From erics@intergate.bc.ca Thu Oct 1 04:57:43 1998 Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 03:56:52 -0700 (PDT) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: The Russian Proleteriat moves into action! To subscribe to world economic crisis listserve, send email to: staff@stewards.net >To: >From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) >Subject: The Russian Proleteriat moves into action! > >Hi there, > >The IMF and World Bank have publicly stated that they are considering reneging on further payments to Russia, and they are predicting that the Russian economy will contract by a furhter 6-8% in the next 12 months. That much is public knowledge in the western world, as of today. > >However, what I have not seen mentioned anywhere, is that the Russian trade union federations are calling a MASSIVE GENERAL STRIKE for one day on October 7. Symbolically enough, October was the month of the original Bolshevik revolution, and Russian trade union officials, who say the demonstrations will be peaceful, are predicting a massive turnout in response to the ever-worsening economic conditions, which now threaten people, especially the poor and elderly, with starvation this winter. > >The stated purpose of the one-day manifestation: TO DRIVE YELTSIN FROM OFFICE! This would, of course, clear the path for a government with a strong communist party presence, as they are by far the strongest single electoral party in the country. What's more, the academicians and scientists, the very group who first and most strongly supported the Gorbachev reforms, have been demonstrating in, I think, Moscow. They are annoyed that they have not been paid for a year. Many of them are said to be carrying signs bearing an old symbol not commonly displayed by the Russian Intelligensia for some time - the hammer and sickle. > >Eric Sommer, >World Crisis Listserve Administrator. > From tr@tryoung.com Thu Oct 1 05:14:44 1998 (usr-mtp-51.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.51]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 07:10:57 -0400 To: teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Teaching Resources about Women in South Asia social-class@listserv.uic.edu, ahs-talk@ncsu.edu, socgrad@csf.colorado.edu One of the finest teaching resources on-line for courses in women's studies, gender relations and social inequality can be found at: http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/sawweb/sawnet/news.html TR Young, Director The Red Feather Institute TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From spectors@netnitco.net Thu Oct 1 10:47:36 1998 Thu, 1 Oct 1998 11:45:51 -0500 (CDT) From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Fascism as Organized Chaos in Late Capitalism Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 11:45:19 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" R. Palme Dutt, an East Indian who led the British Communist Party during the 1930's developed the concept of fascism as Organized Chaos. It is contradictory, but it is also a unity, with each side of the contradiction "caused" by and "causing" the other. It is something to think about. This formulation can help to cut through the false unities and the Abstractions/mystification inherent in some perspectives on both fascism and society today as well as the false contradictions and overly deconstructed, pragmatic relativism in some other prespectives on both fascism and society today. =============== The chaos is rooted in the economic crisis, the imposed organization is political-economic state fascism, and the culture that is promoted oscillates between nihilist post-modernism and dogmatic determinism/fatalism. The nihilist post-modernism/diversity/ Khomeni/tribalism is both a reflection of the chaos inherent in capitalism, especially decaying capitalism and ALSO is a camoflauge to ghettoize and neutralize struggle against capitalism while pretending to fight the Authoritarian State. The dogmatic determinism, whether biological determinism or its disguised identical twin, religious fundamentalism, are pushed to impose order/discipline on the chaos, and ALSO is a camoflauge to give the illusion that the capitalists/fascists should be trusted to restore order and security against the disorder that is blamed on some section of the working class, on communists, and on competing capitalist interests (with "racial-religious-ethnic-nationalistic" )rationales. It isn't just the so-called "Right Wing" that develops and participates in this process of Organized Chaos. So do the liberal politicians. ---------------------------- The Nazis spoke of a New Order while glorifying an imaginary rural Valhalla (heaven), and they murdered pregnant women while banning abortion. Think of some parallels today. Try to think about the underlying unified purpose (defending a dying capitalism) inherent in these seemingly contradictory trends: Diversity taught in schools while uniforms are imposed; anti-violence curricula alongside increased jingoism and threats of a military draft; repressive war on drugs while drugs are allowed to flow; repression against some immigrants while others freely get into the U.S.; gang activity and killings rampant while police abuse thousands of innocent urban youth every week; Nation of Islam militantly attacks all white people while getting massive air time in the rich white owned media, as well as securing contracts to do police work for the (presumably white) capitalist system; stock market goes crazy while government destroys social welfare programs, not just to save money, but to gain more control over the labor market. It all seems confusing until one realizes that there is an underlying process. Murderous fascist consolidation to impose order on their murderous chaotic system. There is an answer, of course. Getting rid of capitalism and replacing it not just with the half-way step of socialism as it was practiced from the USSR to China to Cuba, but replacing it with the kind of communism that will liberate humankind from every kind of exploitation, inequality, and alienation. Don't let the talk of fascism demoralize us; let the vision of a new world inspire us. Alan Spector .. From augdeven@telcel.net.ve Thu Oct 1 09:05:53 1998 by mail01.t-net.net.ve (Post.Office MTA v3.5.2 release 221 Reply-To: <@telcel.net.ve> From: "Augusto De Venanzi" To: "PSN" Subject: Sociobiology Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 11:03:13 -0400 Steve Rosenthal's commets on Runciman and sociobiology are important! My view is that in the near future sociology will be divided into two main paradigms: Cultural and Sociobiological. This is not evident now , but as advances in genetics grow the tendency to explain everything in terms of this or that gene will be strong. The massive migrations that are taking place from south to north will contitute the practical frame of reference to this paradigms, as Soviet Society was a reference to socialism. Professor Augusto De Venanzi Escuela de Sociología Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales Universidad Central de Venezuela email: augdeven@telcel.net.ve From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Thu Oct 1 14:13:57 1998 Thu, 1 Oct 1998 16:13:33 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 16:13:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Augusto De Venanzi Subject: Re: Sociobiology On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > as advances in genetics grow the tendency to explain everything in terms > of this or that gene will be strong. I am not so sure about this. I think that the right wing will, as they have always done, misuse and distort genetic research. But for those who work more objectively, genetics will increasingly support the position that, while there may be genetic predispositions to certain diseases and so forth, that the idea of the behavioral gene becomes more remote. Claims of significant human differences are also made increasingly problematic. Recent genetic work, for example, has already demonstrated that the claim that there are racial differences among human populations is as empty as we have always suspected. So for the ideologue, I agree with you. But for science, I have little doubt that the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes. Andy From Patrick.Krueger@Colorado.EDU Thu Oct 1 22:18:15 1998 Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:17:59 -0600 (MDT) From: Krueger To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: Sociobiology In-Reply-To: If the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes, then where will it be found? From where do "social conditions" arise, if not from the material world? PMK On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Andrew Wayne Austin wrote: > On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > > > as advances in genetics grow the tendency to explain everything in terms > > of this or that gene will be strong. > > So for the ideologue, I agree with you. But for science, I have little > doubt that the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes. > > Andy > > From s.peters@surrey.ac.uk Thu Oct 1 23:58:02 1998 Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:44:22 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:45:38 +0100 To: scrol-list@soc.surrey.ac.uk From: Stuart Peters Subject: New issue Sociological Research Online SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE Dear Colleagues, *** Announcing Sociological Research Online, Volume 3, Issue 3 *** The latest issue of Sociological Research Online was published on 30 September. This issue contains a broad range of topics. The first three articles are all concerned with reflections on research practice. Other articles deal with using CAQDAS software to analyse qualitative data, and with aspects of ethnicity, education and gender. In addition, there are new contributions to the ongoing calls for articles concerned with 'Social Transformation' and 'A Class Call'. If you would like to submit articles on any of these, or indeed on any other sociological topic, then please see information at our Web site. Electronic submissions are perfectly acceptable - simply email a copy of your work, in any standard word processed format, to . Future issues of Sociological Research Online will only be availble to institutions that hold a subscription. Subscriptions will soon be available from the traditional subscription agencies. Please encourage your institution to subscribe to ensure the continued success of Sociological Research Online. If you access the journal through an Internet Service Provider through a dial-up account, then we will continue to allow free access. Please see information at the journal's web site (look at 'Subscriptions' from the main menu) in order to see how to ensure that you receive continued free access to the journal. Sue Heath will be retiring as joint Review Editor at the end of 1998 and applicants for her replacement are welcomed. If you would like to be considered for this post, see the information linked from the journals Home Page. The closing date for applications is 15th October. I hope that you can find the time to look in this issue and read some of the articles and reviews. If you would like to send feedback on any of the topics, then feel free to email comments to , Regards, Liz Stanley Editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS REFEREED ARTICLES Sara Scott Here Be Dragons: Researching the Unbelievable, Hearing the Unthinkable. A Feminist Sociologist in Uncharted Territory Peter Collins Negotiating Lives: Reflections on 'Unstructured' Interviewing Bella Dicks and Bruce Mason Hypermedia and Ethnography: Reflections on the Construction of a Research Approach Christine A. Barry Choosing Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Atlas/ti and Nudist Compared Alison Bowes and Teresa Meehan Domokos Negotiating Breast-Feeding: Pakistani Women, White Women and their Experiences in Hospital and at Home Kalwant Bhopal How Gender and Ethnicity Intersect: The Significance of Education, Employment and Marital Status SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION Paul Stubbs Conflict and Co-Operation in the Virtual Community: eMail and the Wars of the Yugoslav Succession A CLASS CALL Gill Callaghan The Interaction of Gender, Class and Place in Women's Experience: A Discussion Based in Focus Group Research BOOK REVIEWS Simon Duncan and Rosalind Edwards (editors): Single Mothers in an International Context: Mothers or Workers? Reviewed by Sin Yi Cheung James D.Wright, Beth A. Rubin and Joel A. Devine: Beside the Golden Door: Policy, Politics and the Homeless Reviewed by Gerald Daly Gillian Bendelow and Simon J. Williams (editors): Emotions in Social Life: Critical Themes and Contemporary Issues Reviewed by Muriel Egerton Jim McGuigan: Cultural Methodologies Reviewed by John Galilee Lonnie Athens: Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited Reviewed by Dick Hobbs Francis Fukuyama: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity Reviewed by Ankie Hoogvelt Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson: The Male in the Head: Young People, Heterosexuality and Power Reviewed by Angela Meah Steve Fuller: Science Reviewed by Steve New Tony Spybey (editor): Britain in Europe: An Introduction to Sociology Reviewed by Gary Pollock Lawrence R. Schehr: Parts of an Andrology: On Representations of Men's Bodies Reviewed by Momin Rahman ____________________________________________________________________________ SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE Editor: Liz Stanley Book Review Editors: Sue Heath and Nina Wakeford Editorial and IT Officer: Stuart Peters Department of Sociology http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline/ University of Surrey mailto:socres@soc.surrey.ac.uk Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH tel: (+44) (0)1483 259292 United Kingdom fax: (+44) (0)1483 259551 From dave.byrne@durham.ac.uk Fri Oct 2 07:57:48 1998 Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:57:28 +0100 (BST) From: "Dave Byrne" To: , "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Re: Sociobiology Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 14:57:20 +0100 charset="iso-8859-1" Actually the kind of reductionism represented by Dawkins in 'The Selfish Gene' and presented as the basis of social action by Ridley in 'The Origins of Virtue' isn't even good biology. See Margulis's criticisms of it in relation to micro-biology and her use of the Gaia concept. Essentially all this reductionist stuff ignores emergence i.e. complex, non-additive causation. For example even at the biological level most gene expression is polyvalent i.e. it depends on the interactions among many genes and among those genes and the organism's environment. This applies to things like the undeniably real genetic liabilities for diseases like TB and Schizophrenia. The genetic liability is a necessary but not sufficient cause. Emergence terrifies these reductionists because it is there in the mathematical models when things go non-linear. This is so shocking for that kind of science that somebody like Holland writes a (in fact readable and interesting) book with the title 'Emergence' and still asserts a reductionist account. Just to make things deeply personal, the origins of the Runciman fortune which pays for his expensive haberdashery lie with a Tyneside Sea-Captain at the last turn of the century who swallowed the anchor because he had TB and built up a shipping fortune. This founding father was actually rather sympathetic to trade unions but his son (this Runciman's father ??? Maybe Uncle) made himself infamous in the 1930s by telling the people of Jarrow on Tyneside after the closure of that town's shipyard which led to an unemployment rate of 70%, that: 'Jarrow must work out its own destiny'. This triggered the famous, if rather servile in form, Jarrow March. Runciman would fit in well with New Labour and probably does. Thirty years ago he did some rather good Sociology but he turned into an unreadable social theorist and look where that has got him to. David Byrne University of Durham From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Fri Oct 2 08:31:48 1998 Fri, 2 Oct 1998 10:31:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 10:31:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Dave Byrne Subject: Re: Sociobiology In-Reply-To: <006701bdeed5$bd55bf40$397cea81@sspc57.dur.ac.uk> On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Dave Byrne wrote: > Actually the kind of reductionism represented by Dawkins in 'The Selfish > Gene' and presented as the basis of social action by Ridley in 'The Origins > of Virtue' isn't even good biology. It is ideology. Before I am misunderstood - since this happened before in a discussion over the reactionism of sociobiology - although there may be sociobiologists who appear as progressive-liberals I still identify sociobiology as right wing ideology because of its implications and character as a political-ideological structure. The reactionary political and financial affiliations of the sociobiologist are useful indicators in locating the ideologue the political-ideology structure of sociobiology, but they do not exhaust the structure of sociobiology. Andy From smrose@exis.net Fri Oct 2 14:24:27 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 16:22:49 +0000 Subject: Critique of E.O. Wilson's "Consilience" Below is a draft of a book review I have been working on. I'm planning to expand the section on how Wilson deals with the social sciences. Because there has been quite a bit of discussion about sociobiology and human nature, I thought I'd go ahead and post this in its current form. Steve Rosenthal ================================================ Consilience by E.O. Wilson: How Science is Perverted to Build Fascism For twenty-five years Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson has peddled the idea that it is human nature to be fascist. In his latest book Consilience (an archaic word that means combining), Wilson insists that the pseudo-science of sociobiology must be imposed on all academic disciplines. Just as capitalists use fascism to discipline and unify their class, they will use Consilience to discipline and mobilize faculty and students for fascism and war. E.O. Wilson is a professor of entomology, the study of insects. In the 1970s he updated the old social Darwinist ideology that human societies are shaped by the biological nature of humans. Just as the nature of ants creates colonies of queens, drones, workers, and slaves, the nature of humans creates racism, sexism, patriotism, wars, religion, and class exploitation. Wilson used this revelation to argue that efforts to fight against racism, sexism, and imperialism are hopeless causes, and to claim that Marxism is unscientific and cannot work. Wilson proudly says of himself, "At my core, I am a social conservative, a loyalist. I cherish traditional institutions, the more venerable and ritual-laden the better." Wilson put these arguments into Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published in 1975 by Harvard University Press and widely promoted by the bosses' media. Many Marxist academics and others exposed human sociobiology as a scientifically worthless attempt to defend the capitalist status quo as natural and unchangeable. At an academic meeting in 1978, protesters pointed out that Wilson's theories were all wet and then poured a pitcher of water on him. Because of these protests, supporters of sociobiology stopped using this discredited term, and Wilson reinvented himself as an environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. A quarter century and five books later, Wilson today poses as a reasonable advocate of genetic and cultural "co-evolution" and as a proponent of genetic/environmental interaction. He pretends to reject biological determinism, social Darwinism, and eugenics. The ruling class has extolled Consilience as the crowning achievement of a visionary elder statesman of capitalist science. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal lavishly praised his call for the subjugation of the social sciences and the humanities to the natural sciences, and for the elevation of his pseudo-science to state religion. The Atlantic Monthly interviewed Wilson and published excerpts of Consilience. The unifying concept of Consilience is human nature. According to Wilson, human nature "is the_hereditary regularities of mental development that bias cultural evolution in one direction_and thus connect the genes to culture" (p. 164). Therefore, in all human societies we favor our own family, ethnic and religious group, impose male dominance, create hierarchies of status, rank, and wealth and rules for inheritance, promote the territorial expansion and defense of our society, and enter into contractual agreements (pp. 168-172). Recycling the garbage of Sociobiology, Wilson claims that racism, religious hatred, sexism, and war are not inevitable features of capitalism, but universal traits of our genetically evolved human nature. The natural sciences, Wilson claims, have discovered these truths, and the social sciences and the humanities must adopt them in order to achieve "consilience." Cognitive neuroscience, human behavioral genetics, evolutionary biology, and the environmental sciences are the four "bridges of consilience" from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities. Only "consilience" can rescue social scientists and humanists from "the pits of Marxism" and postmodernist relativism. To illustrate "consilience," Wilson interprets the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It was partly an example of "ethnic rivalry run amuck," reflecting our genetically based tribal instincts. It also had a "deeper cause, rooted in environment and demography." Population growth outstripped the carrying capacity of the land. "The teenage soldiers of the Hutu and Tutsi then set out to solve the population problem in the most direct possible way." And, Wilson concludes, "Rwanda is a microcosm of the world" (pp. 287-88). Consider what Wilson omits from his analysis. Hutus and Tutsis intermarried centuries ago, and there is no biological distinction between them. European colonialists arbitrarily created an ethnic distinction and used the Tutsi minority to impose indirect rule on the Hutu majority. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank imposed agricultural and financial reforms that shifted land use from subsistence food production to export crops such as coffee. Environmental scientists and demographers (specialists on population) have shown that famines and wars in Africa are the result of imperialism, not overpopulation. France, Egypt, South Africa, Russia, and other imperialists armed rival factions in Rwanda. Nationalist leaders in Rwanda recruited, incited, and armed the "teenage soldiers." Pres. Clinton prevented the US Government and the UN from intervening to halt the genocide. Wilson blames genocide on human nature and overpopulation to let capitalism off the hook. Under the banner of "consilience" Wilson excludes from his analysis knowledge provided by history, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, demography, and environmental science. Wilson similarly perverts the humanities. Consider his analysis of ethics. Ethical behavior for Wilson is patriotic behavior. Therefore, religion is "a necessary device of survival," because it promotes submission to the group. Religion "is also empowered mightily by its principal ally, tribalism." Moreover, humans by nature are easily indoctrinated and manipulated (pp. 245-260). The human brain, Wilson asserts, "is a stone-age organ." It makes people "intuitive and dogmatic," emotional and unscientific. These "preliterate traits are commonplace in citizens of modern industrial societies" (p. 208). Revealing a despicable elitist contempt for most of humanity, Wilson laments that human nature creates genocidal Nazis, who are easily indoctrinated with religious and nationalistic ideologies to become mass murderers, but he urges us "to discipline the old ways of thought but never to abandon them" (p. 208). How do Marxists analyze human nature? Humans create our nature through our history, our labor, and through our interaction with each other and with our environment. Although our brain is a product of evolution, there is no such thing as a fixed human nature. Before the invention of agriculture, our human ancestors lived for tens of thousands of years in small communal societies that had no state, private wealth, or contracts. There is no genetic basis for tribalism, racism, sexism, or other features of present societies. These ideologies and behaviors reflect the class interests of capitalist rulers, and millions of workers throughout the world have fought against them. Science, like all other institutions in capitalist society, is distorted to serve the interests of the capitalist class, but many scientists reject the fascist ideas peddled by E.O. Wilson. Only as Marxists can we develop a scientific outlook toward human nature, because we have no need to justify or perpetuate any aspect of class exploitation and social inequality. What is a Marxist approach to ethics? Bourgeois ethics evades the concrete reality of workers' subordination to capitalist rule by focusing on the relationship between the individual and society. Marxist ethics recognizes that what is good for the exploiting class is bad for the working class. Egalitarianism and internationalism are the ethical precepts of the working class. Patriotism, religion, racism, and sexism benefit the exploiting class. They enrich capitalists, blur class lines, and promote divisions within the working class. That is why Wilson wants to "discipline but never abandon" them. How do Marxists view the "unification of knowledge?" We oppose "consilience" not to defend the academic disciplines developed by the bourgeoisie, or to defend the postmodernist view that everything is relative. We oppose Wilson's "consilience," because it is an attempt to unify the academic world under a fascist pseudo-science. Marxists strive to unify and expand workers' understanding of the world. In contrast to Wilson's reductionist, mechanical materialist approach to science, dialectical materialism is the Marxist scientific method based on the reality that everything in the world is interconnected and in the process of changing. In universities today capitalist control over science has been tightened up. Biotech, pharmaceutical, and military interests control public and private research funding, and pressures to obtain grants preoccupy most scientists. In the social sciences and the humanities, however, there are more minority and women faculty and students, and there is more critical and Marxist oriented thinking about society. Wilson wants to use "consilience" to whip the rest of the academic world into line for the ruling class. His sharpest ideological attacks are directed at Marxists, but he also attacks postmodernism (the idea that there is no concrete truth but only multiple racial, gender, and class standpoints or stories) and identity politics (multiculturalism, Afrocentrism, nationalism, and feminism). Why does Wilson attack postmodernism and identity politics? First, although postmodernism and identity politics are useful to capitalists, insofar as they divert many progressive people away from Maraxism, they do not inspire the patriotic unity Wilson's bosses need to prepare the US population for fascism and imperialist war. Second, this allows Wilson to appeal to Eurocentrism by defending Western Science, the Enlightenment, and Reason. Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci, writing about the rise of fascism in Italy during the 1920s, called those who played a major role in helping the ruling class build ideological support for fascism "organic intellectuals." E.O. Wilson is an organic intellectual, a "loyalist" who has dedicated his career to assisting the growth of fascism in the United States. Marxists led the anti-fascist struggle to smash the eugenics movement that was the "crown jewel" of fascist pseudo-science during the first half of this century. Marxists today must organize to smash Wilson's attempts to make "sociobiological consilience" the academic centerpiece of this new period of fascism. From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Fri Oct 2 10:56:26 1998 Fri, 2 Oct 1998 12:17:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 12:17:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Krueger Subject: Re: Sociobiology In-Reply-To: My point is that human nature is metaphysical and is therefore to be found only in the imagination. Human being is a social and material product. Homo sapiens is our natural constitution. Homo sapiens is not sufficient for human being. Human being is an emergent and irreducible phenomena. However, it is not clear that human being will always be a sufficient condition for Homo sapiens. The term "human nature" is oxymoronic. Andy On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Krueger wrote: > > If the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes, then > where will it be found? From where do "social conditions" arise, if not > from the material world? > > PMK > > > On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Andrew Wayne Austin wrote: > > > On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Augusto De Venanzi wrote: > > > > > as advances in genetics grow the tendency to explain everything in terms > > > of this or that gene will be strong. > > > > So for the ideologue, I agree with you. But for science, I have little > > doubt that the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes. > > > > Andy > > > > > > From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Fri Oct 2 18:05:21 1998 Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:05:05 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:05:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Krueger Subject: Re: Sociobiology In-Reply-To: On Fri, 2 Oct 1998, Krueger wrote: > Yeah, I like the way that sounds, but how do you "know" that? And how do > you know that your way of knowing is better then the sociobiologists? I know because I can see that society is a qualitatively different level of reality than biological systems, and because there is no convincing evidence that social reality is the product of underlying behavioral genes. My way of knowing is therefore better than sociobiology because they have no evidence for their claims, whereas my claim is supported by evidence that lies within everybody's grasp, knowledge that can be obtained unaided by science. If I decide to take the next step and scientifically study reality then I find that what was self-evidently known to me becomes scientifically demonstrable. I have said this before, but it bears repeating: If people are prepared to make claims explaining social reality based on nonempirical levels of reality, such as the idea of the behavioral gene, then they better be prepared to demonstrate the reality of these nonempirical levels. It is their burden to prove to me the things I cannot see; it is never my burden to disprove that which they can produce no evidence for. If you claim there are bright red, purple polka-dotted ostrichs each with four wings, six legs and lizard's tails, then show them to me, because I am not going to believe you otherwise; and this is exactly as it should be. It is that simple. The superiority of my view over sociobiology is that my view rests on a simple and elegant truth, a truth unchallenged by the manufactured "facts" and "explanations" of sociobiology. My view is superior in another way. The qualitatively different level of reality that we know as social reality is not a theory to be verified - it is a fact to be explained. And this fact must be explained in a way (and this in no way precludes involving non-empirical levels of reality) consistent with it empirical character. It therefore seems to me that sociobiological explanations are, so far, not only unconvincing, but rest on grounds incommensurable with the character of social reality itself. The sociobiological explanation strikes me as analogous to the attempt to explain social institutions by appealing to the movement of electrons about the nucleus of a carbon atom; such approaches are misapplications of scientific method.(True consilience, by the way, is not about bringing all reality under the explanatory purview of one domain of reality, which is EO Wilson's project; but rather true consilience is about developing broad flexible rules for scientific inquiry, i.e., general rules of logic, inference, and so forth, applicable to all domains of reality. EO Wilson has misconceptualized the task of scientific unification.) Sociobiology is relevant to the study of human social life *only* as an object of inquiry into matters of reactionary ideological production. As a scientific theory it is worthless. Finally, it is an inappropriate tactic to defend sociobiology by demanding that its critics repeat the reams of evidence supporting the sociological perspective. Sociological explanations are not on trial here; they are not the subject of the present controversy; rather sociobiology is. Sociobiologists and their devotees must defend sociobiology, not attack sociology or attack their opponents as ideologues, which is the typical line pursued. The strategy of keeping sociobiology from being criticized by pursing the strategy of red herring - the red herring of attacking sociology rather than defending sociobiology, the tactic of saying that my view is no better than the sociobiological view, that I must prove why my view is better than the sociobiologist's before I can criticize sociobiology for not having demonstrated their case and for misusing and abusing scientific method - appears to be the typical way that advocates of biologisms try and wriggle out of the uncomfortable position of trying to defend as science what is in truth a mere ideology. That such rhetorical tactics are always brought into play bolsters my claim that sociobiology is only an ideology. Andy From josephal@muohio.edu Fri Oct 2 19:07:15 1998 Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 21:15:22 -0500 From: josephal@muohio.edu (Alfred Joseph) Subject: assistance To: psn@csf.colorado.edu I am seeking HELP for the following: I am investigating the issue of electronic redlining, the practice in which telecommunications companies bypass poor and minority neighborhoods while offering new technologies to more affluent ones. I 'd be interested if anyone has any citations or better yet examples of this practice. Thanks in advance. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 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. Unknown **************************************************************************** ******************************************** Alfred L. Joseph, PLP 168 McGuffey Hall Dept. of Family Studies and Social Work Miami University Oxford, OH 45056 phone 513 529 4902 fax 513 529 6468 **************************************************************************** ******************************************** From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Fri Oct 2 21:48:12 1998 Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 18:20:42 -0400 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update October 2, 1992 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children's Defense Fund Update October 2, 1998 In this issue: -- Juvenile Crime Legislation -- Potential Cuts to Welfare Programs, Medicaid and the Social Service Block Grant -- Poverty Statistics from the Census Bureau -- Update on Wellstone Amendment on Higher Education Bill ************************************************************************ ACTIONS TO TAKE THIS WEEK! -- Juvenile Crime Legislation: Action Still Needed -- Thanks to all of you who called your Senators in the past two weeks to ask them to stop any dangerous crime bills from moving forward. It's working! The Senate has not taken action on the new juvenile crime package, S. 2073. But we can't celebrate quite yet. The Senate still has one week left to act on this bill, so keep making those calls! Let's give one last push! Background: The House recently passed for the second time two juvenile crime bills, H.R. 3 and H.R. 1818, which include controversial and misguided provisions which fail to protect children. The Senate is expected to consider this package as S. 2073, which could include portions of both House bills and dangerous provisions of the yet unpassed S. 10. If this new crime package is passed into law, hundreds of thousands of children could be placed at serious risk: - More children could be put in adult jails -- even truants and runaways -- with inadequate protections from adult inmates. Children in adult jails are 8 times more likely to commit suicide and 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted. - States could be forced to move more children into adult courts and to open records for more children. The existing juvenile justice principles -- that treat each child as an individual, and strive for a balance of rehabilitation and accountability -- will be eliminated and roll back years of progress in protecting children. - The focus of spending would be on punishment, not prevention. Proposed prevention funds are $50-$100 million -- compared to $450-$500 million for punishment -- despite the fact that studies confirm that crime prevention efforts are three times more cost-effective than increased punishment. - Nothing would be done to prevent the gun violence that kills 14 children each day. **ACTION NEEDED: Call your Senators TODAY at 202-224-3121. Urge them to STOP the dangerous juvenile crime bills before congress, unless significant changes are made which protect children from adult jails and significantly invest in prevention. HOUSE UPDATE: Even though the Senate still has not acted on S. 2073, it could move forward on the floor and quickly go to conference committee where the Senate and the House would hash out differences and decide on a final bill. The House recently named their members who will meet with the Senate if this bill moves to conference. In addition to calling your Senators, if your Representative is listed below, please call him or her to express your concerns about the juvenile crime proposals. Conferees are: Goodling (R-PA); Castle (R-DE); Souder (R-IN); Hyde (R-IL); McCollum (R-FL); Hutchinson (R-AR); Martinez (D-CA); Scott (D-VA); Conyers (D-MI); and Jackson-Lee (D-TX). -- Potential Cuts to Welfare Programs, Medicaid and the Social Services Block Grant -- As congress rushes to adjourn for the year, the Republican leadership is considering cuts to welfare programs, Medicaid, and the Social Services Block Grant, among others, in order to pay for spending bills. Cuts to welfare programs and the Social Services Block Grant will hurt families as they attempt to move from welfare to work. The Social Services Block Grant allows states to provide funding for vital services for low-income families. Cuts to Medicaid will hurt state efforts to enroll more children in health care programs. The National Governor's Association (NGA) weighed in to oppose the cuts with a strongly worded bi-partisan letter to congress signed by Governors Thompson (R-WI), Leavitt (R-UT), Carper (D-DE), O'Bannon (D-IN), and Chiles (D-FL). The letter can be found on the NGA Web site at **ACTION NEEDED: Call your Representative and urge him or her not to cut funding for welfare programs, Medicaid, and the Social Services Block Grant. These programs are crucial for meeting the needs of low-income families and the children in those families as the parents move from welfare to work. ************************************************************************ UPDATES -- Poverty Statistics from the Census Bureau -- Key findings from the recently released Census Bureau poverty statistics show a steady increase of poor children living in working families, and a twenty percent increase of working families with children living below half the poverty line. These findings have a major implication for the changing welfare system: 1) More families are working, but are still poor, and in fact, many working families have fallen even deeper into poverty; 2) Work alone is not enough to lift some families out of poverty; and 3) Additional supports for working families -- such as child care and greater use of earned-income tax credits -- are needed. -- Update on the Wellstone Amendment to the Higher Education Bill -- On Tuesday, September 29, the Senate approved the Higher Education bill without Senator Wellstone's amendment, approved earlier this year by a vote of 56-42. The amendment would have allowed two years of vocational and postsecondary education or training to count as a work activity for welfare recipients, and would have enabled more adults to participate in these activities. The Wellstone provision was deleted when the House and Senate met to come up with a final Higher Education bill. Instead, the final bill calls for a government study about this issue by the General Accounting Office. -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Ana Hicks Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org www.childrensdefense.org From chriscd@jhu.edu Thu Oct 1 09:49:30 1998 Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 11:48:41 -0400 From: christopher chase-dunn Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: Addition to FBC website] To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Reply-to: chriscd@jhu.edu This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------4D48F9DC39B874F2F3DF60A5 --------------4D48F9DC39B874F2F3DF60A5 Thu, 01 Oct 1998 10:27:10 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 10:29:26 -0400 From: immanuel wallerstein Subject: Fwd: Addition to FBC website To: chriscd@jhu.edu oct. 1, 1998 dear chris, can you put this message on the wsn and psn networks. thank you/immanuel ANNOUNCEMENT To: WSN, PSN As of Oct. 1, 1998, the web site of the Fernand Braudel Center will contain a twice monthly commentary on the world today by Immanuel Wallerstein. They will appear the 1st and 15th of each month. They may be downloaded at . They are intended to be reflections on the contemporary world scene, as seen from the perspective not of the immediate headlines but of the long term. Prof. Immanuel Wallerstein Fernand Braudel Center Binghamton University Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 USA Tel: 1-607-777-4924 FAX: 1-607-777-4315 Email: Web: --------------4D48F9DC39B874F2F3DF60A5-- From jonathan.mill@somerville.oxford.ac.uk Fri Oct 2 13:44:16 1998 by oxmail.ox.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.02 #3) id 0zPB7N-0005RA-00 by sable.ox.ac.uk with local-smtp (Exim 2.03 #1) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:43:57 +0100 (BST) From: Jon To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: cannibalism In-Reply-To: Hi I am currently researching a project on cannibalism. I know many social scientists deny that this has ever taken place as a standard, ritualised form in any society, but I was wondering if anyone could send me any interesting references they know about concerning the consumption of human flesh throughout history or in contemporary situations. Cheers, Jon Mill ......................................................................... JONATHAN MILL SOMERVILLE COLLEGE, OXFORD. OX2 6HD ENGLAND TEL: (+44)(01865)552125 E-MAIL: jonathan.mill@somerville.oxford.ac.uk ........................................................................ From tr@tryoung.com Sun Oct 4 05:31:51 1998 (usr-mtp-40.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.40]) by H50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 07:27:27 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Three for your students teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu, social-class@listserv.uic.edu There are three articles in the Red Feather Archives which students around the country seem to like to read as they are introduced to sociology. They are: A. No. 108  THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT: Structural and Cultural Approaches at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/108Sports.htm B. No. 144 THE PROMISE OF SOCIOLOGY Critical Theory and Emancipatory Knowledge at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/144p-soc.htm C. No.181 DRESS, DRAMA AND SELF: The Tee Shirt as Text at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/181shirt.htm TWO MORE FOR THOSE WHO TEACH HONORS SOCIOLOGY: D. No. 153 THE ARCHEOLOGY OF SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE And The Drama of Human Understanding. at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/153ArcheologyHumanKnowlege.htm E. No. 145 MARX AND THE POSTMODERN: Compatibilities and Contrarieties at: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/145Marx&Postmodern.htm ...and gladly wold they lerne and gladly teche. Chaucer TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From s-tmatthews@bss1.umd.edu Sun Oct 4 08:18:35 1998 4 Oct 98 10:13:30 +1100 From: "Todd Matthews" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 10:13:28 EDT Subject: Re: Sociobiology and ideology In-reply-to: Hello all - especially Andy, a former colleague and (current) friend of mine. I have been lurking on the list for quite a while now, watching debates unfold and dissipate. My question is - how is ideology being defined? It is one of those terms, like "paradigm" and "politics" that we all use, yet I believe do so in rather different ways, leading to confusion, obfuscation, and a lack of "advance" in our collective understanding. In the context that Andy is writing, it appears that ideologies are only "right-wing," by extension "conservative" perhaps, and thus are instruments of the ruling power structure (states and economic elites) to ensure a compliant population of labor and to maintain control over the means of violence (i.e. to maintain hegemony over the masses). Is this an ideological claim, or something else? And, on a separate, but nonetheless relevant point (I believe), "politically" speaking, for the "progressives" in the audience, what is the end result of linking "liberals" and the "right wing" together, in terms of class struggle and other forms of contestation? Does it not merely strengthen the already powerful, or are we clarifying the "realities" of the already-existing power structure? Thank you, Todd Matthews University of Maryland Department of Sociology > On Sat, 3 Oct 1998, Dave Byrne wrote: > > > Actually the kind of reductionism represented by Dawkins in 'The Selfish > > Gene' and presented as the basis of social action by Ridley in 'The Origins > > of Virtue' isn't even good biology. > > It is ideology. > > Before I am misunderstood - since this happened before in a discussion > over the reactionism of sociobiology - although there may be > sociobiologists who appear as progressive-liberals I still identify > sociobiology as right wing ideology because of its implications and > character as a political-ideological structure. The reactionary political > and financial affiliations of the sociobiologist are useful indicators in > locating the ideologue the political-ideology structure of sociobiology, > but they do not exhaust the structure of sociobiology. > > Andy > > From spectors@netnitco.net Sun Oct 4 15:47:11 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: On linking liberals and "right wingers" Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 16:44:49 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" On linking "liberal" and "right-wing" -- what they have in common is support for capitalism. And the liberal version is scarcely more gentle. Even if they do push for some more day care centers in certain neighborhoods, they pay for it from the exploited labor (no, that's not "jargon"--it's a statement of fact), the exploited labor of hundreds of millions of workers forced to work for low wages. Forced by governments which are armed by U.S. politicians -- liberal and conservative alike. The misery and death of working class people in the U.S. and all over the world carried out while liberals were running the U.S. government dwarfs what the Nazis did (although they only had 12 years....) The liberals are not "worse" of course, except in the sense that they mislead more people, at least, among the people who might read this on PSN. In another setting it might be more appropriate to focus the critique on the "right wing"..... In any case, it is wiser to forgo the crumbs, perhaps better described as "getting bought of rather cheaply", that the liberals might promise, and instead expose and struggle against all forms of capitalism. Alan Spector From fujimoto@memorex.co.jp Sun Oct 4 23:22:58 1998 From: "Kazuo Fujimoto" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Labour UNION Web site Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:15:44 +0900 Dear PSNer, I am looking for case or case study on Web/Intranet in the Labour Union Movments. I think Web/Intanet Communication are alomost always told by the standing points of view of managements or capital. I wonder whethre this communiaction tool, Web , contribute to the improvement in the area of in-formal communications. If you know good Web site and/or research papers , please recomnned them to me. Best Regards. -- Kazuo Fujimoto ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lecturar, TUSDA College,"Information and Society" E-mail:kazuo.fujimoto@niftyne.jp or PBC00321 (NIFTY-SERVE ) URL=http://world.std.com/~fujimoto/ PGP 1E 90 FB 6A 53 6E 60 AC D5 87 E3 3F 5D EC 1A 69 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From PJM0930@aol.com Sun Oct 4 19:15:12 1998 From: PJM0930@aol.com Sun, 4 Oct 1998 21:14:30 +2000 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 21:14:30 EDT To: Patrick.Krueger@Colorado.EDU, psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Sociobiology In a message dated 10/2/1998 11:53:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Patrick.Krueger@Colorado.EDU writes: << If the metaphysic of human nature will not be found in the genes, then where will it be found? From where do "social conditions" arise, if not from the material world? >> That is the reductionist fallacy. Just because "in principle" you might be able to reduce a higher level phenomenon to a lower level "cause", that doesn't at all ensure that a theory explaining the lower level (e.g, genetics) is useful for explaining the upper level (e.g. behavior). In other words, different scales of reality have their own emergent properties that are not readily explainable through reference to underlying levels. This is not merely a problem that later science will resolve, I believe there is a "in principle" limitation to reduction due such reasons as the existence of chaotic and adaptive systems as well as interaction between scales of phenomenon. From brbgc@ix.netcom.com Sun Oct 4 21:03:36 1998 by dfw-ix16.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma027878; Sun Oct 4 22:02:59 1998 Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 23:03:04 -0400 From: Ric Brown Reply-To: brbgc@ix.netcom.com To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK , psn-cafe Subject: Position Announcement FULL TIME ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN GLOBALIZATION Fall 1999 Department of Social Science, Pratt Institute The Department of Social at Pratt Institute seeks a gifted teacher and innovative scholar for a tenure-track position in globalization starting September 1, 1999. The successful candidate would have competence in the study of international cultural flows--the creation, reception, and movement of goods, services, knowledge, ideas, art and design as they are organized globally, regionally, nationally and locally. The scholar's work would focus on the traffic and trade in culture, particularly on cultural policy, international regulation of intellectual property, transnational sources of control over dissemination and broadcast media, and the impact of these forces on cultural traditions and practices. Substantive area focus in Africa, the Pacific Rim, Latin America, or explicit geographical comparison is strongly sought. We are most interested in a person engaged in rethinking questions of development and identity--be it on the basis of ethnicity, gender, religion, or some other affiliation--both within and beyond a national framework. The new assistant professor would teach courses in Social Science and/or World Civilizations, depending on areas of expertise. He or she would contribute to existing departmental emphases on world affairs, and be able to develop new courses and contribute to interdisciplinary programs so as to assure that they sustain a robust global perspective. Academic specialization must be combined with an ability to establish a foundation in basic concepts of the social sciences, philosophy, and history. Pratt is an internationally recognized school of art, architecture and design located in the historic Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. It has a diverse student body with an enrollment of over thirty-eight hundred. A.B.D. and some teaching experience required; Ph.D., preferred. Send cover letter, vitae and names of three references to Chair Globalization Search Committee Department of Social Science Pratt Institute 200 Willoughby Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11205. We will begin reviewing applications on November 1, and accept them until a candidate has been selected. We encourage applications from women and minorities. EOE. -- _________________________________________________ Ric Brown Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies Department of Social Science & Management Dekalb Hall, 3rd fl. Pratt Institute Brooklyn, N.Y. 11205 _________________________________________________ Email: brbgc@ix.netcom.com URL: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7364 Phone: 1.718.636.3600 ext.2709 Fax: 1.718.636.3573 _________________________________________________ From smrose@exis.net Mon Oct 5 16:18:44 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 18:17:18 +0000 Subject: (Fwd) African American prosperity? I posted this on the ABS list in response to recent misleading newspaper articles hyping black economic gains. Steve Rosenthal ============================================= ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 18:07:32 +0000 From: Steve Rosenthal Subject: African American prosperity? To: ABSLST-L@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU Johnny Williams posted a newspaper article a few days ago that claimed that incomes were growing and poverty was declining for African Americans as a result of the long period of economic expansion. The figures are more or less accurate, but the article presented a misleading picture. The reality is far less prosperous than the article implied. First, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert cited an Economic Policy Institute study which shows that the inflation adjusted income of the median worker was 3.1% lower in 1996 than in 1989. Moreover, the typical family worked 247 hours more per year (that's six weeks longer) in 1996 than in 1989. These figures indicate that black progress has actually been mainly a recovery from the drastic harm inflicted on blacks by the last recession. It also shows that much of the rise in income has come from working longer hours and more jobs, not from any significant pay increases. Moreover, more and more blacks are working without benefits, especially health insurance. Of the record 43.7 million Americans without health insurance today, a highly disproportionate number are blacks. The shrinkage in the black/white gap, like the modest shrinkage in the female/male gap during the 1990s, is not mainly a result of black and female advancement, but mainly a consequence of white and male workers decline. Corporate downsizing, forced early retirement, movement of jobs overseas, have been cost-cutting measures carried out by corporate America to eliminate millions of higher paying jobs previously held disproportionately by white males. It is easy to see this process in academe, where cutbacks in senior faculty have led to increased employment of low paid part-time and adjunct faculty. To be sure, there have been some short-term statistical gains for black workers over the past few years, but they will prove to be as illusory as the paper profits embodied in the inflated and shaky stock market. Capitalists have increased corporate wealth immensely during the past several years, and the inequality gap between the capitalist class and the working class has increased vastly. Capitalists have accomplished this by overseas expansion, weakening of unions, shifts to part-time and outsourced work, and by welfare reform that flooded the labor market with hundreds of thousands of additional low wage workers. Capitalists have been very successful in the short run with these strategies. They've driven unemployment down to the lowest levels since the Vietnam War without any significant upward (inflationary pressure) on workers wages. The article speculated about whether blacks would again lose their gains in the next recession. In the coming depression, which has already engulfed Asia, Russia, Brazil, and many other countries, black workers and all other working and middle class people will be hit very hard. Welfare and food stamps will no longer be there for millions. Stock market retirement savings will go up in smoke. Let us not be lulled into complacency by one-sided articles touting economic progress. Tens of millions have never seen that progress and never will under this system. This economic progress will soon prove to be worth no more than the various anti-racist gestures Bill Clinton has performed while carrying out racist policies at home and abroad. Steve Rosenthal From mweigand@usa.net Mon Oct 5 17:00:35 1998 Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 13:43:04 -0700 From: mark weigand Reply-To: mweigand@usa.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Christians prepare for Y2K apocalypse This week the Denver Post ran a long series entitled "CHRISTIANS BRACE FOR APOCALYPSE 2000: Y2K Bug Spawns Fears of Chaos, Hopes of Converts". It details the efforts of some groups, especially fundamentalists, to stockpile food, water, and often weapons, and to step up their efforts to gain converts. The article indicates that sales of bulk food, portable electric generators, survival books and other survival supplies are booming in the U.S. Exploiting fears of what could be a very real problem, TV evangelist Pat Robertson (who ran for President in 1988) preaches that America must wake up or face God's wrath (presumably Y2K). The publisher of a Christian magazine says, "I've got Christian friends who are stockpiling guns...and putting these away in barns out in the country and burying them in the ground". These gun-toting Christians are planning to protect their families at any cost. Scores of religious web sites provide tips on surviving Y2K, etc. In my classes I intend to discuss Y2K and the collective behavior/religious ferver it will create, and would be interested in any sociological comments from other PSN'rs. For example: [] Are similar events happening in Europe? [] What are the social implications/contradictions of such stockpiling and tribalism? [] What is a reasonable progressive position regarding such actions by religious groups? Best wishes, -=MW=- MSCD.edu From tell@net.bluemoon.net Mon Oct 5 10:26:50 1998 Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:26:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Shawgi Tell To: mult-cul aera-k Subject: Need Help Greetings, It is estimated that there ar 2.5 - 3 million U.S. citizens of Arab descent in the U.S. Yet, it is diffciult to find information on this population. It is even more difficult to find information on U.S. students and youth of Arab ancestry. I have only a few sources (e.g., C. Bennett, S. Nieto, M. Suleiman, and M. Wingfield & B. Karaman.) I'm looking into the experiences, needs and interests of such students and youth and would appreciate any information on this under-investigated population, particularly recent education and academic articles. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Shawgi Tell Nazareth College of Rochester tell@net.bluemoon.net From mweigand@usa.net Mon Oct 5 12:29:51 1998 Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 16:46:34 -0700 From: mark weigand Reply-To: mweigand@usa.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Big Brother is watching This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------16467BBB198C I ran across this article from the Village Voice which I want to pass along. Apologies for its length. Any comments? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------16467BBB198C = US 'Echelon' Spy Network Monitoring Email-Fax-Cell Phones Worldwide www.villagevoice.com By Jason Vest 8-19-98 Suppose, this past weekend, you sent an email to a friend overseas. There's a reasonable possibility your communication was intercepted by a global surveillance system--especially if you happened to discuss last week's bombings in East Africa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- Or suppose you're stuck in traffic and in your road rage you whip out a cell phone and angrily call your congressman's office in Washington. There's a chance the government is listening in on that conversation, too (but only for the purposes of "training" new eavesdroppers). -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- Or suppose you're on a foreign trip--vacation, business, relief work--and you send off a fax to some folks that Washington doesn't view too keenly. Your message could be taken down and analyzed by the very same system. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- That system is called ECHELON and it is controlled by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In America, it is the Intelligence Network That Dare Not Be Acknowledged. Questions about it at Defense Department briefings are deftly deflected. Requests for information about it under the Freedom of Information Act linger in bureaucratic limbo. Researchers who mention possible uses of it in the presence of intelligence officials are castigated. Members of Congress--theoretically, the people's representatives who provide oversight of the intelligence community--betray no interest in helping anyone find out anything about it. Media outlets (save the award-winning but low-circulation Covert Action Quarterly) ignore it. In the official view of the U.S. Government, it doesn't exist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- But according to current and former intelligence officials, espionage scholars, Australian and British investigative reporters, and a dogged New Zealand researcher, it is all too real. Indeed, a soon-to-be finalized European Parliament report on ECHELON has created quite a stir on the other side of the Atlantic. The report's revelations are so serious that it strongly recommends an intensive investigation of NSA operations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- The facts drawn out by these sources reveal ECHELON as a powerful electronic net--a net that snags from the millions of phone, fax, and modem signals traversing the globe at any moment selected communications of interest to a five-nation intelligence alliance. Once intercepted (based on the use of key words in exchanges), those communiqu=82s are sent in real time to a central computer system run by the NSA; round-the-clock shifts of American, British, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand analysts pour over them in search of . . . what? -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- Originally a Cold War tool aimed at the Soviets, ECHELON has been redirected at civilian targetsworldwide. In fact, as the European Parliament report noted, political advocacy groups like Amnesty International and Greenpeace were amongst ECHELON's targets. The system's awesome potential (and potential for abuse) has spurred some traditional watchdogs to delve deep in search of its secrets, and even prompted some of its minders within the intelligence community to come forward. "In some ways," says Reg Whittaker, a professor and intelligence scholar at Canada's York University, "it's probably the most useful means of getting at the Cold War intelligence-sharing relationship that still continues." -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- While the Central Intelligence Agency--responsible for covert operations and human-gathered intelligence, or HUMINT--is the spy agency most people think of, the NSA is, in many respects, the more powerful and important of the U.S. intelligence organizations. Though its most egregious excesses of 20 years ago are believed to have been curbed, in addition to monitoring all foreign communications, it still has the legal authority to intercept any communication that begins or ends in the U.S., as well as use American citizens' private communications as fodder for trainee spies. Charged with the gathering of signals intelligence, or SIGINT--which encompasses all electronic communications transmissions--the NSA is larger, better funded, and infinitely more secretive than the CIA. Indeed, the key document that articulates its international role has never seen the light of day. That document, known as the UKUSA Agreement, forged an alliance in 1948 among five countries--the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand--to geographically divvy up SIGINT-gathering responsibilities, with the U.S. as director and main underwriter. Like the NSA--hardly known until the Pike and Church congressional investigations of the '70s--the other four countries' SIGINT agencies remain largely unknown and practically free of public oversight. While other member nations conduct their own operations, there has "never been any misunderstanding that we're NSA subsidiaries," according to Mike Frost, an ex-officer in Canada's SIGINT service, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). Moreover, all the signatory countries have NSA listening posts within their borders that operate with little or no input from the local agency. Like nature, however, journalism abhors a vacuum, and the dearth of easily accessible data has inspired a cadre of researchers around the world to monitor the SIGINT community as zealously as possible. It is not, says David Banisar of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an easy task. Getting raw data is difficult enough. Figuring out what it means even more so, he says, thanks in part to the otherwise conservative NSA's very liberal use of code names--many of which regularly change--for everything from devices to operations. One that appears to have remained constant, however, is ECHELON. In 1988, Margaret Newsham, a contract employee from Lockheed posted at Menwith Hill, the NSA's enormous listening post in Yorkshire, England, filed a whistleblower suit against Lockheed, charging the company with waste and mismanagement (the case is currently being appealed after an initial dismissal). At the same time, Newsham told Congressional investigators that she had knowledge of illegal eavesdropping on American citizens by NSA personnel. While a committee began investigating, it never released a report. Nonetheless, British investigative reporter Duncan Campbell managed to get hold of some of the committee's findings, including a slew of Menwith Hill operations. Among them was a project described as the latest installment of a system code named ECHELON that would enable the five SIGINT agencies "to monitor and analyze civilian communications into the 21st century." To SIGINT watchers, the concept wasn't unfamiliar. In the early '80s, while working on his celebrated study of the NSA, The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford discovered that the agency was developing a system called PLATFORM, which would integrate at least 52 separate SIGINT agency computer systems into one central network run out of Fort Meade, Maryland. Then in 1991, an anonymous British SIGINT officer told the TV media about an ongoing operation that intercepted civilian telexes and ran them through computers loaded with a program called "the Dictionary"--a description that jibed with both Bamford and Campbell's gleanings. In 1996, however, intelligence watchdogs and scholars got an avalanche of answers about ECHELON, upon the publication of Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network,written by Nicky Hager. A New Zealand activist turned investigative author, Hager spent 12 years digging into the ties between his country's SIGINT agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), and the NSA. Utilizing leaked material and scores of interviews with GCSB officers, Hager not only presented a revealing look at the previously unknown machinations of the GCSB (even New Zealand's Prime Minister was kept in the dark about its full scope) but also produced a highly detailed description of ECHELON. According to Hager's information--which leading SIGINT scholar and National Security Archive analyst Jeffrey Richelson calls "excellent"--ECHELON functions as a real-time intercept and processing operation geared toward civilian communications. Its first component targets international phone company telecommunications satellites (or Intelsats) from a series of five ground intercept stations located at Yakima, Washington; Sugar Grove, West Virginia; Morwenstow in Cornwall, England; Waihopai, New Zealand; and Geraldton, Australia. The next component targets other civilian communications satellites, from a similar array of bases, while the final group of facilities intercept international communications as they're relayed from undersea cables to microwave transmitters. According to Hager's sources, each country devises categories of intercept interest. Then a list of key words or phrases (anything from personal, business, and organization names to e-mail addresses to phone and fax numbers) is devised for each category. The categories and keywords are entered by each country into its "Dictionary" computer, which, after recognizing keywords, intercepts full transmissions, and sends them to the terminals of analysts in each of the UKUSA countries. To the layperson, ECHELON may sound like something out of the X-Files. But the National Security Archives's Richelson and others maintain that not only is this not the stuff of science fiction, but is, in some respects, old hat. More than 20 years ago, then CIA director William Colby matter-of-factly told congressional investigators that the NSA monitored every overseas call made from the United States. Two years ago, British Telecom accidentally disclosed in a court case that it had provided the Menwith Hill station with equipment potentially allowing it access to hundreds of thousands of European calls a day. "Let me put it this way," says a former NSA officer. "Consider that anyone can type a keyword into a Net search engine and get back tens of thousands of hits in a few seconds." A pause. "Assume that people working on the outer edges have capabilities far in excess of what you do." Since earlier this year, ECHELON has caused something of a panic in Europe, following the disclosure of an official European Parliament report entitled "In Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control." While the report did draw needed attention to ECHELON, it--and subsequent European press coverage--says Richelson, "built ECHELON up into some super-elaborate system that can listen in on everyone at any time, which goes beyond what Nicky Hager wrote." Richelson, along with other SIGINT experts, emphasizes that, despite ECHELON's apparent considerable capabilities, it isn't omniscient. EPIC's David Banisar points out that despite the high volume of communications signals relayed by satellite and microwave, a great many fiber-optic communications--both local and domestic long distance--can't be intercepted without a direct wiretap. And, adds Canadian ex-spook Mike Frost, there's a real problem sorting and reading all the data; while ECHELON can potentially intercept millions of communications, there simply aren't enough analysts to sort through everything. "Personally, I'm not losing any sleep over this," says Richelson, "because most of the stuff probably sits stored and unused at [NSA headquarters in] Fort Meade." Richelson's position is echoed by some in the intelligence business ("Sure, there's potential for abuse," says one insider, "but who would you rather have this--us or Saddam Hussein?"). But others don't take such a benign view. "ECHELON has a huge potential for violating privacy and for abuses of democracy," says Hager. "Because it's so powerful and its operations are so secret that there are no real constraints on agencies using it against any target the government chooses. The excessive secrecy built up in the Cold War removes any threat of accountability." The only time the public gets anything resembling oversight, Hager contends, is when intelligence officials have a crisis of conscience, as several British spooks did in 1992. In a statement to the London Observer, the spies said they felt they could "no longer remain silent regarding that which we regard to be gross malpractice and negligence within the establishment we operate"--the establishment in question being the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's version of the NSA. The operatives said that an intercept system based on keyword recognition (sound familiar?) was routinely targeting the communications of Amnesty International and Christian Aid. Adds Hager, "The use of intelligence services in these cases had nothing to do with national security, but everything to do with keeping tabs on critics. The British government frequently finds itself in political conflict with Amnesty over countries it is supplying arms to or governments with bad human rights records. ECHELON provides the government with a way to gain advantage over Amnesty by eavesdropping on their operations." Hager and others also argue that potential for abuse lies in the hierarchical and reciprocal nature of the UKUSA alliance. According to data gathered by congressional committees in the '70s, and accounts of former SIGINT officers like Frost, UKUSA partners have, from time to time, used each other to circumvent prohibitions on spying on their own citizens. Frost, for example, directed Canadian eavesdropping operations against both Americans and Britons--at the request of both countries' intelligence services, to whom the surveillance data was subsequently passed. And British Members of Parliament have raised concerns for years about the lack of oversight at the NSA's Menwith Hill facility--a base on British soil with access to British communications yet run by the NSA, which works closely with the GCHQ. "Given that both the U.S. and Britain turn their electronic spying systems against many other friendly and allied nations," says Hager, "the British would be naive not to assume it is happening to them." David Banisar, the electronic privacy advocate, says that apparently just asking about ECHELON, or mentioning anything like it, is considered unreasonable. Since earlier this year, Banisar has been trying to get information on ECHELON from the NSA under the Freedom of Information Act. "They're not exactly forthcoming," he says, explaining that he only recently got a response in which he was in effect told the European Parliament report "didn't provide enough information" for the NSA to locate the requested information. However, Wayne Madsen, co-author with Bamford of the most recent edition of The Puzzle Palace, was more directly discouraged from investigating ECHELON's possibly dubious applications, as the following story makes clear. On April 21, 1996, Chechnyen rebel leader Dzokhar Dudayev was killed when a Russian fighter fired two missiles into his headquarters. At the time of the attack, Dudayev had been talking on his cellular phone to Russian officials in Moscow about possible peace negotiations. According to electronics experts, getting a lock on Dudayev's cell phone signal would not have been difficult, but as Martin Streetly, editor of Jane's Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems, noted at the time, the Russian military was so under-equipped and poorly maintained, it was doubtful a radar intercept plane could have honed in on the signal without help. Speaking at a conference on Information Warfare a month later, Madsen, one of the world's leading SIGINT and computer security experts, explained that it was both politically and technically possible that the NSA helped the Russians kill Dudayev. Noting the West's interest in preserving the Yeltsin presidency and in ensuring the safety of an oil consortium's pipeline running through Chechnya, Madsen explained which NSA satellites could have been used to intercept Dudayev's call and directionally locate its signal. This wasn't exactly a stunning revelation: Not only had reports recently been released in Australia and Switzerland about police tracking suspects by their cell phone signatures, but Reuters and Agence France-Press had written about the Dudayev scenario as technically plausible. Still, after his talk, Madsen was approached by an Air Force officer assigned to the NSA, who tore into him. "Don't you realize that we have people on the ground over there?" Madsen recalled the officer seething. "You're talking about things that could put them in harm's way." Asks Madsen, "If this was how Dudayev died, do you think it's unreasonable the American people know about the technical aspects behind this kind of diplomacy?" Nicky Hager says that the New Zealand intelligence officers who talked to him did so out of a growing disillusionment with the importance to New Zealand of access to ECHELON information. In some cases, they said, they had been so busy listening in on targets of interest to other countries, they altogether missed opportunities to gather intelligence in New Zealand's national interest. Ross Coulthart, an investigative reporter with Australia's Nine Network, says intelligence sources of his have reported similar feelings. "In the UKUSA intelligence community, there appear, roughly, to be two camps: those who believe that it's best to fall in line behind the U.S., because the U.S. has acted as protector and funder and gives us resources and limited participation in a system we couldn't support ourselves, and those who think the whole thing is somewhat overrated and sometimes contrary to national interests." In 1995, for example, Australian intelligence officials leaked a story to the Australian Broadcasting Company that was, at first blush, damaging to themselves: Australian intelligence had bugged the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. However, the Australians had no access to the actual transmissions; they had merely planted the bugs at the behest of the NSA, which was getting the raw feed. "Given that both Australian and American companies were bidding for Chinese wheat contracts at the time," says Coulthart, "it didn't seem like Australia was getting anything out of this arrangement, so they put the story out there." Indeed, says York University's Whittaker, "there's a really important degree of [economic] tension that wasn't there during the Cold War. On the other hand, most of the threats perceived as common and borderless--terrorism, nuclear proliferation, weapons of mass destruction, and global crime--inspire more cooperation between the UKUSA partners." Hager thinks such cooperation is certainly merited, but what ECHELON to some extent reflects, he believes, is the continued erosion of civil liberties and the notion of sovereignty in the name of security. "Some people I interviewed told me repeatedly, 'It's a good thing for us to be part of this strong alliance,' " he says. "What it amounts to, in the end, is an argument for being a cog in a big intelligence machine." This document last modified Tuesday, August 11, 1998, 12:56 PM EDT. = --------------16467BBB198C-- From markr@taipan.nmsu.edu Mon Oct 5 15:33:08 1998 Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 15:35:59 -0600 (MDT) From: Mark Richer To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: cannibalism In-Reply-To: Hi Jon, PSNers, I find it surprising that "many social scientists deny that [cannibalism] has ever taken place as a standard, ritualised form in any society," but I'm probably ignorant of the debate. I'd thought that the link between ritual cannibalism and kuru disease in Papua New Guinea was well established. There are a number of books about kuru (including testimonies - it's a relatively recent disease as I understand it), including one by Robert Klitzman that just came out ("The Trembling Mountain"). Stauber and Rampton also give a popular review of some of the literature on kuru in "Mad Cow USA." all the best from New Mexico, Mark Richer New Mexico State University On Fri, 2 Oct 1998, Jon wrote: > I am currently researching a project on cannibalism. I know many social > scientists deny that this has ever taken place as a standard, ritualised > form in any society, but I was wondering if anyone could send me any > interesting references they know about concerning the consumption of human > flesh throughout history or in contemporary situations. From ae5317@wayne.edu Tue Oct 6 08:48:08 1998 Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 10:47:22 -0400 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: David Fasenfest Subject: call for papers types="text/plain,text/html"; boundary="=====================_5953819==_.ALT" --=====================_5953819==_.ALT CALL FOR PAPERS SYMPOSIUM International Journal of Economic Development BORDER CROSSINGS: LOCALITY IN THE NORTH AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY Laura Reese David Fasenfest Center for Urban Studies Wayne State University The purpose of this symposium is to explore global dimensions of local economic development in Canada, Mexico, and the United States with emphasis on policy and policy issues which cross the North American borders. Particularly interesting topics/questions would include but not be limited to: =B7 What are the effects of NAFTA on local development policy? =20 =B7 To what extent does local economic development policy transmission take place across the borders? =20 =B7 Is there a North American approach to local economic development?= =20 =B7 What types of trans-national cooperative efforts are taking place= in local development or growth management? =B7 How comparable are local development policies and policy processes= in the three nations? While papers that explore cross-border comparisons are particularly encouraged, those that focus on local economic development policy in any of the three nations will also be considered provided they explicitly reference the international economy. Given that local economies are increasingly interconnected both to each other and to international systems and forces, that localities now interact with global actors directly, and that international agreements are designed to facilitate multi-nation regional economies, a broader investigation of impacts on local economies is necessary For more information e-mail laura.reese@wayne.edu or= david.fasenfest@wayne.edu Please send abstracts, paper proposals, or papers by December 15, 1998 to Laura Reese, Urban Planning Program, 225 State Hall, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202. Completed manuscripts will be expected by June 15, 1999. =20 Prof. David Fasenfest, Director Center for Urban Studies Wayne State University 656 W. Kirby Detroit, MI 48202 313-577-2208 (reception) 313-993-9525 (office) 313-577-1274 (fax) david.fasenfest@wayne.edu http://www.cus.wayne.edu --=====================_5953819==_.ALT
CALL FOR PAPERS

SYMPOSIUM
International Journal of Economic Development

BORDER CROSSINGS:
LOCALITY IN THE NORTH AMERICAN POLITICAL ECONOMY

Laura Reese
David Fasenfest
Center for Urban Studies
Wayne State University


The purpose of this symposium is to explore global dimensions of local economic development in Canada, Mexico, and the United States with emphasis on policy and policy issues which cross the North American borders.  Particularly interesting topics/questions would include but not be limited to:

=B7       What are the effects of NAFTA on local development policy? 
=B7       To what extent does local economic development policy transmission take place across the borders? 
=B7       Is there a North American approach to local economic development?
=B7       What types of trans-national cooperative efforts are taking place in local development or growth management?
=B7       How comparable are local development policies and policy processes in the three nations?

While papers that explore cross-border comparisons are particularly encouraged, those that focus on local economic development policy in any of the three nations will also be considered provided they explicitly reference the international economy.  Given that local economies are increasingly interconnected both to each other and to international systems and forces, that localities now interact with global actors directly, and that international agreements are designed to facilitate multi-nation regional economies, a broader investigation of impacts on local economies is necessary

For more information e-mail laura.reese@wayne.edu or david.fasenfest@wayne.edu Please send abstracts, paper proposals, or papers by= December 15, 1998 to Laura Reese, Urban Planning Program, 225 State Hall,= Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202.  Completed manuscripts will= be expected by June 15, 1999.  


        Prof.= David Fasenfest, Director
        Center= for Urban Studies
        Wayne= State University
        656 W.= Kirby
        Detroit,= MI 48202

        313-577-= 2208 (reception)
        313-993-= 9525 (office)
        313-577-= 1274 (fax)

        david.fa= senfest@wayne.edu
        http://www.cus.wayne.edu
--=====================_5953819==_.ALT-- From chadk@yourinter.net Tue Oct 6 09:25:07 1998 (Post.Office MTA v3.5.2 release 221 ID# 0-52491U2500L250S0V35) Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 11:21:25 -0700 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, appsoc-l@appliedsoc.org, socgrad@csf.colorado.edu From: Chad Kimmel Subject: Call for Help Hello Everyone! I am involved in a Labor Law course this semester and have begun to research for my next paper on the National Labor Relations Board. Rather than examining the board alone, I wanted to create an overall context of the social welfare and political policies during Roosevelt's New Deal period that led to the enactment of the NLRA in 1935. I have books from Michael Katz (Shawdow of the Poor House) and Theda Skocpol (Protecting Soldiers and Mothers), but neither looks at the NLRA. Thus, I am asking for assistance in tracking down relevant literature that addresses both the social and political policies of that time, as well as (and most importantly) literature addressing the birth of the NLRA and its board of white, male, conservatives. Thanks much, Chad Kimmel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chad M. Kimmel Graduate Assistant & Data Manager Mid-Atlantic Addiction Training Institute Department of Sociology Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, Pennsylvania 15705-1087 WEB: http://www.yourinter.net/~ckimmel E-MAIL: ckimmel@yourinter.net From erics@intergate.bc.ca Tue Oct 6 10:34:08 1998 Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 09:33:01 -0700 (PDT) To: From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: 40 million Russians Expected at Labour/Communist Demonstrations Oct. 7 To subscribe to world crisis listserve, write to eric@stewards.net > > Zyuganov Vows 40 Million on Day of Nationwide > Protest - Says it's only the beginning.w > > MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse) Communist > Party boss Gennady Zyuganov (pictured) vowed > Tuesday to bring up to 40 million Russians out on the > streets for a countrywide political protest aimed at > ousting President Boris Yeltsin from power. > > The threat, published in major Moscow newspapers > and broadcast on radio and television, came on the > eve of potentially the most strident demonstration in Russia since Yeltsin > fought Communist hardliners with tanks in October 1993. > > "Oct. 7 is just the start -- the protest will continue and grow," Zyuganov, > runner-up to Yeltsin in Russia's last presidential elections, warned in a > front-page letter published in the Communist daily Sovietskaya Rossiya. > > An accompanying cartoon showed a frightened Yeltsin being dragged > out of the Kremlin, screaming: "I won't give it up." > > Zyuganov ominously told Komsomolskaya Pravda: "I fear three things > for Russia -- mutiny, hunger and a large war." > > The demonstrations come when Yeltsin appears but a shadow of his old > self, having been smitten by an economic collapse and a resurgent > opposition-led parliament that is showing more muscle than it has in > years. > > About 25 percent of all Russians, according to a recent opinion poll, > would participate in the demonstrations, which are also aimed at pressing > for billions of dollars in wage arrears for public sector workers. The > same study put the president's approval rating at a paltry 4 percent. > > Meanwhile inflation is again sweeping the country, making people's > already meager savings all but worthless as people prepare for the dark > months of the looming Russian winter. > > "This crisis had been brewing for a long time," would-be president > Aleksander Lebed was quoted Tuesday as saying by Interfax. "We > cannot mindlessly apply others' experience to Russia. This was the main > cause of the present situation." > > According to government figures published last month, wage arrears in > Russia total some 84.062 billion rubles ($5.25 billion at current rates), > while experts estimate an additional 16 billion rubles is owed to the > military. > > Some analysts suggest Wednesday's protests may be muted somewhat > by Yeltsin's decision to enlist several leftists into senior government > positions last month. > > The Communists have since changed their slogans, no longer demanding > a change in Cabinet. But they are still calling for Yeltsin's head, while > even pro-Kremlin observers agree that a redistribution of power in > Russia away from Yeltsin may be unavoidable. > > "The season of the hunt on the constitution has begun," Vyachislav > Nikonov, president of the Fond Politika research institute, wrote in > Tuesday's Izvestiya daily. > > "The president's powers are excessive, the government depends too > much on the whims of the head of state, and the parliament is relatively > ineffective," Nikonov said. > > Wednesday's demonstrations come exactly five years after Yeltsin chose > to solve a constitutional crisis in Russia by sending tanks against the > Communists and their allies holed up in parliament. > > Yeltsin has since ruled largely by decree, turning parliament into little > more than a spirited debating club. > > But with his health and political staying power in doubt, Kremlin aides > have recently advised Yeltsin to adopt a more conciliatory tone and grant > more power to parliament. ( (c) 1998 Agence France Presse) > > From KARP@vms.cis.pitt.edu Tue Oct 6 08:43:34 1998 From: KARP@vms.cis.pitt.edu Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 10:43:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Is there any outrage? Turkey Unleashed To: psn@csf.colorado.edu While I have very strong opinions a bout issues in the Aegean / Mid East, I tend to keep quiet because of my name/descent (Greeeek). I have to wonder though, where is there any outrage over Turkey's unrestricted behavior? The US gives Ankara its blessings for "cross-border" operaitons to kill Kurds (specifically PKK, leftist Kurds, a. k.a. "terrorists"). They kill them daily in the southeast of their country, and publish the daily death toll. They've gotten away with an illegal invasion in Cyprus (1974), they make claims on Greek sovereignty in the Aegean, and now they are on the brink of war with Syria, again over the issue of Kurd sj. Is there any progressive (hell,any at all!) outcry or protest, or treatise against these atrocities? And of course, now, everyone should know about the myriad of agreements (incl. military) that Turkey has signed with Israel. I am not here to simply blow my own horn, but where is the outrage??? Mike_frank G. Epitropoulos University of Pittsburgh ps...sorry for the typos, the editor is giving me problems. From klockeb@sobek.Colorado.EDU Tue Oct 6 13:23:25 1998 Tue, 6 Oct 1998 13:23:06 -0600 (MDT) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 13:23:06 -0600 (MDT) From: Klocke Brian V To: mark weigand Subject: Re: Big Brother is watching In-Reply-To: <361565DA.49A7@usa.net> THe Echelon program that was mentioned in MArk Weigand's message was one of the Censored news stories listed in the most recent "Censored" Annual out of Project Censored from Sonoma State (California, USA). The website is http://censored.sonoma.edu/ProjectCensored/ Brian K. From mweigand@usa.net Tue Oct 6 14:17:14 1998 Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 13:38:53 -0700 From: mark weigand Reply-To: mweigand@usa.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Clinton impeachment hearings Granted we are sick and tired of the Monica story, but would anyone else agree that the current call for impeachment hearings is unnecessary and self-destructive? Let's examine the scene: those few Congressmen still serving who were present at the Nixon impeachment hearings see little relationship between Nixon's and Clinton's actions, and tend not to favor impeachment. Even Republicans such as Bob Dole and Gerald Ford see no need for impeachment. Finally, most of the American public does not favor impeaching a President over a sex scandal. So, why is this happening? I would suggest that it is because Congress and the media have sunk to a new symbiotic low. Each feeds off the other's self-interested behavior. Every junior Congressman wants his 5-minutes on the nightly news pontificating about Monica and impeachment, and every TV reporter is eager to give it to him/her because this is a "history making story" (certainly not a swarm of tabloid journalists chasing self-serving, careerist politicians about!). It is much easier for Congress and the media to babble on about a sex scandal than to deal with real social problems and issues. This is the real shame of the present circus environment in Washington. -- Best Wishes, -=MW=- MSCD.edu From b.collier@bilk.ac.uk Wed Oct 7 04:07:43 1998 From: b.collier@bilk.ac.uk To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 12:18:33 +0100 Subject: Sociobiology In-reply-to: As a left-wing sociologist of working class origins I join this discussion with some trepidation, as I'm about to defend, or at least to enter some caveats about the attacks on, Runciman and Dawkins. I don't think that we can tar these people with the same brush as E. O. Wilson or, judging by an article in today's Guardian newspaper, Kingsley Browne. Wilson and Browne write bad science because they deny the independent effectivity of history and culture and their status as emergent phenomena, irreducible to our biology, as many other contributors to the debate have pointed out. In the relatively recent intellectual past, socialist thinkers such as Sebastiano Timpanaro and Norman Geras have both argued that there IS a human nature, because we are biological creatures. However, this human nature does not have the crude reductionist effect on our social behaviour that the sociobiologists (so-called) assert. If it has a determining effect then it is determination in the subtle sense that Raymond Williams identified: determination as exerting pressure and setting limits, rather than creating forms. For example, our vulnerability as biological entities sets limits to the kinds of sustainable economy and society that we can create. Capitalism is not only unstable and unsustainable because its economics are those of the madhouse, but because it rapidly and dangerously degrades our physical environment, to our biological detriment. I would also argue that our human (animal) nature predisposes us to curiosity and problem-solving and our unprecedented mental equipment allows us to co-operate in ways denied to pre-conscious animals. It is this human nature which in the first place provided the possibility of the emergent phenomena that are complex, socialised human beings and the societies and cultures they create. This is why the science of Dawkins is not "bad science" in the sense that Wilson's is. Dawkins is a Darwinian zealot but, unlike Wilson, he does not draw political prescriptions from his Darwinism, even as he applies it to humans. In his book, "The Selfish Gene" it is GENES that are selfish, and "wish" to replicate themselves, not people. Genes have a Darwinian imperative, and natural selection operates at this level, says Dawkins, he explicitly disavows that complex human activity can be explained at this level. Indeed, he goes on to posit a kind of (very unsatisfactory) theory of human behaviour based upon cultural analogues to genes: "memes". Runciman seems confused to me, but I don't think he follows Wilson down the dangerous low road to crude sociobiological determinism. He's a liberal capitalist and a class enemy, but no fascist. (AND by the way Dave Byrne I prefer his recent social theorising - i.e. before his Darwinian detour - to his old neo-Weberianism: it makes me think!) Lefties have to come to terms with the fact that we have a biology, and to figure out how this fits in to our social analysis. To reject any influence (however slight) out of hand, is as wrong, though not as dangerous, as the master-race fantasies of the crudest sociobiologists. For the left to evacuate the terrain of the biological is to leave the field clear to the fascists and their allies. "Men [sic.] make their own history, but not of their own free will; not under circumstances they themselves have chosen, but under the given and inherited circumstances with which they are directly confronted. The tradition of the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the minds of the living". Broadly speaking, that tradition includes biology. Brian Collier "The old world is dying and the new cannot be born. In this interregnum there are many morbid symptoms." Antonio Gramsci From goertzel@crab.rutgers.edu Wed Oct 7 08:35:04 1998 Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 10:23:06 -0400 From: Ted Goertzel To: "PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU" Subject: Runciman and Sociobiology I was interested to see the discussion of W.G. Runciman's book The Social Animal. I actually bought this book after reading a laudatory review in The Economist. Unfortunately it is not sold in the US, at least amazon.com doesn't have it. I had to order it from a British internet bookseller, which is possible but slow and a bit expensive. I assume none of the commentators on psn have actually read it. The thrust of the review in The Economist was that the book was unusual because actually made a case for Sociology as an interesting science. By and large, a lot of people consider sociology useless and boring drivel. You could find the review in your library, the March 21 edition. The first paragraph was: ARISTOTLES definition of man as the political animal is one of the most famous of all classical tags. Viscount Runciman of Doxford proposes an updated version, in a book designed to explain the merits of sociology to lay readers. What difference does the change of adjective make. For clarity, economy and wit, The Social Animal could hardly be bettered as a civilised introduction to its subject. ... The book does make a pretty good case for Evolutionary Theory in Sociology, and a pretty good criticism of Parsons, reminiscent of CW Mills. He attacks two groups in sociology the AM and the PM. The AM are Attitude Merchants, I call them "Advocacy Scientists" in my forthcoming book on Fernando Henrique Cardoso. It means people who use sociology to advocate for a political ideology, such as many of the writers on PSN. The PM's are the Platitude Merchants, which means people like Talcott Parsons. Runciman would like to see the AM sociology defined as a separate discipline from empirical sociology, it is really a kind of "substitute religion" in his view. Runciman, incidentally, is opposed to biological determinism and believes that all races are genetically equal. He is certainly not a "fascist" in any of the usual definitions of this term. Personally, I think his argument that sociology should be more scientific and less advocacy oriented is pretty good. He argues that we should focus on making predictions, and that "for a guess to be turned into a prediction, the conditions which, if they hold good, will produce the predicted outcome at the predicted time and place have to be specified." (p. 16). This is a point I've tried to make on psn before. Wilson's book on Consilience is available in bookstores everywhere. He does not emphasize prediction so much, but rather pragmatism, at least for the social sciences. He argues: "People expect from the social sciences the knowledge to understand their lives and control their future. They want the power to predict, not the preordained unfolding of events, which does not exist, but what will happen if society selects one course of action over another." Most sociologists seem to have given up on providing this service to society, limiting themselves to describing the defects of the world as it is without venturing to defend alternative policies. Oddly enough, the strongest criticism of his book comes from Richard Rorty, the pragmatist philosopher, in the Wilson Quarterly. He argues that Wilson doesn't have enough substance to back up his argument that consilience with biology will help sociological analysis. Wilson is a decent guy, an entomologist whose career has benefited enormously from foolish attacks from leftists who once dumped a pitcher of water on him at a scholarly meeting, proclaiming that he is "all wet." Calling him a "fascist" is inaccurate and self-defeating. But Rorty is right, his speculations on social science are thin, he doesn't really have much to say about culture or the kind of intelligence humans have which is quite different from the ants (which he describes in other utterly fascinating books). I think psn'ers would be more effective if they stuck their necks out and made some predictions about the effects of alternative policies, instead of looking for devils to stigmatize. Ted Goertzel From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Thu Oct 8 08:26:49 1998 Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 10:30:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Canadian Education Industry Summit (fwd) Thought some of you might find this interesting. Joanne Naiman Toronto ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 09:43:56 -0900 (PDT) FOR YOUR INFORMATION FROM OCUFA [Ontario Confederation of Univrsity Faculty Associations] Received from CAUT [Canadian Association of University Teachers] Below is the full text of a news release issued by several organizations, including CAUT, concerning a summit held in Toronto today on "The Canadian Education Industry". By way of background, the promotional literature for the education industry summit states: "As society places greater importance on intellectual capital, operators in the education industry confront increased competition requiring focused market niches and improved efficiencies. Shrinking budgets, changing political perspectives and a technological revolution impacting on the industry's delivery system compound the forces for change. Change always provides opportunities. Opportunities require capital. Capital needs to understand the parameters of the industry. The objectives of the Canadian Education Industry Summit are to create a platform for the education industry leaders and the investment community to discuss the unique opportunities in this new industry. Last year's sold out summit introduced the $700 billion growth industry. This year's summit will continue to explore opportunities and present compelling reasons for investment and participation in Canada. The education for profit industry will continue to grow as new relationships and operating models develop between the private and public sectors." --------------------------------------------- Federal Government Endorses Selling Public Education to the Highest Bidder Joint News Release Wednesday, October 7, 1998 TORONTO -- The Federal Government has no business endorsing a conference promoting the privatization of public education, according to infuriated public interest groups and public education supporters. "We are outraged," said Bill Graham, President of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) on behalf of eight organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Canadians. "Public education belongs to Canadians. The Federal Government has no right to offer it to the highest bidder." The Toronto conference, which was billed as The Second Annual Canadian Education Industry Summit, promotes the privatization of schools, colleges and universities. According to conference organizer Charles Ivey, the personal appearance of Sergio Marchi, Federal Trade Minister, signals the "clear support and involvement of Canada's Federal Government." Judy Darcy, National President of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wants to know if Mr. Marchi is speaking for the Federal Government. "If he had turned up to encourage investors who want to privatize Canada's health care system, Canadians would demand his resignation. We need to realize that public education is just as important and just as vulnerable as public health care, and hold this government just as accountable." "The Federal Government's response to the crisis in post-secondary education is to cut funding, cut programs and turn over what is left to the private sector," according to Elizabeth Carlyle, President of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). "Since 1990-91, we've seen tuition fees increase by 123% . But privatizers won't be satisfied with freezing the tuition fees that are already causing huge student debt. Students will be forced to pay even more to return a profit to 'owners'." "Letting the private sector rake profits from the schools Canadians have funded for decades is selling off our investment and our children's future," said Jan Eastman, President of the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF). "Every Canadian should be disturbed." The conference featured sessions with titles such as "The profitable perfect partnership" and "Bandwidth -- Very Soon to Replace the Classroom." Many sessions made it clear that technology is the means and the excuse to power-up privatization. Representatives of provincial and federal governments, the education sector and American and Canadian investors who attended the "Summit" also received strategic advice on getting around regulations and managing attacks from the critics of privatization. At stake is a $60 billion sector that promoters say is 'ripe for the picking.' Conference sponsors seem to agree. The Financial Post, Air Canada, KPMG and Smith Barney are among the companies proud be to associated with for-profit education. "Privatized education will make investors rich at the expense of children and youth," said Laurie Rektor (Executive Director) speaking for the National Anti-Poverty Organization. "Parents who are poor can't afford to send their children to a 'franchise' school. Will poor children be stuck in what's left of public schools?" she asked. "It's bad enough that government spending cuts are forcing our schools into 'partnerships' with business. Now they want businesses to own the whole system." The coalition vows to continue to press the federal and provincial/territorial governments to reverse their moves toward the privatization of education and to show their commitment to keeping the "public" in public education by restoring funding. Coalition members include: the Canadian Teachers' Federation, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Canadian Health Coalition and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. Contacts: Heather-jane Robertson, Canadian Teachers' Federation, 613-232-1505 Elizabeth Carlyle, Canadian Federation of Students, 613-232-7394 Cathy Remus, Canadian Union of Public Employees, 613-237-1590 Laurie Rektor, National Anti-Poverty Organization, 613-789-0096 Kathleen Connor, Canadian Health Coalition, 613-521-3400 Sheila Keenan, Ontario Federation of Labour, 416-443-7665 Peter McKeracher, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 905-721-2449 David Clipshaw, Can. Association of University Teachers, 416-736-2100, ext. 88168 From smrose@exis.net Thu Oct 8 14:01:31 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 15:59:45 +0000 Subject: Ko$$$ovo As the U.S. and NATO threaten to carry out air strikes in response to recent Serbian massacres of Albanians in Kosovo, I am posting excerpts from a New York Times article that appeared this past July. The article shows literally what lies underneath the genocidal warfare and ethnic cleansing Balkan politicians have unleashed during the 1990s. While "experts" pontificate about ancient ethnic enmities, this article reveals the capitalist interests that actually promote the nationalist propaganda and disastrous wars. The Trepca mining complex in Kosovo is worth at least $5 billion and is "the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans." It's the real prize in the fighting over Kosovo, along with 17 billion tons of coal reserves. The article below, even after editing, is a bit long, but it is well worth reading. I learned more from it than from weeks of reports on National Public Radio. The Albanian miners, whose parents defeated an earlier generation of fascists in the 1940s, who marched under the red flag against the fascist Milosevic, and who were later fired and replaced by him, deserve a place in our memory for upholding internationalist working class principles. = = = = = = = = July 8, 1998 Kosovo War's Glittering Prize Rests Underground By CHRIS HEDGES TARI TNG, Yugoslavia-The metal cage tumbled to the guts of the Stari Tng mine, with its glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and silver, its stagnant pools of water and muck, its steamy blasts, its miles of dank, gloomy tunnels and its vast stretches of Stygian darkness. Half a mile underground, hissing rubber air hoses were looped along tunnel walls and small lights hooked on the hard hats of miners bobbed in the inky universe. Worm-like diesel loaders roared through the corridors, laden with sparkling ore, and huge drills snarled and spat at the rock. "There is over 30 percent lead and zinc in the ore," said Novak Bjelic, the mine's beefy director. "The war in Kosovo is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbia's Kuwait-the heart of Kosovo. We export to France, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia and Belgium. "We export to a firm in New York, but I would prefer not to name it. And in addition to all this Kosovo has 17 billion tons of coal reserves. Naturally, the Albanians want all this for themselves." The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is worth at least $5 billion and has made millions of dollars for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, according to his critics. Serbia and its junior partner, Montenegro, are what remains of Yugoslavia. In March 1989, Milosevic revoked the autonomous status given to the ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the 2 million people in Kosovo, and he has refused to return any kind of self-governance. He is trying to crush a mounting armed resistance to his rule, and it appears that the mines, at least for a while, will earn him even more money. The Stari Tng mine, with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal treatment sites, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. "In the last three years we have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore," said Bjelic, 58, "and produced 286,502 tons of concentrated lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and gold." When the Nazis seized this corner of the Balkans in 1941, they handed over the hovels in Pristina, the provincial capital, to the Italian fascists. But they kept the British-built Trepca mines for the Reich, shipping out wagonloads of minerals for weapons and producing the batteries that powered the U-boats. Submarine batteries, along with ammunition, are still produced in the Trepca mines. The mining history reaches back to the Romans, who hacked out silver from the quarries. In 1988, as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, the fiercest resistance to Milosevic's vision of a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia roared out of the shafts of the four Trepca mines. Angered by the growth of the Serbian nationalist movement led by Milosevic, the ethnic Albanian miners, who made up 75 percent of the 23,000 employees, shut down the mines and organized a 30-mile-long protest march to Pristina. They carried photos of the late communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, and Yugoslav flags adorned with the communist red star. Milosevic promised the strikers that he would respect the province's autonomy and remove nationalist Serbs from positions of power. The miners returned to the shafts. A year later the miners, realizing that they had been betrayed, began a series of hunger strikes and occupied the mines. The mine protests led to general strikes throughout Kosovo, making Trepca the nerve center of the resistance movement. Serbian special policemen eventually seized the mine, carrying weakened miners out on stretchers. When the province's autonomy was revoked, a state of emergency was declared. The ethnic Albanian miners were replaced with Poles, Czechs and-later-Muslim prisoners of war captured by the Serbs in Bosnia. These days, no more than 15 percent of the current 15,000 mine workers are of Albanian origin, the government says, and most ethnic Albanians insist that the figures vastly overestimate their numbers. Branimir Dimitrijevic, one of the mine's managers, waded through a corridor filled with water, slime and mud that reached up and wrapped itself around his black rubber boots. A huge Swedish iron-cutting machine, one of four in the mine, whirled and belched like some deep-sea monster. Spotlights mounted on its cab lit up a vein of ore, and as the minerals oxidized, creating a suffocating heat, the miners were left gulping for air. The workers, bare-chested and blackened with grime in the vast sweat house, stood aside when a trolley loaded with chunks of rock rumbled down a tunnel on the iron tracks. "We will never give up Trepca!" he shouted over the drilling. "Serbs will fight to defend the mine. It is ours. We know how to make war if this is what the Albanians want. From smrose@exis.net Thu Oct 8 15:30:09 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 17:28:37 +0000 Subject: sociobiology as fascist ideology When the crisis of overproduction hit Indonesia, Indonesian capitalists fomented scapegoating assaults on ethnic Chinese. When economic crisis hit Yugoslavia, nationalists fomented ethnic cleansing wars. As Russia sinks deeper into depression, fascists and nationalist fake-communists (such as the Zhuganov-led "Communist" Party are promoting national communism (like Hitler's national socialism). Fascism is capitalism in crisis. Loyally supporting their capitalist benefactors, sociobiologists peddle the big lie that racist nationalist pogroms are genetically based natural behavior. Like the missionaries who accompanied imperialists, sociobiologists shill for fascism. The extent to which liberal and progressive academics recognize the bond between fascism and sociobiology will be a good measure of how well such academics perceive the crisis which is engulfing us all. Those whose contempt for Marxism leads them to become defenders of sociobiology will become social fascists. Perhaps only the proposed bailout of Brazil is postponing the collapse of U.S. markets Latin America and the spread of the crisis to the United States and Europe. By the way, although I have my disagreements with Chip Berlet, he is correct in his characterization of the Williams Institute as fascist. The bigger fascists, however, are the capitalists who will eventually try to solve the economic crisis by mobilizing the working class to go to war. Steve Rosenthal From draperm@socio.unp.ac.za Fri Oct 9 01:52:01 1998 Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 09:50:11 +0200 From: "Malcolm Draper" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, smrose@exis.net Subject: sociobiology as fascist ideology-illustrated version In a reply to Steve Rosenthal about sociobiology I told him of my empirical interest in the subject. Illustration and instantiation are required in debate and should make things clear. Having clarified things in this post, I'll stir it up till muddy in a later post. Talking about my country, South Africa, Marek Kohn writes about how "Afrikaners lighted upon Zulu seperatists as their natural allies. . . Whites no longer built their case around claims of superiority, but merely of difference. This was Europeam Romanticism in the southern hemisphere. Certain of its adherents like the eccentric English zookeeper and casino-owner John Aspinall, even saw the Zulus as custodians of a noble warrior tradition which had elsewhere succumbed to the banalities of modern culture. . . . Sociobiology may not actually need to be explicitly incorporated into ideology, since its assumptions are so widely disseminated. The anthropologist Pierre van den Berghe claims that the only theoretical models in social science that have any predicitive value are those of which like, rational choice theory, classical economics and and game theory, share some of the assumptions of evolutionary biology." (1995, 'The Race Gallery: The return of racial science', Jonathan Cape, London) Aspinall loves Gorillas and Zulus and has put his money where his mouth is and funded Buthelezi and his Inkatha Freedom Party thereby fuelling the violence in my country with sterling pounds. Aspinall also describes himself as being to the right of Gengis Kahn and supports eugenics but says he is not a misanthrope. He says that "I find my friends come to me with their deepest problems because they know that such problems often require a biological answer". One Elephant = 1,000 Humans (From CITES International News for Campfire, December 1996): 'A British millionaire and animal lover believes that the lives of elephants are worth more than those of humans, and that a nuclear war would be insufficient to reduce the human population to the optimum level. So says the International Express (Nov. 27) of John Aspinall, in a series on great British eccentrics. Aspinall has good reason to love animals: it was at the horse track that he first made his fortune. Nowadays, he runs two zoos in southern England at which gorillas eat as well as his house guests, and Aspinall himself howls with the wolves ... while inside their enclosure. Four keepers have so far died at Aspinall's zoos because he insists on them entering cages to bond with the animals. But it is Aspinall's views on humans that have branded him as a true eccentric. On being told by Richard Nixon that a nuclear war could kill 200 million people, Aspinall responded that this was not enough. Aspinall believes the value of humans decreases as their numbers increase, which means that the life of one elephant is worth 1,000 humans. Says the Express, Aspinall "would happily sacrifice his own [life] if he could take two billion humans with him. Abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and birth control are necessary, says the father of three. Most mammals have built-in population control, only humans insist on reckless breeding." The Express also reports that Aspinall now wants to enter politics, causing the alarmed wife of Britain's Home Secretary to reveal how Aspinall once claimed to have eaten human sausages in Morocco. However, "this kind of behaviour would not go down very well among voters," says the report, "so he was quick to deny it." ' BTW Aspinall did have a go at politics and ran for billionaire Sir James Goldsmith's Eurosceptic Referendum party in the last British elections. Luckily he lost. However, he has a bid for Casino development rights in Durban, the biggest city in my province (KwaZulu-Natal). Had Inkatha succeeded in seceeding the province he probably would not have had to bid. Unlike Bugsy Spiegel who invented Las Vegas, Aspinall failed to properly reinvent Zululand. Nevertheless, whilst Mandela and Mbeki were globe hopping, mouthing off about the African Renaissance and accepting kudos for their enlightened leadership, Buthelezi sent the storm troopers into Lesotho to take many lives and really show them who is boss on this sub-continent. I'd be grateful for any info about Aspinall. amen Malcolm From aa4013a@american.edu Thu Oct 8 18:51:18 1998 From: aa4013a@american.edu To: "Smith, Brian" , Eric Godfrey , Beth Witt , "Marquart, Donna" , wsn@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu, Tabetha Hohneke , "Blake, Russell" Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 20:50:08 -0400 Subject: Call for Help Dear Friends, I have one favor from all of you to help me in my campaign. Please write to the Congressman in your area and your US Senators regarding your concerns about human rights abuses in Indonesia. Ask Congress to formally condemn the atrocities there and to introduce legislation that would tie all foreign aid to Indonesia with improvement in its human rights record, and a legislation that would ensure that any Indonesian Chinese who want to seek asylum in the United States to receive one. Feel free to send this e-mail to other faculty members, friends, and professional discussion groups. The more people writing this letter, the better, since Congress will be listening if they received many mails from their constituents on this matter. I will thank you all very much if you want to help me on my campaign by doing this. I look forward to hear from you. Sincerely, Alex From yankro@instjm.sld.cu Thu Oct 8 20:43:44 1998 "XURDE007" , psn@csf.colorado.edu, jmusselm@phil.indiana.edu, Pedro Torres , 100306.3473%compuserve.com@hin.sld.cu, russell@gn.apc.org, scott@rednet.org, Sdsrebels From: Self To: companyero@pop.mindspring.com Subject: War in Havana Reply-to: yankro@instjm.sld.cu Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 13:07:32 ******************** CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS World War Correspondents Encounter November 24-27, 1998 Havana, Cuba The Jose Marti International Institute of Journalism (IIPJM), Cuban Journalists Union (UPEC), and other national and international co-sponsors invite you to this unique opportunity to meet each other and exchange experiences. Guillermo Cabrera Alvarez Encounter Coordinator spanish e-mail: ipressjm@ip.etecsa.cu english e-mail: yankro@instjm.sld.cu ***** please circulate ************* From LLANGMA@wpo.it.luc.edu Fri Oct 9 09:46:14 1998 Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 10:44:49 -0500 From: "Lauren Langman" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: RC36 Seminar -Forwarded This is a MIME message. If you are reading this text, you may want to consider changing to a mail reader or gateway that understands how to properly handle MIME multipart messages. --=_DB8CFEB4.ABCAB9ED RC 36, Alienation Theory and REseach is the place for leftists. As can be = seen, we are inviting psn folks to join us next July, next year near = Jerusalem. Reply to either Devorah or me, see you all there, Lauren = Langman --=_DB8CFEB4.ABCAB9ED ([147.96.1.73]) Thu, 8 Oct 1998 18:20:08 +0200 (MET) Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 18:20:08 +0200 From: isa@sis.ucm.es (International Sociological Association) Subject: RC36 Seminar Apparently-to: llangma@wpo.it.luc.edu To: llangma@wpo.it.luc.edu Reply-to: isa@sis.ucm.es To: Members of the International Sociological Association From: ISA Research Committee on Alienation Theory and Research (RC36) =20 =20 CALL FOR PAPERS =20 Interim Regional Seminar on RESEARCHING ALIENATION IN THE LIGHT OF GLOBALIZATION =20 in conjunction with the 34 World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology July 11-15, 1999 Tel Aviv, Israel =20 Deadline for submission of titles and presenters: October 15, 1998 Deadline for submission of abstracts: November 15, 1998 =20 =20 Suggested Topics: =20 Local vs. Global alienation Regionalism and alienation=20 Globalized virtual realities and alienation Race and alienation Gender and alienation Alienation and the new religions The practical economics of alienation The alienation of labor The significance of alienation under conditions of dependency Alienation and the state Alienation and new forms of organization Culture and alienation =20 We are particularly interested in comparative papers. However, case studies of phenomena of alienation in delimited areas will provide a basis for comparative discussions in the course of the conference. We invite scholars involved in the study of related themes to submit abstracts (ca. 300 words) to the organizer: =20 Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, President RC36 Faculty of Education University of Haifa Haifa, Israel 31905 Tel: 972-4-8642032 Fax: 972-4-8240911 e-mail: dkalekin@construct.haifa.ac.il ****************************************************************** --=_DB8CFEB4.ABCAB9ED-- From twright@orion.it.luc.edu Fri Oct 9 10:13:21 1998 From: Talmadge Wright Subject: (Fwd) Re: Campaigne against independent media and non-govermen (fwd) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 11:11:24 -0500 (CDT) I am forwarding this message from Myra to all concerned. Since Steve Rosenthal pointed out the economic importance of the mining complex near Pristina in Kosovo to nationalist interests, I believe we must also expand the debate as progressives to what is our role in this conflict in Kosovo? Do we support or not support the bombing campaign in Serbia? Why or why not? Where is the debate on this issue. As Marxists, neo-Marxists, and those who only use Marx for analysis we need to expand our analysis beyond the issue of class. The question of the horror of nation states rests heavily on our responses. A colleague of mine opposes the bombing because she feels that it will only reinforce the facsists, but then cannot answer the question of how to protect the 50,000+ women, children and old people starving and freezing to death in the mountains of Kosovo. Others I know who have lived through the horrors of Bosnia cannot understand why we have not bombed sooner. Clearly, violence is not ultimately a solution to anything except death. But, what about the legitimate right to self-defense? And where was the support of the Albanian people when the first massacres occured and the West turned its head, just as it did in WWII knowing the planned genocide of Jews and others was going full blast? Where were the great "democratic" powers when we allowed Franco's forces to overrun Spain in 1936? So my question to all of you on the PSN list - what is to be done? What are the positions as progressives that we can morally, ethically and legitimately stakeout on this issue? If we can't deal with something like this why should anyone else take us seriously? Respectfully, Talmadge Wright Forwarded message: > From: "Myra Marx Ferree" > To: sws-list@listserv.ncsu.edu > Subject: (Fwd) Re: Campaigne against independent media and non-govermen > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > Content-Disposition: inline > > I'm forwarding this disturbing message, even though I'm not sure what=20 > we can do. The threat is all too likely to be carried out. > > Myra > > ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- > > >>>>> Subject: Campaigne against independent media and non-govermental > >>>organizations > >>>>> Date: nedelja 04, oktobar 1998 22:31 > >>>>> > >>>>> OPEN LETTER TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES > >>>>> > >>>>> Dear friends and esteemed colleagues, > >>>>> > >>>>> We are sending you these press clipping so as to inform you that the > >>>>>great > >>>>> political campaign has been launched against the independent media = > and > >>>>> non-governmental organizations in Serbia. Taking into account the > >>>>> anticipated circumstances (possible shelling of Serbia by NATO), we = > take > >>>>> these threats of the Serbian regime very seriously, as a possible = > way of > >>>>> retribution. These threats have already created the war psychosis > >>>>>which is > >>>>> dangerously spreading over Serbia. > >>>>> > >>>>> With best regards, > >>>>> > >>>>> Obrad Savic, > >>>>> Acting president of the > >>>>> Belgrade Circle NGO > >>>>> > >>>>> The press reported that Vojislav Seselj, vice president of the = > Serbian > >>>>> Parliament, said at the special session of the Serbian Parliament, > >>>>>held on > >>>>> Monday, September 28th, 1998, in Belgrade, that > >>>>> > >>>>> 1. "in Serbia, we have fifth colomn at work, consisting both of = > certain > >>>>> Parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties and certain independent > >>>>> newspapers, namely: "Nasa Borba", "Danas", "Blic" and "Glas = > Javnosti". In > >>>>> case the USA decides to launch an attack on Serbia, they should = > hurriedly > >>>>> withdraw the "Quislings", such as the members of the Helsinki > >>>>>Committee for > >>>>> Human Rights in Serbia, members of the Belgrade Circle and the Women = > in > >>>>> Black, and avoid leaving them here as hostiges. Perhaps we cannot = > crash > >>>>> every American plane, but we shall grab those within our reach." = > ("Nasa > >>>>> Borba", Belgrade, Tuesday, September 29th, 1998, page 2) > >>>>> > >>>>> 2. "If they wish to attack us, let them withdraw all their branches, = > the > >>>>> Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the Belgrade Circle > >>>>>and the > >>>>> Women in Black. Perhaps we cannot crash every American plane, but we = > will > >>>>> grab those within our reach." ("Danas", Belgrade, Tuesday, September = > 29th > >>>>> 1998, page 3) > >>>>> > >>>>> 3. "In case of the attack, every conversation ceases and the = > aggressors > >>>>> should close their embassies here in Belgrade right away. Perhaps we > >>>>>cannot > >>>>> crash every American plane, but we can catch all their agents, = > gathered > >>>>> round various traitor organizations such as the Belgrade Circle, = > Women in > >>>>> Black, the Helsinki Committee for Human Right in Serbia and the = > Citizen`s > >>>>> Alliance." ("Glas Javnosti", Belgrade, Thursday, October 1st 1998, > >>>>>page 3) > >> > >>>>> OPENING OF NEW HUNTING SEASON ON "UNDESIRABLES" > >>>>> > >>>>> The most recent session of the Serbian Parliament (September 28, = > 1998), > >>>>> demonstrated the highest level of ethnic homogenization and perfect = > unity > >>>>> between leader, people, and political parties that has been achieved > >>>>>since > >>>>> the beginning of the most recent wars in the Balkans (1991). = > (Voting of > >>>>> representatives of six parties in the Serbian parliament on the new > >>>>> temporary Executive Board for Kosovo: 224 votes 'for' and 2 votes > >>>>> 'against'). > >>>>> > >>>>> The most cited speech in the Parliament was done by the Prime = > Minister > >>>>> Vojislav Seselj, war criminal in Bosnia and Croatia, one of the > >>>>>greatest > >>>>> nationalist chauvinists, sexist, homofobe, initiator of ethnic > >>>>>cleaning in > >>>>> Serbia's political life - we cite from his most recent speech on > >>>>>"Serbia's > >>>>> inner enemies": > >>>>> > >>>>> "We should take the US threats very seriously but we must not be > >>>>> frightened. We will have an enormous number of victims and great > >>>>> material damages, but we don't have a spare fatherland. We must = > fight at > >>>>> all costs no matter by whom we are attacked. Our determination to = > defend > >>>>> ourselves by all means should prove that if they want to attack us = > they > >>>>> should withdraw their supporters. " > >>>>> > >>>>> Seselj demanded that the USA, in case they attacked Serbia, "to = > withdraw > >>>>> their quislings like members of the Helsinki Committee for Human = > Rights, > >>>>> Belgrade (Intellectual) Circle, Women in Black, and not to leave = > them as > >>>>> hostages. Maybe we can not reach every airplane but we will grab = > those > >>>>> that are close to us." > >>>>> > >>>>> Experience in this region shows that first comes the rhetoric of > >>>>>lynch and > >>>>> then lynching of people. Since Women in Black cannot count on any > >>>>> protection in this state, we inform you of this threat. This same > >>>>> information we send to all relevant international organizations. = > For > >>>>> years, > >>>>> the international public, transparency of our work and of regime's > >>>>> response > >>>>> to us can be our only protection. > >>>>> > >>>>> Belgrade 30 September > >>>>> Women in Black > > > *************************************************** > Myra Marx Ferree > Dept. of Sociology U-68 > University of Connecticut > Storrs CT 06269-2068 > phone: 860-486-4428 > fax: 860-486-6356 > email: ferree@uconnvm.uconn.edu > *************************************************** > -- **************************************************************** * Talmadge Wright (773) 508-3451 * * Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology FAX:(773) 508-7099 * * Loyola University Chicago * * 6525 N. Sheridan Rd. * * Chicago, Illinois 60626 * **************************************************************** From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Fri Oct 9 16:39:34 1998 Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1998 15:51:27 -0400 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update October 9, 1998 Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Children*s Defense Fund Update October 9, 1998 In this issue: -- Immediate Action Needed in House and Senate -- Potential Barriers to Programs for Immigrant Children *************************************************************************** ACTIONS TO TAKE TODAY, SATURDAY, AND SUNDAY -- Stop potential cuts to the Social Services Block Grant -- Stop a harmful Juvenile Crime bill -- Support funding for After School Programs -- Support increases in the Child Care and Development Block Grant As Congress rushes to adjourn in the next 48 hours, it is likely to vote on one large spending measure. Four key members of congress (the Chairman and Ranking members of the appropriations committee) will be making the decisions about what provisions will be included in the package: Senator Stevens (R-AK), Senator Byrd (D-WV), Representative Livingston (R-AL), and Representative Obey (D-WI). If you have contacts in these offices, please call to urge these members of Congress to: STOP POTENTIAL CUTS TO THE SOCIAL SERVICES BLOCK GRANT -- The Social Services Block Grant should be funded at least at its prior year level ($2.299 billion). Congress should also reject any proposals to restrict the transfer of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds to the Social Services Block Grant. The Social Services Block Grant funds are used in states for services for abused and neglected children, child care for working families, treatment and services for children with disabilities, and home-based and other supports for children and adults with disabilities and senior citizens. STOP A HARMFUL JUVENILE CRIME BILL -- Congress should reject any new controversial juvenile crime provisions that were not subject to debate in the Congress -- especially legislation that would return children to adult jails and prisons. SUPPORT FUNDING FOR AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS -- Congress should increase funding for the 21st Century Learning Centers to $200 million to ensure that children are safe after school and receive the academic supports they need to realize their potential. SUPPORT INCREASES IN THE CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT -- Congress should increase funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $1 Billion to help families work and children enter school ready to learn. **ACTION NEEDED: Call the offices of Senator Stevens (R-AK) at 202/224-3004, Senator Byrd (D-WV) at 202/224-3954, Representative Livingston (R-LA) at 202/225-3015, and Representative Obey (D-WI) at 202/225-3365. Please call TODAY, SATURDAY, or SUNDAY. Even though it is a weekend, these members and their staffs will be in their offices! Urge them: 1) not to cut funding for the Social Services Block Grant, 2) to stop any harmful Juvenile Justice bill, 3) to increase funding for After School Programs, and 4) to support increases in the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Note: Congress is expected to adjourn sometime this weekend (October 11 & 12) in time for mid-term elections and will reconvene in January. **************************************************************************** POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO PROGRAMS FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDREN -- Urge HHS to Avoid Unnecessary Roadblocks to Serving Legal Immigrant Children and Families -- A notice published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the potential of limiting access for legal immigrant children and families to essential assistance. This notice lists the various HHS programs which require verification of immigration status. This HHS notice interprets a requirement, imposed by the 1996 federal welfare law, that limits federal public benefit programs to citizens and *qualified* aliens. Placing burdensome verification requirements strain the resources of already stretched human services agencies and may deter qualified immigrants from asking for aid. Because the requirement can be such a powerful deterrent, it*s important to make sure that it is applied only to programs that truly fit the definition of federal public benefit. The HHS notice concluded that a number of programs providing key family services are covered by the requirement (including child care through the Child Care Development Fund, heating and cooling aid (LIHEAP), the Social Services Block Grant, and Foster Care and Adoption Assistance). CDF submitted comments arguing that these services do not meet the technical statutory definition of a public benefit, and should not be subject to immigrant verification requirements. COMMENT TO HHS! Child advocates and social service providers should tell HHS not to include child care, adoption and foster care, social services, and low income energy assistance on the list of programs requiring burdensome verification of immigrant status. Although the official deadline for comments to HHS has passed, past experience indicates that comments submitted after the deadline are read, even if the agency does not respond to them officially. Advocates who are interested in submitting comments are strongly urged to do so. Take a look at CDF comments posted on our Web site for further information. Our comments will be available on the Web the week of Oct. 12. -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Ana Hicks Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org www.childrensdefense.org From LLang944@aol.com Sun Oct 11 14:55:23 1998 From: LLang944@aol.com Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 16:55:09 EDT To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: RC 36 Correction Globalization and Alienation Note followiing correction: Interim conference of RC36 (Alienation and Globalization ...) in conjunction with the congress of the International Institute of Sociology, July 11-15, 1999, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Deadline for submission of titles and presenters: November 10, 1998 Deadline for submission of abstracts: February 15, 1999 Devorah Kalekin-Fishman President, RC36 Reply-to: dkalekin@construct.haifa.ac.il or to Llangma@luc.edu From spectors@netnitco.net Sat Oct 10 11:44:27 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: If Hitler wanted to bomb Franco, should "progressives" support it? Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 12:41:03 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" Talmadge Wright raises the most heart-wrenching problem that confronts all advocates and activists for social change: the question of trade-offs. It sounds like a heartless way of discussing it, you know, counting bodies, etc. The problem is that there is no way to avoid that. In particular, the trade-off between reform and revolution is not an easy one to confront. Is the choice: adhering to a purist philosophy of a someday hypothetical revolution in the far future versus helping some living people now? Or maybe, a more accurate way to see the choice is: asking the oppressor to ease up on one area of oppression, in such a way as to strengthen the oppressor's prestige and increase the oppression elsewhere..... This is too abstract. How about this: the U.S. led embargo against the Iraqi people has cost somewhere around 300,000, maybe a half million lives. Maybe more. The bombing of Iraq killed many thousands too, of course. And there will be more bombings, of Iraq, or Colombia, or somewhere. Will calling on the U.S. to use its bombers against Serb forces lend creditibility to the military and U.S. imperialism in general? Will that soften the U.S. citizenry people up to accept more so-called "anti-terrorism"? The massive groundswell of support for Lyndon Johnson because of his "progressive" stand on some civil rights issues gave Johnson the support he needed to intensify a war that probably killed 3 million people, if one includes the "collateral damage" in Cambodia and Laos. The position of: "I'll support him on civil rights but criticize him on Vietnam" enabled him to carry on that war. The Serb government is run by gangsters. So is the Albanian government. The Croatian government, by the way, is expelling Romani (so-called "Gypsies"), and morally embracing dead pro-Nazi politicians as heroes. Do we want to see 50,000 Albanians die because they are afraid to return to their villages? Of course not. Should we call on the U.S. ("just this one time") to exercise its military power on behalf of humanitarian purposes? They used the same excuse in Somalia, sent in U.S. and other troops, some of whom committed atrocities including shooting up a market place. They are still dying by the thousands in Somalia and all over Africa, because of Euro-American imperialism. The U.S. has not proposed bombing Turkey to stop the massacre of the Kurds, a massacre that dwarfs the number killed in Kosovo by the Serbs. "Well, wouldn't it be better to at least get the U.S. to do ONE good thing?" No. They are not interested in doing ANY good thing. Capitalism has no friends. It can only BUY friends. Problem is when the "friends" fall out. The U.S. government doesn't care about dead civilians. But if thousands of Muslim civilians die, the U.S. government will be hated even more by rank and file Muslims all over the world. And the "moderate" Islamic governments will come under more pressure from the political-fundamentalists. If they attack the Serbs they risk the wrath of the Russians. And it will encourage political-Islam to take more initiative in different countries. Also, if they weaken the Serbs too much, it might encourage the Croats in Bosnia and Croatia to attack Serb positions. And while the U.S. is somewhat friendly to the Croats, the tight alliance of Croatia to Germany could spell trouble for U.S. capitalism in the future. ------- But the main point is this: The position that opposes U.S. intervention is not necessarily a position that is based on some "Dogmatic Marxist Faith in Abstract Theory at the expense of real human lives". It's also based on trying to save lives. If Marxists and others who oppose U.S./NATO intervention will be criticized or held accountable for the deaths of Albanian civilians, will those who support U.S./NATO intervention accept responsibility for the deaths of millions of others caused by U.S. and other imperialisms? Alan Spector From giokas@prodigy.net Sun Oct 11 12:20:21 1998 Reply-To: "Aris Saint-Simon" From: "Aris Saint-Simon" To: Subject: Need help: Nationalism and Education Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 14:17:51 -0400 boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0053_01BDF521.EE363DE0" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0053_01BDF521.EE363DE0 charset="iso-8859-1" Dear PSN: I am working on a project trying to link elementary & secondary school = education with the perpetuation of nationalistic attitudes , with a = focus on conflict zones of the planet. I would really appreciate it if anybody can suggest any web sites, = articles or publications : * depicting the problem of nationalism/intolerance with statistical data = (preferably focusing on conflict zones -such as Israel, the Aegean, = Ireland - and/or new nation states) (i.e. surveys on kids or adults = examining the perceptions of "us" vs "the other") * researching on education practices and biased textbooks that aggravate = the problem please respond either to the list , or -preferably- to my email address = : giokas@prodigy.net and I will compile and post the results to the = group. Thanks in advance, Aris Saint-Simon ------=_NextPart_000_0053_01BDF521.EE363DE0 charset="iso-8859-1"
Dear PSN:
 
I am working on a project trying to link elementary = &=20 secondary school education with the perpetuation of nationalistic = attitudes ,=20 with a focus on conflict zones of the planet.
 
I would really appreciate it if anybody can suggest = any web=20 sites, articles or publications :
 
* depicting the problem of nationalism/intolerance = with=20 statistical data (preferably focusing on conflict zones -such as Israel, = the=20 Aegean, Ireland - and/or new nation states)  (i.e. surveys on kids = or=20 adults examining the perceptions of "us" vs "the=20 other")
 
* researching on education practices and biased = textbooks that=20 aggravate the problem
 
please respond either to the list , or -preferably- = to my=20 email address : giokas@prodigy.net and I=20 will compile and post the results to the group.
 
Thanks in advance,
Aris Saint-Simon
 
------=_NextPart_000_0053_01BDF521.EE363DE0-- From erics@intergate.bc.ca Mon Oct 12 04:09:23 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 03:09:10 -0700 (PDT) To: From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: Re: If Hitler wanted to bomb Franco, should "progressives" support it? Hi Alan, I would like to compliment you on the strong, provocactive, and challanging article below. The issue of U.S. intervention in Kosovo or elsewhere is, as you say, heart-wrenching for any anti-imperialist progressive who genuinely is concerned with protecting human beings from violence, intimidation, and death. As the chief coordinator of the Chiapas Alert Network, these issues are ones which I have faced not only in theory but in concrete practice, as the military officials responsible for orchestrating much of the intimidation and brutally murderous violence directed against Mayan and other Indigenous people in Chiapas learned their trade at the U.S.-run `School of the Americas'. At the same time, I must say that I am no friend of Sadam Hussiens' proto-facist Bath `Socialist' party or of the ethnos-centered Serbian government. A question that might be juxtaposed to your own worth-while questions is: "When does it get so bad that it IS appropriate to advocate U.S. - or at least U.N. - intervention? I.E., U.S. participation in the anti-facist world wide united front of WWII was surely appropriate. Now, with resurgent facism a real problem in Eastern and central Europe, we are unfortunaly facing some terrible delemas. Eric >Talmadge Wright raises the most heart-wrenching problem that confronts all >advocates and activists for social change: the question of trade-offs. It >sounds like a heartless way of discussing it, you know, counting bodies, >etc. The problem is that there is no way to avoid that. In particular, the >trade-off between reform and revolution is not an easy one to confront. > >Is the choice: adhering to a purist philosophy of a someday hypothetical >revolution in the far future versus helping some living people now? > >Or maybe, a more accurate way to see the choice is: asking the oppressor to >ease up on one area of oppression, in such a way as to strengthen the >oppressor's prestige and increase the oppression elsewhere..... > >This is too abstract. How about this: the U.S. led embargo against the Iraqi >people has cost somewhere around 300,000, maybe a half million lives. Maybe >more. The bombing of Iraq killed many thousands too, of course. And there >will be more bombings, of Iraq, or Colombia, or somewhere. Will calling on >the U.S. to use its bombers against Serb forces lend creditibility to the >military and U.S. imperialism in general? Will that soften the U.S. >citizenry people up to accept more so-called "anti-terrorism"? > >The massive groundswell of support for Lyndon Johnson because of his >"progressive" stand on some civil rights issues gave Johnson the support he >needed to intensify a war that probably killed 3 million people, if one >includes the "collateral damage" in Cambodia and Laos. The position of: >"I'll support him on civil rights but criticize him on Vietnam" enabled him >to carry on that war. > >The Serb government is run by gangsters. So is the Albanian government. The >Croatian government, by the way, is expelling Romani (so-called "Gypsies"), >and morally embracing dead pro-Nazi politicians as heroes. Do we want to see >50,000 Albanians die because they are afraid to return to their villages? Of >course not. Should we call on the U.S. ("just this one time") to exercise >its military power on behalf of humanitarian purposes? They used the same >excuse in Somalia, sent in U.S. and other troops, some of whom committed >atrocities including shooting up a market place. They are still dying by the >thousands in Somalia and all over Africa, because of Euro-American >imperialism. The U.S. has not proposed bombing Turkey to stop the massacre >of the Kurds, a massacre that dwarfs the number killed in Kosovo by the >Serbs. > >"Well, wouldn't it be better to at least get the U.S. to do ONE good thing?" >No. They are not interested in doing ANY good thing. Capitalism has no >friends. It can only BUY friends. Problem is when the "friends" fall out. >The U.S. government doesn't care about dead civilians. But if thousands of >Muslim civilians die, the U.S. government will be hated even more by rank >and file Muslims all over the world. And the "moderate" Islamic governments >will come under more pressure from the political-fundamentalists. If they >attack the Serbs they risk the wrath of the Russians. And it will encourage >political-Islam to take more initiative in different countries. Also, if >they weaken the Serbs too much, it might encourage the Croats in Bosnia and >Croatia to attack Serb positions. And while the U.S. is somewhat friendly to >the Croats, the tight alliance of Croatia to Germany could spell trouble for >U.S. capitalism in the future. >------- > >But the main point is this: The position that opposes U.S. intervention is >not necessarily a position that is based on some "Dogmatic Marxist Faith in >Abstract Theory at the expense of real human lives". It's also based on >trying to save lives. If Marxists and others who oppose U.S./NATO >intervention will be criticized or held accountable for the deaths of >Albanian civilians, will those who support U.S./NATO intervention accept >responsibility for the deaths of millions of others caused by U.S. and other >imperialisms? > >Alan Spector > > > > From matthewr@oak.cats.ohiou.edu Mon Oct 12 06:58:09 1998 Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 09:00:40 -0400 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Rick Matthews Subject: Bailing out the rich This was posted on the corporate watch listserve. For those of you who are on the listserve, please accept my apologies for the duplicate post. ---------------------------------------------------------- So, you are in charge of investing $4.5 billion. You hire two Nobel Prize economists to generate computer models on how to invest in world bond markets. You borrow billions more and put down a big chunk on a bet that differentials between certain world bond prices, out of kilter because of the global crunch, will revert to their historic levels. They don't. You lose $4 billion. Your clients -- who needed to pony up $10 million just to be in your hedge fund -- are apoplectic. They call. They want to know what the hell is going on. Boom and bust? Don't be silly. That's capitalism for the small guy. If we go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas, make a bundle and then lose it all, then that's boom and bust. For the rich, it's boom and bailout. So, you're John Meriwether, the bond trader who was forced to leave Salomon Brothers in 1991 after a trading scandal. And you leave to start Long-Term Capital. And for the first couple of years, you are making 30 percent return on investment for your millionaire friends. And they are loving it. And then you lose the $4 billion. Who do you call? The Federal Reserve Board -- bailout central. So it was that on a late August day, New York Federal Reserve Bank President William J. McDonough received a phone call from Meriwether and bailout fix-it man supreme David W. Mullins Jr., the architect of the bailout of the savings and loans under President Bush. Big institutional investors in the hedge fund -- Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs & Co., Bear, Stearns & Co. and Bankers Trust Corp. -- were also calling begging for a bailout. These companies were of course seeking to save their own skin. But McDonough put forth the official spin before a House of Representatives Committee earlier this month. "Everyone I spoke to that day volunteered concern about the serious effect the deteriorating situation of Long-Term Capital could have on world markets," McDonough said. Ah yes, world markets. And so McDonough calls Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and a bailout is arranged. Former Lehman Brothers partner and current financial columnist Michael Thomas is right -- it was improper for the Federal Reserve to arrange a private bailout. If Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs want to protect their behinds by arranging for a private bailout, fine. But the Fed should have stayed out of it. Or, as former Fed Chair Paul Volcker asked in a speech, "Why should the weight of the Federal Government be brought to bear help out a private investor?" "Capitalists now all want it one way," Thomas says. "They want to do whatever the hell they feel like, but let someone else pay. It's called privatizing the profits and socializing the risks." Hedge funds, which make complicated financial bets with millions and billions of borrowed dollars and are almost totally unregulated, do indeed pose risks to the economy. Because of the nature of their gambles, they can lose huge amounts of money, leaving investors holding the bag (absent a bailout). Even worse, they leverage borrowed money to exert extraordinary influence over markets, and cause serious problems when they overreact en masse to new fads. (That's a big part of why the value of the dollar has plunged recently, for example.) But these are reasons why hedge funds must be subjected to regulatory discipline -- not an argument for why high rollers deserve government-orchestrated bailouts. With the global financial system in frenetic disarray, Long-Term Capital is not likely to be the last financial player to go bust. If the government is not able to act quickly to rein in hedge funds and other unbridled financial activities, it should at least declare that no bailouts will follow in the wake of Long-Term Capital. Each bailout makes the next one more likely, as investors are given implicit assurances that they will not have to face the downside of risky bets gone bad. The gamblers in Atlantic City don't get this kind of treatment. Neither should those on Wall Street. 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. (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman 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 listproc@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. From C.Barker@mmu.ac.uk Mon Oct 12 08:21:27 1998 by dryctnath.mmu.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.04 #1) id 0zSiqb-0004WV-00 From: "BARKER C MR" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:20:14 +0100 Subject: protest at persecution of S Korean socialists Dear Colleague, I am forwarding a message to you on behalf of the Committee to Defend South Korean Socialists. You can read the message by opening the attachment, which is in MS Word. The current President of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, was himself once a prominent defender of democratic rights, under the military dictatorship from 1960-93. He braved imprisonment, death sentences and assassination attempts by the secret police. When he visited the US in June this year, Clinton compared him to Nelson Mandela, and the International League of Human Rights gave him an award. After a mass uprising by workers and students in 1987 compelled the regime to return to civilian rule, Kim Dae-jung was allowed to run for election as president. To gain office, however, the former dissident sought to reassure the generals and their allies in the chaebol, the giant family firms that dominate the South Korean economy, that they could trust him to run the country - he won the presidency in alliance with the ex-chief of the very National Security Planning Agency that once tried to murder him. Today he presides over a regime that still imprisons political dissidents for their beliefs. What is at issue is the right of freedom of speech and opinion, plain and simple. The charges against the South Korean socialists include such things as speaking at or attending meetings about socialism and trade union rights, and simple possession of books and pamphlets that we can pick up in bookshops across Britain, and that may even appear on our student reading lists. The prosecutors have listed on the charge sheets posession of books with titles such as "Socialism and War," "What is State Capitalism?", "The Revolutionary Paper", "Marxism and the National Question", "Sexual Relations and Class Struggle", "Women's Double Burden", "Politics of Women's Liberation", "The Social Roots of Gay Oppression", "The Revolutioanry Ideas of Karl Marx", "Mad Capitalism", "Two Kinds of Socialism" along with many other familiar titles you might even find on your own shelves. The prosecution and imprisonment of these people occurs against the background of the devastating economic slump which is sweeping across East Asia, in which the IMF is imposing a "rescue plan" involving large-scale company closures and massive sackings. Kim Dae-jung says that "democracy and a market economy" are "as inspearable as two wheels of a cart." But not, it seems, when democratic rights interfere with his drive to rebuild a profitable market economy. The arrests of student, worker and socialist activists followed large scale strikes and protests against the effects of the IMF-agreed restructuring package. The Campaign will be publishing a statement in the New York Review of Books within a few weeks. You are asked [a] to add your name to the list of signatories and [b] to make a donation to the cost of the advertisement. Communications and d onations can be sent directly to Committee to Defend South Korean Socialists c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3QE, UK tel 0171 538 5821 fax 0171 538 0018 Colin Barker Colin Barker Sociology Department Manchester Metropolitan University Humanities Building, Rosamond St West, Manchester M15 6LL, England tel 0161 247 3439 fax +44 161 247 6321 From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Mon Oct 12 10:36:10 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 12 Oct 1998 12:31:05 EDT To: FROM: Morton G. Wenger, Professor Department of Sociology University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA Subject: Re: If Hitler wanted to bomb Franco, should "progressives" suppor TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU *** Forwarding note from MGWENG01--ULKYVM 10/12/98 12:30 *** To: erics@intergate.bc.ca *** Reply to note of 10/12/98 06:09 FROM: Morton G. Wenger, Professor Department of Sociology University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292 USA Subject: Re: If Hitler wanted to bomb Franco, should "progressives" suppor The exchange among AS, TW, ES, et al on the appropriate the appropriate level of support (if any) for US military intervention in genocidal bloodbaths raises questions once again that all the participants have heard and thought about many times before, as have many of the lurkers on psn. Alan Spector quite sufficiently expressed many of the points which I myself would have made, and I will not repeat them. Indeed, I recall participating at some length a while back when the issue was intervention in Haiti, when it was baroquely obvious that the US was intervening against itself, which is less clear in the Balkans due to the mischief-making of German capital and the tattered remains of the old Soviet plans for the Southern Slavs, which were themselves the tattered remains of the imperial ambitions of the Czars (I spit on the ground!), which have now become the foreign "policy" of the laughing-stocks aad demented sub-imperial puppets in Moscow... but I digress... The point here is, to borrow a phrase: what is to be done in lieu of a pathetic"tailist" support of pick-and-choose imperial interventionist hypocrisy? No to Rwanda says the emperor when informed of the imminent death of multitudes of distal victims of Belgium's cruel dominion in Central Adrica! No to the Kurds, indulging Turkey's weajness for genicidal solutions to the aftermath of now-antique Ottoman imperialism (ah, but what dreams still lurk in Ankara for the days when Saddam and Assad have gone to their just Bathist-fascist rewards?(what's "proto-" about their fascism, Eric?)). Yes to the anti-Serbs, says neo-Caligula (was it a Cuban cigar? we shall probably know soon, thanks to the demented nerds of the marching-moron moral majloritarians... how DO you spell "quartenary contradiction, anyway?) Tes to the investors in Haiti, who worry about a steady supply of hyper- extra-baseballs to revive a sport which- because of its antiquity in America=, most obviously exhibits the contradictions pf the advanced case of mass alienation it is supposed to help counter, but in fact merely ends up re-exhobiting as tawdry spectacle/carnival (pace. Lauren): coke-sniffing gladiators "traded" back-and-forth by greedy owners who laugh in the faces of their pathetic customers while moving franchises back and forth as the most mpbile of capitals (when I was kid, not only were the Dodgers in Brooklyn, cut as I recall, the Atgletics were in Philadelphia, the Braves in Boston, etc... where indeed did you go, Joe Dimaggio-oh-oh? Oh, yeah- it was to drain the assets frpm cash-strapped working-class home-owners? Or was that Phil Rizzuto? Or was that coffee-makers? Apologoes where they are due- it's been a hell pf a half-cemntury for a former naif who saw his first ball games at Connie Mack (NOT the Senator, but his father's stadium in a rapidly Negrifying Morth Philadelphia neighborhood, which as I also recall as through a glass darkly, the replacement of which by Veteran's Stadium (note the jingoism: I won't even attempt to spell "quintenary," if such a word even exists) was one of the early moves in getting working class people to accept cuts in municipal services so that taxes could be used as direct-transfer capital by sport moghuls, not even to mention the moves from my beloved Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds (!), also locared in uh, "changing" areas of NYC, whose perigrination, enginertrf ny that great antri-racist hero (retching sounds...), Branch Rickey, undoubtedly provided a more significant Cold War epostemological rupture for the baby Boomer sons of Jewish and Italian immigrant commies and anarchists than would the vast quantities of LSD they would later consume on the college campuses of '60s America AND the shock of finding out that to the bourgeoisie whose precincts they wished tp share- unlike to their doting families to whom they represented pathetically misguided mobility missiles- thay were little more than cannon-fodder (funny how the stident dradt-deferment went away when the Nelson boys were not the only ones who went to college), put together... all that is sacred is indeed profaned... but I digress (well, maybe not too much), and I have surely lost count of my right parentheses))))... Anyway, what is to be done was the question, and the "audience" to whom it was addressed (am I getting the hang of this Foucault thing yet?) are the mostly academics pf psn. Therefore, the question of practice can and will be one that should and does manifest itself in the classroom and the lecture hall: how do we reconstruct all of this for our students and not just ourselves??? I will be brutally succinct at this point, as is not my wpnt: 1) Capitalism CANNOT provide solutions to the questions which its own structural contadictions generate; e.g. anti-genocidal intervention by the authors of genocide. Capitalism long ago rounded dead man's curve and imploded in the Absurd. 2) Social democracy is imperialism with a human face: Clinton Blaire, and its/their new German clone are fascists in Salvation Army drag. period (.). 3) The only solution is communist revolution. 4) If not now, when? If not us, who? (as Rabbi Hillel put it.) 5) Regardless of good intentions and questions of moral culpability, objectively speaking, the support of intervention by the US is class cpllaboration- don;t go there! C'mon lurkers- put your rwo cents in! Morton Wenger (my slave name) TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Oct 12 11:32:54 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 12:34:29 -0500 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: United Front WITH Hitler? Eric Sommer raises an interesting point: "A question that might be juxtaposed to your own worth-while questions is: "When does it get so bad that it IS appropriate to advocate U.S. - or at least U.N. - intervention? I.E., U.S. participation in the anti-facist world wide united front of WWII was surely appropriate. Now, with resurgent facism a real problem in Eastern and central Europe, we are unfortunaly facing some terrible delemas." ------------------------------------------------------- A short reply: We need to appreciate how complex all these questions are. In the current situation, however, there is no question in my mind that it is the U.S. Empire that is playing the role of the Nazis -- not the petty gangsters of Serbia, Albania, or even Afghanistan or Russia. U.S. imperialism is the cause and benefactor of massive misery, death, and oppression. Others would like to join in if they can, but for the time being, U.S. capitalism/imperialism is the Number One is the fascist oppressor. (Sorry if the term "fascist oppressor" strikes some as "rhetoric." I don't mean it as rhetoric. I mean it as, literally, "fascist" and "oppressor." Documentation available upon request.) Alan Spector -- From passerin@spot.Colorado.EDU Mon Oct 12 10:20:24 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 10:19:10 -0600 (MDT) From: PASSERINI EVE Reply-To: PASSERINI EVE To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Re: If Hitler wanted to bomb Franco, should "progressives" support it? Regarding progressive responses to Yugoslavia, I just finished reading a relevant article that some PSN folks might find interesting: "Seeing Yugoslavia Through a Dark Glass: Politics, Media, and the Ideology of Globalization" - Diana Johnstone, in Fall issue of CovertAction Quarterly (#65). The article addresses how the historical and current view of the Serbs and Croats is much less of a "clear cut" case of oppressors and victims than we realize, how our vision has been shaped by questionable media influence, the political/economic/cultural forces that shape current US and European policy toward the issue, and the danger of NGOs and progressive peace groups uncritically aligning themselves with one side and calling for military action (for a variety of reasons that are discussed). From spectors@netnitco.net Mon Oct 12 19:38:50 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: Is Marxism obsolete? Or capitalism? Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 20:36:04 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" The following article comes from Le Monde. Interested readers might want to contact LeMonde directly if you'd like access to these articles. It's not necessarily "correct", but it gives perspectives not easily available in the U.S. ====================================================== Date: Monday, October 12, 1998 6:59 PM >Return-Path: >X-Sender: dispatch@Monde-diplomatique.fr (Unverified) >Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:04:46 -0400 >To: "English edition" >From: Le Monde diplomatique >Subject: Japan in danger >Sender: >X-URL: > > > LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE - October 1998 > > FROM MARKET MADNESS TO RECESSION > > Japan in danger > > by IGNACIO RAMONET > > > There is little sign in the streets of Japan's major cities of the > seriousness of the crisis that has settled on the archipelago. In > fashionable Tokyo neighbourhoods such as Shibuya, Harajuki and > Shinjuku, there are still plenty of people frequenting the elegant > stores, the cinemas and the smart restaurants. On mainline and > subway stations you find no beggars, none of the "new poor", no > homeless. A foreign visitor is hard put to it to find visible signs > that Japan's prosperity has come to an end. > > Perhaps this is to be expected. After all, Japan is the world's > second largest economic power. Between 1989 and 1996 average per > capita income rose by 56%, making it on average 30% higher than > that of the United States! Japan holds more than a third of the > world's total savings and has the world's largest foreign currency > reserves, estimated at more than $200 billion. It is also the > world's principal creditor country, with assets approaching $900 > billion. > > Despite all this, the Japanese economy has been in trouble for a > long time (1). It is locked into a situation from which it cannot > escape, that originated in the irrational euphoria that > characterised the 1980s. Showing a distinct lack of restraint, the > banks began lending without looking to the future. The stock market > and real estate prices soared. This encouraged companies and > private investors to take on unreasonable amounts of debt, creating > a double boom in both finance and real estate. Those were the years > when Japan gave the impression that it could effectively buy the > world. > > In early 1990, realising that this was a recipe for disaster, the > Bank of Japan raised interest rates and put a squeeze on credit. > But it was done too abruptly. As a result, the Stock Exchange soon > lost half its value and property prices dropped by 60% to 80%. The > banks, finding themselves with a mountain of suspect debt, > drastically cut back credit. This in turn led to the collapse of > thousands of small and medium-sized companies. Almost overnight, > millions of Japanese felt that part of their inheritance - > artificially inflated by speculation - had simply vanished into > thin air. > > All this has created a profound sense of shock. Unemployment > (currently 4.1%, but the figure should be doubled to take account > of massaged statistics) stands higher than at any point since 1953. > The Japanese are scared for the future. And more than two thirds of > the electorate have no confidence in their political leaders (2). > > The politicians are having no success in getting the country out of > its rut. To the point that the main problem now appears to be > political. And the election of Keizo Obuchi as Japan's new prime > minister on 21 July 1998, after the defeat of the ruling Liberal > Democrat Party in the Senate elections, has for the moment changed > nothing. For the first time since the war, Japan is in recession. > > What lies at the heart of the crisis is the Tokyo authorities' > refusal to take the necessary steps to clear up the banks' bad > debts which, according to the most reliable sources, have reached > the astronomical sum of $1,000 billion (3). The banks have now > become extremely parsimonious with their lending, driving small and > medium-sized businesses to the wall and creating a general > atmosphere of gloom. On top of all this, from July 1997, has come > the Asian crisis. > > The Tokyo government has put forward no less than 11 recovery > programmes since 1990 and has spent more than $575 billion in an > attempt to revive the economy. To no avail. And reducing taxes has > not helped either. With their suspicions about politicians and > their fears for the future, the Japanese are now saving harder than > ever (even with interest rates of 0.3%) and, by not consuming, > triggering a spiral of deflation and recession. > > Given Japan's economic weight, the consequences of all this are > felt world-wide. Deciding once more to stake everything on exports, > the government effectively devalued the yen, which lost 10% against > the dollar in the course of a year. By "exporting" its deflation, > Japan was a major contributor to the stock market crisis of last > August, precipitating a new cycle of economic downturn in Hong > Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, etc. All the currencies in the region > were once again devalued, bringing down with them the currencies of > various countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe, starting > with Russia which is now threatened with hyper-inflation. > > On top of the attitude of the Japanese, there is the > irresponsibility of the United States' authorities, leaving the > economy to be financed by other people's money. Since in Japan > government securities offer only 1.68%, compared with 5.42% in the > United States, people are tempted to invest their savings abroad. > Which exacerbates the depreciation of the yen and makes economic > recovery virtually impossible for the crisis-ridden Asia-Pacific > countries. > > What is to be done? First of all, the financial markets need to be > disarmed. The breadth of the current crisis ought to be an > eye-opener for all those who have argued that the steering of the > world economy should be left to the markets alone. > > As for Japan, a number of ultra-free marketeers, formerly keen > proponents of shock therapy, like Jeffrey Sachs (4), are now > suggesting, to counter the immediate danger, that the banks should > be nationalised! > > > Translated by Ed Emery > ______________________________________________________________ > > (1) See "Le Japon en panne", Le Monde diplomatique, July 1995. > > (2) Asahi Simbun, Tokyo, 1 June 1998. > > (3) International Herald Tribune, 31 July 1998. > > (4) El Pais, 2 August 1998. > > > > ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1998 Le Monde diplomatique > > > > > > From bb05246@binghamton.edu Tue Oct 13 09:37:28 1998 From: bb05246@binghamton.edu Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 11:35:47 +0100 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Antiracist skins This came off another list... I am forwarding it here with the permission of its author. John Hollister bb05246@binghamton.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oi to all, The following is a report on a meeting recently held at Revolution Books in New York regarding the killing of two skinheads in Los Vegas this past July 4th weekend. Skite and I, of the New York Crew, decided to check it out. Thomaz requested a write-up on the event and I thought as long as I was at it I'd share my notes with "the rest of the class." Warning: the groups that spoke are political, but as this is a non-political list I'll do my best to keep my observations objective. [...] It was pretty informal, the panel consisting of three people. The first to speak was a Chelsea from the NY chapter of ARA (Anti-Racist Action). She commented on how the murders of Dan and Spit by boneheads in Vegas felt very much like loosing family. She didn't know these boys, but her close work with skinz fighting racism and specifically nazis lent her a sense of unity with them. As she pointed out, "It could easily have been one of my friends, the attack is not an isolated event." Certainly it's true that as skins we are a small family, and it is also true that Dan and Spit aren't the first skinheads against racism to be killed by nazi skins. While no one had an accurate count the speaker from R.A.S.H. (also named Dan) was able to site 10 incidents alone which he knew of in the western world (most in the US and Europe, but some in Canada and one in South America). Next to speak was a woman from the Los Vegas chapter of ARA. She gave a more personal account being someone who had met Dan and Spit. She told us that while they did not actively attend ARA meetings, they were supportive of its actions and definitely verbal regarding anti-racist views. Together they ran with Unity Skins, and anti-racist crew, and Spit, an African American man of 24 (she noted the papers incorrectly reported his age at 25) had a presence that got noticed, even in a crowded bar. She said, "He was tall and had a boisterous laugh, and didn't take shit from no one. He was also extremely popular (over 400 people attended his funeral). Many admired him for his stance against the Nazi skinheads who are in the majority in Los Vegas." She told us that while Dan was an airman from Nellis Air Force Base, "his first love was working with kids at a summer camp where he'd been a counselor back in Florida." She went on to say that it took awhile for the Los Vegas police to admit what they had on their hands was a double murder. Regardless of the fact the two bodies found out in the desert had all the earmarks of an execution-style killing, the first reports tried to claim the boys had killed each other in a drug dispute. This would've been impossible since Dan was badly beaten before being killed with a single shot while Spit was riddled with bullets as if shot trying to escape. Also, neither of the boys did drugs nor did they have any weapons with them, so lets here it for the L.V. Police Force for jumping to bogus conclusions. The third to speak was Dan, one of the two founding members of R.A.S.H. United (Red and Anarchist Skinheads United, he's the anarchist). Dan started off by underlining the fact that unlike the media portrayal--which, he admitted, was more clear-sighted than most things written about skinheads--the boys killed were not "anti-violence." Evidently some papers depicted the two sides as being Nazis versus peace-loving skinheads. Dan said, "There is no such thing as a 'peace-skin', it's an oxymoron. I'll tell you right now, certain members of RASH have killed Nazis as well. We're not looking to negotiate with white power skinheads, we see this as a war." He went on further to attack the left for ignoring its soldiers in this war. While the right in many parts of the world, Italy for example, has actually funded extreme right white power groups and recognized their potential for recruiting youth. RASH criticizes that the left's strategy as been to ignore the problem in hopes it will go away. Eventually the floor was opened to questions. It was disappointing to hear so many people preface their question with the statement that, "...before tonight, I'd always thought of 'skinhead' and 'nazi' as synonymous terms." While one expects the general view will be this way, I personally had more hope for the attendees at this particular discussion (in midtown Manhattan, at a bookstore specializing in political forwardness, at a lecture advertised as anti-racist). None-the-less, everyone was treated with respect as the questions ranged from concerns about Los Vegas, which has a reported strong hold of some 300 neo-nazi skinheads (or at least it did before the killing, many now having gone into hiding), to inquiries as to specific tactics of ARA and RASH United. While Dan didn't go into any details ..., he did suggest any skinhead who was serious about this fight could approach any member of his crew the next time they were out having a few pints. --D From emmap@CARFAX.CO.UK Tue Oct 13 09:39:26 1998 From: emmap@CARFAX.CO.UK Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:41:07 +0000 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: SARA - Scholarly Articles Research Alert Dear Colleague Carfax Publishing Limited currently publishes over 200 academic peer-reviewed journals across a variety of disciplines. In response to the changing needs of the academic community, we are using the Internet actively to disseminate information about journals in advance of publication. SARA - Scholarly Articles Research Alerting, is a special new e-mail service designed to deliver tables of contents, for any available journal, to anyone who has requested the information. This service is completely free of charge. All you need to do is register, following the guidelines under "How to Register" and you will be sent contents pages of the journal(s) of your choice from that point onwards, in advance of the printed edition. You can request contents pages either for any number of individual titles, or for one or more of our "subject clusters", and you may unsubscribe at any time. For each of your choices, you will receive the relevant bibliographic information: journal title, volume/issue number and the ISSN. You will also receive full contents details, names of authors and the appropriate page numbers from the printed version. This will give you advance notice of what is being published, making it easier for you to retrieve the exact information you require from the hard copy once it arrives in your library. Titles that may be of interest include: Labor History Economic Analysis Review of Political Economy or our Sociology cluster. To register for this complimentary service, please either: 1) access the Carfax Home Page (http://www.carfax.co.uk), enter SARA and follow the on-screen instructions or 2) send an e-mail to SARA@carfax.co.uk with the word "info" in the body of the message or 3) complete the Registration Form below and return it to the address shown. Remember to include your e-mail address and your full departmental postal address where available. You can request contents pages for all of our journals, for those in a subject cluster, or for just one title. All free of charge! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- SARA REGISTRATION FORM Please send a completed copy of this form using block capitals to the address below. Name Department Address E-mail Carfax Publishing Limited PO Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3UE, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1235 401000; Fax +44 (0)1235 401550 Regards Sharron Lawrence Carfax Publishing Ltd email: SharronL@carfax.co.uk From stf@anasift.com Tue Oct 13 13:23:23 1998 Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:22:52 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:29:40 -0700 From: Jing Zhao To: spectors@netnitco.net Subject: Re: Is Marxism obsolete? Or capitalism? While this article's observation is not so solid (in fact, there have been many beggars but are allocated to asylum places, and the recession is not because of Bank of Japan's raising interest rate), it clearly shows Japan is facing the greatest crisis. There are two directions for Japan after the bankruptcy of the the "Japanese capitalism" but the U.S. oppresses Japan to adopt the "Anglo-Saxon capitalism," especially in Japan's financial system after the "Big Bang." Significantly, Japan's economic recession accomplished with Japan's increasing military role. Last year the U.S. and Japan declared the new Defense Guidelines and now the U.S. is pressing Japan to create domestic "Emergency Act" to enforce the Guidelines. Especially after North Korea's missile (or satellite), Japan agreed to develop the TMD system (succeeding the failed SDI) with the U.S. Jing Zhao US-Japan-China Comparative Policy Research Institute http://members.tripod.com/~cpri Co-editor of H-US-JAPAN(http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~usjp) spectors wrote: > The following article comes from Le Monde. Interested readers might want to > contact LeMonde directly if you'd like access to these articles. It's not > necessarily "correct", but it gives perspectives not easily available in the > U.S. > ====================================================== From erics@intergate.bc.ca Mon Oct 12 17:27:08 1998 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 16:25:42 -0700 (PDT) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu (PSN) From: erics@intergate.bc.ca (Eric Sommer) Subject: Planetization, globalization, and a Treaty Alternative to the MAI >Stewards Corporaton Movement >staff@stewards.net >www.stewards.net > >Hi there, > >`Planetaization' is a useful term for the long-term historical process whereby there is achieved a progressively greater interconnection of the world in terms of production systems, communication and information systems, cultural interaction, and a globe-spanning human consiciousness. > >In the modern era this `planetization' process has taken a giant step forward. However, this giant step has been achieved to a large extent through the interconnection of humanity through the unrestrained world market, with all its downside features of exploitation, imperialism, ecological despoilation, and fragmentation of human life trailing in its wake. In a greed-driven search by business corporations for new markets and cheap labour, the so-called `free-trade' agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) further entrench these negative features of market-based planetaization in a system whose proponents call it `globalization'. > >Passing under this same name -`gloablization' - there is now also an attempt to promote and implement the `MAI', the `multi-lateral agreement on investment'. This agreement would further all of the downside aspects of free market-based globalization by eliminating to a large degree the power of national governments, which generally have at least some accountability to their people, to regulate corporations. Disputes between business corporations and governments, for example, would be settled not in national courts but by international bodies favoring business interests and meeting in closed sessions without public scrutiny or accountability. > >While progressive people in general oppose free-trade and MAI-type agreements, I have long believed that we should not oppose such agreements without making clear that we: 1) reject parochialism and xenophobia, 2) favor technical and social facilities which promote the progressive interaction of peoples, and 3) favor the positive interconnection of the planet in general. In short, we must reject `reactionary planetization' (planetaization based on the domination of the world by business corporations) and champion `progressive planetization' (planetization based on cooperative and ecologically sustainable forms of social life). > >The following proposed alternative to MAI, based on already achieved United Nations and other International treaties and agreements, helps to point the way to a programme of progressive planetization, and is worthy of our consideration. > >Eric Sommer, >Stewards Corporation Movement >www.stewards.net > > >******************************************************** >CITIZENS ALTERNATIVE TREATY TO THE MAI > >For over a year the proposed treaty based on international agreements has >been circulated internationally as an alternative to the MAI. This treaty >has been circulated widely throughout the international Anti-MAI networks. >It has been translated into Spanish, and is being translated into French. It >was endorsed at a recent meeting of the Federation of Green Parties of the >Americas, sent several times to the UN Missions in New York, and to the >International media. It was sent on the October 24, 1997 on the 52nd >Anniversary of the United Nations. It will be recirculated to the UN on >October 24, 1998 and on the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations >Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1998. > >The treaty is supported by a body of international documents and principles >drawn from over 50 years of international obligations, commitments and >expectations created through the UN system. The Annex contains the documents >that have been reviewed for the drafting of this document and is supported >by the Charter of Obligations prepared by the Global Compliance Research >Project. > >Joan Russow (PhD) >National leader of the Green Party of Canada > >CITIZENS TREATY OF ETHICS, EQUITY AND ECOLOGY > >Recognizing the Interdependence of Peace, Environmental Protection and Human >Rights and Social Justice (Formerly the anti-free trade citizen's treaty for >corporate and state compliance: nemesis of the MAI). Proposed General >Assembly Resolution to be circulated to governments by their citizens > >Through more than 50 years of concerted effort, the member states of the >United Nations have created public trust international obligations, >commitments and expectations in which they have undertaken the following: >1. to Promote and fully guarantee respect for human rights including labour >rights, health rights, and social justice; >2. to Enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment; >3. to Achieve a state of peace, justice and security; >4. to Create a global structure that respects the rule of law; and >5. to Ensure the preservation and protection of the environment, reduce the >ecological footprint and move away from the current model of overconsumptive >development > > >Recognizing the Interdependence of Peace, Environmental Protection and Human >Rights and Social Justice (Formerly the anti-free trade citizen's treaty for >corporate and state compliance: nemesis of the MAI) Proposed General >Assembly Resolution to be circulated to governments by their citizens > >Through more than 50 years of concerted effort, the member states of the >United Nations have created public trust international obligations, >commitments and expectations in which they have undertaken the following: >1. to Promote and fully guarantee respect for human rights including labour >rights, health rights, and social justice; >2. to Enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment; >3. to Achieve a state of peace, justice and security; >4. to Create a global structure that respects the rule of law; and >5. to Ensure the preservation and protection of the environment, reduce the >ecological footprint and move away from the current model of overconsumptive >development > >Concerned that trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization >(WTO) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and trade agreements >such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Multilateral >Agreement on Investments (MAI) undermine the work of over 50 years in >creating obligations, commitments and expectations with respect to the >matters set out above; > >Dismayed by the continued global urgency resulting from the failure of >member states of the United Nations to discharge their obligations arising >from conventions, treaties and covenants, to act on commitments made in >conference action plans, and to fulfill expectations arising from general >assembly resolutions. > >Recalling the expectations created through resolutions of the General >Assembly, commitments made in Conference Action plans, and obligations >incurred through Conventions: >- to guarantee "the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of >all members of the human family" - to "prevent the scourge of war", >- to recognize "Peoples' right to peace", >- to "eliminate production of weapons of mass destruction", >- to ensure that "the use of scientific technology should be in peace and >for the benefits of humanity", >- to "reduce the military budget and transfer the savings into promoting >social programs particularly in developing countries", >- to "ensure social justice and the equitable distribution of resources", >- to respect "the right to work for equal pay for work of equal value", >- to "ensure the rights of future generations", and >- to "respect the inherent worth of nature beyond human purpose"; > >Noting that December 10, 1998 is the 50th Anniversary of the Universal >Declaration of Human Rights and that there must be no discrimination on the >following grounds: > >Race, tribe, or culture, colour, ethnicity, national ethnic or social >origin, nationality, place of birth, nature of residence (refugee or >immigrant, migrant worker) status, colour, gender, sex, sexual orientation, >gender identity, marital status, form of family, disability, age, language, >religion or conviction, political or other opinion, or , class, economic >position, or other status > >Recalling the commitment made by all the member states of the United Nations >in the Platform of Action at the UN Conference on Women: Equality, >Development and Peace (Beijing, 1995) and in the Habitat II Agenda, "to >ensure that corporations including transnational corporations comply with >national codes, social security laws, and international law, including >international environmental law"; > > >WE CALL UPON THE MEMBER STATES OF THE UNITED NATIONS TO UNDERTAKE THE >FOLLOWING: > >1. To discharge obligations, act on commitments, and fulfill expectations >arising from Public Trust international agreements and thus: >(a) to sign and ratify those existing international conventions, treaties, >and covenants that have not yet been signed and ratified, >(b) to enact the domestic legislation necessary to implement them and to >fulfill the legitimate expectations created by General Assembly resolutions >and declarations, and >(c) to act upon commitments arising from conference action plans; > >2. To establish mandatory international standards and regulations (MINS), >based on international principles and on the highest and strongest >regulations from member states, harmonizing standards and regulations >continually upwards with respect to: >a. Promoting and fully guaranteeing respect for human rights including >labour rights, health rights and social justice; >b. Enabling socially equitable and environmentally sound employment; >c. Achieving a state of peace, justice and security; >d. Creating a global structure that respects the rule of law; and >e. Ensuring the preservation and protection of the environment. > >3. To demand compensation and reparations from corporations, and from >administrations that have permitted corporations to, or assisted them in, >degrading the environment, violating fundamental human rights, causing harm >to human health, especially where those actions occurred: >(a) in developed and developing countries, or >(b) on the lands of indigenous peoples or in the communities of marginalized >citizens in either developing or developed countries; > >4. To revoke the licences and charters of corporations, including >transnational corporations, if those corporations have persistently: >(a) violated human rights or denied social justice, >(b) caused environmental degradation, or harm to human health, >(c) disregarded labour rights, or >(d) contributed to conflict and war, or if they fail to pay compensation for >past non-compliance with international agreements; > >5. To reduce the global military budgets by at least 50% and use the >savings: >(a) to guarantee: >- the right to safe and adequate food, which has been not genetically >altered or irradiated, or grown with pesticides >- the right to safe and affordable shelter, >- the right to universal health care, >- the right to safe drinking water, >- the right to a safe environment, >- the right to education, and >- the right to peace; >(b) to fund socially equitable and environmentally sound work; and >(c) to fund education and research free from corporate direction and >control; > >6. To increase funding for United Nations agencies and for international, >national and regional educational institutions so that their missions will >not be undermined by corporate direction or control. All funding to the >United Nations should be conditional and dedicated to the furthering of >international public trust law, not vested interest economic agreements such >as GATT, WTO, MAI etc. Given the security council is controlled by the >nuclear armed states, the security council should be disbanded, and >rotational councils should be selected from the membership of the general >assembly. > >7. To develop criteria for partnership with the United Nations so as to >ensure the exclusion of corporations and to ensure that all partners have in >no way in any of their activities violated human rights, including labour >rights caused environmental degradation, contributed to war and >conflict, or failed to promote socially equitable and environmentally sound >employment; > >8. To distinguish "civil society" from the "market" - as business activity >conducted for profit and civil society as those elements of society that >serve to guarantee human rights, foster justice, protect and conserve the >environment, prevent war and conflict, and provide for socially equitable >and environmentally sound employment - > >9. To prevent the transfer to other states of substances and activities that >cause environmental degradation or that are harmful to human health, as >agreed in the Rio Declaration, UNCED, 1992; > >This prohibition must cover activities such as those related to: >(a) production, importation or exportation of toxic, hazardous, or atomic >substances and wastes, >(b) production or consumption of ozone-depleting substances, >(c) extraction of resources by environmentally unsound methods, >(d) production or distribution of genetically-engineered food substances and >genetically modified organisms, >(e) production or distribution of genetically engineered crop/pesticide >systems, >(f) production of greenhouse gas emissions; > >10. To act upon the commitments made at recent United Nations Conferences to >move away from the overconsumptive model of development, to reduce the >ecological footprint, to move away from car-dependency, and to reject the >economic dogma that maximum economic growth will resolve the urgency of the >global situation; > >11. To prohibit all trade zones that have the effect of circumventing >obligations and commitments intended to guarantee human rights, including >social justice and labour rights, or to protect, preserve and conserve the >environment. > >12. To work for the unconditional forgiveness of all developing nations debt >arising from loans made prior to 1990 and for the termination of all >structural adjustment programs (saps) which seek to ensure repayment of such >debt at the expense of ordinary people, including programs which seek: > >(a) the indiscriminate privatization of state-owned enterprises, >(b) the indiscriminate reduction of government expenditures, >(c) the indiscriminate liberalization of trade regimes, >(d) the indiscriminate opening of states to increased foreign investment, >especially where this entails the attraction of foreign capital by >deregulating markets and offering low wages, high interest rates, and little >or no environmental protection, > >(e) the indiscriminate encouragement of producing of goods for export at >the expense of traditional crops, products and services which serve the >needs of domestic peoples, or >(f) to force a developing nation to adopt a policy of creating or >exacerbating an imbalance between imports and exports; > >13. To ensure that no state relaxes environmental, health, human rights or >labour standards in order to attract industry, and that no corporation >allows a branch or subsidiary to engage in: >(a) practices that are unacceptable in the controlling corporation's state >of origin, >(b) activities that are banned or restricted in the controlling >corporation's state of origin, or >(c) manufacturing or transferring substances that are banned or restricted >in the controlling corporation's state of origin. > >14. To ensure that no state shall justify trade with a country that violates >human rights, including labour rights on the grounds that such trade will >lead to a betterment of human rights, except here ontined trade is >conditional on eliminating human rights abuses. > >15. To establish an International Court of Compliance where citizens can >bring evidence of state and corporate non-compliance with all states' >overriding obligations and commitments to: >(a) protect and advance human rights, including health rights, and labour >rights and social justice, >(b) protect and conserve the environment, >(c) prevent war and conflict, and >(d) enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment > >16. To ensure the right of citizens to sue corporate owners and officers, in >criminal and civil court, for any legally violation of human rights, >including labour rights, denying social justice, for destroying the >environment, for causing serious harm to human health, and for contributing >to devastation through arms trade >> >> >>Contacts: >>Joan Russow (Ph.D.) >>National leader of the Green Party of Canada >>Co-ordinator, Global Compliance Research Project >>1230 St. Patrick St. Victoria, B.C. V8S 4Y4 Tel/FAX (250) 598-0071, >>e-mail jrussow@coastnet.com >>Caspar Davis (L.L.B) >>e-mail prana@coastnet.com >> >>ANNEX >> >> >>INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN EXAMINED FOR THE GLOBAL COMPLIANCE >>PROJECT AND THAT FORM THE BASIS FOR THE TREATY FOR STATE AND CORPORATE >>COMPLIANCE: >> >>VIENNA CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF TREATIES >> >>The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1968 >>NOTE: Article 18 of the Vienna Convention Treaty stipulates that if a state >>has signed a treaty there is an "obligation not to defeat the object and >>purpose of a treaty prior to the entry into force; thus an obligations >>could be placed on states that have signed but not ratified international >>Conventions and Treaties. >> >>HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS: >> >>Convention Concerning Employment Promotion and Protection against >>Unemployment, 1988 >> Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in >>Independent Countries, 1990 >> Convention for the Protection of the World cultural and Natural >>Heritage, preamble, 1972 >> Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of >>Discrimination against Women, 1979 >> Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1968 >> Convention on Consent to Marriage, 1962 >> >> Convention on the Political Rights of Women, 1953 , >>Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 >>Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 >>Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, 1991 Proclaimed by >>General Assembly Resolution, 1975 >>Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons, 1971 >> International Cooperation in the fight against all Forms of >>Religious intolerance and extremism Regional Meeting for Africa of the >>World Conference on Human Rights >> International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights 1966 , >> International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural >>Rights 1966 , >> International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of >>Racial Discrimination, 1965 ; >>International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant >>Workers and members of their families, 1983 >>International Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 >>Measures to Improve the Situation and Ensure the Human Rights and >>Dignity of all Migrant Workers, 1982 >>Ombudsman Annual Report, 1991 >>Prep Com II Reduction and Elimination of Widespread Poverty, >>Return or Restitution of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin,1983 >> Slavery Convention signed at Geneva, 1926 and amended by the >>Protocol, 1953, >> UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 >> Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 >>World Conference on human rights, 1993 >> >>ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS: >> >>ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources >>(Kuala Lumpur),1985 >> Canadian Government submission to Prep Com 1, for the World Summit >>for Social Development, 1995 >>Convention for the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous >>Wastes (Basel Convention), 1989 >>Convention for the Combating of Desertification, 1994 >>Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992 >>Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment of Transboundary, 1991 >> Environmental Modification Convention of 1977 >> Group of Fifteen, Submission to UNCED, 1992 >>Law of the Seas, 1982 >>Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, 1987 >>(including London and Copenhagen Protocols) >>Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 UNCED,1992 >> Seabed Treaty,1971, >>The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, 1994 >>Tunis Declaration, 1993, Report of the Regional Meeting for Africa of the >>World Conference on Human rights >>UN Convention for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972 >>UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild >>Fauna and Flora, 1973 >>UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 >>UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 1992 >>UN Conference on Humans and Environment (UNCHE),1972 >>Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone,1985 >>World Charter of Nature, 1982 >> >>PEACE INSTRUMENTS: >> >>Antarctic Treaty 1959, in force 1961 >>Bacteriological and Toxin Weapon Convention, 1972 i >>Bern [Geneva] Protocol II of 1977 on the Protection of Victims of Non- >>international Armed Conflicts in force, 1978 >>Convention IV of 1907, in force 1910 respecting the Geneva Conventions >>Relating to Protection of Victims of Armed Conflicts, 1949 >> >>Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, >>1949 >>Declaration on the Use of Scientific and Technological progress in the >>interests of peace, General Assembly Resolution, 1975 >>Environmental Modification Convention, 1977 >>Geneva Protocol of 1925 on Chemical and Bacteriological Warfare, in >>force, 1928 >>Hague Convention ii of 1899 with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War >>on Land and reaffirmed in Hague in 1910 >>Inhumane weapon Convention, 1981, >>Interfaith Charter through the Internet, 1995 >>Moon Agreement, 1979 >>Nuclear-weapon Non-proliferation Treaty, 1968 >>Outer Space Treaty, 1967 >>Seabed Treaty, 1971, in force >>The Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty : Prohibiting the testing of Nuclear >>weapons in the Atmosphere, 1963 Treaty of Tlatco (declaring South America >>as a nuclear Free weapons zone.) >> >> >>SOCIALLY EQUITABLE AND ENVIRONMENTALLY-SOUND DEVELOPMENT >> >>Conference on Population and Development. 1994 (unofficial document) >>Declaration on the Establishment of a new International Economic Order 1974 >> Programme of Action of the United Nations International Mission >>Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, 1985 >>Social Development Summit (Draft submissions) >>UN Secretariat Plan of Action World Summit for Social Development, March, >>1995 >>Universal Declaration on the Eradication of hunger and malnutrition, 1974 >> >>UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS >> >>Resolution 37/137 Protection against Products Harmful to Health and the >>Environment, 1982 >> United Nations Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, 1984 >>Peaceful settlement of disputes between states, UN resolution 36/110, 1981 >>Resolution 36/82 1981, Reduction of Military Budgets. 1981 >>General Assembly Resolution A/RES/38/63 ,1983 >>United Nations Resolution 36/14 , 1981 >>General Resolution 3180 (XXVIII) of 17 December 1973; and General >>Assembly resolution 3348 (XXIX) of 17 December. 1974 >>Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and development, the General >>Assembly Resolution, 1981 >> The General Assembly Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year >>2000, 1981 >> UN General Assembly Resolution 36/43, 1981 >> The General Assembly Resolution 36/28 >> General Assembly Resolution A/RES/38/87, 1983 >> General Assembly Resolution A/RES/38/50, 1983 >>Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace General Assembly resolution >>39/11 of 12 November 1984 >> Condemnation of nuclear war General Assembly Resolution >>A/RES/38/75, 1983 >> Condemnation of nuclear war General Assembly Resolution >>A/RES/38/75, 1983 >> United Nations Resolution, 38/71, 1993 >> Condemnation of nuclear war General Assembly Resolution >> >>A/RES/38/75, 1983 >> GA Resolution The right to education 37/178 17 December, 1982 >>Relationship between disarmament and development, UN resolution >>38/71, 1983 >>Resolution 36/82 1981, Reduction of Military Budgets. 1981 >> Declaration on the Right to Development Adopted by General Assembly >>resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986 >>UN General Assembly Resolution 35/8 Historical Responsibility of States >>for the Preservation of Nature for Present and Future Generations >>1980 >> >> >>INTERNATIONAL NGO RESOLUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS: >> >>Advanced Unedited Draft Declaration and Platform for Action, May, 15, 1995 >>Alternative Earth Charter, ERA Ecological Rights Association, 1991 >>Citizens Association to Safe the Environment- CASE, 1995 >>Declaration of Conscientious objection, 1994 >>Declaration, Summit of the Americas, 1994 >>Declaration made by participants in the 5th International Conference of >>Pace Tax Campaigners and War tax, 1994 >>Earth Charter, Global Forum, 1992 >>First study Conference on Genital mutilation of girls in Europe, 1992 >>ERA Ecological Rights Association UN Declaration for Translating Rhetoric >>into Action, 1992 >> International Union of Geological Sciences, 1994 >>IUCN, 1994 >>NGO Treaty on Militarism, Environment and Development (Global >>Forum, 1992 , >>NGO Treaty on "Overconsumption", 1992 >>NGO Treaty on Population, Environment and Development (Global Forum, 199 >> PAN International by PAN North America Regional Center, 1993 >> PROMISES TO KEEP The Unfinished Agenda >> for Human Rights and Economic Justice in the Americas, 1994 >>The Imperative of Equity: the Missing Dimension of UNCED: Statement of >>the South Asia NGO Summit, New Delhi, February 17-19, 1992 >>Women's Health in Women's Hands, 1995 >>Women's Action AGENDA, 1992 >> >> >>OTHER >> >>Grossman, R.. Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of >>Incorporation >>Peaceworkers Brochure, 1995. >>Responsibility. a Statement of Principles for Canadian daily newspapers, >>1977 > > >Margrete Strand Rangnes >MAI Project Coordinator >Public Citizen Global Trade Watch >215 Pennsylvania Ave, SE >Washington DC, 20003 >mstrand@citizen.org >202-546 4996, ext. 306 >202-547 7392 (fax) > >To subscribe to our MAI Listserv send an e-mail to mstrand@citizen.org, or >subscribe directly by going to our website, >www.tradewatch.org > > > > From brook@california.com Wed Oct 14 16:12:01 1998 Wed, 14 Oct 1998 15:10:58 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 13:34:56 -0700 To: flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, PSN@csf.colorado.edu, BROOKJ@ceb.ucop.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG From: CyberBrook Subject: dueling quotations CLINTON VS. STARR - DUELING QUOTATIONS Two single-paragraph, "anti-prophetic" quotes are circulating by email this week, one supposedly dating from Bill Clinton's 1974 Arkansas campaign for the House of Representatives and the other attributed to Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr in a 60 Minutes interview from 1987. Both quotes shed ironic light on the present actions and statements of their alleged utterers. Clinton supposedly said (regarding Richard Nixon): "Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American people, time and time again, and betrayed their trust. He is no longer an effective leader. Since he has admitted guilt, there is no reason to put the American people through an impeachment. He will serve abolutely no purpose in finishing out his term; the only possible solution is for the president to save some dignity and resign." Starr supposedly told Diane Sawyer: "Public media should not contain explicit or implied descriptions of sex acts. Our society should be purged of the perverts who provide the media with pornographic material while pretending it has some redeeming social value under the public's 'right to know.' Pornography is pornography, regardless of the source." The jury is in on both statements. Clinton -did- say words fairly close to those quoted, according to the Aug. 8, 1974 edition of the Arkansas Gazette (see reprint at http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/clinton/clintongaz0874.html). Starr, on the other hand, did -not- appear on 60 Minutes in 1987, let alone make the statements attributed to him, according to CBS. It's likely the fictional Starr quote -- which, on reflection, is too dead-on to deserve much credence in the first place -- was invented by some Clinton supporter(s) in hopes of deflating the impact of the President-to-be's unfortunate statements. From mweigand@usa.net Thu Oct 15 10:19:51 1998 Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 10:12:03 -0700 From: mark weigand Reply-To: mweigand@usa.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Big Brother is watching To all PSN'rs: Please note that after I forwarded the article from the Village Voice about the Echelon surveillance system, I have received responses from national newspapers, the White House and a Senator's office, and NPR radio thanking me for my "letter" to them. Unfortunately, I did not forward the article to any of these organizations and individuals. The article I sent to the PSN is a matter of public record and as one PSN'r noted, is also included on the web site of Project Censored, so there is no real problem with disseminating it on the Internet as you see fit. However, to whomever is forwarding this article, please use your own email address rather than mine, so that I do not receive many unwanted replies. Thank you. -- Best Wishes, -=MW=- MSCD.edu From coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Thu Oct 15 11:50:53 1998 From: "Rodney Coates" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: DWB-Driving While Black-Racism and Police.discrimination in america. Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 13:50:24 -0400 charset="iso-8859-1" In-Reply-To: <36262CE3.1F95@usa.net> DWB( Driving While Black).will get you a ticket in Maryland..racism and police.something to critically think about: A recent study by John Lamberth, Ph.D. concluded: The evidence examined in this study reveals dramatic and highly statistically significant disparities between the percentage of black Interstate 95 motorists legitimately subject to stop by Maryland State Police and the percentage of black motorists detained and searched by MSP troopers on this roadway. While no one can know the motivations of each individual trooper in conducting a traffic stop, the statistics presented herein, representing a broad and detailed sample of highly appropriate data, show without question a racially discriminatory impact on blacks and other minority motorists from state police behavior along I-95. The disparities are sufficiently great that, taken as a whole, they are consistent with and strongly support the assertion that the Maryland State Police are targeting the community of black motorists for stop, detention, and investigation within the Interstate 95 corridor. Check out the complete story at: http://www.aclu.org/court/lamberth.html -- umoja -- rodneyc.. for my poetry please check; http://www.ulbobo.com/umoja From speaks@students.uiuc.edu Thu Oct 15 15:27:06 1998 Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 16:26:56 -0500 (CDT) From: samantha rene speaks To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Help with a presentation Hello, I'm guest teaching a one-hour class of environmental marxism. Does anyone have any good examples of how they get students interested and involved in the topic? Thank you for the assistance Samantha Speaks speaks@students.uiuc.edu From john@wiredstrategies.com Fri Oct 16 01:58:33 1998 Fri, 16 Oct 1998 02:49:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 03:00:14 -0400 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: John Aravosis Subject: ALERT: Religious right orders Lott/Gingrich to kill Hate Crime bill Personal note from John of Wired Strategies: a well-placed Senate source told me tonight that a certain well-known "family values" group has told Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) to kill the Hate Crimes Prevention Act before Congress finishes up today (Friday). Today is Matthew's funeral. And while the Rev. Fred Phelps is protesting at Matthew's grave, his henchman are doing their best to keep hate alive in Washington. We HAVE to get as many calls - not emails (it's too late for that) - as possible to Lott and Gingrich IMMEDIATELY! Let's do this one for Matthew, folks. PS Don't let them tell you they're passing, or have passed, a "resolution" on Matthew's death. These are do-nothing bills, like declaring "National Butter Day", that Congress passes to kiss up to special interests - we want a real law that protects our lives. **************************************** ONLINE DAY OF ACTION FOR MATTHEW Friday October 16, 1998 *** NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ANNOUNCE DAY OF URGENT ACTION TO HONOR MATTHEW SHEPARD *** *** EVERYONE URGED TO PHONE LOTT AND GINGRICH NOW!!! *** WHO: The Human Rights Campaign, Wired Strategies, GLAAD, NGLTF and PlanetOut are jointly sponsoring a national day of action to tell Congress "Enough is Enough - Pass the Hate Crimes Law NOW!" WHAT: We are mobilizing the Net to shut down the phones of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott until they pass the HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT. Congress' last day for the year is Friday October 16 - so we need to act now, and close them down all day long. WHEN: Friday October 16, naturally. HOW'S IT WORK?: The action is easy. 1) Pick up the phone and call Sen. Lott and Rep. Gingrich now! * Lott's phone numbers: (202) 224-3135, and (202) 224-6253 * Gingrich's phone numbers: (202) 225-0600, and (202) 225-4501 * TELL THEM: "Matthew Shepard's death in not just a tragedy, it's unacceptable. Congress has been sitting on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for over a year. Pass it now before the Congressional session is over!" 2) Send this email to as many friends as possible, urging them to act. 3) If you have a Web site, we would ask that you post a new home page all day Friday - which we provide below - honoring Matthew and calling on everyone visiting your site to call Sen. Lott and Rep. Gingrich immediately. The html text for the page is included below. A FINAL WORD: Matthew Shepard may be gone, but we refuse to let his too short life and untimely death be in vain. Please join us now in turning our sorrow and anger into positive action. If you need some inspiration, take another look at the Virtual Vigil page on the Matthew Shepard Online Resources Web site, read the quotes and see the pictures, again. And remember why we're doing this. ************************* [The following information is only for people with Web sites] For Webmasters, the following HTML source code and message is recommended - if you have questions about the HTML code, call Phil Attey at the Human Rights Campaign, 202/628-4160, . Matthew Shepard National Online Vigil
Matthew Shepard 1976 - 1998 National Online Vigil October 16, 1998
TODAY I black out my homepage. I call for an end to hate and violence. I call on religious political extremist groups to stop their anti-gay ads. I call on Congress to pass the Hate Crime Prevention Act. I am right now callingTrent Lott (202) 224-3135 and Newt Gingrich (202) 225-0600 demanding passage of this bill. I ask you to call them as well. I Will Not Forget, I Will Not Be Silent
************************************************************** Get the latest on the Matthew Shepard anti-gay hate crime case at the Matthew Shepard Online Resource center: The site includes: * latest news on the case * action center to: email Congress; email Matthew's family; donate money * info on anti-gay hate crimes * photographs from the DC candlelight vigil - Oct. 14 * email subscription list * email links to major and local newspapers * links to other useful sites * online bulletin board to share your views on the case To subscribe to the email update list, visit and use the easy online subscription form. Generally I only send one email per day. This site is sponsored for free by Wired Strategies Political Internet Consulting . "The opportunity to be threatened, humiliated and to live in fear of being beaten to death is the only 'special right' our culture bestows on homosexuals." - Diane Carman, Denver Post, October 10, 1998 From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Fri Oct 16 09:08:46 1998 Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 11:13:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: C4ED-L important document from the nea (fwd) I just received this and it looks to be an informative and detailed analysis of far right in the US. Joanne Naiman ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:59:35 -0400 From: Erika Shaker To: c4ed-l@netserver.web.net Subject: C4ED-L important document from the nea i urge you all to look at this report prepared by the national education association: " the real story behind 'paycheck protection'--the hidden link between anti-public education initiatives: an anatomy of the far right." it can be found at http://www.nea.org/publiced/paycheck. i believe copies can also be purchased from the nea for $6. --------------------------------------- Erika Shaker CCPA Education Project 804-251 Laurier Ave. W. Ottawa, ON K1P-5J6 Tel (613) 563-1341, Fax (613) 233-1458 http://www.policyalternatives.ca Get your copy of the "CCPA Education Monitor" today! From draperm@socio.unp.ac.za Fri Oct 16 01:39:38 1998 Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:38:02 +0200 From: "Malcolm Draper" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Peggy-Sue the Cow Killer Well well. Aspinall seems to have killed the discussion on sociobiology. Come on Mr. Goertzel, don't roll over and die so easily. A mere association with fascist ideology doesn't discount the intrinsic explanatory power of theory does it? In the same CITES International News for Campfire, (December 1996) which I lifted a report on Aspinall's eccentric ecocentricism, there is another article reflecting on a very different ideological position which I snipped and pasted below. Never mind that light brown Peggy-Sue adopted the Zulu name Khumalo so as to fit AA criteria more authentically, or that she grew up in an urban township. After reading this, as an exercise in binaries, ask yourself to whom are you inclined - John Aspinall or Peggy-Sue? "Peggy-Sue the Cow Killer" 'Peggy-Sue Khumalo, the reigning Miss South Africa, has been shunned by animal rightists because of her traditional beliefs. Peggy-Sue, who had been promoting the work of the Animal Anti-Cruelty League, was due to give the starting signal for a September 22 charity run by pet-owners and their pets. That all changed when she told a magazine she would ritually slaughter a goat and an oxen, or maybe even 10 oxen, in celebration if she became Miss World. Animal lovers promptly jammed the phone lines with howls of protest, obliging the League to sever its ties with Peggy-Sue and cancel her invitation to the race. Peggy-Sue, who grew up on a farm and claims to love animals, went on the counter-attack: "I would never be involved in any act of abuse against any animal," she said (Sunday Times, Sept. 22). "In my culture we slaughter an animal as an act of gratitude. My family have always raised animals and we believe that even slaughtering should be carried out in a humane manner, causing minimal suffering to the animal." As for the possibility she might slaughter a small herd of animals, she remarked: "I wish people would take the comment about slaying 10 oxen ... in the spirit in which it was said. I was merely trying to indicate that we would need to be 10 times more grateful. I cannot afford 10 cattle." But the League was unrepentant. "It is not the question of slaughter nor the culture that is the problem," said a spokeswoman. "It is the method used in the ritual slaughter of animals that is so objectionable. It causes intense and needless suffering to the animal. Her apparent love of animals yet her acceptance of this cruel practice is a complete contradiction." The League also warned that a victorious Peggy-Sue could create a diplomatic incident, as the Indian city of Bangalore prepared to hold the November finals of Miss World. Cows are sacred in India. "If our joyful Miss South Africa talks about slaughtering cows in Bangalore ... she'll end up in the cactus," said the League's spokeswoman. But keen followers of the Peggy-Sue saga were ultimately to be disappointed. Failing even to make the final three of Miss World, Peggy-Sue is believed to have set the cows free and slaughtered her hair stylist instead.' From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Sun Oct 18 19:48:31 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 18 Oct 1998 21:46:18 EDT To: Subject: Triimph of the Swill??? I nelieve that it would behoove all psn'rs able to do so to download the following from the NYT website, or make the effort to access it in print, of unable to do so. It concerns the apparent attempt to rehabioitate McCarthy/ McCarthyism which is now taking place in the academy. The text of the article is interesting, but the subterxts are truly fascinating... Some questions to consider: 1) Julius Rosenberg- pathetic victim, heinous traitor, or people's hero? 2) What has any of this to do with American Communism as a mass movement? 3) Why now? I am sure that we can all think of many more... Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Sun Oct 18 20:22:59 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 18 Oct 1998 22:20:53 EDT To: Subject: Whoops! (Omission) Sorry! The aeticle on McCarthyism redux appears at: http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/101898mccarthyism-review.html TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From aa4013a@american.edu Sun Oct 18 12:02:31 1998 From: aa4013a@american.edu To: psn@csf.colorado.edu, wsn@csf.colorado.edu, socgrad@psn.colorado.edu Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 14:01:18 -0400 Subject: CALL FOR ACTION: Persecution of Chinese in Indonesia Dear Colleagues, I am writing all of you to invite your participation in my letter-writing campaign for the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Please write to your Congressmen/women and your senators and urge them to act to protect the Indonesian Chinese from continuing persecution in their adoptive homeland. A letter that I wrote is attached for your use, all you need to do is to sign it, write your name and address and send it to your representatives in Congress. Feel free to make copies of this letter and distribute it to your colleagues and students. The more people write this letter, the better the chance for this campaign to make an impact in Congress. Some of you might have cynical views against the power elite in Washington, however, please join me in supporting this campaign to try to protect this unfortunate minority group from future persecution and possible "ethnic cleansing." Feel free to write me if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your help on this. Sincerely, Alex --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter begins here Dear Congressperson/Senator I am outraged to hear about the human rights abuses directed against the ethnic Chinese of Indonesia. The stories of mass rapes and murders of Indonesian Chinese women in the hands of unknown perpetrators are very horrible. It is more outrageous to hear that so far the Indonesian government has failed to condemn these crimes and to bring these perpetrators into justice. I urge you to support any congressional resolution that would condemn the human rights abuses against the Indonesian Chinese and would rebuke the Indonesian government for failing to take strong actions to protect them. I also want you to support any legislation that would make protection for the ethnic Chinese and other minorities/religious groups in Indonesia as a condition for any disbursement of US foreign aid to that country. Finally, I want you to support legislation that would guarantee all Indonesian Chinese people who want to seek save haven in the United States to receive political asylum in this country. Let me know what you stand for on this issue. I look forward to hear from you on this matter. Sincerely, ( ) Please print your name, your home address and your home state below. From spector@calumet.purdue.edu Mon Oct 19 15:40:41 1998 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 16:40:29 -0500 From: Alan Spector Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: DaliLama, Kosovo, and Josephs McCarthy and Stalin In the discussions about Kosovo, some tried to make the point that we just don't trust the U.S. government to pick our enemies and allies. A recent news story bears this out again. Generally, it is the conservatives that criticize regimes associated with the word "communism", but in the case of Tibet, it is many liberals, including the MTV crowd and various leftist rock groups and Hollywood personalities that have made a celebrated cause out of the Chinese government's control over Tibet. It is true that the Chinese government now controls Tibet. It is also true that the Chinese government today promotes exploitation of the elite over the majority. But why do they describe Tibet, when it was under the leadership of the DaliLama (DL) as if it were a cross between Heaven and Shangri-la, and describe the DL as if he were "Jesus' Other Divine Brother" -- a saintly, quiet peaceful man who only wants freedom and peace for his people. Those who know history know that before the Chinese military took control over Tibet, it was an extremely impoverished slave society. But now comes the interesting part. It seems that the CIA funded the DL, to the tune of something like 1.7 million dollars a year, and that a lot of that money went to fund armed rebellion against the Chinese. The DL on the CIA payroll? The SAME CIA that was murdering workers and peasants all over the world during the same period? What's my point? Only that liberals, and even some radicals and even some Marxists -- we sometimes get taken in by fashion, by image, by appearance. "Oh, but he seems like such a gentle person......" Yeah, a gentle person who took CIA money to organize pro-CIA rebellion against China. Maybe you or we want to support that armed rebellion. Okay, maybe you/we want to. But then, support it on the basis of openly describing and defending the POLITICS of that rebellion. But don't make it sound like the peaceful "son of God" is being oppressed by the evil communists. In Kosovo, several Serb cops were shot dead in cold blood by armed Albanian separatists. Well, I don't support the Serb government. And I don't want to see Albanian civilians freeze in the forests this winter. But please, DON'T portray the Albanian separatists as peace-loving innocents. And now they are trying to rewrite the story of Joe McCarthy. I think a lot of this has to do with our (including my own) weak understanding of WHY communism was not consolidated in the USSR. The anti-communists have a trump card, a card that automatically wins every debate. They can always say: "Well, what about Stalin?" as supposed "evidence" that Marxist communism can't work because there will always be a corrupt leader. But with all the terrible mistakes that were made in the USSR, it only weakens our understanding to say that it all happened because of Stalin's personality or power-hungry mentality. It is the same kind of "fashionable" rhetoric that one finds in the support for the CIA-funded DL. Understanding the dynamics that led to the collapse of the USSR, the first such regime in the history of the world, INCLUDING understanding what Stalin did wrong is vitally important. But creating myths, whether about the DL, or Stalin, or Kosovo, or the Kennedys, or Princess Di, or the Pope only hinders our ability to uncover how and why things go wrong. The MAIN WING of the capitalist ruling class, INCLUDING THE KENNEDYS, used McCarthyism for their purposes until it no longer served them and then pretended to oppose it. Now many liberals are again trying to say it was justified. Why? Well, if Stalin was "worse than Hitler", then even an alliance with Hitler would be justified with that logic. This rambling post is not meant to offer answers. It is meant to stimulate us all to some self-examination of the ways that we sometimes "go with the flow", casually accept certain myths or half-truths as Absolute Fact, fail to question certain assumptions, and generally dull our most important sense -- the ability to critically question and analyze even the most commonly accepted of assumptions. Alan Spector From MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Mon Oct 19 16:53:44 1998 From: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Date: 19 Oct 1998 18:51:34 EDT To: Subject: NYT Web article on McCarthyism For those who can access this free (in the US) site, it appears that this article has moved to another e-address (their "Week in Review" classification): http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/101898mccarthyism-review.html As I indicated to someone on the side, this seems to me to be preface to a pre-emptive strike on those who might provide ideological leadership during a time of deepening global crisis. I believe the operative ruling class mottos are "Kill it before it spreads!" "Strangle it in the cradle!" and/or that old favorite, "The only splution is a FINAL solution..." The appropriate response would seem to me to be greater solodarity among "leftists" as "they" defone us, and more political organization. I find the fact that I have gotten more personal e-mail on this than I have seen on psn. I hope this is not a harbinger of the response of progressive academics should the Gtand Inquisitors pf Cgristo-fascism turn their bloody snouts and baleful gaze our way, having finished their cannibal feast on the pol itical carcass pf their class confrere, Billigula Clinton BTW- O have listened.reas the sporadic attempts on psn and elsewhere by academic leftists to understand the class truth of Monicagate, and while I agree that the tawdry power stryggle at the imperial court represents different factions pf theAmerican bourgeoosie settling accounts by "other means," as all organized criminals are likely to do, I think the attempt to portray the struggle as profit=oriented is a bit shortsighted. O believe the struggle is the bloodless equivalent pf the "Night of the Long Knives" in the development of fascism in Germany, wherein the SS slaughtered Rohm and his SA thugs in order to clear the ways of any residual "national socialist" nonsense before cpmpleting the restoration of bourgeois-militarist autocracy in post-Versailles Germany. Having cpzened degments of the German masses into confused passivity, such tendencies had served their political/hostorical purposes and could be safely dispensed with. I think that what we are seeing is the much slower denouement of a similar drama of American fascism, with Billigula's crucifixion representing the termination of the Roosevelt New Deal social fascist (read "liberal") project, which was just what Newtler said it was going to be at the start of the last Congress. Perhap[s we shoiud ondeed revisit the writings of Dimitroff and Dutt (the latter of which was suggested by someone on psn a while back) on the politics of apparently lost end-games. I hope we have this discussion proactively, and not retroactively as post-mortem to while away the time in Marion/Dachau or Allenwood/Theresienstadt, the first for the "guilty," like Julius Rosenberg and his "innocent" wife Ethel, the second for those who perehaps did no more than use the Communist Manifesto in a theory course once-upon0-a-time... "...if my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd put my head in a guiollotine..." Wasn't this said by Bob Dylan (HIS slave name) before he found God in a motorcycle crash and a hash-bowl??? Wadm't he also the guy who said "...sometimes even the Preident of the United States must stand naked?" His natting average seems a lot better than that of most acadrmic sociologists... Morton Wenger TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From josephal@muohio.edu Mon Oct 19 19:52:48 1998 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 22:01:16 -0500 From: Alfred Joseph Subject: Women in professional schools To: psn@csf.colorado.EDU request for HELP Any HELP with numbers on women admitted to professional schools over the last decade or so would be appreciated. Thanks alfred joseph @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 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. Unknown ******************************************************************************** **************************************** Alfred L. Joseph, PLP 168 McGuffey Hall Dept. of Family Studies and Social Work Miami University Oxford, OH 45056 phone 513 529 4902 fax 513 529 6468 ******************************************************************************** **************************************** From wilkeas@mail.auburn.edu Mon Oct 19 18:06:35 1998 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 19:09:16 -0500 From: Arthur Wilke To: Progressive Sociologists Network Subject: Re: Triumph of the Swill??? Morton Wenger: With respect to your posting on the efforts to rehabilitate Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), several things are suggested by your queries. While there is always a judgment call with respect to "true believers" ("The God that Failed" comes to mind) and distortion of the record, you are highlighting a question relating to the timing and appeal to "objective scholarship" (a claim, if I recall correctly is the mantle being worn by Ronald Radosh). Certainly the claim that McCarthy was wrong but right bespeaks of pure doubletalk. So it does seem that rather than looking carefully at the historical record (and in this no one will be clearly pleased because there are flaws), it seems there are several things to disentangle: 1. Defending McCarthy because he was onto something but was wrong in details needs revisting. It sounds like a celebration of ignorance and opportunism, but is this a political-intellectual tactic that is unique to McCarthy? 2. The organizational skills of various communists and communist groups looks worth revisiting since they seem to have understood what the behavioral requisites were for making a case. (How the communists in the Scottsboro case proceeded com- pared with say Eagle Forum in contemporary, local politics looks suggestive, so that ideological sentiments can be clearly distinguished from organizational requisites.) 3. If this kind of activity isn't simply a coincidence, then it looks like this is yet another installment in the cultural wars, something that might need to be reexamined in terms of its effectiveness as a tactical stance. If idealist activities ranging from sentiment to epistemological hair-splitting is the focus of the intelligentsia, especially those with modest claims to connect to the left, then the latter are being buried. 4. If the timing isn't coincidental, then this looks like a brilliant tactic to: a) use the guilt by association technique thereby b) preempting the appeal and confidence of looking at formulations that provide an alternative response to the drift of the times - e.g., the growing inequality that seems to be observed world-wide. Even if there isn't a conscious effort, it does seem that progressive and populist notions are being taken over by crypto-populists. For example, when an analysis of contemporary conditions by those in seems to employ all the techniques and data that historically seemed to be monopolized by a liberal-left constituency, there is a pause to consider not just what this might entail, but what and where one can say something that competes (if that is, speaking/writing is considered efficacious). 5. Finally, all this stuff about operatives, spying, etc., it seems we might look to see: a) how effective this kind of system (e.g., CIA) was and to what degree current histories such as the one you are pointing to covers up a world of people "who live in houses with no windows;" and b) how critical secrecy is. Generally, there are few secrets and even where there are some, people who are organized to do tasks in similar or identical fashion will do similar if identical things. The secret of the nuclear age was known for decades. What was a secret is that the U.S. was the first to confirm that it worked. Anyway, some suggestive questions, however I anticipate that we will witness either apathy or see many falling victim into the fuzzy realm of ideological virtues, leaving descriptions of what happened and is happening to "blow in the wind." Arthur Wilke Auburn University MGWENG01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu wrote: > > I nelieve that it would behoove all psn'rs able to do so to download the > following from the NYT website, or make the effort to access it in print, of > unable to do so. It concerns the apparent attempt to rehabioitate McCarthy/ > McCarthyism which is now taking place in the academy. The text of the article > is interesting, but the subterxts are truly fascinating... > > Some questions to consider: > > 1) Julius Rosenberg- pathetic victim, heinous traitor, or people's hero? > > 2) What has any of this to do with American Communism as a mass movement? > > 3) Why now? > > I am sure that we can all think of many more... > > Morton Wenger > > TELEPHONE: (502) 852-6836 > INTERNET: MGWENG01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU From YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu Mon Oct 19 22:39:09 1998 Date: Mon, 19 Oct 98 23:38 CDT From: YLPSLL0@cpua.it.luc.edu To: psn@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: McCarthy and us Mort raises good questions and Arthur some good comments. The perception of M-ism is always going to be refracted through our own paradigmatic framework. Let me note that before addressing the "reality" of the influence/espianage of the Russians, the various studies of M-ism from the classical analyses of Lipset to more recent comments by Kovel should remind us that some of the same social factors yet operate and at the same time help us understand some of the issues of today, more specif- ically, the forces behind the Christian Right. Notwithstanding the many flaws.....the Politics of Unreason yet informs reactionary mobiliz ations and moral panics. Depending on class location, social changes, from mobility up or down, exposure to challenging beliefs and practices etc etc lead to fear and uncertainty. More specifically, in face of change some would like to return to a mythical golden age with cohesive communities, recognition of honor and dignity, and a sense of control over the world. And thus new money, status insecure, has teamed with insular Christianity-and one of the wings of big capital aka Repulican party. (Like in same NYT, CArville's book on Starr and the right was reviewed.) Anyhow to be short, M-sm, then and the right today raise interesting questions. To be sure the important one is why does this come up now. But I think there is another issue, the US and USSR were in an adver sarial relationship and the CIA and KGB were locked in Mortal Kombat. But the real question is not whether or not Hiss put film in pumpkins or the Rosenwald's spied, but how should the left view USSR. Let me note that a few weeks ago I was on local NPR talking about manifesto on 150 b-day. One thing came up...its easier to teach Marx now, after the fall, since we don't have to defend Russian style communism. Like Mort I spit on Tsarist Russia, perhaps our grandparents came over on the same ship fleeing pogroms. But the point where many will quarrel is that I contend what happened in the USSR was a perversion of the emancipatory hope of Marxism. Yes, I know that a rural society became a superpower, yes, Stalin's generals were Tsarist holdovers, etc. etc. But Russia was a police State run by terror ever since Lenin had Dhrizinsky (sp?) become head of secret police-most of whom were Tsarists who quickly changed sides. But there is no question of the extermination of the Kulaks, the gulags and policies that were genocidal, anti semitic and otherwise reprehensible. Weber suggested that if communism came to Russia, it would become a bureacratic dictatorship since there were no traditions of democracy, or even the most limited toleration-as there might have been in Nicholas had created a constitutional Tsardom in 1905. But that was alien to Russian culture, prefigured when Catherine the Great told Diderot that Russia was not ready for the social side of the Enlightenment-which capital has not yet delivered, but that is a different story. Anyhow what I would like to suggest is that the nature of Russian style government, whether in its Tsarist, Communist, or now its klepto cratic form was not, is not, and will never be a model for my kind of Marxism that is humanistic, democratic, and would allow the realization of human potential when domination is overcome. Lauren From AAFuller%Faculty%MC@manchester.edu Tue Oct 20 09:58:12 1998 From: AAFuller%Faculty%MC@manchester.edu Date: Tue, 20 Oct 98 10:58:21 EST To: Reply-To: Subject: Looking for texts on U.S. labor X-Incognito-SN: 1019 X-Incognito-Version: 4.10.130 Dear PSNers, I will be teaching a January course on Labor Movements in the U.S. this year. What texts would you recommend? I'm looking for something that's very engaging and readable, primarily; the optimal text would have that plus good analysis. Thanks, Abby Abigail A. Fuller Assistant Professor of Sociology MC Box 178, Manchester College 604 E. College Ave. North Manchester, IN 46962 (219)982-5009 aaf@manchester.edu From smrose@exis.net Tue Oct 20 16:35:01 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 18:32:58 +0000 Subject: New Bourgeois Book Challenges Anti-Stalin Claims Stalin and other Soviet leaders made many mistakes. Their biggest mistake was building socialism instead of communism. Socialism retained inequality, the wage system, natiionalism, and other crucial aspects of capitalism. Consequently, socialism became not a transition from capitalism to communism, as all Marxists previously envisioned, but a transition from capitalism to capitalism. This was a great setback for workers in the USSR and everywhere. HOWEVER, the Bolshevik revolution was a great advance in the sstruggle of the working class against capitalism. Americans who supported that revolution from 1917 through the 1950s were doing the right (left) thing. During the period of Stalin's leadership in the USSR Soviet workers--men and women of all nationalities--made considerable cultural and material progress. Then they faced and defeated the most murderous assault mounted by capitalist armed forces in the 20th century--the Nazi invasion of 1941. Approximately 30 million Soviet citizens died defeating the Nazis. If Stalin had also caused the death of another 30 million, that would have added up to almost one-third of the entire Soviet population. In fact, the accusations against Stalin blamed capitalist fascism's crimes on communism. The just published book summarized below, written by bourgeois non-Marxist authors, draws upon Soviet archival material and refutes many of the anti-communist myths about Stalin and the Stalin era of Soviet history. It estimates that 1.3 million died during the period of the "Great Purges." The majority of these were fascists and fascist sympathizers in Eastern European areas that temporarily came under Soviet control between 1939 and 1941. McCarthyism in the U.S. was a domestic component of the Cold War declared and led by the U.S. against global communism. Since World War II U.S. imperialism has caused the death of literally tens of millions of people throughout the world, from Korea and Vietnam to the more recent deadly triumphs of free market capitalism in Russia, the former Yugoslavia, Central America, and othe regions. Americans who supported the international workers' movement and opposed the depradations of U.S. imperialism deserve to be remembered with respect. Even more important, we must learn from both their achievements and their mistakes, so that we can transform the coming period of capitalist crisis, fascism, and war into a successful effort to end capitalism permanently. Steve Rosenthal ********************************** http://www.telegraph.co.uk Electronic Telegraph Sunday 30 November 1997 Issue 920 Misunderstood Stalin 'killed only 1.3m' By Catherine Elsworth A CLAIM that "Stalin the monster" was in fact a man of principle, unfairly demonised and responsible for far fewer deaths than commonly thought is made in a new book on Russian history, published by Oxford University Press. The book, which promises to "strip away the propaganda, myth and mystery", claims that 1.3 million people were murdered during the Great Purges rather than the tens of millions previously claimed. It also alleges that the 1932 Ukrainian famine was not deliberate genocide but caused by harvest failure following collectivisation. The 13 international, chiefly American, authors of "Russia, A History," assembled the "new view" of the country's history using archives closed even to party historians until 1991. The book purports to cut through "Cold War rhetoric, idealised communist propaganda or demonisation by Western writers" and use "hard evidence rather than conjecture and rumour" to evaluate the Stalinist system. Prof Gregory Freeze, general editor of the book, said: "We have an unprecedented view of the politics and the personalities involved in the purges, the numbers executed and the numbers incarcerated. The estimate was millions and millions but now we know it was far less; 700,000 were executed in the Thirties." Stalin, the book claims, rose to power not through terror but through his policy of devolving power to "little" people (vintiki, or "little screws"), encouraging them to do what they wanted. He was not simply an opportunist driven by the desire for power but "a man of principle, who displayed unwavering commitment to his own ideological manifesto, including a belief in the importance of heavy industry". Prof Freeze said: "The demonisation of Stalin in effect ignored his real power and role in the system. Stalin had very clearly defined targets and goals, not simply a brutal strategy to eliminate the opposition. He was a workaholic who worked 16-18 hours a day. In the notion of industrialisation he developed he certainly was clearly focused on the objective he wanted to achieve." The dictator had achievements "even during the war years", Prof Freeze said: "For example, in spite of all the anti-Stalin rhetoric under Krushchev, Stalin was not so dysfunctional. He had a postive role during the mobilisation of resources and popular support during the Second World War. He was extremely popular even into the Fifties. One of the reasons that de-Stalinisation failed is that it came from the top and not from below." From eric@stewards.net Tue Oct 20 15:01:10 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 13:59:28 -0700 (PDT) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu (PSN) From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: What is the truth about the Kulaks? Hi there, My anti-totalitarian credentials are secure, given that in the 1970's I coined and propagated among local progressives whom I knew the slogan: "Better bourgeois civil liberties than no civil liberties at all!" to encapsulate the lack of liberty in the Soviet block. HOWEVER, I'm not sure that there is `no question' regarding the `extermination' of the Kulaks, as Lauren states in his message below. I recognize that Lauren is simply accepting what has become the consensual view, of both left and right wing thinkers in the west, regarding the fate of the rich peasents during Stalin's collectivization drive in agriculture in the late 1920's. However, I have seen it argued that the bulk of documentation for this `extermination' consists, in fact, of the reports of a foreign correspondent for the reactionary Hearst Newspaper chain, a right-wing correspondent who was himself directly supportive of the European facist movements. The claim was that the various reports and discussions of the matter could ultimatey be traced back to this one reporter's stories. I've been wondering about this matter ever since - so does anyone out there in `PSN-land' have any in-depth knowledge regarding *primary sources* depicting the treatment of the Kulaks during Stalin's collectivization drive? Yours for truth, Eric >Mort raises good questions and Arthur some good comments. The perception >of M-ism is always going to be refracted through our own paradigmatic >framework. Let me note that before addressing the "reality" of the >influence/espianage of the Russians, the various studies of M-ism from >the classical analyses of Lipset to more recent comments by Kovel should >remind us that some of the same social factors yet operate and at the >same time help us understand some of the issues of today, more specif- >ically, the forces behind the Christian Right. Notwithstanding the >many flaws.....the Politics of Unreason yet informs reactionary mobiliz >ations and moral panics. Depending on class location, social changes, >from mobility up or down, exposure to challenging beliefs and practices >etc etc lead to fear and uncertainty. More specifically, in face of >change some would like to return to a mythical golden age with cohesive >communities, recognition of honor and dignity, and a sense of control >over the world. And thus new money, status insecure, has teamed with >insular Christianity-and one of the wings of big capital aka Repulican >party. (Like in same NYT, CArville's book on Starr and the right was >reviewed.) Anyhow to be short, M-sm, then and the right today raise >interesting questions. To be sure the important one is why does this >come up now. >But I think there is another issue, the US and USSR were in an adver >sarial relationship and the CIA and KGB were locked in Mortal Kombat. >But the real question is not whether or not Hiss put film in pumpkins >or the Rosenwald's spied, but how should the left view USSR. Let me >note that a few weeks ago I was on local NPR talking about manifesto on >150 b-day. One thing came up...its easier to teach Marx now, after the >fall, since we don't have to defend Russian style communism. Like Mort >I spit on Tsarist Russia, perhaps our grandparents came over on the same >ship fleeing pogroms. But the point where many will quarrel is that >I contend what happened in the USSR was a perversion of the emancipatory >hope of Marxism. Yes, I know that a rural society became a superpower, >yes, Stalin's generals were Tsarist holdovers, etc. etc. But Russia >was a police State run by terror ever since Lenin had Dhrizinsky (sp?) >become head of secret police-most of whom were Tsarists who quickly >changed sides. But there is no question of the extermination of the >Kulaks, the gulags and policies that were genocidal, anti semitic and >otherwise reprehensible. >Weber suggested that if communism came to Russia, it would become a >bureacratic dictatorship since there were no traditions of democracy, >or even the most limited toleration-as there might have been in Nicholas >had created a constitutional Tsardom in 1905. But that was alien to >Russian culture, prefigured when Catherine the Great told Diderot that >Russia was not ready for the social side of the Enlightenment-which >capital has not yet delivered, but that is a different story. >Anyhow what I would like to suggest is that the nature of Russian >style government, whether in its Tsarist, Communist, or now its klepto >cratic form was not, is not, and will never be a model for my kind of >Marxism that is humanistic, democratic, and would allow the realization >of human potential when domination is overcome. Lauren > > From ayac@sannet.ne.jp Tue Oct 20 18:43:37 1998 Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 09:26:34 +0900 To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK From: Allan Sutherland Subject: Exchange student programme Hello one and all, Perhaps this is my first post to this list, I am not sure. My research interests are primarily in modernism, rationality and music, specifically jazz music. Currently, I lecture in comparative culture and English at a new University in the southern island of Kyushu in Japan. The university is Kyushu University of Nursing and Scoail Welfare. This is the university's first year, however, some time in the future we hope to establish exchange programmes with universities elswhere in the world. If anyone on this list is interested in possibly establishing an exchange programme, for students and perhaps also for teaching staff, or would like to know more about the university, please email me directly either at this address or at, allan@kyushu-ns.ed.jp. Thank you. Allan. I am writing a discography of all of the recorded works of the sublime pianist McCoy Tyner, as leader and sideman, official and not so official. Any information that you may think will be even of the slightest help, please do not hesitate to contact me. Knowledge gained multiple times is far preferred to that never learned. Any help given will be acknowledged in the discography, or not if you prefer that. From c676630@showme.missouri.edu Tue Oct 20 19:07:04 1998 Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 20:06:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Jose F Galindo Reply-To: Jose F Galindo To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: A question on C.W. Mills In-Reply-To: Dear PSNers: I will be teaching a course dealing with the construction of the object in sociological research at a Bolivian university starting next January. The course is intended to be a methodology seminar with the purpose of examining the uses (habits) of methodological procedures as well as the details about how sociologists procede in the construction of research problems. I am planning to use some of P. Bourdieu's, A. Gouldner's, H. Becker's, L. Richardson's and C.W. Mills' writings dealing with reflexive sociology. However, since the class will be in Spanish, I was wondering if any of you know whether C.W. Mill's book "The Sociological Imagination" has been translated into Spanish. Also if you know any other authors who have reflected on the process of constructing their sociological objects of study, I will be very interested in getting the references. Thanks, Fernando J. Fernando Galindo C. Sociology Department Universidad Mayor de San Simon Cochabamba-Bolivia -- University of Missouri-Columbia Department of Rural Sociology From tr@tryoung.com Sun Oct 18 08:01:32 1998 (usr-mtp-70.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.70]) by h50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 09:57:41 -0400 To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: New at the Red Feather Website sssitalk@sun.soci.niu.edu there are several new works on the Red Feather Website: 1. There is a reprint of an article on Markets, Values and Socialism by two fine economists, W. Paul Cockshott and Allin F. Cottrell. double click on: http://www.tryoung.com/archives/194value.htm 2. Over the past 17 years, I have worked on a Quartet of Books the set of which is entitled, CRITICAL DIMENSIONS IN DRAMATURGICAL ANALYSIS at: http://www.tryoung.com/DramaHolyBooks/booksINDEX.htm All four books are complete; I have up-loaded the last in Series since, in my opinion, it is the most important. the four are: Book Four: THE DRAMA OF THE HOLY at: http://www.tryoung.com/drama of the holy/000CONTENTS.htm Book Three: THE DRAMA OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING: Book Two:  THE DRAMA OF SOCIAL RESEARCH: Book One:  THE DRAMA OF SOCIAL LIFE: This book had been available in hard copy from Transaction books...it is now out of print. I will up-load the other three as time permits. The whole Set is dedicated to the memory of my dear wife, Dorothy Jean Grace Young (d. 19 Oct., 1981) 3. a new mini-syllabus in Environment Marxist on the Radical Pedagogy home page. It can be found at: http://www.tryoung.com/RADPED/029ENVIRONMENTALMARXISM.htm 4. A series of mini-lectures on teaching Marxist Social Thought The first in that set can be found at: http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/034MarxistTheory-1.htm 5. And finally, just for Bill Farell, a set of mini-lectures on teaching Marxist criminology: the first of that set can be found at: http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/045techcrm1.htm TR Young, Director Note: please inform me of any access problems you might have for any RF materials. TRY TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From dlong@fpm.eushc.org Wed Oct 21 11:31:38 1998 Wed, 21 Oct 1998 13:31:20 -0400 (EDT) 21 Oct 98 13:31:31 est5edt From: "David Michael Long" To: MedSoc@csf.colorado.edu, psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 13:31:16 -0400 Subject: Salaries for adjunct faculty I remember about 6 months ago there was a discussion on PSN regarding GTA's and adjuct faculty organizing to promote their interests at several schools. I was wondering if everyone could do me a favor and send me the pay information and amount of work require for GTA's and part-time instructors (PTI's) in your departments. For example, a PTI with a PhD (or ABD) at Georgia State University teaching a three credit course of 70 or less students makes $2,000 a semester, or about $500 a month (before taxes). Someone with their masters makes $1600. For that class you have to do all the lecturing, grading, photocopying, etc. Now a colleague of mine at a comparable state school in the West makes $1200 a month for the same amount of work in an into course for 50 students. FYI, we had a meeting yesterday at GA State to address adjunct faculty's concerns and forming a PTI/GTA association. The principle organizer was Tom Coffin (a sociologist), and I have to give a shout out and thank Tom for a great discussion. About 40% of all undergrad classes are taught by adjunct faculty at GA State, but the highest paid tem/pt instructor makes less than half of what the least paid full-time non-tenure track faculty member makes for doing an equivalent amount of work. In addition, adjuncts in the sociology department do not have direct access to computers, telephones, or adequate officer space and support services (four of us share a 12X10 office with one phone without voicemail and no computers). Personally, I would probably teach even if they did not pay me. I really enjoy it and since I am still relatively young (and ABD), I need the experience. Plus I have a full-time research position that I love and that pays the bills. The only ideological concern that I have is over equity. I do not like to feel unappreciated or that my work is not considered as valuable as someone else doing the same job. Now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for most of the faculty at the sociology department and certainly realize that they are far more experienced and credentialed than I. I am starting to feel, however, that perhaps I should switch my teaching approach to "canned" lectures and multiple choice scantron exams, rather than the essay questions and experiential assignments that I presently assign. The students certainly won't get as much out of it, but it would be a more efficient use of my time and there would be no disincentive for me not to. Also, starting next quarter I will be also teaching at a private college that is going to pay me pay me 150% of what GA State does for a class with one-third the students. Wouldn't it make more sense for me to devote my time and energy (essays and other assignments) to that class rather than those ar GA State? What do those of you older and wiser than me suggest? Dave Long Department of Sociology Georgia State University David M. Long, MPH Department of Family and Preventive Medicine Emory University School of Medicine 69 Butler Street, SE Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3219 404-616-2389 (voice) 404-616-6847 (fax) dlong@fpm.eushc.org "Man makes himself... Life is nothing until it is lived." - Jean-Paul Sartre "God can be shaped. God is Change." - Octavia Butler "The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living." - Karl Marx "Resist or serve." - D. Long From KRAMERL@alpha.montclair.edu Thu Oct 22 09:22:09 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 11:09:32 -0400 (EDT) From: LAURA KRAMER Subject: Soliciting abstracts on gender and technology for 3/99 ESS meetings To: psn@csf.colorado.edu I am soliciting abstracts for a session on Gender and Technology, sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women, for the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society (Boston, March 4-7, 1999). please submit to me via email or snail mail; must reach me by November 6. Fax is also possible, use email or phone first (sometimes the fax number is working and sometimes it isn't, I'd want to be standing by!) PLEASE SHARE THIS (I am posting on SWS, ESS, WMST, and STS myself). CONTACT ME PRIVATELY for more information. Laura Kramer Professor of Sociology Montclair State University Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 (973) 655-7168 KRAMERL@ALPHA.MONTCLAIR.EDU From C.Barker@mmu.ac.uk Thu Oct 22 06:47:17 1998 by dryctnath.mmu.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.04 #1) From: "BARKER C MR" To: apeace@arts.adelaide.edu.au, crit-geog-forum@mailbase.ac.uk, cultstud-l@nosferatu.cas.usf.edu, european-sociologist@mailbase.ac.uk, psn@csf.colorado.edu, social-movements@wit.ie, social-policy@mailbase.ac.uk, social-theory-request@mailbase.ac.uk, socbb@soc.surrey.ac.uk, teaching-politics@mailbase.ac.uk Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:43:53 +0100 Subject: CONFERENCE ON POPULAR PROTEST Apologies for any cross-posting CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT Every year since 1995, Manchester Metropolitan University has hosted a very successful international conference on `ALTERNATIVE FUTURES and POPULAR PROTEST'. A fifth conference will be held on 29 - 31 March 1999. The aim of the Conference is to explore the dynamics of popular movements, along with the ideas which animate their leaders and supporters and which contribute to shaping their fate. CALL FOR PAPERS We invite offers of papers from sociologists, political scientists, historians and others, addressing the conference themes and their theorisation. Papers should address such matters as: .. contemporary historical social movements and popular protests .. social movement theory .. utopias and experiments .. ideologies of collective action .. etc. Those interested in offering papers should contact either of the conference convenors with a brief abstract: Colin Barker, Department of Sociology Mike Tyldesley, Department of Politics and Philosophy Both may be reached at: Manchester Metropolitan University Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West Manchester M15 6LL, England Tel: C. Barker on 0161 247 3439, M. Tyldesley on 0161 247 3460 email: c.barker@mmu.ac.uk or m.tyldesley@mmu.ac.uk Fax: 0161 247 6321 (+44 161 247 6321) Those giving papers are asked to supply them in advance, for inclusion in a volume of `Proceedings' (with an ISBN reference), which will be available from the conference opening. .. Word limits for papers: 6,000 words, including notes .. Two single-spaced typed copies should be provided, on A4 or US Letter paper, with one inch margins, and with a copy of the text on a DOS disk in either ASCII or MS Word format. (if in doubt, please contact one of the convenors in advance.) . Final date for receipt ofagreed papers: 1 March 1999 . Participants whose papers are not supplied by the final date will be asked to bring 50 copies to the Conference for distribution. Advance submission is much preferred, since the bound volumes of Proceedings will be sent to the British Library but loose papers will be excluded. The conference convenors will approach publishers to explore the possibility of publishing a selection of the conference papers. A selection from the 1995 conference appeared in early 1996 as: To Make Another World: Studies in Protest & Collective Action Colin Barker & Paul Kennedy(eds.), Avebury, 1996 ISBN 1.85972.326.8 Negotiations with publishers are actively underway for two further volumes. A few copies of the 1997 and 1998 Proceedings (two vols., stlg25.00 the set, post free) may be obtained from the Conference Officer. Copies of the bound volumes of papers from 1995 and 1996 are now sold out. FURTHER INFORMATION The conference will run from lunch-time Monday 29th to lunch-time Wednesday 31st March 1999. Cost, inclusive of three lunches, conference dinner (Monday night), and copies of the bound Proceedings, will be stlg110.00 (students stlg75.00). Bed & Breakfast accommodation is available at stlg30.00 per night. BOOKING FORM ALTERNATIVE FUTURES and POPULAR PROTEST 29-31 March 1999 Name ____________________________________ Address ____________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________. postcode________________ Tel No. ___________________________________ Fax No. ___________________________________ Email ___________________________________ Conference fee : full stlg 110.00 ....... Student fee (under- and post-grad) stlg 75.00 ....... Bed & Breakfast Monday night stlg 30.00 ....... Tuesday night stlg 30.00 ....... TOTAL stlg _____ Please advise if you have any dietary or disability requirements. Please return the completed Booking Form to:- Rachel Dix, Conference Officer Department of Sociology Geoffrey Manton Building, Manchester Metropolitan University Rosamond Street West Manchester M15 6LL, England Tel: 0161 247 3005 Fax: 0161 247 6321 (+44 161 247 6321) email: R.Dix@mmu.ac.uk Cheques payable to `Manchester Metropolitan University' Closing date for bookings: 15 March 1999 From pu6s-stu@asahi-net.or.jp Wed Oct 21 06:37:56 1998 Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 21:38:23 +0900 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Shigeo Sato Subject: Where are the section of Social Security Act I am looking for ? Dear PSNers Recently I heard the amendment of the Social Security Act in 1956 have required the public welfare personnel not only to maintain minimum standard of living for the recipients but also to do case work them with the aim of their self-reliance. Besides I found the following description on web site of NASW. 1967: Amendments (P.L. 90-36)to the Social Security Act separate the welfare system's income maintenance features from personal social services. Clerks can replace professionals in administering the income maintenance program. Social workers are needed only to provide personal social services; thus, their role in public welfare is greatly diminished. I don't know what section of the Social Security Act these are based on. Please teach me them if possible. Thank you $B")(J960-8105 $BJ!Eg;TCg4VD.#6!<#1#2(J $B%R%i%\%&%^%s%7%g%s#7#0#1(J $B:4F#LPCK(J $B,6(J024-521-4220$B!J(JFAX$B7sMQ!K(J E-MAIL:pu6s-stu@asahi-net.or.jp From siskinle@HUGSE1.HARVARD.EDU Wed Oct 21 08:45:39 1998 Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 10:41:36 +0100 From: Leslie Siskin Subject: Re: Need Help To: psn@csf.colorado.edu --- Begin Forwarded Message --- Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 18:23:16 -0400 From: Frank Tipton Subject: Re: Need Help Sender: Frank Tipton To: Leslie Siskin Reply-To: ftipton@worldnet.att.net > Greetings, > > It is estimated that there ar 2.5 - 3 million U.S. citizens of > Arab descent in the U.S. Yet, it is diffciult to find information on this > population. It is even more difficult to find information on U.S. > students and youth of Arab ancestry. I have only a few sources (e.g., C. > Bennett, S. Nieto, M. Suleiman, and M. Wingfield & B. Karaman.) > I'm looking into the experiences, needs and interests of such > students and youth and would appreciate any information on this > under-investigated population, particularly recent education and academic > articles. > Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. > > Shawgi Tell > Nazareth College of Rochester > tell@net.bluemoon.net > > --- End Forwarded Message --- > This is a difficult population to research. There are no accurate demographic statistics that I've seen. Which natl organizations have you contacted? And what exactly are you looking for? Cheers, Frank -- Frank Tipton MIT Political Science ftipton@mit.edu ftipton@worldnet.att.net --- End Forwarded Message --- ---------------------- Leslie Siskin siskinle@hugse1.harvard.edu From jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca Thu Oct 22 10:16:28 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:20:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Joanne Naiman To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Info on Contingent Labour sought A colleague of mine has asked if I could seek out for her information on the contingent (i.e. self-employed, part-time, contract, temporary etc.) labour force in the United States. She just recently attended a conference at Cornell and was surprised at how little this issue was addressed by left-leaning academics. She wondered if there are any sources on the size/composition/growth of this component of the U.S. labour force. If you have suggestions, please e-mail me privately. Thanks, __________________________________ Joanne Naiman Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5B 2K3 Tel: (416) 979 5000, ext. 7047 Fax: (416) 979 5273 E-Mail: jnaiman@acs.ryerson.ca From brook@california.com Thu Oct 22 14:10:44 1998 Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:56:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:59:12 -0700 To: brook@california.com From: CyberBrook Subject: Cockburn on CIA & Cocaine Thursday, October 22, 1998 CIA's Trail Leads Back to Its Own Door Inspector general says agency knew of and officially shut eyes to drug trafficking. By ALEXANDER COCKBURN Just under two years ago, John Deutch, at that time director of the CIA, traveled to a town meeting in South-Central Los Angeles to confront a community outraged by charges that the agency had been complicit in the importing of cocaine into California in the 1980s. Amid heated exchanges, Deutch publicly pledged an internal investigation by the CIA's inspector general that would leave no stone unturned. It is now possible to review, albeit in substantially censored form, the results of that probe. At the start of this year, inspector general Fred Hitz released a volume specifically addressing charges made in 1996 in the San Jose Mercury News. Earlier this month, Hitz made available for public scrutiny a second report addressing broader allegations about drug running by Nicaraguan contras. That first volume released 10 months ago was replete with damaging admissions. Two examples: The report describes a cable from the CIA's directorate of operations dated Oct. 22, 1982, describing a prospective meeting between Contra leaders in Costa Rica for "an exchange in [the U.S.] of narcotics for arms." But the CIA's director of operations instructed the agency's field office not to look into this imminent arms-for-drugs transaction "in light of the apparent involvement of U.S. persons throughout." In other words, the CIA knew that Contra leaders were scheduling a drugs-for-arms exchange and the agency was prepared to let the deal proceed. In 1984, the inspector general discloses, the CIA intervened with the U.S. Justice Department to seek the return from police of $36,800 in cash that had been confiscated from a Nicaraguan drug-smuggling gang in the Bay Area whose leader was a prominent Contra fund-raiser. The money had been taken during what was at the time the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of California. The CIA's inspector general said the agency took action to have the money returned "to protect an operational equity, i.e., a Contra support group in which it [the CIA] had an operational interest." The report issued by Hitz a few weeks ago is even richer in devastating disclosures. The inspector general sets forth a sequence of CIA cable traffic showing that as early as the summer of 1981, the agency knew that the Contra leadership "had decided to engage in drug trafficking to the United States to raise funds for its activities." The leader of the group whose plans a CIA officer thus described was Enrique Bermudez, a man hand-picked by the agency to run the military operations of the Contra organization. It was Bermudez who told Contra fund-raisers and drug traffickers Norwin Meneses and Danilo Blandon (as the latter subsequently testified for the government to a federal grand jury,) that the end justified the means and they should raise revenue in this manner. The CIA was uneasily aware that its failure to advise the contras to stop drug trafficking might land it in difficulties. Hitz documents the fact that the agency knew at that time it should report Contra plans to run drugs to the Justice Department and other agencies. Nonetheless, the CIA kept quiet, and in 1982 got a waiver from the Justice Department giving a legal basis for its inaction. Hitz enumerates the Contra leaders--"several dozen"--the CIA knew to be involved in drug trafficking, along with another two dozen involved in Contra supply missions and fund-raising. He confirms that the CIA knew that Ilopongo Air Force Base in El Salvador was an arms-for drugs Contra transshipment point and discloses a memo in which a CIA officer orders the DEA "not to make any inquiries to anyone re: Hanger [sic] No. 4 at Ilopongo." Thus, the CIA's own inspector general shows that from the very start of the U.S. war on Nicaragua, the CIA knew that the contras were planning to traffic in cocaine in the U.S. It did nothing to stop the traffic and, when other government agencies began to probe, the CIA impeded their investigations. When Contra money-raisers were arrested, the agency came to their aid and retrieved their drug money from the police. So, was the agency complicit in drug trafficking into Los Angeles and other cities? It is impossible to read Hitz's report and not conclude that this was the case. - - - Alexander Cockburn Is Co-author, With Jeffrey St Clair, of "Whiteout: the Cia, Drugs and the Press," (Verso, 1998) Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved From ae5317@wayne.edu Thu Oct 22 14:34:50 1998 Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 16:34:18 -0400 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: David Fasenfest Subject: Call for papers Conference Invitation & Call for Papers ___________________________________________ Multinational Companies & Emerging Workplace Issues: Practice, Outcomes & Policy ____________________________________ February, 2000 Hosted by the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues .... dedicated to providing the best in research and learning for creating the best workplaces of tomorrow College of Urban, Labor & Metropolitan Affairs Wayne State University Conference Objective The increasingly critical role of multinational companies in world-wide investment and global integration has historic implications for home and host country workplaces and labor markets spanning every region of the world. The objective of this conference is to systematically examine MNC activity; addressing, in particular, important questions that abound about the factors influencing human resource and labor relations policies and practices, the consequences of MNC strategies on the workplace and social policy alternatives. Program Themes I. Global Business Strategies: Trends & Patterns ... trade, FDI, sourcing, integration, mergers, closures, alliances II. MNC Location Decisions: Comparative Advantage of IR Systems ... skills and education, compensation and benefits, workplace regulations, union representation, bargaining III. MNC Global Human Resource & Labor Relations Strategies ... transferring policies and practices abroad, adopting local practices, enhancing employee commitment, increasing flexibility, managing diversity IV. Consequences of MNC Strategies on Workplaces, Labor Markets & Communities ... worker displacement, unemployment, labor market adjustment, wage inequality, skill development, employment opportunities V. Labor’s Challenges and Strategic Options ... union avoidance/marginalization, capital mobility, transnational union organization, coordination and collective bargaining VI. Effects of Policy Alternatives on MNC Activities, Workplace Practices & Labor Market Dynamics ... free trade and investment agreements, labor standards, social clauses, taxation, corporate governance and social responsibility Notice to Authors: Our call for papers includes original studies and syntheses of existing literature. Proposals for panels of authors and papers are also invited. Please submit a brief description of paper and proposals by January 1, 1999. Authors will be notified by February 15, 1999. An edited volume of conference papers will be published by a recognized academic publisher . Best Papers Awards: The best conference papers will receive “The Douglas Fraser Award for Excellence”, which carries a $1000 honorarium. Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues In honor of Doug Fraser, former President of the UAW, for his outstanding leadership in achieving pragmatic workable solutions to complex workplace and labor-management challenges, the Fraser Center was established in 1998. The Center is dedicated to an ambitious program of cutting-edge, practice-oriented research and innovative education and training forums. Drawing on a diverse faculty and experienced professionals, the Center serves as a focal point for the study and analysis of workplace issues, as host to national conferences, public lectures and seminars, and as the sponsor of professional development programs. The Center is an integral unit of the College of Urban, Labor & Metropolitan Affairs, which is also home to the Masters of Arts in Industrial Relations, the Reuther Library of Labor & Urban Affairs, the Labor Studies Center, and the University Professors of Labor Studies. For information and submission of conference proposals, please contact: Professor William Cooke, Director Fraser Center for Workplace Issues 255 Reuther Library Wayne State University Detroit, MI, 48202 (313) 577-2100 or w.cooke@mail3.wayne.edu Wayne State University An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. People working together to provide quality service. Prof. David Fasenfest, Director Center for Urban Studies Wayne State University 656 W. Kirby Detroit, MI 48202 313-577-2208 (reception) 313-993-9525 (office) 313-577-1274 (fax) david.fasenfest@wayne.edu http://www.cus.wayne.edu From gimenez@csf.Colorado.EDU Sun Oct 25 21:53:37 1998 Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 21:52:57 -0700 (MST) From: Martha Gimenez Reply-To: Martha Gimenez To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU, msection@csf.Colorado.EDU Subject: Suggestions for 2000 Annual Meeting Program Dear PSNers, The theme for the 2000 Annual Meeting Program is OPPRESSION, DOMINATION, AND LIBERATION: CHALLENGE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. On behalf of the program committee I am writing to invite you to submit suggestions for topics and organizers for thematic, special, and regular sessions. The Program committee would like to see sessions on different theoretical, historical, comparative and policy research advancing the analysis of all the dimensions of exploitation and discrimination, as well as of forms of political resistance and struggles for liberation. Send your program suggestions to the attention of Janet Astner, Meeting Services Director, American Sociological Association, 1722 N Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20036; email: meetings@asanet.org; fax (202) 785-0146. We look forward to your input. Martha ********************************************** * Martha E. Gimenez * * Department of Sociology * * University of Colorado at Boulder * * http://csf.colorado.edu/gimenez/ * ********************************************** From zarembka@acsu.buffalo.edu Tue Oct 27 11:46:06 1998 From: zarembka@acsu.buffalo.edu Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:45:37 To: M-Fem@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Major DEMO in Buffalo, SAT., responding to MURDER of Abortion Provider! Also, FAX support #! The NORTHWEST EMERGENCY COALITION FOR CHOICE calls a car caravan and rally in downtown Buffalo, New York, responding to the MURDER--by sniper fire at his home in front of his wife and four children--of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, Buffalo Women Services clinic (providing OB-GYN services for women, including but not limited to abortion access). SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1998 *** NOON: Bidwell Parkway and Elmwood Ave. in Buffalo, Car Caravan *** *** 1 P.M.: Rally at Niagara Sq., in front of City Hall, Buffalo, NY *** Slogan's are "END THE SILENCE, STOP THE VIOLENCE, DRAW THE LINE IN BUFFALO!" "DEFEND ABORTION ACCESS AND CHOICE!" Contacts are YWCA: 716-852-6120 ext. 238 and National People's Campaign: 716-855-3055. [Personal Note from P.Z.: In the early 1980s a major rally against a Nazi call for a demo on M.L. King's birthday ended further Nazi presence.] _____________________________________________________________________ ALSO Please FAX Statements of SUPPORT for Dr. Slepian's CLINIC to: Buffalo Women Services, FAX: 716-835-2654 STATEMENTS for Dr. Slepian's FAMILY can also be sent to this FAX! ******************************************************* Paul Zarembka, supporting RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka ******************************************************* From dale.wimberley@vt.edu Tue Oct 27 13:38:07 1998 Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:37:59 -0500 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: dale.wimberley@vt.edu (Dale W Wimberley) Subject: Anti-sweatshop campaign - Call Wal-Mart Friday! PLEASE CALL WAL-MART THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30 in a scheduled national action of the People's Right to Know campaign, part of the Holiday Season of Conscience against Sweatshops and Child Labor. (See below for phone numbers.) The objective of this campaign, which runs through January, is to get Wal-Mart to release a list of all its suppliers and their addresses worldwide. Why? We know that Wal-Mart relies heavily on overseas factories operating under sweatshop conditions, pitting people in the Global North against those in the Global South in a "race to the bottom." To shop with a conscience we must know in which countries and factories, under what human rights conditions and at what wages, the products we purchase are made. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer; if we move Wal-Mart to do the right thing, we can change how the entire industry operates. (Note that this isn't a boycott.) The People's Right to Know Campaign is spearheaded by the National Labor Committee (NLC), the same organization that successfully pressed Kathie Lee Gifford to act against the child labor used to make her clothing line. The NLC, originally founded in 1981 to support endangered workers in El Salvador, is backed by many labor unions, religious groups, and human rights organizations. The Campaign has set THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30 AS A NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY to Wal-Mart. We need as many people as possible to call or fax Wal-Mart, ASKING WAL-MART TO RELEASE THE LIST OF ALL THEIR SUPPLIERS AND THEIR ADDRESSES WORLDWIDE so that US consumers can begin to find out whether they are buying products made in factories where workers' human rights are respected. Phone Wal-Mart at 800-WAL-MART, 501-273-4000, or fax at 501-273-4894. PLEASE PASS ON THIS MESSAGE to other people and e-mail lists who may want to participate on the campaign. Future Wal-Mart call-ins are scheduled for November 20, December 18, and January 29. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information or for copies of campaign materials, contact: National Labor Committee 275 7th Avenue, 15th floor New York, NY 10001 (212) 242-3002 Fax (212) 242-3821 E-mail natlabcom@aol.com www.nlcnet.org NLC has materials to assist you with a wide variety of Wal-Mart actions. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Many little people in many little places making many little steps will change the world. - Brigitte Hauschild, Nicaragua (If you can translate this sentence into languages other than Spanish or German, please contact Brigitte at cwalter@nicarao.apc.org.ni) Dale W. Wimberley Department of Sociology Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University From eric@stewards.net Sun Oct 25 19:57:19 1998 Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 18:55:26 -0800 (PST) To: psn@csf.colorado.edu (PSN) From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: BELLY LAUGHS AVAILABLE HERE! Hi there, Here's a hilarious, at least from my perspective, spoof article on the U.S. `need' for a new politico-military opponent. Enjoy! Eric P.S., it gets funnier as you go along. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON, DC--Taking steps to fill the void that has plagued the American military-industrial complex since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced Tuesday that the U.S. will hold enemy tryouts next week. Slated to begin Oct. 26, the tryouts will take place at the Pentagon. More than 40 nations are expected to vie for the role of U.S. adversary, including India, Afghanistan, China, North Korea and Sudan. "Over the past seven years, the State Department, working closely with the CIA, Congress and the president, has made efforts to establish a longterm state of hostility with a foreign power of consequence," Albright said. "Unfortunately, these efforts have proven unfruitful. If we are to find a new Evil Empire, we must start taking a more proactive approach." Though tryouts are not until next week, Albright said the State Department has already received a number of impressive preliminary proposals. >"We met with the Syrian representative yesterday, and he >promised that Syria would house terrorist >enemies of the U.S. and stockpile chemical weapons near the Israeli >border," Albright said. "We've also gotten an unexpectedly >strong proposal from the Kazakhstani delegation, which says they have >four of Russia's missing nuclear missiles and will use >them against the U.S. unless we release 450 Kazakhstani Muslim >extremists currently held in Western prisons. That was >certainly a pleasant surprise." > The decision to hold enemy auditions was made during an Oct. 16 meeting at the Pentagon attended by a number of top military-industrial-complex officials, including Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Strom Thurmond (R-SC) and Lockheed Martin CEO Thomas Reuthven. > "Everyone was of the opinion that an enemy was needed--and fast," said Reuthven, whose company has laid off 14,000 employees since the end of the Cold War. "Nobody wins when there's peace." > General Electric CEO Jack Welch, who was also at the meeting, agreed. "Our profits are down 43 percent from 10 years ago. We sold more tritium hydrogen-bomb ICBM/MIRV triggers in 1988 than in the last six years combined," he said. "Something had to be done." > Once the tryouts conclude, Albright said, the State Department will spend a week evaluating the proposals before announcing its choice on Nov. 9. The new U.S. enemy will be formally anointed in a special treaty-breaking ceremony, in which President Clinton and the leader of the rival nation will sever diplomatic ties with the ceremonial burning of 1,000 doves. > Since the end of the Cold War, potential new U.S. enemies emerged several times, but in each instance, hopes werE inevitably dashed by peace. Most promising among the candidates was Iraq, which briefly went to war against the U.S., but a truce was declared before a deep and lasting enmity could take root. > >Tuesday's announcement was hailed by leaders of numerous U.S. institutions, >including the motion-picture industry, whose action films have suffered from the absence of a global antagonist. > >"Hopefully, there >will be an enemy soon," Paramount Pictures vice-president of >development Mort Glazer said. "During the past few years, in the >absence of a Soviet Union or a Nazi Germany, Hollywood has been forced to pit American heroes against uncompelling enemies like the IRA. A $250 million-grossing film >like Rambo or Top Gun is simply not possible in today's climate of >global détente." > > The lack of a clearly identifiable foreign nemesis has taken a >toll on the American populace, as well: In the years since the >fall of the Soviet Union, Americans have been forced to find other >outlets for their deepest insecurities and fears. "Without an >outward threat like the USSR, Americans have had to channel their >anxieties about life into a wide range of other, less concrete >things, including space aliens, drinking water, sexuality and our own >government," psychotherapist Dr. Eli Wasserbaum said. "If >a new national enemy is not found soon, the trend will only worsen." > > Speaking to reporters, McDonnell Douglas CEO Richard Klingbell >said the State Department should have foreseen the >possibility of peace and taken steps to avoid it years ago. > > "For decades, we took Soviet aggression and the arms race for >granted," Klingbell said. "We failed to realize that one day >it might all come to an end. We failed to sow the seeds of future >foreign discord, for our children's sake. Thankfully, though, >we're finally setting things straight. We're finally remembering that >to make it in this world, you've got to have enemies." > > > From tell@net.bluemoon.net Sun Oct 25 09:02:08 1998 Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 11:01:56 -0500 (EST) From: Shawgi Tell To: mult-cul Subject: Worker Displacement Summary, 1995-97 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to mime@docserver.cac.washington.edu for more info. ---559023410-851401618-909330320=:11422 It is no secret that workers in the manufacturing and other sectors continue to be thrown on the streets by the bourgeoisie. While the Census Bureau report, "Displaced Workers Summary," contains some seemingly positive highlights, some stubborn negative trends persist (see below). These trends further underscore the need for the creation of a modern economic system, one that favors the working class and people. It should also be noted that just as the Census Bureau grossly understates the unemployment rate (now 4.6%) it may be hypothesized that it probably also understates the full dimensions - particularly the negative dimensions - of the growing displaced worker problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Displaced Workers Summary > > Internet address: http://stats.bls.gov/newsrels.htm > Technical information: (202) 606-6378 USDL 98-347 > For release: 10:00 A.M. EDT > Media contact: 606-5902 Wednesday, August 19, 1998 [Snip...] > --Forty-four percent of long-tenured displaced workers had received written > advance notification that their jobs would be terminated. Receipt of an > advance notice, however, had little impact on the likelihood of being > reemployed when surveyed in February 1998. > > --Although the share of displaced workers who had been in manufacturing has > declined markedly since the early 1980s, this proportion is still much > higher than manufacturing's share of total employment. > > --More than one-half of workers who were displaced from full-time wage and > salary jobs and were reemployed in such jobs had earnings that were the > same or higher than those on the lost job. One-fourth of such workers > experienced earnings losses of 20 percent or more, however. [Snip...] > [Image] Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey > Bureau of Labor Statistics > cpsinfo@bls.gov > Last modified: Wednesday, August 19 1998 > URL: /news.release/disp.nws.htm http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/disp.nws.htm Shawgi Tell Nazareth College of Rochester tell@net.bluemoon.net ---559023410-851401618-909330320=:11422-- From pfl661@airmail.net Fri Oct 23 23:32:25 1998 (/\##/\ Smail3.1.30.16 #30.255) with smtp for sender: Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 00:32:05 -0500 From: "Phyllis L. Flott" Reply-To: pfl661@airmail.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Refugee and Migrant Issues CALL FOR PAPERS Refugee and Migrant Issues Western Social Science Association–Sociology Sessions Fort Worth, Texas April 21-24 Papers in the area of refugee and migrant issues are invited. Submit the title, abstract (completed paper is preferred), and your address to the session chair no latter than November 15, 1998. The address for the session chair is: Lisa Zottarelli Department of Sociology P.O. Box 311157 University of North Texas Denton, TX 76203 940-565-2296 (O) 940-369-7035 (F) LZottare@SCS.CMM.UNT.EDU e-mail address If you have any questions, feel free to contact the session chair at the e-mail address above. From pfl661@airmail.net Fri Oct 23 23:35:56 1998 (/\##/\ Smail3.1.30.16 #30.255) with smtp for sender: Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 00:35:30 -0500 From: "Phyllis L. Flott" Reply-To: pfl661@airmail.net To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: call for papers-WSSA CALL FOR PAPERS Complex Organizations Session Western Social Science Association–Sociology Sessions Fort Worth, Texas April 21-24 Papers in the area of complex organizations are invited. This session is open to any topics within the field of organizational studies. Some possible topics of interest are legitimacy, network organizations, new organizational forms, and power in organizational settings. Papers that apply critical and conflict theory are especially welcome. Submit the title, abstract (completed paper is preferred), and your address to the session chair no latter than November 15, 1998. The address for the session chair is: Phyllis Flott Department of Sociology P.O. Box 311157 University of North Texas Denton, TX 76203 940-565-2296 (O) 940-369-7035 (F) pfl661@airmail.net e-mail address If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at the e-mail address above. From brook@california.com Fri Oct 23 16:02:34 1998 Fri, 23 Oct 1998 15:01:28 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 15:04:39 -0700 To: brook@california.com From: CyberBrook Subject: Cultural 'Robin Hoods' >Cultural 'Robin Hoods' in Book Raid >By Richard Owen (Times of London) >Italian police said yesterday that they were baffled by the theft of >100,000 school and university textbooks, including Greek and Latin >primers, in a "military-style raid" on a book depot in Turin. Police >said a dozen armed men dressed in black had held up staff at a warehouse >belonging to the Loescher publishing house, founded in 1867and >specializing in classical textbooks. The ten staff at the depot were >held at gunpoint for two hours while the robbers loaded three >articulated lorries with Latin and Greek dictionaries and standard >school texts on history and geography.The books had been packed in >cartons ready for distribution to schools and universities during the >summer, before the start of the academic term in September. "We are the >Robin Hoods of culture," the robbers announced as they left. "We are >stealing books to give them to less fortunate Italians". Riccardo >Botrini, head of Loescher, said he believed the theft was "the first of >its kind". La Stampa said that in an age of electronic multimedia it was >"encouraging that some people think books were worth stealing at all". From smrose@exis.net Tue Oct 27 14:53:10 1998 From: "Steve Rosenthal" To: PSN@CSF.COLORADO.EDU Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 16:50:44 +0000 Subject: Driving While Black Like other PSNers I sometimes get too busy to contribute to some of the threads of discussion that appear, so I didn't write anything while Arthur Wilke argued with Rodney Coates and Doug Henwood about Driving While Black data. However belated my comments may be, I want to add my views. My students regularly get stopped for driving while black, for shopping while black, for hanging out at the mall while black, for being on the street while black, and sometimes for just being while black. In my home town, Bluefield, West Virginia, recently, cops recently pulled a 20 year old black man out of his car and broke his back, and the cops weren't even taken off the street. The family has gotten Johnny Cochran to take the case. (You can check out the details at .) Arthur, how you can dispute the racism of the pattern of police behavior in DWB and related matters is beyond me. I've noticed that, when you have responded to some my postings, you seem to reinterpret what I've written as something entirely different and then go off on things that had nothing to do with what I wrote. The evidence of pervasive police racism against young black males is overwhelming. The war on drugs and the resulting incarceration rates, the regular stories of police killings of young blacks, the regular harassment of young black men are symptoms of the growth of fascism in the U.S. At the same time, PBS presents a series on Blacks in America, including much solid historical information about black oppression and black revolt. The catch is that Colin Powell wraps it up by telling us that the most important thing is for black men to put on a military uniform and kill and die for U.S. imperialism. Thus, the police are the Iron Fist of Fascism, while PBS and Colin Powell are the Velvet Glove of Fascism, to use the title of an excellent book in Marxist Criminology that was published in the early 1970s. Do we have to wait until black males are loaded into cattle cars and taken off to gas ovens or brought home from the next war in body bags to recognize what is going on? Steve Rosenthal From brook@california.com Tue Oct 27 19:55:23 1998 Tue, 27 Oct 1998 18:55:09 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:12:41 -0800 To: flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, PSN@csf.colorado.edu, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: Culture, Class, and Cyberspace etc. A friend of mine sent this to me. Some of these links might be of interest ... > >> > [Ethnicity and Culture Section] >> > >> > The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: >> > African American Critical Theory and Cyberculture >> > >> > >> > Cultural Uses of New, Networked Internet Information and >> > Communication Technologies: Implications for US Latino Identities >> > >> > >> > Bridging the Digital Divide: >> > The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use >> > >> > >> > What it Means to be Black in Cyberspace >> > >> > >> > Cyborg Diaspora: >> > Virtual Imagined Community >> > >> > >> > Race In/For Cyberspace: >> > Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet >> > >> > >> > American Emissaries to Africa: >> > >From John Barlow via James Bond to James Baldwin and Back >> > >> > >> > What Color is the Net? >> > >> > >> > WIRED 3.12: Idees Fortes - Race in Cyberspace? >> > >> > >> > Book Review: The African-American Resource Guide to the Internet >> > >> > >> > Black Pioneers of the Internet >> > >> > >> > Forsaken Geographies: >> > Cyberspace and the New World 'Other' >> > >> > >> > >> > On Digital 'Third Worlds': >> > An interview with Olu Oguibe >> > >> > >> > The Virtual Barrio @ The Other Frontier >> > (or the Chicano interneta) >> > >> > >> > Cultural Survival Quarterly: >> > The Internet and Indigenous Communities >> > >> > >> > Nils Zurawskis' Ethnicity and Culture in Cyberspace Papers >> > >> > >> > Buying into the Computer Age: >> > A Look at Hispanic Families >> > >> > >> > [The next link is to some comments made a few years ago] >> > >> > AFROAM-L Archives - February 1995: >> > Race, Ethnicity, Culture, and Cyberspace >> > >> > >> > [Lastly, a link to a resource page that contains general and >> > gender-based papers on net sociology/identity] >> > >> > The Media and Communication Studies Site >> > Resource Page for Gender, Ethnicity & Class: Social and Personal Identity >> > >> > >> > [Class and Poverty Section] >> > >> > Possible Roles for Electronic Community Networks and Participatory >> > Development Strategies in Access Programs for Poor Neighborhoods >> > >> > >> > High Technology and Low-Income Communities: >> > Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology >> > >> > >> > Losing Ground Bit by Bit: >> > Low-Income Communities in the Information Age >> > >> > >> > Falling Through the Net II: >> > New Data on the Digital Divide >> > >> > >> > Impact of CTCnet Affiliates: >> > Findings from a National Survey of Users of Community Technology Centers >> > >> > >> > Cybersociology Magazine: >> > Issue 3 - Digital Third Worlds >> > From spectors@netnitco.net Tue Oct 27 21:14:14 1998 Tue, 27 Oct 1998 22:09:51 -0600 (CST) From: "spectors" To: "spectors" Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 22:08:22 -0600 boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0037_01BE01F6.5A04D000" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0037_01BE01F6.5A04D000 charset="iso-8859-1" Just a couple of years ago they were saying that Marxism was dead. Now even the Los Angeles Times grasps for quasi-Marxist analysis to understand the crisis. And it is a crisis. ------=_NextPart_000_0037_01BE01F6.5A04D000 name="LAoverpr.doc" filename="LAoverpr.doc" {\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1 = \deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe1033{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\p= anose 02020603050405020304}Times New = Roman;}{\f1\fswiss\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\panose = 020b0604020202020204}Arial;}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\b= lue255;\red0\green255\blue255;\red0\green255\blue0;\red255\green0\blue255= ;\red255\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue0;\red255\green255\blue255;\re= d0\green0\blue128;\red0\green128\blue128;\red0\green128\blue0;\red128\gre= en0\blue128;\red128\green0\blue0;\red128\green128\blue0;\red128\green128\= blue128;\red192\green192\blue192;}{\stylesheet{\nowidctlpar\widctlpar\adj= ustright \fs20\cgrid \snext0 Normal;}{\*\cs10 \additive Default = Paragraph Font;}}{\info{\author Spector}{\operator = Spector}{\creatim\yr1998\mo10\dy27\hr21\min36}{\revtim\yr1998\mo10\dy27\h= r21\min57}{\version2}{\edmins21}{\nofpages2}{\nofwords1562}{\nofchars8908= }{\*\company = }{\nofcharsws10939}{\vern71}}\margl1152\margr1440\margt1008\margb1152 = \deftab432\widowctrl\ftnbj\aenddoc\formshade\viewkind1\viewscale96\pgbrdr= head\pgbrdrfoot \fet0\sectd = \linex0\headery1440\footery1440\cols2\colsx432\sectdefaultcl = {\*\pnseclvl1\pnucrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta = ..}}{\*\pnseclvl2\pnucltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta = ..}}{\*\pnseclvl3\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta = ..}}{\*\pnseclvl4\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta = )}}{\*\pnseclvl5\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta = )}}{\*\pnseclvl6\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta = )}}{\*\pnseclvl7\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta = )}}{\*\pnseclvl8\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta = )}}{\*\pnseclvl9\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta = )}}\pard\plain \nowidctlpar\widctlpar\adjustright \fs20\cgrid {\f1 = }{Subject: global crisis from LA Times this article was on the front = page of Sunday's LA TImes--they seen to be getting us ready for serious = economic downturn (and tariffs?) by describing the crisis of = overproduction--note the reference to Russia, China, etc. It seems to me = that this article is very useful Sunday, October 25, 1998,=20 \par }{\fs28 Los Angeles Times, page 1 }{=20 \par }{\b\fs24 Global Glut Bringing Asian Chaos to Stable Economies}{ = EVELYN IRITANI, TIMES STAFF WRITER =20 \par=20 \par }\pard \fi720\sl-220\slmult0\nowidctlpar\widctlpar\adjustright = {\fs22 There was a time when low interest rates and a housing boom would = have translated into higher prices and a cause for celebration at Sierra = Pacific Industries, the Redding, Calif., wood products giant. But = instead of popping corks, Sierra Pacific and other U.S. wood products = firms are shutting down production lines, trimming jobs and bracing for = a further drop in prices that have already plummeted as much as 40% in = the last 18 months. The reason: Too many countries are producing too = many things made of wood.For the first time, these companies are facing = stiff competition intheir own backyard-not just from Canada but from = Chile, New Zealand, Austria and Finland. Those same countries are also = edging out U.S. firms in Asian markets, where the strong dollar has = become a penalty. "Losing markets in Asia wasn't nearly as bad as having = that [foreign]product coming here," said Stan Blaine, marketing = coordinator for the Sacramento-based Wood Molding and Millwork Producers = Assn. "Only a certain number of our members were shipping to Japan. But = when the foreign product came here, it affected a lot more people." \par The wood products business is symptomatic of a global glut of = apparently unprecedented scope-of everything from wood frame windows to = automobiles, apples, semiconductors, oil, steel and more. In a = phenomenon that is both a cause and an effect of the Asia crisis, the = world is awash in unneeded stuff. This is where today's economic flat = tire meets the road-where the chaos of financial markets translates into = tangible woes in the "real" economies at home and overseas, closing = factories, throwing workers on the street and putting companies out of = business. It is a big reason why, even after financial markets = stabilize, today's global economic crisis will linger for years. = }{\b\fs22 Falling Prices Erode Value of Assets}{\fs22 And it is at the = core of deflation, an economic condition so unfamiliar to today's = Americans that it needs explaining: It's when prices go down, not up. = Sounds good, but if deflation cuts too deeply into the revenues of = manufacturers, farmers and governments, it leads to production cutbacks, = bankruptcies and rising unemployment. Falling prices erode the value of = the assets of banks, which prompts them to cut back on lending. Nervous = consumers start expecting prices to drop even further and put off = spending. It was largely to prevent the nation from falling into that = downward spiral, one which has dogged Japan for years, that the U.S. = Federal Reserve has slashed interest rates twice in recent weeks. The = idea is to encourage spending and borrowing by making it cheaper. "When = you have a deflationary background, it's tough to get the economy moving = no matter how low the interest rates are, because the public loses = confidence and everybody keeps saving," said Jim Glassman, a senior U.S. = economist at Chase Securities in New York.=20 \par Deflation can be destabilizing in other ways. Already, low oil = prices are threatening the political stability of key oil-producing = countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. = They fueled the recent economic collapse in Russia. Deflation "is making = the world a bit more unsafe," said Roger Diwan, director of global oil = markets for the Washington-based Petroleum Finance Co. Ltd. The trigger = was last year's abrupt collapse of Asia's fast-growing markets and the = spread of fiscal instability to Russia and Latin America. Those events = have thrust more than one-quarter of the world into recession and = destroyed markets for thousands of products. But today's = all-encompassing glut has deeper roots. It can be traced to the = collapse of communism and the opening of Russia, China and India to the = world economy; the dramatic and often unjustified expansion of = manufacturing capacity fueled by "hot" capital seeking high paybacks, = particularly in Asia; the success of trade liberalization efforts, such = as the World Trade Organization; and the creation of a technological, = financial and transportation infrastructure that dramatically = accelerates the movement of products and capital across national = boundaries.=20 \par }{\b\fs22 In simple terms, there is too much of nearly everything = chasing too few buyers.}{\fs22 Capital is not all that's moving across = borders with lightning speed; so are goods-cars, apples, toys-by the = shiploads. Auto manufacturers are saddled with enough factories to = produce 70 million vehicles a year, at least 20 million more than the = world can consume. In Southeast Asia alone, auto sales are expected to = fall from 1.3 million last year to 450,000 in 1998. Oil stockpiles are = 550 million barrels larger than in 1996, pushing prices down from about = $18 per barrel at the beginning of 1997 to as low as $12 per barrel this = year. In 2000, steel producers will have the capacity to produce more = than 800 million metric tons, at least 200 million tons more than is = likely to be needed. Less Buying Power Depresses Prices Every time = another country slides into recession, the contraction in the buying = power of its people sends prices down further; competition becomes more = cutthroat as manufacturers look for ways to ensure they will be the last = survivor. In the auto industry, for example, several South Korean auto = makers are in bankruptcy, and there are rumors that other small Asian = competitors may follow. The good news is that auto prices are dropping = in the United States to a level not seen since the 1980s. Ford Motor Co. = trimmed an average of 0.3%, or $61, on its 1999 models debuting this = month, the company's first overall price decrease in more than three = decades. But the flip side of declining prices is stepped-up = competition, consolidation and, eventually, lost jobs. "There is nothing = we can look at historically in the past that was a model for what's = happening today," said David Cole, director of the University of = Michigan's Office of the Study of Automotive Transportation.=20 \par "With globalization, this stuff is happening very quickly. It's = very brutal, very tough. It's not a business for the weak and faint of = heart." In a textbook boom and bust, a drop in prices would weed out = some of the less efficient producers. Eventually, market forces would = restore the balance between supply and demand, and prices would start to = recover. But the textbook has not yet been written for these times. = }{\b\i\fs22 Financial markets have replaced traditional supply-side = pressures as the driver of economic ebbs and flows, according to Barry = Bosworth, an economist at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. = Easy access to capital during boom times encouraged risky investments = and the creation of unnecessary factories across Asia and elsewhere in = the 1980s and early 1990s. When markets started collapsing in Asia last = summer, investors just as quickly reversed the flow of capital out of = these countries. And globalization has made it all but impossible to = limit the effects of overcapacity to one country or even one region. = "One person's financial crisis becomes another person's financial = crisis, and through that you introduce a business cycle globally," = }{\fs22 Bosworth said. "The transmission isn't through demand and supply = but financial markets." Dramatic Effect on Supply Is Possible As more = countries enter the marketplace, it becomes difficult to predict prices = or production, since the actions of individual governments or large = companies can dramatically affect the supply of goods entering the = market. When U.S. producers doinated the wood business in this country, = for example, it was much easier to figure out whether competitors would = respond to a slump in demand by cutting prices, shifting product type or = developing new markets. It's another thing to guess how competitors in = Finland or Chile will respond, since they are ruled by a dramatically = different universe of laws and market factors, such as credit = availability and production constraints.=20 \par "It's very difficult to judge the disciplining pressure that world = trade places on national economies," explained Marcus Noland, a senior = fellow at the Washington-based Institute for International Economics. = "The logs don't have to leave Norway. If everyone knows they're sitting = there, they can affect prices here in the U.S." The massive transfer of = technology over the last decade also has increased the likelihood that a = manufacturer in Chile or China can produce goods that can compete in the = more quality-conscious Japanese, U.S. and European markets. }{\b\fs22 = Faced with the gloomy prospect of a world drowning in goods, everyone = hopes that the other guy will blink first,}{\fs22 since those who = blink-by closing factories-suffer the most. And today, Asia's debt-laden = manufacturers ar the most reluctant to slash production because they = desperately need to boost exports to make up for lost domestic sales. = "The reality is that [relying on exports] is inherently high-risk, and = what you're seeing in Asia is a lot of countries on the losing side of = gambles," said Greg Mastel, vice president of the Washington-based = Economic Strategy Institute. "What if the downside of that lesson is not = learned?" This is particularly worrisome in industries in which global = overcapacity has already taken a heavy toll, such as semiconductors and = steel. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently determined that Russia = was selling steel plate in the U.S. at more than 50%, or $100 per ton, = below the cost of production. "We do have to be vigilant about not = becoming a dumping ground," said David Aaron, Commerce undersecretary = for international trade}{\b\fs22 . But combating the flood of imports = with dumping cases has its own perils at a perilous time for the world = economy. If the U.S. appears to be retreating from its commitment to = open borders, it runs the danger of triggering retaliation, recalling = the trade wars that preceded the Great Depression.}{\fs22 That danger = is particularly keen in countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, = where a free-market backlash is already starting to surface. "The U.S. = trade deficit is a massive safety valve for the rest of the world," said = Gordon Richards, chief economist for the National Assn. of Manufacturers = in Washington. "When we run a trade deficit, we issue dollars to pay for = those imports, and those dollars go abroad and have a stabilizing = influence. The U.S. and Western Europe cannot be allowed to become = islands of prosperity in a sea of recession." \par }\pard \nowidctlpar\widctlpar\adjustright {\sect }\sectd = \marglsxn1440\margtsxn1440\margbsxn1440\sbknone\linex0\headery1440\footer= y1440\sectdefaultcl \pard\plain \nowidctlpar\widctlpar\adjustright = \fs20\cgrid { \par }} ------=_NextPart_000_0037_01BE01F6.5A04D000-- From brook@california.com Tue Oct 27 21:46:34 1998 Tue, 27 Oct 1998 20:46:24 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 19:39:47 -0800 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, browning@sfsu.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, trishndel@earthlink.net, ZebraG1@aol.com, schernwet@aol.com, sepehr@netwizards.net, mohsen.hakim@mdh.se, awrapport@aol.com, seggilman@ucdavis.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: false advertising Dave Barry: The value of advertising is that it tells you the exact opposite of what the advertiser actually thinks. For example: * If the advertisement says "This is not your father's Oldsmobile," the advertiser is desperately concerned that this Oldsmobile, like all other Oldsmobiles, appeals primarily to old farts like your father. * If Coke and Pepsi spend billions of dollars to convince you that there are significant differences between these two products, both companies realize that Pepsi and Coke are virtually identical. * If the advertisement strongly suggests that Nike shoes enable athletes to perform amazing feats, Nike wants you to disregard the fact that shoe brand is unrelated to athletic ability. * If Budweiser runs an elaborate advertising campaign stressing the critical importance of a beer's "born-on" date, Budweiser knows this factor has virtually nothing to do with how good a beer tastes. From soteig@scifac.indstate.edu Wed Oct 28 08:55:37 1998 28 Oct 98 10:54:43 gmt-5 From: "Tom Steiger" To: psn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 10:54:28 -0500 Subject: Employment Opportunity Reply-to: Tom Steiger I have been an off and on subscriber to PSN over the years. I hope that some of you will consider applying for this position. It is an excellent opportunity to rebuild a department. And by the way, Terre Haute is the home of Eugene V. Debs and the Debs Foundation. tom Indiana State University. The Department of Sociology seeks applications for Chairperson beginning July/August 1999. The Department currently consists of eight full-time tenured faculty. The Department has a record of solid scholarly contributions and teaching excellence; however, recent retirements provide a special opportunity for rebuilding. The Department currently offers at the undergraduate level a traditional liberal arts curriculum as well as opportunities for internships and the only undergraduate major in long term health care administration that culminates in licensure in Indiana. The Department also offers a traditional Master's Degree as well as terminal Master's programs in social gerontology, conflict resolution, and work and organizations. Our faculty participate in the African and African American Studies, International Studies, and Women's Studies programs; and are well represented among the governance structures of the university. The ideal candidate will be energetic; able to offer democratic leadership; able to articulate a vision for sociology at a regional state university; possess a record of scholarship, grantsmanship, and an ongoing research/writing agenda befitting the rank of Professor; provide evidence of teaching excellence; and have administrative experience and/or experience with the governance structure at the College or University level. Applicants should provide a current vita, the names of five references with at least one of a current or former administrator; samples of scholarship; evidence of teaching excellence; and a cover letter that includes: 1) a discussion of their qualifications to be Chairperson; 2) a discussion of their views of sociology's future; 3) their teaching philosophy; 4) an outline of their current research/writing agenda; and 5) a discussion of what "democratic leadership" means to them. Screening begins January 11, 1999, and will continue until the position is filled. Send applications to James Schellenberg, Chair Search Committee, Department of Sociology, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809. ISU has excellent computer and library facilities and offers excellent benefits; the salary will be competitive. Terre Haute offers some of the best housing values in the country and a wide range of choices. The city is 70 miles from Indianapolis and 180 miles from Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, all accessible easily by interstate. ISU is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. Visit us at our website: http://www.indstate.edu. ------------------------------------------------- *********************************************************** Tom Steiger, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies Department of Sociology Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN 47809 (812) 237-3426 soteig@scifac.indstate.edu *********************************************************** From tgallagh@kent.edu Wed Oct 28 11:20:41 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 01:20:36 -0500 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: Tim Gallagher Subject: Email Attachments In-Reply-To: <01be0228$9a6043a0$620cd9cd@default> My opinion is that email attachments should not be sent to listservs such as PSN. My three reasons for that opinion are the following: 1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to find it and delete it. This can be very annoying. 2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the internet is to hide them in attachment files. 3) The sender assumes that all the receiversI have a word-processor program that can open the file. While I do have an appropriate word processor and I would like to read the LA Times article that was recently sent, I will not open it because I don't know what the history of the attachment file is. Please do not send attachment files to this listserv. Thank you. At 10:08 PM 10/27/1998 -0600, you wrote: >Just a couple of years ago they were saying that Marxism was dead. Now even >the Los Angeles Times grasps for quasi-Marxist analysis to understand the >crisis. And it is a crisis. > >Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\LAoverpr.doc" > Tim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. Department of Sociology Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 U.S.A. Email: tgallagh@kent.edu Ph: 330 672-2709 FAX: 330 672-4724 http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Wed Oct 28 16:46:59 1998 Wed, 28 Oct 1998 18:46:44 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 18:46:44 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: Tim Gallagher Subject: Re: Email Attachments In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19981029012036.00a353c0@pop.kent.edu> On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Tim Gallagher wrote: >1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to find >it and delete it. This can be very annoying. When you delete a message with an attached file, you also delete the attached file. If you don't like attachments, simply delete the message. >2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the internet >is to hide them in attachment files. Then do not open attached files. Delete them along with the message they rode in on. >3) The sender assumes that all the receiversI have a word-processor program >that can open the file. But if files have viruses, and if they are that much of a hassle to find, then what does it matter what word processor is used to produce them? Even if you do "find it," you won't open it, since you think it is infected. Andy From dschechter@igc.org Wed Oct 28 15:42:02 1998 Wed, 28 Oct 1998 14:35:26 -0800 (PST) Wed, 28 Oct 1998 14:29:36 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 17:28:25 -0500 To: dschechter@igc.org From: dschechter@igc.org (danny schechter) Subject: CHANNEL 13 AT l0 PM TOMORROW--PLEASE PASS IT ON Below please find an email posting that would be appropriate to publicize the release of GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS from Globalvision. It would be great if you could forward this to other parties that might be interested. It premieres tomorrow, October 29 at 10 p.m. EST. (on CH 13 in New York) Please call your local PBS station to see when they are airing it--and request that it be aired. Sorry if you receive more than one copy or if we have violated your cyberspace. Suzanne Stenson Harmon (for Globalvision) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Uprisings in Indonesia and Nigeria, massive layoffs of miners in South Africa, and protests against child labor worldwide have all been reported as separate and distinct events. GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS, a new public television special from the producers of RIGHTS AND WRONGS and SOUTH AFRICA NOW, explores how these and other current events are linked to the forces of "globalization," the economic engine that is transforming the world in its own image. GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS takes viewers on a journey that starts at a summit for corporate decision-makers - the World Economic Forum in the Alps of Switzerland - and travels deep into the gold mines of South Africa, then visits the controversial Shell oil fields of Nigeria and Nike shoe factories in Asia while examining an emerging conflict in a new world order between those making macro-economic decisions and thosestruggling to cope with the impact of those decisions. At the core of the program is the ongoing debate over whether or not human rights concerns should be linked to economic policies. ** For broadcast dates and times of GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS in your hometown, send any message to globaltv-info@igc.org. A computer will answer and send you the complete list, to date. ---------------- ** For information on public television's mission and mandates, go to the home page of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting at http://www.cpb.org --------------- ** Institute for Global Communication has a fantastic set of human rights-related organizations on the web. Find them at http://www.igc.org/igc/issues/hr/ ---------------- ** Create an active electronic community of justice and peace, a community of conscience-partners who engage, study, reflect, change and act at all levels on what causes injustice. http://www.justicenet.org/ ---------------- ** An outstanding collection of justice, peace & environmental links including many links on international issues, including reports on Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. http://www.ipt.com/htmlpub/jpi/hotlist.htm ---------------- ** On Usenet news, there are two groups you can download whose topics are extremely relevant: soc.rights.human and alt.activism.soc.politics. ---------------- ** Quaker programs addressing human rights...some of them pretty close to home. Imagine that! Here's a place you can get involved. http://www.afsc.org/pindx/humright.htm ** More Quaker programs addressing the global economy http://www.afsc.org/pindx/globecon.htm ** For a full list of programs, including human rights, by location: http://www.afsc.org/location.htm ----------------- ** See our homepage at http://www.globalvision.org for more information about this show and other Globalvision productions. ---------------- ** http://www.imf.org Try it. It's very educational. ----------------- ** What is our elected body up to? Try a word search on "human rights"... http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html ----------------- ** British Columbia's National Centre for Sustainability's incredible "Globalization & the MAI" pages. (MAI is "Multilateral Agreement on Investment", but maybe you knew that.) http://www.islandnet.com/~ncfs/maisite/ ----------------- ** The way to your heart is through your stomach? Go to Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy (IATP)'s Globalization and Global Governance page http://www.iatp.org/global/ ----------------- ** If you live in California, you probably already know about this. The rest of us? Let's take a lesson. http://www.emf.net/~cheetham/keys.html ----------------- ** The Steelworkers site, with a lot of current union information, along with background on their own lawsuit against NAFTA. http://www.uswa.org ----------------- ** Visit the web site of ITVS, one of GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS' funders. http://www.itvs.org ++++++++++++++++++ There is so much more out there. The intersection of human rights, labor practices, and the trend toward globalization bring myriad issues together...not just overseas, but here at home. Get involved. Do something. If nothing else, watch the show! Rory O'Connor & Danny Schechter Producers, GLOBALIZATION & HUMAN RIGHTS From kec@icanect.net Wed Oct 28 20:32:42 1998 Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 22:37:57 -0800 From: Kelly Carpenter To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Sociology Program at Florida International University Does any one have information about the Florida International University PhD program in sociology? It is progressive? Can a progressive person thrive in a PhD program even if it is not progressive? Thanks. From spectors@netnitco.net Wed Oct 28 20:35:00 1998 From: "spectors" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: on e-mail attachments Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 21:31:44 -0600 charset="iso-8859-1" I guess Martha G or Don or others at CSF could help us understand this better. In response to Tim Gallagher's useful and important points: <<1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to find it and delete it. This can be very annoying.>> Response/Question: Perhaps different e-mail programs are different. On mine, if I get a message with an attachment that I'm not interested in, I just delete the message and the attachment disappears also, without being opened. I assume that there is nothing to "find", but I could be wrong. <<2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the internet is to hide them in attachment files.>> Response/Question: That is undoubtedly true, and it is important to be reminded of that. On the other hand, does that mean that we should never open attachments? Or could we leave it to the individual to decide whether to take the chance or not? <<3) The sender assumes that all the receivers have a word-processor program that can open the file.>> Response/Question: If they can't open the file, they won't be able to read it. But if it wasn't sent at all, they also wouldn't be able to read it. So I guess I figured that some reading it is better than none. --------------------------------------------- The text of this particular file was sent to me personally as a very long e-mail message--not as an MSWord or any other type of Word Processed file. I thought it would be useful in my classes. I enlarged the type, put it in two columns so that it would fit on two sides of one sheet of paper. I don't use, because I don't know how to use macros, etc. in MSWord; I just took the document, made the changes above, and saved it. When I decided to send it to PSN, I thought that getting very long e-mail messages might be annoying to some readers, while readers might prefer the option to open or not open the attachment. I assume this particular attachment is clean since I created it. But in general, maybe Tim has an important point here. Would it have been better to just cut and paste the text, or any text for that matter, into a message (with a warning at the begining that it is a long message) and then send it as an e-mail text? Should we avoid attachments? Martha, Don, anyone? Thanks, Alan S. P.S. --If anyone would prefer, I can send them the material (somewhat abridged) as a regular e-mail message. It does raise some interesting points. Or you might find it on the LA Times Web Page. It was the edition from Sunday, October 25. From edu011@coventry.ac.uk Thu Oct 29 03:06:14 1998 From: John Selby To: "'Progressive Sociologists' Network'" , "Sociology Bulletin Board (E-mail)" Subject: Multiple Choice Questions Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 10:05:43 -0000 I teach a class called Class State and Society and, as part of the assessment, I wish to set a multiple choice test. I have for some time been concerned that students do not have a good grasp of such basic Marxist and Weberian concepts as: forces of production, relations of production, surplus value, market situation, classes, status groups and parties etc. I wonder if anyone on these lists has access to or knowledge of a bank of multiple choice questions in this area which I might look at, with a view to adopting some of them. Many thanks John Selby ------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Dr John Selby Educational Development Unit Coventry University Tel: +44 (0) 1203 838149 Priory Street Fax: +44 (0) 1203 838138 Coventry CV1 5FB E-mail j.selby@cov.ac.uk UK ------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- From eric@stewards.net Thu Oct 29 03:31:46 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 02:29:08 -0800 (PST) To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: Email attachment information. Hi there, As a sometime participant in the computer industry, I'd like to offer a few observations on the the email attachment thread below: 1) There is often a user option in email clients which enables you to determine whether email attachments will automatically download or, on the other hand, generate a diaologue box which gives you a download/don't download choice for each attachment as it arrives. In the old version of Eudora I use at home, for example, you choose the menu `special' and then `configuration', and then choose to check or uncheck the `auto receive attachment' box at the bottom of the pop-up dialogue box. This dialogue box also provides the option of determining which directory your attachments will go into if you choose to receive them automatically. Similar facilities should be available in whatever email program or client you are using. BTW, I recommend strongly *against* receiving email attachments automatically, as this approach puts the fate of your computer system's integrity in strangers hands! 2) I agree that openning attachments is a real virus danger point. I personally click `cancel' for any attachments which are from unknown sources, no matter how alluring they may seem. If, for any reason, an attachment from an unknown source downloads onto any computer I am using, I always delete it completely from the system - without openning it! 3) Text files CAN definitely carry viruses from one computer to another, whether uploaded from a floppy disk, from your lan or wan, or by attachment. I and my associates have more than once dealt with hard-drives that had to be completely stripped, and then reloaded with all programs and files as a result of virus infection. It's a nasty business, one I prefer to avoid. Better safe, than sorry. That's my perspective on the issue. Eric Sommer, Co-CEO of Advanced Data Management. > let me put my 2>I guess Martha G or Don or others at CSF could help us understand this >better. > >In response to Tim Gallagher's useful and important points: > ><<1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to >find >it and delete it. This can be very annoying.>> > >Response/Question: Perhaps different e-mail programs are different. On mine, >if I get a message with an attachment that I'm not interested in, I just >delete the message and the attachment disappears also, without being opened. >I assume that there is nothing to "find", but I could be wrong. > ><<2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the >internet >is to hide them in attachment files.>> > >Response/Question: That is undoubtedly true, and it is important to be >reminded of that. On the other hand, does that mean that we should never >open attachments? Or could we leave it to the individual to decide whether >to take the chance or not? > ><<3) The sender assumes that all the receivers have a word-processor program >that can open the file.>> > >Response/Question: If they can't open the file, they won't be able to read >it. But if it wasn't sent at all, they also wouldn't be able to read it. So >I guess I figured that some reading it is better than none. > >--------------------------------------------- >The text of this particular file was sent to me personally as a very long >e-mail message--not as an MSWord or any other type of Word Processed file. I >thought it would be useful in my classes. I enlarged the type, put it in two >columns so that it would fit on two sides of one sheet of paper. I don't >use, because I don't know how to use macros, etc. in MSWord; I just took the >document, made the changes above, and saved it. When I decided to send it to >PSN, I thought that getting very long e-mail messages might be annoying to >some readers, while readers might prefer the option to open or not open the >attachment. I assume this particular attachment is clean since I created >it. But in general, maybe Tim has an important point here. Would it have >been better to just cut and paste the text, or any text for that matter, >into a message (with a warning at the begining that it is a long message) >and then send it as an e-mail text? Should we avoid attachments? > Martha, Don, anyone? > > >Thanks, > >Alan S. > >P.S. --If anyone would prefer, I can send them the material (somewhat >abridged) as a regular e-mail message. It does raise some interesting >points. Or you might find it on the LA Times Web Page. It was the edition >from Sunday, October 25. > > > > > From eric@stewards.net Thu Oct 29 03:37:11 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 02:35:08 -0800 (PST) To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: More on Email attachment information. Hi there, One point I missed in my prevous message on the email thread is: "When you delete a message with an attached file, you also delete the attached file. If you don't like attachments, simply delete the message." This statement may apply with certain email clients, but unless you check the drive using windows explorer or whatever file manager you use, you cannot be sure the file is deleted. In my versiou of Eudora at home, I have to manually delete the file. It does not automatically delete when I delete an email message. Eric From eric@stewards.net Thu Oct 29 04:09:15 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 03:07:04 -0800 (PST) To: arne@direct.ca (arne), el@axion.net (El), hhrivas@wwisp.com (Helen), mcburke@intouch.bc.ca (Colleen), piddocke@sfu.ca (Stuart), psn@csf.colorado.edu (PSN), sbdean@sfu.ca (Elsie) From: eric@stewards.net (Eric Sommer) Subject: An Earlier `Bill Gates'. Hi there, Thought you'd get a `charge' out of the following story. (Hint: It's not about Bill Gates, but a certain common pattern is discernable). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- He was the world's richest man. He made his fortune almost by accident. His invention became, soon after it was invented, something everyone needed. Of course, that wasn't the case when he invented it. Soon after the invention hit the market, it was surpassed by other competitors from Europe. The European versions were more efficient, used less costly power, and produced more. But our hero took action to ensure these competitors' products would not be compatible with the US operating system. Soon, the European manufacturers faded from the scene as viable competitors, since they were unable to market their products in the US market, or in other emerging markets that quickly adopted the US operating system. After the threat of competition from superior rivals was ended, prices for the US produced product were hiked. Patents and interlocking system components insured that royalties and license fees from virtual every product of its type would flow back to him. He became hugely wealthy, and was widely considered the richest, or one of the richest, people on earth. He used his wealth to buy other companies. These companies invested in each other. They engaged in joint projects and paid each other inflated fees, and thereby inflated the profits of each companies. The companies looked profitable, at least on paper, and the public, goaded on by stock pickers in the papers and their local investment advisor, demanded the stock. More stock was issued to meet this demand, and each time a new issue hit the market it soared, making huge profits for the investment bankers and brokers who floated the initial offerings. Everyone was making money. People began to wonder if it could continue. The man became something of an icon for a new class of entrepreneurs. In magazine and op-ed articles, he claimed that there was a new economy being born. He claimed that the unique qualities of his invention were the driving force of this new economy, and that this new American prosperity would last forever. The US Justice Department began an investigation of this man's business practices. It looked at whether he abused the monopoly on his inventions, but soon spread into his business practices. Of particular interest to the government was the way the profits from the invention, which everyone needed and had no alternative to, were invested in other companies. The pattern closed off competition, but more than that it also made it impossible to tell whether these companies were solvent or not. Soon, the web of interlocking companies included manufacturers, the media, the building industry, in fact a significant measure of the national economy. Eventually, the bottom fell out. It was discovered the emperor had no clothes when first one company, then the rest, went belly up. Each time one his business started to fail, he rescued it with assets from the others, around and around. Since the major assets of each company was stock in the others, this shell game could continue only so long. Of course, the rich and the banks who held stock suffered, by they survived. The hundreds of thousands of middle class investors who counted on these stocks for their savings and retirement were wiped out. Many committed suicide. Many of the rest went on the public dole. The man was Samuel Insull. His invention was electricity, or at least the means to generate and distribute it. He founded Commonwealth Edison and the company that became General Electric, which by 1930 was probably the world's largest company. He owned approximately 70% of the electricity generation and distribution capacity in the US, and in the UK and parts of Europe. Nearly all electricity in the world was produced using his machines. The Justice Department tried him three times for securities fraud, embezzlement, and violation of the Bankruptcy Act. Each time he was acquitted. Facing a new federal indictment, he fled. First to South America, then to Europe. He died, penniless, on July 16, 1938 of a heart attack in the Paris subway, while disguised as an Arab. Historians credit him with being almost singlehandedly responsible for the Great Depression. ------------------------ "In the near future electric energy and its products will be as essential, as ever present, and as pervasive as the air we breathe. The unregulated domination of such a necessity of life would give the holders of it a degree of personal, economic, and political power over the average citizen which no free people could suffer and survive." >From a Grant County (Washington State) commissioner's speech, quoting a 1925 speech of Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot. From tgallagh@kent.edu Thu Oct 29 05:04:28 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 19:04:27 -0500 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: Tim Gallagher Subject: Re: Email Attachments In-Reply-To: Below I am responding to Andy's response to my posting regarding email attachments. > >>1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to find >>it and delete it. This can be very annoying. > >When you delete a message with an attached file, you also delete the >attached file. If you don't like attachments, simply delete the message. I use the Eudora Light email program and deleting the email message DOES NOT delete the attachment file from my computer. I have still have to do it "the old-fashioned way." >>2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the internet >>is to hide them in attachment files. > >Then do not open attached files. Delete them along with the message they >rode in on. Why should I have to be bothered by this? I would prefer a long email message with the warning: LONG EMAIL MESSAGE FOLLOWS >>3) The sender assumes that all the receiversI have a word-processor program >>that can open the file. > >But if files have viruses, and if they are that much of a hassle to find, >then what does it matter what word processor is used to produce them? Even >if you do "find it," you won't open it, since you think it is infected. I think reason 3 stands on its own. It shouldn't be confounded with reasons 1 and 2. > >Andy > > > Tim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. Department of Sociology Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 U.S.A. Email: tgallagh@kent.edu Ph: 330 672-2709 FAX: 330 672-4724 http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From tgallagh@kent.edu Thu Oct 29 05:20:45 1998 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 19:20:47 -0500 To: PSN@csf.colorado.edu From: Tim Gallagher Subject: Re: on e-mail attachments In-Reply-To: <01be02ec$a679f360$3c0cd9cd@default> Below is my response to Alan S regarding email attachments: At 09:31 PM 10/28/1998 -0600, you wrote: >I guess Martha G or Don or others at CSF could help us understand this >better. > >In response to Tim Gallagher's useful and important points: > ><<1) If the receiver is not interested in the attached file they have to >find >it and delete it. This can be very annoying.>> > >Response/Question: Perhaps different e-mail programs are different. On mine, >if I get a message with an attachment that I'm not interested in, I just >delete the message and the attachment disappears also, without being opened. >I assume that there is nothing to "find", but I could be wrong. I use Eudora Light and deleting the email message does not automatically result in the deletion of the attachment file. > ><<2) The one sure fire way that computer viruses can be sent via the >internet >is to hide them in attachment files.>> > >Response/Question: That is undoubtedly true, and it is important to be >reminded of that. On the other hand, does that mean that we should never >open attachments? Or could we leave it to the individual to decide whether >to take the chance or not? I routinely send and receive attachments from people that I know and work with on a regular base. There are a whole bunch of advantages in using attachment files. But opening attachment files sent to listservs or in the form of spam is a more risky proposition. Remember that someone can unknowingly send along a file with a virus as an attachment file. > ><<3) The sender assumes that all the receivers have a word-processor program >that can open the file.>> > >Response/Question: If they can't open the file, they won't be able to read >it. But if it wasn't sent at all, they also wouldn't be able to read it. So >I guess I figured that some reading it is better than none. Yes. But if you get their interest with the article, wouldn't you want them to read it? Why not just cut and past into an email message? >--------------------------------------------- >The text of this particular file was sent to me personally as a very long >e-mail message--not as an MSWord or any other type of Word Processed file. I >thought it would be useful in my classes. I enlarged the type, put it in two >columns so that it would fit on two sides of one sheet of paper. I don't >use, because I don't know how to use macros, etc. in MSWord; I just took the >document, made the changes above, and saved it. When I decided to send it to >PSN, I thought that getting very long e-mail messages might be annoying to >some readers, while readers might prefer the option to open or not open the >attachment. I assume this particular attachment is clean since I created >it. But in general, maybe Tim has an important point here. Would it have >been better to just cut and paste the text, or any text for that matter, >into a message (with a warning at the begining that it is a long message) >and then send it as an e-mail text? Should we avoid attachments? Yes and Yes. > > Martha, Don, anyone? > > >Thanks, > >Alan S. > >P.S. --If anyone would prefer, I can send them the material (somewhat >abridged) as a regular e-mail message. It does raise some interesting >points. Or you might find it on the LA Times Web Page. It was the edition >from Sunday, October 25. > > > > > Tim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D. Department of Sociology Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 U.S.A. Email: tgallagh@kent.edu Ph: 330 672-2709 FAX: 330 672-4724 http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu Thu Oct 29 08:55:56 1998 From: "Rodney Coates" To: "PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK" Subject: More on Driving While Black Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 10:55:15 -0500 charset="iso-8859-1" In-Reply-To: <36380D44.C092B1E2@icanect.net> For those who want even more evidence here it is: DWB is explicitly part of American police folk practices: FYI: News Item # 2 - Police Treat Driving While Black As A Crime Saturday, October 24, 1998 Police Treat DWB as a Crime An ACLU national advertisement campaign asks: "Should Driving While Black Be a Crime?" This ad is being run as Congress debates the merits of a bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers, (D-Mich.) that would require police to keep statistics on the race of motorists stopped and searched. Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a state version of the traffic stops bill that had been introduced by Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), a black assemblyman who sued the Beverly Hills police after an officer stopped him and his fiancée in a Corvette last June. Do black men, particularly those who drive expensive cars, feel that they are stopped unnecessarily by police? MARY REESE BOYKIN asked some black men about their experiences. ANTHONY CLARK Auto shop teacher, Inglewood High School The license plate holder of my Jeep reads: (D.W.B.) Driving While Black Is Not Illegal. Blacks have talked about this all of our lives. My license plate holder has become a conversation piece. Some give me a "be-serious look." Others think it is cute. Some think it is a joke. But it is serious and it's neither cute nor a joke. It is the reality that black men face. What surprises me is that people don't realize that a large percentage of police procedural stops are people of color. What really scares me is that my 19-year-old son has to deal with these police stops. He drives an old-model BMW. I resent what young men like him face. They are constantly told, "You fit the description of a suspect in the area." VERDELL RICHARDSON Personal trainer, Los Angeles Because I am big, police officers assume that I have been in the penitentiary. I have even had police officers pull me over and say, "There is no way that you can be that big without doing time." They pull us over, as black men, and ask for our drivers' licenses and registrations. After we give it to them, they sit us in the back seat of their car, handcuffed. I have had officers search my car. They ask me, "Are you a Crip or a Blood?" I end up in a confrontation because I ask, "Are you in the Klan or a skinhead?" With whites, officers ask for a license and registration. If the driver has broken the law, he gets a ticket and is let go in about 10 minutes. With black men, this ordeal takes 30 minutes to an hour because if nothing shows up while they run a check, the officers continue to check, believing something must be wrong with their equipment. I don't knock all of them, but many policemen are bullies. I have been stopped by a policeman who was riding solo, and before he could get out of the car to give me a ticket, his backup was there. In certain parts of South-Central, police ride four-deep. It really bothers them to know that they inspire no fear from many young black men on the street even though they come to the scene with their clubs, Mace, handcuffs, guns and ammunition. When they are off duty, they will not come to our neighborhoods because they are afraid of coming into contact with a black man who they know they have mistreated. The colors of their cars--black and white--that's what it's all about. KEVIN MURRAY Assemblyman I introduced the California Traffic Stops Statistics Act because an inordinate number of African American men, including me, have been unnecessarily stopped by police. The underlying reason we are stopped so often is the perception that minorities are more likely to commit crimes and that warrants greater scrutiny of them. It really has to do with police culture. If a black officer does it, it is still racism. Most whites don't think things like this happen anymore. Once, when a Sacramento television reporter questioned me about the severity of this problem, I asked him to ask other blacks--his cameraman, newsroom staff, people on the streets. People don't think that racism is overt, but it is. If an African American male drives a beat-up car, he is dealt with more harshly. If he drives a nice car, there is this feeling, "How did this black man get this nice car?" There are no rules; it happens all the time for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is that blacks are stopped more. MICHAEL HALE Self-employed, Los Angeles Recently, I was stopped on Martin Luther King Boulevard near Crenshaw Boulevard. I was told that I had a defective taillight. There was a small crack on the side; the taillight was operable. It was 10 a.m. But I think that I was stopped just because of the car I was driving: a Mercedes-Benz. There is a perception that if a black man drives a nice car, he must be dealing drugs. After I was stopped, I drove directly to the police station to complain. I think that keeping statistics of who is stopped can be helpful if those statistics are utilized properly. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved From edu011@coventry.ac.uk Fri Oct 30 01:53:24 1998 From: John Selby To: "'coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu'" , PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: RE: More on Driving While Black Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 08:52:55 -0000 In the UK we not only have DWB and BWB but also BKWB (being killed while black) which is also treated as a crime for which the victim is to blame. The most well-known example is that of Stephen Lawrence but he is by no means unique. John Selby -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 3:55 PM To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: More on Driving While Black For those who want even more evidence here it is: DWB is explicitly part of American police folk practices: FYI: News Item # 2 - Police Treat Driving While Black As A Crime Saturday, October 24, 1998 Police Treat DWB as a Crime An ACLU national advertisement campaign asks: "Should Driving While Black Be a Crime?" This ad is being run as Congress debates the merits of a bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers, (D-Mich.) that would require police to keep statistics on the race of motorists stopped and searched. Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a state version of the traffic stops bill that had been introduced by Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), a black assemblyman who sued the Beverly Hills police after an officer stopped him and his fiancee in a Corvette last June. Do black men, particularly those who drive expensive cars, feel that they are stopped unnecessarily by police? MARY REESE BOYKIN asked some black men about their experiences. ANTHONY CLARK Auto shop teacher, Inglewood High School The license plate holder of my Jeep reads: (D.W.B.) Driving While Black Is Not Illegal. Blacks have talked about this all of our lives. My license plate holder has become a conversation piece. Some give me a "be-serious look." Others think it is cute. Some think it is a joke. But it is serious and it's neither cute nor a joke. It is the reality that black men face. What surprises me is that people don't realize that a large percentage of police procedural stops are people of color. What really scares me is that my 19-year-old son has to deal with these police stops. He drives an old-model BMW. I resent what young men like him face. They are constantly told, "You fit the description of a suspect in the area." VERDELL RICHARDSON Personal trainer, Los Angeles Because I am big, police officers assume that I have been in the penitentiary. I have even had police officers pull me over and say, "There is no way that you can be that big without doing time." They pull us over, as black men, and ask for our drivers' licenses and registrations. After we give it to them, they sit us in the back seat of their car, handcuffed. I have had officers search my car. They ask me, "Are you a Crip or a Blood?" I end up in a confrontation because I ask, "Are you in the Klan or a skinhead?" With whites, officers ask for a license and registration. If the driver has broken the law, he gets a ticket and is let go in about 10 minutes. With black men, this ordeal takes 30 minutes to an hour because if nothing shows up while they run a check, the officers continue to check, believing something must be wrong with their equipment. I don't knock all of them, but many policemen are bullies. I have been stopped by a policeman who was riding solo, and before he could get out of the car to give me a ticket, his backup was there. In certain parts of South-Central, police ride four-deep. It really bothers them to know that they inspire no fear from many young black men on the street even though they come to the scene with their clubs, Mace, handcuffs, guns and ammunition. When they are off duty, they will not come to our neighborhoods because they are afraid of coming into contact with a black man who they know they have mistreated. The colors of their cars--black and white--that's what it's all about. KEVIN MURRAY Assemblyman I introduced the California Traffic Stops Statistics Act because an inordinate number of African American men, including me, have been unnecessarily stopped by police. The underlying reason we are stopped so often is the perception that minorities are more likely to commit crimes and that warrants greater scrutiny of them. It really has to do with police culture. If a black officer does it, it is still racism. Most whites don't think things like this happen anymore. Once, when a Sacramento television reporter questioned me about the severity of this problem, I asked him to ask other blacks--his cameraman, newsroom staff, people on the streets. People don't think that racism is overt, but it is. If an African American male drives a beat-up car, he is dealt with more harshly. If he drives a nice car, there is this feeling, "How did this black man get this nice car?" There are no rules; it happens all the time for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is that blacks are stopped more. MICHAEL HALE Self-employed, Los Angeles Recently, I was stopped on Martin Luther King Boulevard near Crenshaw Boulevard. I was told that I had a defective taillight. There was a small crack on the side; the taillight was operable. It was 10 a.m. But I think that I was stopped just because of the car I was driving: a Mercedes-Benz. There is a perception that if a black man drives a nice car, he must be dealing drugs. After I was stopped, I drove directly to the police station to complain. I think that keeping statistics of who is stopped can be helpful if those statistics are utilized properly. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved From tr@tryoung.com Fri Oct 30 03:21:17 1998 (usr-mtp-34.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.34]) by h50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 05:16:55 -0500 To: teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: ...and gladly teche jjdowd@sherlock.dac.uga.edu, pfl661@airmail.net, azajicek@comp.uark.edu The thread of posts listing places which honor and encourage undergraduate teaching is most welcome to the ears; we would like to add our support to efforts to honor such teaching... ....and have established a journal for Honors in Sociology dedicated exclusively to Undergraduate Students in Sociology. There are several ways your students can participate: A. Submit a paper with your endorsement to one of the Regional Editors below [email addresses attached] B. You can edit a Special Issue of the Journal for your Department Contact the General Editor, Anna Zajicek at: azajicek@comp.uark.edu C. You can edit a Special Thematic Issue for Colleges and Universities in your area... again, contact Anna Zajicek. The URL of the Honors Journal is: http://www.tryoung.com/journals/JOURNAL-undergrad/undergradNDEX.html SouthEast USA JIM DOWD, UGeorgiaB. jjdowd@sherlock.dac.uga.edu North Central USA  Keith Crew,  U of Northern Iowa:  crew@csbs.csbs.uni.edu Gender and Sexuality  Issues,  Interpersonal Violence, Critical and PostModern  Perspectives on Social Issues  SouthCentral USA   Tracy Luff,  Midway College, Ky.  tluff@midway.edu SouthWest USA  John Bandy, Que No Books. jbandy@mailhost.connecti.com TR Young, Director The Red Feather Institute ....and gladly would s/he lerne and gladly teche... Chaucer, the Clerk's Tale TR Young, 8085 Essex Weidman, Mi., 48893 Email: tr@tryoung.com From jsalt@teleport.com Fri Oct 30 10:45:35 1998 Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 09:44:31 -0500 From: Jim Salt To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Marxist Section Student Paper Award winner? Can anyone tell me who the Marxist Section awarded the grad student paper award to this year, along with the title? Thanks. -- Jim Salt jsalt@teleport.com (and saltj@lanecc.edu) Dept. of Social Science Lane Community College 4000 E. 30th Ave Eugene OR 97405-0640 1-541-747-4501 X2433 From CDFUPDATE@childrensdefense.org Fri Oct 30 18:45:30 1998 Received: from automailer.com (automailer.com [192.41.13.58]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id SAA23163 for ; Fri, 30 Oct 1998 18:45:26 -0700 (MST) Received: (automail@localhost) by automailer.com (8.8.5) id QAA05785; Fri, 30 Oct 1998 16:43:08 -0700 (MST) Received: from childrensdefense.org (www.mail.childrensdefense.org [209.70.97.6]) by automailer.com (8.8.5) id QAA05752; Fri, 30 Oct 1998 16:43:04 -0700 (MST) Received: from CDFDCDO-Message_Server by childrensdefense.org with Novell_GroupWise; Fri, 30 Oct 1998 18:44:40 -0500 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.2 Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 18:44:22 -0500 From: "CDFupdate CDFupdate" To: CDFupdate@automailer.com Subject: CDF Update October 30, 1998 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Disposition: inline Sender: owner-cdfupdate@automailer.com Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by csf.Colorado.EDU id SAA23166 Children's Defense Fund Update October 30, 1998 In this issue: -- Community Monitoring Coalition Launches New Web Site -- Audio Conferences to Feature Successful Welfare to Work Programs -- Congressional Wrap-Up Coming Soon ****************************************************************************** UPDATES -- Community Monitoring Coalition Launches New Web Site -- Information about the National Welfare Monitoring and Advocacy Partnership, of which the Children's Defense Fund Community Monitoring Project is a member, can now be found at . The National Welfare Monitoring & Advocacy Partnership (NWMAP) is a collaboration of organizers, advocates, service providers and researchers from across the United States concerned with the well-being of low-income people. NWMAP's activities are threefold: monitoring, advocacy, and organizing. NWMAP supports the monitoring of welfare at the community level to inform both grassroots and national advocacy efforts and to build the capacity of local communities to advocate on their own behalf. When visiting the Web site, be sure to look up the August 1998 Community Monitoring Issue Brief published by CDF and the National Coalition for the Homeless which examines the early impacts of welfare on family well-being. The issue brief is located at . If you do not have access to the Internet and would like to receive a copy of the issue brief, please send an e-mail to CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org and write "Community Monitoring Issue Brief" without quotation marks in the subject line. -- Audio Conferences to Feature Successful Welfare to Work Programs -- AN EASY WAY TO KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST WELFARE TO WORK DEVELOPMENTS AFFECTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES "Jobs and Wages: Programs that Promote Retention and Advancement," the latest series of audio conferences sponsored by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), will be held on Fridays (12:30-1:30 pm EST) on January 15, February 19, and March 19. Each audio conference features a discussion among local program implementors who have managed to improve job retention rates and/or the wages of program participants. The audio conferences will explore the nitty-gritty of the program's achievements. If job retention and wage advancement strategies in your community need to be strengthened, the audio conferences could help spark new ideas or help refine an existing effort. CLASP encourages registrants to gather a group of staff and/or "stakeholders" around a speaker phone to use each audio conference as a "briefing" for a group discussion. To find out how to register and for program details, see CLASP*s Web site at or call the CLASP Audio Conference line at (202) 797-6535. You can also contact Maria Kirby at (202) 328-5163 or at mkirby@clasp.org. ************************************************************************ -- Congressional Wrap-Up Coming Soon -- Look for an extensive congressional wrap-up on legislation affecting children which was enacted during the 105th Congress on our Web site in the next two weeks. To receive a copy of the text of this wrap-up, send an e-mail to CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org and write "congressional wrap-up" without quotation marks in the subject line. Please do not send the email before Tuesday, November 3. To find specific pieces of legislation passed this year, please visit the U.S. Congress Web site at . ************************************************************************ -- OUR STRENGTH IS IN OUR NUMBERS -- PLEASE FORWARD THIS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES! Our typical e-mail is about a page or two long and is delivered once a week. To join the CDF Update list, sign-up on our Web site or send an e-mail to: and write in the body of the message: subscribe cdfupdate PLEASE NOTE: WHEN SUBSCRIBING OR UNSUBSCRIBING, DO NOT SURROUND YOUR ADDRESS WITH BRACKETS. Ana Hicks Children's Defense Fund 25 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 202/662-3540 (fax) CDFupdate@childrensdefense.org http://www.childrensdefense.org From jipsonaj@muohio.edu Fri Oct 30 22:08:17 1998 Received: from rose.muohio.edu (rose.muohio.edu [134.53.1.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with SMTP id WAA26624 for ; Fri, 30 Oct 1998 22:08:13 -0700 (MST) Received: from user.munet.muohio.edu by rose.muohio.edu (AIX 4.1/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA22164; Sat, 31 Oct 1998 00:08:10 -0500 X-Sender: jipsonaj@casmail.muohio.edu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 00:12:11 -0500 To: psn@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Jipson Subject: Question about consulting phenomena Hello all, I am trying to track down resources analyzing the organizational consulting phenomena. Does anyone know of any essays/articles/books published on organizational consulting from a critical perspective. I am looking for critiques and evaluations on the phenomenon rather than types or arguments for consulting. Thanks for any help. Please respond to me off list (jipsonaj@muohio.edu). -Art Art Jipson Department of Sociology, Gerontology, and Anthropology Upham Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 513-529-2637 (o) 513-529-8525 (f) jipsonaj@muohio.edu (e) 513-523-7604 (home) Me: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson Connells: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson/connells.htmlx -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Wishes, I suppose, mean nothing when they're tossed away... -M Connell From tr@tryoung.com Sat Oct 31 08:54:45 1998 Received: from h50.sensible-net.com (Inside.sensible-net.com [208.18.224.13]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id IAA12256 for ; Sat, 31 Oct 1998 08:54:39 -0700 (MST) Received: from T.R.Young.power-net.net (usr-mtp-58.sensible-net.com [208.18.226.58]) by h50.sensible-net.com (Post.Office MTA v3.1.2 release (PO203-101c) ID# 0-36294U2500L250S0) with SMTP id AAA29351; Sat, 31 Oct 1998 11:00:46 -0500 Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19981031105039.4067b51c@tryoung.com> X-Sender: tr@tryoung.com (Unverified) X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (16) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: psn-special@csf.colorado.edu From: tr@tryoung.com (T R Young) Subject: Marxist Criminology Cc: ahs-talk@ncsu.edu, social-class@listserv.uic.edu, teachsoc@maple.lemoyne.edu Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 11:00:46 -0500 THOSE of you who teach criminology and would like some lecture outlines in marxist criminology might want to down-load the socgrad mini-lectures below...they appeared two years ago on the socgrad network as a service of the Red Feather Institute TR Young, Director **************** Part I. Theories of Crime. http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/045techcrm1.htm Part II: Disemployment and Street Crime http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/046teachcrime2.htm Part III: Underground Enterprize: Organized Crime http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/047techcrm3.htm Part IV: White Collar Crime: Life Styles of the Middle Class http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/048techcrm4.htm Part V: Democracy and Corporate Crime: Rush for Profits http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/049techcrm5.htm Part VI: Political Crime: The State works for Capitalism http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/050techcrm6.htm Part VII: Researching Non-Linear Dynamics in Criminology http://www.tryoung.com/lectures/051techcrm7.htm