From eric@stewards.net Wed Dec 24 09:27:50 1997 Wed, 24 Dec 1997 11:28:49 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 11:28:49 -0500 (EST) To: , UTOPIA-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU, , tr@tryoung.com, richardvlosky@sprintmail.com, staff@stewards.net, "quinbya@.ibm.net" , , , mscosmo@usa.net, , Elaine Gross , William Whitney , Jerome Scott , Leah Wise , PDHRE Human Rights List , , Rebecca Berner , Salvador Garcia , "Servicios para el Desarrollo, A.C." , kurtz@top.monad.net, BLarcom@prodigy.net, bradmcc@cloud9.net, , , , , , , , gdauncey@islandnet.com, From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Urgent Appeal for international assistance from San Pedro Chenhalo Chiapas! Daily Updated information and peaceful action to halt right-wing paramilitary violence in Chiapas Mexico at Chiapas Solidarity Website: http://www.stewards.net/chiapas.htm Organizers and people who want to help: To join our listserve, put in `To' line of e-mail message: chiapas-l@alternatives.com Put in `subject' line the one word: subscribe Put nothing in the body. Then send. Wait one minute - then send message to same address introducing yourself. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi there, Please read and forward this message to all newsgroups and concerned people in your network: In reference to the on-going right-wing paramilitary violence directed against Mayan civilians in Chiapas Mexico, here is the English translation, followed by the Spanish original, of an urgent action appeal from THE AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL OF SAN PEDRO CHENALHO, ITS COMMUNITIES AND ITS DELEGATES, in Chiapas Mexico: COMMUNIQUE FROM THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF POLHO SAN PEDRO CHEHALHO, CHIAPAS MEXICO, DECEMBER 23, 1997 entire text, below: COMMUNIQUE FROM THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF POLHO SAN PEDRO CHEHALHO, CHIAPAS MEXICO, DECEMBER 23, 1997 TO PUBLIC OPINION TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY As it is already known nationally and internationally, on December 22, 1997, parailitary groups affiliated with the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) in Chenalho, Chiapas, used firearms against the displaced people who had taken refuge in the community of Acteal. The massacre by the assassins left a total of 14 children murdered, one dead baby, 21 women and 19 men killed and a large number of wounded. The dead and wounded are from both the civilian community of Las Abejas as well as supporters of the EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional) The State Security Police stood around watching and did not intervene to stop the killlings. We ask what blame can fall on those who were praying there, yet were killed. This is the war waged by the Government against indigenous communities. This is what the Government gives us instead of recognizing our rights. We, the Autonomous Municipal Council of Polho', hold the Federal Government of Mexico responsible as well as the PR. They are the ones who wage this war against us. We URGENTLY request all national and international civilian communities to organize and force the immediate disarmament of the paramilitary groups under the supervision of national and international organizations. We also request the immediate departure of the security forces because they are the accomplices of the paramilitary organizations SINCERELY, THE AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL OF SAN PEDRO CHENALHO, ITS COMMUNITIES AND ITS DELEGATES MR. DOMINGO PEREZ PACIENCIA PRESIDENT OF THE AUTONOMOUS COUNCIL E-mail and Website and fo ENLACE CIVIL: enlacecivil@laneta.apc.org http://www.laneta.apc.org/enlacecivil ------------ >>COMUNICADO DEL CONSEJO MUNICIPAL AUTONOMO DE POLHO >>SAN PEDRO CHANALHO, CHIAPAS >>MEXICO, 23 DE DICICEMBRE DE 1997 >> >>A LA OPINION PUBLICA >>A LA PRENSA NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL >>A LOS ORGANISMOS HUMANITARIOS Y DE DERECHOS HUMANOS NACIONALES E INTERNACIONALES >>A LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL >> >>Como es sabido a nivel nacional e internacional, el dia 22 de diciembre los >>priisttas paramilitares de Chenalho atacaron con armas de fuego a los >>desplazadaos que se encontraban en la comunidad de Acteal. El saldo de la >>masacre de estos asesinos es de: 14 ni–os muertos, 1 bebe muerto, 21 mujeres >>muertas, 19 hombres muertos y un gran numero de heridos. >> >>Los muertos y heridos son tanto de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas, tanto de >>las bases de apoyo del EZLN. >> >>La Policia de Seguridad Publica del Estado solo quedo mirando sin intervenir >>en los hechos. >> >>Nosotros preguntamos que culpa tienen los que estaban ahi en su ermita >>haciendo oracion y ahi quedaron muertos. >> >>Esta es la guerra del gobierno contra las comunidades indigenas. Esto es lo >>que nos da el gobierno en vez de reconocer nuestros derechos. >> >>Esta es la guerra del gobierno contra las comunidades indigenas. Estos es lo >>aue nos da el gobierno en vez de reconocer nuestros derechos. >> >>Nosotros, el Consejo Municipal Autonomo de Polh— responsabilizamos de esta >>masacre al Gobierno Federal. Al Gobierno del Estado y al PRI. Son ellos los >>que estan haciendo esta guerra en contra de nosotros. >> >>Llamamos URGENTEMENTE a toda la Sociedad Civil nacional e internacional para >>que se organice y obliguen a que se desarmen inmediatamente los >>paramilitares pero que sea supervisado por organismos nacionales e >>internacionales. >>Tambien para que salga inmediatamente la seguridad publica porque son >>complices de los paramilitares. >> >>ATENTAMENTE >> >>H. CONSEJO AUTONOMO DE SAN PEDRO CHENALHO, LAS COMUNIDADES Y SUS DELEGADOS >> >>SR. DOMINGO PEREZ PACIENCIA >>PRESIDENTE DEL CONSEJO AUTONOMO >>La pagina de ENLACE CIVIL y correo >> >>enlacecivil@laneta.apc.org >> >>http://www.laneta.apc.org/enlacecivil From eruyle@csulb.edu Tue Dec 23 07:59:19 1997 Tue, 23 Dec 1997 07:01:26 -0800 (PST) Tue, 23 Dec 1997 06:58:45 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 06:58:45 -0800 (PST) From: "Eugene E. Ruyle" To: CAROL UPADHYA Subject: Re: In Whose Honor? In-Reply-To: You might be interested in the Puvungna struggle here at CSULB. We have an Indian sacred site on campus which has been on the National Register of Historic Places for over twenty years. The campus administration decided to develop the 22 acre site for a strip mall. Local Indians were able to mobilize and block the scheme with the help of the ACLU. The case is still in court, but the Indians are winning. For further info, see the Puvungna web site: http://www.csulb.edu/~eruyle/puvuhome.html On Indian identity issues, you may have seen the very bad article on Chumash identiy in the latest Current Anthropology. It looks good unless you know something about Chumash politics. Alas, I don't know of a progressive anthropologist mailing list, but if you find one, please let me know. Gene ********************************************************************* RUYLE, Anthropology, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840-1003 (310) 985-5364 FAX: (310) 985-4379 http://www.csulb.edu/~eruyle/ ********************************************************************* From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Fri Dec 26 09:42:18 1997 Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 11:42:12 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: Real Solutions Needed Season's Greetings, Not a week goes by that another report, article, paper or book indicting the capitalist economic system isn't published. Publication after publication substantiates the numbing facts that more and more workers are being displaced and disposed, that actual unemployment levels are extremely high and under-employment is even higher, while part-time, temporary and contract-oriented jobs are increasingly becoming the norm. These jobs typically entail few, if any, benefits, no chance to move up and usually no health insurance (41.7 million Americans have no health insurance and miilions more are under-insured). Many full-time jobs do not even put people above the poverty level, not that being a little over the poverty level means that one is living a satisfactory life. Furthermore, job insecurity is rising and wealth and income disparities continue to steadily grow. These trends are endemic to the U.S., Canada, Britain and elsewhere, and are not waning at all. At the same time the "solutions" proposed, if and when they are even proposed, are no solutions at all. Some say that the "solution" is something called Work Sharing. Others claim that the "solution" is to tax the wealthy more heavily. Still others propose "better" wage policies to alleviate, not eradicate, poverty. Unsurprisingly, the National Policy Institute in the U.S. says that "no one can truly say what will work to alleviate the upsurge in inequality and at what costs." All this is entirely unacceptable. None of these so-called "solutions" are real. They cannot and will not lead to a situation where the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the broad masses of the people are met. They will actually do nothing to transform the direction of the economy. It is not clear if they will even have short-term isolated benefits. These "solutions" do not address the essence of problems to begin with, the fundamental contradiction between the social nature of labor and the private character of ownership. Those who produce all the wealth in society, the vast majority, neither own nor control the fruits of their labor. Here is where the actual problem lies and this is why it is necessary to harmonize the forces and relations of production. Clearly, the bourgeoisie and its servants are unable and unwilling to solve these and many other problems. It is up to the people themselves to set and implement an agenda which favors them, to create a society which recognizes their inviolable claims upon it. The program to Stop Paying the Rich - Increase Funding for Social Programs is such an agenda. Such a pro-social program can and will frustrate and defeat the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie, here and worldwide. It will open the path of progress to the society. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From omvedt@unipune.ernet.in Fri Dec 26 23:33:05 1997 Date: Sat, 27 Dec 1997 11:53:30 -0500 (GMT) From: "Dr. Gail Omvedt Faculty-Sociology" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Dear friends, We are holding a seminar at the University of Pune in February on "Ecology, Survival and First Nations." Due to minimal funding we have been unable to finance any foreign air travel, and so have to make do with resources here. We could use any material (recent papers, summaries, class notes) any of you might have on the development and significance of the concept of "First Nations" in North America. Just please forward it to this address. With many thanks, Gail Omvedt From tr@tryoung.com Tue Dec 30 06:00:29 1997 by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 07:57:29 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Poems for Progressives socgrad@csf.colorado.ed, teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu For those of you who like poetry, I've just created a poetry file on my personal home page. go to: http://www.tryoung.com/trspage.html ....for those of you with children...check out the postmodern, politically correct Christmas Stories... More to come as I get proficient with html, up-loading, down-loading and re-loading. and...for those of who more than atheists but less than theists...you might like to check out: Maybe That's What God it... a distinctly postmodern durkheimian understanding of the god concept. and...those of you of my age might like to take a trip down memory lane in a postmodern anti-war prose poem written in anger, love and revenge during Operation Desert Story...it's called: America, The Great Then too, Dragan Milovanovic, Bruce Arrigo and I are creating a Postmodern Criminology Home Page which should be on our domain in a few weeks...Dragan and Bruce are particularly good at pomocrim; I keep things honest with a heavy dose of marxian, critical, feminist and humanist sociology in the articles posted. best ever year for you, TR TR Young 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Sat Jan 3 05:06:56 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Barbara Chasin: A Review of her Work FROM THE LEFT Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 07:09:57 -0500 Those of you who teach or research in violence and/or inequality will find Chasin's new book: Inequality and Violence in the United States: Casualties of Capitalism, HUMANITIES PRESS, 191 pp. a most valuable resource. In Chapter 1, Chasin provides both anecdotal and systematic evidence of the growing violence in America. Table 1.2 compares interpersonal violence in Advanced Capitalist nations.. As you might expect, the USA is No. 1! 3 times as much homicide as Finland 4 times as much as Canada 6 times as much as Sweden 12 times as much as Switzerland, Japan, Denmark Germany or France Table 1.3 is most valuable; it compares STRUCTURAL violence between the same countries: The USA is No. 1 in INFANT MORTALITY RATES These rates are better than the Dow-Jones Stock market average as index to quality of life in the USA The USA is No. 1 in AIDs Rate The USA is No. 1 in use of pesticides The USA is No. 1 in Road Accident rates The USA is No. 1 in Sulfur/Nitrogen Emissions.. Alas Canada has beaten us out...poor Canada. The USA regains No. 1 position in Hazardous Waste Production. Chapter 2. Surveys rates and trends of Class inequality: Bad News... 10% of the population own 80%+ of the wealth Table 2.3 reports on trends: inequality increases from 1973 to 1993 A special section on BUREAUCRACY AND VIOLENCE is of special interest Chapter 3. Looks at Street Crime from gangs and drugs to speeding cars that run down kids. Chasin makes the most important point that it is not Blackness and Violence which go together in street crime; it is blackness, violence in a racist society with segregated job markets, segregated schools and segregated communities which account for difference in arrest and imprisonment rates... Chasin makes the point that joblessness and street crime go together; not race and street crime. [Note: if we count corporate, white collar and political crime in our analysis of crime rates, the connection between race and crime reverses...corporate crime is committed mostly by whites as is white collar crime and political crime... Again, it is class inequality which accounts for the tight correlation between whiteness and crime...if Blacks were at the top of the class structure, they too would be No. 1...TRYoung] Chapter 4. Looks at Racial and Gender Violence. Table 4.1 tells us that class inequality drives up domestic violence; if we want a lot of domestic violence, we can increase the number of poor families...the rate is 6 times that of lower middle class families. Table 4.2 tells us that we can increase rates of rape by increasing poverty among women... Barbara counts the violence done by Hate Groups and by Police as street violence... ...most crim books do not. Chapter 5. Developes the concept of Structural Violence done to workers and the Unemployed. [I use the concept of the 'Disemployed' rather than 'Unemployed.' TRY] Chapter 6. Examines Structural Violence in the Health Care [sic] System. Chapter 7. Connects the Circle between Interpersonal and Structural Violence with Militarism a central catalyst. [Others supplement her analysis with comment on modelling violence on TV, in sports and in News Reportage.] Chapter 8. Offers some ideas on Reducing the Casualties. Chasin calls for class struggle, affirmative action in race and gender. This is a great starting point for Marxist, Feminist, Progressive, Humanist and/or Postmodern Criminologists... And...for development of Chasin's Call, see: Beyond Crime and Punishment on-line: http://www.tryoung.com/beyond.html Well done, Barbara!! TR Young, Editor FROM THE LEFT TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From eric@stewards.net Sun Jan 4 14:32:37 1998 (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 21:32:07 GMT To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Following Developments in Chiapas Hi there, People wanting to follow developments in Chiapas will find a large number of relevant documents and communiques, with new postings every few days, at our website at: http://www.stewards.net/chiapas.htm The site also includes a link to all current and recent Reuters wire service stories on Chiapas, and this compilation is automatically `refreshed in real-time' as the stories appear. Solidarity, Eric From cuzzort@spot.colorado.edu Sun Jan 4 10:25:06 1998 Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 10:24:51 -0700 (MST) From: Cuzzort Ray Reply-To: Cuzzort Ray To: socgroup Subject: AMERICA IS A PLACE WHERE . . . America is a place where: 1. anything worth doing is worth overdoing. 2. $1.50 is $1.49, a $1.20 gallon of gas costs $1.199 and $250,000 houses sell for $249,999. 3. rabid consumers like to refer to themselves as "environmentally sensitive." 4. the leader of the nation is paid less than 1/5th what a crotch scratching, tobacco spitting, utility outfielder for a second rate base ball team is paid. 5. people refer to themselves as independent and free agents but if a power outage occurs, or the local market runs out of nachos, they become totally dependent and desperate. 6. the NRA endorses the most liberal gun noncontrol policies in the world and yet likes to think of itself as rigorously "conservative." 7. the grand celebrities of playfulness--athletes, movie stars, comedians, and TV personalities--are adored while those who do the real work of the nation are generally looked on as working slobs. 8. young people are trained by the media to be not only suspicious of seniors but to be antagonistic. 9. only the most vicious and destructive of criminals are given public recognition and a place in the nation's history. 10. anything can be, and is, given a monetary value and is valued by its monetary worth--people who are poor are thought of as "trash." 11. you are told socialism will not allow you to choose your doctor and then you find your privately controlled insurance company assigns you to a primary care physician. 12. an ideology of the equality of all people is endorsed while the economy increasingly concentrates wealth in ever smaller groups of privileged individuals. 13. intellectualism is suspect, even among intellectuals, and where sensitive, bookish people are thought of as "nerds." 14. only scientists are really intelligent. 15. being cynical suggests a subversive character. 16. John Wayne is the model "macho" male, even though he shirked military duty in WWII; while Jimmy Stewart, though loved, is seen as somewhat wimpish, despite the fact that his combat record in WWII was heroic. 17. the terms "liberal" and "conservative" have, for any purpose other than name calling and rhetorical vituperation, become meaningless. 18. Medicare, a government program, is used to bail out private medical insurance carriers, who like to argue that only a private system really "works." RPC From mweigand@usa.net Fri Jan 2 16:28:02 1998 Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 16:25:26 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Middle-East\Gulf War realities To: psn@csf.colorado.edu In recent months there have been regular posts about Middle East conflicts and also about the question of Gulf War illness among U.S. military personnel. I ran across this article on the internet recently and thought it might be of interest. Notably, this article includes a bibliography. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nuclear Weapons Widely Used In Gulf War By John Shirley Special Assignments Team Zess@aol.com Concealed nerve gas exposure, medical experimentation on soldiers in the field -- could Gulf War military policy get much worse? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How about routine radiation poisoning? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the Military Toxics Project, Depleted Uranium (DU), the radioactive by-product of the uranium enrichment process, is "roughly 60% as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years." The United States has in excess of 1.1 billion pounds of DU waste material. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waste not, want not. In a perverse twist on recycling, the government currently offers this attractively-dense material free to arms manufacturers. Large and small caliber rounds made of depleted uranium were highly effective in piercing Iraqi armor; tanks incorporating depleted uranium into tank armor effectively resisted penetration. Yet while the Army tested the strategic effectiveness of DU, it skated around health and environmental assessments, as the Army Environmental Policy Institute admitted. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although munitions such as Tomahawk missiles contain DU in their tips, most DU ammunition was fired from USAF tank-killer aircraft and U.S. tanks employing depleted uranium sabot rounds. The Army reports that it fired 14,000 DU tank rounds during the Gulf War. Over ranges up to and exceeding 3 miles, the Army found DU rounds to be "highly effective in penetrating Iraqi tank armor." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Air Force's A-10 tank-killer aircraft were used extensively against Iraqi armored vehicles and artillery. The A-10s fired 940,000 of these radioactive rounds -- the equivalent of 564,000 pounds of DU. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When a depleted uranium projectile strikes, up to 70% of the DU penetrator is oxidized and scattered as particulates. According to the U.S. Army, this creates "smoke which contains a high concentration of DU particles. These uranium particles can be ingested and are toxic." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ironically, while DU armor proved effective in shielding tank crews from impacting rounds, the crews were repeatedly irradiated by their own protection. According to the Military Toxics Project, "the amount of radiation a tank driver receives to his head alone will exceed the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission's] annual standard for public whole-body exposure to man-made sources of radiation. Unfortunately U.S. tank crews were not monitored for radiation exposure during the Persian Gulf War." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American troops came into contact with DU through combat, during the recovery of contaminated U.S. vehicles, and while exploring battlefields after cease fire. Some troops assigned to Kuwait are still being exposed today. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Only after most of the fighting subsided did the Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command warn commanders in the Gulf that "any system struck by a DU penetrator can be assumed to be contaminated by DU." Army studies have found that "personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures." Naturally, this didn't deter the military from using the weapons, since the rounds and armor were found to be highly effective. In the long run, thousands of disguisable American and collateral civilian deaths are acceptable trade-offs for short term military-effectiveness statistics, which benefit the Joint Chiefs -- who, after all, are not at risk from exposure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As of September 1996, most stateside U.S. soldiers still had not been advised of the dangers of handling or working with DU. Although the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration have provided medical exams to more than 85,000 Gulf War veterans with confirmed health problems, only a handful of these veterans have been tested for DU exposure. Many of these have shown elevated levels of DU in their urine several years after the war. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No battlefield cleanup of DU has come about, nor is a cleanup planned. Locals and still-deployed U.S. troops are being exposed to DU on an ongoing basis. DU particles are transported by the wind and water and are presumed to be migrating into food and water supplies. Children routinely play in and around the hulks of irradiated tanks; soldiers brought irradiated souvenirs home from the battlefield. Some DU ingested through breathing and wounds lodges permanently in bones and tissue, and acts as a chemical and radiological toxin for the remainder of a person's presumably-shortened lifetime. The Military Toxics Project reports that "large numbers of children near contaminated areas have developed leukemias and other health problems" likely associated with exposure to DU. The customary military foot-dragging has followed calls for studies on the effects of DU exposure, and there are reasons besides the attractiveness of DU devices. The following segment from the Army Environmental Policy Institute report, leaked in late 1995, reveals a more sinister motive: "The potential for health effects from DU exposure is real; however it must be viewed in perspective... the financial implications of long-term disability payments and healthcare costs would be excessive." DU rounds are being developed for use in the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Vulcan Air Defense Gun and in new combat helicopters. U.S. defense contractors have sold DU weapons to the United Kingdom, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia and half a dozen other countries. No warnings or protective gear for DU were issued before the Gulf War, just as soldiers were not alerted to or protected from nerve gas toxins despite continuous alarms from detection systems. The DU legacy is yet another example of radical irresponsibility toward the well-being of American soldiers and battle-area civilians. How did it happen? How did we come to subject tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to nerve gas, with health effects complicated by questionable medical countermeasures which actually worsened toxicity, and now radiation poisoning, all while keeping countless human guinea pigs in the dark? How is the military able to justify these abuses and their cover-ups? It appears to be policy. And policy has no conscience. Sources: "Collateral Damage: How U.S. Troops Were Exposed to Depleted Uranium During the Persian Gulf War," Dan Fahey, Swords to Plowshares Depleted Uranium Network of the Military Toxics Project. U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute: Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army, Technical Report, June 1995. U.S. General Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: "Early Performance Assessment of Bradley and Abrams," January 2, 1992. The Nation Magazine, October 21, 1996, "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet" by Bill Mesler. (c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc. From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Mon Jan 5 06:16:46 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Transforming Sociology Series Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 08:19:44 -0500 David Langer, webmaster for the RF Institute, has been adding articles from the past to the Transforming Sociology Series of the Red Feather Institute. These articles were distributed at ASA, PSA, MSS and other association meetings since 1971...there are now 180 in the Transforming Sociology Series. At the time, RF Articles cost 25 cents and were free to grad students. Now they are free to everyone. ******** The the 'new' articles in the RF Archives are: •#155 Structurally Stupid Societies: Explorations in Artificial Stupidity by TR Young •#174 Chaos and Causality in Complex Social Dynamics by TR Young •#175 A Brief History of the Critical School: Goals and Contributions to Date by Richard Weiner •#176 Critical Theory and the Limits of Sociological Positivism by R. George Kirkpatrick George Katisficus, Mary Lou Emery The www address is: http://www.tryoung.com/Archives And...check out what else is NEW at: http://www.tryoung.com/new.htm TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From sokol@jhu.edu Mon Jan 5 11:17:43 1998 Mon, 05 Jan 1998 13:15:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 13:06:00 -0500 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Scholarship opportunity To: pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu Enclosed is a posting re. scholarship opportunity for foreign scholars working on urban issues. If interested, please respond directly to Naomi Feigenbaum nfeigen@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu, the program coordinator (do not respond to me). Regards, wojtek sokolowski >Return-path: >Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 11:53:33 -0500 >From: Naomi Feigenbaum >Subject: urban electronic posting >X-Sender: nfeigen@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu >To: sokol@jhu.edu > >Voijtek, Here is the text. -Naomi > >> >> >> >>*************************************************************** >>Johns Hopkins International Fellows In Urban Studies Program >>*************************************************************** >> >> The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies is pleased to invite >applications for its International Fellows in Urban Studies Program. This >program will permit advanced study at the Institute for Policy Studies of >The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., for a semester >(four months) or a full academic year (nine months), for persons who are >involved in or studying urban issues outside the United States. Positions >in the program are available at Senior and Junior levels of appointment, >which are described separately below. The Program also sponsors a Fellows' >conference each year in a host country overseas to encourage continuing >interchange among Fellows and to foster cross-national understanding of >urban issues at the international level. >> >>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>General Eligibility >>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ >> >> Candidates must have demonstrated a high degree of experience and >professional competence in urban studies research. Candidates are expected >to have attained a university diploma equivalent to the American Bachelor of >Arts or Science degree and to be capable of carrying out independent >research and inquiry. A high degree of English fluency is required as >demonstrated by a score of 600 or higher on the TOEFL exam. >> >> There are no restrictions as to nationality (except that U.S. citizens are >excluded from eligibility). Fellows are required to attend the annual >International Fellows in Urban Studies Conference prior to their fellowship >year and are strongly encouraged to participate in subsequent annual >conferences. >> >>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ >>Junior Fellows >> __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ >> >> Positions as Junior Fellows are available to graduate students and young >professionals below the age of 35 who are involved in urban studies >research. Junior Fellow positions cover a period of nine months (two >academic semesters) beginning in September of each year. Junior Fellows >typically select one graduate course each semester from the course offerings >of Johns Hopkins. The course selections do not constitute a University >degree program. In addition, Junior Fellows conduct a research project >related to their specific interests in cooperation with faculty or staff of >the University. >> >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ >>Senior Fellows >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ >> >> Positions as Senior Fellows are open to individuals age 30 and over who >are involved in urban studies research. Senior Fellows spend a period of >four months (one academic semester) at Hopkins commencing in either >September or late January. Senior Fellows are expected to contribute to >the research and education programs of the Institute for Policy Studies. >This will normally involve conducting a specific research project on some >aspect of urban studies and preparing technical assistance materials for use >by policy makers or urban specialists in their home countries. Senior >Fellow responsibilities may also involve supporting the ongoing activities >of the Institute for Policy Studies by teaching a scheduled University >course, by presenting lectures and seminars to the University community, and >the like. >> >> >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ >>Areas of Study and General Activities >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ _ >> >> With limited supervision, Fellows are expected to complete an individual >research project. Competitive applications should relate to the broad topic >of declining older industrial cities. Baltimore's population has declined >from a high of more than 900,000 people to about 636,000. The city lost >50,000 persons in just the first five years of the 1990s. The decline in >population is emblematic of the many problems the city is facing including >poor quality schools; an unskilled work force; abandoned and vacant >properties; serious fiscal imbalance; and high rates of crime. >> >> Fellows are invited to participate in all research seminars and public >education forums of the Institute for Policy Studies. The University also >requests that each Fellow make a presentation of general interest to the >University and the broader community. In addition, each Fellow will have >access to a host agency in Baltimore to introduce the fellow to U.S. urban >problems and policies in a more direct way. >> _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ ___ _ _ _ >>Program Costs and Fellowships >> _ __ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ __ __ ___ >> >>We estimate costs for participation in the Program for the 1998 -1999 >academic year to be as follows: >> >> Junior Fellows Senior Fellows >>Program Tuition $20,740 $15,000 >>Living Expenses (estimated) $ 9,500 $ 8,000 >>Health Insurance (for individual) $ 820 $ 820 >> $31,060 $23,820 >> >>These estimates include the cost of a shared apartment, meals, books, and >incidental expenses. Not included are the additional costs of travel to and >from Baltimore and to the annual conferences, which will vary by Fellow. >Estimates on additional medical insurance and living expenses for families >are available upon request, as are estimates for single occupancy apartments. >> >>For the 1998-99 academic year, The Institute for Policy Studies will waive >the Program Tuition and provide a $5,000 stipend. Because this stipend >covers only a fraction of living expenses and other costs, as shown above, >applicants must be able to defray the remaining costs through other sources >of funds. Fellows are expected to raise from their employer or other >sources funds for the costs not covered by the Institute. >> >>Thus, JUNIOR Fellows will need to raise: >> >> -$5,320 for living expenses >> >> -funds for travel to and from Baltimore >> >>-the costs of attending the annual conference >> >> >>SENIOR Fellows will need to raise: > >> >>-$3,020 for living expenses >> >>- funds for travel to and from Baltimore >> >>-the costs of attending the annual conference >> >>Below is a suggestive list of possible funders. Applicants are encouraged >to pursue all possible sources. >> >>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ >>Application and Selection >>_ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ ___ _ _ >>For application forms please send an e-mail to fellows@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu >and indicate Urban Fellows Program. >> >> >> All applicants for the International Fellows in Urban Studies >Program should complete the application form. Applicants must submit a >proposal of no more than 2,000 words describing the research project they >will undertake while at the Institute for Policy Studies. This research >proposal is a key factor for award. The proposal MUST cover the following >five topics: (1) the policy issue to be addressed; (2) the policy >significance of the topic; (3) the relevance of the topic to the city of >Baltimore as well as cross-nationally; (4) the methodology; and (5) the >schedule for accomplishing the project within the time frame of the U.S. >visit. The proposal should be typed, double-spaced, using 12-point typeface. >> >> Applicants should also submit the additional information requested, which >includes two letters of recommendation from urban policy leaders and/or >scholars, a resume or curriculum vitae, and a brief statement of career or >educational plans. Applicants should indicate their intention to compete >for either a Senior or Junior level position and should also indicate other >sources of funding for the fellowship. All of these materials should be >submitted to the International Fellows in Urban Studies Program, c/o Naomi >Feigenbaum, Coordinator, International Fellows Programs, Institute for >Policy Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Wyman Park Building, 3400 N. >Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, U.S.A. The application deadline is >February 25. >> >> This is a competitive award program. Selection criteria include the >policy relevance and significance of the proposed research, the feasibility >of completing it within the time frame, and its relationship to the >interests and expertise of Institute faculty. A committee of urban studies >scholars will make the selection of fellowship recipients. Awards will be >announced by April 25. Junior Fellowship applicants, after being notified >of committee selection, must also submit a copy of their university diploma. >> >> >>__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ >>The Johns Hopkins University >>Institute for Policy Studies >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ >> >> >> The Institute for Policy Studies of The Johns Hopkins University is a >multi-disciplinary research institute that examines public problems, >especially problems of urban development and social welfare, and formulates >solutions to them. Major areas of Institute work at present include social >policy (welfare, health, education, job training, school-to-work transition, >criminal justice), urban policy (economic development, housing), and the >nonprofit sector. In addition to its research program, the Institute >maintains an active public education program, operates a Master's degree >program in Policy Studies, and supervises a number of student internship >programs with federal, state, and local governments, and with private, >nonprofit agencies. >> >> >>_______________________________________________________________ >>_________POSSIBLE FUNDING SOURCES_______________________________ >> >>1) Open Society Fellowships Program (Soros Foundation) For guidelines on >how to apply, please write to: >> >>OSI Fellowships Program, Open Society Institute, 888 Seventh Avenue, >>New York, NY 10106 >>or e-mail: fellows@sorosny.org >> >>2) Inter-American Foundation U.S. Graduate Study Program- For candidates >from Latin America and the Caribbean. Details about this program are >available on the World Wide Web at http://www.iaf.gov. If you do not have >access to the World Wide Web, you may get information from the IAF local >representative in your country. The deadline to apply to for assistance is >generally March 1. To find out the address and telephone of the office in >your country, contact: >> >>Robert Sogge, Fellowship Program Director, Inter-American Foundation >>901 N. Stuart Street, Tenth Floor, Arlington, VA 22203 >>(703) 527-3529 Fax (703) 841-3800 Tel >> >>3) International Organization for Migration (IOM)-For candidates from Latin >America, Jamaica, and Africa your local office of the International >Organization for Migration (IOM) may be able to give support for >international air travel. To find out this address you can contact the IOM >in Washington D.C.: >> >>International Organization of Migration, 1750 K Street, Suite 1110, >Washington, DC 20006 >> (202)862-1826 Tel (202) 862-1879 Fax >> >>4) Fulbright Scholarship Program. Addresses for Fulbright commissions may >be found at http://www.usia.gov/education/commiss.htm under all commissions >or by going directly to >gopher://198.80.36.82:70/00s/education/fulbright/about/comms. If you do >not have access to the internet, please contact the U.S. Embassy to find >out information about the Fulbright program. >> >>5) Educational Advising Center : General information on searching for >financial assistance can be found at your local Educational Advising Center. >To find your closest center, please contact the U.S. Embassy in your country. >> >> >>POSSIBLE FUNDING SOURCES >> >>1) Open Society Fellowships Program (Soros Foundation) For guidelines on >how to apply, please write to: >> >>OSI Fellowships Program, Open Society Institute, 888 Seventh Avenue, >>New York, NY 10106 >>or e-mail: fellows@sorosny.org >> >>2) Inter-American Foundation U.S. Graduate Study Program- For candidates >from Latin America and the Caribbean. Details about this program are >available on the World Wide Web at http://www.iaf.gov. If you do not have >access to the World Wide Web, you may get information from the IAF local >representative in your country. The deadline to apply to for assistance is >generally March 1. To find out the address and telephone of the office in >your country, contact: >> >>Robert Sogge, Fellowship Program Director, Inter-American Foundation >>901 N. Stuart Street, Tenth Floor, Arlington, VA 22203 >>(703) 527-3529 Fax (703) 841-3800 Tel >> >>3) International Organization for Migration (IOM)-For candidates from Latin >America, Jamaica, and Africa your local office of the International >Organization for Migration (IOM) may be able to give support for >international air travel. To find out this address you can contact the IOM >in Washington D.C.: >> >>International Organization of Migration, 1750 K Street, Suite 1110, >Washington, DC 20006 >> (202)862-1826 Tel (202) 862-1879 Fax >> >>4) Fulbright Scholarship Program. Addresses for Fulbright commissions may >be found at http://www.usia.gov/education/commiss.htm under all commissions >or by going directly to >gopher://198.80.36.82:70/00s/education/fulbright/about/comms. If you do >not have access to the internet, please contact the U.S. Embassy to find >out information about the Fulbright program. >> >>5) Educational Advising Center : General information on searching for >financial assistance can be found at your local Educational Advising Center. >To find your closest center, please contact the U.S. Embassy in your country. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>Possible Funding Sources Continued >> >>6) The Commonwealth Fund of New York, The Harkness Fellowships Possible >funder for citizens of Australia, U.K., New Zealand (deadline aug, sept., >oct=one year turn around) >> >>For application information, please write to: >>In Great Britain: In Australia: >>28 Bedford Square Mr. Roger D.B. Beale >>London WC1B 3EG Department of Transport and Communications >GPO Box 594 >>In New Zealand: Canberra >>Mr. R.E.W. Elliott ACT 2601 >>15 City View Road >>Habourview >>Lower Hutt >>New Zealand >> >>7) The Canada Council, Canada Council Killam Research Fellowships to >provide released time to an individual scholar to pursue independent research. >>Killam Program >>The Canada Council >>99 Metcalfe Street >>P.O. Box 1047 >>Ottawa, Ontario >>Canada K1P 5V8 >> >>8) Australian Research Council >>Research Development Section >>ARC Fellowships Program >>GPO Box 9880 >>Canberra ACT 2601 >> >>9) American-Scandanavian Foundation >>Denmark-Amerika Foundet, Dr. Tvaergade 44, 1302 Copenhagen K., Denmark >>Suomi-Amerika Yhdistysten Liitto, Mechelininkatu 10, SF-001 Helsinki, Finland >>Islenzk-Amerika Felagid, P.O. Box 7051 Reykyavik, Iceland >>Norse-America Foreningen, Drammensveien 20 C, 0255 Oslo 2, Norway >>Sverige-Amerika Stiftelsen, Box 5280, S-102 46, Stockholm, Sweden >> >> >>10) American Association of University Women >> AAUW International Fellowships >> 1111 16th Street NW >> Washington, DC 20036 >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >******************************************* >Naomi Feigenbaum,Coordinator >International Fellows Programs >Institute for Policy Studies >Johns Hopkins University >Wyman Park Building/3400 N. Charles Street >Baltimore, MD 21218-2696 >tel: 410 516-5221 >fax: 410 516-8233 >e-mail: nfeigen@jhu.edu >******************************************* > > wojtek sokolowski institute for policy studies johns hopkins university baltimore, md 21218 sokol@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu voice: (410) 516-4056 fax: (410) 516-8233 From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Tue Jan 6 08:50:47 1998 Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 09:56:07 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Nominations Committee of Section on Marxist Sociology Like many others, I've come to rely on my e-mail archives for record-keeping. Not a good idea. Instead of it being a faster way to retrieve information, it can be much slower. In any case, I need to send off to the ASA office the name of the head of the nominations committee for the Section on Marxist Sociology. I can probably find it with an hour or two, but if someone out there in PSN-Land has the answer right now, it can speed things along. Please send this info to me at: Spector@calumet.purdue.edu or if it is after 5 pm New York time, to Spectors@netnitco.net thanks, Alan S. From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Tue Jan 6 16:08:44 1998 Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 16:08:27 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Ivory Tower Under siege (FWD) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 08:33:05 +0000 From: Richard Jensen Reply-To: Social Class in Contemporary Societies To: SOCIAL-CLASS@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: The New Class Warfare The Ivory Tower Under Siege; Everyone Else Has Downsized, Why Not the Academy? By WILLIAM H. HONAN NY Times Monday, January 5, 1998 At least 50 percent of all non-hard-sciences research on American campuses is a lot of foolishness!" declared the speaker, thumping his lectern. The audience of 200 responded with laughter and applause. This wasn't a revival meeting somewhere in the Bible Belt. It was a smartly dressed gathering of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at Le Meridien Hotel in the heart of Boston's financial district. The speaker was James F. Carlin, a successful insurance executive who serves as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. This hitherto inconspicuous body, which supervises the state's 29 public colleges, served as a platform for Carlin to attack some of the very foundations of academia: faculty rule, research, publications, tenure and sabbaticals. Carlin's remark was unusual only for the scathing tone in which it was delivered. Across the country this winter, governors, legislators, congressmen, business leaders, university trustees and even some faculty and students seem to have declared open season on professors. "Faculty bashing is on the rise," said Arthur Levine, the well-traveled president of Columbia University's Teachers College. "It used to be a whisper, but now people speak it loudly." James E. Perley, a professor of biology at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, and president of the 45,000-member American Association of University Professors, confessed with no little bewilderment that he is denounced almost everywhere he goes. "It's 360-degree bashing," he said. "All around us, people are throwing things. I've been a teacher for 33 years, and I can tell you it's never been this bad." The main complaints are that faculties have usurped control of educational institutions and run them chiefly for their own benefit, not the student's; that they are accountable to no one, and that colleges have failed to increase productivity and that they cost too much. The critics also contend that all too often, students are unable to graduate in four years because faculty members are off pursuing hobbies masquerading as scholarship or research, and not teaching enough sections of required courses. And, they say, as a final slap to the taxpayers who finance public institutions, professors have created an inflexible tenure system that guarantees them lifelong employment at a time when almost no one but federal judges and Supreme Court justices enjoys that privilege. These attacks, often heard in statehouses scrutinizing state education budgets, have gained momentum as Congress approaches the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a $40-billion package of loans, tuition tax deductions, financial aid and institutional grants that is the single most significant piece of federal assistance to students, colleges and universities. Behind the complaints is the undeniable fact that most faculty members lean to the left politically, whereas their critics are largely conservative. There is also a natural tension between thinkers and doers, between scholars and businessmen. And then, there is the difficulty of measuring and evaluating what professors accomplish. What, after all, is the love of knowledge? And how is it communicated? In his speech last November, Carlin took delight in describing the cushy life of the tenured professor, which, in his view, includes long summer vacations, paid sabbaticals, the service of teaching assistants, free time for outside consulting, and "every fringe benefit God ever invented." Claude Hendon, an expert who advises the Florida state Legislature on education policy, says he has heard similar words before from state legislators. He illustrates the point with an image he has frequently heard in their remarks. "It is Friday morning," he said. "The rest of us are headed for a day's toil at the shop or the office. But the professor is out there mowing his lawn. His weekend starts early." Frank Newman, president of the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan research organization in Denver, has not hesitated to criticize faculty members for resisting change, but he acknowledged that the current climate is "at least a little bit of scapegoating." He said: "Faculty get unfairly blamed when the public asks for more than the schools can deliver. The perception used to be that it was nice to have Princeton and the others out there. They were helpful, but they weren't essential. Today, a college education is seen as essential and the institutions are seen as not doing a very good job." And Hendon conceded that some of the attacks are unfair, given academia's promotion system, which depends on publications, not teaching. "The reward system for faculty is not aligned with the priorities of the states," he said. "And that leads to great misunderstanding." Still, faculties have left themselves vulnerable by resisting demands for accountability, in the view of Charles S. Lenth, the director of higher education policy studies of the Education Commission of the States. "The universities have not gone through the stress of downsizing or increasing productivity," Lenth said, "so people are asking why are professors protected from all this when the rest of the world is not?" Forewarned that Carlin would attack the professoriate, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the faculty union, filled three tables at the Chamber of Commerce lunch. Among them was Jenny Spencer, who teaches English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "I don't think Mr. Carlin understands the essential connection between teaching and research," she said. "I'm an editor of a journal called Theater Topics. That requires a lot of very hard, interdisciplinary work, but how can I explain that to him?" The professors had good reason to fear Carlin since his board has the power to approve presidential appointments, set admissions policies, approve academic programs, and make budget requests for the state's 15 community colleges and 9 four-year state colleges. The five campuses of the University of Massachusetts are more independent. When Carlin called for questions, up jumped another professor, Conor Johnston, 54, a tall man in rumpled corduroy with a shaggy beard. An English teacher at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Mass., he has devoted much of his career to the study of the Irish novels of Anthony Trollope and to organizing poetry readings in Brockton. He challenged Carlin's assertion that faculty members are overpaid: "After 24 years of teaching, my annual salary is a miserable $40,500." Carlin, 57, a millionaire several times over, replied in the blunt, sometimes abrasive, language of the board room. He said that many professors work only 12 hours a week. Johnston said: "That's like saying a professional football player works only three hours a week because you exclude that he was practicing for five days earlier in the week." Carlin complained that faculty committees have seized authority from college and university presidents. "That's like telling General Motors that the president can't get involved in making cars," he said. Johnston responded by recalling the revered university tradition of faculty governance. Finally, Carlin landed his heaviest punch. "Since the end of World War II, there has been enormous change," he said. "People moved from cities to suburbs, the interstate highways revolutionized transportation, telecommunications has gone through the roof, and there's been a major revolution in health care. Now there's going to be a revolution in higher education. Whether you like it or not, it's going to be broken apart and put back together differently. It won't be the same. Why should it be? Why should everything change except for higher education?" Whomever one blames for rising college costs, the problem is real. Fifteen years ago, a home mortgage was the largest financial obligation a middle-class family would undertake. Today, the cost of post-secondary education for children, especially for families who choose private institutions, can be an equal or greater financial burden. According to estimates by the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, an independent group established last spring by Congress, the total annual cost at four-year public institutions rose over the last decade from an average $7,107 to $10,759, up 51 percent. The total cost at private colleges has gone from an average $15,049 annually to $20,003, up 33 percent. Needless to say, the statistics can be manipulated to advantage by both those who contend that tuition continues to rise unchecked and those who say it is rapidly coming under control. Some have argued that the costs have grown even more rapidly than the National Commission's figures indicate. Testifying before the commission at a hearing last October, Rep. Michael N. Castle, a Delaware Republican, said that between 1984 and 1994, the cost of transportation was up 34.3 percent, the price of sirloin steak was up 37.5 percent, medical care leaped by 111 percent, and college tuition soared by roughly 150 percent. Those figures, he said, suggest an urgent need for colleges and universities to create more efficient structures, narrow the focus of their teaching or otherwise downsize. Martin Anderson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, and the most outspoken conservative on the commission, used information provided by the Department of Education to describe the situation quite differently. While the cost of attending public universities grew by 37 percent from 1987 to 1990, and by 40 percent from 1990 to 1993, Anderson said, preliminary data from the federal government shows that between 1993 and 1996, that cost increased by only 3 percent. The numbers seem to indicate, Anderson said, that "colleges have been quietly responding over the last four or five years to the bad publicity they have been bombarded with on the cost of college." Whatever set of numbers one chooses, the faculty tends to catch the blame. And some faculty members believe that they themselves should bear some responsibility for the increased costs. Jacques Barzun, the Columbia University philosopher and historian, said: "College faculties and administrators have exacerbated the present cost problem by losing sight of their priorities. We have to strip higher education down to the basics -- students, teachers, and blackboards. Cut out all these counseling programs, opportunities for acting, student periodicals, and guest lecturers. These things are in themselves valuable, but if we can't afford them, they are the things that should go, together with the personnel that operate them." In some communities, grass-roots frustration with higher education has led elected officials to go well beyond the reforms proposed by Carlin. Two years ago, John A. Lawless, a Republican representative in the Pennsylvania state Legislature, held a set of hearings around his state that struck fear into the hearts of the faculty at state-supported colleges and universities. He concluded that many college professors work less than full time and should have their pay reduced accordingly. "When are faculty going to learn that they have to live like the rest of us?" he demanded. Lawless also believes that sabbaticals are mostly junkets, and drew laughs at one hearing when he remarked: "Now I know why there's a professor on Gilligan's Island. Professors travel all the time!" He argues that royalties from work done on sabbatical should be paid to the state, not the professor, and that faculty and staff should not be handed tuition and fee discounts for their children at state-supported schools. While his proposals died in committee, Lawless savored small victories, like the state legislation he supported last year that requires professors requesting sabbaticals to spell out the academic purposes of any travel they propose. He said greater success is inevitable, given increasing public support for his ideas. "Now I'm on the Internet, getting questions from people all across the country," he said. "My constituents love what I'm doing. They don't want me to stop." Last May, the National Commission on Higher Education was established when two Republican congressmen known for fiscal conservatism, Rep. Bill Goodling of Pennsylvania and Howard P. McKeon of California, sensing public anxiety over the cost of college, authorized $650,000 to create the commission. It was designed as a national forum to investigate the cost of higher education and suggest remedies from legislation to recommendations for the United States Education Department. The commission is an 11-member bipartisan group of college and university presidents and others knowledgeable about higher education. Some members were bent on exploring the suspicion that low faculty workloads and undeservedly high faculty salaries had been responsible for driving up college costs. Last fall, the commission traveled throughout the country, asking provocative, if not openly hostile, questions like, "Are faculties paid too much?" and "Do professors work hard enough?" The questions raised the ire of Perley and fellow members of the AAUP, who soon found support in an unexpected quarter. In November, Anderson of the Hoover Institution, well known as a sharp faculty critic, and the author of "Impostors in the Temple: A Blueprint for Improving Higher Education" (Simon & Schuster), said: "There is a lot wrong with higher education -- I even wrote a book about it -- but the one thing that colleges can't be accused of is gouging the public." And many members of the commission appear to be siding with Anderson, so troubling Reps. Goodling and McKeon that in December they issued a news release angrily declaring that "any suggestion that we don't have a crisis flies in the face of common sense." The commission was so sharply divided last month that its chairman, William Troutt, president of Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., twice postponed the final report. He said the committee had reached agreement on some measures, like a recommendation that colleges disclose more financial information to help prospective students and their parents better understand college costs and financial aid. But on the central issue, Anderson is not backing down. Last month, he said in an interview: "Statistics indicate that these institutions are doing a reasonably good job. The only thing that is sure to make matters worse would be to have the federal government leap in and try to micromanage." Optimistic faculty members may think that they won a round with the commission, but Congress is not through with them. House and Senate Republicans are taking a skeptical look at reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which provides federal grants and loans for college students, tax deductions for tuition-related expenses and aid to colleges. One proposal under discussion is a carrot-and-stick approach, in which colleges that reduce tuition or increase faculty workloads would get federal grants for their students, and those that did not would see their aid cut. David Longanecker, the Department of Education's assistant secretary for post-secondary education, said the administration strongly opposes any such action. "Price is a federal concern but not a federal responsibility," he said. But a Republican staff member said that Congress may act anyway. "People down here are sufficiently concerned about runaway college costs that they are actually speaking of price controls," he said. "That's not what we prefer, but if people in this industry -- if you can call it an industry -- can't police themselves, we may have to do the job for them." And the faculty's role? "Let's just say faculty are not part of the solution," he added. College and university faculties also came under siege last year when Congress considered phasing out Section 117 of the tax code, which allows these institutions to offer tuition reduction benefits for faculty, faculty dependents, graduate students and other college and university employees as tax-free income. Section 117 also granted tax-exempt status to the TIAA-CREF retirement fund, the major pension fund in which faculty members participate. Last spring, Rep. William Archer, a Texas Republican who leads the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed taxing the tuition and retirement benefits. Taking aim at the tuition benefit, he and others in Congress asked why middle-class and working-class families must struggle largely without federal assistance to meet increasing college costs, while many tenured professors enjoy this significant tax break. Faculty members said they deserved the benefit, because they had chosen a relatively low-paying profession and performed a public service. Reacting to Archer's proposal, the higher-education community blasted Congress with thousands of letters and telegrams. In the end, the retirement benefit lost out, while the tuition tax break survived, at least for now. Open season on faculty is also generating pressure to modify or eliminate tenure. Only a few years ago, the subject was taboo, but today there is sharp criticism in state legislatures and in publications like the Johns Hopkins Magazine, which recently ran a cover story on "the once sacred institution of tenure." The effort gained momentum from a federal law that took effect in January 1994 and prohibits mandatory retirement on the basis of age for tenured professors.. As a result, many are continuing to teach after the age of 70, leading to warnings of a graying faculty lecturing from yellowing notes. Levine, of Teachers College, said that the new federal law eliminating mandatory retirement has caused tenure to be perceived as "a real threat to modernity." As he explained it: "Tenure is no longer a 30-year arrangement but a 50-year arrangement, and that has people worried." One result, Levine continued, has been to inspire talk about tenure buyouts, post-tenure review (which would subject tenured faculty to peer review after a set period of time) and similar plans. One of the most explosive of the post-tenure review proposals was promoted two years ago by William Ratliff, a Republican in the Texas Senate who then chaired its Education Committee. Playing to his largely rural constituency, Ratliff proposed a post-tenure review, including the possibility of dismissal for cause, for all faculty at publicly supported colleges and universities in the state. "My idea was to assess them in terms of productivity, effectiveness and so forth, to see if we were getting our fair share for the taxpayers' money. "My proposal, which some people thought too prescriptive," he continued, "was that if you flunked the post-tenure review two years in a row, you would lose the protection of tenure." To the great relief of many Texas academicians, Ratliff moved from the Education to the Finance Committee last year. One result was that in May 1997, the Texas Legislature adopted a relatively mild plan that calls for post-tenure review, but leaves it to each institution to decide how to carry it out. Sylvia Manning, vice president for academic affairs at the University of Illinois, said that her institution, like several others around the country under pressure from their state legislatures, recently established a task force to draft a policy on post-tenure review. Meanwhile, the AAUP, among other faculty organizations, has been fighting the spread of these reviews. Perley, for example, argues that post-tenure review programs are useless and wasteful because wherever they have been adopted, only 1 percent of the faculty reviewed gets poor marks. "So why create a whole new program to do something that really doesn't need to be done?" he concludes. Other critics argue that while most professors are liberals intent on changing society, they dig in their heels when it comes to their own profession and oppose anything new. A case in point, according to Newman, is what happened at the University of Maine three years ago. J. Michael Orenduff, then chancellor of the University of Maine, decided to expand the university's reach by creating an eighth branch consisting only of two-way television classes. The plan was enthusiastically approved by the university's 16-member board of trustees, but faculty members on all seven campuses rebelled and forced Orenduff to resign. "What's the message?" Newman asked. "It's that the faculty is in charge, and if you try to make changes and force the issue, you talk yourself out of a job." A university official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: "Give them anything new -- anything -- and they immediately say no. I'm not just talking about the young, untenured people who understand that promotions and tenure come through departmental chairs rather than from interdisciplinary committees, but the most bitter opponents of change are the older faculty who have things the way they like them, and the world be damned." Perley, president of the AAUP, testified before the National Commission and gives speeches in defense of faculty wherever he can, but he conceded that it's uphill work. "The bottom line," he concluded, "is that we have to refocus the debate on the positive things we do. That's difficult. We've lost touch with the public." Copyright 1998 The New York Times fair use reprint for nonprofit educational use only From cwinkler@selway.umt.edu Tue Jan 6 16:16:43 1998 Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 16:16:35 -0700 (MST) From: Celia C Winkler To: PSN Subject: To Do What We Will I am in a fix. I seem to remember the slogan for the eight hour day as "Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for what we will." But I can't find a cite right off my bookshelves--books are loaned out to a student who will get HIS the moment I see him again!!!! But plans for revenge don't do much for me right now. Does anyone have a quick scholarly citation for this??? I'm PAST due with a revised paper. (Our university library is pretty pathetic and lacks the books I own, or I wouldn't have lent them to that %!$#@^$@^$#@% student!) THANKS!! Celia Winkler Department of Sociology University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812-1047 Office: (406) 243-5863 Fax: (406) 243-5951 cwinkler@selway.umt.edu From tsmeisen@wiley.csusb.edu Tue Jan 6 12:02:24 1998 Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 11:04:08 -0800 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Thomas Meisenhelder Subject: socialist novels Hi. Several folks asked me to post a list of the novels recommended for my course in socialism. Unfortunately I didn't save all the replies, but here are the most frequent ones as I remember it and thanks to all who replied (I think I'll go with The Grapes of Wrath or Matagari). Orwell, 1984 The Road to Wigan Pier Animal Farm Sinclair, The Jungle Bellamy, Looking Backward London, Martin Eden The Iron Heel Zola, Germinal Ngugi, Matagari Arrow, The Dollmaker Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle The Grapes of Wrath LeGuin, The Dispossessed Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time. Thanks again, Tom From brbgc@ix.netcom.com Wed Jan 7 09:32:10 1998 by dfw-ix15.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma002009; Wed Jan 7 10:30:58 1998 Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 11:32:17 -0500 From: Ric Brown Reply-To: brbgc@ix.netcom.com To: cwinkler@selway.umt.edu Subject: Eight hours According to Len De Caux in _The Living Spirit of the Wobblies_ (International Publishers, 1978, page 35) Qoute: "Art Shields, one-time Wobbly and ace labor reporter through most of this century, gave me this impression of Haywood. Having heard him speak at strike meetings in 1913-14, Shields said 'Bill was a tremendous personality then. When I heard him again in 1919 or 1920, he had lost something but was still powerful. But in 1913 he radiated power. When he talked of 'one big organization of the working class of the world,' you saw it. He had a tremendous magnetism. Huge frame, one blazing eye, voice filling the hall. When he shouted Eight hours of work, Eight hours of play, Eight hours of sleep and EIGHT DOLLARS A DAY! that last line came like a clap of thunder." I bet the line changed with the audience, though. In Solidarity -- _________________________________________________ Ric Brown Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies Department of Social Science & Management Dekalb Hall, 3rd fl. Pratt Institute Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205 _________________________________________________ Email: brbgc@ix.netcom.com URL: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7364 Phone: 1.718.636.3600 ext.2709 Fax: 1.718.636.3573 _________________________________________________ also reachable via Dept. of Sociology City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, N.Y. From S.Peters@surrey.ac.uk Wed Jan 7 16:07:24 1998 Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 16:34:58 +0000 To: scrol-list@surrey.ac.uk From: Stuart Peters Subject: Issue 2:4 of Sociological Research Online Sociological Research Online http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline Dear Colleagues, Volume 2 number 4 of Sociological Research Online was published on 22 December 1997. The contents are listed below for your interest, but I would also like to draw your attention to a number of specific points of information about the journal. First, there is a call for papers specifically in the area of 'Social Transformation'. This issue sees two articles published in this interesting, important and of course contested area, and we are pleased to have the collaboration of UNESCO MOST in what is a joint venture to stimulate debate on this topic. Please see my Editorial for information on how we plan to take this forward, and the research resource note on the MOST Programme to find out more about their work. We have also launched a new thematic collection in this issue. 'Feminist Research Processes: Practices, Issues, Debates' brings together articles that we have published in this area so far; and it is our largest thematic collection to date. Relatedly, please don't forget that this and all our other thematic collections have debating forums attached to them so that you can add your voice to the arguments - and of course, further papers in these areas are equally welcomed. I am also pleased to announce that Sociological Research Online has just received a 'Special Mention' in the 1997 Charlesworth Awards for Electronic Publishing. I am extremely pleased that our efforts to take scholarly sociological publishing into the new medium have received this recognition, and hope that this helps us to pursue our aim of publishing a high quality, lively and above all interesting sociology journal. It is also now possible to buy copies of books that are reviewed in Sociological Research Online through our partnership links with Amazon and the Internet Bookshop - two of the worlds most successful web services. You will find information about this on the journal's pages. I hope that you enjoy this issue, and that you will continue to enjoy visiting the journal. I also hope that you see Sociological Research Online as not simply 'another journal', but rather as a useful resource offering a variety of informative and useful services. As ever, your comments on this issue and the journal in general would be much appreciated so that we know what our readers want, and can respond to this in terms of developing the style and approach of the journal. With best wishes, Liz Stanley, Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2: Number 4 - Contents SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION Liz Stanley Social Transformation? Exploring Issues in Comparison, Development and Change: Editorial and Call for Papers Jose Mauricio Domingues Dialectics and Modernity, Autonomy and Solidarity Tamir Bar-On The Ambiguities of Football, Politics, Culture, and Social Transformation in Latin America OTHER REFEREED ARTICLES Caroline Elliot and Dan Ellingworth Assessing the Representativeness of the 1992 British Crime Survey: The Impact of Sampling Error and Response Biases Stephen Conway The Reproduction of Exclusion and Disadvantage: Symbolic Violence and Social Class Inequalities in 'Parental Choice' of Secondary Education Ralph Schroeder Networked Worlds: Social Aspects of Multi-User Virtual Reality Technology Martyn Hammersley A Reply to Humphries Martyn Hammersley and Roger Gomm A Response to Romm Bogusia Temple 'Collegial Accountability' and Bias: The Solution or the Problem? REFEREED RESEARCH NOTE Terje Gronning Accessing Large Corporations: Research Ethics and Gatekeeper- Relations in the Case of Researching a Japanese-Invested Factory BOOK REVIEWS Extended reviews by Christine Griffin and Max Travers, as well as reviews by Faye Arnold, Harriet Bradley, Nick Buck, Geoff Cooper, Peter Halfpenny, Paul Jargowsky, David Lane, Anna Triandafyllidou and John Walls RESEARCH RESOURCE Paul de Guchteneire UNESCO Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST) ____________________________________________________________________________ SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE Editor: Liz Stanley Book Review Editors: Victoria Alexander and Sue Heath Editorial and IT Officer: Stuart Peters Department of Sociology http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline/ University of Surrey mailto:socres@soc.surrey.ac.uk Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH tel: (+44) (0)1483 259292 United Kingdom fax: (+44) (0)1483 259551 From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Thu Jan 8 08:20:51 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 8 Jan 1998 10:22:02 EST To: Subject: All prisoners political prisoners??? Reading Wojtek's comments on the NYT piece on the mugging of the academy by corporate swine, following as it did my reading of the judge's refusal to allow TK to mount an ideological defense, has tipped me over the line enough to ask questions that have been troubling me for some time: 1) Is TK a political prisoner in the LITERAL sense? 2) If not, why not? 3) Is he a "Left" or "Right" political prisoner if he is one at all? 4) Why has he not gotten the kind of support Mumia (deservedly!) has? Tgere are more, but if anything comes of this discussion, I'm sure they will emerge. Waddya think, comrades??? TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Fri Jan 9 09:08:07 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 11:07:55 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Ivory Tower Under siege (FWD) Greetings, On Thu, 8 Jan 1998 mweigand@usa.net wrote: > I read the NYT article as well. At the risk of repeating myself yet again, I > want to suggest that all full and part-time faculty join a real union, the > American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO). Today even physicians are unionizing > to oppose the management of their profession by HMO bureaucrats. We need to face > some unflattering facts. Although we may prefer to think of ourselves as > independent professionals, all of us are considered workers/contractors by > campus administrations and state legislatures which are interested in reducing > "labor costs", especially fixed labor costs such as tenured professors. As > tenured professors retire, they are typically replaced by part-time adjunct or > full-time temporary faculty--in other words by a more disposable work force. > > For the graduate students on this list, do not be short-sighted. You will face > an uncertain job market and much less job security in the future if present > trends continue. Now is the time to start looking out for your own interests. > Join a union! > > -=MW=- > AFT member > MSCD Bob Chase is president of the National Education Association (NEA), one of the leading teacher unions in the U.S. He delivered a speech in 1997 to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. called "The New Era: Reinventing Teacher Unions for a New Era." The speech appears in the winter 1997-98 edition of American Educator, an AFT publication. It appears that Chase's new vision is all about collaborating and conciliating more fully with management, the servants of the rich. I think this comes out clearly in his speech. Sandra Feldman is president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the other leading teacher union in the U.S. She said that Chase's speech was "terrific." She really liked it. According to the article, the NEA and AFT are now working to merge the two organizations. MW is right when he says "Now is the time to start looking out for your own interests." But it is not clear if and how the AFT and/or NEA will represent and protect the interests of workers given their ideological support for and alliance with the servants of the rich. The objective interests of the workers and the rich are the exact opposite of each other. I think what is needed and what will work is for the workers themselves to take politics into their own hands. They themselves and not the so-called politicians and "experts" must develop their own independent political effectiveness and political action. They must set and implement their own agenda by themselves. At this rate the teacher unions it appears will not give rise to the sort of arrangements which will favor the workers. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From dredmond@gladstone.uoregon.edu Fri Jan 9 15:12:18 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:11:59 -0800 (PST) From: Dennis R Redmond To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Ivory Tower Under siege In-Reply-To: On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Shawgi A. Tell wrote: > Sandra Feldman is president of the American Federation of Teachers > (AFT), the other leading teacher union in the U.S. She said that Chase's > speech was "terrific." She really liked it. > According to the article, the NEA and AFT are now working to merge > the two organizations. > I think what is needed and what will work is for the workers > themselves to take politics into their own hands. They themselves and not > the so-called politicians and "experts" must develop their own independent > political effectiveness and political action. They must set and > implement their own agenda by themselves. At this rate the teacher > unions it appears will not give rise to the sort of arrangements which > will favor the workers. Yes, Feldman and Chase are thoroughly dismal characters. Still, spreading the union message is a key step in revitalizing the Left more generally -- it's not just a question of signing a union card, but of creating workplace democracy, i.e. creating vibrant, community-oriented social unions which take part in larger community, state and national struggles. Many of the new graduate student unions, I can speak from personal experience, have been doing just that; just because a union local is affiliated with the AFT, doesn't have to mean the rule of labor apparatchiks (e.g. each local has its leadership elected by the members). The local here has been in the forefront of pushing the state and national bodies to become more democratic, and we're winning some victories. It's going to be one of the great tasks of the Left during the next decade or so, to push social unionism and forge those alliances with collective bargaining units and, hopefully, a genuine third party (or even more hopefully, parties) all across the USA. -- Dennis (graduate student and member of the University of Oregon's grad employee union, the GTFF) From vjr@OHSTSOCA.sbs.ohio-state.edu Fri Jan 9 13:00:05 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 98 15:04:17 EST To: From: "Vincent J. Roscigno" Subject: Gay and Lesbian couple data??? X-Incognito-SN: 1391 X-Incognito-Version: 4.10.1 PSNer's, I have a master's student interested in pursuing a master's thesis that compares gay and lesbian couples with heterosexual couples on issues of satisfaction, stability, division of labor etc. She is at the beginning of the "is there any good data out there?" process and is wondering if there are any data sets that you may know of that has a reasonable representation of same-sex couples. Should would like to combine such data with some in depth interviewing of her own. If you know of such data, and would let me know, both she and I would very much appreciate our time and response. Vincent Roscigno, Assistant Professor Department of Sociology, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 N. Oval Mall The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 From mweigand@usa.net Fri Jan 9 16:22:13 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 16:19:24 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Ivory Tower Under siege (FWD) To: "Shawgi A. Tell" , mweigand@usa.net Thanks for your reply. I have not read the article you mentioned, so I cannot comment on it. As for working conditions TODAY in academia, joining a teachers' union can certainly help. For example, the AFT offers all full AND PART-TIME faculty group health insurance and a $1 million legal liability benefit in case one is sued by a student, other faculty, or one's own university (it has happened!). These benefits alone made it worthwhile for me to join two years ago. In my state, the AFT is lobbying the state legislature against post-tenure review and has met several times with our governor on behalf of higher education faculty, something which most of us could not accomplish on our own! So while it may not be the ultimate solution, in my opinion having union representation is still much better than not having it. Best wishes, -=MW=- MSCD From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Fri Jan 9 17:35:01 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 19:34:53 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Ivory Tower Under siege (FWD) Greetings, On Fri, 9 Jan 1998 mweigand@usa.net wrote: > Thanks for your reply. I have not read the article you mentioned, so I cannot > comment on it. As for working conditions TODAY in academia, joining a teachers' > union can certainly help. For example, the AFT offers all full AND PART-TIME > faculty group health insurance and a $1 million legal liability benefit in case > one is sued by a student, other faculty, or one's own university (it has > happened!). These benefits alone made it worthwhile for me to join two years > ago. > In my state, the AFT is lobbying the state legislature against post-tenure > review and has met several times with our governor on behalf of higher education > faculty, something which most of us could not accomplish on our own! So while it > may not be the ultimate solution, > in my opinion having union representation is > still much better than not having it. But this does not mean the NEA or AFT should collaborate and conciliate with the rich and their servants. Nor does it mean that the workers should not or have no need to develop there own independent political action. Another way of putting this is that working within the framework set by the rich and their servants is different than working within the framework set by the needs of the workers themselves. I am not questioning whether or not union workers or non-union workers have or lack "benefits." > Best wishes, > -=MW=- > MSCD Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From browneb@wfu.edu Fri Jan 9 22:11:16 1998 Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 00:11:33 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Barnsley Brown Subject: new approaches to passing as cultural phenomenon CALL FOR ESSAYS FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY VOLUME: New Approaches to Passing as a Cultural Phenomenon "Passing for white" dominates most discussions of passing, but this figuration is proving itself to be increasingly narrow and inadequate to discussions of identity formation. Hence the essays in this volume will question and expand traditional historical constructions of passing in twentieth-century North America. Essays exploring the dynamics of passing that expand the traditional black/white construction are solicited. Possible topics include but are not limited to: passing as straight or gay, passing as a non-white, passing as a citizen or foreigner, and so on. Essays with a theoretical bent or framework are particularly welcome. Approaches may range from the literary to the sociological, political, and/or anthropological. Submissions should be 15-25 pages in length (MLA format) and should be made in triplicate (no electronic submissions please) to Dr. E. Barnsley Brown, Department of English, Box 7387 Reynolda Station, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7387. The deadline for submissions is March 15th, 1998; however, earlier submissions are encouraged. Queries may be directed to E. Barnsley Brown at browneb@wfu.edu or Adam Mckible at adamckib@email.unc.edu. Scholars from a variety of disciplines will be represented in this project. From hoov@freenet.tlh.fl.us Fri Jan 9 08:21:46 1998 Subject: class in the UK (fwd) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 10:24:51 -0500 (EST) From: "hoov" Forwarded message: > Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 10:44:36 GMT+0200 > From: IVOR SARAKINSKY > Subject: class in the UK > To: SOCIAL-CLASS@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU > > I have just finished watching a four-part television documentary on > class in Britain. > > Although the programme was produced with entertainment as a > apriority, it is extremely interesting from an analytical point of > view. > > The programme interviews a range of commentators, from journalists to > snobbish art critics, on their views on class. Also, it shows footage > of the various classes living their lives at work, leisure and home. > > What is striking in the programme is the overwhelming weight given to > culture, style of life and the use of language in the demarcation of > different strata. Examples of this: different classes shown > responding differently at horse and dog races; people from working > class, regional areas going for elocution lessons to speak "proper" > English; different classes that watch soccer and rugby and the > different ways that they respond during the game; school uniforms in > the public schools and the lack thereof in state schools and the > implication thereof; parents from different classes responding > differently to their children's progress or lack thereof at school. > The list goes on and on. > > The programme makes very little, if any, mention of structural > economic factors that underpin the classes that it identifies and > this is perhaps a weakness. However, it convincingly shows that > subjective, cultural and linguistic factors are just as important in > the demarcation of classes as well as the explanation of their > behaviour. Instead of structural conditions, style of life emerged as > the strongest criteria for demarcating between actual classes, not > income differentials or occupations. More importantly, style of life > included "trivial" issues regarding colour schemes in bedrooms, the > use of fish forks etc, but it was quite revealing in explaining how > classes define themselves. > > I was intrigued by the programme's demonstration of how non-economic > factors, some of them quite eccentric, common to a larege number of > people shape the way they define themselves and live in the world. > The best part of the programme is the way it demonstrates, through > footage, the general points raised in interviews. -- From mweigand@usa.net Thu Jan 8 15:06:18 1998 Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 15:03:34 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Our "National Emergency":...Leading to What? To: psn@csf.colorado.edu To PSN'rs: With militia groups on the rise, is the U.S. government expecting a popular revolt? I found the information below on the Internet. Other than the emergencies noted, to what extent a President's whim may activate the Executive Orders listed below is unclear. Due to length, the first article was edited--MW =============================================================================== Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Submitted by Col. (Dr.) Byron T. Weeks 11-3-97 From 'Monitoring Times' Magazine 1-1-95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under FEMA the Executive Orders which are already written and are the current law of the land, call for the COMPLETE suspension of the United States Constitution, all rights and liberties, as they are currently known. The following executive orders, which are in the Federal Register located in Washington DC for anyone to request copies of, call for the suspension of all civil rights and liberties and for extraordinary measures to be taken in, as most of the orders state, "ANY national security emergency situation that might confront the government." When F.E.M.A. is implemented, the following executive orders will be immediately enforced: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. (Executive Order) 12148 - FEMA national security emergency, such as: national disaster, social unrest, insurrection, or national financial crisis. E.O. 10995 - "... provides for the seizure of ALL communications media in the United States." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 10997 - "... provides for the seizure of ALL electric power, petroleum, gas, fuels and minerals, both public and private." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 10998 - "... provides for the seizure of ALL food supplies and resources, public and private, and ALL farms, lands, and equipment." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 10999 - "... provides for the seizure of ALL means of transportation, including PERSONAL cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and TOTAL CONTROL over all highways, seaports, and waterways." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11000 - "... provides for the SEIZURE OF ALL AMERICAN PEOPLE for work forces under federal supervision, including SPLITTING UP OF FAMILIES if the government has to." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11001 - "... provides for government seizure of ALL health, education and welfare functions." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11002 - "... designates the postmaster general to operate a national REGISTRATION of all persons." [Under this order, you would report to your local post office to be separated and assigned to a new area. Here is where families would be separated]. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11003 - "... provides for the government to take over ALL airports and aircraft, commercial, public and PRIVATE." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11004 - "... provides for the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, designate areas to be abandoned and establish new locations for populations." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11005 - "... provides for the government to TAKE OVER railroads, inland waterways, and public storage facilities." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.O. 11051 - "... the office of Emergency Planning [has] complete authorization to put the above orders into effect in time of increased international tension or economic or financial crisis." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the above executive orders were combined by President NIXON into Executive Order 11490, which allows all of this to take place if a national emergency is declared by the President. The burning and insurrection in Los Angeles in the case of Rodney King could have executed [and partially did execute] these Executive Orders. Executive Order 12919: "National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness" signed by CLINTON June 3, 1994, delegates authorities, responsibilities and allocations of FEMA's Executive Orders [last entry] for the confiscation of ALL PROPERTY from the American people, and their re-location and assignment to 'labor' camps. The Executive Order also supersedes or revokes eleven (11) previous Executive Orders [from 1939 through 1991] and amends Executive Order 10789 and 11790. ================================================================================ [Added by MW]: How close is the U.S. to a "national emergency"? You may be surprised that technically, the U.S. government already believes that we are under a national emergency (see below). Is this the writing on the wall for U.S. society? ================================================================================ America Continues Under "National Emergency" +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | NOTICE | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | Message Creation Date was at 12-NOV-1997 17:03:00 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | THE WHITE HOUSE | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | Office of the Press Secretary | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | For Immediate Release November 12, 1997 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | CONTINUATION OF EMERGENCY REGARDING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | On November 14, 1994, by Executive Order 12938, I declared a | | national emergency with respect to the unusual and | | extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, | | and economy of the United States posed by the proliferation of | | nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons ("weapons of mass | | destruction") and the means of delivering such weapons. | | Because the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and | | the means of delivering them continue to pose an unusual and | | extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, | | and economy of the United States, the national emergency | | declared on November 14, 1994, and extended on November 14, | | 1995 and November 14, 1996, must continue in effect beyond | | November 14, 1997. Therefore, in accordance with section | | 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I | | am continuing the national emergency declared in Executive | | Order 12938. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and | | transmitted to the Congress. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | WILLIAM J. CLINTON | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | THE WHITE HOUSE, November 12, 1997. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ ==============(Note: the following is a newspaper article)===================== DEFENSE CHIEF SAYS U.S FREEDOM MAY HAVE TO BE CURTAILED Defense Secretary Calls For Even More Preventative Measures From Staff and Wire Reports, The Times of the Ark-La-Tex 15 September 1997 Submitted by Danny Cox | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may | | have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means | | of protection. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen says. | | The nation's defense chief told the Army Times he once | | considered the chilling specter of armored vehicles surrounding | | civilian hotels or government buildings to block out terrorists | | as strictly an overseas phenomenon. But no longer. | | It could happen here, Cohen said he concluded after eight | | months of studying threats under the Pentagon microscope. | | Free-lance terrorists with access to deadly chemical and | | biological bombs are "going to change the way in which the | | American people view security in our own country, he predicted | | in a Sept. 10 interview. | | Cohen is calling for the government to step up its efforts to | | penetrate wildcard terrorist organizations. | | "It's going to require greater intelligence on our part - much | | greater emphasis on intelligence gathering capability, more | | human intelligence, and it's going to take more technical | | intelligence," he said. | | But using the U.S. military in a domestic law enforcement role | | would require revisions to laws in force for more than a | | century, cautions Shreveport attorney John Odom Jr. "You can't | | do it from the the Defense Department side unless Congress | | dramatically revises the Posse Comitatus laws." said Odom, a | | colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and a reserve judge | | advocate. | | The 1878 law specifically prohibits the use of the military in | | domestic law enforcement unless authorized by Congress or the | | Constitution and does not allow for military intervention | | through action by the secretary of defense or even an executive | | order from the president, Odom said. | | "We're trained from the first day of judge advocate school to | | think of Posse Comitatus !! Odom said. "If Secretary Cohen is | | suggesting that the Department of Defense be involved, it may | | be part of a legislative package. but it will not happen | | unilaterally without a lot of folks thinking long and hard | | about it." | | Cohen said terrorism would be a top priority in five new areas | | he plans to focus on now that he has wrapped up his first | | defense budget, the quadrennial review of the military and a | | new, four-year defense strategy. | | Other goals include modernizing the military, improving troops | | housing and other benefits, streamlining the defense | | bureaucracy and shaping new military relationships and contacts | | across the globe. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ From cuzzort@spot.colorado.edu Sat Jan 10 13:05:57 1998 Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 13:05:52 -0700 (MST) From: Cuzzort Ray Reply-To: Cuzzort Ray To: socgroup Subject: WHAT CONSTITUTES SOCIOLOGICAL COMPETENCE? T. R. Brown raises the question of the nature of sociological competence in a recent PSN message. This question has plagued sociologists from the turn of the century down to the present. One of the problems that many of my colleagues, and I, myself, suffered through our careers was the question of professional self-identity. This question of professional competence is, of course, not specific to sociology. It is a problem elsewhere as well--what is a really "good" writer (the struggle for literary canons in the humanities is a consequence of the problems that exist with respect to resolving this issue)? What is a good philosopher? What is a good journalist? And so on. In most professions a good practitioner is one who has been certified by other practitioners; who has done work that is commonly recognized and accepted as professional; and who knows and makes use of the traditions and "devices"that are common to the profession. Unfortunately, professions are becoming fragmented and made up of increasingly specialized fiefdoms and, oddly, this specialization has worked toward undermining any effort to create a more "wholistic" definition of what constitutes professional competence. For example, I have a colleague who has ascended to the very pinnacles of sociological success and who is located at the finest university in the country. His/her knowledge of sociological theory is astonishingly, indeed, embarrassingly thin. Is he/she really competent, then? What accounts for professional success in this case? Answer: A high degree of methodological specialization. One can wrestle with this problem for hundreds and hundreds of pages and still not come to a good resolution. Maybe we might go with it Leslie White's definition of genius which states, in effect, that you are a genius if people, in general, think of you and accept you as one. I would hope for more, but I might be willing to settle for such an approach to establishing competence in sociology--that is to say, a kind of sociological definition rather than a rational, logical, or academic one. RPC From mweigand@usa.net Fri Jan 9 14:51:09 1998 Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:48:23 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: U.S. Uses Chemical/Biological Warfare To: psn@csf.colorado.edu For general interest as an example of the extent to which governments will go to further their own interests, this information is from the Internet and covers a time period of 1900-1996. It raises legal, ethical, and domestic/foreign policy issues which should concern social scientists. ================================================================================ U.S. Germ Warfare Experiments The Hall of Shame source: eotl@west.net The United States has a long history of experimentation, on unwitting human subjects, which goes back to the beginning of this century. Both private firms and the military have used unknowing human populations to test various theories. However, the extent to which human experimentation has been a part of the U.S. Biological Weapons programs will probably never be known. The following examples are taken from information declassified in 1977, and from other private source accounts. Several involve incidents which are still of unknown origins and which cannot be fully explained: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1900: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A U.S. doctor doing research in the Philippines infected of number of prisoners with the Plague. He continued his research by inducing Beriberi in another 29 prisoners. The experiments resulted in two known fatalities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1915: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A doctor in Mississippi produced Pellagra in twelve white Mississippi inmates in an attempt to discover a cure for the disease. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1931: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Puerto Rican Cancer Experiment was undertaken by Dr. Cornelius Rhoads. Under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, Rhoads purposely infected his subjects with cancer cells. Thirteen of the subjects died. When the experiment was uncovered, and in spite of Rhoads' written opinions that the Puerto Rican population should be eradicated, Rhoads went on to establish U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama. He later was named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and was at the heart of the recently revealed radiation experiments on prisoners, hospital patients, and soldiers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1932: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tuskegee Syphilis Study began. Two hundred (200) poor black men with syphilis began a long term experiment in which those men were to be studied. They were never told of their illness, and treatment was denied them. As many as 100 of the original 200 died as a direct or indirect result of the illness. The wives and children of the subjects also suffered as a result of the disease. (The government office supervising the study was the predecessor to today's Centers for Disease Control (CDC)). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1940's: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a crash program to develop new drugs to fight Malaria during World War II, doctors in the Chicago area infected nearly 400 prisoners with the disease. Although the Chicago inmates were given general information that they were helping with the war effort, they were not provided adequate information in accordance with the later standards set by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Nazi doctors on trial at Nuremberg cited the Chicago studies as precedents to defend their own behavior in aiding the German war effort. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1950: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Navy sprayed a cloud of bacteria over San Francisco. The Navy claimed that the bacteria was harmless, and used only to track a simulated attack, but many San Francisco residents became ill with pneumonia-like symptoms, and one is known to have died. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1950 - 1953: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An array of germ warfare weapons were allegedly used against North Korea. Accounts claim that there were releases of feathers infected with anthrax, fleas and mosquitoes dosed with Plague and Yellow Fever, and rodents infected with a variety of diseases. These were precisely the same techniques used in immunity from prosecution in exchange for the results of that research. The Eisenhower administration later pressed Sedition Charges against three Americans who published charges of these activities. However, none of those charged were convicted. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1952 - 1953: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In another series of experiments, the U.S. military released clouds of "harmless" gases over six (6) U.S. and Canadian cities to observe the potential for similar releases under chemical and germ warfare scenarios. A follow-up report by the military noted the occurrence of respiratory problems in the unwitting civilian populations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1955: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tampa Bay area of Florida experienced a sharp rise in Whooping Cough cases, including 12 deaths, after a CIA test where a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's Chemical and Biological Warfare arsenal was released into the environment. Details of the test are still classified. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1956 - 1958: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Savannah, Georgia and Avon Park, Florida, the Army carried out field tests in which mosquitoes were released into residential neighborhoods from both ground level and from aircraft. Many people were swarmed by Mosquitoes, and fell ill, some even died. After each test, U.S. Army personnel posing as public health officials photographed and tested the victims. It is theorized that the mosquitoes were infected with a strain of Yellow Fever. However, details of the testing remain classified. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1965: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a three year study, 70 volunteer prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia were subjected to tests of dioxin, the highly toxic chemical contaminant in Agent Orange. Lesions which the men developed were not treated and remained for up to seven months. None of the subjects was informed that they would later be studied for the development of cancer. This was the second such experiment which Dow Chemical undertook on "volunteers" who did not receive the information which the world proclaimed was necessary for "informed consent" at Nuremberg. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1966: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Army dispensed a bacillus throughout the New York City subway system. Materials available on the incident noted the Army's justification for the experiment was the fact that there are many subways in the (former) Soviet Union, Europe, and South America. Although there are no harmful effects known for this release, details of the experiment are still classified. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1968 - 1969: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CIA experimented with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting a chemical substance into the water supply of the Food And Drug Administration in Washington, D.C.. There were no harmful effects noted from this experiment. However, none of the human subjects in the building were ever asked for their permission, nor was anyone provided with information on the nature or effects of the chemical used. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1969: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- On June 9, 1969, Dr. D.M. McArtor, then Deputy Director of Research and Technology for the Department of Defense, appeared before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations to request funding for a project to produce a synthetic biological agent for which humans have not yet acquired a natural immunity. Dr. McArtor asked for $10 million dollars to produce this agent over the next 5-10 years. The Congressional Record reveals that according to the plan for the development of this germ agent, the most important characteristic of the new disease would be "that it might be refractory [resistant] to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease". AIDS first appeared as a public health risk ten years later. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1972: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- President Nixon announced a ban on the production and use of biological (but not chemical) warfare agents. However, as the Army's own experts reveal, this ban is meaningless because the studies required to protect against biological warfare weapons are generally indistinguishable from those for chemical weapons. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1977: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ray Ravenhott, director of the population program of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), publicly announced the agency's goal to sterilize one quarter of the world's women. In reports by the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Ravenhott in essence cited the reasoning for this being U.S. corporate interests in avoiding the threat of revolutions which might be spawned by chronic unemployment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1980-1981: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Within months of their incarceration in detention centers in Miami and Puerto Rico, many male Haitian refugees developed an unusual condition called "gynecomasia". This is a condition in which males develop full female breasts. A number of the internees at Ft. Allen in Puerto Rico claimed that they were forced to undergo a series of injections which they believed to be hormones. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1981: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- More than 300,000 Cubans were stricken with dengue hemorrhagic fever. An investigation by the magazine 'Covert Action Information Bulletin', which tracks the workings of various intelligence agencies around the world, suggested that this outbreak was the result of a release of mosquitoes by Cuban counterrevolutionaries. The magazine tracked the activities of one CIA operative from a facility in Panama to the alleged Cuban connections. During the last 30 years, Cuba has been subjected to an enormous number of outbreaks of human and crop diseases which are difficult to attribute purely natural causes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1982: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- El Salvadoran trade unionists claimed that epidemics of many previously unknown diseases had cropped up in areas immediately after U.S. directed aerial bombings. There is no hard evidence to support these charges. However, the pattern and types of outbreaks are consistent with the claims. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1985: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- An outbreak of Dengue fever strikes Managua Nicaragua shortly after an increase of U.S. aerial reconnaissance missions. Nearly half of the capital city's population was stricken with the disease, and several deaths have been attributed to the outbreak. It was the first such epidemic in the country and the outbreak was nearly identical to that which struck Cuba a few years earlier (1981). Dengue fever variations were the focus of much experimentation at the Army's Biological Warfare test facility at Ft. Dietrick, Maryland prior to the 'ban' on such research in 1972. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1985: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In ruling on a case in which a former U.S. Army sergeant attempted to bring a lawsuit against the Army for using experimental drugs on him, without his knowledge, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that allowing such an action against the military would disrupt the chain of command. Thus, nearly all potential actions against the military for past, or future, misdeeds have been barred as have actions aimed at the release of classified documents on the subject. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1987: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the result of a lawsuit by a public interest group, the Department of Defense was forced to reveal the fact that it still operated Chemical and Biological Warfare (CBW) research programs at 127 sites around the United States. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1996: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under pressure from Congress and the public, after a 60 Minutes segment, the U.S. Department of Defense finally admits that at least 20,000 U.S. servicemen "may" have been exposed to chemical weapons during operation 'Desert Storm'. This exposure came as a result of the destruction of a weapons bunker. Causes of the similar illnesses of other troops, who were not in this area, have not yet been explained, other than as post traumatic stress syndromes. Veterans groups have released information that many of the problems may be a result of experimental vaccines and innoculations which were provided troops during the military buildup. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From brook@california.com Thu Jan 8 22:04:58 1998 Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 20:58:25 -0800 (PST) To: brook@california.com From: CyberBrook Subject: Food Bytes #5 (Dec. 20, 1997) SOS Alert >FOOD BYTES >News & Analysis on Genetic Engineering & Factory Farming >Issue #5 (December 20, 1997) >by: Ronnie Cummins, Pure Food Campaign USA >email: alliance@mr.net >http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1527 >___________________________________________________________________________ _____ >ACTION ALERT > >S.O.S. SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS IN THE USA! > >The U.S. Department of Agriculture is attempting to redefine organic foods >to include foods that are genetically engineered, irradiated, >factory-farmed, and grown on top of toxic sewage sludge. This represents >nothing less than an "unfriendly take over" of the natural foods industry >by agribusiness, chemical-biotech corporations, and giant supermarket >chains. > >On Dec. 16, 1997 the USDA announced their proposed national organic >standards. These standards define what can be legally certified and labeled >as organic. Following their final approval, it basically will be illegal >for producers and retailers to uphold and promote standards stricter than >the USDA allows. > >Currently, when we shop for foods labeled "organic," we can be reasonably >certain of what we're getting. But under the proposed USDA laws, there are >no explicit prohibitions against: > >* Genetic Engineering - Using genetic engineering to produce foods. > >* Factory Farming - Using inhumane, intensive confinement, factory farm >style production methods on farm animals. > >* Toxic Sludge - Spreading toxic sewage sludge and industrial wastes, >so-called "biosolids," on farmlands and pastures where animals graze and >food is grown. > >* Animal Cannibalism - Feeding back diseased and waste animal body parts, >offal, and blood to farm animals, the practice that has led to Mad Cow >Disease in Europe. > >* Food Irradiation - Using radioactive nuclear wastes to "kill bacteria" >and prolong the shelf life of food products. > >It's not too late. Continue reading this Action Alert to see what you can >do to Save Organic Standards! >____________________________________________________________________ >STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS! HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS! > > Form an SOS Action Network in your local area. Collect the names and >contact information (including telephone and fax numbers and email >addresses) of others who feel passionately about these issues and are ready >to take action. Have those with email addresses subscribe to Food Bytes, >our free electronic newsletter, by sending an email to: >majordomo@mr.net >with the simple message: >subscribe pure-food-action > > Have natural food retail stores, coops, community restaurants, and >farmers markets contact the SOS campaign by telephone, fax, or email to set >up an in-store leaflet and SOS "ballot box" display. Encourage coops and >businesses to use these displays so that consumers can write official >comment letters to the USDA and their legislators while they are shopping >for organic foods. > > Send a letter, fax, or email to the USDA (to the address and docket >number listed below) demanding that they maintain strict organic standards >by explicitly prohibiting the unacceptable agricultural practices listed in >this Alert. Demand also that they allow private and state organic >certification bodies to maintain stricter organic standards than those the >USDA requires. Remind the USDA that this is a basic issue of free speech >and of consumers' right to choose. Ask your organic food store to provide >materials so that consumers can write comment letters while they are >shopping. If you live outside the United States, tell the USDA that USA >organic foods produced under sub-standard certification and labeling >provisions, such as they are now proposing, will not be welcome or >marketable in your country. > > Make copies of your letter to the USDA and send them to your legislators >and local media. Follow up with a telephone call to their local district >offices. Tell them that, as a constituent, you want them to put their >position on organic standards in writing so that this can be forwarded on >to the USDA. > > Don't forget to contact natural food outlets, consumer coops, farmers >markets, environmental and public interest non-governmental organizations >(NGOs) and community-oriented restaurants in your area and get them >involved in the SOS campaign. > >Letters to the USDA should be sent to: >USDA--National Organic Standards >Docket # TMD-94-00-2 >Address: USDA, AMS, Room 4007-S, AgStop 0275, P.O. Box 96456 Washington, >D.C. 20090-6456 >Fax: (Include Docket Number) 202-690-4632 >email: see USDA web site http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop >___________________________________________________________________________ _____ >Whose Organic Standards?: USDA'S New Proposed Regulations Are Unacceptable > >An Op-Ed Piece on the USDA's 12/16/97 Proposed National Organic Food >Standards by: >Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Pure Food Campaign/SOS (Save Organic >Standards) >Address: >860 Hwy 61 Little Marais, Mn. 55614 USA >Telephone/Fax/email: >(218)-226-4164 Fax (218) 226-4157 email: alliance@mr.net > >Watch out what you ask for, you just might get it. Since 1990, the natural >foods industry has been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to >establish new federal rules to define "organic" food, rules which >supposedly will promote consumer demand and expand the number of organic >farms. Now, in a remarkable turnabout, the rules proposed by the USDA on >December 16 threaten the very credibility and future of the organic and >natural foods industry. > >At stake in finalizing the new "organic" standards is the fastest growing >and most profitable segment of the food market. The U.S. organic food >industry has grown from $78 million in 1980 to an estimated $4.2 billion >this year, and is expanding by nearly 20 percent each year. The proposed >rules by the USDA degrade current standards, open the door for large >agribusiness companies, processors, and supermarket chains to enter and >dominate the organic food market, and preempt natural food consumers, >independent retailers, and farmers involvement in future rules regarding >organic food. > >The nervous shiver down the spine of the organic foods industry comes from >the USDA's lack of specific prohibitions for genetically engineered foods, >irradiated foods, intensive confinement of farm animals, rendered animal >parts in feed, and the use of toxic sewage sludge spread over farmlands and >pastures. > >To allow these controversial practices, the new USDA rules run directly >counter to the practices of organic farmers around the country and in >Europe. Currently the labeling of organic food is dictated by varying, but >relatively strict, standards used by 17 states and 33 private certifying >agencies. None of these agencies currently allow genetic engineering, >irradiation, intensive confinement, rendered animal protein, or toxic >sewage sludge within their definitions of organic food. Besides lowering >pre-existing standards, the new USDA rules would deny states and localities >from setting tougher organic food standards, without first being approved >by the USDA. In this regard industry experts are quite sceptical than the >USDA would allow stricter standards, since strict organic standards would >represent an implicit, if not explicit, condemnation of current >conventional agricultural practices. > >In fact, the USDA's rules are a direct affront to the National Organics >Standards Board (NOSB)--composed of industry representatives, farmers, >environmentalists and food processors. The NOSB, established by the Organic >Foods Production Act in 1990, made recommendations to the USDA that >explicitly banned genetically engineered foods, irradiation, farming with >sewage sludge, and intensive confinement factory farm type animal husbandry >practices. > >By proposing these watered-down standards, the USDA opens the door for >several powerful industries to enter the organic foods market. The proposed >rules will undergo a 90-120 day comment period, giving the waste disposal, >biotech, and nuclear industries an opportunity to lobby hard to expand the >market for their products. Organic food consumers will have an equal >opportunity to voice their opinions during the comment period, and given >their outrage over the proposed standards, they are likely to generate >large numbers of comments. > >The USDA is caught in a familiar predicament given the agency's dual role. >On the one hand it is set up ostensibly to protect consumers by ensuring a >safe food supply and guarantee the economic livelihood of America's >farmers, the majority of whom continue to operate small and medium-sized >farms. On the other hand, USDA also sees as its role to promote the >industrialization and globalization of American agriculture--which means >working closely with large agribusiness, chemical, and biotechnology >corporations. The natural food industry, with its small stores, small >family farms, and discriminating consumers, has begun to pose a direct >threat to the market share of large-scale agribusiness. Therefore >agribusiness would like nothing more than to infiltrate this burgeoning >market. > >The strength of the organic food market can be seen in the growing number >of organic sections appearing in major supermarket chains. A quarter of all >shoppers buy "natural" or organic foods in supermarkets at least once a >week, according to the Organic Trade Association. In a national poll last >February 54% of American consumers told industry pollsters that their >preference was for organic production. > >In addition to the weak rules on controversial practices, the proposed >standards solidify the power of the USDA for future decisions on organics. >The Organics Food Production Act intended for any additions to the organic >rules, such as the inclusion of new synthetic or genetically engineered >crops, to go through the National Organics Standards Board (NOSB). But the >Preamble to the new rules and the USDA's redefinition of substances such as >sewage sludge as "natural" rather than "synthetic" seem to open the door >for the USDA to make the final decision on new additions on its own. In >addition government officials (under NAFTA regulations the Labor >Department) would have unilateral power to declare the "equivalency" of >organic food standards in other nations such as Mexico. Given the lack of >current regulations and enforcement in Mexico over agricultural production, >this could mean a flood of supposedly "organic" products crossing the >border which would undermine American organic farmers operating under >stricter standards and higher production costs. > >On the surface this seems to be a debate over semantics. What is organic >food? But dig deeper and you will find the livelihood of 12,000 or so >organic farmers nationwide, scores of thousands of natural food businesses >and employees, and the right for several million U.S. consumers to buy >organic food that reflects natural farming and production methods. After >the 90-120 day comment period, let's hope the USDA understands that these >standards need to retain the integrity of the word organic. If they don't, >perhaps we're better off without any federal organic standards at all. > >### From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Sun Jan 11 09:17:52 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: New Article in Red Feather Archives SOCIAL-CLASS@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 11:20:54 -0500 Tom Keil's article, written in 1984, has been added to the Red Feather Archives: #114 Sport in Advanced Capitalism by Thomas Keil those who teach sociology of sports might want to take a look at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/114kiel.html TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From dredmond@gladstone.uoregon.edu Sun Jan 11 17:18:11 1998 Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 16:18:05 -0800 (PST) From: Dennis R Redmond To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Ivory Tower Under siege In-Reply-To: On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Shawgi A. Tell wrote: > My original post was not about the potentially positive role that > unions can, do and should play. I was focusing specifically on the fact > that Chase and Feldman, "leaders" of the two principal teacher unions in > the U.S., seem to be taking up that which will not facilitate progress. > Given this, the workers should increase their vigilance. They must not > harbor any illusions about Chase's "new unionism" or what he has in mind > when he talks about "bold new arrangements." Oh, I quite agree. Most of the current union leadership are as reactionary and noxious as the Clinton Administration, and it'll take a bunch of grassroots earthquakes to change this. > In your opinion, what will be the role and aim of a third party? > Presently, parties in the U.S. work to bring themselves and not the people > to power. Also very true. The function of any genuine 3rd party in America would be to overthrow capitalism and usher in socialism, pure and simple -- in tandem with a revitalized union movement, various progressive community groups, and the other political organizations of the global proletariat. Of course, prescriptions for class struggle may sound crazy in the rentier debauchery of 1998, in the midst of one of the transcendental speculative bubbles of capitalist history and the seeming hegemony of neoliberalism, but dialectics isn't about celebrating the Powers That Be but thinking through the possibilities of a revolutionary future. As for models -- my own feeling is that, here in the First World, the German Greens are the closest thing we have to a global Left party. Possibly the Second and Third Worlds will have to develop more localized political forms, more aligned to what the Zapatistas have been doing in Mexico. Finally, my own definition of socialism -- a cooperative society run on principles of consensus, democratic public planning, a drastically reduced workweek, the socialization of large-scale industry and markets by public boards, unions and advocacy groups etc. -- is probably very different from what other people might have in mind. -- Dennis From mweigand@usa.net Mon Jan 12 11:28:07 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:25:04 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Wag The Dog To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Here's a quick film recommendation for faculty and for us to recommend to students as well: "Wag The Dog" (Dustin Hoffman, in which he plays a Hollywood producer who is hired by an incumbent Presidential candidate to produce a phony (nonexistent) war which will help the incumbent win the election). Noteworthy in several respects: [] graphically (!) illustrates political uses of the mass media [] shows politics as the "theater of illusion" it has become [] shows how easily current high-tech video equipment can be used to deceive the public in phony news stories [] a powerful ending (I won't spoil it by explaining) Best wishes, -=MW=- MSCD From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Jan 12 13:09:47 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:09:13 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re-run//SMxS Nominations Committee I apologize in advance for this repeat. In general , I don't like to clutter people's e-mail boxes, but it's possible that someone sent me this information and it was lost. I just returned from a six day absence and found ZERO internet e-mail messages waiting for me. I usually get 20-30/day. Nobody at the school has any idea where they "went". Nor did this happen to anyone else on campus..... Conspiracy theories aside (I don't have time for them)...I'm again asking if anyone out there in PSN-world can remind of who is organizing the Nominations Committee for the Section on Marxist Sociology. Rather than have to choose someone else, I'd appreciate it if someone can send me the info as soon as possible. Thanks, Alan Spector (if possible, send a cc to SPECTORS@netnitco.net in additon to spector@calumet.purdue.edu From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Mon Jan 12 16:35:20 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 18:34:25 +0000 Subject: Review of movie Amistad Below is the text of a review of the movie Amistad I recently wrote. Feel free to use it or reproduce it if you think it is useful. I welcome your comments. Steve Rosenthal In 1839 fifty-three West Africans who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery broke free of their shackles, overpowered and killed all but two of officers of the Amistad off the coast of Cuba. The spared officers were ordered to sail towards Africa, but instead sailed northward until a U.S. navy ship intercepted them in Long Island Sound. The Africans were imprisoned in New Haven, Conn. They gained their freedom after a two year legal battle. Churches eventually raised enough money to pay for their return to Africa. The movie Amistad brings to light these previously neglected historical events, depicts the murderous cruelty of the slave trade, supports the right of enslaved Africans to free themselves through violent revolt, and features an African actor portraying a committed intelligent leader of that revolt. You might think this is enough to justify at least grudging admiration for Steven Spielberg's efforts, but the movie is like the slave ship for which it is named: Its anti-racist cover sugar-coats its actual treacherous and deadly racist functions. The explicit message of the movie is that capitalist politicians and lawyers (former President John Quincy Adams, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the British Government) led the fight to end the slave trade and slavery because they realized slavery was wrong. The implicit message is that racism today is merely an unfortunate historical legacy of slavery that we have not yet put to rest. The first message is an enormous lie about capitalism's racist past, while the second is an even bigger lie about capitalism's racist present. To begin with, Adams and the Supreme Court were not opposed to slavery, but only to slave-trading by the Spanish. The same Supreme Court fifteen years after Amistad declared in the Dred Scott case that a "fugitive slave" was still a slave in any state and that, in effect, all U.S. states were slave states. They opposed the slave trade not for moral but for business reasons. The continuation of the Atlantic slave trade during the first half of the 19th century kept the price of slave labor low for European plantation owners in the Caribbean and South America. This kept the prices of their sugar, cotton, and other commodities low and allowed them to compete effectively against U.S. and British capitalists. Then, as now, racist bosses of different countries fought each other for economic advantage. The competition threatened both the investment of U.S. slave-holders in their slaves, as well as their growing slave breeding business. British capitalists not only faced competition from rival European capitalists. They also faced depletion of the supply of native labor from the colonies they were establishing in Africa. Thus, black anti-racist scholar and fighter W.E.B. DuBois, who wrote his dissertation on the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade, wrote, "Negro slavery and the slave trade were abandoned in favor of colonial imperialism, and the England which in the 18th century established modern slavery in America on a vast scale, appeared in the 19th century as the official emancipator of slaves and founder of a method of control of human labor and material which proved more profitable than slavery" (The World and Africa, 1946, NY: Int'l Publishers, p. 64). The British also tried to Christianize "recaptured" Africans and train them to serve as agents of British imperialism in colonial Africa. Such compradors became important actors in the British system of "indirect rule" used throughout the British Empire. This system worked in a fashion similar to the U.S. today, as black capitalists and politicians such as Ward Connerly or Colin Powell put a black face on racist and imperialist attacks on the working class. Thus, when Steven Spielberg ended Amistad with a scene in which the British naval artillery destroyed a coastal fort used for holding African slaves, he was utterly misrepresenting the character of British imperialism. And although Spielberg described the horrendous conditions of the "Middle Passage," he hardly provided us with a glimpse of slavery in the U.S., its brutal exploitative character, the slave revolts on the plantations owned by Supreme Court justices and politicians, and their suppression. Nor did he point out that the revolt aboard the Amistad was unusual only in its success. Attempted revolts occurred on at least one of every ten slave vessels, and massive slave rebellions occurred on virtually every island in the Caribbean. The true abolitionists in the U.S. and Europe are marginalized and caricatured in Amistad. Pacifist praying primly dressed white women, a cynical white man who suggests that it would be better for the cause of abolition if the Africans were killed, and a lone fictionalized "composite" black abolitionist are all we see. In Amistad it is the lawyers and politicians who energetically fight (in the courts) for freeing the Africans. In fact, by 1839 many U.S. abolitionists had already become much more militant, building the Underground Railroad and organizing mass meetings and demonstrations. Most Abolitionists sharply attacked American and British schemes for returning freed slaves to Africa as a colonial racist strategy that denied blacks any rights in the U.S. During the 1840s and 1850s, under the leadership of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown, the Abolitionist movement increasingly became an interracial revolutionary movement. Meanwhile, in Europe, Karl Marx and other working class leaders led Abolitionist campaigns that climaxed with massive actions during the U.S. Civil War to block European trade with the Confederacy and support Abolition. But Steven Spielberg will never make a movie about any of this. Spielberg's Amistad cannot even hint at the truth about why U.S. and British bosses suppressed the slave trade, because they cannot reveal the dirty secret that capitalism must be racist, and that racist chattel slavery was replaced by racist wage slavery. Colonial plantations, mines, and factories have super-exploited workers all over the world since the middle of the 19th century and have produced more profits for the bosses and more death for workers than chattel slavery ever did. The two world wars that British, U.S., and other bosses fought over control of empires killed some one hundred million people. Colonial workers were drafted as cannon fodder, super-exploited to produce goods for these wars, and died by the millions from the poverty and epidemics spawned by imperialist wars. Spielberg made a movie (Schindler's List) depicting a German capitalist as a hero who saved Jews from the Nazis, and he covered up both capitalist responsibility for genocide, as well as the role of the communist movement in saving most of the 3 million European Jews who survived World War II. Spielberg also made movies portraying "the force" (Star Wars) and lovable creatures from outer space (E.T.) as saviors and heroes. Spielberg is a big financial contributor to Pres. Clinton and the Democrats. Amistad is a part of Clinton's "initiative on race." Like Clinton apologizing for the Tuskegee experiment and holding open the door of Central High School in Little Rock, Amistad is a gesture to condemn racism in the past in order to distract us from the much greater racist assaults the bosses are carrying out now and in the near future. From sasha1@netcom.com Mon Jan 12 17:55:27 1998 Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:55:17 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 19:53:06 -0500 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: "Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko" Subject: Re: Review of movie Amistad; Jews, capitalism, communism,... I would not call this text a movie review, but it is definitely interesting. A couple of things I'd dare to disagree with: 1. "capitalism must be racist" What is this statement based on? Would you say that if the humans had only one race, then capitalism as an economic formation would not be viable? Or that out of all possible biological, psychological, social, etc. personal features, capitalism would always discriminate on the basis of race (and nothing else?), *unlike* any other regime? If I run a simulation of capitalism on my computer, should I necessarily divide "people" into "races" and discriminate among them? 2. >Spielberg made a movie (Schindler's List) depicting a German >capitalist as a hero who saved Jews from the Nazis, and he covered up >both capitalist responsibility for genocide, as well as the role of >the communist movement in saving most of the 3 million European Jews >who survived World War II. First of all, the genocide was conducted by the Nazis that were "national-socialists"; the capitalist *countries* definitely could save most Jews from the Nazis, but did not - and the responsibility lies not on the free-market part of their social organization, but on the elected national governments. If there was pure capitalism on both sides of the Atlantic, the Jews would have just bought tickets and left. It is the centralized governments on both sides that prevented it. "The communist movement" - do you mean the murderous Stalinist regime? - did not have an intention to save Jews; it just tried to occupy the territories it wanted to obtain, and the Jews happened to be there. At the same time, it was persecuting its own Jews, conducting official genocide against 17 Nationalities (Chechens, Koreans, etc.) on its own territory, torturing and killing any Jews (or anybody else) who tried to escape from the country, or practice their religion, or criticize the government, and terrorizing, starving, and murdering *millions* of its own citizens to the extent that dwarfs all other organized crime in all human history, combined. And as soon as the borders opened at least a bit, the Jews from the countries of the "communist movement", stripped of their possessions, ran to the capitalist countries - until, again, the centralized governments of the Western countries started restricting the process, against the will of the capitalist enterprises, and largely under the influence of the organized labor that tries (very short-sightedly) to protect its turf. Sure, capitalism has its problems. But you can't organize a complex economy without local value accounting, period! - so a considerable degree of a free market should always be there. This is the basic law in all complex systems - unlike racism, which, together with races themselves, is just a peculiarity of the human evolutionary process. Also, capitalism is not the only social formation that has problems, and with all its problems, its still a heaven compared with bloody totalitarian regimes. Actually, the totalitarian/"communist" regimes were all collective slave owners - the laws governing the behavior of their captives were identical to any reasonable definitions of slavery - can't own property, will be killed in the attempt to escape, no freedom of speech, etc. --------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Chislenko --------------------------------------------------------------- From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Tue Jan 13 07:50:08 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: New Articles in the RF Archives Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 09:53:05 -0500 David Langer, WebMaster for the Red Feather Institute Home Page, has added four articles from earlier years to the Archives. They are: •#175 A Brief History of the Critical School: Goals and Contributions to Date. 1979 by Richard Weiner •#176 Critical Theory and the Limits of Sociological Positivism. 1974 by R. George Kirkpatrick, George N. Katsiaficas and Mary Lou Emery •#155 Structurally Stupid Societies: Explorations in Artificial Stupidity. 1994 by TR Young •#174 Chaos and Causality in Complex Social Dynamics, 1995 by TR Young TR Young, Editor TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From RPlatkin@aol.com Tue Jan 13 12:34:25 1998 From: R Platkin Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:18:46 EST To: mweigand@usa.net, psn@csf.colorado.edu BenRos@aol.com, SueBNelson@aol.com, froble@juno.com Subject: Re: Our "National Emergency":...Leading to What? PSN: Regarding information posted on FEMA plans for responding to political crises in the United States, we should not underestimate the class consciousness of the U.S. ruling class, nor overestimate its power. It is true they realize that underneath the general civility of life in the United States lurks enormous class forces which can and occasionally do erupt, such as the 1992 rebellion in Los Angeles. They know that economic forces can usher in recessions and depressions -- as is happening now in Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, etc. -- and that these can usher in both spontanous rebellions and -- this is their real scare --organized anti-capitalist movements. But, all that said, their ability to understand, influence, predict, and control economic and political events in the world, and in the United States, is declining. They missed the overthrow of the shah and have never been able to recoup their position. They missed the demise of the Soviet Union. They missed the financial crisis is east Asia. They missed Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, and despite all their efforts are still saddled with Saddam Hussein. Here is L.A. they were completely blind-sided by the mass reaction to the aquittal of the cops who beat up Rodney King. They ended up with the second largest urban rebellion in U.S. history which required curfews and militarization of the city. The only thing which saved them was the disorganized spontaneity of the rebellion. Had it been organized, events could have unfolded much differently. So, knowing that severe economic and political crises will appear, in the U.S. and elsewhere, shouldn't we be ahead of the curve? Shouldn't we now undertake the political organizing necessary to make sure that future crisis don't present squandered opportunities? PSNers can contribute to this process by exposing the superficial class peace prevailing in the United States, by documenting the many instances large and small when class anger emerges, and by offering the political leadership to ensure that these crises become organizing opportunities. Dick Platkin rplatkin@aol.com From j9470388@wlv.ac.uk Wed Jan 14 10:35:14 1998 by ccug.wlv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 1.80 #1) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 11:58:14 -0800 From: Alan Harrison To: sasha1@netcom.com Subject: Re: Review of movie Amistad; Jews, capitalism, communism,... Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko wrote: > > A public response to a private message: > > At 10:54 01/13/98 -0500, JuliusK632 wrote: > >Hey Sasha, the cold war's over, or havent you heard,so knock off the know- > >nothing anti-communist bull-s---.. I don't think that the rhetoric reported by Sasha is particularly helpful. At the very least, Julius should have had the gumption to realise that a person called Sasha Chislenko is likely to have some direct experience or family knowledge of life under Stalinism. > > I lived under communism for 30 years And here lies the problem for many of us! Is Stalinism "communism"? It certainly doesn't seem to bear any resembalnce to the Marxian ideal of a society in which "the free ddevelopment of each is the precondition for the free development of all". (I quote from memory.)Now, it might be argued that this sets up an ideal, and non-existent, form of communism, but read on... > > Also, your views of the anti-racist nature > >of capitalism are not worth responding to. > > I would be greatly obliged if you did. The difficulty I found with Sasha's original posting is that he appears to set up an ideal capitalis model, over against "actually existing capitalism" (cf. remarks on idealist communism above) In practice, right-wing parties tend to be both capitalist and racist. This is certainly a very noticeable dichotomy in the British Conservative Party, where a libertarian attitude towards economics grinds against a jingoist, nationalistic and racist appeal to anti-foreigner sentiment. Thus, "coloured immigrants" are a threat to "British jobs", but "burdens on business" must not stop British-owned companies from moving production offshore. I profess no deep knowledge of US politics, but I believe that parallels can be drawn with similar tendencies on the American right. Alan Harrison From mweigand@usa.net Wed Jan 14 16:18:47 1998 Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 16:16:00 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Our "National Emergency":...Leading to What? To: R Platkin , mweigand@usa.net, psn@csf.colorado.edu BenRos@aol.com, SueBNelson@aol.com, froble@juno.com Thanks for your reply. I agree with most of your comments and suggestions, but I am not convinced that there could not be an event which triggers nationwide martial law. A actual chemical, biological, or "suitcase" nuclear terrorist attack would panic the population to such an extent that they would probably agree to give up any pretense of civil rights, privacy, and other freedoms. That fear COULD be exploited by the government in order to justify its extreme social control measures. Even if such measures were said to be "only temporary" until the crisis passed, it is uncertain that pre-crisis civil liberties would be restored once they had been revoked. Just some speculation here. Anyone old enough to remember President Nixon's "enemies list" and project COINTELPRO knows that such abuses of power have already occurred in the U.S., so there is demonstrable reason for concern. Today, the erosion of civil liberties is taking place incrementally rather than all at once, but the net effect will be the same if present trends continue. The old expression applies: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance". Best wishes, -=MW=- MSCD From sasha1@netcom.com Wed Jan 14 17:08:09 1998 Wed, 14 Jan 1998 16:07:56 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 18:45:36 -0500 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: "Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko" Subject: Capitalism and communism - ideas and reality In-Reply-To: <34BD18D6.717B@wlv.ac.uk> I agree with Alan Harrison's points that implementations of "communism" were not really communism (I called them "totalitarianism except where arguing with the message that called the Stalinist regime a "communist movement"), and that current implementations of social systems employing a considerable degree of a free-market economy do not really qualify for a refined classic concept of capitalism. Let us try to use the same methodology in relation to both of these practical/theoretical pairs. If one says that the ideal communism is good, but all practical implementations somehow lead to totalitarian horrors, than it would be fair to imagine the "ideal capitalism" that combines wonders of human spirit with local cost- accounting - but due to "accidental effects" gets screwed up and produces thew well-known "side-effects". The thing is, that if your model blows up each time you try to implement it under any circumstances, then this model is either completely unsuitable for the intended purposes, or too brittle to be reliable. Actually, the architecture of the modern social formations changed to such a degree since the original ideas of socialism and capitalism were introduced, that the alternatives for economic and political structures should be reintroduced on an entirely different theoretical basis - that of complex systems, networked organizational structures, etc. Too much in the modern society - from complexity by far exceeding the intelligence of any single human, to extremely diverse sets of goods and services to lateral communication structures to largely saturated markets that make further economic progress qualitative (i.e., not easily expressed in monetary terms) to non-Cartesian effective topology of the social space - is different from everything known before. I do some research on models of alternative social/economic architectures for different classes of systems, and possibilities of new, post-monetary, symbolic signalling mechanisms in a society (situational knowledge exchange, replacement of scalar global monetary "value" with specialized non-scalar utility assessments, and their derivatives). The purpose is to suggest new social coordination mechanisms and social formations based on them that would be both efficient and stable. There is a large body of relevant theories for this study, from complex adaptive systems to biosemiotics, contract theory, artificial intelligence, etc. If somebody on this list has a general theoretical understanding of the subject to help me and my colleagues improve our models, I would be happy to receive your advice. --------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Chislenko --------------------------------------------------------------- From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Wed Jan 14 21:23:43 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:22:34 +0000 Subject: Social Forces Again Promotes The Bell Curve The December, 1997, issue of Social Forces includes as its lead book review a tendentious, dismissive review of "Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth," a book written by six Berkeley sociologists as a critique of Herrnstein and Murray's scurrilous, unscientific paean to fascism and eugenics. The review was written by Francois Nielson, the same Univ. of North Carolina Chapel Hill sociologist who reviewed and applauded "The Bell Curve" itself as the lead review in the September, 1995, issue of Social Forces. It is a significant measure of how far a segment of the power structure of the discipline of sociology has moved in the direction of biological racism and support for public policies based upon eugenics that one of the leading journals in our field, based at one of the major Ph.D. granting institutions (UNC-CH), does not hesitate to publish these two "reviews." Moreover, Social Forces is "associated with the Southern Sociological Society," one of the largest regional associations, and whose membership includes a relatively large number of African Americans. Francois Nielson and his friends believe that inherited differences in cognitive ability explain most of the inequality that exists in capitalist society. I suppose the masses of people in Indonesia and South Korea suddenly lost half their cognitive ability during the past few months, and the IMF wants them to lose most of the rest of it. Similarly, the villagers murdered in Chiapas, the women in New York City arrested for child abuse for not being able to afford to pay their utility bills, and the vast academic reserve army of adjuncts and part-timers are merely dysgenic dross that the rapidly disappearing welfare state supported in its misguided programs to help the unfit survive. Herbert Spencer and William G. Sumner are alive and well in the pages of Social Forces. I hope our capacity to be enraged by such writing is also alive and well. Steve Rosenthal From sokol@jhu.edu Thu Jan 15 10:39:50 1998 Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 12:27:48 -0500 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Capitalism and communism - ideas and reality In-reply-to: <4.0.32.19980114181108.00eb21f0@netcom5.netcom.com> To: psn@csf.colorado.edu At 06:45 PM 1/14/98 -0500, Alexander Chislenko wrote: >I agree with Alan Harrison's points that implementations of "communism" >were not really communism (I called them "totalitarianism except >where arguing with the message that called the Stalinist regime >a "communist movement"), and that current implementations of >social systems employing a considerable degree of a free-market >economy do not really qualify for a refined classic concept of >capitalism. --snip --- > If somebody on this list has a general theoretical understanding of the >subject to help me and my colleagues improve our models, I would be happy >to receive your advice. Actually, there is an approach that moves away from the strict "systems" approach (the Hegelian strand in Marxist thought) toward historical contingency approach (for a discussion on these two different approaches see Wolfgand Schluchter, _The Rise of Western Rationalism_). As applied to eastern European development, that approach is perhaps best represented by Alexander Gerschenkron (_Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective_). According to this approach, there is no general logic in nation's economic development, each nation's follows a path that is determined by historical contingencies, such as natural and human resources, relationship to other nation-states, timing, etc. In case of pre-1917 Russia, that position was characterised as follows: 1. relative economic backwardness vis a vis Western Europe and Japan, resulting from increasing militray threat to Russia's security; 2. predominance of pre-modern, labour-intensive agriculture in the economy; 3. absence of modern institutional infrastructure (esp. a banking system) to finance industrialization projects; That position, according to Gerschenkron resulted in the following: 1. the models of successful industrialziation were already developed in Bismarck's Germany and Meji Japan (two most imminent military threats to Russia) -- they relied of cartelization, that is, forming large assemblies of industries around banks financing their operations and curbing competition; 2. Russia, in desperate need for more industry to face international competition, adopted that cartel model with two notable exceptions: 3. First, due to the absence of an efficient banking system, the function of financing industrial development and curbing competition was assumed by the state - historically a strong economic agent in Russia 4. Second, due to the smallness of urban centers, and thus shortages of industrial labour, it was necessary to move large numbers of people from labour-intensive agriculture to industry; 6. That, according to Gerschenkron, explains the reliance on Marxism; the movement of rural masses to industrial centers, coupled with austerity measures dictated by rapid indutrialization created a need for a civil religion that would sell the great economic transformation of Russian society to the masses, and Marxism fit into that role; Elaborating on Gerschenkron's ideas: Marxism addressed two important elements in the lives of Eastern European peasantry that were threatened by the industrialziation project: - the rural solidarity that played a crucial role in economic behavior of peasants (for more on that see Thomas & Znaniecki, _Polish Peasnat in America_, and also A.V. Chayanov, _A Theory of Peasant Economy_); - eschatologoy or a direction where individuals and society were heading in the future that used to be provided by religion. Marxism, or rather Soviet managerial ideology selectively based on Marx's writings, was basically a civil religion that symbolically cherished social solidarity being destroyed by industrialziation, and gave a sense of purpose that helped the population to live throughh hardship and go along with the government program. There was no overarching goal creating socialism on earth in x-USSR -- they only goal was to create industrial base and economic potential that would allow Russia to compete with other countries. Marxism in Russia was exactly what Christianity was in Western Europe: it was no more than opiating the masses to help them to endure through the process of economic transformation and legitimate the authority behing that process. There was no master plan, failed or otherwise, to create a "Marxist" or "socialist" society there or elsewhere. In the same vein, neither France, England or Germany had even an intent to establish a state that would implement Christian values -- they use Christianity simply to opiate their own masses, and legitimate the rule of their own kings. And that ideology was abandoned as soon as it outlived its usefullness That is precisely what happened to Christianity: bourgeois state became secular as soon as Christian values became hidrance to formal rationality of the markets and bureaucratic organization). A few further observations are in order: 1. There are no such things as "capitalism" and "communism" -- these are the concepts like "Christians" and "heathens" that show the massess who is a friend and who is a foe; 2. There are only different strategies to industrialization that differ in the degree of centralisation of power and different balance bewteen the private and the public sector; 3. Rural social solidarity and industrial eschatology that made the vulgar version of Marxism popular in the past exist no more; solidarity has vanished in the developed countries, especially the US, and is vanishing quicky in Eastern Europe, while industrial eschatology has been hackneyed by industrial propaganda and "futurologists;" consequently, the Left cannot use organizing strategy of the past, but it mast find or develop os different form of solidarity to spark a mass movement. And one final comment: Stalin not only made Russia strong and respected, he also frightened the Western bourgeoisie, forcing it to make concessions, implement social programs etc., to avoid rebellion. Instead of chastising him for the "lack of democracy," the Western Left should be making annual pilgrimages to his grave in Moscow. Western democracy was build on the fear of a strong Russia. Once the Russian might declined, Western democracy and welfare state crumble, being destroyed by the bourgeoisie. wojtek sokolowski institute for policy studies johns hopkins university baltimore, md 21218 sokol@jhu.edu voice: (410) 516-4056 fax: (410) 516-8233 From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Thu Jan 15 16:19:53 1998 15 Jan 98 17:23:55 -600 15 Jan 98 17:23:28 -600 Date: Thu, 15 Jan 98 17:23:19 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@listserv.ncsu.edu Dear PSN/AHS ers, As part of my sabbatical job with a third world university late this year, I am preparing a list of references on health care in the third world from marxist, world system, third world feminist and other progressive perspectives. Any one has any suggestion? Manjur Karim From dgrammen@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Thu Jan 15 16:32:24 1998 Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 17:32:12 -0600 (CST) From: Dennis Grammenos To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Labor Victory at U. of Illinois http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=1996 ________________________________________________________ UI to ask corporate partners for better labor conditions -------------------------------------------------------- By JULIE WURTH News-Gazette Staff Writer CHICAGO -- The University of Illinois and other colleges across the country appear ready to take a public stand against sweatshop labor. Responding to pressure from students and labor activists, the UI agreed in principle to adopt a "code of conduct" for its corporate partners, including athletic shoe giant Nike. Associate Chancellor Judy Rowan said the decision grew out of talks with the Student Labor Support Network, which has protested labor conditions at Nike factories around the world. "It would appear at this point that the university is going to do the right thing," said group President Lori Kreloff, who addressed UI trustees Wednesday in Chicago. The UI athletic department has a sponsorship agreement with Nike, receiving money and free apparel in exchange for using only Nike products. The Student Labor Support Network said Nike workers in China and Indonesia are subjected to forced overtime, low wages and unhealthy working conditions. Kreloff said an internal Nike report leaked to the press cited levels of carcinogens at a factory in China that exceeded local standards by 177 times. Human rights monitors also found that women at one Chinese plant are fired for becoming pregnant, even though Chinese law guarantees maternity leave, she said. Rowan said the UI agreed to discuss the allegations with Nike and promised to speak out publicly on the issue. "We agreed in principle that we oppose sweatshop labor in violation of applicable laws around the world," she said. "We don't think it's appropriate for our name to be associated with such practices." She said Collegiate Licensing Corp., the licensing agent for the UI and other universities, is working on a general code of conduct that can be used in all such contracts. Kreloff, a UI senior, said any code should include a clause requiring independent monitoring of the factories by a third party. "We need to sort out what we can do, but that just seems to me to make good sense," Rowan said. "We are not in a position ourselves to go out and police these things." And schools can't simply rely on assertions by the company, she said. Nike has its own code of conduct already, though it does not provide for third-party observers, she said. "The company says it stands for fairness in the way it deals with its workers," Rowan said. Asked if the third-party clause might drive away potential corporate partners, Rowan said, "I really do believe that this is going to be resolved at the national level through the licensing agent. I don't think anybody has resolved exactly how it is going to work out." She noted that, as a state university, the UI is under some constraints about what it can sign or promise. Kreloff said the group is not asking the UI to boycott Nike, but to ensure its corporate partners uphold decent working conditions and basic human rights. She said 30 universities nationwide are involved in the effort. "The University of Illinois should not only be an academic leader, but an ethical leader as well," she said. (c)1998 The News-Gazette _______________________________________________________ From Reminder@PM01SM.PMM.MCI.NET Fri Jan 16 01:20:25 1998 From: Reminder@PM01SM.PMM.MCI.NET Fri, 16 Jan 1998 08:20:14 +0000 (GMT) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 01:14:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: Please pardon the intrusion To: consumer@usa.net Reply-to: nrs_sa1es@hotmail.com I am not on the internet to burden you with unsolicited advertising and if I've offended you in any way, I do sincerely apologize. To be removed from this list, simply reply to this message with "Capitalist Pig!" in the subject field. My point is brief, in that I would like to aquaint you with a service that you've probably never heard of and, since you're in the United States, is available to you at very little cost. You might just throw away your calender for good once you see my website. Take a quick look at http://www.freeyellow.com/members2/supervisor/NRS1.html End Intrusion. Cordially, BCA From roz@pipeline.com Fri Jan 16 08:31:58 1998 Fri, 16 Jan 1998 10:31:40 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 10:30:08 To: garbo@umich.edu, lmel@pipeline.com, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , "Chris Procello": From: Roslyn Bologh Subject: FW: No Subject >From: Lorna Mason >To: "'Ariel Ducey'" , > "'Barry Davison'" > , > "'Catherine Davis'" > , > "'Charles Green'" , > "'Joel VandeVusse'" , > "'Lauren McDonald'" > >To: "'Marcey Buchakjian'" , > "'Melissa Ditmore'" > , > "'Sarah'" , > "'Susan Abramson'" , > "'Roslyn Bologh'" > , > "'Renate Reimann'" >Subject: FW: No Subject >Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 16:39:52 -0800 >Encoding: 131 TEXT > > >Hi everyone: > > This is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure > of $1.12/year of their taxes, a petition follows. If you sign, > please forward it on to others (not back to me). If not, please > don't kill it; send it to the e-mail address listed here: > wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu > > PBS, NPR (National Public Radio), and the arts are facing major > cutbacks in funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to > reduce spending costs and streamline their services, some > government officials believe that the funding currently going to > these programs is too large a portion of funding for something > which is seen as "unworthwhile". Currently, taxes from the > general public for PBS equal $1.12 per person per year, and the > National Endowment for the Arts equals $.64 a year in total. > > A January 1995 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated that 76% of > Americans wish to keep funding for PBS, third only to national > defense and law enforcement as the most valuable programs for > federal funding. > > Each year, the Senate and House Appropriations committees each > have 13 subcommittees with jurisdiction over many programs and > agencies. Each subcommittee passes its own appropriation bill. > The goal each year is to have each bill signed by the beginning > of the fiscal year, which is October 1. > > The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of > support for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by > making our voices heard. > > Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends if > you believe in what we stand for. This list will be forwarded to > the President of the United States, the Vice President of the > United States, and Representative Newt Gingrich, who is the > instigator of the action to cut funding to these worthwhile > programs. > > If you happen to be the 350th, 400th, 450th etc. signer of this > petition, please forward a copy to: > wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. > > If that address is inoperative, please send it to: > kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu. > > This way we can keep track of the lists and organize them. > > Forward this to everyone you know, and help us to keep these > programs alive. > > To keep the list clean looking, please cut this message > and paste into your own new message. That way, we can avoid the > ">>>"that lengthen the lines every time someone quotes the > message. > > Thank you. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > > 1) Kenneth Jones, Grosse Pointe, MI > 2) Todd A. Nielsen Grand Rapids MI > 3) Shane VanOosterhout > 4) Sheri R. Lee, West Bloomfield, MI > 5) Jeremy Kahn, Royal Oak, MI > 6) Jeff Klein, Royal Oak, MI > 7) Jennifer Hamilton, Bowie, MD > 8) Edward Ost, Bowie, MD > 9) Ben Waxman, Takoma Park, MD > 10) Jamie Jensen, New York, NY > 11) Tim Holtz, Jamaica Plain, MA > 12) Glenn Kulbako, Somerville, MA > 13) Jill Wassong, Newton, MA > 14) Morocco Flowers, Boston, MA > 15) Arnold Zann, Canaan, NH > 16) M. Brooke Moran, Canaan, NH > 17) Margaret C. Taussig, Canaan, NH > 18) Marcy Innes Nelson, Canaan, NH > 19) Camilla Colao, Canaan, NH > 20) Margo Taussig Pinkerton, Canaan, NH > (Barefoot_Contessa@compuserve.com) > 21) Nevada Wier, Santa Fe, NM > 22) Kent Madin, Bozeman, MT > 23) Alexander Censor, San Diego, CA 92130 Alexander@compuserve.com > 24) Meera Censor, San Diego, CA 92130 > 25) Gary Baran, Glendale, CA > 26) David Banner, Viroqua, WI > 27) Anne Sommer, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 > 28) Ted Hoppin, > Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 > 29) Edie Hoppin, Seattle, Wa 98119 > 30) Lorna Chandler, Seattle, WA 98133 (lchandler@genemp.com) > 31) Ron Runyon, Edmonds WA 98020 rprunyon@accessone.com > 32) Julie Runyon, Edmonds WA 98020 > 33) Roger Ingalls,Seattle WA 98116 > 34) Kathryn Ingalls, Seattle WA 98116 > 35) Eric Olson, Everett, WA 98208 (olsign@juno.com) > 36) Sheryl Olson, Everett, WA 98208 > 37) Teri Ratner, WA 98133 (tratn@corp.atl.com) > 38) Devin Harkness, Seattle, WA 98133 > 39) Brian Borton, Seattle, Wa. 98155 > 40) Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson, Mercer Island, Wa. 98040 > 41) Sean Cooney, Palo Alto, CA, 94301 > 42) Eric Fries, Palo Alto, CA, 94306 > 43) Max Rosenberg, Palo Alto, CA, 94303 > 44) Bill Rosenberg, Palo Alto, CA 94303 > 45) Michael Levay, Los Altos, CA 94022 > 46) Catherine Fetterman, Campbell, CA 95008 > 47) Sara Calkins, San Jose, CA 95148 > 48) Greg Calkins, San Jose, CA 95148 > 49) Roger Thompson, Palo Alto, CA 94306 > 50) Celso Frazao, Palo Alto, CA 94306 > 51) Kate Lorig, Mt. View, CA 94043 > 52) Diana Laurent, Palo Alto, CA 94301 > 53) Richard Valasek, Pearl City, HI 96782 > 54) Karen Valasek, Pearl City, HI 96782 > 55) E. Bettina Seidl, Utah, Co 84746 > 56) Joanie Dunne, Captain Cook, HI 96726 > 57) Margot Collins, Kensington, MD 20895 > 58) Grant Decker, Annapolis,MD 21401 > 59) Emily Hektner, Annapolis, MD 21403 > 60) Tamsen Merrill, San Francisco, CA 94111 > 61) Katherine Albrecht, San Francisco, CA 94123 >62) Cynthia Durham, Gallatin, TN 37066 >63) Gwendolyn Lauterbach, Oxnard, CA 93030 >64) Lorna Mason, Brooklyn, 11217 >65) Mark Lauterbach, Brooklyn, 11217 >66) Roslyn Bologh, New York 10804 >67) Daniel Bologh, New York 10804 68) Howard Bologh, New York 10804 > > From t.mason@infonie.fr Fri Jan 16 16:00:23 1998 From: "Timothy Mason" Subject: Re: Capitalism and communism - ideas and reality Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 23:45:53 +0100 To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Reply-To: "Marxism in Russia was exactly what Christianity was in Western Europe: it was no more than opiating the masses to help them to endure through the process of economic transformation and legitimate the authority behing that process. There was no master plan, failed or otherwise, to create a "Marxist" or "socialist" society there or elsewhere. In the same vein, neither France, England or Germany had even an intent to establish a state that would implement Christian values -- they use Christianity simply to opiate their own masses, and legitimate the rule of their own kings. " Who are 'France', 'England' or 'Germany'? How can they be said to have or not have an intent? That many of the actors in these political and social dramas were cynical and manipulative is certainly true ; but not all of them were. If you see intentions as of any importance in the working through of such social processes, then it is difficult to see how you can sweep aside the genuine Christianity that informed the Wesleyan crusade - to give but that example. It may be argued that, in the final analysis, the Wesleyan revival was conservative in its consequences - although I don't think I could entirely agree with that, for Methodism offered cadres to the growing union movement throughout the nineteenth century (see Hobsbawm on this) - but Wesley himself was more concerned with saving souls than with saving a government. As for Soviet Communism, whatever one may think of the works of Lenin and the early Bolsheviks, and however ruthless they may have been in pursuing their ends, it is difficult to brush aside their professions of faith in Communism as mere window-dressing. If, on the other hand, you see intentions as of no importance whatsoever, then there is little point in discussing what plans anyone anywhere may have had ; the logic of domination simply works itself out, will-she, nill-she, and the desires or intentions of the individual players are nothing more than sound and fury, with the usual signification. Metaphysical pathos? Regards Timothy Mason t.mason@infonie.fr P.S. For those who are able to bear it, the most recent edition of Granta has an article on the aftermath of That Tragedy, seen from the point of view of those English women and men who found themselves taken in custody by the 'grief police'. From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Sat Jan 17 15:29:16 1998 17 Jan 98 16:33:41 -600 17 Jan 98 16:33:11 -600 Date: Sat, 17 Jan 98 16:33:00 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@ncsu.edu Subject: Fwd: Freedom for Toni Negri & italian political prisonners ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: laurent@ecn.org To: yann.m.boutang@wanadoo.fr Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 18:16:25 +0100 Subject: Freedom for Toni Negri & italian political prisonners Freedom for Toni NEGRI-- To Have Done with the Year of Lead in Italy! Information letter to signers of the appeal Ever since delivering himself over to Italian justice in July 1997, Toni Negri has been incarcerated in Rome, his only short-term hope that of working outside and returning every evening to prison (a very strict system in no way comparable to partial release). That means that he needs our active support to make people understand his cause and that of 400 militants still imprisoned or in exile, especially since the effect of surprise has passed and the debate opened in the Italian press on the political meaning of Negri=92s return is being progressively closed. Hence the importance of the existence and activities of the "Committee for the Liberation of Toni Negri and Amnesty for the Years of Lead," which was formed last October 17 on the initiative of signers of the Appeal (1000 signatures have already been recorded from all over the world, several hundred of which come from internationally famous persons, and several hundred remain to be recorded). The Committee=92s first initiatives: 1) A press conference was held on November 18 at the headquarters of the League of the Rights of Man; you may have read echoes of it in the press. Some newspapers have picked up the Appeal, in particular Le Monde and the Guardian. A dossier on the case is in preparation at Lib=E9ration. In= Italy, by contrast, apart from the unambiguous support of Il Manifesto, the major organs of the press have kept an uncomfortable silence, with only a few papers providing a brief news item. 2) An important initiative: on November 25 a committee delegation went to the European Parliament at Strasbourg to present the petition to national representatives there. The committee was received in succession by ten deputies, from France (Socialist Party, Communist Party, and others from the Left), and Germany (the Greens), and as for Italy, the delegation met the PDS, the party in power, the united left and the Radical Party. The delegation was received attentively by the French and German parliamentarians. On the Italian side, obviously central, the PDS expressed two principal reservations. Without explicitly admitting that the Italian emergency laws are in contradiction with European laws, the two PDS representatives insisted that they proved their worth in the fight against organized crime, and that a compromise must be found between the preservation of their efficacy and the demands of democracy. They cautiously promised to sound out opinion on the problem of amnesty while raising the danger that an expanded amnesty law could also be used to absolve others of corruption (Tangentopoli). In short, the discussion remains open on that side. As for the Radical Party, it has a favorable attitude regarding the amnesty for events in relation to the Years of Lead. The Radical Party proposes to take the contents of the petition and produce a text to be signed by European parliamentarians and propose it for discussion by the Commission on Civil Liberties. AND NOW=85 The committee is continuing its activity directed toward Strasbourg by assisting in the promotion of an internal parliamentary initiative (petition). The signature campaign continues and other initiatives are being planned. THESE INITIATIVES ARE QUITE COSTLY: trips to Strasbourg and Brussels, not to speak of legal and administrative fees. Those who wish to make financial contributions should please read the attached instructions. Thanks for your solidarity. A tax-deduction receipt will be sent to you by return mail. --The Committee=09 P.S.: In "Retour vers le futur" (90 minutes), a videocassette recorded by Toni Negri before his departure from France, he tackles different political and philosophical subjects. This video may be ordered by check for 250 francs (which will go to the committee) from the following address: L'Yeux ouverts 2 All=E9e Komarov 92000 Nanterre FRANCE Tel. 0147667176 FELICE - APPEAL FOR FUNDS 1997/1998 If you want to send a check: SEND YOUR CHECK payable to the order of =AB La FELICE =BB together with this form to the following address: Bernard PRINCE 13 rue Biscornet 75012 PARIS FRANCE Mr./Ms. =09 Address =09 =09 City State Post Code =09 Tel =09 Fax =09 e-mail =09 ________________________________________________________________________ If you want to make a funds transfer: TRANSFER to: FELICE - Account N=B0 04618348640 Caisse d=92=E9pargne de l=92Ile de France 19, rue du Louvre BP940 75021 Paris Cedex 01 FRANCE Warning : any transfer to a foreign country costs money: a service fee of 250FF or =A325 or $50 US or something comparable per transfer will be assessed. So you should transfer a large amount of money if you choose this method. Point of Origin date =09 Signature Web sites : ----------- Petition :=20 http://www.anet.fr/~aris/ecn/infoszone/solidarite/negri05.html French : http://www.anet.fr/~aris/ecn/infoszone/solidarite/negri01.html Spanish : http://www.larc.net/desertika/autonomia/negri.htm http://www.larc.net/desertika/argument/argument.htm http://nodo50.ix.apc.org/laboratorio/convocat/amnistia.htm English http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~forks/TNmain.htm Italian : http://www.ecn.org/liberi/ http://www.ecn.org/rete.sprigionare Turkish : http://aries.gisam.metu.edu.tr/yeni/newseng.htm And probably more... ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Sat Jan 17 16:59:12 1998 Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 19:00:41 -0500 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: RICH GET RICHER This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------463BE53026AC70EA72AFBC54 PSNers, I send PSN the following quote just before the holidays. Several people inquired as to its origin. It is from the Labor Party's web page. I have attached the specific page it came from. I will write them and ask for the sources for the specific quote, and will forward any response. Jim According to the United Nations Development Program, the world's seven richest people could end world poverty. Their $80 billion, the UN agency said, could provide access to basic social services and eradicate poverty in nations around the globe. The report also noted that the net wealth of the world's top 10 billionaires is worth 1.5 times the combined national income of the 48 least developed countries. http://www.igc.apc.org/lpa/lpv26/lp01.htm -- Jim Salt jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Box 90F Dept. of History, Political Science, & Sociology University of Tampa 401 W. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa FL 33606-1450 813-253-3333 X3651 "The philosophers have only _interpreted_ the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to _change_ it." --- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach --------------463BE53026AC70EA72AFBC54 htm" RICH GET RICHER

THE RICH GET RICHER...

 According to the United Nations Development Program, the world's seven richest people could end world poverty. Their $80 billion, the UN agency said, could provide access to basic social services and eradicate poverty in nations around the globe. The report also noted that the net wealth of the world's top 10 billionaires is worth 1.5 times the combined national income of the 48 least developed countries.
 
Cheap Jeep

"It is anything but corporate welfare," said Chrysler vice president W. Frank Fountain.

No, the $232 million tax break the giant automaker will be receiving from the city of Toledo, Ohio, to keep the company from moving out of town is, says Fountain, "an investment on a long-term facility that is going to be providing jobs that will generate tax revenue." Under the agreement reached between the Chrysler Company and Toledo over the summer, Chrysler will get the tax breaks in exchange for upgrading its aging Jeep assembly plant down  town and building a new facility nearby. You'd think with this pretty payoff in hand, Chrysler would be obligated to at least hold onto its current employees in Toledo. But in fact, the company plans to reduce the local workforce by about 600 people.

That leaves 4900 Chrysler workers in the city of Toledo, and for each worker, the company gets a $47,000 tax rebate, paid for by the people of Toledo.

Money for Nothing

In the contest for taxpayer handouts, Chrysler beat out the global investment bank Bear Stearns. At a news conference in August, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Bear Stearns CEO James E. Cayne announced that the prosperous financial institution would be receiving a $75 million tax break as part of New York City's "corporate retention" program -- about $7700 per existing employee.

Happily for Bear Stearns, the company didn't even have to threaten to leave the City in order to receive this attractive "retention" package -- a fact that Giuliani seemed loathe to reveal. "Bear Stearns is very important to New York City's financial community," explained the Mayor.

The agreement is the 33rd "retention" deal New York City has signed since 1993.

A Global Game

It's become a familiar problem in the U.S.: Cities or states engaging in a bidding war to lure a company to town, deluging perfectly profitable companies with offers of tax breaks and infrastructure improvements -- at the taxpayers' expense, of course.

But now the bidding war has widened. At a recent conference in Paris, a group of trade unionists from around the world discussed the growing problem of global tax competition.

"There is a great worry that tax competition between countries is eroding the tax base almost everywhere," Andreas Botsch, a policy advisor to the group, told the Bureau of National Affairs. The unionists are part of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Together the committee represents 68 million unionized workers from the industrialized nations that make up the OECD.

The unionists agreed that the tax competition is the result of a global bidding war: Countries are trying to lure multinational companies by offering them tax breaks. The net result of this practice, the committee concluded, is to shift more and more of the tax burden onto workers and away from capital in countries around the globe.

More Rich & Poor

Between 1980 and 1995, total tax deductible pay for the nation's top executives rose 182 percent, according to IRS data.*

Tee off

President Clinton broke away from his August vacation on Martha's Vineyard to issue an executive order to block the BMWE gravel-M KaufmanBrotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees from striking Amtrak. Clinton invoked the Railway Labor Act to force a 60-day "cooling off" period and create an emergency board to recommend a settlement in the contract dispute.

Clinton should have stayed on the golf course and left Amtrak workers alone. BMWE, an early endorser of the Labor Party (and a recent affiliate -- see page 7), criticized Clinton's move. The President, said BMWE General Chairman Jed Dodd, was "effectively coming to the aid of Amtrak management and putting our right to strike on hold." Tellingly, Amtrak itself applauded Clinton's intervention.

Photo: ©Michael Kaufman, Impact Visuals

Amtrak wasn't so happy, though, with the recommendation the emergency board issued on Sept. 21: The Board agreed with BMWE that Amtrak workers should get a raise equivalent to what other railworkers got last year. Amtrak rejected the plan, and so now it's back to the waiting room for both company and union. Come Oct. 22, the company will be free to impose its last offer or lock workers out. And workers will -- at last -- be free to strike. 

Return to Labor Party Press Index Page --------------463BE53026AC70EA72AFBC54-- From sasha1@netcom.com Sat Jan 17 18:32:00 1998 Sat, 17 Jan 1998 17:31:43 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:29:18 -0500 To: sokol@jhu.edu From: "Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko" Subject: Good social theories (was: Capitalism and communism - ideas and reality) In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980115122748.008efb14@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> <34BD18D6.717B@wlv.ac.uk> Wonderful post by Wojtek Sokolowski. I hope this list is archived. The suggestion of historical contingencies seems as interesting as it is well argued that socialism and capitalism may be "only different strategies to industrialization that differ in the degree of centralization of power and different balance between the private and the public sector". As "public sector" was public only to the degree that the totalitarian regimes were socialist (i.e., not really), I would suggest to consider just the difference in the degree of monopolization of power. Actually, "fanatic democracies" where the majority of the population is possessed by a simple set of uncritically accepted ideas, and forcefully suppresses all others, doesn't seem different from centralized totalitarianism. For the development of the social architecture, it hardly makes much difference how many physical bodies support the dominant ideology. It is the conditions of co-existence of different ideologies and their tolerance to competing ideas and methods of social organization that determine efficiency, freedom of innovation and long-term perspectives of a social system. The choice of a road to industrialization doesn't seem random however (and neither it is really conscious). Of course it depends on the conditions in a given country, but there's logic to this dependence - so I do not see contingencies as a direct antithesis to development logic. More noteworthy seems the fact that though the degree of monopolization of power and other social parameters may depend on various social conditions and historical contingencies, the industrialization itself appears a technological imperative. So for the understanding of the nature of the historical process it may be useful to focus not on the individual nations with their historical peculiarities, but on the imperative issues facing social structures and methods of their resolution. My personal view on the "true" social issues (the ones that actually underlie and drive social development and determine its outcome) is somewhat "inhuman": As in most other known complex systems, the structures of social formations have no more been created for the benefits of individual humans than ecologies were created to keep butterflies happy. Rather, participants of these systems, with their bodies, minds, emotions, and patterns of social communication, evolve to ensure stability and growth of the entity in which each of them plays a small, limited role. The growing complexity of social tasks requires increasing differentiation of individual roles and adaptability of both physical and social structures. The fundamental drift to more abstract communication and migration of physical systems beyond outdated biological designs with their primitive blind replication patterns has been determining the evolution of communications and production methods from ecological to post-industrial social structures. A good scientific understanding of any class of phenomena, in my opinion, should include the general knowledge of underlying forces and alternative development paths, and also understanding of both previous and subsequent stages of the studied system. The comparison with pre-social (biological) system would include considerations of differences in socium design produced by improved individual intelligence and introduction of symbolic communication mechanisms (including language and money), and explanations how the features characteristic for human social organizations arise from these differences. The comparison with expected next generation of social systems (somehow the obvious idea that there's going to be something qualitatively beyond what we have now, seems surprising to practically everybody) should tell us at what point the theories based on observations of previous human historical experience are going to lose relevance, and what concepts we should use after that. The first concepts that I think we should start dropping already, are those based on biological and territorial distinctions; i.e. nations, races, countries, and other territorial formations. They did influence social development in the previous history, but modern patterns in advanced social structures are rarely based on anything physical (except when influenced by old territorial and ethnic powers) It seems that it is time to start reconsidering the most basic assumptions of the social theory and to discuss the events in terms of non-territorial and non- biological entities. Otherwise, we may get stuck with mistaking listings of accidental events of the past for a historical theory, and misguide those who look into historical studies for clues to the nature of the current social and economic trends. --------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Chislenko --------------------------------------------------------------- From jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Mon Jan 19 11:51:51 1998 Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 13:53:24 -0500 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: An "anti-extremist's" view and list of Marxists in the US today This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------8A718FADF903ABB7CD71CFCA A student came across this post by Laird Wilcox on a anti-militia listserv. Since it lists several periodicals and groups connected to members of this list, I thought I'd pass it on. The summary of the recent history and current status of marxism in the US is incredibly superficial, as you'll see, but you may find it interesting to see how this is characterized by a self-defined "anti-extremist". Anything you'd add to (or drop from) his lists?! -- Jim Salt jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Box 90F Dept. of History, Political Science, & Sociology University of Tampa 401 W. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa FL 33606-1450 813-253-3333 X3651 "The philosophers have only _interpreted_ the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to _change_ it." --- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach --------------8A718FADF903ABB7CD71CFCA Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 05:35:54 -0500 To: jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu From: Thea Klontz Subject: Re: DISCUSSION Re: Suggestions of a hidden agenda. I thought you might like to read this. Thea >Resent-Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 04:46:11 -0500 >From: LWilcox3 >Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 04:44:04 EST >To: jsrtheta@colorado.net, watchdog@militia-watchdog.org >Subject: Re: DISCUSSION Re: Suggestions of a hidden agenda. >Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) >X-Mailer: Inet_Mail_Out (IMOv11) >Sender: watchdog-request@plano.sff.net >Resent-From: watchdog@plano.sff.net >X-Unsub: To leave, send text 'LEAVE' to > >Jeff Ryan: > >I appreciate your long letter, especially the last sentence. It's the core >nature of an ideologue to "doubt the sincerity" of the opposition, rather than >just accept that people may legimately and honestly differ. > >Marxism-Leninism never found a large following among American workers, >although it's showing among American intellectuals was somewhat better. Today >the Communist Party USA has about 1,200 members following a split in the >organization after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The second largest >Marxist group is the Committees Of Correspondence, where most of the >disillusioned but not necessarily repentant Marxists from the CPUSA and other >groups congregates. The COC embraced the "popular front" approach, where a >broad based coalition of Marxist- Leninists, Trotskytes, socialists, socialist >feminists, progressives and liberals all work together for common ends (they >can work the details out later). > >Marxism has proven to be very adaptable. The traditional goal of Marxism was >to exploit discontent over economic class division, i.e., the >capitalist/proletarian paradigm. However, class wars include cultural factors >as well. In Cambodia, for example, almost everyone who could read was killed >by the Khmer Rouge. During the Great Cultural Revolution in China, more >people were killed because of their class origins than died in Nazi >concentration camps. Following the Russian revolution one's ancestry, whether >one's parents were bourgeoise or proletarian, was the basis for millions of >deaths and enslavement. Traditional class struggle Marxism has never found >much following in the United States because of the high standard of living, >even among our poorest citizens. It had to be reworked to adapt to new >issues. > >The process began in the late 1960's when Marxists began focusing on race and >gender as issues to build a "revolutionary consciousness." The same basic >Marxist and Leninist prerequisites were there: some bonafide grievances >combiled with envy, resentment and zealousness. Ideologies like Marxism >attempt to find a "cause" for every complaint one has, and it's always "them" >-- the class enemy. > >There are a number of Marxist groups and periodicals in the United States and >Canada. They vary in the extent of their ideological discipline to Marxist- >Leninist dogma, with most of them attempting to find gender and racial >applications for it. I'll list some of them here: > >PERIODICALS > >"Against The Current, " bi-monthly. Detroit, MI >"Antipode / Radical Geography," Quarterly. Cambridge, MA >"Barricada International," monthly. San Francisco, CA >"Capitalism, Nature and Socialism," Quarterly, New York, NY. >"Communist Viewpoint," Monthly, Toronto, ON >"Critical Sociology," Quarterly, Eugene, OR >"Critique of Anthropology," Quarterly, Newbury Park, CA. >"Discussion Bulletin," Bi-monthly. Grand Rapids, MI. >"EcoSocialist Review," Quarterly, Chicago, IL. >"Freedom Now," Bi-monthly, Chicago, IL. >"Into The Night," irregular, Brooklyn, NY >"Jewish Affairs," Bimonthly, New York, NY >"Keystone Socialist," Quarterly, Philadelphia. >"Labor History," Quarterly, Washington, CT. >"Labor Militant," Quarterly, Chicago, IL. >"Left Business Observer," Monthly, New York, NY >"Left Curve," Semi-Annual, Oakland, CA >"Marxist-Leninist," Quarterly, Toronto, ON >"Monthly Review," Monthly, New York, NY >"Nature, Society & Thought," Quarterly, Minneapolis, MN >"New Internationalist," Quarterly, Toronto, ON >"News and Letters," Bi-monthly, Chicago, IL. >"Nouvelle International," Quarterly, Montreal, QB >"Our Times," 8 yearly, Toronto, ON >"People's Culture," Bi-monthly, Kansas City, KS >"People's Tribune," Monthly, Chicago, IL >"Political Affairs," Monthly, New York, NY >"The Poor, The Bad and the Angry," irregular, Oakland, CA >"Practice," Tri-annual, New York, NY >"Quixote," Monthly, Houston, TX. >"Radical America," Quarterly, Somerville, MA >"Radical History Review," Tri-annual, New York, NY >"Red Flag / Bandera Roja," Monthly, Los Angeles, CA >"Red Star Rising," irregular, Astoria, OR >"Regeneration," Monthly, St. Louis, MO >"Rethinking Marxism," Quarterly, New York, NY >"Review of Radical Political Economics," Quarterly, Cambridge, MA >"Science and Society," Quarterly, New York, NY >"Social Text," Quarterly, New York, NY >"Socialism and Democracy," Semi-Annual, New York, NY >"Socialism and Sexuality," Quarterly, Chicago, IL >"Socialist Challenge," Quarterly, Edmonton, AB >"Socialist Organizer," Irregular, San Franisco, CA >"Socialist Review," Quarterly, Durham, NC >"Spartacus: Journal of Revolutionary Action," Quarterly, Hearst, ON >"Struggle," Quarterly, Detroit, MI >"Third World Viewpoint," Quarterly, Brooklyn, NY >"This Magazine," Bi-monthly, Toronto, ON >"Transformation," Semi-Annual, Washington, DC >"Unity And Struggle," Monthly, Newark, NJ >"Women and Revolution," Quarterly, New York, NY > >The above list does not include the official organs of Marxist organizations, >a list of which follows: > >ORGANIZATIONS > >African People's Socialist Party, Oakland, CA (has chapters) >Brecht Forum, New York. >Center For Cuban Studies, New York, NY >Center For Democratic Alternatives, Washington, DC >Center For Marxist Education, Cambridge, MA >Center For Socialist History, Berkeley, CA >Center For Workers Education, Providence, RI >Class War New York City, New York, NY >Coalition on Cuba, Hartford, CT >Committee of Correspondence, New York, NY >Communist Labor Party, Chicago, IL (has chapters) >Communist Party, USA, New York, NY (has chapters) >Communist Voice Organization, Detroit, MI (has chapters) >DeLeonist Society of the U.S., San Francisco, CA (has chapters) >Dialectics Workshop, Tappan, NY >Emergency Response Network, New York. >Fernand Braudel Center, Binghampton, NY >Freedom Socialist Party, Seattle, WA (has chapters) >Friends of Cuba, Regina, SK >International Action Center, New York, NY >International Communist Current, New York, NY >International Publishers, New York, NY >International Socialist Organization, Chicago, IL >International Socialists, Toronto, ON (has chapters) >International Workers Party, Montreal, QB (has chapters) >Labor Militant, Boston, MA (has chapters) >Labor Research Association, New York, NY >League for a Revolutionary Party, New York, NY (has chapters) >League of Revolutionaries, Chicago, IL >Maoist International Movement, Ann Arbor, MI (has chapters) >Marxism and Black Liberation, Chicago, IL. >North Star Network, New York, NY >Pathfinder Press, New York, NY >Progressive Labor Party, New York, NY (has chapters) >Radical Historians Organization, New York, NY (has chapters) >Research Group on Socialism & Democracy, New York, NY >Revolutionary Communist Party, Chicago, IL (has chapters) >Socialist Action, San Francisco, CA (has chapters) >Socialist Equalaity Party, Oak Park, MI (has chapters) >Socialist Labor Party, Sunnyvale, CA (has chapters) >Socialist Network, Toronto, ON >Socialist Workers Party, New York (has chapters). >Spartacist League, Oakland, CA (has chapters) >Spartacist Youth League, New York, NY >Trotskyite League, Toronto, ON (has chapters) >US-China Peoples Friendship, San Francisco, CA >US-Cuba Labor Exchange, Redford, MI >U. S. Marxist-Leninist Organization, Chicao, IL (has chapters) >Union of Radical Political Economists, Riverside, CA (has chapters) >Venceremos Brigade, New York >Young Socialists, Chicago, IL > >Listing here does not necessarily imply acceptance, agreement or sympathy with >any other listing. Like right-wing extremist groups, leftist extremists are >often squabbling with one another. This list was taken from the 1997 edition >of my GUIDE TO THE AMERICAN LEFT. > >The point of this is that Marxism is very much alive in the United States and >Canada. >It is, by no means, "dead" as a philosophy among American intellectuals, >either in its original class struggle configuration or with the new emphasis >on race and gender. How many people are involved in all of these >organizations and periodicals, and if one wants to stretch things a bit, the >circulation of these periodicals? As with rightwing groups, it's hard to come >up with exact numbers but I would be surprised if it exceeded 10,000 to 15,000 >nationwide. Hardly a threat to our republic, except in the sense that they >often operate covertly and in a "stealthy" manner. From its name along, who >would know that the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR) is an >affiliate of the Marxist-Leninist group, the Progressive Labor Party? > >The "near-pathological love of guns" you refer to is remarkably absent in the >Marxist- Leninist left. Guns have occasionally been used, as in the Weather >Underground Brinks Robbery, but the preferred method for violence has been, >civil disorder, riot, and in some cases bombings. A chronology of leftist >violence in the 1960's shows some weeks in which there were one or more >bombings every day! The preferred method is takeover of institutions and >propaganda campaigns. > >One point on the "hidden agenda" issue: It's sometimes the case that the >agenda is fairly benign. The NAACP, for example, is relatively devoid of >Marxist radicals and their interests are genuinely in the interests of Black >people. Others, like political research associates, have a much more radical >and convoluted agenda which they try to obscure with their focus on "hate >groups" of the far right. Like most watchdog groups, they "mix and match" >groups that don't belong together, as in "linking" the Ku Klux Klan with the >Right to Life movement. This is as outrageously irresponsible as "linking" >communists and liberals. > >I've spent far more time on this than I should have. Enough for tonight. > >Laird Wilcox >(913) 829-0609 > > --------------8A718FADF903ABB7CD71CFCA-- From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Tue Jan 20 08:54:09 1998 id IAA05807; Tue, 20 Jan 1998 08:54:04 -0700 (MST) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 10:54:02 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: PEWS Round Table CFP To: Network World-Systems Another call for papers. I am want to organize a Roundtable for PEWS at ASA on Roles of Indigenous Peoples in the World-System I will give a brief paper by the same title, but am more interested in getting PEWS & ASA members interested in indigenous peoples together to talk. This is a great way to try out working ideas. By ASA rules, presenting a paper at refereed roundtable counts as one participation. Depending on the number of papers, we may simply circulate papers in advance and use the roundtable to talk about our work. Send titles to to: thall@depauw.edu For other round table topics contact Joya Misra: CMSJOYA@uga.cc.uga.edu Thomas D. [tom] Hall thall@depauw.edu Department of Sociology DePauw University 100 Center Street Greencastle, IN 46135 765-658-4519 HOME PAGE: http://www.depauw.edu/~thall/hp1.htm From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Tue Jan 20 08:59:17 1998 id IAA06308; Tue, 20 Jan 1998 08:59:12 -0700 (MST) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 10:59:06 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: 11th hour CFP To: Network World-Systems Section Latino CALL FOR PAPERS FOR ISA XIV World Congress of Sociology, Montreal, July 26- August 1, 1998 Please feel free to repost, advanced apologies for those you on all the same list as I am on for seeing this CFP more than once! Henry Teune, chair of the coordinating committee of the new Thematic Group #06, The Sociology of Local-Global Relations, asked me to chair one of their five sessions: Globalization: the Dynamics of National and Ethnic Identities. To submit a paper send as soon as possible a summary of your proposal (approximately 200 words) to Tom Hall. I am especially interested in papers that address indigenous groups and/or gender issues, but any paper that broadly addresses the local-global nexus would be welcome. Full mailing addresses of sessions chairs as well as sessions descriptions are available at: http://www.ucm.es/info/isa Session 5 Globalization: the Dynamics of National and Ethnic Identities Chair: Thomas D. [Tom HALL] Dept Sociology & Anthropology Depauw University, 100 Center St. Greencastle, IN 46135 tel: 1-765-658-4519 email: thall@depauw.edu Programme Coordinator: Henry TEUNE Dept Political Sciences Univ Pennsylvania Stiteler Hall Philadelphia, PA 19104-6215 tel: 1- 215-8984209 fax: 1-215-5732073, Email: hteune@sas.upenn.edu >From http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/tg06.htm the purpose of Thematic Group 06 is: The subject matter of the TG06 is the emergence and shifts of the new 'localisms', neighborhoods, local communities, ethnic and language identities, affinity groups, and economic and political associations, and their aggregation into networks and their formation of systems that create regions and impact the incipient world system. As part of this, the role of the individual will be examined, in particular the processes of individualization within a global framework. The theoretical contexts include spatial and temporal relations, the development of increased complexity or integrated diversity that transcends traditional boundaries, the logics of regionalism, including those of political integration as well as classical concepts from human and social ecology. The new methodological base of the TG06 would be that of fuzzy sets, most of which has been advanced in the engineering sciences and yet has limited applications in the social and behavioral sciences other than psychology. This methodology would depart from standard cross-level analyses, so much a part of ecological research with fixed sets, to that of fuzzy and sets and systems in which the member components have multiple and shifting memberships. Some of this has now been developed in computer programs, at a stage similar to that of cross-level analysis about 15 years ago, that can be adopted to sociological data. The data to be addresses are at several levels, community, region, country, transnational regions, and the world as a whole, at two or more points in time. This would be the ideal. Much less structured data are expected to be the norm. Since the 1950s data on sub national units and groups within countries have been accumulating, and, of course, these data are being stretched into several points of time. Indeed, the combination of individual survey data within structures of groups, countries, and associations beyond national boundaries, envisioned by Stein Rokkan more than three decades ago, have now become a reality for many domains of human activity and organization. The group organized Ad Hoc sessions at the ISA XIII World Congress of Sociology in Bielefeld, 1994, and since then has been involved in exchange of research among the participants on the Democracy and Local Governance research program which now has gathered data on local political leaders in 24 countries. Thomas D. [tom] Hall thall@depauw.edu Department of Sociology DePauw University 100 Center Street Greencastle, IN 46135 765-658-4519 HOME PAGE: http://www.depauw.edu/~thall/hp1.htm From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Tue Jan 20 09:31:38 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 11:31:15 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: JWSR Fall '97 now available To: Sociology Network Progressive Archaeology theory , History World The Journal of World-Systems Research Fall 1997 special issue on "World-Systems and the Environment," guest-edited by Albert Bergesen and Laura Parisi, is now available at: http://csf.colorado.edu/wsystems/jwsr/vol3num3.htm The full text of the JWSR is available free through this site. In this issue: Editors' Introduction: Discovering the Environment Albert Bergesen and Laura Parisi Tim Bartley and Albert Bergesen World System Studies of the Environment Sing C. Chew For Nature: Deep Greening World-Systems Analysis for the 21st Century Christopher K. Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall Ecological Degradation and the Evolution of World-Systems Thomas J. Burns and Byron L. Davis and Edward L. Kick Position in the World-System and National Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Special thanks go to Al Bergesen of the University of Arizona and Laura Parisi of Virginia Tech for putting together this provocative set of articles. Enjoy! Salvatore Babones Assistant Editor, JWSR From sokol@jhu.edu Tue Jan 20 09:16:53 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 11:04:45 -0500 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Capitalism and communism - ideas and reality To: psn@csf.colorado.edu At 11:45 PM 1/16/98 +0100, Timothy Mason wrote: >"Marxism in Russia was exactly what Christianity was in Western Europe: it >was no more than opiating the masses to help them to endure through the >process of economic transformation and legitimate the authority behing that >process. There was no master plan, failed or otherwise, to create a >"Marxist" or "socialist" society there or elsewhere. In the same vein, >neither France, England or Germany had even an intent to establish a state >that would implement Christian values -- they use Christianity simply to >opiate their own masses, and legitimate the rule of their own kings. " > >Who are 'France', 'England' or 'Germany'? How can they be said to have or >not have an intent? >That many of the actors in these political and social dramas were cynical >and manipulative is certainly true ; but not all of them were. If you see >intentions as of any importance in the working through of such social >processes, then it is difficult to see how you can sweep aside the genuine >Christianity that informed the Wesleyan crusade - to give but that example. That may certainly be true, as well as that many Russians genuinely believed in the ideals of socialism. But that is not what I was arguing. My argument was: the fact that this or that version of Christianity was a state religion in many Western European nations, yet none of these states created a social order that is consistent with biblical principles - is not held, in the bourgeois mind, as a case against Christianity in general, or Western European states. On the other hand, the fact that the Soviet state and its satellites failed to implement the socialist ideology they professed is held, in the minds of the same people, as an argument against both that state and that ideaology. If that is not an example of bourgeois double standards, bigotry and abandoning the rule of reason to defend their class interests, I do not know what is. As far as my view on religion and ideology is concerned, it closely follows Weberian concept of elective affinity. There are many genuinely held convictions and beliefs about the just social order in every nation's culture. Those beliefs have differnt affinities to different material interests, and groups holding those material interests may embrace a particular ideology because of that elective affinity. That was the case of the Reformation, when the genuine atempts to reform the corrupat Roman Catholic empire were seized by the local powers that be, princes and merchants, who saw that as a legitmation of their desire to break away from Rome and the restriction on their profit making imposed by Catholicism. The same might be said about Russia. There were genuine calls to reform the tsarist society according to the socialist ideals -- and these callas were seized by a group of industrialists and politicians to legitimate their dramatic overhaul of the Russian society to their own plans. What I find particularly nauseating, however, is the bourgeois pundit hypocrisy of the biblical proportions -- seeing every speck of inconsistency between the ideals and reality in the political system other than their own, and not seeing the plank of such inconsistency in their own political system. regards, wojtek sokolowski institute for policy studies johns hopkins university baltimore, md 21218 sokol@jhu.edu voice: (410) 516-4056 fax: (410) 516-8233 From jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Tue Jan 20 12:54:28 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 14:55:26 -0500 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: [Fwd: UNDP cite] Source on "billionaire" statistic This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------03A0F01EBD371AE3B1F90E11 Thanks to Alex Campbell for tracking down the statistic on "richest 38 billionaires" I rec'd and forwarded to PSN. See attached. -- Jim Salt jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Box 90F Dept. of History, Political Science, & Sociology University of Tampa 401 W. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa FL 33606-1450 813-253-3333 X3651 "The philosophers have only _interpreted_ the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to _change_ it." --- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach --------------03A0F01EBD371AE3B1F90E11 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 07:07:24 -0800 (PST) To: jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu From: Alex Campbell Subject: UNDP cite Sender: ncesa1@igc.org Fellow PSNer, I believe the cite for this data is the UNDP _Human Development Report, 1997_. The info. RE: the 10 richest billionares is on page 38; I don't see the other stat ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alex Campbell Assistant to the President, National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2317 Ashmead Place, NW Washington, DC 20009 202 986 1373 (voice)/ 202 986 7938 (fax) ncesa1@igc.apc.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --------------03A0F01EBD371AE3B1F90E11-- From sokol@jhu.edu Tue Jan 20 10:51:17 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 12:39:17 -0500 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: WHAT IS FOOTBALL? OR PROLEGOMENA TO POLITICAL ECONOMY :) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Below is a satire I wrote while in grad school at Rutgers. This was meant to be in lieu of a term paper, but after all I decided to deliver a more conventional one. Enjoy. WHAT IS FOOTBALL? OR PROLEGOMENA TO POLITICAL ECONOMY by S. Wojciech Sokolowski Once upon a time there were people who called themselves the Sashanasi. They lived in a desert and worked very hard to survive in the arid climate, they had brave warriors who defended their village against the desert bandits, and they thought of themselves as the best people in the entire world. One day, a traveler came to the Sashanasi village and told the villagers about a mighty tribe living far away in the North. They called themselves the British, lived in a land surrounded by a great water, dwelled in tall brick houses, and -- strangest of all -- regularly engaged in an activity which they called "football." The traveler, however, could not tell what that activity was. He never traveled to the land of the British, he merely heard the story from another traveler who, in turn, heard it from an old shaman. The Sashanasi were very intrigued by the story and sent seven observers to the land of the British to learn more about their strange custom. When the observers returned, the whole village gathered to hear what they found. "Football," said the first observer, the eldest son of the village chieftain, "is a team of young men led by an elder. Those young men spend whole days practicing and following the instructions of their elderly leader. If the elder is wise and young men follow his instructions closely, they can beat other teams." "But the most important thing in the whole activity," began her story the second observer, the daughter of the village shoemaker, "is a spherical object of the size of a pumpkin and made of leather. On certain days, thousands of people gather in large arenas they call ‘stadiums.’ As soon as a distinctively dressed man brings that spherical leather object to the center of the arena and throws it on the grass, the excitement reaches its zenith. For almost two hours, twenty two young men do nothing but relentlessly chase after that object, while the thousands of onlookers scream, wave their hands, jump, and show all other signs of excitement." "Well," replied the third observer whose mother was the village tailor, "the leather object is certainly important in football, but even more important is clothing. People who come to watch football dress up in special kind of clothing that is different from their ordinary attire. The way they dress is very significant because it divides them into two distinct groups that sit on the opposite sides of the arena. The two teams of eleven young men who chase after the leather object merely represent those distinctively dressed groups of people who sit on the opposite sides of the football arena." "I think what really matters" continued the fourth observer, a young warrior currently unemployed because the desert bandits recently changed their ways and became traders, "is not the dress but weapons and fighting skills. The people who come to football arenas bring all kinds of weapons with them, rocks, knives, sticks, clubs, and chains. After, and sometimes even before, the two teams stop chasing after the leather object, those people form groups that start fighting one another. Although the group that usually beats all other groups up is dressed in the uniform-looking dark-blue clothes, it is not their clothing but their superior fighting skills, their long clubs, their helmets and shields protecting them from the blows of their opponents that turn them into winners." The fifth observer, a local minstrel, said "You got it all wrong, my friends. Sure, following the instruction of elders, chasing after the leather object, distinct clothing, and even fighting are all parts of football -- but they are paraphernalia that are not the essential part of it. The essence of football is having fun, moving away from daily routines, doing something of symbolic value." "Don’t listen to that secular humanist!" interrupted the sixth observer, the local shaman, "football is not about having fun, football is a magical ritual to bring rain. My uninitiated colleagues seem to forget that each time those twenty two young men start kicking that spherical object around the arena, rain starts falling from the sky. If we had as much rain as the British do, our desert would turn into fertile farmland." The utterly confused villagers engaged in a bitter debate to make sense of the six different accounts. Soon, three different factions emerged. They all agreed that football was at the roots of the British might and wealth, and for that reason they were determined to re-create it in their own village. They disagreed, however, what the essence of football was. The first faction, supported by the chieftain and the warriors, saw it as disciplined practicing of combat strategies under the enlightened leadership of the village elders. The second faction, supported by the shoemaker and the tailor, claimed that football was about dressing up in distinct clothes and chasing after objects made of leather. The third faction, led by the shaman, maintained that the essence of football was organized rituals to bring more rain to their barren land. The minstrel and his groupies who maintained that the others got it all wrong and what really mattered was having a good time, were labeled anarchists and chased out of the village. They dwelled in caverns, played weird music, smoked incense, and practiced free love. Amidst all that confusion, the villagers altogether forgot about the seventh observer, a young medicine man’s apprentice, who did not return from his mission. One day, the traveler who first brought the story about football, visited the Sashanasi village again. What he saw appalled him. The villagers, for the most part, abandoned their old ways. Some practiced discipline and tried to discipline others. The majority dressed up in fancy clothes and chased after objects. Small groups gathered here and there to pray for miracles. Huts fell into disrepair, unattended fields yielded meager crops. The shoemaker and the tailor became wealthy and did not live in huts anymore, but in brick houses like those in the land of the British. The anarchists occasionally sneaked into the village to attract new followers, but few people listened and most blamed them for the deterioration of the village community. The traveler’s heart filled with sorrow, for he saw himself responsible for this corruption and decay. Suddenly, he noticed a young man writing something on a piece of paper. The man’s face seemed vaguely familiar, so the traveler approached him and asked "Who are you?" "Don’t you remember me?" the man replied, "I am Moboto Sashvili, the medicine man’s apprentice, the seventh observer." As it turned out, Moboto got stranded in the land of the British and encountered an old man who, upon learning about the task the Sashanasi visitors were to accomplish, sternly warned him about the perils of hasty conclusions reached by untrained onlookers. He also recommended that Moboto goes to the place called ‘university’ and learns how to make observations untainted by personal interests and bias of the observers. So when the six Sashanasi youngsters were busy watching football games, Moboto spend long hours in the library, reading books about economy, political science, and British history. And when the six observers finally decided to go back home and tell their people what they saw, Moboto foresaw what was coming and asked for an extension of his student visa. "So don’t you worry, old tramp," Moboto Sashvili concluded his story "it’s not your fault at all. They brought it upon themselves, those primitive villagers, by their own irrationality and listening to their venal advisors who saw only their narrow self-interest before public good." The traveler was visibly relieved. He picked up his backpack and was ready to continue his journey, when a sudden thought flashed through his mind. He stopped, turned to his interlocutor and said: "Excuse me Mr. Sashvili, or shall I call you ‘doctor’? But if you knew, as you say, what was coming, why did you do nothing to stop it? Why did you stay in the land of the British instead of coming back together with the other observers, and telling your people the objective truth that you have learned?" Moboto mumbled something that sounded like "I’m busy" and started scribbling diligently in his notebook. Nonplussed, the traveler looked over his shoulder to take a glimpse of what he was writing. The first line read: "Structural Adjustment Programme in Sashanasi. A proposal by Moboto Sashvili, PhD, an IMF consultant." wojtek sokolowski institute for policy studies johns hopkins university baltimore, md 21218 sokol@jhu.edu voice: (410) 516-4056 fax: (410) 516-8233 From eric@stewards.net Wed Jan 21 14:48:10 1998 Wed, 21 Jan 1998 16:47:11 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 16:47:11 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Your help urgently Needed For Chiapas World Wide Internet Campaign ***Please immediately forward this message to all progressive websites, listserves,*** newsgroups, and individuals with which you are aquainted. This is an emergency. To: All concerned individuals and webmasters From: Chiapas Alert Network http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm staff@stewards.net Hi there, With just a two minute effort, you can help to end the brutal paramilitary and military violence and intimidation currently directed by the Mexican government and its ruling party against Indigenous civilians in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. Many respected international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have roundly denounced the recent violence in Chiapas as an extreme violation of human rights. If you are an *individual*, please go to http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/47.htm where you will find an automated messaging system which will enable you to instantly and automatically send copies of a strong pre-prepared letter of protest, or a letter of your own design, to all three Nafta governments - Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, as well as the European Union. These protest letters will carry both your own name and your email address. If you are a *webmaster*, please go to http://www.newhumans.com/hotlogo1.html, where you will be able to obtain an attractive and poignant animated icon which can be placed on your website. When clicked by visitors to your site, this icon will take them to the automated messaging page to send the protest letter. BACKGROUND Right-wing violence and intimidation aimed at civilian Indigenous people in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas has not ceased since a brutal massacre (people were hunted like animals for 5 hours) in Chiapas at the little town of Acteal took the lives of 45 people at prayer in a church, most of them women and children, on Dec.22 last year. The Mexican government has used this massacre as the pretext to greatly expand its aggression not only against the Zapatista Indigenous Army, camped in the jungle at the extreme southern tip of Chiapas, and with which the government has a supposed peace agreement. But the `crisis' has also been used to justify using the army to attempt occupations of many civilian communities in Chiapas, in an attempt to break the power of the civilian Indiginous cooperative economic and political organizations, and the Chiapas indigenous automony movement, which are consciously seeking to pursue a path of cooperative ecological development in the region, and which in many cases are not even closely aligned with the Zapatistas. Deaths, injuries, terrible fear, and thousands of refugees have been generated by this military activity in the past 10 days. There is every reason to fear that a still more aggressive campaign, and far more deaths, may be on the immediate horizon. Your help is needed. Please forward this message. Please go to our website. From cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu Thu Jan 22 12:33:57 1998 From: cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu To: abslst-l@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu, Psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 14:26:50 +0000 Subject: Resources on Racist Police Abuse and Solutions Some time ago Doris Wilkinson posted an E-Mail message on the ABS Listserv regarding police brutality and how it might best be responded to. I replied to her message but it was not posted. I think it may have gotten lost somewhere in cyber-space. In March I am scheduled to give a presentation where I will talk about racist police and other criminal justice actions. I am in the process of collecting information on the problem and actions people have initiated to challenge such abuse. Please share with me over the list, or personally, any references, organizations or movements I should be aware of. Sincerely Noel A. Cazenave Department of Sociology University of Connecticut Phone # 860-486-4190 FAX # 860-486-6356 E-Mail Cazenave@Uconnvm.Uconn.Edu From dassbach@mtu.edu Thu Jan 22 11:30:05 1998 From: "Carl H.A. Dassbach" To: "PSN" Subject: Call for papers Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:37:54 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" CALL FOR PAPERS The Radical History Review, an independent academic journal of history, politics, and culture published by Cambridge University Press, is currently soliciting articles and essays for a thematic issue on "Islands in History: Perspectives on U.S. Imperialism and the Legacies of 1898." The centennial of the Spanish-Cuban-American War and the War in the Philippines offers an opportunity to reflect on the national and international significance of U.S. expansion at the turn of the century. Events in 1898 profoundly changed the histories of U.S., Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and Spain and continue to shape lives, politics, culture and economics in these areas. This issue of the RHR seeks to explore the links between the history of imperialism and the many responses, debates and consequences including anticolonial political and cultural activism, immigration and citizenship, and the construction of national identities. We are especially interested in articles that challenge the dominant discourse on U.S. expansion and regional responses and engage with current political issues related to colonial and postcolonial practices. We welcome articles that address: * Specific and comparative analysis of U.S. expansion at the turn of the century in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific; * Early accounts of responses to the transfer of control and the creation of new hegemonic configurations within the newly subjected territories; * The role of discourses about democracy in constructing the discourses of legitimization for invasion and in shaping responses to U.S. presence; * The various colonizing projects instituted or emerging from the U.S. invasions in 1898, and their impact on theories of governmental notions of autonomy and self-determination, and the very definition of colonialism; * The impact of distinct processes of racialization in informing representations of the subject populations and shaping U.S. policy toward each country and region; * The effect of U.S. racial ideologies on local and national ethnic and racial hierarchies; * Local, regional, national ethnic and racial processes of identity formation that emerged in response to colonization by the U.S., and other anti-imperialist and anti-racist political and cultural responses to the invasion; * Impact on global economy, culture and politics beyond the nations directly involved; * The implication of imperial ideologies and projects in the construction of gendered hierarchies and sexual identities; * The role of organized religion and its practitioners in helping to solidify U.S. imperialism and in creating responses to it; * The demographic transformations that resulted from U.S. occupation, including but not limited to the distinct histories of the various colonial diasporas and their incorporation into ethnic and racial configuration within the U.S.; * Effects of linguistic policies on processes of assimilation and pacification; * The cultural representations and ideological workings of imperialism from a transnational or comparative perspective; * The continued impact of imperial legacies on debates about culture, politics and economy in the U.S., Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam. Submission deadline: April 15, 1998 Please send submissions to Managing Editor, Radical History Review, Tamiment Library, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012 Inquiries to Pennee Bender or Yvonne Lassalle at pbender@email.gc.cuny.edu, or to the RHRoffice at 212-998-2632 --------------------------- Carl H.A. Dassbach DASSBACH@MTU.EDU Dept. of Social Sciences (906)487-2115 - Phone Michigan Technological Univ. (906)487-2468 - Fax Houghton, MI 49931 (906)482-8405 - Private From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Thu Jan 22 11:49:09 1998 22 Jan 98 12:54:26 -600 22 Jan 98 12:47:53 -600 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 98 12:46:53 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@@listserv.ncsu.edu Subject: Fwd: Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Manifesto ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Carl H.A. Dassbach To: Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 09:06:59 -0500 Subject: Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Manifesto Please Forward ----- Please Forward ----- Please Forward Commemorate The 150th Anniversary Of The Communist Manifesto San Francisco, California May 3, 1998 1998 marks the 150th anniversary of the writing of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. The publication of this document is a watershed in Socialist and working class history. It established some critical points about the economic,social and political developments in society as a whole and for the world working class. In order to further an understanding of the Manifesto among working people and to learn what the Manifesto means to working people around the world, a committee has been established to organize a conference on May 3,1998 in San Francisco. We invite you and/or your organization to attend, endorse and participate in the discussion and workshops. We also plan to republish a new edition of the Manifesto in English for broad circulation and hope for similar efforts around the world. We also invite individuals and organizations to submit documents on the topic, the "Relevance Of The Communist Manifesto After 150 Years". We would like them in English as well as in your own language. We also plan to establish a web site to post these documents for distribution around the world. Please email them to lvpsf@labornet.org or mail them on a floppy disk to: 1998 Manifesto Commemoration Conference P.O.Box 40458 San Francisco,CA 94140 If you would like to endorse, support or participate in the conference please let us know and we will include you in the planning of the conference For The Initial Sponsors: Steve Zelter, Vice Chair Golden Gate Chapter Labor Party* Ahmet Yazgan Tom Condit, Peace And Freedom Party* Alan Benjamin, Socialist Organizer* Richard Greeman, Director Of The Victor Serge Foundation Larry Duncan, Co-Producer LaborBeat Chicago *For Identification ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From LLANGMA@luc.edu Thu Jan 22 12:12:44 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:10:42 -0600 From: Lauren Langman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu I just got this on my interoffice email from one of my colleagues. Knowing him, a computer expert, this is serious and not a prank, so gang be warned. Lauren Langman I received e-mail from my brother today warning me to be careful about some new and serious computer viruses. He received warnings of it from a colleague in the computer industry. I don't know how seriously to take it, but my brother is not one to panic over minor computer problems. So, if he is taking it seriously, so am I. He warned me not to open any email I might receive with a subject heading of "Join the Crew". It will suposedly immedaitely infect your machine and wipe the hard disk. Another new virus will have a subject field of "Returned or unable to deliver". It also will cause serious harm. Use your own judgement about how seriously to take these. Just don't send me any email titled "Join the Crew".- From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Thu Jan 22 15:54:49 1998 22 Jan 98 17:00:02 -600 22 Jan 98 16:51:49 -600 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 98 16:50:48 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: Job Opening: East Bay Organizer for Committees of Correspondence ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Nathan Newman Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 08:12:20 -0800 Subject: Job Opening: East Bay Organizer for Committees of Correspondence Part-time organizer for East Bay (Alameda & Contra Costa Counties) with multi-issue socialist organization. Position will support activities of local members of the Committees of Correspondence. The East Bay Organizer must balance work on specific issues with organization-building priorities such as membership mobilization and fundraising. Responsibilities include: organizing public events (forums, film showings, etc.), fundraising, volunteer coordination, tabling, and working in coalitions on a broad range of issues. Candidates should have organizing experience and have a history of working with racially diverse organizations. Knowledge of East Bay politics, DTP skills, and bi-lingual fluency, a plus. The Committees of Correspondence is a national organization dedicated to building broad alliances among progressives, labor, and the left towards radical social change. Our primary campaigns in the East Bay are currently in the areas of welfare and jobs; local electoral politics; tenants rights; and labor union support. In all our work, we strive to build long-term alliances with organizations and individuals that reach out to the broad community of activists in a non-sectarian way. 20 hours/wk, $11.00/hr., plus health benefits. Submit resume, references, and a short statement on your views on what is needed to revitalize the progressive, labor, and left movements, to Committees of Correspondence, 522 Valencia St., S. F., CA, 94110, attn.: Hiring Committee. Deadline 2/6/98. For info. (510) 465-9914. The Committees of Correspondence is an affirmative action employer. ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From philion@hawaii.edu Thu Jan 22 14:21:38 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 11:21:02 -1000 From: Stephen E Philion To: Lauren Langman Subject: Re: your mail In-Reply-To: Someday there will be perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of people who will become very upset about all these viruses that they *think* are occurring because "warnings' about viruses keep on popping up on their screens. There will be a few people who will organize a group 'against computer viruses." This group will encourage people to seek out counsellors to help them recall their repressed memories of virus catastrophes. They will form a committee, who will fund studies 'documenting' the number of spreading computer viruses that will cause your computer to do (fill in the blank). Congressional hearings will be held, editorials raving against this new 'plague,' that is tearing apart the social fabric of the 50 United States. With the accumulative affect of a general COMPUTER VIRUS PANIC. Some of us will try to perform feats of critical sociology, desparately explaining that it is impossible for anything to happen by just opening any email..and that all the tax dollars being spent to wipe out the email viruses might be better spent on real problems. But by then the latest moral panic will have taken hold in the social consciousness... Steve On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Lauren Langman wrote: > I just got this on my interoffice email from one of my colleagues. > Knowing him, a computer expert, this is serious and not a prank, so gang > be warned. Lauren Langman > > > I received e-mail from my brother today warning me to be careful about > some new and serious computer viruses. He received warnings of it > from a colleague in the computer industry. I don't know how seriously to > take it, but my brother is not one to panic over minor computer problems. > So, if he is taking it seriously, so am I. > > He warned me not to open any email I might receive with a subject > heading of "Join the Crew". It will suposedly immedaitely infect your > machine and wipe the hard disk. Another new virus will have a subject > field of "Returned or unable to deliver". It also will cause serious > harm. > > Use your own judgement about how seriously to take these. Just don't > send me any email titled "Join the Crew".- > From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Thu Jan 22 09:46:13 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 11:46:05 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: State Has The Attitude Problem Greetings, This is a post I recently posted to a multicultural education list where a discussion developed around the issue of so-called "prejudice reduction" "interventions" in multicultural education. Basically, advocates of multicultural education espouse or use "prejudice reduction" "interventions" (e.g., reinforcement studies, perceptual differentiation studies, curricular intervention studies, etc.) to "modify" the "racial attitudes" of the students and youth. Putting aside for a moment the fact that such "interventions" are ineffective in the long-run, it must be emphasized that it is the racist bourgeois State and not the youth and students with the "attitude problem." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is the real issue here? What does life itself reveal? Racism is a policy of diversion and disunity. It functions to divide and pitt people against each other, usually on the basis of skin color, but also on the basis of language, religion, nationality and so on. The question arises: which one of the two main classes in our class-divided society benefits from racism? That is, who gains from a disunited citizentry? Is it the capitalist class, the privileged few? Or is it the diverse working class and people, the vast majority? Clearly, it is the capitalist class, whose sole aim is to secure maximum capitalist profits. This aim has nothing to do with satisfying the constantly growing material and cultural needs of the broad masses of the people. Humanity is extremely diverse. It is made up of people with different skin color, nationalities, languages, religions, abilities and so on. All these differences are a fact of life. The capitalist class takes these differences and turns them into problems, into sources of contention, antagonism, chauvinism and enmity. By splitting the people and turning them against each other on the basis of skin color, religion, language, nationality, etc., the capitalist class, which is the real enemy of the people and the key source of divisions in society, distracts attention away from its self. It is in this way that the exploiting minority keeps the immense majority ghettoized, disunited and disorganized. On top of all this, the capitalist class works to make racism, sexism, chauvinism, etc., look like they are caused by the people themselves and not by it. The oppressors want the people themselves to believe that they and they alone are actually the source of racism and other forms of discrimination and divisions in society. This is how the propertied class exonerates itself. The capitalist class has to do all this because this is what is in its objective class interests. What this shows is that while many may and do take up racist ideas and views, these racist ideas and views do not actually originate with the people themselves, but with the owners of the means of production who stand to gain from a divided polity when it comes to securing maximum capitalist profits. When life itself is taken as the starting-point for analysis then it can be seen that the people are the victims and not the cause of divisions in society. It can be seen that it is the monopoly capitalist State and not the youth and students with the "attitude problem." If anything, prejudice elimination and not prejudice "reduction" is needed, and the State, not the youth and students, need to be targeted, first and foremost. The youth and students do not have the "attitude problem." By starting from the racist premise that it is the youth and students with the "attitiude problem," multicultural educators are exonerating the bourgeoisie and contributing to the crisis. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From markr@taipan.nmsu.edu Thu Jan 22 17:23:36 1998 id RAA09173; Thu, 22 Jan 1998 17:22:43 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 17:23:39 -0700 (MST) From: Mark Richer Reply-To: Mark Richer To: PSN Subject: Computer virsus hoaxes > I just got this on my interoffice email from one of my colleagues. > Knowing him, a computer expert, this is serious and not a prank, so gang > be warned. "Join the crew" and "Returned or unable to deliver" are both hoaxes. In any well-run mail system (i.e. Eudora, Pine, any common mail agent) simply opening a piece of mail does not run any program contained in it (of course, everyone should be suspicious of unexpected programs received in the mail, and not run them). For a virus to spread, it must be executed. Opening a mail message does not execute the mail message. Reading e-mail cannot activate malicious code delivered in or with a message. Here's a listing of the more common such hoaxes: http://131.78.201.50/virhoax.htm all the best, Mark Richer New Mexico State University From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Fri Jan 23 05:30:05 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Three Documents SOCIAL-CLASS@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 07:32:56 -0500 There are three documents which have affected billions of people and continue to inform social life in important ways. They are: A. The Christian Bible...and more importantly, the five books of the Pentateuch upon which it is founded. B. The American Constitution C. The Communist Manifesto The first two are celebrated regularly; the Bible and its teachings are celebrated at Christmas-time and Easter as well as weekly if not daily for some. The American Constitution continues to inform the nations around the world. It is celebrated on the 4th of July and with daily pledges in classrooms around the country. The Manifesto, more explicitely critical of political economy and social inequality, is seldom celebrated since it promises to over-throw those structures of privilege not clearly challenged by the other two. It is therefore, fitting and proper that we take time in the media to think about its content, to reflect upon its impact and to gauge its continuing value to the human project. As Editor of FROM THE LEFT, the official Newsletter of the Marxist Section of the American Sociological Association, I would like to join in sponsor ship of the 150th anniversary of its publication. I am sure the members of the Marxist Section, per se, would be more than willing to sponsor as well. By copy of this post to its current Chair, Alan Spector, I will recommend it. As Director of the Red Feather Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology, I would like to offer RF sponsorship as well. ` ********* I would not like to be understood as endorsing either the Bible or the Constitution in their entirity...however, in my considered opinion, both contain lessons and urgings most helpful to the human project. Nor would I suggest that the Manifesto is adequate to the task at hand; either in terms of the political economy of the times or in terms of the spiritual values which are beyond its scope. Other teachings in other traditions are not to be lightly set aside; the teachings of the Buddha offer much wisdom and many guidelines to a good and decent life. The Koran is greatly under-prized in Western Society; we tend to focus upon its dogmatic elements and ignore the many ways it speaks to social justice and to social peace. Those of us working toward democratic socialism and toward more egalitarian social orders need all the help we can get. We need, in my view, to honor other teachings of other peoples in our own discussions and celebrations of the Manifesto. ********* And, this weekend, the Christian Pope celebrates Mass in Cuba. An historic event, the outcomes of which will surprize even the most astute of us; and disappoint the more dogmatic of us; Christians and Marxists alike. At the same time, the American Press, the part I monitor, greatly underestimates the ways in which Fidel Castro deals with religious sensibility; his antagonism remains directed at the elements of the Catholic church in partnership with class, race and gender elites...which is to say most of them in both Rome and the hinterland. In his lengthy interview with a Catholic monk, Castro was most congenial to liberation theology and to enlivening religious sensibility. But the Pope himself, John Paul, has made a sea change in his ministry to the Church...in his latest Encylical, John Paul sounded a lot more like Marx than he did like Pope Innocent. One not be a theist to value the teachings of theists; one need not be a marxist to value the teachings of Marx; one need not be an American to value the democratic impulse in the Constitution. One subverts one's own cause when one dis-values that which is good and decent in documents other than one's own grounding philosophy. I suppose what I want to say is that there are many ways to work toward fellowship, brother/sisterhood and social justice; that we might well take care that we fail to see our best allies and forge better alliances against power, privilege and concentration of wealth than have we in the past. TR Young TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Fri Jan 23 06:16:54 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: The Pope In Cuba: An Editorial FROM THE LEFT TEACHSOC@maple.lemoyne.edu Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 08:19:44 -0500 [NOTE: A shorter version of this was attached to an earlier post.] ****** This weekend, the Christian Pope celebrates Mass in Cuba. An historic event, the outcomes of which will surprize even the most astute of us; and disappoint the more dogmatic of us; Christians and Marxists alike. We Americans especially American Christains expect the wall come tumbling down after the visit, much as the Berlin Wall collapsed after Gorbachev. Marxists, I rather think, expect the visit to be a disaster; expect the Pope to be unreservedly hostile to the Cuban government and to repeat the performance there we saw in Nicaragua some years ago. But the Pope John Paul, has made a sea change in his ministry to the Church...in his latest Encylical, John Paul sounded a lot more like Marx than he did like Pope Innocent. No longer seeing bureaucratic communism as Threat To The World and To The Faithful, John Paul was much more critical of capitalism and to the great inequalities of wealth in nations and in the world. John Paul is a very, very bright and a very astute cleric. And, in his 77th year, he must accept he has limited time to minister to Catholics of the World. It takes no particular genius to see that many of the most oppressed peoples in the poor capitalist countries are those same communicants whose spritual welfare is in his charge. John Paul takes that responsibility seriously and seriously taken, one must urge a better economics than is grounded by private ownership and by free market dynamics. So one should not be too surprized were John Paul to give a message far different from that in Nicaragua. At the same time, the American Press, the part I monitor, greatly underestimates the ways in which Fidel Castro deals with religious sensibility; his antagonism remains directed at the elements of the Catholic church in partnership with class, race and gender elites...which is to say most of them in both Rome and the hinterland. In his lengthy interview with a Catholic monk, Castro was most congenial to liberation theology and to enlivening religious sensibility. The American Press also distorts, greatly, the practice of religion in Cuba. I have been there five times in the last 15 years...I always attend churches in whatever Cuban city/town in which I visit. And on Sundays, I go to Mass whenever possible. Not a Catholic, still less a theist, I do like the peace of the place and invariably light a candle in memory of my dear wife, Dorothy. And, as a sociologist, I do like to guage attendance, listen to content and get a 'feel' of the congregation. I can report that churches are well attended; that sermons are not much different from those in the USA; that congregations are devout and responsive in the Sunday masses. American media report differently. So, American Media aside, religion is alive and well in Cuba. One not be a theist to value the teachings of theists; one need not be a marxist to value the teachings of Marx; one need not be an American to value the democratic impulse in the Constitution. One subverts one's own cause when one dis-values that which is good and decent in documents other than one's own grounding philosophy. I suppose what I want to say is that there are many ways to work toward fellowship, brother/sisterhood and social justice; that we might well take care that we fail to see our best allies and forge better alliances against power, privilege and concentration of wealth than have we in the past. go in peace with your God, TR Young, Editor, FROM THE LEFT TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From pengle@wce.wwu.edu Thu Jan 22 18:09:53 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 17:09:45 -0800 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Paul Englesberg Subject: Can the State have attitude problems? I was disturbed at Shawgi Tell's reductionist argument that the bourgeois class creates all the problems of prejudice to divide the masses. This picture treats people as passive recipients of state ideology and treats the state or bourgeios class as an omnipotent and omnipresent force. These are myths that seem almost as dangerous (perhaps more dangerous?) as the prejudice and racism. I would recommend the work of Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren for deeper analyses of the processes of reproduction and resistance in education and culture and Cornel Wests' writing on multiculturalism. Ronald Takaki's book, "A Different Mirror" is an excellent historical study of racism, prejudice, and struggles of various ethnic groups in the U.S. An excellent film depicting the social construction of racial stereotypes is "Ethnic Notions," a video made at UC Berkeley. It discusses how depictions of African Americans were constructed, marketed, internalized, bought, desired, etc. Yes, the economic system and relations are central, but does the State have an attitude problem? It's so much more multi-layered than Tell's description: "while many may and do take up racist ideas and views, these racist ideas and views do not actually originate with the people themselves, but with the owners of the means of production..." "the people are the victims and not the cause of divisions in society. It can be seen that it is the monopoly capitalist State and not the youth and students with the 'attitude problem.'" I am afraid that Tell's analysis does not offer any real strategies for educators in dealing with racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice. Paul Englesberg Woodring College of Education Western Washington University Bellingham, WA 98225 ph: (360) 650-7527 email: pengle@wce.wwu.edu From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Fri Jan 23 10:08:01 1998 Date: Fri, 23 Jan 98 11:07 CST From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Hoaxs from computer viruses to Clinton's integrity Several folks have written me noting that opening e mails does not infect computers. While I do/did know that I am not so expert to know that more recent developments did not change that 'knowledge'. I am not the kind who spreads rumors/hoaxes, but as a good netizen, only wanted to share some info that might spare the pain of infected hard drives. As as Monty Python would say, and now for something completely different After all the hoopla re Di and St Virginity, how come no comments re Bill and Monica. Now we do not want to compete with Inquirer, or even Newsweek, but there are sociological questions that are raised. Why do people care. My German friends tell me it is common knowledge Kohl is involved with someone for 14 years. I was touched by Mitterand's wife and children with his mistress and their children at his funeral. So why is it the big story and perhap an impeacheable offence. (Ok the offence is lying and tampering with justice, but on that basis every president should have been impeached.). Let me suggest this is the outcome of two factors, puritanism and politics as entertainment. The Puritans found the cold soldier almost everywhere-but the English colonies to which they flocked. While few today maintain the ideals of premarital chasity (and many of the Puritans had themselves strayed), and some data show a great deal of post marital infidelity, the values endure. There endures the fear that somewhere someone is having a forbidden pleasure, like pot or sex, or even better, pot and sex. But even worse, they are enjoying it. Now with the backdrop of Puritanism, that has fascilitated American capitalism in ways well understood by folks on this list, the growth of consumerism has fostered/fascilitated certain forms of hedonism and self indulgence. One point, the marketing of politics is now a part of consumer culture, eg politicians are entertainment. Think only of Bozo the Newt, the Wooden Man on his way to Oz to find a personality, or As the White House turns with Slick Willie and Lady McHillary. Thus unlike the Kennedy years, or even ignoring the Bush tryst, the private is no longer private, but invaded for reasons of entertain ment. Hey without Monkey Business, we could have had Heart of Harts as a prime time show for 8 years. But now the exposure of the private lives of politicians is used by the capitalist media to gain audience share. I'll bet Newsweek sales are up and soon the tapes with be available with Watergate tape, Golden oldies and 100 minutes of great classical music-with a free vegematic thrown in. Now while I care little for Clinton's policies, nor can find his moral vision even when using some fairly sophisticed hi tech equipment, I care more about the large numbers of folks getting screwed by his policies than what goes on in Oval office, Rose Garden, Lincoln bedroom or wherever with whomever. Lastly, prediction. He will not be impeached, the last thing Republicans want is that the man only an orgasm from the president be a sitting president facing "Full dinner jacket" Quayle, Newt the Bozo or Peter Peter Immigrant eater". Thats it, any comments, ideas or ?? Lauren Langman From coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Fri Jan 23 11:09:48 1998 Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 13:10:09 -0800 From: "Rodney D. Coates" Reply-To: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu To: tell@ACSU.Buffalo.EDU Subject: Re: State Has The Attitude Problem How can a state..an inanimate object have an attitude...?>??? Shawgi A. Tell wrote: > Greetings, > > This is a post I recently posted to a multicultural education > list where a discussion developed around the issue of so-called > "prejudice reduction" "interventions" in multicultural education. > Basically, advocates of multicultural education espouse or use "prejudice > reduction" "interventions" (e.g., reinforcement studies, perceptual > differentiation studies, curricular intervention studies, etc.) to > "modify" the "racial attitudes" of the students and youth. Putting > aside for a moment the fact that such "interventions" are ineffective > in the long-run, it must be emphasized that it is the racist bourgeois > State and not the youth and students with the "attitude problem." > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > What is the real issue here? What does life itself reveal? > > Racism is a policy of diversion and disunity. It functions to > divide and pitt people against each other, usually on the basis of skin > color, but also on the basis of language, religion, nationality and so on. > > The question arises: which one of the two main classes in our > class-divided society benefits from racism? That is, who gains from > a disunited citizentry? Is it the capitalist class, the privileged few? > Or is it the diverse working class and people, the vast majority? > Clearly, it is the capitalist class, whose sole aim is to secure maximum > capitalist profits. This aim has nothing to do with satisfying the > constantly growing material and cultural needs of the broad masses of the > people. > > Humanity is extremely diverse. It is made up of people with > different skin color, nationalities, languages, religions, abilities and > so on. All these differences are a fact of life. The capitalist class > takes these differences and turns them into problems, into sources of > contention, antagonism, chauvinism and enmity. > > By splitting the people and turning them against each other on > the basis of skin color, religion, language, nationality, etc., the > capitalist class, which is the real enemy of the people and the key source > of divisions in society, distracts attention away from its self. It is in > this way that the exploiting minority keeps the immense majority > ghettoized, disunited and disorganized. > > On top of all this, the capitalist class works to make racism, > sexism, chauvinism, etc., look like they are caused by the people > themselves and not by it. The oppressors want the people themselves to > believe that they and they alone are actually the source of racism and > other forms of discrimination and divisions in society. This is how the > propertied class exonerates itself. The capitalist class has to do > all this because this is what is in its objective class interests. > > What this shows is that while many may and do take up racist ideas > and views, these racist ideas and views do not actually originate with the > people themselves, but with the owners of the means of production who > stand to gain from a divided polity when it comes to securing maximum > capitalist profits. > > When life itself is taken as the starting-point for analysis then > it can be seen that the people are the victims and not the cause of > divisions in society. It can be seen that it is the monopoly capitalist > State and not the youth and students with the "attitude problem." If > anything, prejudice elimination and not prejudice "reduction" is needed, > and the State, not the youth and students, need to be targeted, first and > foremost. > > The youth and students do not have the "attitude problem." By > starting from the racist premise that it is the youth and students with > the "attitiude problem," multicultural educators are exonerating the > bourgeoisie and contributing to the crisis. > > Shawgi Tell > Graduate School of Education > University at Buffalo > tell@acsu.buffalo.edu -- umoja (unity through love, peace, understanding and respect) "Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes." -- African Proverb "Without struggle there is no progress." --Frederick Douglass "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." --Steven Biko yours in the struggle, Rodney D. Coates, http://www.ulbobo.com/umoja/ From Dave.Byrne@durham.ac.uk Fri Jan 23 10:06:10 1998 Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 17:05:38 +0000 (GMT) From: D S Byrne To: T.R.Young@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: The Pope In Cuba: An Editorial FROM THE LEFT In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.16.19980123081339.394f0cbe@sensible-net.com> Many years ago as an undergraduate I wrote a dissertation on the Cuban revolution. In so doing I had to read a variety of pieces including Castro's justification of his first, unsuccessful rising 'History will absolve me'. There is, as I recall (the book is at home), not one single citation of a marxist source in this apologia - note that word. Instead Castro turned entirely to Thomas Aquinas' discussion of the foundations of a just war. I thought then, and still do, that the man was a spoiled priest. David Byrne Dept of Sociology and Social Policy University of Durham Elvet Riverside New Elvet Durham DH1 3JT 0191-374-2319 0191-0374-4743 fax From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Fri Jan 23 15:43:06 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 17:41:31 +0000 Subject: Why won't they let Slick Willie womanize in peace? Thanks, Lauren, for opening up discussion on "As the White House Turns." You are right that there are important sociological questions here. Your analysis of "puritanism and politics as entertainment" was both funny and insightful. However, I think there are additional reasons why Clinton may finally be in deep doodoo. Business Week's cover story this week is "What To Do About Asia." Writing for the business community, they say that "a seemingly isolated financial bust that started last summer in Bangkok has escalated into the biggest threat to global prosperity since the oil shocks of the 1970s." Japan's vice minister for international finance has stated bluntly, "This isn't an Asian crisis. It's a crisis of global capitalism." Business Week is angry that "no Western leader has spoken openly and publicly about the gravity of the crisis and how it could endanger global prosperity." In their view, "the Clintonites...haven't made any effort to build public support for the rescue plan." Much of the main Old Money sector of the ruling class is also very dissatisfied with the Clintonites about other important matters as well. The Brookings Institution wrote in 1996 that "the U.S. will only have a limited number of occasions to use force against Iraq, and it must make the most of them...U.S. diplomacy can succeed only against a backdrop of the availability of military forces and the will to use them." (Richard Haas, Brookings Policy Brief No. 7) In short, the Clintonites have failed to address the two most life and death problems currently facing U.S. imperialism: The widening and deepening global crisis of overproduction, and Iraq's growing ability to thumb its nose at the U.S. with the backing of Russia, China, and France, imperialist rivals of the U.S. This line of attack against the Clintonites is being led by Dick Gephardt and the business and big labor forces behind him. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), whose funding comes from the Rockefeller Foundation, C.S. Mott (GM), Russell Sage (Cabot gas and banking money), sets forth the line Gephardt has been offering: That workers through the main unions must be won to support U.S. imperialism's foreign adventures, that U.S. banks and brokerage firms exposed in Asia should absorb some of the losses themselves, otherwise, U.S. capitalists will face a deep political crisis because they have no working class support for the wars that must ultimately be the capitalists' only solution to their crisis of overproduction. Gephardt stands to be the main political beneficiary of the withdrawal of tolerance for Slick Willie's womanizing. Lauren is right, the rulers of other countries do it, and Kennedy, Eisenhower, etc., did it. Political divisions determine whether something will be made of it. Gephardt's capitalist backers will either politically weaken Clinton (and Gore) or dump him altogether. Kenneth Starr, by the way, has an endowed chair waiting for him at Pepperdine funded by Richard Scaife, a Mellon family descendant and financier of various conservative causes. Starr's D.C. law firm defends GM among others. So this is not a "hard right" attempt to "get" Clinton. After all, the last time a hard right New Money plot was hatched to get rid of an Eastern Establishment President, they didn't hire a prosecutor; they hired some killers and JFK got assassinated. So this is probably an Old Establishment notice to Clinton (and Gore) to "shape up or ship out." As the crisis of capitalism deepens, fights and splits within the capitalist class will grow and take many bizarre and entertaining forms. It's important for us to figure them out; otherwise we will get tricked into supporting one bunch of corrupt hypocrites against another, instead of organizing to get rid of the whole lot. Steve Rosenthal From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Fri Jan 23 16:12:18 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 18:11:01 +0000 Subject: Fidel and Papa Pablo TR is, without a doubt, the most ecumenical Marxist I know, and I have been the beneficiary of his support and encouragement. As a member of the Section on Marxist Sociology of the ASA I support his suggestion that we join in sponsoring the observation of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Communist Manifesto. I also support Alan Spector's clarification that TR's comments about the Pope, the Bible, the Pope's current visit to Cuba, and the U.S. Constitution are his own and are contrary to what at least some members of the Section on Marxist Sociology think. I'd like to offer a different interpretation of why Fidel and Papa Pablo are making nice. The Pope does indeed oppose the U.S. policy of sanctions against Cuba. He came to Cuba not as a representative of U.S. imperialism, but mainly of Western European (Spanish, Italian, French, German) imperialism. European capitalists have been investing substantially in Cuba and sending tourists there for some time in defiance of the U.S. embargo. They oppose U.S. policy toward Cuba for much the same reason they oppose U.S. sanctions against Iraq. Their opposition opens up business opportunities and enables them to compete against the U.S. But we should not be deceived into seeing European imperialism as a lesser evil in Cuba or Latin America. The Vatican was the first to recognize the coup regime in Haiti when Aristide (a liberation theologist!) was thrown out. European tourism has stimulated in Cuba the revival of prostitution, the black market, and all sorts of corruption. As Cuban reforms produce an escalation of sin and sinners, of course they need an escalation of religion and confession. Pope Paul played a major role in bringing free market capitalism to Eastern Europe. Read Michael Parenti's latest book "Blackshirts and Reds" for a powerful summary of the catastrophic consequences of "freedom" in Eastern Europe. Even the Pope has had to express his disappointment with the fruits of his labor. The Cuban revolution introduced significant reforms that benefited most Cubans for several decades, but the socialistic aspects of Cuban society are rapidly being eroded. As Castro maneuvers to replace his departed Soviet imperialist sponsor with European imperialist sponsors, we should recognize how this process is part of the larger inter-imperialist rivalry that is intensifying. What if the financial crisis spreads to Latin America? Then Fidel and Papa Pablo will certainly have to get down on their knees and pray for the return of Mother Teresa. Steve Rosenthal From cdfupdate@cdfig.childrensdefense.org Fri Jan 23 19:06:07 1998 Date: Fri, 23 Jan 98 18:10:09 EST From: "CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 1-23-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update January 23, 1998 In This Issue: -- Family Income -- Child Care -- Conference *** Family Income *** --- A REAL CHANCE TO RESTORE FOOD STAMPS FOR IMMIGRANTS --- The Clinton administration is expected to propose $2 billion over five years to partly restore food stamps for legal immigrants. The 1996 welfare law eliminated food stamps for 935,000 legal immigrants, of whom it is estimated about 500,000 are children. In addition, 630,000 children who are U.S. citizens live with legal immigrant adults who may have lost food stamps. While U.S. children are still eligible for food stamp assistance, if the family's total allocation is reduced, it will affect every family member, including the children. Full restoration of food stamps would cost $3 billion, and it is not yet known exactly how the $2 billion will be distributed. The loss of food stamps is causing an upsurge in the need for emergency food, according to private charities. Lisa Carr, legislative analyst for Catholic Charities USA was quoted in the Washington Times (1/19/98) stating, "For the first time, many of our food pantries are empty and that frightens us." ** YOU CAN HELP! ** Call your member of Congress and Senators and tell them to support a restoration of food stamps for legal immigrant families with children, as well as for the elderly and disabled. --- MODEL COMMENTS ABOUT TANF REGULATIONS ON CDF WEBSITE --- On Thursday, November 20, 1997, the Clinton Administration published proposed regulations for aid to children and families under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the program established in the 1996 federal welfare law. The public has 90 days to comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and can do so either on their website at: or by mail at: Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Family Assistance 5th Floor 370 L-Enfant Promenade, SW Washington, DC 20447 ** Model comments about the proposed Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) regulations will be available on the CDF website, at: < http://www.childrensdefense.org>. They should be up on the site by Monday, January 26. Comments are due to U.S. Health and Human Services by February 18, 1998. Your comments will help to make it easier for states to run innovative programs that offer help to families with children, and to protect children whose parents cannot work. If you cannot reach our website, e-mail T'Wana Lucas at: and she will fax or send a copy to you. *** Child Care *** --- HELP CONGRESS GET THE PICTURE! --- As Congress reconvenes for the 1998 legislative session on January 27, the Children's Defense Fund is gearing up for an exciting campaign to improve the quality and affordability of child care in 1998. Already, several Members of Congress have introduced various child care bills and on January 7, 1998 President Clinton announced a major child care initiative. However, these proposals will not result in tangible gains for children unless we work with both parties in Congress to pass a major child care investment package this year. In order to build on the already growing support for child care, CDF and other national organizations are launching a project to "Help Congress Get The Picture!" This effort asks child care providers, parents, advocates, and others around the country to send drawings of families who need/use child care to their Member of Congress. Each picture will be accompanied by the message: "quality, affordable child care matters for America's working families." Detailed instructions on how to participate in "Get The Picture" will be on CDF's web site beginning Monday, January 26th at: (the instructions can be printed directly from the site) or email: with your name, organization, phone, and fax. *** Conference *** --- Child Care Training Track --- "National Child Care Campaign 1998" Wednesday, March 25,1998 Speakers: Helen Blank, Gina Adams, and Nicole Poersch Child care, early childhood education, and after-school options for young and school-age children must become national priorities. In 1998, the Children's Defense Fund, Stand For Children, and many partners will make quality, affordable child care a top national priority. Register for the "National Child Care Campaign 1998" skills building session and learn about innovative advocacy and policy models that work, as well as local, state, and federal opportunities to expand the affordability and quality of child care so that young children are ready for school and older children are safe after school. ** Look for more conference information in your mail soon or call the CDF Conference Hot-line at 202/662-3684 or visit the CDF Website at: , or for a registration brochure, send an email to: . ****************************************************************** -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- SHARE THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!! Our typical email is about a page or two long and generally comes once a week. To join our legislative update email list, sign-up on our website or send an email to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Kimberly Taylor Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org "What is done to children, they will do to society." --Karl Menninger From SocSteph@aol.com Sat Jan 24 07:21:21 1998 id HAA07766; Sat, 24 Jan 1998 07:21:15 -0700 (MST) From: SocSteph Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 09:21:03 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, revs@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Call for Participants for ASA Sessions and Section Roundtables Hi Fellow Progressives and Marxists: I want to encourage your participation in two sessions and the roundtables that I am organizing for the ASA meetings in San Francisco. As co-Chair of the ASA Standing Committee on Hate/Bias Incidents on College Campuses, I am the co-organizer of a session on Hate Crimes Research. I would welcome submissions from some lefties (titles and abstracts will be considered). If we (Betty Dobratz of Iowa State University) and I receive enough papers, we will request a second session, so please give me some more papers. I am also co-organizing a session that Jean Belkir gave to the Marxist section as co- sponsored on the relevance of Marxism to Race, Class and Gender. Lastly, I am organizing the section roundtables. We need many more as I have only received five at this point. Come on folks..... please chip in to make this an exciting program full of controversial discussions that other sections could not even begin to conceptualize!!!!! Anyway, hope to hear from you really soon!!!!! For Justice-- Stephanie Shanks-Meile Associate Professor of Sociology Indiana University Northwest 3400 Broadway Gary, IN 46408 219-980-6787 From SocSteph@aol.com Sat Jan 24 07:27:45 1998 id HAA07912; Sat, 24 Jan 1998 07:27:36 -0700 (MST) From: SocSteph Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 09:27:29 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, revs@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Hate/Bias Incidents on College Campuses Hi folks: I am the co-Chair of the ASA Standing Committee on Hate/Bias Incidents on College Campuses. On behalf of the committee, it is my task to collect documentation of hate/bias incidents on campuses from sociologists across the country. We are interested in gaining an understanding of the types of incidents as well as the way that those situations were resolved on campuses, if they received administrative or other forms of campus attention. The committee is also collecting materials on official college procedures for dealing with hate/bias incidents. I would really appreciate hearing from those of you who know of such incidents as we try to gain a greater understanding of these situations. Thanks in advance for your insights. Sincerely, Stephanie Shanks-Meile Associate Professor of Sociology Indiana University Northwest 3400 Broadway Gary, IN 46408 219-980-6787 From tod-sloan@utulsa.edu Sun Jan 25 16:19:16 1998 From: "Tod Sloan" To: , , , , , , , , Subject: Call for chapters: Critical Psychology volume Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 17:15:06 -0600 CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS TO A VOLUME ON CRITICAL PSYCHOLOGY Voices for Critical Psychology (tentative title) Editor: Tod Sloan, University of Tulsa The rubric `critical psychology' encompasses a wide variety of theoretical approaches and practical strategies. This variety reflects the diverse origins of the critical impulse: for example, radical psychoanalysis, neo-marxism, liberation theology, human rights work. It also stems from different agendas: reform of the mental health system, critique of positivism in scientific psychology, labor organizing, community mobilization, anti-poverty work, green or socialist organizing, empowerment of marginalized populations, and so forth. Given this diversity of origins and purposes, and the pressing challenges of social transformation in whatever form we envision it, we who work under the general banner of critical psychology do not hear from each other enough. We tend to be isolated or to work only in small groups. A sense of affirmation tends to be rare. Furthermore, we have too little time to document what we do, to share basic ideas and lessons learned in practice, to argue about basic principles. We thus suffer from a lack of cross-fertilization. This volume aims to fill this need and thereby contribute to the vitality of the critical psychology movement in general. The book will consist of a two or three dozen brief chapters (not more than 4000 words each) structured in response to a few basic questions -- Note that these questions may be challenged if necessary to make one's point: In a nutshell, what does critical psychology mean to you? What brought you to critical psychology? Mention relevant influences, experiences, people, etc. What do you see as the basic principles of critical psychology? Justify your position. What are the big debates in critical psychology? What issues remain to be resolved? What have you done, or what to you do, that exemplifies these principles? How do you practice critical psychology? >From your standpoint in critical psychology, what are the most pressing general problems to be addressed ? "What is to be done?" Submissions will be selected for publication according to the following criteria: clarity of expression, depth of experience and/or insight, representativeness of diversity within critical psychology, and degree of contribution to future dialogue within critical psychology. While it is to be expected that many contributors will already have a reputation through their academic publications, this volume is also intended as an outlet for people who are primarily practitioners, activists, and organizers. Feel free to contact the editor for more information on the preparation of submissions. Besides the obvious fact that some submissions will not be accepted, contributors are also forewarned that no book contract is in hand at the moment (1/98). Publication is therefore not guaranteed. In the event of publication, copyrights will be held by the individual contributors and all royalties will be contributed to the Ignacio Martin-Baro Fund for Human Rights and Mental Health, which gives small grants in support of projects in Central America and elsewhere. Deadline: May 30, 1998. Use APA-style format for works cited. Submissions may be forwarded by email (ideally as a file attachment in MS Word for Windows format) or on a diskette by surface mail to: tod-sloan@utulsa.edu or Tod Sloan Department of Psychology University of Tulsa Tulsa Oklahoma 74104 USA P.S. By the way, who is Tod Sloan? I am associate professor of psychology, author of Life Choices (Westview, 1996) and Damaged Life (Routledge, 1996), interested in critical personality theory, community psychology, Continental social theory, Third World solidarity, and too many other things. ________________________ Tod Sloan Department of Psychology The University of Tulsa Tulsa, OK 74104 USA Tel: (918) 631-2726 Fax: (918) 631-2833 From r.yaqoob@pol-soc.bbk.ac.uk Mon Jan 26 06:28:29 1998 From: razia yaqoob Sender: ubsl070@pol-soc.bbk.ac.uk To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: John stuart mill Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:27:10 +0000 (GMT) helllo all, would be v.interested to hear from anyone on J.S.Mill, especially in relation liberalism/colonialism or relevant publications on these. Thanks. ---------------------- razia yaqoob r.yaqoob@pol-soc.bbk.ac.uk From kurtzmen@wam.umd.edu Mon Jan 26 10:35:43 1998 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 12:35:36 -0500 (EST) From: angela kurtz mendelson To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Question re: German sociological journals at the turn-of-the-century To anyone who might know and be kind enough to answer: I am putting together a dissertation prospectus on a topic in German intellecutal and cultural history, involving a turn-of-the-century debate on the role of emotions in ethics. I am looking at articles on the subject published in the journals of three disciplines, sociology, philosophy and psychology, and hope to cover a time period from roughly the 1890s up through the 1920s. I would be most grateful if anyone would tell me what the most prominent journals in sociology were at this time. I realize that sociology was a very new discipline at this time and that there may not have been any such journals devoted specifically to the subject until later under the Weimar Republic. This is not to say articles in the field were not published much earlier, but they may have been published in journals purporting to cover other disciplines or of a more general nature. Consequently, I would love to know: 1) What were the major sociological journals at the time? 2) Where might fledgling sociologists have published before these journals provided them with a discipline-specific forum? 3) Lastly: Might any of you in the profession be familiar with sociologists who were interested in the above-mentioned topic other than Max Scheler (someone I am studying closely)? I do not expect anyone to be able to answer the latter question easily, but -- as hope springs eternal (especially at this difficult prospectus stage) -- I thought I would ask. I am indeed new at communicating via the internet and hope I have correctly followed "highway" protocol (keeping presumption within respectable limits). Thank you in advance for any wisdom! Regards, Angela Mendelson From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Mon Jan 26 12:05:43 1998 26 Jan 98 13:11:25 -600 26 Jan 98 12:55:32 -600 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 98 12:54:28 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@ncsu.edu Subject: Fwd: re: SOCIALIST REGISTER 1998 ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Alan Zuege To: cm150-l@mtu.edu Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 00:17:36 -0800 (PST) Subject: re: SOCIALIST REGISTER 1998 Announcement. Contents and Information on Ordering to follow. ----------------------------------------------------- THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO NOW: SOCIALIST REGISTER 1998 Leo Panitch & Colin Leys, eds ----------------------------------------------------- DEAR DR. MARX: A LETTER FROM A SOCIALIST FEMINIST Sheila Rowbotham THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF THE MANIFESTO Colin Leys & Leo Panitch THE GEOGRAPHY OF CLASS POWER David Harvey SOCIALISM WITH SOBER SENSES: DEVELOPING WORKERS' CAPACITIES Sam Gindin UNIONS, STRIKES AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS TODAY Sheila Cohen & Kim Moody PASSAGES OF THE RUSSIAN AND EASTERN EUROPEAN LEFT Peter Gowan MARX AND THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION IN FRANCE: BACKGROUND TO THE MANIFESTO Bernard Moss THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO AND THE ENVIRONMENT John Bellamy Foster REMEMBER THE FUTURE? THE MANIFESTO AS HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL FORM Peter Osborne SEEING IS BELIEVING: MARX'S MANIFESTO, DERRIDA'S APPARITION Paul Thomas THE MAKING OF THE MANIFESTO Rob Beamish THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO Marx & Engels * FORTHCOMING THIS FALL: ---------------------------------------------------- GLOBALIZATION AND DEMOCRACY: SOCIALIST REGISTER 1999 Leo Panitch & Colin Leys, eds ---------------------------------------------------- * READERS CAN NOW SUBSCRIBE TO THE SOCIALIST REGISTER. Subscribers receive a LARGE discount on back orders, including orders for the following volumes: 1997: RUTHLESS CRITICISM OF ALL THAT EXISTS 1996: ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES? 1995: WHY NOT CAPITALISM? 1994: BETWEEN GLOBALISM AND NATIONALISM 1993: REAL PROBLEMS, FALSE SOLUTIONS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * TO ORDER OR SUBSCRIBE CONTACT: In the USA: Monthly Review Press 122 West 27th Street New York, NY 10001 USA Tel: (800) 670 9499 (212) 691 2555 Fax: (212) 727 3676 Email: mreview@igc.apc.org In the UK and WORLDWIDE: Merlin Press 2 Rendlesham Mews, Rendlesham Nr. Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 2SZ UK Tel: 44 1394 461314 Fax: 44 1394 461313 Email: MerlinPres@aol.com In CANADA: Fernwood Books Box 9409, Station A Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 5S3 Canada Tel: (902) 422 3302 Fax: (902) 422 3179 Email: fernwood@istar.ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From dgrammen@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Mon Jan 26 12:20:42 1998 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:20:35 -0600 (CST) From: Dennis Grammenos To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Daily Illini on Nike code http://www.illinimedia.com/di/jan_98/jan26/opinions/edit2.html _____________________________________________________________________ Monday, 26 January 1998 The Daily Illini (student newspaper at the U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) EDITORIAL Nike code won't effect change ----------------------------- Our campus administration is inching closer to getting Nike to sign a Code of Conduct driven forward predominantly by the Student Labor Support Network and Students for Real Democracy -- a goal toward which the University and SLSN have been striving for months. However, the question remains: Will a signed piece of paper actually force Nike to change its ways? Although there is no proof against Nike, human rights activist groups have accused Nike of exploiting poor Southeast Asian workers -- forcing them to work in unsanitary, unsafe factories and paying them pennies an hour. But what effect will forcing Nike to sign a new Code of Conduct have when they already have one? The University is in no position to be telling Nike what to do; this deal brings the University thousands of dollars worth of Nike merchandise and millions in revenue. To Nike, however, this deal is just a small part of an extensive marketing scheme. In addition, the University is bound to abide by a ten-year contract it signed with Nike in 1994. There is no way for the University to control Nike. Even if the agreement were to include a provision for an independent agency to monitor the working conditions in NikeMs Southeast Asia factories, it would be impossible to ensure the integrity of this monitor. The outcome of this issue has already been decided by necessity. The basketball team will always need new pairs of shoes, and right now the University has a guarantee that all of its athletes will have comfortable feet for years to come. The University undoubtedly realizes that even the most Herculean effort will not help anyone. Most likely the University is simply trying to portray itself as morally conscious and is attempting to show the SLSN and SRD that it too cares about the plight of the factory workers. Meanwhile, SLSN does not want to lose face by backing off of its crusade and have to go to the trouble of finding a new one. There are four billion impoverished people in the world, and to fight on their behalf is certainly noble. However, it is anything but noble for the administration to use their cause as window dressing on a multi-million dollar deal. --------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1998 Illini Media Company, all rights reserved From brook@california.com Mon Jan 26 16:17:58 1998 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:14:42 -0800 (PST) To: flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, PSN@csf.colorado.edu, mjkinnuc@umich.edu, s-frum@nwu.edu, econdevl@intrnet.net, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, schernma@hugse1.harvard.edu, mohsen.hakim@mdh.se From: CyberBrook Subject: Cartas_Polho >From: juan manuel gomez gonzalez >Subject: Cartas_Polho >Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:46:05 -0600 (CST) >Reply-To: amelapaz@amelapaz.org >To: brook@california.com > >English version below > > >UNETE A LA CARAVANA VIRTUAL: > >MUJERES POR LA PAZ EN CHIAPAS!!!!! > > >El proximo sabado 24 de enero, a las 8 p.m. (hora de Mexico D.F.), saldra >con rumbo al Estado >de Chiapas, una caravana de mil mujeres. Dicha caravana tiene el objetivo >de expresar >solidaridad y entregar apoyo concreto a las mujeres y al pueblo chiapaneco, >victima de la guerra >de baja intensidad que se vive en estos momentos en este Estado. > >La caravana constituye ademas, un acto simbolico de protesta por la continua >y creciente >situacion de violencia que enfrentan las comunidades chiapanecas, sufrida >con especial >intensidad por las mujeres, ninos y ninas. Dicha violencia llega a extremos >inconcebibles, tales >como la masacre de Acteal, ocurrida en Diciembre pasado, en la que murieron >43 personas, 21 >de ellas mujeres y 14 ninos y ninas. > >Como mujeres mexicanas queremos expresar nuestra indignacion ante la >situacion actual y >demandamos al Gobierno Mexicano: > >1. La salida inmediata del Ejercito Mexicano de las comunidades indigenas. >2. El desarme de los grupos paramilitares. >3. El cumplimiento de los Acuerdos de San Andres Larrainzar, sobre Derechos >y Cultura >Indigena. >4. El castigo a los culpables de la masacre de Acteal, el asesinato de una >mujer en >Ocosingo, el 12 de enero pasado y de todos los asesinatos y delitos >ocurridos en este Estado, >desde 1994. >5. La reanudacion del dialogo por la paz con el Ejercito Zapatista de >Liberacion Nacional. > >Debido a todo lo anterior, estamos invitando a todas las mujeres de >diferentes partes del mundo, >a unirse a nuestra caravana hacia Chiapas, en una Caravana Virtual de las >Mujeres del Mundo, >en solidaridad con las mujeres chiapanecas y en apoyo a las demandas expresadas >anteriormente, por las mujeres que iremos en Caravana hacia Chiapas. > >¿Como puedes participar? Muy facil.... Envianos tus mensajes de apoyo y >solidaridad por >correo electronico o fax, a: milenio@laneta.apc.org o amelapaz@amelapaz.org >o al fax: (525) >658 1587. Tambien puedes colaborar, ayudandonos a distribuir este mensaje a >personas >cercanas o a otras organizaciones que conozcas! > >Tambien puedes enviar mensajes al Gobierno Mexicano, solicitando el >cumplimiento de las >cinco demandas anteriormente enunciadas al: webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx o al >pronam@iwm.com.mx. > >MUJERES POR LA CONSTRUCCION DE UNA PAZ JUSTA Y DIGNA >EN MEXICO Y EN EL MUNDO > > > > >si usted no desea recibir la informacion de esta lista por favor mande un >correo electronico con la direccion que quiere que se retire de la >lista... > >gracias > >English: > >JOIN THE VIRTUAL CARAVAN: > > WOMEN FOR PEACE IN CHIAPAS!!!!! > > >Next Saturday January 24, at 8 p.m. (Mexico City time), a caravan of 1,000 >women will depart to the State of Chiapas. This caravan has been organized >with the objective to express solidarity and give concrete support to the >women and people from Chiapas, who are victims of the low intensity war >currently faced in this State. > >The Caravan is also a symbolic act of protest for the continuos and >increasing situation of violence faced by the communities in Chiapas, >suffered with special intensity by women and children. This violence has >reached unthinkable extremes, such as the massacre of Acteal, occurred last >December, where 43 people were killed, 21 of them were women and 14 were >children. > >As Mexican women we would like to express our indignation with the current >situation and we demand the Mexican Government: > >1. To order the army to leave immediately the indigenous communities. >2. To ensure the disarmament of the paramilitary groups. >3. To implement the Agreements of San Andrés Larráinzar, on Indigenous >Peoples Rights and Culture. >4. To punish the people responsible for the massacre of Acteal, the >assassination of Guadalupe López occurred in Ocosingo, on January 12, 1998, >and of all the crimes occurred in the State of Chiapas, since 1994. > >The previous four demands are key to re-establish the peace dialogue with >the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. > >Due to all of this, we are inviting women from different parts of the world >to join our caravan to Chiapas, in a Virtual Caravan of the women of the >world, in solidarity with the women from Chiapas and in support of the >demands expressed above, by the women who will take part in the Caravan to >Chiapas. > >How can you participate? Very easy !!! Send us you messages of support >and solidarity by email or fax to: milenio@laneta.apc.org or to >amelapaz@amelapaz.org or to the fax: (525) 658 1587. Also, you could >collaborate with us disseminating this message to close people and other >organizations that you are in contact with! > >You can also send messages to the Mexican Government, requesting the >fulfillment of our demands described above to >webadmon@op.presidencia.gob.mx o al pronam@iwm.com.mx. > >WOMEN FOR THE PROMOTION OF A JUST AND DIGN PEACE IN MEXICO AND THE WORLD > > > > >If you would rather not receive more information please send an e-mail >with the address that should be removed from the list > >Thanks a lot. > > > From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Jan 26 18:54:46 1998 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:56:38 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu Subject: Anti-Welfare Bill The most important issues surrounding the current Clinton sex scandals are the bigger questions---questions of whether this is a set-up, whether Lewinski or her mother or someone else is using this for a far deeper reason than just a few right wing Republicans trying to discredit Mr. Bill. Why did this happen as senstive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were taking place, etc. etc. =============== But for now, I'd like to bring up another, less global point. Many have emphasized Clinton's right to sexual privacy. But this is the Bill Clinton who joined the chorus, who fed the chorus, who led the chorus against "welfare mothers". It is the CLINTON (anti-) Welfare Bill that will impoverish millions, force tens of thousands of women to live with men who beat them, kill thousands, AND lower the wages of tens of millions of others as a new, cheap, forced-labor group is driven to accept low paying jobs as replacements for other workers. And a major part of the drumbeat against welfare is the supposed sexual irresponsibility of poor women. After all, why the especially brutal sanctions against women who have another child? The fabricated myth of poor (often black) women's sexual irresponsibility is a major ideological underpinning of this vicious new policy. People on the street refer to it often. And Mr. Bill has also used that argument. So if Mr. Bill is going to play that card, as well as his V-chip nonsense and other missions into censorship and pro-church ideology, then it would be perfectly justifiable to hold him accountable for his hypocrisy. Incidentally, a CLINTON (not Republican) spokesperson has just put forward another of Clinton's proposals for the new budget--complete abolition of the Perkins Loan Program--a program that helps hundreds of thousands of low income college students (including many of yours....)--while at the same time giving a tax break to families who make up to $100,000/year. More Robin Hood in reverse. But then again, Clinton is maintaining the boycott against Iraq, a boycott that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, while leaving Saddam intact. For those who propose supporting the Democratic "lesser of two evils": Whatever slight overall extra economic goodies the Democrats (as opposed to Republicans) may, or may not have trickled down to the working class is far, far outweighed by the terrible cost of misleading people into thinking that we should rely on the capitalist politicians, and therefore weakening the necessary task of building a movement to destroy capitalism. ==== There are other very important issues surrounding this whole sex scandal. I'd suggest following the political-economic trail of motives. It isn't merely Republican Puritanism that's attacking Clinton--it's something rooted more deeply. Alan Spector From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Jan 26 18:22:56 1998 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:24:49 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Oh, sweet capitalism! The following was posted on the WSN network. I thought it makes for interesting reading for those on PSN & AHS-TALK.....alan s. =================================================================== Some may have seen it, but just an article from the IHT to consider in discussing post-communist standards of living. KJ Khoo Top Stories from the Front Page of the International Herald Tribune, Tuesday, January 20, 1998 In Belgrade, a Descent Into Sordid Hedonism Serbs Are Turning to Pornography and Violence ---------------------------------------------------- By Chris Hedges New York Times Service ---------------------------------------------------- BELGRADE - Pulsating music thumped through the blue haze of cigarette smoke and strobe lights of the Lotus Club. Scantily clad strippers spun around poles and leaped into two huge floodlit cages with men and women from the dance floor. The young couples began to peel off their shirts and simulate sex with the dancers. ''Stay a little longer,'' a patron shouted. ''The simulation is just the beginning.'' Under a spotlight, a stripper known as Nina, a star of Belgrade's violent and frenetic night life, descended a spiral staircase. Her lover and bodyguard, a woman with closely cropped hair and a pistol tucked in her belt, followed her. A year ago, Belgrade, which saw daily street protests staged by the political opposition, seemed on the verge of escaping from the nightmare of war, ultranationalist ideology and repressive rule by President Slobodan Milosevic. Today, the city seems more like Caligula's Rome. There is a wild abandon in the air, bred of hopelessness and apathy. The city's best-known gangsters, sometimes in the company of Mr. Milosevic's son, Marko, who recently threatened bar patrons with an automatic weapon, cruise the streets in BMWs and Mercedeses. They haunt clubs like the Lotus in their expensive black Italian suits and leather jackets. This criminal class, many of whom made their fortunes by plundering the possessions of ethnic Croats and Muslims who were expelled from their homes or killed in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war there, deals in stolen clothes from Italy, stolen cars, drugs, protection rackets, prostitution and duty-free cigarettes. They also control some 70 escort services in Belgrade, three adult cinemas and 20 pornographic magazines, people in the industry say. After midnight, the public television channels show hard-core pornographic films made in their studios. The hedonism comes as inflation is eating away at the local currency, the dinar, which has lost more than half of its value in the last few months. And it comes as the political opposition self-destructs with infighting after Mr. Milosevic, formerly the president of Serbia and now the president of Yugoslavia, has reasserted control. Adding to the pressures, Serbs are also trying to cope with mounting violence by the ethnic Albanians in the Kosovo region of Serbia, who want independence. And in Montenegro, which along with Serbia makes up all that remains of Yugoslavia, separatist forces are building under a new government critical of Mr. Milosevic. The effects of the social collapse have been devastating. Distraught teachers say they struggle to cope with children as young as 11 who have been exposed to graphic scenes of sado-masochism on television. Domestic violence, often by men who are out of work or who have not received their small salaries for months, also appears to be widespread, sociologists say. Crime is endemic. ''This stratification of society is part of a general trend in Eastern Europe,'' said Zarko Korac, a professor of clinical psychology at Belgrade University, ''but in this country it has taken a more sinister form. The sanctions and the war created a much richer and uglier underworld. ''They are our carpetbaggers who buy up the property of the Belgrade elite, even the old communist nomenclature. We have descended into barbarity, into the crudest forms of life. We live in a world of moral idiocy. I watch the smiling face of Milosevic, who seems incapable of remorse or pity, and wonder if he is not the devil incarnate.'' The trend Mr. Korac referred to began with the collapse of communism, which saw a rupture of the social contract in Eastern Europe and the discarding of longtime political and social values. Pornography, along with crime, has been embraced along with the emerging liberties to engage in trade, publish freely or build opposition parties. The violent breakup of Yugoslavia began in 1991, the same year that the government decided to permit hard-core sex films to be broadcast on public stations and the first locally made pornographic film was produced. While the old communist Yugoslavia did not censor love scenes in its state-run film industry, it condemned pornography as the exploitation of woman and banned its production. Many say they do not find it coincidental that this happened as the first graphic pictures of mutilated and dead from the war, along with the racial diatribes against Muslims and Croats, hit the airwaves. ''The war was about the lifting of taboos, about new forms of entertainment to mask the collapse and repression,'' said Ljuba Isakovic, a reporter who is writing a book on the new sexual mores. ''War and sex became the stimulants used to keep people from examining what was happening.'' A Belgrade woman, Gordana Lalic, 26, poses for pornographic magazines and sings occasionally in night clubs. Her attempt to build a career in the recording industry has meant cultivating contacts with Belgrade's most notorious thugs. Mrs. Lalic, like many young women drawn to the glitter of money and power, has often been a victim of its darker side. ''I have been raped many times,'' she said. ''I tried to escape from one of these gangsters the other night by running from the disco. I fell and he pulled out his gun, put it to my head and told me I could go with him to his apartment or get cut up into little pieces. ''These are people who do not care about murder. When some police saw us he pulled out his weapon and they backed away. The police know the price of interfering.'' ---------------------------------------------------- [Today] -- From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Tue Jan 27 01:22:28 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by ntserver3.sensible-net (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Confessions of a Postmodern Marxist Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 03:25:10 -0500 Since the development of the Internet and the creation of networks of progressive sociologists, we have learned a lot more about some of our colleagues than otherwise we would. Alas, the same it true of my postings on psn...a great many good colleagues, otherwise innocent, find them distressing. Concern seem to be directed at: 1. posts on class and class struggle 2. posts on religion and religious sensibility 3. posts on sociology and the knowledge process. I want to respond, briefly to these concerns in three, interconnected Confessions: A. CONFESSIONS of a Soft Core Marxist. Marx is dead. He died in April, 1883. A lot has happened since. We have a far better research process than when he lived and we have the benefit of a much better communication system including storage and retrieval of his work. We have a far better understanding of the world and how it works. New understandings require new praxis: Those understandings come from fundamental changes: 1. a vast change in the nature of the capitalist system; it is no longer simply three classes and a surplus population; it is far more complex; firms, nations, regional economic blocs and whole sectors of the capitalist system now comprise the 'actors' in class struggle... Working for social justice in the USA without considering social justice in the third world is no longer possible...we have build social programs with profits and labor from the 3rd world for so many centuries, we can no longer pretend that class struggle in the USA and for US workers alone is adequate to the compleat marxist. 2. a vast change in labor struggles...social democracy and socialist organization have forever changed the nature of the political economy in the West and is changing it in third world nations. The positivities of capitalism cum free market cum private ownership have begun to be linked to larger social purpose. The negativities of capitalism in wages, hours, working conditions pensions and profit margins have been targetted by marxists and populists with telling effect in the West...and to some extent in the rest of the world. The task of the postmodern Marxist is, in my opinion, taming the market system while turning loose some but not all of the creative genius of entrepreneurs... ...more so than replacing market systems with state systems of control...the point is to use markets rather than destroy them. 3. a vast change in the politics of sociology and philosophy... women, minorities and gays have greatly challenged male hegemony...I respond to and respect much of that work. That means I view racism and gender privilege to be equally salient to class struggle... That means I no longer give pride of place to and only to class struggle. ...but see below. B. CONFESSIONS of a Soft Core Atheist. 1. I agree with Durkheim that the god concept is a reification of the large social order....hence all gods are first and finally mere human constructs. 2. I agree with my more conservative social psychologists that things defined as real may have and often do become real. 3. The god concept has real consequences...not all of them hostile to progressive sociologists nor yet to revolutionaries. 4. Part of the prophecies defined and situations constructed are dramas of the Holy...they have the same reality quotient as does Detroit or the Denver Broncos...or the SuperBowl Sanctification/profanation are social processes...not the work of gods but the work of men and women. Faith, hope, charity, belief, trust, and prayer are essential to all modern and postmodern social psychological processes...without them culture, society, sociology and marxist sociology itself are impossible. The foundations of pre-modern social philosophy are essential even if the theology is not. 5. I agree with Marx that capitalism destroys all that is holy; but by inference, socialism should respect some of that which is holy. I do...I respect a lot of the holy work of brothers and sisters in Nicaragua, Cuba, Manilla, Guatemala and even in the USA. 6. My views on the life and death of God are set forth in a parallel medium; one might like to glance over a poem, Maybe, a quintet of postmodern hymns at: http://www.tryoung.com/TRsPage/polpoetry/maybe.html C. CONFESSIONS of a soft core Scientist: 1. The logic of modern science and modern sociology do not permit one to do radical, transforming sociology...marxist's philosophy of science does. I shall never forgive the sociology faculty at U/Michigan for failing to give Marx and marxian sociology space in the graduate program. U/Colorado did a bit better; Alex Garber was there for one brief semester when I took the Ph.D. 'Twas the radical caucuses at ASA, MSS, and SWSSA along with AHS and SSSP later on which gave me a much larger vision of the knowledge process than contained in their poor philosophy...I take it seriously that the point is to change society and sociology rather than merely to study them. 2. The new sciences of Chaos and Complexity forever changed the missions and methods of the knowledge process...that includes sociology. 1. That means that causality is a very weak crutch to use as basis of a discipline... In non-deterministice chaotic regimes, causality fades and fails as systems become more complex...[critics call such systems 'chaotic' rather than complex...as a pejorative rejection of such in order to perserve faith, trust and belief in tight-fisted causality. In complex social systems, non-linear feedback mechanisms produce ever changing relations between parts of a society; class, racism and gendering have varying effect on each other and upon law, religion and morality... Sic transit economic determinism...sic transit gloria theoria. 2. New methods...not yet used in sociology research preserve the knowledge process and permit 'objective' knowledge but it is a far more modest claim to truth than found in either Marx or modern science. Prediction, replication, falsification and logical deduction are lost to the knowledge process in complex, chaotic social processes. 3. There is much to be said for uncertainty...neither God nor Nature permit uncertainty for true believers but we soft core atheists and scientists accept that uncertainty is the source of change, renewal, creativity, non-linear evolution in biology and in society... Three cheers for uncertainty!!! Marx is dead....I would that he were alive...although he could be dogmatic and emphatic; assertive and ascerbic, still I think he would have lept at the three sorts of changes above and would have, I would think, come out closer to my own response than that of those who have not read anything new in Marx since April, 1883. Finally, my own tribute to Marx for whom I have undying admiration if not unfailing faith: Early wise and brave in season, Marx could think and Marx could reason. Right he saw at rising morrow, one could come to worst than sorrow. As a scholar born and bred Marx saw the past and where it led. He scorned to buy the muck one must since one could come to worse than dust. Safe to rest, no dreams, no waking, Here's a poem dear friend for you. 'Tis not a gift much worth the taking, but with your help, a world we're making. ...variation on a poem by Housman Hail and farewell, Marx. TR Young The Red Feather Institute 8085 Essex, Weidman, Mi., 48893--ph: [517] 644 3089 Email: tr@tryoung.com From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Tue Jan 27 10:42:55 1998 27 Jan 98 11:48:26 -600 27 Jan 98 11:47:44 -600 Date: Tue, 27 Jan 98 11:46:39 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@listserv.ncsu.edu Subject: Fwd: (Fwd) Sign-On Letter for Chiapas ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Jim & Yvonne Duffield To: recoznet-l@peg.apc.org, "Acker" , Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 21:11:23 +0800 Subject: (Fwd) Sign-On Letter for Chiapas I think it is pretty clear, if you supprt the indigenous peoples of Mexico, reply, edit the top and the end out and make the subject of your e-letter SIGN and respond to netwarriors@hookele.com.... ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: netwarriors@hookele.com Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 00:31:48 -1000 To: netwarriors@hookele.com Subject: Sign-On Letter for Chiapas NETWARRIORS - REPORT 26 Jan 1998 TO: NetWarriors NetWork RE: Sign-On letter for wide Circulation Greetings Indigenous Relatives, Friends and Supporters. The letter below is a sign-on request from the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico which we will host and invite other networks to do the same. Please send in your signatures by a reply with SIGNED in the subject header. If you are a network that would faciliate this letter please encourage your members to support by a reply with SIGN in the subject header. While NCDM is a US based organization, our global support is imperative . Your strong voice is effective. We will be uploading a script to host the sign-ons through the web site within 24 hours. Ku`E (resist) *****begin sign-on letter***** TO THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO Mister Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon: Those who have signed this letter wish to manifest our concern to you about the violence being suffered by the indigenous communities in Chiapas. The massacre of 45 indigenous, most of whom were children and women, in the community of Acteal, municipality of Chenalho, last December 22nd, made it clear that a dirty war is being conducted against the indigenous who support the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The intentions for peace by your government has been soiled by the public disclosure of the possible implication that the Mexican Federal Army and employees of your government have been involved in the organization of paramilitary bands. In response to the global condemnation of the crime of Acteal, the Mexican government has responded with an increase in the military presence in Zapatista areas of Chiapas. The incursion into indigenous communities of thousands of soldiers has provoked terror among the population. It has been women and children who have placed their unarmed bodies between themselves and the troops who seek to advance into their villages. As a result of the offensive against indigenous communities, the police, which has an overwhelming presence in the state of Chiapas, took the life of a 25-year-old woman and gravely injured her child and one other person during a peaceful demonstration against the massacre of Acteal on January 12th. Mister Ernesto Zedillo: We condemn the use of violence as a form of resolving the demands of the indigenous rebels of Chiapas. We call upon your government to facilitate the integration of the EZLN into the political life of the country. We do not want Chiapas to become another Guatemala, where death and terror end the lives of thousands of indigenous people. We believe it is indispensable that the territory of Chiapas be de-militarized and that the indigenous communities be permitted to live without the threat of a military and police stranglehold which they clearly reject. We insist upon the dismantling of all paramilitary groups. We believe that an objective and thorough investigation should be conducted about the massacre of civilians in Acteal. The safe and guaranteed return of thousands of men, women and children who have been displaced by the dirty war is indispensable, as well as compensation for the damages they have suffered. We ask you to do everything within your power to find a negotiated solution to the conflict in the state of Chiapas, through a dialogue and negotiation which leads to the achievement of a just and durable peace. As necessary steps towards peace, we believe the government needs to fulfill the agreements for indigenous rights and culture which were signed in February of 1996 with the EZLN and accept the legal proposal in regards to this matter which was presented by the Commission of Concordance and Pacification. Chiapas is not a forgotten corner of Mexico. Chiapas beats in the heart of the world. SIGNED, *****end sign-on letter***** ~k Dedication to Solidarity >< Calling for World Action >>>>>>>>>>> NetWarriors <<<<<<<<<<< Peace without Truth is Genocide Una Paz sin la Verdad es Genocidio La paix sans la verite est Genocide >>>>>><<<<<<< http://hookele.com/netwarriors --- from list postcolonial-info@lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From eric@stewards.net Tue Jan 27 09:15:19 1998 (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 11:18:07 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Re: Anti-Welfare Bill Hi Alan, Just a note to say, RIGHT ON! It is more than a little sad, from my perspective, that Nixon was politically hung for Watergate, not for the secret bombing of Cambodia and the war against the Southeast Asian people. Likewise, Clinton is targeted for sexual infidelity, which by the way is conduct which I personally disapprove of on anyone's part, rather than for supporting the sweeping attacks on the American underclass, and the continuation of the Reganesque redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. Yours for a better world, Eric Sommer >The most important issues surrounding the current Clinton sex scandals >are the bigger questions---questions of whether this is a set-up, >whether Lewinski or her mother or someone else is using this for a far >deeper reason than just a few right wing Republicans trying to discredit >Mr. Bill. Why did this happen as senstive Israeli-Palestinian >negotiations were taking place, etc. etc. > >=============== >But for now, I'd like to bring up another, less global point. Many have >emphasized Clinton's right to sexual privacy. But this is the Bill >Clinton who joined the chorus, who fed the chorus, who led the chorus >against "welfare mothers". It is the CLINTON (anti-) Welfare Bill that >will impoverish millions, force tens of thousands of women to live with >men who beat them, kill thousands, AND lower the wages of tens of >millions of others as a new, cheap, forced-labor group is driven to >accept low paying jobs as replacements for other workers. And a major >part of the drumbeat against welfare is the supposed sexual >irresponsibility of poor women. After all, why the especially brutal >sanctions against women who have another child? The fabricated myth of >poor (often black) women's sexual irresponsibility is a major >ideological underpinning of this vicious new policy. People on the >street refer to it often. And Mr. Bill has also used that argument. So >if Mr. Bill is going to play that card, as well as his V-chip nonsense >and other missions into censorship and pro-church ideology, then it >would be perfectly justifiable to hold him accountable for his >hypocrisy. > >Incidentally, a CLINTON (not Republican) spokesperson has just put >forward another of Clinton's proposals for the new budget--complete >abolition of the Perkins Loan Program--a program that helps hundreds of >thousands of low income college students (including many of >yours....)--while at the same time giving a tax break to families who >make up to $100,000/year. More Robin Hood in reverse. But then again, >Clinton is maintaining the boycott against Iraq, a boycott that has >killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, while leaving Saddam intact. > >For those who propose supporting the Democratic "lesser of two evils": >Whatever slight overall extra economic goodies the Democrats (as opposed >to Republicans) may, or may not have trickled down to the working class >is far, far outweighed by the terrible cost of misleading people into >thinking that we should rely on the capitalist politicians, and >therefore weakening the necessary task of building a movement to destroy >capitalism. > >==== >There are other very important issues surrounding this whole sex >scandal. I'd suggest following the political-economic trail of motives. >It isn't merely Republican Puritanism that's attacking Clinton--it's >something rooted more deeply. > >Alan Spector > > From idavies@YorkU.CA Wed Jan 28 09:07:16 1998 From: "Ioan Davies" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 11:14:00 +0000 Subject: Fidel and the Pope Reply-to: idavies@YorkU.CA X-pmrqc: 1 To my knowledge, not one of the North American daily newspapers published this speech. Why? It is doubtful whether Willie Clinton would have been able to make such a speech not now or ever, nor 'Tony' Blair, nor the honest Crouton of Canada, nor our favourite Sociologist President, Cardoso of Brazil, all their speeches written by spindoctors. Still less any of the heads of state of Latin America, Africa or Asia. Think of the lonely stance of the marginal person/community under siege who has a sense of what is at issue in the world, and finding an ally somewhere who speaks something like the same language. We have, I suppose, to recognize the moment when disparate realities collide and melt, that THIS zone of reality is closer than the frozen war-zones that would overdetermine those realities. As the pathetic identity crises of the American personas and pseudo-politicos whirl around Clinton's penis, think about the strategies of resistance: Mandela, Havel, Garibaldi, Montezuma, Ghandi, Boadicea. Think about the idea that the world that might be seen to be ending in Cuba is the ne-plus-ultra world of resistance to the conquerors (the conquerors of all of us). If you were Fidel (speaking on behalf of all of us) whom would you choose as an ally? Yelstin, Blair, Netanyahu, Clinton, Cardoso, Arafat? Think of Rosa Luxemburg, Trotsky, Gramsci: into the river, ice-pick in skull, coughing up TB sputum in the cell.. Think, feel to whom you really might talk when all is collapsing. Ah, Rosa. Leon, Tony!. Holy Father. Curious universalistic prayer to he who might yet be with us, beginning, of course with the blessing: Sanctus fortis, santus deus de profundis oro te miserere, Judex, meus parce mihi domine That's how you make friends See You in Havana during reading week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The official translation of Cuban President Fidel Castro's statement of welcome to Pope John Paul II, January 21, 1998: Holy Father, The land you have just kissed is honored by your presence. You will not find here the peaceful and generous native people who inhabited this island when the first Europeans arrived. Most of the men were annihilated by the exploitation and the enslaved work they could not resist and the women turned into pleasure objects or domestic slaves. ... There were also those who died by the homicidal swords or victims of unknown diseases brought by the conquerors. Some priests have left tearing testimonies of their protests against such crimes. In the course of centuries, over a million Africans ruthlessly uprooted from their distant lands took the place of the enslaved natives already exterminated. They made a remarkable contribution to the ethnic composition and the origins of our country's present population where the cultures, the beliefs and the blood of all participants in the dramatic history have been mixed. It has been estimated that the conquest and colonization of this hemisphere resulted in the death of 70 million natives and the enslavement of 12 million Africans. Much blood was shed and many injustices perpetrated, a large part of which still remain after centuries of struggle and sacrifices under new forms of domination and exploitation. Under extremely difficult conditions, Cuba was able to constitute a nation. It had to fight alone for its independence with unsurmountable heroism and, exactly 100 years ago, it suffered a real holocaust in the concentration camps where a large part of its population perished, mostly old men, women and children; a crime whose monstrosity is not diminished by the fact that it has been forgotten by humanity's conscience. As a son of Poland and a witness of Oswiecim, you can understand this better than anyone. Today, Holy Father, genocide is attempted again when by hunger, illness and total economic suffocation some try to subdue this people that refuses to accept the dictates and the rule of the mightiest economic, political and military power in history; much more powerful than the old Rome that for centuries had the beasts devour those who refused to abdicate their faith. Like those Christians horribly slandered to justify the crimes, we who are as slandered as they were, we choose a thousand times death rather than abdicate our convictions. The revolution, like the Church, also has many martyrs. Holy Father, we feel the same way you do about many important issues of today's world and we are pleased it is so; in other matters our views are different but we are most respectful of your strong convictions about the ideas you defend. In your long pilgrimage around the world, you have been able to see with your own eyes many injustices, inequalities and poverty; uncultivated lands and landless hungry farmers; unemployment, hunger, illness; lives that could be saved with little money being lost for lack of it; illiteracy, child prostitution, 6-year old children working or begging for alms to survive; shanty towns where hundreds of millions live in unworthy conditions; race and sex discrimination; complete ethnic groups evicted from their lands and abandoned to their fate; xenophobia, contempt for other peoples; cultures which have been, or are currently being, destroyed; underdevelopment and usurious loans, unpayable and uncollectable debts, unfair exchange, outrageous and unproductive financial speculations; an environment being ruthlessly and perhaps helplessly destroyed; an unscrupulous weapons trade with disgusting lucrative intents; wars, violence, massacres; generalized corruption, narcotics, vices and an alienating consumerism imposed on peoples as an ideal model. Mankind has seen its population increase almost fourfold just in this century. There are billions of people suffering hunger and thirst for justice; the list of man's economic and social calamities is endless. I am aware that many of them are cause of permanent and growing concern to the Holy Father. I have been through personal experiences which allow me to appreciate other features of his thinking. I was a student in Catholic schools until I obtained my bachelor's degree. There, I was taught that to be a Jew, a Muslim, a Hinduist, a Buddhist, an animist or a participant of any other religious belief was a terrible evil deserving severe and unmitigated punishment. More than once, even in some of those schools for the wealthy and privileged -- where I was one of them -- I came up with the question of why there were no black children there; until this day, I have not forgotten the unconvincing answers I was given. In later years, the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII undertook the analysis of some of these sensitive issues. We are aware of efforts by the Holy Father to preach and practice sentiments of respect for the faithful of other important and influential religions which have expanded through the world. Respect for believers and non-believers alike is a basic principle revolutionary Cubans try to impress upon their fellow citizens. Such principles have been defined and consecrated by our Constitution and our laws. If there have ever been difficulties, the Revolution is not to blame. We entertain the hope that never again, in no school of whatever religion nowhere in the world, an adolescent need ask why there are no black, native, yellow or white children there. Holy Father, I sincerely admire your courageous statements on the events concerning Galileo and the Inquisition's known errors; on the Crusades' bloody episodes and the crimes committed during the conquest of the Americas; also on certain scientific discoveries that today are not contested by anybody but which, in their times, were the target of so many prejudices and anathemas. That certainly required the immense authority you have come to attain within your church. What can we offer you in Cuba? People exposed to less inequalities and a lower number of helpless citizens; less children without schools, less patients without hospitals, and more teachers and physicians per capita than any other country in the world visited by the Holy Father; educated people you can talk to in perfect freedom with the certainty of their talent and their high political culture, their strong convictions and absolute confidence in their ideas; people that will show all due respect and consciousness in listening to you. Another country will not be found better disposed to understand your felicitous idea -- as we understand it and so similar to what we preach -- that the equitable distribution of wealth and solidarity among men and peoples should be globalized. Welcome to Cuba! Professor Ioan Davies,Sociology and Social/Political Thought, Founders College, York University, Toronto, Canada, M3J 1P3 Phone: 416 736 5148. Web: http://members.tripod.com/~IoanDavies/ From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Wed Jan 28 11:14:05 1998 28 Jan 98 12:19:58 -600 28 Jan 98 12:19:11 -600 Date: Wed, 28 Jan 98 12:18:05 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@listserv.ncsu.edu Subject: Fwd: Conference on the Manifesto in Havana Feb. 17-20 ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Erwin Marquit To: Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 05:16:31 -0600 Subject: Conference on the Manifesto in Havana Feb. 17-20 Information on the International Conference to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto Call for Papers and Participation SOCIAL EMANCIPATION 150 YEARS AFTER THE MANIFESTO Havana Feb. 17-20, 1998 Themes: Genesis and history of the Manifesto; its validity today The Manifesto=92s impact on the Third World; its articulation in national tradition Culture and dialogue: identity, interculturality Political forms of globalization; socialism and globalization State, civil society, and international hegemony Class struggle in the new international situation Indigenous, environmental, gender, ethnic, and other social factors and movements in the emancipatory process Toward a new concept of world society Sponsored by the Marxist Educational Press in cooperation with the Instit= ute of Philosophy (Cuba), Cuban Society of Philosophical Research, Academy of Science, and Department of Social Science of the University of Las Villas= , and the journals Marx Ahora and Ciencias Sociales. The conference will have plenary and parallel sessions with English and Spanish translations. Persons wishing to present papers (15 minutes or le= ss) should submit a one-page abstract by January 15. It is anticipated that a= ny proposals falling within the general spirit of the conference topic will = be accommodated on the program. The Marxist Educational Press (MEP) will apply for licenses from the Offi= ce of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC) for anyo= ne subject to U.S. jurisdiction who qualifies under the OFAC guidelines and provides the information requested there. Please follow the instructions = on page four. Whether or not subject to US jurisdiction, all those wishing t= o attend the conference should send completed applications well in advance = of January 15 so that appropriate travel and lodging arrangements can be mad= e. Contact MEP by phone or E-mail for further information. A conference fee of $200 or 120 pounds sterling payable to MEP should be submitted with your application for participation. Applicants who later decide not to attend can receive refunds of this fee (less $25 processing fee). Applicants whose licenses are approved will be notified promptly of the balance due. Conference package includes: Round-trip airfare from Cancun or Nassau to Havana Transfer to and from Havana airport License application and Cuban visa Hotel: arrival Feb. 15, departure Feb. 22 Breakfast and dinner Feb. 17-19; breakfast only Feb. 16, 20-22. Approximate cost of basic package per person with double occupancy $800 without airfare $500 additional from Toronto $170 single occupancy upgrade $125 hotel category upgrade per person, double $160 single $200 The conference will be held in the Centro Capitol (Capitol Building-close= to Old Havana). The hotels will be nearby. Discussions with colleagues at th= e University of Havana and other institutions will be arranged for February= 16 and 21. An additional fee of $50 in cash will be payable to Cuban cosponsors upon arrival in Havana. Airport taxes of approximately $15 to $22 will also be collected at boarding time. A statement of the balance due will be sent when we receive confirmation that license has been issued by Office of Foreign Assets Control. Registration Form International Conference to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto: SOCIAL EMANCIPATION 150 YEARS AFTER THE MANIFESTO, Havana Feb. 17-20, 1998 Enclosed is a $US200 or 120 pounds sterling [payable to MEP]. I shall exp= ect a precise statement of balance due (if OFAC license is applied for, balan= ce due will be sent after license is issued). I understand that my reservati= ons will not be guaranteed until my payment of the balance due by personal ch= eck clears. Please make my arrangements via ___Nassau; ___Cancun; __Toronto;____ from= my home city. Accomodations: ____Single ___Double room If double occupancy, indicate with whom you will share___________________________. Or indicate if you wish us to attempt to pair you with another person in = a double______. ____Hotel upgrade ____Please apply for a license for me from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for travel to Cuba ($25 nonrefundable fee). ____I have already requested/obtained an OFAC license. (Enclose copy of license if one was granted.) Name______________________________________________________ Address____________________________________________________ Phone (work)___________ (home)_________ Citizenship_____ E-mail ___________________________________ Passport number_________________ Birthdate________________ Birthplace_________________ Profession____________________ University or professional affiliation____________________ ___________________________________________________________ Send to MEP, Univ. of Minnesota, Physics Bldg., 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0112 Information about Travel to Cuba for Persons Subject to U.S. Jurisdiction The Marxist Educational Press will provide the OFAC with details of the conference program and will apply for licenses for those who believe that they satisfy the OFAC guidelines whether or not they present a paper at t= he conference. You cannot count on applications being processed in less than= 60 days, so that the materials requested below should be submitted with your conference registration as soon as possible. If you wish us to apply for = an OFAC license for you, please submit the following: (1) A statement indicating the connection between your participation in t= he conference and your professional interest in Cuba as required by the OFAC guidelines. This statement must explain how your professional interests a= re related to Cuba itself, not just to the conference themes. As indicated o= n page 3, activities will be organized for February 16 and 21 in accordance with your professional interests. This will satisfy the OFAC requirement that a full schedule is maintained during your entire stay in Cuba. (2) A brief CV or resume (preferably one page) containing information supporting your claim of professional (scholarly or journalistic) interes= t in Cuba. It would be useful to include here a selection from your list of publications and/or a description of teaching or research activities illustrating the relevance of the conference to your professional interes= ts. Cuba Travel Advisory for Those Subject to U.S. Jurisdiction The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department will issue licenses for travel to Cuba to those who meet any of the following conditions: Persons who are engaged in professional research and similar activities o= f a noncommercial academic nature. Such persons must engage in a full work schedule, and there must be a substantial likelihood of public disseminat= ion of the product of their research. Persons are considered to be engaging i= n professional research if: (a) they are full-time professionals who travel to Cuba to do research in their professional areas and their research is specifically related to Cu= ba, or (b) they may or may not be full-time professionals, but are acing on beha= lf of an organization with an established interest in international relation= s to collect information related to Cuba. Similar activities include travel for; (a) noncommercial research purpose= s specifically related to Cuba by persons who are working to qualify themselves academically as professionals (e.g., certain graduate degree candidates) and (b) attendance by professionals with an established inter= est in Cuba at professional meetings where research on Cuba is shared. Persons traveling for free-lance journalism. Individuals must submit a detailed itinerary and description of the proposed research, as well as a resume or similar document showing a record of publication. Persons traveling for clearly defined educational activities, including activities related to study for an undergraduate or graduate degree sponsored by a U.S. college or university. Journalists who are regularly employed in that capacity by a news-reporti= ng organization. Professor Erwin Marquit School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0112 phone (home) (612) 922-7993 E-mail address: marqu002@tc.umn.edu ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ From eric@stewards.net Fri Jan 30 04:32:46 1998 (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 06:31:59 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Your help urgently Needed For Chiapas World-Wide Online Campaign! ***Please immediately forward this message to all progressive websites, listserves,*** newsgroups, and individuals with which you are aquainted. This is an emergency. To: All concerned individuals and webmasters From: Chiapas Alert Network http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm staff@stewards.net Hi there, With just a two minute effort, you can help to end the brutal paramilitary and military violence and intimidation currently directed by the Mexican government and its ruling party against Indigenous civilians in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas. Many respected international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have roundly denounced the recent violence in Chiapas as an extreme violation of human rights. If you are an *individual*, please go to http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/47.htm where you will find an automated messaging system which will enable you to instantly and automatically send copies of a strong pre-prepared letter of protest, or a letter of your own design, to all three Nafta governments - Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, as well as the European Union. These protest letters will carry both your own name and your email address. If you are a *webmaster*, please go to http://www.newhumans.com/chiapas/hotlogo1.html, where you will be able to obtain an attractive and poignant animated icon which can be placed on your website. When clicked by visitors to your site, this icon will take them to the automated messaging page to send the protest letter. Help us bombard the Nafta governments and Eu with our message! Eric P.S. When the numbers warrant, we will also announce the campaign - and the results - to the world media. P.P.S. There's a `notification system' at the page which allows you to automatically inform your online friends and acquantances about the campaign. BACKGROUND Right-wing violence and intimidation aimed at civilian Indigenous people in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas has not ceased since a brutal massacre (people were hunted like animals for 5 hours) in Chiapas at the little town of Acteal took the lives of 45 people at prayer in a church, most of them women and children, on Dec.22 last year. The Mexican government has used this massacre as the pretext to greatly expand its aggression not only against the Zapatista Indigenous Army, camped in the jungle at the extreme southern tip of Chiapas, and with which the government has a supposed peace agreement. But the `crisis' has also been used to justify using the army to attempt occupations of many civilian communities in Chiapas, in an attempt to break the power of the civilian Indiginous cooperative economic and political organizations, and the Chiapas indigenous automony movement, which are consciously seeking to pursue a path of cooperative ecological development in the region, and which in many cases are not even closely aligned with the Zapatistas. Deaths, injuries, terrible fear, and thousands of refugees have been generated by this military activity in the past 10 days. There is every reason to fear that a still more aggressive campaign, and far more deaths, may be on the immediate horizon. Your help is needed. Please forward this message. Please go to our website. From priesz@mcl.cl Fri Jan 30 09:10:24 1998 id JAA06810; Fri, 30 Jan 1998 09:10:12 -0700 (MST) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 12:58:10 -0300 To: publabor@relay.doit.wisc.edu From: Paul Riesz Subject: SEARCH FOR A BETTER SOCIETY To members of Labpol. Though my former postings on similar subjects have evoked almost purely negative reactions, I shall now submit a new and - in my opinion - more logically presented version, hoping to receive objective comments and consrtructive criticism from some unbiased members. Greetings Paul Riesz WHY ADVANCING TOWARDS A BETTER SOCIETY SHOULD BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK OF THE NEXT ENTURY: Though the 20th century has brought us an almost miraculous progress in the fields of science, technology and especially economic productivity, the situation of the great majority of people everywhere and of important minorities even in the most advanced nations does not reflect this progress. Quite on the contrary, the fact that the more privileged sectors enjoy a superabundant supply of goods and services, EXPRESSED IN CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION, increases the feeling of deprivation and misery among those, who lack such advantages. Therefore it is important to analyze, how we arrived at the present economic situation and social structure and what realistic chances are there, to find ways to improve them? For this purpose it might be convenient to use a procedure that the German philosopher Hegel brought to our attention, which is the sequence of THESIS = a set of ideas, that have certain beneficial aspects and others, more negative ones, ANTITHESIS = another set, which concentrates on avoiding the shortcomings of the first set, but inevitably develops some of their own and finally SYNTHESIS, which tries to combine the best features of the preceding two and to eliminate their worst defects. It then becomes the new THESIS, thus initiating a new cycle. Applying this method to the problem on hand, one can start with the 1st THESIS = LAISSEZ FAIRE CAPITALISM, which achieved great material progress during the Industrial Revolution, but caused widespread misery among workers and therefore caused the reaction of the 1st ANTITHESIS = MARXISM which was supposed to achieve both rapid material progress and a fair distribution of wealth. Based on these ideas, Soviet communism came to power through a bloody revolution in Russia and later gained dominion over vast areas in 4 continents. It did achieve a respectable measure of material progress and fair distribution of wealth, but such progress was achieved using an iron control and brutal repression, accompanied by atrocities against millions of citizens and by a complete lack of checks and balances. Its final almost complete downfall may have been due partly to loss of faith of their governing elite and partly to having been left far behind in productivity and creation of wealth. Nevertheless it achieved some permanent positive results, since it induced the more enlightened decision makers in capitalist countries to integrate important benefits for workers and other underprivileged people in the search for a better society through the 1st SYNTHESIS in the form of SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, Ludwig Erhard´s SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY and the WELFARE STATE, which then became a new and during some time very successful 2nd THESIS. At present some of the societies based on these ideas are showing signs of deterioration , because their material underpinning is eroding, causing increasing budget deficits and/or complaints about excessive taxation and bureaucratic inefficiencies from the private sector, therefore giving rise to the 2nd ANTITHESIS of THATCHERISM and REAGANOMICS. They did achieve some improvements in industrial efficiency, but led to more confrontation between capital and labor and were unable to effectively address rising unemployment and higher welfare costs. At present both the societies based on a revived Laissez Faire and the ones surviving from the 1st synthesis present important shortcomings and therefore the time might be rife for a new 2nd SYNTHESIS, which again ought to ought to combine the best features of both and some of pure Marxism, probably emphasizing friendly relations between Capital and Labor with higher productive efficiency and a solution for unemployment and welfare dependency. Here are 2 basic ideas which might be helpful in the search for such a new synthesis: 1. COOPERATION instead of CONFRONTATION between CAPITAL and LABOR through EQUITALE SHARING PROFITS and DECISION MAKING, PLUS MORE JOB SECURITY and 2. RIGHT TO WORK FOR EVERYONE. HOW COULD SUCH A SYNTHESIS BE ACHIEVED: The much lower labor cost and growing efficiency in newly industrialized countries, threatens the competitiveness of most manufacturing industries in the 1st world. Therefore downsizing, outsourcing and restructuring seems to be the only way to stay in business and be able to compete. This hurts labor and causes a lot of misery, but closing down their operations or moving them overseas, would be even worse for their workforce. These developments threaten the very structure of our Society, since the feeling of hopelessness in a new underclass and the growing inequality of wealth could lead to revolutionary tendencies and/or more and harsher repression. So far the situation has not got out of hand, since many new jobs have been created in the service sector, especially computer-related, where an explosive and almost miraculous growth has materialized and where some of the displaced workers did find jobs (unfortunately not too many of them had the required skills). Nevertheless this growth must come to an end eventually and this end might already be approaching, since the market for services is not unlimited. To forestall the above mentioned consequences it might be useful to 1. In order to improve conditions for workers in traditional activities, one might consider, that nowadays most jobs require great skills acquired by training and experience, initiative and dedication. Such efficient workers cannot be easily replaced and they are indispensable for success in industry. On the other hand only successful and profitable industries are in a position to pay good wages. Therefore both sides should be encouraged to negotiate terms for establishing a mutually beneficial COOPÈRATION REPLACING the now outdated concept of permanent CONFRONTATION. Such terms should include the support of unions for continuously improve productivity which would favor CAPITAL, plus an equitable sharing of profits, some voice in decision making and provisions for finding alternate jobs for workers to be let go in the often necessary processes of rationalization for LABOR. Governments should encourage such negotiations with any means at their disposal. Under such conditions CAPITAL AND LABOR OUGHT TO CONSIDER THEMSELVES PARTNERS INSTEAD OF ADVERSARIES 2. Establish the RIGHT TO WORK through organizing enough socially meaningful activities, to accommodate ALL displaced workers through improving the present WORKFARE LEGISLATION.. They would earn at least as much as welfare recipients now get and also have access to training and/or education to prepare them for any job-openings that might appear later. Even after fully implementing these 2 proposals, the ensuing structure of Society would still be far from ideal. There would remain very high differences between rich and poor and access to justice or education would still be far from equal for all citizens, but it would be a step (and maybe a large step) forward from present conditions. Further improvements for a more equitable Society would have to be sought later or would possibly have to be left to our descendants. From goertzel@crab.rutgers.edu Fri Jan 30 10:33:20 1998 Fri, 30 Jan 1998 12:32:43 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 98 12:32:43 EST From: Ted Goertzel To: PSN@csf.COLORADO.EDU, ben@goertzel.org, tonym@oz.net, mariogo@microsoft.com Subject: Virus Alert Someone just give me this, I don't know if it is a myth as a lot of these warnings have been, but here it is just in case. If you receive an email titled "JOIN THE CREW" DO NOT open it. It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this email out to as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people know about it. This information was announced by IBM on January 26; please share it with everyone that might access the internet. Ted Goertzel From davidredmon@hotmail.com Sat Jan 31 09:40:27 1998 Received: from hotmail.com (f32.hotmail.com [207.82.250.43]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with SMTP id JAA13955 for ; Sat, 31 Jan 1998 09:40:22 -0700 (MST) Received: (qmail 9963 invoked by uid 0); 31 Jan 1998 16:40:21 -0000 Message-ID: <19980131164021.9962.qmail@hotmail.com> Received: from 205.165.62.217 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Sat, 31 Jan 1998 08:40:20 PST X-Originating-IP: [205.165.62.217] From: "David Redmon" To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu, PSN@csf.colorado.edu, ahs-talk@ncsu.edu Subject: call for papers Content-Type: text/plain Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 08:40:20 PST CALL FOR PAPERS!! A new journal, especially for and by grad students in sociology has been created by the Red Feather Institute. The first issue is edited by David Redmon at Texas Woman's University...There is no special theme for this issue. If you have a good paper helpful to grad students in the US, Europe or Australia/New Zealand, send it along to David at: DavidRedmon@hotmail.com David is special Editor of the Spring, 1998 Issue and member of the Editorial Board. Grad Students wishing to act as Editor of other Issues may send David a one page application stating: 1. Which issue you would like to edit: Summer, 1998 Fall, 1998 Winter, 1998 other, please specify 2. Special Theme for your Issue, if any 3. List of authors and titles you plan to use [as/when available] 4. GUIDELINES: length: 10-20 pages word processor: WP51 or Word6.1 or .txt files Limit: you may select up to 10 articles for the Issue you edit. You should send the first 5 in one set after you have chosen them and notified the article. Turn-around time: You can assure prospective authors that their article will appear on- line within 2 weeks of the time you send us the first 5 articles [on disk or email]. Publication Elsewhere. RF Journal articles may be published elsewhere but RF retains rights to electronic presentation. RF Institute will link all articles published elsewhere to any email address other publisher may wish...for ordering hard journal issues or simply acknowledging journal rights. ********************** The General Editor of Red Feather Journals is: TR Young. You can reach him at: tr@tryoung.com If you have any problems. David Redmon Grad Student, Sociology, TWU, Denton, Tx, ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From afreeman@datexinc.com Sat Jan 31 11:28:01 1998 Received: from mail.datexinc.com (pc90.datexinc.com [206.205.48.90]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id LAA19274 for ; Sat, 31 Jan 1998 11:27:48 -0700 (MST) Received: by localhost from mail.datexinc.com (router,WinSmtp -Win16- V1.07beta1.8); Sat, 31 Jan 1998 13:33:55 PST Received: from pc232.datexinc.com by mail.datexinc.com (206.205.48.232::mail daemon; unverified,WinSmtp -Win16- V1.07beta1.8); Sat, 31 Jan 1998 13:32:00 PST From: Andrea Freeman To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu Date: Sat, 31 Jan 1998 13:26:29 +0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: Special WID Opportunity in Wash.,DC X-pmrqc: 1 X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.54) Message-Id: <19980131133355.098f873c.in@mail.datexinc.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by csf.Colorado.EDU id LAA19284 WorldWID Announces Special Recruitment for Fellowship Opportunity in Democracy and Governance The WorldWID Fellows Program is recruiting a specialist in Democracy and Governance to work with the Office of Women in Development, Global Bureau, United States Agency for International Development (USAID/G/WID). This WorldWID Fellow will work under the guidance of USAID/G/WID in Washington, D.C. and will have temporary duty assignments working with USAID Missions abroad. WorldWID is a one-year Fellows Program managed by the University of Florida under a cooperative agreement with the USAID/G/WID. The goal of the program is to increase the number of U.S. citizens with technical expertise and gender analytical skills that can be used in the implementation of U.S. foreign assistance programs. Overall, the program recruits persons with highly developed skills relevant to the strategic areas of USAID: economic growth; democracy and governance, including human rights; environment; girls education; and population, health, and nutrition. Please see our web page at http://www.datexinc.com/worldwid/. The successful applicant for this position will have an interest in the field of women in development (WID) / gender and development (GAD) and expertise in a field applicable to USAID/G/WID's Strategic Support Objective 3: To improve women's legal and property rights and increase women's participation in governance and civil society in all regions, with an emphasis on legal rights in Eastern Europe and the New Independent States, and civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Fellow will participate in a our gender and development training and orientation program from March 22 to May 1, 1998, and then be assigned to USAID/G/WID in Washington, D.C. for a period of approximately 10 months. WorldWID Fellows receive a monthly stipend of $2,500, domestic and international travel to the field and some other costs associated with the program. Partial reimbursement of housing costs is possible. Applicants should meet the following qualifications: · Masters or Doctorate in a social science or related field to areas defined in Strategic Support Objective 3 above, or Law degree; ·Demonstrated expertise and technical knowledge of issues related to women's increased participation in governance and civil society and access to legal and property rights; · Ability to work in a team; to take leadership when necessary, and ability to deal with competing priorities; · Excellent English writing skills; speaking knowledge of Spanish and/or Russian highly desired; · Experience working in a developing country, preferably the NIS and/or Latin America; · United States citizenship; · Knowledge and/or experience in the field of WID or GAD; · Ability to begin this assignment in March 1998. We will accept applications until this position is filled. Persons interested in applying for this WorldWID Fellowship, please contact: Ms. Katie Lynch, Recruitment Coordinator WorldWID Fellows Program University of Florida, Office of International Studies and Programs 123 Tigert Hall, Box 113225 Gainesville, FL 32611-3225 Phone 352/392-7074; Fax 352/392-8379; E-mail: wid2@nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu All communications about this placement should be with the WorldWID Fellows Program. Applicants should NOT contact USAID overseas Missions or offices in Washington, D.C. From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Sat Jan 31 22:38:26 1998 Received: from cpua.it.luc.edu (cpua.it.luc.edu [147.126.240.20]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with SMTP id WAA13592 for ; Sat, 31 Jan 1998 22:38:16 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199802010538.WAA13592@csf.Colorado.EDU> Received: from CPUA.IT.LUC.EDU by cpua.it.luc.edu (IBM MVS SMTP V3R1) with BSMTP id 6548; Sat, 31 Jan 98 23:38:00 LCL Date: Sat, 31 Jan 98 23:37 CST From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: ASA-Theory Roundtables As some may know I wear several hats, one of the few people in the Marx ist section that is also in Theory. This year I am organizing the roundtables for theory. While Stephanie and to an extent Val have been organizing the rts for the Marxist section, there are some folks in the M section whose work get into the traditions of Frankfurt School, Anal ytical Marxism, structural Marxism, and even some post modern, post structural approaches. I am going to try to have a couple of papers in the otherwise "value free" (ha ha) mainstream of theory. If anyone might be interested in doing something, let me know asap. Lauren Langman