Global Oil Companies Undercut US Policies Toward Iraq

From RichP46533@aol.com Sun Mar 1 00:07:46 1998 by imo23.mx.aol.com (IMOv13.ems) id GYAOa05360; Sun, 1 Mar 1998 02:06:11 -0500 (EST) From: RichP46533 Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 02:06:11 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu SamiWassef@aol.com, mssourk@mscc.huji.ac.il, bj168@scn.org, Ct20001@aol.com, DickVet@aol.com, froble1@JUNO.com, Shirinfrie@aol.com, susanbok@JUNO.com Subject: U.S., Britain helped Iraq... PSN: More information for those skeptical that the United States and Britain, the two countries now intent on bombing Iraq for its remainingbiochemical war agents, were some of Iraq's major suppliers only a few years ago. Dick Platkin rplatkin@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ "U.S., Britain Helped Iraq Develop Chemical And Biological Weapons" Source: Reuters, February 12, 1998. A British television news program reported last week that the United States helped Iraq develop its chemical and biological weapons programs in the 1980s, and Britain sold Baghdad the antidote to nerve gas as late as March 1992. Britain's Channel Four television news said it found intelligence documents which showed 14 shipments of biological materials -- including 19 batches of anthrax bacteria and 15 batches of botulinum, the organism that causes botulism -- were exported from the U.S. to Iraq between 1985 and 1989. Twenty-nine batches of material were sent after Iraq killed 5,000 people in a gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988, the program reported. A senior Pentagon official said he stopped a 1988 order from Iraq for 1.5 million doses of atropine, which is used to protect troops from nerve gas. A classified U.S. Defense Department document showed Iraq had bought pralidoxine -- an antidote to nerve gas -- from Britain in March 1992, after the Gulf War. Channel Four also said it had uncovered U.S. intelligence documents which showed that both the British and U.S. government knew as early as August 1990 of the existence of Agent 15, a deadly nerve gas. From RichP46533@aol.com Sun Mar 1 00:33:11 1998 by imo19.mx.aol.com (IMOv13.ems) id GRSOa14703 From: RichP46533 Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 02:32:58 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Left Web Site on Middle East Oil Wars boundary="part0_888737578_boundary" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_888737578_boundary The attached article from the Feb. 23, 1998, Wall Street Journal was downloaded from a serious, anti-imperialist left-wing web site with amazing resources and links related to the current military/oil crisis in the Persian Gulf. The website: http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/mideastwar.html On some browsers I believe you need to add "www" after //. You may also need to add "/" at the end. Dick Platkin rplatkin@aol.com --part0_888737578_boundary name="WSJOIL.HTM" Global Oil Companies Undercut US Policies Toward Iraq

February 23, 1998

Global Oil Companies Undercut U.S. Policies Toward Iraq, Iran

By BHUSHAN BAHREE Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

GENEVA -- Far from the war rooms where politicians and generals study maps with little silhouettes of aircraft carriers and fighter jets, other people are poring over another map, with silhouettes that represent stunningly large pools of oil. On that map, the U.S. is already losing the battle for Iraq.

Whatever the outcome of the latest standoff with Saddam Hussein, Washington's efforts to contain Iraq -- and, less belligerently, Iran -- must eventually yield to the global economics of oil supply and demand, industry experts say. They sketch a simple picture: World demand for oil is rising, existing supply is running near capacity and new supplies are considerably skimpier than Iraq and Iran's vast potential, much more expensive to develop and will be slow to come on line.

The upshot, say international oil companies and industry experts, is that world demand will inevitably undermine the longstanding U.S. policy of dual containment in the Persian Gulf. Both Iraq and Iran have been welcoming foreign investment in recent years, and non-American companies have shown little reluctance, despite the threat of U.S. reprisals, to plunge in or at least establish ties so they can do business as soon as the green light goes on.

"We will definitely need their oil" in a few years, says Franco Bernabe, chief executive of Italy's giant energy company ENI SpA. With the lead times to bring oil fields into production measured in years, that means starting now. "We will have to come to terms with these countries very soon," adds Mr. Bernabe in an interview.

Major oil deals in Iraq, done and pending

Field Company Status* Reserves (billions of barrels) Majnoon Elf Aquitaine (France) Done 9.0 West Qurna Lukoil, Zarubezneft and Mashinoimport (all Russian) Done 7.5 Nahr Umr Total SA (France) Done 3.5 Ahdab China National Petroleum Corp. Done 0.4 Subba China National, Machinoexport (Russia) and Lamaj (Netherlands) Pending 2.2 Ratawi Royal Dutch/Shell (Netherlands/U.K.) Pending 1.4 Halfayah China National, Agip (Italy), BHP Oil & Natural Gas Co. (India) and others Pending 0.7 Nasiryah Agip (Italy), Repsol (Spain) Pending 0.5

*Done deals are production-sharing contracts subject to ratification once U.N. sanctions on Iraq are lifted. Source: Petroconsultants SA, Geneva

Drilling on Dangerous Ground

That's not how Washington sees it. U.S. officials insist they aren't planning any changes in the dual containment policy -- which seeks to limit the trouble-making potential of Iraq and Iran's governments until they are less inclined to make trouble -- despite the lack of enthusiasm and support from Washington's Western allies. "Clearly, there is an interest in Iranian and Iraqi oil," a U.S. State Department official says, "but some of those nations who are less vigilant than we are on containment are motivated by commercial interests."

That motivation is certainly driving major oil companies toward Iraq and Iran, which have some of the cheapest oil in giant deposits. "The world won't come to an end if we don't have their oil," says Cyrus Tahmassebi, president of Bethesda-based Energy Trends Inc. and former chief economist of Ashland Oil. But it would be a great misallocation of capital to walk away from oil that costs $2 a barrel to produce, and go to the North Sea and other places where production costs are $5 to $10 a barrel, Mr. Tahmassebi says. The U.S. Energy Department puts the cost to produce a barrel of oil in the Persian Gulf at between 99 cents and $1.49 a barrel, depending on the size of the field.

Forecasters assume that, one way or another, the oil capacities of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Iraq and Iran are members, will be expanded to meet rising demand. Otherwise, says the U.S. Energy Department's oil-market review, prices could escalate.

Who Will Supply Extra Oil?

Who will supply all the extra oil? ENI's Mr. Bernabe says Iraq's reserves, the second-largest in the world after Saudi Arabia's, and those of Iran, which are somewhat smaller, will have to come into play. And neither Iran nor Iraq has the finances to substantially expand production capacity without foreign capital.

"It's not an easy situation," says Tatsuo Masuda, head of emergency preparedness at the Paris-based International Energy Agency. "From the point of view of global security, it is desirable to have more oil capacity in reserve."

The safety buffer of unused capacity is estimated variously at around two million barrels a day above the 75 million barrels a day of oil the world is expected to consume this year. Saudi Arabia, mindful of its key role in world oil markets, already is considering expanding its output capacity by some 2 to 12 million barrels a day.

But Saudi Arabia, like Kuwait, isn't open to foreign oil companies seeking production assets. For that, companies have to look elsewhere.

Eyeing Caspian Sea Region

The U.S. has promoted the Caspian Sea region as an alternative for oil companies hungry to buy oil reserves that they can't find themselves. Companies from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere are now active in such oil-rich countries as Azerbaijan and Kazakstan. But the Caspian is no Middle East when it comes to oil reserves, and finding export routes through the territory of contentious neighbors continues to be a problem despite several recently announced pipeline agreements.

The U.S. Energy Department predicts that the entire Caspian region may be able to export some three million barrels a day of oil by 2010, when world demand by some estimates is expected to be about 96 million barrels a day. Many other estimates of Caspian Sea exports during this period are lower, suggesting that oil from this region will be too little and too late in the medium term, when rising demand is expected to coincide with a peak and a subsequent decline in North Sea output from around 2003.

Only the Persian Gulf countries have the reserves and easy accessibility to markets, and could account for half of world production 15 years from now.

Iraq's proven reserves alone, at some 112 billion barrels, compared to Saudi Arabia's 250 billion barrels of proven reserves, are more than a tenth of the world total. The U.S. Energy Department estimates Iraq's probable and possible resources, an uncertain reckoning, at an additional 215 billion barrels. And they are concentrated in very large, easy to exploit pools of oil -- an attractive prospect for oil companies that can use economies of scale.

Explosion of Activity Predicted

Once sanctions are lifted, "there will be an explosion of activity in Iraq," says Alexandre Muller, a geologist specializing in the Middle East at Petroconsultants SA in Geneva.

In fact, the head of Iran's parliamentary oil commission recently said the country needed to invest $90 billion over the next 10 years just to avoid a drop in oil production.

Oil industry experts think that in Iraq, some $30 billion to $60 billion may be needed to raise oil production to about six million barrels a day. A former Iraqi oil minister, Fadhil al-Chalabi, says the country will need about $5 billion to bring its production capacity to pre-Gulf War levels of slightly more than three million barrels a day in the first two or three years after sanctions are lifted.

With such investment needs at stake, Iraq and Iran are welcoming foreign oil companies. It's an offer that oil companies find increasingly hard to decline despite the threat of U.S. reprisals. More than 40 companies continue to negotiate for contracts, including for exploration rights in Iraq's western desert, which is thought to contain large undiscovered reserves. Indeed, Iraq has exploited only a few of the fields it has already discovered.

So far, the losers in Iraq are oil companies from the U.S. and Britain -- which shares Washington's hard line toward Iraq -- the very countries that may end up leading the bombing of the country.

"The size of Elf [France's Elf Aquitaine SA] as a company would double overnight" with the stake it's negotiating with Iraq for the Majnoon field, says Roger Diwan, an analyst at the Boston offices of consultancy Petroleum Finance Co. And Majnoon is just one of Iraq's supergiants.

But some analysts, looking at their supply-and-demand projections and factoring in the recent Asian economic crisis, don't think such huge resources need to be developed in Iraq so soon. "We can get away with output restraints on Iraq" for some time, especially because Saudi Arabia still has the capacity to produce more oil, says Fareed Mohamedi, a managing director of Washington-based Petroleum Finance Co.

In the end it comes down to a matter of timing, with oil companies that aren't restricted by being British or Americans eager to secure cheap oil assets that they know will be needed in a few years, if not sooner. And the low-cost giants of the Middle East can still do wonders for a company's profit. Says Mr. Tahmassebi of Energy Trends: Iran and Iraq will be "a bonanza for oil companies."

--part0_888737578_boundary-- From eric@stewards.net Sun Mar 1 17:19:26 1998 Sun, 1 Mar 1998 19:19:57 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 19:19:57 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: U.S. Provided Biologicals to Iraq!! enigmax@sprint.ca (phil), yintang@dakotacom.net (Richard), COPREDE , izbar@yahoo.com (Ira), izbars@yahoo.com (Ira) Hi there, The following Reuters wireservice article reveals that both BIOLOGICAL WAREFARE WEAPONS AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS WERE PROVIDED IN LARGE QUANTITIES TO IRAQ BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. This information definitively refutes the U.S. government claim to be concerned with protecting the world's population from Iraq's `weapons of mass destruction'. For the U.S. government supplied those weapons to Iraq in the first place! The biological and chemical weapons discussed in the article were provided to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, presumably in order to strengthen Saddam Hussien's military power to combat then U.S.-enemy Iran. The Iraq government, whose ruling `Bath Socialist Party' is not a socialist party at all but has direct roots in 1930's-style European facism, was already well-known as an extraordinarily repressive dictatorship, with no civil liberties, and severe repression of ethnic minorities such as the Kurds. The fact that the U.S. provided such weapons to such a monstrous dictatorship tell us that the U.S. government had - and has - little or no ethical concern with protecting the world from these `weapons of mass destruction'. The U.S. supplied these weapons to an unspeakably oppressive regime while they were allied with it, soley in order to improve their own short-term political-economic position in the middle east. They evidently had no concern with protecting the civilians or Iran, who would probably have died in large numbers if Iraq had used the U.S.-supplied biological weapons against it. The article reveals that the U.S. was STILL supplying these `weapons of mass destruction' after a poison-gas attack by Iraq had killed 5,000 Kurds! Now that they are no longer allies, however, the U.S. government has shown itself prepared to bomb Iraq - and kill its civilians - in order to eliminate the weapons which it supplied in the first place. So much for concern with human life. Finally, one might wonder how Israel and other U.S. allies in the region must feel about the U.S. arming Iraq with these weapons. Eric ================================ >"U.S., Britain Helped Iraq Develop Chemical And Biological Weapons" > >Source: Reuters, February 12, 1998. > >A British television news program reported last week that the United States >helped Iraq develop its chemical and biological weapons programs in the 1980s, >and Britain sold Baghdad the antidote to nerve gas as late as March 1992. > >Britain's Channel Four television news said it found intelligence documents >which showed 14 shipments of biological materials -- including 19 batches of >anthrax bacteria and 15 batches of botulinum, the organism that causes >botulism -- were exported from the U.S. to Iraq between 1985 and 1989. > >Twenty-nine batches of material were sent after Iraq killed 5,000 people in a >gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988, the program reported. > >A senior Pentagon official said he stopped a 1988 order from Iraq for 1.5 >million doses of atropine, which is used to protect troops from nerve gas. A >classified U.S. Defense Department document showed Iraq had bought pralidoxine >-- an antidote to nerve gas -- from Britain in March 1992, after the Gulf War. > >Channel Four also said it had uncovered U.S. intelligence documents which >showed that both the British and U.S. government knew as early as August 1990 >of the existence of Agent 15, a deadly nerve gas. > > > > > From tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu Sun Mar 1 13:06:04 1998 Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 15:05:58 -0500 From: tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Thomas F Brown) Subject: CIA on campus To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu, wsn@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu According to an article in the new Mother Jones magazine, the CIA has set up a phony academic conference at an American university (probably University of California, San Diego, although someone else will have to track that down). Here's the URL where you can read the details: http://www.mojones.com/mother_jones/JF98/dreyfuss.html The basic gist is that the CIA spooks, posing as US academics, invite foreign telcomm experts to give a paper, then they get them laid and try to recruit them to spy for the US. I find it disturbing that a public university would be used this way. I would invite someone in San Diego to read the article, see which university in town is holding telcomm conferences, and see if the organizers are actually teaching classes and advising students. If not, we know who the spooks are. From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Sun Mar 1 15:21:08 1998 Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 17:21:02 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: "Teach-In" At U Of T To Stop The War Against Iraq Greetings, Having realized that there is enormous opposition to its fascist logic of Might-Makes-Right, the U.S. imperialists are now pretending that all along they, and they alone, have been for some sort of "diplomatic" solution. Of course, they continue to maintain or fortify aggressive troops in the Persian Gulf (and elsewhere), with no intention of removing their aggressive troops from foreign soil and with the full intention of violating the sovereignty of Iraq and sending a message to the whole world that it is the leading world bully. The U.S. imperialists want to make sure that every nation, big and small, understands that regardless of what they want or need the U.S. will impose its will and dictate on one and all in order to protect and serve its self-serving and extremely narrow "interests." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Sunday, February 22, following the successful demonstration at the U.S. Consulate, the Coalition to Stop the War Against Iraq organized a "teach-in" at the University of Toronto. The main speaker at this event was Richard McCutcheon, who is the Canadian coordinator for the Global Movement to End the War Against Iraq. Mr. McCutcheon began by saying that it would be wrong to think of what is threatening to happen to Iraq in these next few days as a second Gulf War. He said that after the signing of the ceasefire and the peace treaty in the desert following what the people of Iraq called the "Bush War" and which by conservative estimates, about 200,000 people lost their lives the war was carried on against Iraq by other means through the UN imposed sanctions. The speaker said that in the last seven years following the "Bush War", the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people have caused almost a million deaths. Every month at least 5,000 Iraqi children are killed because of the sanctions. He pointed out that the statistics on these casualties are contained in UN reports themselves. Thus the war against Iraq never ended with the ceasefire in 1991. Mr. McCutcheon suggested that there are three phases to the war against Iraq. The first phase was the "Bush War" Operation Desert Storm. The second phase is the UN imposed sanctions, and the third phase he called the "control war" in which he suggested that the warmongering in the Persian Gulf was a consequence of the United States trying to impose its dictate on the UN Security Council. He noted that at least three members of the Security Council France, Russia and China are not supporting the U.S. in the Gulf. Therefore the U.S. is facing a credibility crisis, not only in the UN but also among the American people. The speaker suggested that the U.S. wanted to push ahead against Iraq in order to assert itself as the dominant imperialist force in the world. However, the credibility of the U.S. government's position is being challenged by people not only in the U.S. but around the world. The speaker pointed out that in a recent poll, which did not get much publicity, two-thirds of Canadians do not want Canada involved in a mlitary intervention in Iraq. In closing Mr. McCutcheon said that in order to oppose the war against Iraq, what is needed is sustained action involving all Canadians who oppose the war. He invited everyone in the audience of about 60 people to take part in a two-year campaign of sustained action which will be launched at a meeting on Saturday, February 28 at Innis College, University of Toronto at 7:30 p.m. Following the main presentation, there was a lively question and answer period. TML Weekly, 2/22/98 Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From kcwalker@syr.edu Sat Feb 28 08:20:37 1998 Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 10:20:19 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Kelley Crouse Subject: sociology of sport PSNers Is there any evidence--any evidence at all--that suggests that there is some biological explanation behind stacking in sports? All of this came up in a discussion of a reading of MacLeod's Ain't no Making It, a lecture and discussion on cultural capital, social class, and race, and the documentary film, Hoop Dreams. I have about 5 students out of 70 vocally insisting that there is valid biological explanations for the overrepresentation of Blacks in the NBA and NFL and the overrepresenation of Blacks in specific positions. I'd imagine that I have a a good many more students who silently agree. I disagree with the biology argument and distributed one brief article on the topic (Lapchick and Benedict's _Racial Report Card_) and referred them to many more. Still, they insist that it's not racist to make these biological claims and, moroever, that there is evidence to refute the stacking argument If anyone knows of any arguments like this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Normally, I'd do my own homework, but I only have til next Monday and thought I'd get refs for the best sources from you folks. Thanks, Kelley Crouse From Spectors@mail.netnitco.net Sun Mar 1 23:35:53 1998 Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 00:32:42 -0800 From: Spectors Reply-To: Spectors@mail.netnitco.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Another 2 teach ins on Iraq --------------BB390A0F52CCE8876F220C16 The following is excerpted from something written by a student on my campus who is active in opposing the U.S. government's war against the Iraqi people. She wrote it from the point of view of a member of the Progressive Labor Party, a communist organization. Two teach-ins involving nearly 200 people in Indiana.....there is a lot more organizing going on than the press reports! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- War Against Capitalism�Not Bosses' Deadly "Peace"! Hammond, IN-February 25== The title on the flyers from the Purdue University Calumet student Philosophy Forum read: "Don't beat the war drum without all the facts!" Students of PLP attended the forum and told the students to beat the war drums for Communist Revolution instead. The Philosophy Forum and the Political Science Club hosted an "emergency teach-in" on the U.S. government-Iraqi government crisis, and 125 students came to the main lounge on campus to hear the discussion. The panel included eyewitness speakers with stories about the murderous effects of the ongoing economic sanctions that the Iraqi working class endures. After the first few speakers gave accounts of the ways that Iraqi civilians are dying by the thousands, they called for peace. They urged people to write to their congressmen and tell them that they were against the economic sanctions. They also asked people to openly protest the forming war plans, and they denounced war as a means of working out the world's crisis. But they did not take that first step that leads to real freedom from war, fascism, and poverty suffered by workers everywhere in the world under Imperialist Capitalism. One of the speakers sharpened up the discussion with a fable with this conclusion: when you notice drowning people floating by you on a river, it's not enough to rescue them. It's necessary to take a walk upstream and find out who is throwing them into the river. Then the speaker explained that global capitalism was murdering these people and throwing them in the river, seeking profits at any cost. "As long as there is capitalism, there will be imperialism. And as long as there is imperialism, there will be war," the speaker said. Members of PLP in the audience pointed out a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (3/23), the most pro-capitalist newspaper in the world, which explained how Iraq was planning sell large amounts of oil to competitors of the U.S. Capitalism only offers a future of murderous oppression, racism, poverty and war�again. The debate got lively and involved many in the audience, including some pro-capitalist speakers. Other PLP speakers explained how told the schools do not teach the students to recognize the way that capitalism exploits labor. Challenge newspaper was put forward as the way to understand the real facts of capitalism, and students got copies of the flyers to march on May Day in Washington, D.C. Towards the end, a student from Yugoslavia gave eloquent testimony of the ways that life in Yugoslavia has gotten so much worse since capitalism has expanded. He spoke of the rise of Capitalism as "hell" for the working class, with poverty, unemployment, and wars.... The following day, Thursday, we attended another similar, but smaller forum at Indiana University Northwest, where about 50 people participated in more lively discussions. (from Challenge newspaper--http:www//plp.org) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. --------------BB390A0F52CCE8876F220C16 The following is excerpted from something written by a student on my campus who is active in opposing the U.S. government's war against the Iraqi people. She wrote it from the point of view of a member of the Progressive Labor Party, a communist organization. Two teach-ins involving nearly 200 people in Indiana.....there is a lot more organizing going on than the press reports!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

War Against Capitalism�Not Bosses' Deadly "Peace"!

Hammond, IN-February 25== The title on the flyers from the Purdue
University Calumet student Philosophy Forum read: "Don't beat the war
drum without all the facts!" Students of PLP attended the forum and told
the students to beat the war drums for Communist Revolution instead. The
Philosophy Forum and the Political Science Club hosted an "emergency
teach-in" on the U.S. government-Iraqi government crisis, and 125
students came to the main lounge on campus to hear the discussion. The
panel included eyewitness speakers with stories about the murderous
effects of the ongoing economic sanctions that the Iraqi working class
endures.
    After the first few speakers gave accounts of the ways that Iraqi
civilians are dying by the thousands, they called for peace. They urged
people to write to their congressmen and tell them that they were
against the economic sanctions. They also asked people to openly protest
the forming war plans, and they denounced war as a means of working out
the world's crisis. But they did not take that first step that leads to
real freedom from war, fascism, and poverty suffered by workers
everywhere in the world under Imperialist Capitalism.
     One of the speakers sharpened up the discussion with a fable with
this conclusion: when you notice drowning people floating by you on a
river, it's not enough to rescue them. It's necessary to take a walk
upstream and find out who is throwing them into the river. Then the
speaker explained that global capitalism was murdering these people and
throwing them in the river, seeking profits at any cost. "As long as
there is capitalism, there will be imperialism. And as long as there is
imperialism, there will be war," the speaker said.
     Members of PLP in the audience pointed out a recent article in the
Wall Street Journal (3/23), the most pro-capitalist newspaper in the world,
which explained how Iraq was planning sell large amounts of oil to
competitors of the U.S. Capitalism only offers a future of murderous
oppression, racism, poverty and war�again. The debate got lively and
involved many in the audience, including some pro-capitalist speakers.
Other PLP speakers explained how told the schools do not teach the
students to recognize the way that capitalism exploits labor. Challenge newspaper
was put forward as the way to understand the real facts of capitalism,
and students got copies of the flyers to march on May Day in Washington, D.C.
Towards the end, a student from Yugoslavia gave eloquent testimony of
the ways that life in Yugoslavia has gotten so much worse since
capitalism has expanded. He spoke of the rise of Capitalism as "hell"
for the working class, with poverty, unemployment, and wars....
The following day, Thursday,
we attended another similar, but smaller forum at Indiana University
Northwest, where about 50 people participated in more lively discussions.

(from Challenge newspaper--http:www//plp.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. --------------BB390A0F52CCE8876F220C16-- From Spectors@mail.netnitco.net Mon Mar 2 00:01:42 1998 Mon, 2 Mar 1998 01:03:34 -0600 (CST) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 00:58:29 -0800 From: Spectors Reply-To: Spectors@mail.netnitco.net To: kcwalker@syr.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: "Race", racism, and sports The racial biological argument is absolute nonsense. If I had more time and if it weren't nearly 1 a.m., I'd write something in more depth. Simply put, biological "race" can NEVER be used as a serious independent variable if it is not quantified in an accurate way, and there is NO WAY to quantify it accurately. But don't black people have a higher incidence of sickle cell anemia? Yes, black people with sickle cell anemia have a higher incidence of sickle cell anemia! But black people without the sickle cell genes are no more likely to get sickle cell anemia than white people. In other words, it is NOT linked to skin tone. The studies which try to use biological "race" based on skin tone invariably determine someone's so-called biological "race" mainly by looking at him or her! Really stupid anti-science!!! But "race" exists as something that happens to people---it would be a mistake, or worse, to deny that there is serious discrimination against people categorized as being, in the U.S. for example, black or Latino. With respect to sports, there are two main reasons why some racial groups seem to be under-represented or over-represented in certain sports. The first reason is one that many people understand: it is based on economics and culture. For example, baseball had lots of Irish, Italians, and Jews forty or fifty years ago. New York is the most fanatical baseball town; New York had lots of Irish, Italians and Jews who played stickball even during basketball season in the dead of winter. And black people weren't allowed into baseball for a long time. The Eastern Europeans in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania saw football as a ticket to college, if not the pro's, and a way to avoid the steel mills and coal mines that were killing their fathers. Black athletes were not allowed to swim in high school pools even into the 1960's--that might explain the lack of swimmers. Taken to the extreme, one could ask if the scarcity of world-class fox hunters from Mexico is based on their biological make-up! Another insane, inane argument, that is only slightly more ridiculous than some of the arguments told about black people in sports. Many of the "white" youth who might have used athletics 50 years ago to get to college now have other ways to get an education--as well as other types of hobbies in general. The second reason is selective sampling. When an honest but ignorant student timidly asked me in front of the class if black people did dance better, I replied: "Well, you know, they don't let the really bad dancers on to the Soul Train show.""If your experience with black people is so limited that it mainly consists of watching television, then you will only see that sample of black people that have been selected, whether for dancing or athletics. You don't see the bad basketball players! And there are plenty of short people in Africa, by the way." Or to use another metaphor, if you take a trip to Las Vegas, and you spend all your time with the University of Nevada basketball team, well, when you return, you might say that "Gee, there sure are a lot of really TALL people in Nevada. I wonder if it is genetic or maybe something in the water or air that they breathe." Another silly argument, I know, but basically, it describes the kind of selective sampling that is basically ridiculous, but can appear to be scientific, and which is used by many "respectable" mainstream academics who look down their nose at Marxism as being ideological and anti-evidence, as they practice the silliest, most biased types of research themselves. Good luck discussing this with others. It really is an important topic which I have not done justice in this short set of comments. Maybe others on PSN could improve on these comments. Alan Spector From dnaylor@scf-fs.usc.edu Mon Mar 2 01:16:43 1998 From: "Don Naylor" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Re: sociology of sport Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 00:06:29 -0800 Sure there's a biological reason for Black people to be disproportionately represented in professional sports--its called hunger (which is what it often takes, in my opinion to get someone to brutalize their body in pro sports despite the facade of glamour). A former professor of mine said that, to the extent that groups were identifiable by last name, you could track the economic progress of a group in this country by seeing who was in and then maybe out of pro sports. His point was that mostly you didn't want to be there. Sorry no sources. One thing I try to keep in mind is that there is no end to the production of false racist arguments so sometimes rather than counter them I try to problematize the process. Of course, this can be difficult with those that want to believe racist rhetoric. I always try to remember that there are those in the room, though, who may find the a discussion about how we produce and perpetuate racist (sexist, etc) beliefs to be of value. Of course, you probably knew that. I'd be curious to know, if you can find any "facts" to refute the argument, what, if any, effect it has on the believers. Don Ps. We do, though, live in bodies and aren't just one giant social construction. There may be something to the argument but it probably has a miniscule effect on the issue. Don Naylor, BA BA ABcl,th,q&D Department of Sociology University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-2539 wrk. 213-740-3544 hm. 213-748-7378 fax 213-740-3535 dnaylor@usc.edu I read my email but not every day.... ---------- > From: Kelley Crouse > To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK > Subject: sociology of sport > Date: Saturday, February 28, 1998 7:20 AM > > PSNers > > Is there any evidence--any evidence at all--that suggests that there is > some biological explanation behind stacking in sports? All of this came up > in a discussion of a reading of MacLeod's Ain't no Making It, a lecture and > discussion on cultural capital, social class, and race, and the documentary > film, Hoop Dreams. I have about 5 students out of 70 vocally insisting > that there is valid biological explanations for the overrepresentation of > Blacks in the NBA and NFL and the overrepresenation of Blacks in specific > positions. I'd imagine that I have a a good many more students who > silently agree. > > I disagree with the biology argument and distributed one brief article on > the topic (Lapchick and Benedict's _Racial Report Card_) and referred them > to many more. Still, they insist that it's not racist to make these > biological claims and, moroever, that there is evidence to refute the > stacking argument > > If anyone knows of any arguments like this, I'd greatly appreciate it. > Normally, I'd do my own homework, but I only have til next Monday and > thought I'd get refs for the best sources from you folks. > > Thanks, > Kelley Crouse From mkarim@moses.culver.edu Mon Mar 2 08:03:54 1998 2 Mar 98 09:06:16 -600 2 Mar 98 09:05:55 -600 Date: Mon, 2 Mar 98 09:08:00 From: "Manjur Karim" Reply-To: To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, ahs-talk@ncsu.colorado.edu, cm150-l@mtu.edu Subject: virtual seminar: communist manifesto Please distribute to the relevant lists and individuals. Comrades and Friends: Progressive Sociologists' Network is happy to announce the beginning of a virtual seminar to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The "Manifesto", the most widely read and defining single text in the history of modern socialism, was first published in February, 1848. "League of the Just" was a secret political organization formed in 1836 by the radical German artisans and workers living in Paris. At its London Congress in 1847,the organization changed its name to "Communist League." The "Manifesto" was the political document of the newly renamed organization. While the names of both Marx and Engels appeared as co-authors, the primary authorship of the Manifesto should be attributed to Marx. In Engels' own phrase, "the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to Marx." But then again, the concept of authorship itself needs to be problematized. Like any other text, the Manifesto makes sense within the context of a historically embedded intertexuality. As Robert Beamish, one of the authors participating in our virtual seminar has pointed out "The manifesto was ultimately a collective effort of people who were trying to understand the prevailing social conditions so they could change them... while the document was drafted in its final form by Karl Marx, and the final credit for its organization and rhetorical style is due to him, the content and message of the Manifesto were really the product of an extended, intense, but open debate among committed communist-internationalists as they sought to define their programme nad understand the world they wanted to change." The purpose of the virtual seminar is to stimulate dialogues on the contemporary theoretical and practical relevance of the Manifesto. We encourages commentaries on the papers included in the seminar, as well as other related issues from a multiplicity of vantage points within the general terrain of progressive scholarship and activism. We have three papers so far: Rob Beamish, The Making of the Manifesto* A. Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age Charles Ostenle, Manifesto for Praxis Societies and for a Global Democratic and Socialist Political Economy Date: Marc 4 - March 12 Format: To participate in the conference send mail to LISTPROC@csf.colorado.edu in the message proper write sub psn-seminars firstname lastname Location: You can find the conference papers at http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/seminars or you can send mail to LISTPROC@csf.colorado.edu and in the message proper write: get psn-seminars beamish get psn-seminars ostenle get psn-seminars gunderfrank From chadk@yourinter.net Mon Mar 2 21:30:06 1998 (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 release (PO205-101c) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 23:28:35 -0800 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: chadk@yourinter.net (Chad Kimmel) Subject: Application Activities? PSner's I am teaching two classes in undergraduate research methods: one in Applied Social Methods and the other in Computer Use in Sociology. I am asking for advice and perhaps examples of application activities that would relate to these areas. In the computer class, I will be covering codebook development, data cleaning, data entry techniq's, etc. Anything is helpful. Thanks, Chad. ***************************************************** Chad M. Kimmel Graduate Assistant/Data Manager Mid-Atlantic Addiction Training Institute (MAATI) Indiana University of Pennsylvania 102 McElhaney Hall Indiana, Pennsylvania 15705-1087 ckimmel@yourinter.net http://www.yourinter.net/~ckimmel 724-463-7010 **************************************************** From cdfupdate@cdfig.childrensdefense.org Tue Mar 3 00:14:21 1998 Date: Mon, 02 Mar 98 13:21:36 EST From: "CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 3-2-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update March 2, 1998 In This Issue: -- Child Welfare and Mental Health -- Juvenile Justice -- Child Care -- Conference *** Child Welfare and Mental Health *** --- FAIR HOUSING ACT AMENDMENTS JEOPARDIZE PROTECTIONS FOR CHILDREN--- H.R. 3206, which would amend the Fair Housing Act, is currently pending before the House Judiciary Committee. The bill, opposed by the Children's Defense Fund, jeopardizes critical protections for children and other vulnerable populations. The House Judiciary Committee could act early in March. Introduced by Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Charles Canady (R-FL), and Jane Harman (D-CA), H.R. 3206 would end Federal Housing Administration (FHA) protections for abused and neglected children and others in group care settings. The FHA's protections against discrimination on the basis of "familial status" in housing have guaranteed children living in foster family homes and group homes the opportunity to live in residential neighborhoods -- even when such homes have been opposed by local zoning authorities and community groups. H.R. 3206 would narrow the definition of "familial status" to include only individuals related by birth, marriage or adoption, and foster children. Defining familial status in this way would eliminate protections for abused and neglected children and others in group homes. Localities would be free to use zoning laws to exclude such group homes from residential areas. It would mean that many children could be denied the right to care in residential neighborhoods where they would be close to schools and other essential services. H. R. 3206 would remove important protections for children and other people with disabilities living in residential neighborhoods. It would allow localities to restrict the number of group homes in an area and to impose occupancy restrictions on homes for people with disabilities and for people in recovery from alcohol and drug dependence, as well as youths who are convicted of a crime. The FHA currently does not preempt local zoning laws, but requires that such laws be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and with reasonable accommodations. The FHA currently does not protect people engaged in the illegal use of drugs and convicted felons. ** YOUR HELP IS NEEDED ** Your help is needed to delay action on H.R. 3206, at least until hearings can be held. Please call now: Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee NOW at: (202)225-3951(Judiciary Committee), (202)225-4561 (personal office), or, if you are from Illinois, the Illinois District Office at (630)832-5950, and urge that the Judiciary Committee not approve H.R. 3206, at least until hearings are held. *** Juvenile Justice *** --- LETTERS OPPOSING S.10 --- We want to thank those of you who requested the sign-on letters opposing Senate Bill 10 (S.10) last week, and continue to encourage others to sign-on. (We received hundreds of requests for sign-on letters opposing S.10.) These letters, each of which addresses a major concern in the bill, are designed so that your organization can sign-on to the concerns most important to you. We would like to deliver the letters to the Senators next week, so in order to make your voice heard against locking up children and youth in adult jails, we must hear back from you soon. Please send the signed letters back as soon as possible to: or fax them to Holly Jackson at: 202/662-3550. Please include the name and contact information for your organization. The six letters are: * ADULT JAIL: illustrates the dangers of placing children in jails and prisons with adults. * PREVENTION: demonstrates the need for programs that prevent crime, not just detention. * MINORITY YOUTH: discusses the need to continue to address Disproportionate Minority Confinement. * RECORDS: outlines the effects of indiscriminately sharing the records of children arrested (even those not convicted) for a wide range of offenses. * GUN VIOLENCE: calls for the link between children, crime, and guns to be addressed. * EXPULSION: outlines effect of mandating the expulsion from school of our nation's children for the use of tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs. Please return them as soon as possible to: . * This week, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) announced that juvenile justice was one of the items that still may be considered in the next few weeks. *** Child Care *** --- CHILD CARE NOW! --- The Children's Defense Fund is excited to announce the campaign for Child Care Now! -- a broad coalition of more than one hundred local, state, and national organizations working together to pass comprehensive child care legislation to improve the quality and affordability of child care and after-school activities. The campaign for Child Care Now! will continue to work in the coming weeks and months to urge Congress to pass legislation that guarantees funds to the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) through tobacco legislation to help states: 1. Serve all low-income families who need child care help to work and support their families; 2. Improve the quality of child care and after-school experiences for all children; and 3. Provide safe, constructive after-school activities for the nearly 5 million children. Call your Members of Congress at (202) 224-3121 to urge their support for the campaign for Child Care Now! and to work to pass legislation to improve the quality and affordability of child care and after-school activities. Please visit CDF's web site at to get the latest child care fact sheets, a sample letter to Congress, and campaign for Child Care Now! materials. To order a Child Care Now! organizer's kit and other campaign materials such as buttons, pins, and posters, e-mail Child Care Now! at: . *** Children's Defense Fund Annual Conference *** The Children's Defense Fund Annual National Conference is this month, March 25-28, 1998, in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The theme, Celebrating 25 Years Of Standing For America's Children, builds on a quarter-century anniversary of advocacy and service on behalf of children and young people. The conference is an opportunity to learn new skills, to network, and to be inspired by the work advocates are doing around the country. Conference participants will be able to choose from more than 100 workshops and twelve all-day skills-building sessions covering topics including working with the media, welfare implementation, non-profit management, and technology training. And this year, for the first time ever, continuing education credits are available to attendees. Each week, until the conference, the CDF Update will highlight one of the intensive day-long, concentrated skills-building training sessions for child advocates that will be offered during conference. --- "SPIRITUAL RENEWAL FOR CHILD ADVOCATES" TRAINING SESSION --- Wednesday, March 25, 1998 Speakers: Lauren Artress, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA Charles Boyd, California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, CA Cliff Ishigaki, Director, Psychosynthesis Center of Orange County, Santa Ana, CA Tom Keelan, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA Maureen Murdock, Family Therapist and Author, Venice, CA Jacquetta Parhams, Publisher, Rhythm of the Drum: Our Wholistic Magazine, Los Angeles, CA Norma Thompson Hollis, Early Childhood Consultant for LA Catholic Archdiocese Join us for an uplifting session designed to renew, rejuvenate, and support you in your work for social justice. The session begins with an introduction to the labyrinth by noted author, Dr. Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral, who has written and researched extensively on the use of the labyrinth as a tool for spiritual renewal. This session will include breakout sessions on meditation, prayer, akido, imaging, and resilience training. It will begin with an introduction to the labyrinth and participants will walk the labyrinth and have an opportunity for debriefing in groups. ** The Labyrinth ** -- Spiritual Renewal for Child Advocates Room -- The labyrinth, a spiritual tool for renewal, will be available for CDF conference participants to walk through during the conference. Many use this archetype as a meditative tool and find comfort in walking it alone in complete silence, while others choose to walk it to music or in facilitated groups. By following the one path to the center, the seeker can use the labyrinth to quiet the mind and find peace and illumination. "The path becomes a mirror for where we are in our lives; it touches our sorrows and releases our joys." The labyrinth will be set up during the conference and facilitators will be available. Please see the program for location and times. ********************************************************************** -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- SHARE THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!! Our typical email is about a page or two long and generally comes once a week. To join our legislative update email list, sign-up on our website or send an email to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Kimberly Taylor Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org "What is done to children, they will do to society." --Karl Menninger From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Tue Mar 3 10:58:29 1998 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 12:59:57 -0500 (EST) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Statement from Middle East Scholars and Experts (fwd) I don't believe this statement has appeared on this list before. Joanne Naiman Ryerson Polytechnic U. Toronto ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 20:38:44 -0500 From: Eric Fawcett To: s4p all lists , s4pont@physics.utoronto.ca, s4potht@physics.utoronto.ca, s4ptor@physics.utoronto.ca Subject: Statement from Middle East Scholars and Experts From: Committee On the Middle East (COME): > This Statement (email version is below) is now available > in printed form for easy duplication on one 8.5 x 11 > piece of paper (both sides). Please download it, print > and duplicate it, and distribute it as widely as possible. > ------------------------------------- > To get printed Statement go to: > http://www.MiddleEast.Org/iraqdocs.htm > Following formats are available: > Word97, Word95, Works, Mac, Word Perfect > ------------------------------------- > > D O N O T B O M B I R A Q > > A Major Historic Statement from The Committee On The Middle East > (COME Advisory Committee members listed at end) > > While the United States clearly has the military power to further > devastate and prostrate Iraq, we strongly believe that the course the > U.S. has chosen is not only grossly unjust, but also exceedingly > hypocritical and duplicitous. We further believe that though the U.S. > may be able to pursue its imperial policies without substantial > opposition in the short term, the policies being pursued today, > especially the new and massive military assault being prepared against > Iraq, are likely to have tremendously negative historical ramifications. > As Middle East experts and scholars - many with close and personal > ties to this long troubled and misunderstood region - we feel a > political, a moral, and a historical responsibility to speak up in > clear opposition at this critical time. > > Origins of Today's Imbroglio: > > Throughout this century Western countries, primarily the United > States and Great Britain, have continually interfered in and > manipulated events in the Middle East. The origins of the > Iraq/Kuwait conflict can be found in the unilateral British decision > during the early years of this century to essentially cut off a > piece of Iraq to suit British Empire desires of that now faded era. > Rather than agreeing to Arab self-determination at the end of World > War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Western nations conspired > to divide the Arab world into a number of artificial and barely viable > entities; to install Arab "client regimes" throughout the region, to > make these regimes dependent on Western economic and military power > for survival; and then to impose an ongoing series of economic, > cultural, and political arrangements seriously detrimental to the > people of the area. This is the historical legacy that we live with today. > Throughout the 1930s and the 1940s the West further manipulated the > affairs of the Middle East in order to control the resources of the > region and then to create a Jewish homeland in an area long considered > central to Arab nationalism and Muslim concerns. Playing off one regime > against the other and one geopolitical interest against another became a > major preoccupation for Western politicians and their closely associated > business interests. > > Following World War II: > > After World War II, and from these policy origins, the United States > became the main Western power in the region, supplanting the key roles > formerly played by Britain and France. In the 1960s Gamel Abdel Nasser > was the target of Western condemnation for his attempt to reintegrate > the Arab world and to pursue independent "non-aligned" policies. By the > 1970s the CIA had established close working relationships with key Arab > client regimes from Morocco and Jordan to Saudi Arabia and Iran - regimes > that even then were among the most repressive and undemocratic in the > world - in order to further American domination and to secure an > ever-growing supply of inexpensive oil and the resultant flow of > petrodollars. > By the late 1970s the counter-reaction of the Iranian revolution was > met with a Western build-up of the very same Iraqi regime that is so > condemned today in a vain attempt to use Iraq to crush the new Iranian > regime. The result was millions of deaths coming on top of the > terrible devastation of Lebanon, itself a country that had been severed > from Greater Syria by Western intrigues, as had been the area of > southern Syria, then known as Palestine. Additionally the Israelis > were given the green light to invade Lebanon, further devastate the > Palestinians, and install a puppet Lebanese government - an attempt > which failed leading to an American and Israeli retreat but ongoing > militarism to this day. Meanwhile, throughout all these years Western > manipulation of oil supplies and pricing, coupled with arms sales > policies, often seriously exacerbated tensions between countries in > the region leading to the events of this decade. > > The Gulf Conflict: > > It was precisely such American manipulations and intrigues that led > to the Gulf War in 1990. Indeed, we would be remiss if we did not note > that there is already much historical evidence that the U.S. actually > maneuvered Iraq into the invasion of Kuwait, repeatedly suggesting to > Iraq that it would become the pivotal military state of the area in > coordination with the U.S. Whether true or not the U.S. subsequently > did everything in its power to prevent a peaceful resolution of the > conflict and for the first time intervened with massive and overwhelming > military force in the region creating today's dangerously unstable > quagmire. > The initially stated American goal was only to protect Saudi Arabia. > Then after the unprecedented military build-up the goal became to expel > Iraq from Kuwait. Then the goal evolved to toppling the Iraqi > government. And from there the Americans began to impose various limits > on Iraqi sovereignty; took over much of Iraq air space; sent the CIA to > repeatedly attempt to topple the Iraqi government; and placed a > near-total embargo on Iraq that many - including a former Attorney > General of the United States - have termed near-genocidal. The overall > result has been the subjugation and impoverishment of Iraq and the > actual death of approximately 5% of the Iraqis as the direct result > of American sanctions, plus the reallocation of oil quotes and > petrodollars to American client-states. > With the Clinton Administration, the U.S. began to insist on the > "dual containment" of both Iraq and Iran - both countries which just a > few years ago the U.S. was working very closely with and providing > considerable arms to. With few in the press able to remember from > one year to the next, or to connect one historic event with another, > somehow Washington has come to insist on Iraqi disarmament and Iranian > strangulation. Furthermore, these policies are being pursued even > while Israel and key Arab client states are receiving American weapons > in ever larger amounts, with Israel's weapons of mass destruction > making her forces 7 to 8 times stronger than all Arab armies combined. > Furthermore still, the U.S. and Israeli strategic alliance has never > been closer, the U.S. has repeatedly helped Israel defy the will of > the international community and the United Nations, and the U.S. > continues to champion a disingenuous Israeli "peace process" which > in reality on the ground continues to dispossess the Palestinians > and to corral them onto reservations in their own country! > > The Future: > > In a future statement we will move on to the crucial subject of what > alternative policies the United States should be pursuing. But at this > critical moment we are compelled to come forward and urgently condemn > the policies now being pursued by the United States and regional ally > Israel. We call for an immediate cessation of the economic embargo > against Iraq, an end to U.S.-imposed restrictions on Iraqi sovereignty > and airspace, and most of all immediate suspension of all plans to > attack Iraq using the overwhelming technological and military > instruments available to the U.S. > If the U.S. continues to pursue its current policies then we > conclude and predict it will not be unreasonable for many in the world > to brand the U.S. itself as a arrogant and imperialist state, and if > that becomes the historical paradigm it will be both understandable > and justifiable if others pursue whatever means are available to them > to oppose American domination and militarism. Such developments could > quite possibly lead to still more decades of conflict, warfare, and > terrorism throughout the region and beyond. > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > COME Advisory Committee: Arab Abdel-Hadi - Cairo; Professor Nahla > Abdo - Carleton University (Ottawa); Professor Elmoiz Abunura - > University of North Carolina (Ashville); Professor Jane Adas - Rutgers > University (NJ); Oroub Alabed - World Food Program (Amman); Professor > Faris Albermani - University of Queensland (Australia); Professor Jabbar > Alwan, DePaul University (Chicago); Professor Alex Alland, Columbia > University (New York); Professor Abbas Alnasrawi - University of Vermont > (Burlington); Professor Michael Astour - University of Southern > Illinois; Virginia Baron - Guilford, CT.; Professor Mohammed Benayoune - > Sultan Qaboos University (Oman); Professor Charles Black - Emeritus Yale > University Law School; Professor Francis O. Boyle, University of > Illinois Law School (Champlain); Mark Bruzonsky - COME Chairperson > (Washington); Linda Brayer - Ex. Dir., Society of St. Ives (Jerusalem); > Professor Noam Chomsky - Massachusetts Institute of Technology > (Cambridge); Ramsey Clark - Former U.S. Attorney General (New York); > Professor Frank Cohen - SUNY, Binghamton; John Cooley - Author, Cyprus; > Professor Mustafah Dhada - School of International Affairs, Clark > Atlanta University; Zuhair Dibaja - Research Fellow, University of > Helsinki; Professor Mohamed El-Hodiri - University of Kansas; Professor > Richard Falk - Princeton University; Professor Ali Ahmed Farghaly - > University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor Ali Fatemi - American > University (Paris); Michai Freeman - Berkeley; Professor S.M. > Ghazanfar - University of Idaho (Chair, Economics Dept); Professor > Kathrn Green - California State University (San Bernadino); Nader > Hashemi - Ottawa, Canada; Professor M. Hassouna - Georgia; Professor > Clement Henry - University of Texas (Austin); Professor Herbert Hill - > University of Wisconsin (Madison); Professor Asaf Hussein - U.K.; > Yudit Ilany - Jerusalem; Professor George Irani - Lebanese American > University (Beirut); Tahir Jaffer - Nairobi, Kenya; David Jones - > Editor, New Dawn Magazine, Australia; Professor Elie Katz - Sonoma > State University, CA; Professor George Kent - University of Hawaii; > Professor Ted Keller - San Francisco State University, Emeritus; > John F. Kennedy - Attorney at Law, Washington; Samaneh Khader - > Graduate Student in Theology, University of Helsinki; Professor > Ebrahim Khoda - University of Western Australia; Guida Leicester, > San Francisco; Jeremy Levin - Former CNN Beirut Bureau Chief > (Portland); Professor Seymour Melman - Columbia University (New > York); Dr. Avi Melzer - Frankfurt; Professor Alan Meyers - Boston > University; Professor Michael Mills - Vista College (Berkeley, CA); > Kamram Mofrad - Idaho; Shahab Mushtaq - Knox College; Professor Minerva > Nasser-Eddine - University of Adelaide (Australia); Professor Peter > Pellett - University of Massachussetts (Amherst); Professor Max Pepper, > M.D. - University of Massachusetts (Amherst); Professor Ruud Peters - > Universiteit van Amsterdam; Professor Glenn Perry - Indiana State > University; Professor Tanya Reinhart - Tel Aviv University; Professor > Shalom Raz - Technion (Haifa); Professor Knut Rognes - Stavanger College > (Norway); Professor Masud Salimian - Morgan State University > (Baltimore); Professor Mohamed Salmassi - University of Massachusetts; > Qais Saleh - Graduate Student, International University (Japan); Ali > Saidi - J.D. candidate in international law (Berkeley, CA); Dr. Eyad > Sarraj - Gaza, Occupied Palestine; Henry Schwarzschild - New York > (original co-founder - deceased); Professor Herbert Schiller - > University of California (San Diego); Peter Shaw-Smith - Journalist, > London; David Shomar - New York; Dr. Manjra Shuaib - CapeTown (South > Africa); Robert Silverman - Montreal; Professor J. David Singer - > University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Professor Majid Tehranian - > Director Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy (University of > Hawaii); Dr. Marlyn Tadros - Deputy Director, Legal Research and > Resource Center for Human Rights (Cairo); Ismail Zayid, M.D. - > Dalhousi University (Canada). > > COME - 202 362-5266 - Fax: 202 362-6965 - Email: COME@USA.NET > Web -- http://WWW.MiddleEast.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Dr.Janet M Eaton > J.M.Eaton Associates, > Systemic Change Consultants > P.O.Box 1525, Wolfville, N.S. > Canada B0P 1X0 > Ph./Fx 902) 542- 1631 > > > > "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed > people can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing > that ever has!" > --Margaret Mead-- > > signature: Jan Slakov, CP 35, Weymouth, NS, B0W 3T0 (902) 837-4980 From jfuller@westga.edu Tue Mar 3 11:13:32 1998 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 13:13:49 -0500 (EST) From: John Fuller To: progressive sociologists network Subject: Of Guns and Death Here's an excerpt from this week's essay at Peacemaking & Crime. Thoughts and opinions always welcome. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John R Fuller jfuller@westga.edu Visit Peacemaking & Crime at: http://www.westga.edu/~jfuller/peace.html When I was in the Army in the late 1960s, I qualified on the M14 and the M16. I loved the M14. It was a 7.62 caliber rifle that had the feel of a mans weapon, as opposed to the M16 that felt like a plastic toy in comparison. The army taught me how to clean, shoot, and respect a weapon. The training was realistic because the idea was that one day we were to use our skills to kill other human beings before they killed us. This seemed reasonable at the time. I learned that my rifle should be treated as my best friend because someday it could save my life. Some of my fellow soldiers developed an even more intense relationship with their weapons. Instead of being a best friend it was more like a girlfriend. The weapon had a seductive and sexy allure for some people. I guess I was too afraid of the business end of a rifle to ever fall in love with it but I did appreciate how firearms are unlike any other tool. People can develop an intimate feeling toward a well-made gun that transcends logic. I think I understand that fascination even though now I don't own a gun. I grew up in Minnesota hunting pheasants with my father where I blasted away unsuccessfully at the fast-flying birds. As I remember there was some kind of so-called sporting rule that said you couldnt shoot them while they ran on the ground. It seemed to be a silly rule because it would have been so much easier than trying to hit a flying target. I also hunted with my older brother. He had a neat .22 caliber semi-automatic and we shot at anything that moved. He was a wonderful marksman and consistently bagged squirrel and rabbits. I shot mostly trees. When I got to Vietnam my attitude toward guns changed. I worked at the 12th Evacuation Hospital as a medic and x-ray technician where I dealt daily with the destruction caused by guns. When an M16 bullet enters the body it begins to tumble and causes immense damage. When bones are hit by bullets the pieces of bone also become projectiles inside the body. The carnage caused by bullets to the human body are often tragically fatal and in my job of trying to save lives I came to detest the carnage made by these finely-engineered weapons. As a criminologist I am stuck by the vehement way in which people are so protective of their guns. Given the lives taken by gun violence each year it seems reasonable that we should discourage gun availability. How far to go is still a puzzle because I recognize that many people consider gun ownership to be a fundamental right protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. However, the Second Amendment addressed the rights of the states to maintain well-regulated militias, a right that hasn't been relevant since before the Civil War. From lrogers@vaxxine.com Tue Mar 3 09:11:39 1998 Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 11:08:55 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Linda Rogers Subject: May Day Action-St. Catharines Ontario Friends: Since the election of the right-wing extremist Mike Harris Tory government in 1995, Ontario's social programs and public-sector have been under attack. Worker's rights, health and safety, and environmental protections have been gutted. Welfare rates rolled back and workfare and bootcamps introduced to our former civil society. All this has been accomplished with an arrogant speed and lack of consultation. This is not democracy. Workers have been fighting back. On May Day, Friday May 1, St. Catharines will be the tenth city to stage a city-wide shut down and rally in opposition to government cuts and the roll back of our social programs. May is a nice time to visit the Niagara Region why not join us for the May Day rally in solidarity with Ontario union members and social activists. Linda Rogers Community Co-chair May Day Day of Action From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Tue Mar 3 12:43:40 1998 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 12:43:28 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez Reply-To: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Administrivia I Dear PSNers, PSN is a SELF-SERVICE network. Members are expected to take care of their needs on their own. People who live in community do their share of the work required to keep the community working well. Think of PSN as a community and do your share. To facilitate your assuming that responsibility, we send you this document every month. Keep it for future reference. This is a monthly reminder of some of the listserv commands at your disposal. Caps are used for emphasis -- all commands and addresses are case insensitive. The commands/messages discussed below should all be sent to LISTSERV@csf.colorado.edu or LISTPROC@csf.colorado.edu The unsubscribe command is just two words: UNSUB PSN or UNSUB PSN-CAFE These two words should be in the message, not the subject line. Most common mistakes: 1. Punctuation marks near the two words E.g., "unsub psn" rather than unsub psn >unsub psn-cafe rather than unsub psn-cafe unsub psn. rather than unsub psn unsub rather than unsub psn-cafe 2. Trying to unsubscribe from an new address when your subscription is registered under an old address. To determine the address under which you are subscribed, write to gimenez@csf.colorado.edu If your efforts to unsub have been frustrated, please write to gimenez@csf.colorado.edu, rather than taking the problem to the list. It is helpful to forward a copy of mail from listserv@csf that shows the source of your problem. ------------ MAIL SETTINGS ------------ If you would like to receive PSN or PSN-CAFE messages twice-a-week in a batch instead of one-by-one, everyday, send the following command to LISTSERV@csf If you are going to be away and want to postpone messages again send a message to LISTSERV@csf and in the message box use SET PSN MAIL POSTPONE or SET PSN-CAFE MAIL POSTPONE To unpostpone your mail or return to one-at-a-time message delivery, use SET PSN MAIL ACK or SET PSN-CAFE MAIL ACK All subscribers have one of three settings: ACK, DIGEST or POSTPONE ACK is the default setting. To determine which setting you have on your mail, send the command SET PSN or SET PSN-CAFE -------- INDEX and GET cmds ---------- If you want to see an index of the logs of past messages and other files send (to LISTSERV@csf) the command INDEX PSN The list of files returned from the index command are retrievable with the get command. If, for example, you are interested in messages from January 94, you send a message to LISTSERV@csf and in the body of the message type GET PSN JAN94 If you would like to post or retrieve files at CSF, we have a help file for using FTP. Send this command to LISTSERV@CSF GET PSN FTP-INTRO If you have friends who would like to subscribe, they should send mail to LISTPROC@csf.colorado edu in the message proper they should write SUB PSN Firstname Lastname Bureaucratically yours, :-) Martha Gimenez PSN Founding Editor From dgrammen@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu Tue Mar 3 09:31:45 1998 Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 10:31:39 -0600 (CST) From: Dennis Grammenos To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Katha Pollitt: Hello, Columbus __________________________________________________________ The Nation March 16, 1998 SUBJECT TO DEBATE by Katha Pollitt Hello, Columbus J ust when it seems like the official media have a total lock on political discourse and nothing will ever again be said except by designated experts in pancake makeup, just when you think the last raw bit of reality has been plastic-wrapped and priced like a slice of processed cheese food--just when, in other words, you are about to consider getting seriously depressed--something wonderful, bizarre and totally unscripted happens. I am thinking, of course, of the February 18 CNN "Town Meeting" on Iraq at Ohio State University in Columbus, featuring Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Here was an occasion that would seem to have offered about as much chance for the unexpected as a pharaoh's funeral. It was worse than propaganda, it was propaganda privatized: The Clinton Administration manufactures a spectacle of consent by normal red-blooded Americans to the bombing of Iraq, which it offers to a giant news conglomerate. This corporation then twists the already-bent occasion to fit its t that White House aides publicly bemoaned for days afterward, some 200 to 300 local antiwar activists--old-time activists, students, clergy, anarchists, union people--who proceeded to make an impressive fuss. (Moderator Bernard Shaw's reference to maybe a "dozen" protesters was, of course, a lie.) Chanting. Heckling. Interrupting. Unfurling a banner--NO WAR--that one woman had smuggled in under her skirt. The protesters made so much noise that, after seven ejections and one arrest, a CNN producer agreed to let one of them ask a question if they agreed to pipe down. Jon Strange, a 22-year-old substitute teacher (who was, let it be noted, properly dressed and wearing a tie), asked a 64,000-dollar one: "Why bomb Iraq when other countries have committed similar violations?" He mentioned Turkey, which bombs the Kurds; Saudi Arabia, which tortures political and religious dissidents; Indonesia, which has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of East Timorese; Israel, which has been censured by the United Nations for bombing Lebanese civilians and brutalizing the Palestinians; and he could have mentioned many other nations as well. Down on the floor, Rick Theis, a writer and former O.S.U. student body president, was originally first at the mike but was denied the right to speak when he refused to let CNN prescreen his question and ejected when he protested this censorship. By dint of much vocal protest, he managed to speak at the very end of the evening, and he asked some good questions too. How can you call this a town meeting? How do you sleep at night? Too much free speech equals a major public relations disaster. In a stunning reversal, the very factors that had given the pro-war discourse the false appearance of monolithic consensus also made it vulnerable. Take conglomeratization: Thanks to CNN's global dominance, the whole world really was watching. How could the Clinton Administration persuade foreign governments of a course of action so dubious it couldn't even persuade its own citizens? (Not even Ohio supports the bombing, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said a few days later. Why should Egypt?) Take the media near-blackout of weeks and weeks of antiwar actions across the country. Suddenly people with questions about the bombing could see they weren't alone and never had been. "I got phone calls from people all over the country saying our protest gave them courage to do things in their own communities," Strange told me when we spoke by phone. "I think we cut through people's feelings of isolation and hopelessness." Now if Jon Strange and Rick Theis and their fellow protesters had been, say, first graders suspended for kissing classmates, they would have been on every talk show in the country the next day--like the veteran who wondered at the town meeting if we're "ready and willing to send in the troops." Was this not a news story? Did it not have a hook, an angle, timeliness, human interest, edge and attitude--all those things we leftists are constantly being told we lack when we ask why the mainstream media short-shrift our perspectives and reject our Op-Eds? After he'd had dinner and calmed down, Strange told me, he called Nightline, CNN, a newsroom at ABC and the Associated Press. "No one was interested." Only Pacifica's Democracy Now! and a few liberal-hosted regional talk shows invited Strange or Theis to be a guest. Theis's well-written and eminently newsworthy account of the evening appeared not in The New York Times or The Washington Post but in The Lantern, O.S.U.'s student paper, where, I must say, I found a level of discussion both of the town meeting and the proposed bombing itself that easily equaled that in the mainstream press. Columbus wasn't the only protest sidelined in the reporting. An appearance by Albright at Columbia, South Carolina, was met with demonstrators (best placard: Clinton: Make Love, Not War). U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson was confronted with such an unruly audience at the University of Minnesota that he left without speaking, a story no major paper saw fit to print. An interesting clue to the willful media misperception of widespread antiwar feeling lies in the persistent suggestion that the town meeting protesters were members of the famously sectarian and pugnacious Spartacist League. No one I spoke to from Columbus had seen a single Spart. I asked peace activist Mark Stansbery why he thought the press would say such a thing. "Maybe because we were so aggressive," he replied. "People don't expect that of Ohioans." The Nation Digital Edition http://www.thenation.com Copyright (c) 1997, The Nation Company, L.P. All rights reserved. Electronic redistribution for nonprofit purposes is permitted, provided this notice is attached in its entirety. Unauthorized, for-profit redistribution is prohibited. For further information regarding reprinting and syndication, please call The Nation at (212) 242-8400, ext. 226 or send e-mail to Max Block at mblock@thenation.com. From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Wed Mar 4 07:26:56 1998 Date: Wed, 04 Mar 98 08:26 CST From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Commercialism comes to PSN Well it had to happen, commercials on psn. The heart of Marxist progressive critique now peddles wares...but in this case, its a good cause. Valerie's book on the culture war and ps came out. I think its a great read and encourage everyone to read it, ask their library to order it, require students to buy it etc. So folks, go for it, or I will start pushing Sport Utilities, Frozen dinners and deodorants Lauren Langman ---------------------------- Text of forwarded message ----------------------- SCROLL DOWN 1) Tue, 3 oing -bs > By the way, here's what the flyer says: Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of Political Correctness By Valerie Scatamburlo In Soldiers of Misfortune, Valerie Scatamburlo provides the first systematic account of the political correctness phenomenon. The author contends that the New Right's campaign against P.C. must be understood contextually, as part of the conservative movement's broader "war of position." She traces the historical genealogy of the contemporary New Right; the network of corporate-sponsored funding undergirding their anti-P.C. assault; and examines the mainstream media's complicity in propagating anti-P.C. rhetoric. Scatamburlo, however, challenges the notion that the P.C. ethos is merely a myth concocted by the New Right and addresses some of the disturbing tendencies in contemporary Left theory and politics. She locates the P.C. phenomenon theoretically and politically between the linguistic turn in social theory and the rise of identity politics. Claiming that P.C. is, in many ways, a form of pseudoradicalism, the author argues that progressive intellectuals must move beyond the edicts of P.C., the narrowness of identity politics, and the excesses of postmodernism. "This is one of the most comprehensive accounts of the rise of the new right that is currently available. Scatamburlo has fashioned a book that is indispensable for scholars, educators, and activists interested in creating pedagogies of liberation and communities of risk and solidarity" --Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate School of Education, UCLA. "Since the struggle over P.C. continues unabated and because one expects that the culture wars will continue well into the next millennium, this is an extremely timely and provocative study that addresses an issue of utmost importance. For those who want to know what the P.C. controversy is all about, this is the book." --from the preface by Douglas Kellner, Professor, University of Texas at Austin. Ordering Information: Paperback $29.95 * 288 pages * ISBN 0-8204-3012-9 Send orders to: Peter Lang Publishing 275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor New York, NY 10001 Customer Service: 1-800-770-LANG (212) 647-7706, Fax: (212) 647-7707 customerservice@plang.com $29.95 + $3.00 shipping and handling From j9470388@wlv.ac.uk Wed Mar 4 07:06:52 1998 by ccug.wlv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 1.80 #3) Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 14:06:24 -0800 From: Alan Harrison To: Ericegg@aol.com Subject: Re: Fwd: sociology of sport Ericegg wrote: > > a possible biological explanation for the disportionate amount of "blacks" in > sport could be the effects of ARTIFICIAL SELECTION: generally speaking, > physically weak "blacks" would die-off quicker than the physically strong > "blacks" under the brutal conditions of slavery and the physically demanding > types of work that "blacks" were/are forced to perform. "Whites" on the other > hand could afford to be frail and physically weak-their workers do all the > "nigger work" while they-the whites-kick back and enjoy the EASY life. Over > time, over generations, which "race," which genetic pool will have the > stronger bodies? I see two problems with this: 1) Competent performance by black athletes from countries where slavery is not an issue, such as, for example, the "over-performance" of Kenya in long-distance running events. 2) Only a small minority of white people in fact enjoyed the leisured lifestyle described by Eric. So, for instance, when the great-great grandad of a black American athlete was a slave, the corresponding ancestor of a white British athlete was an agricultural or industrial labourer. Alan Harrison From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Wed Mar 4 10:47:33 1998 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 10:47:27 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: virtual seminar: communist manifesto (fwd) I would like to remind you the seminar started today - if you have the time, do join. Martha ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 2 Mar 98 09:08:00 From: Manjur Karim To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: virtual seminar: communist manifesto Please distribute to the relevant lists and individuals. Comrades and Friends: Progressive Sociologists' Network is happy to announce the beginning of a virtual seminar to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The "Manifesto", the most widely read and defining single text in the history of modern socialism, was first published in February, 1848. "League of the Just" was a secret political organization formed in 1836 by the radical German artisans and workers living in Paris. At its London Congress in 1847,the organization changed its name to "Communist League." The "Manifesto" was the political document of the newly renamed organization. While the names of both Marx and Engels appeared as co-authors, the primary authorship of the Manifesto should be attributed to Marx. In Engels' own phrase, "the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to Marx." But then again, the concept of authorship itself needs to be problematized. Like any other text, the Manifesto makes sense within the context of a historically embedded intertexuality. As Robert Beamish, one of the authors participating in our virtual seminar has pointed out "The manifesto was ultimately a collective effort of people who were trying to understand the prevailing social conditions so they could change them... while the document was drafted in its final form by Karl Marx, and the final credit for its organization and rhetorical style is due to him, the content and message of the Manifesto were really the product of an extended, intense, but open debate among committed communist-internationalists as they sought to define their programme nad understand the world they wanted to change." The purpose of the virtual seminar is to stimulate dialogues on the contemporary theoretical and practical relevance of the Manifesto. We encourages commentaries on the papers included in the seminar, as well as other related issues from a multiplicity of vantage points within the general terrain of progressive scholarship and activism. We have four papers Rob Beamish, The Making of the Manifesto* A. Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age Charles Ostenle, Manifesto for Praxis Societies and for a Global Democratic and Socialist Political Economy Eugene E. Ruyle, The Communist Manifesto in Light of Current Anthropology Date: Marc 4 - March 12 Format: To participate in the conference send mail to LISTPROC@csf.colorado.edu in the message proper write sub psn-seminars firstname lastname Location: You can find the conference papers at http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/seminars or you can send mail to LISTPROC@csf.colorado.edu and in the message proper write: get psn-seminars beamish get psn-seminars ostenle get psn-seminars gunderfrank get psn-seminars ruyle From coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Wed Mar 4 11:50:37 1998 Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 13:51:11 -0800 From: "Rodney D. Coates" Reply-To: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu To: Ericegg@aol.com Subject: Re: Fwd: sociology of sport--and other fanciful crap Are we actually having this insane conversation..ok..lets have it.. There is a hierarchy of sports in America and elsewhere throughout the world. This hierarchy also reflects the racial/class hierarchy in America..That is to say, that those sports deemed to be more refined, more stately..such as golf, swimming, equestrian tend to be dominated by those racial/class elites (i.e. white, male, upper class)..those sports deemed to be less refined, and in many ways more gladiator like..beastial..such as football, basketball, baseball..will have more of those in the lower racial/class groups who dominate. When blacks were not allowed into football, basketball there were marketedly fewer who even played... Further, if a kid --believing (socialized to believe) that their ticket out of the slum is through a basketball, football, or baseball..then they will practice day in and day out..Also, take two 6th graders..both approaching 6 feet tall..one black the other white..in most school districts the black kid will be encouraged to play basketball while the white kid ..medicine..law..or something..else.. Also..several studies have been done...which have demonstrated with respects to boxing how each respect lower ethnic group (i.e. that group which was at the lowest rung of our ethnic/racial hierarchy) were the predominant group represented..Thus we have gone through our irish, italian, polish..and now african -american dominance in Boxing.. is this biology..hell no..but sociology.. rodneycoates Ericegg wrote: > Subject: Re: sociology of sport > Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 09:56:17 EST > From: Ericegg > Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) > To: dnaylor@scf-fs.usc.edu > > with regards to the sociology of sport/race discussion- > > a possible biological explanation for the disportionate amount of "blacks" in > sport could be the effects of ARTIFICIAL SELECTION: generally speaking, > physically weak "blacks" would die-off quicker than the physically strong > "blacks" under the brutal conditions of slavery and the physically demanding > types of work that "blacks" were/are forced to perform. "Whites" on the other > hand could afford to be frail and physically weak-their workers do all the > "nigger work" while they-the whites-kick back and enjoy the EASY life. Over > time, over generations, which "race," which genetic pool will have the > stronger bodies? > > a possible mental explanation is associated with the "hunger" explanation. > It's not hunger per se, but the associated states of AGGRESSION and ANGER. > How are these emotions gonna get channelled? Well preferably in the least > harmful ways, in innocuous ways (innocuous to the status quo). "why can't > they just play basketball?" the "white" people say. I've seen it myself-watch > a group of pampered, SATISFIED, comfortable, sheltered, middle-class, white > kids play ball with a group of aggressive, unsatisfied, socially abused, > angry, smart (unsheltered), black kids AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. The white kids > get their asses kicked everytime, and they end up hating "niggers" 'cause they > "don't know how to play." > > Anyways, one thing is for sure-a confluence of factors is at work here. > > eric from atlanta -- umoja (unity through love, peace, understanding and respect) "Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes." -- African Proverb "Without struggle there is no progress." --Frederick Douglass "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." --Steven Biko yours in the struggle, Rodney D. Coates, http://www.ulbobo.com/umoja/ From pkaufman@ic.sunysb.edu Wed Mar 4 12:22:45 1998 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 14:22:23 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Kaufman To: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: sociology of sport In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980228102019.007b66a0@mailbox.syr.edu> Kelley, I don't know if it is too late for your needs but the following two articles may be intersting for you to take a look at. I don't really agree with either of them but I did find them thought-provoking: 1. Malcolm Gladwell. "The Sports Taboo" The New Yorker. May 19, 1997. Gladwell makes the case that black and white performances in sports are like boys and girls performances in math. (Un)knowingly, he seems to offer a social constructivists interpretation in the end even if he begins by arguing otherwise--at least that's my reading of it. 2. Barbara Ehrenreich and Janet McIntosh. "The New Creationism." The Nation. June 9, 1997. I only put these two articles together since I read them at the same time and deal with similar themes. Ehrenreich is basically warning against an overly constructionist conception of reality. Again, I find more to disagree with than agree with in these articles but they are interesting and may help you think through some of these issues. Peter Kaufman Department of Sociology SUNY at Stony Brook From j9470388@wlv.ac.uk Thu Mar 5 08:28:07 1998 by ccug.wlv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 1.80 #3) Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 15:24:15 -0800 From: Alan Harrison To: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Subject: Re: Fwd: sociology of sport--and other fanciful crap Rodney D. Coates wrote: > > Are we actually having this insane conversation..ok..lets have it.. > > There is a hierarchy of sports in America and elsewhere throughout the world. > This hierarchy also reflects the racial/class hierarchy in America..That is to > say, that those sports deemed to be more refined, more stately..such as golf, > swimming, equestrian tend to be dominated by those racial/class elites (i.e. > white, male, upper class)..those sports deemed to be less refined, and in many > ways more gladiator like..beastial..such as football, basketball, baseball..will > have more of those in the lower racial/class groups who dominate. When blacks > were not allowed into football, basketball there were marketedly fewer who even > played... But how widely can we generalize from the American experience? First, the sports played in the USA are not necessarily those played elsewhere. Most obviously, perhaps, what I call "American football" has made little impact outside North America. Throughout most of the world football (unless there is explicit or strong implicit evidence to the contrary) means Association football (soccer). Baseball similarly has made little impact in Europe, an early unsuccessful attempt to introduce it into the UK being commemorated until recently by the former Derby County football ground's name, "the Baseball Ground". Of the three main spectator team sports in the USA, only basketball has made any appreciable impact in Europe. In Britain, there has certainly been a strong class element in sport. "Public" (i.e. private) schools and those grammar schools which imitated them, typically played Rugby Union, while Association football was very much a working-class game. Rugby itself split into two codes (Union, fifteen a side, rigidly amateur until a couple of years ago) and League (thirteen a side, with semi-pro sides, largely confined to the north of England). Such was the level of acrimony (over professionalism - a class issue) that the Rugby Union would not allow anyone who played Rugby League as an adult, even as an amateur, to play Union, although it did permit those who had played professional cricket or association football to do so. Association football has in the last few years moved upmarket, becoming fashionable with relatively rich people as a spectator sport, with some evidence in big-name clubs of working-class supporters being squeezed out by rising prices and corporate hospitality provision. Where race is concerned, black players have become widespread in Association football, although there is a problem with racism in the game, which has, for instance, manifested itself in the last few days when the Aston Villa player Stan Collymore accused a player from his former club, Liverpool, of racially abusing him during a match. Cricket presents interesting questions around race and class. At one time, the game distinguished between amateur "gentlemen" and professional "players", the latter having separate dressing rooms, being listed by surname alone (no initials) on team listings, and sometimes even expected to call the amateurs "sir". At the same time, cricket has had some magnificent players from the West Indies (Constantine, Sobers, Lara, etc.) Two areas of controversy about race may deserve a mention. One is the longstanding reluctance of Yorkshire to field players of Asian origin. Leeds and Bradford are full of young Yorkshiremen with names like Davinder and Farouq, who never get picked for the county side. More specifically, there was recently a major controversy when a cricket commentator questioned the commitment of the England player Devon Malcolm, as against that of his white colleagues. This may stem from the infamous "cricket test" of the Tory politician Norman Tebbit, who asked whether young people born in England of Asian or West Indian parents cheered for England or for Pakistan, the West Indies, etc. in test matches. Alan Harrison From jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Thu Mar 5 09:36:09 1998 Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 11:35:47 -0500 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: History of grading policies? PSNers: Anyone familiar with the history of grading in academia? There has been quite a bit (though perhaps not enough) discussion in various forums over the years about the merits, and lack thereof, of grading practices in education, but I don't recall seeing much if anything on the history of the practice. When did it come into use? Where? Why? What social forces brought it to bear? Etc. Also, while on the subject, what comparative studies have been done? What conclusions drawn? Anyone caring to summarize findings on this, or simply citing literature we can review, would be most appreciated. Thanks. Jim -- Jim Salt jsalt@alpha.utampa.edu Box 90F Dept. of History, Political Science, & Sociology University of Tampa 401 W. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa FL 33606-1450 813-253-3333 X3651 "The philosophers have only _interpreted_ the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to _change_ it." --- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach From cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu Thu Mar 5 15:08:40 1998 From: cazenave@uconnvm.uconn.edu To: abslst-l@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu, Psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 17:19:40 +0000 Subject: Words You Wont Read In AJS In a book review I wrote for the current (January) issue of AJS two words that were essential to the point I was attempting to communicate were deleted. This was done dispite the fact that the article was within the word count limit specified by the editor. Those words are "race liberal." They should appear on p. 1154. Instead of the sentence that reads (at the beginning of the second paragraph) "The inability of the book's analysis...," let the record show that what I actually wrote was, "The inability of WHITE LIES' race liberal analysis to obtain its author's radical goal is clear in the few pages Daniels devotes to strategies to combating white supremacy." I have not had a chance to check the review for other deletions or changes that could affect the substance of my review. 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 spector@calumet.purdue.edu Thu Mar 5 15:17:47 1998 Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 16:18:34 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: j9470388@wlv.ac.uk Subject: Re: Fwd: sociology of sport & racism I didn't see ericegg's original comment; either it was lost on the way to my e-mail (which happens) or it was on PSN-cafe and I missed it. But Alan Harrison's reponse is entirely correct but doesn't go nearly far enough. The well-meaning, but amateurish attempt to explain complex biological processes of natural selection on the basis of five generations is an example of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It has the FORM of appearing to be scientific, but in essence it is just popular folklore (assuming that "blacks" and "whites" are physiologically very different), but folklore dressed up with a little scientific-sounding rhetoric. It reminds me of the time that the notoriously racist British psychologist Hans Eysenck wanted to argue that black Americans were inferior to SCW (so-called "white") people and also to Africans, while also arguing that the Irish in Ireland were inferior to the British, but the Irish-Americans were not. The whole argument was so obviously political---attempting to justify the vicious discrimination that both groups faced. But he tried to put a scientific camoflauge on it. He wrote, essentially, "The black Africans who left Africa were less intelligent than the ones who stayed, because the less intelligent ones were more easily captured. Therefore, the Africans who remained behind were more intelligent. Interestingly, the opposite seemed to happen with the Irish, where those who left were the ones who were intelligent enough to realize that they needed to leave, while those who remained were the inferior ones." Interestingly? INTERESTINGLY??? So, all you have to do is say the word "INTERESTINGLY" and you can try to explain away all the powerful evidence that might undermine your conclusions. Not too slick, but it might fool someone who doesn't know much about scientific methodology but thinks they know how to use logic to make up for lack of data! Scientists, including social scientists are unable to take people who are politically-culturally classified as belonging to particular so-called "races" and correlate their characteristics to anything seriously based in DNA, because the political-cultural classifications are utterly unscientific. What is interesting is NOT the biology. That's pretty simple. What is interesting is why people, especially those trained in social science, give the slightest credence to this racist folklore. The answer--that racist ideology is rampant even among liberal academcians--may make some people uncomfortable. Alan Spector -- From Ericegg@aol.com Thu Mar 5 23:29:26 1998 by imo21.mx.aol.com (IMOv13.ems) id GUFMa01472 From: Ericegg Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:29:09 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: whateverdude:socsport boundary="part0_889165749_boundary" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_889165749_boundary --part0_889165749_boundary From: Ericegg Return-path: To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu Subject: whateverdude:socsport Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:26:46 EST Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) alan, relax, I AM NOT THE ENEMY. i'm only ericegg from atlanta- here are my comments about your comments: 1st-read my original comments. it would be wise before commenting on any commentary that you haven't read to read such commentary FIRST. 2nd-this is why i used the word "possible"-i.e. "possible" explanations. (i was playing devil's advocate to a large extent-this was my "methodolgy" as you had call it my scientific friend). by the way, I was not interested in giving a comprehensive explanation, only possible points of view-hence my, as you called it, "amateurish explanation" (vs. a what? ..."professional explanation?"). 3rd-i was speaking of artificial selection, a sociological phenomenon having to do with 20-30 generations (not 5). My point was that the social influences the biological and visa versa, dialectically. by the way, you did not comment on my second "possible" explanation-i.e., the mental causes for 'better sports performance of blacks'. Oh your so scientifically thorough. 4th-I don't agree with the category "race" which is why i used quotes around the terms "black" and "white"; and why i used the term "gene pool" vs. "race." incidently i've known particular families where a certain physical characteristic became dominate within 5 or 6 generations (I'm speaking of physical size here). 5th-i'm fully aware of the way sociological categories take on a life of their own and subsequently EFFECT the phenomena under study. i am not epistemologically naive-conceptions do in fact influence perceptions, i am aware of this. 6th-so-called "science" has a lot to learn from so-called "folk lore," but intellectual snobs (are you sure that you yourself aren't a "liberal academic"?) like yourself can't seem to separate the crap from the cream. i know how awkward it is for you "real intellectuals" to be around regular people. i believe ya'll call it "dumbing yourselves down" right? (Oh, Marxists can't be snobs eh? -bullshit!) Everyone has something to offer just as every system of understanding has something of value. 7th-i am not a "trained social scientist" as you have incorectly called me (as if YOU could tell what or who i am based on 20 or 30 words. TALK ABOUT PSUDO SCIENCE. i am a human being just like yourself, give me a little credit here. 8th-I have fought "liberal academicians" to the point of being literally rejected from graduate school. This to me is real graduation! I know they're full of shit...da! well....ya, your right, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." This includes having little knowlege of persons and their opinions YOU JUDGE to be inferior based on a meaningless amount of information. one last thing, you don't seem to realize that the sociological category "liberal academic" is as problematic as the catagory "race." YOUR CONCEPT IS DETERMINING YOUR PERCEPTIONS. People like yourself have a lot to learn from what you "professionals" might call "organic intellectuals." remember that and GET OUT OF THEORY LAND MR. SPECTOR! later dude eric from atlanta --part0_889165749_boundary-- From Ericegg@aol.com Thu Mar 5 23:42:26 1998 by imo23.mx.aol.com (IMOv13.ems) id GYINa05359 From: Ericegg Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:42:10 EST To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: whateverdude:socsport boundary="part0_889166530_boundary" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_889166530_boundary --part0_889166530_boundary From: Ericegg Return-path: To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fwd: whateverdude:socsport Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:29:09 EST Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) boundary="part1_889166530_boundary" --part1_889166530_boundary --part1_889166530_boundary From: Ericegg Return-path: To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu Subject: whateverdude:socsport Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 01:26:46 EST Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) alan, relax, I AM NOT THE ENEMY. i'm only ericegg from atlanta- here are my comments about your comments: 1st-read my original comments. it would be wise before commenting on any commentary that you haven't read to read such commentary FIRST. 2nd-this is why i used the word "possible"-i.e. "possible" explanations. (i was playing devil's advocate to a large extent-this was my "methodolgy" as you had call it my scientific friend). by the way, I was not interested in giving a comprehensive explanation, only possible points of view-hence my, as you called it, "amateurish explanation" (vs. a what? ..."professional explanation?"). 3rd-i was speaking of artificial selection, a sociological phenomenon having to do with 20-30 generations (not 5). My point was that the social influences the biological and visa versa, dialectically. by the way, you did not comment on my second "possible" explanation-i.e., the mental causes for 'better sports performance of blacks'. Oh your so scientifically thorough. 4th-I don't agree with the category "race" which is why i used quotes around the terms "black" and "white"; and why i used the term "gene pool" vs. "race." incidently i've known particular families where a certain physical characteristic became dominate within 5 or 6 generations (I'm speaking of physical size here). 5th-i'm fully aware of the way sociological categories take on a life of their own and subsequently EFFECT the phenomena under study. i am not epistemologically naive-conceptions do in fact influence perceptions, i am aware of this. 6th-so-called "science" has a lot to learn from so-called "folk lore," but intellectual snobs (are you sure that you yourself aren't a "liberal academic"?) like yourself can't seem to separate the crap from the cream. i know how awkward it is for you "real intellectuals" to be around regular people. i believe ya'll call it "dumbing yourselves down" right? (Oh, Marxists can't be snobs eh? -bullshit!) Everyone has something to offer just as every system of understanding has something of value. 7th-i am not a "trained social scientist" as you have incorectly called me (as if YOU could tell what or who i am based on 20 or 30 words. TALK ABOUT PSUDO SCIENCE. i am a human being just like yourself, give me a little credit here. 8th-I have fought "liberal academicians" to the point of being literally rejected from graduate school. This to me is real graduation! I know they're full of shit...da! well....ya, your right, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." This includes having little knowlege of persons and their opinions YOU JUDGE to be inferior based on a meaningless amount of information. one last thing, you don't seem to realize that the sociological category "liberal academic" is as problematic as the catagory "race." YOUR CONCEPT IS DETERMINING YOUR PERCEPTIONS. People like yourself have a lot to learn from what you "professionals" might call "organic intellectuals." remember that and GET OUT OF THEORY LAND MR. SPECTOR! later dude eric from atlanta --part1_889166530_boundary-- --part0_889166530_boundary-- From tr@tryoung.com Fri Mar 6 06:26:50 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 08:23:38 -0500 To: teachsoc@csf.Colorado.EDU From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Your best undergrad student papers. I am pleased to announce the appointment of the first editors of the new electronic Undergraduate Sociology Journal: They are: JIM DOWD, Sociology, The University of Georgia SouthEast United States � Contact Jim at: jjdowd@sherlock.dac.uga.edu B. Keith Crew, Ph.D. University of Northern Iowa North Central States: �� Gender and Sexuality Issues �� Interpersonal Violence �� Critical and PostModern Perspectives �� on Social Issues Contact B.K.C. at: crew@csbs.csbs.uni.edu Tracy Luff, Midway College, Kentucky � Contact Tracy at:tluff@midway.edu Send the best papers from your undergrad classes to the Editor closest to you...those in Michigan can send papers to me: tr@tryoung.com ....and we need Associate Editors for other regions in the USA. If you are interested contact me. You may preview the journal at: http://www.tryoung.com/journals/journalindex TR Young, General Editor, The Red Feather Institute TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From S.P.Sayers@ukc.ac.uk Fri Mar 6 09:26:43 1998 Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:28:48 GMT Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:28:47 +0000 (GMT) From: Sean Sayers To: rp contents -- Istvan Berkeley , dqfacaa@cfrvm.bitnet, hegel-l@bucknell.edu, lance@freelance.com, palmer@think.net, philos-l , psn@csf.colorado.edu, "list owner rad@coombs.anu.edu.au Australasian" , RPA Friends and Members , spoon-announcements@jefferson.village.virginia.edu Diana Coole , Peter Dews , Howard Feather , Jean Grimshaw , Kathleen Lennon , Kevin Magill , Nadine Cartner , Peter Osborne , Stella Sandford Subject: Radical Philosophy 87 - Table of Contents R a d i c a l P h i l o s o p h y 87 (jan/feb 1998) a journal of socialist and feminist philosophy http://www.ukc.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/rp/ CONTENTS Commentary Dearing Boring: The Massification of Higher Education Roger Harris 2 Articles Writing as a Man: Levinas and the Phenomenology of Eros Stella Sandford 6 Rorty's Nation Jonathan Ree 18 Feminists and Pragmatists: A Radical Future? Lorraine Code 22 Consumed by Night's Fire: The Dark Romanticism of Guy Debord Michael Lowy 31 Reviews Tim Crane, The Mechanical Mind Frank Jackson and David Braddon Mitchell, Philosophy of Mind and Cognition Jaegwon Kim, Philosophy of Mind Georges Rey, Contemporary Philosophy of Mind Galen Strawson, Mental Reality David J. Chalmers, The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory Gregory McCulloch, The Mind and Its World Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory Kathleen Lennon 35 John Richardson, Nietzsche's System Peter Poellner, Nietzsche and Metaphysics Diana Coole 39 Judith Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative Jean-Jacques Lecercle 41 John Anner, ed., Beyond Identity Politics: Emerging Social Justice Movements in Communities of Color Sheila Rowbotham 43 Karen Vintges, Philosophy as Passion: The Thinking of Simone de Beauvoir David Macey 45 Mark Neocleous, Fascism Tobias Abse 46 Simon LeVay, Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality Udo Schuklenk 48 Colin Davis, Levinas: An Introduction Emmanuel Levinas, Basic Philosophical Writings Stella Sandford 49 John Gray, Endgames: Questions in Late Modern Political Thought Gideon Calder 51 Craig Beveridge and Ronnie Turnbull, Scotland After Enlightenment Ellen-Raissa Jackson 52 Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression David Roden 54 Andrew Bowie, From Romanticism to Critical Theory: The Philosophy of German Literary Theory Austin Harrington 55 news Hegel and Contemporary Ethics Gordon Finlayson 56 ********************************************************** Contributors Roger Harris teaches philosophy at Middlesex University, and is the Dean of Students for the Enfield campus. Stella Sandford currently teaches philosophy at the University of Essex and the University of North London. Lorraine Code is Professor of Philosophy at York University, Ontario. Her books include Rhetorical Spaces: Essays on (Gendered) Locations (Routledge, 1995). Jonathan Ree teaches philosophy at Middlesex University. Michael Lowy works at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. ************************************************************************ SUBSCRIPTION RATES (L = pounds sterling) Individual Subscribers 6 issues - UK: L21 Europe: L25 ROW surface: L27/$44 ROW airmail: L33/$54 12 issues - UK: L37 Europe: L45 ROW surface: L49/$80 ROW airmail: L61/$100 Libraries and Institutions 6 issues - UK: L44 Europe L48 ROW surface: L50/$82 ROW airmail: L56/$91 Single copies Subscribers L3.95/$7 per copy Non-subscribers L4.25/$8 Institutions L9/$15 (10% discount for orders of 10 or more) Bound back sets (1-75) in five handsome burgundy hard cover volumes including indexes: L495 / $745 plus p&p (surface) UK: L10 ROW: L20/$30 Radical Philosophy INDEX (1-60) Subscribers L4.95/$10 Non-Subscribers L7.50/$12 Institutions L12.00/$20 All prices include postage. Cheques should be made payable to Radical Philosophy Ltd. We accept Visa, Access/Mastercard & Eurocard. When ordering please state your card no. and expiry date. Contact: Central Books (RP Subscriptions) 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN Tel: 0181 986 4854 E-mail: rp@centbks.demon.co.uk Visit our web site: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/rp/ * tables of contents of the journal back to issue 53 (Autumn 1989) * first pages of main articles of more recent issues * details of subscription rates * how to subscribe, contribute, or advertise in the journal * profiles of philosophers from recent issues From S.P.Sayers@ukc.ac.uk Fri Mar 6 09:26:44 1998 Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:32:43 GMT Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:32:42 +0000 (GMT) From: Sean Sayers To: rp contents -- Istvan Berkeley , dqfacaa@cfrvm.bitnet, hegel-l@bucknell.edu, lance@freelance.com, palmer@think.net, philos-l , psn@csf.colorado.edu, "list owner rad@coombs.anu.edu.au Australasian" , RPA Friends and Members , spoon-announcements@jefferson.village.virginia.edu Diana Coole , Peter Dews , Howard Feather , Jean Grimshaw , Kathleen Lennon , Kevin Magill , Nadine Cartner , Peter Osborne , Stella Sandford Subject: Radical Philosophy 88 out now R a d i c a l P h i l o s o p h y 88 (march/april 1998) a journal of socialist and feminist philosophy http://www.ukc.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/rp/ CONTENTS Commentary Science-envy: Sokal, Science and the Police Bruce Robbins 2 ARTICLES Intersubjectivity and Openness to Change: Michael Theunissen's Negative Theology of Time Chris Thornhill 6 Prequel to the Heidegger Debate: Audry and Sartre Ian H. Birchall 19 Philosophizing beyond Philosophy: Walter Benjamin Reviewed Peter Osborne 28 Mind, Reality and Politics Andrew Collier 38 REVIEWS Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes Brian Vickers, ed., Francis Bacon: A Critical Edition of the Major Works Jonathan Ree 44 Jodi Dean, ed., Feminism and the New Democracy: Resisting the Political Anne Seller 46 Charles E. Reagan, Paul Ricoeur: His Life and His Work Richard Kearney, ed., Paul Ricoeur: Hermeneutics of Action Lois McNay 48 Katharine Conley, Automatic Woman: The Representation of Woman in Surrealism David Macey 49 Dwight Furrow, Against Theory: Continental and Analytic Challenges in Moral Philosophy Michael Dillon, Politics of Security: Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought Gideon Calder 50 John Brannigan, Ruth Robbins and Julian Wolfreys, eds, Applying: To Derrida Willy Maley 52 Dennis Patterson, ed., A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory David Archard 52 NEWS Women Philosophers and the RAE Kimberly Hutchings 54 LETTER Tom Hickey 55 ************************************************************* CONTRIBUTORS Bruce Robbins is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University. His books include Secular Vocations: Intellectuals, Professionalism, Culture (Verso, 1993), and he is an editor of the journal Social Text. Chris Thornhill teaches Critical Theory and German political theory at King's College, London. His special interests are political theology, hermeneutics and German political philosophy in general. Ian Birchall is the author of Spectre of Babeuf (Macmillan, 1997). Peter Osborne is the author of The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (Verso, 1995) and co-editor and contributor to Walter Benjamin's Philosophy: Destruction and Experience (Routledge, 1994). Andrew Collier teaches at the University of Southampton and is the author of Critical Realism (Verso, 1994). ************************************************************************ SUBSCRIPTION RATES (L = pounds sterling) Individual Subscribers 6 issues - UK: L21 Europe: L25 ROW surface: L27/$44 ROW airmail: L33/$54 12 issues - UK: L37 Europe: L45 ROW surface: L49/$80 ROW airmail: L61/$100 Libraries and Institutions 6 issues - UK: L44 Europe L48 ROW surface: L50/$82 ROW airmail: L56/$91 Single copies Subscribers L3.95/$7 per copy Non-subscribers L4.25/$8 Institutions L9/$15 (10% discount for orders of 10 or more) Bound back sets (1-75) in five handsome burgundy hard cover volumes including indexes: L495 / $745 plus p&p (surface) UK: L10 ROW: L20/$30 Radical Philosophy INDEX (1-60) Subscribers L4.95/$10 Non-Subscribers L7.50/$12 Institutions L12.00/$20 All prices include postage. Cheques should be made payable to Radical Philosophy Ltd. We accept Visa, Access/Mastercard & Eurocard. When ordering please state your card no. and expiry date. Contact: Central Books (RP Subscriptions) 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN Tel: 0181 986 4854 E-mail: rp@centbks.demon.co.uk Visit our web site: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/rp/ * tables of contents of the journal back to issue 53 (Autumn 1989) * first pages of main articles of more recent issues * details of subscription rates * how to subscribe, contribute, or advertise in the journal * profiles of philosophers from recent issues From tr@tryoung.com Fri Mar 6 12:44:52 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 14:41:39 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Address for the Red Feather Manifesto Several people have commented that the address set forth in the email post announcing the Manifesto for Praxis Societies and a Democratic Global and Socialist Political Economy may find/download it at: http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/seminars/karim.html and at: www.tryoung.com/archives and I can attach it as a file as well if anyone would like. TR Young, Director The Red Feather Institute TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Fri Mar 6 16:15:00 1998 Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 16:41:05 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: On "race", racism, and argumentation For someone who starts out with: "alan, relax, I AM NOT THE ENEMY." the rest of "Eric"'s post is considerably harsher than my comments. I NEVER attacked him personally, and have no idea if he has a Ph.D., a Nobel Prize, or works in a steel mill. In fact, I assumed that he was a credentialed "intellectual" and my criticisms about the use of good-sounding theory to obscure the lack of data had absolutely NO TINGE of an anti-working class tone. Only an anti-"nice-sounding logic to hide poor data" tone. The end of my post further verifies that the target of my criticism was not an "unwashed, untrained, non-intellectual" but rather it was the mainstream, professional academic establishment, -- ******* (my quote) " What is interesting is why people, especially those trained in social science, give the slightest credence to this racist folklore. The answer--that racist ideology is rampant even among liberal academcians--may make some people uncomfortable." ******** My use of the word "amateurish" was in reference to the sloppiness of the argument--a sloppiness which "Eric" correctly points out runs rampant among professional credentialed intellectuals. Eric might say: "What about the other parts of my comments?" Well, the other parts of his comments have some good points. But I wasn't talking about the other parts of his comments--only the biologi Obviously it would have been better if I had. But the quote I did read was more than a few words. Here is what was reposted on PSN: ***********************************************************(eric's quote) with regards to the sociology of sport/race discussion- > > a possible biological explanation for the disportionate amount of "blacks" in > sport could be the effects of ARTIFICIAL SELECTION: generally speaking, > physically weak "blacks" would die-off quicker than the physically strong > "blacks" under the brutal conditions of slavery and the physically demanding > types of work that "blacks" were/are forced to perform. "Whites" on the other > hand could afford to be frail and physically weak-their workers do all the > "nigger work" while they-the whites-kick back and enjoy the EASY life. Over > time, over generations, which "race," which genetic pool will have the > stronger bodies? > > a possible mental explanation is associated with the "hunger" explanation. > It's not hunger per se, but the associated states of AGGRESSION and ANGER. > How are these emotions gonna get channelled? Well preferably in the least > harmful ways, in innocuous ways (innocuous to the status quo). "why can't > they just play basketball?" the "white" people say. I've seen it myself-watch > a group of pampered, SATISFIED, comfortable, sheltered, middle-class, white > kids play ball with a group of aggressive, unsatisfied, socially abused, > angry, smart (unsheltered), black kids AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. The white kids > get their asses kicked everytime, and they end up hating "niggers" 'cause they > "don't know how to play." > > Anyways, one thing is for sure-a confluence of factors is at work here. > > eric from atlanta >******************************************end of eric's quote******************* If Eric was being completely ironic, sarcastic, and critical of the biological part of the above quote, and if I missed that because I did not read the whole post, then I apologize. But it does appear that the quote, as it stands, does lend SOME credence to the biological-racial view. This is apparent in the final sentence: "a confluence of factors is at work here." I'm not going to critique Eric; he may have written other things I haven't read. But I, and many others, have dealt with many traditional, liberal, credentialed, mainstream social scientists who talk about the "confluence of factors" that result in differences in the standard of living for black and white people in the U.S., and "one" of the "factors" is often an assertion of important biological difference, and when they are challenged, they retreat behind the argument of: "Well, I ALSO said that there could be discrimination!" That attempts to divert, deflect criticism from the biological part of the argument, which should be defended with better data, or be willing to withstand serious criticism. Read that quote again: Imagine if someone said that there was a confluence of reasons why Jews were outcasts in Germany and Eastern Europe in the 1930's, including unfair discrimination, but also, that maybe because Jews weren't allowed to own large plots of land, they became merchants, and those without the temperment to do well as greedy capitalists died off, leaving the avarcious ones to reproduce--imagine if someone said that, (by the way, some Nazis did)...Even if that was tacked onto an argument that lamented the discrimination against Jews, it still opens the door to racist interpretations. Again, if Eric completely rejects the biological part of his comments above, that's fine, and my critique of the statement is not a critique of him. But it is important to ruthlessly critique arguments that take non-quantifiable social "racial" categories and give them the camoflauge of quantifiable biology while trying to explain why some people live more oppressed lives than others. As far as the "I'm just plain folks and you are an elitist intellectual" attack in the rest of his post--well, I don't know much about Eric, and he doesn't know much about me. While I join him in his scorn for the pompous, stylized arrogance of many traditional bourgeois intellectuals, in the end, it is most important, even when dealing with the most pompous, to make the critique of their arguments central. The "I'm just plain folks argument" is a kind of reverse-charisma technique; just as the pompous arrogant intellectual tries to win the debate on the basis of IMAGE, so too does the "Plain Folks" person try to win the debate on the basis of IMAGE. Alan Spector From mgullette@classic.msn.com Fri Mar 6 16:01:46 1998 Date: Fri, 6 Mar 98 22:58:00 UT From: "Margaret Morganroth Gullette" To: "Black, Max" , Max@+1.463-9712 (212), "Blakely, Mary Kay" , "Blum, Virginia" , "Faber, Danny" , "Elinor Fuchs" , "Dixler, Elsa" , "Drobis, Sue" , "Eisner, Robert" , "Cordish, Penny" , "Coppelia Kahn" , "Faris, Wendy Bush" , "Funk, Nanette" , "Gender Studies" , "Gullette, Brian" , "Guilleman, Jeanne" , "Hedges, Inez and/or Victor Wallis" , "higginson, connie" , "HOLLENBERG, DONNA" , "Hoffman, Merle" , Merle@+1.997-1206 (718), "Mumford, Laura Stempel" Subject: FW: NPR poli-chain >From Margaret Gullette: > >Dear friends: Read the following and if you agree with me that this is > >very important, pass it on! > > > > >This is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure > >of $1.12/year of their taxes. . . . A petition follows. > >If you sign, please forward it on to others. If not, please don't > >kill it--send it to the e-mail address listed here: > > wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu > >PBS, NPR (National Public Radio), and the arts are facing major cutbacks > >in > >funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to > >reduce spending costs and streamline their services, some government > >officials believe that the funding currently going to these > >programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as > >"unworthwhile." > > Currently, taxes from the general public for PBS equal $1.12 per > >person per year, and the National Endowment for the Arts equals > >$.64 a year in total. A January 1995 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated > >that 76% of Americans wish to keep funding for PBS, third only to national > >defense and law enforcement as the most valuable program for federal > >funding. > >Each year, the Senate and House Appropriations committees each have > >13 subcommittees with jurisdiction over many programs and agencies. > >Each subcommittee passes its own appropriation bill. The goal each year is > >to have each bill signed by the beginning of the fiscal year, which is > >October 1. > >The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support > >for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices > >heard. > >Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends if you believe > >in what we stand for. This list will be forwarded to the President of the > >United States, the Vice President of the United States, and Representative > >Newt Gingrich, who is the instigator of the action to cut funding to these > >worthwhile programs. > >If you happen to be the 350th, 400th, 450th etc. signer of this petition, > >please forward a copy to wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. > >If that address is inoperative, please send it to > >kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu. This way we can keep track of the > >lists and organize them. Forward this to everyone you know, and help us to > >keep these programs alive. > >Thank you. > >Mark Birnbaum > > 1) Pete Mumma, Baltimore MD > > 2) Erik Roskes, Baltimore, MD > > 3) William K. Levey, Reisterstown, MD > > 4) Raymond S. Hoffman, M.D., Baltimore, MD > > 5) John G. Coe. Cheyenne, WY > > 6) John C. Fogarty, Sacramento, CA > > 7) Joseph C. Fogarty, Omaha, NE > > 8) Shaula R. Bellour, New York, NY > > 9) Lisa F. Parker, New York, NY > > 10) Daniel P. Brochu, New York, NY > > 11) Colette Mercier, Spring Valley, IL > > 12) Jeffrey A. Hjelt, Carlsbad, CA > > 13) Melissa McManigal, Los Angeles, CA > > 14) Gina Lagomarsino, Mountain View, CA > > 15) Henri Tjiong, Stanford, CA > > 16) Chad Steward, Sunnyvale, CA > > 17) Erin Steward, Tempe, AZ > > 18) Heather Kubert, La Jolla, CA > > 19) Adrienne Friedman > > 20) Mike Friedman > > 21) Gregory Friedman > > 22) William J. Todd, San Jose, CA > > 23) Jay Somera, Sunnyvale, CA > > 24) Melanie Purdy, Cupertino, CA > > 25) Paul S. Whitmer, Santa Clara, CA > > 26) Blair Whitmer, Palo Alto, CA > > 27) Curt Kiest, Pacifica, CA > 28) Stefano A. Bini, San Francisco, CA > 29) Christina McGill, San Francisco, CA > 30) Jan Wadsworth, San Francisco, CA > > >> 31)Suzanne Myers, New York, NY >> 32)Michele Forman, Birmingham, AL > 33)Eric Watson, NYC 34) Sean Gullette, NYC >35), Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Newton, MA 36) David G. Gullette, Newton, MA ************************* * * * Sean Gullette * * 77 Bleecker #631 * * NYC 10012 * * 212.475.1953 * * page 917.419.0593 * * kgb@dti.net * * * ************************* From cdfupdate@cdfig.childrensdefense.org Fri Mar 6 23:06:12 1998 Date: Fri, 06 Mar 98 17:57:54 EST From: "CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 3-6-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update March 6, 1998 In This Issue: -- Family Income -- Juvenile Justice -- Conference *** Family Income *** ---AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESTORE FOOD STAMPS FOR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS--- The Agricultural Research Bill (H.R.2534 /S. 1150), now in conference committee, contains savings from changes in administering the Food Stamp program that have been recently estimated as worth between $1.4 billion and $1.75 billion over five years. Advocates have joined efforts to seek at least half of these funds to restore Food Stamps to many of the legal immigrants who lost the benefits through the 1996 welfare law. (The rest of the funds would be spent on items such as agricultural research and crop insurance.) The Food Stamp cuts affected over 900,000 legal immigrants, more than 65 percent of whom live in families with children. Others affected include legal immigrants with disabilities and refugees. H.R.2534/ S. 1150 may be the best chance this year to restore Food Stamps for some of the legal immigrants who lost them. ** YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED! Contact three very important members of the conference committee: Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, (202) 224-4814, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (202) 224-4242, and Senator Thomas Harkin (D-IA), ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, (202) 224-3254. * Message: Urge the Senators to reinvest at least half of the Food Stamp program savings in Food Stamps for legal immigrants. The following are all the House/Senate Conferees on H.R. 2534/S. 1150: Representatives Robert Smith (R-OR), Larry Combest (R-TX), Bill Barrett (R-NE), Charles Stenholm (D-TX), and Calvin Dooley (D-CA); Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Paul Coverdell (R-GA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). * If you are a constituent of any of the House and Senate Conferees, contact these lawmakers on the Agricultural Research Bill (H.R. 2534 /S. 1150) and urge that the final Conference Agreement reinvest at least one half of any Food Stamp Program savings back into food stamp benefits for legal immigrants (U.S. Capitol switchboard # is 202/224-3121). *** Juvenile Justice *** --- SIGN-ON LETTERS OPPOSING S.10 --- We have had a tremendous response to the sign-on letters opposing S. 10, the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act. These letters, each of which addresses a major concern in the bill, are designed so that your organization can sign-on to the concerns most important to you. We appreciate your overwhelming response and we encourage those that have not signed-on to please keep them coming. There has been such an immense response to the sign-on campaign that we have decided to continue to collect organizational support, and will stagger the delivery of the letters to the Senate through the Easter recess. This week, we delivered the "Records" letter to the entire Senate. This will greatly help the Senate understand this issue before Monday's (03/09/98) hearing in the Youth Violence Subcommittee to re-examine S. 10's sweeping record-keeping changes. The changes would open all children's arrest records to the FBI, schools, and others. We will deliver a different letter each week, for the following five weeks, leading up to the April recess. The six letters are: ADULT JAIL: illustrates the dangers of placing children in jails and prisons with adults. PREVENTION: demonstrates need for prevention not just detention. MINORITY YOUTH: discusses need to continue to address Disproportionate Minority Confinement. RECORDS: outlines the effects of indiscriminately sharing the records of children arrested (even those not convicted) for a wide range of offenses. GUN VIOLENCE: calls for the link between children, crime, and guns to be addressed. EXPULSION: outlines effect of mandating the expulsion of our nation's children for the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs. * All the pressure is paying off. The latest information suggests action on S.10 may be delayed until after the April recess. Keep up the good work. If you need more information, please call Holly Jackson at: 202/662-3664 or email the CDF Update at: . *** Children's Defense Fund Annual Conference *** The Children's Defense Fund Annual National Conference is this month, March 25-28, 1998, in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The theme, Celebrating 25 Years Of Standing For America's Children, builds on a quarter-century anniversary of advocacy and service on behalf of children and young people. The conference is an opportunity to learn new skills, to network, and to be inspired by the work advocates are doing around the country. Conference participants will be able to choose from more than 100 workshops and twelve all-day skills-building sessions covering topics including working with the media, welfare implementation, non-profit management, and technology training. And this year, for the first time ever, continuing education credits are available to attendees. Each week, until the conference, the CDF Update will highlight one of the intensive day-long, concentrated skills-building training sessions for child advocates that will be offered during conference. --EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT TRAINING SESSION -- Wednesday, March 25, 1998 Speakers: Lisa Spinali, Ripple Effects, San Francisco The Effective Leadership training session gives advocates and others an opportunity to learn about effective leadership styles, tools to work effectively within an organization, and information on how to enhance your network of community leaders focused on improving the quality of lives of children. During this session: - Learn about your personal preferences and how you can enhance your interaction with others; - Learn how to use organizational tools that will assist you in planning inclusive and effective meetings; - Learn about your management style and how to manage others more effectively; - Gain insight and technical assistance regarding challenges that you are currently facing. This pre-conference training is designed with all types of leaders in mind-- brand new and seasoned leaders, running large or small organizations, with little or a great deal of training experience. If you are committed to your personal development and lifelong learning, this session will provide that requisite nourishment and inspiration that we all need as leaders of community groups serving children. ********************************************************************** -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- SHARE THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!! Our typical email is about a page or two long and generally comes once a week. To join our legislative update email list, sign-up on our website or send an email to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Kimberly Taylor Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org "What is done to children, they will do to society." --Karl Menninger From shawna@portal.ca Sat Mar 7 02:57:26 1998 id CAA03553; Sat, 7 Mar 1998 02:57:21 -0700 (MST) Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 01:26:23 -0800 To: marcelh@portal.ca From: Shawna Hellenius Subject: Clara Fraser, 1923-1998, Architect of Socialist Feminism NEWS RELEASE March 7, 1998 From: Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party 5018 Rainier Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98118 Contact: Anne Slater Days: (206) 722-6057 Evenings: (206) 723-2549 Mary Ann Curtis Days: (206) 682-0990 Evenings: (206) 725-5434 Clara Fraser, 1923-1998: AMERICAN REBEL AND ARCHITECT OF SOCIALIST FEMINISM Clara Fraser, the trailblazing feminist once described as a "Grand Dame of Socialism" in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer headline, died on February 24 in Seattle of emphysema. Fraser's vision, tenacity, and talents profoundly impacted social change movements in the U.S. and internationally. She was only weeks away from her 75th birthday. Her book, Revolution, She Wrote, has just been released. Fraser was a "red diaper baby," raised in Los Angeles by radical Jewish parents. From her teens on, she was in the forefront of agitation for civil rights and socialism. A strong feminist far in advance of the '60s women's liberation movement, her unique and historic contribution was recognition of the interdependence of socialism, feminism, race liberation, and lesbian/gay freedom. Long before diversity became a catchword, she powerfully welded the issues of race, class, sex and lesbian/gay rights into the programmatic framework of the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) and Radical Women (RW), international organizations which she co-founded and led for many years as FSP National Secretary and, at the time of her death, National Chair. She combined Marxist theory, grassroots organizing, interracial solidarity and an emphasis on building united fronts and a workingclass political party. "Clara taught me and other '60s radicals to never be afraid to swim against the current," says Henry Noble, a friend for 20 years and National Secretary of the FSP. "She was confident history would turn in favor of the rebels and underdogs. And she was instrumental to winning outstanding victories like divorce reform and abortion rights. Her advice helped me and other Boeing retirees protect our benefits in the recent Boeing strike." "There are few people who touched my soul the way Clara did," recalls Yolanda Alaniz, National Coordinator of the FSP and RW National Comrades of Color Caucus, now living in Los Angeles. "I loved her dearly and learned so much from the way she lived. This Jewish jewel was honest, had a great sense of humor, and stood up for justice and the oppressed. She showed that by sticking to your principles you earn respect. She taught me to be a creative problem-solver, a Marxist scholar and writer, and to confidently aim high." A TRADITION OF RESISTANCE Born March 12, 1923, Clara Dora Goodman and her younger sister Flory grew up in Boyle Heights, a multi-ethnic, workingclass neighborhood in East L.A. with a thriving, rambunctious culture of political engagement. Their mother, Emma Hochtfater Goodman, was a socialist from Russia who worked in the garment industry and served as a business agent for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Their father Samuel Goodman was Latvian, an anarchist and staunch member of the Teamsters union. Fraser graduated from UCLA in 1944, with a B.A. in literature and education. She worked briefly as a Hollywood screenwriter, then joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). During a brief stint in Chicago, she participated in a unionizing drive at the department store where she wrote advertising copy. In 1946, Fraser and her first husband, Frank Krasnowsky, moved to Seattle to help build the SWP branch there. Their son, Marc Krasnowsky, is now an editor for the Lincoln Journal Star in Lincoln, Nebraska. DAUNTLESS IN SEATTLE Fraser found employment as an electrician on the Boeing Aircraft assembly line. There, she successfully campaigned for increased involvement of women in the International Association of Machinists and first-class union membership for Blacks. During the 1948 Boeing strike, Fraser helped lead an innovative picket line of mothers and babies to defy an anti-picketing injunction. When the strike was broken, Fraser and a hundred other leading activists were blacklisted--a condition which Fraser endured throughout the McCarthy Era. Though hounded from job to job by the FBI, Fraser participated in a wide variety of political causes throughout the '50s and '60s, while also raising her second son, Jon Fraser, a jazz trumpeter now living in Boston. FOUNDING MOTHER OF SOCIALIST FEMINISM In 1965, Clara Fraser and her second husband, Richard Fraser, helped lead the Seattle branch of the Socialist Workers Party in an exodus from the national organization. They founded the Freedom Socialist Party, which was marked by its commitment to women's liberation, African American freedom, revolutionary socialism, societal and organizational democracy, and principled politics. A turning point in the young party's development was the Frasers' divorce which split the ranks over whether feminist and socialist standards would prevail in party life. The majority supported Ms. Fraser and from that point on, the FSP was marked by a uniquely deep-going commitment to female equality in both theory and practice. Fraser joined forces with Seattle feminist and radical Gloria Martin as well as younger New Left women to found Radical Women in 1967. RW's goal was to teach women the leadership skills, theoretical know-how, and workingclass consciousness they were denied in the male-dominated antiwar, anti-poverty and civil rights movements. Fraser, Martin, Nina Harding, and other anti-poverty organizers led Washington State's first abortion rights demonstration in a protest made up predominantly of African American women. Fraser also collaborated with Tulalip leader Janet McCloud on early fishing rights struggles at Frank's Landing and mobilized support for the Puyallup Nation when Tribal Chair Ramona Bennett led an armed occupation of Cascadia Juvenile Diagnostic Center to reclaim the land and building for her people. Fraser was arrested in an anti-apartheid protest at the South African Consulate in Seattle in 1985. Fraser is perhaps best known as the woman who beat Seattle City Light in a 7-year-long sex and political ideology discrimination case. The utility fired her in retaliation for her leadership in a massive 11-day wildcat strike and defense of a groundbreaking program she designed to bring women into electrical trades. After her triumphant return to work in 1982, Fraser remained a vocal opponent of discrimination at the utility. The headline of a Seattle Times story on her retirement in 1986 described her as "City Light's In-House Conscience." Retirement allowed Fraser to be a full-time advisor to FSP and RW. When she and eight other FSP leaders were sued in a privacy rights battle known as the Freeway Hall Case, Fraser was a leading strategist for fighting the case legally and publicly. Most recently, she played an invaluable role advising the first-ever International Feminist Brigade to Cuba, undertaken jointly in late 1997 by RW and the Federation of Cuban Women. For two decades, Fraser has been a columnist for the Freedom Socialist newspaper and her witty, hard-hitting takes on politics and current events have been the paper's most popular feature. These columns, along with numerous never-before-published speeches and other writings, are collected in Revolution, She Wrote, published by Red Letter Press. In her book's dedication, Fraser wrote: "The act of fighting injustice is full of hope and joy when it is viewed, and properly so, as a slice of an innate historical tradition, an ancient reaching out for universal human fulfillment." She passed on this joy in life and activism to all around her as a warm host, riveting conversationalist, lover of art and world culture, devotee of jazz, opera, movies, and good writing, passionate food aficionada, and consummate Jewish mother. COMMEMORATING A LIFE OF RADICAL IMPACT, BOLDNESS, AND HUMANITY Politically active to her final day, Fraser died peacefully at home after a long struggle with emphysema. She is survived by her sons, Marc Krasnowsky and Jon Fraser, daughter-in-law Moira Ferguson, sister and brother-in-law Flory and Bennie Adler, three grandchildren, four nieces and nephews, their spouses and children. A public memorial, followed by a meal of Fraser's favorite foods, will be held on Sunday, March 22, 2:00pm at the Mt. Baker Community Club, 2811 Mt. Rainier Dr. S., Seattle. For information, call (206)722-2453 or (206)722-6057. Remembrances may be sent to Red Letter Press for the Clara Fraser Memorial Publications Fund at the Bush Asia Building, 409 Maynard Ave. S., #201, Seattle, WA 98104. For more info contact:shawna@portal.ca or see www.socialism.com # # # From tr@tryoung.com Sat Mar 7 08:12:58 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sat, 07 Mar 1998 10:09:43 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Transforming Sociology Papers David Langer, Webmaster for the Red Feather Institute, has up-loaded four of the early papers in the TRANSFORMING SOCIOLOGY SERIES. They are: 1. Liberating Sociology: The Graduate Student by TR Young 2. Theoretical Foundations of Conflict Methodology by TR Young 3. Conflict Moments in Critical Methodology by TR Young, Robert Christie and Richard Hovard 4. The Structure of Self in Mass Society: Against Zurcher by TR Young They may be seen/downloaded at: www.tryoung.com/archives/ TR Young TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From tr@tryoung.com Mon Mar 9 03:39:04 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 05:35:51 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Guidelines for Associate Editors of the Red Feather Journals social-class@listserv.uic.edu Art Jipson, Miami/Ohio University has asked about duties of Associates of the UnderGrad Sociology Journal of the Red Feather Institute. Below is my reply to him: ********** Dear Art: I. One have Several options: 1. One could become University Editor of Miami/Ohio & branches 2. One could become for one's State. 3. One could set a special issue topic and call for papers one's own from all over North American {and South America if you have the language capacities.] 4. Some Regional Editors have been appointed but there are several Regions yet uncovered... 5. Anna Zajicek is General Editor. Both she and other Editors will keep office until they decide to 'retire'; at which point, they become Founding Editors...as would State and University Editors. II. Duties would vary but generally, one would: A. Design a Call for Papers and distribute it to local/regional Media...including University electronic media. If one is University Editor, one would simply announce it to and remind colleagues throughout the semester. Either Anna Zajicek or I will assign an issue #; or you can request an issue # if you set a time frame/ deadline for it. B. Select a small group to help you select a set of papers within a reasonable time frame [say a semester for most purposes] You may have up to five Assistant editors...preferably Undergraduates and reward them with departmental/College honors...including independent study hour. C. When you have at least five, we will give it a Issue # and up-load the issue; When you have 10, close the Issue. C. Send the set to me or, if possible, have someone transpose them to html and send me the disk. D. Keep me posted about developments of each item above. Other than that, you would be on your own. III. Publication Policy: Quality of a paper is the central criterion for selection; A. Papers should be between 10 and 20 pages. B. All scholarly standards hold. C. Tables and Figures must be in .gif format. D. Each Issue will be on-line for at least three years. E. All papers may be published elsewhere with accreditation to the Red Feather Institute for the first version. IV: I would remind colleagues that we have a GRADUATE STUDENT JOURNAL on the Red Feather Domain as well. One could be Consulting Editor for any Issue put together by a Grad Student there. Do make the Annoucement for me as a first duty. The same policies hold. V. One may preview either Journal at: www.tryoung.com Select the Journals Button Select the Journal you wish to preview. TR Young, Editor-in-Chief TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From tr@tryoung.com Mon Mar 9 08:35:27 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 10:32:09 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Transforming Sociology: Critical Dramaturgy Two more of the early articles of the Transforming Sociology Series are available in the RF ARCHIVES. They may be downloaded from the Archives at: www.tryoung.com The papers are: 1. Dramaturgical Analysis and Societal Critique. John Welsh, Senior Author. This paper examines the efforts of Gouldner, Chapman, Nimmo and others to understand how Goffman and his Dramaturgy fit into American Sociology. In brief, Welsh says that while there is some emanicipatory potential to Goffman and his critiques, still they failed to put both dramaturgy and dramaturgical analysis in the larger political and economic contexts in which they emerged. Welsh refers to early work of Massey and Young in so doing; putting Dramaturgy and Dramaturgical Analysis in the political economy of massified and elitist societies. 2. The second paper, by TR Young, lays out 21 thesis on the Structure of Self in Mass Societies. In it, Young tries to go beyond mere description of self formation and embodiment in traditional interactional terms and show how the structure of self is ripped asunder from the self system in massified and elitist social formations. TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From ARIFIANTOA@Acad.Ripon.EDU Tue Mar 10 12:41:13 1998 From: ARIFIANTOA@Acad.Ripon.EDU Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 13:33:48 -0600 (CST) Subject: Suggestion for Immigration Project To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Members of PSN list: My name is Alex Arifianto and I am a senior undergraduate student at Ripon College in Wisconsin. Right now I am working on my senior thesis and I am doing a research on the attitudes of Ripon College students toward immigration. Right now I want to request advice on how should I do on my research and what factors/measurements should I take into account on my research. For your information, Ripon College is a small liberal arts college with around 700 students. Many departments are small (in fact, we only have one sociology professor). The students here tend to be homogeneous in racial background (Caucasian), state of origin (mostly from Wisconsin and Northern Illinois) and size of hometown (small town / village). It is interesting to find out how these students would think about immigrants, since their background will lead people from such backgrounds above to have negative attitdues toward immigrants and immigration. On the other hand, my literature review has indicated that people who have more education and have younger age tend to be more liberal and more suportive toward immigration. Given this background that I just given you, please give me some suggestions on what should I do to have a worthwhile research project and also what characteristics should I take into account on my project. Thank you for your assistance. Sincerely, Alexander R Arifianto arifiantoa@acad.ripon.edu From dbrock@interlog.com Tue Mar 10 15:35:04 1998 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 16:11:14 -0800 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: deborah brock Subject: ISA Session Call for Papers: We are organizing a session under the theme, 'Global Activism in Hard Times: Women's Struggle for Global Justice,' at the ISA meetings in Montreal. The session is being organized under the auspices of the ISA Research Committee on Social Practice and Social Transformation. We are still accepting submissions. Please send your proposal to as soon as possible, if you are interested in participating in the session. We would also appreciate it if you could forward this request for submissions to persons outside of Canada and the United States. Thanks very much. Deborah Brock, Trent University, Ontario Sedef Arat Koc, Trent University, Ontario From josephal@muohio.edu Tue Mar 10 18:41:30 1998 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 21:03:15 -0500 From: josephal@muohio.edu (Alfred Joseph) Subject: Re: FW: NPR poli-chain To: mgullette@classic.msn.com Not one cent for those phonies at npr/pbs!!!! I will never forget how they bowed to "pressure" from the cops' union and decided to not air Mumia's interviews. While at the same time having every bourgeois "scholar" or "expert" comment on topics from Bosnia, Iraq, the Gulf war, LA uprisings, OJ verdict..that was a real hoot. I am driving home and they interview some upper middle class LA family about the OJ verdict and they comment that "whites" will "riot" by cutting off welfare and affirmative action. That is Nazi rhetoric with out a hint of critique from npr. Screw those social fascists. And how many times must I look through the listings and see some Gulf War tribute. Wow incinerate 150,00 + people and see "experts" talk about it on PBS. No thank you. At least with the other stations cbs, abc, cnn, nbc the poison is straight up and not laced with sugar, Fresh air my ass!!!! Besides, they don't air March madness. >>From Margaret Gullette: > >> >Dear friends: Read the following and if you agree with me that this is >> >very important, pass it on! >> >> > >> >This is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure >> >of $1.12/year of their taxes. . . . A petition follows. >> >If you sign, please forward it on to others. If not, please don't >> >kill it--send it to the e-mail address listed here: >> > wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu >> >PBS, NPR (National Public Radio), and the arts are facing major cutbacks >> >in >> >funding. In spite of the efforts of each station to >> >reduce spending costs and streamline their services, some government >> >officials believe that the funding currently going to these >> >programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as >> >"unworthwhile." >> > Currently, taxes from the general public for PBS equal $1.12 per >> >person per year, and the National Endowment for the Arts equals >> >$.64 a year in total. A January 1995 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll indicated >> >that 76% of Americans wish to keep funding for PBS, third only to national >> >defense and law enforcement as the most valuable program for federal >> >funding. >> >Each year, the Senate and House Appropriations committees each have >> >13 subcommittees with jurisdiction over many programs and agencies. >> >Each subcommittee passes its own appropriation bill. The goal each year is >> >to have each bill signed by the beginning of the fiscal year, which is >> >October 1. >> >The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support >> >for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices >> >heard. >> >Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends if you believe >> >in what we stand for. This list will be forwarded to the President of the >> >United States, the Vice President of the United States, and Representative >> >Newt Gingrich, who is the instigator of the action to cut funding to these >> >worthwhile programs. >> >If you happen to be the 350th, 400th, 450th etc. signer of this petition, >> >please forward a copy to wein2688@blue.univnorthco.edu. >> >If that address is inoperative, please send it to >> >kubi7975@blue.univnorthco.edu. This way we can keep track of the >> >lists and organize them. Forward this to everyone you know, and help us to >> >keep these programs alive. >> >Thank you. >> >Mark Birnbaum >> > 1) Pete Mumma, Baltimore MD >> > 2) Erik Roskes, Baltimore, MD >> > 3) William K. Levey, Reisterstown, MD >> > 4) Raymond S. Hoffman, M.D., Baltimore, MD >> > 5) John G. Coe. Cheyenne, WY >> > 6) John C. Fogarty, Sacramento, CA >> > 7) Joseph C. Fogarty, Omaha, NE >> > 8) Shaula R. Bellour, New York, NY >> > 9) Lisa F. Parker, New York, NY >> > 10) Daniel P. Brochu, New York, NY >> > 11) Colette Mercier, Spring Valley, IL >> > 12) Jeffrey A. Hjelt, Carlsbad, CA >> > 13) Melissa McManigal, Los Angeles, CA >> > 14) Gina Lagomarsino, Mountain View, CA >> > 15) Henri Tjiong, Stanford, CA >> > 16) Chad Steward, Sunnyvale, CA >> > 17) Erin Steward, Tempe, AZ >> > 18) Heather Kubert, La Jolla, CA >> > 19) Adrienne Friedman >> > 20) Mike Friedman >> > 21) Gregory Friedman >> > 22) William J. Todd, San Jose, CA >> > 23) Jay Somera, Sunnyvale, CA >> > 24) Melanie Purdy, Cupertino, CA >> > 25) Paul S. Whitmer, Santa Clara, CA >> > 26) Blair Whitmer, Palo Alto, CA >> > 27) Curt Kiest, Pacifica, CA >> 28) Stefano A. Bini, San Francisco, CA >> 29) Christina McGill, San Francisco, CA >> 30) Jan Wadsworth, San Francisco, CA >> > >> 31)Suzanne Myers, New York, NY >>> 32)Michele Forman, Birmingham, AL >> 33)Eric Watson, NYC > 34) Sean Gullette, NYC >>35), Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Newton, MA >36) David G. Gullette, Newton, MA > >************************* >* * >* Sean Gullette * >* 77 Bleecker #631 * >* NYC 10012 * >* 212.475.1953 * >* page 917.419.0593 * >* kgb@dti.net * >* * >************************* @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist. **************************************************************************** **************************************** From tr@tryoung.com Wed Mar 11 04:23:26 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 06:20:10 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Call for Grad Student Papers teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu CHAD KIMMEL has been appointed Editor of the Summer Issue of the Graduate Student Journal of the Red Feather Institute. Chad is grad student at IUP; he does work in both quantitative analysis and in social change. He has set, as a theme, explorations in social change in everyday life; thus, articles geared toward population, family, work, environment, technology, religion, recreational sports, etc, would be fine. You may contact Chad directly at: ckimmel@yourinter.net Vol. 2: Summer: Exploring Social Change in Everyday Life : Send Disks to: Chad Kimmel, Indiana University of Pennsylvania ��102 McElhaney Hall,Indiana, Pennsylvania 15705-1087 TR Young, PS: Grad Students wishing to Edit Special Issues or future Quarterly Issues may preview the Journal at: http://www.tryoung.com/journals/journalindex/journalindex.html TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From tr@tryoung.com Wed Mar 11 06:13:34 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:09:21 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: More References for you teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu, socgrad@csf.colorado.ed Several of the early papers of the Transforming Sociology Series have been up-loaded to the RF Archives. They include: #114 SPORT IN ADVANCED CAPITALISM, by Thomas Kiel, University of Louisville For those of you who like to understand the way professional sports fits into the larger society in these days. #078 Typifications of Christ at Christmas and Eastertime by TR Young For those of you interested in the sociology of Religion and how the typifications of Christ at EasterTime differ from those of Christmas past. 012 Self and Social Organization in Capitalist Societies by TR Young For those of you who wonder about the problems of self, socialization and morality in massified market societies. More in the structural social psychology series by TR Young TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From rlevine@binghamton.edu Wed Mar 11 14:48:52 1998 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 16:43:46 -0500 To: teachsoc@poplar.lemoyne.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu From: "Rhonda F. Levine" Subject: Job Openings The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Colgate University invites applications for one and perhaps two one-year sabbatical replacement positions in Sociology at the level of Assistant Professor. The beginning date for this position is August 1, 1998. The department invites applications from candidates who have a teaching interest in one or more of the following areas: medical sociology, political sociology, and sociology of law, deviance, or education. Candidates should be prepared also to teach sections of an introductory course in Sociology and a course on methods and may have the opportunity to contribute a course to an interdisciplinary program. Women and minority persons are especially encouraged to apply. The deadline for application is April 20, 1998. Send letters of application and a c.v. and have three letters of recommendation sent to Chair, Sociology Search Committee, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346. Colgate University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Rhonda F. Levine Department of Sociology and Anthropology Colgate University Hamilton, NY 13346 Home: 95 Grand Boulevard Binghamton, NY 13905 Home Phone: 607 798-0417 Home FAX: 607 798-6917 e-mail: rlevine@center.colgate.edu or rlevine@binghamton.edu From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Wed Mar 11 19:12:39 1998 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:12:29 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: The Well-Being Of Women And Children Is A Right, Not A Privilege Greetings, It is no secret that women, here and worldwide, are super-exploited. Wage discrimination on the basis of sex alone adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars in additional profits each year for the world bourgeoisie. On top of this economic super-exploitation, which is also reflected in the extreme political marginalization of women, women also suffer from widespread abuse, humiliation and degradation everyday. This takes place both openly and covertly. In Canada, for example (see post below), which is supposed to be the most humane and democratic society on earth, violence against women remains extremely widespread. Yet agencies and organizations geared toward women, particularly abused women, are either always underfunded or constantly being cut. Last year thousands of Canadian women were turned away from help which they needed. This is much like the constantly growing number of hungry, homeless and ill in the U.S. who are being turned away from shelters, pantries, soup kitchens and so on simply because resources are not made available to them by society, even though our society is burdened with an overabundance of resources. The only class in society capable of reversing the bourgeoisie's trend toward medievalism remains the multicultural working class. Although the bourgeoisie is hell-bent on commiting the worst crimes against humanity before departing the scene of history, their demise must be expedited and the demands of the diverse working class put in first place. It is up to national minorities, workers, students and youth, the elderly and the disabled, and not just women, to end the extreme violence and irrationalism of the bourgeoisie by overthrowing them and establishing democracy true to itself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The problems which WIN House staff in Edmonton have brought to light not only expose the totally inadequate services for women who face abuse and violence in their homes, they have also brought to the fore the basic question of where does responsibility lie to guarantee the well-being of women and children. WIN Houses were brought into being through the efforts of many women who had to fight even for recognition of the widespread problem of violence against women. Such shelters have now become established institutions in the society. But they are still dependent on raising a great deal of their own funding, and the funding which exists is totally inadequate. Thousands of women are turned away every year. Cuts to social programs have exacerbated the situation. Funding levels are down while the deteriorating conditions of life, including the withdrawal of social programs is giving rise to even more violence and instability. Even without looking more deeply at the question of why women face such violence in the society, the situation at WIN Houses demonstrates clearly that this question remains side-lined as a "women's problem", which is to say that it is not society's problem. The women who work at WIN House have been attacked by their management, with tacit support of the Board, for publicly speaking out. They are accused of "jeopardising fund-raising" and rumours are spread that they could "destroy the shelters". The irony of the situation - in which management is blaming the women who staff WIN House for the problems they face, stating that they had better submit or face firing, intimidation and constant harassment - speaks volumes about the conditions which still face women in society today. The women who work at WIN House have rejected the concept that such basic services for women are "privileges" which can be retained only if women don't "rock the boat". They reject the idea that they are "merely" workers who have no right to advocate for the women to whom they provide services. The well-being of women and children is the responsibility of the entire society. A woman worker in Edmonton The Marxist-Leninist Weekly, 3/1/98 Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From tell@acsu.buffalo.edu Wed Mar 11 19:57:25 1998 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 21:57:19 -0500 (EST) From: "Shawgi A. Tell" To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: On The Need To Stop The Privileges Of The Monopolies Greetings, The Canadian government, much like the U.S. and British governments, directly represents the monopoly capitalists. This is known as State monopoly capitalism - the merger of big business and government in a new and extra-intense way. Today, the financial oligarchy is assuming more and more control of the government and public treasury in order to fulfill its self-serving and extremely narrow interests. Indeed, the monopoly capitalists are working harder than ever to guarantee that the inviolable rights of all humans are completely subordinated to the privileges of capitalist private property. The capitalists are extremely pleased when the world of commodities dominates everything under the sun, especially humans. Basically, States around the world are being used more and more by the exploiters to take money out of the economy and to make it available to themselves in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, "incentives," pollution credits, pork-barrel projects, artificial moderation of the "business cycle," and much much more. State monopoly capitalism represents whole-scale looting of the public purse. The monopoly capitalists demand that the State be used to take risks for them at the expense of the public. And, should anything "go wrong" for the capitalists, the State is to compensate them anyway. Clearly, the State, which is supposed to be the representative of the majority, if not the whole of society, serves the rich, the privileged few. The only way to end this treachery is to Stop Paying The Rich - Increase Funding For Social Programs. It is clear that capitalism does not have a future. But this does not mean that ordinary Canadians, Americans and Britons have no future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Reader in Sept-Iles The program of the bourgeoisie to make the working class pay to help the monopolies has been taken up by all levels of government, from the federal state to the provincial and municipal governments. The credo is the ideology of the capitalists who make municipal representatives of big and small cities believe that if they reduce taxes for the monopolies, the monopolies will invest more in their industries and businesses, which in turn will create jobs in their communities. The opposite is also true. Municipal representatives, especially the mayors, are often former members of the Chambers of Commerce who have decided to become public defenders of the interests of the small and big bourgeoisie in their respective regions. Here, in Sept-Iles, on the North Shore, the big monopolies in mineral extraction and the new aluminum sector are protesting against the level of land taxes they have to pay and are threatening to withdraw their investments if taxes remain high. On the one hand they do want to invest here because there are profits to be made; on the other hand they want the working class and people to pay for their expansion projects so as to maximize their profits. They suggest that it is an exchange, in which the workers and the community will receive steady and well-paid jobs. These monopolies have established their plants in our region because raw materials are abundant here, hydro power is very cheap, governments are providing them with huge subsidies and tax breaks and we have a high concentration of skilled labour. The mayors are convinced that a decrease in taxes for the big monopolies will create jobs. They are wrong. The monopolies may create a few jobs, if any, but this is not their aim. Their aim is to get the maximum out of the workers and small land-owners. The general trend amongst Quebec municipalities is to favour big business and big landowners to the detriment of individual homeowners or owners of small apartment buildings. There are also many municipal representatives who come from the working class or small business sector. But once they become city councillors or even mayors, they seem to forget their class interests and are easily intimidated by the threats or won over by the sugar-coated words of the big monopolies. They act often like federal or provincial politicians. Important decisions are taken in the antechambers while the protests and questions of the workers are ignored. On the contrary, they should mobilize the people against any tax privileges for the big capitalists. But they won't and the workers and people will put them in their place because it is they who are being made to pay through higher land taxes, plant closures, job losses and bank foreclosures. Workers have their pride and demand that the privileged treatment of the monopolies and rich landowners stop. TML Weekly, 3/1/98 Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo tell@acsu.buffalo.edu From ARIFIANTOA@Acad.Ripon.EDU Thu Mar 12 11:44:22 1998 id LAA05581; Thu, 12 Mar 1998 11:44:14 -0700 (MST) From: ARIFIANTOA@Acad.Ripon.EDU Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 12:29:50 -0600 (CST) Subject: Relations between African-Americans and Immigrants To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, socgrad@csf.colorado.edu Members of PSN and SOCGRAD mailing lists: There is an interesting article on February 1998 edition of the American Sociological Review. Its titled "Immigration, race, and Riot: the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising" by Albert Bergsen abd Max Herman (University of Arizona). The conclusion of this article is that rapid influx of immigration in East Central LA contributed to hostility between African American and immigrant (mostly Hispanic and Asian) residents of the area. In my view, this supports one of the hypothesis of attitudes toward immigrants that regradless of one's race background, one who have settled for a long time in an area /country will develop hostilities toward newer immigrants who settle in that area/country. The fact that there is tensions between African-Americans and ne immigrant groups from Latin America and Asia is very interesting, since little research has been done on this and the research results tend to be inconsistent on this topic. I want to know your opinions on this. Please comment on the hypothesis above. Then you can explain in your view on factors that causes friction between African-American and immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Finally, since I always interested in finding solutions, I want to find out your proposed solution on this problem, since I think the fact that the article seems to indicate that there's a lot of tension between minority groups in the U.S is depressing. Ideally, I think this group should understand their position in American society (that they all minorities and that many Caucasian thought of these groups as racially inferior) and that they should help each other when they are being attacked by Anglo majority, not bickering with each other like now. I want to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you. --Alex Arifianto From rross@clarku.edu Thu Mar 12 11:38:30 1998 id LAA05142; Thu, 12 Mar 1998 11:38:22 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 13:37:22 -0500 From: "Robert J.S. Bob Ross" Subject: [Fwd: Presentations] To: Progressive Sociology Network , World Systems Network , Labor List This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638 THE PUBLIC IS WARMLY WELCOME TO THE EVENTS BELOW -- Robert J.S. Ross Professor and Chair Department of Sociology Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01610 Voice: 508 793 7376 Fax: 508 793 8816 Webpage: http://www.clarku.edu/~rross --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638 Return-path: Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 11:31:24 -0500 From: Jason Willoughby Subject: Presentations To: lgrandmaison@clarku.edu, mkohout@clarku.edu, rross@clarku.edu, sweintraub@clarku.edu On March 17, 3PM , In the Grace Conference Room of Higgins University Center, Prof. John McClymer, Assumption College, author/editor of the new book "The Triangle Shirtwaist Strike and Fire" will discuss the most infamous sweatshop tragedy in American history as part of Clark University's commemoration of International Women's Week. Speaking on "Memory and Resistance" McClymer will discuss the events of 1910-1911 in contemporary perspective. Prof. Robert Ross of Clark University will give an update on contemporary sweatshop conditions in the United States. On March 19th, At 4:15pm, IN Room 218, Geography, Rand Wilson of the Interantional Brotherhood of Teamsters will speak on "Lessons of the Teamster's Strike at UPS: An Inside View." for more info contact jason willoughby (5085) --------------A7BFF6E5C3C839FBC3A50638-- From johnny.williams@mail.cc.trincoll.edu Thu Mar 12 11:39:44 1998 From: "Johnny Williams" To: "PSN" Subject: JOB Filled Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 13:42:41 -0800 Thanks to everyone for spreading the word about our Target of Opportunity Program at Trinity College. My chair informed me that there was an enthusiastic response to our posting which continues. This message is to let everyone know that we filled the position and further responses are not necessary. I guess that old excuse for not hiring African-American, Latino-Americans Asian-Americans, and Native-Americans because there are so few of us in the academy crashed and burned with this search! Again, thanks very much for your inquiries and for passing our post to other listserves 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 cpcug.org@cpcug.org Fri Mar 13 08:10:26 1998 From: "Max B. Sawicky" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 10:09:13 +0000 Subject: EPI Fellowship Opportunity Reply-to: maxsaw@cpcug.org ANNOUNCEMENT THE MARCIA MCGILL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE PURPOSE To provide advanced graduate students with experience in policy- relevant empirical research and to assist them in developing their own research/dissertation topic. ACTIVITIES The research fellow will assist EPI economists in empirical research, providing an opportunity to develop as well as use statistical and methodological capabilities. The Fellow will develop research/dissertation ideas and explore databases at EPI, and will be encouraged to attend seminars, hearings and conferences in the D.C. area. SEIU will provide the research fellow with the opportunity to learn about the role of labor unions in the policy-making process. Research will be empirical and relevant to public policy. Examples are the outcomes of welfare reform, the distribution of the tax burden, trends in labor markets and the income distribution, work reorganization and worker participation, macroeconomic policy, and the evolution of privatization efforts in state and local governments. Historically specific factors and the role of institutions will be included in the analysis. ELIGIBILITY AND TERMS OF AWARD The fellowship is available to advanced graduate students in economics, public policy, industrial relations, or related fields who have completed all requirements toward a doctorate except for the dissertation. It is primarily intended for those who have not yet selected a dissertation topic, but those who have begun their dissertations are also invited to apply. Minorities and women are strongly urged to apply. APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS Applicants must submit: 1. Statement from their department describing their current academic standing. 2. A three page statement on the applicant's research interests and their relevance to public policy. If applicable, the statement would briefly describe the dissertation, including the research problem or area, research questions, methodologies, sources of data or evidence (e.g., surveys, case studies), and policy implications. 3. Two letters of reference from faculty, one of whom must be the applicant's chief academic advisor. 4. Curriculum vitae and transcript from the graduate institution. 5. A writing sample, preferably a research paper, or equivalent. APPLICATION DATES Applications must be postmarked by 4/1/98. Awards will be announced by 4/14/98. The award will cover the period September 1998 through August 1999. Exact start and end dates are flexible. ARRANGEMENTS The Fellow will receive $25,000 annual for the twelve months and reside in the Washington, D.C. area. Health benefits are available if the Fellow is not covered by his or her university. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION People of color are strongly encouraged to apply. SPONSORSHIP: The Marcia McGill Fellowship is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in memory of Marcia McGill, an economist employed by SEIU until her untimely death in 1995. SEIU represents 1.1 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. It is the third-largest and fastest growing union in the AFL-CIO whose members work in many industries including health care, public service, and building service. EPI is funded by foundations, trade unions, business organizations, and individuals. Founding scholars of EPI are Barry Bluestone, Jeff Faux, Robert Kuttner, Ray Marshall, Robert Reich, and Lester Thurow. Send applications to: Economic Policy Institute Marcia McGill Fellowship 1660 L Street, N.W. Suite 1200 Washington, D.C. 20036 From cdfupdate@cdfig.childrensdefense.org Fri Mar 13 23:29:26 1998 Date: Fri, 13 Mar 98 18:21:10 EST From: "CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update 3-13-98 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update March 13,1998 In This Issue: -- Child Care -- Family Income -- Conference *** Child Care *** --- INCLUDE FUNDS FOR CHILD CARE IN THE TOBACCO RESERVE --- The Senate Budget Committee is expected to begin consideration of the Budget Bill on Tuesday, March 17. The Committee is expected to reserve funds for tobacco-related issues in the budget. Child care must be listed in the tobacco reserve in order to ensure that funds are available for a major child care investment package this year. The link between tobacco and child care is clear: Good child care and after-school programs play a critical role in building healthy foundations and reducing tobacco and drug use, and studies show that children left home alone are significantly more likely to smoke cigarettes. There are three critical parties to the Budget negotiations process: the White House, and the Democratic and Republican Budget Committee Members. Please call the White House today and urge that the administration reaffirm it's strong commitment to child care during these negotiations. The White House needs to make clear to Senate Budget Committee leaders that mandatory (monetary funds that are guaranteed to the states) spending for child care is a number one priority. -- White House -- Call the White House TODAY at: (202) 456-1414. (Stay on the line to speak with an operator and request that the message be written down.) Or you can e-mail this message to the White House at: . * Message to the White House: The President's strong leadership on child care is essential in the budget negotiations. It is important that the White House insist that child care be included in the tobacco reserve in the Senate budget. Mandatory money is necessary to ensure that the President's strong child care proposal translates into real help for America's children and families. -- Senate Budget Committee Members -- It is also important that Senators on the Budget Committee hear about the importance of including child care in the tobacco reserve language. Without being included in the tobacco reserve, it will be very difficult to fund a comprehensive child care package. * If you live in a state with a Senator who is a member of the Budget Committee (see list below), please call (202) 224-3121 by Tuesday, March 17th to deliver the following message to your Senator: "The Budget Bill must include child care in the tobacco reserve language to ensure funding to improve the quality and affordability of child care and after-school experiences for all children." Members of the Senate Budget Committee: Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Spencer Abraham (R-MI), Rod Grams (R-MN), Kit Bond (R-MO), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) (Ranking Member), Pete Domenici (R-NM) (Chair), Don Nickles (R-OK), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ernest Hollings (D-SC) (Ranking Member), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Bill Frist (R-TN), Phil Gramm (R-TX), Slade Gorton (R-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Russ Feingold (D-WI). *** Family Income *** --REGISTER NOW FOR "WELFARE: 1998 IMPLEMENTATION" AUDIO CONFERENCES-- The Children's Defense Fund encourages you to register today for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) welfare audio conferences. In 1996, Aid to Families and Dependent Children (AFDC) was eliminated and replaced with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Emerging state experiences, new research findings, and recommendations regarding a range of critical implementation topics will be explored by the experts on CLASP's "Welfare: 1998 Implementation" audio conferences Fridays from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EST). Topics include: How are states addressing the myriad of implementation issues related to TANF: child care, child support, prevention of unintended pregnancy, job creation and more? Does the dramatic decline in caseloads mean welfare reform is working? Does the answer differ depending upon whether your perspective is the state? the city? the neighborhood? For more details on this week's and subsequent sessions and/or to register, visit the CLASP website at: , or call the CLASP Audio Conference Hotline at: 202/797-6535. This is a great way for all of your staff to hear the latest information, or for your organization to bring together other groups around a speaker phone to discuss developments. *** Children's Defense Fund Annual Conference *** The Children's Defense Fund Annual National Conference is this month, March 25-28, 1998, in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The theme, Celebrating 25 Years of Standing For America's Children, builds on a quarter-century anniversary of advocacy and service on behalf of children and young people. The conference is an opportunity to learn new skills, to network, and to be inspired by the work advocates are doing around the country. Conference participants will be able to choose from more than 100 workshops and twelve all-day skills-building sessions covering topics including working with the media, welfare implementation, non-profit management, and technology training. And this year, for the first time ever, continuing education credits are available to attendees. * The intensive day-long, concentrated skills-building training sessions for child advocates on March 25th are quickly filling up to capacity. Please consult your registration brochure or visit the CDF website at: for more information on the training sessions. The following training sessions still have a few spots available, so hurry and register for a training session today! Training Sessions Still Open for Registration: "Monitoring Welfare Implementation in Your Community" "Communicating Through the Media" "Technology Planning for You" "Hands-on Technology Training" "Protecting Our Children's Health" "Spiritual Renewal for Child Advocates" "National Child Care Campaign 1998" "Raising Money for Your Organization in Competitive Times" "Devolution: Defining State and Local Programs for Children" "Equipping a New Generation of Leaders (for advocates ages 18-30)" "Adolescent Rites of Passage: Establishing Programs for the Transformation of Today's Youth" ********************************************************************** -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- SHARE THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!!! Our typical email is about a page or two long and generally comes once a week. To join our legislative update email list, sign-up on our website or send an email to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Kimberly Taylor Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org "What is done to children, they will do to society." --Karl Menninger From tr@tryoung.com Sat Mar 14 03:36:38 1998 by ntserver3.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 05:33:17 -0500 To: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Postmodern Criminology: Vol 1. teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu, socgrad@csf.colorado.ed I am very pleased to announce a new Journal on the Red Feather Home Page: It is called: The Red feather Journal of Postmodern Criminology. The address is: http://www.tryoung.com/journals/journalindex/journalindex.html The Founding Editors are: Dragan Milovanovic at: d-milovanovic@neiu.edu Bruce Arrigo at: BArrigo@mail.cspp.edu Stuart Henry at: SOC_HENRY@ONLINE.EMICH.EDU and TR Young at: tr@tryoung.com Those interested in Editing Special Issues may contact any of the above with suggestions for themes... The CONTENTS of Vol. 1 are: 001 OVERVIEW The first Article, by Barak, Henry and Milovanovic, provides an Overview of Postmodern Criminology.� 002 TOPOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF CRIMINOLOGIC REALITIES by Bruce Arrigo. In this article, Arrigo uses topological theory to discuss differences between pre-modern, modern and postmodern constructions of theories of Crime.� He goes on to offer some ideas about replacement discourses based upon the work of Lacan. 003 DUELING PARADIGMS The third article, Dueling Paradigms, by Dragan Milovanovic, gives the reader a broad view of differences between modern and postmodern approaches to knowledge and to criminology. In this article, Dragan examines differences between these paradigms; these dimensions include the nature of: �� (1) society and social structure, �� (2) social roles, �� (3) subjectivity/agency, �� (4) discourse, �� (5) knowledge, �� (6) space/time, �� (7) Causality, and �� (8) social change. 004 A CONSTITUTIVE THEORY OF JUSTICE by TR Young In this article, Young tries to use postmodern understandings of texts about the sources and solutions to crime and apply them to a theory of Justice. In brief, Young says that it is necessary to create/constitute definitions of crime;� explanations of crime and to offer solutions to the kind of behavior constructed as crime. � However, Young asserts, an affirmative postmodern approach to a theory of Justice requires a much different way of defining, policing and preventing unwanted behavior. Generally, the use of � Crime-as-Text to reproduce hierarchies of class, gender, racism as well as to privilege given nations and exclusionary politics is hostile to the human project. Instead, Young suggests a version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a more affirmative approach to the constitution of theories of Justice.� An affirmative postmodern theory of Justice requires both praxis and praxis societies organized in rich democratic format.� See other articles in this series including the Red Feather Manifesto authored by Chas A Ostenle, below. 005 MANIFESTO FOR PRAXIS SOCIETIES And For A Global Democratic and Socialist Political Economy By Chas A Ostenle, Research Scholar, the Red Feather Institute In the Manifesto, Ostenle goes beyond a postmodern critique and exploration of postmodern criminology to suggest how, using the language and categories of the earlier Communist Manifesto, affirmative postmodern criminologists and other scholars in social science might want to work to maximize praxis for all persons and all peoples. The Manifesto is part of a larger agenda in which Ostenle and the Red Feather Institute work to replace Criminal Justice with Social Justice. Forthcoming Issues Include: Vol. 1: INTRODUCTION TO POSTMODERN CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 2: Non-Linear Dynamics in Criminology, TR Young, Editor Vol. 3: From Criminal Justice to Social Justice: TR Young, Editor Contact TR if you have papers to offer: tr@tryoung.com Vol. 4: Feminist Criminology� (Under Construction) Contact Bruce Arrigo if you are interested in Editing this Volume: BArrigo@mail.cspp.edu Vol. 5:Dramaturgical Analyses in Prisons, Courts and the Law-Making Process...Edited by David Asma Contact David if you have a paper to offer: asma@wwa.com TR Young, General Editor, Red Feather Journals TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From eric@stewards.net Sun Mar 15 23:12:15 1998 Mon, 16 Mar 1998 01:13:43 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 01:13:43 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Political Correctness. hhrivas@wwisp.com (helen) Hi there, I agree with the point below that the PC phenomenon is not ONLY a myth propounded by the political right. Progressives must use creative intelligence, and not just reach for a guidebook of abstract principles, when assessing concrete situations and social questions. From my perspective, our goal is to discover the optimum, or hoped-to-be optimum, socio-cultural patterns for the purpose of promoting the being of all human beings, and for the purpose of protecting the natural world. A related point is that in working to end oppression of one specific group, or in one specific social area, we need to simultaniously consider the impact on others groups and individuals - on the basis of a firm committment to the principal of universal justice, of seeking justice for all people, and of seeking to treat all people justly. A counsel of perfection? Not if we consider it as a goal, not something we can ever assume we have fully achieved. In the absence of a committment to universal justice, in our treatment both of groups and individuals, we can fall into a kind of `interpersonal facisim' or `inter-group facisism' - in which our statements or actions can become unjust and oppressive to other individuals and groups around us. One of the more frightening examples of this kind of `facisim' was the maltreatment of vast numbers of people during the so-called cultural revolution in China. Large numbers of intellectuals, factory managers, academics, students, and workers alike were subjected to unbearable interpersonal and public denounciations, made to do forced labour (sometimes for years on end), etc. Other instances, closer to home, of `pc run-amuck', which I saw close up and at their worst in the early 1970's, were male bashing' by a significant portion of women's movement activists, and `whitey bashing' by Black militants. At their worst, these syndromes invovled personal attacks on individuals soley or primarily because of skin colour or gender. I know of at least a few instances where, lacking the will to fight back or escape their tormentors, progressive men here in Vancouver, Canada were seriously and permanently damaged by `criticism sessions' involving some women's activists, just as the victems of the cultural revolution were damaged in China. Not good. A committment to dialogue, to listening to others in order to understand them, as well as to seeking to be understood by them, and above all the committment to inquiry and to the view that we do not have a monopoly on the truth, is one starting point for combating such `facism'. Now for the other side of the medal. I personally believe that the reason many things are refered to as `politically correct' is that they are, in fact, morally correct. Ending all forms of oppression and exploitation of women and people of colour, including the elimination of sexist and racist language, etc., is not just somebody's `pc' idea. It is an ethical imperative if we care about human beings. Defence of children against the soul-killers of intimidation, violence, sexual abuse, neglect, and poverty is not just a `pc' idea. It is essential if we want to spare these small people the terror, demoralization, sadness, and varying degrees of adult neurosis and dysfunctionality which so many of us adults are carrying. Defence of the natural world is not just some `pc' notion of `tree huggers'; it is essential if we want the biosphere to survive in its historically-developed complexity, and if we want humanity to survive within it. When individuals or organizatons with right-wing agendas accuse someone of `political correctness', one simple tactic is to reframe the issue by saying: "We're not concerned with whether it's politically correct, but with whether it is morally correct to (fill in the blank)". Finally, I would like to suggest that dialogue (mutual learning and listening), respect for evidence and inquiry, and creative thinking, are all essential elements within any TRUE `pc' model for interacting with the world. Yours in solidarity, Eric Sommer > >Soldiers of Misfortune: The New Right's Culture War and the Politics of >Political Correctness >By Valerie Scatamburlo > >In Soldiers of Misfortune, Valerie Scatamburlo provides the first >systematic account of the political correctness phenomenon. The author >contends that the New Right's campaign against P.C. must be understood >contextually, as part of the conservative movement's broader "war of >position." She traces the historical genealogy of the contemporary New >Right; the network of corporate-sponsored funding undergirding their >anti-P.C. assault; and examines the mainstream media's complicity in >propagating anti-P.C. rhetoric. Scatamburlo, however, challenges the >notion that the P.C. ethos is merely a myth concocted by the New Right and >addresses some of the disturbing tendencies in contemporary Left theory >and politics. She locates the P.C. phenomenon theoretically and >politically between the linguistic turn in social theory and the rise of >identity politics. Claiming that P.C. is, in many ways, a form of >pseudoradicalism, the author argues that progressive intellectuals must >move beyond the edicts of P.C., the narrowness of identity politics, and >the excesses of postmodernism. > >"This is one of the most comprehensive accounts of the rise of the new >right that is currently available. Scatamburlo has fashioned a book that >is indispensable for scholars, educators, and activists interested in >creating pedagogies of liberation and communities of risk and >solidarity" > --Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate School of Education, UCLA. > >"Since the struggle over P.C. continues unabated and because one expects >that the culture wars will continue well into the next millennium, this is >an extremely timely and provocative study that addresses an issue of >utmost importance. For those who want to know what the P.C. controversy >is all about, this is the book." > --from the preface by Douglas Kellner, Professor, > University of Texas at Austin. > >Ordering Information: Paperback $29.95 * 288 pages * ISBN 0-8204-3012-9 > >Send orders to: Peter Lang Publishing > 275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor > New York, NY 10001 > Customer Service: 1-800-770-LANG > (212) 647-7706, Fax: (212) 647-7707 > customerservice@plang.com > >$29.95 + $3.00 shipping and handling > > > > > From dicwc@omen.net.au Mon Mar 16 01:22:53 1998 From: "Deaths In Custody Watch Commitee (WA) Inc." To: "AMA" , "Black Deaths Interest" , "DICWC Members" , "Oz Media" , "Pollies - Democrats" , "Pollies - Labor" , "Pollies - LibNats" , "Pollies - Other" , "Prison Watchers" Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 16:14:37 +0800 X-Distribution: Moderate Subject: Bandyup Prison Death: WA's Shameful Record Continues Reply-to: dicwc@omen.net.au media release DEATHS IN CUSTODY WATCH COMMITTEE (WA) Inc. 27 Brewer St, Perth 6000, Ph: 61 (0)8 9328-5316 Fax: 61 (0)8 9228-8183 or : 61 (0)8 9227-1813 E-mail: dicwc@omen.net.au Webpage: http://www.omen.net.au/~dicwc ___________________ Friday 13 March 1998 Bandyup Prison Death: WA's Shameful Record Continues A young non-Aboriginal woman found dead at Bandyup Prison this morning, was the seventh prison custody death to occur in Western Australia in two and half months. "The death toll in WA prisons is shameful," said Glenn Shaw, Chairperson of the Watch Committee. "How many more have to die before the crisis and chaos which exists within our prisons is addressed." "The Attorney General said in parliament yesterday that deaths in custody was not related to prison management." "This organisation rejects his claims because we see at first hand what is happening in the prisons. We see the despair and misery that is caused by the over-crowding. We are told of the totally inadequate and incompetent medical and psychiatric services in the prisons. All of this is confirmed in the shocking statistics for suicide and attempted suicides." "The appalling conditions in our jails means that every prisoner should be seen as being at risk." "The politicians who have gleefully increased the prison population in this State should now take stock of the awful consequences of draconian legislation which removes judiciary discretion to impose prison sentences as a last resort." "Our prisons are over-flowing because there are too many people who should not be there and that includes young people on drug related charges, people suffering psychiatric illnesses, and the high number of Aboriginal people who continue to be imprisoned for minor offences." "The buck stops with the Attorney General because the deaths are due to the appalling conditions and the lack of adequate medical care which is all related to bad prison management and the "lock 'em up attitude" of this Government." Media contact: Glenn Shaw, (08) 9265 6960 Kath Mallott (08) 9328 5316(h), 0419930375(m) ================================================ From rdtorres@quick.net Mon Mar 16 09:24:18 1998 From: rdtorres@quick.net Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 08:23:24 -0800 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Latino Studies Reader For complimentary copies contact: Dawn Williams, Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, MA 02148-9933 =20 The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy and Society Edited by ANTONIA DARDER and RODOLFO D. TORRES - Claremont Graduate School and University of California, Irvine Price : =A3 15.99. $29.95=20 Format : 246 x 171 mm 6.75 x 9.75 in 528 pages. paperback=20 Publication Date : January 1998 Description :=20 Focusing on the culture, politics and society of the distinctive Latino communities in the United States, The Latino Studies Reader draws on the most interesting recent work from Latino scholars and social critics in a comparative perspective. Representing over 10% of the population in the United States, and growing faster than any other ethnic group, it is now more important than ever to examine the issues of Latinos who are predicted to become the largest ethnic-minority group by the year 2009. Conventional theories of ^race^ and ^race relations^, with its exclusive black/white focus, present serious theoretical problems as applied to Latinos. Therefore, Darder and Torres use ^class analysis^ as the major theoretical perspective in order to understand Latinos through social scientific theoretical and conceptual ideas.=20 To reflect the variety of home countries and divergent socio-economic backgrounds of Latinos, The Latino Studies Reader draws on the experiences of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cubanos, Caribbeans, Central and South Americans living in the United States. The volume is organized around four major themes: culture and histories; cultural politics; gender, sexuality and power; and labour and politics. Contents :=20 List of Contributors. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Latinos and Society: Culture, Politics, and Class: Antonia Darder (Claremont Graduate School in California) and Rodolfo D. Torres (California State University, Long Beach). Part I: Culture, History, and Society: A Conceptual Map: 1. Merging Borders: The Remapping of America: Edna Acosta-Belen and Carlos E. Santiago (Both State University of New York, Albany). 2. Encuentros y Encontronazos: Homeland in the Politics and Identity of the Cuban Diaspora: Maria de los Angeles Torres (DePaul University, Chicago). 3. Aztlan, Borinquen and Hispanic Nationalism in the United States: J. Jorge Klor de Alva (University of California, Berkeley). 4. Chicano History: Transcending Cultural Models: Gilbert Gonzalez and Raul Fernandez (University of California, Irvine). 5. Mapping the Spanish Language along a Multiethnic and Multilingual Border: Rosaura Sanchez (University of California, San Diego). Part II: Cultural Politics and Border Zones: Recasting Racialized Relations: 6. The Politics of Biculturalism: Culture and Difference in the Formation of Warriors from Gringostroika and the New Mestizas: Antonia Darder (Claremont Graduate School in California). 7. Beyond the Rainbow: Mapping the Discourse on the Puerto Ricans and ^Race^: Roberto P. Rodriguez-Morazzani (City University of New York). 8. Chicana Artists: Exploring Nepantla, El Lugar de la Frontera: Gloria Anzaldua. 9. The Shock of the New: Ruben Martinez. 10. Our Next Race Question: The Uneasiness between Blacks and Latinos: Jorge Klor de Alva, Earl Shorris, and Cornel West (Harvard University). Part III: Critical Discourses on Gender, Sexuality and Power: 11. Chicana Feminisms: Their Political Context and Contemporary Expressions: Denise A. Segura (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Beatriz M. Perquera (University of California, Davis). 12. Crazy Wisdom: Memories of a Cuban Queer: Lourdes Arguelles(Claremont Graduate School, California). 13. Teatro Viva!: Latino Performance and the Politics of AIDS in Los Angeles: David Roman (University of Southern California). 14. The Latin Phallus: Ilan Stavans (Amherst College). Part IV: Labor and Politics in a Global Economy: The Latino Metropoles: 15. Rank and File: Historical Perspectives on Latino/a Workers in the US: Zaragosa Vargas (University of California, Santa Barbara). 16. Latinos in a ^Post-Industrial^ Disorder: Politics in a Changing City: Victor Valle (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) and Rodolfo D. Torres (California State University, Long Beach). 17. What~s Yellow and White and Has Land All Around It?: Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios: Luis Aponte-Pares(University of Massachusetts). 18. Caribbean Colonial Immigrants in the Metropoles: A Research Agenda: Ramon Grosfoguel (State University of New York, Binghamton). Index. =20 =20 From cuzzort@spot.colorado.edu Mon Mar 16 11:47:26 1998 Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:47:19 -0700 (MST) From: Cuzzort Ray Reply-To: Cuzzort Ray To: socgroup Subject: TRYING TO DEFINE THE NATURE OF ACTION The following little "amusement" is derived from the writings of Kenneth Burke. Various people have responded to it in various ways--ranging from not seeing any problem at all to a more general rethinking of the notion of anthropomorphism. A community theater decides to put on a crime play. In the third, and final, act the butler is shot by the lady of the house and falls center stage. He is required to lie there for the final ten minutes of the act. The play is a hit. On Friday of the third week of the play's run the audience is enjoying the play and the performers are comfortable with their roles. The 3rd act arrives and the butler is shot by the lady of the house and falls, center stage, and assumes a deathly still posture. Unnoticed by anyone, he suffers a brain aneurism and dies, without so much as a twitch or moan. No one notices. The play continues for another ten minutes. After the curtain falls there is enthusiastic applause from out front and the players ready themselves for their curtain call. They try to rouse the butler. At this point the leading lady screams, "My God, he is dead! He really is dead." The audience hears the scream and quiets down and a general murmur fills the theater. Where before everything had been light entertainment, a new mood overcomes both the audience and the players. The dramaturgic question is this: During the final ten or so minutes of the third act, after the butler passes on, was the butler still "performing" or "acting"? I offer this as a way of suggesting that the notion of action is not at all a simple one and that considerable arbitrariness seems to surround it. However, without a good, solid definition of social action, how can we arrive at a solid, systemic sense of social theory? RPC From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Tue Mar 17 12:03:03 1998 Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:02:58 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez Reply-To: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Teaching course on Sex and Gender Dear PSNers, Next fall I will be teaching an upper division course called TOPICS ON SEX AND GENDER, for mainly juniors and maybe seniors. I would welcome suggestions for readings and films. Please send me your input privately and I will afterwards compile the results and post them in PSN. many thanks, Martha E. Gimenez gimenez@csf.colorado.edu From dassbach@mtu.edu Wed Mar 18 09:19:49 1998 From: "Carl H.A. Dassbach" To: Subject: Late capitalism? Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 11:24:01 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" Some may recall that Mandel, writing in the 1970's, characterized the period since the end of World War II as "Late Capitalism." I was wondering if this is still an accurate characterization? Has anyone seen some other characterizations? What would come after "Late apitalism"? - "Senescent Capitalism," "Post-Modern Capitalism," "Post-Industrial Capitalism," "Post-Fordist Capitalism," "Fujitsuism"? Carl Dassbach From rwlarkin@MCIONE.com Wed Mar 18 23:22:57 1998 Thu, 19 Mar 1998 06:22:45 +0000 (GMT) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:22:31 -0500 From: rwlarkin Subject: Re: Late capitalism? To: dassbach@mtu.edu, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Back in the heady days of the late 1960s, we could optimistically refer to the period as "late capitalism," implying, of course, that this system was on its death bed. Remember that we could imagine an alternative to capitalism then. However, capitalism has dusted itself off and is the only system available. Thus, we seem to be at the very height of capitalist development, in which there are only a few "undeveloped" cultures of the world that have yet to be mopped up and dumped into the cash nexus. Let's face it, actually existing socialism was not much of an alternative. rwlarkin. From davidf1@concentric.net Thu Mar 19 03:38:52 1998 by uhura.concentric.net (8.8.8/(98/01/20 5.9)) [1-800-745-2747 The Concentric Network] by marconi.concentric.net (8.8.8) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 05:36:05 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: David Fasenfest Subject: what's in a name? It is certainly true that existing applied models of socialism has not successfully competed with capitalism even as we argue over whether it was a failure of socialism or its defeat by capitalism which explains that end. However, the discussion of Late Capitalism was not a wishful exposition of its waning years but an attempt to understand transformations taking place at that time in a heretofore nationally based system (Lenin's _Age of Imperialism_ is another example of such an examination). There are many (some among this list) who have equated the end of the socialist systems (whatever faults they may have had) with the failure of a Marxist analysis of capitalism. Whatever was or was not done in its name, Marx's analysis of the capitalist system is still the most insightful examination of how the system works, and we must apply those principals of investigation as we try to understand the era of so-called post-Fordist accord (and there is a very good book by Ruigrok and van Tulder called _The Logic of International Restructuring_ which argues that in fact there are three global processes under way based around US [Fordist], European [Volvo/Phillps] and Japanese [Toyota] economic transformation), globalization (which Australian political economists have called globalony), and flexibilization (and work by many are showing that this is heralding a new Taylorism at work). We are faced with many important problems at both micro and macro levels which either can be ignored under the rubric of "capitalism won so lets get on with things" or can be more critically examined using the only consistently insightful tools available. Ruth Milkman's recent book is a good example of how such an examination in one plant exposes some of the assumptions about the transformation of work as more rhetoric than fact. Others are trying to make sense of the apparently international agenda of unraveling social safety nets in the name of global competitiveness by looking at the forms of resistance and opposition (and lest we get too nationally chauvinistic, the US is one of the few countries for which this agenda seems to move forward with little opposition). And the list goes on. The tendency to try and name an era is misguided if its purpose is to claim one singular and essentialist explanation or definition of the economies of the world, however they are all informed by capitalist social relations. Rather, our task is to understand the common roots of these systems based on capitalism, and how the social and historical specificity define and shape the particular repertoires and ranges of social action, reaction, and formation. To date, only Marx has provided us with the means by which such an examination can be undertaken. David Fasenfest Research Associate Professor Great Cities Institute, Univ of Illinois at Chicago From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Thu Mar 19 07:21:21 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 19 Mar 1998 09:19:05 EST To: Subject: Late capitalism... or tardy revolution? Carl Dassbach's confusion about "late" capitalism does us all a service by raising an important theoretical/ideological/praxical/political issue. My response would be that capitalism entered its "late" period with the development of the modern imperialist world-system from c.1871 onward (arbitrary as heck, but pegged to the Franco-Prussian War as the first major expression of the contradictions that would later produce WW I-II and the revolutionary sequelae thereto). The intractable contradictions of capitalism THEN begin to produce a long period of revolutionary struggle which persists up until the 1970s or 1980s, but probably peaking with the failures of 1968 and sliding into the depressing denouements of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Afghanistan, etc. The period following; i.e., the present moment, which I choose to call "inter-historical," should be typified as the period of proletarian disarray and communist defeat. That is, at some level, I would argue that we have fallen into the bourgeois-ideological level of defining the present moment in terms of the class-history of the bourgeoisie and its "senescence," rather than in terms of the class-history of the proletariat and the emerging epoch of communism. The nature of this problem appears more clearly when we consider the ways in which we consider the feudal/capitalist "cusp." Do we speak of the eighteenth century as the period of the "decline" of feudalism, or as the period of the "rise" of capitalism? It is generally the latter, I think. We have no ideological problem with this because it carries with it the conceptual class-baggage of bourgeois ideology, to wit: capitalism as the historical pinnacle of human development. This is in some sense ideologically harmless because at that particular point in time- that cusp between two modes of production- the bourgeois conception of the place of the bourgeoisie in history bears a fair semblance to historical "reality." However, as dialectics would demand, no sooner than the capitalist epoch comes into being, its internal contradictions began to develop, and it simultaneously begins to pass out of existence. THIS however, is the point where bourgeois ideology begins to have its pernicious impact on the analysis of the present, even on we Marxists, who are products of this epoch as well. As Lukacs suggested, the only way that we can escape the class blinders of the hegemonic world-view of a particular ruling class is to step outside of class history by stepping squarely in the middle of it: by taking the class-standpoint of the proletariat- the "universal" c;ass. Thus we can become truly "universalistic" in our underrstanding of history by becoming self-consciously class-partisan and "class-particularistic." In terms of historiographical practice, this means that we abandon the class-standpoint of the bourgeoisie in our view of history, just as the social philosophers of the eighteenth century began to abandon the class perspective of the feudal aristocracy in deference to the emerging class-viewpoint of the bourgeoisie. We must begin a process of intellectual "aufhebung" which understands the present moment in terms of the unfolding history of the proletariat, not the static history of a capitalism where, currently, the more things change, the more things remain the same. It is because the fundamental historical dynamic of capitalism has already played itself out and spins downward into chaos and "postness" of various kinds that we remain confused and dispirited. For many years I resisted the full implications of this idea because I first encountered it in the work of Trotsky, when I was much younger. I recall taht in some discussion of the 1930s, with its Great Depression, its fascist triumps, and its descent into mega-war, he took issue with the tendency of some communists to eagerly await the "funal crisis" of capitalism as a means by which the juggernaut of history would sweep the streets clean of an intractably persistent capiyalism. He opposed this idea,as I dimly recall, by arguing that thecapitalist system has been in "terminal crisis" since 1914 at the latest. He argued that what was lacking was the historical emergence of the proletariat as a self-conscious historical force. While there are a number of problems of theory and politics with this last assertion, I now believe that he was right in backgrounding the historical dialectic of capitalism and foregrounding that of the proletariat and the historical period of ITS class domination: communism. In essence, then, I am suggesting that we focus far less on the particularities of the senescent epoch, and far more on the spasmodic character of the political emergence of the proletariat. There are many niceties and points of dispute in all this, but I've said enough for this early in the morning! Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Thu Mar 19 07:40:47 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 19 Mar 1998 09:38:35 EST To: Subject: More on Capitalism's "Lateness" For those who want to see an early attempt to use the conception I floated a few minutes ago, there is a monograph I wrote more than fifteen years ago still to be found on TR's Red Feather Institute homepage. It is numbered 84a and is on capitalist decline and political reaction. T reread it (gingerly) recently, and surprised myself by remaining unembarassed! Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From dassbach@mtu.edu Thu Mar 19 08:14:57 1998 From: "Carl H.A. Dassbach" To: "PSN" Subject: Re: Late Capitalism Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 10:24:51 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" Thanks for the suggestions and observations about periodizing. I think that periodization is important because I believe that historical change is discontinuous and qualitative. For example, I believe that Liberal and Late Capitalism represent two distinct and qualitatively different eras in the organization of capitalism with important differences between them. What is more problematic however, is the basis for this periodization or, for that matter, any other type of periodization. Rereading parts of Mandel and especially Schumpeter, It would seem to me that the basis for the periodization of capitalism should be the long or K-wave. Mandel does not make this connection. In fact there does not seem to be any real overlap between his discussion of long waves and periodization. On the other hand, I think this type of periodization is implicit in Schumpeter, especially his observations that every cycle is a historically unique and the society that emerges at the end of the cycle is qualitatively different from that same society at the beginning of the cycle. This was also a point made in the literature on so-called social structures of accumulation although the discussion did not, as far as I recall, directly refer to long waves as the basis for periodization. Using long waves, I would suggest the following periodization of (industrial) capitalism. 1790 to 1848 - Early (Industrial) Capitalism 1848 to 1893 - Liberal (Industrial) Capitalism I 1893 to 1945 - Liberal (Industrial) Capitalism II 1945 to 1995 - Late (Industrial)Capitalism 1995 - Post(Industrial) Capitalism Obviously, this periodization is in terms of core activities and institutions but I also believe that these periods are also marked by different types of relations between the core and other regions of the world economy. Carl Dassbach --------------------------- Carl H.A. Dassbach DASSBACH@MTU.EDU Dept. of Social Sciences (906)487-2115 - Phone Michigan Technological Univ. (906)487-2468 - Fax Houghton, MI 49931 (906)482-8405 - Private From pkraft@binghamton.edu Thu Mar 19 09:03:52 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:08:36 -0500 From: Phil Kraft To: pen-l , PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , Forum on Labor in the Global Economy , Work Subject: CONFERENCE (Binghamton): Work, Difference and Social Change All, First, apologies for multiple postings. This is the program/author list for the Conference on Work, Difference and Social Change, to be held at SUNY-Binghamton May 8-10, 1998. There may be some last minute changes, but all the listed panels and panelists have been confirmed as of this posting. The flood of papers and registrations is gratifying but we now face some logistical problems, mostly around catering and preparing the conference Proceedings. Both the caterer and the printer have rejected the Just-in-Time production model. As a result, registrations received after May 1, including those made on-site, will not include lunches or the conference Proceedings, although we will have to charge the normal fees. Late registrants will be able to order the Proceedings for a supplemental charge. Unfortunately, the only (uncatered) food on campus that week-end will be in the usual assortment of vending machines. There is a Denny's nearby.... More information, including travel directions, suggestions for international visitors, and a printable registration form, can be found on our webpages: http://sociology.adm.binghamton.edu/work Or you can contact us at work@binghamton.edu or +1-607-777-6844 Hope to see you in May! For the conference committee, Phil Kraft Work, Difference and Social Change May 8-10, 1998 State University at New York at Binghamton Preliminary Program NOTE: Panels and participants have been confirmed as of March 18, 1998. The program, participants, times and locations are subject to change. Friday May 8, 1998 5-8 PM Registration and Reception Susquehanna Room, University Union (Registration continues all day Saturday, May 9, in front of Lecture Hall 14) Saturday May 9, 1998 8:30-9:00 AM Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex Welcoming Remarks James Geschwender 9-10:30 AM Lecture Hall 14 in Lecture Hall Complex Plenary Session "Twenty Five Years after _Labor and Monopoly Capital_", Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood Moderator: Phil Kraft 10:30-10:45 Coffee 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Panel Meetings Session 1 Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Technology, Work Organization and the Globalization of Production David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher Education" Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace" Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle of Labour and Capital in Software Production" Moderator: Charles Koeber Session 2 Student Wing Room 331 Gendered Work and Gendered Time Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A Brazil-Quebec Comparison" Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and Gender Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" Moderator: Carol Jansen 12:15-1:15 PM Lunch Susquehanna Room, University Union Luncheon Roundtable with Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman (Signup at registration) 1:30-3:00 PM Panel Meetings Session 3 Student Wing Room 331 Strategies of Control Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the Labor Process" Richard Reeves Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract" Moderator: Fred Goldner Session 4 Student Wing Room 327 "Marginal� Work, Marginalized Workers Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization� from Street Level, or Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The Developmental Work'" John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and the Opposition to Workfare" Moderator: Phoebe Godfrey Session 5: Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Globalization, Work and Class Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of Work Restructuring" Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" Moderator: Muto Ichiyo 3-3:15 Coffee Hospitality Room, Third Floor, Student Wing 3:15-4:45 PM Panel Meetings Session 6 Student Wing Room 331 Ideologies of Control Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the Managerial Class" Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c. 1886-1904" Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine Labor Process" Moderator: Richard Barley Session 7 Lecture Hall 14, Lecture Hall Complex Race, Class, Ethnicity and the Labor Process Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970 " Evelyn Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive Labor" Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance� Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" Moderator: John Hollister 7 PM Conference Banquet Susquehanna Room, University Union Music by Miles Ahead and Mona Lott Reservations Required. Limited Seating Availability after May 1. Inquire at Registration Desk. Sunday May 10, 1998 9-10:30 AM Plenary Session Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex �Labor and Globalization,� presentations by Giovanni Arrighi, Doug Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver Moderator: Keith Williams 10:30-10:45 AM Coffee 10:45 AM-12:15 PM Panel Meetings Session 8 Student Wing Room 331 The Dark Side of Globalization and Flexibility Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in the San Franciso Shipyards" Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty and Insecurity in the Lives High-Tech Assembly Workers" Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" Moderator: Reiko Koide Session 9 Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Organized Resistance and Everyday Struggles Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in Southampton, New York" Moderator: Rick Baldoz Session 10 Student Wing Room 327 Gender and the �New� Division of Labor Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service Representatives" Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender and Computing" Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" Moderator: Rhonda Levine 12:30-2:00 PM Concluding Plenary Lecture Hall 14 Lecture Hall Complex Michael Burawoy, �Flight From Capital� Bryan Palmer, �Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working Class� Erik Olin Wright, �Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological Change� Moderator: Edna Bonacich (A box lunch will be available at the 12:30 Plenary) The Conference organizing committee: Rick Baldoz Phoebe Godfrey Carol Jansen Chuck Koeber Reiko Koide Phil Kraft * * * * Work, Difference and Social Change May 8-10, 1998 Preliminary List of Authors (Partial) This list is subject to change Giovanni Arrighi, Doug Henwood, Muto Ichiyo and Beverly Silver, �Labor and Globalization.� (plenary panel) Rick Baldoz, "Filipino Migrant Workers in the United States: Incorporation, Class Formation and the State c. 1908-1970" Elaine Bernard and Sid Shniad, "Fighting Globalization: Contesting Management's Right to Mismanage in the Workplace" Joseph A. Blum, "Degradation without Deskilling: Twenty-Five Years in the San Franciso Shipyards" Edna Bonacich, "The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized Flexible Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles" Michael Burawoy, �Flight From Capital� Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Uncertainty and Insecurity in the Lives of High-Tech Assembly Workers" Elaine Coburn, "The Ontario Labour Split: the Role of the State in Shaping Labor Struggle in an Era of Globalization" Sheila Cohen, "Ramparts of Resistance: Rank and File Unionism and the Labor Process" Corey Dolgon, "If We Don't Stick Together We'll All Be Working at K-Mart: Labor Struggles, Racial Identities and Coalition Building in Southampton, New York" Kenneth Ehrensal, "Manufacturing Managers: Education and Consent in the Managerial Class" Seymour Faber and Martin Glaberman (Luncheon Roundtable, Saturday, May 9) Evelyn N. Glenn "Gender, Race and the Organization of Reproductive Labor" Teresa Gowan, "Excavating 'Globalization� from Street Level, or Homelessness, from Science to Ideology" Jeffrey Haydu, "Employer Class Formation and the Labor Process: 'The Business Community' and Management Prerogatives c.1886-1904" Margaret Heide, "The Impact of Corporate Restructuring on Women in Customer Service Jobs: A Case Study of Female Customer Service Representatives" Helge Hvid, "Work for Welfare: A Presentation of the Strategy of 'The Developmental Work'" Charles S. Koeber, "Downsizing and the Transformation of Work: The Process of Work and Employment Change for Displaced Workers" John Krinsky, "Work, Workfare, and Contention in New York City: Recombinant Repertoires and Multiple Accounts of Worker Identity and the Opposition to Workfare" Pei-Chia Lan, "'Bodily Labor' in Contemporary Service Jobs: Cosmetics Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling" Elly Leary, "Making them Content with Subordination: the Truth about Labor Management Cooperation in the Automobile Industry" Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy and Ellen Meiksens Wood, "Twenty-Five Years after Labor and Monopoly Capital" (plenary panel) Eric Margolis, "Picturing Labor: A Visual Ethnography of the Coal Mine Labor Process" David Noble, "And Then They Came for Us: The Automation of Higher Education" Sean O'Riain, "Networking for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace" Bryan Palmer, �Before Braverman: Harry Frankel and the American Working Class� Niki Panteli, Janet Stack, Harvie Ramsay, and Malcolm Atkinson, "Gender and Computing" Eva Pietsch, "Class and Ethnicity among Baltimore Immigrant Workers in the 1920s: Hierarchies of Human Allegiance� Richard Reeves-Ellington, "Leveraging Local Knowledge for Empowerment in Global Markets: A Bulgarian Case" James Rinehart, "Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Two Decades of Work Restructuring" Luc Sels, "The New Division of Labor and the Death of Class" Richard Sharpe, "Globalization: The Next Tactic in the 50-year Struggle of Labour and Capital in Software Production" Chris Smith and Paul Thompson, "Beyond the Capitalist Labour Process: Workplace Change, the State and Globalisation" Angelo Soares, "Silent Rebellions in the Capitalist Paradise: A Brazil-Quebec Comparison" Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and Jacqueline Johnson, "The Job Matching Process and the Production of Gender Segregation" Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "The 'New Division of Labour' and Women's Jobs: A Complex Picture from Research Conducted in Quebec" Duane P. Truex and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, "Unpacking the Ideology of Post-Industrial Team-Based Management: Self-governing Teams as Structures of Social Control of IT Workers" Daniel Villeneuve and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, "Working Time and Gender Differences: Restructuring Work to Reconcile Family and Work?" Edward Webster, "Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and Class among South African Shop Stewards in the Nineties" Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins, "Controlling Technical Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract� Erik Olin Wright, �Class Compromise, Globalization and Technological Change� From dassbach@mtu.edu Thu Mar 19 11:44:34 1998 From: "Carl H.A. Dassbach" To: "PSN" Subject: Re: Late capitalism... or tardy revolution? Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 13:54:25 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" Morton Wenger's confidence in the proletariat and the proletarain weltanchauung may be theortically correct but I find it to be impractical and unrealistic. Like Lukacs, Wenger imputes to the proletariat an objectively `correct' consciousness simply by virtue of their postion in the relations poduction. Unfortunately, we know this not to be true. Proletarians, whatever their color, shape or form and whatever postion they occupy in the system of production from the unskilled laborer to the middle-level manager do not possess an accurate understanding of capitalism or their place in the system. Instead, the real proletarian consciousness ( at least in the core nations) strikes me as a `false consciousness' - one riddled with the myths and decptions of consumerism that capitalism demands and requires. Outside of the core, it seems to me that proletarian and quasi-proletarain consciousness is rent asunder by ethnic and religious controversy and conflict. If this is the case, where, pray tell, is this "objectively correct" consciousness? In other words, who (what group of individuals, on what continent and in what nation-state) is the real bearer of this consicousness and hence, in this perspective, the real agent of historical change. Unfortunately, it appears that the only group that comes close to bearing some type of collective consciousness and objective understanding of their place in the system of production is the bourgeoisie. As such, it would seem to me that the borgeoisie and its lackeys are the agents of historical change since they not only clearly understand their objective - profits - and the means of achieving this objective - extracting surplus labor - but possess the material means by which to pursue these objectives. History from the point of view of the proletarait, as Wenger advocates, may be enticing but I am hard pressed to see this group, except in certain exceptional circumstances, as real agents of historical change. This is not to deny the importance of this group but merely to place the historical role of the proletrarait in a realistic perspective instead of imputing to them some "objective universalistic" consicousness ala Lukacs and Wenger. Moreover, I don't believe that it is "bourgeois-ideological" to define "the >present moment in terms of the class-history of the bourgeoisie". It seems to me Arrigihi has done a fairly good job of this in his Long 20th C. Carl Dassbach From eberhardw@plato.ens.gu.edu.au Thu Mar 19 00:57:36 1998 19 Mar 98 18:28:51 +1000 19 Mar 98 18:28:19 +1000 From: "Eberhard Wenzel" To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:57:29 +1000 Subject: Late capitalism? Reply-to: e.wenzel@ens.gu.edu.au In-reply-to: <0EQ1005H3Z1VYA@PM02SM.PMM.MCI.NET> On 19 Mar 98 at 1:22, rwlarkin wrote: > Let's face it, actually existing socialism was not much of an alternative. Perhaps it wasn't much socialism in the first place. We haven't seen the alternative yet. Eberhard Wenzel MA PhD Griffith University School of Public Health Deputy Director, Queensland Centre of Public Health Nathan, Qld. 4111 Australia Tel.: 61-7-3875 7103 Fax: 61-7-3875 6709 e-mail: e.wenzel@ens.gu.edu.au WWW Virtual Library Public Health at: http://www.ens.gu.edu.au/eberhard/vl/index.htm Sometimes we become so sophisticated we have to read the New York Times in order to figure out whether it's a hot or a rainy day. June Jordan From Spectors@mail.netnitco.net Thu Mar 19 08:40:23 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 09:36:27 -0800 From: Spectors Reply-To: Spectors@mail.netnitco.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Late capitalism? Here we go (again...)-- RWLARKIN wrote: <<>> ----------------------------------------- With all their failures, "actually existing socialism" did raise the stand of living of hundreds of millions of people in a rather spectacular way. "Actually existing socialism" also played the overwhelming role in destroying the Nazis. The collapse of "actually existing socialism" was a blow to many people's aspirations, of course. But for how many centuries did the merchant class struggle to overthrow feudalism and create capitalism? Why be surprised that the first (unexpected) experiments in world history moving towards a classless world society were not able to be consolidated---with all the unpredictability which that entailed. And as far as the health of capitalism---it is clear that there is a systemic crisis that the capitalists are able to displace from one area to the other, for the time being. But the very fact, that rw points out: "Thus, we seem to be at the very height of capitalist development, in which there are only a few "undeveloped" cultures of the world that have yet to be mopped up and dumped into the cash nexus." is EXACTLY the reason why capitalism's instabilities are so serious. Whatever erroneous predictions were made by Marx and Marxists in the past, this particular aspect of Marxist theory rings more true today than ever. Capitalism is an aggressive, expansionist system. It must expand or collapse. As it expands, it creates conflict among the imperialist powers, as well as resistance from the local people, and contradictions/misery/conflict intensify in the "powerful" imperialist countries as well. In the 1960's, some of us were a bit short-sighted in seeing the mass struggles all over the world (led by vestiges of the old Communist movement) as quickly bringing on the end of capitalism-imperialism. In fact, the STRUCTURE of the system still had more flexibility from the creation of markets that came from the massive destruction of World War II. Today, there is not a massive, world-wide revolutionary communist upsurge. But the structural problems of the world-wide system are actually much worse than they were in the 1960's. This seems to indicate that war and fascism are on the horizon. At some point, as revolutionary consciousness grows, a massive, world-wide new communist (egalitarian) movement will develop. But the short run doesn't look too happy for the working class (and many capitalists.) And the "short run" can last a short time, a long time, or a very long time, depending on what we do. Alan Spector From sokol@jhu.edu Thu Mar 19 12:31:56 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:34:04 -0500 From: Wojtek Sokolowski Subject: Re: what's in a name? In-reply-to: <3.0.3.32.19980319053605.006b8308@pop3.concentric.net> To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu, davidf1@concentric.net At 05:36 AM 3/19/98 -0500, David Fasenfest wrote: >It is certainly true that existing applied models of socialism has not >successfully competed with capitalism even as we argue over whether it was >a failure of socialism or its defeat by capitalism which explains that end. > However, the discussion of Late Capitalism was not a wishful exposition of >its waning years but an attempt to understand transformations taking place >at that time in a heretofore nationally based system (Lenin's _Age of >Imperialism_ is another example of such an examination). My comment (WS): The issue of competition between capitalism and socialism rests on a false assumption, namely that 'socialism' and 'capitalism' are emprical entities rather than just mere labels without a clear empirical meaning. A standard approach to determine whether abstract concepts are empirically meaningful categories or mere labels without much empirical content is the comparison of the "between group variance" to the "within group variance." The main idea here is that if elements grouped under one label vary among each other to the same or greater degree that elements grouped under different labels do - the labels do not represent an empirically meaningful distinction. It is my belief that differences among countries within the group labeled as "socialist" are at least as great as the differences among countries in the 'socialist' and the 'capitalist' camps. Take for example Sweden, Japan, and the US. In the respect of social welfare programs, the difference between Sweden and the US (both under the capitalist label) is much greater than, say, between Sweden and her southern neighbour Poland (under the socialist label). In the respect of government involvement in economic strategic planning, Japan (nominally a 'capitalist' country) falls much closer to centrally planned economies ('socialist' label) than to the more laissez faire US. Therefore, the distinction between capitalism and socialism is not very useful empirically, because it fails to goup countries with similar empirical features under one label, or to cenceptually distinguish among counnries having different empirical features. The only usefulness of such lables is purely mythological (or ideological): it organizes the world into simple to grasp mental categories that are then used as actors in a grossly simplified narrative of interantional relations. It is like ancient myths of the struggle between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil -- captivating story telling, but without much empirical reference. Yet another example of the scribbling class' motto: "don't believe what you see, believe what we say." A more useful approach would be to ask how particular institutional solutions to governance and the organization of production perform under different historical conditions. Thus we may ask questions like that: 1. Did the central planning that relies on high centralization of administrative authority accomplished the expected goal of building the industrial infrastructure in the initial phase of modernization of the country X in Eastern Europe. If not, why? 2. Did the same central planning regime accomplished the expected goal of sustained econimic growth in later stages of mdernization of country X in Eastern Europe. If not, why? 3. What is the vertical (historical) variation in the central planning regimes? What is the cause of that variation? What is the impact of that variation on economy and society? 4. What is the lateral (cross-national) variation in the central planning regimes? What factors explain that variation? What is the impact of that variation on economy and society? To my knowledge few economists, sociologists or policy analysts ask these types of question, as far as the great 'mental gap' of socialism vs capitalism is concerned. It seems that the minds of the supposedly empirical scientists are captivated by the mythology of the struggle between Good and Evil. As far as the rest of your post is concerned (I attach it because I post this missive to another list), I agree. The mainstream social scientists discussing Marxism are like Catholic priests discussing Judaism, or rabbis discussing Catholicism -- it is unlikely that you will get anything even remotely resembling an impartial evaluation. I think it was Marx (albeit I cannot recall where exactly) who compared 'political economy' (or economics and political science in today's lingo) to religion: everyone else's is man-made, our own is god-given. Regards, Wojtek Sokolowski >There are many (some among this list) who have equated the end of the >socialist systems (whatever faults they may have had) with the failure of a >Marxist analysis of capitalism. Whatever was or was not done in its name, >Marx's analysis of the capitalist system is still the most insightful >examination of how the system works, and we must apply those principals of >investigation as we try to understand the era of so-called post-Fordist >accord (and there is a very good book by Ruigrok and van Tulder called _The >Logic of International Restructuring_ which argues that in fact there are >three global processes under way based around US [Fordist], European >[Volvo/Phillps] and Japanese [Toyota] economic transformation), >globalization (which Australian political economists have called >globalony), and flexibilization (and work by many are showing that this is >heralding a new Taylorism at work). > >We are faced with many important problems at both micro and macro levels >which either can be ignored under the rubric of "capitalism won so lets get >on with things" or can be more critically examined using the only >consistently insightful tools available. Ruth Milkman's recent book is a >good example of how such an examination in one plant exposes some of the >assumptions about the transformation of work as more rhetoric than fact. >Others are trying to make sense of the apparently international agenda of >unraveling social safety nets in the name of global competitiveness by >looking at the forms of resistance and opposition (and lest we get too >nationally chauvinistic, the US is one of the few countries for which this >agenda seems to move forward with little opposition). And the list goes on. > >The tendency to try and name an era is misguided if its purpose is to claim >one singular and essentialist explanation or definition of the economies of >the world, however they are all informed by capitalist social relations. >Rather, our task is to understand the common roots of these systems based >on capitalism, and how the social and historical specificity define and >shape the particular repertoires and ranges of social action, reaction, and >formation. To date, only Marx has provided us with the means by which such >an examination can be undertaken. > > > >David Fasenfest >Research Associate Professor >Great Cities Institute, Univ of Illinois at Chicago > > > From brianeh@nbnet.nb.ca Thu Mar 19 15:03:59 1998 (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 release (PO203-101c) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 18:00:24 -0400 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: Brian Edward Hovsepian Subject: Late capitalism and more I recently purchased Anthony Giddens' 1973 text "The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies" at a used book shop and I wondered if anyone could recommend a more updated or recent text by someone in the field. Anyway...reading through, I came across the word Spatkapitalismus which could be translated to late capitalism although Giddens refers to it as �high capitalism.' This "high point" of capitalism is essentially a maturity of the capitalist order and is one phase in the institutionalisation of the separation of the economy and polity. I suppose this viewpoint could be carried forth as really the point where, for all intents and purposes, the nation or state is essentially obsolete or unnecessary. Could we indeed say that several multinational corporations wield more authority and power than the actual countries that they operate in and out of? With free-trade zones and acts of legislation such as MAI (multilateral agreement on investment...are any of you familiar with this? Scary, indeed), these companies do in fact appear to operate despite. and transcend, borders and boundaries. I suppose the case can be made that the possession of knowledge has replaced, or stands along side, the possession of property for the bestowment of power in our current state of society. Giddens, in comparing and contrasting the views of Bell and Touraine, asserts that in post-industrial society the form of knowledge which may carry more weight, prominence, and power(?) would be theoretical knowledge which, abstract, can be applied to a whole range of diverse circumstances. So I was struck with the question, when remembering what I had read in Jeremy Rifkin's "The End of Work", at what point does there become this conflict between the accumulation of theoretical knowledge and the continued loss of manufacturing/industrial/high-wage jobs? Granted, corporations are, for the sake of maximising profits and accountability to the shareholders, cutting costs by transferring jobs and contracts to where labour can be extracted for much less than in the �post-industrial' world. Given this apparent dichotomy that seems to be present: Companies over-producing to meet the demands of public over-consumption, while the average person can afford to consume. Once we reach a point, and I'm unsure if or when we will, where the average person can no longer afford to consume the goods that are over-produced in other parts of the world, does that become the point where theoretical knowledge isn't worth a damn or does this further ensure the power of those who possess/control theoretical knowledge? I know I'm talking in circles here but I'm trying to get this straight in my own head and make a small measure of sense with it. Maybe that is why I'm looking for more recent works on social class and stratification, ones that can take into account this transfer of labour, loss of capital, and the increasing authority of multinational corporations. In another vein, Giddens discussed Marcuse, who is not without critics, and the idea of a "one dimensional society." Marcuse, from my interpretation of Giddens' summary, indicated that the development of this one-dimensional society would occur through the encompassing control of the conduct and attitudes of the masses. And, through this control, the former class conflicts become, if not eliminated, at least planed out. Now, are we seeing this through the continued monopolisation of the media...print, television, etc? It also appears that the main type of opposition to this technocratic rule will require participation in decision-making processes and assume some sort of counter-cultural form. Now, let me close from this meandering and pedantic piece, and ask one further question. What is the role of education in all of this? I ask this as a former teacher (and soon to be again if those PhD programs don't open their doors to me). My education program certainly required us to develop some sort of philosophy of education, but that really becomes lost when trying to learn educational psychology and certainly becomes lost in the actual field where there is public outrage against the education system and this frightening movement toward outcome- based education and the homogenisation of teaching. I'm wondering, for myself, how I can teach my students while playing the game of the district, yet encourage them to become free- thinkers and social critics, if possible. I suppose it happens in small ways, and I've experienced it in my classroom, but in these trying times, it could be considered professional suicide. I thought I would end on the note about education because I have seen relatively little about the sociology of education on the list. Thanks a lot for bearing with me. Cheers all!!!! Brian From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Thu Mar 19 17:57:11 1998 id TAA06561; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:57:01 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:57:00 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew Wayne Austin Reply-To: Andrew Wayne Austin To: rwlarkin Subject: Re: Late capitalism? In-Reply-To: <0EQ1005H3Z1VYA@PM02SM.PMM.MCI.NET> On Thu, 19 Mar 1998, rwlarkin wrote: > Let's face it, actually existing socialism was not much of an alternative. On what sound empirical basis does your argument rest? The facts contradicting this position are overwhelming. Consider the study, "Socialism, Capitalism, and Inequality," by Shirley Cereseto, in the *Insurgent Sociologist* 11 (2) Spring 1982. Her findings: On a comparative basis, state socialism represented a dramatic advance over previous conditions (and present conditions) in these regions, and socialism surpassed most of the capitalist world in economic growth and social justice. Michael Parenti's (1997) *Blackshirts and Reds* confirms Cereseto's findings. Some of Cereseto's general findings before moving to the argument of whether socialism represented a viable alternative (see PS of this post for description of data, variables used in analysis, and other methodological points from Cereseto's work). At the time of her research (in the late 1970s, and covering a period of several years): * "The socialist countries are significantly higher in fulfilling basic human needs and in income inequality despite the fact that, as a group, they match the middle-income capitalist countries very closely on 6 of 7 measures of economic development." * "While socialist countries, as a group, are at a lower level of economic development [though all were higher than 1/3 of all capitalist countries and equal to 1/3 of all capitalist countries] and have a much lower income level, they are on par with the wealthy capitalist counties on rate of economic growth (GNP/c) and on dependent variables.... PQLI [quality of life measure] scores are almost identical. On the other hand, the socialist countries have higher means scores on...6 dependent variables, and 5 of the differences are significantly better." * "On mean per capita income, the two are almost identical. Socialist countries are higher on all other measures of economic development.... Socialist countries are better on every PQL variable, and significantly better on 7 of the 9." [Put otherwise, socialist countries had a much greater level of income equality.] Cereseto found that, with the exception of Yugoslavia, "which retains more capitalistic features than any other socialist country," "the data provided by the World Bank for 6 socialist countries places 5 of them above all other countries in the world on income inequality." She found that elites in capitalist countries "take more than twice as much in income along as the top two groups in socialist countries." On the other hand, "the lowest 20% of the population in socialist countries receive twice as great a share of the national income as their counterparts in capitalist countries...." This is a very interesting finding regarding Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was often held up as a model of socialist development, what they call "market socialism." But, just as we would expect, because it incorporated so many capitalist mechanisms into its economic system, it did quite poorly on matters of income equality and quality of life. Cereseto: "Thus, the data confirm the Marxist hypotheses that income equality and fulfillment of basic human needs will be higher in socialist than in capitalist countries...." That was the goal and that was the accomplishment. To the question of whether state socialism was an alternative to capitalism. Many have argued that it was not even socialism and these regions represented components of the capitalist world system. World system theorists, for example, view the so-called socialist countries as semi-peripheral states and regions that function to preserve the integrity of the capitalist world system. These semi-peripheral regions and states act as a buffer between the rich and the working class and the poor, analogous to the function the middle class serves in the class structure (I won't get into the matter of functional teleology in this post). What we should see, then, as a consequence of this semi-peripheral position, midway between core (the rich north) and peripheral (the poor south) regions, is socialist countries with a mid-level of inequality, along with the other semi-peripheral nations designated as capitalist countries. Her findings contradict such premises. What we find, on the contrary, is that socialist countries are the highest in the world in income equality. On the other hand, to quote Cereseto: The data do support the Marxist contention that the socialist countries constitute a separate system with different patterns of stratification. The data further support the Marxist hypothesis that the socialist countries will manifest less inequality than the capitalist periphery and semi-periphery of which they were a part in the past. To make her argument even more clearly, consider position in the global division of labor (GDL). How does this pan out for the world system argument presented above? As the evidence clearly shows, it works well when we are looking at capitalist countries. But when socialist countries are thrown into the analysis (world systems theorists ignore these countries because having to account for them makes their assertion of a single world economy problematic, of course) we see that primary commodities in export lead to dramatically opposite effects. This point is crucial to those who suppose that the relations between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries was an imperialistic, exploitative one. Moreover, that interstate relations differ so greatly among capitalist countries versus socialist countries calls into question the assertion of a one world system logic. My view is that there were two systems, and that the socialist world system was a viable alternative. Of course, there is now one global system. Cereseto: Whereas for capitalist countries, a high level of primary exports (subordinate position) is significantly associated with lower urban population, higher agricultural labor force, lower PQLI, fewer physicians, higher death rates, lower school enrollment, greater income inequality, and a smaller decrease in birth rates; only one of the above correlations is significant for the socialist countries, and that one is in the *opposite* direction. Higher primary commodity exports is significantly related to lower death rates for socialist countries. It is also related, although not significantly, to a greater decrease in birth rates, a higher supply of physicians, and to greater income equality. In summary, for capitalist countries a higher proportion of primary commodities in exports (subordinate position) is significantly associated with lower economic development, worse PQL conditions, and higher income inequality. In contrast, for socialist countries the same measure is not associated with any of the negative characteristics assumed to be results of subordinate position and dependency. Cereseto's conclusion from these finding is that degree of inequality and fulfillment of human needs are consequences not of positions in the world economy, but of class relations. Primary commodity export emphasis, role in the international division of labor, position in a world economy are not in them selves primary determinants of the internal stratification of a country. But the inequality *is* inherent in capitalist relations--within nations and among nations. If capitalist relations are overthrown and the working class assumes power, then it is potentially in a position to alter the nature of its production, its production relations, stratification, and relations with other states--in a more egalitarian direction. This is, in fact, what occurred in the countries which became socialist societies. * Turning now to specify the inequality gap (after establishing that socialism was a real opportunity to capitalism). First, as expected, the gap between rich and poor has continued to increase in capitalist countries. What about for socialist countries? The Marxist model predicts that under socialism the inequality gap will narrow. Prior to WWII, those countries that would become socialist were distributed in the full range of the underdeveloped world (this is the entire world except for 14 developed countries). Three of the Asian countries that would become socialist were the poorest in the world. At the time of Cereseto's research no socialist country was in the bottom category. Every single one of them was in the middle-income range. In fact, 41 countries, covering 34% of the world's population, had per capita incomes below the poorest socialist nation. Cereseto found that for capitalist countries, when examining the correlation coefficient of GNP/c with GNP/c growth rate, that "there is a significant positive relationship ...that wealth is correlated with faster economic growth rate. Whereas, the relationship is insignificant and slightly negative for socialist countries." For socialist countries which belong to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistant (CMEA), this represents a deliberate policy of planning to narrow the gap. For socialist countries in general, however, whether or not they are members of CMEA, the data support the claim that there are no systematic, exploitative, economic mechanisms operating among socialist countries designed to maintain positions of economic dominance and subordination. "In terms of meeting basic human needs and income inequality which are primary concerns of the paper," she continues, "the data are even more striking." The dispersion on the Gini Index of income inequality between capitalist countries is almost 2 1/2 times as great as the difference in the range between socialist countries. PQLI scores within the capitalist world system range from an incredible score of 14 to 100, whereas for the socialist countries the range is quite small, from 76 to 96. The disparity within the capitalist world system on each of the PQLI components is enormous.... The range of score for the socialist countries, by comparison is very narrow... [A]t the present time, life expectancy, literacy, and infant mortality rates for all socialist countries are substantially better than the mean scores of the capitalist countries. Ironically, Cereseto points out that the goals specified in *Reshaping the International Order: A Report to the Club of Rome*, by the Tinbergen Group in 1976 (a study group formed by the elite capitalist organ the Club of Rome), have been surpassed by all the socialist countries, whereas only the high income groups among capitalist nations have met the Tinbergen goals. Cereseto: The law of capitalist accumulation, with its priority on private profit maximization, inevitably leads to uneven development, to growing concentration of wealth at one end of the pole and poverty at the other end. The difference material conditions of life them, in turn, produce different rates of population growth. In a socialist society, with the means of production publically owned, with the imperative of private profit maximization eliminated, production can theoretically be planned to meet basic human needs of the entire population. With improvement in economic conditions, in security, in public health and educational services, in opportunities for employment of women, population growth would decrease. These assumptions and propositions appear to be supported by the data examined in this study. The main value of this study and the major implications stem from the findings which support Marx's proposition that social relationships are governed by laws which are distinctive and specific to each social system. Research which studies only capitalist societies or which includes socialist countries intermingled and not distinguished as a separate system contributes to the belief that the relationships found in these many studies are universal and inevitable processes.... The data in this study contradict such assumptions. The evidence demonstrates that socialist countries, with planning geared toward meetings the basic human needs of the entire population and toward decreasing inequality have made important strides toward such goals in a relatively short period of time even through most began at a very low stage of economic development. The oft-heard claim that actually existing socialism offer no real solution is contradicted by the evidence. Socialism represented a dramatic improvement in the lives of real people. At the height of socialism the totality of people who lived under Marx-Leninist regimes enjoyed a much higher standard of living that most of the people who lived under capitalist regimes. The grinding poverty that existed in Central and South America, the US South, Africa, and elsewhere, simply was not present in regions where communist governments held sawy, and the reason was because of socialism. "Not much of an alternative"? Not so. And it is time we start addressing the decades of anti-communism that lead to these unfounded assertions and the all too frequent uncritical passivity that remains when such remarks pass ears. I apologize for the disorganization of this post. I pieced it together in a hurry because I am in a hurry. Get Cereseto's article. Read Parenti's (1997) *Blackshirts and Reds*, as well. Andy Austin PS - Cereseto's article is a comprehensive comparative analysis, rich with statistical data on a wide-range of social and economic variables. Thirteen socialist countries were used in the study covering 1/3 of the global population. These are countries that considered themselves socialist and were under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist parties for at least two decades at the time of the research. The data Cereseto employs were collected by the World Bank, the Overseas Development Council (OCD), and other sources. Cereseto points out that these data are conservative and biased in favor of capitalist countries (which makes her findings more significant, in my view). A large chunk of the data came from *The World Development Report* (1978), which contained a massive cache of data concerning socialist countries, as well as data on capitalist countries. Overall, this report covers 125 nations, or all countries with better that 1 million population. The socialist countries identified are: People's Republic of China, Korean People's Democratic Republic, People's Republic of Albania, Republic of Cuba, Mongolian People's Republic, Socialist Republic of Romania, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Hungarian People's Republic, People's Republic of Bulgaria, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Polish People's Republic, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and German Democratic Republic. The independent variables used in analysis are as follows: To test the various models she examined (modernization, world system, Marxist, etc.) compare models, gross national product per capita (GNC/c) as an indicator of developmental level. Economic growth was measured by GNP/c average annual growth for the period 1960-1976. Cereseto also used other measures to determine level of economic development, e.g., percent of labor force in agriculture, per capita energy consumption, and percent of population in urban areas. To test the world system assumption she measured position in the world economy by using (a) the percent of primary commodities in exports (an indicator of internal division of labor) and (b) external debts as percent of GNP (a measure of economic dependence). She used birth/death rates, population growth rates, total national population, and total land density. Finally, in order to distinguish between socialist and capitalist countries for the major comparison, i.e., to distinguish modes of production, she went with self-designation and Marxist-Leninist leadership, which correspond with the UN and World Bank practice of define socialist countries as "centrally planned economies" and capitalist countries as "market economies." The dependent variables, two types, are as follows: (1) Ten physical quality of life variables (PQLV). These were used to measure fulfillment of basic human needs. The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI). The PQLI has three components: life expectancy, infant morality, and literacy rates. She used both the index and the component variables. She also included several other measures of physical quality of life: calorie supply per capita as percent of requirements, population per physician, enrollment in secondary or higher education, female labor force as percent of total wage labor force (employment situation), percent unemployed, average rate of inflation (price stability). (2) Three variables were used to measure inequality in income distribution: (a) percent of national income received by lowest 20 percent of the population, (b) percent of national income received by top 5 percent of the population; and (c) the Gini index for overall inequality (for the entire income distribution). Cereseto devised a classification system in order to test her hypotheses. The ODC ranks all countries on per capita income, then divides the countries into four categories: high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low income. These similar countries, according to the ODC classification, are compared. However, the problem with this classification scheme is that it does not permit the comparison of capitalist and socialist countries. So Cereseto had to divide out the socialist countries for comparison. She came up with an ingenious scheme. She first arranged the capitalist countries according to per capita income and then divided them into three categories, low, middle, and high income. She then took the full range of socialist countries on per capita income and matched these with the one category of capitalist countries that subsumed the socialist level and range: the middle income group. "The lower and upper cut-off points for the middle-income capitalist category were selected so as to match the GNP/c of the lowest and highest socialist countries. Thus, the middle- income capitalist category and the category of socialist countries are almost identical in per capita income range." For other comparisons she used the full range of data, including measuring the socialist category against both the high and the low income categories for capitalist nations. This permitted Cereseto to test all the models and her main proposition. AA From Spectors@mail.netnitco.net Fri Mar 20 07:44:20 1998 Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 08:40:18 -0800 From: Spectors Reply-To: Spectors@mail.netnitco.net To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: False consciousness and contradictory consciousness The false consciousness of many working class people is complex and contradictory. It would be a mistake to judge that potential on the basis of superficial behaviors, such as wanting cable TV or designer athletic shoes. Having deep ties with working class people reveals a richness and complexity of consciousness that professional academic studies can seldom grasp. The importance of the "proletariat" lies in their relationship to the processes of production--not simply an objective relationship, but also a subjective relationship that makes clearer the necessity and potential reality of egalitarianism. Any one individual, of any class, can grasp the potential that (small "c") communism can give to humanity not just in productive efficiency, but in extraordinarily different types of human relationships. But as a class, the working class is still more likely to grasp this reality, than say, utopian intellectuals, some of whom also can grasp this. (In a way, many of us are still trying to grasp this, since "grasping" doesn't simply mean advocating a few slogans; it entails struggling to develop that understanding and those relationships now.) Defining proletariat on the basis of some temporally narrow, superficial "public opinion" poll of the alleged consciousness of some specific working class individuals individuals (often the leaders) is as methodologically problematic as concluding that since most merchants supported England during the U.S. war of independence, that therefore, we would be doomed to feudalism for a long time..... alan spector From topaper@efn.org Fri Mar 20 00:05:36 1998 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 23:14:40 -0800 (PST) From: the OTHER paper To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: "Visualize a self-conscious proletarian historical force" "The historical emergence of the proletariat as a self-conscious historical force" does have a nice forward-looking ring to it. One imagines a billion workers in various states in relationship to understanding themselves as a conscious, history-making force. The most advanced workers are the workers in the most advanced capitalist countries, which narrows our scope to North America and Western Europe. Most haven't any idea what any of this means. Some, including some of the many with little understanding, are in various states of rebellion against the dominant social system. Quite a bit of the spontaneous spirit of rebellion is populist, anti-capitalist, anti-rich, and anti-ruling class. But it seems that today there is a huge gulf between the many in some degree of rebellion, and the very few who have some notion of workers as a force to transform society and change history. One wishes this proletariat's history would unfold a bit quicker. Those of us possessed of "optimism of the will" will understand that there are ways for a well-informed and insightful person to hasten the unfolding of proletarian consciousness and transformative potential. It would probably help if organized political forces were trying simply to convey these ideas in terms that were understandable to most workers in advanced countries. Imagine a simple letter to the editor of a local newspaper written only to convey this idea: ** to the editor It seems to me that what's really wrong with our city is that rich and influential people are running everything for their benefit, while we who do the work are getting the leftovers. We should turn this completely around. We who do the work should be running things and sharing the wealth fairly between us. And if the rich want a share, well, they can get a job and earn a fair share, too. It ought to be obvious to anyone that it's up to us who work to make this change. The rich will never do it. Working people make the world work. We can make it work better. Join today. The Working People's Party needs you. ** Is this where working class consciousness comes from? It seems like this is far too simple-minded to work. But in fact we don't know whether this or any of a hundred other ideas would have any positive effect because no one is trying them out consistently and systematically. Don't know where it comes from, but it sure would be nice if it was coming from somewhere... -------- "We must begin a process of intellectual "aufhebung" which understands the present moment in terms of the unfolding history of the proletariat ..." "...[Trotsky opposed the idea of the inevitable fall of capitalism] by arguing that thecapitalist system has been in "terminal crisis" since 1914 at the latest. He argued that what was lacking was the historical emergence of the proletariat as a self-conscious historical force. ..." "...In essence, then, I am suggesting that we focus far less on the particularities of the senescent epoch, and far more on the spasmodic character of the political emergence of the proletariat." From eric@stewards.net Sat Mar 21 06:31:09 1998 Sat, 21 Mar 1998 08:32:36 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 08:32:36 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Progressive Inter-generational Continuity Hi Helen, You wrote: "I went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute yesterday evening to >hear 4 women who were active in the movement. There were only 30 people >there and 5 were white and 3 were men. What always amazes is that the >younger generation hasn't a clue about what went on either with civil >rights or women's rights. Fortunately they've been collecting oral >histories, both written and video." > >Sorry to run on. Have a good weekend, >Helen" >> Helen, I admire your anti-racism work. Also, I never tell anyone what to feel but I hope you won't feel sorry for `running on'. The issue which you raise, that of inter-generational transmission of progressive knowledge, is an important one, at least from my perspective. WHAT was done, WHO did it, HOW they organized to do it, WHAT the positive and negative outcomes and lessons were, is knowledge all too often lost as we move from one generation to the next. I have, for example, frequently observed new political groups of young people making identical mistakes to those which were made, and for at least some of us corrected, 30 years ago in new left, anti-war, feminist, and progressive counter-culture organizing. Furthermore, there were people who went through the struggles of the 1930's, mostly gone now or too old to play an active role, who were still around in the 1960's and 1970's, but because of intergenerational differences in style, and other factors, we of the 1960's generation were for the most part unable to learn from them. Their frequent emphasis on `working class' organizing may have been one-sided, and in certain respects of little help to us, but their organizational abilities and emphasis on the importance of solid organizing and outreach to all potentially progressive sectors was and is important. The inability of both sides of THAT generational divide in progressive ranks to fully connect up was, I feel in retrospect, a terrible tragedy. Some contributing factors to the lack of progressive continuity across the generations are: - The absence of documentation, written, video, or now web-based, of the details of individual movements and struggles. I personally have cofounded several organizations which, when they expired, left nary a documentary trace other than the mainstream media coverage they had garnered. - The absence, to some degree, of organizations which survive from one generation to the next and can carry forward the hard-bought wisdom of the previous generations. This is only a partial truth, as the NAACP, the SCLC, the communist and socialist parties, and now organizations like NOW and Greenpeace, all have an extended life, though individual members do come and go. - The change in issues, or at least the form in which issues present themselves, from one generation to the next. So that the older generation cannot, at times, provide effective guidance because its skills and/or orientations are to some extent outdated. I'm sure I've left important points out of this discussion. But that's it for now. Eric > > From eric@stewards.net Sat Mar 21 05:32:21 1998 Sat, 21 Mar 1998 07:33:41 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 07:33:41 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: TALK AT UBC moonlight@igc.apc.org.moloqhil@guate.net (Crystal) (Jeremy), jerait@hotmail.com (Jeremy), izbars@yahoo.com (Ira) Hi there, I thought people might like to see the following talk I gave this week at Canada's University of British Columbia on the NAFTA-MAI-Chiapas tie-in. It can also serve as one kind of introduction to Chiapas and the background factors which have produced the current crisis of paramilitary and military violence against the Indigenous people there. Eric ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ The Relationship Between Chiapas, NAFTA, and MAI: A Talk To Students at The University of British Columbia: The terrible price of Nafta - and of the MAI (Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment) if it proceeds unimpeded - includes as a particularly heinous element the further destruction of Indigenous cultures and peoples in the Americas. Indigenous patterns of cooperatively working together to care for one another rest on a three-fold unity. This is the unity of: 1) a tribe or nation of Aboriginal people with one another; 2) their unity with the land and the natural world around them; and 3) their unity with the sacred or spiritual dimension. This `great three-fold unity', already so battered by 500 years of European colonialism and neo-colonialism in the Americas, is now threatened with further fragmentation. The NAFTA and MAI- led expansion and extension of capitalist market relationships of private ownership, including private ownership of the land and people working in wage-labour relationships, threatens to further fragment and even destroy the threefold unity, and especially the crucial unity with the land, of the Aboriginal peoples of Latin America. This process of fragmentation and of being torn from the land is much like, to use a metaphorical figure, an infant in its mother's arms, and suckling, being suddenly jerked away and flung onto a garbage dump. This is no idle comparison, as hundreds of thousands of Mexican Indigenous people - including, of course, small children - have already been forced from the land by economic pressures, and must now subsist in Mexico city on occasional, and abysmally paid, wage labour, and on the pickings from garbage dumps and the like. Now I want to be more specific and give you a picture of conditions in Chiapas. Chiapas is: - The southernmost state in Mexico and is adjacent to the Guatemalan border; - Home to 4-5 million Indigenous people, who hail from a variety of Indigenous groups or `nations', many but by no means all of whom are Mayan people descended from the original builders of the Mayan civilization; - One of the poorest places in Mexico, in large measure due to 500 years of super-exploitation and oppression by the Spanish conquerors and settlers of Mexico, who at one point actually used Indians as literal slaves in the Silver mines and in other economic areas; - A place where the Indigenous were progressively stripped of the best land by haciendas and other kinds of `land enclosures' by the white settlers; Coming up towards the present, an oil boom in the 1970's drew many poor Indigenous people to nearby areas where boom-related employment in various sectors provided them with temporary and unusually well-paid - for Indigenous people in Mexico - employment. Upon the collapse of the boom in the early 1980's, large numbers of male workers returned to the Chiapas highlands where they formed a relatively small but unusually affluent strata. Using their new-found wealth, many began to buy up land. With this land, they engaged in larger-scale but ecologically non-viable capital-intensive agriculture - agricultural which uses artificial fertilizers; produces intense soil erosion; and which employ other displaced poorer Indigenous people as low paid agricultural wage-labourers and tenant farmers. This displaced group of landless or near landless, and now super-impoverished, Indigenous peasants were further impoverished by a NAFTA-imposed decline in corn and coffee prices. This large group of very poor people were a mainstay of the support for the Zapatista uprising by the 5,000 member Zapatista Indigenous army in Chiapas in 1994. The Zapatistas were soon confined by the Mexican military to a relativly small enclave in the jungle at the Southernmost point of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border. But a groundswell of sympathy and support throughout Mexico and the world compelled the Mexican government to negotiate an interim peace agreement forbidding further armed conflict between the two parties. Even more importantly, the government and the Zapatistas agreed on the San Andras Accords. These accords provide for the entrenchment within the Mexican constitution of provisions for the political, and to some extent the economic, self-government of aboriginal people within Mexico. The Federal Mexican government has, however, failed to ratify this agreement. Instead, it has for the past 4 years waged a `low intensity' illegal war, using right-wing paramilitaries, recruited in part from the more affluent land-holding stratas of Indigenous people in Chiapas, and at times using the Mexican military itself. This low-level warfare has been directed not only against the Zapatistas and their supporters. It is also directed against the peaceful cooperative economic and political associations of the Indigenous, which together federate together up to 4 million Indigenous people in the region. What threatens the powers-that-be about these cooperative associations is that, while for the most part independent of the Zapatistas, they represent the poor Indigenous majority in the region, and like the Zapatistas they too call for the granting of a good measure of political and economic autonomy for the area. There is now an ever-growing pattern of violence and intimidation against both the cooperative associations and the Zapatistas and their supporters, as documented by Amnesty International and other respected international human rights organizations. In recent months this violence and intimidation has included: Up to 100 or more murders by paramilitary groups, operating with the complicity of officials of the ruling PRI party of Mexico; The massacre by paramilitary forces on Dec. 22 of 45 people, mostly women and small children, who were conducting church praying;in a church in the small village of Acteal; Large-scale burning of crops and houses by paramilitary forces; The attempt by paramilitary forces to assassinate two Catholic bishops who support the Indigenous people; Serious incursions of the federal Mexican army into villages claimed to support the Zapatista movement in the area; Repeated reports of torture and violence against civilians by the Mexican army. In addition, and coming back to NAFTA and MAI, the terrible repression in Chiapas is not without direct links to both multi-national corporations and the U.S. government. As a prime example, consider the following statement by the Chase Manhattan Bank's `emerging economies' analysis unit shortly after the Zapatista uprising: "While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy." Also, consider the role of the infamous `School of the America's', operated by the U.S. military. More than 1200 Mexican military officers have been trained by this institution. The curriculum of this school is notorious for training Latin American military officers in non-democratic and brutal methods of control of civilian populations, including use of illegal intimidation, violence, torture, and disinformation. Even mainstream politicians such as Congressman Joe Kennedy Jr. are now attempting to close down this school. The point here, however, is that the Mexican military officers, now commanding large numbers of troops in Chiapas, were trained in this school. Finally, I would like to ask of you four forms of assistance for the people of Chiapas: 1) First, I would like to ask you to continue to oppose NAFTA, MAI, and economic globalization in its present form, which does so much to undermine the Integrity of Indigenous cultures and the `three great unites' of Indigenous people with one another, the land, and the sacred; 2) Second, please visit our website to learn more about Chiapas and to participate in our automated letter-writing campaign which will enable you to send a pre-prepared letter of protest, or one of your own composition, in just two minutes. It will go automatically, in your name, to all three NAFTA governments and the European Union. The website address is: http://www.stewards.net/chiapas 3) Sign fraternal greetings of support and solidarity which we will be sending to the Federations of Indigenous associations in Chiapas with which our committee, the Chiapas Alert Network, directly works. 4) Volunteer, if you have time, to work with our committee here in Vancouver. You can also sign up to be called for our next meeting at the back table. Thanks for your support. From eric@stewards.net Sat Mar 21 13:33:10 1998 Sat, 21 Mar 1998 15:34:30 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 15:34:30 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , Timothy Mason From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Re: TALK AT UBC Hi Timothy, While I find your language below a little aggressive - i.e., suggesting that I'm `peddling fairy stories' about Aboriginal people - it may surprise you to learn that I am, among other things, an anthropologist - and am therefore well-aware of both the inequities in first nations cultures and the dangers of romanticism regarding them. I am well aware of the high death rates from interpersonal quaralls which you mention; in the example of homicide among the Yanamomo which you cite, Lee has suggested that the problem may have been due to the absence of mediating agencies or institutionalized dispute-settlement systems, such as the neighbouring Bantu enjoyed in form of dispute-resolution by their headman. For other instances of Aboriginal violence, we need only look at the brutal wars waged against one another by New World peoples in what is now the U.S. and Canada. The Huron, for example, were nearly exterminated in one such war, which was virtually genocidal. Or we can look at the habit of raiding the neighbours for slaves, which was common among First Nations people where I live on the west coast of what is now Canada. In addition to adducing such evidence, however, I would want, as I'm sure you'd agree, to stress the specificity of each Aboriginal people: The Ojibway are not the Yanamomo, etc. However, I was speaking on the Chiapas-MAI-Nafta tie-in, not giving an indepth picture of the stratification and inequalities in pre-contact Indigenous societies. As a shorthand method for contrasting Indigenous ways with Capitalist ways, I stand by my statement that there is an integral `three-fold unity' of Indigenous people with one another, with the land and natural world, and with the spritual dimension which can be fatally disrupted by the forceful imposition of colonial, neo-colonial, and capitalst modes of life. THIS is the concern of the majority of Indigenous people of Chiapas, who are seeking entrenchment of the San Andras accords in Mexico's constitution in order to secure a sigenificant degree of political self-government, which would also provide at least some control over their economic environment. Finally, did you read my talk completely, as part-way through I describe the rather non-utopic process by which a minority of Chiapas Indigenous gained control of the best land and thereby helped to impoverish their neighbours. Eric Sommer >> This is the unity of: 1) a tribe or >> nation of Aboriginal people with one another; 2) their unity with the land >> and the natural world around them; and 3) their unity with the sacred or >> spiritual dimension. > >That small-scale societies everywhere are under pressure, and that >these pressures are often inhumane and antidemocratic, is certainly >true. That is no excuse for presenting a partial and Romantic vision >of the way those societies function. > >Take the first unity : the high levels of violence, leading to serious >injury and death, that people in small-scale societies inflict upon >each other has been widely documented. Although Ferguson has argued >with some reason that much of the violence amongst the Yanomamo is due >to the conditions under which contact with so-called Civilization has >occurred, this does account for all of it. Estimates of murderous >behaviour within hunter-gatherer societies, for example, suggest that >up to around one third of all fatalities are due to interpersonal >violence. > >It is also clear that many such societies are organized in such a way >as to favour one group - usually the older adult males - at the >expense of others ; women are exploited both as workers and as >providers of sexual services, and female infanticide is regularly >practised. > >2. Among our own societies, unity with the land is also of some >importance ; however, in no case does such unity prevent misuse and >ecological damage. Easter Island is an excellent example of the extent >to which a traditionalist people may work their land to death. Mankind >did not await Capitalism before beginning to wipe out species - the >hunting methods of the early North-American peoples, for example, who >would drive herds of animals over cliffs, hacking off the choice parts >of the dead or dying beasts and leaving the rest to rot, may well have >contributed to the extinction of large game animals in the area. > >None of this in any way justifies the treatment to which these peoples >have been subjected. However, their defence is not, in the long-run, >helped by peddling fairy stories. > > Regards > Timothy Mason > Timothy.Mason@wanadoo.fr > > From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Sun Mar 22 17:19:56 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 22 Mar 1998 19:17:46 EST To: Subject: Arrogance of power... In response to J. Naiman's repost from the TS, there is spmething we should remember, even in this historical moment of bourgeois cackling and crowing, following as it does upon the heels of the defeat of the first halting experiments by the proletariat at fulfilling its historical mission. Marx said it in 1856 at a not dissimilar conjuncture: "History is the judge: its executioner, the proletarian." The full text of his speech at an anniversry of the left-wing Chartists' "People's Paper" is well worth reading and re-reading... Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Sun Mar 22 15:54:58 1998 Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 17:56:34 -0500 (EST) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Myth of Powerlessness (long) (fwd) Thought some of the psn'ers might like to see this piece in yesterday's Toronto Star from Canadian journalist Linda McQuaig's new book. Her works have been very popular here, with her last two on the best seller list for months. (One was on gov't deficits and the other on the decline of the welfare state.) 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 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 14:41:13 -0500 From: Bob Olsen To: mai-not@flora.org Subject: C4ED-L Myth of Powerlessness How does the unemployment of most of the world's population fit society's basic business plan? ``Isn't there an economic cost to writing off the world's workers?'' ``That question reflects the thinking of the machine age,'' The new way of thinking requires an acceptance of powerlessness, resignation to a world without solutions - a world of inaction and helplessness. That democratic impulse to assert one's rights must be contained, thwarted, rendered mute and inoperative. Saturday March 21, 1998 The Toronto Star Saturday March 21, 1998 The Toronto Star Hostages to the money men Hostages to the money men A new book asks: Why do we let ourselves be powerless against global financial markets? By Linda McQuaig Special to The Star This is the first of two excerpts from `The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy,' written by Linda McQuaig and published by Penguin Canada. McQuaig, a former reporter for The Star and The Globe and Mail, has now written five books on politics, economics and Canada's financial establishment. Her publisher notes that newspaper magnate Conrad Black has publicly suggested she should be horsewhipped. DR. IAN ANGELL, professor of information systems at the London School of Economics, is holding forth on CBC Radio, explaining how most of the working population will soon be redundant. ``Isn't there an economic cost to writing off the world's workers?'' asks interviewer Ian Brown. The question suggests that Brown has bought the basic parameters of the debate: that we only discuss economic cost. Brown is asking: How does the unemployment of most of the world's population fit society's basic business plan? No one mentions human cost. But still, the question doesn't suit Angell. Impatience is detectable in his voice. ``This requires a total rethinking of the institutions of the industrial age. You must throw them away,'' says Angell, trying to make things nice and simple for Brown to grasp. ``All your thinking has to be different.'' As the interview progresses, Brown becomes increasingly skeptical of what he's hearing. His questions reveal that he's struggling to see how all this unemployment helps ordinary people. Answer: it doesn't. But that's not the issue. The issue is that it's the future. Globalization, technology, governments can no longer coddle their people, etc., etc. An emboldened Brown asks something about how people are to survive. Angell is getting a touch irritated with these repetitive questions about human needs. Brown just doesn't seem to get it. The point is that we're in a brand new age, the information age. Technology and globalization have made all these questions about human needs irrelevant. That's part of yesterday's menu. Today we simply watch as the technological juggernaut rolls on, squashing our needs. ''Is this a world you look forward to?'' asks Brown, struggling to make some sense of it all. ``That's neither here nor there,'' responds Angell. ``Is there some way we can stop this?'' Brown asks anxiously. ``Is there nothing we can do to avoid this dark future?'' That's when Angell snaps. ``That question reflects the thinking of the machine age,'' he says curtly. Hold it. Let's play that again slowly. This line is more subversive than it first appears. It is perhaps as subversive a thought as it is possible to have. Angell is saying, it's not just that we can't change things, but we also can't even think about the possibility of changing things; to do so is to engage in old-style thinking. So, it's not just that we're powerless to stop being pushed over the edge of the cliff in the new global world order. But to even try to prevent ourselves from being pushed over the cliff is a sign of regressive thinking. The new way of thinking, as outlined by Angell, requires an acceptance of powerlessness, resignation to a world without solutions - a world of inaction and helplessness. That democratic impulse to assert one's rights must be contained, thwarted, rendered mute and inoperative. Never mind the democratic impulse. It's actually the human impulse that's at stake here. The human impulse to act, to build, to create, to improve, to shape our lives, to use our brains to do better. It's called being alive. It's just got to go. ``Imagine.'' The word is half-whispered. On the screen, we see a native girl of indeterminate age on a swing. Wistful. Dreamy. Free as the wind that blows in her face. She is presumably imagining the possibilities, imagining a better world. Could she be thinking of change, improvement? Could she be thinking the old way? Perhaps a few weeks in a Dr. Angell re-education camp is needed. But wait. This is a TV commercial for a bank. It's the Bank of Montreal, saying it is possible. Of course, it's never clear from the ad exactly what is possible. It seems to be suggesting that anything is possible. Surely, that's the reason for choosing a young native girl for the part. We'd normally see the face of such a girl in the media only as part of a story about glue-sniffing or teen suicide or ``young runaway turns teen stripper and ends up murdered in a stairwell.'' But here, in the airbrushed world of the Bank of Montreal - or its hipper version, mbanx - this girl seems to be an inspired person, someone with limitless possibilities in front of her. Surely, if even someone like this - not an upwardly mobile white male in a suit, but a native female in a long skirt and cowboy boots - can have a dream, the possibilities out there for regular people must be truly endless. And they are - when it comes to banking. ``At mbanx, we don't believe in limits,'' says the breathless prose in a print ad for mbanx, picking up the theme from the TV ad. ``Your $13 monthly fee covers all your everyday banking needs and more.'' No wonder the native girl seems so blissed out. Imagine the possibilities. Why would anyone bother to sniff glue or commit suicide or get killed in a stairwell when there's a whole new, wide world out there of . . . debit cards, online shared networks, activation charges. ``At mbanx, we see technology as something that links, not isolates. So, even though you may never see us, we're always here for you. In some ways, we're closer than any branch could be. And we guarantee you'll be satisfied with our service. Every time you call, you can speak with a portfolio manager whose job it is to know you, respect you and make what you want happen.'' Is this banking or telephone sex? Is there a difference? As we delve deeper into the mbanx philosophy, we see there is nothing here that Angell would have trouble with. As long as the native girl confines herself to imagining the banking possibilities that lie ahead, she is simply marvelling at the high-tech corporate world engulfing her. She is not trying to assert herself or work toward changing the world. But what if her mind were to stray from contemplating the wonders of modern banking on to, say, contemplating Canada's unemployment problem? This world is worth exploring for a minute because, with its sense of hopelessness, it is the flip side of the ever-expanding dreamy world of the mbanx commercial. Mostly, it's a world full of people feeling depressed because they can't find work. Huge numbers of people. Virtually an army of people. Lars Osberg, an economist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, has come up with a graphic way to illustrate the size of this army of unemployed Canadians and the enormous waste of its idleness. Let's suppose that the army was put to work building something highly labour-intensive - something like, say, the great pyramids of ancient Egypt - using the exact same primitive technology that was available back in the 26th century B.C. Osberg calculates unemployed Canadians could have built no fewer than seven pyramids since 1990 and be well on their way to completing their eighth. Of course, the more significant question to consider is, what could have been accomplished had these unemployed Canadians instead used modern technology and built something more useful than a tomb for a dead king? What if they'd built housing or highways, cleaned up the Great Lakes or operated day-care centres, or worked in the Canadian aerospace industry? Imagine. We've come to believe certain things are no longer within our reach, in this age of the global economy. Is full employment possible? How about well-funded public health and education systems, or a clean environment? Or is only all-night banking possible? The dominant school of thought has become those who argue, essentially, that the market now determines what is possible. It's an odd sort of situation we find ourselves in. The market offers us a giddy world of choice when it comes to consumer items: banking, cars, appliances, bathroom fixtures, beer. Enter into any one of these consumer worlds, and one is confronted with a breathless array of possibilities. We can choose from literally hundreds of different car models, with thousands of options. Do we want a sedan or a hatchback, leather or plush seats, cruise control, anti-lock brakes, air-conditioning, wrap-around stereo, coffee holders that flip out or pull down? What about telephone sets? Do we want them to be cordless or plug-in, to beep with incoming calls or simply record them on an answering machine, to look like a fire engine or like the Star Trek spaceship? Or dental floss: Do we want it waxed or unwaxed, mint or plain, thick or fine, floss or tape? But when it comes to things that many people might consider more important - like whether we will have jobs, or live in communities where air and water are unpolluted and no one will be left hungry or homeless - these things are apparently beyond our control. If we put in place policies that create the kind of society we apparently want, the market will move money out of the country, we are told. Thus, there are limits to what we can do. We have to stay within the dictates of the market. We have become captives of the marketplace. It's interesting to note just how far we've moved outside the normal range of historical human experience. In his overview of world economic history, The Great Transformation, economic historian Karl Polanyi noted that the Industrial Revolution marked the first time in history that the notion of the private market was elevated to the central organizing principle of society. In earlier times, the market was only one of the forces around which society organized itself. Religion, family, custom, law, tradition had all been considered more important. Now, if Ian Angell and his ilk are to be believed, we've come to the point where not only has the market become the dominant force in our society, but also its dominance is above reproach, above question. To suggest that we have a choice about what role the market will play in our lives is to fail to see that we've evolved to a supposedly higher plane - a plane where we now no longer have any choice about the market's power over our lives in areas that really matter, a plane where we are essentially impotent. Thank God we've at least got all-night banking. Are we really powerless in the global marketplace? Have governments truly lost their sovereignty in the face of globally wandering capital and wickedly clever currency traders? Are we in a brand-new, globalized world, where financial markets have the power to dominate in a way never seen before? In fact, the globalization of international finance is not a new phenomenon. It is, rather, a throwback to an earlier time. While capital is more mobile now than it was two or three decades ago, it was just as mobile before World War I. Even the conservative British magazine The Economist acknowledges: ``In relation to the size of economies, net capital flows across borders then were much bigger than they are now. The international bond market, too, was just as active at the start of this century as it is now. . . . Today's free-flowing capital fits with the long-term pattern.'' Let's follow a little further what The Economist has to say on this, because it is very revealing: ``The anomaly is not, as many believe, the current power of global finance, but the period from 1930 to 1970 when, to various degrees, capital controls and tight regulation insulated domestic financial markets and gave governments more control over their domestic economies.'' Indeed, it was in response to the devastating Depression that governments around the world began to assert their power to bring footloose capital under some degree of democratic control. Immediately after World War II, they established a new international financial system that gave governments, for the first time, considerable power over financial markets. With governments, rather than markets, flexing their muscles, the result was an agenda more geared to popular wishes, such as full employment and social programs. That early postwar period was, in many ways, the Golden Age. But now it is gone; full employment seems out of the question, no matter how much the public may like it, and social programs just keep shrinking, no matter how much the public seems to want them. The question is why. What has happened? Can this change really be attributed to the ``globalization of financial markets'' when, as it turns out, financial markets were just as global at the turn of the century? Of course, the technology is dramatically different now - although perhaps not as different as we sometimes assume. At the turn of the century, there were no computers, but international transactions could be made almost instantaneously after the completion of the first transatlantic cable in the 1860s. Computer technology has now made it possible to move money even more quickly. But does it follow that this faster movement makes it impossible to control money? On the contrary, there's a flip side to this computer wizardry that is almost always omitted from discussions about the new techno-world of global finance. The very technology that makes it possible to move money more quickly than ever before also makes it possible to trace that movement more easily than ever before. If the movement of money can be traced, it can be regulated and brought under control. In other words, there is no reason - from a technological point of view - that international capital markets can't be regulated, as they were in the first few decades after World War II. If anything, it would probably be easier to regulate them now, because computers have made comprehensive tracking possible. The real problem is not the technology, but rather the unwillingness of governments to apply the technology to the task. One striking thing about impotence is how unfashionable it is, except when applied to democracy. One of the most prominent themes running through the popular business literature of the last decade - in books, magazines and seminars - is the theme of empowerment, the notion that anything is possible, with the right attitudes and efforts. In the business world, impotence is nowhere to be found. Imagine a business leader standing up in front of the company's shareholders and telling them it just isn't possible to increase market share. Or imagine Bank of Canada governor Gordon Thiessen explaining in a speech to the National Club that, although he would like to control inflation, he really can't, owing to globalization and technology. Such a governor would not likely still be governor by the end of the day. Yet, somehow, this enormous sense of empowerment, this belief in the endless possibilities of human initiative and creativity, disappears when we enter the domain of democracy. Somehow, the notion that we can collectively achieve great things - indeed, that we can achieve even basic things that were regularly achieved centuries ago, like providing work, shelter and food for everyone in the community - these things are now considered beyond our reach. So, while a culture of machismo guarantees the delivery of the market agenda - in which Thiessen must prove his unshakeable resolve to control inflation and Finance Minister Paul Martin vows to meet his deficit targets ``come hell or high water'' - all that testosterone disappears when it comes to fighting unemployment or delivering social programs. Governments, in other words, are practising a form of selective impotence. ------------------- Tomorrow, in the Context section, excerpt 2: Making sure the rich stay rich. Contents copyright � 1996-1998, The Toronto Star. ................. The URL for this news report will be generated on 22 March, 1998 when it is posted to: http://www.thestar.com/thestar/back_issues/index.html Bob Olsen Toronto bobolsen@arcos.org (:-) From eric@stewards.net Sun Mar 22 08:15:17 1998 Sun, 22 Mar 1998 10:16:12 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from eric@stewards.net) Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 10:16:12 -0500 (EST) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Re: Por el Pueblo de Chile - For the People of Chile (fwd) hhrivas@wwisp.com (Helen), guathrc@vcn.bc.ca (Colin) Hi there, I have just sent the following brief message in response to the appeal further down the page for support for a petition campaign by progressive forces - including Indigenous and youth groups - in Chile for more equitable distribution of wealth to poor people in that country. I invite you to consider doing likewise. Just send your message to: redchilena@geocities.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here's the text I used to respond: Hi there, I'm writing as an individual, not on behalf of my organization. Name: Eric Sommer Organization: Chiapas Alert Network. I support the letter to President Eduardo Frei decrying the economic disparities in Chile, and their roots in neo-liberal economics and the former Pinochet dictatorship. Eric Sommer, Vancouver, Canada ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > URGENT EMAIL ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH CHILEAN POPULAR & INDIGENOUS >Reply to: redchilena@geocities.com > > >This message is Spanish and English (below) >Este mensaje esta en Castellano e Ingles (m�s abajo) > > >Urgent! International Campaign for the poor and marginal people in >Chile >The people's rights can no longer wait ! > >We need you name and that of your organization by 26th of March >Send us your name and that of your organization to >redchilena@geocities.com, to add it to the list which we are sending to >Eduardo Frei's Government together with the letter (see below) in which >we state the difficult and agonizing situation which millions of >Chileans are living. Not to mention the just yearn of the indigenous >people for their self-determination and protection of their environment >which is being threatened by ambitious projects such as the construction >of the Ralco dam in the Bio-Bio and the highway which will cross >indigenous land. For more information about this campaign go to our >web: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6377/ >We began this campaign on 4 of October 1997 and will end on the Young >Fighters Day, March 29, day in which Chile commemorates all those who >have fought for freedom and have given their lives for those in need. >Be one of the thousands who signed this campaign for the letter, which >will be sent to president of Chile. > >Please distribute this message to as many people and organizations as >possible in the cyberspace > >The Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network together with chilean >organisations such as the Mapuches Coordination Group (indigenous >organisation); Solidarity With the People in Struggle Office and the >Center for Popular Development Studies, have decided to launch a >solidarity campaign with Chile's poor and marginal sector. The side of >Chile which has a democratic government, Chile with a protected >democracy. The Chile who has criminals responsible for horrific human >rights violations who still walk freely in today's Chile. > >The campaign's main objective is to inform and denounce the hidden side >of Chile's modernity which is sold internationally, where in some cases >the injustices and inequalities were worse than when Pinochet was >ruling; it is time for the world to know about the situation which >affects most Chileans. Sixty percent of Chileans who live in extremely >poor and marginal conditions. The 60% who are disposable in today's >modernity; those who do not exist. > >This campaign aims at all of those who still solidarize with Chile and >in order to gain new strength and to accept newcomers add your name and >that your organization to the letter we are sending to the chilean >President on 29 of March or/and sending your concern to: > >Chilean President >Mr. Eduardo Frei >Palacio de la Moneda >Santiago Chile >Fax: 0015-56-2-696 9740 > 0015-56-2-6904000 > >Interior Minister >Mr. Carlos Figueroa >Palacio de la Moneda >Santiago Chile >Fax: 0015-56-2-6968740 >e-mail: gobcam@congreso.cl > >Minister of Justice >Ms Soledad Alvear >Morande 107 >Santiago Chile >Fax: 0015-56-2-695 4558 >e-mail: gobcam@congreso.cl > >Chilean Embassy in you country > > >Reasons for this campaign: > >1.- The political coalition's framework (which is an evident factor to >negotiate with the dictatorship) has developed in the same way as the >social coalition (agreement between the Trade Union [CUT], official's >government and the businessmen who establish the "rules of the game"). >Both are the summary of success for Frei's history. > >2. - In the official speech, the economic opening would bring about >growth with equity. >Today it is said that this opening, after 2 decades, has seen growth >without equity. We do not even have a similar income distribution to the >ones mentioned in the speech, otherwise remuneration rates should >increase according to the real growth indicator which was 9, 7% per >annum in 1993, with remunerations increasing by 7.1% per annum. >Remunerations in the GNP was 33.4% in 1993, and the IER'S (real economy >indicator's) is of 40% so it is clear that the growth is distributed in >favor of the owners. Currently the poorest 20% of the population >decreased its income participation from 4,92% to a 4,61% whilst the >wealthiest 20% increased from 55,45% to 56.11%. Not only are we talking >about a high concentration but also a deeper one. The wealthiest 10% >obtain 40,8% of the total resources and the lowest 10% have a total of >1,7%. > >3. - The Economic Opening was meant to bring about growth, an increase >employment and decrease poverty. The decrease in poverty would be >achieved through sustained growth rather than through state >intervention, "we must include the poor into the labor market". Yet >this is not taken into account. This is because their participation in >the labor market is not to take them out of their poor situation, but >instead to maintain them in the same way so they become an economically >active labor force, but even so they are still poor. The decrease in the >"amount of poor and marginalized" and their possibility of participating >in the GNP is extremely unequal. The gap of inequality grows deeper >whilst creating a harsher poverty, a harsh nucleus which is extremely >difficult to change. It is true that employment has increased, but they >are poor jobs, uncertain jobs causing an increase in the real figures of >the poor and marginalised from 1992 and 1994 from 18,2% to 22% and from >9,6% to 11,4% respectively. >Here, the poor are not the typically unemployed ones they are in fact >included in the labor market. Therefore what we have here is the market >itself reproducing poverty. For example, when seasonal fruit >agriculture's work they are not represented as poor and the rest of the >time they are again considered poor. > >4. - The economic opening was meant to bring about the exporting model's >second phase which was development, that is, to stop exporting raw >materials or "easy exports" but to proceed to exporting industrial >manufacturers. The industrial manufacturers have indeed risen in 1990 by >2,739 million dollars, and in 1995 it reached 6.739 million dollars. >The point is, however, that the increase is still closely related to the >exploitation of raw materials. So what we have, is not the consolidation >of typical secondary materials (manufacturers) but rather, the >consolidation of those, which are closely linked to natural resources. > >Today, appointing Pinochet senator for life shows that the Armed Forces >control our government and the current Chilean government's willingness >to keep violating human rights and not searching for the truth nor >justice for the thousands who were tortured, murdered and disappeared >prisoners. Once again showing us their consent with the savage >neo-liberalism capitalism imposed by Pinochet's dictatorship and which >still keeps most sectors of the Chilean society in extremely poor >conditions. > > >Send us you name and that your organization before 26th of March > >Thank you very much, in solidarity forever > >Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network >redchilena@geocities.com >http://www,geocities.com/CapitolHill/6377 > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Spanish version: > >Urgente, urgente, Campa�a Internacional Por el Pueblo Pobre y Marginal >de Chile >�� Los Derechos del Pueblo No Pueden Seguir Esperando !! >Env�enos su nombre, el de su organizaci�n a redchilena@geocities.com , >para agregarla a la lista que estamos enviando al gobierno de Eduardo >Frei junto a Carta en la cual planteamos la dificil y angustiante >situaci�n que viven millones de chilenos y los justos anhelos del pueblo >mapuche a su autodeterminaci�n y protecci�n de su medio ambiente que hoy >se encuentra amenazado por megaproyectos, tales como, la construccio�n >de la represa Ralco en el alto del Bio-Bio y la carretera by-pass que >atravesar� territorio mapuche, para mayor informaci�n de esta campa�a >visite la p�gina de la Red Chilena Popular e Ind�gena a >http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6377. >Esta Campa�a la iniciamos el 4 de Octubre de 1997 y ser� concluida el >dia 29 de Marzo d�a del Joven combatiente en Chile, d�a que se le rinde >un sentido homenaje a todos los combatientes por la libertad que han >entregado su vida por los m�s necesitados. >Sumese a las m�s de mil firmas que hasta el momento acompa�an la carta >al presidente de Chile. > >Por favor distribuya �ste mensaje al m�ximo de personas y organizaciones >del ciberespacio > > >CAMPA�A INTERNACIONAL DE SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PUEBLO DE CHILE > >"los derechos del pueblo no pueden seguir esperando" >Noviembre 1997 - Marzo 1998 > >Querid@s compa�eras, compa�eros, Amigos, Amigas: > >La Red Chilena Popular e Ind�gena, junto a organizaciones populares de >Chile, tales como La Coordinadora de Organizaciones Mapuches, la Oficina >de Solidaridad con los Pueblos en Lucha y el Centro de Estudios y >Desarrollo Popular (CEDEP) hemos decidido impulsar una Campa�a de >Solidaridad con el pueblo pobre y marginal del Chile de la Modernidad, >del Chile de los gobiernos democr�ticos, del Chile con una democracia >protegida y policial, del Chile donde los criminales de las atroces >violaciones de los derechos humanos cometidas en nuestro pa�s pasean >libres e impunes por las calles de este Chile de hoy . > >Esta Campa�a tiene como objetivos fundamentales el de informar y >denunciar la cara oculta de la modernidad vendida a los medios >internacionales, donde no se mencionan las desigualdades e injusticias >que en algunos casos son mas profundas que durante la existencia de la >dictadura pinochetista, es hora de que el mundo conosca de cerca la >situaci�n de la gran mayoria de los chilenos, del 60% de chilenos que >viven en la pobreza y la marginalidad, del 60% que para la modernidad >vigente son los desechables, los que no existen. > >Esta campa�a pretende que todos aquellos que solidarizan y han >solidarizado con el pueblo de Chile, renueven sus fuerzas y se sumen >junto a nosotros, tambi�n enviando la carta, que va junto a este >llamado,al actual gobierno de Chile, enviandola a las direcciones que >indicamos m�s abajo > >Tambi�n puede escribir su propia petici�n o carta al Gobierno de Chile, >exigiendo el respeto a los derechos del pueblo marginal, el >reconocimiento del pueblo Mapuche a su autodeterminaci�n, el cese a la >invaci�n del territorio mapuche por parte de la empresas hidroel�ctricas >del Alto Bio-Bio, el esclarecimiento de la situaci�n de los Detrenidos >Desaparecidos, la situaci�n de los presos y presas politica, la >mantenci�n de los recursos naturales y el fin a las desigualdades en la >distribuci�n de las riquezas nacionales. > >Dirija sus denuncias a : > > >Presidente de Chile: >Eduardo Frei Palacio de la Moneda, Santiago de Chile > FAX: 56-2-690 4000, 56-2-699 1657 >Ministerior del Interior: Carlos Figueroa, Palacio de la Moneda, >Santiago Chile > FAX: 0015-56-2-696 8740 > E-mail: gobcam@congreso.cl >Ministerio de Justicia: Soledad Alvear, Morande 107, Santiago Chile > FAX: 0015-56-2-695 4558 > E-mail: gobcam@congreso.cl > >Congreso: > >Comisi�n Recursos Naturales: >Diputado Victor Jaime Barrueto, recurcam@congreso.cl >Comision Derechos Humanos: > Diputado Erick Villegas Gonzalez, derhhcam@congreso.cl > >Embajadas o Consulados del Pa�s que se encuentre > >Los Porqu� de esta Campa�a son : > >1.- En el marco de la concertaci�n pol�tica (que resulta ser el punto >evidente de negociaci�n con la Dictadura), se desarrolla de igual menera >la concertaci�n social (acuerdo marco entre el Gob. CUT y empresarios, >establecen las "reglas del Juego"). Ambas son la s�ntesis del �xito >para el triunfo de Frei. > >2.- En el discurso oficial, la apertura econ�mica traer�a el crecimiento >con equidad, hoy d�a se constata que la apertura esta desde hace ya por >lo menos dos decadas, y que el crecimiento con equidad no llega. Ni >siquiera existe una distribuci�n de los ingresos que sea coherente con >el propio discuso gubernamental, pues en esta raz�n las remuneraciones >deb�an subir de acuerdo al �ndice real de crecimiento, este para 1993 >fue de un 9,7% anual, y las remuneraciones subieron un 7,1% anual. La >participaci�n que tienen las remuneraciones en el PIB (Producto Interno >Bruto) para 1993 es del 33,4% anual, y la participaci�n del IER (�ndice >Econ�mico Real) es del 40,0%, es decir, claramente el crecimiento se >redistribuye en favor de los patrones. Hoy d�a el 20% m�s pobre de la >poblaci�n disminuy� su participaci�n en el ingreso desde un 4,92% a un >4,61%, y el 20% m�s rico de los chilenos, aumento, desde un 55,45% a un >56,11%. Estamos hablando de una concentraci�n, que no s�lo es alta, sino >que tambi�n se profundiza. El 10% m�s alto obtiene el 40,8% de los >recursos totales, y el 10% m�s bajo, el 1,7%. > >3.- La apertura, traer�a el crecimiento, el aumento en el empleo y la >disminuci�n de la pobreza. La disminuci�n de la pobreza se lograr�a en >base al crecimiento sostenido, m�s que por la v�a de la intervenci�n >estatal, es decir "hay que incorporar a los pobres al trabajo", lo que >no se toma en cuenta, es que la incorporaci�n efectiva que se da de >estos, en el trabajo, no es para que salgan de la pobreza, sino m�s >bien, para que se mantengan en ella, es una fuerza laboral >econ�micamente activa, pero igualmente pobre. La disminuci�n efectiva >que se ha producido de la "cantidad de pobres e indigentes" y la >posibilidad de estos de participar en el PIB, es tremendamente desigual. >La brecha de desigualdad, se profundiza y con eso abre un espacio, de >pobreza a�n m�s dura, un nucleo duro con dif�cil posibilidad de >revertir. > >El trabajo ha aumentado,es cierto, pero es un trabajo empobresido, >precarizado, que hace que desde el 92 al 94 aumente la cifra real de >pobres e indigentes, desde un 18,2% a un 22%, y de un 9,6% a un 11,4%, >respectivamente. > >Aqu� los pobres no son los tipicamente desocupados, sino que estos est�n >ya incliudos en el mercado, por lo tanto lo que est� operando aqu�, es >que el propio mercado actua como reproductor de pobreza. (Ejemplo, >temporeras frut�colas, en los meses que trabajan figuran en las >estad�sticas como no pobres, y en los restantes, vuelven a ser pobres). > >4.- La apertura econ�mica traer�a el desarrollo de la segunda fase del >modelo exportador. Es decir, dejar de exportar materia primas; >"exportaciones f�ciles", y pasar a las manufacturas industriales.Estas >�ltimas efectivamente han aumentado, en 1990 se exportaban por este >concepto 2.739 millones de d�lares, en 1995, la cantidad fue de, 6.739 >millones. El punto est� en que este aumento sigue estando directamente >relacionado con la explotaci�n de materias primas, por lo tanto lo que >sucede, no es la consolidaci�n de las materias t�picas secundarias >(manufacturas), sino m�s bien, la consolidaci�n de las fuertemente >ligadas a los recursos naturales. > >5.- La apertura traer�a crecimiento, con un desarrollo sim�trico u >homogeneo. Es decir, nuestros anhelos modernizantes, har�an a toda la >sociedad chilena part�cipe de los beneficios de la globalizaci�n. Hoy >d�a esto no puede quedar mas claramente invalidado, los sectores no >aptos para la modernidad son desechados, eso termin� de ocurrir hace 2 >meses atr�s con los m�s de 4.000 mineros del cab�n de Lota. Ah� no s�lo >se les termin� de cerrar las puertas a ellos y sus familias, y a las >familias que desde siempre hab�an vivido de la extracci�n del mineral, >sino que tambi�n resulta inviable toda una area geogr�fica y cultural, >ligada al mineral. > >Algo similar ocurri� con los t�xtiles, con los jubilados, por nombrar >algunos. Por otro lado la regi�n que actualmente aporta mayores ingreso >al pa�s, por concepto de PIB (octava regi�n), es al mismo tiempo la >regi�n de mayor concentraci�n de pobreza, por las condiciones laborales >que tienen aquellos mismos que aportan el ingreso. Como se entiende >entonces, este crecimiento homog�neo. > >6.- La apertura, traer�a la competividad sist�mica, los consensos y por >ende, la mayor democracia. Es decir, "todos juntos, estar�amos >compitiendo en los mercados internacionales, como una gran familia". Por >el imperativo de "ser una naci�n viable, tenemos que asumir los desafios >de la modernidad", la empresa, pasar�a a ser el gran punto de encuentro >para el avance en conjunto, pero esto termin� antes de comenzar, pues >existe menos sindicalizaci�n que en el 90 y s�lo algunos participan de >la "familia empresarial". > >En cuanto al tema de los Derechos Humanos, el Ejercito y las Fuerzas >Armadas en su conjunto no han asumido ninguna responsabilidad por los >crimenes cometidos durante la Dictadura, ampar�ndose en la Ley de >Amnist�a de 1978, cuya derogaci�n formaba parte del Programa de Gobierno >de la Concertaci�n, pero que fue pronta y convenientemente olvidado. A >las presiones militares se vino a sumar, lamentablemente, un intento de >la propia Concertaci�n por sepultar definitivamente el asunto, a trav�s >de una Ley de Punto Final, que no prosper� por el rechazo popular >manifestado contra la medida. > >Cuando la Corte Suprema de Justicia ratific� la condena simb�lica contra >el General Manuel Contreras y el Coronel Pedro Espinoza, el gobierno >negoci� con el Ejercito para poder hacer cumplir el fallo judicial. >Sospechosa y coincidentemente, despu�s de esta negociaci�n no ha >prosperado ninguna causa judicial contra militares, e incluso muchos >procesos por desaparecimiento forzado de personas se han archivado >definitivamente, sin saberse la verdad y sin hacerse justicia. > >Sistematicamente, todas y cada una de las actuaciones m�s reprobables de >la Dictadura van siendo silenciadas, como ocurri� con la investigaci�n >por los pagos por m�s de dos millones de dolares que hizo el Ejercito a >uno de los hijos de Pinochet, investigaci�n que fue detenida y archivada >por orden del Presidente Eduardo Frei, aludiendo razones de Estado. > >Muchos de los torturadores y asesinos, responsables por el >desaparecimiento de m�s de tres mil personas, permanecen en las filas de >las Fuerzas Armadas, en servicio activo. Muchos de ellos incluso han >sido ascendidos, y tienen importantes cargos actualmente. > >A diferencia de otras transiciones de Am�rica L�tina, en Chile los >militares mantienen todo su poder y no se sujetan al poder civil. Como >ellos mismos hicieron la Constituci�n que rige al pa�s (cuya derogaci�n >es otra de las promesas incumplidas por la Concertaci�n) se >autonombraron "garantes de la institucionalidad", la de ellos, por >supuesto, convirti�ndose en sus virtuales gendarmes. A siete a�os de >iniciada la transici�n, se mantienen los Senadores Designados, ex >militares y funcionarios del r�gimen, puestos en el Congreso por >Pinochet, los que junto a los parlamentarios de la derecha,logran una >mayor�a (aunque objetivamente sean una minor�a) que impide y entraba la >modificaci�n de una serie de aspectos que impiden considerar a la >Democracia Chilena, una aut�ntica Democracia. >A toda esta impunidad, este silenciamiento sobre los sucesos del r�gimen >militar, avalado tanto por los sectores de Derecha como por importantes >sectores del Gobierno actual, se vienen a a�adir una serie de hechos que >ponen en tela de juicio el supuesto compromiso democratico de los >militares chilenos. > >Y hoy d�a con el nombramiento de Pinochet como senador Vitalicio se >evidencia el tutelaje de las fuerzas armadas y mustran una vez m�s la >acci�n complice del actual gobierno de Chile en la mantenci�n de las >violaciones a los derechos humanos y su papel complice en no lograr la >verdad y la justicia por los miles de torturados,asesinados y detenidos >desaparecidos, demostrarando su actitud beneplacita con la acci�n >salvaje del capitalismo neoliberal impuesto por la dictadura de >Pinochet, que hoy mantiene en la pobreza a grandes sectores de la >sociedad chilena. > > >Envienos su nombre y el de su organizaci�n antes del 26 de Marzo > >Reciban nuestros abrazos y mucha solidaridad, > >Red Chilena Popular e Ind�gena, > >A Continuaci�n Carta a Frei: > > >29 de Marzo de 1998 >Se�or >Eduardo Fre Ru�z -Tagle >Presidente de Chile > >Se�or Presidente: > >Quienes nos adherimos a esta solicitud, lo hacemos con una profunda >preocupaci�n por la dif�cil situaci�n por la que atravieza el Pueblo de >Chile. Pu�s, a pesar de estar en Democracia hace m�s de siete a�os, nos >resulta incomprensible que la injusticia sea parte de ella y que la >verdad no encuentre camino correcto. Consideramos inadmisible que siendo >su gesti�n la segunda representatividad elegida democraticamente en un >Chile post-dictadura su administraci�n gubernamental no haya tomado >medidas(exepto la encarcelaci�n simb�lica de Contreras y Espinoza) >apropiadas que permitan encausar a la naci�n a un veradero proceso de >reconciliaci�n y por ende, a la reivindicaci�n de miles de chilenos que >fueron asesinados, desaparecidos, y torturados por las fuerzas Armadas >con la simple aplicaci�n de justicia a los responsables de tan nefastos >hechos. La memoria colectiva no tiene distingos pol�ticos, ideol�gicos o >religiosos cuando se trata de alcanzar la libertad y la justicia, esa ha >sido la manifestaci�n concreta que permiti� poner fin en forma parcial >los 17 a�os de oscuridad totalitaria. > >Es de preocupaci�n el ver cada d�a con mayor claridad que la mentada >modernidad chilena es una puerta de entrada s�lo para algunos, son a >unos pocos los que incluye, y a muchos los que excluye. Es decir, existe >una realidad de pobreza y marginalidad tan evidente que no es posible >obviar, omitiendo su existencia. Sin embargo, m�s all� del >reconocimiento formal del problema, no existe voluntad pol�tica para >revertir la situaci�n, al respecto se se�ala, "la equidad social, >esperada por todos con la llegada de la democracia, no puede hacerse en >forma inmediata. Tiene que ser a largo plazo, para no da�ar las >instituciones democr�ticas recientes" (Meller, P., Editor, El Modelo >Exportador Chileno. Crecimiento y Equidad, 1996, p.65), por lo tanto, en >el libre juego de la oferta y la demanda, la demanda de justicia social, >debe esperar el "tiempo y cantidad oportuna para concretarse" y con >ello, son una vez m�s, los pobres del campo y la ciudad, los marginados, >que el propio sistema reproduce y genera, los que deben esperar y vivir >los ajustes del sistema. Los mismos que esperaron durante 17 a�os la >democracia, siguen esperando hoy d�a, en la democracia conseguida. Si no >fuera as�, como bien lo han se�alado los dos Ministros de Hacienda, >Foxley y Aninat, al ser m�s equitativos, se caer�a en la inflaci�n, en >la falta de competibidad en los mercados internacionales, en la >inestabilidad macro econ�mica y la ausencia de "reglas claras y >estables" para la inversi�n, y por lo tanto no se tendr�a un crecimiento >sostenido. El Chile de hoy, est� claramente dividido entre los >incorporados al funcionamiento econ�mico, y aquellos exclu�dos de �l, y >donde su �nica relaci�n con �ste, es la de marginaci�n permanente. >Presentando esta ihumana situaci�n con una cara de �xito y estabilidad, >que es la cara que actualmente recorre importantes espacios >internacionales: Chile, un pa�s con estabilidad democr�tica, �xito >econ�mico y paz social. Sin embargo este exitismo omite las >informaciones sobre qu� pasa con los �ndices reales de la pobreza, de la >exclusi�n, del desempleo juvenil, del acceso a la salud y educaci�n >p�blica, no dice mucho sobre las posibilidades de acceder a una vivienda >digna, no menciona la realidad de los pueblos originarios, sus >reivindicaciones y su permanencia en tierras ancestrales, esta �ltima no >planteada al interior del gobierno, como una ecuaci�n con variables de >sustentabilidad ni respeto b�sico. El discurso oficial no toma en cuenta >lo que pasa con la mujer y hombre campesino, con sus posibilidades >reales de desarrollo e integraci�n, no menciona que pasa con el bosque >nativo, con la Lenga milenaria, que hoy se convierte en astilla, etc. el >discurso oficial no dice nada con respecto al verdadero mundo chileno, >con respecto al d�a, del conjunto del pueblo pobre y marginal. >Nos afecta observar en su democracia que los efectos sociales que >comenzaron en Chile con la dictadura, todav�a hoy d�a, a m�s de siete >a�os de democracia no son resueltos. Esto se evidencia en el actual >sistema de distribuci�n de los ingresos, el modelo es altamente >concentrador de pobreza y reproductor de desigualdad y polarizaci�n >social, puesto que la efectiva disminuci�n de los niveles de desempleo, >variable con la que se mide la baja en la cantidad de pobres y >desocupados, ha tenido que ver m�s con la propia y aut�noma din�mica >del mercado en sus necesidad de mano de obra, que con pol�ticas sociales >dirigidas para tal efecto. Todo esto, a la luz de recientes >declaraciones de la Iglesia Cat�lica Chilena, que han llamado la >atenci�n sobre esta materia, se�alando que en el pa�s existe una >desigualdad fundamental y no superada y que all� reside la fuente de la >pobreza en la que viven numerosas personas. (Conferencia Episcopal de >Chile, 1996). Hoy, los ingresos promedios de los hogares m�s ricos son >casi 25 veces mayores a los ingresos de los hogares m�s pobres, y si se >compara los ingresos per capita, los de un rico t�pico supera en 40 >veces a los de un pobre. Nos resulta totalmente preocupante que en el >marco del informe de 1995, de la Relator�a Especial sobre los Derechos >Humanos y la Distribuci�n de los Ingresos, de la Subcomisi�n de >Prevenci�n de discriminaciones y protecci�n de Minor�as, de la Comisi�n >de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, este Organismo Internacional >elabora en base a la informaci�n otorgada por los propios gobiernos, se >se�ala: "Chile, al igual que otros pa�ses, ha visto empeorar su >distribuci�n de los ingresos de manera manifiesta. En la d�cada del 60 >la relaci�n entre los m�s pobres y los m�s ricos era de 11,7 veces y en >la del noventa es de 18,3 veces. El 10% m�s alto de la poblaci�n pas� >de controlar el 34,8% de toda la riqueza, a controlar el 45,8% de los >ingresos del pa�s. Ha habido un incremento del casi 12% de concentraci�n >en el 20% superior de la sociedad, en un per�odo de altas tasa de >crecimiento. La cifra expresa de manera transparente y es explicativa de >los cambios sociales, econ�micos, de consumo, culturales, etc. ocurridos >en la sociedad chilena en este per�odo". Lo anterior nos lleva a >concluir que el llamado "desarrollo con equidad" a quedado solo en el >discurso, por ello nos lamenta constatar que el Chile de hoy , es un >pa�s que piensa, gobierna y se proyecta s�lo para algunos, la modernidad >genera ganancias y acumulaci�n para unos pocos, pobreza, marginalidad e >inestabilidad para otros muchos. Existiendo una profunda concentraci�n y >disparidad en las oportunidades. >Cabe recalcar junto a lo anterior que en nombre del crecimiento y >desarrollo econ�mico se est� destruyendo el medio ambiente, ya que, >incluso esta situaci�n ha obligado ha reconocer a algunos sectores >tecnicos y cientificos, vinculados con la materia, que el crecimiento >chileno bajo los actuales parametros de desarrollo es Insostenible en el >Largo Plazo, mantiene de la mano un gran deterioro en la biomasa de >algunas especies y el peligro del colapso, en otras. Ejemplos, sobran, >como lo demuestra el �ltimo informe del Banco Central de Chile, en el >cual ha se�alado que de mantener igual nivel de explotacion y manejo en >20 a�os mas no quedar�a Bosque Natural en el pa�s. Quisieramos entender >su aceveraci�n realizada en el balance del a�o 1996, en relaci�n a la >violaci�n que bajo su gobierno se realiza en contra los pueblos >originarios al afirmar que por "argumentos ambientalistas no ser�a >motivo para desacelerar o para clausurar proyectos de "desarrollo" en el >pa�s", creemos totalmete que es un acto contra toda humanidad el >despojar a los Mapuches, Pehuenches de sus tierras ancestrales, que como >dicen los ecologistas es un Etnocidio, pu�s el Mega-proyecto Ralco >inundar� alrededor de 14 cementerios Mapuches y 70 sitios arqueol�gicos, >adem�s significar� la devastaci�n de una regi�n de alto valor ecol�gico >y la destrucci�n de la cosmovisi�n MAPUCHE-PEHUENCHE, ancestrales >moradores del territorio del Alto B�o-B�o. > >Para finalizar frente a tanta injusticia y a la falta de humanidad es >que solicitamos: > >1.- Que la modernidad imperante en Chile sea en beneficio de las grandes >mayorias postergadas y no para unos pocos. >2.- Que se busquen mecanismos adecuados que no permit�n la destrucci�n >del Medio Ambiente, ya que de seguir en esta situaci�n en los pr�ximos >20 a�os no quedar� Bosque Nativo en el pa�s como lo informa el �ltimo >reporte del Banco Central de Chile. >3.- Que en relaci�n a los nagativos impactos ambientales y sociales >exigimos se suspenda la construcci�n de mega-proyectos que da�an tierras >Mapuches-Pehuenches, tales como, la Represa Ralco, las restantes >centrales hidroel�ctricas y la Carretera Costera que invadira tierras >ancestrales. Junto a lo anterior exigimos el respeto a la Autonom�a y >autodeterminaci�n. >4.- Que de una vez por todas se llegue a la verdad y la justicia de las >violaciones cometidas por la Dictadura Militar. Y que los derechos >humanos no sean factor de negociaci�n, sino, que sean respetados en toda >su magnitud. >5.- Que se considere que por los valores democr�ticos que bien inspiran >su gobierno se respeten los derechos humanos de las Presas y Presos >Pol�ticos, cuyo �nico delito a sido el pensar distinto y luchar por los >m�s necesitados del Chile de estos tiempos. > >Esperando su favorable acogida y pronta resoluci�n, se despiden >Atentamente > >Red Chilena Popular e Ind�gena,�� > > >English Part >XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX > From dassbach@mtu.edu Mon Mar 23 08:58:15 1998 Mon, 23 Mar 1998 10:58:08 -0500 (EST) Mon, 23 Mar 1998 10:58:08 -0500 (EST) Mon, 23 Mar 1998 10:58:04 -0500 (EST) From: "Carl H.A. Dassbach" To: Subject: Re: Late capitalism... or tardy revolution? Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 11:02:36 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" -----Original Message----- From: mweigand@usa.net Date: Monday, March 23, 1998 1:24 AM Subject: Re: Late capitalism... or tardy revolution? I was wondering what happened to that post. I'm only on PSN and I forgot about PSN cafe. Apparently, my post did not make it past the censors/moderators. I wonder why? >Agreement with your conclusions. I have previously commented that the working >class (at least in the U.S.) does in fact seem to be more victimized by false >consciousness than the college-educated middle class. All recent egalitarian >social movements--civil rights, counterculture, peace movement, womens' >movement, environmental movement--found little support among the U.S. working >class. In fact, these social movements often faced strong hostility from working >class Americans! Exactly, I agree. > >While it is fashionable to regard the middle class with contempt, the fact is >that without the political activism by middle class college students, none of >the social movements above would have had any impact on U.S. society. I also agree. >When will >Marxists accept the fact that intellectuals and the educated middle class have >an important role to play in history? Actually, Marx points out (in part becuase it was his own situation) that segements of the middle class are potentially revolutionary. Only for Marx, these segments should "detach" themselves from the middle class and acts as leader in the proletarian revolution. I often think this is how Marxist intellectuals, both in and outside of the academy, think of themselves. More than that, given the Marxist emphasis on "praxis" I often feel that this is how Marxist intellectuals JUSTIFY themselves and their passivity. They engage, as Althussser called it, "theoretical praxis" (which, by the way, seems to be an oxymoron, at least according to my reading of the Theses on Feurbach). Why do some Marxists glorify the working >class despite all recent historical evidence? Good question - dogma, faith??? They're wannabe Marxists who believe that the belief the proles is the hallmark, birthmark, and flag of Marxism. BTW, American proles have always been somewhat exceptional but now we find that even the European proles and especially one of the strongest and perhaps most class consicous working clases in Europe, the Germans, are also losing their coherency. The working class in Germany is largely composed of foreigners and the German proles have all become technicians and managers. Hence, it is little wonder that these people vote in Conservative governments (Kohl and the Christian Democrats) instead of working class governments (SPD). As managers and technciains, i.e., as the priveleged strata of the w9orking class their interests are in conserving the existing order rather than transforming it. Regards, Carl Dassbach From CHASINB@saturn.montclair.edu Tue Mar 24 14:34:00 1998 Date: 24 Mar 98 11:31:20 From: "Barbara Chasin" Subject: FWD: marlene Dixon To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: 24 Mar 98 07:43:17 From: "CHASINB" Subject: marlene Dixon To: "Remote Addressee" Paula Rothenverg, editor of *Race, Class and Gender in the United States* and a feminist philosopher is trying to find an address for Marlene Dixon. The ASA was unable to help. If anyone out there can be of assistance either email me at chasinb@saturn.montclair.edu or you can contact Paula at rothenbe@email.njin.net.@wins. From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Wed Mar 25 20:12:42 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 22:08:51 +0000 Subject: Clinton and AIDS in Uganda President Clinton is in Uganda, and the media reported that he brought with him $16 million for AIDS education to a country in which AIDS is one of the leading causes of death. An article in my local paper pointed out that "Uganda now is held up by the United States as ana example of democratic progress and economic reform_even though life expectancy is only 37 years, and per capita income is $290 a year." Today in my two Intro. to Sociology classes_made up entirely of African American students_I asked students to explain why life expectancy and income are so low in Uganda. They figured out that poverty kills and that it leads to diseases that kill. They soon figured out that malaria and AIDS are the two biggest killers in Uganda. Then they figured out that people who live on $6 a week cannot afford insect repellent, anti-malaria drugs, screens, or mosquito netting. Then we talked about AIDS. I asked them why the AIDS epidemic had hit Uganda so hard. They came up with a variety of responses: People are too poor to buy condoms. Do people in Uganda practice polygamy? Maybe they aren't educated about AIDS. Are there drug addicts in Uganda who share contaminated needles? Is there a lot of homosexuality in Uganda? We waded through all the stereotypes and misconceptions. The students needed some more information. How do people make a living in Uganda? What kind of work do they do? One student suggested they probably farm or raise cattle. The students realized they really didn't know. I pointed out that the article in the paper said that coffee and bananas were grown in the village Clinton visited. How are these crops grown? The students figured out that they are grown on large plantations that employ agricultural workers and the crops are exported by multinational corporations. Now students could begin to see who made $290 a year and why: They are exploited agricultural workers. What do they know about agricultural workers? They remembered that such work is often done by migrant and/or immigrant workers. Now they were uncovering the kind of labor system that is commonplace throughout sub-Saharan Africa, a labor system that was created under colonialism and continues under contemporary imperialism. Migrant workers who earn $290 a year do not bring their families with them. They do not see their wives for months at a time. How is migrant agricultural labor related to the AIDS epidemic? One student jokingly suggested that the workers might have a lot of time with nothing to do and therefore engaged in a lot of sex. I asked the class if anyone had ever done agricultural labor. No one in this class of mostly middle class Blacks had. It might be hard for some of the students to see things from the point of view of the workers, to empathize with them. But local entrepreneurs in Uganda knew that they could make money by procuring female prostitutes and setting up brothels to attract migrant workers. The pimps knew that they could obtain girls and women cheaply, because sexist practices severely limit the opportunities women have. Many are literally sold into sex slavery, as they also are in South Asia and Russia. And sex slaves are not in a position to demand that customers use a condom. Now the picture was coming together for the students. The system of migrant labor and the system of sexist prostitution together incubate the AIDS epidemic in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Infected prostitutes transmit AIDS to their customers (and vice versa). The men bring it back to their wives in the villages, who often transmit it to their children. I asked students if they think the AIDS virus was invented in a lab by racist scientists who want to exterminate Black people. A sizable minority of the class defended this view. I pointed out that they are right to think that the world is so profoundly racist that genocide is a real danger. They aren't simply paranoid. But I tried to explain that examination of samples of frozen blood proves that the AIDS virus has been in existence since the 1950s. The AIDS virus is a retrovirus (It has RNA, not DNA.), and scientists did not know that there was such a thing as a retrovirus until the 1970s. AIDS was not invented by a small conspiratorial group of genocidal scientists. But the AIDS epidemic was caused by a genocidal world system of capitalism that profits both from the exploitation of migrant agricultural labor and the sexist oppression of women. Later in the day I ran into a few students from my classes. They told me that had talked together for a long time after the class. They said it had really made them think. It was one of my good days. World War I unleashed a global influenza epidemic which killed between 20 and 40 million people. The growing inter-imperialist conflicts in Africa and around the world are taking an immense toll in human life. The $16 million Pres. Clinton brought with him to Uganda for AIDS education merely covers up the responsibility of U.S. imperialism and U.S._World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programs for the poverty and exploitation of hundreds of millions of African workers. Imperialism cannot solve Africa's problems. Imperialism is the problem. From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Thu Mar 26 13:11:33 1998 Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:10:43 -0800 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Book Award? I've been trying for the last three months to learn who volunteered in Toronto to chair the book award committee of the Section on Marxist Sociology. If anyone out there knows, please contact me right away. If this isn't cleared up within a week, a new committee will be appointed. Thanks, Alan Spector Chair, Section on Marxist Sociology of the ASA From feminist@feminist.org Thu Mar 26 15:48:37 1998 id PAA02008; Thu, 26 Mar 1998 15:48:27 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 15:22:05 -0500 To: broadcast@nmpinc.com From: Feminist Majority Online Subject: Feminist Majority Foundation Job Opening Dear Feminist Majority Student and Faculty Network members: We are writing to alert you to the following job opening. If you are not currently seeking employment, please pass this message onto others who may be interested. WANTED - Feminist Activists Committed to Campus Organizing The Feminist Majority Foundation is seeking graduating seniors and recent college graduates to be part of the team developing the Feminist Majority Foundation's innovative campus leadership program: Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances. As a member of the field team, representatives will train in our DC office and travel throughout the country launching this new, exciting program. For one full year, Field Representatives alternate spending time in the field and in the office. Field Representatives have the opportunity to organize on a grassroots level, experience first-hand the work of a national feminist organization, and contribute to training the next generation of feminist leaders. This new program offers much to students, faculty, communities, and the greater feminist movement, and is also rewarding for the Field Representatives. Qualifications and Applications The position requires a knowledge of and commitment to feminism and activism. Past feminist activism on campus is essential. Positions are limited and pay is modest. Health insurance, traveling expenses, and a rent stipend are provided. The Feminist Majority Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to being a multicultural organization. People of color are strongly encouraged to apply. To apply, send or email resume, writing sample, two academic/professional references, and cover letter detailing experience and interest in feminist issues and grassroots organizing to: Dee Martin National Programs Associate Feminist Majority Foundation 1600 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 801 Arlington, VA 22209 703-522-2219 (fax) 703-522-2214 (phone) dmartin@feminist.org From draperm@socio.unp.ac.za Thu Mar 26 00:34:15 1998 Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 09:32:46 +0200 From: Malcolm Draper To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, smrose@mailhub.exis.net Subject: Clinton get out of Africa South African Organisations Oppose Clinton's Visit A wide range of organisations have expressed intense dissatisfaction with United States policy towards Africa and Clinton's current visit. There will be protests against Clinton's visit in Pretoria, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Several organisations have issued protest statements, highlighting: * opposition to the so-called Africa Growth and Opportunity Act; * the role of the US in the World Bank, IMF and WTO; * the attempts by the US to undermine South African policy for cheaper drugs; and * the US refusal to ban landmines. Any organisations and individuals wishing to sign on to the statement below should contact Brian Ashley at the contact details at the end of this message: ***** CLINTON GO HOME! The US involvement in Africa has been one of enslaver, coloniser and extracter of wealth. The current visit of US President Clinton is a continuation and entrenchment of this relationship of domination. We oppose Clinton's visit because * He is promoting the so-called African Growth and Opportunity Act which insists that African countries implement policies which enhance the profits of US transnational corporations at the expense of the wellbeing of the majority of Africans * His government refuses to cancel African and Third World debt, pursues neo-liberal policies and influences the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation, with disastrous effects on the people of Africa and the Third World. The US Government is trying to * Force open our markets to be flooded by US products which will wipe out local industries and create unemployment * Enforce privatisation of public assets to enable US firms to gain control over strategic sectors such as telecommunications, electricity and oil * Impose conditionalities that will restrict governments' spending on job creation, education, health, welfare, water and housing These policies have already been imposed in many countries around the world and have * Made the rich even richer * Further impoverished the poor and marginalised women, children, youth, the elderly and disabled * Have robbed countries of their independence * Have weakened democracy Ask the people of South East Asia! We also oppose the Clinton visit in protest against his government's * Longstanding and illegal blockade and interference in Cuba * Support for Israel in their oppression of the Palestinian people * War mongering and redeployment of US troops in the oil- rich Gulf in defense of US economic and strategic interests And for the misery and suffering the US has created all over the world in promoting its own narrow economic interests and those of its transnational corporations. Clinton comes as a coloniser and not as a friend Clinton leave Africa! ***** For further information, contact: Pretoria and Johannesburg: David Letsie at 331 5958, fax 331 5957, beijing@wn.apc.org George Dor at 648 7000, george@sn.apc.org Azwell Banda at 339 3621, sacp1@wn.apc.org Cape Town: Brian Ashley at 021 448 5197, aidc@iafrica.com The Globalisation Campaigns Committee From wilkeas@mail.auburn.edu Fri Mar 27 10:04:49 1998 Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 11:04:40 -0600 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Arthur Wilke Subject: School Violence Hysteria - I To put the concerns about school shootings into perspective it is well to compare the victimization rate for youth with reported incidences of violent crime in school. For 1994, youthful violent crime (homicide, rape, robbery, simple and aggravated assault) victims were: for 12-15 year olds: 11,300/100,000 for 16-19 year olds: 12,500/100,000 (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics) The recent extensive survey of public school (excludes private school students who make up about 10% of the school population of about 50 million), reports a Serious Violent Crime (murder, suicide, rape or sexual battery, physical attack or fight with a weapon or robbery rate of: 103/100,000 (Source: (National Center for Educational Statistics). It would appear that youth are at least 100 times safer in school than going home, hanging out on the streets or what not. This does not justify violence, but instead highlights how the hysterical has become such a common place that "theories" abound regarding the incidental and larger items are quickly ignored. For example, in the study a proxy for economic well-being and the link to criminal victimization by students generally shows a consistent relationship. Percent of students elgible for free or reduced-price school.........Serious Crime lunch..............................................Rate Per 100,000 <10%...............................................26 20-34%............................................58 35-49%............................................59 50-74%............................................68 75% or more....................................81 The focus of criminogenic conditions might be better directed at looking at clear patterns than concerns over some unfortunate murders recently in three schools. Arthur Wilke wilkeas@mail.auburn.edu From wilkeas@mail.auburn.edu Fri Mar 27 10:04:56 1998 Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 11:04:48 -0600 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Arthur Wilke Subject: School Violence Hysteria - II Using the U.S. Bureau of Census, it is reported that there were: a) 3,295 murder victims ages 5-19; b) 56.1 million 5-19 year olds. c) 55.1 million enrollees in elementary and high school.* I. Frequency and Comparable Risks of Murder. If we assume that children are: a) awake 16 hours a day; b) in school for 8 hours a day for 180 days; c) no safer in school than elsewhere, there would be 4.5 killings of students per day. Based on national data: a) If youthful persons were no safer at school than elsewhere, they would be 2.9 times more likely to be murder victims outside of school than in school. b) If there were one killing of a student in school each week, youthful persons would be 84 times more likely to be murdered outside of school than in school. c) If there were one killing of a student in school each month, the young person would be 366 times more likely to be murdered outside of the school house. II. Risks of Murder: School as Unit of Analysis. The nation has 86,221 schools for young persons. a) If the killing rate inside and outside of schools were equal (and single instance), one would expect that 1 out of 106 schools would have a homicide. (In 13 years of school, 1 out of 8 schools would expect to have a student murder.) b) If there were one murder a week in the nation's schools, the chance of a school having a murder would be 1 out of 2,395. (In 13 years of school, 1 out of 184 schools would expect to have a student murder.) c) If there were one killing a month, the chance of a school having a murder would be 1 out of 9,580. (In 13 years of school, 1 out of 736 schools would expect to have a student murder). III. Risk of Murder: Student as Unit of Analysis. How likely is it that a young person going to school will be a murder victim? Of the nation's 55.1 million students: a) If the murder rate inside and outside of school were equal, the chance a child were killed in school would be 1 in 67,860 (1 in 5200 in 13 years). b) If there were one murder a week in the nation's schools, the risk would be 1 in 1,530,556 (1 in 117,740 in 13 years). c) If there were one murder a month in the nation's schools, the risk would be 1 in 6,122,200 (1 in 470,940 in 13 years). IV. Comments. a) Murdering people is wrong. b) However, a cyber real crime industry that produces simulated social dramas while entertaining does little to address the "fear" that appears to be produced by these activities. c) The fear and hysteria that is produced highlights an educational challenge: innumeracy. (*The above data include 19 year olds, many of whom are not in high school and who have a much higher risk of being murder victims. This, however, compensates for not calculating the average daily attendance rates which are about 83 percent). Arthur Wilke wilkeas@mail.auburn.edu From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Fri Mar 27 17:29:52 1998 Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 17:29:46 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez Reply-To: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: Sex and Gender Course: Information Received Dear PSNers, This is the information some of you kindly sent me in response to my request. Once I have a syllabus ready, I will post it in the archives. Many, many thanks to all of you! Martha ************************************************************************ Books: Ann Ferguson, A FEMINIST CASE AGAINST BUREAUCRACY Parkin and Roos, JOB QUEUES, GENDER QUEUES Alan Johnson, THE GENDER KNOT: UNRAVELLING THE PATRIARCHAL LEGACY Naomy Wolf, THE BEAUTY MYTH Joe Feagin and N. Benokraitis, MODERN SEXISM Kimmel and Messner, eds., MEN'S LIVES Michael Kaufman, BEYOND PATRIARCHY; Essays by Men on Pleasure, Power and Change Margaret Anderson and p. Collins, RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER G. Colombo, R. Gullen and B. Lisle, REREADING AMERICA Carroll and Wolpe, SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN SOCIETY Schwartz and Rutter, THE GENDER OF SEXUALITY *********************************************************** >From Shawgi Tell: Consider material supplied by the ILO (International Labour Organization), which can be easily accessed on the internet. For example, they have a September/October 1996 mini-report titled "World of Work" and subtitled "Women Swell Ranks of Working Poor." Among other things, such info. can be used to help clarify how and why the extreme and ongoing economic, political and social marginalization of women is rooted squarely in the capitalist economic system and that their affirmation and emancipation is inseparable from overthrowing the bourgeoisie and the system that privileges them. The URL for the specific report I spoke of is: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/235press/magazine/17women.htm The ILO URL is: http://www.ilo/public/english/index.htm ******************************************************************** Films: Salt of the Earth Union Maids Poverty Outlaw Chasing Amy ************************************************************************* >From Michael Messina-Yauchzy Here is a list of films discussed in our instructor's manual, TEACHING MEN'S LIVES (Messina-Yauchzy, Brooks-Harris, & Gertner, 1998, Allyn & Bacon) which accompanies Kimmel & Messner's MEN'S LIVES. These are the first lines from abstracts. A Gathering of Men Bill Moyers interviews mythopoetic author/mentor Robert Bly A Man and His Church and Unity in the Body of Christ: McCartney - Portland '94. A One & A Two Michael Angelo Di Lauro. Angelo, widower of a 37-year marriage, All of Me - Lily Tomlin plays a wealthy woman who dies and her guru transfers her And the Band Played On Annie Hall, This Woody Allen comedy explores contemporary romantic relationships Arthur Dudley Moore is the title character, an alcoholic billionaire supported by fine Battered, Directed by Lee Grant. Intense stories and depictions of the effects of do Before Stonewall. Greta Schiller. A documentary history of homosexuality in Amer Born in East L.A. Cheech Marin (who also wrote and directed) is "accidentally de Born on the Fourth of July Tom Cruise portrays real- life anti-war activist Ron Boys in the Band (See Films/Videos for Part One) The "gay Black" character (in Boys Life Collection of three short films with "a clear purpose: to show the sexual Boyz N the Hood John Singleton. Excellent all-around film on the boyhood and com Brian's Song This well-received made-for-television film depicts the unique friend Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in a Chasing Amy This recent film explores sexual politics by seeing what happens when a Chicano! A four-part series produced for PBS. See internet resource below. Cisco Kid "'Here's adventure! Here's romance! Here's O. Henry's famous Robin Hood Class Action Courtroom drama features father-daughter litigators Gene Hackman and Coming Home Great performances by Jon Voight as a paralyzed Viet Nam veteran, David and Bert Daryl Duke. "A film portrait of two remarkable old-timers of Vancou Death of a Salesman Dustin Hoffman stars as aging salesman Willie Lomax in this Dim Sum Primarily the story of a Chinese-American mother and daughter, this award- Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee. Relations between Italian-American restaurateur and Dreamworlds II: Desire /Sex /Power in Rock Video Produced and narrated by S. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* This Woody Allen vehicle of Eyes on the Prize: (series I & II) Blackside Films/PBS Civil Rights series. Resources Farewell to Manzanar Producer-director, John Korty; teleplay, Jeanne Wakatsuki Fiddler On the Roof, Norman Jewison. Longest-running Broadway musical of the 60s Finding Our Way Depicts a retreat where twelve men of diverse race, age, and sexual Gay Youth. Produced by Pam Walton. "This multi-award winning documen George and Rosemary David Fine and Alison Snowden A brief, "animated romantic Get on the Bus, Spike Lee. Characters on a cross-country bus trip to the 1995 Million Harry and Tonto Paul Mazursky. Art Carney won an Oscar for this portrayal of a re Hollywood Shuffle Struggling Black actor Robert Townsend co-wrote, directed, Hook Steven Spielberg breathes new life into the tale of Peter Pan, with Robin Wil Hoop Dreams Steve James. This true-life film is not what you would expect from the In the Company of Men This new film follows the attempts of two men to seduce and Invisibly Close Dan Young. Marvin and Bula, married 63 years, live in the Arizona Jeffrey Kotch Directed by Jack Lemmon. Walter Matthau was Oscar-nominated as a family- Kramer vs. Kramer Dustin Hoffman stars as the original "new dad." Workaholic ca Lethal Weapon Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are police partners in an action- Longtime Companion Malcolm X, Spike Lee. Rise and fall of a principal figure in Black leadership and mas Manzanar by Bob Nakamura. San Francisco, CA : Visual Communications [pro Meatballs Ivan Reitman. Does head camp counselor Bill Murray's speech to his mot Men and Masculinity: Changing Roles, Changing Lives. A look at the pro-feminist Men On The Verge Of A His-Panic Breakdown This award-winning, one-man stage Men's Work, Paul Kivel. "The cycle of violence stops with me--I will not pass on the Mi Familia (My Family) Directed by Gregory Nava. Starring Jimmy Smits. "A power Michael, A Gay Son. Bruce Glawson. Documentary film follows young adult Michael Mr. Mom A tireless auto executive played by Michael Keaton loses his job and stays National Lampoon's Animal House Set in 1962, this classic comedy mocks every Oleanna Film version of David Mamet's controversial play about sexual harassment in Parenthood Steve Martin stars as the central figure in a multi-generational family that Parting Glances Peter's Friends Philadelphia Point Break Keanu Reeves stars as a young under-cover FBI agent investigating a Racial and Sexual Stereotyping edited from a Phil Donahue show (1993, 28 minutes) Raging Bull, Directed by Martin Scorsese. In this fictionalized biography of brutal Ragtime, Milos Forman. 1930's Black musician Coalhouse Walker, Jr. fights back Rio Bravo John Wayne is the quintessential "inexpressive male" in this classic Western Roots, Acclaimed 1977 TV miniseries of a family's rise from slavery; from Alex Ha Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story Effective television drama depicts the true story Schindler's List, Steven Speilberg. Contrasting images of Jewish men as victims and She's Having a Baby Kevin Bacon stars as a new husband and a reluctantly expectant Skokie, Herbert Wise. "Powerful drama depicting how citizens of Skokie, Ill., became Soul Food Stand By Me, Directed by Rob Reiner. Four pre-teen boys in late 1950's small-town Superman: The Movie. Richard Donner. Does Christopher Reeve look Jewish? What The Accused True story of a young woman played by Jody Foster, who is gang raped The Boys in the Band. William Friedkin. In this pre-AIDS era film, a diverse group of The Color of Fear Lee Mun Wah. Intense, award-winning documentary of a group of The Crown Prince. Billy, a melancholy teenager, hides a terrible secret: his father is The Crying Game Stephen Rea is an IRA terrorist who hides in London and ends up The Frisco Kid, Directed by Robert Aldrich. A rabbi from Eastern Europe (played by The Joy Luck Club The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. (See page Part One films/videos) In a The Power of Myth Another Bill Moyers interview, this time with mythologist Robert The Prince of Tides Nick Nolte stars as a football coach who explores his abusive The Shootist John Wayne plays a legendary gunslinger afflicted with cancer who seeks The Status of Latina Women, "This program looks at the differences between the U.S. This Boys Life Michael Caton-Jones. Robert DeNiro plays the new stepfather of To Have and To Hold, Directed by Mark Lipman. "[T]he first documentary to exam Torch Song Trilogy Paul Bogart. Playwright Harvey Fierstein re-created his Tony- Waiting to Exhale Wall Street Director Oliver Stone's big business treatise stars Charlie Sheen as a naive, We Were There: Jewish Liberators Of The Nazi Concentration Camps "a powerful When a Man Loves a Woman Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia star in a drama about a When Harry Met Sally This comedy starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan considers When He's Not a Stranger Date rape is the subject of this made-for-television drama. *********************************************************************** >From Mark Weigand: Favorite video documentaries I have used in my course called "Race, Sex, and Ethnic Groups" include: [] Still Killing Us Softly: Images of Women in Advertising [] Slim Hopes: an updated version of the video above [] Stale Roles and Tight Buns: Images of Men in Advertising [] Disposable Heroes: The Other Side of Football. Focuses upon the macho image of football players contrasted with their high injury rate and failure to graduate from college. [] The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. Excellent documentary about women war workers during World War II. Shows sexism, racism, and past gender roles. [] Family Matters--Or Does It? Walter Cronkite series about changing gender and family roles in the 1990's. From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Sat Mar 28 07:47:01 1998 Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 07:46:56 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: The Future of Radical sociology (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:59:24 -0800 (PST) From: Dominican University >From Richard A. Dello Buono We invite you to participate in this open panel disccussion at the SSSP Meeting in San Francisco on the future of Radical Sociology: *************************************************** Breaking and Entering the Sociological Establishment: An Open Panel Discussion on the Future of Radical Sociology Saturday, August 22 2:30 pm - 6:15 pm Room: White Pearl I *************************************************** co-sponsored by the journal CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY and the SSSP Program Committee Presiders/Organizers: Shelley Kowalski, University of Oregon Kate Stout, Dominican University Walda Katz Fishman, Howard University Richard Dello Buono, Dominican University Panelists: (registration ongoing) Wanda Alderman-Swain, Seton-Hall University Ken Bolton, University of Florida Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, University of Michigan Richard Dello Buono, Dominican University Walda Katz Fishman, Howard University and Project South Shelley Kowalski, University of Oregon Jerry Lembcke, Holy Cross College Janice Monti-Belkaoui, Dominican University Jerome Scott, Project South Kate Stout, Dominican University Registered participants will be listed on the program as panelists, with name and affiliation. Special registration and membership rates are available for students, low-income and unemployed panelists. ******************************************* CONTACT: Richard Dello Buono Sociology Deparment Dominican University 7900 West Division St. River Forest, IL 60305 rdellob@email.dom.edu (708) 763-0362 From mweigand@usa.net Sat Mar 28 21:50:53 1998 Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 21:47:47 -0700 (MST) From: mweigand@usa.net Subject: Michael Eisner v. Vietnamese laborers To: psn@csf.colorado.edu <---- Begin Forwarded Message ----> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 13:15:53 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: rob@essential.org From: Robert Weissman Subject: Michael Eisner v. Vietnamese laborers If greed is good, as Michael Douglas infamously stated in the movie "Wall Street," then Disney CEO Michael Eisner must be a saint. Last year, the Disney executive received compensation of more than $575 million. On top of his $750,000 salary, Eisner claimed a $9.9 million bonus and cashed in on $565 million in stock options. This is not the first mega-pay haul for Eisner. From 1991 to 1995, he took in $235 million. A decade ago, in 1988, he collected more than $40 million -- a compensation package which led to shrieks of outrage. In Eisner's defense, it can be said that giant salary grabs are increasingly the norm among big company CEOs. Among the heads of the largest U.S. corporations, CEO average compensation is $5.8 million. CEO pay rose 54 percent from 1995 to 1996 (final 1997 figures are not yet in) and have risen almost 500 percent since 1980. Skyrocketing CEO pay does not represent a massive expansion of the economic pie from which all corporate stakeholders are benefiting. While executive pay increases partly reflect rising returns to shareholders, workers have received almost none of the benefits showered on those at the top. Average hourly earnings for working people have actually dropped since 1980, from $12.70 (in 1996 dollars) in 1980 to $11.81 in 1996. The ratio of big company CEO pay to factory workers' wages has ballooned from 44-to-1 in 1965 to more than 200-to-1 today. There is no sharing of the economic pie here. Rising executive compensation and flat or declining wages for workers both reflect a single reality: the diminished power of organized labor. If enough CEOs start taking home Eisner-like wages, then public outrage may work to curb executive compensation. But it is hard to imagine a concerted effort to rectify the imbalance in executive and worker pay in the absence of a resurgent labor movement. There are no signs of self-restraint or enlightened generosity among the employer class. As severe as the wage disparity is between U.S. executives and U.S. workers, however, the differential between the executives and Third World workers at whose expense they increasingly profit is staggering. Disney, to its everlasting shame, has in recent years outsourced production of Disney clothing and toys to sweatshops in Haiti, Burma, Vietnam, China and elsewhere. Last year, the Asia Monitor Resource Center, a labor monitoring organization based in Hong Kong, reported on the operations of Keyhinge Toys, a factory based in Da Nang City, Vietnam that makes giveaway toys based on characters in Disney films which are distributed with McDonald's Happy Meals. According to the Asia Monitor Resource Center, the approximately 1,000 workers in the Keyhinge factory in Vietnam earn six to eight cents an hour, far below the subsistence wage estimated at 32 cents an hour. The workers -- 90 percent of them young women 17-to-20 years old -- are required to work mandatory overtime, with 9-to-10 hour shifts required seven days a week. In February 1997, a combination of exposure to toxic solvents, poor ventilation and exhaustion caused 200 workers to fall ill, and 25 to collapse. On an annual basis, the workers at Keyhinge are making approximately $250 a year. Less than one-fifth of Michael Eisner's pay -- $100 million -- would be enough to quintuple the wages of each of the 1,000 Keyhinge workers -- giving them a still inadequate, but at least living wage -- and to pay them for 100 years! That would leave Eisner with $465 million for 1997 alone. To call this kind of disparity "Dickensian" is to understate the nature of the problem dramatically. Globalization has wrought unprecedented and unconscionable spreads in income and wealth. The system is out of whack, and it is going to take more than a little tinkering to set it right. (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us (russell@essential.org or rob@essential.org). Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve corp-focus@essential.org. To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail message to list-proc@essential.org with the following all in one line: subscribe corp-focus (no period). Focus on the Corporation columns are posted on the Multinational Monitor web site . Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to comment on the columns, send a message to russell@essential.org or rob@essential.org. <---- End Forwarded Message ----> From cuzzort@spot.colorado.edu Sun Mar 29 07:55:01 1998 Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 07:54:52 -0700 (MST) From: Cuzzort Ray Reply-To: Cuzzort Ray To: socgroup Subject: ETHNOMETHODOLOGY My own notion of ethnomethodology is that it is concerned with a rather fetching and quite profound intellectual problem. First, we need to see that the world is, in effect, infinitely complicated or complex. We cannot, at any time, know all there is to know about anything. (Like the Mandlebrot set, any part of the whole is, no matter how small or where it is located, as complex as the totality.) Even the seemingly simplest kind of encounter with "reality" is an encounter with the infinitely mysterious. However, to concede this is to become intellectually paralyzed. One must get on with things. How are we able to do this? What procedure, or method, or device do we rely on to deal with the daily demands imposed upon us? How do we slice through the overwhelming Gordian knot of tormenting complexity? If we notice that we are biologically blinded to the full range of stimuli we might experience, then we have a kind of parallel "blinding" mechanism in social interactions (the metaphorical nature of the terms being used here is, in itself, an illustration of how complexity must be abused by the limitations of language). These "blinding mechanisms or devices" are necessary and are, in both the biological and social domains, quite functional. The ethnomethodologist, perhaps, keeps reminding us that what is interesting about social interaction is not that it is so totally screwed up, but that it is not even more screwed up than it already is. RPC From T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Mon Mar 30 04:15:15 1998 by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) by mail.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 06:11:54 -0500 To: PSN@csf.Colorado.EDU From: T.R.Young@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Gender Violence in Jonesboro Sharon Snow, of TWU, has forwarded this post to ahs and socgrad...I thought member of psn and class, and teachsoc networks would be equally interested. I have to say that this is the first time that the sexist nature of the crime has registered upon my consciousness. I do not recall a single radio, tv or newspaper article in which the gender of the victims was mentioned let alone highlighted as well it should have been. I do hope that others had picked up on it... This changes of course, my earlier efforts at putting this violence in a larger social context; [as opposed to the micro-analysis of the boys and family relations which pre-empt so many commentaries]. For those of you in the Detroit Metro area, Mitch Albom wrote a fine editorial...but he also failed to register it as gender violence. thank you, Sharon, TR ****************** PRESS RELEASE March 27, 1998 For Immediate Release Contacts for further information: Lore A. Rogers, Legal Advocacy Director (734) 973-0242, ext. 204 Erin House, Legal Advocacy Coordinator (734) 973-0242, ext. 253 Rachelle Smith, Legal Advocate (734) 973-0242, ext. 225 Debbie Levenstein, MSW, ACSW (734) 973-0242, ext. 226 Susan McGee, Executive Director (734) 973-0242, ext. 203 ARKANSAS SCHOOL SHOOTINGS GENDER HATE CRIME, SAY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EXPERTS Staff at a local battered women's shelter are outraged and dismayed about the coverage of the Jonesboro school shooting, saying that it obscured the true nature of the crime --- that of violence against females. "The crime is about men's entitlement to women in relationships. It is about male violence against women and girls. It mirrors the dynamics of hundreds of domestic violence homicides", said Susan McGee, Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Project, Inc./ SAFE House. "I'm gravely concerned that everyone seems to have missed it. Every day, batterers of adult partners threaten to kill their girlfriends and wives if they dare to break up with them or dare to leave them." "Four girls and a female teacher were killed. Nine other girls and another female teacher were injured," Rachelle Smith, pointed out. Ms. Smith, an educator on dating violence, said, " Classmates of the dead and injured heard Mitchell Johnson threatening to kill a girl who had refused to be his girlfriend. He reportedly said 'nobody's going to break up with me,' and told other girls that 'tomorrow you will find out if you live or die.' This is the exact behavior we see daily in men who batter their wives and girlfriends. We are missing the boat if we address the issue only as one of teen violence in general, and fail to address the overarching epidemic of violence against women." Research and statistics on intimate partner and dating violence demonstrate that male violence against women is deeply woven into American culture. For example, a November 1997 Department of Justice study of stalking reported several key findings, among them: (1) 59% of female stalking victims are stalked by a current or former intimate partner, (2) in 80% of these case, the female victims were physically assaulted by their partners, (3) women are twice as likely as men to be stalked by an intimate partner, and (4) 87% of stalkers are men. Other researchers report that men who believe they are entitled to their relationship with their female partners will typically characterize the women's departure as an ultimate betrayal which justifies violent retaliation. (Saunders & Browne, 1990; Dutton, 1988; Bernard et al. 1982). SAFE House's Legal Advocacy Director, Lore Rogers, commented: "The violence in this case was not unpredictable. Mitchell Johnson did not get what he wanted from a girl. Because one of the injured girls had rejected his advances, he vowed to kill her and other girls. His violence was identical to what occurs when adult male batterers use violence in retaliation for their partner's attempts to leave a relationship." Ms. Rogers pointed out that up to 3/4 of domestic assaults reported to law enforcement agencies were inflicted after separation of the couples, according to a 1983 U.S. Department of Justice study. "If we JUST blame a 'violent culture', or we JUST work on banning guns, the Jonesboro school killings will happen again, and again, and again. To prevent future murders of girls, we must understand the dynamics of this murder, and all the murders of women and girls by male intimate partners. This should be a wake-up call to the nation. All of our daughters are in danger." said Susan McGee. SAFE House staff called for: enlistment of men and boys in the fight to end violence against women and girls; prevention programs focusing on gender, relationships and violence in every school in the country; and massive media attention focused on the problems of dating and domestic violence. SAFE House will sponsor a brown bag seminar on how men can prevent domestic violence on Tuesday, April 14th at noon in the Education Center at SAFE House. The Domestic Violence Project, Inc./SAFE House is a non-profit agency in Washtenaw County, Michigan, which provides shelter, counseling, support, and legal advocacy for survivors of domestic violence and their children. Anyone requesting assistance can contact SAFE House 24 hours a day by calling (734) 995-5444. TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From SANTORO@vms.cis.pitt.edu Mon Mar 30 08:15:08 1998 Mon, 30 Mar 1998 10:15:01 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 10:15:00 -0500 From: Dan Santoro Reply-To: SANTORO@vms.cis.pitt.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Gender Violence in Jonesboro I certainly agree with the analysis that calls the jonesboro shooting a gender hate crime. But, or I should "and," have we thought about the race/ethnic aspects of it? ...especially of the reportage on the story. We are shocked when we see these things in connection with white people, but not when violence effects people of color. I also wonder why we have the category "black on black" violence but I never hear anyone refer to "white on white" violence. Somebody fill me in. Maybe we should also explore how to understand the incident from the perspective of class. dan -- ########################################################### "If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist, you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist." --Paul Krugman Dan Santoro Division of Social Sciences 104 Krebs Hall University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Johnstown, PA 15904 814-269-2976 mailto:santoro@vms.cis.pitt.edu http://www1.pitt.edu/~santoro/ ########################################################### From baustin@frank.mtsu.edu Mon Mar 30 08:28:33 1998 id IAA07569; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 08:28:16 -0700 (MST) Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:30:57 -0600 (CST) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:30:55 -0600 (CST) From: "Ben S. Austin" Reply-To: "Ben S. Austin" To: T.R.Young@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Gender Violence in Jonesboro In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980330061154.007f7100@tryoung.com> Colleagues, On the contrary, most of the news reports I have watched have pointed to the fact that all the victims who died were female. ANd it was from the news reports on CNN as well as the nightly network news telecasts that we all learned of the boys' anger that a girl had broken up with them. And, as a matter of news report, at least one male student was wounded in the incident. Violent crime against women in our society and is an issue that must be constantly and vigorously addressed. But to turn the discussion of violence in our schools into a forum for discussing sexism in the U.S. appears to me to be a strain. Several recent instances of violence in our schools, particularly in the south, are disturbing. There is something much deeper going on here than sexism. It appears to me that in Jonesboro, the boys took up a position without knowing who was going to be standing where following a fire alarm. To interpret this incident in the framework of sexism masks some deeper trends among adolescents in our society such as: (1) the violent messages with which corporate America is exploiting our youth -- in movies that portray heroes who routinely use violence to solve any personal affront, video games that create the impression that death is not permanent, and music that legitimates violence (2) the availability amd accessibility of guns and (3) the abdication of moral responsibility for listening to our children's concerns and providing them with alternative responses to those concerns. Trying to keep perspective while keeping the faith, Ben Austin ==================================================== Ben S. Austin, Assistant Professor of Sociology Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132 baustin@frank.mtsu.edu http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin ==================================================== From starbuck@mesa5.mesa.colorado.edu Mon Mar 30 09:11:14 1998 id JAA08885; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:10:30 -0700 (MST) Mon, 30 Mar 1998 16:10:26 GMT Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:10:25 -0700 (MST) From: gene starbuck To: T.R.Young@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Gender Violence in Jonesboro In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980330061154.007f7100@tryoung.com> It is convenient to use the Jonesboro murders as further evidence of the wide-spread violence against women, but that would be using a single incident to support previous misconceptions that might not be justified. The Jonesboro attack might have singled out women--we don't know that for sure yet. But if so, it is typical neither of severe violence in general nor of murder. Men of all age groups are more likely to be victims of violent crime. Data for the relevant age groups follows: SERIOUS VIOLENT CRIME VICTIMIZATION RATE (includes murder, assault, rape) Rate per 100,000: Age Male Female 12-14 45.4 28.7 15-17 55.8 38.4 18-21 58.0 41.9 MURDER VICTIMIZATION RATE Per 100,000 Age Male Female 12-14 0.04 0.02 15-17 0.22 0.04 18-21 0.45 0.07 Although these figures are not limited to school violence, it is important to note that victimization rates for males in the relevant age group is ABOUT SIX TIMES THAT FOR FEMALES. Where is the gender-based discussion of this discrepancy? Data from www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs ***************************************************************************** Gene H. Starbuck Mesa State College computo Grand Junction, CO 81502 ergo starbuck@mesa5.mesa.colorado.edu sum www.mesastate.edu/~starbuck ****************************************************************************** From cberlet@igc.apc.org Mon Mar 30 12:33:51 1998 Mon, 30 Mar 1998 10:54:55 -0800 (PST) Mon, 30 Mar 1998 10:54:14 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 13:55:17 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Chip Berlet Subject: Re: Arkansas Shooting: Why Did It Happen? I sent this last week to psn-cafe, but forget to send it to psn. Sorry, I still haven't figured out the system. -CB At 11:08 PM 3/24/98 -0500, tell@acsu.buffalo.edu wrote: >>>snip==== > Bourgeois society is based firmly and squarely on exploitation, >oppression and violence. The bourgeoisie routinely effects its >self-serving aims and claims in violent ways. Inequality, poverty, >unemployment and crime are the fellow-travelers of capitalism. Of course >there is going to be extreme violence of all kinds in this sort of social >context. It is not possible to conclude that a class-divided society will >be free of extreme violence. Ultimately, it is the bourgeoisie and the >system which privileges them that are the root-cause of violence in our >society. >>>snip==== Forgive me, but I fail to see how this moves forward a discussion among progressive sociologists of the specific violence in Arkansas. If every bad event and rotten condition under capitalism is dismissed as the result of capitalism, what's the point of sociology at all? What about the role of culture and media in construcing a worldview where such individualized aggression would be seen as appropriate? How can we look at this event and not see the power of patriarchy in defining their sense of manhood and misogyny in their will for dominance and retribution over women? Does gun culture and miltia culture play a role? Could this be considered a hate crime against women? I think there is a strong argument for calling this a hate crime. Absent replacing capitalism, is there no role for progressive sociologists to play such as to attempt to intervene in the hyped hysteria of the mainstream media? Incantation is not explanation. Is the argument really that "It is not possible to conclude that a class-divided society will be free of extreme violence" ...and its flip side is then, what? ...that a classless society will be free of extreme violence? Alienation increases the aggression against oppressed groups, but how does the dominant culture pick the targets for oppression in the first place? We must challenge prejudice, discrimination, and domination based on ethnicity, race, national origin, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and class. Not class alone. Desperately seeking discourse. :-) -Chip Berlet From smrose@mailhub.exis.net Mon Mar 30 19:28:48 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 21:24:55 +0000 Subject: Jonesboro I strongly agree with those who have argued that the main aspect of the Jonesboro killings is that they were an example of sexist male violence against females. I want to reply to a couple of the objections raised against this argument. One objection was that most violence is by and against males. But this argument was buttressed by official statistics that notoriously understate the extent of violence against women. Only a tiny fraction of domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, etc., against women shows up in official figures. One of my students recently did a study of date rape on two nearby campuses. Officially, the two administrations did not report a single case of rape on campus during the past year. Surveys on students on these campuses found that about one fourth of the students said that they knew at least one friend who had been date-raped within the past year. A second argument was that the male on female aspect of the killings was not covered up by the media. That is certainly true. It was clear throughout the coverage that two boys shot about fifteen girls, one boy, and one female teacher. But all discussions about explaining this "inexplicable" event totally avoided interpreting the killings as misogynist. They tried to make the obvious invisible! A third argument suggested that these killings are highly unusual. Well, the day after the killings my local newspaper ran a long article about an ex-Navy seal turned author who went on at length about how his career as a seal required him to kill men, women, and children without hesitation. This same newspaper that professed horror at the Jonesboro killings promoted this author without batting an eyelash. It didn't occur to them that these two precocious killers in Arkansas were imitating adult heroes trained by the U.S. Government to carry out the missions of U.S. imperialism throughout the world. As we remember the 30th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, we should not be surprised that the increasingly fascist decaying U.S. society is breeding the most horrendous violence. Finally, I think an observation about the role of the churches in Jonesboro might be sociologically worthwhile. As far as I know, no minister has discussed the sexist aspect of these killings. Indeed, the ministers have sought, in their usual fashion to "comfort" their congregations by assuring them that God has a reason for everything that happens. What kind of God makes little boys into killers who slaughter other children? Religion thus covers up and sustains sexist violence. Steve Rosenthal From susanb@athabascau.ca Mon Mar 30 12:38:22 1998 via smtpd with P:smtp/R:bind/T:smtp (sender: ) id (Smail-3.2.0.101 1997-Dec-17 #3 built 1998-Mar-11) via smtpd with P:smtp/R:smart_host/T:smtp (sender: ) id (Smail-3.2.0.101 1997-Dec-17 #1 built 1998-Mar-3) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 12:38:04 -0700 (MST) From: Susan Belcher To: gene starbuck Subject: Re: Gender Violence in Jonesboro In-Reply-To: Yes, more men are victims of violence than women, but almost all the perpetrators are men, not women. Gender socialization is responsible for this. Susan M. Belcher Lecturer, Sociology and Women's Studies Athabasca University P.O. Box 11411 Edmonton, Alberta Canada T5J 3K6 Tel.: 477-5092 FAX: 492-2024 From rgibson@pipeline.com Mon Mar 30 11:36:53 1998 Mon, 30 Mar 1998 13:36:24 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 13:40:04 -0500 To: baustin@frank.mtsu.edu, PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Richard Gibson Subject: Re: Gender Violence in Jonesboro In-Reply-To: I still want to suggest that what propelled this incident was likely to be sexual rage. The path from owning a gun to gun training to seeing violent cartoons and movies to making a sophisitcated plan for shooting people to carrying it out by shooting women and girls has to pass through an emotional gateway. There is a relationship between sexism, the fear of sexuality, sexual violence, and child abuse. Surely this is not an easily untangled web, but the complex role of sexism seems to me to be the critical issue here---in an incident that does raise all of the issues about the potential for social change in this society. At 09:30 AM 3/30/98 -0600, Ben S. Austin wrote: >Colleagues, > On the contrary, most of the news reports I have watched have >pointed to the fact that all the victims who died were female. ANd it was >from the news reports on CNN as well as the nightly network news telecasts >that we all learned of the boys' anger that a girl had broken up with >them. And, as a matter of news report, at least one male student was >wounded in the incident. > Violent crime against women in our society and is an issue that >must be constantly and vigorously addressed. But to turn the discussion >of violence in our schools into a forum for discussing sexism in the U.S. >appears to me to be a strain. Several recent instances of violence in our >schools, particularly in the south, are disturbing. There is something >much deeper going on here than sexism. > It appears to me that in Jonesboro, the boys took up a position >without knowing who was going to be standing where following a fire alarm. >To interpret this incident in the framework of sexism masks some deeper >trends among adolescents in our society such as: (1) the violent messages >with which corporate America is exploiting our youth -- in movies that >portray heroes who routinely use violence to solve any personal affront, >video games that create the impression that death is not permanent, and >music that legitimates violence (2) the availability amd accessibility of >guns and (3) the abdication of moral responsibility for listening to our >children's concerns and providing them with alternative responses to those >concerns. > >Trying to keep perspective while keeping the faith, >Ben Austin > >==================================================== > > Ben S. Austin, Assistant Professor of Sociology > Middle Tennessee State University > Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132 > baustin@frank.mtsu.edu > http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin > >==================================================== > > > Rich Gibson Director of International Social Studies Wayne State University College of Education Detroit MI 48202 http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/index.html http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/meap.html Life travels upward in spirals. Those who take pains to search the shadows of the past below us, then, can better judge the tiny arc up which they climb, more surely guess the dim curves of the future above them. From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Mar 30 13:07:27 1998 Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 14:07:18 -0600 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, revs@csf.colorado.edu Subject: War Crimes? As the term "war crimes" is being applied more and more by liberals in the U.S. to describe various violent acts around the world, the following article should give readers something to think about. This one tops the Tienamein Square massacre in numbers. The President in charge of this war crime:: Bill Clinton. As long as capitalism exists, there will be war crimes like this. Will the liberal outrage be as loud against the liberal imperialists as it is against those conservative capitalists who are competing with the liberals. Is Clinton really any better than Nixon? Are apologists for Clinton any better than apologists for Nixon? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >From Times Of India - March 23, 1998) US army killed over 1,000 Somalis: Report LONDON: Trapped American special forces had indisrciminately fired on crowds of Somalis in Mogadishu in 1993 killing more than 1,000, five times the official numbers given. American troops had abandoned their rules of engagement -- to fire only when threatened by fire --and had shot down every Somali they saw including women and children, Observer has reported quoting what it called dramatic new account of the battle collated by American journalists from Somali survivors. The damaging charges come as US President Bill Clinton begins a six-nation tour of Africa. The reports said that United Nations, under whose peace keeping auspices the Americans were operating in the country, had not been informed of the mission by US special forces to capture 25 top Somali warlords including the late Somali president General Mohd Farah Aided from central Mogadishu. It said that prior sanction of United Nations military commander of the region, General Cevic Bir of Turkey, was not obtained in this connection. Observer said the incident occurred on the October 3, 1993, afternoon, when 40 Delta special forces backed by 75 rangers set off to capture the Somali warlords, tipped to be meeting in a house in central Mogadishu. ``Contrary to US official version of the mission, American helicopter gunships began the ill-fated raid by firing anti-tank missiles into the house.'' Observer reported that American force commander Major General William F Garrison had decided in defiance of protocol that his troops would go it alone without informing the united nations command or even the UN special representative. ``In retrospect, it is possible to say that US forces declared their own personal war on Gen Aided,'' it added. The paper said at that time the news centred on dramatic footage of naked bodies of American soldiers being dragged through the streets and a helicopter pilot being taken hostage. The Somali dead then estimated at 200, were the sideshow. The paper quoting accounts of American journalist Mark Bowden said the US special task force hit the house as 17 gunships rained missiles from above. The soldiers stormed the house taking 24 prisoners, then it began to go all wrong. The Americans protected by gunships were supposed to drive three miles back to the base with their prisoners. However, without the backup force, the US special task force convoy ended up going in circles, trapped hundreds of Somali gunmen. ``The narrow streets then turned into scene of indiscriminate slaughter as the Somalis brought down two helicopters rained fire on US communications with their base and a spy plane charged with guiding them, broke down leaving the soldiers trapped and deserted,'' Bowden said. ``It was then Americans abandoned their mission. They went berserk shooting at anything that moved,'' he added. The convoy was eventually rescued by Malaysian and Pakistani troops, who came to their aid as backup. The paper said till date the United States had never held any public investigation or reprimanded any of its commanders or troops involved. Calling it as the biggest fire-fight the American troops were involved in since the Vietnam War, Observer said, ``US discipline and organisation had disintegrated.'' (PTI) -- From e.swank@morehead-st.edu Tue Mar 31 17:29:16 1998 Received: from msuacad.morehead-st.edu (msuacad.morehead-st.edu [147.133.1.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id RAA19868 for ; Tue, 31 Mar 1998 17:28:49 -0700 (MST) Received: by msuacad.morehead-st.edu (1.37.109.16/16.2) id AA086990406; Tue, 31 Mar 1998 19:26:46 -0500 Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 19:26:46 -0500 (EST) From: ERIC SWANK To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Monitoring Projects (fwd) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII PSNers, I thought this posting sounded interesting. Eric Swank Morehead State University Department of Sociology and Social Work Morehead, KY 40351 (606) 783-2190 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 14:53:15 -0800 From: Natl Law CtrHomelessPov DC To: WELFAREM-L@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Monitoring Projects Monitoring Projects on Barriers that Prevent Homeless Individuals from Accessing Federal Food Stamp Benefits & Local Opposition to Food Services for Homeless Individuals The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty would appreciate your help with two new monitoring projects. Each project is briefly described below, but please contact Amanda Harrod at the Law Center by email at nlchp@nlchp.org, by phone at 202-638-2535, or by fax at 202-628-2737 for more information. To increase the number of eligible homeless people who are receiving food stamps, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty would like your assistance in identifying the barriers that prevent homeless people from accessing food stamp benefits. We are collecting studies and information gathered by local groups regarding barriers encountered by homeless individuals trying to obtain food stamps, such as limited access to information regarding eligibility requirements. We will compile our findings into a report on the extent and kinds of barriers homeless individuals around the country face. The report will be used to assist local advocates, press for better policies, and protect the rights of homeless people. The Law Center has also launched a new project to monitor the nature and extent of local opposition to food service programs (soup kitchens, mobile feeding vans, religious or church based feeding programs, etc.) from neighbors and/or local governments who object to the presence of such programs in their communities. Opposition to shelter and services for homeless people and efforts to exclude such facilities from local communities based on the Not In My Backyard (or "NIMBY") syndrome are increasingly common across the U.S. NIMBY opposition occurs despite a tremendous need for services for homeless and low-income people in many communities. The Law Center needs your help to gather information about NIMBY opposition food service providers face. We are also interested in learning of programs that have successfully avoided or overcome such opposition and the strategies used in these achievements. If you know of instances in which a food service program for homeless or low-income people has experienced NIMBY opposition, contact Amanda Harrod at: National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty 918 F Street NW Suite 412 Washington, DC 20004 202-638-2535 (phone); 202-628-2737 (fax) Email: nlchp@nlchp.org Website: http://www.nlchp.org Thank you for your help! Mail Sent: March 31, 1998 2:49 pm PST Item: R015mJY