing the economic and political life of the country, there a re organisations bearing, it is true, the same names, but reduced to mere administartive mechanisms; instead of the people armed and organised as a militia to ensure by itself alone defence abroad and order at home, the re is a standing army, and a police force freed from control and a hundre d times better armed than that of the Tsar; lastly, and above all, instea d of elected officials, permanently subject to control and dismissal, who were to ensure the
[PEN-L:8309] Le Roi est le Roi
Here is the section on Le Roi from my new book: Modern Class Struggles in the Information Age Le Roi est le Roi Markets teach us to turn a blind eye toward the environmental damage occurring all around us. This defect reflects a far larger problem with markets in our economy. Today, pseudo-information takes precedence over real information. As a result, unmet social needs press in on us from all sides. Business has no reason to meet these needs in unless they can turn a sufficient profit. Political leaders tell us that we cannot even afford our present level of government spending on social or environmental programs, let alone commit enough funds to address these challenges adequately. So we watch our cities, as well as the global environment deteriorate. While the situation worsens daily, nobody steps forward to take responsibility for this mess. In earlier times, a king, or as the French would say, le roi, ruled supreme. He could set priorities and spend money in any way that he saw fit, no matter how arbitrary. Today, we have a new roi, or we should say, ROI, which commands our life. This new ROI is an acronym for the Return on Investment. This ROI, and this ROI alone, now determines what will or will not be done. As Kevin Phillips has summarized this rule of ROI: ##Finance has not simply been spreading into every nook and cranny of economic life: a sizeable portion of the financial sector, electronically liberated from past constraints, has put aside old concerns with funding the nation's long-range industrial future, has divorced itself from the precarious prospects of Americans who toil in factories, fields, or even suburban shopping malls, and is simply feeding wherever it can. [Phillips 1994, p. 81] The wild expansion of the domain this new ROI is far from accidental. Powerful interest groups, financed largely by great corporations or those who already have great wealth, have been hard at work reducing the public sphere of activity. This attack on the public sphere has taken several forms. Conservative think tanks dominate the media, spreading the promise of privatization. Sympathetic politicians underfund public activities, undermining the ability of the public sector to provide adequate services, thereby creating an impression of inefficiency. Finally, in the absence of public financing of elections, corporations more and more frequently can openly finance the election of those who favor their interest. Schools, prisons, roads sanitation, and just about any other sphere of public activity are on the road to becoming privatized. Public lands are turned over to private interests who see national treasures merely as sources of timber or minerals or a place to graze cattle. Public information is turned over to corporations, who then sell it to the same citizens whose taxes originally paid for developing the data. Someone once posted a message on the Internet that is too poignant let pass just because I cannot remember the source: ##The United States has become a place where your neighborhood video store is still open at midnight, while the library is closed at noon; where an advertising agency owns more computers and fax machines than it knows what to do with, while teachers have to wait in line to use a school's one functioning copying machine. [unknown source] The public sphere is subject to the will of the people, albeit only partially and to an diminishing extent. If we do not appreciate our schools or our city council, we have the possibility of voting to replace them. We can still even have some modest influence on the state or federal government. Corporations, in contrast, are responsible only to their shareholders. Yes, they are subject to the laws of the nation, but more and more corporations can rewrite the laws, often through the agency of compliant politicians, who often allow the corporations themselves to draft the laws that affect them. The shareholders, to whom the corporations owe their allegiance, single mindedly seek out the highest ROI. Sometimes a firm can improve its ROI through a new technology or an organizational innovation. More typically these days, corporations seek to inflate their ROI by cutting back. They cut back on wages, pensions, or medical care for their workers. They cut back on measures that will preserve the environment. With the help of the politicians whom they hold in tow, they cut back in taxes. The ROI flourishes while society decays. Our willingness to cede more and more authority to the corporations is tantamount to demanding, "Off with our heads." -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8313] Re: What Do The Imperialists Want from Serbia, Bulgaria And Other Such ,
Shawgi writes; It is as clear as clear can be that the complete restoration of capitalism in the countries of eastern Europe and the Russian Federation has plunged these countries into a profound all-sided crisis. Actually something worth while discussing. In another letter I recently wrote I said the following; "So their is both a general shifting of whole industries leaving thousands on the dole while to the east here we are seeing new slave like production units developing in production of textiles in Poland for example by a grateful but sometimes complaining working class of these former Stalinist satelite countries. Now the general atomosphere is sort of a time of capitalist wild west accumilation and exploitation of the former eastern block countries at the expense of down sizing in the west!" The funny thing about this stuff is that capitalism is using the downfall of Stalinism to declare war on its own working classes in the west. And then I said; "The urban poor and the general structural changes going on connected to technical advances and a whole new part of the world which is poor and anti Communist to the core because of Stalinism. Must be a god sent gift to imperialism. The only exception is Germany! Because I think their goal is a unified and strong new Germany being the present goal of German Imperialism. Although they are certainly having their problems.." I think this an important thread. Can anyone expand on it? Bob malecki Check Out My HomePage where you can, Read the book! Ha Ha Ha McNamara, Vietnam-My Bellybutton is my Crystalball! Or Get The Latest Issue of, COCKROACH, a zine for poor and workingclass people HTTP://WWW.ALGONET.SE/~MALECKI If The links are not working you can write to me from my home page and get the latest issue of COCKROACH!
[PEN-L:8310] utopia
Barkley writes: It is true that Owen and Fourier proposed small utopias within larger market capitalist settings, and this may have warranted the dismissive "utopian" label attached by Marx and Engels. A growing literature suggests that Marx and Engels were _not_ very dismissive toward the utopians (cf. the Vincent Geoghegan and Ruth Levitas books that I cite in the article on utopias that I mistakenly posted to pen-l last month; see also the last volume of Hal Draper's KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION; Krishan Kumar'S book disagrees). In desperate brevity, Marx thought that utopianism was nice in a lot of ways, including giving workers ideas for about how they could organize a post-capitalist society. But he differed strongly in terms of tactics and strategy: propagandizing about how things could be better or setting up utopian colonies was hardly enough. Early on, Engels was much more pro-utopian than Marx; according to Draper, Marx convinced Engels to less effusive in his praise of the utopians in ANTI-DUHRING. But with the development of the German Social Democratic Party and the rise of the Marxist intellectuals' scientific (i.e. positivistic) pretensions, the antagonism toward the utopians grew. This antagonism became violent in the Third International, because any utopianism was implicitly or explicitly a criticism of the USSR. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
