From s.peters@surrey.ac.uk Tue Jun 30 20:58:33 1998 Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:57:50 +0100 To: scrol-list@soc.surrey.ac.uk From: Stuart Peters Subject: Sociological Research Online, vol 3 issue 2 Sociological Research Online http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline Dear Colleagues, Volume 3 number 2 of Sociological Research Online was published earlier today. A list of the contents appears below, but there two other things that I would like to draw to your attention. There is a new call in this issue - 'A Class Call'. This encourages the submission of papers that might challenge current notions of 'class' and broaden interpretations. In particular I would like submissions from, and/or concerning, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. I wish to explore the truly international nature of Sociological Research Online beyond the possibilities of traditional print journals. Full details of the call can be read in this new issue. Of course, regular sociological papers, as well as papers concerned with other ongoing themes, including 'Social Transformation' and 'The Future of Sociology', are equally welcome. I would also encourage you to take a few moments to fill in our readers' survey. This will help us with an ongoing evaluation of Sociological Research Online. I would be extremely grateful if you could spare the time to give us feedback which will help us to improve the journal further. As usual, I hope that you continue to enjoy Sociological Research Online and of course that you will continue to consider the journal as a possible outlet for your own research - simply post articles on disk to the address in the signature below, or email them to . I look forward to hearing from you. With best wishes, Liz Stanley, Editor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 3, Number 2 - Contents Call for Papers A Class Call Helen Lomax and Neil Casey Recording Social Life: Reflexivity and Video Methodology Ernst Thoutenhoofd Method in a Photographic Enquiry of being Deaf Roger S. Slack On the Potentialities and Problems of a WWW Based Naturalistic Sociology Tim Dant and David Francis Planning in Organisations: Rational Control or Contingent Activity? SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION Tim May and Mary Buck Power, Professionalism and Organisational Transformation Peter Kennedy Coming to Terms with Contemporary Capitalism: Beyond the Idealism of Globalisation and Capitalist Ascendancy Arguments Mikael Hjerm Reconstructing 'Positive' Nationalism: Evidence from Norway and Sweden Stephanie Linkogle The Revolution and the Virgin Mary: Popular Religion and Social Change in Nicaragua DEBATES Caroline Elliott and Dan Ellingworth The Practical Limitations of Survey Analysis: A brief response to Lynn Norma Romm Caricaturing and Categorising in Processes of Argument BOOK REVIEWS Scott C. Ratzan: The Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good Kenneth Thompson: Moral Panics Reviewed by Paul Atkinson Neil J. Smelser: Problematics of Sociology: The Georg Simmel Lectures, 1995 Reviewed by Leonard Beeghley Richard Doyle: On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences Reviewed by Marc Berg Derek Layder: Understanding Social Theory Peter Worsley: Knowledges: What Different Peoples Make of the World Reviewed by Graham Crow Ruth Lister: Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives Reviewed by Rosemary Deem Francine D. Blau and Ronald G. Ehrenberg (editors): Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace Reviewed by Colette Fagan Clive Seale (editor): Researching Society and Culture Reviewed by Andrew Hill Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine (editors): Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice Reviewed by Rhidian Hughes Robert van Krieken: Norbert Elias Reviewed by Pablo Jáuregui Jaana Juvonen and Kathryn Wentzel (editors): Social Motivation: Understanding Children's School Adjustment Reviewed by Andrew Pollard Vic Duke and Liz Crolley: Football, Nationality and the State Reviewed by Sam Pryke Charles Tilly: Durable Inequality Reviewed by Mike Savage Victoria L. Bergvall, Janet M. Bing and Alice F. Freed (editors): Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice Reviewed by Jane Sunderland Barbara Bagilhole: Equal Opportunities and Social Policy: Issues of Race, Gender and Disability Reviewed by Clare Ungerson Joseph E. Behar (editor): Mapping Cyberspace: Social Research on the Electronic Frontier Rob Kitchin: Cyberspace: The World in the Wires Reviewed by Nina Wakeford Jean. S. La Fontaine: Speak of the Devil: Tales of Satanic Abuse in Contemporary England Reviewed by Robin Wooffitt RESEARCH RESOURCES Beverley Holbrook Useful Resources on the World Wide Web for Social Scientists Susanne Webel gender Inn ____________________________________________________________________________ SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE Editor: Liz Stanley Book Review Editors: Sue Heath and Nina Wakeford 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 smrose@exis.net Wed Jul 1 15:40:06 1998 From: "Steve & Mimi Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 17:35:22 +0000 Subject: (Fwd) CALL FOR NATIONAL STRIKE IN PR This massive class struggle in Puerto Rico and the on-going battle between auto workers and General Motors in the US should reduce somewhat the output of writers claiming that the class struggle has been superseded by identity politics and that the working class can no longer be the agent of revolutionary transformation of the world. The fight against the sale of the state telephone company in Puerto Rico to GTE has featured massive use of state power (police) against strikers and impressive working class solidarity leading to a call for a general strike. Capitalists are trying to deal with spreading crisis by making unprecedented attacks on workers, sharpening the contradiction between capitalism and workers' lives. Similarly, GM is pinning its survival in a global auto industry with immense excess capacity on an all out strategy of cutting union jobs, outsourcing, and relocation to low wage countries. GM workers face a huge battle for their future. In both these strikes union leaders often put forward reformist ideas and focus on the national dimensions of the struggles. But communications and auto are international industries, workers face an international capitalist crisis, and they must use these battles to learn how to destroy the system that is destroying them. We should support these struggles as much as we can. We should get students, staff, and faculty (and our union, if we have one) to express solidarity in letters or joing workers on nearby picket lines. We should discuss the significance of these struggles at the ASA/SSSP/ABS and other sociology meetings this summer. Steve Rosenthal ======================================================== ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 08:16:35 -0700 Reply-to: CWCS-L From: IRSP Subject: CALL FOR NATIONAL STRIKE CALL FOR NATIONAL STRIKE IN PUERTO RICO AGAINST PRIVATIZATION OF PHONE COMPANY 28 Jun 1998 "Cesar J. Ayala" By acclamation, 1,200 delegates from trade unions and community organizations voted on Sunday, June 28 to approve a national strike of all workers in Puerto Rico against the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. The assembly of the Comité Amplio de Organizaciones Sindicales (CAOS- Broad Committee of Trade Union Organizations) which took place in the town of Carolina, east of the capital city of San Juan, brought together delegates from more than 60 unions in Puerto Rico, including the main public sector unions which are in the forefront of the struggle against privatization. The labor movement in Puerto Rico is involved in a major confrontation against the government over the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. The state owned corporation is being sold by the administration of governor Pedro Rosselló to a group of investors led by GTE Corporation and the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. The two unions in the Puerto Rico Telephone Company (Independent Union of Telephone Workers UIET, and Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers HIETEL).are on strike as of June 18. Over the last ten days, the Puerto Rico Police has deployed massive armed power against the pickets in front of the facilities of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. The president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association (Colegio de Abogados), Fermín Arraíza, and the Presidente of the Puerto Rican Commission on Civil Rights (Comisión de Derechos Civiles), Luis Aulet, have expressed themselves in the press against the "excessive use of force" on the part of the police of Puerto Rico. The Bar Association has posted lawyers on the picket lines as observers to guarantee that the police does not violate people's constitutional rights. Broadcasts of police beating strikers have caused an outpouring of solidarity in favor of the strikers. Unions have collected over $100,000 in donations for the strike fund from a sympathetic public which opposes the privatization of the phone company by a margin of two to one, according to local polls. The powerful Electrical Workers Union (UTIER) went on a three day strike last week. The Aqueduct Workers Union (UIA) walked out for 24 hours in support of the workers of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. The teamsters walked out in the ports The presence of delegates from the following unions and organizations was announced over the loudspeakers during today's session in Carolina: 1. AFL-CIO (Jimmy Torres) 2. Asociación de Maestros (William Ortiz) 3. Asociación Puertoriqueña de Profesors Universitarios (Rafael Bernabe) 4. Central Puertorriqueña de Trabajadores (Federico Torres Montalvo) 5. Central Unidad Sindical 6. Choferes del Este (Manuel Villanueva) 7. CILDES (Luis Rubén Rosado) 8. Comité Contra la Privatización (Zoriel Cruz) 9. Comité Organizador del CAOS (Alfonso Benítez) 10. Comite Unidad Sindical (E. Rodríguez) 11. Concilio General de Trabajadores 12. Consejo General de Estudiantes (Herminio Pagán) 13. COS (Carlos Vizcarrondo) 14. Federacion de Mestros de Puerto Rico (Renán Soto) 15. Federación de Taxistas 16. Frente Estudiantil de Río Piedras (Natalia Fortuño) 17. Frente Socialista (Jorge Farinacci) 18. Frente Universitario Contra la Privatización 19. Hermandad de Empleados del Departamento de Justicia (Magda Marrero Rivera) 20. Hermandad de Empleados Exentos no Docentes UPR (Sonia Reyes) 21. Hermandad del Departamento de Hacienda 22. Hermandad del Departamento del Trabajo 23. Hermandad Independiente de Empleados Telefónicos (Annie Cruz, Presidenta del CAOS) 24. LIDES (Carlos Quirós) 25. Liga de Cooperativas (Gregorio Vázquez) 26. Mario Roche (Cabildero Laboral) 27. Misión Industrial (Juan Rosario) 28. Movimiento Unidad Obrera Dominicana 29. Nuevo Movimiento Independentista (Julio Muriente) 30. Organización Puertorriqueña de la Mujer Trabajadora (Josie Pantojas) 31. Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (Víctor García San Inocencio) 32. Pedro Grant 33. Seafarer's International Union (Roberto Rosa) 34. Sindicato de Obreros de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (David Muñoz) 35. Sindicato Puertorriqueño de Trabajadores (Roberto Pagán) 36. SIU (Marcos Cordero) 37. Trabajadors Unidos Autoridad Metropolitana de Autobuses (TUAMA, Federico Gotay) 38. UFT (Juan Elizá) 39. Unión Abogados Asistencia Legal (Julio López) 40. Union de Abogados Sociedad de Asistencia Legal (José Roqué) 41. Union de Empleados de los Muelles (José Luis González) 42. Union de Empleados de Servicios Sociales (Luis Pedraza Leduc) 43. Unión de Empleados Municipales (Pedro Solís) 44. Unión de Empleados Profesionales de la Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados 45. Unión de Empleados Profesionales de la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica 46. Union de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego (José Valentín) 47. Union de Trabajadores del Fondo del Seguro del Estado (Richard Rodríguez) 48. Union de Trabajadores Industriales 49. Union de Tronquistas (Teamster's Local 901, Luis Carrión) 50. Union del Sur (Jose Caraballo) 51. Unión Empleados de Navieras (Idalmis Cabra) 52. Union General de Trabajadores 53. Union Independiente Auténtica (UIA Acueductos, Hector René Lugo) 54. Unión Independiente de Empleados Telefónicos(UIET, José Juan Hernández) 55. Union Nacional de Trabajadores de la Salud (SEIU affiliate, José Rodríguez) Today's meeting approved the call for a "national strike." Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., the Executive Council of the Broad Committee of Union Organizations (CAOS) will vote on a date and on the duration of the national strike. The local press has reported widespread sabotage against phone lines and automatic teller machines in offices of the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. Annie Cruz, president of one of the telephone workers' unions (HIETEL) and spokesperson for the CAOS, declared today at the assembly that "the fiber optic cables have not been able to resist the people's indignation." In response to recent declarations by the chief of police, Mr. Pedro Toledo, that students, faculty from the University of Puerto Rico, and other "outside agitators" are responsible for the violence in the picket lines, HIETEL president Annie Cruz explained today that the strike of the phone workers has become a national strike against privatization. Police Chief Toledo is attempting to isolate the strike by associating it exclusively with pro-independence figures, portraying the strike as the work of "extremists." Toledo has singled out professors Rafael Bernabe and Julio Muriente of the University of Puerto Rico, Jorge Farinacci of the Socialist Front, and Ricardo Santos of the electrical workers as the " agitators" responsible for the strike. Today in the Carolina assembly, HIETEL president Cruz thanked the broad sectors of the population which have shown up at the picket lines in support of the telephone workers, defending the lines against strikebreakers and the police, and providing physical and monetary support to the strikers. Students, faculty, members of other unions and the public in general who have provided strike support are not "outsiders," declared Cruz. They are part of a broad popular movement against the takeover of the phone company by a foreign corporation. Women have played a critical role on the picket lines, and are in charge of the organization of security at critical sites such as Celulares Telefónica in Río Piedras. Last week buttons and stickers in the pickets characterized the telephone workers strike as "la huelga del pueblo" (the people's strike). In Carolina today, the 1,200 delegates voted for a "national strike" of all workers in Puerto Rico against privatization. The struggle of the phone workers has become a line in the sand for the labor movement as a whole. Privatization has been advancing in education with a recent bill which takes money from public higher education in favor of private universities, in health care, where many hospitals and clinics are being privatized, and in many other government agencies through subcontracting. The surprising level of support for the phone workers is an indication of the accumulated effect of neoliberal policies of privatization. A coalition of workers who can expect layoffs and consumers who can expect higher prices for basic services is saying, loud and clear, that the neoliberal program or privatizing everything under the sun may be good for private capital, but is bad news for the average worker and consumer. Puerto Rico no se vende The main slogan which has caught on expresses a combination of broad anti-market and anti-imperialist feelings among the population: Rendered into English, the slogan means both "Puerto Rico is not for sale" and " Puerto Rico does not sell out." Background There has been a broad based movement in Puerto Rico against the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. On October 1 of last year, over 100,000 demonstrators converged on San Juan to protest government plans to privatize the PRTC. That mobilization was the largest demonstration of any kind ever to take place in Puerto Rico. The PRTC is an efficient government owned enterprise and governor Pedro Rosselló's attempt to privatize it is due to an abstract commitment to a neoliberal economic program, not to a reality of inefficiency of government enterprise, as has been claimed. In fact, consumers who still remember the time when the local phone company was privately owned by International Telephone and Telegraph agree unequivocally that under government ownership the PRTC has provided better and more efficient service than its private predecessor. If the privatization plan is carried out, at least 2,700 workers will loose their jobs in the immediate future, and many more will loose their jobs over the medium term. ***ENVIA ESTE MENSAJE A OTROS COMPAÑERAS(OS) Y AMIGOS(AS) ----------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent via ListBot. To remove yourself from this list, please visit http://www.listbot.com/remove.html Get a free mailing list for your web site @ http://listbot.com/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Wed Jul 1 11:26:40 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 10:26:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Support Puerto Rican Workers/ July 7 General Strike To: lista@azteca.net, psn@csf.colorado.edu IN%"rodrigvm@soca.com" ============================= ================= SUPPORT PUERTO RICAN WORKERS' STRUGGLE AGAINST NEO-LIBERALISM ========================================== =================== The courageous struggle of Puerto Rican workers against unpopular neoliberal policies need the support of U.S. and Latin America's workers. Despite the overwhelming popular opposition to the sale of the publicly owned phone company the Governor refuses to even consider holding a referendum. The head of the police downplayed the degree of public support for this strike and has blamed leftists for what is in fact a national movement for economic self-defense. Following is the fax number for the Fortaleza, the Governors' residence in San Juan. Tell Gov. Pedro Rosello that he should: 1. Place a moratorium of the sale 2. Heed the call of his people and call for a popular referendum. Governor Pedro Rosello Fortaleza FAX: 787-725-4569 Your fax may save Puerto Rican workers from further repression. More than 8 persons have already been injured and a number of explosive devices have been detonated in banks and telephone installations. There is a possibility that despite his announcement to the contrary, the governor may call the National Guard. This might cause further bloodshed among the island's population. ========================================== ============ THE PUERTO RICAN LABOR GENERAL STRIKE: July 7, 1998 Victor M. Rodriguez Organizing Committee to Support Puerto Rican Labor rodrigvm@soca.com (7/1/98) For the first time in Puerto Rico's history, in a massive protest against the recent sale of the island's publicly owned telephone company, a broad coalition of public and private workers has called for a general strike which will involve hundreds of thousands of workers. The strike will start on Tuesday July 7 and will include public workers, teachers, dockworkers, taxi drivers, doctors, lawyers and supporters who will join the existing picket lines of phone workers throughout the island. One demand of the striking workers is that the sale of the phone company be submitted to a popular referendum. Presently, labor organizations are asking all Puerto Ricans not to show to work starting on Tuesday to show their opposition to the sale of this public corporation. Annie Cruz, the leader of one of the two labor organizations of phone workers indicated to a local newspaper that the strike might be indefinite. The present labor conflict has achieved dimensions of a popular revolt against Puerto Rico's Governor Pedro Rosello's dismantling of the island's extensive public sector and its privatization. During the 1940s, the island's colonial government initiated a series of public enterprises to serve as a core of an industrialization process. Also following that period, the neo-populist government of the Popular Democratic Party of Luis Munoz Marin, developed one of the most progressive labor legislation in the region. The administration of Gov. Rosello has been gradually dismantling the progressive legislation and the public sector through a policy of privatization. The publicly owned phone company is one of the most advanced of Latin America with an extensive optic fiber web, cellular, Internet services, etc. Labor leaders and most of the island residents according to polls, believe this enterprise can be the foundation of the island's further economic development. According to a local sociologist this struggle has created a new autonomous party which is expressing itself thorough this process. The head of the island's police forces, Pedro Toledo, has blamed the labor conflict on outside agitators, and has named a number of pro-independence leaders as working behind the scenes to disrupt the island's economy. However, when asked to provide evidence about the conspiracy he said he could not reveal his sources. While a significant number of labor leaders support independence for Puerto Rico, the issue of preventing the sale of phone company has received support from all spheres of the island's civil society. On Wednesday July 1, 1998, a group of 20 Catholic priests, with the authorization of their bishop were going to join the picket lines. Most of the island's mainline and evangelical religious leadership have expressed themselves in support of the workers. University students, fresh out of a protest that led to the closing of the University of Puerto Rico for a week, have massively joined the strikers. All labor unions representing university professors, maintenance and staff also announced their support for the strike. VMR/7/1/98 From sokol@jhu.edu Wed Jul 1 09:38:27 1998 Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 11:37:15 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu At 10:37 AM 6/30/98 -0600, you quoteth: >Subject: A Nation of Spectators? > >The most powerful organization in our society is the corporation. >Corporations have become more powerful than governments, or religious >institutions, or labor unions. > Well, each time schmucks like Bennett say something publicly, I smell a rat. Methinks it is yet another example of chasing platonic shadows on the wall, a diversion if you will. The corporations themselves are not a problem. In fact, corporation _can_ be a very efficient and desirable way of organizing the economy and solving social problems. In fact, such a conclusion is quite convincingly proposed by John Kenneth Galbraith (_The New Industrial State_). The problem is not with the corporation per se, but with the current "rules of engagement" so to speak and the people who control the corporations. A set of rules that would substantially curtail the power of the Wall Street and executive privileges, and increase democratic controls and government oversight will transform corporations into forces of progress. BTW, it is corporate giants like Apple Computer who institute progressive policies like domestic partnership or prevention of sexual harassment - oftentimes over rabid 'popular' opposition (the Christian Coalition and their bed fellows). PS. I apologize everyone for not answering the responses to my last week posting, but I was out of town for several days. Best regards, Wojtek Sokolowski From fbp@igc.apc.org Wed Jul 1 09:58:03 1998 Wed, 1 Jul 1998 06:37:14 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 1 Jul 1998 06:36:24 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 09:17:21 -0400 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: "John M. Miller" Subject: Urgent Action: Help free East Timor please forward to other emails lists and supporters! HELP FREE EAST TIMOR & END 22 YEARS OF OCCUPATION Contact Your Representative & Senators Today! Your Call Can Make a Difference. (see below for action suggestions) On December 7, 1975 Indonesia brutally invaded East Timor. By the early 1980s, the subsequent occupation had claimed the lives of 200,000 East Timorese. For over two decades the United States has supported this horrific war on the East Timorese. (Additional background below.) In recent days, The Indonesian occupation forces are actively organizing pro-integration rallies to provoke clashes with the independence movement. The resulting instability is being used by the military as a justification for its ongoing occupation and a new crackdown. Over the past two weeks, Herman Soares and Manuel Soares, two East Timorese youth, became the latest victims of the occupation; both were shot and killed by Indonesian troops. A number of others have been injured. US support for Indonesia's occupation of East Timor must end! In the 22 years since the killing began, there has never been better opportunity for a change in US policy. Contact Congress urge them to take the actions below. You can help shift US policy towards supporting the rights of the East Timorese. NOW IS A CRUCIAL TIME TO SUPPORT EAST TIMOR. Contact Your Representative & Senators Today! ** Urge your REPRESENTATIVE to co-sponsor ** 1. House Concurrent Resolution (H.Con.Res.) 258, which supports East Timor's right to self-determination. Introduced by Representative Lowey (D-NY), Porter (R-IL), Lantos (D-CA) and Christopher Smith (R-NJ). If your representative agrees to cosponsor or needs a copy of the bill, have them contact Matt Traub in Rep.Lowey's office at 5-6506. 2. Indonesia Human Rights Before Military Assistance Act (H.R. 3918). Introduced by Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), this bill would freeze the transfer of ALL U.S. weapons, spare parts and ammunition for Indonesia's military until a popularly elected government emerges in Indonesia and until substantial human rights improvements in Indonesia and East Timor can be demonstrated. If your Represenative agrees to cosponsor or needs a copy of the bill, have them contact Jamie Roth in Rep.McKinney's office at 5-1605. 3. International Military Training Accountability Act (H.R. 3802), introduced by Rep. Nita Lowey(D-NY), this bill would close loopholes concerning U.S. millitary training of Indonesian troops, banning all such aid. If your Represenative agrees to cosponsor or needs a fax of the bill, have them contact Matt Traub in Rep.Lowey's office at 5-6506. ** Urge your SENATORS to co-sponsor ** Senate Resolution (S. Res. 237), introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) to support democracy in Indonesia and self-determination in East Timor. If they agree to cosponsor or need a fax of the bill, have them contact Linda Rottblatt or Mary Ann in Senator Feingold's office at 4-5323. Call your REPRESENTATIVE & SENATORS via the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Or call their local offices which should be in your phone book. (From June 27 to July 14, many Congress folks will be in their home districts for the recess.) Write to Senator _________, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510 or Rep. _________, US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515. For a current list of Congressional e-mail addresses, try http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ or This website also include office phone and fax numbers. Please forward the results of your contacts to ETAN's Washington office. ETAN's website at http://etan.org/urgntMnu.htm has the text of the bills and the most current lists of co-sponsors. Contact us if you have questions. Contact us if you have questions. East Timor Action Network Washington Representative 110 Maryland Avenue NE #30, Washington, DC 20002 202-544-6911; 546-5103 (fax); etandc@igc.apc.org or Kristin Sundell, Field Organizer East Timor Action Network 101 Western Ave. # 41, Cambridge, MA 02139 tel: 617-868-6600 x319 (w) or 617-441-5043 (h) pager: 617-673-2429; fax: 617-868-7102 or END etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan John M. Miller Internet: etan-outreach@igc.apc.org Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0014 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 ETAN's new web site: http://etan.org Send a blank e-mail message to timor-info@igc.apc.org to find out how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan From sokol@jhu.edu Wed Jul 1 10:17:52 1998 Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 12:16:19 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism In-reply-to: <01bda3ac$e45acbe0$2262e589@cwolf.alaska.edu> To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu Noel: I read the racism piece you recommended. I fully agree with your drift from the individual to the social dimension. I could only wish that you made a similar drift from the mental/cultural to the material. The proposition like "End capitalist oppression!" entails a set of programs that, if implemented, are likely to achieve an empirically observable set of objectives stipulated by that proposition. Those programs may or may not get support of various interests groups, and thus may or may not be attainable under particular political-historical circumstances. But there is little doubt that the implementation of a program that, say, curtails private property rights will reduce the capacity of the "haves" to economically exploit the "have-nots," and will produce a more equitable distribution of economic resources. When it comes to the proposition "End racism," however, I am at utter loss. What the f**k are we supposed to do (individually or collectively) to achieve that end? I hope nobody on this list seriously believes that assorted culturalist voodoo rituals, like schmoozing, deconstruicting, throwing epithets at real or perceived enemies, "town meetings," street rallies, or supporting a political campaign will have any measurable effect on "race relations" other than propelling a few entrepreneuring individulas to leadership positions. So what a person like myself (an Eastern European immigrant of leftist persuasion) is supposed to do to 'end racism?' And while we are at that, can you describe to me how exactly the 'end of racism' looks like, so I can tell (instead of being told!) whether we have one or not? Two final comments. I see nothing wrong with the concept of the "culture of poverty." To me, it has nothing to do with ethnicity (other than being superficially correlated with it under certain circumstances). Where I am coming from, you can see "culture of poverty" and its debilitating effect on 100% caucasians - substance abuse, learned helplessness, social parasitism, lack of responsibility, crime, misogyny, etc. "Underclass" people (peasants and workers) are also perceived by many as less than human with the assorted conseqences (cross-marriages being frown upon, family ties being cut off, etc; BTW, to this day, my old folks cannot forgive me that I married a working class woman, and they keep refering to her family as if they were a different species). Also, where I currently live (I'm the only caucasian male on the block) many people like to see themselves as professional people, and the "victim" or "black" identities have little appeal to them. They do not like being thrown into one sack with the project dwellers a few blocks down the street as 'victims of racism.' In fact my neighbors often refer to the project dwellers in terms I would rather not repeat here. Best regards, Wojtek Sokolowski PS. Again apologies to everyone for my silence, but I was out of town for a few days. From brook@california.com Tue Jun 30 22:33:47 1998 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 08:47:47 -0700 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: NYT review of the CM Hi Ted (and others). Here's the full review from the Times. Not nearly the best review I've read, to put it mildly, but still interesting. I still find Barbara Ehrenreich's irreverant and more relevant review from May much better.---Dan >For Many, Marx's 'Manifesto' Remains Relevant >By PAUL LEWIS > > Karl Marx may have been right after all. > > As readers revisit "The Communist Manifesto" on its 150th anniversary, those >on the left and the right have been struck by the eerie way in which its 1848 >description of capitalism resembles the restless, anxious and competitive >world of today's global economy. > > Economists and political scientists note how the manifesto, written by Marx >and Friedrich Engels, recognized the unstoppable wealth-creating power of >capitalism, predicted it would conquer the world, and warned that this >inevitable globalization of national economies and cultures would have >divisive and painful consequences. > > "The manifesto speaks to our time," says Dani Rodrik, professor of >international political economy at Harvard University. "Marx saw capitalism as >the driving force of history. But he also warns of the divisions that >capitalism's spread would bring, of the social orders destroyed." > > The British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm describes the manifesto's >portrait of capitalism as "recognizably the world we live in 150 years later" >in his introduction to the elegant little edition brought out by the British- >based publisher Verso to mark the anniversary. > > Marx and Engels probably would not wish to be remembered today for having >predicted capitalism's success. The manifesto is a quintessentially >revolutionary document that calls for the abolition of private property, the >replacement of marriage by a "community of women," concentration of political >power in the hands of the proletariat and the replacement of the state by "an >association in which the free development of each is the condition for the >free development of all." > > None of that occurred. The capital-owning bourgeoisie did not become their >own gravediggers by driving an increasingly pauperized proletariat to >revolution. And far from "withering away" as class conflict subsides, the >Soviet state became a monstrous instrument of oppression and then collapsed of >its own weight. > > "Marx underestimated capitalism's ability to buy proletarian support by >gradually enfranchising them," Rodrik said, adding, "A series of implicit >social contracts underpins capitalism, of which the most recent was probably >the creation of welfare states and social security systems after the Second >World War." > > In "The Communist Manifesto: New Interpretations" (Edinburgh University >Press), one of several studies published this year, the late Wal Suchting of >Sydney University reverses the pamphlet's famous opening sentence to conclude >that "the specter of communism has ceased to haunt Europe." > > What remains, however, is the manifesto's vivid, even visionary presentation >of capitalism as an untamable force that could sweep away the Middle Ages and >anything else in its way. > > "All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily >being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries whose introduction >becomes a life or death question for all civilized nations ... industries >whose products are consumed not only at home but in every quarter of the >globe." > > Or: "Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of >social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the >bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones." > > The manifesto's warnings about capitalism's periodic crises foreshadowed the >Great Depression of the 1930s and the more recent cataclysms in Mexico and >Asia. > > And despite the dire language, readers may be reminded of the recent layoff >of 15,000 workers at Motorola to meet mounting competition, the 18 million >unemployed in Europe, the growing disparity in income throughout the world and >workers' increasing insecurity as companies shift production to countries with >lower wages. > > The manifesto also foresaw that the spread of capitalism would bring a >steady alignment of national cultures: "The intellectual creations of >individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow- >mindedness become more and more impossible and from the numerous national and >local literatures, there arises world literature." > > Here is a foretaste of the dominance of English and of the Americanization >of life elsewhere as Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola and McDonald's become universal >symbols. > > In "The Cultures of Globalization," to be published in August by Duke >University Press, Frederick Jameson offers two contrasting visions of the >world literature that Marx and Engels predicted. What Jameson hopes cultural >globalization creates is "an immense global urban intercultural festival >without a center or even any longer a dominant cultural mode." What he fears >is that it might come to mean "increasing standardization on an unparalleled >scale" as human history becomes "a tortuous progression toward the American >consumer as a climax." > > Concerns about the darker side of capitalism's success is prompting writers >to offer their own updated prescriptions. For the far left, the social strains >and tensions that the emergence of a global economy is now creating are an >added reason for nationalizing private property. > > In "The Communist Manifesto Now: Socialist Register 1998" (Monthly Review >Press, New York) Leo Panitch of York University in Toronto and Colin Leys, an >emeritus professor of politics at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, >argue that "the irreconcilability of democracy with private property" must >"come clearly back on the agenda." They insist, however, that this does not >mean abolishing "personal possessions." > > "Socialist parties and Communist parties may have run their course, but the >strains of globalization will throw up new institutions demanding change," >Panitch says. > > Other political scientists and sociologists have called for a new social >contract to restrain the disruption global capitalism is causing in ordinary >people's lives. "We're neglecting this. We need a new social insurance to >soften world capitalism," argues Rodrik, who set out his ideas last year in a >book called "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?" > > William Greider, author of "One World, Ready or Not" (Simon & Schuster, >1997) suggests steps to "moderate the pace of industrial revolution" and >reduce the "danger of a tragic breakdown," including controls on capital >movements around the world, debt forgiveness for poorer nations, higher taxes >on wealth and lower ones on labor. > > In "False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism" (Granta Books, 1998) >John Grey, a politics professor at Oxford University and a disillusioned >conservative, denounces moderate leftist and right-wing parties for supporting >free trade and a single global market, "a utopia that can never be realized >but which already produced social dislocation and economic and political >instability on a large scale." > > Of course, not everyone is a doomsayer. Saskia Sassen of Columbia University >argues that globalization does not necessarily mean an unregulated economic >free-for-all. In "Globalization and Its Discontent" (The New Press, 1998), she >points out that big multinational corporations typically prefer doing business >in countries where the rule of law is strong. > > She adds, however, that new regulatory frameworks "need to be discovered and >invented, as does the meaning of accountability and democratization in the new >global information economy." > > Not everyone agrees that the manifesto was really that visionary. In the >current issue of "Foreign Policy," Helen Milner of Columbia University says >that although globalization is said to weaken governments, foster unemployment >and promote profitability as the universal yardstick of achievement, >government spending remains fairly constant and nations are preserving very >different kinds of welfare states. This suggests "globalization is neither >producing convergence nor undermining labor and may not be irreversible." > > Take that, Karl. I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.---E.B. White From smrose@exis.net Wed Jul 1 20:58:59 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 22:54:20 +0000 Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism Wojtek Sokolowski's reply to Noel Cazenave included the following paragraphs: ============================== > > When it comes to the proposition "End racism," however, I am at utter loss. > What the f**k are we supposed to do (individually or collectively) to > achieve that end? > > I hope nobody on this list seriously believes that assorted culturalist > voodoo rituals, like schmoozing, deconstruicting, throwing epithets at real > or perceived enemies, "town meetings," street rallies, or supporting a > political campaign will have any measurable effect on "race relations" > other than propelling a few entrepreneuring individulas to leadership > positions. > > So what a person like myself (an Eastern European immigrant of leftist > persuasion) is supposed to do to 'end racism?' And while we are at that, > can you describe to me how exactly the 'end of racism' looks like, so I can > tell (instead of being told!) whether we have one or not? > > I see nothing wrong with the concept of the "culture > of poverty." To me, it has nothing to do with ethnicity (other than being > superficially correlated with it under certain circumstances). ============================== When a self-described leftist immigrant from Eastern Europe responds to an anti-racist statement from an African American in this manner, it is not hard to see why many Black sociologists do not think that Marxists fight racism, and it is not hard to understand why few Black sociologists participate in discussions on PSN. Woytek is right to remind Noel that it is necessary to make a class analysis of white people and to urge Noel to analyze the linkage of racist ideology to capitalism. But Woytek could also learn from Noel both to recognize racism more clearly and to fight it consistently. The private university where Woytek works is located in urban black working class Baltimore. The contrast between the wealth of Johns Hopkins and the poverty of black workers is a manifestation of BOTH capitalism and racism. The fact that capitalism exploits all workers does not make that exploitation non-racist. In fact, super-exploitation of black workers is used by the capitalist class to increase the exploitation of all workers, divide the working class, and increase the profits and power of the capitalist class. To fight racism, we should oppose KKK and police murders of black workers, the destruction of welfare, the scapegoating of Latin and Asian immigrants, the promotion of I.Q. ideology, sociobiology, and culture of poverty versions of academic racism. These are just a few examples. These fights will not end racism, but they will help us build an anti-racist movement. They will help us learn how to fight racism and how to unify the working class. To end racism, we must not only make the fight against racism (and nationalism) also a fight to destroy the capitalist system. We must expect, even after the overthrow of capitalism, to fight for a long time to eradicate racism and nationalism from the world. When class exploitation and the myths that humanity is made of different races and nationalities are distant memories or museum exhibitions humanity will see the end of racism. The "culture of poverty" is a racist and anti-working class concept. It does not cease to be racist because it is also applied to white workers. The Bell Curve didn't cease to be a racist book because Murray and Herrnstein asserted that a large population of poor whites are genetically and culturally inferior to rich whites. It is a victim-blaming one-sided view of poor people. According to the culture of poverty theory, poor people perpetuate their own poverty through their own values and behavior and are therefore unable to take advantage of opportunities to get out of poverty that society makes available to them. William Ryan, in Blaming the Victim (1971) wrote what is still the politically and sociologically sharpest critique of the culture of poverty. He showed how the theory was used to attack blacks and to attack anti-racist movements in the 1960s, and how it served a function similar to the assertion that poor people are genetically inferior. White leftists who think that ending capitalism does not require us to fight racism encourage black reformists who think that ending racism does not require overthrowing capitalism, and black nationalists who think that few if any whites will ever fight racism. I recommend to Woytek Robin Kelley's "Yo' Mama's Disfunktional." Kelley is a black Marxist historian who clearly understands that fighting racism and sexism is necessary to building a multi-racial working class movement against capitalism. He also understands that fighting racism and sexism is not the same thing as promoting identity politics, and he attacks liberals like Richard Rorty and William J. Wilson who use social class to put forward a racist and sexist line. I'll write more about Kelley's book in another post. This has already become pretty long. Steve Rosenthal From rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu Wed Jul 1 21:21:40 1998 Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 22:21:34 -0500 (CDT) From: Rachel Jones To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: strike in ny city There was a *tiny* side story in today's (7-1-98) New Orleans Times-Picayune about a strike/riot by construction workers in New York City (Manhattan?). The blurb said several hundred people were involved and that the police had to be called in to quell the uproar. Does anyone have anymore details? thanks... -- Rachel K. Jones rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu Department of Sociology Tulane University New Orleans, LA 70118 When all else fails, manipulate the data. From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Thu Jul 2 07:54:23 1998 Date: Thu, 02 Jul 98 08:54 CDT From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: The Culture of Poverty Wotjek accepst the COP arguement, Steve calls it blame the victim. As on of the cultural folks, as well as simulation of Talmudic scholar, let us consider the source of our understandings, Marx. He had two positions on ideology-the values of every society are those of its ruling classes----values come from the concrete material conditions in which people live their lives. Thus curiously both are right. There does emerge a set of values-more alternative compensations-among those in poverty where for example dealing drugs is socially/morally legitimate given few other alternatives. There is more to the COP but most on this list not only know that, but teach it in intro. The problem of the arguement-as Steve notes-is that it is used by the dominant culture to blame the victim when the victim is in fact responding to the actual conditions of his/her life. From Oscar Lewis we have the excess baggage that the culture is handed down from gener- ation to generation, deeply internalized aspect of personality. Again reality is more complex. In recent years neo-natal neurologists have shown what social scientists pointed out generations ago, that the nature of early life, much affection, stimulation and low stress actually affect brain development in first few years. NOTE: THIS IS SOCIAL-NOT GENETIC, in other words the conditions in which children are born to poverty, affects cognitive growth. Etc Etc. To put both arguments together, the conditions of a society impact its culture and values, but this culture has independent consequences. It is more than a knee jerk of political economy. That said, the conditions of stuctural inequality, racism, etc do create cultural adapatations that do influence how people live and think. (And cultural factors can inspire social change-but that is for another post). So yes PSNers, there is a culture of poverty, that joins with a culture of individualism and blames victim, but the COP is a responce to material factors. Consider the COP arguement that hedonism and impulse ridden life styles are typical for lower classes. Any notice the news that minority out of wedlock births are plummeting, lowest in 40 years. Why among other things, sex ed in schools, availability of contraception, and even for many minority women, despite what we know about the phony. economic boom, many have econ opportunities. So let us note the power role of culture, and neither reduce it to a simple reflection of class/material factors, but at the same time let us not go pomo or culturalist and divorce culture from material conditions. Thus I would point out why despite poverty, some groups manage to adopt well, some Asians, Jews etc. Quite simply long enduring cultural values-reinforced by peers and parents-enable(d) many groups living in poverty, often for many generations, to adapt to the new changed material conditions. Now that we have a framework to resolve these differences, I am off to middle east to sit down with Yassir and Bibi :) Lauren Langman From sokol@jhu.edu Thu Jul 2 08:16:29 1998 Thu, 02 Jul 1998 10:15:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 10:15:11 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? To: psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu At 01:39 AM 7/2/98 -0400, Brian K. Ruby wrote in reply to my argument that corporations are not inherently a bad thing: > It is also corporations like Nike and GM which exploit the local >workers, and when they can no longer do that successfully, move their >production lines to some other place where they can! > Please read carefuly what I wrote. I said that under the current conditions corporations are instruments used to advance the interests of the ruling class (which is what the above posting implies), but they do not have to be used that way. In fact, they can be used to advance the interests of the working class. I think this is exactly the same logic Marx used to critique capitalist manufacturing - do not reject the system as the utopians wanted, make it work for the working class, not just for the capitalists. BTW, opening overseas production facilities does not have to be a bad thing, unless you assume that Americans have a birth right to good jobs. Even if the pay is below that in the US, an overseas production facility can mean: - employment opportunity that is better than anything available locally; and - loosening of the patriarchal/feudal structures, because it offers some economic opportunity to underclass women. Again, I am not claiming that there are no abuses in "outsourcing." All I am saying that the system itself can potentially be beneficial, at eleast form an internationalist 9as opposed to nationalist) perspective. In the same vein, Marx argued that British rule had also a positive effect on India, its other horrors notwithstanding. regards, WS From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Thu Jul 2 09:36:40 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 08:36:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Class, Gender and National Identity: Puerto Rico To: smrose@exis.net Re: Rosenthal's Flint, Puerto Rico: Class, Gender and the National Question The labor struggles in Flint and the social movement developing in Puerto Rico against privatization are a great opportunity for us to concretely express international solidarity. Also, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the often called "intersection of "gender, class and ethnicity/national identity." At least in Puerto Rico's case, this is the first time, at least since the Sugar workers general strike in 1934, when workers have called a general strike. That in itself is quite unusual if it was not coupled with the fact that this is a "political" strike. Its leaders, have taken the bold step of explicitly saying this is not an economic strike but a political strike. The labor movement in the island just as in the US was experiencing a decline in membership. Less than 11% of workers belong to unions. However, the number of government and public sector (electricity, water, phone etc.) workers who are union member is triple that percentage. This group is strategic in Puerto Rico's society given the large size and impact of the state on the island's social formation. It remains to be seen whether the labor movement will be able to achieve a victory that allows it to survive into the next century. Because, and the leaders know it, this movement also may result in the destruction of many trade unions. So why have they concertedly called for this action? It is here where class become necessary but insufficient to explain this movement. While the labor movement is the vanguard of the entire struggle against privatization, the bond that is bringing national support is nationalism. While this is not a struggle for Puerto Rican independence, it is a national struggle to close the statehood option for the island. The main objective of the colonial administration privatization effort (schools, higher education, communication, electricity etc.) is to erase any economic boundaries between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The labor movement knows it, the governor knows it. However, the main wall of contention against the statehood option for Puerto Rico, at least locally (U.S. systemic racism would be the main US factor) is the increased sense of Puerto Rican national identity that has increased in contradictory ways as the island has become more assimilated into the US social formation. Workers and their numerous supporters (professionals, students, small business persons, political parties, guerrilla groups etc) are chanting nationalist slogans while hearing Rock and Roll (in Spanish); are celebrating ecumenical religious services sometimes led by protestant ministers (US missionaries brought protestantism to the island, as part of the "civilizing" function of US colonialism). This movement is led by a skilled woman leader (the other leader, Jose Juan Hernandez is occupying a secondary position) in a supposedly "machista" culture. The first person to be injured in a brutal attack by the riot squad was a woman. The governor is a member of the assimilated white elite, educated in the metropolis, the labor leaders are working class, strongly patriotic but also class conscious. We can't ignore class, labor is the vanguard (in fact, this is what the socialist pro-independence movement has dreamed for and worked for during the last 35 years, however, this is not a product of their effort, most pro-independence groupings are for all intents and purposes social democrats now). This movement cannot be understood exclusively through one set of lenses but through the multidimensional lens of gender, class and national identity. To reduce it to class would make it unintelligible. Victor M. Rodriguez Professor, Sociology Dept. Concordia University 1530 Concordia West Irvine, CA 92612 Email: rodriguez@cui.edu Home Page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/VictorMRodriguez From sokol@jhu.edu Thu Jul 2 10:03:22 1998 Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 12:02:25 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu At 10:54 PM 7/1/98 +0000, Steven Rosenthal wrote: >Woytek is right to remind Noel that it is necessary to make a class >analysis of white people and to urge Noel to analyze the linkage of >racist ideology to capitalism. But Woytek could also learn from Noel >both to recognize racism more clearly and to fight it consistently. I do recognize that racism exist. But my posting was not about recognizing it. I asked a very simple question, what are we supposed to DO to end it? I did NOT ask what are we supposed to THINK, or what ATTITUDE are we supposed to express to end it. I do not belive that thinking equals doing. I am well aware of the fact that many whites have quite negative attitudes toward blacks simply because of their skin color. I also know that many blacks have negative attitudes toward whites. I may also add that similar prejudices exist against virtually any group, Catholics, jews, Muslims, Eastern or Southern Europeans, Irish, you name it. I also think that world would be better place if people did not have such attitudes. However, I think that we have more urgent problems to solve than changing people's attitudes - like gross economic inequality. To be frank, I do not mind people cracking Polack- or Kike- jokes (although I still think cracking ethnic jokes is rude) as long as I can get employment at places like Johns Hopkins. In the same vein, sexist attitudes toward women are certainly deplorable, but instead of changing the locker-room manners, a much more fruitful strategy is to enforce the equal pay for equal work rule, or equal employment opportunity. Ditto for racist attitudes. >capitalism and racism. The fact that capitalism exploits all workers >does not make that exploitation non-racist. In fact, >super-exploitation of black workers is used by the capitalist class >to increase the exploitation of all workers, divide the working >class, and increase the profits and power of the capitalist class. I agree. But that is a very general statement difficult to translate into practical action. > >To fight racism, we should oppose KKK and police murders of black >workers, the destruction of welfare, the scapegoating of Latin and >Asian immigrants, the promotion of I.Q. ideology, sociobiology, and >culture of poverty versions of academic racism. I do not think KKK or police murders are the policy of the ruling class. They are exceses of right wing zealots and control freaks, and the ruling class would rather avoid them, because they are embarassing (Cf. the treatment of Duke by the GOP establishment). That is not to say that the right wing thugs cannot be useful when the elite interests are threatened by the working class collective action (like in Italy or Germany) - but in the US such threat is very remote. I would go as far as saying that KKK- or polcie-brutality-bashing is a convenient strategy used by elites to gain legitimacy (cf. Giuliani). The welfare system? - gimme a break! It is a sad day when Marxists start defending state charity instead of structural changes to guarantee employment and living wage for everyone. As to culture of poverty - see may comments further below. IQ and so-so biology? That's bullshit that has remarkably little support, even among convervative academics. It is visible because of the controversy it generates, but believe me, it also has a very real potential of seriously damaging the interest of knowledge producers - so I'm not concerned that this contraption will fly very far. I think that Belle Kurve now serves as a convenient lightening rod, or perhaps a straw man that allows many academicians to show that they are, after all, 'critical' of something in the mainstream culture. >fight racism and how to unify the working class. To end racism, we >must not only make the fight against racism (and nationalism) also a >fight to destroy the capitalist system. We must expect, even after >the overthrow of capitalism, to fight for a long time to eradicate >racism and nationalism from the world. I agree. However, in that fight we must focus on struggles that are winnable and that can have a matrial effect. Focusing on psychological phenomena, such as racist attitudes, appears to me like a terrible weaste of energy, almost like substituting th eideal for the real - which is how religion copes with miserable living conditions. I may also add that racism is a convenient diversion that blames individual attitudes for the structural failures of the capitalist system. Bullshit claims that Bl;acks are poor because all or most White are racists only helps to treinforce the myth that if only Whites changed their attitude, the market system would be just fine. That is bullshit. Blacks are poor not because Whites hate them, but because the market system is NOT a tidal wave, it does not lift all the boats - contrary to the official propaganda. In fact, the market system helps only those who already have something while leaving behind those who have little or nohing. Therefore, the poor (Black or otherwise) are poor not because other people hate them, but because the system by which economic decisions are made by design ignores people with little or no resources. In other words, the proit-seeking market system will fail to help the poor of any skin color, regardless of the attitudes of the rich toward them. Thus, a racist government bueraucrat administering a program designed to mend the "market failures" does more to help the poor Blacks than a pc-liberal who sends charitable donations to fight the Klan, but supports the free market system. > >The "culture of poverty" is a racist and anti-working class concept. > It does not cease to be racist because it is also applied to white >workers. The Bell Curve didn't cease to be a racist book because >Murray and Herrnstein asserted that a large population of poor >whites are genetically and culturally inferior to rich whites. It >is a victim-blaming one-sided view of poor people. According to the >culture of poverty theory, poor people perpetuate their own poverty >through their own values and behavior and are therefore unable to >take advantage of opportunities to get out of poverty that society >makes available to them. I do not think that the culture of poverty argument is inherently racist, the fact that some used to defend racist policies notwithstanding. Would you claim that Marxism is a totalitarian or imperialist ideology, because it was used by Soviet leaders to prop up their totalitarian and imperial ambitions? I think wee need to recognize human agency and micro-structural social forces acting independently of the global forces of capitalism. The fact that a worker is exploited by a capiotalist does not mean that he is incapable of exploitation of, say, his wife. That is, the fact that someone is oppressed or explited does not mean that he or she is exonerated of all wrongdoing on his/her part. In fact, the culture of poverty argument can be used to explain how exploitation can lead to adaptation to- rather than changing the status quo. Crime, drug addition, exploitation of women are ways of coping with poverty rather than changing. I may add that exonerating those petty thugs as 'victims of oppression' - perhaps a pc thing to do for limousine liberals -- is an insult to the working poor expolited not just by the forces of capitalism, but by the parasitic elements in their own communities - pimps, druggies, dealers, thieves, fencers, hooligans, vandals, etc. BTW, Michael Burawoy in his _Manufacturing Consent_ describes how the working class culture helps the workers to adapt to- and cope with- capitalist exploitation. That argument is structurally identical to the "culture of poverty" - yet it does not draw any ire for alleged "blaming the victims." I see double standards her that tell me that some criticisms of the culture of poverty arguments may be disingenuous. > >White leftists who think that ending capitalism does not require >us to fight racism encourage black reformists who think that ending >racism does not require overthrowing capitalism, and black >nationalists who think that few if any whites will ever fight racism. Let me get it staright. If racism means only economic exploitation then fighting racism is synnymous with fighting capitalism. However, racism is a very poorly defined concept. It has a host of other cultutralist and psychologiocal connotations that tend to to obscure the economic inequality. And I think that because of those connotations, the ruling class and its agents, like Clinton, use racism as a stock phrase. It is precisely because they hope to direct public iattention toward those culturalist and psychological aspects while obscuring the systemic roots of poverty in this country. On the top of it, there is a host of moral entrepreneurs, symbol manipulators, academics, reverends, politicians, literary critics etc. who see it as an opportunity to either sell their cultural commodity or to spring themsleves to leadership positions. They might not be conscious collaborators, but their talk about 'racism' dove-tails with the ruling class efforts of blaming the psychological phenomena instead of blaming the system. I end with paraphrasing Marx: religion, culture and pop-psychology are the opiates of the people. They distract our attention away from the material world, and stymie social change. Regards, WS From matthew@louisville.edu Thu Jul 2 10:21:02 1998 Thu, 2 Jul 1998 12:20:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 12:21:38 -0700 From: "M. W. McGovern" To: sokol@jhu.edu Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------DD2D71FAF772005C68113538 > Greetings, First off, I am more or less a PSN spectator, yet I feel I need to ask a question at this point. With all the hoopla about jobs moving away from the states, and the "anger" at which it seems to bring, whatever happened to the "workers of the WORLD unite" ideology? With these jobs going across our borders to other lands, should not we be happy that our brothers and sisters are gaining an opportunity to gain more from the use of their labor? And in turn, should we not be ready for the challenge of increasing the skill in which our workers here at home will need to compete? With the increase in the skill level of our homeland workers, will not more opportunities be created for some workers to ride themselves of the oppressive and exploitive "shackles" of their bosses, and begin to compete against them (hopefully without forgetting the feelings of unity with their fellow brother and sister workers?). Yes, the big corporations are tools of the ruling class, yet they are also our tools as well, we just need to realize this, and use it for the benefit of workers in general. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a world for the working class, yet with time and social evolution, I would bet that the world of our grandchildren, or gr-grandchildren etc. might just become that world. In Solidarity, Matthew W. McGovern --------------DD2D71FAF772005C68113538 begin: vcard fn: M. W. McGovern n: McGovern;M. W. org: Institute for the Advancement of the Simian Nation adr: Louisville;;;;KY;;USA email;internet: matthew@louisville.edu tel;work: 1.502.346.2426 x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: TRUE version: 2.1 end: vcard --------------DD2D71FAF772005C68113538-- From wwhite@jaguar1.usouthal.edu Thu Jul 2 12:49:55 1998 Thu, 2 Jul 1998 14:48:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 13:53:53 -0500 From: William White Reply-To: wwhite@jaguar1.usouthal.edu To: matthew@louisville.edu, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? I see a couple of potential flaws in your arguments. > With these jobs going across our borders to other lands, should not > we be happy that our brothers and sisters are gaining an opportunity to gain > more from the use of their labor? Marxist theory would anticipate this movement of jobs as a reaction to maximize profit (shorthand version, sorry). This new labor pool represents exploited cheap labor, a sort of split labor market now based on global inequalities. We should not necessarily be happy about this new situation--we should (theoretically, and realistically) take advantage of the opportunity to organize these workers against capitalism. Difficult to do when previously you may not have held a job. > And in turn, should we not be ready for the > challenge of increasing the skill in which our workers here at home will need to > compete? I don't necessarily agree that we should compete with global labor from a labor perspective. I am an ideologue, who sometimes takes theory and uses it in practice (not enough as I should), and my inner feelings want to see these laborers join forces with all other laborers in a common, united labor front. Hence the term "Workers of the World, Unite." What the cruel world of capitalism does to damage these sorts of relationships we shall witness over the rest of our lives. By the way, has anyone else noticed the lingering discussion of eminent "Depression" looming in Japan? And the U.S. employment rate again began to rise this last month? Opportunities for revolution--or massive cultural/social rebellion in the national/global arena? For me, it is a scary crystal ball we sociologists possess right now. Bill From smrose@exis.net Thu Jul 2 15:01:54 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 16:57:08 +0000 Subject: Fighting Against Racism Woytek's view of racism is that it consists of "attitudes." Words that end in "ism" mean much more than just attitudes. Capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism refer both to ideologies and material arrangements. Why would anyone think that racism is nothing more than an attitude found in individuals? Oliver Cox pointed out half a century ago in Caste, Class, and Race that racist attitudes are merely a manifestation of "a system of domination and exploitation." If racism was merely attitudes, why don't all the other prejudiced attitudes Woytek refers to cause similar patterns of subjugation for every ethnic group? Woytek also belittled every recent example of racism that I wrote about. Although mayor Giuliani of New York has promoted as policy the brutal racist style of policing advocated by Rutgers criminologist George Kelling ("broken windows"), resulting in thousands of cases of beatings, jailings, and killings, and New York juveniles aged 10 to 16 are now being held in pre-trial detention on floating barges, Woytek says this isn't the policy of the ruling class, but only of "right wing zealots and control freaks." If the ruling class doesn't rule NY City, who does? Woytek dismisses my condemnation of welfare reform as "defending state charity." The "true Marxist" Woytek calls for "employment and a living wage for everyone." Woytek is so much more radical than I that he thinks it is possible to achieve full employment and living wages in a declining capitalist system that is forcing welfare recipients into fascist slave labor welfare. Woytek's militant posture hides his liberal reformist program. Woytek dismisses the impact of academic racism. He thinks E.O.Wilson and Charles Murray exist only so that liberal academics can feel good criticizing them. Woytek thinks that the ruling class effort to enshrine biological determinism and eugenics again as academic orthodoxy couldn't possibly be a prelude to concentration camps, genocide, and world war. He thinks that "in the US such a threat is very remote." In the US inventories are beginning to pile up, economic growth is slowing, unemployment is growing, GM is trying to save its ass by destroying auto workers' jobs, and the depression in Asia is making its way to the USA. Puerto Rican workers' unions have called a general strike. I guess this is also remote. Woytek, I think your message conveys a dogmatic, know-it-all attitude. I dno't think you've tried to understand what Noel or I have written. Steve Rosenthal From brook@california.com Thu Jul 2 14:15:53 1998 Thu, 2 Jul 1998 13:15:29 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 13:17:26 -0700 To: rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: Re: strike in ny city mjkinnuc@umich.edu, brsboop@aol.com, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, s-frum@nwu.edu, social-movements@Staffmail.wit.ie In-Reply-To: Here's a report of the construction workers' protest in Manhattan the other day Workers' Protest Ties Up Midtown NY By Katherine Roth Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- An estimated 40,000 construction workers strangled the morning rush-hour today with a protest rally and march through midtown Manhattan, and some scuffled with police in riot gear. The workers were angry over the awarding of a non-union contract for a transit project. Nearly four hours into the demonstration, about half a dozen workers were arrested when they tried to turn over a parked van. Some of them said police used pepper spray before handcuffing them and putting them in a police van. The crowd shouted ``police state'' when dozens of officers with nightsticks came to break up the crowd. There was shoving and bottle-throwing, and some officers used nightsticks to control the crowd. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the crowd numbered about 40,000 at its peak. The rally began at about 8 a.m. at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on Madison Avenue between 44th and 45th streets. Pedestrian and motor traffic came to a standstill as the demonstrators marched from there toward a construction site at 54th Street and Ninth Avenue. They were blocked by police at 53rd and Ninth, where most of the scuffling occurred. Some demonstrators, waving flags, climbed on cars, vans and street lights. More than 100 police in riot gear began cutting through the noisy, chanting mob on Ninth Avenue. Scores of police vans and horses were at the scene, and police helicopters hung overhead. Officers holding out their nightsticks could be seen on rooftops. Many businesses and offices on 44th and 45th streets between Madison and Fifth avenues opened late because of the crowd and because police blocked workers from entering their buildings. The demonstrators accused the MTA of awarding work to a contractor who used nonunion help. Some displayed a 10-foot inflatable rat, symbolizing what they called rat contractors. MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the unions' allegations are being investigated by the state Department of Labor. ``We awarded the contract in question to the lowest responsible bidder in accordance with law,'' Kelly said. The contract, for a new transit command center on Ninth Avenue, was awarded to Roy Kay, a Freehold, N.J.-based contractor, Kelly said. A woman answering the phone at Roy Kay this morning said the company would have no immediate comment. ``They're taking food from union families. We want to make sure we get the right attention,'' said electrician Joe Solano of Brooklyn. ``We live here, work here. We're taxpayers, voters,'' said Matt Lettieri, a Teamsters Union construction worker from Lindenhurst, Long Island. Police barriers could not contain the crowd at MTA headquarters, and they spilled west to Fifth Avenue, blowing whistles, waving flags and chanting, ``Way to go union, way to go. Out with Giuliani.'' They carried banners identifying themselves as masons, carpenters, roofers and other construction trades. ``It's not the right thing to do,'' said bystander Lalit Khanna, who said he had waited 40 minutes and still couldn't get to his job at Brooks Brothers. At the J. Press men's clothing store on 44th Street, assistant manager Yuko Kobayashi said, ``It took me 15 minutes to cross the street. ... The trouble is I'm losing half of my employees today because they can't get through.'' ``It's a loss for my business. Time is money,'' lamented a stalled cabbie, Habib Naba of Brooklyn, who admitted he took part in a recent protest march of taxi drivers. By noon, the construction workers' demonstration appeared to have broken up into smaller groups, with some heading back towards MTA headquarters. Giuliani, who blocked a protest by taxi drivers earlier this summer by arguing that they were trying to shut down the city, said today the city was surprised by the size of the construction workers' protest. ``The information that was given to the police department was that it was going to be much smaller,'' the mayor said. ``Had the construction workers given the same advance warning that the taxi drivers gave, they'd have been dealt with in the same way.'' © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press At 10:21 PM 01-07-98 -0500, Rachel Jones wrote: >There was a *tiny* side story in today's (7-1-98) New Orleans >Times-Picayune about a strike/riot by construction workers in New York >City (Manhattan?). The blurb said several hundred people were involved >and that the police had to be called in to quell the uproar. Does >anyone have anymore details? > >thanks... >-- >Rachel K. Jones rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu From staff@stewards.net Thu Jul 2 16:38:14 1998 Thu, 2 Jul 1998 18:45:48 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from staff@stewards.net) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 18:45:48 -0400 (EDT) To: , PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: staff@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: A Stewards' Thoughts on the Holocaust. >Hi Elena, > >Thanks for your message below on the issue of the `unique' or `non-unique' character of the holocaust. > >As you know, I am the chief coordinator of the Chiapas Alert Network, an organization which works to halt the extreme violence and intimidation currently directed by both paramilitary and military forces against the 3 million Mayan and other Indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico. I am also a member of the Stewards Corporation movement, which is a new movement of poor people who seek to work together to care for one another and the Earth. > >From my perspecitve, the holocaust was an attempt to wipe out the Jewish people which also included various forms of `surplus' cruelty above and beyond the measures necessary to kill people. Similarly brutal measures were, as you well know, taken by the Nazi's against Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, etc. Two thousand years of Christian anti-semitism; authoritarian personality traits of the German and other instigators; the barbarism and racism inculcated by facist and Nazi ideology; and the deprivations the German people suffered after world war I and during the depression, are some of the causes pointed out by scholars as leading to the Hitlerian dictatorship and ultimately to the holocaust. > >In our time Kurds in the Middle East, Moslems in Bosnia, Tutsi's in Rawanda, Mayan People in Chiapas and Guatemala, and poor people around the world have also, in one way or another, been targeted for elimination. The Asian economic crisis will, by the end of this year, have put roughly half the people of Indonesia, or approximately 100 million people, below the poverty line and at risk of starvation, according to information released in the past few days by the Indonesian government and the World Bank. In light of such realities, the issue of whether the Holocaust is `unique' or not is, for me, a somewhat `scholastic' question. > >To some degree, I see every event, whether large or small in scope, as unique. At the same time, every event, whether world historical or trivial, also includes similarities or commonalisties with other events. The `Black Holocaust', for example, in which several million Black people perished under horrible conditions in the slave ships which brought them from Africa to the Americas, might for certain purposes be likened to the Jewish holocaust, though in other respects these two holocausts differ. Far more important than whether the holocaust is `unique' in an `absolute' sense (whatever that may mean) is that we remember the holocaust both to honor its victems, and to innoculate ourselves and our world against indifference to the dangers and realities of the holocausts and mini-holocausts which history call upon us to confront in OUR time. `Where is God? God is wherever justice is done'. > >Cordially yours, >Eric Sommer > >>>Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 09:08:16 -0500 >>>Reply-To: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust >>> >>>Sender: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust >>> >>>From: "Mott, Jim" >>>Subject: Re: Roth resigns from USHMM post ...(Prystowsky) >>>To: H-HOLOCAUST@H-NET.MSU.EDU >>> >>>From: Richard Prystowsky >>>So, there you have it. A first-rate scholar understandably resigns rather >>>than put up with such unwarranted grief. >>>For the record, I've never, ever heard John say anything or read anything >>>in John's work that would indicate that he minimizes the uniqueness of the >>>Holocaust. To try to draw lessons from this Event, as he and so many >>>others have done, including lessons involving analogies between Holocaustal >>>cruel behavior and other forms of atrocious behavior-again, as he and so >>>many others have done-is hardly to minimize the Holocaust's uniqueness. >>> Folks on this list should know that one of John's supporters is Lawrence >>>Langer, whose work has been so hard-hitting viz. attempts made by persons >>>to make the Holocaust somehow easier to bear or somehow not very unique. >>>I don't mean to offer an ad hominem here; rather, I merely want to remind >>>us that the museum has lost not an enemy to Holocaust studies or someone >>>who is insensitive to victims and their unique plight, but, instead, a >>>scholar of great integrity, humanness, and insight. Just ask the survivors >>>who know John personally whether or not he is a man worthy of our esteem >>>and admiration. >>>We're all the worse for this state of affairs, in my view. >>> >>>------------------------------------ >>>Richard J. Prystowsky >>>School of Humanities and Languages >>>Irvine Valley College >>>5500 Irvine Center Drive >>>Irvine, CA 92620 >>>Phone: 949-451-5206 >>>Fax: 949-451-5270 >>>e-mail: rjprys@ix.netcom.com; rprystowsky@ivc.cc.ca.us >>> >> >> >> >> > From BKRUBY@prodigy.net Fri Jul 3 01:55:52 1998 Reply-To: From: "BRIAN K RUBY" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 02:41:38 -0400 I see no reason for celebration when I see my fellow human beings exploited in order to create more surplus value for a corporation to extract. Also, I am not angry about lost jobs, although some workers are, and with good reason. Take for instance Delco Electronics in Kokomo, Indiana. The jobs in this case which were moved south of the border paid Americans workers on average $15 to $20 dollars/hour. The same jobs in Mexico earns the Mexican worker less than $100/week. Not to mention that Delco (a division of GM) escapes environmental regulations, unions (UAW), etc. And about this "skill level" thing. I cannot count the people I have met working for $7 to $8/hour in nonskilled positions of labor who had bachelors or advanced degrees in various fields (take that as fair warning). Besides, the whole movement of jobs is about the extraction of surplus value, not skill. The 15 year veteran of Delco certainly knew his or her job better than an untrained Mexican worker, don't you think? Furthermore, I do not hypothesize from some ivory "academic" tower. I have been in two labor unions, was a union safety rep and a union steward. I have been through contract negotiations, strikes, picket lines, grievance hearings and the like. This summer I am working in a nonunion factory to keep my hands dirty and remain in touch with my working class compatriots. I find that there is nothing like a good dose of alienation to remind me of what I am fighting for. Anyone who thinks for one minute that it is possible to make corporations into tools of the working class is living in a dream similar to the one Hegel had constructed concerning the nature of reality. Marx, if I remember correctly, "turned Hegel upside down" and grounded his flight of fancy in undeniable historical materialism. The world of reality and fact tell me that it will take rivers of "blood, sweat and tears" to make the corporations buckle under. People with power do not give up power voluntarily and all the academic musings you might read here will not change that. ---------- > From: M. W. McGovern > To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK > Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? > Date: Thursday, July 02, 1998 3:21 PM > > > > > Greetings, > > First off, I am more or less a PSN spectator, yet I feel I need to ask a > question at this point. > > With all the hoopla about jobs moving away from the states, and the "anger" at > which it seems to bring, whatever happened to the "workers of the WORLD unite" > ideology? With these jobs going across our borders to other lands, should not > we be happy that our brothers and sisters are gaining an opportunity to gain > more from the use of their labor? And in turn, should we not be ready for the > challenge of increasing the skill in which our workers here at home will need to > compete? > > With the increase in the skill level of our homeland workers, will not more > opportunities be created for some workers to ride themselves of the oppressive > and exploitive "shackles" of their bosses, and begin to compete against them > (hopefully without forgetting the feelings of unity with their fellow brother > and sister workers?). > > Yes, the big corporations are tools of the ruling class, yet they are also our > tools as well, we just need to realize this, and use it for the benefit of > workers in general. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a world for > the working class, yet with time and social evolution, I would bet that the > world of our grandchildren, or gr-grandchildren etc. might just become that > world. > > In Solidarity, > > Matthew W. McGovern > From staff@stewards.net Fri Jul 3 17:50:16 1998 Fri, 3 Jul 1998 19:54:52 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from staff@stewards.net) Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 19:54:52 -0400 (EDT) To: , , , , , , arneh@istar.ca, guathrc@vcn.bc.ca, "Coleen" , pheltself@hotmail.com, "Elsie Dean" , sallymae@webTV.net (Sally), PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , From: staff@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Indonesia: new poor (est. 60,000,000) > >The suffering of Indonesia's poor > >Poverty now dominates Jakarta's landscape >Nearly half of the Indonesian people have been >dragged into poverty by the Asian economic crisis. >New figures from the government show that the >number of Indonesians living in poverty has leapt >by 60 million people in the past two years. > >The central statistical bureau estimates that 79.4 >million people, or 40% of the population, now live >below subsistence level. And it says that the >figure could reach 47%, or 95.8 million by the end >of the year. > >In 1996, the figure was 22.5 million, or 11% of >Indonesia's population of 205 million. > >The chief of the Central Bureau of Statistics, Mr >Sugito, said the projections were made on the >basis of the projected inflation rate, >macroeconomic standards, falling incomes, and a >change in the consumption pattern. > >The poor have been hit by an increase in the price >of imported food as the rupiah plummeted in value >from 2,450 to the US dollar one year ago to 15,000 >today. > >The bureau defined poor people as those who cannot >afford food with a nutritional value of 2,000 >calories a day, or per capita earnings of less >than 52,000 rupiahs ($3.50) a month in urban areas >and 41,000 rupiahs ($2.70) in rural areas. > >Per capita income in Indonesia has dropped from >$987 to $585 from 1996 to 1997, while GDP is >projected to fall by a further 10% this year. >Indonesia is in the throes of economic >reconstruction and political turmoil, following >the resignation of President Suharto in May after >months of demonstrations. > >The IMF has just agreed to resume a $43bn rescue >package, but bankruptcies, factory closures and >unemployment are sweeping through the country's >industrial landscape. > >Some 20 to 30 million Indonesians are expected to >be unemployed by the end of the year. > >The new package will allow some subsidies for the >poor, but will also continue the process of >dismantling industries, many of them owned by the >relatives of President Suharto. > >© 1998 BBC NEWS. All Rights Reserved. > > > >>>>>>>>>>>>GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK<<<<<<<<<<<< >Providing current homeless and related news, >information and announcements for nonprofit research >and educational purposes, pursuant to TITLE 17 USC >107, at: > > > ---------------------------------------------- >WORLD HOMELESS UNION > > >AMERICAN HOMELESS SOCIETY > > >=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ >TO TALKBACK, SUBSCRIBE HOMELESS-POWWOW, AT: > >=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > > From klockeb@sobek.Colorado.EDU Sat Jul 4 13:38:55 1998 Sat, 4 Jul 1998 13:38:49 -0600 (MDT) Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 13:38:49 -0600 (MDT) From: Klocke Brian V To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: CounterPunch article (fwd) Hi Y'all, The May 1-15 1998 edition of CounterPunch (a newsletter put out by Ken Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn) contains an article entitled "Back to the Middle Ages: The Rise of the Lumpen Teacher". I've excerpted some of the article below, I would be interested in any comments: "Across the etnire landscape of higher education in America today a vast shift has been taking place in the past few years that in many ways matches the onslaught on the economic security and working conditions of blue collar workers since the early 1970's. Visit any two or four-year institution of higher education and one finds the same basic pattern: a swelling army of low-paid, overworked junior academics, picking up piece-work assignments with near zero economic security; a shrinking sector of senior tenured academics; and a swelling academic bureaucracy over which preside the pashas of the system, the university presidents and senior administrators pullling down enormous salaries and reveling in princely quarters and lavish benefits. "Half of the teaching load in higher education is currently carried by contingent instructors...This transformation of academic labor raises serious political economic questions about the power relations driving the process, yet these structural issues are rarely addressed, even in the narratives of the victims. Indeed, they tend to parrot administrative rhetoric about budget crises and the inevitability of restructuring on 'efficient' corporate lines. "Downsizing has been a strategy for weakening union power and generating sublime levels of corporate profit. In the academic world the downgrading of instructors and the bureaucratic bloat are the forms this process have taken. "To be sure, higher education has suffered from economic crises, especially during the state fiscal crisis of the late '70's and early '80's. but after the lean years of the early '80's, budgets for higher education have more than recovered through stable state appropriations, rocketing tuition revenues from heavily indebted students, and academic whoring for foundation and corporate grants. "In many cases, there have been double digit increases in tuition and class sizes have grown along with reduced course offerings. Once instituted, tuition increases are never rolled back. So the bizarre irony has developed that undergraduate students are forced to pay more and more for instruction that is being relentlessly degraded. "Where has all the money gone? The money diverted from the funding base of instruction has been almost entirely absorbed by bureaucratic bloat. A Michigan State Senate report [on spending in Michigan's public universities found that] between the years 1977 to 1989 there was a 33 per cent increase in admnistrative/professional employees, while there was a 5 per cent decrease in tenured faculty. "A recent study of the University of California system shows that the ratio of spending on instruction to spending on administration dropped from $6-$1 in 1966 to $3-$1 in 1991...[and that] over 25 years the number of administrative positions has increased at nearly twice the rate of teaching positions, at higher pay. "Part of the problem is that administrators are often tenured faculty themselves, and the maintenance of privileges for tenured faculty is in some ways based on the exploitation of lumpen academics. "As every generation of student radicals has discovered, high-minded talk about disinterested learning soon melts under the klieg lights of reality. In part because of the end of ideological competition with the Soviet Union, plus the unabashed, pre-millennial rhetoric of corporate triumph...the function of higher education in capitalist society is now finding its corresponding form without a tincture of shame. What these denizens of Grub Street-in-Academe need to find, like any reserve army of self-employed, is the proper organizations for self-defense and resistance." (for subscription info contact CounterPunch at PO Box 18675, Washington DC 20036, 202-986-3665) Those are some pretty strong words. Do people have a sense of how much of this phenomenon can be found at their insitutions? Also, what structural changes would need to be made to counter these problems? Things for us to think about... Brian Klocke University of Colorado at Boulder From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Sat Jul 4 17:25:26 1998 Date: Sat, 04 Jul 98 18:25 CDT From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: The New Feudalism Thanks to Brian Klocke for the blurb on academia. Most of us are well aware of it-esp the itinerant scholars on this list. Those of us who are products of the "Golden Age", like with tenure, mortgages and today, BBQ's (Comments of 4th for other posts) know the reluctance we have of telling bright students-often our own kids-AVOID THE ACADEMIC WORLD. This semester I had a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Shmeta far brighter than I, and yet I warned her-she an academic brat- Not to go for grad in arts/sciences. Let me make 2 points. 1) The decline of the academy is not general...but much focused on LAS, which do not train for jobs per se. Look at growth in Computer Science and Business Administration programs. A recent blurb said that grads of Northwestern/U of Chicago were starting at 120,000/year. How many of us make half this???? In his critique of American culture, Paul Fussell profession curmudgeon has found that giving computer dweebs and business men the garb and title of academics represents a new bottom in taste, equating Java with a spoken language or marketing deodorants as equal to study of the Enlightenment. But LAS, does teach people to think, and how many of us have taught how political economy operates and had several students say...gee I never thought about that. (And how many of us were once students and when we learned how capitalism required domination, exploitation and immiseration-while mystifying its reality said to that communist prof...gee I never though about that. 2) WARNING SELF PROMOTION-YOU MIGHT WANT TO DEL AT THIS POINT As I have noted on this list, in presenatations and hopefully some day a book, we are moving› to what I call cyber-feudalism, an new version of the inequality typical of the dark ages, but this time around, the elites control not land, but information/knowledge. They live in castles, while masses live in hovels-or are expendables, the new home less. At the same time, as Bahktin argued, the carnival culture of inversion and cultural resistance-serves to stablize these relationships of inequality. Today, the carnival culture is provided by these elites and comes in many forms from rock to Bay Watch to Internet porn. Just as in 1500 there were 1500 local States in Europe, today we see a similar localization/fragmentation, but not by geography, but culture so that not only do we not know our nieghbor, but typically don't want to. (I live in a former bohemian/poor nieghborhood turned yuppie). So there are now scores, if not hundreds of life style/culture segments that break down cohesion/solidarity. Hey, Bellah/Etzioni say the same thing but advocate a soft fascism as a solution. 3) What can be done. I am not optimistic, but we can begin with recog nition of the problem and attempt to develop frameworks of understand- ing appropriate to what Toffler calls the third wave. Marxism must be seen as the critique of industrial capitalism and as the material basis changes, so too must our critiques and analyses change. That said, we can still learn from union struggles and organize. Many in the academy think that intellectuals are too good to do what blue collar workers do. But given growing wage stagnation-for us, and increasing assaults on the tenure system, I would conclude by paraphrasing the minister who stood by while the Holocaust proceeded and then said, and when they came for me, noone protested. Have a cheery 4th of July and kindly rembember the bourgoisie who gave their lives to create a rational, prosperous class that took direct control of the State to mark the death knell of feudalism.......or did they after all. Lauren Langman, the perpetual Frankfurt School pessimist :) :) :) From staff@stewards.net Sun Jul 5 02:44:12 1998 Sun, 5 Jul 1998 04:49:08 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from staff@stewards.net) Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 04:49:08 -0400 (EDT) To: , , izbars@yahoo.com, , , , arneh@istar.ca, guathrc@vcn.bc.ca, "Coleen" , pheltself@hotmail.com, "Elsie Dean" , PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK , GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK , From: staff@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: RETAIL STORE AUTOMATION MOVES CLOSER WITH MICROSOFT ACTIVESTORE INITIATIVE. Hi there, The low-paid retail service industries are, in general, one of the last great bastions of non-automated, labour-intensive employment in the `advanced capitalist' countries. As such, they provide million of `McJobs' (position which are to real decent paying jobs what Mcdonalds is to real nutritious food), which have absorbed the tens of millions of people who can no longer secure employment in the ever-more highly automated primary resource extraction industries and secondary processing industries. Now, however, this function of the service sector may be about to change. The following article on Microsoft's `Activestore' initiative relates the beginning stages of integrated computerization networks both within retail establishments, across retail chains, and for use in `supply-chain' and `value-chain' management to integrate all aspects of ordering, processing, and selling foods or other products. Later, this integration may well add robotics and `smart-machine' technology to further automate out the millions who currently subsist, or barely subsist, in the McJobs sector. I am aware that some of the recipients of this article will not fully understand the technical and management language used. I urge you to read the article despite any such barriers, with the understanding that what is described is not going to go away. On the contrary, as the article states, Tricon corporation, which operates 30,000 Kentucky fried, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants worldwide, is just the first adopter of this soon to be pervasive technology. Eric Co-CEO Advanced Data Management, Member of the Stewards Planetary House ----------------------------------------------------- NEW ORLEANS, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The retail and food service industries today took a sizable technological step toward realizing optimized business processes and reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of in-store information systems. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced at Retail Systems '98 that Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. will become the first customer to implement the Microsoft(R) ActiveStore(TM) retail technology architecture in its stores worldwide. "> > Tricon Global Restaurants First to Implement Retail Architecture

NEW ORLEANS, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The retail and food service industries today took a sizable technological step toward realizing optimized business processes and reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of in-store information systems. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced at Retail Systems '98 that < Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.will become the first customer to implement the Microsoft(R) ActiveStore(TM) retail technology architecture in its stores worldwide. Tricon, which initially contributed input with respect to the specifications for ActiveStore, has taken a proactive leadership role in the past 18 months to help drive the progress of the industry adoption of ActiveStore technology. Tricon will globally deploy ActiveStore-compliant solutions based on the Microsoft BackOffice(R) family in its Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell stores over the next three years; the company also plans to offer the technology to its franchisees. There are 30,000 Tricon restaurants worldwide, serving 25 million customers in 95 countries each day.

"In an industry such as food service where speed and efficiency are becoming more and more critical, the integration of information is essential to business success," said Bob Lowes, chief financial officer/chief information officer of Tricon. "Tricon, Microsoft and other industry leaders are striving to create a complete framework that optimizes retail technology solutions while lowering total cost of ownership. Compatible, integrated information that extends throughout our businesses will enable us to drive efficiency throughout our stores, make better business decisions and inevitably provide better service to our customers."

Supported by more than 500 leading retail companies, the ActiveStore initiative addresses the risks retailers face in deploying store-level applications by driving down costs, expanding options and easing the process of systems integration. The ActiveStore architecture provides the basic functions retailers need in a store environment, such as immediate crash recovery, centralized security and a common set of interapplication messages for major events. Previously, such functionality was provided by independent software vendors (ISVs), often resulting in intervendor integration barriers because many software developers have slightly different approaches to solving these common technology issues. The goal is to enable a true plug-and-play environment so retailers can select best-of-breed components from any source, without the cost, risk or limitations of reliance on a single supplier.

"Tricon is a leader and technological innovator in the food service industry," said Steve Ballmer, executive vice president of sales and support at Microsoft. "Its participation in the development and implementation of ActiveStore enables the entire industry to use Tricon's industry expertise and take advantage of cutting-edge technology for every facet of a food service vendor's business. This is an incredible opportunity for Microsoft, Tricon and, more importantly, the entire food service and retail industry."

Microsoft-Based Solutions Used by Tricon

Utilizing the Microsoft Windows NT(R) Server 5.0 operating system, Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 7.0, the BackOffice family of products and the ActiveStore architecture, Tricon's next generation of technology will link thin-client point-of-sale (POS) and customer access devices within the store as well as across multiple restaurants. These technologies handle transaction processing; have credit, debit and smart-card capabilities; and contain an easy-to-use standard graphical interface. The integrated retail systems, which must conduct more than 9 billion transactions per year, will allow Tricon to serve its customers more quickly and efficiently.

"The strategic application and integration of emerging technology will provide the next breakthrough in quick service business performance," said Dan Roddy, vice president, technology, Tricon. "The goal of the alliance between Tricon and Microsoft is to provide a standards-based technology platform that enables Tricon, as well as other retailers and food service companies, to drive operational excellence, improve value-chain efficiency and facilitate consumer empowerment. We intend to significantly improve our customers' experience through the implementation of this new system."

"By using Microsoft's technologies and the ActiveStore architecture, Tricon has created a robust, component-based retail environment with reduced development time and integration costs," said Parsa Rohani, Microsoft Consulting Services and lead architect for the project.

Tricon Inc. is the largest owner and operator of restaurants in the world with more than 29,500 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell outlets. Each of these concepts are the largest in their respective categories of chicken, pizza and Mexican food. Tricon restaurants generated more than $20 billion in worldwide sales in 1997.

ActiveStore is part of a broader initiative by Microsoft to define an end-to-end framework for product-related industries, from raw materials suppliers to consumer products companies. Another component of the product industries framework includes the Microsoft Value Chain Initiative (VCI) for business-to-business electronic commerce and supply-chain integration. Combined, these two initiatives include nearly 650 ISVs working toward a common architecture.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

NOTE: Microsoft, ActiveStore, BackOffice and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

For online information:

Microsoft Retail and Distribution industry home page: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/retail_dist/. 

 SOURCE  Microsoft Corp.
-0- 06/16/98 /NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, check out the Microsoft Web page at http://microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate information pages./

/CONTACT: press only, Cheryl Cink, 503-226-5635, or cherylc@insync-pr.com, or Greg Sorber, 503-226-8236, or gregs@insync-pr.com, both of Insync Communications, for Microsoft Corp./

/Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/ (MSFT) CO: Microsoft Corp.; Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. ST: Louisiana, Washington IN: CPR REA RST SU:

(16 Jun 1998 07:10 EDT)

From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Sun Jul 5 11:50:43 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 10:50:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: The Refeudalization of Education To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Thanks to Brian and Lauren for their pieces.. I am preparing a class on Latin American and was reviewing some material I had not dealt with in quite a while (I teach in Liberal Arts School) I would like to add a couple of comments to their posts. 1. I can see the trend toward re-feudalization that is taking place (not to say that we are going back to the future, this is a qualitatively different "stage") similar to what took place in Spain after the "conquest/exploitation" of the Americas. In some Spanish provinces feudalism was waning,after the influx of gold, silver, etc a reinvigorated fedal class grew in power. The monarchy and the aristocracy (comparable to our new top heavy administration in LAS) increasingly took autonomy away from the local municipalities. Unfortunately for Latin America, the Spanish legacy was a sort of neo-feudalism that later was reinforced in a variety of ways by England, and later by the United States. In our case I think the underdeveloped will be our students who will increasingly receive a lower quality education and one that will reinforce obedience, authority and pragmatism rather than "critical thinking" and all that great stuff we have on our mission statements. 2. In terms of society's refeudalization, this is also compounded in places like California with the nature of systemic racism. Gated communities, segregated lifestyle clusters ("coccoons") are sprouting all over the place. Dale Maharidge, in "The Coming White Minority" says that Southern Calfiornia, with all its walled neighborhoods and segregated clusters remind him of El Salvador in the days before the civil war. Mind you that we have here the Syllicon Valley of the South in the Irvine Spectrum that is only second to the Bay Area. Is this a new Cyber-feudalism, I don't know but it's an interesting concept. 3. Final comment: Before I buy into a new nomenclature for a new societal stage, let's remember that lenin had lots of things to say about the parasitic nature of this new stage he called "imperialism." It feels more real evry day... Victor M. Rodriguez Sociology Concordia University From DAVIDSON@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU Sun Jul 5 19:52:30 1998 Date: Sun, 05 Jul 98 21:50:32 EDT From: Alan Subject: The new Feudalism To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, psn-cafe@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Here is an exchange from a national grad. student listservs that gets at some of the issues involved. ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 09:05:54 -0700 Reply-To: Graduate Student Conversations Sender: Graduate Student Conversations From: Scott Kerlin Subject: GRADTALK: Dysfunction in the Academy [was Re: advisor and funding probs] To: GRADTALK@UVVM.UVIC.CA In-Reply-To: <358145D6.F3BEA9F@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu> Hi, everyone: Fresh from my most recent interview that didn't result in the job offer I was seeking, I find that I'm filled with reflections about what the academy is turning into and so many of your letters and posts to this list in recent days have been validating. As I look back over my path of pursuit of a career in academia, the one constant I have observed from my doctoral years on forward is an increasingly "mean-spirited" nature about the way the university treats students (especially graduate students) and younger academic professionals (many of whom are forced to accept adjunct, part-time work because the full-time jobs are just so scarce in higher education any more). Many years ago, I began to wonder if this was intentional, or just an outcome of financial distress and shifting values within the academy. But often, I suspect, it's an issue of shifting values and ethics within the academy, and those values have moved away from the goal of working for some kind of "higher good" or "public interest". In short, I think the academy is losing touch with its service mission and gradually being transformed into a corporation, using marketing and "market share" or "market position" as the ultimate indicator of success or effectiveness. Interestingly, when I developed a resource collection for the Campus Climate Commission here at PSU, I actively sought resources on "making the academy more humane", on ethical issues in the academic training process, and on building collaborative partnerships within and beyond the academy in order to foster a more supportive, nurturing learning and teaching environment. Sadly, I found very few resources in this area, leaving me wondering whether the academy is just transforming into a kind of "jungle" filled with predators, leaving graduate students largely vulnerable and powerless to whatever dysfunctional winds happen to be blowing through the department or the institution at the time. So often, in this learning process of graduate school, we're taught to believe that if something goes wrong, such as with funding or an advisor, we automatically come to the conclusion that "it must be my fault." The temptation is to conclude that perhaps we "just aren't good enough", and often that leads to either withdrawal and depression or a kind of internalized "hyper-self-criticism", where we begin to second-guess our every step and our every effort. What is hardest about this outcome is that often, the feelings don't just "go away" when we finish the graduate experience--they remain for years afterwards and leave us vulnerable when job applications and interviews arise. The "self-critic" inside comes out again and again, saying something like "what makes you think *you* are good enough, or know enough, or _____ enough?" (you can fill in the blank with your own relevant term). As I continue examining the changing nature of the academic profession, I see, again and again, that there are many structural changes going on, stressors on and in the academy, but often as a graduate student, we only experience the "personal" side of things--we don't get to see the issues in the larger environment that may be causing an advisor to leave the institution or causing funding opportunities to be cut. Recently, I located an article in the February 1998 issue of Research in Higher Education (the official journal of the Association for Institutional Research) entitled, "Maintaining Effectiveness amid Downsizing and Decline in Institutions of Higher Education", by Kim Cameron and John Smart (pp. 65-86). The authors discuss a range of dysfunctional attributes (termed "the dirty dozen") that often manifest in academic organizations undergoing budgetary restrictions or downsizing. I would recommend this article to anyone who is interested in issues of organizational development, change, and dysfunction in the academy. Thanks for staying in touch, everyone--we're here for moral support *and* enlightenment! Scott Kerlin GRADTALK Co-Host The GRADTALK Home Page: http://www.irn.pdx.edu/~kerlinb/gradtalk/gradtalk.html ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 15:40:25 EDT Reply-To: UConn Graduate Student Issues Sender: UConn Graduate Student Issues From: Alan Davidson Subject: dysfunction within the academy I don't know if things like funding problems, unethical behavior, and the like are necessarily new to the academy of the 1990's -- some horror stories have always existed. I think what is new about the situation now is there is a perceived loss of control/proletarianization among faculty at all levels -- but especially those with the most to lose -- those in research institutions. While one can sympathize with institutions which, under the circumstances, state that faculty must teach what the dept./ institution needs them to teach, this redefines the college professor as an employee versus an individual contractor. I think this affects grad. students in a number of ways. First, as faculty teaching loads rise and as faculty are asked to teach more labor intensive courses, morale declines and perceived time and willingness to work with graduate students declines. Second, there is an increasing likelihood that both institutions and individual departments may, just on a pragmatic basis, decide to no longer remain in the graduate education business. With the number of underemployed Ph.D.'s in some fields, this might be somewhat welcome, but it further increases the workload of tenurable faculty and decreases the number of positions for those of us currently in Ph.D. programs. Third, the increasing sense of defensiveness, especially as it plays out in union negotiations can actually increase (versus decrease) the use and abuse of adjuncts. For a reason which is very quizzical to me, groups such as AAUP tend to argue that there should be a limit to the size of adjunct stipends per course. Otherwise, would-be faculty might find it more advantageous to adjunct teach as opposed to applying for more competitive tenure-track jobs (for which entrance and retention could be more easily controlled by the tenurable faculty versus the institution). This strategy might have made sense 20-25 years ago when the only non-tenurable Instructors either had full-time non-University jobs or were abd's hoping to progress to a tenurable position in the same University upon completion of the Ph.D., but one could also argue that by keeping adjunct labor comparatively cheap for the institution, they are actually undermining both the future of their own profession and abetting their own proletarianization. There are, of course, professional associations such as MLA which have dealt at length with these issues, but others, such as the American Sociological Association which surpisingly and disappointedly have not. ========================================================================= From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Mon Jul 6 08:22:36 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 6 Jul 1998 10:23:37 EDT To: Subject: Election results Perhaps I am so out of it that I am the last to get the good news. However, I don't recall seeing anything on PSN about the results of the recent ASA elections. Perhaps it comes as no news to you, but I recently learned that Joe Feagin won the presidential election! Many on this list supported Joe's candidacy publicly and vigorously, and for those of us who did, news of his election comes as great news indeed. Joe's victory is not only a testament to his Sterling character and formidable professional accomplishments, but also represents a welcome and all too rare rebuff to the forces of reaction which have been in the saddle at the ASA for far too long. Joe's victory is a victory for all of us... Good for you, Joe... And good for all of us! Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From glord@pittstate.edu Mon Jul 6 09:51:46 1998 Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 10:25:40 -0700 From: George Lord To: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Subject: Re: Election results I would add my congradulations to Joe and pose the question; Is it time for all of us who have been disaffected form ASA to rejoin?? George MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU wrote: > > Perhaps I am so out of it that I am the last to get the good news. However, I > don't recall seeing anything on PSN about the results of the recent ASA > elections. Perhaps it comes as no news to you, but I recently learned that > Joe Feagin won the presidential election! Many on this list supported Joe's > candidacy publicly and vigorously, and for those of us who did, news of his > election comes as great news indeed. Joe's victory is not only a testament to > his Sterling character and formidable professional accomplishments, but also > represents a welcome and all too rare rebuff to the forces of reaction which > have been in the saddle at the ASA for far too long. Joe's victory is a > victory for all of us... Good for you, Joe... And good for all of us! > > Morton Wenger > > TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 > INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From sokol@jhu.edu Mon Jul 6 08:26:30 1998 Mon, 06 Jul 1998 10:25:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 10:24:54 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: A Nation of Spectators? To: psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu For anyone who in this thread expressed doubts that corporations cannot be made a tool to serve the interests of the working class, I have the following question: Who is a corporation? If the answer is "the management and major stockholders" then such doubts are logically justified, yet I find such a view a prima facie expression of managerial ideology that boosts the imaginary role of the suits while ignoring the real role of employees in creating wealth. Regards, Wojtek Sokolowski From sokol@jhu.edu Mon Jul 6 08:44:50 1998 Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 10:43:21 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism In-reply-to: <3.0.1.32.19980702120225.00c2fb34@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu Contrary to what my critics on this list say, I do believe there is a correlation between ethnicity and poverty in this country. The point is, however, to explain that correlation. I belive that the concpet of racism is too vague and poorly defined, full of emotive connotations, moralizing, pop-psychology, romanticized views of the ghetto life, political and personal agendas etc. to be of any use in that explanation. "Racism" is to the Left what "family values" is to the Right - a shibboleth that obscures more that it explains, a conceptual Trojan horse that smuggles hidden political agendas along a rather limited and simplistic range of responses: getting tough or getting lenient on the poor. It is a bad social science and a bad social policy limited to the constraints of the American status quo. Regards, Wojtek Sokolowski From weberian@arches.uga.edu Sun Jul 5 14:20:52 1998 Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 16:20:36 -0400 (EDT) From: "James J. Dowd" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Job announcement The Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia is now recruiting to fill a position at the Assistant Professor level in the area of culture and work. The job announcement will be posted in the next issue of the ASA Employment Bulletin and may be accessed now at http://www.uga.edu/~soc/recruit.htm. The deadline for applications for this position, which begins in August, 1999, is OCTOBER 16th, 1998. Jim Dowd. From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Mon Jul 6 12:48:21 1998 Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 14:48:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin Reply-To: Andrew Wayne Austin To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980706104321.00c5e790@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> List, Sorry to post again today. To what extent is the denial of the existence of racism racist itself? I understand that someone may out of ignorance deny racism exists. But on what grounds can somebody who knows better make this claim? I find it significant that racist right wing organizations are out front in denying that racism exists. We could spend millions and millions of bytes on this listserv documenting the existence of racism; my wonderment is why we might have to. I have a possible answer: rather then talking about solutions for the problem, we are constantly forced to demonstrate the existence of the problem; having to concern ourselves with convincing people that racism is still one of the major problems we face functions to keep us busy, all the while those who benefit from racism get away with perpetuating injustice. Andy From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Mon Jul 6 12:27:26 1998 Mon, 6 Jul 1998 14:27:16 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 14:27:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980706104321.00c5e790@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> Wojtek, The difference between family values and racism is that the right seeks to deny the left has any family values at the same time the right seeks to deny they are racist. Family values is a strawman. Racism is real. Andy On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > Contrary to what my critics on this list say, I do believe there is a > correlation between ethnicity and poverty in this country. The point is, > however, to explain that correlation. > > I belive that the concpet of racism is too vague and poorly defined, full > of emotive connotations, moralizing, pop-psychology, romanticized views of > the ghetto life, political and personal agendas etc. to be of any use in > that explanation. > > "Racism" is to the Left what "family values" is to the Right - a shibboleth > that obscures more that it explains, a conceptual Trojan horse that > smuggles hidden political agendas along a rather limited and simplistic > range of responses: getting tough or getting lenient on the poor. It is a > bad social science and a bad social policy limited to the constraints of > the American status quo. > > Regards, > > Wojtek Sokolowski > From staff@stewards.net Mon Jul 6 13:47:04 1998 (envelope-from staff@stewards.net) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 15:53:46 -0400 (EDT) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: staff@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! Hi there, As a long-time participant in PSN I have often benefited from the insights, kindness, and information provided by the members. However, I must chide people at this point for not taking the current economic crisis more seriously. As recent reports from Asia make clear, tens of millions of working people face starvation in Indonesia alone by the end of the year. This is to say nothing of Russia's Industrial production standing at 50% of 1989 levels, or the collapse of the Malaysian economy, or the value of Hong Kong property standing at just 50% of the value a year ago, or the IMF's inability to raise sufficient cash to address the worldwide shortfalls, etc., etc. >From my perspecitve, we are in the middle of what is well on the way to becoming the worst depression in the history of Capitalism. The illusion that everything is going on as before is simply a function of our position in North America or Western Europe, where the economic crisis impact has not really hit - yet. As socialists, progressives, feminists, and anti-racisits, I suggest that we need to think beyond `business as usual'. To begin with: What organizational and strategic measures should we be taking to help linkup and organize the planetary underclass, the mass of working and non-working poor people in the America's, in Asia, and around the world, beginning with ourselves, to insure that they and we can survive this crisis. The fate of millions of human beings is at stake. We must act. Eric Sommer, coordinator, Chiapas Alert Network, www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm Member Stewards Corporation Movement of poor people www.stewards.net From staff@stewards.net Mon Jul 6 13:47:12 1998 (envelope-from staff@stewards.net) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 15:53:49 -0400 (EDT) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: staff@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Canadian Super-Exploitatin of Academic labour Hi there, Here are the perspective of a law grad and a PH.D instructor in Canada, two friends of mine, to the Counterpunch article on the new super-exploitation of academic labour. Their responses are interpolated in the original article below. Cordially, Eric >>The May 1-15 1998 edition of CounterPunch (a newsletter put out by Ken >>Silverstein & Alexander Cockburn) contains an article entitled "Back to >>the Middle Ages: The Rise of the Lumpen Teacher". I've excerpted some of >>the article below, I would be interested in any comments: >> >>"Across the etnire landscape of higher education in America today a vast >>shift has been taking place in the past few years that in many ways >>matches the onslaught on the economic security and working conditions of >>blue collar workers since the early 1970's. Visit any two or four-year >>institution of higher education and one finds the same basic pattern: a >>swelling army of low-paid, overworked junior academics, picking up >>piece-work assignments with near zero economic security; a shrinking >>sector of senior tenured academics; and a swelling academic bureaucracy >>over which preside the pashas of the system, the university presidents >>and senior administrators pullling down enormous salaries and reveling >>in princely quarters and lavish benefits. >> >>"Half of the teaching load in higher education is currently carried by >>contingent instructors...This transformation of academic labor raises >>serious political economic questions about the power relations driving >>the process, yet these structural issues are rarely addressed, even in >>the narratives of the victims. Indeed, they tend to parrot >>administrative rhetoric about budget crises and the inevitability of >>restructuring on 'efficient' corporate lines. In Canada this is increasingly the case, but it does not absorb half of the teaching load yet. >> >>"Downsizing has been a strategy for weakening union power and generating >>sublime levels of corporate profit. In the academic world the >>downgrading of instructors and the bureaucratic bloat are the forms this >>process have taken. Don't know about the bureaucratic bloat in Canada...If anything, at the department level there seems to be less resources for administration, and more tasks thrown upon fewer people. Clerical and laboratory staff are often hired as a part of project (temporary) funding - "soft money". Some institutions have been successful at raising corporate funds, but this is generally targeted at new buildings or research facilities and staff that are of benefit to corporations. For example, the matching program instituted at UBC by the Socreds amounted to a public grant to facilities and research that benefits corporations. It is especially ironic that the public, who pays for a large portion of the research, are subject to corporate patent protection which keeps the cost of the benefits high for an extended period of years. We do not benefit from , e.g., the invention of health and medical drug innovations unless we are wealthy enough to afford them. At UBC, former President Strangway sat on the boards of MacMillan Bloedel, BC Gas, and Echo Bay Mining while also acting as university president. As an example of how such relationships can create conflicts, the university entered the Coalition for Biomedical and Helath Research, which in 1992 lobbied the federal government for Bill C-91, which gave multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers patent protection for up to 20 years, a move that opponents argued would deny access to generic forms of the drug and cost the public health system up to $4 billion. UBC entered a research agreement with the world's largest drug company, Merck Frost, who conditioned its $15 million investment in a UBC building for genetics research on the passage of the Bill: [reported by Georgia Straight, October 22-29, 1993, p. 7]. >> >>"To be sure, higher education has suffered from economic crises, >>especially during the state fiscal crisis of the late '70's and early >>'80's. but after the lean years of the early '80's, budgets for higher >>education have more than recovered through stable state appropriations, >>rocketing tuition revenues from heavily indebted students, and academic >>whoring for foundation and corporate grants. In Canada, provinces are responsible for education, but provincial funding for universities has been declining because federal monies which used to flow from a nation-wide standards approach has been withdrawn. >> >>"In many cases, there have been double digit increases in tuition and >>class sizes have grown along with reduced course offerings. Once >>instituted, tuition increases are never rolled back. So the bizarre >>irony has developed that undergraduate students are forced to pay more >>and more for instruction that is being relentlessly degraded. >> This is wrong. Sessional instructors tend to be superior teachers because their continuing employment depends on favourable ratings from their students. All universities have standard questionnaires which are issued to every class just before the semester ends, so each student has a chance to assign numerical ratings on a variety of criteria in teaching performance. The results of these surveys are a primary determinant in the hiring of sessional instructors. Also, sessional instructors tend to have more time to devote to their classes because they are not burdened with the research and administrative demands of the tenure-track and tenured faculty. >>"Where has all the money gone? The money diverted from the funding base >>of instruction has been almost entirely absorbed by bureaucratic bloat. >>A Michigan State Senate report [on spending in Michigan's public >>universities found that] between the years 1977 to 1989 there was a 33 >>per cent increase in admnistrative/professional employees, while there >>was a 5 per cent decrease in tenured faculty. >> >>"A recent study of the University of California system shows that the >>ratio of spending on instruction to spending on administration dropped >>from $6-$1 in 1966 to $3-$1 in 1991...[and that] over 25 years the >>number of administrative positions has increased at nearly twice the >>rate of teaching positions, at higher pay. Corresponding stats for Canada? - don't know. >> >>"Part of the problem is that administrators are often tenured faculty >>themselves, and the maintenance of privileges for tenured faculty is in >>some ways based on the exploitation of lumpen academics. True. >> >>"As every generation of student radicals has discovered, high-minded >>talk about disinterested learning soon melts under the klieg lights of >>reality. In part because of the end of ideological competition with the >>Soviet Union, plus the unabashed, pre-millennial rhetoric of corporate >>triumph...the function of higher education in capitalist society is now >>finding its corresponding form without a tincture of shame. What these >>denizens of Grub Street-in-Academe need to find, like any reserve army >>of self-employed, is the proper organizations for self-defense and >>resistance." Where unions exist for sessional instructors, their primary interest appears to be the enforcement of rigid seniority rules which may actually reduce the employment opportunities available to sessional instructors. "Seniority" does not depend on level of education, merely on who got in first. The level of pay is identical between union and non-union institutions in the same locale. Some other points on academic exploitation: (1) Tenure-track faculty are, if anything, more exploited than sessional lecturers. They are heavily-loaded with teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities. Furthermore, they have the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads: will they get tenure? This produces an appalling level of pressure, since failure to get tenure means destruction of a career after a decade or more of hard work. (2) Sessional lecturers are often PhD students close to graduation. They're happy for the cash and the teaching experience, but it does lengthen the time it takes them to graduate, which can have negative career repercussions. (3) Technical staff --- the folks who care for the lab rats and run those funny-looking machines --- are generally underpaid and overworked, with little in the way of job security or fringe benefits. (4) The academic system is predicated on exponential growth of the university system. Each active faculty member must run a stable of grad students, or fail as a researcher. At the PhD level, those grad students are really being trained to be future faculty members. But in a shrinking university system, they are destined to join that reserve army of the underemployed, with only a lucky few making it through to the Nirvana of tenure. (5) The expansion of sessional lecturers in the university system does bring it closer to a Marxist ideal, since a sessional lecturer (if lucky enough to get a full slate of classes to teach) will get a salary approaching that of a janitor. Without the fringe benefits and job security, of course. From smrose@exis.net Mon Jul 6 14:59:52 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 16:55:04 +0000 Subject: Capitalism in crisis=Fascism During the past few days PSN'ers have discussed: 1. growing super-exploitation of academic contingent labor. 2. the report "A Nation of Spectators," which calls for the restoration of "civil society." 3. whether the intensification of racism is something to be confronted or a distraction from real issues. 4. The call for a general strike in Puerto Rico, the GM strike, and the militant demonstration of construction workers in New York. 5. The spread of capitalist depressison from Asia to the rest of the world. Why are all of these things taking place? Are they connected or related? First, the capitalist crisis of overproduction is forcing capitalist rulers to privatize public utilities in Puerto Rico, eliminate jobs of auto workers in the US, and replace union with non-union construction workers in New York City. The capitalists' solutions to their crisis are incompatible with the basic needs of workers everywhere. Second, capitalists not only are escalating their attacks on the working class. They are also spreading two of their key ideological weapons: Racism and Nationalism. These ideologies serve capitalists by getting workers to blame the crisis on workers of other "races" and other "nations." They try to get workers to unite with capitalists of "their own race and nation." Third, too restore civil society means in the context of this deepening crisis to strengthen sentiments of patriotism, national unity, and sacrifice for one's society. The growth of racist and nationalist movements is the surest symptom of the growth of fascism throughout the world. Fascism uses violent racism and nationalism to intensify capitalist exploitation of the working class. Indian capitalists push Hindu nationalism/religious fundamentalism to scapegoat Muslims and Pakistanis. Indonesian capitalists attempt to manipulate the anger of Indonesian workers against ethnic Chinese. US capitalists incite racist violence against black workers and against Latino and Asian immigrant workers. Fourth, Eric Sommer has rightly emphasized the deepening and spreading of the global capitalist depression. If you doubt what Eric wrote, I suggest you read the article in today's New York Times, "One Year Later, Asian Economic Crisis Is Worsening." It says that everything the capitalists and their mouthpieces have said for the past year has been proven wrong. It quotes economist Allen Sinai, who says that the crisis "is the single most negative economic event since the Great Depression..." What a time for Joe Feagin to get elected to head the ASA! He will take office as global depression and fascism increasingly envelop the capitalist world. He faces a situation in which the ASA has been actively collaborating with the US Government's racist, fascist, imperialist agenda. Thus, what is happening is not really a "refeudalization" of the world, but a new and more deadly round of depression and fascism that will lead to a third world war among rival imperialists. As we fight against all these escalating assaults on our ability to live, I hope that more and more of us will conclude that the solution lies in "the negation of the negation." Steve Rosenthal From velazquez@rehu.ucl.ac.be Tue Jul 7 05:36:05 1998 Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 13:39:33 +0000 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?R=E9my?= Velazquez Subject: depression List, I deeply agree with Steve and Eric in the urgency to cope with the economic depression which will probably hit the occidental world soon (the other possibility is, as we say in french, "un atterrissage en douceur", "a soft landing", but who believes that ?). The huge political and social effects it will bring have to be anticipated (or at least we have to wonder about probabilities) in order not to be speechless in the rough time to come. In a more pragmatic way, think about the ways to maintain contact : I don't want to appear as over-pessimistic, but if the crisis is very deep how many of us will still work as sociologists (I mean for universities), will be able to maintain networks ? (think about all those scientists from the former and devasted USSR)... P.S. : Steve, could you send a copy of the NYT article ? (Europeans don't have access to their web site) Thank you. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rémy Velazquez Université catholique de Louvain IAG/REHU Place des Doyens, 1 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium Tel: (+32)(0)10/47.85.22 (+32)(0)95/79.34.22 Fax: (+32)(0)10/47.83.24 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From BKRUBY@prodigy.net Tue Jul 7 01:06:08 1998 Reply-To: From: "BRIAN K RUBY" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Re: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 01:47:16 -0400 Unfortunately, it is the nature of the European (capitalist) world economy to be cyclic (see Wallerstein, etc.). Along with these ups and downs goes poverty, starvation, shifts in economic class, etc. This is one of the reasons capitalism is so horrible. It is also one of the reasons this historical aberration needs to be corrected. If we are going to organize, we need to organize for radical change. Trying to race around the globe and put out fires caused by this system is akin to putting a bandaid on a small cut on someone's head who has a severed leg and is bleeding to death. From my perspective and experience, people do not change without suffering first. Another depression might be a good thing in that it might move a considerable number of people from "false" to "true consciousness" about their situation. Nothing like seeing that 5% on top of the hill, living in luxury, while you and your family are starving to death. Note: I doubt if those who have adopted a self-sufficient lifestyle will be much affected by any economic crisis. One of the routes to successful change is non-participation. - Brian ---------- > From: Eric Sommer > To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK > Subject: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! > Date: Monday, July 06, 1998 3:53 PM > > Hi there, > > As a long-time participant in PSN I have often benefited from the insights, > kindness, and information provided by the members. However, I must chide > people at this point for not taking the current economic crisis more > seriously. As recent reports from Asia make clear, tens of millions of > working people face starvation in Indonesia alone by the end of the year. > This is to say nothing of Russia's Industrial production standing at 50% of > 1989 levels, or the collapse of the Malaysian economy, or the value of Hong > Kong property standing at just 50% of the value a year ago, or the IMF's > inability to raise sufficient cash to address the worldwide shortfalls, > etc., etc. > > >From my perspecitve, we are in the middle of what is well on the way to > becoming the worst depression in the history of Capitalism. The illusion > that everything is going on as before is simply a function of our position > in North America or Western Europe, where the economic crisis impact has not > really hit - yet. > > As socialists, progressives, feminists, and anti-racisits, I suggest that we > need to think beyond `business as usual'. To begin with: What > organizational and strategic measures should we be taking to help linkup and > organize the planetary underclass, the mass of working and non-working poor > people in the America's, in Asia, and around the world, beginning with > ourselves, to insure that they and we can survive this crisis. > > The fate of millions of human beings is at stake. We must act. > > Eric Sommer, > coordinator, Chiapas Alert Network, www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm > Member Stewards Corporation Movement of poor people www.stewards.net > From padler@usc.edu Tue Jul 7 10:24:34 1998 by almaak.usc.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/usc) id JAA03933; Tue, 7 Jul 1998 09:24:23 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <199807061953.PAA00238@smtp2.globalserve.net> Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 09:21:34 -0700 To: staff@stewards.net, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Paul Adler Subject: Re: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! In response to Eric Sommer's post, I wonder if someone out there could help us put this crisis in perspective: how "big" is it compared to the 1930s? Thx in advance Paul * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Prof. Paul S. Adler * * Management and Organization Dept, * * Marshall School of Business, * * University of Southern California * * Los Angeles, CA 90089-1421 * * USC office tel: (213) 740-0748 * * Home office tel: (818) 981-0115 * * Home office fax: (818) 981-0116 * * email: padler@usc.edu * * URL: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~padler/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From groove@alltel.net Tue Jul 7 11:06:34 1998 Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 13:21:51 -0400 From: "T.R. McKotch" To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Environmental Sociology Professions? I'm going to begin working on my B.A. in Sociology in the fall. I was wondering if anyone can tell me of the employment opportunities with a concentration in Environmental Sociology? Thanks! T.R. From DBaronov@bastyr.edu Tue Jul 7 11:14:19 1998 Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 10:18:17 -0700 From: David Baronov To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Puerto Rico General Strike For those who are interested, and technologically able, you may follow the events of today's general strike via the NYT AP page: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/indexNews.html Puerto Rico's major daily paper, El Nuevo Dia, also has a web site for those who read Spanish. www.endi.com Unfortunately, as might be expected, the web site for El Nuevo Dia does not seem to be working at this time. For those who have not heard, the latest news is that strikers have essentially shut down the airport by blockading the highway. Riot police had been preparing for an attack on the airport but were surprised by the hundreds of cars that made a predawn maneuver to turn the highway into a parking lot. From coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Tue Jul 7 11:15:09 1998 From: "Rodney Coates" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: RE: Fighting Against Racism Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 13:14:59 -0400 charset="iso-8859-1" While I have been away..I see the same old battle is being waged..Steve and Noel great post..And I believe that you place you fingers on an important line of discussion. Even extreme Marxists should understand the intersection of race, class and gender..you might use Marx terminology..and refer them to relations of productions..or you might discuss them under political economy..which Cox, Du Bois, Weber, Van den Berghe, and others ...or you might talk about split labor markets (ala Edna Bonichich)..the bottom line you must talk about, research, and document these...class reductionism..just like race and pschological reductionism..or gender reductionism...does little to advance our knowledge..and merely results in arguments and dialogues in a vacuum...rodneycoates > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-psn@csf.colorado.edu [mailto:owner-psn@csf.colorado.edu]On > Behalf Of Steve Rosenthal > Sent: Thursday, July 02, 1998 12:57 PM > To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK > Subject: Fighting Against Racism > > > Woytek's view of racism is that it consists of "attitudes." > > Words that end in "ism" mean much more than just attitudes. Capitalism, > communism, socialism, fascism refer both to ideologies and material > arrangements. Why would anyone think that racism is nothing more > than an attitude found in individuals? > > Oliver Cox pointed out half a century ago in Caste, Class, and Race > that racist attitudes are merely a manifestation of "a system of > domination and exploitation." If racism was merely attitudes, why > don't all the other prejudiced attitudes Woytek refers to cause > similar patterns of subjugation for every ethnic group? > > Woytek also belittled every recent example of racism that I wrote > about. Although mayor Giuliani of New York has promoted as policy > the brutal racist style of policing advocated by Rutgers > criminologist George Kelling ("broken windows"), resulting in > thousands of cases of beatings, jailings, and killings, and New York > juveniles aged 10 to 16 are now being held in pre-trial detention on > floating barges, Woytek says this isn't the policy of the ruling > class, but only of "right wing zealots and control freaks." If the > ruling class doesn't rule NY City, who does? > > Woytek dismisses my condemnation of welfare reform as "defending > state charity." The "true Marxist" Woytek calls for "employment and a > living wage for everyone." Woytek is so much more radical than I > that he thinks it is possible to achieve full employment and living > wages in a declining capitalist system that is forcing welfare > recipients into fascist slave labor welfare. Woytek's militant > posture hides his liberal reformist program. > > Woytek dismisses the impact of academic racism. He thinks E.O.Wilson > and Charles Murray exist only so that liberal academics can feel good > criticizing them. Woytek thinks that the ruling class effort > to enshrine biological determinism and eugenics again as academic > orthodoxy couldn't possibly be a prelude to concentration camps, > genocide, and world war. He thinks that "in the US such a threat is > very remote." > > In the US inventories are beginning to pile up, economic growth is > slowing, unemployment is growing, GM is trying to save its ass by > destroying auto workers' jobs, and the depression in Asia is making > its way to the USA. Puerto Rican workers' unions have called a > general strike. I guess this is also remote. > > Woytek, I think your message conveys a dogmatic, know-it-all > attitude. I dno't think you've tried to understand what Noel or I > have written. > > Steve Rosenthal > From www@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu Tue Jul 7 08:16:08 1998 From: "DPLS Staff" To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 09:15:54 +0000 Subject: Data Availability Announcement Please excuse any cross listings of this announcement. The Data and Program Library Service is pleased to announce the addition of the following dataset to our Web-based Online Data Archive. Please feel free to redistribute this announcement. Thank you. Cindy Severt Senior Special Librarian Data & Program Library Service University of Wisconsin-Madison ****************************************** Title: Patterns of Interracial Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the City of Milwaukee, 1970 URL: http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/milwaupolit/ Unique Identification Number: SM-009-001-1-3-USA-DPLS-1970 Type of File: Numeric. Methodology: See Study and Sample Design (PDF format--328 KB. Shift-click to download.) See Using Documentation in PDF for help with Portable Document Format. Summary: The dataset contains responses to questions about important problems facing Milwaukee and what the city government is doing about these problems, Presidential and mayoral vote in 1968, degree of political participation, level of political information on government, educational, social welfare programs and officials, knowledge of and participation in CAP, Model Cities, and consumer associations, attendance at meetings, protest activities (types, reasons for, attendance, participation, level of violence, arrests) and their affect on Milwaukee, blacks, US and city governments, community control, educational policies, quality of government in Milwaukee, political action to carry out an objective, black-white relations. Demographic characteristics include length of residency in neighborhood, in Milwaukee, birthplace, age, employment status, participation in city job, family income in 1969, membership in associations, educational attainment, birthplace and nationality of parents, public assistance provided to family, race, sex, age of children, housing unit. Geographic Coverage: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Descriptors: interracial politics, protest behavior, political protest, community control, urban political integration, racial elites, political participation, Milwaukee politics, attitude survey, race relations Technical Notes: Two raw ASCII data files broken down into a "black sample" and "white sample". Use PDF or hard copy codebooks for variable locations and coding. (The two questionnaires are similar but not identical.) Logical record length for each file is 387. BLACKSMP.DAT has 246 records, and is 94 KB in size. WHITESMP.DAT has 331 records and is 126 KB. The two data files are bundled together and compressed for WWW distribution. Cited References: Eisinger, Peter K. Patterns of Interracial Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the City, New York: Academic Press, 1976. DPLS Staff Data and Program Library Service 3308 Social Science Building Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-0750 http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu From sokol@jhu.edu Tue Jul 7 13:21:03 1998 07 Jul 1998 15:20:29 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 15:19:35 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism To: mweigand@usa.net, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu At 10:35 AM 7/7/98 -0600, you wrote: >I don't follow... > >If racism is not real, why did we need a national civil rights movement, the >1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1968 Fair Housing Act, etc. in order to change 100 >year-old social norms? Are you familiar with Jim Crow laws in the old South? > I did not say it is not real. But when you have, say, an impeached for corruption politician crying 'racism' because the 'white men did him in' or a cop crying racism because he was suspended for domestic violence, or racism rather than real estate speculation and misguided development being blamed for urban decline and poverty, or symbol manipulators focusing on racial identity rather than economics - there is a good reason to belive that the concept is suspect, no? I may also add that the whole concept of 'civil rights movement' is suspect because it focuses on 'Southern racists' - which implies blue collar prejudice - and that not only leaves Yale and Harvard liberals off the hook, but gives them an opportunity to take a high moral ground and patronisingly lecture those "Southern thugs' on the virtues of civil society. It is the concept that upholds the concpet of formal rights, bourgeois democracy (a billionaire and a beggar are treated as 'equals', neither of them can panhandle of sleep in subway) and free market instead of economics rights and access to material resources. It does not challenge the basically screwed up structure of the American society where business patricians can pollute working class environment, lay off thousand ow workers in the name of economic effciency, and then give $50 to a charity that that fights for environment or civil rights. I would rather have a Labor Party worthy its name, with real power and representation on all levels of government, than the civil rights movement, Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act together with assorted charitable organizations fighting cultural wars. I do not think overtly racist language, found mainly among the working class, is a serious problem. I think a much bigger problem is elite interests hiding behind 'market rationality.' It is the 'civilised' market rationality of the mandarins of the American business, not the boorish racist slurs of the blue collar workers that perpetuates urban decline, poverty, ghettos and related social problems. Regards Wojtek Sokolowski From DBaronov@bastyr.edu Tue Jul 7 11:58:18 1998 Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 11:02:08 -0700 From: David Baronov To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Puerto Rico General Strike More breaking news on the Puerto Rico general strike. The workers have shut down a Walmart that tried to open. Always a good sign, strike or no strike. The attached article is in Spanish. Manifestantes obligan cierre de Walmart martes, 7 de julio de 1998 de mayo deaguez.- Cientos de manifestantes obligaron el cierre de la tienda por departamentos ``Walmart'', del de mayo deaguez Mall, centro comercial que no pudo abrir sus puertas hoy debido al paro general decretado por unos 60 sindicatos. Tras forzar el cierre, los manifestantes se ubicaron frente a la entrada del supermercado ``Pueblo Xtra'', único establecimiento abierto en el mayor complejo de tiendas de la región oeste. ``No vamos a dejar que pase nadie porque estamos en un paro nacional y eso se respeta'', sostuvo Hebé Vélez, delegada de la Unión Independiente de Empleados Telefónicos en la región oeste. La sindicalista explicó que por más de una hora se esperó por la decisión de la empresa para que se ordenara el cierre del establecimiento y al no hacerlo se decidió bloquear las entradas del supermercado. Desde hace varios días los miembros de los sindicatos telefónicos confrontaron problemas para organizar manifestaciones y protestas en los terrenos del de mayo deaguez Mall donde ubican dos instalaciones de la Compañía Telefónica la oficina comercial de de mayo deaguez y el departamento de tráfico intraísla en el que laboran decenas de operadores de larga distancia. La empresa del de mayo deaguez Mall acudió al Tribunal de Primera Instancia de de mayo deaguez con una petición de interdicto para que se prohibieran las manifestaciones y se oredenara el pago de una compensación de 10,000 dólares por daños alegadamente sufridos por el centro comercial. El juez Luis Rivera Román falló en contra de la empresa y desestimó la acción judicial por lo que los sindicatos decidieron arreciar sus protestas en el centro comercial a tenor con el llamado a una huelga general que se inició a medianoche del martes a tarvés de todo el país. EFE From mweigand@usa.net Tue Jul 7 16:43:20 1998 Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 16:39:48 -0600 (MDT) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism To: Wojtek Sokolowski , mweigand@usa.net, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980707151935.00b41a3c@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> Thanks for your reply. Mostly agreed this time--yes, scoundrels of various sorts can cry "racism" to further their own ends and yes, the corporate elite obscures their own racism by blaming the working class. I would also support a real Labor Party in the U.S., but at present we do not have one. One further point about Jim Crow laws in the South. I was not suggesting that Northern states did not have racism, only that with its history of slavery and subsequent Jim Crow laws, the South provides the best historical example of American racism. I do not have a problem with the term "racism", although I agree that it can be used ambiguously and co-opted as can religion, sexism, etc. What I think we need to do is define our terms carefully and precisely. By the way, one of the best co-optations of a concept I have heard was in a speech by a business executive, who when asked whether business should have any social responsibility said "Yes, the social responsibility of business is to make a profit". (!) Best Wishes, -=MW=- MSCD.edu From kdils@epix.net Tue Jul 7 13:33:17 1998 Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 15:37:16 -0400 From: Keith Dils Reply-To: kdils@epix.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Autonomy vs External Influence List, How does one explain (to an Intro to Soc student resolute in her beliefs that "I make my own choices?) why some apparently overcome the influences of external societal factors, while others do not? How does one convince a student that the choices that appear internal, are in fact influenced by a great degree by external societal factors? Specifically, how does one effectively address the following point raised by a student: "While my sibling and I were exposed to the same family, and we were both exposed to the same social environments, I overcame those external socetal factors by deciding to do something with my life, while my sibling did not." Thanks in advance. Keith Dils Adjunct Lect. Sociology Pennsylvania College of Technology From RPlatkin@aol.com Tue Jul 7 23:46:50 1998 From: RPlatkin@aol.com Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 01:46:33 EDT To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: July 6, 1998, NYT article on Asian crisis Here is the July 6, New York Times article discussed on PSN. It certainly does take the wind out of the sails of those who contend that economic crisis has been, somehow, fine-tuned out of capitalism. One Year Later, Asian Economic Crisis Is Worsening By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON -- Few alarm bells rang here a year ago this weekend, when Thailand's currency melted down. "There were no crisis meetings," recalled Daniel Tarullo, President Clinton's top international economic adviser until a few months ago, "and certainly no sense that this was the start of an economic crisis that might roll around the world." It turned out to be just that. A year later, there is no end in sight -- after three huge international bailouts, the forced resignation of Asia's longest-serving ruler, a banking crisis in Japan and trouble looming from Russia to South Africa to Malaysia. The economic crisis that was supposed to be abating now, much as Mexico's did after a year, is growing more intense. Unlike a nuclear test in India or a provocation from Iraq, this crisis started so slowly that in November, Clinton dismissed it as "a few small glitches in the road." Today it stands as the largest single threat to the six-year economic boom in the United States. While the effects on most Americans have been remote, factories are beginning to slow, exports are beginning to pile up on the docks and members of Congress from agricultural states are beginning to speak publicly about the need for swift action, even if they are unsure what that action should be. From the White House to the International Monetary Fund, officials are concerned that the effects of the crisis will be worse and longer-lasting than they thought even three months ago. What particularly scares Clinton administration officials, though they are loath to say so on the record, is that the unpredictable economic contagion is no longer limited to the Pacific Rim. "Just look at how our view of this has changed in the past year," said one of Clinton's top advisers. "First it was all about Thailand. Then it was about containing this all to Southeast Asia. And look at where all this is headed in the next year: Russia, Japan, maybe China -- the superpowers." Clinton alluded to this fear in Hong Kong on Friday, wrapping up his tour of China. "Restoring economic stability and growth will not be easy," he said. "The steps required will be politically unpopular and will take courage. But the United States will do all we can to help any Asian government willing to work itself back to financial health." Just what kind of help he has in mind was left vague. He can send Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and his deputy, Lawrence Summers, on more trips around the globe urging countries to follow the monetary fund's conditions for loans -- a mixture of budget austerity and high interest rates that is now being adjusted to dampen street protests by laid-off workers and by families who cannot buy gasoline or food. Despite Clinton's statement of commitment in Hong Kong, his options are limited. Congress is deeply reluctant to contribute an additional $18 billion to the monetary fund. The battle has turned into a bitter struggle over the fund's traditional secrecy, its track record and animosity among some members of Congress toward international organizations of any kind. Summers likens denying the fund this money to "canceling your life insurance just after you've been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease." But the IMF's record is mixed at best, and Republicans cite harsh criticism of its actions by everyone from Milton Friedman, the well-known economist, to former Secretary of State George Shultz. Stanley Fischer, the No. 2 official at the fund, dismisses their arguments that the fund has made the crisis worse as "nonsense." But right or wrong, it is a view that is gaining political currency in Washington. Clinton has made clear that he has no intention of repeating his own successful bailout of Mexico. In that case, he circumvented Congress, using a fund controlled by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to lend $12 billion to Mexico, one of America's largest trading partners. It is unclear what the United States will do if Russia desperately needs aid in the next few months and the IMF says it does not have the resources. It is not only Congress and the administration that are at odds. The World Bank, which focuses on issues of poverty and development, is critical of its sister institution, the monetary fund. The State Department carps that the Treasury has focused on reforming banking systems and opening markets but paid too little attention to America's broader strategic interests. The CIA, one senior intelligence official acknowledged, "hasn't a clue how to deal with this kind of crisis, where the enemy is the markets or a finance ministry that lies about a country's currency reserves." The only point of agreement, in fact, is that Washington officials are publicly understating the depth of the problems so that they do not scare the markets. "This is off the radar screens in terms of severity," said Allen Sinai, the chief global economist at Primark Decision Systems, an investment advisory group. "It is the single most negative economic event since the Great Depression in the United States. "But what makes this problem so distinct is that it is not just an economic bust. It is laced with every type of financial crisis and instability that has ever shown up in the real world or any textbook. And while there are some brilliant minds working on it, no one can deal with it -- not Rubin, not Summers, not any single country, not the IMF." Without question, an astounding array of economic and political predictions emerging from Washington and Wall Street in the last year have proved wrong. For example, the Treasury and private economists said last summer that they expected that the problems confronting Thailand would follow the Mexico pattern. The surprise devaluation of the peso triggered sell-offs in other emerging markets, giving rise to the phrase "economic contagion," but after three or four months, markets settled down. After a year of pain, Mexico was on the mend. But the Asian crisis today looks nothing like Mexico's. The economic contagion has yet to stop. It just smolders underground for a while, erupting in various places around the globe as investors take a new look at a country and suddenly see a host of risks that should have been obvious before. They head for the exits, pulling money out of the currency and the stock markets. That turns long-festering but manageable problems into an immediate crisis. There were other misguided predictions. When the monetary fund devised a $43 billion bailout plan for Indonesia in October, American officials and the fund described it as deliberate overkill. Indonesia's economy was in fundamentally better shape than other nations', they said, and President Suharto's iron control over the country made it easier to get the country back on track. But the economy turned out to be in worse condition than it appeared. And Suharto resisted the monetary fund's urgings for months, privately telling former Vice President Walter Mondale, who was sent there on a special mission, "If I do these things, they will throw me out of office." When Suharto was forced to resign after riots took 1,200 lives, the Natonal Security Council estimated that his successor, B.J. Habibie, would be gone within weeks. That was two months ago, and Habibie seems to be settling in. Contrary to many early predictions, the U.S. economy has so far been helped as much as it has been hurt by the events in Asia. While exports are down, both the reduction of activity and price competition from abroad kept inflation contained. That has given the Federal Reserve a reason to keep interest rates down. Then this spring, there was premature optimism. The IMF declared that the crisis was stabilizing. Rubin told Congress that a reignition of systemic, global economic trouble was "a low-probability event." But within a month, the eruption of Japan's banking crisis sent the yen plunging again, and that undercut other currencies througout East Asia. Fearful of broader contagion, Rubin reluctantly ordered the United States to buy $2 billion in yen to help calm the markets. In return he received assurances from Japanese politicans that they would act. On Thursday they announced a plan to reform the country's banks. But the initial verdict from the markets was that the plan was too vague, and the yen plunged again, taking markets throughout Asia with it. Today Asia faces two big questions. The first is whether Japan will lead a recovery or worsen the pain. The second is whether the monetary fund -- and by extension the Treasury, which has enormous leverage over the fund's policies -- has the right formula. The fund's solution has been to urge countries to raise interest rates, in hopes of attracting back investors who were fleeing from their currencies, and to balance their budgets. As investors trickle back in, the theory is, interest rates can fall and the currency will gradually strengthen. That has happened, modestly, in South Korea. But the most common criticism is that high interest rates are killing otherwise healthy businesses and the budget austerity is contributing to shrinking the national economies. "The year has been a fiasco, and so has the policy," said Jeffrey Sachs, a Harvard economist who has been among the administration's fiercest critics. "Asia would have been better if the IMF had never set foot in these countries. All these strategies were designed to restore the confidence of the markets, and they didn't." While many applauded the monetary fund's attack on crony capitalism and particularly on the Suharto-controlled cartels in Indonesia, that effort may not have struck at the heart of the country's economic troubles. But it did build credibility for the fund among the Indonesian people and on Capitol Hill. Rubin and Fischer argue strenuously that if the monetary fund had failed to step in, a bad situation would have turned disastrous. "It's a balancing act," said Fischer, "and we constantly readjust the mix to get it right. But I can't believe that serious people believe that without temporarily increasing interest rates, we could have contained the problems" caused by plunging currencies. The biggest risk to these countries in Asia, Fischer argues, is not the IMF's prescriptions, but its rapidly-depleting treasury. "If this situation were to worsen," he said, "and we needed to provide additional aid, we would simply not have the resources." The fund has only $10 billion to $15 billion left to lend out before it has to take extraordinary measures, he said. Opponents in Congress say the fund has plenty of untapped resources and is crying wolf. Monday, July 6, 1998 Copyright 1998 The New York Times From wsg1@is6.nyu.edu Wed Jul 8 06:19:41 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 08:19:28 -0400 From: "Warren S. Goldstein" To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Criminology This is a multi-part message in MIME format. Dear PSN, I am teaching criminology for the first time in the fall. Any suggestions for books, articles, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Warren Goldstein begin: vcard fn: Warren S. Goldstein n: Goldstein;Warren S. adr: 178 Union Street, Apt. 2R;;;Brooklyn;NY;11231;USA email;internet: wsg1@is6.nyu.edu tel;home: (718) 834-6460 x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE version: 2.1 end: vcard From godfreye@Acad.Ripon.EDU Tue Jul 7 23:20:34 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 00:22:00 -0600 (CST) From: Eric Godfrey Subject: Re: Autonomy vs External Influence In-reply-to: <35A278EC.49CC@epix.net> To: Keith Dils On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Keith Dils wrote: (snip) > > Specifically, how does one effectively address the following point >raised by a student: > >"While my sibling and I were exposed to the same family, and we were >both exposed to the same social environments, I overcame those external >socetal factors by deciding to do something with my life, while my >sibling did not." ............. This question can be addressed by talking about probabilism vs. determinism, and is hardly unusual in sociology. That some people break free from the environment which confines most does not disprove the existence of a causal relationship. It provides a good opportunity for pointing out that sociology strives to explain social regularities, not individual behavior (e.g. we can explain what factors are correlated with criminal behavior, but cannot predict who in particular will become a criminal). A different approach could involve your pointing out that while superficially the two siblings were exposed to the same environment, they may not have experienced that environment in the same way. Sibling order could also have an effect. Here are some sources, sociological and not, that have asked much the same question. Try Chapters 7, 8, and 11 of Jay McLeod's _Ain't No Makin' It_, subject of a fairly recent discussion on the TeachSoc list. A book called _Brothers_ was written in the late 80's (I think, reference not handy) about growing up in Robert Taylor Homes (very large and very poor public housing project in Chicago) by a Newsweek reporter - he "made" it, most of his friends did not. Finally, specifically on the sibling issue, look at _Brothers and Keepers_ (1984) by novelist, former Rhodes Scholar, and University of Wyoming Prof. of English John Wideman (who I remember watching as a basketball star at Penn when I too was a student there in the 1960's). His brother Robby got involved in the drug trade and is serving a life sentence for murder. Same family. The book is powerful. Good luck in explaining what has for me always been one of the most difficult aspects of sociology to explain to students receiving their first exposure to its perspective. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Eric P. Godfrey, Professor of Sociology, Ripon College * * P. O. Box 248, Ripon, Wisconsin 54971 * * (920) 748-8375 (office) or 748-6789 (home) * * Internet: godfreye@acad.ripon.edu * * "Save the earth, we don't have a backup copy" * * (made up by my son Forest at age 16) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From aiaware@erols.com Wed Jul 8 06:19:58 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 08:11:46 -0400 From: "Angela J. Ware, Ph.D." Reply-To: aiaware@erols.com To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Autonomy vs External Influence I am always seeking better explanations for this question and I look forward to the response of others on this list. First, in response to the general statement, "I make my own choices in life," I ask the entire class "How many of you are majoring in witch doctory?" After a few giggles and rolled eyes, we then discuss *why* none of us are on that career path. I stress that even in the land of "individual choice," our options are defined and limited by the social structure. Choosing to become a witch doctor is simply not one of our options due to lack of clientele, apprenticeships, belief system which supports mystical healing (in that way), etc. Thus far, in dealing with the second (more challenging) question, I attempt to stress individualist ideas which are borrowed from psychology, since these students cannot seem to abandon their notion of individual choice. I try to convince students that no two individuals *experience* social reality the same way. I define personality as a consistent pattern of behavior (thinking, feeling, and acting) which is based on the *totality* of one's experiences. Even siblings who grew up in the same family with the same exposure to social environment do not *perceive* (thus experience) these external influences the same way. Differences in perception and experience may be grounded in age, gender, level of "beauty," birth order, etc. Then the argument of twins inevitably surfaces. But even twins experience social environment differently because of individual perception and interpretation. A good example is discipline/punishment. I define a punisher as an input which is intended to and *is received* as such. So that a kid who is "punished" for not eating his/her peas at dinner by sending him/her to their room is not a punisher at all. It is intended, but not received in a negative way, i.e., the kid did not have to eat the peas and was sent to a room stocked with toys, books, etc. Twin A may be humiliated and embarrassed by a parent yelling at him/her, but Twin B craves that sort of attention, albiet negative. The social reality is not *experienced* similarly at all -- even though it is the same behavior/reality. The very fact that sibling A is an "other" in sibling B's reality (but not in his/her own) is a stong point. One common sense exercise which sometimes makes this point well is to have one student come to the front of the class and observe the audience, then sit down. Have another student do the same thing. Their perceptions should be identicle -- they are observing the same thing ... with one exception ... they are not seeing (nor experiencing) *themselves* as part of the "other." I hope these ideas help. Again, I look forward to other posts which provide better *sociological* explanations. Angela Ware Keith Dils wrote: > > List, > > How does one explain (to an Intro to Soc student resolute in her beliefs > that "I make my own choices?) why some apparently overcome the > influences of external societal factors, while others do not? > > How does one convince a student that the choices that appear internal, > are in fact influenced by a great degree by external societal factors? > > Specifically, how does one effectively address the following point > raised by a student: > > "While my sibling and I were exposed to the same family, and we were > both exposed to the same social environments, I overcame those external > socetal factors by deciding to do something with my life, while my > sibling did not." > > Thanks in advance. > > Keith Dils > Adjunct Lect. Sociology > Pennsylvania College of Technology From dredmond@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU Tue Jul 7 22:39:52 1998 Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 21:39:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Dennis R Redmond Subject: Re: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! To: psn@csf.colorado.edu On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Eric Sommer wrote: > >From my perspecitve, we are in the middle of what is well on the way to > becoming the worst depression in the history of Capitalism. The illusion > that everything is going on as before is simply a function of our position > in North America or Western Europe, where the economic crisis impact has not > really hit - yet. The era of the global rentiers is coming to a crashing end. But the Left also needs to ask, what's being constructed in its place? Sure, the US is certainly in the late phase of a bubble economy, and will pay for its hubris shortly, but Europe and Japan are doing their damndest to halt the rot. My guess is the latter won't let a credit crash develop into a really severe, 1930s-style collapse. Japan has already spent close to half a trillion dollars in bailouts and public works spending packages of various kinds since 1992; more is on the way. West Germany pumped equivalent amounts into East Germany and the Visegrad countries, and of course the EU has been doing some redistribution from the rich to the poor EU nations for some time now. In effect, the Long Depression of the 1990s has been largely offset by sustained, humongous and non-American Keynesianisms. Let's also not forget that the EU and Japan are the global creditors to the world-economy, so they certainly have the wherewithal to restart the world economy, if their elites so desired. As it turns out, their elites *do* so desire: the EU wants integration, which means social democracy is going continental, and Japan wants to save its voluminous overseas investments in Korea, China, and elsewhere, and is sitting on the world's biggest single mountain of liquidity. Mobilizing that capital for human needs and not corporate greed is the central issue facing a (potential) Asian Left -- or, put into more concrete terms, democratizing and socializing the Asian developmental states, where they exist in places like Korea and Singapore, and creating them (just like 1950s Sweden and Finland) where they don't. The US, though, is leveraged up to its eyeballs in dubious stock speculations, suggesting that we may be the next candidate for an EU-Japanese global bailout. Quite a comedown for the Pax Americana, to have to ask for money from its former servants, but since the US owes the new hegemons a cool $1.2 trillion, America is in no position to dictate terms to anyone at all. Ideally this should offer an unprecedented moment of opportunity for the Left to propose alternatives -- but so far, only the Euroleft has been thinking seriously about genuinely transnational initiatives. -- Dennis From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Wed Jul 8 09:16:53 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 98 10:16 CDT From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Choice/social determinism I don't have any ways to deal with student's concerns with choice than one's mentioned, options are social, sister's choice a psychological question etc. But I think it is important to note that the fact that we have choice in the first place is an important social reality. While most of our students will not major in witch doctoring (in fact with growing popularity of alternatives some do just that), consider being born a peasant in....a favela or barrio.....or earlier eras. Secondly, and as sociologists our occupational values stress social causes/contexts, culturalists like me stronly accept the importance of agency, individuals do have choices whether as individuals or group members. Thus as Mill so succinctly put it, the sociological imaginat- ion contextualize biography withing history. It is because some folks choose/act otherwise than expected, typical etc, that societies change. And by the way, my own sister is a a rich suburban housewife who has actually voted for Republicans. (There must have been a mixup at the hospital :) :) Lauren From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Wed Jul 8 09:34:15 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 08:33:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Workers Paralize Puerto Rico To: LABNEWS@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU Re: World Crisis, in Puerto Rico workers are struggling against one of its aspects, savage capitalism, This is the first labor led effort of this magnitude since the Sugar Workers strike on 1934 which led to a new economic stage in Puerto Rico. ======================================= Published Wednesday, July 8, 1998, in the Miami Herald Puerto Rican strikers block airport, paralyze island From Herald Staff and Wire Reports SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Thousands of striking workers blocked traffic to the airport, surrounded offices and staged rallies as they brought business and commerce to a halt Tuesday in an escalating confrontation with the government over plans to privatize the telephone company. Travelers seeking to fly out of the island had to haul suitcases and golf clubs through a blockade of vehicles on the highway to Luis Mu$oz Marin airport after strikers cut off access before dawn. A few flights were canceled, but a clash between riot police and strikers was averted and the blockade was lifted around midmorning, allowing flights to continue as scheduled. By all accounts, strike leaders succeeded in paralyzing the island on the first day of the two-day general strike that rallied 60 unions. Old San Juan deserted The streets of Old San Juan, the capital's main tourist attraction, were deserted. Across the capital, public transportation was halted, shopping malls and the island's largest bank, Banco Popular, closed for the day out of fears of violence, and there were sporadic shutdowns of water and electricity in cities across Puerto Rico. Strikers blocked access to buildings, discouraging other nonunionized workers from going to work. Some 200,000 government workers supported the strike, many of them bringing spouses and children to the picket lines. ``We have paralyzed the country,'' said Annie Cruz, head of the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers and a leader of the union coalition organizing the strike. ``We have made history, not only in Puerto Rico but at the world level.'' The shutdown, the biggest strike in decades, was called to support 6,400 telephone workers who walked off their jobs June 18 over the impending sale of the state-run Puerto Rican Telephone Co. to the U.S. telecommunications giant, GTE Corp. Impasse with governor But for all the success in bringing havoc to the island, the strike has not altered the impasse with Gov. Pedro Rossello. On Tuesday, Rossello again dismissed any possibility of halting the sale or holding a referendum on his decision to sell the telephone company, which made more than $100 million on its $1.2 billion sales in 1997. ``There will be a referendum in 1998, but it will not be about privatization, but rather about Puerto Rican status,'' Rossello told reporters. The governor was referring to the proposal to hold a plebiscite before the end of the year to allow Puerto Ricans to vote again for statehood, independence or to remain a semiautonomous commonwealth. Congress is considering a bill on the issue of holding a new plebiscite. Rossello, who heads the U.S. National Governor's League, is a major supporter of statehood. Protesting privatization The Puerto Rican strike has become the strongest protest against the privatization wave sweeping Latin America. Electrical and water workers, teachers and other government union workers have joined in because of concerns that future privatizations and budget cuts will mean more layoffs on an island where unemployment ranges over 12 percent. ``We're here because Rossello wants to privatize everything,'' said Victor Marrero as he waved a Puerto Rican flag in the picket line outside the Education Department in downtown San Juan. ``He wants to sell off Puerto Rico.'' A recent 50 percent pay raise the Puerto Rican Legislature voted itself has also touched a raw nerve. ``The fat cats are getting fatter while we're getting paid the same miserable wages,'' Marrero said. Even as Rossello was insisting the sale was final, the Government Development Bank, which is handling the privatization, issued a statement saying a committee would study a last-minute purchase offer from the Spanish telephone company, Telef"nica Internacional. Telef"nica's offer would give the government more than $300 million in additional revenue for the sale, but Rossello has stood fast to the choice of GTE. Strikers target bank Strike leaders pledged to picket Banco Popular if it opened its branches Wednesday. The bank, which would be a minority partner in the telephone company purchase, lost $140 million in labor union accounts that were withdrawn two weeks ago. Despite the tensions Tuesday, there were no reports of renewed violence. In the past two weeks, there have been several bloody clashes between riot police and strikers, and one bomb at a bank branch exploded in the hands of a policeman. Herald business writer Jane Bussey and special correspondent Karl Ross contributed to this report. GENERAL STRIKE Number of participating unions: 60 Number of striking workers: 200,000 Number of nonfunctioning telephone lines: 250,000 Days of the telephone workers' strike: 20 Days of the general strike: 2 ============================== City's Puerto Ricans Watch & Worry By VIRGINIA BREEN Daily News Staff Writer uerto Rican New Yorkers worried yesterday that the strike back home would turn violent, but defended the protest to prevent the sale of the state-owned phone company to "the Americans." "It's terrible, but what can we do?" asked Mercedes Rodriguez, a travel agent at Diaz Tirado Travel on E. 116th St. who had 12 clients stranded by the strike. "It's not fair. There's nothing wrong with our phone company." A customer named Luz, who had just canceled her flight to San Juan, said: "The people are fighting for their rights. They're trying to sell the company to the Americans." Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and the island is a commonwealth _ not a state. The sense of Puerto Rican identity is strong. Puerto Ricans in El Barrio watched news reports of the folks back home stocking up on candles and canned goods as riot police guarded ports and power plants. "It's worse than a hurricane," said Jose Lopez, 43, a perfume salesman from the South Bronx. Jaime Estades, executive director of the city's Hispanic Education and Legal Fund _ one of the groups behind the strike _ blasted GTE as "the Godzilla of globalization" who would chew up and spit out the island's labor force. Gov. Pedro Rossell" "is eating grapes while Puerto Rico is burning," Estades said. Reading the strike coverage in the newspaper El Vocero, Lopez grew frantic over the safety of his wife, Astrid, and two young daughters, ages 2 and 3 months, who live in the San Juan suburb of Carolina. "The roads are blocked and I can't get through on the phone," he said. "But if anything happens, I don't blame the people. I blame Rossell", because he's trying to privatize everything for political reasons. He's so _ how would you say in English? _ so arrogant. This is our phone company." From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Wed Jul 8 09:52:54 1998 Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 11:55:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Kate Millet update (fwd) This depressing message came my way today. Joanne Naiman ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > The feminist time forgot > > In 1970, Kate Millett wrote Sexual Politics, a groundbreaking, > bestselling analysis of female oppression. And what is she doing now? > Read her and weep > > The Guardian (London) Tuesday June 23, 1998 > > Another season at the farm, not that bad, but not that good either: > the tedium of a small community, shearing trees, so exhausted > afterward that I did nothing but read. A season without writing or > silk screening or drawing. Back to the Bowery and another emptiness. I > cannot spend the whole day reading, so I write, or try to. A pure if > pointless exercise. My books are out of print, even Sexual Politics, > and the manuscript about my mother cannot find a publisher. > > Trying also to get a job. At first the academic voices were kind and > welcoming, imagining I am rich and am doing this for amusement, > slightly embarrassed as they offer the new slave wages. I hear the > guilty little catch in the administrative voice, forced maybe to make > a big concession of $3,000 in my case. But I couldn't live on that, I > demur. "Of course, no one does," they chuckle from their own > $50-80,000 "positions". A real faculty appointment seems an > impossibility, in my case as in so many others now. I have friends > with doctorates earning as little as $12,000 a year, eking out an > existence at five different schools, their lives lived in cars and on > the economic edge. I'm too old for that and must do better. "Oh, but > our budget," they moan, "we really have no funds at all, much as we'd > love to have you." "Surely I'm qualified?" I ask, not as a "celebrity" > but as a credentialed scholar with years of teaching and a doctorate > with distinction from Columbia, an Oxford First, eight published > books. They'll get back to me. > > But they never do. > > I begin to wonder what is wrong with me. Am I "too far out" or too > old? Is it age? I'm 63. Or am I "old hat" in the view of the "new > feminist scholarship"? Or is it something worse? Have I been denounced > or bad-mouthed? By whom? What is the matter with me, for God's sake? > Has my feminism made me "abrasive"? Surely my polite, St Paul manner > should be reassuring. God knows I'm deferential enough to these > people. > > I begin to realise there isn't a job. > > I cannot get employment. I cannot earn money. Except by selling > Christmas trees, one by one, in the cold in Poughkeepsie. I cannot > teach and have nothing but farming now. And when physically I can no > longer farm, what then? Nothing I write now has any prospect of seeing > print. I have no saleable skill, for all my supposed accomplishments. > I am unemployable. Frightening, this future. What poverty ahead, what > mortification, what distant bag-lady horrors, when my savings are > gone? And why did I imagine it would be any different, imagine my > books would give me some slender living, or that I could at least > teach at the moment in life when every other teacher retires, having > served all those long years when I was enjoying the freedom of writer > and artist, unsalaried but able to survive on the little I'd been used > to and to invest in a farm and build it into a self-sufficient women's > art colony and even put a bit by. The savings might last 10 years, > more like seven. So in seven years I should die. But I probably won't; > women in my family live forever. > > Much as I tire of a life without purpose or the meaningful work that > would make it bearable, I can't die because the moment I do, my > sculpture, drawings, negatives and silkscreens will be carted off to > the dump. > > The Feminist Press, in its first offer last fall (it took them 12 > months to come up with this), suggested $500 to reprint the entire > text of Sexual Politics. Moreover, they couldn't get around to it till > the year 2000, since they'd need to commission one or two fancy > prefaces by younger, more wonderful women's studies scholars. My agent > and I were happy to refuse this offer, and the next, for $1,000. > > The book also fails to attract interest from the powers that be at > Doubleday, who have refused to reprint it, even though another > division of the company is celebrating Sexual Politics with a long > excerpt in an anthology of the 10 most important books the house has > published in its 100 years. A young female editor at Doubleday gave my > agent to understand the work of more recent feminist scholarship had > somehow rendered my book obsolete in the "current climate". I am out > of fashion in the new academic cottage industry of feminism. > > Recently a book inquired Who Stole Feminism? I sure didn't. Nor did > Ti-Grace Atkinson. Nor Jill Johnston. We're all out of print. We > haven't helped each other much, haven't been able to build solidly > enough to have created community or safety. Some women in this > generation disappeared to struggle alone in makeshift oblivion. Or > vanished into asylums and have yet to return to tell the tale, as has > Shula Firestone. There were despairs that could only end in death: > Maria del Drago chose suicide, so did Ellen Frankfurt, and Elizabeth > Fischer, founder of Aphra, the first feminist literary journal. > > Eizabeth and I used to run into each other at a comfortable old hippy > cafe in Greenwich Village that I visited in the afternoons, writing > some of the darker passages of The Loony Bin Trip in public to avoid > the dangers of suicidal privacy at home. She'd just finished a book > that was her life's work. Probably it wasn't getting the reception > she'd hoped for in the already crowded new market of "women's studies" > texts written by sudden specialists in this field. Elizabeth and I > would eat an afternoon breakfast and chat, carefully disguising our > misery from each other. Feminists didn't complain to one another then; > each imagined the loneliness and sense of failure was unique. > Consciousness-raising groups were over by then. One had no colleagues: > New York is not a cosy town. > > Elizabeth is dead and I must live to tell the tale, hoping to tell > another generation something I'd like them to know of the long > struggle for women's liberation, something about history and America > and censorship. I might also hope to explain that social change does > not come easy, that pioneers pay dearly and in unnecessary solitude > for what their successors take for granted. Why do women seem > particularly unable to observe and revere their own history? What > secret shame makes us so obtuse? We did not create the community > necessary to support each other against the coming of age. And now we > have a lacuna between one generation's understanding and that of the > next, and have lost much of our sense of continuity and comradeship. > > But I have also spent 40 years as a downtown artist habituated to the > existential edge and even as I proclaim that all is lost, I am > planning a comeback . . . imagining a sinecure in human rights for > extreme old age, matched editions of my collected works, and final > glory. > > Just last week, after a good dinner and a good play (Arthur Miller's > American Clock), I lay awake scheming, adding up the farm rents and > seeing the way to a summer of restoration, figuring to replace the > slate roof on the farmhouse, to paint every building, the lavender > house, the blue barn.. Bundling my sums together, ecstatic that I have > finally paid off my credit cards, scribbling at three in the morning > that I will plant roses again, the ultimate gesture of success. I will > have won out after all. Living well is the best revenge. > > And then a trip to see my elder sister, the banker/lawyer, caps my > determination. The Elder has a computer programme that guarantees you > survival on your savings at 5 per cent interest if your withdrawal > rate does not exceed 7 per cent - a vista of no less than 30 years. My > savings plus my rat's turd of social security: the two figures > together would give me a rock-bottom, survival existence. Thanks to > the magic of programmed arithmetic, I am, at one stroke, spared the > humiliations of searching for regular employment, institutional > obedience, discretion or regimentation. Looks like I can stay forever > footloose and bohemian, a busy artist-writer free of gainful > employment. Free at last - provided I live real close to the ground. > > A longer version of this article appears in the summer issue of US > magazine On The Issues. > > Kate Millett's life > > Born 1934 in St Paul, Minnesota. Educated at University of Minnesota, > St Hilda's, Oxford, and Columbia, New York. > > Moved to Japan in 1961. Married fellow sculptor Fumio Yoshimura in > 1965; split up in the 70s. > > Published Sexual Politics (1970); The Prostitution Papers (1973); > Flying, her autobiography (1974); Sita (1977), about her doomed love > affair with another woman. > > Active in feminist politics in late 60s/70s. In 1966 became committee > member of National Organisation for Women. In 1979 went to Iran to > work for women's rights; was expelled. > > In 1990 published The Loony Bin Trip, about her mental breakdown. > > In 1991 was back in the news after Oliver Reed, drunk, tried to kiss > her on C4's After Dark. > > In 1994 published The Politics Of Cruelty. > > > Print version > > > > > > > > CRICKET | FOOTBALL | N&Q | ONLINE | PASSNOTES | RECRUITNET | THE > OBSERVER > > © Copyright Guardian Media Group plc.1998 > > > The first principle of non-violent action is non-participation in everything humiliating. Gandhi From dhenwood@panix.com Wed Jul 8 09:21:33 1998 Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 11:21:36 -0400 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Doug Henwood Subject: Wolfe What do folks make of Alan Wolfe? He's an ex-leftist, right? I'm reading his latest book, One Nation After All, and it's a pile of the dumbest centrist mush. Any thoughts? Doug From sokol@jhu.edu Wed Jul 8 09:20:05 1998 08 Jul 1998 11:19:27 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 11:18:33 -0400 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Labor Party (was: Magazine Feature on White Racism) To: mweigand@usa.net, psn@csf.colorado.edu, psn-cafe@csf.colorado.edu At 04:39 PM 7/7/98 -0600, you wrote: >Thanks for your reply. Mostly agreed this time--yes, scoundrels of various sorts >can cry "racism" to further their own ends and yes, the corporate elite obscures >their own racism by blaming the working class. I would also support a real Labor >Party in the U.S., but at present we do not have one. I am a card-carrying member of the Labor Party. For more information on the LP's program, how to join, etc. see: http://www.igc.org/lpa/ Regards, WS From HERNANDEZ@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Wed Jul 8 11:41:18 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 13:34:56 -0500 (EST) From: "P. Rafael Hernandez" Subject: ASA - The Race Project To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Dear PSNrs, I decided to write this note to share some information that I find very disturbing regarding the ASA Race Project. Perhaps you are working on it and may help to clarify some of the issues that I have been facing. From its inception, I was very exited to hear about the project. It is a subeject closely related to my disertation topic. Naturally, I contatcted the people in charge with inquiries regarding information, helping, or being kept in loop. It has been a very frustrating experience since then. Several times I requested information such as the main proposal idea, preliminary findings, or sharing any results from the already one year old experience. Until today, the only item that I have in my files about the project is a copy from the ASA web page, which announces the project. Yesterday, I decided to call and request a copy of the "workbook" used in a mini-conferenced held during late April. I was informed that the information can not be disclosed, that is not for public distribution. I remainded the organizer that the project is funded with grant money and therefore is alledgedly information of public domain. Not a chance. How is this possible? Is the project such a top secret? Since when the ASA works on top secret projects? I have been a member of the ASA for some time now and can't remeber voting to allow ASA to discriminate on what information to distribute to its membership and what to keep for internal use? Any information or comments on this issue perhaps would help understanding the reasoning behind this ASA policy. At this point I am just very frustrated and a surprise about how the office is dealing with this issue. P. Rafael Hernandez Department of Sociology and The Heller Graduate School Brandeis University From cberlet@igc.apc.org Wed Jul 8 13:14:56 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 14:50:04 -0400 To: From: Chip Berlet Subject: Re: Wolfe In-Reply-To: Hi, Doug's description of Wolfe is biting but accurate :-) There are so many conceptual flaws in the work it is hard to know where to start. My favorite is how Wolfe confuses an indivdual's subjective idealized sense of themself and the society with objective reality. The best example of this is what is called the closet neonazi vote effect. Polling will show a low level of support for an open White racist or neonazi, then on election day the vote tally is significantly higher. Some people lie, some people know what the social norms are and parrot them back to the pollster, and some people are in denial until they actually are inside the voting booth. It's like doing a poll on how many people think America is the land of equality, and then reporting that as a fact to challenge statistical proofs of inequality based on race, gender, sexual identity, ethnicity, etc. This from an author who used to be a brilliant progressive analyst. Blecko! -Chip At 11:21 AM 7/8/98 -0400, you wrote: >What do folks make of Alan Wolfe? He's an ex-leftist, right? I'm reading >his latest book, One Nation After All, and it's a pile of the dumbest >centrist mush. Any thoughts? > >Doug > > > From edu011@coventry.ac.uk Wed Jul 8 10:47:14 1998 Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 17:46:36 +1 From: John Selby Reply-To: j.selby@coventry.ac.uk Subject: Re: Choice/social determinism To: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu I note Lauren's comments. Surely the point is that human behaviour is determined by a combination of environmental and genetic factors and that the interaction between the two is complex and unpredictable. At the moment, the relationships are in any case merely probabilistic and even the most crude genetic determinist does not claim a perfect correlation between identical twins reared apart. Those of us who are more sophisticated are quite comfortable with probabilistic statements and unsurprised that one sibling is quite different from another. (BTW, those of us who are parents are equally unsurprised - there is a quote from Rousseau about before he was a parent he had six theories of child development but he now has six children and no theories - Does anyone know the exact quote?). There is also much sociological literature about Reagan Republicans and working class Tories. In relation to Lauren and his sister, which one was the "wrong-un"? :-) John ********************************************************** * John Selby * * Educational Development Unit * * Coventry University Tel: + 44 (0)1203 838149 * * Priory Street Fax: + 44 (0)1203 838138 * * Coventry CV1 5FB, UK E-mail: j.selby@cov.ac.uk * ********************************************************** From hvera@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Wed Jul 8 15:58:14 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 17:55:52 -0400 From: Hernan Vera Reply-To: hvera@ufl.edu To: HERNANDEZ@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU, psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: ASA - The Race Project I had an experience very similar to Rafael's concerning the ASA race project. When I asked the organizer for information on the program and participants I got a P.R., rather condescending response from Levine. When I insisted that I be told who had been invited and why, I was told that the names would be in the Internet in a week. I am still waiting for the criteria that determined their inclusion. I understand that many superb scholars in the field (among them Joe Feagin and Howie Winant) were not invited. This is disturbing because I am the secretary treasurer of the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and feel like an idiot going through the motions of elections, meetings, minutes, etc. realizing that when something truly important comes along, the ASA excludes me (and my section members) as effectively as the society at large. I am mad, but suspect that to participate even a little I will need to take much, much more of this. Best! Hernan Vera From tsmeisen@wiley.csusb.edu Wed Jul 8 18:27:48 1998 Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 17:33:08 -0700 To: velazquez@rehu.ucl.ac.be From: Thomas Meisenhelder Subject: Re: depression At 01:39 PM 7/7/98 +0000, you wrote: >List, > >I deeply agree with Steve and Eric in the urgency to cope with the economic >depression which will probably hit the occidental world soon (the other >possibility is, as we say in french, "un atterrissage en douceur", "a soft >landing", but who believes that ?). The huge political and social effects >it will bring have to be anticipated (or at least we have to wonder about >probabilities) in order not to be speechless in the rough time to come. >In a more pragmatic way, think about the ways to maintain contact : I don't >want to appear as over-pessimistic, but if the crisis is very deep how many >of us will still work as sociologists (I mean for universities), will be >able to maintain networks ? (think about all those scientists from the >former and devasted USSR)... > >P.S. : Steve, could you send a copy of the NYT article ? (Europeans don't >have access to their web site) Thank you. > > > >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > >Rémy Velazquez > >Université catholique de Louvain >IAG/REHU >Place des Doyens, 1 >1348 Louvain-la-Neuve >Belgium > >Tel: (+32)(0)10/47.85.22 > (+32)(0)95/79.34.22 >Fax: (+32)(0)10/47.83.24 >=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > > > > Another good piece to read about at least one of these issues is Wm Tabb's article in the June, 1998 MONTHLY REVIEW analyzing the East Asian crisis. Tom Tom Meisenhelder From brook@california.com Wed Jul 8 22:20:47 1998 Wed, 8 Jul 1998 21:20:33 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 21:22:38 -0700 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: Privatizing Education mjkinnuc@umich.edu, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu Here's more on the privatizing of education... >WHAT'S NEW ON CORPORATE WATCH >July 8, 1998 > >FEATURE NO. 10... > >THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY: THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS > > >The corporate reach into U.S. classrooms today is stunning. Big business >sponsors everything from lesson plans to football stadiums, from classroom >posters to athletic uniforms. It doesn't end there. A handful of >for-profit companies are contracting with local school districts to manage >public schools. Critics charge school boards with selling kids to the >highest bidder. Meanwhile, in many countries, the defunding of public >education is part and parcel of structural adjustment packages that savage >the social safety net. Wall Street thinks there is money to be made in the >schools and has trumpeted the "education industry" as the next hot investment. > >In this feature you'll find: > >· Corporate Watch's clickable schoolhouse. Explore it for a floor to >ceiling look at the full extent of commercialism in the classroom. > >· Pedagogy for Profit: Will Educational Maintenance Organizations do for >public schools what HMOs have done for health care delivery in the US? Our >report includes a look a local school district's recent battle over privatization. > >· Interviews, including RealAudio with Alex Molnar, author of Giving Kids >the Business and researcher/ activist Libero Della Piana on how existing >inequities in public education open the door for corporate involvement. > >· A summary of Consumer Report's groundbreaking study "Captive Kids." > >· A case study of Channel One, a commercial classroom broadcast beamed into >40% of U.S. secondary school homerooms. > >· Lessons from the Voucher Wars: do vouchers represent real choice for >most families? > >· Defunding education is a worldwide trend. We look at examples from Chile, >Mexico, Canada and the Asia/Pacific region. > >· An extensive list of Resources and Actions on education reform on the Web > >CORPORATE WATCH INTERACTIVE FORUM > > >Check out our new interactive forum. The forum provides Corporate Watch >users a chance to discuss issues of globalization and corporate >accountability. We'll be posting questions from time to time, but we're >sure you'll also have issues you want to discuss. The forum is >collaboration with Znet. A link can be found in the letters to editor >section of our site. > >Editorial > If you want to get a sense of how pervasive corporate > influence in U.S. education is, just take a tour of your > neighborhood school. Enter the cafeteria and you'll probably > find wrappers from Taco Bell, Arby's and Subway, fast food > chains that provide school lunches. The third grade class may > be learning math by counting tootsie rolls. Science curricula > might well come from Dow Chemical, Proctor and Gamble, > Dupont or Exxon. > > If you live in Jefferson County, Colorado, Pepsi donated $2 > million to build a school football stadium-in exchange for > exclusive rights to sell soft drinks in all 140 district schools > and to advertise in school gymnasiums and athletic fields. That > deal is estimated to earn the company $7.3 million over seven > years. If your local high school is like 40 percent of secondary > schools in the U.S., students get their current events from > Channel One, a twelve-minute television news program with > two minutes of commercials. One Texas school even rented > its roof as advertising space aimed at airplanes flying overhead. > > It doesn't end there. Education in the U.S. has become big > business. The "education industry," a term coined by > EduVentures, an investment banking firm, is estimated to be > worth between $630 and $680 billion in the United States. > The stock value of 30 publicly traded educational companies > is growing twice as fast as the Dow Jones Average. > Brokerage firms like Lehman Brothers and Montgomery > Securities have specialists seeking out venture capital for the > 'education industry.' > > "The timing for entry into the education and training market > has never been better," glows a Montgomery Securities > report. "The problems with American education have elevated > education reform to a high political priority and technology is > demanding and enabling a transformation in the delivery of education." > > Analysts at the conservative think tanks, like the Heritage > Foundation, Hudson and Pioneer Institutes, tell us that the > problems in education stem from in inefficient, bloated school > bureaucracies. Conservatives talk about "school choice," > referring to vouchers and other public/private schemes. Free > marketeers strike a chord with many parents when they point > out that families do not have the choices they deserve, > especially in urban school districts. > > However, according to progressive school activists, the > problems in education have their roots in decades of unequal > school funding. They say that as long as school districts are > financed through property taxes, kids in poor, urban districts > will never receive an equal education with suburban > schoolkids. Wide disparities in school resources open the > door for corporations to fill the gap (and their pockets), > especially in inner city schools. > > Real choice, progressive school reformers argue, would mean > that all schools were good. Classroom innovation, computer > technology, small classes and actively involved parents would > be the hallmark not only of a handful of the best public > schools, but of the entire education system. While > conservatives and their corporate partners would have us > leave schoolchildren to the whims of the market, progressives > advocate creating a more equitable tax structure that would > make corporations pay their fair share towards education. > Access to quality education should be a social issue for > educators, parents and activists. Instead, policy makers are > increasingly framing the issue in terms market ideology. > > The education industry has some heavy hitters on its side. > Conservative economist Milton Friedman, who first proposed > school vouchers as early as 1955, argues that public > education needs to be radically overhauled to accommodate > the free market. In a 1995 opinion piece in the Washington > Post, Friedman suggests that "Such reconstruction can be > achieved only by privatizing a major segment of the > educational system-i.e. by enabling a private for-profit > industry to develop that will …offer effective competition to > public schools." For Friedman, school vouchers, which allow > parents to take tax dollars out of local school budgets and > spend them in private schools, are a critical step in dismantling > what he describes as the "public monopoly" on education. > > The relationship between free enterprise and public education > is certainly nothing new. For over 100 years, education has > been shaped to fit the needs of business. During the industrial > revolution, public education was designed to produce a > factory ready, disciplined, workforce. However, since then, > public education has become a battleground between elite > business interests, and those school reformers who see it as > an equalizing force in society. Radical school activists in the > 1960's tried to bring about innovations that would tackle > institutional racism and make public schools more democratic. > More recently, however, free market advocates seem to be > winning out. With the new "knowledge-based" economy this > means some kids will inevitably be left out; and they are > almost sure to be low-income children of color in poor school districts. > > According to Libero Della Piana, Senior Research Associate > at the Applied Research Center, three tiers in U.S. education > have emerged over the last decade. One tier prepares an elite > group of students for jobs in the high-tech, information > economy, while another prepares students for low-wage, > service sector jobs. "What corporate educational reform is > about is retooling education to meet the needs of the new > industrial revolution," notes Della Piana, in a Corporate > Watch interview: Race and Classroom. Della Piana further > points out that at the bottom there is a third tier: kids who will > never work, but rather go straight from school to jail. > > Since the beginning of the 1990's several companies, dubbed > "Educational Maintenance Organizations" by Wall Street, > have emerged. These for-profit companies, like Channel One > founder Chris Whittle's Edison Project, contract with school > districts around the country, using taxpayer funds and some > venture capital to run public schools. Often it is poor school > districts, where parents and school boards are the most > desperate, that turn to private companies. "The Edison > project is brilliant at marketing," observes Lindsay > Hershenhorn, a first grade teacher at a troubled San > Francisco school that recently voted to contract with the > Edison Project. "They play on parents' and teachers' > frustration with the …lack of money for education," adds > Hershenhorn who refuses to teach in a school run by the > Edison Project. > > Some teachers and parents fear that, just as HMOs have > made the financial bottom line the standard for health care > delivery, EMOs will be more accountable to investors than to > students. So far, EMO experiments have survived in less than > one hundred schools. In fact, these companies are not > interested in running the entire school system. Providing a > universal service for all schoolchildren would not be > profitable, and many of these young companies have yet to > pay dividends to their investors. However, they are bringing > profit oriented interests to bear on the educational system. > > "The public benefit and the profitability (of EMOs) are two > very different things," Alex Molnar, author of Giving Kids the > Business, told Corporate Watch. "A market by definition > can't address issues of equity," adds Molnar, Director of the > Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education. While > the EMOs say they have invested millions in curriculum > development, critics charge that they are "cookie cutter > schools," whose lesson plans are developed out of a central > office. They worry that just as HMOs have depersonalized > health care, EMOs will provide one-size-fits-all education. > And they say that many of the teaching innovations promoted > by the EMOs are already in use in some public schools. > > The defunding of public education is also part of a worldwide > trend. In many countries it is often a component of neo-liberal > economic reform or structural adjustment mandated by the > World Bank or IMF. One of the first governments in the > world to experiment with school vouchers in the 1980's was > Chile's military dictatorship. As Martin Carnoy points out in > the Global Perspectives section of this feature, while the > Chilean experiment did little for poor schoolchildren, it was > part of a broad trend towards privatization that included > defunding other parts of the social safety net, including social > security. Some of the proposals tested by U.S. policy > advisors in Chile are now coming home to roost as legislation > being debated in the U.S. Congress and state houses across > the country. Some Republicans have even proposed > abolishing the Department of Education. > > "Privatizing public education is the center piece, the grand > prize, of the right wing's overall agenda to dismantle social > entitlements and government responsibility for social needs," > explains education consultant Ann Bastian, in a piece entitled > "Lessons from the Voucher War" which is reproduced in this feature. > > For more than a decade conservatives have been organizing > around school reform, tapping into parents' and teachers' real > concern with the lack of educational options. Corporations > have seized on the opening provided by educators' and > families' frustration with the lack of school resources. Parents, > teachers and students can roll back the corporate take over > of education, but only if they offer an alternative vision. One in > which corporations pay taxes instead of getting free > advertising and tax write-offs for donated promotional > materials; one in which school systems do not abandon > students to for-profit companies, and one in which > educational choice is a basic right for all families, not just a few. > > - Julie Light, for the Corporate Watch Editorial Board From velazquez@rehu.ucl.ac.be Thu Jul 9 06:06:33 1998 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 14:10:03 +0000 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?R=E9my?= Velazquez Subject: Tobin tax List, Two french magazines (the well-known "Le Monde Diplomatique" and "Charlie Hebdo") and several leftist associations have created an organization to promote the idea of the Tobin Tax (tax on financial transfers). The name is "ATTAC" which means "Action pour une Taxe Tobin d'Aide au Citoyen", "Action for a Tobin tax to help citizens". It is rather young (june 98) but seems very active and serious, and is already spreading in several european countries. They are looking for north-american contacts. If you are interested, you can contact Valérie Peugeot at europe99@globenet.org and have a look at their new web site at attac.org (English version soon I presume...) Yours, Rémy From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Thu Jul 9 07:43:26 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 9 Jul 1998 09:40:22 EDT To: FROM: Morton G. Wenger, Professor Department of Sociology University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA Subject: Re: Wolfe TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU *** Forwarding note from MGWENG01--ULKYVM 07/09/98 09:38 *** To: cberlet@igc.apc.org *** Reply to note of 07/09/98 05:07 FROM: Morton G. Wenger, Professor Department of Sociology University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA Subject: Re: Wolfe for chip's information, that which he refers to as the closet neonazi polling effect was originally referred to as the "Yorty" effect. Of course, the referen e is to the former bozo reactionary mayor of Los Angeles who pre-election polls showed losing to Tom Bradley in Bradley's first mayoral contests. pretty much everybody in Los Angeles thought Yorty a fool, and few would admit that they would vote for him, either to a pollster or to anyone else. Bradley looked like a sure winner. However, in the white voting districts, come election day the bozo received substantial support. it certainly is a phenomenon worth remembering, whatever we call... TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From smrose@exis.net Thu Jul 9 09:06:20 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, hvera@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 11:01:14 +0000 Subject: Re: ASA - The Race Project I thought it might be useful for PSN'ers to see who actually were the participants in the Race Initiative conference and what the ASA published on its Website. Hernan and Rafael are right to be incensed at the secretive, bureaucratic, exclusive strategy the ASA has employed in its collaboration with the Clinton Administration. But what other strategy is possible when sociologists are "sleeping with the enemy?" Steve Rosenthal ================================= Project Update: Social Science Knowledge on Race, Racism, and Race Relations Update # 3 May 1, 1998 The American Sociological Association (ASA) has just completed the second phase of its ambitious project to help educate the nation about the facts surrounding the issue of race. As we related in the previous project update, ASA agreed in September, 1997 to prepare a report that "summarizes, synthesizes, and relates the extant body of social science knowledge on race, racism, and race relations," at the request of the White House Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP). ASA designed a three-phase project to implement this goal. The purpose of each phase was as follows: Phase 1--to gain maximal participation of social scientists working in the area; Phase 2--to develop conceptual maps, literature reviews, and syntheses of diverse strands of social science knowledge; and Phase 3--to produce a readable monograph that makes accessible social science knowledge to those seeking to promote constructive dialogue, bridge racial divides, and devise policy solutions. Generous support from the Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is being provided to defray the costs of the project and dissemination of the final report. Phase I: Outreach, Information Gathering, and Initial Mapping The first goal achieved by the project was to reach out for ideas and information through developing a wide network of social scientists to suggest key concepts, studies, researchers and research findings. A Call for Help was rapidly disseminated through e-mail broadcasts, phone calls, and letters both within and without sociology asking affiliated organizations (such as the Association of Black Sociologists), regional organizations, other social and behavioral science professional societies, foundations, and think tanks for assistance in connecting with relevant research communities. As a result of this outreach, the Race Project received an outpouring of more than 700 e-mails including suggestions of key findings, key books, key articles, and key researchers in the social and behavioral sciences. The project also received summary memoranda, copies of articles, books, and reports from geographers, linguists, psychologists, economists, political scientists, anthropologists, and biologists as well as sociologists and demographers. The final deadline for responses to the Call was December 15, but suggestions and materials are still being sent to the project and are still welcomed either via the projects e-mail box (race.project@asanet.org) or via regular mail. Based on this material and additional research, an initial map of the social and behavioral science literature was drawn. Major topic areas include the construction of race through policy and politics; changing demographic trends; trends in income, wealth, and earnings inequalities; shifting racial attitudes; land use and residential segregation; the relation between families and social institutions; the significance of race in major social institutions (labor markets, education, health, and criminal justice); and, most importantly, the linkages among these topic areas. Phase II: Developing Summaries, Syntheses, and Interconnections The second phase of the project focused on knowledge building, initial analysis, and the connections across arenas of work. This involved a massive effort to organize the ideas, memoranda, bibliographies, books, articles, and reports suggestions for key researchers sent by scholars responding to the Call for Help and enhanced by additional research. These suggestions and materials provide a rich background for each of the topic areas in the map. In addition, a "working" conference was designed and held on April 26-28 to work intensively on assessing knowledge, identifying gaps, and building an integrated map of social and behavioral science knowledge on race, racism and race relations. The group of 40 scholars that attended the conference was drawn from across relevant domains of research and relevant disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The goal was to retain the benefits of a small "working" conference and yet be sure that there were strong scientists representing diverse domains. The participants were also a diverse group of scholars in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, and years of experience. The list of participants is appended to this update. Conference participants agreed to write 5 page memoranda "bringing to the table" relevant research in their specialty area and connections with other relevant research literatures in advance of the meeting. This information served as a building block for the meeting and helped the group work together across issues and domains. The conference itself was a mix of breakout and plenary sessions with an emphasis on preparing additional written materials that reflected the group's ideas and thoughts about what is known, where research dispels myths, and what remains to be addressed. Phase III. ASA Synthesis, Production, and Dissemination Activities The project team is now moving into phase three. This is a period of knowledge integration and synthesis at a level that is true to the research and accessible to non-technical audiences. The goal of this final phase of the project is to convert the map into a 200 page monograph for policy makers, opinion makers, and the public based on the literature reviews, the memos, and conference plenary sessions. The monograph aims to speak to the nation on what is known about race and race relations based on social science knowledge. Once published, ASA plans to disseminate the final monograph widely and to develop a media strategy to increase its use. Through all phases of the project, the ASA has been and will continue to coordinate with OSTP. Since the conception and design of the project, the ASA staff has also been in communication with the staff of the Clinton Administration's Race Initiative Advisory Board and the Council of Economic Advisors. A briefing of these groups is planned for early fall and a town meeting of the "working" results of this project is scheduled for the ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. List of Conference Participants Margaret Anderson, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Delaware Timothy Bates, College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, Wayne State University Diane R. Brown, Health Program, Wayne State University Robert L. Crain, Teachers College, Columbia University William Darity, Jr., Department of Economics, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill Micaela Di Leonardo, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University Nancy DiTomaso, Department of Organizational Management, Rutgers, The State University John Dovidio, Psychology Department, Colgate University Troy Duster, Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California- Berkeley Reynolds Farley, Russell Sage Foundation Celia B. Fisher, Department of Psychology, Fordham University William H. Frey, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan Roderick Harrison, Bureau of the Census, Population Studies Darnell F. Hawkins, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois- Chicago Jeffrey R. Henig, Department of Political Science, George Washington University Harry J. Holzer, Department of Economics, Michigan State University James S. Jackson, Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan Camara Phyllis Jone, School of Public Health, Harvard University Claire Jean Kim, Department of Political Science, University of California- Irvine Janet E. Kodras, Department of Geography, Florida State University Maria Krysan, Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University Felice J. Levine, American Sociological Association Samuel R. Lucas, Department of Sociology, University of California- Berkeley Carole C. Marks, Department of Black American Studies, University of Delaware Douglas S. Massey, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania Melvin L. Oliver, The Ford Foundation Jill Quadagno, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Florida State University Clara E. Rodriguez, Division of Social Science, Fordham University Katheryn K. Russell, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland- College Park Gary Sandefur, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin- Madison Rogelio Saenz, Department of Sociology, Texas A & M University Richard Schein, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky Lee Sigelman, Department of Political Science, George Washington University William E. Spriggs, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce Gregory D. Squires, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Rogers M. Smith, Department of Political Science, Yale University David T. Takeuchi, Department of Psychiatry and Bio-Behavioral Sciences, University of California- Los Angeles Ramon S. Torrecilha, President's Office, Mills College David R. Williams, Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan Patricia E. White, Division of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, National Science Foundation Ronald C. Wimberly, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University Patricia Zavella, Community Studies Department, University of California- Santa Cruz From shepperd@austin.cc.tx.us Thu Jul 9 10:53:49 1998 Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 15:27:50 To: Hernan Vera , PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , "P. Rafael Hernandez" From: Jerry Shepperd Subject: Re: ASA - The Race Project An update on the Race Project with the list of participants can be found at: http://www.asanet.org/raceupd2.htm Jerry Shepperd From HERNANDEZ@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Thu Jul 9 12:45:51 1998 Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 14:43:50 -0500 (EST) From: "P. Rafael Hernandez" Subject: ASA - The Race Project II To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Dear PSNrs, Thank you for your comments regarding the race issue. The first message suggested to wait for results to be published. As a researcher, I can see the point, however, I believe that the nature and the magnitude of this project does not allow for secret operations, but rather for a more open and participatory process. The questions in reality goes beyond the mere access to data or of keeping the ASA membership informed. It is a question, in my view, of why the ASA decided to take the silent route, without the membershp's concent. >From the start, it makes me feel very uncomfortable approaching a subject, that pertain to all as human and as social scientists, in such a way. Several implications may derive from such a stand. One of them is, would the ASA speak for all of us when delivering the recomendations to the President. Would my voice and the voice of the membership as scientists and as humans be represented in the recomendations. With all due respect to the selected groups of scientists involved, given the nature of issues such as race and ethncity, particularly in the U.S., I am very concern about the process and content of such recoemdations. I am suggesting that the implications of how this project has been undertaken goes beyond not having access to the information. It evokes, in my view, a great deal of concerns about the ASA as an organization and our participation in it. This, of course are not new concerns. However, the roles being called upon the ASA to play in matters such as race and ethncity in the sciences are of greater concerns. The implications of whatever recomendations would affect not only those of us as members, but how we understand such notions in scientific activities. We can probably look at this with a smile, contemplating the ASA serving the needs of an administration working towards a better image. Hoever, the implications, I think, call for a bit more seriousness on our part. I will continue to keep an eye on this issue and post whatever I can find. P. Rafael Hernandez Department of Sociology and The Heller Graduate School Brandeis University From valeries@yorku.ca Thu Jul 9 18:07:37 1998 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 20:07:27 -0400 (EDT) From: "V. Scatamburlo" To: psn Subject: Left Conservatism??? Dear PSN'ers, Just wanted to share some thoughts on something I found rather interesting. As I am currently in the process of moving out of Toronto, I came across (as I was packing) the May 11th issue of The Nation which I hadn't read. In any case, the title of the *Exchange Section* "Epistemology & Vinegar" struck me so I read on. Apologies to those who may have already read it or are aware of this situation (although I don't recall seeing it discussed here). It appears as though a conference was recently held at UC Santa Cruz under the general rubric of "Left Conservatism"--apparently this is the designation being given to those such as Katha Pollit, Barbara Ehrenreich, Alan Sokal and others, who have publically criticized certain tendencies within (that ever-growing umbrella phrase) postmodernism. Apparently these letters were written in response to an article penned by one Patrick Sand (March 9 issue) who objected to the use of soundbite designations such as "left conservatism" to describe those who have critized the lop-sided culturalism which has permeated certain strands of the "left." Now I have my own problems with Sokal's Social Text hoax--not because of his intent for he did indeed succeed in bringing to the fore many of the problems with the excesses of postmodernism and poststructuralism--rather my beef with Sokal was for painting the entire enterprise of cultural studies with one broad and derogatory stroke without acknowleding that there are many scholars who do Marxist cultural studies who are equally concerned by the *postmodern* turn in that field--but I made those objections clear at that time and do not intend to rehash them again. But I will add this--the problems with the social deconstruction of science, which were Sokal's main concern, are cogently articulated in a recent article by Meera Nanda in the collection "In Defense of History: Marxism and the Postmodern Agenda." In any event, I should return to my major point. One of the responses to Sand's article was written by Judith Butler, who I would guess, needs no introduction. Apparently Butler was one of the participants in this conference and she chided Sand for his radical misrepresentation of the "tone and substance of the 'Left Conservatism' conference." In the next breath, Butler contended that noone at the conference, contra to what Sand had reported, claimed that it was impossible to "talk about truth, reality, materiality, oppressive social systems; on the contrary, the only question was: How do we continue to talk about these crucial issues once consensus on their meaning is no longer available?" This struck me as odd because it would appear that Butler wants to have it both ways--she maintains that there is no longer consensus about what constitutes truth and reality, yet chides Sand for his alleged "misinterpretation" of the conference. Geez, isn't she making a truth claim here??? It is somewhat paradoxical, if not ironic, that when confronted with what they perceive to be misrepresentations of their academic practices that card-carrying poststructuralists (And I would certainly classify Butler as such) who valorize the indeterminability of meaning, truth, etc. suddenly appropriate the discourse of truth to buttress their own views and chastize their critics. I have explicitly described this situation in order to raise a few points with regard to the central issues which I think are significant here. First of all, it seems that lines are being drawn in the sand--that the cultural left and the so-called economic left--are duking it out--this is reflected, to a certain degree, in yet another article in The Nation (June 29th) by Ellen Willis (no doubt precipitated by the Santa Cruz affair) who argues that calls for economic justice have it only half right and that cultural politics count too. Frankly, I am inclined to agree with her, but only to a certain extent. Both the cultural and the economic realms are crucial, but what is problematic is that these two spheres continue to be viewed as completely separate entities. While the Right has successfully understood the interrelationship between culture and socio-political and economic relations, much of the post-al cultural left has failed to articulate the cultural in relation to political, economic and material considerations and many have fallen prey to an ahistorical and apolitical culturalism---surely culture is central but there is a marked difference in underscoring the importance of culture and the rhetoric of culturalism which not only reduces everything to questions of culture but which also operates with a reductionist conception of culture. In short, the "sins of economism" seem to have been replaced by the equally debilitating aspects of "culturalism"--the question, as always, is what is to be done. Of late, I have noticed somewhat of a resurgence, albeit modest, of attempts to rethink the legacy of Marx, historical materialism, the enlightenment, etc. by a vast array of thinkers. Of course, many never abandoned those positions in the first place and I'd have to include myself in that camp. Nonetheless I am fascinated by the chain of events which unfolded at the Santa Cruz conference (although I was not party to it) for it seems to be indicative of a much larger trend on the "left"--between economists and culturalists--something which is, of course, an age-old debate, but which seems to have taken on a new complexion. Throughout the 80s and early 90s, several Marxist critics pointed to the inherent conservatism of certain postmodernist, poststructuralist, etc. narratives. Now it would seem as though the label of conservatism is being thrown back, as it were, to those who would challenge the political pusillanimity of post-al discourse. I am curious as to what people think about this tendency. There remains much more to be said on this issue, but this post is already much too long (apologies to one and all) and I will therefore refrain from offerring my own opinions on the issues I have raised. Rather I hope to hear from others. From hvera@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Thu Jul 9 15:17:41 1998 Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 17:15:29 -0400 From: Hernan Vera Reply-To: hvera@ufl.edu To: Jerry Shepperd "P. Rafael Hernandez" Subject: Re: ASA - The Race Project Thank you, Jerry. If the last issue of Footnotes is Volume 26, Number 5, May/June 1998, then, with all due respect, you are wrong. The front page article has a picture of four sociologists at the conference and mentions several speakers and a "group of 40 scholars," but it does not list their names. Interesting, the FN's article says that is disseminated as Call for Help "among relevant research communities." Perhaps that's why Rafael and I did not get what we asked for, we are not "relevant." In this irrelevancy, however, we keep pretty good company! Best! From roz@pipeline.com Thu Jul 9 20:43:16 1998 Thu, 9 Jul 1998 22:42:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 21:40:56 To: staff@stewards.net, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Roslyn Bologh Subject: Re: World Economic Crisis Demands Discussion! In-Reply-To: <199807061953.PAA00238@smtp2.globalserve.net> Hooray! Finally someone else expresses my sentiments and frustration with PSN on this matter. I want to thank Eric, and the others who have subsequently responded to his post. Roz At 03:53 PM 7/6/98 -0400, Eric Sommer wrote: >Hi there, > >As a long-time participant in PSN I have often benefited from the insights, >kindness, and information provided by the members. However, I must chide >people at this point for not taking the current economic crisis more >seriously. As recent reports from Asia make clear, tens of millions of >working people face starvation in Indonesia alone by the end of the year. >This is to say nothing of Russia's Industrial production standing at 50% of >1989 levels, or the collapse of the Malaysian economy, or the value of Hong >Kong property standing at just 50% of the value a year ago, or the IMF's >inability to raise sufficient cash to address the worldwide shortfalls, >etc., etc. > >>From my perspecitve, we are in the middle of what is well on the way to >becoming the worst depression in the history of Capitalism. The illusion >that everything is going on as before is simply a function of our position >in North America or Western Europe, where the economic crisis impact has not >really hit - yet. > >As socialists, progressives, feminists, and anti-racisits, I suggest that we >need to think beyond `business as usual'. To begin with: What >organizational and strategic measures should we be taking to help linkup and >organize the planetary underclass, the mass of working and non-working poor >people in the America's, in Asia, and around the world, beginning with >ourselves, to insure that they and we can survive this crisis. > >The fate of millions of human beings is at stake. We must act. > >Eric Sommer, >coordinator, Chiapas Alert Network, www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm >Member Stewards Corporation Movement of poor people www.stewards.net > > > From twsimon@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu Thu Jul 9 22:04:45 1998 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 23:04:38 -0500 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: "Thomas W. Simon" Subject: Calling All Papers TimesCALL FOR PAPERS INJUSTICE STUDIES Online Journal Welcomes Submissions We are soliciting manuscripts for possible publication in INJUSTICE STUDIES, a refereed, international, interdisciplinary, electronic journal that helps focus academic attention on the study of injustices around the world. The editors welcome essays devoted to understanding the nature of injustice, types of injustice, and the history, politics, and moral psychology of particular injustices, ranging from global to local events. We have a general issue coming out soon as well as issues on a number of special topics: Indigenous Injustice Religious Persecution Rwanda: The Forgotten Genocide An International Criminal Court Children's Harms Truth and Reconciliation Please visit our homepage at: http://wolf.its.ilstu.edu/injustice/ E-mail paper abstracts and inquiries to: twsimon@ilstu.edu Snail-mail to: Thomas W. Simon 4540 Philosophy Illinois State University Normal, IL 61790-4540 Thomas W. Simon 4540 Philosophy Illinois State University Normal, IL 61790-4540 (309) 438-2868 (office) (309) 438-7665 (department) (309) 438-8028 (fax) Co-editor, INJUSTICE STUDIES http://wolf.its.ilstu.edu/injustice/ From valeries@yorku.ca Fri Jul 10 11:34:15 1998 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 13:34:04 -0400 (EDT) From: "V. Scatamburlo" To: psn Subject: A Call For Suggestions This fall I will be teaching a course on intercultural communication and another on propaganda - I have some ideas for a reading list but would appreciate any suggestions for books, articles, etc. especially those which offer a critical prespective. Thanks. From wsg1@is6.nyu.edu Fri Jul 10 11:51:32 1998 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 13:51:21 -0400 From: "Warren S. Goldstein" To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Bestsellers in Sociology Dear PSNers, In the Spring of 1997, a list of bestsellers in Sociology was published. I can't remember who put it together or where it appeared. Does anyone know (or perhaps have it)? Sincerely, Warren Goldstein From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Fri Jul 10 12:21:48 1998 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 13:21:06 -0500 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: valeries@yorku.ca, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Left Conservatism??? Good post, Valerie. On some post-modernists and some Utopians: when I was in college I knew a guy who was very bitter about the myriad of ways that capitalism destroys people's lives, economically, culturally, socially. We often talked about the ways that humans would be much freer if we were freed from commodity production and the mythological "market place" that is manipulated by the capitalists for their own selfish purposes. How good it would be if all people not only had safe housing and a good diet, but a chance to travel, to expand themselves culturally, to be free from degrading forms of social relations. Upon graduation, he told me that he was taking a job with a very large multi-national corporation in their advertising department. I questioned him about his previous comments about capitalism, and he replied that he had done some calculations as to what the standard of living of everyone on Earth would be if we got rid of capitalism. He then decided to achieve that standard of living for himself as the "most truly revolutionary" thing to do -- to start living the post-Revolutionary life now. Reminds me of some post-modernists who say they are the most revolutionary because they have no values (but let's see them squawk if their paycheck is late.) Maybe we should all admire sharks -- how free they are from social inhibitions....but then again, perhaps they are chained to their appetites. Social relations give us freedom -- so-called individualism especially among intellectuals dances to whatever fashionable tune is being played, while pretending to be marching to the beat of one's own drum. There is nothing new about ultra-relativism, ultra-skepticism and other rationalizations for inaction. ------------------ On a critical perspective to avoid dogmatism: >From Heraclitus, some of (that ol' conservative) Aristotle, Hegel (another conservative), Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, (& Lenin), came the epistemology of dialectics. Not a voodoo word or a cult, but rather a way to sensitize people/ thinkers/ researchers to the reality that everything changes, everything goes through an internal process of growth, decay and transformation, in addition to the ways that external factors (context) impact on it, and furthermore, that all of us are limited both by the changes and by the reality that our perceptions are limited. That (for me) creates an umbrella quite large enough to allow for criticizing dogmatism without having to deny reality. I'd rather use the word "analyze" than use the word "deconstruct." It's funny watching about how passionate some people get about the need to avoid passion. Watch some post-modernists start to talk about Absolutes like Absolute "Free Speech" -- in contrast, a dialectical approach is not simply "opposed" to Absolute Free Speech -- a dialectical approach helps one understand that it is impossible and therefore shouldn't be used in an Absolute Way to justify specific positions. A dialectical approach (you don't have to use that word -- it's just a word) allows for understanding the ways that some apparent contradictions are really united (Religious Right "versus" extreme Relativist pseudo-ultra-revolutionaries---[yes, this jargon is [somewhat] tongue in cheek]), and it allows for understanding that some apparent unities may have fundamental contradictions (nationalism), and it sensitizes us to ways that the opposing forces might interact with each other, transform each other, even DEFINE each other in unexpected kinds of ways. Val's post does a good job of working to dissolve the false dichotomies between human economic activity and human cultural activity. -------- On another, related thread: Nature/Nurture dichotomy is another false dichotomy. It is not even a question of mixing the two together and deciding "which is most important." For starters, your biology is part of your environment! Darker skin toned people GET TREATED DIFFERENTLY than lighter skin toned people in most places! So do slender people and heavier people, and so on. To say that a brother and a sister had the same upbringing is nonsense---one of them grew up being treated as a female/ the other as a male. Furthermore, one of them grew up with a brother, the other with a sister. That's a very big difference in environments! Two brothers aren't raised in the same environment. In addition to societal changes and changes in the ways that parents raise different children, one of the brothers had an older brother, the other had a younger brother. That's a big difference. Even identical twins don't have the same environments. Looking for genes to explain behavior is a hopeless task at best, and a propaganda tool for those who would support or apologize for the socially destructive, genocidal policies of decaying capitalism. Alan Spector From smrose@exis.net Fri Jul 10 15:33:48 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 17:28:43 +0000 Subject: Re: Left Conservatism??? The debate in The Nation that Valerie discussed so perceptively has continued in subsequent issues. The July 20 issue of The Nation has letters by Robin Kelley and others responding to a column by Eric Alterman in the May 25 issue. The particulars differ, but the basics of the debate are essentially the same. Alterman criticized feminist, nationalist, and queer identity politics and supported a class based reformist coalition, as advocated by Richard Rorty, Todd Gitlin, Michael Tomasky, Jim Sleeper, Eric Hobsbaum, and others. Robin Kelley and others wrote that Alterman completely misrepresented them, that fighting racism and sexism is not postmodern "Foucaultian" identity politics, and that the advocates of a "class based reformist coalition" are "left conservatives" whose position is racist and sexist. I think Kelley is basically right. Kelley develops these points particularly well in his most recent book "Yo' Mama's Disfunktional: fighting the culture wars in urban America." I used this book this summer and this past spring in three different courses (Social Movements, Social Problems, and Intro.), and I found it to be one of the most effective books I have ever used in getting students to think deeply about social class, capitalism, racism, sexism, nationalism, fascism, and Marxism. Kelley helps students to see several key points: 1. Fighting against racism and sexism are crucial to any effort to build a working class movement against capitalist exploitation. Rorty, Alterman, (and some on the PSN list) attack identity politics in order to oppose fighting racism and sexism. They assert that fighting against racism and sexism is only a black or women's thing, and that it is divisive. They are dead wrong. Not fighting racism and sexism is divisive and fatal; (Note: William J. Wilson puts forward essentially the same line as Rorty et al.) 2. Fighting against racism and sexism is not the same thing as embracing identity politics. In fact, identity politics usually leads to acceptance of racism and sexism as permanent "facts of life." Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and the Million Man March are examples of how nationalist identity politics not only does not fight racism but actually agrees and allies with it. The Nation of Islam blamed black men for their own oppression and is allied with the most racist fascist white militia groups, including the LaRouchies, Neo-Nazis, and the KKK. 3. The reformist class-based coalition advocated by Alterman and by most writers in The Nation is a racist and sexist strategy to tie us to the Democratic Party and whoever is supposed to be representative of the "progressive wing" of the Democratic Party. This ties us to the capitalist class that is the source of class exploitation, racism, and sexism. Kelley's book has some weaknesses. Although Kelley is a pretty good Marxist, his strategy is sometimes quite reformist, and in this book he doesn't put developments in the U.S. into an international perspective. In particular, he doesn't address the deepening global crisis of overproduction and the sharpening of interimperialist rivalry. It is this looming threat of fascism and world war that makes clear that reformism is a bankrupt strategy, and that both the advocates of identity politics and the advocates of "class based reformist coalitions" will lead us into the abyss, if we let them. Steve Rosenthal From tsmeisen@wiley.csusb.edu Fri Jul 10 12:36:33 1998 From: Tom Meisenhelder Subject: Re: Magazine Feature on White Racism To: sokol@jhu.edu Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 11:34:44 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980708120719.00c73d7c@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> from "Wojtek Sokolowski" at Jul 8, 98 12:07:19 pm > > At 05:23 PM 7/7/98 -0400, you wrote: > >I don't understand. > > > >You deny that you are claiming that black politicians are 3-4 more likely > >to be corrupt. Then you say that guilty people must pay. But if you are > >not saying that blacks are just more likely than whites to be corrupt, > >this must mean that you think there is some other reasons why blacks are > >more likely to face criminal corruption charges. What is that other > >reason? > > > > > I do not think statistical ensemblies, like race etc. have rights, commit > crimes etc. It's human individuals who have rights, commit crimes and are > responsible for their deeds. Whatever the statistical incidence of crime > in any particular group -- that does not mean that the individuals who did > commit crimes should be left of the hook. The US criminal justice system > is plagued with many problems, but fortunately collective responsibility > (or innocence) is not one of them. > > Even a child knows that if a parent, a teacher, or a cop is looking, you > better behave or else. That is as simple as ABC. If someobody did not > learn that in school, he is clearly unqualified for politics. > > It's a well known fact that drivers of flashy-color sports car are more > likely to get a speeding ticket than anyone else because cops are more > likely to turn their radar guns on when they see such a vehicle. Is this really a fact? Does that > mean these drivers are innocent of violating speed laws (whatever one may > think of such laws) and should have their tickets waived, while everyone > else should be paying them? > > If you argued that Blacks are prosecuted on trumped up charges or that they > face more severe punishment than other defendants charged with the same > offence - that would be an entirely different story. > > Regards, > > WS > > From j9470388@wlv.ac.uk Fri Jul 10 09:36:26 1998 by ccug.wlv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 1.92 #5) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 16:35:05 -0700 From: Alan Harrison To: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat mweigand@usa.net wrote: > > (3) Lack of organization on the part of part-time and full-time faculty. > Administrators have been very successful at exploiting the potential friction > between full and part-time faculty using a "divide and conquer" strategy. This doesn't happen so much over here, I think. Anyway, I have a present difficulty as a part-time "visiting lecturer", which I would like to share with the group. I've been working here during the last semester in a university which follows a "hybrid" system of courses arranged in semesters, but students on campus for the traditional British three terms. So, the second semester began in February (half-way through spring term) and consisted of seven weeks' teaching before and five weeks after Easter. The payment system is that we submit a claim from time to time, most VLs choosing to do so monthly (the importance of which will emerge in a moment), putting in a claim for work done before the twentieth of a month in order to be paid on the fifteenth of the following month. So I've put in four unequal claims for 3, 4, 2 and 3 weeks' pay. Outside the time when I'm teaching, I claim the ludicrously titled "Jobseeker's Allowance". Now here comes the problem. the last claim to be paid was the one for two weeks. I expected two weeks' dole to be stopped. However, it looks as if the dole officials (bastards recruited from the working class to do the ruling class's dirty work) may take the view that this is a month's pay and stop my dole for a month. I'm currently trying to get this resolved. So, as a matter of interest, what do sessional lecturers in other countries do when the university isn't paying them? Do they get dole, or what? It might be interesting to compare notes. Cheers, Alan Harrison From Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr Fri Jul 10 10:42:58 1998 for Paris Fri, 10 Jul 1998 18:43:18 +0200 (MET DST) for Paris Fri, 10 Jul 1998 18:43:15 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 16:06:32 +0200 From: Timothy Mason To: wsg1@is6.nyu.edu Subject: Re: Criminology Warren S. Goldstein wrote : > I am teaching criminology for the first time in the fall. Any > suggestions for books, articles, etc. would be greatly appreciated. > Rough course outline might help. Best wishes T Mason Lesson 1 : The variation of social censure Violence The Yanomamo Text from Harris, but see Ferguson's caveat in ‘Yanomamo Politics' Sexuality The Nyar Article by E. Kathleen Gough - can be found in ‘Cultural and Social Anthropology : selected readings', Peter B. Hammond (ed), Macmillan Property The Nuer - Evans Pritchard - extract on cattle stealing and relationship with the Dinka Witchcraft The Azande - Evans Pritchard Lesson 2 : Incest - the fundamental rule? Westermark Clear exposition in Robin Fox, ‘The Red Lamp of Incest' Levi Strauss I use the summary by Chris Knight in ‘Blood Relations' - but take it from the horse's mouth. Freud Héritier - ‘Les deux soeurs et la mère' Lesson 3 : Incest II Variations in definition and social reaction Turnbull : Exclusion - passage in ‘The forest people' Malinowski : Suicide - several references to the case of the boy who leaps from the top of a coconut palm. I use the one in ‘Crime and Custom in Savage society'. Spencer & Gillen : The Atninga - in ‘The Arunta'. The passage illustrates why it is always useful to have a few of the usual suspects to hand Lesson 4 : Incest III Incest in modern societies Doctors and Fathers - The Cleveland Affair - several sources. Jean Renvoize gives a good summary Incest and paedophilia - a moral panic? Lots of material on the net. Lesson 5 : Violence Normal violence - Evans-Pritchard on the Nuer. Infanticide and gender - India and the unwanted daughter - material available on internet. Domestic Violence - Discussion in Daly & Wilson's ‘Homicide'. Lesson 6 : Violence 2 The medicalization of the assassin Constructing the ‘Serial Killer' Philip Jenkins ‘Using Murder : The Social Construction of Serial Homicide' is very useful. To be confronted with ‘Sexual Homicide : Patterns and Motives' by Ressler, Burgess & Douglas. Anne Rule, in ‘The Stranger Beside Me' cites a letter she wrote to Bundy while he was awaiting execution which outlines the basic characteristics of the serial killer. Most of these characteristics are challenged by Jenkins. Lesson 7 : Violence 3 Utilitarian Violence and the American Gang All the classic material, but also ‘Islands in the Street : Gangs and American Urban Society' by Martin Sanchez Jankowski (U Cal Press), in particular chap 5, ‘The Anatomy of Gang Violence' Violence as a pleasure - the football hooligan Lesson 8 : Property and theft Hunter-gatherers and food-sharing - tolerated theft? The farmer, the grain-store and the thief Lesson 9 : Property and theft 2 The rise of the state - vendetta and duel The emergence of Criminal Law - hunters and poachers Policing property in the modern state Lesson 10 : Witchcraft, Magic and Censure The Azande and the explanation of everything Flying Witches - the Trobriand Islanders and the perils of navigation On learning to be a witch - socialization of the anthropologist Lesson 11: Witchcraft - the European witch craze Murray and Ginsberg - the Sabat as a historical survival Witchcraft as delusion - Cohn & Muchembled Science and sorcery Folk Devils - the Witch, the Thief and the Assassin as Scapegoats Lesson 12 : Towards an anthropology of Crime and Punishment Recap and synthesis From tsmeisen@wiley.csusb.edu Fri Jul 10 12:56:04 1998 From: Tom Meisenhelder Subject: Re: Nominalism etc. (was: Magazine Feature on White Racism) To: sokol@jhu.edu Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 11:54:24 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980709103151.00c94114@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> from "Wojtek Sokolowski" at Jul 9, 98 10:31:51 am I hate to seem naive but it seems to me that they nominalism-realism debate going on recently has a solution, one most recently proposed in the work of Bourdieu. With reference to race the idea would be that race is a socially constituted way of di-visioning social fields and distributing capital. Once established the resulting racial categories become real; that is, they have objective social effects largely determining who has what resources, who gets what in society, and how people perceive their worlds and themselves. Included in these effects is the incorporation of racial categories and categorization within the internal habitus of individuals who now come to define themselves and others through notions of race --thereby, often acting in ways that reproduce the racial di-visioning of social fields. So race is both a nominal category that becomes real and a real aspect of the structure of the social world that is internalized; it is both objective and subjective. Tom From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Fri Jul 10 14:32:22 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 10 Jul 1998 16:30:15 EDT To: Subject: Feudalization For those interested in the complex and fascinating issue of whether "feudal" moments are implicit in all historically existing societies, there is a revealing article in today's New York Times on the Web. It can be accessed at: http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/071098birthrate-decline.html it ostensibly deals with the fertility crash in the advanced capitalist societies, but in order to explain it, it takes up issues of despair, the end of the belief in progress, etc. This one really should not be missed. I found it most interesting that the feudalism thread on PSN was interwoven with other discussions, including one about changes in university education as both a social product and a labor process.I have written some things over the years on this social nexus, and I will post the citations to PSN as soon as I can look them up. Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From jbandy@connecti.com Fri Jul 10 16:05:05 1998 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 17:05:12 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: jbandy@connecti.com (John Bandy) Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat In the US they starve. > >So, as a matter of interest, what do sessional lecturers in other >countries do when the university isn't paying them? Do they get dole, or >what? It might be interesting to compare notes. > >Cheers, > >Alan Harrison John D. Bandy Ph.D. or Matilde Bandy Owner/Manager, No Que Know Books, specializing in rare and out-of-print Chicano titles. 1111 N Hwy 123 ByPass, #1110 Seguin, TX 78155 (830) 372-2723 URL http://www.abebooks.com/home/NOQUEKNOWBOOKS/ Minds are like books They only work when they're open. --Anonymous From brook@california.com Sat Jul 11 00:06:49 1998 Fri, 10 Jul 1998 23:06:37 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 22:57:18 -0700 To: j9470388@wlv.ac.uk From: CyberBrook Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat In-Reply-To: <35A6A529.421C@wlv.ac.uk> I just successfully signed up with unemployment insurance because my contract with the University of California (from where I received my Ph.D. in 1997) ended this year and I won't be teaching there again until January (assuming enrollment is adequate and funding is available). Interestingly, UC doesn't pay unemployment insurance and I'm only able to collect anything at all because I happened to have worked for California State University last year teaching two classes at two different universities. Based on this, I'm supposed to receive $175 for 23 weeks, assuming they don't find anything wrong with my paperwork or interview. It is an unnecessarily complex and cumbersome process seemingly designed to be diifuclt, punitive, and humiliating. And all for a meager amount of money in the absence of a meager job. At 04:35 PM 10-07-98 -0700, Alan Harrison wrote: >mweigand@usa.net wrote: >> >> (3) Lack of organization on the part of part-time and full-time faculty. >> Administrators have been very successful at exploiting the potential friction >> between full and part-time faculty using a "divide and conquer" strategy. > >This doesn't happen so much over here, I think. > >Anyway, I have a present difficulty as a part-time "visiting lecturer", >which I would like to share with the group. I've been working here >during the last semester in a university which follows a "hybrid" system >of courses arranged in semesters, but students on campus for the >traditional British three terms. So, the second semester began in >February (half-way through spring term) and consisted of seven weeks' >teaching before and five weeks after Easter. > >The payment system is that we submit a claim from time to time, most VLs >choosing to do so monthly (the importance of which will emerge in a >moment), putting in a claim for work done before the twentieth of a >month in order to be paid on the fifteenth of the following month. So >I've put in four unequal claims for 3, 4, 2 and 3 weeks' pay. Outside >the time when I'm teaching, I claim the ludicrously titled "Jobseeker's >Allowance". Now here comes the problem. the last claim to be paid was >the one for two weeks. I expected two weeks' dole to be stopped. >However, it looks as if the dole officials (bastards recruited from the >working class to do the ruling class's dirty work) may take the view >that this is a month's pay and stop my dole for a month. I'm currently >trying to get this resolved. > >So, as a matter of interest, what do sessional lecturers in other >countries do when the university isn't paying them? Do they get dole, or >what? It might be interesting to compare notes. > >Cheers, > >Alan Harrison > From tr@tryoung.com Sat Jul 11 04:02:09 1998 (usr-mtp-59.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.59]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 05:58:41 -0400 To: Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Re: Criminology Sources on RF HomePage In-Reply-To: <35A61FE8.C4C262EE@wanadoo.fr> TM: There are several articles on Criminology on the Red Feather Home Page. Check out: the Archives http://www.tryoung.com/archives/archives.htm Socgrad Lectures http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/SOCGRADindex.htm and Postmodern criminology http://www.tryoung.com/journals/JOURNAL-POMOCRIM/pomocrimINDEX.html There are even some on the Chaos HomePage at: http://www.tryoung.com/chaos/chaos.htm Good Luck, TR At 04:06 PM 7/10/98 +0200, you wrote: >Warren S. Goldstein wrote : > >> I am teaching criminology for the first time in the fall. Any >> suggestions for books, articles, etc. would be greatly appreciated. >> >Rough course outline might help. > > Best wishes > > T Mason >Lesson 1 : The variation of social censure > Violence > The Yanomamo > Text from Harris, but see Ferguson's caveat in ‘Yanomamo Politics' > Sexuality > The Nyar > Article by E. Kathleen Gough - can be found in ‘Cultural and >Social Anthropology : selected readings', Peter B. Hammond (ed), >Macmillan > Property > The Nuer - Evans Pritchard - extract on cattle stealing and >relationship with the Dinka > Witchcraft > The Azande - Evans Pritchard >Lesson 2 : Incest - the fundamental rule? > Westermark > Clear exposition in Robin Fox, ‘The Red Lamp of Incest' > Levi Strauss > I use the summary by Chris Knight in ‘Blood Relations' - but take >it from the horse's mouth. > Freud > Héritier - ‘Les deux soeurs et la mère' >Lesson 3 : Incest II > Variations in definition and social reaction > Turnbull : Exclusion - passage in ‘The forest people' > Malinowski : Suicide - several references to the case of the boy who >leaps from the top of a coconut palm. I use the one in ‘Crime and >Custom in Savage society'. > Spencer & Gillen : The Atninga - in ‘The Arunta'. The passage >illustrates why it is always useful to have a few of the usual >suspects to hand >Lesson 4 : Incest III > Incest in modern societies > Doctors and Fathers - The Cleveland Affair - several sources. Jean >Renvoize gives a good summary > Incest and paedophilia - a moral panic? Lots of material on the net. >Lesson 5 : Violence > Normal violence - Evans-Pritchard on the Nuer. > Infanticide and gender - India and the unwanted daughter - material >available on internet. > Domestic Violence - Discussion in Daly & Wilson's ‘Homicide'. >Lesson 6 : Violence 2 > The medicalization of the assassin > Constructing the ‘Serial Killer' > Philip Jenkins ‘Using Murder : The Social Construction of Serial >Homicide' is very useful. To be confronted with ‘Sexual Homicide : >Patterns and Motives' by Ressler, Burgess & Douglas. Anne Rule, in >‘The Stranger Beside Me' cites a letter she wrote to Bundy while he >was awaiting execution which outlines the basic characteristics of the >serial killer. Most of these characteristics are challenged by >Jenkins. >Lesson 7 : Violence 3 > Utilitarian Violence and the American Gang > All the classic material, but also ‘Islands in the Street : Gangs >and American Urban Society' by Martin Sanchez Jankowski (U Cal Press), >in particular chap 5, ‘The Anatomy of Gang Violence' > Violence as a pleasure - the football hooligan >Lesson 8 : Property and theft > Hunter-gatherers and food-sharing - tolerated theft? > The farmer, the grain-store and the thief >Lesson 9 : Property and theft 2 > The rise of the state - vendetta and duel > The emergence of Criminal Law - hunters and poachers > Policing property in the modern state >Lesson 10 : Witchcraft, Magic and Censure > The Azande and the explanation of everything > Flying Witches - the Trobriand Islanders and the perils of >navigation > On learning to be a witch - socialization of the anthropologist >Lesson 11: Witchcraft - the European witch craze > Murray and Ginsberg - the Sabat as a historical survival > Witchcraft as delusion - Cohn & Muchembled > Science and sorcery > Folk Devils - the Witch, the Thief and the Assassin as Scapegoats >Lesson 12 : Towards an anthropology of Crime and Punishment > Recap and synthesis > > TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From augdeven@telcel.net.ve Sat Jul 11 06:49:02 1998 by smarty.telcel.net.ve (Post.Office MTA v3.5 release 215 Reply-To: <@telcel.net.ve> From: "Augusto De Venanzi" To: "M J Guest" Subject: RE: The concept of "global class structure" Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 08:45:06 -0400 M. Guest wrote: > Professor De Venanzi, > > Please excuse my ignorance but how might we meaningfully speak of such a > "global class structure"? In terms of international power or influence? > The problem with this type of conception is, as with globalisation, it is > a notion that could only have meaning for a small elite population around > the globe, i.e. those within the sphere of influence of this power, > and more specifically, those who are aware of this influence. > I'm sure there must be a few Marxist (and feminist) critiques of this sort > of theory among sociologists...? > Maybe I'm old fashioned in favouring a more micro approach, but I fail to > see the real use or application of theories on such a huge scale. > > Any comments anyone? > > Mathew Guest, > University of Durham. > Dear Dr. Guest: The notion that social classes were interlinked at a supranational level was central to dependency theory ( late sixties early seventies) as it tried to overcome the shortcomings of underdevelopment theories and their strong economic focus. More recently world-system theorists have spoken of a world capitalist elite or class, in charge of planning global events. The concept of a world corporate elite is also employed by some authors. There is also a view that there is a strong relation among the various types of labour done by workers all around the globe: a truly global division of labour which is not only compatile with, but functional to the new forms of horizonal production. Poverty and unemployment are also growing due to global dynamics. In central countries jobs have gone to places where pay is low, and big US corporations are leaving many people without work ( some 3 millon over the last few years). It has been suggested that violence in the afroamerican ghetto is due in part to that fact that jobs traditionally done by its inhabitants were precisely those that have gone to other countries. The concepts Globalization of Poverty and Global Impoverishment are also used ( as in Chossudosky. M ) In periphery conuntries poverty and unemployment are largely due to external debt and structural adjustment advocated by multilateral agencies which form part of the world economic and political system ( United nations, others) The work we all do ( including academic work ) , its nature,salary and status is also affected by global events What is lacking, I think, is an integrated view of this processes which would lead to a formation of a concept of a "global class structure". As to your preference for the micro: I did micro sociology for about 15 years ( everyday life sociology ). It is very interesting and rich, but I have come to the conclusion that in order to understand global realities we need - even must- embark on global thinking; for even situational events are now strongly influenced by larger events ( one of the arguments Giddens developed in New Rules of Sociological Method and more recently on his books on High Modernity ). Sincerely Yours, Professor Augusto De Venanzi. From Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr Sat Jul 11 06:53:59 1998 for Paris Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:54:19 +0200 (MET DST) for Paris Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:54:14 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:53:50 +0200 From: Timothy Mason To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: [Fwd: Elliott Currie on American criminality] This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------FC36D9DB5EA749D7686D42AA I wrote this for Anthro-L, but some people on this list may find it of interest. Regards Tim Mason --------------FC36D9DB5EA749D7686D42AA Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 21:11:36 +0200 From: Timothy Mason Organization: Home To: ANTHRO-L Subject: Elliott Currie on American criminality Elliott Currie is one of the better known of American criminologists. For those of you who need labels, he is considered left of centre. he has recently published 'Crime and Punishment in America ; Why the Solutions to America's Most Stubborn social Crisis Have not Worked - and What Will", (Henry Holt, 1998). What follows is a review of that work. The book is intended for a wide audience. It is a response to the present conservative climate on matters criminological ; in particular Currie rejects the increasing reliance on the prison as the main recourse against crime, and offers a number of other solutions which, he claims, can be shown to work. Currie opens by reminding us that the numbers of prisoners held in the USA has risen from less than 200,000 in 1971 to nearly 1.2 million in 1996 - a figure that does not take into account people held in local jails. This means that, as a proportion of the population, the numbers behind bars has quadrupled from around 110 per 100,000 through the 60s to 427 per 100,000. The expansion of the prison population came at a time when crime was, says Currie, reaching epidemic proportions. Between 1987 and 1994, the homicide death rate among American men aged 15 to 24 rose from 22/100,000 to 37. In the UK, in 1994, the figure was 1/100,000. Although it is Afro-Americans who have been most sorely victimized (167/100,000 in 1993), white youths have also been suffering - their rate in the 1990s was roughly 6 times the rate for young Frenchmen - and 20 times the rate for Japan. Although there has been a recent downturn in the violence, this has merely lead to a return to the rates of the early 90s - which were already extraordinarily high by comparison with the figures for any other industrialized country. Why is it that higher rates of incarceration have had so little effect on crimes of violence? Currie's answer is, in part, to point to the structure of US society, which has undergone the fastest rise in income inequality in recent history. This has precipitated millions of Americans into poverty - an American child under 18 is half again as likely to poor now as she was 20 years earlier, and the time that she spends in poverty is likely to be longer. In most civilized countries, a safety net is provided which enables the poor to maintain contact with the rest of society ; in the USA, such public support as has existed has been repeatedly slashed away. Monies have, in fact, been diverted from social services, such as education, to prisons. Currie looks at programs that work under three headings. The first of these is 'prevention'. He states that we now know enough about this to target four priorities - these are : "preventing child abuse and neglect, enhancing children's intellectual and social development, providing support and guidance to vulnerable adolescents and working intensively with juvenile offenders." There is good evidence for a direct link between child abuse and violent crime - and there is also good evidence that programs based on home visiting by skilled outsiders can reduce such abuse. Currie cites the Elmira program, under the direction of David Olds : 4% of the highest risk mothers in the program were confirmed to have abused or neglected their children, as against 19% of the control group during the two years the visits lasted. 15 years later, the rate for the experimental women was only half that of the control group, so it was not simply the effect of greater surveillance. Other similar programs have also had positive effects. Amongst these is the Hawaii Healthy Start program, which works with a particularly high-risk population, and which appears to have had considerable success in cutting down rates of abuse. Currie admits that it is not clear why these programs have positive effects, but notes that the visits should continue over an extended period, should be comprehensive, and look to the links between the family and the wider community ; the home visitor becomes a resource for the poor family. Secondly, the link between school failure and crime is well-established. Programs that enhance school performance can also serve to cut down the crime rate. Some of the better programs launched in the 60s have been shown to have positive effects - which makes Jensen's efforts to blame the children particularly lamentable. One of these is the Perry project, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Children who had gone through this pre-school (2 years) program were, when followed up 27 years later were far more likely to be literate, to be off welfare and far less likely (1/5th) to have become chronic criminal offenders than were members of the control group. This does not mean that they stay out of prison - 19% of the program children had done time, as against 22% of the control. Currie believes that this is because, unlike what happens in Europe, these programs are isolated moments within a grinding life of poverty that makes it difficult for families to function as they could. This leads him to argue that prevention is not sufficient : America also needs Social Action. This is because : "Around the world, the countries with relatively low levels of violent crime tend to be not only among the most prosperous but also those where prosperity has become most general, most evenly distributed throughout the population. The countries where violent crime is an endemic problem are those in which prosperity, to the extent that it is achieved at all, is confined to some sectors of the population and denied to to others. That includes a number of less developed countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean ... and one country in the developed world - the United States" Currie claims that children and families in the US are far more likely to be poor than their counterparts in other industrial democracies. The two key reasons for this high degree of poverty are that poor working Americans earn lower wages, and that governments do less to redistribute income. The US spends less than 4% of GDP on welfare, including unemployment compensation and disability benefit - the UK, which is not outstandingly generous, spends twice this. A direct link can be shown to exist between income inequality and violence. It is amongst those populations which are 'locked into the most permanent forms of economic marginality in the most impoverished and disrupted communities' that violence is most prevalent. Gartner and Pampel, says Currie, demonstrated that in those societies which have a 'collectivist orientation' - including universal social benefits - there is only a weak connection between the size of the youth population and the rate of homicide. In 'individualistic' societies, rises in the proportion of youths lead to increases in homicide. Unsurprisingly, Currie concludes that it is by tackling poverty, by providing high wages and a comprehensive social security system, that the USA will make some headway in tackling the crime problem. Finally, he argues that changes can be made in the Justice System itself. Instead of increasingly turning to 'tough' solutions, such as boot camps, which have no effect on recidivism, or on punitive probation, we should look to rehabilitation programs that have worked. It is not the case that drug addiction cannot be confronted, although many of the programs that are put forward by one guru or another are, in fact, worthless. Nor is it the case that community-oriented policing is pointless : police officers trained in child-development issues, working with mental-health specialists, as in New Haven, may offer quick response to troubled children who have had to witness acts of violence, and do something towards preventing the downward spiral. Currie concludes that America can combat the problem of violent crime if it wants to. The question is, are affluent Americans willing to make the effort, or will they continue to set up their own ermine-lined ghettos, while pouring tax-money into prisons rather than schools. As I indicated at the outset, Currie's book is intended to be read by a lay public, and to have a direct influence on political debate. His argument flies in the face of much current thinking on crime, but as Americans begin to count the real costs of the recent binge of prison building, it may make some headway into the mainstream. It certainly offers a challenge to the conservative case. In a way, Currie offers some comfort to John Gerassi's argument that crime in general, and violent crime in particular, is central to the American way. It does seem to be the case that part of the price to be paid for rugged individualism is a higher degree of personal danger. Of course, this danger is more acute amongst the losers than among the winners - for most affluent Americans, the payment is indirect. The tax dollars that could go to educating the poor - 'Bring them light!' cried Victor Hugo - finance the building of newer and more formidable penitentiaries, dedicated to punishment and incapacitation rather than reform - educational services in prison have been slashed in recent years, notes Currie. Americans may well be willing to continue electing politicians who promise more of the same. Perhaps one day they will wake up to the fact that whereas civilized nations have systems of welfare, the USA has the goon tower and the lethal injection. And that it costs them far, far more. Regards Timothy Mason Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr --------------FC36D9DB5EA749D7686D42AA-- From smrose@exis.net Sat Jul 11 11:41:21 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 13:36:16 +0000 Subject: Race and Racism TWO POINTS: 1. RACE and RACISM: Most sociologists understand that "race" is socially constructed, and that there are no such things biologically and genetically as races. This is a good beginning, but it is also important to address when, why, and by whom this crime against humanity (the social construction of race) was committed. Race was invented over a period of time from the 16th to the 18th centuries, in order to invent racism. Conquering, enslaving, exploiting, and exterminating masses of people was justified by inventing the idea that they belonged to different races, thus suyperseding the use of religion as a justification for these practices. Marx interpreted this process with profound insight in his writing in Capital on "primitive accumulation." He pointed out that capital came into the world "dripping with blood and dirt from head to toe." Capitalism in Europe was built on the backs of the extermination and enslavement of the indigenous population of the "Americas" and Africa, (as well as the expropriation and exploitation of most of the European population, and the later colonization and exploitation of Asians). To put it more briefly, capitalism created race in order to create racism. Today the ideology of racism is crucial to capitalist rule over the working class. The material aspect of racism, the superexploitation of most of the workers of the world, is the source of most of capitalist profits and the underlying basis of imperialism. Marxists should recognize the reality of both the ideological and material aspects of racism. 2. "CLASSISM:" I believe that Marxists should not use this term. No one should oppose or condemn a social group because of their "race," ethnicity, or nationality. However, the working class should oppose and condemn the class and the system that really does exploit them and destroy their lives. The solution to racism is anti-racist working class unity. The solution to class exploitation is not the unity of the working and capitalist classes, but the "conquest of political power by the working class" and the "expropriation of the expropriators." The term "classism" makes it seem that class is just another identity that people should learn to respect. Marxists should not respect the capitalist class or even the existence of social classes, which we want to eliminate. Steve Rosenthal In short, Marxists most oppose race consciousness and build class consciousness. From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Fri Jul 10 16:29:17 1998 Fri, 10 Jul 1998 18:29:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 18:29:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Tom Meisenhelder Subject: Re: Nominalism etc. (was: Magazine Feature on White Racism) In-Reply-To: <199807101854.LAA08060@wiley.csusb.edu> Tom, I agree with most of what you have said here, but this is not what a nominalist has in mind. Realists also observe the nominal aspect of things, and they warn against reification of mental categories. But what the nominalist does is to say that things are what they are because we say they are that. Thus, relations, causality, and a myriad of other entities, for nominalists, are mental impositions on a reality of disaggregated atoms. This means that the relations which constitute racist structure and identity, forms of domination, etc., are not real things, but things we made up. It follows from this, then, that if we only stop talking about it, it will go away. On the statement you made, I would emphasize that racism includes, as an element, the material basis that makes it possible. The arrangement of society by the accumulators that founded the racist structure of, for example, the United States, is an element of that racist structure. And then, as you noted, it becomes an organic phenomenon, that grows and develops relatively autonomous forms and permutations. What is confused in most people's mind (and the position of nominalism, outside of being philosophically untenable, exacerbates this confusion), is that racism is only an ideology, a belief system people hold, and that actions are racist only insofar as they originate out of ideology, guiding behavior intentionally. This is only part of the story. Racism does not depend on race consciousness any more than class relations depend on class consciousness. Indeed, both racism and classism thrive on a general ignorance of race and class relations. Consciousness raising, in my view, is not about creating constructs out of thin air, or maintaining concepts for which there are no empirical referents, but rather helping people see all the ways that society is racist. It is with the raising of racial consciousness that racism can be battled, just as it is advantageous to understand as much about a disease process if the goal is to cure the patient. Peace, Andy On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Tom Meisenhelder wrote: > > I hate to seem naive but it seems to me that they nominalism-realism > debate going on recently has a solution, one most recently proposed in > the work of Bourdieu. With reference to race the idea would be that race > is a socially constituted way of di-visioning social fields and > distributing capital. Once established the resulting racial categories > become real; that is, they have objective social effects largely > determining who has what resources, who gets what in society, and how > people perceive their worlds and themselves. Included in these effects is > the incorporation of racial categories and categorization within the > internal habitus of individuals who now come to define themselves and > others through notions of race --thereby, often acting in ways that > reproduce the racial di-visioning of social fields. > > So race is both a nominal category that becomes real and a real aspect of > the structure of the social world that is internalized; it is both > objective and subjective. > > Tom > From hadjicosta_j@utpb.edu Fri Jul 10 17:16:15 1998 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 17:16:09 -0600 (MDT) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Joanna Hadjicostandi Subject: suggestions Hi Folks, This time of the semester again. Having hardly finished preparing the courses for the current semester, I am on the way to preparing for the next one. So I thought that the best thing to do in this case is to pick the brains of progressive sociologists for guaranteed successful, interesting, critical and thought provoking courses!!!!!! (Oooops!!!) Two of the courses I'll be teaching in the fall are: Soc. of Organizations, and Family and Substance Abuse, which is a new prep. I would appreciate any suggestions of recently published work: books, articles or documentaries as well as syllabi. The final product of compilling the suggestions and my new syllabus will, of course, become available to all interested individuals. Thanks very much Joanna From augdeven@telcel.net.ve Fri Jul 10 14:57:06 1998 by smarty.telcel.net.ve (Post.Office MTA v3.5 release 215 Reply-To: <@telcel.net.ve> From: "Augusto De Venanzi" To: Subject: The concept of " Global Class Structure" Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 16:53:36 -0400 Dear members of the list: Anyone interested in discussing the concept of a global class structure and how it would differ from a national class system? Professor Augusto De Venanzi Sociology School Central University of Venezuela From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Sat Jul 11 16:42:05 1998 Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 18:45:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: "classism" Further to Steve's recent post, I too oppose the use of the word "classism". I think an excellent critique of the term was made by Terry Eagleton in his book _The Illusions of Postmodernism_ (Blackwell, 1996). He writes: Social class tends to crop up in postmodern theory as one item in the triptych of class, race and gender, a formula which has rapidly assumed for the left the kind of authority which the Holy Trinity occasionally exerts for the right. The logic of this triple linkage is surely obvious: racism is a bad thing, and so is sexism, and so therefore is something called 'classism.' 'Classism', on this analogy, would seem to be the sin of stereotyping people in terms of social class, which taken literally would mean that it was politically incorrect to describe Donald Trump as a capitalist. Socialists, however, churlishly refuse to subscribe to the orthodoxy that social class is a bad thing, even though they are out to abolish it. For socialism, the working class is an excellent thing, since without it one could never usurp the power of capital. The bourgeoisie may be on the whole a bad thing today, but it was much to be admired in its revolutionary heyday...this is a rather different way of seeing from the kind of ahistorical moralism which holds that social class, like salt and smoking, is not very nice. On the surface, the class-race-gender triplet appears convincing enough. Some people are oppressed because of their gender, some on account of their race, and others by virtue of their class. But this is a deeply misleading forumulation. For it is not as though some individuals display certain characteristics known as 'class', which then result in their oppression. On the contrary, Marxists have considered that to belong to a social class just *is* to be oppressed, or to be an oppressor. Class is in this sense a wholely social category, as being female or having a certain skin pigmentation is not. .....The oppression of women is a matter of gender, which is wholly a social construct; but women are oppressed *as women*, which involves the kind of body one happens to have. Being bourgeois or proletarian, by contrast, is not a biological affair at all. There will be no bourgeoisie or proletariat in an emancipated society, though there will certainly be women and Celts....nobody has one sort of skin pigmentation because someone else has another, or is male because someone else is female, in the sense that some people are only landless labourers because others are gentlemen farmers. ....Marxism is a theory of the role played by the conflict between social classes in a much wider process of historical change, or it is nothing. And on this theory, social class cannot be said to be unequivocally a bad thing, and so conflated with racism and sexism.... (pp. 56-59) [There is more here, but for brevity I've left a lot out. I hope I haven't done the author an injustice -- hope this piece will spark readers on this list to look at this excellent book if they haven't already.] Cheers, __________________________________ Joanne Naiman Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5B 2K3 Tel: (416) 979 5000, ext. 7047 Fax: (416) 979 5273 E-Mail: jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Sat Jul 11 17:41:03 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 10:27:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Nominalism (Article on White Racism) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu I find it interesting how elite intellectuals like Bourdieu, having access to the market of ideas, are able to academically legitimize analyses that arise from anti-racist struggle. There is an organization called the People's Institute that has been around for twenty years in New Orleans. The engage in community organizing from a anti-racist perspective and also have an educational institute that trains anti-racist organizers around the nation. Bourdieu's notion of race has been part of their analysis for at least 15 years. Their ideology is a rather interesting blending of anti-capitalist, marxist terms that have been meshed with an understanding of racialization in western societies. In fact the social constitution of race and its becoming a "real" thing because we act towards it as if it was also has biological consequences. The findings about certain degenerative diseases in Latinos and Blacks (high blood pressure, nicotine etc.) the biological consequences of differential accees to society's resouces because of racialization. This does not mean that these predispositionst are "essential" characetristics it just mean that there are real consequences arising out of oppression that are not merely psychological. Victor M. Rodriguez Concordia University Irvine, CA rodriguez@cui.edu <<>> From dredmond@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU Sat Jul 11 18:04:24 1998 Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 17:04:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Dennis R Redmond Subject: Re: The concept of " Global Class Structure" In-reply-to: <19980710205430.AAE14061%smarty.telcel.net.ve@telcel.telcel.net.ve> To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > Anyone interested in discussing the concept of a global class > structure and how it would differ from a national class system? Why not? I'd be interested to hear anyone's ideas on how globalization has been transforming the world's peasant populations into a new kind of rural/semi-industrial proletariat, much more tightly linked to metropolitan financial and industrial markets than the 19th century colonial regimes or even the 20th century comprador regimes. -- Dennis From pshorne@central.murdoch.edu.au Sat Jul 11 16:35:54 1998 Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 06:33:35 +0800 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Priscilla Shorne Subject: re casual academic positions In Australia, casual and contract academics can and do get social security payments during non term time unless of course they have a spouse or defacto who is working. Priscilla Shorne From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sat Jul 11 12:04:06 1998 Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:03:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:03:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Steve Rosenthal Subject: Re: Race and Racism Steve, I understand the point of your argument. However, in one sense, the term "classism" is not inappropriate. Racism is the ideological practice and set of structural relations that divide people in a way beneficial to the accumulators. We struggle against racism seeking to build a society without race. Classism is the ideological practice and set of structural relations that divide people in a way beneficial to the accumulators. We struggle against classism seeking to build a society without class. Recognizing white supremacy as our target in the struggle against racism is analogous to recognizing capitalism as our target in the struggle against classism; such recognitions neither make us racist nor classist. Put otherwise, the struggle against racism is no more racist than the struggle against classism is classist. It is true that we do not join with the capitalist in our struggle against capitalism, but we also do not join with the nazi in our struggle against white supremacy, either. In this way, the terms have equivalent meaning, and they do so without violating the substance of your post. Thanks Andy On Sat, 11 Jul 1998, Steve Rosenthal wrote: > TWO POINTS: > > 1. RACE and RACISM: Most sociologists understand that "race" is > socially constructed, and that there are no such things biologically > and genetically as races. This is a good beginning, but it is also > important to address when, why, and by whom this crime against > humanity (the social construction of race) was committed. > > Race was invented over a period of time from the 16th to the 18th > centuries, in order to invent racism. Conquering, enslaving, > exploiting, and exterminating masses of people was justified by > inventing the idea that they belonged to different races, thus > suyperseding the use of religion as a justification for these > practices. Marx interpreted this process with profound insight in > his writing in Capital on "primitive accumulation." He pointed out > that capital came into the world "dripping with blood and dirt from > head to toe." Capitalism in Europe was built on the backs of the > extermination and enslavement of the indigenous population of the > "Americas" and Africa, (as well as the expropriation and exploitation > of most of the European population, and the later colonization and > exploitation of Asians). > > To put it more briefly, capitalism created race in order to create > racism. > > Today the ideology of racism is crucial to capitalist rule over the > working class. The material aspect of racism, the superexploitation > of most of the workers of the world, is the source of most of > capitalist profits and the underlying basis of imperialism. Marxists > should recognize the reality of both the ideological and material > aspects of racism. > > 2. "CLASSISM:" I believe that Marxists should not use this term. No > one should oppose or condemn a social group because of > their "race," ethnicity, or nationality. However, the working class > should oppose and condemn the class and the system that really does > exploit them and destroy their lives. The solution to racism is > anti-racist working class unity. The solution to class > exploitation is not the unity of the working and capitalist classes, > but the "conquest of political power by the working class" and the > "expropriation of the expropriators." The term "classism" makes it > seem that class is just another identity that people should learn to > respect. Marxists should not respect the capitalist class or even > the existence of social classes, which we want to eliminate. > > Steve Rosenthal > > In short, Marxists most oppose race consciousness and build class > consciousness. > From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sat Jul 11 21:58:42 1998 Sat, 11 Jul 1998 23:58:33 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 23:58:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Joanne Naiman Subject: Re: "classism" In-Reply-To: Joanne, The logic doesn't treat analogs correctly, then. On Sat, 11 Jul 1998, Joanne Naiman wrote: > 'Classism', on this analogy, would seem to be the sin of stereotyping > people in terms of social class, which taken literally would mean that > it was politically incorrect to describe Donald Trump as a capitalist. Is it racist to call the leader of the American Nazi Party a white supremacist? It is sexist to call Rush Limbaugh a male chauvinist? No and no. Then how is it classist to call Donald Trump a capitalist? Donald Trump *is* a capitalist. To make this analogy work, one would have to say that referring to an individual as a black man, if he is a member of the black community, is racist. One would have to say that referring to an individual as a woman, if she were occupying that gendered space, is sexist. Just as then referring to an individual who sold their labor as a worker, would be classist. *These* are the logical equivalents. Racism, sexism, classism only works one direction: from power out (or down). Whites are racist in a society predicated on white supremacy. Blacks cannot be racist against whites; they can only be racist if they adopt the white position against blacks. Males are sexist in a society predicated on patriarchal relations. Women cannot be sexist towards men; they can only be sexist if they adopt the male position against women. Capitalist are classist in a society predicated on class relations. But workers cannot be classist towards capitalists; they can only be classist if they look down on their fellow workers and other subordinate social classes. This is what it means to say that any of the -isms is not only an ideological position, but it is predicated on material relations. It seems to the me, that if you lose the structural enablers of these forms of prejudice, then racism, sexism, and classism doesn't mean anything other than bigotry - which then cuts all ways. In other words, the logic of analogy, to be consistent across all three case, either follows the logic of my argument (with consistent equivalents, unless I have made an error) or all of the terms are stripped of their ability to differentiate social relations. They become cognitive vacuous. Peace, Andy From ecollom@wizard.ucr.edu Sat Jul 11 23:29:33 1998 Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 22:27:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Ed Collom To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: The concept of " Global Class Structure" In-Reply-To: <19980710205430.AAE14061@smarty.telcel.net.ve@telcel.telcel.net.ve> On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > > > Dear members of the list: > > Anyone interested in discussing the concept of a global class > structure and how it would differ from a national class system? > The concept of global class structure is certainly deserving of debate. Breen and Rottman (citation below) have an article that discusses some of these issues. While national studies of class structure may have been appropriate under Fordism, some argue that they are increasingly irrelevant under flexible capitalism. Breen and Rottman (1998) take this challenge seriously, but continue to advocate the nation-state as the appropriate unit. Their empirical evidence shows that the state continues to have a vital role and multinational corporations remain embedded in governance regimes. Breen, Richard and David Rottman. 1998. "Is the National State the Appropriate Geographical Unit for Class Analysis?" Sociology 32 (1): 1-21. From tr@tryoung.com Sun Jul 12 05:58:56 1998 (usr-mtp-61.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.61]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 07:55:28 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Plenary Sessions on Inequality: ASA teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu Opening Plenary. A Town Meeting on the Dismantling of Affirmative Action Session 106, Friday, August 21, 4:30-6:15 p.m. Organizer and Presider: Jill Quadagno, Florida State University The Role of Affirmative Action in Controlling Employment Discrimination. Barbara F. Reskin, Harvard University The End of Affirmative Action at the University of California. Jerome B. Karabel, University of California, Berkeley Racialized Politics and the Politics of Race: The California Vote on Proposition 209. Troy Duster, University of California, Berkeley Ambivalences about Affirmative Action. William A. Gamson, Boston College *********** Luncheon Plenary Session. The Welfare State in the 21st Century Session 273, Sunday, August 23, 12:30-2:15 p.m. Organizer and Presider: Jill Quadagno, Florida State University Crisis, the Welfare State, and Aging: Capitalism and the Post-Industrial State. Carroll L. Estes, University of California, San Francisco The New Welfare State Nexus: Globalization and the Family Economy. Gosta Esping-Andersen, University of Trento, Italy Working Families and the Future of American Social Policy. Theda Skocpol, Harvard University TR Young, Editor FROM THE LEFT TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From augdeven@telcel.net.ve Sun Jul 12 09:26:57 1998 by smarty.telcel.net.ve (Post.Office MTA v3.5 release 215 Reply-To: <@telcel.net.ve> From: "Augusto De Venanzi" To: Subject: Some respones to "global class concept" Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 11:24:15 -0400 A couple of list members have asked what is the use of a concept like "Global Class Structure" if it does not have aplicability ? and it would not be grasped by working class people. I was not aware that these were crucial criteria for the validity of academic discussions. Does this imply that in the past people outside the academic world read and understood The German Ideology, Capital, Elementary Forms of Religious Life, works by Simmel , Mead and other classics ( some texts are difficult for sociologists themselves). What about the modern- postmodern polemic ?, or a text like Les Temps des Tribus ( Maffesoli ). I spent a month fighting with that book in order to grasp its full implications. Maybe a more open perspective would allow for more rich discussions? Prof. Augusto De Venanzi Sociology School Central University of Venezuela From smrose@exis.net Sun Jul 12 17:54:29 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu, PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 19:49:16 +0000 Subject: Re: "classism" Andy (and PSN) I think you made some confused arguments in your replies to me and to Joanne. You wrote: > Racism is the ideological practice and set of structural relations > that divide people in a way beneficial to the accumulators...Classism > is the ideological practice and set of structural relations that > divide people in a way beneficial to the accumulators. I reply: I don't think you meant to give identical definitions to racism and "classism." But you failed to explain the differences between them, because you were determined to prove that they are analogous or parallel. They aren't, because races are not classes, and racism is not a class relationship of exploitation. Racism is used to intensify, cover up, distort, and justify the class relationship of exploitation. You wrote: > Is it racist to call the leader of the American Nazi Party a white > supremacist? It is sexist to call Rush Limbaugh a male chauvinist? No and > no. Then how is it classist to call Donald Trump a capitalist? Donald > Trump *is* a capitalist. I reply: All capitalists are exploiters, but all whites are not Nazis, and all men are not sexists. Trump symbolizes and typifies all capitalists, but Nazis and Limbaugh certainly do not symbolize or typify all whites or all men. You wrote: > Whites are racist in a society predicated on white supremacy. > Males are sexist in a society predicated on patriarchal relations. I reply: White people are not racist by virtue of being white, nor are men sexist because they are men. This is essentialist. Whites are racist if they support (or passively accept) the ideological and material aspects of racism, and whites are anti-racist if they actively fight against racism. The same goes for men and sexism. You wrote: > Racism, sexism, classism only works one direction: from power out (or > down). I reply: Many black voters in California voted for Proposition 187, a racist measure that barred education and medical care from children of undocumented workers. Blacks who did so were being racist. (So were Latinos who voted for Prop 187). Blacks who fell for anti-immigrant racism were the victim of capitalist divide-and-rule racist ideology that is used against immigrant workers in every capitalist country in the world. Workers of any "race" or nationality can fall for this racist ideology, just as the immigrants who are the targets of this racist ideology can believe racist lies about blacks and support racist welfare cutbacks aimed particularly at blacks. "White supremacy" is only one ideological version of racism. It is an error to equate racism with white supremacy. The Pan-Asian nationalism pushed by Japanese fascists before and during World War II with the slogans "White Man Out of Asia! Asia for Asians!" was a cover for genocidal attacks by Japanese imperialists against Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and other workers. Japanese racism was a mirror image of US racism against the Japanese. To sum up: You are striving for an analysis of racism and sexism that connects them to the material relations of capitalism, but you cannot do this if you treat racism, sexism, and class exploitation as three versions of the same thing. Black, white, latino, and asian workers must unite against racism; men and women workers must unite against sexism. Workers should have class hatred against all capitalists, but people should never hate another race or gender. Workers and capitalists should not, cannot, and will not unite against class exploitation. To conclude: Joanne should not concede any validity to the concept of "classism." It should be rejected altogether as misguided. Steve Rosenthal From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Sun Jul 12 12:16:41 1998 Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 14:19:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: Andrew Wayne Austin Subject: Re: "classism" In-Reply-To: Andy, Your commentary re a false analogue has merit. However, since your post with a "clip" from my previous message gives the impression otherwise, I should reiterate that those were not my words but Terry Eagleton's. He has a very dry wit, and I think his "Trump" example is a witticism that didn't quite work. I don't agree with everything he writes, but do think he gives us food for thought (and his humour sprinkled throughout his dense theoretical arguments sometimes makes me laugh out loud). I should also repeat that I left out a chunk of his position on 'classism', so maybe I was indeed being unfair to the author. Cheers, __________________________________ Joanne Naiman Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5B 2K3 Tel: (416) 979 5000, ext. 7047 Fax: (416) 979 5273 E-Mail: jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Sun Jul 12 22:03:49 1998 Date: Sun, 12 Jul 98 23:03 CDT From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Feudalism and itinerant scholars After all the recent chats about the new class of itinerant scholars, aka adjunct, there was a big Article in the local Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine. Title'"Will teach for food". Overall quite sympath etic with folks that teach 8classes a year w/o benefits like health insurance. Office is car, and some of the folks profiled have been doing this for a number of years, one guy was 63. Substantively, it said nothing the folks on this list are not familiar with, indeed many are experiencing first hand. Like the original feudalism, the society that is emerging has little need for critical thought. Lauren From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sun Jul 12 13:51:40 1998 Sun, 12 Jul 1998 15:51:27 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 15:51:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Augusto De Venanzi Subject: Re: Some respones to "global class concept" In-Reply-To: <19980712152416.AAC16375@smarty.telcel.net.ve@telcel.telcel.net.ve> On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > A couple of list members have asked what is the use of a concept like > "Global Class Structure" if it does not have aplicability ? I think the most immediate importance for developing an understanding of global class structure is to provide a deeper structural and historical explanation for transnational political practices and processes. Who controls the emerging transnational government is ultimately (although not completely) best explained in terms of who controls and benefits from the global economic system. I think that the issue Augusto is the single most important issue facing us. I hope to see others contributing to this subject. Thanks, Andy From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sun Jul 12 20:37:07 1998 Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:36:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 22:36:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin Reply-To: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Steve Rosenthal Subject: Re: "classism" Steve, On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, Steve Rosenthal wrote: > I don't think you meant to give identical definitions to racism and > "classism." But you failed to explain the differences between them, > because you were determined to prove that they are analogous or > parallel. They aren't, because races are not classes, and racism is > not a class relationship of exploitation. Racism is used to > intensify, cover up, distort, and justify the class relationship of > exploitation. No, I did give identical definitions to three forms of domination - a very broad abstraction - in an attempt to clarify the logic of the analogy; I meant to do that. I am (hypothetically) perfectly prepared to discuss all the ways these three forms are different, but that was not my task in clarifying the logic of the analogy you and Joanne employed. I wasn't determined to point out these three forms are parallel; they aren't. I was determined to show that the analogy used to criticize my initial post was flawed. And it remains so. On a substantive matter, I don't believe that racism is simply an ideological cover to legitimate exploitative relations. Racism is itself an exploitative and material relation. I disagree with you on this. And I think this sort of diminishing of the material force of racism by reducing it to the level of ideology and deception is itself ideological. > All capitalists are exploiters, but all whites are not Nazis, and > all men are not sexists. Trump symbolizes and typifies all > capitalists, but Nazis and Limbaugh certainly do not symbolize or > typify all whites or all men. No analogy is perfect (or it would be superfluous). But I singled out the more appropriate axis in the analogy you drew. And this point remains. I still maintain that my position against the capitalist class is not classist. I can no more discriminate against the capitalist because I want to dispossess him of his power over me than a black slave in the US South was racist for wanting to dispossess his master of his power over him. You are misusing the term. To describe my position against capitalism, I would use to term "anti-classism." I don't understand this aspect of your argument. Because capitalists fit more "totally" with their social location, how does this dent the logic of my point? Arguably, within given class and gender relations, all whites benefit from racism, whether they are Nazis or not. Arguably, within given class and race relations, all men benefit from sexism, whether that are Limbaugh or not. Racism is not, as I have argued, only the cognitive side of domination. Racism is reproduced, as is classism, outside of individual consciousness. Racism is not only our attitudes towards others. Racism is a material arrangement based on racial social construction. If racism were only about attitudes, then it would be synonymous with prejudice, and then anybody can be a racist against any other group. But it is not possible for a subordinate group in a race or racialized relation to be racist towards the superordinate group (although they can be racist against other subordinate groups). > White people are not racist by virtue of being white, nor > are men sexist because they are men. This is essentialist. Whites > are racist if they support (or passively accept) the ideological and > material aspects of racism, and whites are anti-racist if they > actively fight against racism. The same goes for men and sexism. No, it is not essentialist. Not at all. White and male is a social location. I say this all the time. And that was what I was originally arguing before you broke in and criticized my use of the word classism. I am on record here and everywhere opposed to any inherent notion of race. Don't throw my original argument out the window over one point. I want to emphasize that I am privileged by being male and white. I do benefit materially from these structures. I may not be a prejudiced individual. But I benefit from a racist society. What I said in my post is something quite different from what you want me to say. I said that blacks cannot be racist against whites. What I also said was that women cannot be sexist against men. They can be sexist against other women. And, despite everything you have said, the equivalent I have drawn - that workers cannot be classist against capitalists - is consistent with these points. > I reply: Many black voters in California voted for Proposition 187, > a racist measure that barred education and medical care from > children of undocumented workers. Blacks who did so were being > racist. Exactly, Steve. This was one of *my* points. I emphasized that subordinate groups could be racist against other subordinate groups. Why put this in here and make it seem as though this was not my argument? You then go on in your post to chastise me for things I did not say. Just because I did not talk about other forms of racial oppression does not mean I don't recognize them. Just because I didn't detail in full all the myriad permutations of exploitative and oppressive relations that exist in the world does not mean I don't recognize them or feel some moral anger over them. Over the matter of an inappropriate analogy I am being held to account for my (non-existent) denial of other forms of domination. > "White supremacy" is only one ideological version of racism. It is an > error to equate racism with white supremacy. Not just ideological. White supremacy is the material fact that whites as a group are privileged over blacks as a group. You again diminish the structure of racism by making it an "ideology." But, in any case, I did not make such an equation. I was giving an example. I also used capitalist as an example. You could have chastised me for not recognizing other forms of *class* domination (except that I do). Again, you treat my post as if I said that white supremacy is the only form of racism. I never said it was. > To sum up: You are striving for an analysis of racism and sexism > that connects them to the material relations of capitalism, but you > cannot do this if you treat racism, sexism, and class exploitation > as three versions of the same thing. I never treated them all the same. I was criticizing the logic of the analogy that was being applied in the critique. You were the one who introduced the analogy. And then Joanna introduced the same reasoning. I thought the form was wrong, and I still do. I was defending my point by showing you the logical inadequacy of your critique. And from this very narrow issue you have drawn the conclusion that I am treating these matters as three versions of the same thing? > To conclude: Joanne should not concede any validity to the concept > of "classism." It should be rejected altogether as misguided. Well, Steve, maybe she understands what I was trying to demonstrate and you don't. In any case, I am sure she can think for herself. Andy From mweigand@usa.net Sun Jul 12 23:12:27 1998 Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 23:08:44 -0600 (MDT) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat To: Alan Harrison , mweigand@usa.net Thanks for your comments. Perhaps comparing notes will be helpful. I have worked as both a part-time and full-time temporary faculty member on two different campuses. At my campus each semester lasts for 16 weeks, and part-time faculty are paid in three installments through the payroll office. The salary is about 1/4 of what a full-time faculty member earns for teaching the same courses with the same academic degree. Unlike full-timers, part-timers (often called Adjunct faculty) receive no health/medical or other insurance benefits. As a result, many Adjuncts teach on more than one campus to help make ends meet (but without benefits at any campus). Both full and part-time faculty must pay for parking on my campus, which costs $170 PER SEMESTER. Adjuncts are hired on a per semester basis, using a contract which states that there is no recourse for termination of one's contract. There is no job security or tenure, no seniority, no raises or promotions based on teaching excellence or the length of service at a particular campus. Full-time temporary faculty fare only slightly better, with a larger salary, health benefits and full academic year contracts (two semesters). However, there is a limit on how long one may work as a full-time temporary faculty, usually 2 or 3 years. Often, full-time temporary faculty (sometimes called Visiting Assistant Professors) teach more courses and larger courses than full-time faculty. Again, their is no long-term job security, no tenure or seniority, and there is no recourse if one's contract is cancelled or terminated. In summary, both economically and in terms of social status, part-time and full-time temporary faculty are "second-class citizens" in their department. They usually do not participate in faculty meetings and do not have meaningful input into important departmental decisions. In the U.S., roughly 50 percent of higher education faculty are part-time professors! On some campuses this percentage may be as high as 70 percent. These are the folks written about in a book called "The Invisible Faculty" which I would recommend to anyone. Best Wishes, -=MW=- MSCD.edu From groove@alltel.net Mon Jul 13 08:41:05 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 10:39:41 -0400 From: "T.R. McKotch" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Anti-Environmental Riders! July Action on Anti-Environmental Riders There's Alot "Riding" On Your Future Stop Sneaky Anti-Environmental Legislation BACKGROUND: Didn't we learn in school that in order for a bill to become a law Congress must first debate and vote on it? What we did not learn is that laws can be swiftly enacted without a vote, while the public is unaware. Currently, conservatives in Congress are determined to continue attacks on the environment and our public health through stealthly, controversial, last-minute additions or "riders" on unrelated spending bills. Often riders are snuck onto unrelated bills by committee chairs to promote their agendas. This strategy, although legal, avoids a separate vote and results in the rider being overshadowed by larger policy issues. Riders are not likely to win a vote on their own merits, therefore they are usually attached to spending bills that are likely to pass. Many people believe riders are undemocratic. They can change existing legislation, side-step pro-environment court rulings, or prevent federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing environmental rules. President Clinton has already signed the following national and regional anti-environmental riders into law this year as part of larger bills: * Air Quality in National Parks: Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) attached a rider to the transportation bill which delays states from acting to combat regional haze in national parks for nearly a decade; * Repeal Forest Roads Moratorium: Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) added a rider to the supplemental spending bill negating the Administration's proposed 18-month moratorium on building new roads in roadless areas in national forests; and * Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area: Representatives James Oberstar (D-MN) and Bruce Vento (D-MN) added a rider to the transportation bill allowing motorized vehicles in quiet wilderness areas, which set a dangerous precedent in reversing federal protection of national wilderness areas. Environmental groups are watching out for potential riders on other upcoming legislation. The Washington Post reported on June 28 that possible riders would "scale back Administration plans for cleaning up toxic waste sites, allow construction of a highway in a protected federal wilderness in Alaska, delay implementation of new restrictions on toxic air emissions, block attempts to reform mining regulations, and require higher levels of harvesting [timber] in Alaska's Tongass forest." Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced a bill (H.R. 1404) called the Defense of the Environment Act, which if passed would force a separate vote on environmental riders attached to bills. In May, Representative Waxman made a first attempt to pass the bill but it received only 190 votes, 28 votes shy of passing. Another vote on the Waxman bill may take place later this year. Public scrutiny in 1996 managed to call attention to the practice of Congress legislating through anti-environmental riders. This public pressure is needed now to educate the public and expose this undemocratic and anti-environmental tactic. *ACTION: Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Inform readers that policies challenging our democracy and threatening our environment are becomming law without debate, vote, or public input. Let readers know that recently passed stealthly "riders" have repealed a moratorium on building new roads in national forests and have delayed states in taking action to combat poor air quality in national parks. Urge readers to contact their Senators and Representative and ask them to stop sneaky, undemocratic, and anti-environmental riders that destroy the environment and endanger public health by supporting the Defense of the Environment Act sponsored by Representative Waxman. For more information goto http://www.2020vision.org From paulh@efn.org Mon Jul 13 10:09:06 1998 Mon, 13 Jul 1998 09:06:04 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 09:06:04 -0700 (PDT) To: smrose@exis.net, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: paulh@efn.org (Paul Harrison) Subject: Re: ASA - The Race Project One available and desirable strategy would be to recognize upfront that a single integrated view of race is not possible and cannot be accurate. Too many confused and conflicting ideas exist about what race is and how to study it. A consciously plural strategy that would develop and present the idea of race from a variety of possibly conflicting points of view would be much more honest and complete. At 11:01 AM 7/9/98 +0000, Steve Rosenthal wrote: >I thought it might be useful for PSN'ers to see who actually were the >participants in the Race Initiative conference and what the ASA >published on its Website. Hernan and Rafael are right to be incensed >at the secretive, bureaucratic, exclusive strategy the ASA has >employed in its collaboration with the Clinton Administration. But >what other strategy is possible when sociologists are "sleeping with >the enemy?" > >Steve Rosenthal > [snip] From hndiab@mailbox.syr.edu Mon Jul 13 10:11:48 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 12:11:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Hassan Diab To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: Stratification Textbook! Hell all, I am going to put together a stratification course (second year level) for next Fall, and would appreciate all suggestions about strat. textbooks and relevant articles as well. Another hint is that the course will be taught in a Third Wolrd country (Beirut, Lebanon), so more thanks would go to helpers in that matter! Tons of thanks to all Dr. H. Diab SBS Department AUB From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Mon Jul 13 14:12:20 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 16:14:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: Andrew Wayne Austin Subject: Re: "classism" In-Reply-To: Andy, You state in your recent post that by being a white male you achieve privilege and you are a beneficiary of racism and sexism. Of course at one level this is true, but if I might be dialectical here for a moment, can I ask you the following?: -if white + male = privilege, how do I explain to my students that almost all of the people I see begging on the streets of Toronto today are of that persuasion? How do I explain that in Canada for young people the gap between male & female wages is narrowing mainly because men's wages are dropping? -do not a substantial proportion of whites and/or males *lose out* in many ways from the persistence of sexism and racism? (I would argue that the costs -- if we look at the big picture -- far outweigh the benefits.) -if my above point is not correct, how the hell are we ever going to erode sexism and racism? As a Marxist, I understand the material basis for sexism and racism, but also appreciate how ordinary human beings sustain it. I have taught Gender Roles for many years. I find the most successful way to reach my students (both men and women), is to help students understand how *we all* lose out from structures of gender inequality at the very same time we help sustain it. This helps the males in my class feel less threatened, helps them see that they have a stake in ending gender inequality, and helps both the men and women students see the subtle ways we sustain inequalities even as we may rationally feel we are opposing them. (Gerda Lerner's excellent history of gender inequality struggles with the same problem: how women came to accept it in the first place.) BTW, while I acknowledged your point on Eagleton's false analogy, I continue to support his and Rosenthal's position that "classism" is not a useful concept, and leads us down dangerous alleys. What does it add to our understanding of class that we didn't have before the word came into vogue? Cheers, Joanne Naiman From tsmeisen@wiley.csusb.edu Mon Jul 13 14:08:17 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 13:13:46 -0700 To: tell@net.bluemoon.net From: Thomas Meisenhelder Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat I'll put in a little more info-- here in the CSU system we are unionized in a NEA/AAUP/SEIU organization that represents both full and part time faculty. It works well and benefits both but it is quite a struggle 1) to organize the PTers who of course have little time or sense of belonging and 2) to prevent tenure track faculty from separating themselves from PTers because they fail to see their interests in common. Our contracts do provide limited benefits and minimal jog security for lecturers but we are fighting to get more. The so-called flexibility that Pt faculty provide administrators is something the system fights very hard to keep. Tom At 11:19 AM 7/10/98 -0400, you wrote: > >Greetings, > >On Thu, 9 Jul 1998 mweigand@usa.net wrote: > >> (3) Lack of organization on the part of part-time and full-time faculty. >> Administrators have been very successful at exploiting the potential friction >> between full and part-time faculty using a "divide and conquer" strategy. >> However, in states where part-time and full-time faculty have united to demand >> better working conditions, great strides have been made and collective >> bargaining agreements have been reached which benefit all faculty. >> >> Best Wishes, >> -=MW=- >> MSCD.edu > > MW, can you say more about this? > >Shawgi Tell >Niagara County Community College >tell@net.bluemoon.net > > > > Tom Meisenhelder From JWalsh@uic.edu Mon Jul 13 11:03:40 1998 Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:46:43 -0500 (CDT) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:48:09 -0500 To: , From: JWalsh@uic.edu (John Walsh) Subject: Re: Feudalism and itinerant scholars The article does note that there was a meeting of adjuncts from around the city who were talking about organizing. The article doesn't mention that there was a similar meeting in the spring (organized by the CFL) [which suggests that these movements are still quite nascent]. Given the nature of the work (temporary employment, multiple employers, skilled labor force, primarily local/regional labor market), it seems that some sort of craft union/hiring hall may be the best hope for organizing. In Illinois, (according to the article) adjuncts are not covered by the relevant labor relations act, which prevents them from organizing a single employer through an NLRB election [I believe the Columbia College vote is in dispute on these grounds]. However, nothing prevents direct organizing (as in the pre-Wagner days) [more correctly, lots of things prevent it, but it may be the only option available]. The Trib story also mentioned that in Washington State adjuncts had made some progress in organizing. Any word from there? John >After all the recent chats about the new class of itinerant scholars, >aka adjunct, there was a big Article in the local Chicago Tribune >Sunday Magazine. Title'"Will teach for food". Overall quite sympath >etic with folks that teach 8classes a year w/o benefits like health >insurance. Office is car, and some of the folks profiled have been >doing this for a number of years, one guy was 63. Substantively, it >said nothing the folks on this list are not familiar with, indeed many >are experiencing first hand. Like the original feudalism, the society >that is emerging has little need for critical thought. Lauren ------------------------------------------------------------------- John P. Walsh 312-996-4663 (phone) Department of Sociology 312-996-5104 (fax) 1007 W. Harrison St, 4112 BSB JWalsh@uic.edu (email) University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL 60607-7140 From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Mon Jul 13 11:53:50 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 09:07:50 -0400 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: cdfupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 7-10-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update July 10, 1998 In This Issue: -- Child Care Now! Update -- Gun Safety -- Save IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) CHILD CARE NOW! UPDATE -- Keep the Pressure On Congress to Fund Child Care This Year -- The Child Care Now! campaign continues to work towards passing an increase in mandatory funds to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) this year. We must build on the momentum from the Senate vote on the Kerry-Bond child care amendment to reach our goal to include an increase to the CCDBG in the budget bill. Congress is expected to pass the budget bill before they adjourn on October 7th. Help keep the pressure on your Members of Congress to pass funding for child care this year: · Join the Child Care Now! national conference call with Senators Kennedy (MA), Dodd (CT), and Kerry (MA) and Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund for an important update on child care. To join, call 1-800-598-2084 on Thursday, July 16 at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time). · Schedule a meeting with your Members of Congress. Members will be home for the recess during August and the first week of September. Face-to-face meetings are a very effective way to communicate with your Member. Take representatives of other concerned organizations with you. · Send a letter from your coalition/organization on your organization's letterhead. Ask other groups to write letters or to sign on to your letter. Members of Congress pay close attention to the letters they receive from organizations and coalitions. Receiving letters from a broad range of organizations will really make an impression. · Continue to call! Join the National Call-in for Child Care Now! on Wednesday, July 22nd. Members need to receive thousands of calls that day urging them to act on child care this year. Child Care Now! materials, including a sample letter and a flier about the National Call-in day, are available on our Web site at www.childrensdefense.org or call the Child Care Now! hotline at (202) 662-3671. GUN SAFETY -- Clinton Announces New Steps to Promote Gun Safety -- On July 8th, President Clinton announced three new steps that the Administration will take in response to the recent and highly-publicized school shootings. The Administration hopes to continue to promote gun safety and responsibility throughout the country by: · calling on Congress to pass bipartisan Child Access Prevention (CAP) legislation (S. 1917); · requiring federally licensed gun dealers to post signs and issue warnings concerning children's access to guns; and · encouraging states to launch gun tracking initiatives where partnerships between local and federal law enforcement help identify illegal gun traffickers and link guns to multiple crimes. CAP legislation has already been introduced in the Senate by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Chafee (R-RI). This bill would impose criminal penalties on adults who negligently fail to keep firearms out of the reach of children who use the firearm to harm themselves or someone else. The bill aims to encourage gun owners to safely and responsibly store their guns and publicize the dangers of guns in homes with children. Although much more is needed to keep children safe and alive from guns -- 14 children die each day in America -- this is an important step. Contact your Senators and urge them to support the Durbin/Chafee bill to help keep guns out of the hands of our children. SAVE IDEA -- Help Stop Attacks Against IDEA - Contact Congress Today -- [The following e-mail alert is a slightly edited version of the July 3rd "Friday Fax" from the National Parent Network on Disabilities. If you are interested in subscribing to the "Friday Fax" E-mail npnd@cs.com or visit the NPND at www.npnd.org.] We need your help now to have Congress hear from hundreds of parents and professionals supporting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as passed last year. We need to counter the unfounded attacks on and proposed changes to the reauthorized IDEA. We are targeting the two people in Congress who can stop these harmful amendments in the House of Representatives: Appropriations' Chairman Bob Livingston and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Ever since the passage of IDEA last Summer, Congress and Secretary of Education Richard Riley have been under heavy attacks by groups that want to reopen the debates resolved by the new law and weaken the legislation and proposed regulations. These groups either misunderstand or have intentionally misstated the contents of the new IDEA, particularly with regard to the discipline of children with disabilities. *WHAT TO DO* Call Appropriations' Chairman Bob Livingston at(202) 225-3015 or (504) 589-2753 (his home office in Metairie, Louisiana) and House Speaker Newt Gingrich at (202) 225-4501 or (770) 565-6398 (his home office in Marietta, Georgia or you can E-Mail him at georgia6@mail.house.gov) and let them know you do not want any changes to IDEA. Specifically two provisions in the Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee bill, the Riggs prison provision and the Livingston discipline provision, would undermine IDEA (you can read more about these on the NPND Web site www.npnd.org). The Subcommittee bill is scheduled to be taken up by the full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, July 14th. The language in these could easily be used to turn the clocks back 20 years and return our kids on a permanent basis to segregated classrooms or altogether separate schools. *THE MESSAGE* "KEEP YOUR WORD. Do not change IDEA! Give the law a chance to work. NO AMENDMENTS!" Also, contact your own Representative and Senators. The House is in recess until July 13. The Senate returned to session on July 7. -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical email is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an email to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Liz Rochlen Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org From r.kleidman@csu-e.csuohio.edu Mon Jul 13 13:51:06 1998 From: "Rob Kleidman" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 15:49:01 +0000 Subject: invitation to participate in Working Group on collaborative work To the PSN list: Below is an invitation and information about a meeting on academic-activist collaborations, August 20-21 in Davis, CA Currently there are eighteen community organizers and leaders registered, eight funders, and ten academics. We welcome additional participants. Please feel free to contact me for further information. Rob Kleidman Department of Sociology Cleveland State University Cleveland OH 44115 (216)687-9203 Fax: (216)687-9314 e-mail: r.kleidman@popmail.csuohio.edu -------------------------------------------------- Working Group on Organizing, Social Movements, and the Academy August 20-21, 1998 University of California, Davis [the top portion of this message contains an invitation to participate, the bottom portion contains registration information] Dear Colleague: You are invited to participate in a conversation among activists, community leaders and organizers, academics, and funders to examine collaborative relationships that advance the fields of social activism and community organizing. The Working Group on Organizing, Social Movements, and the Academy meets in Davis, California, August 20 - 22, 1998. It is sponsored by Interfaith Funders and the American Sociological Association Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements, and COMM-ORG, the on-line conference on community organizing and development The Working Group will include those who have done collaborative work and those who have not. We will explore the possibilities and challenges in participating in collaborative work, and discuss how to broaden and deepen its practice. (Following this letter is a brief description of collaborative work). We hope to come out of the meeting with some vision of future possibilities and some plans for implementing them. Collaborative relationships between activists, leaders, organizers, academics, and funders creates: -research and writing on policy issues, with the potential to shift public debate on major policy questions -research and writing about activism and community organizing, with the potential to raise public awareness of the extent and importance of organizing and activism -funding opportunities and institutional support for organizing and activism -more community-oriented use of academic resources, including student interns, faculty and staff withresearch, writing, teaching, and technical expertise -institutional relationships between social change organizations, funders, and colleges and universities The meeting of the Working Group starts at noon, Thursday August 20 with lunch, a welcome, and a panel discussion on the possibilities and challenges in collaborative work. Participants will then work in small groups to develop ideas and questions. We will continue working on Friday, then reconvene to identify key ideas and questions. For those able to stay, we will meet Saturday to discuss and perhaps plan future directions for collaborative work. Invited participants include: -activists, community leaders, and organizers from social change organizations including affiliates of the major community organizing networks and independent community organizations -current and potential funders. Participating organizations include: -Interfaith Funders and Neighborhood Funders Group. -academics who do, or wish to do, research with social change organizations, service learning, internships, and other forms of community-oriented teaching The cost of the workshop will be between $200 and $260 for registration, room in one of the U.C. Davis dormitories, and most meals. If you plan to attend, please complete and return the accompanying registration forms. (Note: This Working Group is nested within a larger Workshop on Social Movements and Society - the registration fee of $75 [$100 after June 15] goes to this Workshop, and will allow you to participate in its opening plenary on Wednesday, August 19. Some members of this Working Group plan to attend this plenary; others do not. There is no separate registration fee for the Working Group.) If you wish to register, please see below. We hope you will attend. Sincerely, Rob Kleidman and Randy Stoecker, on behalf of the planning group for the Working Group on Organizing, Social Movements, and the Academy: Jeannie Appleman, Executive Director, Interfaith Funders Rob Kleidman, Associate Professor of Sociology, Cleveland State University Spence Limbocker, Executive Director, Neighborhood Funders Group Randy Stoecker, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Toledo and editor, COMM-ORG, the on-line conference on community organizing and development ####################################################### IMPORTANT: You need to complete 3 registration forms to attend this conference (2 if you do not need housing). You can get all forms from the Working Group web site at: http://uac.rdp.utoledo.edu/comm-org/wgoa If you do not have web access, you can get the forms from the following sources: 1. Working Group registration form (available at bottom of this message). 2. Collective Behavior and Social Movements registration form (available by phoning (530)757-3331, or faxing (530)757-7943. 3. UC-Davis Housing Form (available by phoning (530) 752-8000, faxing (530) 752-8185, or e-mailing confhsg@ucdavis.edu. ####################################################### REGISTRATION FOR WORKING GROUP ON ORGANIZING AND THE ACADEMY Please complete this application form and return to Rob Kleidman at: r.kleidman@csu-e.csuohio.edu A. Your Name ______________________________________ Last First Middle Organization Name__________________________________ Address___________________________________________ City_______________________S t a t e_______ZIP_______ E-mail_______________________________________ Please describe why you are interested in participating in the workshop: What would you like to accomplish at the Working Group? (Note: Please also complete and return to UC Davis the advance registration form for the Collective Behavior and Social Movement workshop, and, if you wish, the University Accommodations form) *************************************************************** WE HAVE SOME FUNDING TO HELP DEFRAY TRAVEL COSTS FOR COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS AND ORGANIZATION LEADERS ONLY. IF YOU WISH TO BE CONSIDERED FOR FUNDING, PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING: *************************DUE JUNE 7**************************** Organization Name______________________________________ Address_______________________________________________ City_______________________State______ZIP______ E-mail___________________________________ Annual Budget______________ Number of staff _____________ In order to achieve gender and race/ethnic diversity among the participants in the Working Group, we ask that you provide the following information--COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS AND ORGANIZATION LEADERS ONLY. Sex (please circle one): Male Female Ethnicity/Race (please circle one or use the self-identification line): Black/African American Asian or Pacific Islander American Indian or Alaskan Native White Hispanic (persons of Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race) self-identified/multiracial_________________________________ From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Mon Jul 13 17:58:30 1998 Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:57:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:57:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin Reply-To: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Joanne Naiman Subject: Re: "classism" In-Reply-To: Hi Joanne, On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Joanne Naiman wrote: > -if white + male = privilege, how do I explain to my students that > almost all of the people I see begging on the streets of Toronto today are > of that persuasion? How do I explain that in Canada for young people the > gap between male & female wages is narrowing mainly because men's wages > are dropping? White people begging on the streets can be explained by understanding racial segregation. At least this is generally true for the United States. Very poor, homeless blacks usually do not hang out in white areas; they hang out in black communities. And poor, homeless whites do not usually hang out in black neighborhoods; they hang out in white neighborhoods. Since there are considerably more white people than blacks, and since academics and college students are more typically going to be in white areas and neighborhoods, then this perception is to be expected. Maybe it is different in Toronto. At my university, we have a strip right next to us. There, mostly white students go to party. The strip is also home to several homeless white men (and a very few women). I actually had this matter come up when I was lecturing on racial inequality in a class. When I lived in Coconut Grove, Miami Florida, I was approached everyday by poor white men. But when I drove to work I had to go through a black section in the city, and there, I only saw poor black men on the streets (and some women). I think it is wrong to suggest that there is a larger proportion of the white population homeless than for the black population. I think that downward pressure on wages because of globalization and the renewed assault on the working class was affecting males disproportionately *on a relative basis*. But not much. Another way of thinking about this is that the living standards and wages for men are falling faster then they are for women but that on average pay is still only little better than 2/3 of what it is for men. And I also seem to recall that the latest numbers show (for the US) that the proportion of men wages for women had fallen from around 72% to 70%. Maybe somebody could help me out there; I may very well be mistaken. > -do not a substantial proportion of whites and/or males *lose out* in > many ways from the persistence of sexism and racism? (I would argue that > the costs -- if we look at the big picture -- far outweigh the benefits.) Given a friendly private communication, I should clarify my position. At the level of the social structure, absolutely racism and sexism perpetuate the system of domination that harms white male workers. However, as a white male, *relative* to the overall position of other social groups, I am privileged. And because of this, if I do not recognize this, and I do not condemn this, I cannot properly struggle against all these forms of social domination. Racism and sexism carry independent forces which especially harm blacks and women even while they put the whole class of workers at a disadvantage. I don't think we can deny that both of these facts are in operation. This is why I find it imperative to stress the relative autonomous and material force of these forms of domination, and not make it seem that they are either only ideological or functionally useful to the capitalist class structure (of course, they are both, but they are more). By way of an example, during the period of slavery in the US South, it is unquestionable that part of the structure that kept the plantations in operation was the racial division of labor. But it is equally true that a poor white farmer was better off than a slave. He at least had this consolation: he was standing *outside* the fence. Or, for another example, consider that the Holocaust defeated the working class movement in Germany; but, at the same time, white German workers held privileges over Jews, even Jewish capitalists, to a horrific degree. These two things are not at odds: a structure which keeps a class subordinate, but which privileges certain individuals within this structure. > -if my above point is not correct, how the hell are we ever going to > erode sexism and racism? As a Marxist, I understand the material basis > for sexism and racism, but also appreciate how ordinary human beings > sustain it. I think that it is, in part, relative privilege that is working to prevent working class unity. We focus on the disadvantages of blacks and women, and we should; but we rarely focus on the privileges on white men, within given levels of class relations. Remember, at any level of educational attainment, within any particular occupation, more than not, whites and males will have privileges over their colleagues. > I have taught Gender Roles for many years. I find the most > successful way to reach my students (both men and women), is to help > students understand how *we all* lose out from structures of gender > inequality at the very same time we help sustain it. I agree. And to do this we must tell white males that their privilege is only a *relative* one, and it is this privilege that is one of the ways that the structure of domination is maintained, a structure that ultimately disadvantages most white males against those who exploit them. Given the system as it is, they are privileged. But it is this privilege that prevents the system from being what it might otherwise be, a possible society where there would be no privileges. > This helps the males in my class feel less threatened, helps them see > that they have a stake in ending gender inequality, and helps both the > men and women students see the subtle ways we sustain inequalities even > as we may rationally feel we are opposing them. I use Peggy McIntosh's "Invisible Knapsack" analogy, where white males wear what might be described as an invisible knapsack of privileges, such as get out of jail free cards, don't get pulled over by the police today cards, go first at the emergency room cards, get waited on at the clothing store cards, and so on. White women enjoy many of these privileges, too. When I hold white males in part accountable for racism and sexism they begin to squirm, and they should. But when they disagree, the women and the minority students begin to speak up; usually they are the least likely to take issue with anything. It is women and minorities that see white men going ahead of them. Privilege is not in the realm of the white man's consciousness. He must be shown that the condition of minorities and women that he hears so much about is at the same time his privilege. Making people conscious and suggest they act responsibly does not have to be an alienating project. > BTW, while I acknowledged your point on Eagleton's false analogy, I > continue to support his and Rosenthal's position that "classism" is not a > useful concept, and leads us down dangerous alleys. What does it add to > our understanding of class that we didn't have before the word came into > vogue? Here is what my understanding adds to our understanding of class: that I am not classist when I condemn the capitalist class. Classism permits the bourgeois ideologue - and I hear this line all the time - to say that those members of the working class who speak out against capitalism are "envious" of "success," and are therefore "classist." This is the same argument that many white racists use to characterize black challenges to white supremacy as racist. Thus the Black Panthers are "racists" coming to Jasper, Texas to "stir up trouble," and they must be met by the equivalent racist force in American society: the Klan. The white sheriff of Jasper can come out and say, "We don't need none of them here stirrin' up trouble." And then the media dutifully reports how all the white citizens of Jasper are so upset by this black man dragged to pieces because there is not a racist bone in their bodies. My point is that just as blacks are not racist when they challenge white privilege, workers cannot be classist when they challenge capitalist privilege. It is a false argument in both cases. And it is as detrimental to the working class to say they are classist against capitalist as it is for blacks to say they are racist against whites. The privileges of whiteness come at the expense of blackness. Likewise, the privileges of capital come at the expense of workers. I think that maybe my point has been misconstrued to say that because workers cannot be classist that they cannot oppose the capitalist class. But my point is the opposite. Because they oppose the capitalist class, they are *anti-classist*. Thanks for the continuing dialogue. Peace, Andy From tell@net.bluemoon.net Mon Jul 13 19:30:09 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 21:29:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Shawgi Tell To: Thomas Meisenhelder Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19980713201346.006d3df0@wiley.csusb.edu> Greetings, On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Thomas Meisenhelder wrote: > I'll put in a little more info-- here in the CSU system we are unionized in > a NEA/AAUP/SEIU organization that represents both full and part time > faculty. It works well and benefits both but it is quite a struggle 1) to > organize the PTers who of course have little time or sense of belonging and > 2) to prevent tenure track faculty from separating themselves from PTers > because they fail to see their interests in common. Our contracts do provide > limited benefits and minimal jog security for lecturers but we are fighting > to get more. The so-called flexibility that Pt faculty provide > administrators is something the system fights very hard to keep. > > Tom > Thanks for the feedback Tom. I've been teaching P/T for a while now and I'm one of those people who the "The Invisible faculty" describes as an "aspiring academic." I'm one of those people who works P/T and wants and needs a full-time, meaningful, decent-paying job. Many, perhaps most, part-timers receive very low pay, no benefits, no health insurance, no pension, no sabbatical, no vacation pay and no institutional support. Also, they often don't get to participate in faculty meetings. I don't even have a faculty parking permit. And all this is happening to thousands in the wealhtiest nation on earth. Trying to claim unemployment insurance benefits is always tedious and can easily involve activities and pursuits that take one beyond simply filling out a claim form. This time around I spent a total of 4.5 hours in the unemployment line, and I don't know if I even qualified for benefits yet. If I do qualify, I will not receive much. It is important to place what is happening in academe and other sectors of the economy in its proper context: the world-wide anti-soical offensive, whereby massive amounts of money are being withdrawn from education, health care and other vital social programs and handed over to the rich in the name of increasing the "comptetiveness" of the monopolies in the "global market." That is, the anti-social offensive puts the claims of the rich in first place. The logic behind the anti-social offensive is that there is no such thing as society, let alone modern society, and everyone must, therefore, fend for him/herself like an animal. People have no rights, only "opportunities." People, this logic continues, have no claims on society even though they are born to society and live through social relations. The monopoly capitalists want everyone to believe that the self-serving pursuit of maximum profits is the end-all and be-all of life, that pursuing maximum profits is in the objective interests of all. The only way that the legitimate, justified and valid claims of all humans can be satified is by people themselves taking up the question of the democratic renewal of the political process, the question of political empowerment. It is the present illegitimate political set-up of the rich which is sidelining people and blocking the expression of their will and interests. This is the reason why it is important for discussion on creating a new electoral system, one which favors the people, be developed on a collective organized basis. People should discuss creating those mechanisms which will enable them to exercise their inviolable rights. So long as the vast majority of people remain marginalized and do not see themselves as the alternative to the present anti-human system, then their basic rights (e.g., the right to work, the right to a livelihood) will remain suppressed. People must be in a position of power to fully affirm their rights, and to be in a position of power people must collectively struggle for their interests and values. If you or others have any more specifc information on efforts which raise the consciousness and improve the organization and unity of part-timers (and full-timers), please share this with us. Shawgi Tell Niagara County Community College tell@net..bluemoon.net From bpankin@providence.edu Mon Jul 13 21:16:06 1998 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 23:18:18 +0100 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: bpankin@providence.edu (Bob Pankin) Subject: Part-time faculty Please be warry of the book "Invisable Faculty." It is written by Gappa and Leslie, two university managers whose continuing argument is that managment is not at all responsible for conditions of exploitation of part-time faculty. They argue that full-time faculty with tenure get the major benifit and part-time faculty support full-time status and privilage. The major concern of all of their writing is how part-time faculty can be managed fairly!!! The argumnet is classic divide and destroy the power of the labor force. The fight on campus today is about control. Will it be the traditional collegium or will the power swing completely to academic managers on behalf of multi-national corporations? Bob From spectors@netnitco.net Mon Jul 13 23:37:51 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: "White skin privilege" or "less oppressed?"-- what's in a phrase? Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:25:47 -0700 boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0020_01BDAEBD.F29A6AA0" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0020_01BDAEBD.F29A6AA0 charset="iso-8859-1" Andy Austin correctly points out that: "At the level of the social structure, absolutely racism and sexism = perpetuate the system of domination that harms white male workers." But then he says: "However, as a white male, *relative* to the overall position of other = social groups, I am privileged. And because of this, if I do not = recognize this, and I do not condemn this, I cannot properly struggle = against all these forms of social domination. Racism and sexism carry = independent forces which especially harm blacks and women even while = they put the whole class of workers at a disadvantage." What is "relative privilege" for white working class people? The = privilege of dying at 77 years of age, instead of 72? Andy Austin, = like Steve Rosenthal and Joanne Naiman and others are trying to avoid = the one-sided reductionism of those who would deny that there is extra = exploitation/oppression experienced by certain politically defined = "racial-ethnic" groups (a position which asks members of those groups to = stop fighting for an end to their special oppression), and the one sided = reductionism (a psychological reductionism) that sees working class = "whites" as being guilty of causing racist oppression because of some = psychological need to dominate members of other "racial-ethnic" groups. = Andy's analysis avoids the extreme versions of psychological = reductionism that lead into the trap of "Identity Politics", but it = still detaches racist oppression from its roots in the profit system. = True, Andy says that the racism of "whites" does not come from = psychological forces, but rather from the supposed material benefits = that "whites" get by getting the larger crumbs that fall off the rich = capitalists' table. But in the end, language like "privilege" and = "independent forces" still reinforce the psychological reductionist = position. After all, professionals make more money than aerospace = workers, who make more money than auto workers, who make more money than = garment workers who make more money than farm workers who make more = money than the unemployed who are better off than the homeless who are = better off than homeless drug addicts. Is "privilege" , or even = "relative privilege" a useful term to describe each of those groups' = relationship to groups with fewer resources? Why don't we imply that = each of those groups bears some blame, or benefits somehow from the = groups under them? We don't, because we understand that all those = workers are basically exploited, and oppressed, --some more than = others, of course. Why, then, say that white workers "benefit" from = and support the oppression of black workers unless there is some built = in assumption that white workers are inherently more open to supporting = the oppression of racial minorities, rather than other groups of white = workers. In fact, there is NO inherent racism -- many "white" working = class people in Yugoslavia managed to participate in the worst kinds of = genocide against other "whites" who were physically indistinguishable. = The racism there was manipulated from above (although it was adopted by = many workers), just as the racism against "black" people is manipulated = from above (although again adopted by some workers also.) None of this is meant to trivialize the massive oppression which = black people have experienced in the United States. Andy's comment that: = racism does "especially harm blacks and women even while they put the = whole class of workers at a disadvantage" is true, but it is not = "independent" of the profit system that gives rise to the segmented (in = many ways) labor market which gives rise to racist exploitation and = racist ideology. The analytical choice should not be between "denying = the extra oppression" that certain politically defined minority groups = suffer and saying that such oppression is "independent." Leaves are very = different from roots --- they can't be simply classified as being the = same as roots; but the leaves are not independent of the roots. Andy = tries to avoid the "Identity Reductionist" position, but in the end, he = still concedes too much to that position. What does it mean to = "condemn" one's own "privilege?" The issue is not "condemning" one's = own privilege; the job is to destroy the massively oppressive abuse that = "minorities" experience and to defeat the ideas that justify that = oppression. "Condemning" one's own privilege can too easily lead into = the kind of nonsense that Clinton mouthed when he talked about = "apologizing" for slavery while he destroyed the lives of thousands of = black people by eliminated social welfare programs. I know that Andy is = well aware of the hypocrisy of "liberal racism" and that he opposes it, = but I think that his position still leaves the door open, even if just a = crack, to that position. (It may seem like quibbling over minor = semantics, but it is in these types of debates that our understanding = gets clarified.)=20 Is Oprah Winfrey (and her several hundred million dollars) more = victimized than a $25,000/year "white" worker? The "white skin = privilege" argument leaves the door open to that assertion.=20 The term "classism" implies that either class is wrong to = discriminate against the other, although advocates of the word often say = that they only mean it to mean discrimination against the working class. = Actually, it could be argued that "racism" is not very accurate either = (nor is "White Supremacy", for reasons discussed above), because that = also implies that it could be an equal two-way process, when in fact, it = has been overwhelmingly directed against certain groups. The "Let's not = talk about racist oppression" Clintonites/W.J.Wilsonites and the = conservative anti-affirmative action types do use the word "racism" in = that way. However, I'm not arguing for dropping use of the word = "racism". I do tend to speak in terms of "capitalism-racism" or = "racism-capitalism" because neither could exist without the other. ---- = On paper, in theory perhaps, but not in any significant way on Earth. = Not any more. They feed and reinforce each other too much and in that = sense they are essentially intertwined. This is not "reducing" racial = oppression to a narrow interpretation of economic deprivation -- rather, = it views "class" as a dynamic relationship, and it is in understanding = class in that way that we can avoid narrow economic reductionism and = narrow psychological reductionism that dismisses class relationships. Alan Spector Incidentally, there is a session at the ASA on the usefulness or not of = the concept of "White Skin Privilege" and another one on "Race, Class, = and Gender" -- check the ASA program, come and bring your ideas. ------=_NextPart_000_0020_01BDAEBD.F29A6AA0 charset="iso-8859-1"

    Andy Austin correctly points out that:
 
"At = the level of the=20 social structure, absolutely racism and sexism perpetuate  the = system of=20 domination that harms white male = workers."
 
    But then he says:
 
 "However, as a  white male, *relative* = to the=20 overall position of other social groups, I am privileged. And because of = this,=20 if I do not recognize this, and I do not condemn this, I cannot properly = struggle against all these forms of social domination. Racism and sexism = carry=20 independent forces which especially harm blacks and women even while = they put=20 the whole class of workers at a disadvantage."
 
 
    What is "relative privilege" for white = working=20 class people? The privilege of dying at  77 years of age, instead = of=20 72?  Andy Austin,  like Steve Rosenthal and Joanne Naiman and = others=20 are trying to avoid the one-sided reductionism of those who would deny = that=20 there is extra exploitation/oppression experienced by certain = politically=20 defined "racial-ethnic" groups (a position which asks members = of those=20 groups to stop fighting for an end to their special oppression), and the = one=20 sided reductionism (a psychological reductionism) that sees = working=20 class "whites" as being guilty of causing racist oppression = because of=20 some psychological need to dominate members of other = "racial-ethnic"=20 groups. 
 
    Andy's analysis avoids the extreme versions of=20 psychological reductionism that lead into the trap of "Identity=20 Politics", but it still detaches racist oppression from its roots = in the=20 profit system. True, Andy says that the racism of  =20 "whites"   does not come from psychological forces, = but=20 rather from the supposed material benefits that "whites" get = by=20 getting the larger crumbs that fall off the rich capitalists' = table.  But=20 in the end, language like "privilege" and=20 "independent forces" still reinforce the = psychological=20 reductionist position. After all, professionals make more money than = aerospace=20 workers, who make more money than auto workers, who make more money than = garment=20 workers who make more money than farm workers who make more money than = the=20 unemployed who are better off than the homeless who are better off than = homeless=20 drug addicts.  Is  "privilege" , or even = "relative=20 privilege" a useful term to describe each of those groups' =20 relationship to groups with fewer resources?  Why don't we imply = that each=20 of those groups bears some blame, or benefits somehow from the groups = under=20 them? We don't, because we understand that all those workers are = basically=20 exploited,  and oppressed, --some more than others,  of = course. =20 Why, then, say that white workers "benefit" from and support = the=20 oppression of black workers unless there is some built in assumption = that white=20 workers are  inherently more open to supporting the oppression of = racial=20 minorities, rather than other groups of white workers. In fact, there is = NO=20 inherent racism --   many "white" working class = people in=20 Yugoslavia managed to participate in the worst kinds of genocide against = other=20 "whites" who were physically indistinguishable.  The = racism there=20 was manipulated from above (although it was adopted by many workers), = just as=20 the racism against "black" people is manipulated from above = (although=20 again adopted by some workers also.)
 
    None of this is meant to trivialize the massive=20 oppression which black people have experienced in the United States. = Andy's=20 comment that: racism does  "especially harm blacks = and=20 women even while they put the whole class of workers at a=20 disadvantage"  is true, but it is not=20 "independent" of the profit system that gives rise to the = segmented=20 (in many ways) labor market which gives rise to racist exploitation and = racist=20 ideology. The analytical choice should not be between "denying the = extra=20 oppression" that certain politically defined minority groups suffer = and=20 saying that such oppression is "independent." Leaves are very=20 different from  roots --- they can't be simply classified as being = the same=20 as roots; but the leaves are not independent of the roots.  Andy = tries to=20 avoid the "Identity Reductionist" position, but in the end, he = still=20 concedes too much to that position.  What does it mean to=20 "condemn" one's own "privilege?"  The issue is = not=20 "condemning" one's own privilege; the job is to destroy the = massively=20 oppressive abuse that "minorities" experience and to defeat = the ideas=20 that justify that oppression. "Condemning" one's own privilege = can too=20 easily lead into the kind of nonsense that Clinton mouthed when he = talked about=20 "apologizing" for slavery while he destroyed the lives of = thousands of=20 black people by eliminated social welfare programs.  I know that = Andy is=20 well aware of the hypocrisy of "liberal racism" and that he = opposes=20 it, but I think that his position still leaves the door open, even if = just a=20 crack, to that position. (It may seem like quibbling over minor = semantics, but=20 it is in these types of debates that our understanding gets clarified.) =
 
 
    Is Oprah Winfrey (and her several hundred = million=20 dollars) more victimized than a $25,000/year  "white" = worker? The=20 "white skin privilege" argument  leaves the door open to = that=20 assertion.
 
    The term "classism" implies that = either class=20 is wrong to discriminate against the other, although advocates of the = word often=20 say that they only mean it to mean discrimination against the working = class.=20 Actually, it could be argued that "racism" is not very = accurate either=20 (nor is "White Supremacy", for reasons discussed above), = because that=20 also implies that it could be an equal two-way process, when in fact, it = has=20 been overwhelmingly directed against certain groups. The  = "Let's not=20 talk about racist oppression"  Clintonites/W.J.Wilsonites and = the=20 conservative anti-affirmative action types do use the word = "racism" in=20 that way.  However, I'm not arguing for dropping use of the word=20 "racism".      I do tend to speak = in =20 terms of "capitalism-racism" or "racism-capitalism" = because=20 neither could exist without the other. ---- On paper, in theory perhaps, = but not=20 in any significant way on Earth. Not any more. They feed and reinforce = each=20 other too much and in that sense they are essentially intertwined.  = This is=20 not "reducing" racial oppression to a narrow interpretation of = economic deprivation -- rather, it views "class" as a dynamic=20 relationship, and it is in understanding class in that way that we can = avoid=20 narrow economic reductionism and narrow psychological reductionism that=20 dismisses class relationships.
 
 
Alan Spector 
 
Incidentally, there is a session at the ASA on the usefulness or = not of the=20 concept of "White Skin Privilege" and another one on = "Race,=20 Class, and Gender" -- check the ASA program, come and bring your=20 ideas.
 
 
 
------=_NextPart_000_0020_01BDAEBD.F29A6AA0-- From dicwc@omen.net.au Tue Jul 14 00:29:49 1998 From: "Deaths In Custody Watch Commitee (WA) Inc." To: "DICWC Members" , "DICWC Interest" Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 14:17:23 +0800 X-Distribution: Moderate Subject: Politics, Police and Public Office Reply-to: dicwc@omen.net.au "Oz Media" , "Pollies - Democrats" , "Pollies - Labor" , "Pollies - LibNats" , "Pollies - Other" , "Prison Watchers" Please broadcast.... =================================================== media release DEATHS IN CUSTODY WATCH COMMITTEE (WA) Inc. E-mail: dicwc@omen.net.au URL: http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc ==================================================== Politics, Police and Public Office Tuesday, 14 July 1998 "That a senior police officer has taken a public leadership position in a political organisation is of grave concern to us" said Glenn Shaw, Chair of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee. "Police officers' are appointed to a position of privilege within our society, and therefore have responsibilities both written and unwritten. These responsibilities flow to and from, government, the judiciary, and most importantly - the people of Western Australia." As reported in the West Australian Newspaper today, Sen. Sgt. Ted Vermeer is the President of the WA branch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation organisation. "That Sen. Sgt. Vermeer is associated with One Nation, whilst police internal affairs are investigating some financial aspects of Pauline Hanson's political machinery, is of passing interest to concerned citizens. What is far more relevant in this case, is the fact that a senior police officer is in a position of leadership in a political organisation." "This is an ethical conflict of interest that deserves, not only comment by the Police Commissioner, but action by him" said Mr. Shaw. "We question the appropriateness of any police officer being in a position of political leadership, when his or her political bedmates have called for specific action relating to law and order, judicial action, and custodial sentencing." "Clearly, the role of a police officer is to enforce the law as enacted by the Parliament, and not to engage, overtly or covertly, in the public debate that seeks to change it - outside of the ballot box." "The Watch Committee calls on the Government, and its various bodies authorised to monitor public officers, to take action to protect the integrity of the WA Police Service. This action is necessary to prevent further politicising of an agency of significant public trust." concluded Mr. Shaw. Media Contact: Glenn Shaw - 08 9265-6960 --+ "To monitor and work to ensure the effective implementation of +-- --+ the recommendations of the Royal Commission Into +-- --+ Aboriginal Deaths In Custody" +-- From sam.friedman@ndri.org Tue Jul 14 08:36:40 1998 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 10:35:50 -0400 From: "Sam Friedman" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, tell@net.bluemoon.net Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat Interestingly, there is another side to this whole debate--that of the people who have been excreted from academia and who get jobs in research institutes. (Some of us also work as "adjuncts" for part-time underpay at universities and colleges; which makes it even harder to build unity among part-timers at some schools.) Actually, what happens is that we lose most contact with students (I am on an occasional PhD committee at one or another university, usually when a student does a dissertation from data in one of my projects), and lose a lot of freedom of speech, and almost all contact with campus-based politics. On the other hamd, some of us are involved in politics related to our research (for example, I have been helping drug injectors around the world to organize around HIV/AIDS and around other issues in their lives.) Of course, our employment depends on finding research funders, which can be an incredible limitation on intellectual freedom but is not as crippling as some think. Most fields, other than sociology, treat such researchers as part of the field; sociologists tend to treat us as second class citizens (unless we work for funding agencies). The implication of this, interestingly, is that we again see how divide-and-rule weakens our ability to fight back. It is particularly interesting that this is so marked in sociology (and perhaps anthro and history -- other very "dangerous" disciplines to capitalism) >>> Shawgi Tell - 7/13/98 9:29 PM >>> Greetings, On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, Thomas Meisenhelder wrote: > I'll put in a little more info-- here in the CSU system we are unionized in > a NEA/AAUP/SEIU organization that represents both full and part time > faculty. It works well and benefits both but it is quite a struggle 1) to > organize the PTers who of course have little time or sense of belonging and > 2) to prevent tenure track faculty from separating themselves from PTers > because they fail to see their interests in common. Our contracts do provide > limited benefits and minimal jog security for lecturers but we are fighting > to get more. The so-called flexibility that Pt faculty provide > administrators is something the system fights very hard to keep. > > Tom > Thanks for the feedback Tom. I've been teaching P/T for a while now and I'm one of those people who the "The Invisible faculty" describes as an "aspiring academic." I'm one of those people who works P/T and wants and needs a full-time, meaningful, decent-paying job. Many, perhaps most, part-timers receive very low pay, no benefits, no health insurance, no pension, no sabbatical, no vacation pay and no institutional support. Also, they often don't get to participate in faculty meetings. I don't even have a faculty parking permit. And all this is happening to thousands in the wealhtiest nation on earth. Trying to claim unemployment insurance benefits is always tedious and can easily involve activities and pursuits that take one beyond simply filling out a claim form. This time around I spent a total of 4.5 hours in the unemployment line, and I don't know if I even qualified for benefits yet. If I do qualify, I will not receive much. It is important to place what is happening in academe and other sectors of the economy in its proper context: the world-wide anti-soical offensive, whereby massive amounts of money are being withdrawn from education, health care and other vital social programs and handed over to the rich in the name of increasing the "comptetiveness" of the monopolies in the "global market." That is, the anti-social offensive puts the claims of the rich in first place. The logic behind the anti-social offensive is that there is no such thing as society, let alone modern society, and everyone must, therefore, fend for him/herself like an animal. People have no rights, only "opportunities." People, this logic continues, have no claims on society even though they are born to society and live through social relations. The monopoly capitalists want everyone to believe that the self-serving pursuit of maximum profits is the end-all and be-all of life, that pursuing maximum profits is in the objective interests of all. The only way that the legitimate, justified and valid claims of all humans can be satified is by people themselves taking up the question of the democratic renewal of the political process, the question of political empowerment. It is the present illegitimate political set-up of the rich which is sidelining people and blocking the expression of their will and interests. This is the reason why it is important for discussion on creating a new electoral system, one which favors the people, be developed on a collective organized basis. People should discuss creating those mechanisms which will enable them to exercise their inviolable rights. So long as the vast majority of people remain marginalized and do not see themselves as the alternative to the present anti-human system, then their basic rights (e.g., the right to work, the right to a livelihood) will remain suppressed. People must be in a position of power to fully affirm their rights, and to be in a position of power people must collectively struggle for their interests and values. If you or others have any more specifc information on efforts which raise the consciousness and improve the organization and unity of part-timers (and full-timers), please share this with us. Shawgi Tell Niagara County Community College tell@net..bluemoon.net From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Tue Jul 14 09:37:09 1998 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:40:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: adjunct/pt.time faculty The recent discussion on the PSN re adjunt/pt. time faculty is most interesting, but, particularly for us "foreigners" outside the US, the debate would be enhanced if we knew where you were physically located. Could folks please identify the school they are currently affiliated with (if there aren't 5 of them!), or minimally their state, province or country? Thanks! __________________________________ Joanne Naiman Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5B 2K3 Tel: (416) 979 5000, ext. 7047 Fax: (416) 979 5273 E-Mail: jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca From RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Tue Jul 14 10:49:35 1998 From: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 09:48:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Classism, Racism Definitions To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Andy Victor's response: (I apologize for snipping here and there but I do it for brevitsake y and hope I don't distort intended meanings) I find myself usually agreeing with Steve R. but this time I think he is articulating an individualistic perspective on racism, when racism is a systemic phenomena. It may be that language fails us (we don't have a language to speak about systemic phenomena, only statistics) however, the implications are quite important. I just want to make two basic points: One on the definition of racism and another on the role of persons of color in systemic racism. 1. I agree with Andy that race has a material basis, it is not quite simply epiphenomenal as, aparently, Steve implies in his statement: " racism is > not a class relationship of exploitation. Racism is used to > intensify, cover up, distort, and justify the class relationship of > exploitation.>>> In fact, if you read Oliver/Shapiro's Black Wealth/White Wealth you can quantify the material basis of race in the USA. However I think what is missing is a systemic definition of racism which while it is implicit in the conversation it has not been articulated. My stab: ---Racism is a system where the workings of a society's basic social institutions create, reinforce and reproduce racial inequality for a subordinate racial group and access and privilege for a dominant racial group. This racial inequality leads to a differential system of socio-economic and cultural rewards like status and prestige. Using Black philosopher' Charles Mills term, it is a "racial contract" (more acccurate than the social contract) where most white persons while not signatories to the contract still benefit from it. This allows many whites to feel precluded from feeling that they are beneficiaries since the patterns are so woven into the normal workings of our basic institutions. His definition: ""..a set of informal and formal agreements...between the members of one subset of humans....to categorize the remaining subset of humans "non-white" and of a different and inferior moral status...the general purpose...is the differential privileging of whites with respect to non-whites as a group...All whites are beneficiaries of the contract, though some whites are not signatories to it. (Mills, 1987: 11) Awareness does not preclude a white person from benefittng from his/her psosition. This is also true, I believe, for sexism and classism. I think the basic notiopn about these three phenomena is that they are relationships and are fluid, dynamic. The difference between a KKK person and any other white anti-racist is that both white and, according to this definition, beneficiaries of the system of white supremacy. The basic difference is that an anti-racist is in tension with the system while the other acts in concert. One hold a moral position the other an immoral position. This does not preclude the notion that there are gradations in access and privilege just like in our classist sytem. A poor white person may not have "access" but has privilege (look at the support of society's basic institutions, like the media, in the cases of Susan Smith and Stuart, the man who killed his pregnant wife in Boston and accussed a Black man?). 2. However I disagree with Andy in his point about the role of persons of color. Using Steve's example of Blacks who voted for Proposition 227. It is tru that voted for white supremacy but that does not make them racist in the same way it does not make them white. As Roediger and other have clearly pointed out claiming "whiteness" (as many Latinos do vis a vis foreign-born) is a way of claiming a dominant position on the backs of the subordinate. In other words, usually those at the lower strata try to climb up in status by pushing those below even further. Are scabs capitalist because they betray theit class members? While still problematic I use Louise Derman-Spaks and Carol Brunson-Phillip's (Teachin/Learning Anti- racism, Teachers Press, 1997) concept of pro-racist when referring to behavior. Persons of color can be pro-racist in the same way that women by reinforcing male supremacy can be pro-sexists, or pro-slavery in times of slavery. As to racial prejudice, I think you can't be an American today and not be racially prejudiced (to act upon them is another matter) Dr. Victor M. Rodriguez Professor, Sociology Dept. Concordia University 1530 Concordia West Irvine, CA 92612 Email: rodriguez@cui.edu Home Page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/VictorMRodriguez From ba05105@binghamton.edu Tue Jul 14 12:15:38 1998 From: ba05105@binghamton.edu Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 14:15:21 -0400 (EDT) To: "V. Scatamburlo" Subject: Re: Left Conservatism??? In-Reply-To: Although I'm not in a position right now to give as much information as I'd like, the 'Left Conservatism' conference is an excellent example of the way the WWweb has become a new forum for debate. Do a search under Left Conservatism, and your sure to find the shocking announcement for the conference, which denounced Katha Pollit, Barbara Enrenreich and others as 'Left conservatives', the contents of the conference (some of which were not nearly dogmatic or insipid as the announcement) and plenty of responses, including a summary of the debate carried out on the 'Bad Subjects' (a kind of Althusserian cultural studies on-line journal) bulletin board. Steve Sherman Binghamton From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Tue Jul 14 13:33:58 1998 Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:32:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:32:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin Reply-To: Andrew Wayne Austin To: spectors Subject: Re: "White skin privilege" or "less oppressed?"-- what's in a phrase? In-Reply-To: <01bdaef8$9ef942a0$LocalHost@default> Alan, Hi. I appreciate the criticism, although I don't believe it is accurate. This post will not make it to list (at least not any time soon) because I evidently have a limit that I have surpassed. This post is lengthy, but I want to make my point understood. One cannot fully understand how a system of exploitation can remain in place without understanding the system of privileges that binds, in one fashion or another, one or more oppressed groups over to their exploiter. White males are loyal to the system for a reason: they are relatively privileged. This privilege is not only psychological, but material. I believe that to say otherwise is to, in effect, to some degree, deny that blacks and women suffer greater levels of oppression than whites, and that this level of oppression comes, to some extent, in the form of benefit to other subordinate groups. These circumstances are beneficial to the accumulators. Driving a wedge between workers along racial lines, for example, pulls down the overall wage structure. But it also permits blacks to be superexploited, whereas whites, to a much greater degree than blacks, enjoy a comfortable standard of living. I think we need to focus on structural effects here, not on individual exceptions. I disagree with you that using the word privilege carries the meaning you ascribe to it. You write that "language like 'privilege' and 'independent forces' still reinforce the psychological reductionist position." I honestly cannot see this, at least not in the argument you have presented. Class bestows privileges, and it to some degree carries a force independent of any other mode of domination. And the same is true for racism and sexism. All forms of domination are relatively autonomous from one another, at the same time they interpenetrate and reinforce one another. We must struggle against all them, at the same time recognizing that each of them cannot be reduced to the other. I believe your argument is class reductionist. Your point about the different occupational levels of workers and relative privilege cuts across race and gender. My point is that a white worker at a given occupational level, on average, will be privileged over a black worker given the same occupational level. There is privilege at the racial and gendered axes. When you ask, "[i]s 'privilege', or even 'relative privilege' a useful term to describe each of those groups' relationship to groups with fewer resources?" The answer must be yes, since a person bestowed advantages over another person because of their racial or gendered identity is relatively privileged within the structure of class. In reference to the different occupational levels you write: "Why don't we imply that each of those groups bears some blame, or benefits somehow from the groups under them? We don't, because we understand that all those workers are basically exploited, and oppressed, --some more than others, of course." I am not sure that saying somebody is privileged racially is saying they are to blame for white supremacy. People are born into racial structures, and the privileges they enjoy are given to them whether they like it or not. I don't psychologically enjoy it when, after accompanying a friend to a video rental place, and watching a black man having trouble being waited on, a white worker accompanies us to the car with the equipment complaining about "that damn nigger." But my friend was waited on first, and he was helped with his equipment to the car: this is privilege (my friend is white). I can assure the same treatment was not extended to the black man. And, yes, I complained bitterly to management (my response to the worker was, rhetorically, "What is it about me that makes you think you can say that to me without condemnation?"). Whites who get pizzas faster because black neighborhoods are red-lined ("high crime areas"; blacks must come pick theirs up) are privileged clear of just about any other social structure I can think of. (One might suppose that this has to do with the class standing of the neighborhood wherein each racial group is located, but this is not so: the lines are drawn around black middle class black neighborhoods, as well; whereas pizzas are delivered to poor white neighborhoods). And though this may seem to be a trivial example (it isn't trivial to the black people who cannot get a pizza delivered to their house), there are tens of thousands of "trivial" examples of such racial privileges that we could enumerate given enough time and sensitivity. Now as for blame, I think that one may reasonably wonder to what extent are white workers who are privileged because of racism, *once made aware of their privilege*, and who continue to support racist politics and policies, to be considered innocent. How can we not hold the white male worker who opposes affirmative action because he believes it will dent his privileges, *even though his own daughter will suffer if affirmative action is ended*, in some way responsible? This is not to say that most of the blame is to be placed on the system. It is. But if we don't start holding people accountable for their willing participation in the system, then how shall we motivate people to give up the privileges of whiteness and maleness so that the working class can be unified? A person who refuses to struggle against racism when s/he knows that racism is real is supporting racism. You say this: "Why, then, say that white workers "benefit" from and support the oppression of black workers unless there is some built in assumption that white workers are inherently more open to supporting the oppression of racial minorities, rather than other groups of white workers." This leaves the impression that there is some essentialist assumption in my argument. There is no such assumption in my argument. No assumption need be present at all. White workers are more likely to support oppression of minorities, not because of their genes, but because they have been socialized in a racist society. This socialization is deep, much of unconsciousness. We are behaviorally habituated to be racist. When a white person walks into a convenient store, they don't feel increased trepidation when there are a group of blacks at the counter, or reflexively lock their car doors when black youths walk past, because they are genetically predisposed to react in this way. They are conditioned to have this reaction. White people have to work through their racism, the gut-level emotions and behavioral responses imposed upon them by a racist society; they have to expose it, own up to it, and purge it. Despite all of its ugliness, one can blame whites for these sorts of racist reactions even less than one can blame whites for enjoying their privileges. This is the pathetic side of racial indoctrination. We are all bound up in these wretched structures together; we on the left, those of us who are dedicated anti-racist, not even we can hold ourselves aloof from racial structuring. Continuing with the essentialist tack, you note that "many 'white' working class people in Yugoslavia managed to participate in the worst kinds of genocide against other 'whites' who were physically indistinguishable." Yes. And German workers murdered Jews. And in Rwanda, Hutu raider murdered people of the Tutsi minority. And in these cases, much of the structure that guided the killings stood relatively autonomous to social class. As to your assertion that "[t]he racism there was manipulated from above (although it was adopted by many workers), just as the racism against 'black' people is manipulated from above (although again adopted by some workers also)," I can only agree. But the operative word here is "manipulate"; and so we must emphasize the source that is manipulated. White supremacy is deeply embedded in US culture; it is the product of hundreds of years of white capitalist rule. I would be the first to argue (as an expression of speech, for I am not the first to argue this) that the resurgence, or more accurately the reconstruction of racism, in recent years, represents only in part the organic expression of popular resentments in the working class; rather, in the main, New Right racism represents the cornerstone in a political strategy originating in the capitalist class and racist elites. "None of this is meant to trivialize the massive oppression which black people have experienced in the United States. Andy's comment that: racism does 'especially harm blacks and women even while they put the whole class of workers at a disadvantage' is true, but it is not 'independent' of the profit system that gives rise to the segmented (in many ways) labor market which gives rise to racist exploitation and racist ideology." I never the said racism was independent from the structure of economic exploitation. In fact, I stressed explicitly that it is only relatively autonomous, and further that this relative autonomy is an organic phenomenon that emerges from material relations. What I said was that some of the effects of racism are independent in the sense that they are extra-class effects. We cannot reduce racism to social class *even* if we agree that it has its ultimate origins in social class. Social structures, once founded, can develop their own tendencies. This has important ramifications for practice, since it cannot be counted on that the elimination of social class will automatically end sexism and racism. But I must say, that I make a stronger case for racism to be understood in relation to class than just about anybody else I am familiar with. Many have supposed, and many Marxists have advanced this position, that racism is functional to capitalism in the sense that theoretically capitalism may use some other structure to divide the working class against themselves. Well, racism represents much more than this, but, in any case, *in reality* racism is an integral part of capitalist development, and I could go as far as Melvin Leiman and argue that racism cannot be abolished until capitalism is abolished. And in your post you have made a statement quite similar to this, even using the term "racism-capitalism" or "capitalism-racism" (although I am not sure about joining these terms in this fashion). What I *don't* do is reduce racism to class. Since the rest of this paragraph proceeds on the false premise that I have claimed racism is independent of class, I am not addressing it. I can only say that the conclusion that you draw - that I have left a crack in the door for identity essentialism - is mistaken. You ask: "Is Oprah Winfrey (and her several hundred million dollars) more victimized than a $25,000/year 'white' worker? The 'white skin privilege' argument leaves the door open to that assertion." To which I can only say: 'No, of course not.' But Oprah Winfrey is not synonymous with the black community. In fact, she is an extreme *exception* to the conditions black people face generally. The only relevance this example has here is an illustration of how class can transcend race. But I have already argued this. Just as race works to some degree independently of class, so does class work to some degree independently of race. Finally, you claim that you are "not 'reducing' racial oppression to a narrow interpretation of economic deprivation -- rather, [you view] 'class' as a dynamic relationship, and it is in understanding class in that way that we can avoid narrow economic reductionism and narrow psychological reductionism that dismisses class relationships." Here is the rub: This is a cloaked form of class reductionism. You say that you are not reducing race to class, but rather reinterpreting class in a more elaborate way to encompass race. What you are actually doing is *subsuming* race under class, which is just another way of producing a class-reductionist argument. Thanks again for the re-post. I hope all is well with you, Alan. Peace, Andy From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Tue Jul 14 13:54:19 1998 Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:54:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:54:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: RODRIGUEZ@cui.edu Subject: Re: Classism, Racism Definitions In-Reply-To: <01IZDX66L6RM8X3H9Y@cui.edu> Hi Victor, Thanks for the post. I have only one point. > 2. However I disagree with Andy in his point > about the role of persons of color. Using Steve's > example of Blacks who voted for Proposition 227. It is > tru that voted for white supremacy but that does not > make them racist in the same way it does not make > them white. As Roediger and other have clearly pointed > out claiming "whiteness" (as many Latinos do vis a vis > foreign-born) is a way of claiming a dominant position > on the backs of the subordinate. In other words, usually > those at the lower strata try to climb up in status by > pushing those below even further. Are scabs capitalist > because they betray theit class members? This is an interesting point. My response to Steve, who correctly pointed out the importance of understanding how minorities can take on their oppressor's ideology and behavior, was to agree that white supremacy, since it is a structure, can be adopted by blacks against blacks and other minorities. I am sure that we can think of ways that blacks take up racist structure in some way different from whites. These concrete examples are many-sided, and I am surely not doing justice to them here, where my argument is trying to pull out some basic principles. Thanks for the criticism. Andy From cwinkler@selway.umt.edu Tue Jul 14 16:27:25 1998 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 16:27:17 -0600 (MDT) From: Celia C Winkler To: PSN Subject: Position Announcement I hesitate to post this to the list, considering the discussion on exploitation of temporary intellectual workers. The pay is, however, pretty good, even if this is an extremely short time frame. Contact me or the phone number below if you have any questions. Celia Winkler cwinkler@selway.umt.edu Temporary Teaching Faculty Position The Department of Sociology-The University of Montana-Missoula invites applications for our adjunct teaching pool. Greatest needs are for teaching undergraduate courses in Principles of Sociology (the introductory course), Social Statistics, Social Science Methods, Social Problems, and Social Psychology. Our most immediate need is for someone qualified to teach two sections of Principles of Sociology and one section of undergraduate Social Statistics during Fall Semester, 1998 (instruction begins August 31). This position may possibly be extended through Spring Semester (January-May 1999). Successful applicants will hold at a minimum a Master's Degree. Preference will be given to those with the Ph.D. or with substantial progress towards completion of the Ph.D.. Preference will also be given to those with demonstrated excellence in teaching. Send a letter of application (including when and what you would be available to teach), a curriculum vitae, names and phone numbers of three referees, and evidence of teaching skill to Dr. Daniel P. Doyle, Department of Sociology, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812-1047. Applications for the Fall, 1998 position will be reviewed starting August 3, 1998 and continue until the position is filled. For further information, call (406) 243-5281. The University of Montana is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and encourages applications from persons with disabilities, Vietnam era veterans, minorities, and women. This position announcement can be made available in alternative formats upon request. From jbiddle@ix.netcom.com Tue Jul 14 18:29:02 1998 by dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma024496; Tue Jul 14 19:28:06 1998 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 20:28:33 -0400 From: J Biddle To: PROGRESSIVE@ix.netcom.com, SOCIOLOGISTS@ix.netcom.com, NETWORK@ix.netcom.com, psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat Greetings! I'd like to mention a new kind of Part Timer--persons who also fit the description written about below by Shawgi Tell: > Thanks for the feedback Tom. I've been teaching P/T for a while > now and I'm one of those people who the "The Invisible faculty" describes > as an "aspiring academic." I'm one of those people who works P/T and > wants and needs a full-time, meaningful, decent-paying job. Many, > perhaps most, part-timers receive very low pay, no benefits, no > health insurance, no pension, no sabbatical, no vacation pay and no > institutional support. Also, they often don't get to participate in > faculty meetings. I don't even have a faculty parking permit. And all > this is happening to thousands in the wealhtiest nation on earth. With the advances in cyber technology, there are also adjuncts at some colleges and universities who teach on-line, in Virtual classrooms. We teach at accredited institutions, and teach courses that give the same number of credits as those courses taught in on-campus regular classrooms. The major difference is that we teach by way of our own personal computers, must upgrade at our own expense, and connect to our classroom also usually through our own internet service providers. We occupy no on-campus space, require no office space or parking, get no frills. I've been teaching on-line for about 4 years, and have only one time visited the actual campus. For the most part, for many of us who teach on-line, unless we are also "regular" tenured, or full time employees of our colleges, we receive no benefits, and we may or may not receive other types of institutional support. We are paid by the course, and if the course does not "fill", we don't get paid. Nonetheless, I'm still glad to have the opportunity to teach on-line, and feel that I've had an opportunity to learn things that otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to learn about. Of course I'd like to find a permanent position. That may or may not happen, depending upon the constraints and requirements of both the job, and my own life. I would also like to be paid more, receive benefits, and so on. Rather than not teach, I choose to continue to be an adjunct. I get the impression that many adjuncts have "other" jobs, other careers. Being an adjunct provides many persons who love to teach, many of whom are also very talented, with opportunities to explore new topics, and to stay in touch with an academic community. It is also my impression that we are in a time of transition, for adjuncts and tenured faculty alike. I'm not sure where the transition(s) will lead us, nonetheless, I'm optimistic. And, I'm holding my ground! ^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+ Joan I. Biddle Ph.D. LTC,AG, USAR Sociologist jbiddle@ix.netcom.com *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ From tgallagh@kent.edu Wed Jul 15 06:31:12 1998 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 08:33:05 -0400 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Tim Gallagher Subject: Faculty Employment in Higher Education I thought the following would be relevant to the current discussion regarding employment in higher education. It is the abstract from an on-line paper "Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education" by David F. Noble . I encourage all interested to read the entire article. You can find it at the following website: http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/ It identifies a very disturbing trend in higher education to eliminate faculty in the day-to-day delivery of courses. It is certainly a trend that needs to be addressed in many ways. I have no more specific comments or questions right now and am leaving it to others (if the interest is there) to begin a discussion. "In recent years changes in universities, especially in North America, show that we have entered a new era in higher education, one which is rapidly drawing the halls of academe into the age of automation. Automation - the distribution of digitized course material online, without the participation of professors who develop such material - is often justified as an inevitable part of the new "knowledge-based" society. It is assumed to improve learning and increase wider access. In practice, however, such automation is often coercive in nature - being forced upon professors as well as students - with commercial interests in mind. This paper argues that the trend towards automation of higher education as implemented in North American universities today is a battle between students and professors on one side, and university administrations and companies with "educational products" to sell on the other. It is not a progressive trend towards a new era at all, but a regressive trend, towards the rather old era of mass-production, standardization and purely commercial interests." Tim Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. Department of Sociology Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 U.S.A. Email: tgallagh@kent.edu Ph: 330 672-2709 FAX: 330 672-4724 http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ From cmanjarrez@jt.cc.va.us Wed Jul 15 07:41:21 1998 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 09:44:20 -0300 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Carlos Manjarrez Subject: On-Line Teaching I am responding to an earlier post regarding on-line adjunct teaching. While I agree that adjunct teaching provides limited (monetary) returns and can be very alienating work, I have found several advantages to adjunct teaching via the Internet over teaching traditional sections. 1) sometimes you can get paid just for Internet course development, particularly if you have a working relationship with a school (If you are at all familiar with HTML or web design software getting, paid for development is like getting paid for a prep (a rare event for adjuncts as many of you know). In my case, I negotiated the same price for development that I am being paid for course delivery - it helps to find an institution a bit hungry for developing more "distance education" courses.) 2) contracts for development/delivery tend to be rather vague regarding intellectual property rights. (Mine was so poorly written that I was able to drive 5 miles down the road (zip drive in hand) and make a pitch to another college with the very same course. The fact of the matter is, many schools just want to have the opportunity to park an Internet class on their server and list it in their catalogue.) 3) if you don't get a contract for development you might be able to get your hands on the software for course development (good second line strategy) 4) teaching at home involves considerably less time than schlepping stuff around between a two or more different campuses, thereby raising the meager hourly rate 5) as many of you already know, the Internet provides a number of resources for students of society that can be seamlessly woven into class assignments. 6) teaching an Internet course provides a unique CV entry Hope these comments are of use to someone on the list. I would very much like to hear from others developing/teaching Internet courses. Regards, Carlos 8080,0000,0000************************************************ Carlos A. Manjarrez 8080,0000,0000Graduate Fellow Joint Center for Poverty Research Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2046 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 http://www.jcpr.org Email:carlosm@nwu.edu 8080,0000,0000************************************************ From tr@tryoung.com Wed Jul 15 06:05:13 1998 (usr-mtp-19.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.19]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 08:01:42 -0400 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Research from a Feminist Prespective social-class@listserv.uic.edu, sssitalk@sun.soci.niu.edu --=====================_900518502==_ Five Methodological Proposals to Study with a Gender Perspective were presented by Marta Nunez, Professor, Dept. of Sociology of the University of Havana at the 10th Conference of Philosophy and Social Sciences. One may see an abstract of the presentation at the new HomePage for Cuban Sociology attached. Contact Profesor Nunez at: mns@cdmuh.uh.cu for more information FROM THE INTRODUCTION: ********** The original paper contains 16 methodological suggestions induced from seven case studies with women workers in traditional a nd non traditional feminine jobs, that I carried out in Cuba form 1985 to 1997. 1 discussed these ideas with colleagues concerned with Women studies from Cuba and other countries, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students that attended my courses on Methodology and Gender Relations. Deductively, I benefited from reading social scientists' works with gender perspectives, from reading the lives of women who lived intensely and consequently (Alexandra Kollontai, Tina Modottl and Haydee Santamana, among others). And I admit that I learned from men who have written with intelligence and sensibility, whether they are "machistas" or not: Hemingway, Silvio Rodriguez, Garcia Marquez, Saint-Exupery, Karl Marx and Gramsci. ********** TR Young, Director, The Red feather Institute for Advanced Studies in Sociology --=====================_900518502==_ unsaved:///newpage3.htm


No. 001  Methodological Proposals to Study with a Gender Perspective (Abstract)
Marta Nunez, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Havana.  A paper presented at the 10th Meetings of the Philosophers and Social Scientists, June, 1998. Distributed as part of the Red Feather Institute Series on Cuban Sociology. The Red Feather Institute, 8085 Essex, Weidman, Michigan, 48893.   Contact Professor Nunez at: mns@cdmuh.uh.cu

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Five Proposals in Feminist Methodology

Marta Nunez

The University of Havana

date

INTRODUCTION: 

The original paper contains 16 methodological suggestions induced from seven case studies with women workers in traditional and non traditional feminine jobs, that I carried out in Cuba form 1985 to 1997. 1 discussed these ideas with colleagues concerned with Women studies from Cuba and other countries, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students that attended my courses on Methodology and Gender Relations. Deductively, I benefited from reading social scientists' works with gender perspectives, from reading the lives of women who lived intensely and consequently (Alexandra Kollontai, Tina Modotti and Haydee Santamana, among others). And I admit that I learned from men who have written with intelligence and sensibility, whether they are "machistas" or not: Hemingway, Silvio Rodriguez, Garcia Marquez, Saint-Exupery, Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci.

I will summarise five proposals.

First. Studying every day life is a key element to understand the macrosocial. The "sociological imagination" must apprehend and understand the forgotten things. That is, we must sociologically understand the small, the intimate, the affective, the personal, the banished. In several of my studies, women workers discovered elements of self esteem when performing rude works. Their neighbours, fellow workers and members of their families manifested similar recognition towards them through expressions like: "These women work as hard as men do".

Second. Reality must be understood in its utterly rich diversity. This is a scientific truth that many researchers ignore with boresome regularity. Social scientists should apprehend all impressions of what it means to understand the women they are studying as they are, and as they represent themselves and the society where they live. And they must do it considering the diverse ways in which women have lived their lives: their differences from a class, generational, race and gender perspectives; considering the different types of family where they grew up, among other aspects.

Third. We must approach women's realities as they are, avoiding imposing our ideology, including that of gender. Our voice must not prevail. This does not mean to exclude our subjectivity or that of whom we study. I propose to transform both in objects of analysis. These subjectivities contain the needs of researchers and researched: what are their concerns, what they want to transform, and the ways to solution the problems found along the investigation.

Fourth. The researcher must control her\his power relations with the researched. I very consciously use the term "control", because it is almost impossible to avoid them. These power relations appear in different ways, and the investigator must identify and critically examine them- In my case, these relations manifested in expressions of dependency from the researched women towards me, when they asked me to solve their problems, without their participation

Fifth. Any social scientist who analyses her or his reality without a gender perspective Is committing a serious scientific mistake. For example, no one is able to understand what has happened with Cuban employment in the last 40 years if they do not study working women, including facts as the following since 1978 women represent more than half of professionals and technicians; now they are 66% of this category. Women entered the labour force steadily and increasingly since 1970 up to 1997;

Cuban legislation concerning women and employment is among the most advanced in the world. The fact that 48% of lawyers are women has to be considered as evidence of this.

Presented in Havana, June 17, 1998 at the Xth Conference of Cuban and American Philosophers.

--=====================_900518502==_ TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com --=====================_900518502==_-- From tr@tryoung.com Wed Jul 15 07:00:17 1998 (usr-mtp-19.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.19]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 08:56:48 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Book Review: social-class@listserv.uic.edu, socgrad@csf.colorado.edu A Review of Elliot Currie's new book, 'Crime and Punishment in America ; Why the Solutions to America's Most Stubborn Social Crisis Have not Worked - and What Will" (Henry Holt, 1998). By Timothy Mason is available at the Red Feather Institute HomePage: www.tryoung.com/journals/JOURNAL-POMOCRIM/REVIEWS/ReviewCURRIE.htm *******A Quote From the Book: "Around the world, the countries with relatively low levels of violent crime tend to be not only among the most prosperous but also those where prosperity has become most general, most evenly distributed throughout the population. The countries where violent crime is an endemic problem are those in which prosperity, to the extent that it is achieved at all, is confined to some sectors of the population and denied to to others. That includes a number of less developed countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean ... and one country in the developed world - the United States" ...Elliot Currie TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From matthewr@oak.cats.ohiou.edu Wed Jul 15 11:20:21 1998 Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 13:21:47 -0400 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Rick Matthews Subject: Left Conservatism Maybe I haven't been reading as much as I should, because the term "Left Conservatism" is entirely new to me. I was intrigued and dismayed to see that both Katha Pollit and Barbara Enrenreich had been pegged as such. Are Noam Chomsky, Michael Alberts and Ward Churchill left conservatives as well? For that matter, is Marx?!? I was on the verge of an intellectual identity crisis. I took the advice of Steve Sherman and typed in the keyword "Left Conservatism" on Exite which lead me to the "Bad Subjects" conference on Left Conservatism. The anticipation was overwhelming. Eager to find out exactly what the term meant, and its implications for my own identity, I began reading. Reading as fast as I could, I came to my first answer: "Left Conservatism, in Connery's formulation, is supposedly marked by a belief (always unspoken) in unmediated access to reality (empiricism); a pragmatic belief in the transparency of language, and a desire for some kind of foundational truth(s) upon which to build political identities, broad-based social movements, and to reinvigorate public, democratic discourse. Opposed to Left Conservatism, Connery argues, is the anti-foundationalism of poststructuralist intellectuals, who, like Louis Althusser, the French Marxist philosopher, reject all claims to philosophical essences and who are primarily concerned to interrogate the linguistic and epistemological preconditions under which certain political ideas and political identities come to be regarded as "true," "necessary, " or even as "useful."" Unfortunately, this didn't help matters. Never having been a big "fan" of Althusser, I was beginning to worry that all non-Althusserians were, by definition, Left Conservatives. An even more terrible thought entered my mind. Could it be that Lukacs was a Left Conservative? What about the members of the notorious Frankfurt School? This was not good news, and I became even more paranoid that I was (or was soon to become) a [Left] Conservative. To satiate my intellectual curiosity, I pressed on... "Brown then went on to offer a definition of Left Conservatism as essentially a reaction to and a refusal of theory. The theoretical insights of poststructuralists include, among others: the decentering of capitalism (or any single force as determinant of social life); the Foucauldian notion of power as everywhere, rather than the old formula of Who? Whom? (i.e., who wields it, whom does it effect?); the abandonment of revolutionary politics; and the emphasis on language--its priority over deeds, words, or social forces." The coup de grace. There it was staring me in the face. How could I have been so naive all these years? How could I have not seen that I was, in fact, a Lefty-Righty Conservative? After a few beers and much thinking about the matter, I found solace in the fact that every single one my students who had complained that I was too far left of center in my teaching evaluations, and that I should spend more time on the Conservative side of things had it all wrong. From cmanjarrez@jt.cc.va.us Wed Jul 15 11:23:35 1998 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 13:26:22 -0300 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Carlos Manjarrez Subject: Re: On-Line Teaching In-Reply-To: At 11:27 AM 7/15/98 -0400, you wrote: > Yes, this is very helpful information, but can you say more about >how you got started in this sort of thing and what should holders of PhD's >in education and social science do to get involved in this sort of thing. >How exactly should they start? What is the best starting-point? Why? >Are there some specific steps? What should be avoided? And so on? > >Also, I think it would be good to hear from others about other >alternative forms of P/T. I'm finding this discussion instructive. > >Thanks. > >Shawgi Tell >Niagara County Community College >tell@net.bluemoon.net > In response to Shawgi Tell's inquiry regarding how one gets started with Internet courses: I know that community colleges are particularly eager to cash in on web based teaching due to tight budgets, dependence "alternative" student pools and their general willingness to exploit adjunct labor. They, for better or worse, seem to be a good place to start. Most community colleges have Distance Education coordinators, however, these people rarely have the influence to hire. As such, you will probably want to get the info you need about current distance education offerings (compressed video, WWW etc.) from the DE coordinator along with their endorsement if you can pick it up, then take your proposal to the academic dean. If you don't have a relationship with a college already they'll probably want to see the course first, which by definition cuts out development compensation. I tend to market classes that are not usually taught at the community colleges but are in the systems catalog (minority group relations, gender and society, etc.). That way I am not competing with people already teaching intro (which I am not too interested in teaching anyway) and the college can broaden it's course list. Things to watch out for: One thing that anyone teaching an Internet course will want to avoid is the huge potential enrollment (without compensation). I know that community colleges around here cover their costs and really start to cash in after a class hits an enrollment of about 20 students - keep that in mind. If they are not planning on limiting enrollment from the start, you need to know how you are going to be compensated when the class starts getting large. If at all possible, do not relinquish the intellectual property rights of the course to the college. Sometimes easier said then done. I am not sure if there has been much case law regarding this yet. Book reference: A technical (but very comprehensive) guide to Web course design is: Brooks, David W. Web Teaching: A Guide to Designing Interactive Teaching for the World Wide Web. New York: Plenum, 1997. I know someone at Virginia Tech has written one specifically for sociology, but I am afraid I don't have the citation and confess that I have not looked at it. Also, don't be intimidated by the technology. The nice thing about current web page applications (such as Microsoft FrontPage, Claris Homepage etc.) is that you know longer have to know HTML to put together a good looking site. The learning curve for FrontPage is a little steeper than others though you can do more stuff with it. Experiential note: avoid incorporating class chat rooms into your course, very time consuming with little pay off. Again, hope this helps. Carlos 8080,0000,0000************************************************ Carlos A. Manjarrez 8080,0000,0000Graduate Fellow Joint Center for Poverty Research Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2046 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 http://www.jcpr.org Email:carlosm@nwu.edu 8080,0000,0000************************************************ From fbp@igc.apc.org Wed Jul 15 12:29:27 1998 Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:50:26 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:50:13 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 13:42:12 -0400 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: "John M. Miller" Subject: July 17 E Timor Protests in U.S. East Timor Action Network/U.S. Media Advisory For Immediate Release Contact: John M. Miller; (718)596-7668 Demonstrations to Support Self-Determination for East Timor and to Urge Respect for Human Rights and UN-Supervised Vote On Friday July 17, demonstrations to support self-determination and human rights for East Timor will take place in six U.S. cities. The protests take place on the 22nd anniversary of Indonesia's formal annexation of East Timor as its 27th Province. July 17 is known in Indonesia as "Integration Day." Demonstrations are planned for Chicago, Los Angeles, Madison, Washington, DC, New York City, and San Francisco. Protesters will call for the release of all East Timorese political prisoners, withdrawal of Indonesian troops from the territory and an internationally-supervised vote on self-determination by the East Timorese. "In the face of ongoing repression, the East Timorese are asking that they be allowed what they have been denied for over two decades: A chance to vote in a UN.-supervised referendum in which they might decide, without guns at their backs, whether to merge with Indonesia or to become independent," said John M. Miller of the East Timor Action Network. The protests will also urge the President Clinton to come out firmly in support of East Timorese rights. On Friday, July 10, the Senate unanimously supported a resolution sponsored by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) and 17 others urging the Clinton administration to "work actively, through the United Nations and with United States allies, to carry out the directives of existing United Nations resolutions on East Timor and to support an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination." PROTEST DETAILS CHICAGO: 5 p.m. Indonesian Consulate, 72 E. Randolph St. Contact: Suzan Mackley, East Timor Action Network/Chicago 773-871-2891, 773-380-2241, sumac9@aol.com LOS ANGELES: 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. Indonesian Consulate, 3457 Wilshire Blvd. (at Mariposa, near Normandie). Contact: Garrick Ruiz, East Timor Action Network of Los Angeles, (213)933-6069; etanla@igc.apc.org. MADISON: 4:30 p.m. Rally and street theater on Martin Luther King Blvd, just off Capitol Square. Speakers include Senator Feingold, Matthew Rothschild (editor, Progressive Magazine), and others. Street theater will portray the history of East Timor as a man in a suit hands out prop guns with tags on them like "Made in USA" to people dressed in military uniforms. Throughout the presentation, the armed military will grab people from the audience and restrain them in chains in a space designated "East Timor." Contact: Diana Farsetta, ETAN/Madison, 608-262-6591 or 608-251-1730; farsetta@students.wisc.edu. NEW YORK CITY: Noon to 1:30 p.m. Vigil at Indonesian Mission at the United Nations, 325 E. 38th St. (between. 1st and 2nd Aves.), Manhattan. Sponsored by ETAN/NY and LAMETA. Contact: ETAN/NY, (718)596-7668; etan-outreach@igc.apc.org SAN FRANCISCO: Noon. Picket at Indonesian consulate, 111 Columbus St. (near the Tower Records store at Columbus and Bay), 1 block west of Montgomery St. BART stop, going toward North Beach). Co-sponsored by East Timor Action Network/SF, East Timor Religious Outreach, Global Exchange, California Peace Action, Indonesia Alert! Contact:: East Timor Action Network/SF 415-626-3723; bterrall@higc.org. WASHINGTON, DC: 5 p.m. Protest at Indonesian Embassy, 2020 Mass Ave., NW (near Dupont Circle). Co-sponsored by ETAN. Contact: ETAN DC, (202)544-6911; etandc@igc.org BACKGROUND Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975. Since then, at least 200,000 -- one-third of the population -- have been killed. the following July, then-President Suharto declared the territory Indonesia's 27th province. In recent weeks, East Timorese have demonstrated for their right to self-determination in the tens of thousands throughout the occupied territory. Recently, Indonesia's President Habibie offered to give East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, an undefined "special status" and to free East Timorese political leader Xanana Gusmao in exchange for international recognition of Indonesia's illegal annexation of the territory. Habibie has rejected independence and a U.N.-supervised referendum on self-determination. Gusmao, the Portuguese government and East Timorese Nobel Peace laureate José Ramos-Horta have all rejected Habibie's proposal unless it allows for fundamental right of East Timor to self-determination after a period of autonomy. On July 17, 1976, President Suharto signed into law East Timor's formal "integration" into the Republic of Indonesia. According to the Indonesian government, Suharto did so on the basis of a petition from the "People's Assembly," a hand-picked assemblage of pro-Indonesia East Timorese which met on May 31, 1976. Suharto also cited "on-the-spot assessment" in occupied East Timor by a government delegation of a "strong desire" among the East Timorese to become part of Indonesia. Even taking Indonesia's claims at face value, the annexation failed to meet the requirements of a legitimate act of self-determination as specified under international law. As defined by the United Nations General Assembly, the legitimate integration of a territory into a sovereign state requires an "impartially conducted" vote based upon "universal adult suffrage," at the time of which the territory has reached "an advanced state of self-government with free political institutions." Clearly, these conditions have never existed in Indonesian-occupied East Timor. ETAN can arrange interviews on the movement for self-determination in East Timor and on U.S. policy toward East Timor and Indonesia. Since its founding in November 1991, the East Timor Action Network has worked to shift U.S. policy to support human rights and self-determination for East Timor and democracy and human rights in Indonesia. It has 20 local chapters across the United States. – 30 – END etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan John M. Miller Internet: etan-outreach@igc.apc.org Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0014 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 ETAN's new web site: http://etan.org Send a blank e-mail message to timor-info@igc.apc.org to find out how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan From tell@net.bluemoon.net Wed Jul 15 20:46:21 1998 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:46:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Shawgi Tell To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat (fwd) Joan meant to forward this to the list. Shawgi Tell Niagara County Community College tell@net.bluemoon.net ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:36:55 -0400 From: J Biddle To: Shawgi Tell Subject: Re: Part Time/Temporary Academic Proletariat Greetings! Shawgi Tell wrote: > On Tue, 14 Jul 1998, J Biddle wrote: > > [Snip...] > > > With the advances in cyber technology, there are also adjuncts at some colleges > > and universities who teach on-line, in Virtual classrooms. We teach at accredited > > institutions, and teach courses that give the same number of credits as those > > courses taught in on-campus regular classrooms. The major difference is that we > > teach by way of our own personal computers, must upgrade at our own expense, and > > connect to our classroom also usually through our own internet service providers. > > We occupy no on-campus space, require no office space or parking, get no frills. > > I've been teaching on-line for about 4 years, and have only one time visited the > > actual campus. > > > > Joan, what are some ways to get into this sort of thing? > > Shawgi Tell > Niagara County Community College > tell@net.bluemoon.net Well, that's a good question. I can tell you that I got into this sort of distance ed purely by chance--I saw an ad in one of the education special sections of the Washington Post, no larger than one inch square, from The New School for Social Research, in NYC, which advertised on-line courses. I was very familiar with The New School, I would like to have gone to school there, so I knew that it was a "legitimate" school, and not just a fly-by-night. I called, said that I was interested not in taking courses, rather, what about teaching. I was fortunate that in subsequent conversations I was asked not simply to fill in for already in existence courses, I was asked what my "dream course" would be. So, I sent a proposal, references, we talked some more, I sent some more info, and I began teaching during the next semester. I was the first "sight-unseen" hire for the DIAL program. There have been others, since me. (One of the qualities I had always associated with The New School was that it was always a bit ahead of its time for many things, and the distance program is no exception....) As for getting into other universities/colleges, that's proven to be somewhat more of a challenge. It seems that distance ed has become a cottage industry in many locations, and also that many people attempt to "teach" on-line who really don't do that at all. In a number of other locations, there are efforts to provide "internet courses" for students who wish to have a more flexible schedule. The range of methods goes from simple bulletin board augmented courses, to asynchronous conferencing, to mixed formats, and so on. What I do, is to teach in an asynchronous conferencing environment. It's very much like being in a regular classroom, there's a lot of direct contact between students and instructor, and it's a VERY intense interactive environment. The New School provides the conferencing environment in which courses are taught. My impression about getting "in" to other college environments is that it's just as difficult to get a job as an adjunct teaching on-line, as it is to get an adjunct, or a tenured position, anywhere. However, a twist: everyone wants to know HOW to do it, or, ABOUT it, and I get lots of inquiries, and very few follow-ups that would include some sort of compensation for my expertise (which also includes other internet/cyberspace types of environments, as well.) In otherwords, "everyone" wants to pick my brain, and very few people/schools seem to be hiring. Preference seems to go to those who are already tenured. My attempts to "market" seem to dead end, the justification, "we aren't hiring anyone for new courses this year....." , budget cuts, and so on. Seems to me that "everyone" is trying to come up with alternative solutions for presenting courses, quality courses, without increasing the cost to the department/university. The cost to the students for these courses is not inexpensive. I also find that the concept of "sociology" as a topic seems less than useful as a practical matter to most colleges that I've had contact with. Most seem to want to hire people to "do" anything but what they perceive as "sociology". So, I've offered courses that are slightly outside of "sociology", ie., courses in sociology, women's studies, information technology, sociology of cyberspace, and so on. My perspective is still that of a sociologist--nonetheless, I often have to market a course from another viewpoint, all the while maintaining my ground as a sociologist. I don't know that I've answered your question very well--what else can I tell you about?? Joan -- ^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+ Joan I. Biddle Ph.D. LTC,AG, USAR Sociologist jbiddle@ix.netcom.com *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ From jbiddle@ix.netcom.com Wed Jul 15 20:58:34 1998 by dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma001958; Wed Jul 15 21:57:20 1998 Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:57:52 -0400 From: J Biddle To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Faculty Employment in Higher Education Greetings! I read the article too. I agree that there is a danger about the type of course which is based on "canned" educational products. Personally, I cringe to think that such things could be promoted as "courses", or Distance Education. For me, the type of Distance Education that I participate in, as we all do, at The New School for Social Research, NYC, in the DIAL program, http://www.dialnsa.edu is nothing like the pre-packaged products promoted by book companies. We TEACH, we teach in an interactive asynchronous format, and it's very similar to being in a physical classroom. The difference is that we communicate by way of the computer. An on-line course taught in such a format is an intense experience. It requires a lot of dedication on the part of both the instructor, and the students. Keep in mind that an on-line course does NOT equate with less work, or with a lesser quality of education. On the contrary, one can't just sit in the back of a classroom and doze off while the instructor lectures--NOT AT ALL!!!!! You MUST participate, Routinely, and in a substantive manner (or I'll be seeing you in my Virtual Office!!!) For this type of virtual course, faculty are absolutely NECESSARY. For a truly excellent distance learning experience, faculty must INTERACT with students, not merely monitor the responses to a canned program. Does anyone else teach on-line? If so, how, where, etc...??? Tim Gallagher wrote: > I thought the following would be relevant to the current discussion > regarding employment in higher education. It is the abstract from an > on-line paper "Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education" > by David F. Noble . I encourage all interested to read the entire article. > You can find it at the following website: > http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/ > > It identifies a very disturbing trend in higher education to eliminate > faculty in the day-to-day delivery of courses. It is certainly a trend > that needs to be addressed in many ways. I have no more specific comments > or questions right now and am leaving it to others (if the interest is > there) to begin a discussion. > > "In recent years changes in universities, especially in North America, show > that we have entered a new era in higher education, one which is rapidly > drawing the halls of academe into the age of automation. Automation - the > distribution of digitized course material online, without the participation > of professors who develop such material - is often justified as an > inevitable part of the new "knowledge-based" society. It is assumed to > improve learning and increase wider access. In practice, however, such > automation is often coercive in nature - being forced upon professors as > well as students - with commercial interests in mind. This paper argues > that the trend towards automation of higher education as implemented in > North American universities today is a battle between students and > professors on one side, and university administrations and companies with > "educational products" to sell on the other. It is not a progressive trend > towards a new era at all, but a regressive trend, towards the rather old > era of mass-production, standardization and purely commercial interests." > > Tim > > Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. > Department of Sociology > Kent State University > Kent, OH 44242 > U.S.A. > Email: tgallagh@kent.edu > Ph: 330 672-2709 > FAX: 330 672-4724 > http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ -- ^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+ Joan I. Biddle Ph.D. LTC,AG, USAR Sociologist jbiddle@ix.netcom.com *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ From tr@tryoung.com Thu Jul 16 07:07:27 1998 (usr-mtp-38.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.38]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:03:52 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Invitation There is a new HomePage for Progressive Women in Sociology Today. I would like to invite colleagues to write a two or three page biography or autobiography of their career in sociology. There are no political tests for inclusion other than some commitment to use sociology as a tool to help transform both new and old structures of domination (racism, class privilege, gender inequality, 'ethnic purity' and such) as well as help build a good and decent society out of the many new and old positivities which make up America. The bio posted for Lynda Ann Ewen and/or Barbara Scott would be a good model for those of you who might like to take the time and trouble to provide role models for other young women and young men to emulate. For a bit of guidence on how one might do it: double click on: http://www.tryoung.com/WOMEN/WOMEN-Index.htm TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From fbp@igc.apc.org Thu Jul 16 07:39:26 1998 Thu, 16 Jul 1998 06:35:54 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 16 Jul 1998 06:35:23 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:16:43 -0400 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: "John M. Miller" Subject: July 17 San Francisco Demonstration PICKET/DEMONSTRATION AT INDONESIAN CONSULATE IN SAN FRANCISCO ON FRIDAY JULY 17 Stop the Repression and Killing of Demonstrators! Free the Politial Prisioners! Self-Determination for East Timor! When:Friday, July 17 at noon Where: 1111 Columbus (at Bay) from Mongomery Bart Station: take Bus 30 from Kearny through Chinatown and up Columbus (in San Francisco) Initial Endorsers: East Timor Action Network/SF, East Timor Religious Outreach, Global Exchange, CA Peace Action, IndonesiaAlert! July 17th has no particular significance for most people in the Western hemisphere. But to the inhabitants of East Timor, a small island nation north of Australia, it symbolizes two decades of genocidal repression. Dubbed "Integration Day" by the Indonesian regime that invaded in December 1975, it marks the day the Suharto dictatorship "incorporated" East Timor as its 27th province. The illegal annexation of East Timor has never been recognized by the UN, which has passed 10 resolutions condemning the invasion. It is an example of realpolitik at its most misanthropic: Portugal began the process of decolonization in 1975, and Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, saw a chance to exercise its military might over a country slightly larger than the state of Maryland. By the mid 1980s, 200,000 people-or one third of the pre-invasion East Timorese population-had been killed. Though the dictator Suharto has been driven from power, the occupation continues. At least three unarmed East Timorese have been killed in the last few weeks. JOIN US TO EXPRESS SOLIDARITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF EAST TIMOR! Speakers will include recent visitors to East Timor and Indonesia. for more information, call the East Timor Action Network/SF 415-626-3723 or write bterrall@igc.org In the face of ongoing repression, the East Timorese simply ask that they be allowed what they have been denied for over twenty years: a chance to vote in a UN.-supervised referendum in which they might decide, without guns at their backs, whether to merge with Indonesia or to become independent. The UN. Secretary-General has expressed a willingness to support such a referendum. But the crucial factor is support from Washington. Congress must also be pushed to close loopholes in military training aid and transfers of military technology to Indonesia. What You Can Do Tell your Representative to co-sponsor (California co-sponsors are noted, for full lists see ETAN's web site (www.etan.org): 1. Rep. Nita Lowey's (D-NY) International Military Training Accountability Act (H.R. 3802), which would ban US military training of Indonesian troops. If your representative agrees to cosponsor or needs a fax of the bill, have them contact Matt Traub in Rep.Lowey's office at (202)225-6506. CA Reps who've co-sponsored 3802: Woolsey (D-Petaluma), Waxman (D-L.A.), Roybal-Allard(D-L.A.), Rep Torres (D-Industry). 2. Rep. Cynthia McKinney's "Indonesia Human Rights Before Military Assistance Act" (H.R.3918), which would stop sales of military technology to Indonesia until all political prisoners are released, free elections are permitted and other specific human rights goals are acheived. If your Represenative agrees to cosponsor or needs a fax of the bill, have them contact Jamie Roth in Rep.McKinney's office at (202)225-1605. CA Reps who've co-sponsored 3918: Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Sam Farr (D-Carmel), Rep Woolsey (D-Petaluma),Rep Torres (D-Industry). 3. House Concurrent Resolution (H.Con.Res.) 258, which affirms congressional support for East Timor's right to self-determination through a UN-sponsored referendum. If your representative agrees to cosponsor or needs a fax of the bill, have them contact Matt Traub in Rep.Lowey's office at (202)225-6506. CA Reps who've co-sponsored H. R. 258:Lantos (D-San Mateo), Rohrabacher (R-Hunt. Beach), Waxman (D-L.A.), George Miller (D-Martinez),Woolsey(D-Petaluma), Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Pelosi (D-SF),Torres(D-Industry). Congressional switchboard number: 202-224-3121 Address: US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 END etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan John M. Miller Internet: etan-outreach@igc.apc.org Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0014 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 ETAN's new web site: http://etan.org Send a blank e-mail message to timor-info@igc.apc.org to find out how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan From tell@net.bluemoon.net Thu Jul 16 09:35:37 1998 Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:35:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Shawgi Tell Reply-To: Shawgi Tell To: Paul Englesberg Subject: Re: "world-wide anti-social offensive?" Greetings, On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Paul Englesberg wrote: > Shawgi Tell wrote: > > > It is important to place what is happening in academe and other > >sectors of the economy in its proper context: the world-wide anti-soical > >offensive, whereby massive amounts of money are being withdrawn from > >education, health care and other vital social programs and handed over to > >the rich in the name of increasing the "comptetiveness" of the monopolies > >in the "global market." > > I'd be interested in whether this can be documented. Are massive amounts > in fact being withdrawn, or is spending not keeping up with population > increases and increasing demands for more and more schooling and > credentials? And if there asre some trends toward decreasing social > spending, is this really a worldwide phenomenon? > Shawgi - can you provide some clarification and data to demonstrate this? > I think we need to be careful when making such sweeping statements; > otherwise we may be building myths of our own and unintentionally alienating > people in the process. > > Paul Englesberg > Woodring College of Education > Western Washington University > Bellingham, WA 98225 > ph: (360) 650-7527 > email: pengle@wce.wwu.edu > > The neo-liberal anti-social offensive has been operating in earnest for the last 20 years and it has been intensifying each year. Basically, the anti-social offensive refers to privatization, liberalization and Rule by Decree. That is, it involves (1) turning over public services and properties to private hands, (2) de-regulating the environment in order to make it easier for private interests to seize public services and properties, and (3) it also means dismissing what is in the best interests of the vast majority. That is, the anti-social offensive dimisses the will of the people and creates a situation where, despite what the vast majority want and need, the interests of the wealthy few are given priority. In other words, the privileges of private property are placed ahead of the inviolable rights of humans. One way this offensive is manifested in so-called "developing" or "Third world" countries is via the IMF and the structural adjustment programs it imposes on dozens of countries, forcing the so-called "leaders" of these countries to create a situation where many people lose their jobs and where vital social services (i.e., "costs") of all kinds are cut - all in the name of paying the IMF, which is dominated by U.S. imperialism. In the U.S., Britain and Canada, for example, (the so-called "developed" countries) one form the anti-social offensive has taken is the "balancing the budget" or "ending the deficit" mantra. This really means paying the rich even more money (e.g., interst on the national debt and pentagon arms contracts). Of course, this money has to come from somewhere. Where does it come from? From those things that benefit humanity (e.g., education, health care and social programs). Both in Canada and the U.S., for example, huge amounts of money have been and continue to be withdrawn from health care and education. For example, enormous amounts of money have been withdrawn from the State University of New York over the last few years. In fact, the budgets of many colleges and schools in the U.S. and Canada have been cut over the last few years. Same in Britain. Medicare is also being "restructured" in the U.S., and welfare, certainly parts of it, is being privatized in the U.S. too. Lockheed Martin and other monopolies can't wait to get their hands on the billions of dollars that welfare involves. They are literally drooling. There is even talk in the U.S. of privatizing social security. State parks, vehicle maintenance stations, sewage treatment facilities, garbage collection, and many other public services and properties have already been or are being privatized in the U.S. Of course, this sort of thing pleases the bourgeoisie because it enables them to become even richer, and all at the expense of the public. Both in Canada and the U.S. the so-called "education indistry" (which refers to the privatization of education) is a multi-billion dollar "industry." In Canada it is about a $60 billion "industry," while in the U.S. it is about a $600 billion "industry." A major reason why this is taking place is because the cuts in funding have forced many schools and colleges to turn to business "partnerships" just to "make it" - just the way the rich would like to see things go. Of course, once things are privatized, accountability becomes to a handful of investors and not to the public. Consequently, services for humanity worsen and decline. Such a thing is, of course, in contempt of the notion of a modern society which recognizes the legitimate, valid and justified claims of all humans. In Canada, one hospital after another has closed, setting a world-wide record for such anti-people activity, and funds for k-12 and higher education are cut literally every single day. Bill 160, for example, involves the removal of hundreds of millions of dollars from education in Ontario (up to one billion dollars) and concentrates all decision-making power over schools in the hands of the Mike Harris cabinet - a most anti-democratic and treacherous thing. Naturally, the public was and remains opposed to this sort of thing. All the massive funds being withdrawn from education, health care and other vital social programs are being turned over to the rich to invest in more "profitable" and "competitive" ventures. The State is basically controlled by the monopoly capitalists and they need these funds to become more "competitive" in the "global market." The monopoly capitalists are running out of markets to exploit, so this is another reason why they are vigorously encroaching upon the public sector. The same trend can be documented world-wide because it is taking place world-wide. We have privatization and liberalization in Mexico, Britain, Russia, Jordan, Latin America and dozens of other countries. We also have liberalization in dozens of countries. And in more and more countries what little there is of democracy is being rolled back. In fact, the vast majority of people in the U.S., Britain, Canada, Russia, Mexico, Latin America, Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere have no real say in the direction of society. They remain politically marginalized to the extreme and subject to the arbitrary dictates of the international financial oligarchy. The essence of the anti-social offensive is to dismiss the notion of a modern society which recognizes the claims of its members upon it by dint of being human. That is, the anti-social offensive is profoundly anti-human. This offensive does not recognize inviolable human rights (e.g., the rights to food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, housing and employment). Ideologically, the notion is pushed that society does not exist and that people must fend for themselves like animals. According to this anachronistic outlook, only "opportunities" exist, not human rights. Also, everyone is supposed to adopt the aim of securing maximum capitalist profits as the and-all and be-all of life. The anti-social offensive is rightly equated with society being dragged back to medievalism, where there were no human rights, public services and democracy. Cuts in school budgets, reductions in welfare benefits, decreases in health coverage and these sorts of things are all examples of how money is being withdrawn from public services and programs, and, ultimately, being handed over to the rich. Shawgi Tell Niagara County Community College tell@net.bluemoon.net From cmanjarrez@jt.cc.va.us Thu Jul 16 11:58:22 1998 Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:01:21 -0300 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Carlos Manjarrez Subject: Re: On-Line Teaching In-Reply-To: <35AD6EC7.EA342A35@ix.netcom.com> Dear PSNers: I should like address a number of issues raised by Dr. Biddle in her post entitled "Re: On-Line Teaching" of July 15 @ 23:08. I shall do so in the order they appeared in her response. (I started out writing this note directly to Ms. Biddle, but then decided to post it to the list. That is why my comments are directed to her.) Regarding my use of the term alienation... (See my post July 15 @ 9:44) You have thoroughly misinterpreted my comment about Internet adjunct work being very alienating. The use of "alienation" here refers to the structural position of adjuncts teaching Internet courses vis-a-vis their employing institutions. I was in no way referring to my relationship to students. I am assuming that you would be willing entertain my particular use of the word given that only two days ago you distinguished between this type of teaching and traditional adjunct work by saying... 8080,0000,0000The major difference is that we teach by way of our own personal computers, must upgrade at our own expense, and connect to our classroom also usually through our own Internet service providers. We occupy no on-campus space, require no office space or parking, get no frills. (your PSN post of July 14 @ 20:28) =20 In other words, we (Internet adjuncts, far preferable to me then the cumbersome and politically suspect term of "temporary academic proletariat") generate even greater wealth to institutions by the fact that we bring our own damn machines (and supporting technology), require little or no physical infrastructure and of course do not enjoy any of the other benefits that accrue from full time employment (however niggardly). I stand by my original statement of this type of work being alienating and, by your own words, it appears you do too. To my point about getting adequate compensation for developing a course you replied: 8080,0000,0000It remains my opinion that a "developed" Internet course is simply a bulletin board. (your post of July 15 @ 23:08) I am afraid that I don't have very much to go on with this comment, so I have decided to extrapolate. I am assuming that by placing the term "development" in quotes you are suggesting that the course I offer is akin to a bulletin board. Forgive me, but I hesitate to give this comment much weight given the fact that you have never before seen my class and have absolutely no knowledge of it's contents or the various methods of instruction I have employed. =20 Or, is this a case where it is I who have misinterpreted you. Is your comment a philosophical one? Are you saying that there can be no such thing as a "developed course" because instruction is by definition a dynamic process? If this is what you meant, then I would have to say that I do have a great deal of sympathy for this loftier philosophical position.=20 In any event, I am afraid that I fail to see the connection between either of these positions and the point I made about getting paid for one's work. To my point about teaching at home involving "considerably less time than schlepping stuff around between two or more different campuses" (my post July 15 @ 9:44) you reply: 8080,0000,0000Not at all, especially if you're doing what you're supposed to do, ie., engage your students in an intellectual debate. I may not have conducted a Taylor type time study, however, all things being equal... (including spending the exact amount of time with students as one might spend in a traditional setting, if that is possible) you are still going to save time commuting, coordinating etc. You have made the rash assumption that the way I save time is by short changing my students. In doing so, you fail recognize that commuting and teaching on site can produce a host of non-student related time drains - particularly when one has children, or has no car or is disabled. Some of us do not have the luxury of excluding these factors from our equations. I am afraid that once again, your comment has missed my point entirely. Regarding your final and perhaps most gratuitous statement... 8080,0000,0000Sorry Carlos--I think that what you've described is the worst possible scenario for what you mislabel as education. Ms. Biddle, I frankly do not see how my description is either a worst case scenario or a gross mislabelling of what goes on.=20 The reality (as you yourself should know) is that quite often temporary adjunct work is underpaid, undervalued contract work, punto. If this has not been your experience in your positions at the U.S. Army or the New School for Social Research then congratulations, you are in a distinct minority. I, on the other hand, am under no illusions about this or the state of higher education in the United States generally. If I made a mistake it was in assuming that other PSNers were just as critical as I when it came to their role as adjunct teachers and that they too entered these positions out of necessity. That is why I decided to get straight to my point and not enter into a worthy, but entirely separate, discussion about the relative pedagogical merits of this or that type of instruction. My intention was to provide information that I thought would be helpful to other workers as they enter, or perhaps re-enter, these potentially exploitative work relationships. That is precisely why I brought in talk about compensation for course development, negotiating contracts, intellectual property rights and selling one's course to other institutions. You found such practical organizing talk distasteful. So much so in fact that no only did you reserve comment, but you felt it necessary to write that you had no comment. Well, so be it. Carlos Manjarrez =20 From tgallagh@kent.edu Thu Jul 16 12:03:21 1998 Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:05:09 -0400 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Tim Gallagher Subject: Online Teaching vs. The Course as a Commodity I would like to respond to recent posts by Carlos Manjarrez and Joan Biddle regarding the use of information technologies in higher education. I've included them below my comments. I'll respond in the context of the article "Digital Diploma Mills" http://firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/. Each is producing courses for delivery over the internet. And each represents two possible scenarios for what higher education in general may look like in the not so distant future. The main point in David Noble's article "Digital Diploma Mills" is that we are currently witnessing at a number of universities in North America the commoditization of higher education for which the primary motive is profit and not the enhancement of the learning environment for students. The chief forces behind this attempt to redefine the meaning of education are corporations in collaboration with university adminstrators. Commoditization is taking place by universities making claims to the intellectual property of faculty members. So, you create an on-line class and the university owns it. If the class does not require the creator to actually teach, then what use is the creator to the university after the on-line course is created? This is the model for the Western Governor's University, a university without a physical campus (http://www.nea.org/he/head9697/advo9711/inknow.html). It is also the model that UCLA is implementing (http://www.unex.ucla.edu/On_line.htm ). This kind of model where courses are delivered without the participation of course creators in the teaching of the material, is nothing more than selling courses. This is not about education -- it's about money. Where on-line technology has been demonstrated to be effective in improving education is in the format of asynchronous learning (the responses between students and teacher are asynchronous as opposed to standard classroom instruction where teacher and student are responding to each in the same time frame). In this format course creators actually teach courses. Asynchronous learning has been demonstrated to enhance the learning environment for students. A recent article in Teaching Sociology makes this point ("Asynchronous Learning: Technology and Pedagogical Strategy in a Distance Learning Course," David Jaffe. Teaching Sociology, vol 25, 1997 (October:262-277). According to both Jaffe and Joan Biddle in her recent post to PSN, this kind of teaching is more work than the typical classroom course. If Noble is right in his summary of the motivation of the current trend in the delivery of on-line courses, asynchronous learning with the participation of the course creator will not become the dominant model because it may even be more expensive to deliver the traditional classroom course. Noble's conclusions is bleak: "Quality higher education will not disappear entirely, but it will soon become the exclusive preserve of the privileged, available only to children of the rich and the powerful. For the rest of us a dismal new era of higher education has dawned. In ten years, we will look upon the wired remains of our once great democratic higher education system and wonder how we let it happen. That is, unless we decide now not to let it happen." ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Posts by Carlos Manjarrez I am responding to an earlier post regarding on-line adjunct teaching. While I agree that adjunct teaching provides limited (monetary) returns and can be very alienating work, I have found several advantages to adjunct teaching via the Internet over teaching traditional sections. 1) sometimes you can get paid just for Internet course development, particularly if you have a working relationship with a school (If you are at all familiar with HTML or web design software getting, paid for development is like getting paid for a prep (a rare event for adjuncts as many of you know). In my case, I negotiated the same price for development that I am being paid for course delivery - it helps to find an institution a bit hungry for developing more "distance education" courses.) 2) contracts for development/delivery tend to be rather vague regarding intellectual property rights. (Mine was so poorly written that I was able to drive 5 miles down the road (zip drive in hand) and make a pitch to another college with the very same course. The fact of the matter is, many schools just want to have the opportunity to park an Internet class on their server and list it in their catalogue.) 3) if you don't get a contract for development you might be able to get your hands on the software for course development (good second line strategy) 4) teaching at home involves considerably less time than schlepping stuff around between a two or more different campuses, thereby raising the meager hourly rate 5) as many of you already know, the Internet provides a number of resources for students of society that can be seamlessly woven into class assignments. 6) teaching an Internet course provides a unique CV entry Hope these comments are of use to someone on the list. I would very much like to hear from others developing/teaching Internet courses. Regards, Carlos ************************************************ Carlos A. Manjarrez Graduate Fellow Joint Center for Poverty Research Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2046 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 http://www.jcpr.org Email:carlosm@nwu.edu ************************************************ In response to Shawgi Tell's inquiry regarding how one gets started with Internet courses: I know that community colleges are particularly eager to cash in on web based teaching due to tight budgets, dependence "alternative" student pools and their general willingness to exploit adjunct labor. They, for better or worse, seem to be a good place to start. Most community colleges have Distance Education coordinators, however, these people rarely have the influence to hire. As such, you will probably want to get the info you need about current distance education offerings (compressed video, WWW etc.) from the DE coordinator along with their endorsement if you can pick it up, then take your proposal to the academic dean. If you don't have a relationship with a college already they'll probably want to see the course first, which by definition cuts out development compensation. I tend to market classes that are not usually taught at the community colleges but are in the systems catalog (minority group relations, gender and society, etc.). That way I am not competing with people already teaching intro (which I am not too interested in teaching anyway) and the college can broaden it's course list. Things to watch out for: One thing that anyone teaching an Internet course will want to avoid is the huge potential enrollment (without compensation). I know that community colleges around here cover their costs and really start to cash in after a class hits an enrollment of about 20 students - keep that in mind. If they are not planning on limiting enrollment from the start, you need to know how you are going to be compensated when the class starts getting large. If at all possible, do not relinquish the intellectual property rights of the course to the college. Sometimes easier said then done. I am not sure if there has been much case law regarding this yet. Book reference: A technical (but very comprehensive) guide to Web course design is: Brooks, David W. Web Teaching: A Guide to Designing Interactive Teaching for the World Wide Web. New York: Plenum, 1997. I know someone at Virginia Tech has written one specifically for sociology, but I am afraid I don't have the citation and confess that I have not looked at it. Also, don't be intimidated by the technology. The nice thing about current web page applications (such as Microsoft FrontPage, Claris Homepage etc.) is that you know longer have to know HTML to put together a good looking site. The learning curve for FrontPage is a little steeper than others though you can do more stuff with it. Experiential note: avoid incorporating class chat rooms into your course, very time consuming with little pay off. Again, hope this helps. Carlos ************************************************ Carlos A. Manjarrez Graduate Fellow Joint Center for Poverty Research Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2046 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 http://www.jcpr.org Email:carlosm@nwu.edu ************************************************ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Post by Joan Biddle Greetings! I read the article too. I agree that there is a danger about the type of course which is based on "canned" educational products. Personally, I cringe to think that such things could be promoted as "courses", or Distance Education. For me, the type of Distance Education that I participate in, as we all do, at The New School for Social Research, NYC, in the DIAL program, http://www.dialnsa.edu is nothing like the pre-packaged products promoted by book companies. We TEACH, we teach in an interactive asynchronous format, and it's very similar to being in a physical classroom. The difference is that we communicate by way of the computer. An on-line course taught in such a format is an intense experience. It requires a lot of dedication on the part of both the instructor, and the students. Keep in mind that an on-line course does NOT equate with less work, or with a lesser quality of education. On the contrary, one can't just sit in the back of a classroom and doze off while the instructor lectures--NOT AT ALL!!!!! You MUST participate, Routinely, and in a substantive manner (or I'll be seeing you in my Virtual Office!!!) For this type of virtual course, faculty are absolutely NECESSARY. For a truly excellent distance learning experience, faculty must INTERACT with students, not merely monitor the responses to a canned program. Does anyone else teach on-line? If so, how, where, etc...??? __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Tim Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. Department of Sociology Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 U.S.A. Email: tgallagh@kent.edu Ph: 330 672-2709 FAX: 330 672-4724 http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ From tr@tryoung.com Fri Jul 17 05:44:08 1998 (usr-mtp-14.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.14]) by HPUX.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 for ; Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 07:40:36 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Marxist RoundTables at ASA Below are Marxist Section Roundtables... Please forgive the spelling errors...I have a new scanner and OCR...without access to the original text...do correct spelling of names where incorrect. And many thanks to Stephanie S-M. for all her good work in putting these together. FROM THE LEFT, SUMMER ISSUE TRY, Editor ********** FRIDAY, August 21, 12:30 p.m. 78. SECTION ON MARXIST SOCIOLOGY: Roundtables and Business Meeting 12:30-1:30 p.m., Refereed and Informal Roundtables Organizer: Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Indiana University Northwest REFEREED ROUNDTABLES: 1. Class and Class Consciousness Table Presider: Bercb Berberoglu, University of Nevada, Reno Class, State, and Revolution. Berch Berberoglu, University of Nevada, Reno The Capital-Labor Conflict Revisited: Forging a New Perspective from the Encounter between Marxism and Citizenship Theory. David Spencer, Trinity University Reconceptualizing Labor. Darlene R. Miller, Johns Hopkins University Ideology, Culture, and Memory. Larry M. Miller, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth 2. Marxism and Feminism Table Presider: Martha E. Gimenez, University of Colorado, Boulder Marx and Feminist Readings of Marx. Martha E. Gimenez, University of Colorado, Boulder 3. Global Capitalism, First World Imperialism, and Third World Politics Table Presider:James W Russell, Eastern Connecticut State University NAFTA and New Patterns of Mexican Migration to the U.S. James W Russell, Eastern Connecticut State University High-Tech Trade Wars in Brazil: Lessons for Development Theory. Sara Schoonmaker, University of Redlands 4. World Systems and the History of Capitalism Table Presider; Steven McGuire, Muskingum College Shadow Energy and the Colonial Expansion. Steven McGuire, Muskingum College The Ideology of Development. Heidi R. Ballard, Muskingum College 5. Marxist Sociology Section Graduate Symposium I Table Presider: John Consigli, University of Rochester The Prison of Indeterminate Space An Investigation of Gramsci's Reflections on Hegemony and Democracy. John Consigli, University of Rochester Fatalism, Critical Temporal Consciousness and an Interview with Paolo Friere. Cesar Augusto Rossatto, University of California, Los Angeles Transforming Capitalism: A Reconsideration of the Evolution-Revolution:     Debate: Winders and Marsh, Emory University 6. Marxist Sociology Section Graduate Symposium 11 Table. Presider: Yi Li, University of Illinois, Chicago The Misunderstandings of Marx's Social Thought. Yi Li, University of Illinois, Chicago. "In These New Times": Theories of Mass Culture and "The Revolution from the Right" as Imagined in the Movies (1980-1993).  Henry Rich, American University Advertising in Marxist Political Economy. A. Scan Noonan, Kansas State University 7. Race, Class, and Gender from a Marxist Perspective Table Presider: Jean Ail Belkbir, University of New Orleans Segregation and Segmentation: Race and Gender as Determinants of Class Location. Ed Collom, University of California, Riverside Frantz Fanon, Marx, and the Narratives of Race and Class.     Valerie Scatamburlo, York University 8. Marxism and Mass Culture Table Presider: Robert C Schehr, University of Illinois, Springfield Marxist Interpretations of Crime Films, Robert C Schehr, University of Illinois, Springfield Take Me  Out To  the Post-Modern Ballgame: Class and Politics and the Stadiums, Barry Truchil, Rider University Give Us Our Daily Violence: Daytime Television Talk Programs and the Discourse of Class Consciousness. Lloyd Klein, Medgar Evers College, City University of New York; Steven Lang, Queens College, City University of New York 9. Medicine under Capitalism. Table Presider: Carle Muntaner, West Virginia School of Medicine Mental and Physical Health in Advanced Capitalism.     Jacqueline Carrigan, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire 10. Contemporary Policies in Southern Africa Table Presider: Martin Murray, State University of New York, Binghamton Transitions to Democracy in Post-Apartheid Southern Africa: Comparative Perspectives. Martin. Murray, State University of New York, Binghamton Hegemony and the South African Transition, 1976-1996. Ron Ktbill, New School for Social Research 11. Issues in Teaching: Marxism and the Classroom Experience Table Presider: Moustapha Diouf, University of Vermont Developing a Pedagogy for Teaching the Conflicts in Race and Ethnic Studies. Moustapha Diouf, University of Vermont White Privilege/Outing Whiteness in the Classroom. Mary T Baird and Marcia Marx, California State University, San Bernardino Bridging Difference. Joanna Hadjicostandi, University of Texas, Permian Basin INFORMATL DISCUSSION ROUNDTABLES: 12. Media, Wages, and Hours: What Gets Downplayed/Omitted in Presentations on the Double Exploitation Process. John C. Leggett, Rutgers University; ??? Bar, Sacramento State University; Hardy Frye, University of California, Berkeley; Mary Erdman, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Lisa Romanienko, Louisiana State University TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From cmanjarrez@jt.cc.va.us Fri Jul 17 08:28:38 1998 Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 10:31:36 -0300 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Carlos Manjarrez Subject: Web courses and control Dear PSNers: I think there is one thing that I have failed to make clear in my previous= posts. That is, when I refer to selling developed course to another= college I am not suggesting that I sell a pre-packaged "course on a disk"= that can somehow be run without me. To the contrary, I am an integral part= of my course. I used the word developed because, online courses require= more prep than traditional sections (a racial and ethnic relations class I= am preparing for the Fall has about 35 separate URLs and I think I am only= about 2/3d of the way done). What I show the prospective college is the= basic structure of the course that I have developed (once all of the pages= are created, links in place etc.) along with, readings & reading summaries= I place on-line, samples of threaded discussions, web-pages created by the= students in fulfillment of course assignments, samples of e-mail= "conversations" etc. (of course, all with the student's consent). They= then chose whether or not they want to offer the course. If they do, that= then means I have added another course to the ones I am teaching for the= next term. The reason I brought up issues of intellectual property rights is because= even though these are courses that we develop and teach, some schools are= trying to restrict our ability to go and teach the same damn course at= another college. The technology creates very new labor and control issues.= For example, since on-line courses can be offered and taken anywhere, they= are afraid that our teaching the same on-line course at another college= with reduce their potential enrollment - which it very well can. The= institution's concern in this regard is heightened when they attempt to= post these classes more broadly. Such is the case with these new= multi-state virtual college networks. This, I understand is a growing= phenomena. One example of this in the South Eastern United States can be= seen at: http://www.srec.sreb.org/. When more colleges start to do this,= these issues of ownership are really going to come to a head. Therefore, as I have suggested earlier, my posts are about control over our= labor and the things we create. I do believe that when we create and teach= over Internet we come perilously close to making the instructor irrelevant= (for the structural reasons I mentioned in yesterday's post). As such, we= as workers must remain ever vigilant to these issues of control. That is= why I cannot give a wholesale endorsement to Internet teaching - a process= that, in many ways, resembles a dance with the devil. Carlos Manjarrez=20 8080,0000,0000**********************************= ************** Carlos A. Manjarrez 8080,0000,0000Graduate Fellow Joint Center for Poverty Research Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research 2046 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 http://www.jcpr.org Email:carlosm@nwu.edu =09 8080,0000,0000**********************************= ************** From rcallen@eden.rutgers.edu Fri Jul 17 13:05:15 1998 Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 15:05:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Raphael Allen Reply-To: Raphael Allen To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Left Conservatism sources I agree with Valerie Scatamburlo, and Steves Sherman and Rosenthal that the debate on Left Conservatism (LC) covered in the Nation magazine is important and worth looking into. Like Sherman, I think the actual papers read very differently than the way they've been characterized by some. I found that The entire conference is being published in an e-journal, _Theory & Event_, in issues 2:2 & 2:3. The last of the papers, by Paul Bove, as well as the discussion, will be in the forthcoming issue, #2.3. The link is http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_&_event/toc/taev002.html#2.2 And there's a related link that lists all the institutions that have a subscription to Johns Hopkins U Press's "Project Muse"--the collection of e-journals of which _Theory & Event_ is a part: http://muse.jhu.edu/proj_descrip/subscribed.html Like Rosenthal, I believe that one of the problems at the heart of the LC debates (we might as well pluralize it since it resurfaces under a new name every season there's been any dissensus among Old- & New- Lefts, for decades now) is how to reconcile class and status without dismissing the latter as merely-identity, merely-cultural. Kudoes to Rosenthal and Coates for seguing to Oliver Cromwell Cox on this note, and to Robbin Kelley for taking up a defense of social-facts that should make sociologists proud! The devolution of Cazenave's "race& racism" thread, or last summer's sex & gender thread seem to turn on the question of the (supposedly weaker) ontological status of status viz class, of culture viz economy. Perhaps some of our impasses are modelling the problematic that the conference was addressing? Two more things. First, all the conference participants took issue with Chris Connery's conference poster, where Connery referred to Pollitt, Sokal and other select figures as LC's. Rather, as Butler said best, "Name-calling runs the risk of collapsing a complex body of scholarship and political work into a symptom".(from her 4th paragraph) Connery's conference-flier overstates his position, and her appears to correct it in his intro to the conference, while his panelists take turns noting their objections to the flier that's gotten more attention than the papers they delivered. Second, none of the panelists were anti-foundationalist in their remarks. Butler, for one, writes: "To call into question the foundational status of such terms is not to claim that they are useless or that we ought not to speak that way, that terms like "objectivity," "rationality," "universality" are so contaminated that they ought not to be uttered any longer. A serious misunderstanding has taken place. Calling the foundational status of a term into question does not censor the use of the term. It seems to me that to call something into question, to call into question its foundational status, is the beginning of the reinvigoration of that term. [...] How can they [these terms] continue to be mobilized when they are no longer being supported by a foundationalist justification." (from Butler's 4th paragraph) and then "I think that Gayatri Spivak puts this well. I paraphrase here: To deconstruct a category is not to eliminate it, it is precisely to make an inquiry into a category that we cannot do without" (from Butler's 5th paragraph) I'd really love to know what others make of any of the papers. -=- -=- -=- I've found the Robin Kelley book and the "actually existing" conference materials to be very helpful to my thinking about issues raised by the PSN community. They've also helped me understand the boundary work we use--and sometimes get done in by--in interdisciplinary waters, such as when i bring my Gender Studies scholarship into sociology, as well as when I bring my sociological thinking into Gender Studies mtgs (neither is easy right now!). Raphael Allen From jbiddle@ix.netcom.com Fri Jul 17 14:49:33 1998 by dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma013183; Fri Jul 17 15:49:07 1998 Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 16:49:45 -0400 From: J Biddle To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: re: on-line teaching Greetings! This posting somehow didn't make it to PSN, so I'm reposting. Subject: re: on-line teaching From: J Biddle To: cmanjarrez@jt.cc.va.us, psn@csf.colorado.edu Greetings! I apologize for anything that I may have misunderstood, or may not yet understand. I suspect that we are closer to agreeing about many points than we are distant from them. We do differ in some basic ways--for one, I don't regard my work as alienating. I do feel that adjuncts, including myself, put in long hours preparing for classes, on-line or otherwise, and like you, I often find it difficult to find time to work around my various responsibilities, including having children, working from my home, and other non-student related, non-course related demands on my time and energy. And certainly, I too, would like to be paid more than I am currently paid. (And I don't feel that I'm being exploited either. I choose to be an adjunct, and that choice doesn't negate my efforts to find a more secure position.) About "developed" courses--No, I havn't seen your courses, perhaps I could look at them some time? Perhaps your courses would change my opinion about how some computer based training environments, or "developed" internet courses work. As you said, instruction is a dynamic process--I personally have a difficult time imagining how one can capture in static form, the process of a dynamic learning experience, or convey that experience to an audience which changes each time they enter the classroom. So, perhaps we are dealing with a philosophical position here. Time too is a relative concept. I wouldn't expect that you would short change your students. I do think that you implied that you can make quick money by manufacturing courses for internet use. While it may be true that you can make money by writing these courses, in the long term, I feel that this type of work is damaging to us, to both YOU, and ME, because it creates a sense that WE, teachers, aren't needed, or worse, can be replaced by some technological tool or software, sold my (whomever). And there is another issue--whose interests are best served by the "developed" course--do the authors get royalties? How many students are served in one "course"? Who monitors these "courses"? How much do they cost, and who profits? I don't have anything more to add, I would hope to be able to continue the discussion, and I really would like to know more about your specific courses. Joan -- ^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+ Joan I. Biddle Ph.D. LTC,AG, USAR Sociologist jbiddle@ix.netcom.com *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ From jbiddle@ix.netcom.com Fri Jul 17 14:57:13 1998 by dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma014042; Fri Jul 17 15:56:54 1998 Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 16:57:33 -0400 From: J Biddle To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: online teaching vs the course as a commodity One more posting that didn't get through.... Subject: Re: Online Teaching vs. The Course as a Commodity From: J Biddle To: tgallagh@kent.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu References: 1 Greetings! Referring to Tim Gallagher's posting: > This kind of model where courses are delivered without the participation of > course creators in the teaching of the material, is nothing more than > selling courses. This is not about education -- it's about money. > Agreed. This very discussion, ie., about education vs money, is a topic of concern among many of my internet-adjunct-colleagues. > Where on-line technology has been demonstrated to be effective in improving > education is in the format of asynchronous learning ...... In this format course > creators actually teach courses. I have created each course that I've taught as have my DIAL colleagues.Moreover, we don't give up any of our rights to our material, and no one else will use it either. > Asynchronous learning has been demonstrated to enhance the learning > environment for students. A recent article in Teaching Sociology makes > this point ("Asynchronous Learning: Technology and Pedagogical Strategy in > a Distance Learning Course," David Jaffe. Teaching Sociology, vol 25, 1997 > (October:262-277). According to both Jaffe and Joan Biddle in her recent > post to PSN, this kind of teaching is more work than the typical classroom > course. If Noble is right in his summary of the motivation of the current > trend in the delivery of on-line courses, asynchronous learning with the > participation of the course creator will not become the dominant model > because it may even be more expensive to deliver the traditional classroom > course. My colleagues and I have been told that asynchronous courses, such as we teach, are expensive to deliver, however, I would like to disagree with Noble about the future of this format. I think that right now we are in a period of transition, and experimentation. During this time, the various formats for teaching courses on-line will be tried, tested, and some formats will survive, others will not. I personally think that the asynchronous format will be one of the survivors, and my reason: there's a direct connection between the course participants, with each other, and with the course prof, during the course, creating a unique, and dynamic course, and a course which is never the same as any previous version. The course may also be adapted to the needs and interests of the students, and the creator/instructor. Distance courses which offer little or no contact with other students, or with an instructor, are pretty empty places.( And when I refer to distance courses, I go back nearly twenty years, to also include also having had extensive experience with paper and book correspondence course formats in which one mails lessons back to a central location.) One of the reasons that asynchronous courses work, is that aside from being a learning space, the classroom is also a social space. People come to these classes because they want to interact with others who are interested in learning about the same topic. My impression is that the production of "internet courses" is becoming something of a cottage industry, in which "everyone" wants to stake a claim. Some of the efforts are unique, and innovative. Others are merely efforts to cash in on what may be perceived to be a trend. One indicator of this surge to profit from the "sudden" interest in distance education, or internet courses, internet learning, etc., is the confusion about what things are called--there seem to be multiple definitions for just about every term you can name, including "synchronous" and "asynchronous". > Noble's conclusions is bleak: "Quality higher education will not disappear > entirely, but it will soon become the exclusive preserve of the privileged, > available only to children of the rich and the powerful. For the rest of us > a dismal new era of higher education has dawned. In ten years, we will look > upon the wired remains of our once great democratic higher education system > and wonder how we let it happen. That is, unless we decide now not to let > it happen." I don't agree here with Noble either, except where he says that a "new era of higher education has dawned." yet, I wouldn't call it dismal. I think that technology has given us new options, and unlimited possibilities to explore. We have to learn to make use of those options, and explore the possibilities. If we don't do that, then yes, the future will be dismal. Joan -- ^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+^~^+ Joan I. Biddle Ph.D. LTC,AG, USAR Sociologist jbiddle@ix.netcom.com *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Fri Jul 17 17:49:25 1998 Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 17:01:51 -0400 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 7-17-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update July 17, 1998 In This Issue: -- The Budget Bill -- Sample letter to Members of Congress -- New Statistics On Children THE BUDGET BILL -- The House Budget Bill Threatens Children's Programs -- Each year Congress generally passes a budget resolution which serves as a blueprint for the nation's spending priorities. This year, the Senate and the House have each passed very different budget resolutions and a conference committee will meet soon to reconcile the differences between the two. A vote will likely occur on the conference agreement during the first week in August. It is very important that the House version does not prevail. The House plan reduces the federal commitment to children and threatens to undermine many programs designed to benefit working families. The House bill assumes $101 billion in budget cuts over 5 years to vital social and other programs. These cuts would be used to pay for new tax breaks for the wealthiest taxpayers. About 80 percent of the program cuts to mandatory programs come from programs targeted to low-income families, children, and individuals. Some of the harshest cuts are detailed below. These cuts come at a time when the federal surplus for fiscal year 1998 is $63 billion, according to recently released figures from the Congressional Budget Office. The clear purpose of the cuts is to finance a tax break, unlike budgets in previous years when spending cuts were aimed at reducing the federal deficit. Curtailing programs for children, the elderly, working poor families, and individuals with disabilities is an unacceptable way to pay for tax cuts. At a time when our nation is experiencing economic prosperity and a budget surplus, we should not be cutting programs that benefit poor and working families. The House Budget Resolution would result in: · Weakening Health Care: A cut of $12 billion over five years from Medicaid and from the children's health program Congress created in last year's Balance Budget Act. · Cutting Education: A cut of $6.2 billion over five years from education and training programs. · Reducing assistance to needy families: The House budget calls for $10 billion in unspecified cuts over five years from programs under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. These will likely include programs such as: Supplemental Security Income assistance for the elderly and disabled poor; the Earned Income Tax Credit for working poor families; the child support enforcement program; and the foster care program. · Rolling back welfare reform: The House budget would cut $1.5 billion over five years in grants for States' efforts to help welfare recipients enter the workforce. These funds were provided in last year's Balanced Budget Act. · Cutting food stamps: The House Budget Resolution backs away from last year's balanced budget agreement by repealing two food stamp provisions of the Balance Budget Act, cutting food stamps by $2 billion over five years. · Additional veteran's cuts: The House budget would cut veteran's programs by $10.4 billion over five years. These cuts would be in addition to the savings recently enacted in this year's transportation bill. It is important that your voice be heard in opposition to the House Budget plan which jeopardizes many programs for children and working families. Please call your Representative and urge him/her to reject the spending cuts as outlined in the House Budget Resolution. Send the attached letter (by e-mail or regular mail) as an individual or on your organization's letterhead to your Representative. If you would like, please tailor the letter to highlight a specific concern in the budget for you, your organization, or your community. To find your Representative's phone number, address, and e-mail address visit http://congress.org or call the U.S. Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121. *********************************** SAMPLE LETTER TO CONGRESS The Honorable (full name) United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative ______: I am writing to express my concerns with the House passed Budget Resolution. The House budget bill cuts federal spending by $101 billion over five years. The House plan reduces the federal commitment to children and threatens to undermine many programs designed to benefit low income working families. These cuts come at a time when the federal budget is in surplus. The clear purpose of the cuts is to finance a tax break, unlike budgets in previous years when spending cuts were aimed at reducing the deficit. Curtailing programs for children, the elderly, working poor families, and individuals with disabilities, as well as other important programs is an unacceptable way to pay for tax cuts. At a time when our nation is experiencing economic prosperity and a budget surplus, we should not be cutting programs that benefit poor and working families. I urge you to ensure that these families share in the nation's prosperity, not cut them out of it. Sincerely, ************************************ NEW STATISTICS ON CHILDREN -- Federal Government Issues Second Annual Report on the Well-being of the Nation's Children -- On July 15, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics issued its second annual report on the well-being of America's 70 million children. The report, "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being," offers a portrait of the nation's children, providing information on critical aspects of their lives, including their health, economic security, education, behavior and social environment. For a copy of the report visit http://nces.ed.gov/childstats. -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Liz Rochlen Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org From tr@tryoung.com Sat Jul 18 04:23:55 1998 (usr-mtp-55.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.55]) by HPUX.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 06:20:20 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Liberalism and 'A Swarm of Uncooperative Wasps' The Liberal Theory of Justice claims that a just society is one in which human beings are freed to pursue life, liberty, property and happiness [Jefferson removed property as one of the holy trinity]. Rawls rejected this monolithic liberal theory and posited one in which human beings must accept both liberty and 'fairness' in dealing with others... Those interested in Rawls 'Theory of Justice' will find an essay by George Armstrong Kelly of some interest. In brief, Rawls posits two principles of justice...since we cannot go behind that veil of ignorance which marks the fate of all human beings...the point is not that there is an omniscient god of whom one cannot know...but rather, the world is too complex and human capacities too small...so we must posit principles of justice with which we can live in peace with each other and our great ignorances. Kelly >From the Conclusion: ****** Throughout his brilliant work, Rawls's tone is measured and graceful, instructive, hopeful. But there is a darker, more chthonic aspect to what lies behind the veil. Of the alternatives we have canvassed, there is the Hebraic law--not to be countenanced here, for Kantian reasons; for it is the denial of autonomy (self-legislation), not placed on the hither side of the veil, and of [End Page 363] the liberty that becomes man's freely chosen--not granted--first principle of justice. Beyond this possibility, there is the abyss of nature and mortality: Rawls's noumena are, in a sense, the apprentice-guardians of the fatal curtain as well as selves who, bound by their bargain of justice, will be equipped to go behind it. If they were to go there before reaching their "fair agreement," or if the veil were to be peremptorily lifted, what would they find? They would, as Hegel suggests, find themselves--pluralized creatures of strife and desire, a multiplicity that unity cannot contain, a swarm of uncooperative wasps, a congeries of consumers with no single currency, a babel of life-plans--everything Latimer saw and shrank from. The two formal principles of justice, subscribed to before the curtain, are Rawls's noumenology antecedent to the discursive, centrifugal dangers of a phenomenology which, unregulated, would be fraught with "bitter experience." TR Young, Editor FROM THE LEFT for the full article, double click on: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/journal_of_the_history_of_ideas/57.2kelly.html TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From johnny.williams@mail.cc.trincoll.edu Sat Jul 18 16:00:41 1998 Sat, 18 Jul 1998 17:59:39 -0400 (EDT) From: "Johnny Williams" To: "PSN" , "ABS-L" , "Afam-l" Subject: Report Says CIA Knew of Contra Drug Links Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 18:03:39 -0700 These are some interesting admissions. Look closely at the fourth and last paragraphs in this article. Report Says CIA Knew of Contra Drug Links: Agency Continued Work with Suspects Los Angeles Times/published in Hartford Courant Saturday, July 18, 1998 WASHINGTON - The Central Intelligence Agency had indications that about 50 members of Nicaraguan rebel organizations may have been involved in narcotics trafficking during the 1980s but CIA personnel continued working with almost two dozen of the suspected figures, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday. An internal CIA study found that none of the suspected drug traffickers were in the top leadership of the rebels known as contras and that no one in the agency aided or abetted the narcotics trade, the officials said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, briefed reporters about the contents of a still-secret CIA report on charges that the agency turned a blind eye to drug trafficking among the contras, who fought a U.S. financed war against Nicaragua's leftist government from 1981-1989. "In some cases, we knew that the people we were dealing with would not qualify as Vienna choirboys, but we dealt with them nonetheless because of the value they brought," one official said. "In other cases, the allegations appear simply to have dropped through cracks in the bureaucracy." This week's report by the CIA inspector general was the second of two volumes produced in response to a 1996 series of articles in the San Jose Mercury-News alleging that the contras, with support from the U.S. government, introduced crack cocaine to the black neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles. The first volume of the CIA report, released publicly last year, said that he newspaper's charges were unfounded. The Mercury- News articles had touched off nationwide outrage. The new volume did not turn up any significant new allegations of misconduct by either contras or CIA personnel, but echoed earlier findings, the officials said. A U.S. official who had read the new report said that it largely confirmed the findings of the a 1989 Senate investigation led by Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass. *********************************************************** Johnny E. Williams phone: (860)297-2370 Assistant Professor fax: (860)297-2538 Trinity College Department of Sociology Hartford, Connecticut 06106-3100 e-mail: johnny.williams@mail.trincoll.edu From smrose@exis.net Wed Jul 22 15:11:16 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 17:05:49 +0000 Subject: Racism not just an ideology I have been away a week for family matters. I returned to find that the thread on racism and class exploitation had continued, and that I apparently wrote some ambiguous statements in my last message that have been construed to mean that I think that racism is only a set of ideas. I do not. I believe that capitalism is a racist system of class exploitation. The material aspect of racism is the super-exploitation of black, latin, asian, and immigrant workers in the U.S. and similarly situated groups of workers in every other capitalist country throughout the world. In turn, this super-exploitation enables capitalists to intensify the exploitation of all workers by driving down or keeping down wages and living conditions of all workers. This material aspect of racism includes not only low wages and joblessness, but also environmental racism, homelessness, denial of health care and education, all of which shorten and destroy the lives of workers. All these material phenomena of racism are inseparable from the capitalist mode of production throughout the world. I distinguished racism from class exploitation NOT to suggest that racism is merely ideas and NOT to imply that racism and capitalism are not connected and intertwined. I distinguished racism from class exploitation ONLY to argue that racism is NOT parallel to or separate from the capitalist system of class exploitation. It is actually the position that racism is a parallel form of oppression that leads to seeing racism as separate from capitalism or "epiphenomenal." Why is it crucially important to recognize both the material and ideological aspects of racism? First, failure to recognize the material aspect of racism means failure to recognize capitalism's crucial dependence on racism. This leads to the mistaken view that racism can be ended under capitalism and thus to reformist alliances with seemingly anti-racist capitalist forces (i.e., Clinton and Democrats). Second, failure to recognize the ideological (cultural) aspect of racism leads to a failure to fight against racist ideology and a failure to struggle against racist ideas held by middle and working class people. This leads to the fatal error of believing that we should just focus on class, and that racism will melt away in the heat of class struggle and revolution. This view treats racism as an epiphenomenon. Third, failure to recognize how racism is vital to both the material and ideological interests of the capitalist class, and how anti-racism is vital to both the material and ideological interests of the working class leads to mistaken strategies that treat large sections of the working class as beneficiaries of racism. This is a defeatist position with regard to white workers, and it leads to support of separatism and nationalism among black, latin, and asian workers. I think that many PSN'ers agree with these points "in general" and "in the long run," but disagree with them in particular and in the short run. Therefore, they support aspects of identity politics, postmodernist analyses, and reformist political strategies as temporary steppingstones in the present situation, while embracing a vision of revolutionary proletarian internationalism over the distant horizon. This outlook I believe will only produce further defeat, because striking GM workers and workers in Puerto Rico, IMF'ed workers in Asian countries, unpaid workers in Russia, and the increasingly proletarianized academic labor force in the U.S. can expect only more fascism and war from the capitalist system and cannot defeat that system with strategies compromised by identity politics. Steve Rosenthal From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Tue Jul 21 18:44:20 1998 Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 17:25:23 -0400 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: cdfupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update - Special Alert - 7-21-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update July 21, 1998 SPECIAL CHILD CARE NOW! UPDATE Subject line: Please call Congress! Reminder -- Join the National Call for Child Care and After-School Activities on Wednesday, July 22nd. Call 1-202-224-3121! Ask everyone you know to call, too! It's easy: 1. Call the U.S. Congressional switchboard at 1-202-224-3121. 2. Ask to be connected to your Senators and your Representative. 3. Urge your Members to vote for a major increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) to support quality child care and safe after-school activities for children. Your call makes a difference! Please call and support quality child care and safe after-school activities for children. Remind your Members that we need action on child care this year! Ask everyone you talk to today to call, too! You've done a great job so far -- but we can't give up! Call 1-202-224-3121 and ask to speak to your Members of Congress! Believe it or not -- just when you think you can't stand to call again, they finally start listening! If you've never called before, here's your chance! Phone calls are logged by staff and the squeakiest wheels get the grease! Questions? Call Brooke Thacher at 1-202-662-3557. Please Note: There will not be a CDF Update on Friday, July 24th. Please look for the next issue on Friday, July 31st. -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Liz Rochlen Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org From dicwc@omen.net.au Wed Jul 22 03:18:42 1998 From: "Deaths In Custody Watch Commitee (WA) Inc." To: "DICWC Members" Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 17:09:41 +0800 X-Distribution: Moderate Subject: School for Aborigines Reply-to: dicwc@omen.net.au "DICWC Interest" , "Oz Media" , "Pollies - Democrats" , "Pollies - Labor" , "Pollies - LibNats" , "Pollies - Other" , "Prison Watchers" media release DEATHS IN CUSTODY WATCH COMMITTEE (WA) Inc. E-mail: dicwc@omen.net.au URL: http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc School for Aborigines - Wednesday, 22 July 1998 "The announcement by the Deputy Premier, Hon. Colin Barnett, that the Education Department is to build a "school for Aborigines" is applauded by the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee as a significant step forward in recognising the unique and empowering nature of culture in educative processes" said the Chair of the Watch Committee, Mr Glenn Shaw. "It has been long asserted by us as Indigenous Australians, that this level and, it is to be hoped - quality of schooling, is necessary for our community to achieve in both domains, that of broader society, and most importantly within our own" he affirmed. As was reported in the West Australian newspaper today, a "School for Aborigines" would be built and that the "school would be staffed by Aboriginal teachers and would promote Aboriginal cultural values and beliefs." A paragraph from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody was quoted by Mr Shaw: Nyungar kids stayed away because they were too embarrassed because here was a white teacher who was saying something about them... [O]ur children felt embarrassed about sitting there and listening to something that didn't relate to them or it wasn't true. Mr Shaw cautioned that this initiative should not be seen as a cure-all. " As Aboriginal people, we do not have a problem with the recognition of our unique and powerful culture and spirituality" he said. "The issue remains that this State is the last in this nation to incorporate 'Aboriginal Studies' within the mainstream curriculum from years one to twelve, and delivered by appropriate people who are both professionally and culturally qualified. When this occurs, when we see the broader community learning about our society, both today, and prior to invasion, in their schools, we will all be the richer for our collective futures." He said, " I'm sure the untiring work of professional educators over the years cannot be ignored as organic to this decision. Decades of sweat and pain by the Aboriginal Education Training Council and its predecessor the Education Consultative Group has been of significant value to this Minister's decision." "Yes, we do commend the Deputy Premier and his initiative, but history tells us to be sceptics, sceptics until we see the buildings, the teachers, the students and a commitment to long term funding for our children and the future" Mr Shaw concluded. Media Contact: Glenn Shaw - 9265-6960 From erics@intergate.bc.ca Thu Jul 23 04:20:56 1998 Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 19:08:18 -0700 To: From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS UPDATE Hi there, Here is a sampler of some recent developments in the unfolding world crisis: 1) The forest products industry, the most important employer in the rural areas of the Canadian province of British Columbia, has laid off approximately 20% of its workforce in the past 12 months. The multiplier effect of these layoffs and other slowdowns related to falling Asian demand for B.C. resources has plunged rural B.C. into depression or semi-depression conditions. 2) Russia has received the first portion of the $20 million IMF bailout package, while major petroleum and other large Russian enterprises have warned in a large Russian newspaper ad that the conditons imposed by the IMF in exchange for the loan will spell disaster for the remaining viable portions of the Russian economy. Bare in mind that Russian industrial production has already tumbled to just 50% of its 1989 level. 3) South African currency has lost 20% of its value in the past few months, in response to the Asian crisis and other factors, and the crisis is continuing, as fears of major investor pullouts from the country abound. The country's international credit rating by Moody's investment rating service has just been downgraded, although two other country credit rating services maintained their previous ratings - for now, although they have warned that they too may downgrade if problems persist or worsen for South Africa. Such downgraded investment ratings typically serve as powerful forces leading to devestment in a country. 4) The Ukranian head of state has requested that massive aid be provided to the Ukrane, which he told Al Gore is in similar shape to Russia. 5) The U.S. congress has not yet approved the IMF request for an emergency allocation of $20 billion; consequently, the IMF, following its recent dispersal to Russia, is nearly broke, without substantial reserves to address further financial dislocations. 6) The South Korean union movement is considering another round of militant strikes, which the government and employers argue may further worsen the countries currency crisis. 7) The Canadian dollar has plunged below .67 to the U.S. dollar, and a major food supplier in B.C. has announced that its food prices must now be raised, as it can no longer absorb the greater costs associated with the lower Canadian currency value. 8) The Currency and stock markets in Asia, and western stock markets as well, are dropping sharply as I write this. Please send me a oneline response if you find this report and previous similar messages from me of interest. Thanks, eric. From KRAMERL@alpha.montclair.edu Thu Jul 23 08:46:47 1998 Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 10:47:30 -0400 (EDT) From: LAURA KRAMER Subject: Suggestions received for organizations texts To: psn@csf.colorado.edu In response to a mid-May request to several listserves, I received the following suggestions for readings in a sociology of organizations course. (By the way, a number of replies were from folks who teach an organizations and occupations course.) Most were accompanied by useful comments about the readings and/or about teaching the course. Thanks to all. Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization (Sage) Barbara Garson, The Electronic Sweatshop (Penguin) Ferree and Martin (eds.), Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the New Women's Movement (Temple 1995). Sims, Fineman, and Gabriel: Organizing & Organizations: An Introduction. (Sage: London, 1993) Powell and DiMaggio (eds.) The New Instituionalism in Organizational Analysis (Chicago, 1991). Rebecca Bordt, The Structure of Women's Nonprofit Organizations Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes David Collinson and Jeff Hearn (eds.), Men, Masculinities, and Managements (1996) Karl Weick's book on sense making in organziations (1995) Gideon Kunda, Engineering Culture. Dorrine Kondo Crafting Selves: Gender, Identity and Work in a Japanese Factory. Wendy Simonds, Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic. Sheryl Kleinman, Opposing Ambitions Chambliss on nursing Robin Leidner, Fast Food, Fast Talk. Nan Roberson, Girls in the Balcony. Susan Ostrander's book about the Haymarket Fund. Jennifer Pierce, Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms. David Dorsey, The Force Arlie Hochschild, Ties that Bind. Current Research on Occupations and Professions: Creators of Culture (JAI, 1993). Especially selections by Diana Crane, Ryan and Peterson, and Gilmore. Herbert I. Schiller, Culture Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Expresion. (Oxford, 1989) Gary Alan Fine, Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work. (Cal. U.P. 1996) Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Men and Women of the Corporatiion. Rothschild and Whitt, The Cooperative Workplace (1986) Hill and Cheadle, The Bible Tells Me So. Some older publications (not all in print, but might be useful for purposes other than required student reading): Charles Perrow, Complex Organizations Rhoda Blumberg, Organizations in Contemporary Society David Silverman, Theory of Organizations (Heineman) Robert Michel, Political Parties McKinlay, Processing People. Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom (Chicago) Also recommended: readers on organization from The Open University (London). Laura Kramer Professor of Sociology Montclair State University Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 (973) 655-7168 KRAMERL@ALPHA.MONTCLAIR.EDU From sshank@iunhaw1.iun.indiana.edu Thu Jul 23 08:50:53 1998 From: "Stephanie Shanks-Meile" To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:53:06 CST Subject: Marxist Section Roundtables Hello Comrades: Many thanks to TR for the posting the Marxist Sociology Section Roundtables!!! I wanted to let you know about two others which were omitted from that list. These are informal roundtable discussions. 13. Reading, Writing and Revolution: Popular Education for Our Times Walda Katz Fishman, Howard University Jerome Scott, Project South Judy Aulette, University of North Carolina-Charlotte Ralph C. Gomes, Howard University Wanda Alderman-Swain, Seaton Hall University Debbie Goodwin-Perkins, University of Tennessee 14. Hate, Oppression, and Supremacy: Developing a Left Analysis beyond "Extremism" Chip Berlet I also want to let you know that the section has reached out to other sections to increase our visibility and attempt to address the criticisms that we have neglected race and gender issues. Jean Belkir gave us a joint session with RCG entitled " How the Marxist Sociology and the Race, Gender and Class Sections Address Reace, Gender, and Class: A Dialogue" (Saturday, August 22, 10:30). Michael Grimes and I organized it as an informal discussion although the large number of participants required that we list it as a formal paper session. I want to let everyone know that Jean Belkir's roundtable for our section will explore the possibility of a reader on Marxism and RCG. Thanks, Jean!! Please stop by to share in this lively exchange. Also, Talmadge Wright organized a session on "City Restructuring and Social Exclusion" for the Section on Comunity and Urban Sociology. I am sure that there must be other links to sessions that I do not know about, so please post them. I think that it is important to support those sessions, not just those sponsored by us, to take the word out to other sections. Thanks so much for everyone's help in developing the roundtables. It obviously would not have come together so nicely without your cooperation and visions. Take care and I look forward to great meetings! For Justice-- Stephanie Shanks-Meile Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Associate Professor of Sociology E-Mail Address: SSHANK@IUNHAW1.INDIANA.EDU Telephone: 219-980-6787 From grzyb@uwosh.edu Thu Jul 23 14:06:26 1998 Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 15:04:37 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Gerry Grzyb Subject: Suggestions received for organizations texts Laura Kramer wrote [much edited out]: >In response to a mid-May request to several listserves, I >received the following suggestions for readings in a sociology of >organizations course. (By the way, a number of replies were from >folks who teach an organizations and occupations course.) >Most were accompanied by useful comments about the readings >and/or about teaching the course. Thanks to all. > >Barbara Garson, The Electronic Sweatshop (Penguin) > Last I heard, that one was OP. Does anyone know if it is back IP? >Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes > I use and highly recommend that. I was surprised by two omissions: Richard Edwards' Contested Terrain (which probably approaches Braverman in the number of citations to it in others' work), and Dan Clawsen's book (can't recall the name--shame on me!). I also use Guillermo Grenier's Inhuman Relations (great for exposing sham "participation"). Gerry Grzyb, UW-Oshkosh (I teach both the Complex Org. and the Industrial Sociology courses--the latter much more like a work and occupations course than the tradition industrial soc. course) From erics@intergate.bc.ca Thu Jul 23 18:55:34 1998 Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 17:55:09 -0700 (PDT) To: , backalleyjack@lynx.bc.ca (Bianca), "Elena" , "Ira" , , , "Susane", "Uri" , , , , , , , , From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: Asian Crisis sparks mass layoffs by Mexico's largest Steel company. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's largest steel producer, AHMSA, said it intended to eliminate 3,000 jobs and defer projects worth $146 million over the next four years as part of a cost-cutting plan sparked by the Asia crisis. In a statement received in Mexico City late Monday, Altos Hornos de Mexico SA de CV (AHMSA) said it planned to update the Mexican and U.S. financial community this week about the measures, grouped in a plan called AHMSA XXI. ``The object of the plan is to help the company successfully confront current and future market conditions until the year 2000 due to the economic recession in Asia,'' AHMSA said. Earlier this month the firm, located in Monclova in the Mexican state of Coahuila, announced layoffs of 1,006 employees and said it was suspending all non-priority expenses and projects as part of its belt-tightening measures. It was not immediately clear whether the 3,000 positions about to be axed included those 1,006 jobs. The company said the job losses would be equivalent to an average reduction of 14 percent of total personnel from AHMSA and its subsidiaries. At the end of last year the firm employed 20,000 people. The firm said the elimination of 3,000 positions would involve a one-time charge of $32 million related to severance and termination costs. AHMSA said it would defer projects totaling $146 million over the next four years and cancel non-priority projects worth $20 million; reduce transportation tariff and cleaning and maintenance costs, producing a $13 million saving; and save $5.5 million by cutting training to 600,000 hours per year from 1.6 million hours at present. ``AHMSA XXI will enable the company to obtain an EBITDA of $400 million annually, based on the expectation that there may be a 13 percent fall in steel prices in the upcoming months in addition to the 10 percent decrease in the past six months,'' the statement said. The company's planned capital investments of $170 million in 1998, $150 million in 1999 and $150 million in 2000 will not be affected, it added. Analysts have said AHMSA is particularly vulnerable to weak prices brought on by glutted global steel markets because its product mix remains relatively weighted toward lower value-added products. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. From erics@intergate.bc.ca Thu Jul 23 23:29:54 1998 Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 22:27:47 -0700 (PDT) To: , backalleyjack@lynx.bc.ca (Bianca), "Elena" , "Ira" , , , "Susane", "Uri" , , , , , , , , From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS UPDATE - MARKETS PLUMMET A stormy day on Wall Street Stocks plummet as concerns over weak earnings upset nervous investors How other markets in the Americas performed today July 23, 1998: 5:53 p.m. ET NEW YORK (CNNfn) - News of poor corporate earnings gathered like storm clouds over Wall Street Thursday, waking up the market bears and causing heavy losses in all major stock indicators. Blue chips tumbled amid a meltdown in the shares of Boeing, after the world's largest aircraft maker reported a 46 percent drop in its quarterly earnings. Meanwhile, debt rating agency Moody's Investors Service threatened to downgrade Japan's immaculate sovereign debt rating, triggering heavy selling in Asian markets that later hit Wall Street as well. Coming on the back of two days of hawkish testimony and talk of an inevitable market correction from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the news from Boeing and Moody's was enough to upset already nervous investors, sending many of them running for the exits and dumping stocks along the way. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 195.93 points, or 2.15 percent, to 8,932.98, its third largest one-day point loss so far this year. Market breadth was heavily negative, with declines beating advances 2,371 to 635 as 737 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Several computer sell programs added speed to the market's declines. The Nasdaq Composite lost 34.53, or 1.75 percent, to 1,935.22 and the S&P 500 index shed 24.33, or 2.09 percent, to 1,139.75. Not all Wall Street watchers felt discouraged by the meltdown, however. Michael Holland, chairman of investment firm Holland & Co., said a temporary pullback and a reasonable dose of investor nervousness are actually healthy for the market over the long term. (404K WAV) or (404K AIFF) The bond market closed higher, recovering after a rumor that an overseas central bank was selling U.S. Treasury bills erased the market's early gains. Bonds also benefited from the stock market's tumble as some investors took their money into the safer market for high-grade government debt. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 12/32 of a point in price, lowering the yield to 5.65 percent. The dollar strengthened against the Japanese yen, building on gains scored after the Moody's downgrade warning. But the talk of central bank selling in the bond market kept the greenback's climb in check. Boeing sends Dow tumbling News that Boeing (BA) earned only 26 cents a share in the second quarter, against expectations of 33 cents, sent the company's shares tumbling 6-1/4, or just over 13 percent, to 41-1/2. Boeing's disappointing earnings came on the back of weak results by Dow components Merck (MRK) and Disney (DIS), further rattling already jittery investors. Boeing was the most active Big Board stock. The company of Dow losers also was joined by blue chip club member Chevron (CHV), whose earnings dropped sharply in the second quarter and whose stock lost 2-9/16 to 81-9/16. And fellow Dow component Sears Roebuck & Co. (S) slumped 5-3/8 to 51-5/16 even after reporting slightly better-than-expected results. Elsewhere, weakness among major technology issues put additional pressure on the market, as shares of Dow member IBM (IBM) fell 3-9/16 to 123-7/8 and Dell (DELL) shed 4-1/16 to 105-3/8. Microsoft (MSFT) tumbled 3-3/4 to 113 in the face of a new Justice Department probe. Separately, the software powerhouse said sales of its new operating system, Windows 98, were poised to equal those of Windows 95 during its first 90 days on the market. Internet-related shares, the market's hottest issues lately, once again showed their highly speculative nature. Shares of online book retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) lost 6-3/8 to 127-5/8 even after the company reported a smaller-than-expected loss late Wednesday. Amazon's shares had rallied strongly over the past few days as investors prepared to hear about the company's earnings. But Internet service provider MindSpring (MSPG) saw its stock surge 8-11/16 to 149 after turning in a profit based on record revenues. MindSpring led the list of net gainers on the Nasdaq. And shares of Amgen (AMGN) rallied 4-3/4 to 76-5/16 after a strong earnings report based on solid sales for the company's popular drugs Epogen and Neupogen, blood treatments used by patients on kidney dialysis and those suffering from AIDS. Lehman Brothers and BancAmerica Robertson Stephens upgraded the stock. Finally, a tumble in the broader market failed to scare curious investors away from the shares of USEC Inc. (USU) on their first day of public trading. The stock, which priced at 14-1/4 in its initial public offering, was the second most active on the Big Board. USEC processes uranium to turn it into fuel for nuclear power plants. (Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers.) -- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang Dow industrials Nasdaq S&P 500 Click here for the performance of widely held stocks home | markets | contents | search | stock quotes | help Copyright © 1998 Cable News Network, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Mon Jul 27 08:40:54 1998 Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 08:40:48 -0600 (MDT) From: Martha Gimenez Reply-To: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Feminist Theory - Call for Papers (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 16:04:52 +0000 From: jane.makoff@sagepub.co.uk Reply-To: M-Fem@csf.colorado.edu To: A place for marxist-feminists to hang out Subject: Feminist Theory - Call for Papers Call for Papers - Feminist Theory Feminist Theory is a new international interdisciplinary journal being published by SAGE Publications in April 2000. The journal is being launched to provide a forum for critical analysis and constructive debate within feminist theory. The journal will be edited by Gabriele Griffin (Kingston University, UK), Rosemary Hennessy (State University of New York, Albany, USA), Stevi Jackson (University of York, UK) and Sasha Roseneil (University of Leeds, UK). They will be supported by Associate Editors (Sarah Franklin, Sneja Gunew, Trinh T Minh-Ha, Veronique Mottier and Alison Young) and an International Advisory Board. Feminist Theory will be genuinely interdisciplinary and will reflect the diversity of feminism, incorporating perspectives from across the broad spectrum of the humanities and social sciences and the full range of feminist political and theoretical stances. For further information about publishing in or subscribing to Feminist Theory contact: Jane Makoff, SAGE Publications, 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU Email: jane.makoff@sagepub.co.uk SAGE website: www.sagepub.co.uk From dicwc@omen.net.au Mon Jul 27 00:38:39 1998 "DICWC Members" From: "Jim & Yvonne Duffield" To: "Acker" , "World Indigenous Affairs - Oz Base" , "Church" Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 16:57:23 +0800 X-Distribution: Moderate Subject: (Fwd) SMH - Indigenous students "still face" uni racism Reply-to: staffy@omen.net.au ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Trudy Bray" To: "news-clip" Date sent: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 10:07:04 +1000 Subject: SMH - Indigenous students "still face" uni racism Send reply to: Indigenous students "still face" uni racism Date: 25/07/98 By LUIS M. GARCIA, Higher Education Writer Intentional racism against indigenous people by academics or students should result in their being sacked or expelled from their courses, a new Federal Government study recommends. It also says that senior academics and administrators be promoted only if they can demonstrate they are "responsive to the rights and interests of indigenous peoples". The controversial study says the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students enrolled in universities has grown significantly over the past decade, but concludes that racism remains an "entrenched" problem on campus. While universities had moved quickly to promote their anti-discrimination policies for the benefit of overseas students - who paid big money for their degrees - they had been slow to protect the rights of indigenous students. The researchers, from the Capricornia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Centre at Central Queensland University, detail a number of case studies to back up their findings of entrenched racism. In one case an Aboriginal man had worked at an institution for more than 30 years but was still accused of stealing a raincoat given to him by a supervisor, and later criticised for "offensive body odour" and reprimanded for swearing. In another case, a senior executive had appointed an Aboriginal woman as a receptionist in the main office because he said, it was "great public relations for the university" when outsiders came to visit. "Indigenous students speak of racist attitudes and behaviour they experience in lectures, tutorials and service areas such as the students' union," the researchers concluded. "Indigenous students said they were distressed by classes in which students were encouraged to "give their views', as often these views were racist. "Unfortunately, the university policies examined in this study showed little concern for sustaining and advancing Australia's anti-racist heritage, or for engaging the complex and contradictory issues surrounding racism." The researchers said changing attitudes among staff and students was tough. At one regional university, for example, some parents had threatened to withdraw their sons and daughters from the campus because students had been told they should not use "offensive" racial terms. The Vice-Chancellor of Central Queensland University, Professor Lauchlan Chipman, said yesterday that while racism had not been eradicated from universities, institutions were making an effort to deal with racist behaviour. The executive director of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, Mr Stuart Hamilton, last night described the study as "challenging", and said its findings would be discussed next week by the committee's advisers on indigenous issues. A spokesman for the Minister for Education, Dr Kemp, said the minister had not read the report and was unable to comment. Equity Issues: Every University's Concern, Whose Business?, Lyn Anderson, Michael Singh, Clare Stehbens and Lennette Ryerson. Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." From cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu Mon Jul 27 08:28:13 1998 From: cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu X-Warning: UCONNVM.UConn.Edu: Host s02p19.ppp.uconn.edu claimed to be noelcaze To: abslst-l@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu, Psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 10:24:37 -0400 Subject: Whats Worse, Denial or Racist Realism? An article in today's New York Times caught my eye ("The Mystery of Racism As a Tale for the Young" p. A 4). In that the article the results of a recent national survey conducted in France were reported. The survey revealed that 58% of those surveyed "described themselves as racist of somewhat racist." Arabs were the major targets of those racist attitudes; followed by 'blacks." This leads me to pose the following question. Which is worst, the intense denial of racism characteristic of countries like the Netherlands (under the ideology of multi-cultural "tolerance"; see Philomena Essed's UNDERSTANDING EVERYDAY RACISM) and the U.S. (through its color-blind ideology; see e.g. Leslie Carr's COLOR BLIND RACISM) or the racist realism of countries like France. Or perhaps this is a false dichotomy. Please contribute your 2 cents. Noel A. Cazenave Department of Sociology The University of Connecticut U-Box 68, Manchester Hall Storrs, CT 06269-2068 Phone 860-486-4190 FAX 860-486-6356 Liberation Sociology--The use of knowledge from the study of society to challenge structures which deny equal rights and opportunities to members of socially oppressed groups. From DAVIDSON@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU Mon Jul 27 10:17:37 1998 Date: Mon, 27 Jul 98 12:14:08 EDT From: Alan Davidson Subject: Re: Whats Worse, Denial or Racist Realism? To: Noel , psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU What is worst in terms of consequences? Or what is worst in terms of doing something about it? In terms of immediate consequences, overt prejudice is more dangerous b/c it means folks have demographic support to keep another group down. In terms of working to eliminate prejudice, well, if you don't define a problem as existing (and can cite 40 years of NORC polls to define a problem away, then ... From jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Mon Jul 27 11:25:16 1998 Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 10:28:15 -0400 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: CHE Article on Kellner's ed. vols. of Marcuse This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------92BD5EFE93DCFE8E01935849 Thought people might want to see this. http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-47.dir/47a01101.htm -- Jim Salt jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Summer Address: 1459 City View Drive, #219 Eugene OR 97402 1-541-344-2559 "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." --- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach --------------92BD5EFE93DCFE8E01935849 .dir/art-44.dir/issue-47.dir/47a011 01.htm" The Chronicle of Higher Education: Articles
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Articles

RESEARCH & PUBLISHING

July 31, 1998

Giving a 1960s Cultural Icon His Due

A 6-volume publishing project aims to expand understanding of Herbert Marcuse, whose work has been debated more than read

By PETER MONAGHAN

In the tumult of the 1960s and 1970s, when the German philosopher Herbert Marcuse visited hotbeds of campus activism in the United States, thousands of believers in the counterculture -- radicals and hippies, students and the curious alike -- came out to hear him speak.

Few had actually read Marcuse's complex work.

That Marcuse, 70 years old in 1968, could become a cultural icon and celebrity seemed an unlikely phenomenon, says Douglas Kellner, a professor of the philosophy of education at the University of California at Los Angeles.

However, he says, Marcuse's telling critique of capitalism, and his striking advocacy of emancipation and revolution, resonated with the times. His views "were the Zeitgeist really, for at least a short period of the '60s and '70s. His work corresponded to social reality."

Mr. Kellner should know. During the "1968 rebellion" by students in the United States and France, he took part in sit-ins at Columbia University. "People were definitely inspired by Marcuse," he recalls, and by Marcuse's oft-quoted slogan "Imagination takes power."

Now Mr. Kellner is taking stock of the philosopher, who died in 1979, by editing the six-volume Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse for Routledge. The first volume, containing writings from 1942 to 1951, has just appeared.

"Marcuse got publicity everywhere for being the inspiration for these revolts, which of course was an exaggeration," says Mr. Kellner, who is also a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. But "there was a fit between his ideas and these sorts of events."

Mr. Kellner and other cultural theorists now argue that Marcuse was the key figure of the Frankfurt School, a group of German Marxist intellectuals who, beginning in the years between the world wars, shaped thought on the intellectual and political left. They proposed far-reaching theories of society and culture -- for example, that capitalism reduced the masses to conformist consumerism.

Marcuse, who fled Nazi Germany for the United States in 1934, gained particularly prominence in his adopted land, and provoked passionate responses from every political quarter. The right hated him as a subversive polemicist, and still does. In 1968, the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society tried to have him fired from the University of California at San Diego. More recently, Allan Bloom, in his 1987 jeremiad, The Closing of the American Mind (Simon & Schuster), strikingly twinned Marcuse and Mick Jagger as catalysts and emblems of nearly all the excesses of modern life.

In his forthcoming The Shadow University (The Free Press), Alan Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, steps up the attack. He contends that Marcuse, by arguing that progressives could reasonably limit the free speech of those for whom it served as a tool of domination, gave rise to what Mr. Kors characterizes as a "political correctness" mandate on American campuses. (Marcuse's defenders are already calling the charge a ridiculous misconstruance of an isolated statement that Marcuse later tried to retract, and a hypocritical claim considering right's efforts to suppress free speech during the 1960s and '70s.)

Marcuse even had detractors on the left. Liberals considered him obscurantist. Communists thought he departed too radically from orthodox Marxist views. Progressive labor accused him of being an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency because, during World War II, he had worked in Washington, D.C., for the Office of Strategic Services, the C.I.A.'s precursor.

To his leftist critics, it didn't matter that Marcuse, like other German emigre intellectuals, had helped the U.S. government to defeat Hitler, or that after the war, he had been dismissed by the service as it became the C.I.A.

The Collected Papers will permit a summation -- and a clarification -- of Marcuse's achievements, Mr. Kellner says.

The series is a highly significant project, says Stanley Aronowitz, a professor of sociology at City University of New York's Graduate School and University Center. "Anybody who's got their head screwed on straight would realize that Marcuse was one of the leading 20th-century philosophers," he argues. "It will make a real contribution to reviving a neglected figure in American as well as world philosophy."

Carl Boggs, an authority on radical social and political theory, and in particular on the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), agrees. "Marcuse, in my opinion, stands really at the center of the tradition, whether one wants to call it Western Marxism or critical Marxism or neo-Marxism."

In fact, says Mr. Boggs, a professor of social sciences at National University, Marcuse's work cast important light on the work of Frankfurt School theorists and their ilk, like Gramsci and Georg Lukacs.

Because key figures of the era, including Gramsci and Walter Benjamin, have already been the subjects of publishing retrospectives, a similar summation of Marcuse's work was overdue, researchers say. The six volumes, to appear over the next five years, will add to an already large amount of Marcuse's writing that is still in print in English.

The new volumes will gather essays, lectures, and other papers that were never published, and many that have been inaccessible because they appeared only in obscure publications, or were reprinted in books that are long out of print.

The current volume includes an unpublished and unknown theory of social change that Mr. Kellner discovered in the Marcuse archives, in Frankfurt, as well as correspondence between Marcuse and the patriarch of the Frankfurt School, Max Horkheimer.

Volumes two through six will focus on such areas as Marcuse's critical theory of society, the foundation of the New Left, and his writings on cultural theory and art as emancipatory activities.

New even to most Marcuse scholars, says Mr. Kellner, will be analytical papers on fascism that Marcuse wrote for the U.S. government. The papers are already drawing considerable attention in Germany, where they were recently published in a one-volume, German-language selection of his writings edited by Peter-Erwin Jansen, a free-lance scholar.

Marcuse's son, Peter Marcuse, a professor of urban planning at Columbia University, says he chose Mr. Kellner to edit the collection because of Mr. Kellner's many publications in social theory, starting with his pioneering overview, Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism (University of California Press, 1984). He began that book in the 1970s, after getting to know Herbert Marcuse.

"I had, in the last years of his life, a fair amount of personal contact with him," says Mr. Kellner. "I was a member of the generation that read all his books. He was the one, with Reason and Revolution [1941], who introduced me and many of my generation to Hegel and Marx." Similarly, he says, Marcuse's Eros and Civilization (1955) introduced many American students to Sigmund Freud, and his One-Dimensional Man (1964) alerted them to the Frankfurt School's provocative analysis of contemporary society.

He says Marcuse's stature -- "this obviously highly learned and brilliant old-European scholar" -- was greatly enhanced by his having sought out, promoted, and defended the New Left, the counterculture, and the antiwar and students' movements.

Marcuse's third wife, Ericka Sherover, deposited all her husband's manuscripts, letters, lectures, and even some books from his personal library in an archive in Frankfurt. She was to have prepared an edition of collected papers, but she died before the work had progressed far. So Peter Marcuse turned microfilms of the entire Marcuse archive over to Mr. Kellner. "I'm very happy with what he's done," says Mr. Marcuse.

He says the collection will provide few new biographical details, because "my father, by and large, did not keep personal letters." In fact, few personal documents of any kind remain. However, he says, some papers in the series will shed more light on known intellectual differences and indebtedness within the Frankfurt School.

For his part, Mr. Boggs is struck by the continuing relevance of the archive. "It's amazing, rereading some of the material, how contemporary it seems," he says.

He, Mr. Kellner, and other Marcuse experts believe the time is ripe for a revival of Marcuse's analysis of the social, ideological, and cultural forces at work in advanced capitalist societies.

"We still are in an age of a rapid mutation of capitalism, even a more thoroughgoing hegemony of capitalism, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the communist system," says Mr. Kellner. "We're also undergoing an unparalleled technological evolution. All sorts of new forms of culture, of ideology, of technology are changing every dimension of life. And this is what Marcuse was theorizing."

Also germane, he adds, are the "modes of resistance" that Marcuse advocated -- "the theoretical dimension and the aesthetic dimension." Those, Mr. Kellner says, were the remedies Marcuse saw for the impoverished "one-dimensionality" of modern capitalist man.

If the Routledge collection does succeed in reviving interest in Marcuse, it has plenty of work to do because the philosopher's influence has been in decline since even before his death.

Mr. Kellner attributes that trend to the explosion of theoretical discourses, to "the French turn of mind." During the 1970s and '80s, he says, "there was poststructuralism, there was Barthes, there was Foucault, there was Derrida. There was almost a flavor of the month." All those figures, he says, were hailed as "great theoreticians who would solve all problems."

The French theorists gained favor, even though they were famously difficult to grasp, by grounding their social analysis abstractly in linguistic and literary analysis.

By contrast, Marcuse was a distinctly German theorist grounded in the social and political theory of Marx and Hegel.

Researchers also say that modern German philosophy lost out in part because the French theorists provided relief from the neo-Marxists' relentlessly negative critique of capitalism.

Now, the tide appears to have turned, Mr. Boggs says. "There's been a very significant reaction against some aspects of the whole post-structural turn."

He and others hope that researchers will recognize how applicable Marcuse's thought is to many modern phenomena -- globalization, the growing importance of mass media and popular culture, and issues like postcolonialism, environmentalism, feminism, and new social movements -- all of which Marcuse addressed before academic fashion took them up.

Of course, not the least of the reasons for suspicion of neo-Marxists in Marcuse's lifetime was the existence of the Soviet Union. But, Mr. Kellner says, Marcuse was long a critic of Soviet-style communism -- such as in his 1958 book, Soviet Marxism -- and was in fact consistently skeptical of orthodox Marxism. "Classical Marcuse," says Mr. Kellner, was the philosopher's conclusion "that the proletariat was not a revolutionary force and that capital was not going to collapse tomorrow -- that it was constantly restructuring itself."

"Marcuse is always much more than just Marxism," he says. "There's Nietzsche in there, there's Freud, there's modernism, there are any number of cultural currents and theoretical discourses."

Equally important, Mr. Kellner adds, was the powerful dialectics in Marcuse's writing. This can be seen in the striking optimism, even utopianism, that set Marcuse apart from others in the Frankfurt School. For example, he wrote of the possibility of opposing capitalism by creating "alternative realities" through art, technology, critical theory ... and eros -- love.

So, Mr. Kellner says, utopianism for Marcuse was not escapism but liberationist politics: "The utopian dimension for Marcuse is the source of his revolutionary theory. In other words, he says that life could be different, that there is another way to live."

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com
Date: 07/31/98
Section: Research & Publishing
Page: A11

--------------92BD5EFE93DCFE8E01935849-- From tr@tryoung.com Tue Jul 28 05:10:04 1998 (usr-mtp-29.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.29]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 07:06:21 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.Colorado.EDU From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: hard copy of FROM THE LEFT social-class@listserv.uic.edu FROM THE LEFT: Hard Copy Version THE MARXIST SECTION NEWSLETTER of ASA Summer, 1998: V 22 No 4 SPECIAL ISSUE for the 150th ANNIVERSARY of the SENECA FALLs: 1848. ******** International Women's Day Born at a time of great social turbulence and crisis, IWD inherited a tradition of protest and political activism. In the years before 1910, from the turn of the 20th century, women in industrially developing countries were entering paid work in some numbers. Their jobs were sex segregated, mainly in textiles, manufacturing and domestic services where conditions were wretched and wages worse than depressed. Trade unions were developing and industrial disputes broke out, including among sections of non-unionised women workers. In Europe, the flames of revolution were being kindled. Many of the changes taking place in women's lives pushed against the political restrictions surrounding them. Throughout Europe, Britain, America and, to a lesser extent, Australia, women from all social strata began to campaign for the right to vote. There were many different perspective's on why this issue was important and how to achieve it. I mention here only a few of these differences. Some socialists saw the demand for the women's vote as being unnecessarily divisive in the working class movement, while others such as German Clara Zetkin and Russian Alexandra Kollontai successfully fought for it to be accepted as a necessary part of a socialist program. Other socialists argued that it was more important to do away with property rights in respect to the vote than it was to campaign for the women's vote which, if successful in England, would by implication mean votes for women of property. There were other divisions within the English suffragette movement about the way the movement was autocratically run from the top and about the sort of radical tactics adopted. Sylvia Pankhurst split with her more famous mother and sister over such issues, arguing that the main emphasis should be on connecting with and involving the mass of women, which meant also taking up the concerns of the sorely exploited working class women. She also argued that the suffragette movement should link itself with all other oppressed groups. In the United States in 1903, women trade unionists and liberal professional women who were also campaigning for women's voting rights set up the Women's Trade Union League to help organise women in paid work around their political and economic welfare. These were dismal and bitter years for many women with terrible working conditions and home lives riven by poverty and often violence. In 1908, on the last Sunday in February, socialist women in the United States initiated the first Women's Day when large demonstrations took place calling for the vote and the political and economic rights of women. The following year, 2,000 people attended a Women's Day rally in Manhattan In that year, 1909, women garment workers staged a general strike. 20-30,000 shirtwaist makers struck for 13 cold, winter weeks for better pay and working conditions. The Women's Trade Union League provided bail money for arrested strikers and large sums for strike funds. In 1910 Women's Day was taken up by socialists and feminists throughout the country. Later that year delegates went to the second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen with the intention of proposing that Women's Day become an international event. The notion of international solidarity between the exploited workers of the world had long been established as a socialist principle, though largely an unrealised one. The idea of women organising politically as women was much more controversial within the socialist movement. At that time, however, the German Socialist Party had a strong influence on the international socialist movement and that party had many advocates for the rights of women, including leaders such as Clara Zetkin. Inspired by the actions of US women workers and their socialist sisters, Clara Zetkin had already framed a proposal to put to the conference of socialist women that women throughout the world should focus on a particular day each year to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and International Women's Day was the result. *** HISTORY of the Suffragette Struggle. The struggle to achieve equal rights for women is often thought to have begun, in the English speaking world, with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). During the 19th century, as male suffrage was gradually extended in many countries, women became increasingly active in the quest for their own. Not until 1893, however, in New Zealand, did women achieve suffrage on the national level. Australia followed in 1902, but American, British, and Canadian women did not win the same rights until the end of World War I. The United States: The demand for the enfranchisement of American women was first seriously formulated at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848). After the Civil War, agitation by women for the ballot became increasingly vociferous. In 1869, however, a rift developed among feminists over the proposed which gave the vote to black men. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others refused to endorse the amendment because it did not give women the ballot. Other suffragists, however, including Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, argued that once Afro-Americans were enfranchised, women would achieve their goal. As a result of the conflict two organizations emerged. Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association to work for suffrage on the federal level and to press for more extensive institutional changes, such as the granting of property rights to married women. Stone created the American Woman Suffrage Association, which aimed to secure the ballot through state legislation. In 1890 the two groups united under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In the same year Wyoming entered the Union, becoming the first state with general women's suffrage (which it had adopted as a territory in 1869). As the pioneer suffragists began to withdraw from the movement because of age, younger women assumed leadership roles. One of the most politically astute was Carrie Chapman Catt, who was named president of NAWSA in 1915. Another prominent suffragist was Alice Paul. Forced to resign from NAWSA because of her insistence on the use of militant direct-action tactics, Paul organized the National Woman's party, which used such strategies as mass marches and hunger strikes. Perseverance on the part of both organizations eventually led to victory. On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19TH AMENDMENT granted the ballot to American women. Great Britain: In Great Britain the cause began to attract attention when the philosopher John Stuart Mill presented a petition in Parliament calling for inclusion of women's suffrage in the Reform Bill of 1867. In the same year Lydia Becker (1827-90) founded the first women's suffrage committee, in Manchester. Other committees were quickly formed, and in 1897 they united as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, with Millicent Garret Fawcett (1847-1929) as president. Like their American counterparts, the British suffragists struggled to overcome traditional values and prejudices. Frustrated by the prevailing social and political stalemate, some women became more militant. Emmeline Pankhurst, assisted by her daughters Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst, founded (1903) the Women's Social and Political Union. Her followers, called "suffragettes," heckled politicians, practiced civil disobedience, and were frequently arrested for inciting riots. When World War I started, the proponents of women's suffrage ceased their activities and supported the war effort. In February 1918 women over the age of 30 received the right to vote. Suffrage rights for men and women were equalized in 1928. Other Countries: Such European countries as Finland (1906), Norway (1913), and Denmark and Iceland (1915) granted women the vote early in the 20th century. Other continental powers were quick to accord women the right to vote at the end of World War I. The USSR and the Netherlands granted suffrage in 1917; Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Sweden in 1918; Germany and Luxembourg in 1919. Spain extended the ballot to women in 1931, but France waited until 1944 and Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Yugoslavia until 1946. Switzerland finally gave women the vote in 1971, and women remained disenfranchised in Liechtenstein until 1984. In Canada women won the vote in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in 1916; after federal suffrage was achieved in 1918, the other provinces followed suit, the last being Quebec in 1940. Among the Latin American countries national women's suffrage was granted in 1929 in Ecuador, 1932 in Brazil, 1939 in El Salvador, 1942 in the Dominican Republic, 1945 in Guatemala, and 1946 in Argentina. In India women were enfranchised on the same terms as men in 1935; in the Philippines they received the vote in 1937, in Japan in 1945, in China in 1947, and in Indonesia in 1955. In African countries men and women have generally received the vote at the same time, as in Liberia (1947), Uganda (1958), and Nigeria (1960). In many Middle Eastern countries universal suffrage was acquired after World War II, although women remain totally disenfranchised in many countries. AA Encyclopedia ********************** Feminist Sessions at ASA: 12. Regular Session. Feminist Theory: Historical Explorations Organizer: Evelyn Nakano Glenn, University of California, Berkeley Presider: Ava Baron, Rider College. 14. Regular Session. New Family Forms: Organizer and Presider: Scott Coltrane, University of California, Riverside 16. Regular Session. Race, Class, and Gender: Identity, Nationality, and justice. 21. Regular Session. Women and Development: The Gcndered Nature of the (Re)structuring of Work Organizer and Presider: Cathy A. Rakowski, Ohio State University. 64. Regular Session. Challenges of Development: Women and Minorities Organizer and Presider: Olga Celle de Bowman, Loyola Marymount U. L.A. 181. Regular Session. Gender and Work: Life Course issues Organizer: Ann R. Tickamyer, OhioU. Presider; Debra Henderson, OhioU ********** Friday, August, 1:30-2:15 p.m. Marxist Section Business Meeting ********* MARXIST SECTIONS at the ASA: Friday, August 21, 8:30 a.m 24. Section on Marxist Sociology. In What Ways Is the Concept of White Skin Privilege helpful or Harmful to Exposing and Eliminating Racism? Organizer and Presider: Steven J.. Rosenthal. Panel: Alan Spector Purdue University Calumet; Stephanie Shanks Meile, Indiana U-NW; Woody Duane, Hillyer College-UHartford 101. Section on Marxist Sociology. Author Meets Critics: Erik Olin Wright's Class Counts. Cambridge University Press, 1997) Organizer And Presider: Rhonda J. Levine, Colgate University Critics: Michael Burawoy, UC-Berkeley; Carole C. Marks; UDelaware; Peter Meiksins, Cleveland St Univ.; Paula England, UArizona ****** 78. MARXIST ROUNDTABLES. Organizer: Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Indiana University Northwest 1. Class and Class Consciousness. Table Presider: Berch Berberoglu, University of Nevada, Reno. **Class, State, and Revolution. Berch Berberoglu, UNevada, Reno . **The Capital-Labor Conflict Revisited: Forging a New Perspective from the Encounter between Marxism and Citizenship Theory. David Spencer, Trinity University. **Reconceptualizing Labor. Darlene R. Miller, Johns Hopkins University **Ideology, Culture, and Memory. Larry M. Miller, UMass-Dartmouth. 2. Marxism and Feminism: Table Presider: Martha E. Gimenez, UColorado, Boulder. **Marx and Feminist Readings of Marx. Martha E. Gimenez, UColorado. 3. Global Capitalism, First World Imperialism, and Third World Politics. Presider:James W Russell, ECSU **NAFTA and New Patterns of Mexican Migration to the U.S. James W Russell, ECSU. **High-Tech Trade Wars in Brazil: Lessons for Development Theory. Sara Schoonmaker, URedlands. 4. World Systems and the History of Capitalism. Presider: Steven McGuire, Muskingum College **Shadow Energy and the Colonial Expansion. Steven McGuire. **The Ideology of Development. Heidi R. Ballard, Muskingum College. 5. Marxist Sociology Section Graduate Symposium I. Presider: John Consigli, University of Rochester. **The Prison of Indeterminate Space An Investigation of Gramsci's Reflections on Hegemony and Democracy. John Consigli. **Fatalism, Critical Temporal Consciousness and an Interview with Paolo Friere. Cesar Augusto Rossatto, UCal, L.A. **Transforming Capitalism: A Reconsideration of the Evolution-Revolution: Debate: William Winders and Kirsten Marsh, Emory University. 6. Graduate Symposium II. Presider: Yi Li, UIChicago. **The Misunderstandings of Marx's Social Thought. Yi Li, UIChicago. **In These New Times;: Theories of Mass Culture and The Revolution from the Right as Imagined in the Movies (1980-1993). Henry Rich, AmerU. **Advertising in Marxist Political Economy. A. Scan Noonan, K.St.U. **Race, Class, and Gender from a Marxist Perspective. Presider: Jean Ail Belkbir, University of New Orleans. **Segregation and Segmentation: Race and Gender as Determinants of Class Location. Ed Collom, UC, Riverside. **Frantz Fanon, Marx, and the Narratives of Race and Class. Valerie Scatamburlo, York University. 8. Marxism and Mass Culture. Table Presider: Robert C Schehr, UIll-Sp. **Marxist Interpretations of Crime Films, Robert C Schehr, UI,Sp. **Take Me Out To the Post-Modern Ballgame: Class and Politics and the Stadiums, Barry Truchil, RiderU. **Give Us Our Daily Violence: Daytime Television Talk Programs and the Discourse of Class onsciousness. Lloyd Klein, Medgar Evers, SUNY; Steven Lang, Queens College, CUNY 9. Medicine under Capitalism.. Presider: Carles Muntaner, WV School of Medicine. **Mental and Physical Health in Advanced Capitalism. Jacqueline Carrigan, UWisconsin, Eau Claire. 10. Contemporary Policies in Southern Africa. Presider: Martin Murray, SUNY, Binghamton. **Transitions to Democracy in Post-Apartheid Southern Africa: Comparative Perspectives. Martin. Murray. **Hegemony and the South African Transition, 1976-1996. Ron Krabill, New School for Social Research. 11. Issues in Teaching: Marxism and the Classroom Experience. Presider: Moustapha Diouf, UVermont. **Developing a Pedagogy for Teaching the Conflicts in Race and Ethnic Studies. Moustapha Diouf. **White Privilege/Outing Whiteness in the Classroom. Mary T Baird and Marcia Marx, Cal ST U, SanBern. **Bridging Difference. Joanna Hadjicostandi, UTexas, Permian Basin. 12. Media, Wages, and Hours: What Gets Downplayed/Omitted in Presentations on the Double Exploitation Process. John C. Leggett, Rutgers. Organizer/Presider Sohan Scharma, Sacramento StU; Hardy Frye, UC Berkeley; Mary Erdman, UNC Greensboro; Lisa Romanienko, LSU. 13. Reading, Writing and Revolution: Popular Education for Our Times: Walda Katz Fishman, Howard U.; Jerome Scott, Project South; Judy Aulette, UNC-Charlotte; Ralph C. Gomes, Howard U; Wanda Alderman-Swain, Seaton Hall; Debbie Goodwin-Perkins, UTenn 14. Hate, Oppression, and Supremacy: Developing a Left Analysis beyond Extremism: Chip Berlet. *****VISIT THE ELECTRONIC VERSION for a lot more on the 150th Anniversary of the history of women's movement in the USA and around the world. http://www.tryoung.com/fromleft/SUMMER98/SUMMERIndex.htm TRYoung, Editory TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr Tue Jul 28 04:45:27 1998 for Paris Tue, 28 Jul 1998 12:45:55 +0200 (MET DST) for Paris Tue, 28 Jul 1998 12:45:52 +0200 (MET DST) Reply-To: From: "Timothy Mason" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Re: Whats Worse, Denial or Racist Realism? Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 14:17:07 +0200 Noel Cazenave asks : "Which is worst, the intense denial of racism characteristic of countries like the Netherlands (under the ideology of multi-cultural "tolerance"; see Philomena Essed's UNDERSTANDING EVERYDAY RACISM) and the U.S. (through its color-blind ideology; see e.g. Leslie Carr's COLOR BLIND RACISM) or the racist realism of countries like France. Or perhaps this is a false dichotomy." The greater readiness of the French to call themselves racist is largely the result of campaigning by the right-wing National-Front, encouraged by the passivity of the left, and even by - argue some - the support of Francois Mitterand. It is, then, the result of a specific history, rather than a reflection of some deeper national characteristic. I can see no reason to congratulate the French on their greater 'realism'. Regards Tim Mason Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr From smrose@exis.net Tue Jul 28 10:46:27 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: ABSLST-L@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU, PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 12:47:39 +0000 Subject: Re: Whats Worse, Denial or Racist Realism? To SBS and PSN: I think Noel's third option is correct: It's a false dichotomy. Denial and open promotion of racism occur together in both France and the U.S. Sometimes different factions of the ruling class follow different racist strategies. For example, French mainstream parties have imposed the racist anti-immigrant measures called for by Le Pen, while "disassociating" themselves from the National Front's most openly fascist ideas. In the US Clinton promotes multiculturalism and a dialogue on race while adopting the racist policies advocated by rightwing Republicans and the KKK. You can win more people to support or accept racist policies if you have a two-pronged strategy: One message that is openly racist and another that is more subtle. Even perpetrators of genocide deny that it is happening. In Sociology this false dichotomy often takes the form of the "dispute" between those who claim that blacks are biologically inferior and those who claim blacks are culturally inferior. The latter is proclaimed to be an anti- or non-racist position, and it is put forward by black conservatives and many white liberals. Both positions are racist. Each position is dangerous in its own way: The biological position because it proclaims finality and immutability; the cultural position because it deceives many people and holds out the illusory prospect of reforming culturally defective people. Steve Rosenthal Steve Rosenthal > This leads me to pose the following question. Which is worst, the > intense denial of racism (under the ideology of multi-cultural "tolerance"and the U.S. (through its color-blind ideology; > or the racist realism of countries like > France. Or perhaps this is a false dichotomy. From spectors@netnitco.net Tue Jul 28 09:48:47 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Open racism or hidden racism Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 10:36:20 -0700 charset="iso-8859-1" As a side point: The statistic that said that 58% of the people surveyed considered themselves at least somewhat racist could include a distortion, since there are many anti-racist people who express their anti-racism by "pleading guilty" to having racist attitudes. ------------------- It has been fashionable to say that hidden racism is "worse" than open racism, but as to "open racism" versus "hidden racism" -- there is no difference. "Hidden racism" is open racism -- it's just not under enough pressure yet to burst into the open. As crises develop, the necessities for increased exploitation, increased segmentation of the work force, and increased cultural, social, and political expressions of various types of racism become more overt. This is not just some kind of direct mechanical process, perfectly implemented by a competent capitalist class -- there are many complex expressions of the roots of racism some of which lead some oppressed people to support racism event though that support actually undermines their own life chances. But however complex the twists and turns, the roots of racism do ultimately lie in property relations. As long as there is a material profit motive -- in this era, capitalism -- there will be racism. And after capitalism is destroyed, there will still be a long, difficult, complex struggle to eliminate its residual effects. The struggle to win the working class and its allies to reject and militantly fight against racism cannot wait. Alan Spector P.S. -- I don't think anyone should take heart when some people feel emboldened enough to proudly declare their racism. Assuming that the 58% does consist of "open racists" -- why assume that there are no "hidden racists" among the other 42% ? Usually, the way distributions on attitude surveys work develop is not bimodal -- in this case, anti-racist versus open racist. We must work to expose and militantly oppose all forms of "hidden racism" -- but if the political climate encourages open racism, that is a strong indication that the overall situation is getting worse. From erics@intergate.bc.ca Wed Jul 29 13:16:53 1998 Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 04:03:39 -0700 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , homeless_powwow@makelist.com, GERALD CHARBONNEAU From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS LISTSERV - JOIN NOW! Hi there, All progressive individuals and organizations worldwide are urged to join the new World Economic Crisis listserv. This listserv is a forumn for the sharing of information and dialogue regarding the rapidly emerging global economic crisis. In addition to interactive information sharing, the list will feature updates from the list administrators on the crisis and its growing ramifications and impacts in countries around the world from Asia to Russia to South Africa to Mexico to Canada. In addition to information-sharing, this listserv is intended to help prepare the ground for coalesence, cooperation, and coalition of progressive people and organizations in each country as the crisis develops, and as ordinary people in each country come to feel the necessity to work together to defend their rights and build new cooperative forms to reconstruct their lives and that of the planet. To subscribe to the list, just point your browser to: http://www.makelist.com/list/world-crisis/ If you have any trouble subscribing, write to listadministration at: erics@intergate.bc.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- World Crisis List is a service of the Stewards Corporation movment, a new movement of poor people seeking to work together to care for one another and the Planet. http://www.stewards.net (Operational again soon.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following material excerpted from the listserve welcome message provides more details regarding the list: Discussion in the list has three basic purposes: 1) Development of a clearer, more all-sided picture of the complex, multi-stranded, character of the developing crisis as it extends across the globe; 2) Development of strategic perspectives for a coherent social, political, and cultural response to the crisis regarding both: a) how best to expand our ability to work together to defend and extend the social, economic, political, and civil liberties of ordinary working and non-working people in the face of the assaults on these liberties which a crisis of this magnitude engenders; and b) how best to expand our ability to work together to build new forms of social support in which we undertake mutual obligations to work together cooperatively to care for and meet one another's basic and other needs. 3) To prepare the ground for and build the basis for close working associations of ordinary people and their organizations in political, cooperative economic, ecological, women's, anti-racist, and other areas as the crisis develops and as ordinary people in each country may come to feel the necessity to work together to defend their rights and build new cooperative forms to reconstruct their lives and that of the planet. Discussion or information pertaining to developments in specific countries or regions, as well as of general global trends in economic and other sectors, are all welcome in the list. World Crisis List is a service of the Stewards Corporation movment, a new movement of poor people seeking to work together to care for one another and the Planet. http://www.stewards.net (Operational again soon.) From RPlatkin@aol.com Wed Jul 29 13:18:49 1998 From: RPlatkin@aol.com Wed, 29 Jul 1998 15:17:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 15:17:20 EDT To: smrose@exis.net, PSN@csf.colorado.edu junzun@msn.com, RSSO314@UVM.haifa.ac.il, ALAEC06@aol.com, Ct20001@aol.com, jj828@earthlink.net, rcmarheine@paccd.cc.ca.us, DickVet@aol.com, faroble@juno.com, 18188872842@faxaway.com Subject: Cultural Pluralism as a pro and anti-racist model To follow-up on Steve Rosenthal's examples of French and U.S. ruling classes which simultaneously promote and oppose racism, we have a classical example from the United States, cultural pluralism, repackaged in recent years as multi-culturalism. It has been the working model or the acculturation and assimilation of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States for nearly 80 years. Furthermore, it was established in the early 1920's by Horace Kallen as an anti-nativist response to the KKK. On one hand it postulates that all Americans should share a common enough culture to be able to work and study together without open strife and communication difficulties. (I believe the multi-culturalists would eagerly add the military to this list). BUT, cultural pluralism promotes one of the primary components of racism, ethnic separatism, which it wants to maintain in all primary social relations. In this model of race and ethnic relations, you would study, work, and fight in a diverse environment, but then return after 5:00 P.M. to a segregated one. Oila! Opposition and promotion or racism -- and potentially fascism -- in one nifty theory, which has been well translated into practice by political liberals for at least three generations in the United States. Dick Platkin rplatkin@aol.com From dtaylor2@condor.depaul.edu Wed Jul 29 14:49:09 1998 Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 15:48:53 -0500 (CDT) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Douglas Taylor Subject: resourse help Dear Colleagues: I'm teaching a course this year on technology and democracy. The course will examine issues of equality, democratic participation, and power in relation to contemporary technology [with an emphasis on I.T.]. Any suggestions for a text which is both provocative and accessible [first and second year students]. Thanks, Douglas Taylor DePaul University From anarres@PEAK.ORG Thu Jul 30 05:29:35 1998 Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 04:29:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Blaine Vogt Vogt To: Douglas Taylor Subject: Re: resourse help Douglas: take a look at __Democracy and Technology__ by Richard E. Sclove (Guilford Press, 1995); also Roy Morrison's discussion of industrial modernity and its discontents in __Ecological Democracy__ (South End Press, 1995). Landon Winter's __Autonomous Technology__ (1977), David Noble's __America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism__ (1977) and his __Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation__ (1986), all have something to offer, though you might want to select particular readings from these texts. Finally, a recent work grounded in themes I would assume central to your course is __Exploring Technology and Social Space__ by J. Macgregor Wise (Sage, 1997), which summarizes and synthesizes a number of theoretical writings about technology and politics/citizenry, and adds to the debate around the democratic potential (or not) of cybernetic and information technologies. Wise usefully and skillfully maps the historic and contemporary contours of discourse about technology and democracy, from Mumford to Latour to Haraway. First, though, I'd look at Sclove's book, which takes as its theme and title the very concerns that organize your course: democracy and technology. Best Wishes, Blaine On Wed, 29 Jul 1998, Douglas Taylor wrote: > Dear Colleagues: > > I'm teaching a course this year on technology and democracy. The course will > examine issues of equality, democratic participation, and power in relation > to contemporary technology [with an emphasis on I.T.]. > > Any suggestions for a text which is both provocative and accessible [first > and second year students]. > > Thanks, > Douglas Taylor > DePaul University > > From brook@california.com Thu Jul 30 21:45:57 1998 Received: from duey.california.com (global.california.com [209.3.225.32]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id VAA07214 for ; Thu, 30 Jul 1998 21:45:48 -0600 (MDT) Received: from brook.california.com (ppp-209-149.california.com [209.3.225.149]) by duey.california.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) with SMTP id UAA01562; Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:45:31 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199807310345.UAA01562@duey.california.com> X-Sender: brook@global.california.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:47:29 -0700 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: Mexico & the CIA Cc: mjkinnuc@umich.edu, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, sepehr@netwizards.net, mohsen.hakim@mdh.se, awrapport@aol.com, seggilman@ucdavis.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The following story is quite interesting, though all the more so for what it says in the last paragraph about CIA involvement. I try to keep up with issues pertaining to both Mexico and the CIA, but this specific "thing" is news to me anyway. Has anybody heard of this already? Any other info?---Dan The Irish Times Thursday, July 30, 1998 Annan raises UN role in solving Chiapas violence Mexican human rights organisations welcome the prospect of international mediation, Michael McCaughan writes. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, raised a political storm in Mexico this week by hinting at a possible UN role in settling the increasingly violent conflict in Chiapas, south-east Mexico. "This is a conflict between Mexicans that will be resolved by Mexicans," responded Mexico's Foreign Minister, Mr Rosario Green. The prospect of international mediation was welcomed by dozens of Mexican human rights organisations, who fear further bloodshed in Chiapas since the national mediation body (CONAI) dissolved itself last month. CONAI cited persecution of its chief representative, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, as the reason for its dissolution. The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has respected a ceasefire negotiated in January 1994 but community pressure has grown on the guerrillas to respond to what is seen as unpunished violence by the army, police and paramilitaries. The conflict appeared close to resolution when rebel and government officials signed a peace accord in February 1996, but the President, Mr Ernesto Zedillo, has since disowned the accord and ordered troop advances against rebel villages. State violence has spread to other regions where poverty and repression have bred new guerrilla organisations, notably in Guerrero state. Survivors of a massacre of 11 Indian peasants in El Charco village in Guerrero on June 7th described 90 minutes of terror in which 300 soldiers fired on 42 people hiding in a schoolroom. The first group of unarmed civilians surrendered and left the building, arms above their heads. But two were immediately shot dead. Members of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) then followed, pleading for clemency, but were executed on the spot. The army issued an official statement claiming soldiers fired in self-defence. "How can they expect us to believe that the EPR members were armed with 14 AK47s, that the shoot-out lasted six hours, yet not a single soldier was injured?" asks Mr Rafael Alvarez, a spokesman for a local human rights group. A local bricklayer was hired to restore glass and re-plaster the walls, and to mop up pools of blood before journalists arrived. The local press found no evidence of bullets fired from within the schoolroom. The Mexican government has been angered by past reports in US newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, of open rallies by the EPR in villages across Guerrero. Hundreds of peasants cheered armed rebels who set up temporary roadblocks, ridiculing the government's dismissal of the group as "armed pantomime". In the neighbouring state of Chiapas, soldiers and police used tanks, bazookas and helicopters to dismantle an autonomous rebel village on June 10th, killing eight Zapatista supporters. Once more survivors contradicted the official version, claiming five of the dead had been taken away alive by the army and returned a day later, their bodies mutilated and unrecognisable. President Zedillo has presided over an unprecedented militarisation of the entire country with generals replacing police chiefs in Mexico City and troops sandbagged into towns and villages throughout rural Mexico. In a country where 40 million people live beneath the poverty line and elections are weighted heavily toward the ruling party, the Zapatista movement offers an attractive alternative to institutional politics. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, issued a statement last month calling on the Mexican government to scale back the militarisation of Chiapas and work towards a peaceful outcome to the conflict. "There is a state policy of annihilation by degrees," commented Mr Carlos Monsivais, a leading Mexican social analyst, "which aims to induce amnesia and apathy through the slow accumulation of corpses." A US State Department report in 1995 described Mexican troops as unprepared to face Zapatista rebels in prolonged guerrilla warfare. Since then hundreds of soldiers have received training in the US, while dozens more attend the infamous "Kaibil" army school based in Guatemala. "Kaibil" troops carried out massacres in Guatemala's Indian villages during the 1980s, leaving thousands dead in an underreported ethnic cleansing. A CIA-funded Mexican army battalion, the Special Airborne Troops (GAFE), has also been set up. The GAFE is attached in 100 man units to regional barracks and has been involved in several controversial incidents. From brook@california.com Thu Jul 30 21:46:29 1998 Received: from duey.california.com (global.california.com [209.3.225.32]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id VAA07275 for ; Thu, 30 Jul 1998 21:46:23 -0600 (MDT) Received: from brook.california.com (ppp-209-149.california.com [209.3.225.149]) by duey.california.com (8.9.0/8.9.0) with SMTP id UAA01663; Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:46:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199807310346.UAA01663@duey.california.com> X-Sender: brook@global.california.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:48:37 -0700 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: income, education, and health Cc: rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, mjkinnuc@umich.edu, browning@sfsu.edu, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, sepehr@netwizards.net, mohsen.hakim@mdh.se, awrapport@aol.com, seggilman@ucdavis.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Yet another study confirming what we already know... July 30, 1998 U.S. rich get healthier, poor get sicker By Maggie Fox WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The rich are getting not just richer but healthier, too, while the poor are getting more than their fair share of illnesses in the United States, the government said Thursday. Researchers who helped put together the government's annual report card on the state of the nation's health said they were struck by how strongly health, income and education are linked in this country, despite efforts to give everyone the same shot at a healthy life. "We might be able to do a better job," Elsie Pamuck, a health researcher at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), who helped write the report, said in a telephone interview. "What we see is this overall picture of how important your socioeconomic status is, measured by either education or income," she added. "What I think is very striking about this report is just how pervasive this is and how it cuts across a whole range of health behaviors." Despite years spent trying to iron out inequalities, the report finds that life is still not fair in the United States. Rich people are much more likely than anyone else to enjoy good health. And the rich are getting richer. "Income inequality in the United States increased between 1970 and 1996. The growth in inequality was due primarily to larger increases in income among high-income than low-income households," the report, more than 400 pages thick, says. The top 20 percent of earners made 22 percent more during that time, while most people earned only between 5 and 7 percent more. "Children under 18 years of age were 40 percent more likely to live in poverty than was the population as a whole in 1996," the report said. This was especially true if a single mother headed the household. And minorities are still the poorest group. "On the whole, black persons and Hispanic persons had a poverty rate about 3.3 times that of non-Hispanic white persons," it said. There is plenty of good news in the report. Heart disease and cancer. the two biggest killers of Americans, are declining in all groups. "Life expectancy is at an all-time high, infant mortality is at an all-time low," Pamuck added. "We have seen significant declines in recent years in the main causes of death, in heart disease and in cancer, from HIV and from gun-related violence." Life expectancy at birth for someone born in 1900 was 47.3 years. Someone born in 1996 can expect to live to be 76.1 years old, as compared to 75.8 in 1995 and 75.5 for someone born in 1993. Someone who was 65 in 1996 can expect to live another 17.5 years, up from 17.4 in 1995 and 11.9 in 1900. But income still affects this expectation greatly. "During 1979-89 white men who were 45 years of age and who had family income of at least $25,000 could expect to live 6.6 years longer than men with family income less than $10,000 (33.9 years compared with 27.3 years)," the report said. "This is the first time a lot of this information has been pulled together and examined in a fairly systematic way," Pamuck said. She said the Public Health Service might need to stop looking at health in a piecemeal way -- for instance how to fight high blood pressure or how to persuade people to stop smoking -- and look at ways of improving health overall. "As long as we approach it in a piecemeal fashion we are sort of battling the tide," she said. "Maybe there are better and more comprehensive ways to approach it and I really don't think we've had that dialogue in this country."