[PEN-L:5757] Keeping welfare attack
The book to which Gil referred is THE WAR ON THE POOR: A DEFENSE MANUAL by Randy Albelda, Nancy Folbre, and the Center for Popular Economics. You can get it from: ATTN: Paid Order Department W.W. Norton Co. 800 Keystone Industrial Park Scranton, PA 18512 There's also an 800 number, which I've misplaced, but you can get it for ordering (and for a quote of the exact cost) by calling the New Press at 212/629-8802. W.W. Norton is distributing the book for New Press; you need to call Norton to get an exact quote on the cost (or to give them your credit card # if that's how you do it). I got my copy late last week. It seems to make the case pretty well, at least from the standpoint of economic and social data, that the right wing attack on the poor is based on a number of myths which can be demonstrated. The poverty and public assistance time line is particularly helpful to me, showing key events in the unfolding of the welfare system and the attack on it.
[PEN-L:4507] Taylor Taylorism
See: Taylor's book The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911(?) Norton published a paperback of this some years ago, don't know if it's still in print. Also: .. Samuel Haber, Efficiency and Uplift, 1964 The opening couple of chapters of this book are an excellent treatment of Taylor's life and engineering ideas. .. Harry Braverman, Labor Monopoly Capital, is also a good primer on Taylor and Taylorism.
[PEN-L:4486] victory for TAs at UCLA -Forwarded
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_6136AD0E.09680D45 Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" FYI --=_6136AD0E.09680D45 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 18:41:03 -0800 From: "Ann Lane" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FWDvictory for TAs at UCLA =20 -- Date: 3/20/99 3:09 PM From: openup=40cats.ucsc.edu X-arrival-time: 921520009 From: =22UC-AFT=22 inglesby=40silcom.com To: inglesby=40silcom.com Subject: victory for TAs at UCLA Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:44:55 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0 To: Local Contacts and Senate Caucus, UC-AFT Good news=21 - Pam -- Monday, March 15, 1999 In a Shift, U. of Cal. Opens Door to Recognizing Teaching-Assistants=27 Union By COURTNEY LEATHERMAN In a reversal of its position, the University of California announced Friday that it would recognize a union of teaching assistants on the Los Angeles campus, pending the outcome of a vote by the T.A.=27s on whether to bargain collectively. The announcement was a victory for the national movement to organize teaching assistants, which has viewed the battle at the University of California as a major test of the campaign=27s strength. Richard C. Atkinson, president of the University of California System, directed the announcement toward U.C.L.A., where teaching assistants had just spent three days voting on whether they wanted bargaining through a union affiliated with the United Auto Workers. The results of the union election will be counted on March 22 by the Public Employment Relations Board. Three days later, the two sides will meet with the board to talk about the possibility of holding elections on the other seven campuses where unions are seeking recognition. =22We will respect the outcome of this election and will abide by the choice made by our students,=22 Mr. Atkinson said in a statement. =22If the choice is union representation, I want to assure our students and the U.A.W. that the University will make every effort to cooperate fully and to bargain in good faith at U.C.L.A.=22 One labor expert called the announcement =22a dramatic turnaround,=22 adding, =22The university has never indicated in the past that they would bargain.=22 While the president=27s announcement was specific to the Los Angeles campus, some observers speculated that the university=27s new stance could signal a decision to recognize all eight T.A. unions on California campuses. Their battle for recognition prompted short-term strikes on eight campuses in December, which drew national attention and the ire of some prominent state lawmakers in California who urged the university to recognize the unions. At U.C.L.A., the Student Association of Graduate Employees won the right to hold the election after the Public Employment Relations Board ruled in December that the teaching assistants there had the right to bargain collectively. In addition, last month, the employment board rejected the university=27s request to seek a judicial review of the matter. The university had hoped to get an appellate-court ruling on the question of bargaining rights for T.A.=27s. After the employment board had rejected the university=27s request, the last option for getting it into the courts was to refuse to bargain with the union if it won, forcing the union to file an unfair-labor-practice charge against the university. Until Friday, university officials had strongly suggested that that was their most likely plan of action. Albert Carnesale, chancellor of U.C.L.A., challenged the suggestion that the university had switched gears. =22The university, to the best of my knowledge, never has said what it would do in the wake of an election. It simply made clear it felt the matter was best resolved by the courts.=22 But, Mr. Carnesale said, those decisions were made before the employment board forced the university to hold a union election at U.C.L.A. That, in turn, forced the university to revisit its position. =22It was decided that if the union won, that it simply is not in the best interest of the community to drag this out.=22 Union officials on the Los Angeles campus were left nearly speechless by the unexpectedness of President Atkinson=27s statement. About the best a spokesman could muster was: =22It=27s exciting. We=27re happy.=22 Copyright * 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education Mike Rotkin -- RFC822 Header Follows -- ) Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 15:09:39 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: openup=40cats.ucsc.edu Subject: victory for TAs at UCLA --=_6136AD0E.09680D45--
[PEN-L:7245] On-line pesticide novel -Forwarded
Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" FYI Proceeds of on-line novel to support Pesticide Action Network After researching the horror stories of pesticides poisoning communities in Mexico and on the U.S. border, Leslie Guttman was compelled to write about it. A journalist for the past 14 years, Leslie merged her professional reporting experience at the San Francisco Chronicle with her personal interest in fiction writing to create Message Pending, a fictional love story with a bulletin for the planet. Released May 24, Message Pending can't be found at bookstores, but rather on-line on the World Wide Web. Intrigued by the opportunity of the internet and the new kind of language that e-mail has created, Leslie set out to tell her story through the e-mail messages of the characters she constructs in the book. Message Pending describes the life and relationships between four journalists who are struggling to walk a straight road at a chaotic metropolitan newspaper in San Francisco. One character finds herself in a Mexican village, exposing a pesticide scandal and corporate cover-up. Leslie approached the development of Message Pending with a variety of goals in mind, including using fiction as activism. She hopes that the novel will help raise awareness about the global crisis in pesticide use. "In my novel, Katie O'Donnell, one of the reporters, is working on a big scoop involving pesticides in Mexico. The ultimate message is that you can't pull on one strand of the ecological web without tightening it in another place. Pesticides know no borders." Leslie is donating half the net proceeds of Message Pending to Pesticide Action Network. The first three parts of the novel can be read for free on-line at http://www.messagepending.com. The rest of the novel can then be accessed for $14.50. Hope you enjoy it! _ Karen deMoor Communications and Development Pesticide Action Network North America 49 Powell Street, Suite 500 San Francisco, CA 94102 Tel: 415-981-6205, ext. 318 Fax: 415-981-1991 http://www.panna.org Pesticide Action Network, Advancing alternatives to pesticides world-wide.
[PEN-L:7261] On-line pesticide novel -Forwarded
Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" FYIDate: Tue, 25 May 1999 18:41:41 -0700 From: Karen deMoor [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: On-line pesticide novel Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Proceeds of on-line novel to support Pesticide Action Network After researching the horror stories of pesticides poisoning communities in Mexico and on the U.S. border, Leslie Guttman was compelled to write about it. A journalist for the past 14 years, Leslie merged her professional reporting experience at the San Francisco Chronicle with her personal interest in fiction writing to create Message Pending, a fictional love story with a bulletin for the planet. Released May 24, Message Pending can't be found at bookstores, but rather on-line on the World Wide Web. Intrigued by the opportunity of the internet and the new kind of language that e-mail has created, Leslie set out to tell her story through the e-mail messages of the characters she constructs in the book. Message Pending describes the life and relationships between four journalists who are struggling to walk a straight road at a chaotic metropolitan newspaper in San Francisco. One character finds herself in a Mexican village, exposing a pesticide scandal and corporate cover-up. Leslie approached the development of Message Pending with a variety of goals in mind, including using fiction as activism. She hopes that the novel will help raise awareness about the global crisis in pesticide use. "In my novel, Katie O'Donnell, one of the reporters, is working on a big scoop involving pesticides in Mexico. The ultimate message is that you can't pull on one strand of the ecological web without tightening it in another place. Pesticides know no borders." Leslie is donating half the net proceeds of Message Pending to Pesticide Action Network. The first three parts of the novel can be read for free on-line at http://www.messagepending.com. The rest of the novel can then be accessed for $14.50. Hope you enjoy it! _ Karen deMoor Communications and Development Pesticide Action Network North America 49 Powell Street, Suite 500 San Francisco, CA 94102 Tel: 415-981-6205, ext. 318 Fax: 415-981-1991 http://www.panna.org Pesticide Action Network, Advancing alternatives to pesticides world-wide.
[PEN-L:6766] Re: NATO Losses -Reply -Rep
Thank you, Michael.
[PEN-L:6732] NATO Losses -Reply
This seems like a very important message - if it's at all true. Michael Eisenscher - what is the URL from whence this message came, and what is the International Strategic Studies Association?
[PEN-L:6514] Satire Politics
Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Here's a gentle tweaking of upper crust assumptions from Jim Hightower - with access to some mainstream media outlets. Cross-posted from the Publiclabor list-serve. From: "Tom Larsen" [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Let Them Eat Artichokes" Friday, May 7, 1999 --- Let's peek again [Rich Cranky theme] into the Lifestyles of the Rich . . . and Cranky. Today's tour of the estates of the elites takes us into the White House itself. None other than Hillary Rodham Clinton asks to be our tour guide. It seems the First Lady is writing another book-a sequel to her earlier White House literary turns, including It Takes a Village and, of course, her most recent offering, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, which was a delightful collection of children's letters sent to the First Cat and First Dog, respectively. This time, though, she tells us fascinating tales of her role as hostess, relating how the Presidential Couple entertains the privileged and the powerful. The new book is entitled, An Invitation to the White House. Even if you're among the 99.999 percent of Americans who never get invited to the White House, you'll probably find much that's useful here, including a glimpse of what one would serve to the prime minister of China! You just never know when Zhu Rongji might stop by, and there you are without a box of hamburger helper or anything. Hillary's four-color, cookbook-size volume will feature some 20 state events she has hosted, including photos and menus. Also, it will offer some 30 recipes that you, too, can serve the next time two or three hundred dignitaries come for dinner at your place-assuming you have a chef and a full kitchen staff paid for by taxpayers. The First Lady's new book recalls for me another First Lady's effort to cope with public curiosity about food issues. In 1981, Nancy Reagan received an inquiry from a single mother who was getting $27 a month in food stamps. How, she inquired, was she ever going to feed her family on such a spare allotment? Nancy sent back a delightful recipe for a crab and artichoke dish the Reagans had served at a White House dinner. The cost of the dish: $20 per serving. This is Jim Hightower saying . . . If we are what we eat . . . what does this say about us? --- Sources: "Hillary to write the book on classy entertaining" by Deirdre Donahue. USA Today: April 15, 1999. "Hail to the chef!" by Carol Diuguid. George: September 1998. --- Copyright - Saddleburr Productions, Inc. ONElist: bringing the world together. http://www.onelist.com Join today! To unsubscribe from this list, go to the ONElist web site, at www.onelist.com, and select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left. --- PublicLabor Web Page http://msmoo.simplenet.com/publiclabor
Molly Ivins on Breast Cancer Awareness Mo
And, as Alexander Cockburn and Jeff St. Clair reported last fall in Nature and Politics, the Delaney clause, which banned carcinogens from the food supply, was repealed by Congress, and signed by Clinton on the same day he signed welfare destruction.
Re: Marx on Native Americans -Reply
There was a book in the late 70s or early 80s called KEEPERS OF THE GAME by an anthropologist (Calvin ???) whose last name I cannot remember. He makes a very interesting and HIGHLY controversial argument about how the tribes in the northeast and northwest (that is, what we now refer to as the Midwest) had no "scientific" way to explain the diseases brought by the Europeans (Dutch, French, English, others) were striking down their populations. They reasoned that their gods were angry at them and they sought revenge against animals whom they thought were the channels for disease. This confluence of interpretations coincided with the extinction and near extinction of many species (e.g., beaver, mink) through their increased hunting for the fur trade. We're probably talking mid- to late-18th century in North America. This book was really controversial. It is well-argued and documented, but there are some leaps that the author had to explain and document. I don't remember what consensus emerged from the brouhaha. One major objection was that it really takes the gloss off of the image of Native Americans as somehow more spiritual and loving stewards of the natural world. It was, after all, as the book shows, Indian warriors and hunters who showed the European fur traders where the habitats of these animals were and helped kill them. In California, disease (venereal, and small pox among them) was also believed to cause an 80 percent drop in the populations of the California tribes in the 50 years subsequent to the arrival of the Spaniards in the late 18th Century. That stat is my recollection; it was incredible the impact of disease here though. My (recalled) source on that is Sherburne Cooke's book on the California Indians from the 1940s. This was also true of Cortez' conquest of Aztec Tenochtitlan too, and Pizarro's conquest of the Incas. The native peoples on both continents had no immune defenses against the critters the Europeans brought. Same with Hawai'i when contacted in the late 18th Century by Captain Cook, particularly with sexually transmitted diseases. The list is a long, sad one.
ESPFwd: FCC Action Alert (fwd) -Forwarde
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_B4E13E9C.9CFD901D Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Anyone familiar with this? --=_B4E13E9C.9CFD901D Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 09:00:43 -0800 From: Celia Graterol [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ESPFwd: FCC Action Alert (fwd) I think this information is important for internet users. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ + Celia Graterol e-mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] + + Education Director Tel. (415) 338-1949+ + BAHP-Bay Area Homelessness Program Fax. (415) 338-0561+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ -- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 22:30:46 -0800 From: Wade Hudson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Wade Hudson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ESPFwd: FCC Action Alert -Original Message- Sent: Sunday, January 04, 1998 3:35 PM Subject: Read, React, Forward DON'T PUT THIS OFF TILL LATER I am writing you this to inform you of a very important matter currently under review by the FCC. Your local telephone company has filed a proposal with the FCC to impose per minute charges for your internet service. They contend that your usage has or will hinder the operation of the telephone network. It is my belief that internet usage will diminish if users were required to pay additional per minute charges. The FCC has created an email box for your comments, responses must be received by February 13, 1998. Send your comments and tell them what you think. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Every phone company is in on this one, and they are trying to sneak it in just under the wire for litiagation. Let everyone you know hear this one. Get the e-mail address to everyone you can think of. --=_B4E13E9C.9CFD901D--
schmoozing -Reply
As a planner for the City of Berkeley I can attest to the usefulness of "schmoozing", almost however it is defined. It's about anything from gossip and meaningful information shared (i.e., facilitating the integrative coordination of divided labor), to ladder climbing. But then it's also really hard to quantify this kind of thing as well. It's just an article of faith among the most productive (again, variously defined) bureaucrats that to get the information you need to do your job well (again, variously), you have to cultivate a variety of sources.
Coke Is It! -Reply
not attached?
[Fwd: Book Review - Workers in a Lean Wor
Thanks for posting this, Michael. I'll spread it around.
Re: [Fwd: Crime and Punishment 1999 (fwd)
What is the source on Thomas Kruse's drug offenders prison population data?
A Right-wing ballot initiative -Reply
For what it's worth, the Berkeley City Council adopted a position opposing California's Proposition 226 on March 24th.
a proposed leading indicator -Reply
Doug, Glad to hear the Nation wants you to do such a regular feature. As a housing planner for Berkeley dealing with homeless policy, services and programs, I have some indicators kinda close to my heart for you to consider. How about the number of estimated homeless population per 1,000 resident population? Another indicator could perhaps include the percent of households in America paying 50 percent of their income in rent, then the percent of households at or below 50 percent of their regional median incomes who pay 50 percent of their incomes in rent. It would be interesting to gauge how the poor fair relative to the middle class in that regard, and over time. I don't know if the nation's (small n) data sources on the experience of welfare reform is up to the task, but some gauge of how many people left the rolls after August 1996, by the reason for their exit (e.g., having gotten a job versus being cut because of non-compliance with their "work plans"). I would also suggest some health related indicators, including perhaps AIDS cumulative TB case rates, with resistant-strain TB, as well as price indicators on the costs of various classes of drugs, such as protease inhibitors and antibiotics. Finally, a number of cities and communities around the country have passed or are considering living wage ordinances of various kinds and stripes. Some sort of regional-oriented living wage indicators would be interesting and useful, as an alternative to the CPI. To the extent you can get the Nation, with its New Look, to incorporate good graphics, it seems you're the guy to do it.
No Subject
Forwarded mail received from: Anyone have ideas for this inquiry from another list? anyone have any information on privatization of health care in prisons? thanks in advance Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 13:10:27 -0500 Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: FM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: privatization data base You may recall that a few weeks ago I suggested that it might be possible to put together a data base which could be drawn upon when people are dealing with privatization issues. Putting together a useful data base would require expertise and credibilty, a position the AFL-CIO, as the umbrella organization of most US unions occupies if no one else. I spoke with Paul Hughes of the Public Employee Department of the AFL-CIO a week ago about this project. He has just come over to the AFL-CIO from SEIU and is trying to determine what projects would be useful. He professes agnosticism on this idea for the moment. It might be useful if those interested in getting such a project going would contact Hughes and discuss it with him. Giving him a sense whether unions could or could not make use of information and what information they might need would be helpful to his decision whether to commit resources to this project. ---ellen dannin REPLY: I think it would be useful as a national database. However, we might want to check our own national unions to see if a like-base is being considered. If so, maybe those national unions could agree to co-build and share a national database through the AFL-CIO. What do you think? ---Federico *** j o h n e l f r a n k - d a n a [EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal/business) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (school) http://www.bway.net/~elf/ (personal) http://mbhs.bergtraum.k12.ny.us (school)
[PEN-L:5269] The No-Fault Corporation
Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:CENTER2:TCPBRIDGE:CI:SMTPGATE:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" This is from the PUBLABOR list, a response to Clinton's economic Herbert Stein's column in WSJ last week. Further grist for the discussion of the "evil of two lessers" discussion recently. Thanks to Jim Devine for the posting of David Brower's piece. LaborTalk: The No-Fault Corporation By Harry Kelber Here's the latest word on the subject of corporate responsibility. It comes from no less an authority than Herbert Stein, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under President Nixon. Writing in The Wall Street Journal of July 15 under a banner headline, "Corporate America, Mind Your Own Business," Stein says that corporations "discharged their responsibilities when they maximized profits." It's a hard-nosed message that's easy for ordinary folks to understand: The sole guiding principle of any company is to make as much money as possible for its investors. It's a blunt response to those who criticize corporations for their outrageous executive salaries, bloated profits and tight-fisted attitude toward their employees. Stein strongly advises that "corporations should not accept responsibility for doing anything the government asks them to do." That, of course, should not inhibit them from accepting the innumerable tax breaks, depreciation allowances, subsidies, grants and special favors they get from Congress, presumably to make them more competitive and improve the American economy. Stein argues that a company's "shareholders"--its employees and customers--do not deserve any special consideration, except in instances where it maximizes its profits. Corporate greed is a healthy instinct, economically justified since, as Stein says, "maximizing profits is the guide for attaining a certain kind of efficiency in the use of the economy's resources." According to this view, corporations have every right to move their factories to low-wage countries to boost their profit margins and they have no responsibility whatever for the economic and social wreckage they leave behind. It's not their problem that their employees are left without a livelihood and that the communities that provided them with essential services suffer financial loss. It is not only their right but their duty to fight against any legislation that puts a crimp in their profit picture. To cut labor costs, they must exert pressure to keep wages and benefits to the lowest possible level. That also means they must use whatever means at their disposal to develop a "union-free environment." In short, corporations must strive to be a law unto themselves and oppose any government regulations that interfere with their single- minded mission to enrich their investors. Obviously, this is a view that the labor movement must challenge. But how? Outside of the occasional blasts against corporate greed, there is no clearly-defined strategy or legislative agenda to compel corporations to be accountable for their behavior to the American people. We need not expect the Clinton administration to take on this job. The White House and virtually all members of Congress are beholden to Big Business, not only for its political contributions but for the enormous pressure it can exert as the nation's most powerful "special interest" group. The best that President Clinton has been able to do is to create a "corporate citizenship award" in the name of the late Ron Brown, the former Secretary of Commerce, who acted as a salesman for our corporations, drumming up business for them by using the economic and military power of the U.S. government as selling points. Does anyone think that corporations will abandon their quest for superprofits in order to get the President's award? The question of corporate responsibility should be a prime issue in this election. It is not. Candidates are avoiding it. Can the AFL-CIO come up with a specific program to make corporations accountable and compel the major political parties to respond to the issue, as it did with the minimum wage and Medicare?
[PEN-L:2428] Re: Re: 1998 Bad Writing Co
Amen to Ellen's belief about the unvarnished benefits of clear writing, and I add only that good writing on social and political theory, even political economy, does not have to go into the thickets of jargon to be innovative and meaningful. My one major tip: active verbs, and avoid the passive voice!
[PEN-L:3453] Water as a commodity -Reply
Glad you mentioned this issue, Michael. I wanted to mention a couple of recent press articles on CALFED and water "marketing" in case you hadn't seen them. I wrote one for the Berkeley environmental magazine TERRAIN, and a similar, more recent piece appeared in the SF Bay Guardian by Heather Abel. Both are critiques of water marketing and CalFED plans to build more dams and canals to supply the new water market. Abel's piece is available on the Butte Environmental Council web site, www.bec.org, and I could send you mine if you're interested.
[PEN-L:6070] Poverty Rate Note
Doug, in looking at your U.S. poverty rate time series, it looks more like the poverty rate peaked in 1993 and then began to decline, albeit in a somewhat "sticky" fashion. It doesn't look like poverty has increased with the growth we've been seeing. This seems on its face rather consistent with what economists would predict coming out of a recession - labor markets would become increasingly saturated, and even poorer-skilled workers would find employment and be lifted out of poverty. As a housing and homeless policy planner in Berkeley, I observe a more complicated picture (as I know many others on this list would suggest). The extent to which people actually _experience_ a reduction in their poverty depends to a significant degree on how much of what income they receive is spent for housing. With the end of strong rent control in Berkeley, Berkeley's Rent Board reports that the rents of newly occupied rental units (hence, a new rent ceiling gets recorded) is up 25 percent over last year at this time. That means a studio apartment renting last year for $600 would fetch $750 for its owner this year from the rental market. The Contra Costa Times reported from the California Association of Realtors this morning that Berkeley's median home sales price jumped 35 percent since a year ago, to $352,000. At a conference last week, I heard it said that in some California rental markets, something like 80 percent of the tenants pay more than 50 percent of their incomes in rent. (Until I get the reports from which this is quoted, please, everyone on the list, consider this factoid second-hand hearsay.) If that's true, then the poverty rate doesn't tell the story in California, hardly at all. The housing boom in Berkeley is a direct result of the housing boom in San Francisco, which is a direct result of the booming regional economy in finance and high tech in the Bay Area. The Times article states what many realtors have observed, that buyers who have been priced out of SF come to Berkeley to make that buy - and they come here with extra cash from failed attempts to purchase in SF. As I see it, the poverty rate indicates where people's incomes are with respect to a government-established poverty (income) threshold; however, it doesn't appear to me to account for the purchasing power of their incomes the way a measure like the rent or housing cost burden (as % of household income) does.
[PEN-L:5765] PANUPS: Resource Pointer #205
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_DD8BF8D1.47264389 Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Info resources on intellectual property and global poverty, within. --=_DD8BF8D1.47264389 Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 16:30:05 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: PANUPS: Resource Pointer #205 Mime-Version: 1.0 === P A N U P S Pesticide Action Network Updates Service === Resource Pointer # 205 April 21, 1999 For copies of the following resources, please contact the appropriate publishers or organizations directly. *The Paradox of Plenty, 1999* Douglas H. Boucher (ed.) Examines new paradigms of food security, shifting focus from ability to produce enough food to issues of access to resources, equity and consumption. Looks at impact of global economy on global food systems. Examines cases from developing countries and examples of alternative food systems. 342 pp. US$18.95. Contact The Institute for Food and Development Policy, 398 60th St., Oakland, CA 94618; phone (510) 654-4400; fax (510) 654- 4551; email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; website www.foodfirst.org *Beyond Intellectual Property: Toward Traditional Resource Rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, 1996* Darrell A. Posey and Graham Dutfield. Offers ideas on how indigenous peoples and local communities worldwide can approach and deal with the issues surrounding intellectual property and traditional resource rights. Examines legally binding international agreements; soft law and non-binding international agreements; and community- based intellectual property rights and which are most effective in protecting indigenous people. Discusses topics such as plant germplasm and patenting of life. 303 pp. Canada $30. Contact Renouf Publishing Co. Ltd., 5369 Canotek Rd., Unit 1, Ottawa, Ontario K1J9J3 Canada. *Corporate Predators: The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy, 1999* Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman. Collection of articles critiquing corporate power. Includes sections on corporate crime and violence, corporate attack on democracy, the search for "mega-profits," mergers, commercialism, sweatshops, union-busting. 192 pp. US$12.95. Contact Common Courage Press, 1 Red Barn Road, Monroe, ME 14951; phone (207) 525-0900; fax (207) 525-3068; email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; website www.commoncouragepress.com *Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction From the Bottom Up, Second Edition, 1998* Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello. A basic introduction to the "globalization" of the economy. Looks at the "global race to the bottom" in which workers, communities and whole countries are forced to compete by lowering wages, working conditions, environmental protection standards and social spending. Highlights mounting worldwide resistance. US$16. Contact South End Press, 7 Brookline St. #1, Cambridge, MA 02139-4146; email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; website www.lbbs.org/sep/sep.htm *Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty, Second Edition, 1999* Walden Bello. Looks at impacts of the North's strategy to dominate the international economy and reassert corporate control. Discusses consequences of removal of barriers to foreign investments, privatization of state-owned activities, reduction in social welfare spending, wage cuts and devaluation in local currencies. 162 pp. US$14.95. Contact The Institute for Food and Development Policy, 398 60th St., Oakland, CA 94618; phone (510) 654-4400; fax (510) 654-4551; email [EMAIL PROTECTED]; website www.foodfirst.org We encourage those interested in having resources listed in the PANUPS Resourse Pointer to send review copies of publications, videos or other resources to our office. === Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) 49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA Phone: (415) 981-1771 Fax: (415) 981-1991 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.panna.org To subscribe to PANUPS, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text on one line: subscribe panups To unsubscribe, use: unsubscribe panups === --=_DD8BF8D1.47264389--
[PEN-L:5956] Query on history of EPA, Con
You might check Samuel Hays' book, Beauty, Health and Permanence for some history of EPA, particularly on a broad range of topics.
[PEN-L:5972] Re: Query on history of EPA,
Another thought on this: Jim O'Connor and Daniel Faber co-authored a piece on the political economy of environmentalism in Capitalism Nature Socialism in 1988 or 1989. The footnotes there may have some useful historical material for you. See also the works of Denton Morrison, Richard N.L. Andrews, and Allan Schnaiberg.
France May Go to 35-Hour Work Week -Forw
Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" x-posted from publabor list. An interesting little follow-up from the recent utopia discussion on pen-l. 12/10/1997 10:22 EST France May Go to 35-Hour Work Week PARIS (AP) -- France's leftist Cabinet adopted a measure calling for the work week to be reduced to 35 hours from 39 hours by the year 2000, despite protests by business leaders. A reduced work week, aimed at spreading jobs around to fight 12.5 percent unemployment, was a main plank in the Socialists' electoral platform in the legislative elections that brought them to power in June. A new poll released Wednesday indicated that 67 percent of the French would accept a 35-hour week with slightly lower pay if it would help create jobs in their company and industry. The survey, from the IFOP institute and published in the left-leaning daily Liberation, was taken over the phone Dec. 4-5 with 1,082 people aged 15 and older. No margin of error was given, but French polls of this size usually carry a margin of up to 3 percent. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has stressed there should be negotiations between employers and workers on implementing the reduced work week. The government has already begun a publicity campaign to convince business leaders the shorter hours won't hurt French competitiveness. That campaign is being countered by the national business federation CNPF which vociferously opposed the change, contending it would simply raise labor costs. They demand instead that the government loosen up rigid labor laws and cut employment taxes. Under the plan, companies with over 20 employees would be required to reduce non-overtime hours to 35 by Jan. 1, 2000, while smaller companies would have until Jan. 1, 2002 to make the switch. Leading the conservative's opposition to the bill, President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday told the Cabinet: ``I don't think that this bill, taking into account its mandatory nature, is good for employment.'' The 35-hour work week bill will now be debated in parliament.
PE of Higher Ed -Reply
May I suggest some older works by Magali Sarfatti Larson: 1) The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis, 1977 2) a chapter by Larson in Thomas Haskell, ed., The Authority of Experts, 1984, as well as some other selections in this book by Haskell and Thomas Bender. While on "professionalism" (cultural and ideological dimensions), these folks trace its relationship and literal relocation of intellectual activity from urban institutions into the 19th century university.
Re: Asian ecological crisis -Reply
I was struck by the off-hand remark in the NY Times article supplied us by Louis Proyect that this ecological disaster in southeast Asia somehow "coincided" with the economic slow-down now occurring in Indonesia and other states. I am hardly knowledgeable about southeast Asian affairs, but the timing of the land-clearing fires for agriculture (and perhaps other resource-extraction and/or some level of industrial/urban development) on these islands must be less than coincidental. Land-clearing, even in American history, always had a great deal to do with speculative development as a prelude to economic growth. Similar things go on now in Brazil too. I suspect the coincidence has more to do with El Nino coinciding with the economic slowdown; together they've precipitated this disaster. Land clearing and economic development are not coincidental, in my humble opinion.
Progressive Populist 11/97 Fight Freeboot
help - on livable wage campaigns -Re
Berkeley will shortly propose that the City study the feasibility of a living wage ordinance. I would appreciate receiving your testimony before the Chicago City Council, Mr. Baiman. Thanks. Tim Stroshane City of Berkeley Housing Department 2201 Dwight Way, 2nd Floor Berkeley, CA 94704 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ph: 510/665-3472
Rental Housing Assistance report avail f
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_8BDFFDDF.CCADC293 Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" HUD report announcement states that housing assistance need has grown even as the supply of low rent units has declined and Congress has not increased housing assistance. Equals recipe for increased homelessness even in a booming economy... --=_8BDFFDDF.CCADC293 bold "Rental Housing Assistance -- The Crisis Continues: The 1997 Report to Congress on Worst Case Housing Needs"/bold is now available from the HUD USER website at: http://www.huduser.org/publications/hsgpolicy/worstcase/index.html Despite America's booming economy, this report shows a record 5.3 million households with very low incomes - including growing numbers of working poor and suburban as well as urban families - have a desperate need for housing assistance because they face a crisis of unaffordable rents and substandard living conditions. This report lists four major findings: * Economic prosperity has failed to ease the affordable housing shortage. The number of American households with crisis-level rental housing needs grew by nearly 400,000 from 1991 to 1993 to reach 5.3 million, and held steady through 1995. * The supply of low-rent housing has decreased, but Congress has rejected requests to give more people housing assistance. The number of apartments affordable to families with very low incomes dropped by 900,000 from 1993 to 1995. * There has been a sharp increase in the number of working poor families needing housing assistance, with the total jumping by 265,000 - 24 percent - from 1991 to 1995. * The affordable housing shortage, once concentrated principally in the cities, is also affecting the suburbs. The number of suburban households with critical housing needs jumped by 146,000 from 1991 to 1995 - a 9 percent increase. You can order publications from HUD USER at: HUD USER P.O. Box 6091 Rockville, MD 20850 1-800-245-2691 1-800-483-2209(TDD) (301)519-5767 (fax) --=_8BDFFDDF.CCADC293--
[PEN-L:180] THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER
I looked it up again, and found Al Krebs' earthlink email address. I'll ask him directly. My apologies for missing the obvious.
[PEN-L:177] THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER #
Michael I was very interested in this "magazine" you sent out a few weeks back. How can one subscribe to it? Tim Stroshane [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:925] Toronto: homeless on the move
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_5A0D2279.D7B6DF3E Forwarded report on homeless people in Toronto. --=_5A0D2279.D7B6DF3E Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 23:46:49 -0800 From: "john vance" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Fwd: Toronto: homeless on the move (POST fwd) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 22:30:01 -0800 (PST) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Blazing Star [EMAIL PROTECTED] (by way of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Becky Johnson)) Subject: Toronto: homeless on the move (POST fwd) Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 23:05:27 -0500 From: Graeme Bacque [EMAIL PROTECTED] Original Message Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 23:41:05 From: Michael Shapcott [EMAIL PROTECTED] The following media release has been issued by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. -- Toronto Disaster Relief Committee For immediate release October 26, 1998 Homeless speak out: October 27 at All Saints Church Disaster vote at City Council: October 28 at Metro Hall Homeless speak out: On Tuesday, October 27, at 10 a.m. at All Saints Church (southeast corner of Dundas and Sherbourne Streets) there will be a speak-out by homeless people about the disaster of homelessness. The event is sponsored by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. Ian White, a recently homeless unemployed welder, will begin by talking about his friend, who hanged himself from a tree behind a local hostel on Friday, October 23. Another man died earlier that day in the same shelter from an overdose. Ian's friend had also recently become homeless. Ian helped him move his furniture and belongings from his apartment. It was recognized that the man was becoming seriously depressed and he was taken to hospital. He was released back to the hostel. "The hostel was no place for a man who was so stressed," Ian said. "I feel very badly. I didn't know this could happen. He was a nice man." The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee has been hearing of homeless people dying every week. Another man hanged himself outside a shelter this past summer. Disaster vote at City Council: On Wednesday, October 28, at 10 a.m. at Metro Hall (55 John Street) the issue of whether homelessness is a national disaster will come before Toronto City Council. "It's a basic human rights issue," says Laura Cowan, Executive Director of Street Health. "You can see notices posted in every government building asking that people be treated equally. If there was a flood in Toronto and flood victims had to share the shelter with poor people who had also lost their homes, would government officials call an emergency and only replace the homes of the flood victims and leave poor people croweded in shelters and on the streets? I hope not!" Homeless people will be arriving at 9 a.m. for a breakfast and supports from across Toronto will be arriving for the start of the City Council meeting at 10 a.m. Three hundred organizations, including St. Michael's Hospital, the Children's Aid Society of Toronto, community health centres throughout Canada, the Canadian Aids Society, mental health associations and housing groups have endorsed the call of the TDRC to have all levels of government feed and house their people. Hundreds and hundreds of individuals have also signed on. Thousands of people are still out in the streets and the shelters are full with the Canadian winter approaching. The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is asking the question: Will Toronto councillors decide that homeless poor people should be treated as anyone else in Canada expects to be treated equally in when they face injury and death. For information: Beric German (work) 416-964-2459; (home) 416-941-1667 --- Michael Shapcott Toronto, Ontario, Canada Tel. - 416-367-5402 E-mail - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bread Not Circuses on the web: http://breadnotcircuses.org/ --- GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK: Providing current homeless and related news, information and announcements for nonprofit research and educational purposes, pursuant to: -TITLE 17 USC SEC. 107- http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ONLINE HOMELESS COMMUNICATIONS CENTER http://forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=homelessness [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com --=_5A0D2279.D7B6DF3E--
Rental Housing Assistance report -Reply
John, you are essentially correct regarding the torrid rental market in the Bay Area. Job growth is outstripping housing supply here, and really has (statistically speaking) since the 1970s. This is compounded in Berkeley (where I work as a housing planner) by the state legislature's pre-emption of strong rent control (vacancy control on rental units) in 1996. Landlords are finding that if their units come vacant they can jack up the rents on vacant units 15 percent a year through 1998 in compliance with state law; after January 1, 1999, they can seek "market" rent. In terms of housing programs, this means that the Section 8 program is having great difficulties retaining landlords and finding new ones for Section 8 tenants (whose incomes are at or below 50 percent of the area median income - $22,150 for one person, $25,300 for two people, etc.). Landlords can do better in this housing market renting to college students and can afford to skip Section 8. Under strong rent control here, the situation was the reverse (because Section 8 units were exempt from rent control). This has directly led to a decline in "low rent units." Perhaps not a decline in absolute numbers of units, but in the number of units rentable at a given price, this is definitely the case. Using Rent Board data for our recent draft homeless housing and services plan, we figured out here that there were some 10,000 rental units in Berkeley in 1990 renting at or below $400; 6 years later (1996), there were 1,300 such units. The fact that the federal government has reduced to a trickle the supply of new public housing units and Section 8 certificates or vouchers means that there is very little new assistance out there for folks who could really use it to stay afloat (bad El Nino joke there). This trend was begun by Reagan, and has been continued by the Republican congress (and a lack of real passion for urban policy from the Clintonians). Berkeley has a rental removal ordinance that prohibits removal of housing units in town; but other communities in the Bay Area rezone residential housing and land in response to non-residential development pressures (read: "fiscalization of land use" in the wake of prop 13) and then demolish housing (often apartments) to make way for jobs that increase the traffic on the region's freeways because people have to live 80 to 100 miles away in order to own housing, etc. The processes you've identified compound this exurban trend in northern California (including the Sacramento region). I haven't heard that the housing market has cooled at all resulting from the "Asian flu," especially if the San Francisco Examiner is to be believed. I tend to think it would cool nearly overnight if Greenspan and the FOMC raise the prime rate anytime soon. I leave it to others to read those tea leaves. Cheers, Tim Stroshane
Marx on Prices; Lenin Quote -Reply
I don't know where and when Lenin made the quote, but the Anderson Valley Advertiser puts the quote on its masthead: "Be as radical as reality."
[PEN-L:409] Labor unions flex muscles, defeat 226
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_1A4E57C9.EE8FE00D Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Cross-posted from PUBLABOR, the public sector labor discussion list. --=_1A4E57C9.EE8FE00D Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 07:56:12 -0700 From: David Richardson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Labor unions flex muscles, defeat initiative Published Wednesday, June 3, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News PROPOSITION 226 Labor unions flex muscles, defeat initiative BY HALLYE JORDAN Mercury News Sacramento Bureau In a stunning display of the political muscle they were defending, California labor unions on Tuesday beat back a controversial measure that could have cut in half the amount of money they raise for political campaigns and candidates. With nearly two-thirds of the votes counted, the union-backed opposition came from behind to take a comfortable lead over supporters of Proposition 226, the initiative sponsored by Gov. Pete Wilson and other Republicans that would have required unions to obtain written permission from each member before using a portion of their dues for political purposes. Labor leaders claimed victory just before midnight. ``We're feeling great,'' said Judith Barish, representative for the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. ``I think the working families of California made it clear today that they didn't want their political voices to be silenced.'' In Newport Beach, backers of the initiative did not plan to concede, even as the gap widened. ``We're still hopeful,'' said Kristy Khachigian. ``We're waiting (until the morning) to see (the results).'' Mark Bucher, one of three Orange County business people who wrote the initiative, tried to remain upbeat. ``We've been ahead all night,'' he had said shortly after the polls closed, ``and the fact that we are still ahead, or neck-and-neck, is evidence that people believe in this initiative.'' Gale Kaufman, director of the campaign against Proposition 226, credited her campaign workers with tightening the race after polls had shown strong support for the measure earlier this year. ``I think we were successful in convincing people that working men and women didn't put this on the ballot and they weren't behind it,'' Kaufman said. ``This was really about a very small group of out-of-state conservatives who were trying to pull a fast one on the voters by using simple, clever ballot language that, quite frankly, sounded good until you read who was behind it and what their real motive was.'' Grover Norquist, the founder of the conservative Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, was one of the ``out-of-staters'' to whom Kaufman was referring. Norquist, who gave $441,000 to the initiative, was instrumental in ensuring it qualified for the ballot. Norquist said ATR is supporting similar legislation in 26 states, and Oregon, Nevada and Colorado are preparing similar measures for upcoming ballots. If Proposition 226 had won in California, Norquist predicted, the momentum would have propelled 10 states to pass similar laws. But now that it has been defeated, he said perhaps only five would follow suit. The measure had one of the highest approval ratings when first introduced, but its popularity plummeted as national and state labor unions poured $20 million into television ads and political mailers. A Field Poll in November showed 72 percent of voters supported it and 22 percent opposed it; by last week, the numbers had see-sawed to 45 percent in support and 47 percent opposed. Labor groups also credited the drop in support to a massive turnout by up to 10,000 rank-and-file union members who walked neighborhoods and participated in phone banks, convincing voters the intent of the measure was to cripple the political voice of working men and women. Proposition 226 supporters insisted the measure was written to protect the individual rights -- and pocketbooks -- of working union members. They touted it as ``paycheck protection'' to stop ``union bosses'' from using dues to fund political causes and candidates their members might oppose. But the initiative's critics assailed the measure as an attempt to aid big business and threaten union gains, such as health care benefits and pensions. They noted that corporations politically outspend labor groups 10-to-1, yet the initiative did not impose similar restrictions on corporations by requiring them to receive permission from shareholders before making political contributions. As the campaign heated up, the opponents found it easy to simply point to the measure's sponsors to cast suspicion on the initiative's true motive: to weaken labor's clout. As chair of the Proposition 226 campaign, Wilson made an easy target. The outgoing governor has wrestled with unions over everything from salary increases and
[PEN-L:530] Stephen Jay Gould -Reply
I wish to gently and respectfully differ with Gould's characterization of Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_ as anti-science and anti-technology. It was my distinct feeling that although Shelley portrays Dr. Frankenstein as conflicted, he was not really portrayed as inherently evil. The doctor, initially fascinated and obsessed with creating life from the parts of dead bodies, actually felt extremely ambivalent upon completing his creation, which Shelley refers to as "the monster." But it is the monster himself whom Shelley portrays as demanding clarity of purpose for science and technology (represented by the enterprising doctor) because the doctor has turned the monster out onto the world and refused to take responsibility for the monster's actions there. It is after that point in the story that the monster begins to commit mayhem. This kind of portrayal, methinks, actually segues nicely into Louis's meditation on the relationship of science and technology to social organization, and of course, any prospects for socialism. For it is this question of responsibility that is so difficult for us to wrap our minds around. It's my own hunch that our being so wedded to technological progress, abundance, etc., that it truly clouds our ability to think morally and ethically - left, right, center, up or down. For a great review of Shelley's novel, I highly recommend one of the later chapters of Langdon Winner's _Autonomous Technology_, 1977.
[PEN-L:421] Why poor people aren't healthy
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_1C4852E9.0B6A05E9 Forwarded mail received from: CENTER1:City:City.smtp:"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" FYI, cross-posting from PUBLABOR list. --=_1C4852E9.0B6A05E9 Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 18:46:17 -0700 From: Blank Notebooks [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: poor people aren't healthy! Well, finally a study that shows the inequity of health care and lifestyles: Article in 6/5/98 SF Chronicle: Headline: Exercise Won't Save Poor, Study Says Chicago: Contrary to popular belief, getting America's poor to exercise and cut back on smoking, drinking and overeating won't do much to bring down their higher death rate, a study says. Poor people have death rates as much as three times higher than that of other groups. But smoking, drinking, overeating and lack of exercise account, at most , for 13 percent of the gap, researchers concluded in a study in todays Journal of American Medical Association. Instead, experts speculated that lack of medical care, the stress of poverty, dangerous jobs and pollluted homes and neighborhoods acdount for much of the difference. "For a long time, we've been focussing on trying to reduce risky health behaviors, such as smoking, drinking and being phsyically inactive", said Paula Lantz, the study's author and a professor of Public Health at the University of Michigan. "Thats an important goal, but it won't fully close the gap between poor people and other people. The 7 1/2 year study looked at 3,617 Americans and their living habits. The survey took into account all, kinds of deaths, from cancer to gun battles with the police. The biggest killers were heart disease and cancer. Hmm. So chalk up another strike against the poor --- not only are we medically underserved, but we're medically at risk for death because of our poverty. Sue Jean [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Movies are better than real life. If you go to enough movies, movies become real life, and real life becomes a movie." Jules Feiffer, 1969. --=_1C4852E9.0B6A05E9--
[PEN-L:385] More on digital diploma mills
Thanks for posting this, Michael.
[PEN-L:849] Commoner quote help needed -R
You might check his book Making Peace with the Planet. Wish I'd said that!
[PEN-L:1583] Monsanto Seed -Forwarded
This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_752238C1.C7A6CD6C FYI --=_752238C1.C7A6CD6C Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 15:43:26 -0800 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: PANUPS: Monsanto Seed = P A N U P S *** Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service http://www.panna.org/panna/ email [EMAIL PROTECTED] = December 14, 1998 Monsanto Prosecutes U.S. Seed Violators Monsanto is tracking down U.S. farmers who are replanting seed from Monsanto's genetically engineered crops. In the company's own words, "Monsanto is vigorously pursuing growers who pirate any brand or variety of its genetically enhanced seed, such as Roundup Ready soybeans and cotton and Bollgard cotton."* The company has hired five full-time investigators to follow up on seed saving leads that it receives. To date, Monsanto has at least 475 cases in the U.S., generated from over 1,800 leads. More than 250 of these cases are under investigation in at least 20 states. Monsanto maintains that seed saving is illegal even if a farmer did not sign an order or invoice statement for the seed at time of purchase. In one case, an Illinois farmer admitted saving and replanting Roundup Ready soybeans and also acknowledged that he traded the seed with neighbors and a local seed cleaner in return for other goods. The farmer's settlement with Monsanto included a US$35,000 fine plus full documentation confirming disposal of his soybean crop. In addition, the farmer and all other parties involved must allow Monsanto to inspect their soybean production records and provide full access to all of their property, both owned and leased, for inspections, collection and testing of soybean plants and seed for the next five years. Other cases include: -- A Kentucky grower who was fined US$25,000 for illegally saving seed; -- An Iowa farmer who paid US$16,000 for seed saving; and -- Two Illinois farmers who settled with Monsanto for US$15,000 and US$10,000. Each of these growers will also undergo on-site farm and record inspections for at least five years. No one knows exactly how many farmers in industrialized countries save seed from their harvest each year. By some estimates, 20% to 30% of all soybean fields in the U.S. midwest were typically planted with farmer-saved seed, a practice now threatened by Monsanto. Monsanto adds a US$6.50 "technology" fee to each 50 pound bag of Roundup Ready soybean seed, which is enough to plant just under one acre. Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready soybean seed three years ago, and by next year, analysts estimate that at least half of the 70 million acres of soybeans grown in the U.S. will be Roundup Ready. Based on these figures, Monsanto will collect approximately US$200 million in technology fees alone on the seed next year. Worldwide plantings of Monsanto's genetically engineered crops more than doubled this year to approximately 55 million acres (22 million hectares). In 1997, some 23 million acres were planted, and in 1996 Monsanto's transgenic crops were grown on only three million acres. In 1998, the vast majority of these crops were grown in the U.S. -- primarily Roundup Ready soybeans (25 million acres) and YieldGard maize* (11 million acres). *"Roundup Ready" crops are engineered to withstand application of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide (glyphosate). Bollgard cotton and YieldGard maize are engineered to contain an insecticidal toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is used as a biological pesticide. Sources: "Monsanto Releases Seed Piracy Case Settlement Details," Monsanto press release, September 29, 1998; "Monsanto Tracks Down Seed Violators," Evansville Courier, October 28, 1998; "Terminator Technology Prevents Farmers from Saving Seed," Global Pesticide Campaigner, June 1998; Agrow: World Crop Protection News, November 27, 1998. Contact: PANNA. == Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) 49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94102 Phone (415) 981-1771 Fax (415) 981-1991 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web site www.panna.org/panna/ To subscribe to PANUPS, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text on one line: subscribe panups To unsubscribe send the following: unsubscribe panups == --=_752238C1.C7A6CD6C--
[PEN-L:1501] The Dust Bowl -Reply
Louis, Have you seen Worster's early book, DUST BOWL (I think it's about 1979)? It's quite good, providing an insightful analysis of the un-ecological biases of the agronomy used by USDA to help address the conditions of agriculture at the time.
[PEN-L:1271] Re: Re: pen-l questions -Rep
While I'm not even an economist by profession, I regularly use, test and explain economic theories in my work as a housing planner. Theories of market behavior are particularly relevant to housing, since housing markets are by nature quite distorted and imperfect. There are plenty of ways in which both traditional economic notions (prices, rents, wages) as well as sociological and institutional backgrounding for economic phenomena could be integrated. One example of this kind of integrative and critical effort in housing economics literature is Gilderbloom and Applebaum's book, _Rethinking Rental Housing_ (Temple Univ Press, 1988, I think). They examine not only neo-classical works on housing markets, but also produced their own research showing how apartment rents in a variety of metropolitan markets are not responsive to changes in supply, but have social and institutional determinants as well (e.g., professionalization of property management, etc., as well as other factors they don't get into). Anyway, I signed up mostly to lurk on PEN-L, but I think it is entirely appropriate and necessary for economists (and those relying on their labors - like me) to appropriate and work with elements of neoclassical models where they can be wed to other illuminating analytic and explanatory frameworks. Markets, as we all on this list know, are not merely about supply and demand, but about cultural and ethical assumptions, and political power. Ciao for now, Tim
[PEN-L:8190] California Green Party Ques
Interesting topic. Like Henry Liu, I am also a planner, a housing planner, but regionally, planners, designers, architects, land use lawyers and a lot of forward looking environmental thinkers of all hues of green are interested in trade-offs between land use densities, urban design strategies (the manner in which streets and land parcels are configured), transportation, and housing development (including low-income housing). As Henry and Brad point out this is difficult, but it is not impossible. Brad, as I recall, mentions a bit heavy-handedly that it would take "tearing down Berkeley bungalows" for dense apartment buildings. This is misleading as to the nature of creating density. Our draft General Plan is calling for major increases in downtown housing density, economies of scale from which can be used to internally subsidize affordable housing units. It is not necessary to raze whole neighborhoods to create the density transit needs, in order to improve matters in Berkeley. We have a BART station downtown and about a half dozen major AC Transit bus routes that converge on downtown. The key to making density work is to reduce parking for street-jamming cars in favor of increasing people's reliance on transit. The key to making transit work is to limit auto parking while encouraging people to live near where they shop and work. The wild card in all of this is UC Berkeley (which is exempt from local property taxes and zoning), which tore down a parking structure three blocks from campus and wants to rebuild it instead of putting in MORE HOUSING. More housing would not only help take pressure off the Berkeley housing market, it would take pressure off the city's street system because more students could live closer to campus, rather than commute in from surrounding suburbs of Berkeley. Doug, there are many people in California - north and south - who are interested in transit; I know, rhetorically and statistically the numbers are on your side, but the transportation snarls out here are bad going to worse (and beyond). Poll data out here indicate that Bay Area residents want something done about housing shortages and highway snarls. My response to Ms. Bock's inquiry is to suggest she look into the proposals coming out from groups that are advocating for "smart growth." These groups include Planners Network, California Futures Network www.calfutures.org, Urban Habitat Program (which produced a nice pair of volumes on regional inequities and tax base revenue sharing, and on transportation investment inequities), all of whom are interested in building a constituency for land use and property/sales tax reform to address sprawling suburban development (which DOES continue almost unabated). Even corporate Bay Area is getting interested in a regional approach to dealing with "sustainable development" of our cities here. I would also commend to Ms. Bock Myron Orfield's excellent report on the Bay Area (available from Urban Habitat) and his book METROPOLITICS for the Lincoln Institute on Land Policy (Cambridge, MA). More on this in an article I'm writing for Terrain magazine of the Berkeley Ecology Center, due out in August.
[PEN-L:8309] California Green Party Question
Interesting topic. My comments do not represent official City of Berkeley positions. That said, like Henry Liu, I am also a planner, though a housing planner. However, working regionally, planners, designers, architects, land use lawyers and a lot of forward looking environmental thinkers of all hues of green are interested in trade-offs between land use densities, urban design strategies (the manner in which streets and land parcels are configured), transportation, and housing development (including low-income housing). As Henry and Brad point out this is difficult, but it is not impossible. Brad, as I recall, mentions a bit heavy-handedly that it would take "tearing down Berkeley bungalows" for dense apartment buildings. This is misleading as to the nature of creating density. Our first draft General Plan is calling for major increases in downtown housing density, economies of scale from which can be used to internally subsidize affordable housing units. But it is not necessary to raze whole neighborhoods to create the density transit needs, in order to improve matters in Berkeley. It is important to realize that urban density creates markets: for housing, street life, cultural outlets, retail businesses, and transit. We have a BART station downtown and about a half dozen major AC Transit bus routes that converge on downtown. The key to making density work is to reduce parking for street-jamming cars in favor of increasing people's reliance on transit (as well as other travel modes like bikes and feet). The key to making transit work is to limit auto parking while encouraging people to live near where they shop and work. The wild card in all of this is UC Berkeley (which is exempt from local property taxes and zoning), which tore down a parking structure three blocks from campus and wants to rebuild it instead of putting in MORE HOUSING. More housing would not only help take pressure off the Berkeley housing market, it would take pressure off the city's street system because more students could live closer to campus, rather than commute in from surrounding suburbs of Berkeley. (Other universities elsewhere are wildcards too - I believe Columbia and Univ of Chicago have also behaved like bulls in china shops over the years.) Doug, there are many people in California - north and south - who are interested in transit; I know, rhetorically and statistically the numbers are on your side, but the transportation snarls out here are bad going to worse (and beyond). Poll data out here indicate that Bay Area residents want something done about housing shortages and highway snarls. My response to Ms. Bock's inquiry is to suggest she look into the proposals coming out from groups that are advocating for "smart growth." These groups include Planners Network, California Futures Network www.calfutures.org, Urban Habitat Program (which produced a nice pair of volumes on regional inequities and tax base revenue sharing, and on transportation investment inequities), all of whom are interested in building a constituency for land use and property/sales tax reform to address sprawling suburban development (which DOES continue almost unabated). Even corporate Bay Area is getting interested in a regional approach to dealing with "sustainable development" of our cities here. I would also commend to Ms. Bock Myron Orfield's excellent report on the Bay Area (available from Urban Habitat) and his book METROPOLITICS for the Lincoln Institute on Land Policy (Cambridge, MA). More on this in an article I'm writing for Terrain magazine of the Berkeley Ecology Center, due out in August.
[PEN-L:8298] Re: Re: Re: California Gree -Reply -Forw
Forwarded mail received from: PERMIT1:NAL1 I forwarded some of the discussion on California/transit to a colleague here at the City of Berkeley, one of our transportation planners, and this is his comment, with his permission. The GM conspiracy theory has little or no credibility in transportation circles. It's true that a GM-owned company bought up trolley- based transit systems and converted them to bus operation. But if it hadn't been GM, it most likely would have been someone else. Trolley systems were suffering from disinvestment, and politically it was very hard to raise trolley fares. Trolleys were increasingly being blamed for blocking traffic. Large cities could have created off-street rapid transit systems, but the voters of Los Angeles voted down the Rapid Transit Plan in, I think, 1927 (even so, about a mile of subway tunnel was built to bring trolleys into a Downtown Los Angeles terminal). The changing dynamics of passenger transportation under American capitalism did in the trolleys. That's a harder target to blame than a nice juicy conspiracy, but that's the way it is.
