[PEN-L:2715] Re: Re: Lamont and Spencer Freed.
Brad De Long wrote: Christine Lamont, 39, of Vancouver B.C. and David Spencer, 35, of Moncton N.B. were given full parole yesterday They had served a little over 10 years of the life sentences they were given in Brazil for the kidnapping of supermarket magnate Alberto Dinz I hope Lamont and Spencer write about their experiences and continue their commitment to social change in L.A. Their experience and dedication is badly needed in the movement here. Sam Pawlett Why in God's name would this kind of "experience and dedication" be "badly needed"? Brad DeLong This looks like a cheap shot but I guess I wasn't clear enough.. I wasn't referring to their "experience and dedication" in kidnapping and other violent activities but to their many years of experience working with the popular movements in Central America ( not to speak of organizing in a Brazilian prison). Someone who cut her teeth as an activist for the FMLN and FSLN in the 80's would be valuable to any social movement because of her knowledge in what works and what doesn't in organizing for social change and the specific policies to be pursued in bringing about that social change. Given the state of the popular movement here in Canada, such people are badly needed. Sam Pawlett
[PEN-L:2713] Re: Lamont and Spencer Freed.
Christine Lamont, 39, of Vancouver B.C. and David Spencer, 35, of Moncton N.B. were given full parole yesterday They had served a little over 10 years of the life sentences they were given in Brazil for the kidnapping of supermarket magnate Alberto Dinz I hope Lamont and Spencer write about their experiences and continue their commitment to social change in L.A. Their experience and dedication is badly needed in the movement here. Sam Pawlett Why in God's name would this kind of "experience and dedication" be "badly needed"? Brad DeLong
[PEN-L:2712] Re: Re: Russia
In a message dated 99-01-29 17:24:25 EST, you write: f the Weimar/Russia analogy holds, we should expect fascism to rise to the top in Russia soon. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jim, haven't a number of fascists already won significant numbers of votes in Russian elections? I can't remember the guys name, but I saw a 60 min interview with some guy who impressed me as being fascist, crazy, and charismatic -- a deadly combo. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2711] Re: Russia
From: "T. S. White" [EMAIL PROTECTED] With all due respect to Mr. Pickett, I am certain his work in Perm is meaningful and substantive, he makes the same mistake committed by many regional field workers. I cannot criticize his critique of the Harvard Symposium on Russia in the least. To have the best economic minds of our country rubbing elbows with the worst economic plunderers of Russia is a moral degradation of American self respect. Too much can be made out of the Harvard crowd's collaboration with the destruction and plunder of Russia. What happened is pretty simple. What "the West" did to Russia after it won the Cold War is akin to what the Allies did to Germany after the first World War. The Harvard crowd simply rode that tiger, providing ideological rationalizations for the destruction and plunder. Some profited grandly. If the Weimar/Russia analogy holds, we should expect fascism to rise to the top in Russia soon. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:2710] Russia
#5 Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 From: "T. S. White" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Observations on 3031-Pickett/Harvard Symposium With all due respect to Mr. Pickett, I am certain his work in Perm is meaningful and substantive, he makes the same mistake committed by many regional field workers. I cannot criticize his critique of the Harvard Symposium on Russia in the least. To have the best economic minds of our country rubbing elbows with the worst economic plunderers of Russia is a moral degradation of American self respect. This is not, however, the mistake that I would observe. The mistake Mr. Pickett committed was the ease with which he dismissed the impact of the Russian economic crisis on the populations of Moscow and St. Petersburg. For those who have visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, without leaving the proximities of Tverskaya Street or Nevsky Prospect, his dismissal may seem justified. Yet, it is ill considered to bestow the opulent life style of the Russian new rich, and well placed politicians, onto the general population of either city. The facts are far different when one visits the decaying districts of Moscow or St. Petersburg and then considers the weight of numbers. One of the first facts that one must come to grips with is the impact, in the big cities, of the Russian economic crisis on children. The population of homeless children, in these cities, is the fastest growing segment of the poor in Russia. Children whose parents have abandoned them to the street in favor of vodka. Children that are not cared for by relatives of their deceased parents because there is not enough food for the family. Children that take to the streets for refuge to escape the abuse of homes ravaged by poverty and alcohol. These children beg and steal to get their daily sustenance. They huddle in alcoves and air vents in the freezing Russian winter trying to survive the night for another gruesome day. In St. Petersburg the population of homeless children is officially stated at 10,000, but unofficial estimates double that number. Mr. Pickett refers to pensioners as the people with money in his region. To be sure, when the pensioners actually do receive a payment, they have a quantifiable amount of Rubles. The fact is that quantity is the equivalent of of forty U.S. Dollars. St. Petersburg has the largest concentration of pensioners in all of Russia. There are one million residents of St. Petersburg on pensions. Pensions that are pitifully inadequate to provide even the most rudimentary of life's necessities. How does an aged W.W.II veteran of the Siege of St. Petersburg buy food for a month on the Ruble equivalent of forty dollars? The obvious answer is they cannot. Mr. Pickett rightfully bemoans the affect of alcohol poisoning on the residents near Perm. Anyone that has visited Moscow is aware of the ubiquitous presence of vodka at every turn. Public drunkenness and alcoholism exist at staggering levels. The bodies of the people that have succumbed to alcohol poisoning are quietly hauled from the sidewalks and gutters every morning. The body count in one day exceeds the fifteen reported annual deaths that Mr. Pickett cites. Without a doubt there is suffering and deprivation in the region where Mr. Picket does his good work, and I do not wish to minimize that fact. The fact is that when you multiply that suffering by the density of urban populations in Moscow and St. Petersburg it takes on staggering proportions. In St. Petersburg, a city with five million residents, there are more than two million people living below the Russian poverty line. These people are all suffering the kind of hunger and cold Mr. Picket complains about. So in the hard economic analysis of the Harvard crowd I guess it is correct to assert that the suffering he has observed is proportionately less severe. Of course then I remember the running joke in the graduate economics course I took so many years ago, "If you lay every economist in the world end to end you still will not reach a conclusion". Anyone interested in more information on the levels of poverty and needs of the poor in all of Russia may visit: http://www.russians.org
[PEN-L:2709] Re: Re: Duke University's literature department
Peter, The quick answer is probably not. I have just looked at my massive (673 pp.) _Contributions to Urban Sociology: The Chicago School_ ed. by Ernest W. Burgess [he of the "zones"] and Donald J. Bogue, 1964, U. of Chicago Press. It is not in the index. BTW, I don't know if it is the first place, and of course we are dealing with a translation from the French, but I find the phrase in _Outline of a Theory of Practice_, originally published in French in 1972 and in English in 1977. The latter is the year that Glenn Loury first used it according to Robert Putnam. Barkley Rosser On Fri, 29 Jan 1999 12:12:50 -0800 Peter Dorman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Did any of the Chicago "urban ecological" sociologists use the term "social capital"? It would seem to fit their ideas. Peter Dorman "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" wrote: Michael, This quote from Senior looks like it might fit. But whose concept of "social capital" does it resemble if any, Bourdieu's or Loury-Coleman-Putnam's? Also, I note that this is still not a use of the term "social capital" even if it is getting at the concept maybe. Barkley Rosser On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 15:43:40 -0800 Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote: 1) Bourdieu was the first to coin the term "social capital." According to Senior, England was successful because "the intellectual and moral capital of Great Britain far exceeds all the material capital, not only in importance, but in productiveness" (Senior 1836, p. 134). By the way is David Yaffe, the same fellow that wrote marxists stuff a few decades ago?[ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2708] Re: Re: Duke University's literature department
Did any of the Chicago "urban ecological" sociologists use the term "social capital"? It would seem to fit their ideas. Peter Dorman "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" wrote: Michael, This quote from Senior looks like it might fit. But whose concept of "social capital" does it resemble if any, Bourdieu's or Loury-Coleman-Putnam's? Also, I note that this is still not a use of the term "social capital" even if it is getting at the concept maybe. Barkley Rosser On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 15:43:40 -0800 Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote: 1) Bourdieu was the first to coin the term "social capital." According to Senior, England was successful because "the intellectual and moral capital of Great Britain far exceeds all the material capital, not only in importance, but in productiveness" (Senior 1836, p. 134). By the way is David Yaffe, the same fellow that wrote marxists stuff a few decades ago?[ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2707] Re: Lamont and Spencer Freed.
At 11:30 AM 1/29/99 -0800, Sam Pawlett wrote: The others implicated in the kidnapping were; Chilean Miristas Maria Marchi, engineer, Ulises Gallardo, sociologist, Hector Tapia, mechanic, Pedro Lembach, economics professor, Sergio Olivares, electrician, Brazilian Raimundo Freire, and Argentinian EPR leaders Humberto and Looks like a genuine alliance between intellectuals and workers. I wish we had more of it here. Would not it be gratifying to see an econ prof -- perhaps kidnapping Bill Gates would be asking too much, but how about breaking into the NYSE chambers and lecturing these folks about the virtues of the theory of value? Regards, Wojtek
[PEN-L:2706] Re: Lamont and Spencer Freed.
I forgot to add that the Paz brothers and Maria Marchi confessed under torture thus invalidating their confessions under international law. SP Sam Pawlett wrote: Christine Lamont, 39, of Vancouver B.C. and David Spencer, 35, of Moncton N.B. were given full parole yesterday by the Canadian prison authorities on the condition that they not associate with groups or individuals who espouse violence as a means to social revolution. They had served a little over 10 years of the life sentences they were given in Brazil for the kidnapping of supermarket magnate Alberto Dinz.They were released a little over a month after returning to Canada under a new prisoner exchange treaty signed by the Canadian and Brazilian governments. The kidnapping was a Chilean MIR operation directed at raising funds for the FMLN for their 1989 country wide offensive. Later, Tomas Borge's interior ministry was implicated when an FMLN weapons cache was discovered in Managua in 1992 that contained false I.D.'s for Lamont and Spencer. There is some speculation that the operation was under the direction of Borge's interior ministry as was the Argentinian EPR operation that elimated Somoza in Asuncion, Paraguay. The kidnapping operation was a disaster since it occurred during the 89 Brazilian election campaign. Predictably, the kidnappers were painted as PT members with one of the accused put on Globo TV with a PT T-shirt on. The Brazilian right got a lot of political capital out of this. Lula narrowly lost the election to Collor who was later impeached for corruption( a friend of a friend's father prosecuted him). The others implicated in the kidnapping were; Chilean Miristas Maria Marchi, engineer, Ulises Gallardo, sociologist, Hector Tapia, mechanic, Pedro Lembach, economics professor, Sergio Olivares, electrician, Brazilian Raimundo Freire, and Argentinian EPR leaders Humberto and Horacio Paz. I do not know what has happened with these revolutionaries except that there was a lot of talk of sending them back to their home countries. In an interview in the Jan 9/97 edition of the Chilean journal Punto Final, Chilean MIR leader Roberto Moreno claimed that the operation was nicknamed 'Carmelo' and was aimed at securing $US30 million for the Salvadorean FPL. Moreno also had this to say: " Fue un grave error politico y etico. La idea del secuestro es una infiltarcion de la mentalidad capitalista en la logica revolutionaria: se coloca un precio y se cobra por la mercancia. Es el tipo de error en que existe el mayor vicio ideologico, en toda la histroia de la guerilla latinoamericaJusto en el momento en que la Izquierda Brasilena tenia las mayores posibilidades de victoria. Nuestra accion perjudico gravemente esa perspectiva y afecto no solo a la Izquierda Brasilena sino a toda la Izquierda latinoamerica." I hope Lamont and Spencer write about their experiences and continue their commitment to social change in L.A. Their experience and dedication is badly needed in the movement here. Sam Pawlett
[PEN-L:2705] Lamont and Spencer Freed.
Christine Lamont, 39, of Vancouver B.C. and David Spencer, 35, of Moncton N.B. were given full parole yesterday by the Canadian prison authorities on the condition that they not associate with groups or individuals who espouse violence as a means to social revolution. They had served a little over 10 years of the life sentences they were given in Brazil for the kidnapping of supermarket magnate Alberto Dinz.They were released a little over a month after returning to Canada under a new prisoner exchange treaty signed by the Canadian and Brazilian governments. The kidnapping was a Chilean MIR operation directed at raising funds for the FMLN for their 1989 country wide offensive. Later, Tomas Borge's interior ministry was implicated when an FMLN weapons cache was discovered in Managua in 1992 that contained false I.D.'s for Lamont and Spencer. There is some speculation that the operation was under the direction of Borge's interior ministry as was the Argentinian EPR operation that elimated Somoza in Asuncion, Paraguay. The kidnapping operation was a disaster since it occurred during the 89 Brazilian election campaign. Predictably, the kidnappers were painted as PT members with one of the accused put on Globo TV with a PT T-shirt on. The Brazilian right got a lot of political capital out of this. Lula narrowly lost the election to Collor who was later impeached for corruption( a friend of a friend's father prosecuted him). The others implicated in the kidnapping were; Chilean Miristas Maria Marchi, engineer, Ulises Gallardo, sociologist, Hector Tapia, mechanic, Pedro Lembach, economics professor, Sergio Olivares, electrician, Brazilian Raimundo Freire, and Argentinian EPR leaders Humberto and Horacio Paz. I do not know what has happened with these revolutionaries except that there was a lot of talk of sending them back to their home countries. In an interview in the Jan 9/97 edition of the Chilean journal Punto Final, Chilean MIR leader Roberto Moreno claimed that the operation was nicknamed 'Carmelo' and was aimed at securing $US30 million for the Salvadorean FPL. Moreno also had this to say: " Fue un grave error politico y etico. La idea del secuestro es una infiltarcion de la mentalidad capitalista en la logica revolutionaria: se coloca un precio y se cobra por la mercancia. Es el tipo de error en que existe el mayor vicio ideologico, en toda la histroia de la guerilla latinoamericaJusto en el momento en que la Izquierda Brasilena tenia las mayores posibilidades de victoria. Nuestra accion perjudico gravemente esa perspectiva y afecto no solo a la Izquierda Brasilena sino a toda la Izquierda latinoamerica." I hope Lamont and Spencer write about their experiences and continue their commitment to social change in L.A. Their experience and dedication is badly needed in the movement here. Sam Pawlett
[PEN-L:2704] Re: Duke University's literature department
Michael, This quote from Senior looks like it might fit. But whose concept of "social capital" does it resemble if any, Bourdieu's or Loury-Coleman-Putnam's? Also, I note that this is still not a use of the term "social capital" even if it is getting at the concept maybe. Barkley Rosser On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 15:43:40 -0800 Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote: 1) Bourdieu was the first to coin the term "social capital." According to Senior, England was successful because "the intellectual and moral capital of Great Britain far exceeds all the material capital, not only in importance, but in productiveness" (Senior 1836, p. 134). By the way is David Yaffe, the same fellow that wrote marxists stuff a few decades ago?[ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2703] Re: Re: [Fwd: Re: Shleifer and Incentives]
Egads! This sounds like a cosmic Noise. Or is it just some noise trading? We know that you did that stuff with "Clean As A Hound's Tooth" Andrei and "Master Of The Universe" Larry. Barkley Rosser On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 16:12:16 -0800 Brad De Long [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (The spell-checker translated Shliefer as "Slicer" and "Shifter" and "neo-liberalism" as "neocolonialism." From the mouths of machines! Of course, Peter was Doorman.) Beware. The spell-checker translates the name of Shleifer's frequent co-author Robert Vishny as "Vishnu." OM MANI PADME HUM... -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2702] BLS Daily Report
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. --_=_NextPart_000_01BE4B9E.5B9CC810 BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1999 RELEASED TODAY: The Employment Cost Index (ECI), not seasonally adjusted, for December 1998 was 139.8 (June 1989=100), an increase of 3.4 percent from December 1997. ... On a seasonally adjusted basis, compensation costs for civilian workers rose 0.7 percent during the September-December 1998 period, following a gain of 1.0 percent in September 1998. Wages and salaries also increased 0.7 percent during the September-December 1998 period. The increase was 1.2 percent in the June-September 1998 period. Benefit costs increased 0.6 percent in the September-December 1998 period; for each of the two previous quarters, the increase was 0.8 percent. ... In the third quarter of 1998, personal income in 48 states and Washington, D.C., grew more than 3 times faster than the increase in prices paid by consumers, according to the Department of Commerce. Across the nation, personal income grew 1.1 percent in the third quarter, the same as in the second. The advances in personal income growth were greater than the 0.3 percent hike in prices paid by U.S. consumers as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Despite an abundance of credit and other bright economic conditions for startups - not to mention scads of success stories about young entrepreneurs striking it rich - the number of businesses started in the U.S. is on the decline. A recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that business starts fell 4 percent in 1997, on top of a 14 percent drop in 1996. The federation's preliminary figures for 1998 point to a third straight year of decline. ... Ironically, the reason for the drop seems to be precisely the reason for the success of so many new businesses these days: the strong economy. A senior research fellow at the NFIB, located in Washington, D.C., says, "There's always a large number of people who go into business for themselves because of the loss of a job or the fear of the loss of a job. That negative push is lighter today." An adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School says that, as employees, "everybody seems to have better opportunities now than they may have had three or four years ago." ... As further testament to the conflicting pull of the strong economy on entrepreneurial activity, the NFIB study shows that, while fewer new businesses are being launched, fewer small businesses are failing as well. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). --_=_NextPart_000_01BE4B9E.5B9CC810 b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQWAAwAOzwcBAB0ACgAtABwABQBMAQEggAMADgAAAM8HAQAd AAoALQAMAAUAPAEBCYABACEzMkI1RTFGNjY2QjdEMjExODg4RTAwQzA0RjhDNzgzMQATBwEE gAEAEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAkAUBDYAEAAICAAIAAQOQBgCECQAAHEAAOQAA wT5lnku+AR4AcAABEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAAgFxAAEWAb5LnmSO 9uG1OLdmEdKIjgDAT4x4MQAAHgAxQAENUklDSEFSRFNPTl9EAAMAGkAAHgAw ND2oHP8ACgEPAhUCpAPkBesCgwBQEwNUAgBjaArAc2V0bjIGAAbDAoMyA8UCAHDccnESIAcTAoB9 CoAIzx8J2QKACoENsQtgbmcxODAzMwr7EvIB0CBCgkwF8ERBSUxZB/AARVBPUlQsIFRQSFVSUxjA WRmASiBBTlVBUhkAMjh5GYAxORsQCoUKhRkgTKBFQVNFRBmQTxnxBDogGZBoZSBFbb0LUG8GwAnw BUAIUHMFQARJbg2weCAoRUNkSSkZgG5vBUAR8GEGcwIgB0BseSBhZHxqdR5ACYAZgAIQBcBEHQWQ ZQbQBJAa8jggdyMfoBrwMzkuIdAoSox1bh1QGwA4OT0XAH4wHxEDkQuABQAfkR1Qb4BmIDMuNCBw BJAPITAd8QNSIQs3LiAuayaQHRBPA6BhH38ggSB+YidQBAAZgAWgHYAJ8HP4YXRpAiAo0R5ABCAg 0rhjaXYDEAcwA6B3BbAeawSQBCADYCQxMC43zSTHZAhxFuAgdB1BBmD7BTAhQy0hHCTRKXAgox/w bm8D8CyxJxBnC3EkUjF+LhhgJNYwAS0nIZMmsVf8YWcHkQBwKFApQAtgCIH9MqFsH7AjxyhQK78s zy3f3wRwJrEdMiPXIfMuEiAwqds1siKiLTFcN2hCCfANwO5pBUAptDPqNjlONf8uO747IMMnQBGw JFI+gnQq4J8kwBUwKnAIYAQgcXUKwP8ggBHgGYA+gjhLNIAugyUCzyZ1G0wecEF0aGkLIEKG/zAj IbEZgCTRH7MjwgNwOCJ8IDQh0B5AKVAylTJgcxtGwBbgdAIgGYBELkP+LhmACcEH4ARgFTA+cQOR 9jM+cAdzZidQR1JL80M7uzABE5BpITAEIAqwaShR9yAQBaAAgHUHgELyANAFob5kNXMzwD6CIRAK sXQd07skYQhQbU/BITAmsUEFAP8eMAQgPoIf0CliSA9LRDBg/jE5Tka7QxQpQEjxIgE51e8R8E9x N8YgMHYAcE6yTlL/VA8vYD6AIeAEkFTTSaFNGX80gExAJNZGwCsQTk8gEFX8LlMmcE93V+IHgCdQ CHD/KEIgED6CToMjwR6SINJIJ79PdAUwKXIeoCkRUHB0YIGycyZ1KEQLcCABTAGgfQWxUj7QFNFT 0TJxGLAtmDEpLhtMIRBzcDxg61fRJvFiIrBkWZIkUiPxX2PhMrMfUB1ABcBiBRBn/mgFQFiiA3BO oE9iY+Epcecp9EmBACB1cAQhY8FKQf8dEB9CUMEd0ilyBPAgMAQg/yRhT6BQMAeQBCAeQAWwM1P1 BuB1BUB5CGA1gR3hFTDfQgEiwAhwbxIFEGs1cjxh/06RQTBsp1MzT7AhYiRhaFD/AJAiwAQQB5Fs EyhBOdVfI/8EACRQOeQFgSqQIsBSkitQZyEhHfEeQHVkIBBg1U77KVNIgUYJgASQKVQkYR5y+2Oy HeJCc+UgwWhhS+IFQPdz1mwEKfFlH/BJQDCaJjKzGYB18m9wJFInEDEkuO5kA2B+oH3ENjfVfNB5 Fr4nTtEVMCqQauAf0HIgEN08UGdkEiDDLlRvC4BtU98nEEa0cVELcGpSeSdAR3P7dmcmk0kDYAMA bjAf8UMU/yQCKYEg0nYjf9IR8CFAUxH/M8AhYEHyKlAR8CABh19Xgf9uxW6CbYEAcCAQIsAH4HPZ 5z6BJDFogHlzHQFXY3CQ9wIgcFFqo3l20xHwAwAFsf9kIYVBQSF80i9gICBtUXgy+EZJQhmAFMBu
[PEN-L:2701] Casting out Subjects
From the Irish Times. A new rite for exorcism is to be introduced by the Catholic Church. Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez explained how demonic possession may be determined. Such a person may be "speaking with a great number of words from unknown languages, or understanding them, making known things either distant or hidden, showing strength beyond one's situation, together with vehement aversion towards God, Our Lady, the Cross and holy pictures." Perhaps a spot of exorcism is all the pomotistas need. (Mike L and Doug H. take note of the bit about understanding them.) But seriously folks... The stuff I have read here from Judith B. doesn't seem to go beyond people's behavior is structured, but they also have agency, which only restates the structure agency problem. Marx solved this problem eons ago with the stricture that men make history but they do not do so under conditions of their own choosing. What the old man is getting at here is that a theory of history (social change) is a theory of the conditions within which action is undertaken, rather than a theory of the exercise of free will (agency being a less embarassing term for free will). Marx argued the dynamic force in history is class strugge thus transcending completely the structure agency problem. How certain individuals come to play certain roles in the class struggle, revolutionary, reactionary, reformer, quisling, college professor, etc. is an interesting question at the boundaries of a theory of history and psychology, but it is not central to an understanding of historical dynamics and therefor not central to an understanding of progressive social change. I remember when the pomos thought the subject was decentered rather than central, and thought then that with the pomo fracturing of collective identities (Mike L's point) it was only a matter of time before the individual re-emerged as the only really indivisible social unit. With the foregrounding of the structure agency question this seems to have happened. It ill behooves Marxists to get too wrapped up in a question which has long been solved from a social scientific perspective, however interesting it may remain for psychology. Terry McDonough
