[Marxism-Thaxis] Remick
Article by recently passed Comrade Carl Remick. CB http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2003/mar/24/madeleinebunting2 http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20080128/002154.html This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday March 24 2003. It was last updated at 16:12 on March 24 2003. Dear Ms Bunting, Having a (rare!) idle moment, I would like to commend you on your continuing concern with the importance of achieving a work-life balance. I believe the cult-like devotion to work that swallows whole lives these days is yet another nasty idea of US origin - and I say that as an American. I am 53 and have spent my most of my working life, as a corporate writer, noting a steady decline in the quality of working conditions. Any number of things have combined to make the workplace the hellish place it is now. a) The shift from a manufacturing to a service economy b) The leveraged buy-outs of the 1980s and outsourcing of the 1990s that created lean, mean companies, permanently wiping out tiers of middle management and corporate staff c) The globalisation of commerce and advent of the PC/internet/cell phone that cleared the way for 24/7 feats of Stakhanovite excess d) Above all, the rise of the winner-take-all society, where CEOs and suchlike are seen as entitled to live large at everyone else's expense. What amazes and depresses me is how readily over the years my colleagues have acceded to their exploitation. When cell phones and pagers first erupted in the workplace, my coworkers fairly burbled with delight at the prospect of being equipped with such symbols of importance, oblivious to these devices' obvious potential as electronic shackles. Yet, I will admit that - as seems to be the point of your investigations - it is impossible to escape the gravitational pull of today's work-maddened society, even for someone as inclined toward dolce far niente as I am: a) Working for a PR firm in New York during the 1990s, I never for a moment imagined I was participating in the creation of a New Economy; even at the time the decade seemed no more than a steady succession of harebrained schemes. Nevertheless, I was up at all hours with everyone else, attending to urgent-urgent-urgent (but always nonsensical) document revisions. Of course, a PR firm, like a law firm, imposes its own special tyranny: billable hours. Billing by the hour - around as much of the clock as inhumanely possible - makes coffee machines as key to office productivity as computer printers. b) That, however, was the 90s. Now I'm my own boss - meaning: I got chucked out of my job. I foolishly assumed that staying with one employer for 12 years would give me some protection from the inevitable major downturn, but quite the contrary. I was one of the first laid off at my firm, right at the start of the US recession in April 2001. Ever since, what with endless futile chases after a fulltime job combined with fitful periods of freelance work - again, often at crazy hours - I find have less control over my time than ever. But enough lamentation about the woeful state of the States. May I end simply by wishing you the best with your project. I regret to say that the UK - via the awful example set by Margaret Thatcher in everything - made its own contribution to the decayed condition of American society today; nevertheless, the UK has something the US entirely lacks - a leftist political tradition that amounts to something - that, just possibly, could prove inspirational to the US in the correct way. I earnestly hope you do find ways to turn Workcamp UK into a more gemutlich place. Here in the US there's a lot riding on your success. Yours, Carl Remick -- ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] WILPF International's Statement on Israel
Joint Statement to the 6th Special Session of the Human Rights Council International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Statement to the 6th Special Session of the Human Rights Council 23 January, 2008 Mr. President, First of all we We would like to express our appreciation to the Members of the Human Rights Council who have taken the initiative to request the convening of this Special Session at a time when the ongoing atrocities against the people of Palestine call for effective action by every country truly dedicated to the United Nations. Lately the world was given a hope, however small, that a more peaceful future was in the making for the people of Palestine. However this hope has been shattered in the most brutal way by the Israeli military attacks in West Bank and Gaza and the criminal siege of Gaza which is causing immense suffering to the civilian population. Once again Israel is displaying its utter contempt for the United Nations Charter, international Human Rights standards and the core principles of International Humanitarian Law. The reports coming out of Gaza and the West Bank fills us with horror – the people as a whole, young and old, have become victims of the collective punishment meted out by Israel. The comfort offered to Israel in the United Nations and the international community over the past years have as is evident now produced no other results than continued defiance of international law and the resolutions of the United Nations. And indeed the sufferings of the people of the occupied Palestinian territories have been further aggravated by international sanctions measures, not against the occupier and aggressor, but against Palestinian institutions gravely affecting the livelihood of civilian population. Today and throughout the week popular demonstrations are taking place all over the world to protest against the Israeli criminal actions and express solidarity with the people of Palestine. The peoples of the world demand concrete and effective action by all governments and concerned international institutions, first and foremost the United Nations to stop the Israeli atrocities. The action of the Human Rights Council today no doubt is a good sign and will help to enhance the respect and authority of the Human Rights Council. But it can not stop with this. The Human Rights Council must remain seized with the Israeli violations and the accumulated consequences of the Human Rights catastrophe in the occupied territories caused by Israel. We wish in the future to see more concrete decisions and recommendations to offer international protection for the people of Palestine are desperately needed. We call on all Member States to take individual and joint action to put pressure on Israel by reducing or cutting of such relations with Israel that sustain and encourage its policies of war military aggression, occupation and human rights violations. We believe that it is only through this course of action that respect for international law can be upheld when faced with a serial violator defying the norms of humanity. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights could be asked to receive and publish information on such measures taken by Member States. In view of the grave violations of International Humanitarian Law the Human Rights Council may wish to recommend that the parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to meet and deliberate in accordance with their responsibilities as parties to the Convention. WILPF 1, rue de Varembé, Case Postale 28, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 919 7080 /Fax: 7081 ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Carl Remick, Presente!
http://cleandraws.com/2008/02/01/carl-remick-presente/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2003/mar/24/madeleinebunting2 http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20080128/002154.html ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] layoffs = death
shag@ At any rate, this is what Lewis had to say then: It should be added that the immiseration thesis is really a legacy of the Cold War. It was a distortion of Marx used by the Communist parties to prove that workers in the West generally would suffer dire poverty if they did not emulate the state capitalist dictatorships. While the latter have been consigned to the dustbin of history, I think Marx's legacy deserves a more honest re-consideration. http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2000/2000-May/009526.html ^ CB: This sounds like something of an misrepresentation of the immiseration thesis. which does not claim that a majority of the working class is always immiserated in all countries; particularly the rich imperialist countries have richer sections of the working class, bourgeoisified sections of the workers. Even Engels and Marx noted this about sections of British workers. However, There is a mass of immiserated workers, wage earners, rank and file consumers constantly and consistently created by capitalism, a pulsating pole in contrast with the opposite pole of rich, getting richer, nowadays getting richer faster than in the immediate past. This immiseration of a mass, even if minority of the whole working class, occurs even in booms times of the business cycle ,is even large during long booms , or predominantly boom periods, as in the US for 25 years lately. The immiseration thesis is a legacy of Karl Marx, and his absolute general law of capitalist accumulation, more important than any theory Marx might have had about a business cycle. Marx didn't write a definite such theory. Rather later economic scholars piece such theories together by picking through volumes of _Capital_. The law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall as part of some piecemeal theory of Marx on the business cycle derives from parts of Vol. III. Marx didn't even finish Vol. III, but turned to other studies , such as anthropology. Why didn't Marx finish Vol. III if it was so important to his ideas. Why leave it to Engels to put together ? Because it wasn't central. The absolute general law of capitalist accumulation is written out completely by Marx in Vol. I and it is so fancifully named because it is more important than the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in Marx's conception of his own total thesis. Marx's discussion of immiseration includes discussion of the lumpen proletariat, thus, crime , thus imprisonment. Mass imprisonment in the US today is a major expression of immiseration or locus of impact of capitalist mass immiseration. The prison-industrial-complex is a major immiserating institution of modern capitalism , especially in the U.S. The working class victims of crime are immiserated by a major institution of US capitalism, crime. This is another mass immiseration process continually operating , boom or bust , in US capitalism Layoffs contribute to the increase in the relative surplus population. There several other major immiserating institutions as well, and all of them substantially negate , for a great mass of the population( its relative surplus section )the enjoying fulfillment of the unusually great mass of commodities, goods and services, personal consumption in the US. layoffs = pauperization and misery As Marx says: The lowest sediment of the relative surplus-population finally dwells in the sphere of pauperism. Exclusive of vagabonds, criminals, prostitutes, in a word, the “dangerous” classes, this layer of society consists of three categories. First, those able to work. One need only glance superficially at the statistics of English pauperism to find that the quantity of paupers increases with every crisis, and diminishes with every revival of trade. Second, orphans and pauper children. These are candidates for the industrial reserve army, and are, in times of great prosperity, as 1860, e.g., speedily and in large numbers enrolled in the active army of labourers. Third, the demoralised and ragged, and those unable to work, chiefly people who succumb to their incapacity for adaptation, due to the division of labour; people who have passed the normal age of the labourer; the victims of industry, whose number increases with the increase of dangerous machinery, of mines, chemical works, c., the mutilated, the sickly, the widows, c. Pauperism is the hospital of the active labour-army and the dead weight of the industrial reserve army. Its production is included in that of the relative surplus-population, its necessity in theirs; along with the surplus-population, pauperism forms a condition of capitalist production, and of the capitalist development of wealth. It enters into the faux frais of capitalist production; but capital knows how to throw these. for the most part, from its own shoulders on to those of the working-class and the lower middle class. The greater the social wealth, the functioning
[Marxism-Thaxis] Great Black Hope
Why did the white media and white money build him up as the Great Black Hope? CB: Indeed. Why ? A while back Louis Proyect talked fatuously about how Kucinich was the 'stalking horse' on the war issue. How wrong could you get. Kucinich and Gravel are totally outside the mainstream, even the left center of the Democratic Party. If you look at Obama, you see he is somewhat right of Edwards, who was indeed the DNC's stalking horse on the issues of health care, poverty, and the war. Obama has successfully co-opted the rhetoric of the issues but has very little substance when you actually look at his policy proposals. Even on the foreign policy issue, where he is supposed to be the one who wants to talk directly with the axis of evil rulers--while he threatens to bomb them, he wants talks without preconditions. Well, that begs the question of a really large pre-condition (total destruction). The DNC looks set to bet the farm on Obama because they think he can successfully incorporate the rhetoric of health care, poverty, and the war as issues without really doing anything 'dangerous' about the issues. I don't want to impose a double standard on Obama, but he really is more conservative than Edwards (who staked out a claim at the left center of the party) on the issues. Boring. He also has a fake 'humble roots' story that is easier to sell than Clinton's or Edward's. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Great Black Hope
A few bullet points for now. Given the three main contenders, I was an Edwards supporter. I was sorry to see him drop out, but it was probably inevitable. The worst development though is the push by MoveOn for Obama on SuperTuesday. This is a big, big mistake. I'm willing to accept the limitations of liberal politics as a practical matter, but blindness and stupidity are unacceptable, and this is a criminal misuse of resources and commitment. Other organizations are following suit. The stuff I've been reading in support of Obama is not the usual pragmatic calculation of the best option progressives have, it's pure unadulterated self-delusion. I know this is a stupid society, but I think I'm shocked. And mind you I'm not just griping because liberal politics doesn't meet radical expectations; I'm complaining because these people are behaving like lemmings blithely jumping off the cliff. I don't even know who Gravel is. I don't have a concrete empirical answer to Charles' question, but one can venture some educated guesses based on the Obama TV commercials of the past couple of days. I haven't seen such incredibly virtuosic manipulation of visual imagery since Leni Riefenstahl. It's un-fucking-believable! I think there are a number of diverse forces behind this snowballing campaign. Aside from those who helped set Obama up to tip the balance in favor of the Republicans, those who really think they can win are obviously banking on isolating the hard-core redneck voting bloc who will never vote for a non-right-wing candidate, and getting everybody else to vote for Obama if he's the nominee. And really, what does any segment of the ruling elite have to lose by having Obama in the driver's seat. Kleptocratic corporate and government practices will continue relatively unabated while some cosmetic improvements may be--maybe--made, if not thwarted. Everybody will return to couch potato position watch what happens, with the crackers and the lefties smoldering on the sidelines. Setting up Obama to oppose Clinton is another maneuver that demands analysis. Clinton ultimately accomplishes the same political result as Obama, but there are already a number of people pissed off at the Clintons. I think certain factions saw in 2004 that Obama could be a player, and puffed him up as a Plan B for the Dems or a Plan A for the Republicans. The Republicans can only win with McCain; otherwise their ass will get beat down for sure. At 06:57 PM 2/4/2008, CeJ wrote: Why did the white media and white money build him up as the Great Black Hope? CB: Indeed. Why ? A while back Louis Proyect talked fatuously about how Kucinich was the 'stalking horse' on the war issue. How wrong could you get. Kucinich and Gravel are totally outside the mainstream, even the left center of the Democratic Party. If you look at Obama, you see he is somewhat right of Edwards, who was indeed the DNC's stalking horse on the issues of health care, poverty, and the war. Obama has successfully co-opted the rhetoric of the issues but has very little substance when you actually look at his policy proposals. Even on the foreign policy issue, where he is supposed to be the one who wants to talk directly with the axis of evil rulers--while he threatens to bomb them, he wants talks without preconditions. Well, that begs the question of a really large pre-condition (total destruction). The DNC looks set to bet the farm on Obama because they think he can successfully incorporate the rhetoric of health care, poverty, and the war as issues without really doing anything 'dangerous' about the issues. I don't want to impose a double standard on Obama, but he really is more conservative than Edwards (who staked out a claim at the left center of the party) on the issues. Boring. He also has a fake 'humble roots' story that is easier to sell than Clinton's or Edward's. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
