From SKSANDER@grove.iup.edu Sat Aug 1 13:39:48 1998 Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 15:39:43 -0400 (EDT) From: s_sanderson Subject: sociobiology and right-wing politics To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Recently there has been a debate on this net concerning the alleged right-wing nature of sociobiology. Particiipants and other interested parties would do well to consider the following 2. Concerning the alleged politics of sociobiology, Pierre van den Berghe (1981; quoted in Segerstrale, 1992:201) has said the following: "Actually, a review of the politics of leading sociobiologists would lend more credence to the contention that sociobiology is a Communist conspiracy: J.B.S. Haldane, who is generally credited for having first hit on the notion of kin selection -- a theoretical cornerstone of sociobiology -- was a leading member of the British Communist Party; so was John Maynard Smith. E.O. Wilson and most other leading sociobiologists are left-of-center liberals or social democrats. 'Racist' Trivers is even married to a Jamaican and is heavily involved in radical black politics." Van den Berghe, the leading sociobiologist among sociologists, has long been a foe of racism and social inequality, and I suspect that if the members of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and the European Sociobiological Society, the two leading associations of sociobiologists in the Western world, were polled, most of them would be shown to be left-of-center politically. In reading the works of sociobiologists for a quarter of a century my impression has always been that their writings are remarkably free of any political content whatsoever, suggesting that their overwhelming aim is scientific understanding, not political action of any kind. In a closely related vein, Ullica Segerstrale (1992) tells the following story. In May of 1976 the Sociobiology Study Group of Science for the People held a meeting at which they tried to persuade Noam Chomsky, a well-known political radical, to write a statement strongly denouncing sociobiology. The group's members discovered, however, much to their chagrin and embarrassment, that Chomsky was actually in favor of the view that there is such a thing as a constant human nature. Moreover, Chomsky thought that the postulation of human nature would actually be helpful to the radical cause in fighting for a better society. As Segerstrale points out, under such circumstances it can hardly be surprising that Chomsky was unwilling to write a critique of sociobiology. Reference Segerstrale, Ullica. 1992. "Reductionism, 'bad science,' and politics: A critique of anti-reductionist reasoning." Politics and the Life Sciences 11:199-214. The above is a footnote in a book I'm writing in which I am trying to join elements of sociobiology with, among other things, elements of Marxian conflict theory in sociology. An impossible task, you say? No, not at all. Stephen Sanderson From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sat Aug 1 14:58:49 1998 Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 16:58:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK Subject: Re: sociobiology and right-wing politics List, Put aside the fact of all the open racialists who make up the hard core of sociobiology for a moment, and let's consider those sociobiologists who have been alleged to have progressive political backgrounds. What does that tell us? The intent here is to use the good intentions fallacy to counter the undesirable political-ideological institutional basis of sociobiology. But a person can stand before me telling me that s/he is a social democrat all the while advancing a deeply reactionary ideological position. There's no contradiction. (And since when has social democracy become automatically defined as real progressivism?) What is far more important than the personal political views of individual sociobiologists, and I already raised this issue, is the actual political-ideological character of sociobiology. This notion of a communist conspiracy behind sociobiology because some of its proponents are "left-of-center liberals" and "social democrats," besides the sheer level of absurdity of its content, suffers from the error of confusing personal political allegiances with an ideological structure. Keeping in mind that ideological structures themselves have consequences relatively independent of any impoverished self-criticism of their advocates, we should know that it makes no more sense to say that sociobiology is not reactionary because some of its advocates are social democrats than it is sensible to say that anti-affirmative action is not racist because some of its advocates deny their hatred for blacks. The propaganda technique being deployed is the lesser known method of ad hominem that involves appealing to the desirable characteristics of the proponents of a particular position. The argument goes like this: "Noam Chomsky is a left-wing progressive; he believes in sociobiology; therefore sociobiology cannot be a reactionary right-wing ideology." First, I emphasize the distinction between this fallacious form of argument from the argument I have advanced that associates sociobiology, *as a political-ideological program*, with right-wing reactionary elements. My critique involves locating sociobiology in the institutional structures that fund it foster its development, and to do it is, in part, important to identify its proponents within those structures. (Nobody can credibly advance an argument that sociobiology is a left-wing political program.) Because sociobiology presents facts in the court of scientific discourse, its funding sources and political-ideological impetus is entirely relevant to the judgment of sociobiology as an intellectual endeavor. It is, personal political allegiances of the individual proponents to one side, a scientistic cover over a larger and long-time historical political program. Second, the understanding and controversy of Chomsky's position on this matter is more subtle than the sloganeering of the post I respond to permits. This is what happens when a speaker seeks to make a point-to-point reduction of somebody's political description and a larger political-ideological program. Chomsky's theory of the language acquisition device, as I have discussed previously on this listserv, is logically problematic, but in any case is the only compelling example of an intrinsic human nature. Chomsky's argument is not empirical, but rather structural, talking a realist position on linguistic capacity. However, it must be said that Chomsky extends his rationalism into many areas of human social life without any evidence whatsoever, and does so in my view irresponsibly. He has suggested that this genetic unfolding of innate rationality bears not only only aspects of intelligence, but also bears on moral and even aesthetic judgments. My take on Chomsky in this regard is that he developed the innate rationality of humans, along with their inherent creativity and need for free and creative work, and so on, and hooked this up with his value system as a matter of political expediency. His hostility to historical materialism leaves Chomsky with no scientific theory of human interaction, and so the rough leap of faith he had to make to accomplish his political program is expected. Chomsky should be criticized for this; this is probably the single biggest error Chomsky has ever made in his social philosophizing. We should keep in mind Chomsky's shifting position on this. He started off his career saying he could find only "tenuous points of contact" between his political position (anarchism) and the science he was developing. By the 1970s and 1980s he was advancing a limited form of sociobiology, a sort of Cartesian rationalist position. Yet, as the political agenda of the New Right has emerged more clearly, Chomsky has reacted strongly to the sociobiological program, condemning, for example, Murray's work, which is representative of the body of sociobiological literature. I am not at all sure that Chomsky today could be characterized as a sociobiology. Andy From r.deibert@utoronto.ca Sat Aug 1 16:26:35 1998 Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 17:52:01 -0400 To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu From: "Ronald J. Deibert" Subject: Re: sociobiology and right-wing politics List: Of course sociobiology is "anti-progressive," if that scary slogan is taken to be synonomous with anything that is not communism. For the latter hangs it hopes on the infinite malleability of human beings, pounded into one-dimensionals at the end of history by the vanguards of the proletariat. Luckily, and here I think sociobiology is correct, the human character is too inherently complex, riven with natural impulses and desires, and resistant to uniformity, to lend itself to such a horrifically absurd notion..... RD At 04:58 PM 8/1/98 -0400, you wrote: >List, > >Put aside the fact of all the open racialists who make up the hard core of >sociobiology for a moment, and let's consider those sociobiologists who >have been alleged to have progressive political backgrounds. What does >that tell us? The intent here is to use the good intentions fallacy to >counter the undesirable political-ideological institutional basis of >sociobiology. But a person can stand before me telling me that s/he is a >social democrat all the while advancing a deeply reactionary ideological >position. There's no contradiction. (And since when has social democracy >become automatically defined as real progressivism?) What is far more >important than the personal political views of individual sociobiologists, >and I already raised this issue, is the actual political-ideological >character of sociobiology. This notion of a communist conspiracy behind >sociobiology because some of its proponents are "left-of-center liberals" >and "social democrats," besides the sheer level of absurdity of its >content, suffers from the error of confusing personal political >allegiances with an ideological structure. > >Keeping in mind that ideological structures themselves have consequences >relatively independent of any impoverished self-criticism of their >advocates, we should know that it makes no more sense to say that >sociobiology is not reactionary because some of its advocates are social >democrats than it is sensible to say that anti-affirmative action is not >racist because some of its advocates deny their hatred for blacks. > >The propaganda technique being deployed is the lesser known method of ad >hominem that involves appealing to the desirable characteristics of the >proponents of a particular position. The argument goes like this: "Noam >Chomsky is a left-wing progressive; he believes in sociobiology; therefore >sociobiology cannot be a reactionary right-wing ideology." > >First, I emphasize the distinction between this fallacious form of >argument from the argument I have advanced that associates sociobiology, >*as a political-ideological program*, with right-wing reactionary >elements. My critique involves locating sociobiology in the institutional >structures that fund it foster its development, and to do it is, in part, >important to identify its proponents within those structures. (Nobody can >credibly advance an argument that sociobiology is a left-wing political >program.) Because sociobiology presents facts in the court of scientific >discourse, its funding sources and political-ideological impetus is >entirely relevant to the judgment of sociobiology as an intellectual >endeavor. It is, personal political allegiances of the individual >proponents to one side, a scientistic cover over a larger and long-time >historical political program. > >Second, the understanding and controversy of Chomsky's position on this >matter is more subtle than the sloganeering of the post I respond to >permits. This is what happens when a speaker seeks to make a >point-to-point reduction of somebody's political description and a larger >political-ideological program. Chomsky's theory of the language >acquisition device, as I have discussed previously on this listserv, is >logically problematic, but in any case is the only compelling example of >an intrinsic human nature. Chomsky's argument is not empirical, but rather >structural, talking a realist position on linguistic capacity. However, it >must be said that Chomsky extends his rationalism into many areas of human >social life without any evidence whatsoever, and does so in my view >irresponsibly. He has suggested that this genetic unfolding of innate >rationality bears not only only aspects of intelligence, but also bears on >moral and even aesthetic judgments. My take on Chomsky in this regard is >that he developed the innate rationality of humans, along with their >inherent creativity and need for free and creative work, and so on, and >hooked this up with his value system as a matter of political expediency. >His hostility to historical materialism leaves Chomsky with no scientific >theory of human interaction, and so the rough leap of faith he had to make >to accomplish his political program is expected. Chomsky should be >criticized for this; this is probably the single biggest error Chomsky has >ever made in his social philosophizing. We should keep in mind Chomsky's >shifting position on this. He started off his career saying he could find >only "tenuous points of contact" between his political position >(anarchism) and the science he was developing. By the 1970s and 1980s he >was advancing a limited form of sociobiology, a sort of Cartesian >rationalist position. Yet, as the political agenda of the New Right has >emerged more clearly, Chomsky has reacted strongly to the sociobiological >program, condemning, for example, Murray's work, which is representative >of the body of sociobiological literature. I am not at all sure that >Chomsky today could be characterized as a sociobiology. > >Andy > > From aaustin@utkux.utcc.utk.edu Sat Aug 1 17:39:38 1998 Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 19:39:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Wayne Austin To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK Subject: Re: sociobiology and right-wing politics In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19980801215201.00d78a98@mailbox55.utcc.utoronto.ca> What is anti-progressive about sociobiology is not only its political opposition against the world masses but that it desires to root social relations and culture forms in the nature of the species. In this way sociobiology is the quintessential retrogressive intellectual project: it seeks to returns us to the debunked social biological theories of the previous century. Only a scientific research program that is perceived as advantageous to ruling elite interests could continue with the paucity of evidence sociobiology has accumulated and the overwhelming evidence and logic against it; it can carry on because of the money and the power that back it. I watched a debate on C-SPAN last night (taped for me by a colleague) of a seminar sponsored by Reed Irvine, featuring Christine Sommers and Bob Lind. Sommers presented the mountain of sociobiological evidence that shows the inherent differences between men and women. One of her most trusted sources was a researcher for Hasbro (or maybe it was Mattel) who, in designing doll houses and army men, concluded that boys are naturally drawn to army men, while little girls naturally gravitate towards doll houses. Sommers complained that the reason why such overwhelming scientific evidence was not permitted in the universities was because gender feminists have taken over the universities and their ideology of biological egalitarianism (i.e., communism) precludes the introduction of empirical evidence in academia. Lind then proved that these ideological barriers in the university are the result of cultural Marxism imported from Germany via the Frankfurt School. Exactly like my critic this afternoon, Bob Lind also argues that opponents of theories of inherent difference between groups reduce and label all views contrary to theirs as anti-progressive because all those who are opposed to pro-natural hierarchical positions are really communists. The post addressed to my remarks this morning, I must confess, was well beneath the rhetorical standards of Bob Lind, however. Lind is a captivating propagandist (except where during the question and answer segment he argued that blacks and whites in the segregated South had agreed to their situation and, judging from the degeneration of the black community ever since civil rights, blacks were far better off under segregation). Andy From SKSANDER@grove.iup.edu Mon Aug 3 13:24:19 1998 Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 15:24:09 -0400 (EDT) From: s_sanderson Subject: Sociobiology and the European traansition to capitalism To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu My answer to Blaut's question is no. Anyone who has read my article on why northwest Europe and Japan were the first regions of the world to make a transition to modern capitalism knows I don't mention genetics. The factors I mention have to do with size, climate, geography, political organization, and population growth. Genetics is nevr mentioned. When I say that Europeans had distinctive qualities that pushed them ahead, I mean qualities relating to the physical and social environment. Steve Sanderson From arg19@tid.es Mon Aug 3 14:14:42 1998 From: arg19@tid.es Date: Mon, 3 Aug 98 22:03 MET DST Subject: Social Biology (and It is genetic...) I feel irritated by the development of this threading, first a dubious genetical claim is raised, then the science which studies *and negates* it is atacked with stupid comparisions. Would you also classify as scientific studies the ones of Mengele, then? It could be a good method to go against medicine if one is interested in, for instance, selling paramedical gadgets. Martin Nowak and Karl Sigmund (Nature 11 June 1998, page 573-577) show that deception strategies are doomed to failure for small and middle sized groups. This happens in any model able to incorporate some kind of "image" scoring to discriminate according the reputation of each member of the group. In this number of Nature, Regis Ferriere makes a small abstract of the current research, and you could enjoy the references he suggest in page 518. Nowak and Sigmund, jointly with Robert. M May, made a very interesting work about the iterated prisioner dilemma, a divulgative version of it was published in the Scientific American in 1995, and even the section of computer games explaided how to program some fast simulations for a localized version of the model. Surely phase transitions can be found as the payoff table is changed. Apart from mathematical models, direct and indirect reciprocity (cooperation) is claimed to be an important factor in Nature. A modern reference could be Alexander, "the biology of moral systems", but you could enjoy also classicals as Kropotkine "Mutual Aid, a factor of evolution", or even Darwin himself. und as the payoff table is changed. My opinion, current research seems to point to cooperation as a natural factor. Can your "memeticists" and "geneticists" quote relevant research on the subject, or do you only have philosophical arguments to justify your bet for deception? Yours, Alejandro Rivero From wellsfargo@tinet.ie Thu Aug 6 05:35:08 1998 From: "Rebecca Peoples" To: "World Systems Network" Subject: Taxpayers Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 12:31:03 +0100 boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0138_01BDC136.134AB5E0" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0138_01BDC136.134AB5E0 charset="iso-8859-1" Hi Folks I have been thinking about the cliché "its coming out of the taxpayers pocket" and other related clichés: My view is that this kind of sentiment is a cliché that has a definite ideological content that totally misrepresents the situation. The point is that tax is state money it is not "taxpayers money" at all. The taxpayer is an ideological construct around which is constructed a systemic misconception of the nature of both economic and civil society (the latter terms is used with reluctance). The state collects revenue in the form of taxation. This revenue is public money and constitutes in general a deduction from the surplus value of the bourgeoisie. Despite appearances it does not constitute a deduction from wages. Real wages is, in the context of taxation, the wages after tax deductions. Workers' struggles around the level of wages are a struggle concerning real wages --wages after tax. Consequently when the state reduces income tax it is essentially reducing the amount of surplus value it collects in the form of revenue from the bourgeoisie. A reduction in income tax or indeed any other tax by the state expresses itself as a corresponding increase of surplus value accruing to the capitalist for purposes of capital accumulation etc. All this rhetoric about taxpayers money and the taxpayer being concerned how the state spends its money misleadingly creates the impression that the working class is this powerful taxpayer and that this class is much more empowered under capitalism than it actually is. It also mischaracterize the relationship between workers and the state suggesting that the state in some way is the representative of the workers and their wages in the form of tax. As you may see a significant bourgeois ideology underpins the concept --the taxpayer. It is an ideology that misrepresents the status of the worker and the character of the relationship between the worker and the state together with the entire meaning of citizenry. Incidentally taxpayer ideology is one that, as far as I can gather, is hardly examined at all by the radical left particularly in the way that I just have. Warm regards Rebecca ------=_NextPart_000_0138_01BDC136.134AB5E0 charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi Folks
 
I have been thinking about the cliché "its coming out = of the=20 taxpayers pocket" and other related clichés: My view is that = this=20 kind of sentiment is a cliché that has a definite ideological = content=20 that totally misrepresents the situation.
 
The point is that tax is state money it is not  = "taxpayers=20 money" at all. The taxpayer is an ideological construct around = which is=20 constructed a systemic misconception of the nature of both economic and = civil=20 society (the latter terms is used with reluctance).
 
The state collects revenue in the form of taxation. This revenue is = public=20 money and constitutes in general a deduction from the surplus value of = the=20 bourgeoisie. Despite appearances it does not constitute a deduction from = wages.=20 Real wages is, in the context of taxation, the wages after tax = deductions.=20 Workers' struggles around the level of wages are a struggle concerning = real=20 wages --wages after tax.
 
Consequently when the state reduces income tax it is essentially = reducing=20 the amount of surplus value it collects in the form of revenue from the=20 bourgeoisie. A reduction in income tax or indeed any other tax by the = state=20 expresses itself as a corresponding increase of surplus value accruing = to the=20 capitalist for purposes of capital accumulation etc.
 
All this rhetoric about taxpayers money and the taxpayer being = concerned=20 how the state spends its money  misleadingly creates the impression = that=20 the working class is this powerful taxpayer and that this class is much = more=20 empowered under capitalism than it actually is. It also mischaracterize = the=20 relationship between workers and the state suggesting that the state in = some way=20 is the representative of the workers and their wages in the form of = tax.
 
As you may see a significant bourgeois ideology  underpins the = concept=20 --the taxpayer. It is an  ideology that misrepresents the status of = the=20 worker and the character of the relationship between the worker and the = state=20 together with the entire meaning of citizenry. Incidentally taxpayer = ideology is=20 one that, as far as I can gather, is hardly examined at all by the = radical left=20 particularly in the way that I just have.
 
Warm regards
Rebecca
 
 
 
 
 
 
------=_NextPart_000_0138_01BDC136.134AB5E0-- From rkmoore@iol.ie Thu Aug 6 07:02:14 1998 Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 14:01:57 +0100 To: WSN@csf.colorado.edu From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore) Subject: (1/n) "Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative Copyright 1998 by Richard K. Moore 5 August 1998 - rkmoore@iol.ie First in a series: "Introduction" NOTE TO READERS: This material, and subsequent pieces in the series, are a "draft book in progress". They are being distributed on several internet lists, and further forwarding is encouraged. Please forward only in complete form, with original headers and signature. And _please, copy your comments and suggestions directly to the author at rkmoore@iol.ie. The developing book will be maintained on "http://cyberjournal.org". Introduction ^^^^^^^^^^^^ This book is an investigation into capitalism, democracy, imperialism, nationalism, and political change. These turn out to be intimately related themes in a drama which has been unfolding for the past two centuries. Corporate globalization, or what many call the neoliberal project,is a crisis turning point in this drama, with profound consequences for all of our topics. Corporate globalization (I'll just call it globalization) is indeed a project -- a coordinated, coherent suite of initiatives -- and it is unfolding on a canvas much broader than is generally appreciated. Tight budgets, competitive markets, downsized companies -- these aspects of globalization are known to nearly everyone. Those who inform themselves -- and there are many useful books available -- learn that globalization also brings accelerating environmental damage, increased poverty, destabilized societies, a house-of-cards global financial system, and a severe threat to democracy. But even that does not adequately capture the scope of the globalization project. I hope it will become clear, as this investigation unfolds, that globalization amounts to an overall restructuring of the world order, a political rebuilding project that goes very deep. The image that comes to mind is a block of small shops being bulldozed away to make room for a shopping center. Globalization is a revolutionary project, not an evolutionary one. In globalization's new world order, it is democratic governance and national sovereignty which are to be bulldozed clean from the global building site. The system of strong national republics, which was the West's heritage from the Enlightenment era, is being systematically dismantled. Political arrangements are being scraped way back, and old political strata, so to speak, are re-emerging. In some ways, globalization scrapes us back to the robber-baron era of the late nineteenth century, when laissez-faire capitalism reigned supreme, boom and bust cycles were frequent, and politicians were "in the pockets" of magnates such as John D. Rockefeller and the J. Pierpont Morgan. Today they call it deregulation instead of laissez-faire, and it is giant transnational corporations (TNCs) that exert the political influence instead of colorful robber barons, but the game is the same, and the results are identical. In other dimensions, the globalization project is scraping back even further, taking us back to the feudal era, with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a super-rich elite, and with the rest of us reduced to a kind of disenfranchised serfdom. We are to have no-entitlements employment, instead of fiefs, and the relationship of the person to the TNC is becoming that of vassal to lord. In still other aspects, globalization takes us all the way back to the Roman Empire, only this time on a global scale. Instead of an Emperor and Roman Legions, we have a World Trade Organization (and associated agencies) and a high-tech US/NATO strike force. And again the once-sovereign citizens of republics are being reduced to consuming bread and circuses -- and to unquestioned obedience to arbitrary imperial pronouncements, as Korea recently learned at the hands of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), and as Iraq learned under the barrage of Desert Storm. Globalization also takes us forward in time, to the worst nightmares of science-fiction lore. ID-card technology, already being tested around the world, and the rapidly developing global digital network, are ushering in an era when every person can be tracked from birth, and every activity can be monitored in real time. Meanwhile, thousands of genetic experiments are being unleashed on the world, with utter disdain for the awesome risks involved, and with complete disregard for the ethical and spiritual questions raised by playing God with the very fabric of life. Technology, under globalization, is being developed systematically and recklessly, with the dual aims of defending corporate power and enhancing corporate profits. US President Bill Clinton opened a recent speech to the UN in Geneva, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of GATT, the first of the global free-trade agreements, with the statement "Globalization is not a policy choice; it is a fact." He is well aware that it is a policy choice, but in the broader sense is he right? Is globalization politically inevitable? In every crisis, according at least to the Chinese ideogram for crisis, there is both danger and opportunity. The opportunity brought by globalization is for people everywhere, from all walks of life, to wake up to the dire threat that faces them, and to do something about it. The globalization regime is too thoroughly entrenched for meaningful reform to be accomplished through standard political channels. And the corporate system is too dependent on endless "growth" for economic reform to be possible within the terms of that system. Only a radical restructuring of economic arrangements can provide for livable, sustainable societies. And only a radical shift of political power -- the dethroning of the corporate establishment -- can create a political environment in which such a transformation can be accomplished. History shows that radical political change of this kind comes about only under certain conditions. There must first be some constituency, or class if you prefer, that is aware of itself. Next, that constituency, in its collective self-awareness, must be motivated: it must be faced by unacceptable conditions, and there must be a shared vision of a preferred alternative. Finally, there must be a means available, by which the constituency can effectively achieve political power and implement its changes. The central thesis of this book is that these conditions are potentially present today, latent in the circumstances of globalization. The constituency for radical change are ordinary people everywhere. In much of the Third World, people have already identified globalization as a source of dire danger, and are organizing themselves into peasant movements and other modes of mass resistance. But the mechanisms by which the West dominates the Third World are formidable, having been perfected over centuries of colonialism. Only when people in the leading Western nations wake up to the threat as well -- and in their shared danger achieve collective self-awareness -- can a constituency arise that is sufficiently powerful to overcome the globalization juggernaut. The means available to such a constituency, to achieve radical change, is a global grass-roots political movement. The bulldozers have not yet completed their tasks -- our democratic institutions still exist, for the time being, and nations, the major ones, still have the power to undo the globalization project -- but only for a while, only until the institutions of globalization have fully consolidated their absolute power. Until then a mass movement could achieve political power through peaceful elections, and implement programs of radical transformation before it is too late. This investigation will take a critical look at various past movements, seeking to understand how they succeeded and how they failed. We will learn that every movement has a predictable set of obstacles to overcome, ranging from internal divisiveness to co-option at the very gates of would-be triumph. The most serious obstacles, however, are to be found following victory. From the unlikely lips of George Bush was articulated the central principle of radical change, it's "that vision thing." Martin Luther King understood about vision. He said to millions "I have a dream!" and he articulated the importance of keeping ones "eyes on the prize." Gandhi's vision was particularly deep and far-sighted, and he was up against odds that could only be overcome with the help of such outstanding vision. A movement must have a sound vision, a vision that inspires, and a vision that can be translated into workable policies and programs. Indeed the vision of a livable world is being articulated by people everywhere. A wealth of useful published material is available, regarding sustainable systems, appropriate technologies, locally-based economies, electoral reform, financial stabilization, stronger civil societies, corporate reform, etc. ad infinitum. This investigation will develop an overview of this emerging vision, and will provide references to further information. The basic elements of a societal vision have been developed, and the technical problems are solvable. There is one primary area, in this author's opinion, where an adequate vision has not been articulated, and that area is democracy. This investigation will look closely at the question of democracy, from a broad historical perspective. In particular the experience of the Western Democracies will be reviewed critically, and we will ask the unthinkable question: Have we been living under democracies or under plutocracies? We will also look beyond the standard democratic models, and dare to examine the Cuban system, and systems used by indigenous societies. A vision of grass-roots democracy -- genuine democracy -- will be developed, grounded in successful precedents, as a contribution to the "vision thing." In fact the question of genuine democracy arises when the movement is still in its early stages. A massive global movement must find a way to coordinate itself, to find a sense of common direction, and of solidarity. This movement won't be led by an existing aristocracy, as was the American Revolution, nor does it come with a pre-packaged ideology, as did the Russian Revolution. It is rising from the people themselves, starting from a thousand places around the world, and a thousand circumstances, and with a thousand agendas. As the movement evolves, one can hope that it develops democratic ways of operating, and finds ways to develop consensus agendas that originate from the grass roots. Such a movement, in fact, can become the vehicle of genuine democratic governance. Not a political party, such a movement would be better characterized as an empowered civil society -- a sound basis, I will argue, for a robust and lasting democratic system, which is in turn a sound basis for a sustainable, humane, and livable world. These then are the themes to be developed in this investigation. The purpose of this book is to inform and to empower -- to broaden the perspective from which globalization and democracy are understood, to encourage the development a global democratic movement, and to raise the issues that must be faced by such a movement if it is to ultimately achieve its goals. Your humble author may or may not succeed in this mission, but he wants to be clear about his objectives. Richard K. Moore Wexford, Ireland ------------------------------------------------------------------------ a political discussion forum - cj@cyberjournal.org To subscribe, send any message to cj-subscribe@cyberjournal.org A public service of Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (mailto:cdr@cyberjournal.org http://cyberjournal.org) ---------------------------------------------------------- Non-commercial reposting is hereby approved, but please include the sig up through this paragraph and retain any internal credits and copyright notices. .--------------------------------------------------------- From austria@it.com.pl Thu Aug 6 07:40:41 1998 Reply-To: From: "Austrian Embassy" To: "<" Subject: Poland and the EU (from PNB, 06 Aug 1998) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 15:47:27 +0200 This was to be read recently in the Polish press. Kind regards Arno Tausch from Polish News Bulletin (unclassified) 6 August 1998 ---------------------- Weekly Supplement ---------------------- Also in this issue: Catching Up with Europe ---------------------- Poland Vs. European Monetary Union =================================== The European Monetary Union comprised of eleven member states from the European Union will be launched next year, and two years later, the euro will replace the national currencies of EMU members. Jacques Santer, chairman of the European Commission has described the introduction of the common currency as the most important event in the history of European integration since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The common currency will make a great impact not only on the economies of the countries comprised within the EMU area, but also on the global economy as a whole. Thus, despite the fact that Poland will not be joining the EMU in the nearest future, the introduction of the euro will affect the Polish economy as well. Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Polish representative to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Poland's ex-premier, points out several advantages offered by the euro, which, during the initial period, will be felt exclusively by individuals and companies doing business with EU member states. Firstly, they will obtain access to a huge capital market corresponding to two-thirds of the American market. Secondly, the common currency will mean the establishment of a single transparent system of prices in the European Union. Thirdly, a single currency will reduce the cost of all money transfers, and the risk carried by exchange rate fluctuations. Finally, Poland will no longer have to keep its foreign reserves in so many currencies. However, Bielecki believes that the average Pole will not feel the benefits of the EMU until he has the euro in his own pocket. As Iwona Trusewicz wrote in her article published by Rzeczpospolita, Polish banks are already preparing for the introduction of the common currency. The National Bank of Poland has appointed a special committee headed by Ryszard Kokoszczynski, the central bank vice-president, to co-ordinate the efforts undertaken by particular NBP departments in connection with the adjustment of the bank's procedures to the introduction of the euro. Krzysztof Majczuk, director of the NBP Foreign Operations Department, does not expect the euro to pose any problems in non-cash settlements, although its introduction will involve quite a lot of hassle for the banks. They will have to re-denominate their assets and liabilities, prepare special opening balances, and modify their software. The NBP is additionally analysing the impact of the EMU on the basket of foreign currencies to which the crawling devaluation rate of the Polish zloty is pegged, as some of these currencies will now be part of the euro. Decisions concerning the new system to be introduced for the calculation of the basket are to be made by the Monetary Policy Council by the end of the year. On top of that, Poland's central bank will have to modify the structure of its foreign reserves. Majczuk projects that the Central Eastern European countries will be increasingly oriented towards the euro, and that the role of the U.S. dollar in Europe will become smaller. Bank Handlowy has been preparing for the EMU for two years now. The Bank has established a special adjustment office headed by Bogdan Karski who was appointed to the post by the BH executive board. The office is working to adjust the Bank's commercial offer and computer systems to the new settlement procedure using the euro. In the meantime, the BH is waiting for decisions to be made by the Finance Ministry and the central bank concerning the foreign currency basket for the crawling peg devaluation and the permitted level of the foreign exchange rate risk. Karski was unable to estimate the costs entailed by the euro adjustment process, but said that all the branches of his bank had to put aside the necessary resources. Polish exporters are also preparing for the launching of the EMU. For example, the copper mining and smelting complex Polska Miedz has provided special training for its financial department bearing in mind that export accounts for 70 percent of the company's sales. 50 percent of the export revenue is yielded from transactions denominated in U.S. dollars, 25 percent in Deutsche marks, around 15 percent in French francs, and ten percent or so in British pounds. Export prices are based on the London exchange quotations which are denominated in U.S. dollars, but the metal premiums are denominated in Deutsche marks. Additionally, banks which provide their services to Polska Miedz have been instructed to set up accounts denominated in euro upon request from the company's partners. According to Pawel Stafiniak, Polska Miedz financial director, the company will be flexible, although it will try to keep its foreign settlements in U.S. dollars unless this would be in conflict with the interests of its partners. The entire export revenue is converted into the zloty anyway. Therefore, Stafiniak stressed that the foreign exchange policy pursued by the NBP would determine whether the dollar or the euro would gain as a result of the adjustment operation. The relative value of the euro against the U.S. dollar will be important for the Polish oil sector. As Marek Mroczkowski, vice-president of Petrochemia Plock, Poland's largest oil refinery said, while most of his company's foreign transactions were denominated in U.S. dollars, the introduction of the euro would simplify the settlement of liabilities and the collection of receivables. Jerzy Marciszewski from the foreign trading company Ciech shared that opinion, but stressed that the benefits of the monetary union will not be really felt in Poland until the country joins the EU. The euro is also welcomed by Maciej Formanowicz, president of the furniture company Forte, who expects the single currency to minimise the risk carried by fluctuating exchange rates of the national currencies. On top of that, Maria Przedpelska of the food and livestock trading company Animex noted that, for her company which used several currencies in its transactions, the euro would reduce the costs of banking services involved. However, not all Polish exporters will be switching to euro right away. For example, the Zelmer factory which manufactures household appliances will continue to denominate its foreign contracts in the national currencies of its partners for the time being. The Polish Airlines LOT do not expect dramatic changes related to the introduction of the single currency because, similar to other airlines, most of their transactions are done in U.S. dollars. LOT's financial department has been provided the necessary training, and to them the euro will mean just another currency and another bank account. On the other hand, Grzegorz Jankiewicz, director of LOT's financial policy department, fears that the monetary union may be followed by a growth in interest rates in Germany. That, in turn, may imply an increase in costs for Polish companies which use loans denominated in Deutsche marks. Nonetheless, Wprost's Krzysztof Golata and Andrzej Szoszkiewicz believe that the euro will bring direct benefits to airline customers. They will have no problems comparing air fares offered by various carriers if the prices are listed using a single currency. Additionally, travel agents and ticket offices will also be spared the need to convert prices from one currency to another, which will not only mean savings for them but also reduce the time of handling consumer inquiries. In the context of opinions that direct benefits of the single currency will not be felt in Poland until the country joins the monetary union, it is worth looking at Poland's prospects to satisfy the EMU criteria. Golata and Szoszkiewicz quote analysts from the Government Centre for Strategic Studies, according to whom Poland's priority is to achieve membership in the European Union. Nonetheless, the country should also have the aim of joining the EMU due to the very same economic reasons which underlay the establishment of the monetary union by the eleven EU member states. Additionally, bearing in mind that EMU partners are the countries with the strongest economies within the European Union, Poland should also try to join the monetary union which will play a key role in the EU and produce a major impact on the situation of non-EMU countries. In the document laying out the guidelines for preparations for Poland's accession to the European Union, the government stressed that the medium term economic programmes converged with the EU economic policy goals aiming at price stability, low government deficit and public debt. Still this year, the Polish government is to work out a programme for the accession to the economic and monetary union. The document will specify the economic measures necessary for Poland to satisfy the EMU convergence criteria. Poland already satisfies two of these requirements related to the level of public debt (which corresponds to 48 percent of Poland's GDP, the maximum allowed by the EMU being 60 percent) and government deficit (amounting to around 1.3 percent of the GDP). However, the rate of inflation is several times higher than the maximum level permitted for EMU members. Gazeta Wyborcza's Witold Gadomski projects that Poland will join the monetary union in ten years or so. He expects that Poles will have greater confidence in the euro than they have in their national currency, although a comparison of salary levels, once the amounts will be expressed in the same currency, will be quite a shock to them. Poland's accession to the monetary union would also put an end to problems such as inflation and high interest rates. On the other hand, the government will have less room to manoeuvre when designing the state budget because the level of deficit will have to be kept within certain limits. It will also be stripped of the possibility of playing with the exchange rate as an economic policy instrument. Gadomski stressed the effort required of Poland to fulfil EMU criteria. He evaluates that the criterion concerning the total public debt level as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product is already satisfied thanks to the fast growth of the Polish economy. However, he pointed to different methods used by Poland and the European Union to assess the government deficit level. Therefore, the Polish deficit would translate to around 3.4 percent of the GDP if measured according to EU standards. Nevertheless, he expects that Poland may be able to satisfy the 3 percent requirement as soon as next year. Gadomski agrees that the criterion concerning inflation will be the most difficult to meet. He projected that Poland would be able to bring its rate of inflation down to 2.5-3 percent around the year 2007, which would make it eligible to join the European Monetary Union. (Based on 29 June 1998 issue of Gazeta Wyborcza No. 150, p. 18; 4-5 July 1998 issue of Rzeczpospolita No. 155, p. 10; and 17 May 1998 issue of Wprost No. 20, p. 46). Catching Up with Europe ========================== Trybuna's Wladyslaw Bielski recalls how, shortly after having taken over the premiership, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said that Poland would become a member of the European Union in the first months of the third millennium. Bielski also recalls another statement made by Fran(oise Gaudenzi who co-ordinates accession talks with Poland on the European Union's side. She said that it was not possible to determine specifically the date of Poland's accession to the EU until the mutual legislation screening was completed in 1999, and added that the country's eligibility to achieve fully fledged membership would depend on the degree of compatibility of its law with Community legislation. Farmers' fears Agriculture is one of the areas in which Poland will have to undertake great efforts to adjust to EU standards. Bielski quotes figures according to which 27 percent of the Polish labour force is employed in agriculture, while accounting for only 7.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The figures in the European Union are 5.3 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. Out of Poland's approximately two million farms (compared to 7.8 million farms in the entire European Union), only between 500,000-600,000 produce for the market, which, theoretically, gives them a chance of withstanding competition from EU farmers. However, the prospects for the rest of the farmers, especially those from economically underdeveloped areas are rather gloomy, as the gap between them and the EU farmers gets wider. Additionally, despite the fact that the average area of a farm in Poland (less than 8 hectares) is half the EU average, the process of farmland concentration is proceeding very slowly, mainly due to a lack of capital. Bielski describes some of the specific problems faced by Polish farmers. For example, he claims that for only 8 percent of Polish cattle the animal breeds are specified, which makes most of the locally produced beef unfit for export to the EU. Meanwhile, the cattle breeding modernisation programme launched several years ago has ground to a halt due to a lack of funds. Dairy producers also have problems satisfying standards set for products imported into the Common Market. Bielski blames that situation on the fact that most milk producers in Poland have, on average, two or three cows, while the economies of scale make the use of modern breeding and sanitary methods profitable for farms with fifty cows or more. Tadeusz Wojciechowski, author of another article published by Trybuna, shares Bielski's pessimistic evaluation of the situation in Polish agriculture. He claims that farmers from the Poznan and Bydgoszcz regions, and to a certain extent Szczecin and Wroclaw, may be ready to integrate with the European Union. One may also find individual modern and efficient farms in other parts of Poland. Nonetheless, the vast majority of small farms from central and eastern parts of the country struggle to make ends meet, while the civilisation level of their farms dates back to the early 20th century rather than the late 1990s. Wojciechowski gives an example of some typical villages located barely 60 kilometres from Warsaw, whose farms are so small that no more than 40 percent of the local population are able to make their living from agriculture, but even their incomes are relatively small. A further 30 percent of farmers from the village sold most of their land long ago, and used to have other full-time or seasonal jobs. However, most of their companies have gone out of business, and the people are unemployed now. They are unable to live on the land which they have left, so they try to find temporary work in local private businesses, on bigger farms, and some look for jobs in larger towns or cities, including Warsaw, but the latter option is taken only by the most dynamic individuals. According to Wojciechowski, no more than five percent of the people in the village have managed to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the free market. They have established legal or unregistered business operations, most often in areas such as retail trade, agriculture related services, construction services, or transport. Their living standards are quite high, and they even manage to put aside some money to invest. At the other end of the social spectrum, one may find a group comprised of about a quarter of the local population who have neither a stable source of income nor any prospects for the future. Most of the people in the village know hardly anything about the European Union, and are unable to connect European integration with their individual situation or to project its results for Poland. Under these circumstances, Wojciechowski believes that, instead of visiting Poland's best farms, politicians should also go to villages such as the one that he described, so that they would realise the civilisation, technology and intellectual gap which exists between Polish rural areas and the European Union. It is necessary to prepare a sound analysis of the current situation and to make a great effort to improve it within the next three to five years. Otherwise, if such measures are not undertaken as part of the policy to promote the idea of European integration, the votes of Poles living in rural areas may be decisive in the accession referendum by delaying or even preventing Poland's membership of the European Union. The threat does not seem so remote given the farmers' fear that their interests may be forfeited during the accession negotiations with the EU. Challenge for bureaucrats Agriculture, however, is but one of many fields in which Poland will have to catch up with EU member states. Krzysztof Golata and Andrzej Szoszkiewicz in Wprost look at European integration from the perspective of job opportunities which the process will open to Polish state administration officers. f First of all, accession to the European Union will make attractive positions in EU institutions and agencies available to Poles. It is difficult to project the job quota which the European Commission will set for Polish staff, but the number is likely to be relatively large bearing in mind that it is proportional to the size of the country (Poland compares to Spain in that sense). Nonetheless, the actual number of representatives of a particular country working in the EU headquarters depends on the qualifications of individual candidates. The candidates must know at least one of the official languages of the European Union in addition to their mother tongue. In practice, they should know at least English and French. Meanwhile, World Bank experts have noted that a poor level of foreign language skills among the Polish state administration staff may constitute a barrier in Poland's accession talks with the EU. Golata and Szoszkiewicz quoted Arkadiusz Michonski from the Integration Policy Department of the European Integration Committee's Office, who projected that Poland would need to delegate to Brussels around 400 officials during the initial stage. However, the country would have problems finding even that number of candidates with appropriate qualifications. Michonski shared the opinion that the requirement to know two foreign languages posed an insurmountable problem for Polish officials. "Therefore, I think that during the first recruitment process, the selection criteria would be applied less strictly to our officials," he said. "The European Commission is aware that we are not able to compete with member states which have a longer experience in the Union." In addition to those several hundred officials who will be working in the permanent Polish delegation to the EU, in the structures of the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, or the EU committees, Poland will also require several thousand experts to handle European integration issues in the coming years. Meanwhile, the authors of the National Integration Strategy identified barely 300 officials who knew what integration was all about. According to Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, former government representative for European integration and foreign aid in several consecutive cabinets since the early 1990's and currently deputy head of the College of Europe in Warsaw, it takes several years to train a civil servant with appropriate qualifications. Therefore, efforts to prepare staff should have been undertaken long ago. The process also requires money, and in this context, Saryusz-Wolski noted that, starting this year, 30 percent of funds provided for Poland under the European Union's grant assistance programme PHARE would be spent on the establishment of modern and efficient state administration which would be able to adopt the acquis communautaire effectively. Meanwhile, as Jedrzej Bielecki wrote in his article for Gazeta Bankowa, Poland has to address an important structural problem of a financial nature, which leads to the situation where the people who come to work in the state administration are those who did not make it in the private sector. Golata and Szoszkiewicz made a similar point quoting figures according to which a person starting work in the Office of the European Integration Committee (where the salaries are relatively higher compared, for example, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) is offered a monthly salary in the range of PLN 1,000-1,500 before tax. Some of the staff are paid from EU assistance funds, and their salaries are automatically at least 20 percent higher because the income is tax free. Therefore, the Office receives few job applications from young people graduating from the Warsaw School of Economics because their salary expectations are several times higher than what the Office can offer. Nonetheless, some do come to work in the state administration, treating their jobs as a step on the career ladder and hoping to continue their careers in the European Commission or in the Council. For the time being, apart from improving their qualifications, Poles will also have to learn one more thing, namely, not to take their internal problems to Brussels. According to Bielecki, while other countries try to conceal their internal political conflicts from Brussels, Poles do not hide that their ruling coalitions have been unable to resolve competence conflicts among officials responsible for integration with the European Union. Furthermore, by tackling relations with the European Union during internal political conflicts, Polish politicians are wasting the achievements of political and economic reforms implemented with such great effort. Therefore, regardless of the fact that, apart from Hungary, Poland is probably the best prepared for EU membership among the associated states, it has earned a reputation as an arrogant country which does not keep its commitments and behaves in an irrational way. Bielecki warns that, if that situation continues, Poland may have to pay a high price for its attitude, as its accession to the European Union may be delayed or the terms of accession may be less advantageous. A similar opinion has been voiced by Fran(oise Gaudenzi who also warned against a possible delay in Poland's integration with the EU. "If Poles themselves have difficulties with preparing for membership," she told the Polityka weekly, "if they cannot agree on their order of priorities, if they cannot manage to work out a programme for the adoption of the acquis communautaire, this means that the Union still has a lot of time." In this context, Bielecki draws attention to the fact that a delay in Poland's accession to the EU may also be expressed in terms of a financial loss because Poland can hope to receive between 7 and 9 billion euro per year from the common coffers once it becomes a member of the EU. Furthermore, the volume of new EU legislation which the country will have to adopt keeps growing as well. (Based on 13 July 1998 issue of Trybuna No. 162, p. 12; 17 July 1998 issue of Trybuna No. 166, p. 18; 12 July 1998 issue of Wprost No. 28, p. 39; 18-24 July 1998 issue of Gazeta Bankowa, No. 29, p. 5). The PNB is a non-profit organization publishing a daily digest of the Polish press. No legal responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions or misleading statements, however caused, in either source or final texts. From tbos@social-sci.ss.emory.edu Thu Aug 6 10:26:20 1998 From: tbos@social-sci.ss.emory.edu To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 12:24:05 +0000 Subject: Globalization, Imperialism and Racism In-reply-to: WS nets, I am looking for references to literature that discusses the relationship between globalization, imperialism and racism in an historical perspective. Specifically, in the late 19th century and especially the early 20th, there was a marked increase in racial conflict and the promulgating of racist ideologies worldwide. In the US, we had the imposition f Jim Crow and banning Chinese immigration, followed after the war with a series of violent race riots in the North and lynchings in the South. Post-war Europe was plagued with a new especially virulent form of anti-semitism and a new wave of colonial conquest over Africa and Asia. Social Darwinism became something debated in the mainstream press, and so on. I have my own ideas about how this rise in racism was tied to what we now call globalization, which peaked in 1914 then fell dramatically thereafter. But, my guess is that my ideas are too obvious to be novel and that I've overlooked key literature on the topic because of a difference in terminology or discipline. Any suggestions are welcomed. Bos From tbos@social-sci.ss.emory.edu Thu Aug 6 22:52:16 1998 From: tbos@social-sci.ss.emory.edu Fri, 7 Aug 1998 00:52:10 -0400 (EDT) To: "Dave, The Village Idiot" Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 00:49:55 +0000 Subject: Re: Globalization, Imperialism and Racism In-reply-to: <35CA0AC2.D2752202@earthlink.net> DD Thanks for your reply. I did not intend to imply that globalization ended, only that it declined after 1914. Sorry if that was not clear. Globalization includes many things. One clear measure that I rely upon is the ratio of world trade growth to economic growth. A ratio greater than one indicates an increase in globalization. After 1945 (or 1939?), the ratio begins to rise steadily, then rapidly since the mid-80s. Bos From P-Gomberg@csu.edu Fri Aug 7 07:54:50 1998 Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 08:54:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Paul Gomberg To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: imperialism and poverty Dear friends, I am a philosopher writing on a popular argument (in philosophy) that people in affluent nations have a moral obligation to forego consumer spending on unnecessary things and to donate the money thus saved to poverty relief organizations such as UNICEF and OXFAM. Most attacks on this argument are from the (Malthusian) right, but I think there is a more interesting attack from the left: UN and related imperialist institutions create poverty by destroying food production for local populations; food aid and other humanitarian aid is part of the process by which people are made poor and dependent on the imperialist economy. I am aware of Greider's "One World, Ready or Not" and I have found very useful Michel Chossudovsky's "The Globalisation of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms." But there must be much more that I am ignorant of. So I am asking for bibliographical help on the question of how imperialist institutions contribute to poverty, hunger, dysentery, etc. It would be particularly useful if there is anything about the role of *UNICEF and OXFAM* in this process of creating poverty. Thanks in advance, Paul From dgildea@gladstone.uoregon.edu Sat Aug 8 22:48:12 1998 Sat, 8 Aug 1998 21:48:05 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 21:48:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Diana C Gildea To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: US history in world-systems perspective Dear friends, I am teaching a survey course in Colonial American and early national US history this Fall. I am organizing the course around two themes: 1) the geopolitics and economics of the early modern world-economy; and 2) the ways in which macro-level processes shaped and were shaped by social conflict (esp. radical and revolutionary challenges to the status quo) on a local level. In sum, I am trying to interconnect the big picture of global capitalism with the rhythms and structures of everyday life in a way that illustrates the agency of lower strata. I am familiar with most published world-system studies of North America (Agnew, Dunaway, Hall, Chase-Dunn's 1980 article, Tomich and MicMichael on slavery, etc.) I'm especially interested in empirical studies (published or unpublished). Although the survey course ends its narrative around 1820, I'm interested in world-historical or comparative studies which address any period of US history. Please send replies to me directly. Once I get enough suggestions, I'll forward the bib to the list. In Solidarity, Jason W. Moore Board of History, UC Santa Cruz (on leave) Dept. of Social Sciences, Western Oregon University Jason W. Moore and Diana C. Gildea 541-684-9671x From uisdean@fox.nstn.ca Sun Aug 9 07:34:36 1998 by mail1.toronto.istar.net with esmtp (Exim 1.92 #3) for wsn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Sun, 09 Aug 1998 09:44:48 -0400 From: Hugh MacDonald Reply-To: uisdean@fox.nstn.ca To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK Subject: Neo-Fordism Commercial 'Globalization' -- the acceleration of world integration following the end of the cold war and the resulting moderation of barriers to the movement of capital -- has produced a tremendous interest in process engineering methodologies in most large corporations. This re-engineering of processes, in combination with the use of emerging information technology, is transforming the white-collar workplace. Post-Fordist thinkers suggest, as do most corporate mangers, that the result of this transformation is a re-structured workplace that emphasizes worker empowerment and democracy - due to the need to attract and retain highly trained knowledge workers. Neo-Fordists, among others, are more cautious and suggest that, in at least some workplaces, recent experiential worker-controlled knowledge structures are quickly being replaced by standardized and centralized control of the new systems. An example might be the emergence of telephone "call-centres." Are employees in these centers emerging 21st century "knowledge workers" or do they represent the industrialization of office work? Such workers, for example, work on a virtual assembly line - the phone calls represent an intangible product that moves across a white collar workbench, workers are under close supervision (calls are usually monitored), an individual worker can't leave her desk without someone taking her place, workers often don't have a personal workstation (Hotel-ing concepts are used - that is, workers are assigned a different workstation when they arrive at work), the work includes the use of part-time and casual staff and dress codes are often relaxed to business casual -- for non-management staff. The parallels to factory work are interesting. The work itself is skilled in that it often requires a worker with advanced training in some business discipline - Investments, Financial Counseling, Mortgages, Mutual Funds or other Corporate-specific products or services. Competencies and attributes required usually include language ability, dispute handling as well as the other verbal skills and mental processes necessary to integrate multiple inputs. Much of the corporate specific knowledge required to do the job is provide as embedded learning, or just-in-time training, within the information systems present at each workstation. I am a Human Resources Director and a part-time graduate student. I am would value any comments or observations from the members of the World-Systems community on this thesis. Thanks in advance. Hugh MacDonald uisdean@fox.nstn.ca or hugh.macdonald@utoronto.ca From rkmoore@iol.ie Tue Aug 11 08:08:36 1998 Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 15:07:07 +0100 To: cj@cyberjournal.org, renaissance-network@cyberjournal.org, social-movements@staffmail.wit.ie, WOC-L@PGS.CA, corporations@envirolink.org, WSN@csf.colorado.edu, Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore) Subject: cj#813> re: Globalization book: ideology vs anarchy? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Bill Blum [author of "Killing Hope, US Military and CIA interventions since World War II"] Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 22:36:48 EDT To: cj@cyberjournal.org Subject: Re: cj#812> 1st of series: "Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative" rkm wrote: << In fact the question of genuine democracy arises when the movement is still in its early stages. A massive global movement must find a way to coordinate itself, to find a sense of common direction, and of solidarity. This movement won't be led by an existing aristocracy, as was the American Revolution, nor does it come with a pre-packaged ideology, as did the Russian Revolution. It is rising from the people themselves, starting from a thousand places around the world, and a thousand circumstances, and with a thousand agendas. >> Dear Richard, though I generally admire what you've written in this essay, I have a problem with the above paragraph. On the one hand -- coordination, common direction, solidarity, plus, earlier, "the vision thing" ... On the other hand -- no pre-packaged ideology. Does everyone bring their "own thing" to the great revolutionary party; i.e., total anarchy? Or are there at least a MINIMUM of ideas that MUST, IN COMMON, be understood intellectually and be inspired by emotionally? Elsewhere you do list some of these ideas -- though not categorizing them as rigidly as I am here -- but throughout your writings I find this tension between the the very appealing "everyone doing their own thing, everyone bringing to the table their own favorite dish" AND "It's time to get serious, people", like the first part of the above cited paragraph. To be continued. Bill ----------- Dear Bill, What I said is that there is no _pre-packaged ideology. With Marxism, by contrast, there is a whole cartload of ideology, such as "all value is derived from labor", history unfolds from "class conflict" and "dialectic materialism", etc. Similarly with globalization there is an ideology, or at least a rhetoric, that market forces are beneficial and that government has no useful economic role to play. I am a proponent of locally-based, grass-roots democracy. Perhaps _that is an "ideology", but I think that would be stretching the term a bit. In Chiapas, locally-based democracy would translate into communal land stewardship, while in Norway it would translate into a social-democracy, mixed-economy system. An approach which includes that much diversity in public policy cannot, in my view, be called an "ideology". My American Heritage dictionary says of "ideology": The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. The Cassell Concise English Dictionary says: ...abstract or fanciful theorizing; the political or social philosophy of a nation, movement, group etc. Based on these definitions, democracy is perhaps a "meta ideology", a _process out of which different ideologies emerge in different places and from different conditions and cultures -- different "nations, movements, groups, etc" can be expected to identify their own "needs and aspirations" and "philosophies". Let's examine the "current situation", the context out of which a global movement might be expected to arise. My observation is that hundreds (thousands?) of grass-roots initiatives are underway worldwide, with many different focus of concerns. Some focus on over-population, others on fighting corporate influence, election reform, sustainable agriculture, anti-imperialism, reductions in armaments, improving labor conditions, media reform, etc. etc. My belief, which is shared by Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (CDR), is that these different initiatives are too isolated from one another, that their political energy is fragmented, and that they can and are being played off against one another by existing political regimes. This is perhaps most clearly illustrated when environmentalists are accused of being "anti labor" because they oppose cutting down the last few remaining Redwood forests. Our agenda, or focus of concern, is to help build bridges between these different initiatives or "sub-movements", to encourage people to talk not only with those in their own sub-movement, but to reach out and dialog with people in other sub-movements. Our image of a mass movement is a "web", with the "spokes" being the diverse existing struggles, and the "circular strands" being links between the spokes. Thus we use the term "web weaving" to describe bridge-building between sub-movements. Out of such process we hope that a sense of common purpose can be developed, that the diverse struggles can be harmonized, that shared agendas can be articulated, and that unity of political action can be achieved. You ask: "are there at least a MINIMUM of ideas that MUST, IN COMMON, be understood intellectually and be inspired by emotionally?". I answer "Yes and no." "Yes", in the sense that self governance is an idea that we all can support, and which can inspire us. "No", in the sense that we don't need to agree in advance that "population control", for example, is more important than "taming corporations" or "election reform". Cesar Roberto, a Brazilian who has contributed to cj in the past, and who is a "friend of CDR", describes movement building as "establishing non-discriminatory alliances". This concept of "non-discriminatory" is what I mean by "non-ideological". An ideology-based movement would start by articulating an ideology, and would then try to get everyone to buy into it. A non-discriminatory movement starts from the concerns and initiatives that are already afoot, and then tries to get them to work together. This is a _process-based approach, rather than a _content-based approach. The "idea content" of the movement arises from the process of the movement, and varies from place to place, rather than being uniformly defined (pre-packaged) beforehand. --- I can offer an _analysis, not an ideology, regarding why such a movement is sorely needed, and why there is hope _today for such a movement to succeed, hope that was _not there as recently as the 1970's. That analysis, which should be familiar to cj readers by now, is that globalization is pushing us _all into a desperate corner. Prior to the "neoliberal revolution" of the 1980's, we had a system where the middle classes in the dominant Northern nations were granted privileges. These privileges, one might say, were bribes, encouraging dominant populations to permit the rest of the world (including their own less privileged citizens) to be exploited by corporate imperialism. But under neoliberalism (ie, Reaganism = Thatcherism = blind faith in market forces), the Northern middle classes are now being grossly exploited as well, with reduced social programs, increased unemployment, declining working conditions, etc. As more and more people in these dominant nations become aware of their declining status, and aware that under globalization things will only get much worse, it becomes possible for them to find common cause with those in the Third World who have been suffering for centuries under imperialism. Thus the "inherent conditions" today create the seeds of a massive grass-roots global movement. These conditions, however, do not insure that such a movement will arise, nor do they insure that things will move in the direction of democracy. Instead the energy of discontent can turn to religious fundamentalism, or xenophobic nationalism, or factionalism. When such discontent is manipulated by those in power, it can result in fascism. This is why I consider Marxists, and others, to be counter productive, when they say "Let things get worse, let capitalism collapse, and then utopia will spontaneously arise". I see no evidence whatsoever that a benign result can be expected to arise automatically from increased suffering. All evidence, in fact, is to the contrary. There is no evidence, in fact, that capitalism will collapse. Capitalism has proven itself to be extremely adaptable. It can survive depressions, in fact it can take advantage of them to consolidate its position even further, as when farmland in the US was repossessed by banks in the thirties, and as in Korea, where bankrupt companies are being bought up by outside interests at bargain prices. The natural direction of capitalism, I claim, is not toward collapse, but toward monopolization. It is leading us toward a world where a handful of TNC's (transnational corporations) own and run the world. This is not theory, this is what is plainly happening, as industry after industry is becoming rapidly concentrated, on a global scale, into the hands of a few major operators, and as political power is being monopolized by TNC-dominated bureaucracies such as the World Trade Organization and the IMF. Ultimately, one cannot deny, the limits of growth in a finite world will have to be faced. But with the world owned and run by giant TNC's, this will be expressed not by collapse, but by a transition to neo-feudalism, with TNC's in the roles which under classic feudalism were held by monarchs and landed aristocracies. --- The title of my book is "Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative". "Imperative" refers to the fact that we _must seize the moment, we must accomplish a revolutionary change in political power, and we must do it before our democracies are completely destroyed and disempowered. If we wait, if we allow the corporate globalist regime to fully consolidate its power, then we'll _all be in the position that Third-World peoples have been in for centuries -- where the forces arrayed against them are so strong that effective resistance is nearly impossible. The challenge is for thinkers, and writers, and leaders, and activists to rise above their individual ideological positions and to work for "non-discriminatory alliances", to end their mutual factionalism, and to help build a unified grass-roots movement. The ideology, or ideologies, if they are needed, will arise from the process of the movement. That, I submit, is what democracy is all about. in solidarity, rkm Wexford, Ireland ------------------------------------------------------------------------ a political discussion forum - cj@cyberjournal.org To subscribe, send any message to cj-subscribe@cyberjournal.org A public service of Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (mailto:cdr@cyberjournal.org http://cyberjournal.org) ---------------------------------------------------------- Non-commercial reposting is hereby approved, but please include the sig up through this paragraph and retain any internal credits and copyright notices. .--------------------------------------------------------- To see the index of the cj archives, send any message to: cj-index@cyberjournal.org To subscribe to our activists list, send any message to: renaissance-network-subscribe@cyberjournal.org Help create the Movement for a Democratic Rensaissance ---------------------------------------------- crafted in Ireland by rkm ----------------------------------- A community will evolve only when the people control their means of communication. -- Frantz Fanon From kpmoseley@juno.com Tue Aug 11 15:39:32 1998 From: kpmoseley@juno.com To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 16:47:16 -0700 Subject: Africa's crisis of Governance X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-357 --------- Begin forwarded message ---------- From: "A.Y. Kamara" To: LEONENET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: Africa's crisis of Governance Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 13:26:40 +0200 By Tunde Obadina (Africa Economic analysis Some people see in Africa's political and economic failings proof that Africans are incapable of ruling themselves. Such people may also believe that the colonial powers opted out of the continent prematurely and that some more years of tutelage might have made a difference. In this liberal age such views are rarely spoken openly by either the enemies or friends of Africa. But it would be naive to think that Africa's experience has not raised questions about the quality of the character and mind of the African. The doubt certainly occupies the thoughts of many Africans as they watch their prostrated countries treated as basket cases. Self-doubt has grown with each decade of apparent failure. Ordinary Africans, bewildered and disappointed by the outcome of self-rule, find little around them to instil the confidence that as a people they can manage their own recovery. In some respects Africans are now more vulnerable to theories of black inferiority than they were during colonialism. Under colonialism they could dream that with liberation would come the opportunity to prove their worth. The future was uncompromised by the failures of the present. After more than three decades of misgovernment, many Africans have lost faith. In 1990 a state governor in Imo state in southeastern Nigeria explained to a public meeting in the capital Owerri that his cash-strapped government was unable to solve the severe erosion problem devastating the region. After he had spoken an old man in the audience stood up and said "Since you and other black leaders have tried your best but have not been able to improve the lives of us ordinary people, why don't we ask the whites to come back. When the white man ruled us things were not this bad. Please ask them to come and save us." The statement, spoken with sincerity, met momentary silence in the audience followed by some laughter and applause. In a way, the whites have been returning. Some would say, they never left. Over the past two decades western governments, aid agencies and multilateral finance institutions have sent experts to African countries to help them develop. The help increasingly involved attempts to direct the political and economic development of the recipient nations. Calls for recolonisation The experts and their prescriptions have failed to shift Africa. The next stage, it seems, is for the West to directly take over the management of troubled African nations. Last year writer Norman Stone in 'The Observer' newspaper proposed a programme of enlightened re-imperialism' to sort Africa out. Conditions in Africa today, he said, were similar to the bloody mess that prevailed before European colonisation in the nineteenth century. "There is a strong case for another version of the nineteenth-century liberal international order to be re-imposed....Empires do not have to be formal or tyrannical.... There are times when they do good, and the post-independence history of Africa indicates that this is one of them." Why not simply privatise whole African countries?, asked Robert Wheelen of the Institute of Economic Affairs. In the journal of the institute in September 1996 Wheelen argued that multi-national companies should be invited to bid for the right to run African nations under leases of up to 21 years. They would undertake to provide specific services and bring about efficiency and discipline in return for pre-set tax revenue. The tragedy of Africa's situation is that as absurd as these proposals by latter day imperialists sound, there are many Africans who would support some degree of direct governance by external agents to straighten out their countries. For instance, some Liberians called for their war-battered nation to become a trust territory of the United Nations. International football star George Weah, apparently exasperated by the anarchy and hopeless condition of his homeland, told the New York Times in May 1996: "The United Nations should come in and take over Liberia, not temporarily, but for life. To make Liberians believe in democracy, to make us believe in human rights." For his outspokenness, two of Weah's female cousins were raped and his house burnt down by gunmen from one of the warring factions that had for six years turned Liberia into a killing field in a senseless war. Weah's comment was naive but understandable. Blaming Africa's woes on bad leaders has become the mantra of many people concerned about the continent's future. A change in government, preferably through democratic means, is viewed as the main pre-requisite for making a fresh start and attracting economic investment. Analysts focus their minds on how inept African leaders can be got rid of. George Ayittey, a Ghanaian professor at the American University in Washington, DC, suggested that African dictators be paid to relinquish power. Citing the example of Somalia where a war-induced famine in 1992 led to an international mercy mission, Ayittey told a reporter during the OAU summit in July 1996 "The humanitarian mission cost more than $3 billion. If we had just taken $50 million and bought out the regime, imagine the savings in terms of life and infrastructure." In a similar vain, the Financial Times Africa expert Michael Holman, had suggested in his paper that a demobilisation fund be set up to ease the army out of power in Nigeria and "provide golden handshakes to officers who want to leave." The tendency is to view Africa's woes in terms of the excesses of individual dictators and their cronies. The image that comes to mind is of kleptomaniacs and megalomaniacs like Mobutu Sese Seko and Jean-Bedel Bokassa. It is easy to draw from this the conclusion that the simple solution to Africa's governance problems is to change its leaders. The belief that a nation can be redeemed by removing a set of crooked leaders inspired the killing of Nigeria's first post-independence civilian rulers by idealistic army majors. But the coup only succeeded in shifting power to another set of ineffectual leaders. Since independence in 1960 the leadership of Nigeria has changed nine times. This is more changes of government than occurred in most European democracies during the period. Despite the changes of governments, the Nigerian state remained corrupt and ineffective. Throughout Africa, changes in helmsmen have not lessened corruption or quickened the pace of economic development. Ignorance and lack of capacity not the main causes Some people put the persistence of mismanagement down to a lack of capacity for good governance. One result of this view is the explosion of capacity building programmes initiated by donor and multilateral agencies. The aim of the schemes is to help African countries put in place structures and reforms that will strengthen the rule of law, support democracy and promote greater accountability and transparency. Underlying many of these programmes is the notion that poor governance is due largely to incompetence, ignorance and inadequate infrastructure. In effect, the aim is to do now what many feel should have been done by the colonisers before they relinquished power. That is, teach Africans how to govern themselves. Certainly African nations suffer from poor administrative, inadequate judicial infrastructure and insufficient numbers of expertise. But these short-comings cannot explain the abuse and misuse of state power in the continent. For instance, Nigeria has a large number of highly-trained professionals, including accountants and constitutional lawyers. Laid down budgetary procedures, include provisions for checks and balances, are adequate. But the fact remains that Nigerian rulers have ignored the provisions of the constitution and laid down administrative procedures are irrelevant to the actual workings of government. Abuse and misuse of power and authority by Nigerian rulers have not been largely due any national lack of capacity for good governance. Nigerian leaders have not been ineffective and tyrannical because they are incompetent or ignorant. Neither has the lack of administrative or intellectual expertise to formulate and properly execute growth enhancing policies been the major problem. Quite simply, Nigerian leaders have acted in their own selfish interests in total disregard to existing rules and laid-down procedures. The popular image of African rulers as bungling buffoons is not helpful. It obscures reality. Anyone who has observed the way in which the military has dominated politics in Nigeria would see that the generals are no fools. They and their advisers have shown themselves to be quite adept in the art of retaining political power. Since the early 1990s they have toyed with the civilian political class. General Sani Abacha has since seizing power in 1993, with remarkable political skill undermined the opposition - sowed confusion in their ranks and made them loss credibility in the eyes of the public. Judged by Machievellian standards, Nigeria's ruling generals and their advisers have shown great political sophistication. It would be a mistake to approach Abacha and his cronies as a bunch of idiots, ignorant of the art of politics. Similarly, we should not see reactionary economic policies and practices of African governments as stemming mainly from lack of knowledge of economic theory and management. Many of the economic policies and actions that have entrenched African countries in economic under-development were deliberately carried out to serve the interest of those in power. African ruling elites have benefited enormously from the economic misfortune of their nations. Not surprising, they prefer to maintain the status quo as chaotic and depressive as it may seem for the majority of Africans and liberal observers from abroad. There is reason in the anarchy. Scramble for wealth and power Rather than view African rulers as buffoons, we should see them and their actions from the perspective of the interests they serve. The failure of democracy and economic development in Africa are due to a large part to the scramble for wealth by predator elites who have dominated African politics since independence. They see the state as a source of personal wealth accumulation. There is high premium on the control of the state, which is the biggest and most easily accessible source of wealth accumulation. The people in power and those who seek power use all means to attain their goal. This includes fostering ethnic sectarianism and political repression. Competition for control of the state, whether between the military and civilian classes or between civilian political parties, is invariably ferocious and generates instability. Many of the apparently senseless civil conflicts in Africa, including in Liberia and Somalia, are due to the battle for the spoils of power. Franz Fanon in his book 'The Wretched of the Earth' published in 1961 eloquently described the character of the class that inherited power from the colonialists. It is "a sort of little greedy caste, avid and voracious, with the mind of a huckster, only too glad to accept the dividends that the former colonial powers hands out. This get-rich-quick middle class shows itself incapable of great ideas or of inventiveness. It remembers what it has read in European textbooks and imperceptibly it becomes not even the replica of Europe, but its caricature." This class, said Fanon prophetically, is not capable of building industries "it is completely canalised into activities of the intermediary type. Its innermost vocation seems to be to keep in the running and to be part of the racket. The psychology of the national bourgeoisie is that of a businessman, not that of a captain of industry." The description remains accurate for today's elite who have grown through civilian politics, military governments, business and the civil service. As long as African political rulers and administrators are drawn from this class of predators, no amount of preaching the virtues of good governance or tuition on public administration will fundamentally alter the quality of governance. This is not to say that constitutional reforms and increasing civil society infrastructure are not important. They are. But they are not the key to solving the problem of bad governance. Good governance is the effective exercise of power and authority by government in a manner that serves to improve the quality of life of the populous. This includes using state power to create a society in which the full development of individuals and of their capacity to control their lives is possible. A ruling class that sees the state solely as a means of expropriating the nation's limited resources is simply incapable of good governance. More specifically, such a class will by its character and mission abuse power. An underlying cause of many of the manifestations of bad governance, including political repression, corruption and ethnic sectarianism, is the endeavour by the ruling classes to be and remain part of the global elite despite their nation's poverty. The competition for national resources leads to conflict and repression. It is difficult to see how there can be good governance when the orientation of the elite is to stay in the running and be part of the fifth of the world's population that forms the international consumer class. Bad governance is not a mainly problem of ignorance or lack of infrastructural capacity or even of individual dictators. States in Africa are incapacitated as instruments of development because ruling classes, including people in and outside government, are motivated by objectives that have little to do with the common good. Africa's tragedy is not that its nations are poor That is a condition that is a product of history. The tragedy is that it lacks ruling classes that are committed to overcoming the state of poverty. Real politics here has little to do with social and economic reconstruction. The observation of the assassinated South African writer Ruth First in her book The Barrel of a Gun published in 1970 remains valid today. "There has been eloquent, inexhaustible talk in Africa about politics, side by side with the gaping poverty of political thought. Down there on the ground in Africa, you can smother in the small talk of politics. Mostly it is about politicking, rarely about policies. Politicians are men who compete with each other for power, not men who use power to confront their country's problems." As long as politics is dominated by predator elites it is difficult to see how meaningful democracy or economic development can be sustained.. The challenge facing those who want better governance is how to make those in power accountable and ultimately rescue the state from them to transform it an agency for positive change. Tunde Obadina is director of Africa Business Information Services Back to top of page Back to AEA Home Page --------- End forwarded message ---------- _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Tue Aug 11 16:05:58 1998 Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 17:05:53 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: help on past PEWS prizes To: Network World-Systems WSNers, I am trying to compile a complete list of books that have received the PEWS prize. Below is my list. I didn't find anything on PEWS home page, Braudel Center etc home pages. My questions are: 1. was there a prize before 1989? 2. which book received the prize in 1995 & 1996? Thanks for any info. I repost the entire list once it is compiled. tom Thomas D. [tom] Hall thall@depauw.edu Department of Sociology DePauw University 100 Center Street Greencastle, IN 46135 765-658-4519 HOME PAGE: http://www.depauw.edu/~thall/hp1.htm -------------------- Pews prize list earlier?? 1989 Bunker, Stephen 1990 Abu-Lughod, Janet 1991 Tomich, Dale W. 1992 Chase-Dunn, Christopher 1993 Suter, Christian 1994 Foran, John 1995 ?? 1996 ?? 1997 Robinson? ---- From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Wed Aug 12 09:38:55 1998 Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 10:38:49 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: PEWS prize updated list To: Network World-Systems WSNers, Here is the list 89 thru 97. Does anyone know for sure if 1989 ws the first year of the prize? thanks tom Political Economy of the World-System (PEWS) Annual Prize Books complete 89 - 97 1989 Bunker, Stephen. 1987. Peasants Against the State. Champagne Urbana: University of Illinois Press. (Paper version 1991 University of Chicago Press). 1990 Abu-Lughod, Janet. 1989. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350. New York: Oxford University Press. 1991 Tomich, Dale W. 1990. Slavery in the Circuit of Sugar: Martinique and the World Economy, 1830-1848. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1992 Chase-Dunn, Christopher. 1989. Global Formation: Structures of the World-Economy. London: Basil Blackwell. 1993 Suter, Christian. 1992. Debt Cycles in the World-Economy: Foreign Loans, Financial Crises, and Debt Settlements, 1820- 1990. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1994 Foran, John. 1993. Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1995 Arrighi, Giovanni. 1994. The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times. London: Verso. 1996 Evans, Peter B. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1997 Robinson, William I. 1996. Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony. New York: Cambridge University Press. Thomas D. [tom] Hall thall@depauw.edu Department of Sociology DePauw University 100 Center Street Greencastle, IN 46135 765-658-4519 HOME PAGE: http://www.depauw.edu/~thall/hp1.htm From PAT.LAUDERDALE@asu.edu Wed Aug 12 09:50:18 1998 From: PAT.LAUDERDALE@asu.edu 12 Aug 1998 08:50:01 -0700 (MST) Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 08:50:00 -0700 (MST) Subject: Re: Africa's crisis of Governance In-reply-to: <19980811.173716.10262.0.kpmoseley@juno.com> To: kpmoseley@juno.com Reply-to: atpll@IMAP1.ASU.EDU A different analysis of the issues is available in an article by Toggia and Lauderdale presented at the 1998 ISA meetings. You can access the article at: wwc.cc.columbia.edu/sec/dlc/ciao/conf/lap01/ The article focuses more on the interaction between local and global forces in Africa, especially Somalia. The historical processes of colonialism and contemporary pressures of the international economic community, and the failure of the Western model of the state are examined. In addition, even a cursory analysis of Somalia from 1991 to the present and the recent changes in Eritrea suggest that the comments below are inadequate, particularly in light of any number of analyses from a world system or world-system perspective. Even if the subject is governance (and of course it is since the concept of governance is replacing identity in the 1990s as the latest icon) Abebe Zegeye has a book series on Law, Social Change and Development, that contains a number of more useful analyses. The series is published by Ashgate and the books are available in most libraries. Examples are Jeannine Purdy's COMMON LAW AND COLONISED PEOPLES, and Jill Cottrell's LAW OF DEFAMATION IN COMMONWEALTH AFRICA. Also, the article by Maxted and Zegeye in the summer 1997 issue of the Iternational Journal of Comparative Sociology is most helpful. On Tue, 11 Aug 1998 kpmoseley@juno.com wrote: > --------- Begin forwarded message ---------- > From: "A.Y. Kamara" > To: LEONENET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Africa's crisis of Governance > Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 13:26:40 +0200 > Message-ID: <35CD8770.23369966@wiz.uni-kassel.de> > > By Tunde Obadina (Africa Economic analysis > > Some people see in Africa's political and economic failings proof that > Africans are incapable of > ruling themselves. Such people may also believe that the colonial powers > opted out of the > continent prematurely and that some more years of tutelage might have > made a difference. In this > liberal age such views are rarely spoken openly by either the enemies or > friends of Africa. But > it would be naive to think that Africa's experience has not raised > questions about the quality of > the character and mind of the African. The doubt certainly occupies the > thoughts of many > Africans as they watch their prostrated countries treated as basket > cases. Self-doubt has grown > with each decade of apparent failure. > > Ordinary Africans, bewildered and disappointed by the outcome of > self-rule, find little around > them to instil the confidence that as a people they can manage their own > recovery. In some > respects Africans are now more vulnerable to theories of black > inferiority than they were during > colonialism. Under colonialism they could dream that with liberation > would come the > opportunity to prove their worth. The future was uncompromised by the > failures of the present. > After more than three decades of misgovernment, many Africans have lost > faith. In 1990 a state > governor in Imo state in southeastern Nigeria explained to a public > meeting in the capital > Owerri that his cash-strapped government was unable to solve the severe > erosion problem > devastating the region. After he had spoken an old man in the audience > stood up and said "Since > you and other black leaders have tried your best but have not been able > to improve the lives of > us ordinary people, why don't we ask the whites to come back. When the > white man ruled us > things were not this bad. Please ask them to come and save us." The > statement, spoken with > sincerity, met momentary silence in the audience followed by some > laughter and applause. > > In a way, the whites have been returning. Some would say, they never > left. Over the past two > decades western governments, aid agencies and multilateral finance > institutions have sent > experts to African countries to help them develop. The help increasingly > involved attempts to > direct the political and economic development of the recipient nations. > > Calls for recolonisation > > The experts and their prescriptions have failed to shift Africa. The > next stage, it seems, is for the > West to directly take over the management of troubled African nations. > Last year writer Norman > Stone in 'The Observer' newspaper proposed a programme of enlightened > re-imperialism' to > sort Africa out. Conditions in Africa today, he said, were similar to > the bloody mess that > prevailed before European colonisation in the nineteenth century. "There > is a strong case for > another version of the nineteenth-century liberal international order to > be re-imposed....Empires > do not have to be formal or tyrannical.... There are times when they do > good, and the > post-independence history of Africa indicates that this is one of them." > > Why not simply privatise whole African countries?, asked Robert Wheelen > of the Institute of > Economic Affairs. In the journal of the institute in September 1996 > Wheelen argued that > multi-national companies should be invited to bid for the right to run > African nations under > leases of up to 21 years. They would undertake to provide specific > services and bring about > efficiency and discipline in return for pre-set tax revenue. > > The tragedy of Africa's situation is that as absurd as these proposals > by latter day imperialists > sound, there are many Africans who would support some degree of direct > governance by > external agents to straighten out their countries. For instance, some > Liberians called for their y> war-battered nation to become a trust territory of the United Nations. > International football star > George Weah, apparently exasperated by the anarchy and hopeless > condition of his homeland, > told the New York Times in May 1996: "The United Nations should come in > and take over > Liberia, not temporarily, but for life. To make Liberians believe in > democracy, to make us > believe in human rights." For his outspokenness, two of Weah's female > cousins were raped and > his house burnt down by gunmen from one of the warring factions that had > for six years turned > Liberia into a killing field in a senseless war. > > Weah's comment was naive but understandable. Blaming Africa's woes on > bad leaders has > become the mantra of many people concerned about the continent's future. y> A change in > government, preferably through democratic means, is viewed as the main > pre-requisite for > making a fresh start and attracting economic investment. Analysts focus > their minds on how inept > African leaders can be got rid of. George Ayittey, a Ghanaian professor > at the American > University in Washington, DC, suggested that African dictators be paid > to relinquish power. > Citing the example of Somalia where a war-induced famine in 1992 led to > an international > mercy mission, Ayittey told a reporter during the OAU summit in July > 1996 "The humanitarian > mission cost more than $3 billion. If we had just taken $50 million and > bought out the regime, > imagine the savings in terms of life and infrastructure." In a similar > vain, the Financial Times > Africa expert Michael Holman, had suggested in his paper that a > demobilisation fund be set up > to ease the army out of power in Nigeria and "provide golden handshakes > to officers who want > to leave." > > The tendency is to view Africa's woes in terms of the excesses of > individual dictators and their > cronies. The image that comes to mind is of kleptomaniacs and > megalomaniacs like Mobutu > Sese Seko and Jean-Bedel Bokassa. It is easy to draw from this the > conclusion that the simple > solution to Africa's governance problems is to change its leaders. > > The belief that a nation can be redeemed by removing a set of crooked > leaders inspired the > killing of Nigeria's first post-independence civilian rulers by > idealistic army majors. But the > coup only succeeded in shifting power to another set of ineffectual > leaders. Since independence > in 1960 the leadership of Nigeria has changed nine times. This is more > changes of government > than occurred in most European democracies during the period. Despite > the changes of > governments, the Nigerian state remained corrupt and ineffective. > Throughout Africa, changes in > helmsmen have not lessened corruption or quickened the pace of economic > development. > > Ignorance and lack of capacity not the main causes > > Some people put the persistence of mismanagement down to a lack of > capacity for good > governance. One result of this view is the explosion of capacity > building programmes initiated > by donor and multilateral agencies. The aim of the schemes is to help > African countries put in > place structures and reforms that will strengthen the rule of law, > support democracy and > promote greater accountability and transparency. Underlying many of > these programmes is the > notion that poor governance is due largely to incompetence, ignorance > and inadequate > infrastructure. In effect, the aim is to do now what many feel should > have been done by the > colonisers before they relinquished power. That is, teach Africans how > to govern themselves. > > Certainly African nations suffer from poor administrative, inadequate > judicial infrastructure and > insufficient numbers of expertise. But these short-comings cannot > explain the abuse and misuse > of state power in the continent. For instance, Nigeria has a large > number of highly-trained > professionals, including accountants and constitutional lawyers. Laid > down budgetary > procedures, include provisions for checks and balances, are adequate. > But the fact remains that > Nigerian rulers have ignored the provisions of the constitution and laid > down administrative > procedures are irrelevant to the actual workings of government. > > Abuse and misuse of power and authority by Nigerian rulers have not been > largely due any > national lack of capacity for good governance. Nigerian leaders have not > been ineffective and > tyrannical because they are incompetent or ignorant. Neither has the > lack of administrative or > intellectual expertise to formulate and properly execute growth > enhancing policies been the > major problem. Quite simply, Nigerian leaders have acted in their own > selfish interests in total > disregard to existing rules and laid-down procedures. > > The popular image of African rulers as bungling buffoons is not helpful. > It obscures reality. > Anyone who has observed the way in which the military has dominated > politics in Nigeria > would see that the generals are no fools. They and their advisers have > shown themselves to be > quite adept in the art of retaining political power. Since the early > 1990s they have toyed with the > civilian political class. General Sani Abacha has since seizing power in > 1993, with remarkable > political skill undermined the opposition - sowed confusion in their > ranks and made them loss > credibility in the eyes of the public. Judged by Machievellian > standards, Nigeria's ruling > generals and their advisers have shown great political sophistication. > It would be a mistake to > approach Abacha and his cronies as a bunch of idiots, ignorant of the > art of politics. > > Similarly, we should not see reactionary economic policies and practices > of African > governments as stemming mainly from lack of knowledge of economic theory > and management. > Many of the economic policies and actions that have entrenched African > countries in economic > under-development were deliberately carried out to serve the interest of > those in power. African > ruling elites have benefited enormously from the economic misfortune of > their nations. Not > surprising, they prefer to maintain the status quo as chaotic and > depressive as it may seem for > the majority of Africans and liberal observers from abroad. There is > reason in the anarchy. > > Scramble for wealth and power > > Rather than view African rulers as buffoons, we should see them and > their actions from the > perspective of the interests they serve. The failure of democracy and > economic development in > Africa are due to a large part to the scramble for wealth by predator > elites who have dominated > African politics since independence. They see the state as a source of > personal wealth > accumulation. There is high premium on the control of the state, which > is the biggest and most > easily accessible source of wealth accumulation. The people in power and > those who seek > power use all means to attain their goal. This includes fostering ethnic > sectarianism and > political repression. Competition for control of the state, whether > between the military and > civilian classes or between civilian political parties, is invariably > ferocious and generates > instability. Many of the apparently senseless civil conflicts in Africa, > including in Liberia and > Somalia, are due to the battle for the spoils of power. > > Franz Fanon in his book 'The Wretched of the Earth' published in 1961 > eloquently described the > character of the class that inherited power from the colonialists. It is > "a sort of little greedy > caste, avid and voracious, with the mind of a huckster, only too glad to > accept the dividends that > the former colonial powers hands out. This get-rich-quick middle class > shows itself incapable > of great ideas or of inventiveness. It remembers what it has read in > European textbooks and > imperceptibly it becomes not even the replica of Europe, but its > caricature." This class, said > Fanon prophetically, is not capable of building industries "it is > completely canalised into > activities of the intermediary type. Its innermost vocation seems to be > to keep in the running and > to be part of the racket. The psychology of the national bourgeoisie is > that of a businessman, not > that of a captain of industry." The description remains accurate for > today's elite who have grown > through civilian politics, military governments, business and the civil > service. > > As long as African political rulers and administrators are drawn from > this class of predators, no > amount of preaching the virtues of good governance or tuition on public > administration will > fundamentally alter the quality of governance. This is not to say that > constitutional reforms and > increasing civil society infrastructure are not important. They are. But > they are not the key to > solving the problem of bad governance. > > Good governance is the effective exercise of power and authority by > government in a manner > that serves to improve the quality of life of the populous. This > includes using state power to > create a society in which the full development of individuals and of > their capacity to control > their lives is possible. A ruling class that sees the state solely as a > means of expropriating the > nation's limited resources is simply incapable of good governance. More > specifically, such a > class will by its character and mission abuse power. > > An underlying cause of many of the manifestations of bad governance, > including political > repression, corruption and ethnic sectarianism, is the endeavour by the > ruling classes to be and > remain part of the global elite despite their nation's poverty. The > competition for national > resources leads to conflict and repression. It is difficult to see how > there can be good > governance when the orientation of the elite is to stay in the running > and be part of the fifth of the > world's population that forms the international consumer class. > > Bad governance is not a mainly problem of ignorance or lack of > infrastructural capacity or even > of individual dictators. States in Africa are incapacitated as > instruments of development because > ruling classes, including people in and outside government, are > motivated by objectives that > have little to do with the common good. > > Africa's tragedy is not that its nations are poor That is a condition > that is a product of history. > The tragedy is that it lacks ruling classes that are committed to > overcoming the state of poverty. > Real politics here has little to do with social and economic > reconstruction. The observation of > the assassinated South African writer Ruth First in her book The Barrel > of a Gun published in > 1970 remains valid today. "There has been eloquent, inexhaustible talk > in Africa about politics, > side by side with the gaping poverty of political thought. Down there on > the ground in Africa, > you can smother in the small talk of politics. Mostly it is about > politicking, rarely about policies. > Politicians are men who compete with each other for power, not men who > use power to confront > their country's problems." > > As long as politics is dominated by predator elites it is difficult to > see how meaningful > democracy or economic development can be sustained.. The challenge > facing those who want > better governance is how to make those in power accountable and > ultimately rescue the state > from them to transform it an agency for positive change. > > Tunde Obadina is director of Africa Business Information Services > > Back to top of page > > Back to AEA Home Page > > --------- End forwarded message ---------- > > _____________________________________________________________________ > You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. > Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com > Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] > From chriscd@jhu.edu Thu Aug 13 13:02:47 1998 wsn@csf.colorado.edu; Thu, 13 Aug 1998 15:01:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 14:16:32 -0400 From: christopher chase-dunn Subject: Re: US history in world-systems perspective To: dgildea@gladstone.uoregon.edu, wsn@csf.colorado.edu Reply-to: chriscd@jhu.edu Re the U.S in the world-system lit I would add Thomas J. McCormack's America's Half-Century: United States Foreign Policy in the Cold War (Johns Hopkins Press 1989) and the treatment in Giovanni Arrighi's Long Twentieth Century. Also Tom Hall's Social Change in the Southwest, 1380-1750 (1989 Univ. Press of Kansas). I am very interested to see the bibliography when you are done with it. chris From kincaidd@servms.fiu.edu Thu Aug 13 15:50:16 1998 Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 18:01:17 -0400 To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK From: "A. Douglas Kincaid" Subject: ASA panel on international sociology For all WSNers attending the ASA annual meeting in San Francisco later this month, the following session should be of substantial interest. It focuses on the outcomes of a series of world regional workshops during 1996-97 devoted to the current state and future agendas of sociology as practiced around the planet. Hope to see you there! _____ Special Session. International Perspectives on Sociology in the 21st Century (co-sponsored by the ASA Committee on International Sociology) Saturday, August 22, 8:30-10:15 a.m. Organizer: A. Douglas Kincaid, Florida International University Presider: Marcia Texler-Segal, Indiana University Southeast Reflections on Montreal. Immanuel Wallerstein, Binghamton University Grappling with Modernity: Sociology in Southern Europe. Caglar Keyder, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey Science and Politics in Latin American Sociology. Roberto Briceño León, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela The Rise of East Asia and East Asian Sociology's Quest for Self-Identity. Su-Hoon Lee, Kyungnam University, Seoul, Korea Discussion: Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania From wwagar@binghamton.edu Sat Aug 15 15:58:04 1998 From: wwagar@binghamton.edu Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 17:57:59 -0400 (EDT) To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK Subject: Third Edition of A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE In-Reply-To: Dear WSN'ers: The University of Chicago Press has agreed to bring out a third edition of my A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FUTURE, to apppear in the summer of 1999 and take advantage of pre-millennial fever. A SHORT HISTORY has the strange distinction of being the world's only world-systems novel. I will not have a chance to make any extensive or fundamental changes in the text, but I can rewrite a few lines here and there, especially in the near-future segment, "Earth, Inc." Some near-future "facts" and "dates" will obviously need work, although I'm not sure that I have to rewrite the Pakistani-Indian nuclear war of 2000! If you have any suggestions for changes and revisions, I would very much welcome them. Here's your chance to help rewrite future history! Thanks. Warren Wagar From chriscd@jhu.edu Mon Aug 17 13:52:49 1998 Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 15:53:02 -0400 From: christopher chase-dunn Subject: jobs at Binghamton To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Reply-to: chriscd@jhu.edu Binghamton University. Two tenure-eligible appointments in world-systems analysis/historical sociology. One to begin in 1999 at associate/full professor rank. Second in 2000, preferably at associate/full rank, but exceptionally competent advanced assistant professors will be considered. Both will jointly teach in the Department of Sociology and direct research projects in the Fernand Braudel Center. One will serve as Deputy Director for Research of the Center. Fields of research open, but should be consonant with established interests of Center and department. Send letter of application, evidence of experience in collective research, and three references to Immanuel Wallerstein, Director, Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. Applicants for 1999 post cannot be assured consideration if materials arrive after Oct. 15. Applicants for 2000 post will be reviewed starting Nov. 15, 1998. Applicants for the 1999 post automatically on list for 2000 post as well. Applicants who wish to be considered for post of Deputy Director for Research of Center should so indicate. These posts are contingent upon available funding. Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Binghamton University. Appointment in world-systems analysis/ historical sociology of Assistant Professor who will jointly teach in Department of Sociology and direct research projects in the Fernand Braudel Center. Preferred field: structures of knowledge in the world-system. Ph.D. essential. Experience in teaching and collective research an advantage. Send letter of application, samples of scholarly work, and three letters of reference to Immanuel Wallerstein, Director, Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. Applicants cannot be assured consideration if materials arrive after Oct. 15. This post contingent upon available funding. Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. From timber@ksu.edu Mon Aug 17 15:56:23 1998 Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 16:56:13 -0500 (CDT) From: Michael F Timberlake To: world system network Subject: Sessions at ASA meeting In addition to the sessions organized by the Political Economy of the World System section at the upcoming ASA meeting in San Francisco, please also be aware of two "regular" sessions on world system research that will take place Tuesday, August 25. One is at 10:30 (Session 489), and the other at 12:30. The first has a paper by Boswell and Chase-Dunn on World Revolutions and three papers on the (changing) significance of foreign investments (by Linda Beer, Brad Christerson, and E. Susan Manning). The second session includes two papers on IGOs (by Shawn McEntee and Yong Suk Jang and Xiaowei Rose Luo), a paper on racial ideology in the world-system (Bonilla-Silva, Hovesepian, and Foreman), and a paper on women-centered global labor movements (Dickenson). Hope to see you there. The second session is Session 505. ====================================================== Michael Timberlake Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506 (785) 532-4956 FAX: (785) 532-6978 ======================================================= From rkmoore@iol.ie Mon Aug 17 18:17:35 1998 Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 01:17:18 +0100 To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu (world-system network), philofhi@yorku.ca (philosophy of history) From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore) Subject: Evolution of geopolitics (for review) comments invited, intended for lay audience, rkm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Evolution of geopolitics: from Pax Romana to Pax Americana, via nationalism (preliminary draft chapter from a book in progress) Copyright 1998 by Richard K. Moore 17 August 1998 richard@cyberjournal.org Pax Romana refers to the relative peace enjoyed within the bounds of the classical Roman Empire. At the boundaries of empire occurred wars of expansion, or of defense, but Roman hegemony and administration provided internal stability. When the empire fell apart, its Western dominions were largely inherited by the Catholic Church. Once again a Rome-centered administration -- this time theocratic -- provided a degree of central administration and coherence to those parts of Europe over which it held sway. This Vatican-based system was less cohesive than had been its Imperial Roman predecessor, and by the time of the Protestant Revolution much of Europe had declared both political and religious independence from the Vatican. In the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), even the remaining Catholic areas declared that in political matters, at least, monarchs would have ultimate sovereignty in their own domains. In Europe, the era of sovereign nation states was then firmly established. Europe's Age of Discovery began in 1492, with Columbus, and led eventually to European hegemony over nearly the entire globe, if we include North America as part of the "Euro community." To be sure, the affairs of the Roman Empire can hardly be called "geopolitics" (world-level politics), given its limited European scope. But it is the European model that eventually came to dominate the world. For that reason, it is fitting to trace the structural evolution of today's geopolitics from its European branch, and hence back to Rome. Euro powers were fiercely competitive over most of this era of sovereign nation states. This competition was primarily over colonies, and not about conquest of one Euro nation by another. There was some shifting of European borders, but by and large today's map of Western Europe is strikingly similar to that of 1648. The significant struggles between Euro powers were not over Euro territory, but were about external territories and the control of trade routes. The era of sovereign nation states was also the era of competitive imperialism. The fierce competition for empires, together with Euro leadership in the Industrial Revolution, led to the rapid development of superior military technology and to eventual global Euro hegemony. Most of the world was partitioned into colonies or spheres of influence, each under the sway of one or another Euro power. The final great competitive struggle of this era was known as World War Two (WW2), and this brought an end to the era of competitive, partitioned imperialism. By end of WW2 the US was -- on its own -- very close to total global hegemony. It had the run of the seven seas, an intact military machine and national infrastructure, a monopoly on nuclear weapons, greatly expanded influence in the oil-rich Middle East, and the lion's share of the world's disposable wealth and industrial capacity. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world was in shambles, deep debt, and/or under occupation. The US had the prestige, power, and resources to guide the construction of post-war arrangements largely according to its own designs. Under US leadership, and with the fraternal cooperation of the European powers, a new geopolitical regime was established, replacing centuries of partitioned imperialism. This regime was structurally similar to the Roman Empire, with the "Free World" as the Roman domains, the "Communist Block" as the "barbarian outsiders," and with the US military providing Pax Americana and pressing the borders of empire against the barbarians. In this new regime, Euro imperialism did not come to an end, it merely changed form. What appeared to be an era of decolonization and national independence was in fact a reorganization of the Euro imperialist system. Under Pax Americana, partitioning had become outmoded and was replaced by a system of collective imperialism. Though granted nominal independence, what was to become known as the "Third World" was kept under collective Euro control by a variety of mechanisms. Among these mechanisms were the very borders of the newly independent nations. Rival ethnic groups, for example, were bundled into single countries, insuring national instability. Corners were cut off from national borders, denying access to the sea. Every attempt was made to leave the new nations in the hands of regimes that were friendly to, or dependent on, Euro interests. Frequent military intervention, primarily by the US, was employed to replace regimes by more Euro-friendly ones whenever necessary. The US established regional "defense" treaties to help secure the borders against the barbarians, and to provide an excuse for ongoing global US military presence. At the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), an international financial system was set up to stabilize currencies and to facilitate the smooth operation of the collective regime. The United Nations was established, providing what appeared to be evidence that an era of democratization was underway, but the UN was never allowed to interfere substantially with the system of collective imperialism. Perhaps the most significant of the methods of Euro domination during this era has been debt. Bretton Woods established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These institutions collectivized credit policy to the Third World, and guided economic development along lines advantageous to Euro economic interests. As debt levels grew the power of the Bretton Woods institutions increased, until today the IMF is able to dictate the micro-level policies of nations. This power has been used to "open up" countries to still greater control and exploitation by Euro interests. Eventually the "barbarians" were largely overcome when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Pax Americana system then took in the whole globe, with the single significant exception being China. China is the last major vestige of competitive nationalism, the final challenge to the Pax Americana geopolitical system. US policy makers articulate two competing approaches to China: engagement, and confrontation . (See: Foreign Affairs, March/April 1997, "The China Threat, A Debate.") The goal of engagement is to seduce China into subservience to the US-managed global system, while the goal of confrontation is to accomplish the same result through the use of economic pressure, and if necessary, of military force. Both China and the US are now embarked on aggressive weapons-development programs, each aimed at assuring the ability to control the outcome of this final episode of major national competition. China has said that it sees its "natural role" as being Asian hegemon, as said Japan in the years leading up to WW2. The US, meanwhile, has stated that such hegemony would be "contrary to US strategic interests," and reminds us that the US has fought three major Asian wars in this century to maintain its "strategic interests." But US strategic interests are no longer those of narrow national competition. It is the entire collective global system that China is actually confronting, with the US playing its traditional postwar policing role. As China begins to operate aggressively in global markets, and as its economic and military power grow, the China problem will not go away. How this question will be resolved cannot be precisely predicted, but there can be little doubt about the ultimate outcome. It is inconceivable that China would be allowed to reverse the direction of the collective system, to return the world to the era of major-power rivalries. With the Soviet Union dismantled, and acting under the assumption that China will be neutralized as an independent world power, Euro planners are already architecting and implementing a new regime of world order. The postwar regime was oriented around the "Communist Threat," and a new orientation is needed for the future. The new system of world order is to be one of regional imperialism, and it has been articulated in some detail by a darling of US the policy establishment, Samuel P. Huntington, in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, (Simon and Schuster, 1997). Much of this book is devoted to elaborate rationalization, a brash attempt to make the case that regionalism is historically inevitable, and even that it represents a decline of Euro global power. The more informative part of the book deals with the explicit division of the world into eight "civilizations," and with a detailed description of the structure and dynamics planned for the new regime. Within regions there are to be core states, which are to have a special role in maintaining order within "their" region. Between regions we are to expect perpetual "fault-line conflicts," which are to be resolved through the auspices of "non primary level participants." What this actually means can be readily understood from the history of postwar interventionism and especially by looking at recent interventionist episodes. The new regional scheme represents no departure from the basic Pax Americana system, but is in fact a consolidation of that system. The primary role of the Pax Americana regime was and continues to be the maintenance of Euro dominance, which has increasingly come to mean the economic exploitation of most of the world, to the benefit of economic interests based primarily in the Euro nations. What is changing under regionalism is that the rationale for ongoing intervention is being being reformulated, and the global policing role is being opened up to wider Euro (NATO) participation. Huntington's "core" states are nothing really new, but are simply a renaming of what have been traditionally been called "Western client" states. Managing "fault line conflicts" becomes the excuse for intervention, in place of "defending strategic interests," but maintaining collective Euro domination continues to be the underlying agenda. The "civilization paradigm" provides a philosophical rationalization for the Euro powers to engage more openly in their ongoing business of collective domination. What also changes under regionalism is that a stable long range basis of world order is being implemented, in place of the unstable Cold-War-oriented system. During the Cold War era there was always the possibility of global armageddon, and an unmaintainable arms race created ongoing volatility and risk in the relationship between the US and the USSR. Under the regional regime there is no danger of armageddon, nor is there any hope of a final peace. Ongoing managed conflict is to be the order of things, providing dynamic stability, with the price in suffering to be paid by the people of the non-Euro "civilizations." Under this scheme the postwar myth of universal democratization is being explicitly abandoned. Instead each region is expected to exhibit its own "cultural norms," which "unlike the West" do not necessarily include a concern for human rights or democracy. What this in fact means is that the Euro-serving, oppressive Third World regimes which have long been the embarrassment of the "Free World," are now to be accepted as "normal" for "those parts of the world." Huntington's civilizational paradigm thus provides an ideal philosophical basis for a stable Euro-imperial global system. It gives Euro nations a plausible justification for acting collectively in their self interest on the world stage, namely that they are simply playing their natural role as one of the contending civilizations. It gives Euro forces a "right" to intervene, as "disinterested parties" adjudicating "fault-line" conflicts or "disciplining" core states. And it gives everyone reason to believe this should be the ongoing order of things, that the Euro powers continue to dominate, and that the "others" deserve whatever fate their "culture" has in store for them. In terms of its power relationships, this regional regime can be compared to the structure of mafia gangs. One can speak of "bosses" (core states) over territories, and of a "big boss" with the biggest gun (pax Americana / NATO), and the ultimate authority. These are hierarchical structures, they thrive on competitive conflict, and they allow the primary oppressor, the top-dog gang, to take on the public mantle of "peacekeeper." >From the European perspective, at least, geopolitics have, after a detour of some two thousand years, come full circle from the Roman Empire to the "Clash of Civilizations." A central regime is once again in control, only now on a global scale. Instead of the Roman Legions, there are the US-NATO "peacekeeping forces," and instead of Roman administration, there are the corporate-dominated bureaucracies such as the IMF and the World Trade Organization (WTO). While Rome was an open empire -- it had borders to contend with -- the Euro imperial system is a closed empire -- there is no "outside," at least not once the China Question is settled. Managed regional tension provides the control dynamic that border-conflicts provided to Rome, and which the Cold War provided to the immediate postwar era. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative a book in progress Copyright 1998 by Richard K. Moore Latest update: 17 August 1998 richard@cyberjournal.org http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/gri/gri.html Table of Contents Introduction [5 Aug 98] Part I - Corporate globalization: what it is, where it came from, where it is heading Chapter 1 - Evolution of geopolitics: from Pax Romana to Pax Americana, via nationalism [preliminary, 17 Aug 98] Chapter 2 - Evolution of political power: from national kingdoms to global corporate rule, via democracy Chapter 3 - Economics: capitalism, development, and the finite Earth Part II - Envisioning a livable world: the necessity of democracy Part III - The Revolutionary Imperative: a millenia of serfdom or a millenia of freedom? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To join the discussion on bringing about a movement for a democratic renaissance, send any message to: renaissance-network-subscribe@cyberjournal.org --- To subscribe to the the cj list, which is a larger list and a more general political discussion, send any message to: cj-subscribe@cyberjournal.org From P-Gomberg@csu.edu Tue Aug 18 09:36:59 1998 Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 07:06:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Paul Gomberg To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: imperialism and poverty (fwd) Dear friends: I am re-sending the message below because I will be making a trip to my research library on Wednesday and any bibliographical suggestions that arrive in the next couple days will be quite timely. I have received some help, but could use more. Has anyone out there read Chossudovsky? Opinions? Paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 08:54:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Paul Gomberg To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: imperialism and poverty Dear friends, I am a philosopher writing on a popular argument (in philosophy) that people in affluent nations have a moral obligation to forego consumer spending on unnecessary things and to donate the money thus saved to poverty relief organizations such as UNICEF and OXFAM. Most attacks on this argument are from the (Malthusian) right, but I think there is a more interesting attack from the left: UN and related imperialist institutions create poverty by destroying food production for local populations; food aid and other humanitarian aid is part of the process by which people are made poor and dependent on the imperialist economy. I am aware of Greider's "One World, Ready or Not" and I have found very useful Michel Chossudovsky's "The Globalisation of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms." But there must be much more that I am ignorant of. So I am asking for bibliographical help on the question of how imperialist institutions contribute to poverty, hunger, dysentery, etc. It would be particularly useful if there is anything about the role of *UNICEF and OXFAM* in this process of creating poverty. Thanks in advance, Paul From cemck@cs1.presby.edu Thu Aug 20 09:52:28 1998 Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 11:52:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles McKelvey To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Conference in Cuba Conference Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution (Last Call) The conclusion of the year 1998 will mark the 40th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. La Casa de Altos Estudios "Don Fernando Ortiz" of the University of Havana will convene a conference commemorating this important event. The conference is intended for academics, writers, artists and students. Cubans and foreigners are invited to participate in the discussions, round tables and cultural activities planned for the conference. The conference will be held at the University of Havana from November 18 through November 21, 1998. The themes for discussion will include the following: the historic dynamic of the Cuban Revolution; groups, sectors and social classes in the process of the Cuban Revolution; the women's revolution; revolution, economy and social development; community and revolution; revolution, democracy and human rights; ideology and revolution; education and health; cultural revolution; the conflict between Cuba and the United States; revolution and emigration; the Cuban Revolution in the popular imagination; and international relations and activities of the Cuban revolution. The program will include presentations by actors in the Cuban process during the course of the last 40 years. In addition, during the program, a sample of the most well-known expressions of Cuban culture will be presented, along with conferences and discussions concerning these expressions of art. La Casa de Altos Estudios "Don Fernando Ortiz" has asked the Center for Development Studies to organize a delegation from the United States to participate in the conference. U.S. participants wishing to make presentations can do so in English or Spanish. Translators will be available to translate presentations made in English and to provide interpretations for those not understanding or needing assistance with Spanish. The Center for Development Studies has arranged through el Centro de Organizacion y Promocion de Eventos at the University of Havana for a program that includes two days of activities in Havana prior to the beginning of the conference. These activities include visits to museums and historical sites as well as opportunities to visit a local neighborhood and meet with leaders of neighborhood organizations. Most of these activities are planned for Monday, November 16 and Tuesday, November 17. The conference itself is Wednesday through Saturday, November 18-21. Participants should plan to arrive in Havana on Sunday, November 15 and to depart on Sunday, November 22. Four packages are provided. The packages include hotel accommodation in double or single room for seven nights, breakfast and dinner or breakfast only, transportation between airport and hotel and to all conference events, conference registration, translator services, visa from Cuban government, license to travel to Cuba from U.S. government, and fees to the Center for Development Studies. The four packages are (1) double room, breakfast only, $540; (2) double room, breakfast and dinner, $615; (3) single room, breakfast only, $645; (4) single room, breakfast and dinner, $720. Participants must make their own arrangements for air travel to Havana. For flight information, contact Marazul Tours, 201-319-9670, fax 201-319-9009. U.S. citizens wishing to participate should send the following information by September 1: full name, position (full title, e.g., professor of sociology), institution, work address, home address, work telephone, home telephone, fax number, e-mail address, passport information (passport number, date of issue, country and place of issue, expiration date), place of birth and date of birth. Those wishing to give a presentation should provide a title and one-page abstract of their presentation. (Please submit the title and the abstract in the language in which you intend to present). Send the information by U.S. mail, e-mail, or fax to Charles McKelvey, Center for Development Studies, 210 Belmont Stakes, Clinton, South Carolina 29325; e-mail ; fax 864-833-8481. The Center for Development Studies will make consolidated applications for travel licenses from the U.S. government and visas from the Cuban government. The Center for Development Studies is a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of South Carolina on September 23, 1996. Its objectives include increasing understanding of Central America and the Caribbean by conducting travel seminars. In June 1997, the Center for Development Studies conducted its inaugural project, when a group of eight faculty and graduate students in the fields of sociology and political science from various colleges and universities in the United States participated in a three-week travel seminar and research project in Cuba, conducted jointly by the Center for Development Studies and la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciences Sociales (FLACSO), Programa Cuba. In July 1998, the Center for Development Studies, again in cooperation with FLACSO Cuba, sponsored an experiential research seminar in Cuba. Entitled "The Cuban Revolution: Surviving into the 21st Century," eight university and college professors and graduate students in the social sciences, Romance languages and literature from various universities and colleges in the United States participated. The Center for Development Studies intends to conduct a similar seminar in Cuba in June, 1999. From Jones_M@netcomuk.co.uk Sun Aug 23 11:45:22 1998 Sun, 23 Aug 1998 18:45:01 +0100 (BST) Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 18:44:54 +0100 From: Mark Jones To: list , "lbo-talk@lists.panix.com" , m , WSN , David Johnson Subject: Yeltsin said dead 'of heart attack'. Moscow tonight is awash with rumour that President Yeltsin is dead, or has already fled the country. Russian Prime Minister Kirienko has been fired together with the entire Russian government, amid concerns that Monday will bring the collapse of Russian financial structures. Viktor Chernomyrdin has been appointed in his place, in what is probably the last act in Yeltsin's long-running game of musical-chairs. Informed opinion has it that Chernomyrdin is a busted flush: he was sacked three months ago for incompetence in pursuing 'market reforms'. Why, then, has this triple-bypass, bigtime Cote d'Azur property-holder and mafia-supremo, been brought back from the political dead? Perhaps because of a constitutional peculiarity: If Yeltsin dies or flees Russia, then according to the Russian constitution' the prime minister automatically assumes full power. But the oligarchs who own Russia - let alone the dispossessed masses -- will not accept Sergei Vladilenovich Kirienko, the 35-year old Scientologist and oil millionaire as their leader. So the short straw has fallen to the dollar billionaire Chernomyrdin (a man whose Soviet salary was 500 roubles a month). Chernomyrdin has been given the task of turning out the lights -- but by whom? That is the real question tonight in Moscow, which is full of rumours that Yeltsin has already died of a 'heart attack'. Mark Jones From muhtar@escort.net.tr Mon Aug 24 02:11:47 1998 Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 11:08:09 +0300 From: Ahmet Cakmak Reply-To: muhtar@escort.net.tr To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: living peoples dear friends, sorry for delay. I think I can express myself better by comparing my views with Amin's view's in his 1997 book. There are many points which I disagree with Amin. But I will omitt these points. Because this is not a debate between 'my views in general' and ' Samir Amin's views in general'. I try to focus on just the points which related to our subject matter directly. A note : Dear Cesar Augusto Baldi, I can't open part 1.2. Then,I have send a message your e-mail address to inform you,but the system send me back the message. ON REALISM AND UTOPIA Amin try to persuade us that his project is not utopian. Here are his arguments: " Nonetheless, it is necesarry to respond and propose solutions. I shall be formulating some below that I believe are not utopian,because they make room for recognition of the contradiction defined above." ( p. 22)...about the ' contradiction above' : " In my opinion capitalism is unable to overcome the growing contradiction between its economic management in an increasingly globalized space, and its political and social management which remain fragmented among national spaces." To be not utopian it is of course necessary to recognize the contradiction, but it is equally obvious that this is not sufficient to be not utopian. Amin's position is weak here, he cannot persuade the reader. " A utopian project ? It is the only way,in my opinion, that can help us find a way out of the tragic impasse of the present crisis and start us on the long trail toward socialism, the only possible human response." (p. 54) Amin may believe that his project is the only way that can help us find a way out..... but this is not enough for us to believe it. Here again, there is no real argument to accept the project as not utopian. " These proposals will no doubt be glibly dismissed as utopian. Utopian they certainly are, in the common understanding of the term, meaning that they look forward to changes to which current trends are not necessarily set to lead. In other words, the really existing social ,political and ideological forces of the moment are not headed in the directions indicated. But there is a sense in which they are far from utopian: for the first steps in this direction would trigger off a virtuous cycle of changes snowballing into a major movement.In other words, the utopia under discussion here is a positive , creative one, and it has my wholehearted commitment." (p.150-151) . Once again, no evidence to believe the snowballing effect other than Amin's wholehearted commitment. Unfortunately his beliefs or wholehearted commitments is not enough to believe them. We need real arguments. " in short, a humanistic response to the challenge of globalisation inaugurated by capitalist expansion may be idealistic but it is not utopian.On the contrary, it is the only realistic project possible. If only we begin to develop it, powerful social forces will rally to it from all regions of the world." ( p. 10-11). Sorry,but once again Amin's reference point is his beliefs. Why powerful social forces will rally to it from all regions of the world ? Amin want to believe this,thats all. No argument. For me realistic means feasible.Amin's project seems not feasible,first of all due to his targets. Radical left has always 'target problems' I think. So much targets that makes itself meaningless....Many targets conflict with each other ext.... Amin present his project as a realistic remedy for catastrophic dangers of current situation . Among the targets of this project: building regional blocks between peripheric countries, radical changes in the functions of IMF,WTO ext., put an end the unilateral agreements...and the most important one: to abolish the polarization of the World system. He points the dangers for putting the bar too high in his book ( sorry,but I can't remember the page number) but,unfortunately he puts the bar too high. These are not realistic targets. These are just our wishes for now. To make mutual agreements, to abolish polarisation...you must be sufficiently strong . We are weak in those decades. Can we become strong by building regional blocks ? Amin says: " certainly the perspective of global competitiveness should never be forgotten, for it is this which roughly defines efficiency in the long term. However it remains a long-term perspective. Putting it forward as an immediate aim would be to put the cart before the horse and,in fact, reverse any chance of success. A certain protected and autocentric development is unavoidable for a long while yet. Globalisation should not oppose this, but rather contribute to its success by means of a subtle organisation - 'planned',even- of exchanges between the regions of the planet which are unequally developed. What I understand by a delinked and polycentric world system is nothing but this and it is within this renewed framework that north-south cooperation, and equally that of East-west , can support general progress.No miracle recipe, such as the market,can substitute for this." (p.76-77). This is the crucial point. What Amin see as cart is the horse for me, and what I see as cart is the horse for him. I propose a new left , a left fight for advanced technology and democratisation for periphery. This is the only ( realistic) way to become sufficiently strong for mutual agreements. And this opens the way for new (but familiar for us) horizons,because left,thanks to this strategy can take the support of third world masses on the one hand,and the left of the core countries can become radical again due to the impoverishment of the working classes as a result of this strategy ( my sleeping giant story).This is realistic,because it is applicable under globalisation conditions. In fact, Amin rejects globalisation in spite of his seemingly accept of it. His globalisation is his mental construct,but the globalisation I refer is an actual reality. These are my first impressions... I think this is a very fruitful framework to build a new and feasible leftist strategy. It needs a maturity process, and This comparison of my views with Amin's views and debates on them can be the first steps of such a maturity process. I would like to repeat.I have many other thoughts on Amin's view's in his 1997 book. But I hesitate to present them now. Because this will be a danger to discuss systematically and a danger for miss the crucial point, at least the crucial point for me.I hope to discuss them later, at right connection points with our debate. Ahmet Çakmak From rkmoore@iol.ie Tue Aug 25 06:00:48 1998 Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 12:59:38 +0100 To: PHILosophy OF HIstory and theoretical history From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore) Subject: Re: US and EU wsn@csf.colorado.edu (world-system network) 8/23/98, Eustace Frilingos wrote to philofhi: >I have come to the >conclusion that within the coming decade an economic and/or military >confrontation should be expected between the US and the EU, and it will >lead to the dissolution of the later. You do not seem to include this >possibility in your projections, and I would like you at list to >consider the possibility. Dear Eustace, I'd be interested in what analysis leads to such a conclusion. There is some tension between US foreign policy (eg, Helms Burton) and EU interests, but this tension is kept within manageable bounds -- NATO continues to exhibit singular harmony. There is no inherent contradiction of interests between dominant US and EU elites, and US foreign policy, despite domestic rhetoric, is ultimately in support of their common globalization project. In the public rhetoric around the EU there is indeed emphasis on "competing with America and Japan", building up a "new world power", as if the old competitive imperialist game were still being played. In fact, the unificiation of European markets has been of as much benefit to American and Japanese producers as it has been to European producers. And in the era of TNC's, the identification of a producer with a nation is of dubious significance in any case. The true meaning of the EU can be understood by looking at the Maastricht Treaty. In the political realm, the EU was set up as an undemocratic, top-heavy bureaucracy, far more subject to elite domination than the individual European governments it is gradually but relentlessly superceding. In economics, Maastricht declared a neoliberal laissez-faire agenda far beyond what prevailed at the time in Europe, and beyond what most Europeans would have favored. The clear evidence, both in Maastricht and in subsequent developments such as the WTO, is that the EU is little more than an elite strategem to accelerate Europe's acquiesence in the globalization project. From London and Paris to Brussels sovereignty is to flow, and from there it vanishes into the anonymous corporate global regime. The EU is being disempowered even as it is being created, a pre-1945-style national-sand-castle being built directly in the path of the incoming globalization wave. When the G7 gather, they spend most of their time promoting globalization, not squabbling over competitive interests. yours, rkm From rkmoore@iol.ie Tue Aug 25 07:36:34 1998 Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 14:32:00 +0100 To: renaissance-network@cyberjournal.org From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore) Subject: GRI/I.2- "Evolution of political power: from national kingdoms to global corporate rule, via democracy" Dear friends, Here is the second draft chapter of the globalization book. Your feedback and comments are welcome regarding this material and the theses presented. all the best, rkm Wexford, Ireland ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative Part I - Chapter 2 - preliminary Copyright 1998 by Richard K. Moore 25 August 1998 - 3630 words comments to: editor@cyberjournal.org online book: http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/gri/gri.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Part I - Corporate globalization: what it is, where it came from, where it is heading ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 2 - Evolution of political power: from national kingdoms to global corporate rule, via democracy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The previous chapter presented a one-dimensional perspective on power in the world. This perspective focused on the power of nations, and it identified economic power with the nations in which economic interests are based. This perspective is not wrong, indeed it remains central to understanding how the world system works, but it tells only one layer of the story. To gain a fuller perspective, we must examine more closely the structure of political power within nations, and power-constellations which cannot be identified with any nation. We must look at the role of elites and of corporations, especially transnational corporations (TNC's.) We must take a fresh look at democracy and question, based on the experience of globalization, what the Enlightenment was really about. To understand modern geopolitics it was necessary to go back to classical Rome, whose shadow continues in the Western psyche, and from whose regime modern Europe evolved. To understand modern political power one need not look back quite so far. Modern political structures were born in the Enlightenment (c. late eighteenth century,) in the form of republics, and the context out of which the Enlightenment arose provides an adequate starting point for understanding the primary political forces at work today. During the era of feudalism (c. 500AD - 1500AD), there were three European elites: the church hierarchy, the landed aristocracy, and the titled (nobility and royalty.) As that system ended, an additional elite -- the business wealthy -- gained status and influence through trade and manufacture. These elite groups competed for power, with different accommodations from time to time and place to place. For the general population, the elites represented security or tyranny, depending on ones perspective. But it was obvious to all that elites ran things; no one pretended society was democratic or that elites did not actively seek to maintain their power. With the advent of the Enlightenment and of "democratic republics" the older elites were removed from power, while the business wealthy, who ushered in capitalism, remained relatively undisturbed. Did this transformation bring about democracy in any genuine sense, or merely monopolization of power in the hands of the single remaining (capitalist) elite? We will consider this question in what follows. The fundamental Enlightenment philosophy was liberty, or liberalism. Enlightenment thinkers were opposed to top-down autocratic power, and wanted it to be replaced by bottom-up systems of control. Political liberty was expressed in constitutional democracies, which provided for popular representation and which theoretically created societies that were of, by and for the people. Economic liberalism was expressed as free markets which theoretically provided for bottom-up economic control through the actions of individual producers and consumers. Free-market economics has since come to be known as capitalism. The Enlightenment principle of democracy was most eloquently expressed by Thomas Paine, in his record-setting bestseller Common Sense (January, 1776). Indeed Common Sense has been credited with turning the tide of public opinion in America toward independence, which was declared only six months following the book's publication. The book had been read aloud in villages and towns, and its language was so plain and clear that even the illiterate could understand its message. Paine argued the legitimacy of popular sovereignty, a principle we take for granted today but which was initially disconcerting to a culture that for nearly two millennia had found social order in rule by elites, whose power had always claimed sacred legitimacy. Enlightenment economic principles were perhaps best articulated by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations (also 1776), which provides the classic and still often quoted rationalization for capitalism. Smith argued that competitive markets, through a mechanism he called the invisible hand, would provide optimum economic benefits to producers, consumers, and society generally. In Smith's model the economic role of governments was minimal, being primarily to see that markets remained competitive. Monopolies were eschewed by Smith, as they were seen as a form of autocratic power. There is a tension inherent in these two principles of political and economic liberty, a tension which is epitomized by Smith's minimal economic role for government. If popular sovereignty is expressed as democratic government, and if government's role is limited over economic affairs, then popular sovereignty is similarly limited. Inherent in Enlightenment principles, then, is a tension between democracy and economic liberalism, between popular sovereignty and the power of wealth. In the ideal world of theory this tension would not be a serious problem. If markets were truly competitive -- without monopolies -- excessive concentration of economic power would not occur. If the wealthy were not too powerful, and if democratic political systems truly embodied popular sovereignty, then one could expect the development of democratic societies with an equitable distribution of "life, liberty, and happiness", and the realization of "liberty, equality, and fraternity," to quote the customary American and French summations of the revolutionary Enlightenment goals. But as the map is not the territory, so theory is not reality. In practice the maintenance of competitive markets has been very problematic, and monopoly capitalism has arisen frequently in the post-Enlightenment West. The embodiment of popular sovereignty in constitutions and institutions has proven to be equally problematic, with all manner of corruption, demagoguery, and power-brokering leading to domination by undemocratic forces of one sort or another. The most corrupting of these undemocratic forces has proven to be the capitalist elite. From the very beginning the wealthy elite exerted influence in both politics and in economic affairs. The inherent tension between political liberty and economic liberalism expressed itself as political corruption, as the elite used their political influence to further their own economic interests. According to Smith's market model, and in actual practice, the goal of a capitalist is to maximize the profits from investments and to increase his or her wealth. In the competitive marketplace some operators proved more successful than others, and concentrations of wealth did occur. In addition, large concentrations of wealth pre-dated the Enlightenment republics, and these too distorted in practice the perfect theory of competitive markets. With the advent of the (capital-intensive) industrial revolution, wealth concentrated still further, and the capitalist elite emerged as an identifiable class and a political force of the first rank. Once wealth becomes concentrated the owners of that wealth, as might be expected, have always sought means to expand their wealth still further -- to escape competitive pressures, including whatever rules government might have imposed in the interest of assuring competitive markets. These means have included driving competitors out of business by selective price-cutting and other predatory practices, direct influence over political decisions, and using ownership of the popular press to influence public opinion, and hence indirectly the political process. In the rhetoric of democracy the fundamental role of elite power in republics goes unrecognized. Without the support of wealthy elites, who had in mind the economic triumph of capitalism, republican democracies would not have emerged, at least not as we have known them. As long as elite interests benefitted from strong republics, democracy had a partner-of-convenience in the form of nation-based capitalism. Democratic rhetoric gives too much credit to the power of popular will, and fails to recognize that healthy republics have been always contingent on the tacit acquiescence of the elite. With the advent of globalization, as will be discussed below, the weakness of Western democracy lies exposed -- as the capitalist elite withdraws its support, the fabric of republics disintegrate. In order to investigate political power within republics, the United States serves as an excellent example. Besides being the first modern republic -- beating France in this record by a few years -- American patterns have come eventually to dominate in the West. The US is central not only to geopolitics, as we saw in the previous chapter, but also to understanding the dynamics of political power and the role of the capitalist elite in Western societies. The problems of monopoly capitalism and giant corporations were not unknown to the framers of the US Constitution. The colonies had in fact been established by Queen Elizabeth I primarily as investments, and the entire colony of Pennsylvania was a private corporation owned by a single family. The sentiment in the new Republic was that the power of corporations must be limited, and corporate charters were in the early days granted only for limited purposes and limited times. But the mostly wealthy leaders who wrote the Constitution, and assumed leading public positions in the new nation, were split in their relative allegiance to the economic and political principles of the Enlightenment. The man credited with architecting the Constitution -- James Madison -- was from the school that feared an excess of democracy, what they called "mob rule", and believed that the nation should be run by "those who own it." Some of this school had openly advocated that the new nation be established as a monarchy, rather than a republic. The American Constitution was a compromise between those who wanted priority given to popular sovereignty, and those who wanted to insure that government's economic role be favorable to wealthy interests. Most of the language of the Constitution is devoted to formulating democratic mechanisms, with a reasonable system of checks and balances, a two-house Congress, guarantees of civil liberties, and firm protections for the Constitution itself. But there were also mechanisms included that gave the wealthy elite the foothold they needed to exert the special influence over the new society to which they felt entitled. As Noam Chomsky points out in his analysis of "Madisonian Democracy," property rights are given pre-eminence in the Constitution over other kinds of rights. One's right to property is guaranteed by law; one's right to liberty, happiness, or even life itself is largely contingent on one's being able to afford them. This emphasis on property rights represents what one might call a policy choice, favoring to a not insignificant degree economic liberalism over popular sovereignty. Perhaps more significant, the central banking functions of the nation were put under private ownership instead of direct government control. The power of banking can hardly be overstated, affecting as it does the operation of the economy, the stability of the currency, and the ability of the government to finance its programs. Control over the nation's banking and finances gave considerable leverage to the budding capitalist elite, as we can see in the power wielded by today's still-private Federal Reserve System, which gives higher priority to Wall Street performance than to national economic health. Still further, as Howard Zinn points out in A People's History of the United States, the system of representation tends to prevent the formation of popular movements for significant political change. The Senate, with its less representative base, and longer terms of office, acts as a conservative flywheel, and if a popular political movement occurs, it is likely that regional factionalism can be exploited trough power-brokering to maintain the status quo. US history has in fact been a see-saw battle for control between popular interests and business interests. At times, as in the 19th century robber-baron era, business tycoons brazenly ruled. John. D. Rockefeller bragged about how many government officials were "in his pocket." At other times, as during Franklin Roosevelt's administration, government seemed more responsive to the needs and wishes of the general population. By and large the claim "The business of America is business" (Calvin Coolidge, 1925) has been an accurate description of US political priorities. Much of domestic policy, and even more of foreign policy, has been dictated by the demands of capitalism, which have always been for ever-greater opportunities for growth and economic development. The general population has generally gone along with these priorities on the expectation that an ever-growing pie would provide benefits for everyone. But the distribution of the pie has not typically been equitable, and US history is full of bitter labor struggles against business operators who sought to wring as much as possible from their workers while paying as little as possible in wages. More often than not the power of government was wielded on the side of capital in such struggles, partly because such was the property interest involved, and partly because of the political influence wielded by the capitalist elite. Equitably distributed or not, development, expansion, and economic growth have been the unwavering and energetic agenda of American capitalism and of the American government. The first dramatic growth phase was westward expansion, accomplished through purchase (Louisiana Territory, 1803; Alaska, 1867), aggressive warfare (American Southwest, Mexican War, 1846-1848), and by exterminating most of the native Americans. As the US grew in military and economic power, it was able to extend its influence beyond its continental borders and enter into the game of competitive imperialism. With the Monroe Doctrine (1823) it effectively established all of Latin America as its own economic sphere of influence. Admiral Perry sailed to Asia (1852-1854) and forced Japan to open her ports to American trade. In the Spanish American war (1898) the US seized Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from Spain. By the end of World War 1 (1918), the US had taken its place as a first-rank world power, a full member of the Western competitive-imperialist club. As American imperialism developed, the power and wealth of the capitalist elite was greatly extended. From an economic perspective, imperialism was primarily a capitalist affair. The US government maintained order in the territories and defended trade routes, but it was capitalists who built trading empires, exploited territorial resources, and who gained the primary economic benefit from the imperial system. Not surprisingly, elite capitalist control of American foreign policy has been even more total than over domestic affairs. America, and especially its capitalists, had grown accustomed to rapid and dramatic expansion. By 1918 America had become a major world power, and there were no easy pickings left to seize. Much of the world was already colonized by European powers. A war with Spain was one thing, but there was scant political likelihood of stirring up wars with other European powers in order to challenge control of their colonies. How was America to continue its never-ending dramatic growth? In the 1920's a kind of growth was obtained through hyped-up domestic development, but this was unsustainable and the collapse of the bubble contributed to the global depression of the 1930's. Selling weapons and supplies to Nazi German and Imperial Japan provided considerable benefits to American capitalism in the inter-war years, and the war itself was even more profitable. The war brought full employment and intensive industrial activity to the the US, providing for a brief time the kind of rapid growth to which US capital aspired. Whether by design or by luck, in the three decades between the end of WW1 (1918) and the end of WW2 (1945) the US rose from new entrant in the geo-competitive game to global hegemon, with the power and prestige, as we saw in the previous chapter, to guide the course of the postwar world according to its own designs. America's postwar power provided the means to insure favorable participation of US capital in the postwar global economy. The challenge for the elite was to use this means to provide the desired high level of ongoing capital expansion. During the course of the war the balance of domestic political power between popular interests and business interests shifted significantly in favor of business interests, and in particular in favor of very large corporations. The industrially-intensive war effort involved close collaboration between government and industry, leading to the creation of what President Dwight Eisenhower called the "military industrial complex." As a consequence of this consolidation of elite capitalist political influence, American postwar economic and foreign policy can best be understood in terms of the growth opportunities developed for American capital. >From a geopolitical perspective, as discussed in Chapter 1, the postwar American policy was to transform the partitioned, national-competitive imperialist system into a collectivized Western system. The collective empire was called the Third Word, or the underdeveloped world, and development was the name given to the ongoing practice of economic exploitation. >From a global-economics perspective, the collectivization of empire could be seen as a means by which American capital could elbow its way into realms previously controlled by European powers. With the Bretton Woods emphasis on open markets, and with immense postwar advantages -- controlling the lions share of the world's wealth and industrial capacity -- US corporations were well positioned to enjoy a considerable head start in the exploitation of the new global opportunities. Bretton Woods and Pax Americana provided the foundations for what was later to be called globalization, and the political power of American capitalism insured that the postwar geopolitical and economic agendas would serve corporate interests. One of the most striking consequences of this proto-globalization regime was the rise of TNC's. There had been early examples of TNC's, notably the "Seven Sister" petroleum majors, but it was in the Pax-Americana postwar world that TNC's came into their own. With imperial partitions removed, corporations which had been insulated from one another could now compete and expand into one anothers territories. TNC's became powers in their own right, no longer dependent on their home countries to defend their interests. Pax Americana not only ended nation-based competitive imperialism, it also severed the bond which had kept the Western capital elites to some extent "loyal" to their home counties. Increasingly the interests of nations and the interests of TNC's grew apart. Especially as a consequence of the anti-militarist and pro-environmental movements of the sixties and seventies, strong Western nation states were becoming more a hindrance than a support to ongoing capitalist expansion. TNC's found that Third-World conditions suited their operations better than did Western conditions. In many ways, globalization can be understood as the transformation of Western nations according to the Third World model. In 1973, President Richard Nixon took an action which fatally undermined the postwar Bretton Woods arrangements, and moved the world another major step closer to modern globalization. He took the US off the gold standard, purportedly a necessity to continue financing the Vietnam War. The cornerstone of the Bretton Woods financial-stability package had been a fixed rate of exchange among leading currencies, anchored by the US dollar which was pegged to gold. By going off the gold standard, the US ripped the scaffolding from under these arrangements, and floating global currency values immediately followed. This represented a major shift of financial power from nations to private international bankers, and set the stage for later financial collapses in Latin America and Southeast Asia. These collapses, whether engineered or fortuitous, were systematically exploited to the advantage of Western capital interests. Whatever was in Nixon's mind, his 1973 action amounted to the opening salvo in an assault by TNC's on the nation state. In 1980 the neoliberal revolution was launched, an all-out campaign to dismantle the leading republics (beginning with the US and UK,) privatize their assets, reduce their regulatory power, and bankrupt their treasuries. There was an accompanying propaganda campaign, played out in the mass media, aimed at demonizing government and politicians, denigrating democratic institutions, and hard-selling the virtues of free trade, privatization, and "smaller government." In parallel with these twin campaigns to destabilize Western republics, another project was being carried out in the realm of world trade agreements. In this arena as well, TNC's were busy wresting power from nation states, by transferring economic decision-making -- economic sovereignty -- from nations to corporate-dominated bureaucracies. In 1995, with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO,) the basic structure of a TNC-dominated world government was in place. These developments, together with the successful destabilization of the Soviet Union and the interventionist precedent set by the Gulf War, brought the globalization project to a near-final stage of completion. Lest the trees hide the forest, permit me to summarize what has been said so far, from a high-level perspective... As the upcoming wealthy elite in the West began to feel constrained by the elites of the feudal era, they sought a way to achieve greater power. By supporting and guiding the creation of republics, they got rid of the old elites, while preserving for themselves a privileged position in the new regimes. The public rhetoric of democracy minimized the role of the wealthy elite and encouraged people to believe that genuine democracy had been attained and that republics had arisen from popular will alone. In the era of competitive imperialism Western nations served as the fortresses of capital, the defenders of colonial economic territory. Capital was thus bound to, and supportive of, strong, sovereign, Western republics. But under Pax Americana, and non-partitioned imperialism, this bond was broken and the elite support of strong nation states was no longer profitable, in fact popular sovereignty and democracy became a net corporate liability. The elite therefore chose to scuttle and abandon the Western national ships of state. They escaped to a new vessel of their own design, a TNC-dominated global government, backed up by an appropriate system of geopolitical control (Chapter 1.) The rhetoric of patriotic nationalism, expounded by the wealth-controlled press for two centuries, was replaced by the denigration of governments and politicians, easing the way toward national destabilization. As living standards continue to decline in the West -- as the West becomes more like the Third World -- the blame is to be placed on "competing civilizations." Western populations can be expected to permit their declining national budgets to be spent on "peace keeping" operations and "defending the West." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This material is a draft book in-progress. You are encouraged to send feedback to the author at editor@cyberjournal.org. Non-commercial forwarding is hereby authorized, in entirety, including this sig. Please keep in mind that this material is a preliminary draft, that the presentation is to be expanded, and that substantiating examples and references are to be included -- suggestions invited. Please visit the cyberjournal home page http://cyberjournal.org and learn about Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance - (CDR). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ a political discussion forum - cj@cyberjournal.org To subscribe, send any message to cj-subscribe@cyberjournal.org A public service of Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (mailto:cdr@cyberjournal.org http://cyberjournal.org) ---------------------------------------------------------- Non-commercial reposting is hereby approved, but please include the sig up through this paragraph and retain any internal credits and copyright notices. .--------------------------------------------------------- To see the index of the cj archives, send any message to: cj-index@cyberjournal.org To subscribe to our activists list, send any message to: renaissance-network-subscribe@cyberjournal.org Help create the Movement for a Democratic Rensaissance ---------------------------------------------- crafted in Ireland by rkm ----------------------------------- A community will evolve only when the people control their means of communication. -- Frantz Fanon From muhtar@escort.net.tr Tue Aug 25 11:33:52 1998 Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 20:30:46 +0300 From: Ahmet Cakmak Reply-To: muhtar@escort.net.tr To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Subject: (no subject) SOME REMARKS ON AMIN'S FIRST PRINCIPLES Amin take 'national policies' as if something miracle, as if a remedy for all problems. And he reduces the 'economic' to 'politic'. " Meanwhile the issue of the relation between the economic and noneconomic spheres,that is to say,of links between politics and culture....(p.138). As you see here economic sphere corresponds the political sphere. As a result of this approach he try to explain all economic events by referring to politics. " We already know of a historical precedent that underpinned the European ( and American ) miracle: namely, the national historic compromise between capital and labour,in which the state played an indispensable role as site of negotiation  and instrument of implementation." ( p. 131) " I am arguing that these successes should be credited as much to the effective national policies of France, Italy and Spain in particular, as to the opportunities offered by market expansion." ( p.115) " The real engine of growth in postwar Europe was the social compromise between capital and labour...." (p.113) " I simply draw attention to the fact that all the countries in question have,to one degree or another, adopted policies marked by strong economic nationalism, in the protectionist and statist sense noted above.They have not, like the countries of the EC, The United States,Latin America or Africa,followed the policy prescriptions of liberalism.They have,in fact,done the opposite,whether we look at Japan, an advanced capitalist country,Korea,in rapid construction, the market socialism of Deng Xiaoping's China, or the more intigrated Third World capitalist countries of South-East Asia and India." (p.99-100). This is reductionism. Economic one to politic one, and politic one to social contract ( compromise) and national policies. Digression: I believe that social sciences, even political events develops under the influence of 'reaction chains'. Let me give an example: Many decades almost everybody supposed that Marx explain everything by the economic, at least at the last instance. Then,almost everybody began to blame him by economic reductionism. Now, almost everybody began to understand that both comment were false. Marx had to put the emphasis on the economic, becouse before him this dimension of the social life were underestimated. Like this, Amin try to emphasize the political nature of the so-called ' economic laws'. He is quite right. But this leads him to exaggerated the political one.These are matters of degree. But,in general everything is a matter of degree. Let me continue.Amin take market as if just a device which everybody can use. If you think that productivity depends on technological change this is the naivity of economists. And technological change ( innovations in this context) are not independent variables, they are dependent variables, dependent to political matters. To reveal the politic nature of economic laws is correct,but to reject the inner dynamics of technology and economic sphere is false. There is a interdependence between the two. And I know that Samin agree with this. But he admit this in a few place and in theoretical context. In the process of building his project he uses just the implications of his reductionism. I think it is basic to emphasize technological differences. According to World System theorists, it is polarization the main target which must be hit to abolish capitalism. Their emphasis is on polarization, not on waged labour. I share the view that polarization rests on technological superiority of core countries. Techno-economic paradigm concept of Evolutionary school theorists and similar approaches of Regulation school theorists is useful in this context. And I believe that special historical conditions overlapped in the last quarter of 20. century. Conditions that permits so-called developing countries to catch up. At least conditions to reduce substantially the degree of polarization. Amin take south east Asia countries as a whole. We must emphasize the difference of south Korea . Its strategy was different. It rest on to catch advanced technology. I think he believe that: Create the conditions for national policies. Thats enough. Enough for technological developpment. We can put regional instead of national here. I am not oppose his regional integration offer. But, first of all national campaigns of technological leap forward and democratization under the governance of leftist parties. Another import point here his delinking strategy. I think he believe that technological leap forward befora regional integration leads to technological dependence to core countries. In other words this leads to integration with current globalisation process. I don't think so. This technological leap forward, I think leads to redistribution of world technological rent in favor of developing countries on the one hand, and reduction of its total amount on the other. A note : He believe that the historical mission of national bourguise comes to an end, and he believes that socialism is not on the agenda. So, what about the social forces struggle for regional integration ? In my project, left directs the capital by regulation. This is the new social contract between capital and people. A new set of parameters which makes profiable to produce for world markets with advanced technology. From OWENJACK@FS.isu.edu Wed Aug 26 10:55:16 1998 26 Aug 98 11:02:36 +600 From: "J B Owens" To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 11:01:58 -0600, MDT Subject: Walter Rodney Conference--Binghamton, Nov 1998 (fwd) ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 11:28:48 -0500 From: Patrick Manning Reply-To: H-NET List for World History To: H-WORLD@H-NET.MSU.EDU Subject: Walter Rodney Conference--Binghamton, Nov 1998 ************************************ Editor's note: this announcement is cross-posted from H-AFRO-AM, edited by Abdul Alkalimat. PM ************************************ Walter Rodney Conference Committee Statement on Conference Objectives, Beneficiaries, and Products Introduction The Walter Rodney Conference Committee issues this STATEMENT ON CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES, BENEFICIARIES, AND PRODUCTS in support of its request for financial support from the Binghamton University community, and other sources, for the Walter Rodney Conference at Binghamton University, November 6-8, 1998. Historical Background The late Walter Rodney, a native of Guyana in South America and the Caribbean, distinguished himself as a brilliant scholar, when at the tender age of 23 years, he graduated from the University of London, School of Oriental Studies, with a Ph.D. degree in History. Dr. Rodney became world renowned as a historian for his work on the history of the upper Guinea Coast, and his more popular work on Europe's underdevelopment of Africa. Dr. Rodney's book on the history of the Upper Guinea Coast represents a break with the method of all hitherto studies on African History, by focusing on the history of Africa from the perspectives of Africans. Dr. Rodney came to teach at Binghamton University after he was denied a job at the University of Guyana, in his country of birth, where he was finally assassinated on June 13,1980. It is a fitting gesture that we at Binghamton University host a conference to celebrate the life and work of one of its late world-class professors. Conference Objectives ? To deepen the study of the life and work of Walter Anthony Rodney. ? To heighten awareness of the life and work Of Walter Anthony Rodney. ? To promote the teachings of Walter Anthony Rodney and to generate discussion/engagement of his ideas in their application to history and the real world both past and present. ? To preserve the work of Walter Anthony Rodney for future generations. ? To raise consciousness of Walter Anthony Rodney both at Binghamton University and throughout the SUNY system where so far he has not been given any official recognition/memory. ? To make connections between social issues at Binghamton University, the state of New York and in the United States, with themes of Walter's vast works, to see how they might inform one another. Beneficiaries ? Graduate and undergraduate students at Binghamton University ? Binghamton University, whose name will be promoted with the great possibility of attracting more students from the Third World to study here. ? Academia from the archival data that will be generated from the conference, as well as the conference proceedings. ? Institutional building at Binghamton University through its students and faculty networking with students and scholars from other Universities both at the inter-and multi-disciplinary levels. Included in this category are the Africana Research Center at Cornell, New York African Studies Association, the Intercollegiate Consortium on African studies based at Cornell and encompassing Morgan State, Binghamton, and Syracuse Universities, and the Working People's Alliance in Guyana; all of whom have become involved in the conference. Conference Products ? Conference proceedings to be published as an edited book ? The establishment of the Walter Rodney Virtual Library ? Hands-on training of students in conference organizing ? News Releases ? Intangible products such as facilitation of the reunion of the WPA and its "Diaspora", and the reunion of graduates of Sociology and other departments at Binghamton University and ex-faculty connected in some way to Rodney's legacy at Binghamton University. ? The proposed re-naming of the Student Union building after Walter Rodney ? The proposed Annual Walter Rodney Scholarship at Binghamton University ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- The following is a rough draft of the conference schedule. Prof. Rupert Lewis was recently added to the program. An updated program schedule will soon appear on our website located at http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/subjects/africana/wr2.html: Conference Themes: Global Capitalism and the Black Atlantic Post-Colonial Nationalism Decolonization Gender and Youth DAY TIME Session/Event Location Friday November 6, 1998 9:00 to noon Registration noon to 1:30 pm Lunch 1:30 to 2:00pm Welcoming Remarks 2:00 to 3:00 pm Introductory Plenary Session Walter Rodney and Politics in Guyana. Speaker Eusi Kwayana 3:00 to 3:15 pm Coffee Break 3:15 to 4:45 pm Socialism and the Caribbean Intellectual/Activist Tradition: Walter Rodney, Claudia Jones, and CLR James Panel: Carole Boyce Davies, John McClendon, Alrick Cambridge 4:45 to 5:00 pm Coffee Break 5:00 to 5:30 pm Round-Up/ Review 7:00 to 9:00 pm Dinner/Address: Walter Rodney and Politics in the African World Saturday November 7, 1998 8:30 to 9:30 am Coffee 9:30 to 10:30 am Rodney's Scholarship and the Transformation of the Social Sciences. Panel: Tiffany Patterson, Immanuel Wallerstein, Darryl Thomas 10:30 to 10:45 am Coffee 10:45 to 12:30 pm Rodney's Pan-Africanist Journey and His Return To His Homeland. Panel: Horace Campbell, Ali Mazrui, etc. 12:30 to 2:00 pm Lunch 2:00 to 3:45 pm Walter Rodney and the Working People's Alliance: Reflections. Panel: Tacuma Ogunseye, Dennis Canterbury, Nigel Westmaas 3:45 to 4:00 pm Coffee Break 4:00 to 6:15 pm Walter Rodney and Youth. Panel: Alissa Trotz, Asha Rodney, Jesse Benjamin, etc 6:30 to 7:30 pm Cocktail Reception 7:30 to 9:30pm Dinner/Address: Intellectuals, Scholars, Political Commitment and Scholarship: Speakers: Sunday November 8, 1998 9:30 to 10:00 am Coffee 10:30 to 12:00 am 1898 and the Americas 12:30 to 2:30 pm Lunch/ Final Plenary: Rodney's Legacies and the Future FORWARDED BY: ******************************************************** J. B. "Jack" Owens, Professor of History Project Coordinator, Computer-Mediated Distance Learning Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209 USA e-mail: owenjack@isu.edu www: http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack fax: 208-236-4267 ******************************************************** From arnomd@online.no Sat Aug 29 11:24:59 1998 Sat, 29 Aug 1998 19:24:32 +0200 (MET DST) From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Arno_Mong_Daast=F8l?=" To: "TOES 97 (E-mail)" , "IPE (E-mail)" , , "Technology Transfer in International Development (E-mail)" , "MAI-not (E-mail)" , "World Systems Network sender (E-mail)" Subject: Russia: Shock-Therapy Rent-Seeking or Mercantilist Rent-Creation Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 19:23:27 +0200 charset="iso-8859-1" I have posted my article on this website: http://daaastol.com/rus97.html The article suggests an alternative with Russian roots - to the Russian policy so far (1912-1998). The article deals with the socio-economics of markets, trade, and communication in a very wide and historical sense. Below you may find the list of contents and the abstract. I would be grateful for ANY comment of relevance. I may include it in a later version and make it available on the web - for everybody to enjoy(?). Write me at mailto:arno@daastol.com Best wishes! Arno Arno Mong Daastøl Utsiktsveien 34, N-1410 Kolbotn, Norway,Ph: +47.6680 6373 / 6680 6523, Mobile and answering machine: +47.9002 4956, Fax: +47.94035650, PC-Fax : +47.6680 6373, ICQ# 11869628 Email: arno@daastol.com URL: http://daastol.com Doctoral Candidate, University of Maastricht, Department of Public Economics, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 Maastricht MD, The Netherlands, Ph: +31.433 883636, Fax: +31.433 258440 and: SUM - Centre for Devlopment and Environment, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 1116 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway, Ph: +47.2285 8900, Fax: +47.2285 8920 ************************************************************************ Shock-Therapy Rent-Seeking or Mercantilist Rent-Creation? Transportation, Credit, and Raw Materials in the Russian: Published in: On Political Economy of Transformation: Country Studies, edited by Jürgen G.Backhaus and Günther Krause, Metropolis Verlag, Marburg, 1997, a three volume work on transformation of planned economies. This article may also be found at the Internet site of EAEPE (European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy): http://eaepe.tuwien.ac.at/conf97/daast.doc Arno Mong Daastøl Department of Public Economics, University of Maastricht, Postbus 616, NL-6200 Maastricht MD, The Netherlands. Ph: +31.433 88 36 36, fax: +31.433 25 84 40 CONTENTS Abstract 2 Approaching a necessary perspective 3 Civilisation and the need to industrialise 3 The infrastructural situation in Russia 4 "Primitive Socialist accumulation" 5 Bukharin and Stalin 5 Planning-instruments of the bureaucracy 6 Western subsidies and the scissors dilemma: food as a weapon 7 Star Wars and Perestroika 7 Privatisation 8 Shock-therapy rent seeking: Mafia privatisation 9 A short story on credit 11 The new credit cartel 12 Transition so far 13 Monopolies and inflation: SAP-monetarism 14 Removal of a protectionist curtain 14 A breakdown in infrastructure, industry, and the armed forces 14 What kind of policy is preferable? A-priori utopianism and generalisation of strategies 16 Testing by experience 16 Experience - in Russian history 16 What characterised the success stories in history: How did they do it? 18 The emergence of markets -spontaneously or willed? 19 Administration: Co-ordination, tax and credit systems 20 Possible strategies: Basic necessities- or high-tech. production 21 Demystification of "The Asian Miracle" 21 The forgotten role of public goods 22 Railroads and space-programs: Expanding the frontiers of knowledge 22 International development of infrastructure and the Delors-plan 23 A major obstacle: crowding out? 24 Another major obstacle: Inflation? 24 A non-inflationary investment policy 25 Technology-orientation is the clue 26 A tax-revenue and welfare creating approach 27 Austerity against Europe 28 The TEN and Park Corridors 28 Obstruction of the IGCs and the historical experience 29 Maastricht and the divided Europe: A straitjacket and a scapegoat 30 The shock and the hope of the army 30 Taxation and credit 31 Banking: National or "independent" credit? 32 Cheap export or internal development through a Eurasian transport link? The Russian tradition 33 Development corridors 33 Look to China: another path 34 Internal Eurasian development: not exclusively coastal 35 Helped to develop rather than pushed into defence 35 East and West suffer from the same problem: Change the financial landscape 36 Summary or … 37 Abstract This article has intentionally been written "without focus" trying instead to gain perspective. It is about geopolitical economics and concerns economics as an ingredient in international power politics. The article addresses the failed efforts to reform the communist system as well as the failed efforts to introduce a radical market system. An alternative is suggested with strong roots in Russian and Western historical experience. This alternative is based on Minister Count Sergei Witte's (1849-1915) successful and state-led grand investments into infra-structure, as a vehicle of economic growth and general welfare. On the road to US President Clinton`s 2nd inauguration, the "most-likely-to-become-Russian President", General Lebed, claimed January 12th in a TV6-interview, that the whole of the Russian society is on the edge of collapse. (Aftenposten, Jan.13, 1997). January 15th, at a press conference in Bonn, Germany, he claimed that, "Russia has to proceed on the basis of the Stolypin reforms, and the reforms of Sergei Witte." This article will look into the nature of these reforms. Witte was inspired by Russian experience, but especially by Friedrich List (1789-1846), and thereby indirectly by Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) and James Steuart (1712-1780). Witte believed that this policy in particular had three characteris-tics. First, invest-ments in infrastructure would unify Russia, and also unify Eurasia into one market promot-ing international division of labour and economics of scale. This would eventual-ly promote international friendship across borders. Secondly, investments in infrastructure would create public and private demand for capital goods and later on demand for consumer goods, and thereby act as a locomotive for general economic growth. Thirdly, the policy was deliberately protec-tionist according to the infant industry argument, so as to establish Russian industry in the face of strong foreign competition. A little acknowledged problem in economics nowadays, but still a key theoretical problem, is the nature of rent, rev-enue, or sur-plus. This is in this article is seen mainly as a result of exclusive compara-tive advantages in knowledge and (knowledge based-) production, and less as a result of compara-tive advan-tages in, for instance, natural resources. The theoretical basis for this article may be termed, a statist trickle down and double-step rent-creation strategy. The double step concept refers to the process through which a government may arrange the rent-seeking process by regulating individual actors on the market, so as to create a rent-gener-ating pro-cess: rent-creation. The direct rent or revenue emerging from these individual activ-ities may be taxed, thereby yielding a tax-revenue. These activities can also indirectly, and over a longer period of time, generate social- or general industrial rents emerging from (actual and poten-tial) produc-tiv-ity gains from improved infrastructure of all kinds. This may create an even larger base for tax-revenue in a future positive feedback process. The statist trickle down concept refers to the initi-ating role of government in this process: creating demand and innovation in infrastructural goods and thereby likewise in capital goods and consumer goods, thereby creating a tax-revenue base. The general policy-approach - rent creation by means of governmentally initiated investments into infrastruc-ture and in this case a material part of it, transportation - is a matter of general consideration. It is, however, likely to be especia-lly applicable to the Russian situation because of the vast distances of this country. The existence of low population densities requires a special twist to this approach: infra-structure corridors, so as to reap the advantages of an "arti-ficial" high population density. The article discusses infrastructure and new technology as public goods that generate, in particular, high rents or surplus to a national economy, partly due to so-called externa-lities. It is claimed that the Soviet system tended to under-invest in these activities, as does current economic policy, in Russia as well as in the West. Obstacles to "a Witte-strategy" in Russia, and a similar and connected attempt in the EU and China / Central-Asia, both within economically rooted ideas, and within politi-cal circles, are also discussed. Keywords: Russian transformation, Eurasian transportation, railway, rent-seeking, public goods, credit-creation, intervention, regulation. JEL numberss: B 15, N 17, O 010 From p34d3611@jhu.edu Sat Aug 29 19:36:00 1998 by jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (980427.SGI.8.8.8/950213.SGI.AUTOCF) 29 Aug 1998 21:35:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 21:35:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Peter Grimes Subject: [Fwd: Police Raid Seminar on Economic Globalization] (fwd) To: WSN BOUNDARY="-2133065211-1380814957-904440930=:14883" 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. ---2133065211-1380814957-904440930=:14883 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 21:18:26 -0400 From: Barbara Larcom To: Dave Schott , Erika White , Frida Berrigan , Leslie Bilchick , Lynn Yellott , Peter Grimes , Walda Katz Fishman Subject: [Fwd: Police Raid Seminar on Economic Globalization] ---2133065211-1380814957-904440930=:14883 Fri, 28 Aug 1998 17:15:28 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 28 Aug 1998 17:14:58 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 17:14:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Njoki Njoroge Njehu Sender: owner-50-years@igc.apc.org Subject: Police Raid Seminar on Economic Globalization To: 50-years@igc.org ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 13:59:10 +0200 (CST) From: Andreas Rockstein To: MAI-not Subject: Police raid seminar on globalization and resistance (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 03:20:15 +0200 From: AGP/AMP Geneva Dispatch Subject: Police raid seminar on globalization and resistance Tel/Fax: +41 22 3444731 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE: 27/8/98 TO: Information Department FROM: International Globalisation and Resistance Seminar PRESS RELEASE: Police Raid International Seminar Early this morning, police raided a seminar being held in Geneva. Officers illegally searched individuals and private belongings, detaining all 50 participants at the station. The detainees, from 17 different countries and including a 6 year old girl from the Ukraine, were held for over 2 hours without explanation. Most were eventually released without charge. However, 5 remained in police custody for yet another five hours. Four of these were then released - the fifth is still in custody. The seminar was convened to discuss economic globalisation and its impact on communities and the environment, as well as peoples' efforts to reclaim control over their own lives. Speakers include international economists, journalists, representatives of people's movements, and workers from human rights and other non-governmental organisations. The world-renowned author and President of the Observatoire de la Mondialisation, Susan George, lectured all day on Tuesday 25th, and found, "a group of peaceful and law-abiding young people". She "deplores the police actions and calls for the immediate release of those detained." Without warning, the participants were rounded up into vans and taken to the police station en masse, where they were subjected to lengthy identity checks. This follows a week of close police surveillance. About forty police officers, in a concerted action, entered the seminar site at 7.30am, waking the guests, searching their accommodation without a warrant, and confiscating personal property. They refused to give receipts for the items, which included videos, notebooks, an artist's portfolio, personal diaries and photographs, and the organisers' documents. Most of these have not been returned as yet. It appears that the five who remained in custody were victimized as a result of previous arrests during non-violent activities in May; one for simply walking down the street. The reason for their detention, and their location, remained undisclosed. When a woman from the seminar asked a policeman, "Isn't what you're doing illegal?", he replied, "Yes, totally." Police were also overheard making racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic comments. Taking a passport from the stack, a policeman said, "Oh, that's the Jew!" A Bangladeshi charity worker who had just been awoken was singled out for particularly offensive treatment. A British writer said, "I'm still in shock. It seems that discussing our common experiences about global problems and solutions is now a crime in Switzerland." Another journalist from the Ukraine commented, "I thought I was coming to a country that exemplified democracy." A Nepali human rights worker summed up the group's feelings: "For me it is unthinkable that such police action in violation of human rights should take place in the same city as the UN Human Rights Commission headquarters." Under the steamroller of neoliberal globalisation, it seems that space for public criticism faces increasing repression and the denial of civil and political freedoms. -------------- Leaflet: ------------------ DETAINED FOR DEBATE Police Raid International Seminar on Globalisation and Resistance At 7:30 am, Thursday 27th August, about 40 police officers raided the seminar on Globalisation and Resistance being held in Cologny, Geneva. 50 participants, from 17 countries, were taken in riot vans to the local police station. In addition, property, including videos, personal notebooks, and photographs, were confiscated, and only returned a few hours later. Everyone was detained for over 2 hours without explanation. Amongst them was a 6 year old girl from the Ukraine. Most were released without charge. 4 were kept for a further few hours, and were released on condition that they leave Switzerland within 4 days. A fifth person is still being detained, and her situation is still unclear. This raid followed a week of police surveillance including helicopters as well as visits from uniformed and plainclothes police. The 16-day seminar aims at critically challenging the hegemonic consensus of neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism elevates free trade to a provider of great wealth and prosperity for all. The World Trade Organisation's Director General Renato Ruggiero preaches the virtues of the free market, with the prophecy of mobile telephones in the remotest parts of the planet. But this is not the world we live in . The world we live in is increasingly coming under the control of unaccountable, undemocratic, and highly centralised, transnational institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the European Union. Powerful tools for the development of the neoliberal agenda are trade treaties such as the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment and various other regional trade agreements. Power and wealth are concentrating in the hands of transnational corporations, such as Shell, Nestle, IBM, and Monsanto. Decision making shifts further and further from local community control, and into the hands of corporate lobby groups, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, and the Geneva based World Economic Forum. Far from generating prosperity the world over, globalisation is causing destruction of environ-ments, and great increases in poverty and misery across the world. While integrating the world into a single global economy, free trade is excluding and marginalising the overwhelming majority of the world's inhabitants. The poor lose control of resources and local economies. The effects of this are hunger, unemployment, forced migration, increased marginalisation of women, destruction of eco-systems, cuts in social services, violence, and general social collapse. As people increasingly show their unwillingness to submit to this global order, nation states are responding with ever more repressive strategies. Basic rights and freedoms which have been earned by hard struggle are being rapidly eroded. This process could be seen in the hysterical police response to the international non-violent actions in May against the WTO and is now reappearing in this week's police raid. The seminar has been entirely educational and consists of lectures and discussions only. Speakers have included well-known people like Professor Nanjundaswami from the Karnataka Farmers Movement of India and Susan George, president of the Observatoire de la Mondialisation. We view this police raid as a violation of basic political freedoms, like the right to organise freely and to free speech. Rather than being intimidated, we would like to extend the seminar to a wider audience. We invite you to come and participate in the seminar. Come to the Palais de Justice, on friday 28th 8. at 4 p.m. We do so to heat up your adrenaline, to inspire your rage and to strengthen your hope !!! -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/ ---2133065211-1380814957-904440930=:14883-- From arnomd@online.no Sun Aug 30 05:25:39 1998 Sun, 30 Aug 1998 13:25:31 +0200 (MET DST) From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Arno_Mong_Daast=F8l?=" To: "TOES 97 (E-mail)" , "IPE (E-mail)" , , "Technology Transfer in International Development (E-mail)" , "MAI-not (E-mail)" , "World Systems Network sender (E-mail)" Subject: Correct Russia: Shock-Therapy Rent-Seeking or Mercantilist Rent-Creation Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 13:22:27 +0200 charset="iso-8859-1" Sorry, this was sloppy: the correct address is http://daastol.com/rus97.html The article suggests an alternative with Russian roots - to the Russian policy so far (1912-1998). The article deals with the socio-economics of markets, trade, and communication in a very wide and historical sense. Below you may find the list of contents and the abstract. I would be grateful for ANY comment of relevance. I may include it in a later version and make it available on the web - for everybody to enjoy(?). Write me at mailto:arno@daastol.com Best wishes! Arno Arno Mong Daastøl Utsiktsveien 34, N-1410 Kolbotn, Norway,Ph: +47.6680 6373 / 6680 6523, Mobile and answering machine: +47.9002 4956, Fax: +47.94035650, PC-Fax : +47.6680 6373, ICQ# 11869628 Email: arno@daastol.com URL: http://daastol.com Doctoral Candidate, University of Maastricht, Department of Public Economics, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 Maastricht MD, The Netherlands, Ph: +31.433 883636, Fax: +31.433 258440 and: SUM - Centre for Devlopment and Environment, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 1116 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway, Ph: +47.2285 8900, Fax: +47.2285 8920 ************************************************************************ Shock-Therapy Rent-Seeking or Mercantilist Rent-Creation? Transportation, Credit, and Raw Materials in the Russian: Published in: On Political Economy of Transformation: Country Studies, edited by Jürgen G.Backhaus and Günther Krause, Metropolis Verlag, Marburg, 1997, a three volume work on transformation of planned economies. This article may also be found at the Internet site of EAEPE (European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy): http://eaepe.tuwien.ac.at/conf97/daast.doc Arno Mong Daastøl Department of Public Economics, University of Maastricht, Postbus 616, NL-6200 Maastricht MD, The Netherlands. Ph: +31.433 88 36 36, fax: +31.433 25 84 40 CONTENTS Abstract 2 Approaching a necessary perspective 3 Civilisation and the need to industrialise 3 The infrastructural situation in Russia 4 "Primitive Socialist accumulation" 5 Bukharin and Stalin 5 Planning-instruments of the bureaucracy 6 Western subsidies and the scissors dilemma: food as a weapon 7 Star Wars and Perestroika 7 Privatisation 8 Shock-therapy rent seeking: Mafia privatisation 9 A short story on credit 11 The new credit cartel 12 Transition so far 13 Monopolies and inflation: SAP-monetarism 14 Removal of a protectionist curtain 14 A breakdown in infrastructure, industry, and the armed forces 14 What kind of policy is preferable? A-priori utopianism and generalisation of strategies 16 Testing by experience 16 Experience - in Russian history 16 What characterised the success stories in history: How did they do it? 18 The emergence of markets -spontaneously or willed? 19 Administration: Co-ordination, tax and credit systems 20 Possible strategies: Basic necessities- or high-tech. production 21 Demystification of "The Asian Miracle" 21 The forgotten role of public goods 22 Railroads and space-programs: Expanding the frontiers of knowledge 22 International development of infrastructure and the Delors-plan 23 A major obstacle: crowding out? 24 Another major obstacle: Inflation? 24 A non-inflationary investment policy 25 Technology-orientation is the clue 26 A tax-revenue and welfare creating approach 27 Austerity against Europe 28 The TEN and Park Corridors 28 Obstruction of the IGCs and the historical experience 29 Maastricht and the divided Europe: A straitjacket and a scapegoat 30 The shock and the hope of the army 30 Taxation and credit 31 Banking: National or "independent" credit? 32 Cheap export or internal development through a Eurasian transport link? The Russian tradition 33 Development corridors 33 Look to China: another path 34 Internal Eurasian development: not exclusively coastal 35 Helped to develop rather than pushed into defence 35 East and West suffer from the same problem: Change the financial landscape 36 Summary or … 37 Abstract This article has intentionally been written "without focus" trying instead to gain perspective. It is about geopolitical economics and concerns economics as an ingredient in international power politics. The article addresses the failed efforts to reform the communist system as well as the failed efforts to introduce a radical market system. An alternative is suggested with strong roots in Russian and Western historical experience. This alternative is based on Minister Count Sergei Witte's (1849-1915) successful and state-led grand investments into infra-structure, as a vehicle of economic growth and general welfare. On the road to US President Clinton`s 2nd inauguration, the "most-likely-to-become-Russian President", General Lebed, claimed January 12th in a TV6-interview, that the whole of the Russian society is on the edge of collapse. (Aftenposten, Jan.13, 1997). January 15th, at a press conference in Bonn, Germany, he claimed that, "Russia has to proceed on the basis of the Stolypin reforms, and the reforms of Sergei Witte." This article will look into the nature of these reforms. Witte was inspired by Russian experience, but especially by Friedrich List (1789-1846), and thereby indirectly by Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) and James Steuart (1712-1780). Witte believed that this policy in particular had three characteris-tics. First, invest-ments in infrastructure would unify Russia, and also unify Eurasia into one market promot-ing international division of labour and economics of scale. This would eventual-ly promote international friendship across borders. Secondly, investments in infrastructure would create public and private demand for capital goods and later on demand for consumer goods, and thereby act as a locomotive for general economic growth. Thirdly, the policy was deliberately protec-tionist according to the infant industry argument, so as to establish Russian industry in the face of strong foreign competition. A little acknowledged problem in economics nowadays, but still a key theoretical problem, is the nature of rent, rev-enue, or sur-plus. This is in this article is seen mainly as a result of exclusive compara-tive advantages in knowledge and (knowledge based-) production, and less as a result of compara-tive advan-tages in, for instance, natural resources. The theoretical basis for this article may be termed, a statist trickle down and double-step rent-creation strategy. The double step concept refers to the process through which a government may arrange the rent-seeking process by regulating individual actors on the market, so as to create a rent-gener-ating pro-cess: rent-creation. The direct rent or revenue emerging from these individual activ-ities may be taxed, thereby yielding a tax-revenue. These activities can also indirectly, and over a longer period of time, generate social- or general industrial rents emerging from (actual and poten-tial) produc-tiv-ity gains from improved infrastructure of all kinds. This may create an even larger base for tax-revenue in a future positive feedback process. The statist trickle down concept refers to the initi-ating role of government in this process: creating demand and innovation in infrastructural goods and thereby likewise in capital goods and consumer goods, thereby creating a tax-revenue base. The general policy-approach - rent creation by means of governmentally initiated investments into infrastruc-ture and in this case a material part of it, transportation - is a matter of general consideration. It is, however, likely to be especia-lly applicable to the Russian situation because of the vast distances of this country. The existence of low population densities requires a special twist to this approach: infra-structure corridors, so as to reap the advantages of an "arti-ficial" high population density. The article discusses infrastructure and new technology as public goods that generate, in particular, high rents or surplus to a national economy, partly due to so-called externa-lities. It is claimed that the Soviet system tended to under-invest in these activities, as does current economic policy, in Russia as well as in the West. Obstacles to "a Witte-strategy" in Russia, and a similar and connected attempt in the EU and China / Central-Asia, both within economically rooted ideas, and within politi-cal circles, are also discussed. Keywords: Russian transformation, Eurasian transportation, railway, rent-seeking, public goods, credit-creation, intervention, regulation. JEL numberss: B 15, N 17, O 010 From RRagland@csir.co.za Mon Aug 31 00:48:24 1998 Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 08:52:17 +0200 From: Richard Ragland To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu, p34d3611@jhu.edu Subject: Re: [Fwd: Police Raid Seminar on Economic Globalization] (fwd) Can anyone independently verify whether this is a real report or a joke? I find it unbelievable. Was there any reason given for the raid? Rick Richard Ragland Emerging Industries - Projects Manager Industry and Enterprise Development Programme CSIR P.O. Box 1124 Port Elizabeth 6000 South Africa Cell: 082-657-0506 Tel: (041) 532131 Fax: (041) 532325 E-Mail: rragland@csir.co.za From arnomd@online.no Mon Aug 31 09:11:08 1998 Received: from online.no (pilt-s.online.no [193.212.1.34]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id JAA14044; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 09:11:01 -0600 (MDT) Received: from ringebu.uio.no (ti01a97-0028.dialup.online.no [130.67.5.220]) by online.no (8.8.8/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA02578; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 17:10:52 +0200 (MET DST) From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Arno_Mong_Daast=F8l?=" To: "TOES 97 (E-mail)" , "IPE (E-mail)" , , "World Systems Network receptor (E-mail)" , "World Systems Network sender (E-mail)" Subject: Krugman blames US geo-politics Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 16:44:54 +0200 Message-ID: <000c01bdd4f1$7d4dcee0$dc054382@ringebu.uio.no> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Profesor of economics at MIT, Robert Krugman, claimed on CNBC TV station in the program dot.com Aug. 29th 1998 (Saturday at 1030 GMT) that Rubin's dumping of Sakakibara's (the Japanese official at MOF - Ministry of Finance) propopsal in January 1998, to create a regional currency only had geropolitical reasons. Along with others in the program, he instead called for a dumping of political consiiderations in facour of technocratic measures to deal with the crisis. He called for a reintroduction of exchange controls. He admitted that the effects of the crisis was far larger than he had imagined at the beginning. Arno Mong Daastøl, Utsiktsveien 34, N-1410 Kolbotn, Norway,Ph: +47.6680 6373 / 6680 6523, Mobile and answering machine: +47.9002 4956, Fax: +47.94035650, PC-Fax : +47.6680 6373, ICQ# 11869628 Email: arno@daastol.com URL: http://daastol.com Doctoral Candidate, University of Maastricht, Department of Public Finance, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 Maastricht MD, The Netherlands, Ph: +31.433 883636, Fax: +31.433 258440 and: SUM - Centre for Devlopment and Environment, University of Oslo, P.O.Box 1116 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway, Ph: +47.2285 8900, Fax: +47.2285 8920 From chriscd@jhu.edu Mon Aug 31 14:20:23 1998 Received: from jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu (jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu [128.220.2.86]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id OAA07594 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 14:20:19 -0600 (MDT) Received: from jhu.edu (chris.soc.jhu.edu) by jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu (PMDF V5.1-10 #26381) with ESMTP id <01J19CWPZCU8CIQRTZ@jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu> for wsn@csf.colorado.edu; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 16:20:10 EDT Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 16:20:36 -0400 From: christopher chase-dunn Subject: [Fwd: Wanted: Development Co-Ordinator for Nicaraguan Sister Cities Projects] To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Reply-to: chriscd@jhu.edu Message-id: <35EB0593.EC373FF2@jhu.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------9529D28C7B5A6FA6E840A556" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------9529D28C7B5A6FA6E840A556 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------9529D28C7B5A6FA6E840A556 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu (jhuml1.hcf.jhu.edu [128.220.2.86]) by jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (980427.SGI.8.8.8/950213.SGI.AUTOCF) via ESMTP id UAA10898 for ; Sun, 30 Aug 1998 20:24:22 -0400 (EDT) Received: from pike.sover.net by jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu (PMDF V5.1-10 #26381) with ESMTP id <01J1875541Q0CIQQQ6@jhmail.hcf.jhu.edu> for chriscd@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu; Sun, 30 Aug 1998 20:24:21 EDT Received: from Pvtpeace (pm0a19.ben.sover.net [207.136.200.19]) by pike.sover.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id UAA01746; Sun, 30 Aug 1998 20:18:19 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 20:18:25 -0500 From: "Barbara A. MacIntyre" <"vtpeace@sover.net"@sover.net> Subject: Wanted: Development Co-Ordinator for Nicaraguan Sister Cities Projects To: spanish@sancristobal.podernet.com.mx, Arnd.peterhoff@post.rwth-aachen.de, employer@jobtrak.com, chriscd@jhu.edu, ron@greenbuilder.com, iicd@berkshire.net, lrb@cnsvax.albany.edu, calendar@americas.org Reply-to: "vtpeace@sover.net"@sover.net Message-id: <199808310018.UAA01746@pike.sover.net> Organization: sover.net MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Would you post this on bulletin boards or other accessible places for potentially interested candidates? I hope some alumni may be interested. Thank you. U.S. - NICARAGUA DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATOR Leon, Nicaragua We are searching for an individual who is self-motivated and energetic, who writes clearly, is capable of creative decisions and someone who thrives in an environment of grassroots organizing and community development. A Sister City Consortium was created in 1990 that currently combines resources of six U.S. communities that pair with six Region II Nicaraguan communities. The Co-Ordinator, based in Leon, Nicaragua, maintains communications between the Nicaraguan and U.S. cities. The pairings are supported independently by a base of grassroots organizing. Although each of the six members of the Consortium has it's own unique history and achievements, they share a common goal of fostering greater understanding between communities and contributing to grassroots development in Nicaragua. Consortium members include the pairing of Norwalk, Ct. with Nagarote; Bennington, Vt. with Somotillo; Beckley, W.V. with Mina El Limon; Bard College (Mid-Hudson, N.Y.) with Larreynaga; Pittsfield, Ma. with Malpaisillo; Amherst, Ma. with La Paz Centro. The Co-Ordinator makes monthly visits to (3 Nicaraguan communities and proportionally, as agreed, to the other 3; with an annual visit to each U.S. community. While in Nicaragua the Co-Ordinator maintains contacts via E-Mail with each U.S. Sister City Committee and participates in and facilitates U.S. support of Nicaraguan initiatives, arranges delegation visits and facilitates the distribution of material aid shipments. While in the U.S. the Co-Ordinator will participate in committee building and be aware of how the pairings may be nurtured. Requirements: Willingness to make a 2 year commitment At least 21 years of age Full fluency in Spanish and English Demonstrated ability to work independently Excellent communication skills Experience with computers Strong driving skills Strong writing skills Because familiarity with Nicaraguan community development and with the dynamics of U.S. grassroots organizations is important, preference will be given to those who have lived in Spanish-speaking countries and to those with experience in community organizing. Individuals with a desire to use creative energies in localized, sustained cross-cultural exchange and development are strongly encouraged to apply. The position begins with a two month transition period working with the current Co-Ordinator. A starting date between December 1, 1998 and January 1, 1999 will be negotiated. Compensation includes orientation and training in Nicaragua, a stipend, paid living expenses, health care coverage, vacation and the use of a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The Consortium values diversity and encourages minorities to apply. To apply for this position send a letter of expressing interest with a recent resume by October 1, 1998 to: Barbara MacIntyre e-mail vtpeace@sover.net Al Woodhull e-mail awoodhull@hampshire.edu or mail to: Barbara A. MacIntyre 102 River Street Bennington, Vermont 05201-1830 And more information, if needed..... We do fundraising in the States to (mostly) do project that are self-sustaining; chickens (that multiply and pay back the loan), mountain bikes for the outreach health care workers and teachers, which are paid monthly; the pharmacy which makes payments monthly, used clothing boutiques, etc. Water projects link new communities with the town, and permit the former Contras and former Sandistas to work together for the betterment of all. The Co-Ordinator makes monthly reports to each of the 6 U.S. Sister Cities on each of the projects and needs of the Nica volunteer group. She encourages the Nica group to search out worthwhile projects, then monitors them as they go on. We try to send down material aid three times a year; depends on our financial situation; it costs $800 for a 4'x4'x8' space on a container we share with the New Haven-Leon Sister City Project. (They are also in the same building as our office in Leon.) We send down medical and school supplies, clothing, typewriters, office supplies, sporting equipment (baseball and soccer are hot!), and try to fulfill requests from our counterparts for other kinds of aid. Everything is donated! Thanks very much, Barbara A. MacIntyre --------------9529D28C7B5A6FA6E840A556-- From thall@DEPAUW.EDU Mon Aug 31 14:37:39 1998 Received: from depauw.edu (tiger.depauw.edu [163.120.1.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with ESMTP id OAA09429 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 14:37:37 -0600 (MDT) Received: from DEPAUW.EDU by DEPAUW.EDU (PMDF V5.1-12 #27268) id <01J19BEMDG1K0014YY@DEPAUW.EDU> for wsn@csf.colorado.edu; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 15:37:19 EST Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 15:37:19 -0500 (EST) From: "Thomas D. [Tom] Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU" Subject: a call for papers on Asia --fwd To: Network World-Systems Message-id: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Last Call for Articles for Education About Asia The guest editors for the spring issue of Education About Asia, a publication of the Asian Studies Association, would like to remind potential contributors the deadline for the submission of articles for the special issue on Asia in World History is September 25, 1998. We welcome articles on any aspect of Asia in world history that will enhance the teaching of Asia and particularly solicit articles that focus on one of the three major civilizational dimensions of world history, comparative civilizations, cross cultural contacts and trans- civilizational phenomena such as trade, disease and ecological changes. Any interested authors should either follow the writers' guidelines found in the back of each issue or write to Education About Asia, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 105A Hunter Hall, Chattanooga, TN 37403. FAX 423-755-5381. Articles should be no more than 3,000 words. Prospective authors may also contact the guest editors for this issue. Prof. Marc Gilbert, (mgilbert@nugget.ngc.peachnet.edu, Jean Johnson, (jeanjasiasoc.org and Donald Johnson (johnsond@is.nyu.edu)