I must apologize to my faithful reader for the lengthy hiatus in the production of my blog entries. The most valid of the excuses that I might offer is that I have had a bout of what was apparently pneumonia, and that did cost me some weeks of normal functioning. I have, however, also ceased reporting “routine” European protests in these blogs: there are many of them, and they will increase when this harsh winter eases. What caught me by surprise were the outbreaks of food and employment protests in Algeria, Jordan, and Tunisia, events that had no less an outcome than the ousting of the Tunisian dictator. Increases in food and gasoline (petrol) prices will also make the European austerity measures even more painful to endure, and this pain will also be felt in the USA where there are no federal austerity measures but sharp cuts at the state and municipal levels.
On my recent European wanderings, I saw little in the way of physical evidence of the austerity measures. Those measures are only now being implemented. The recession has itself left its mark in empty storefronts, and a taxi driver in Dublin told us that two large, formerly thriving pubs in Parnell Square, the Parnell Mooney and the Parnell Conway had closed because “nobody has any money to go out.”
Europe has, at any rate, seemed to me, over the last decade and more, more affluent than the USA. No doubt this appearance of general affluence stemmed in part from there not being the huge gap between rich and poor that the USA tolerates. In addition Europe has seemed far ahead technologically, whether in high speed rail transportation or broadband access. It has had , moreover, a social safety net in place to deal with unemployment and health problems. Rankings of nations by “quality of life” have supported my impressions, placing a country like Belgium, for instance, well ahead of the USA.
The cuts that are now in the works in Europe will be an assault on such “quality of life.” The social safety net will, in many instances, be cut away.During my recent illness, a few weeks ago, I saw and heard both George Osborne, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer for perhaps ten years before he became Prime Minister, admit in separate Fareed Zakaria interviews, that the coming cuts would not only be painful but would make recovery from the recession difficult. Both saw “growth” as the way to recovery and looked to “innovation” as the way to get the economy moving. Both praised the American record of innovation and looked forward to its next successes, especially in technology.
I was surprised by their candor: they were in effect admitting that the recovery in employment will not occur until the slow processes of product development have time to work. But I wondered whether they were right that we can trust American innovation to lead the way. We produce far fewer engineers than nations like China and India, so we have fewer minds to apply to product development. The products that we do “innovate” are not produced in this country but usually in Asia, so the products produce profits for some American-based corporations but few American jobs. Our manufacturing base is, in fact, in poor shape because we have shipped the literal means of production--by which I here mean only machinery--overseas.
I recently asked a retired engineer, who had had a long career with one of the USA’s industrial giants, about our manufacturing capabilities. He said that the machines are not here, the parts are produced overseas, and we frankly can’t depend on domestic production any longer. He and I speculated what would happen if the USA had to re-tool for wartime production as we did so successfully in World War II.
Our production of engineers for American industry may not, furthermore, be quite at the level that we assume it to be. Perhaps the situation has changed, but, over thirty years ago, as an assistant dean of a graduate school, I produced a report on foreign student enrollments in graduate programs in some Midwestern universities. I had not expected to find, as I did, that most of the graduate students in engineering were from other countries. Many remained here, of course, to work in American industry or teach in American universities after receiving their degrees, but I know that complaints from industry are heard even today about how difficult it is to secure permission for these trained engineers to become residents. And, with industry and university opportunities well developed in their home countries, these advanced degree recipients may today well prefer to return home. Indeed, they may choose to do their advanced degree work in their home countries.
We have, moreover, to face the fact that the USA ranks very low in the provision of the math and science education that produces engineers and thereby innovation. Singapore is likely to educate future engineers; East Boston, MA, is not. George Osborne and Gordon Brown may have to look elsewhere than to American innovation to engineer a recovery from the recession..
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Das Narrenschiff
According to an Wikipedia article, Das Narrenschiff or the Ship of Fools “is an
allegory that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The
allegory depicts a vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged,
frivolous, or oblivious, passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly
ignorant of their own direction.” Jose Barchilon explains in his introduction
to Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization that
"Renaissance men developed a delightful, yet horrible way of dealing with
their mad denizens: they were put on a ship and entrusted to mariners because
folly, water, and sea, as everyone then "knew," had an affinity for each
other. Thus, "Ship of Fools" crisscrossed the sea and canals of Europe with
their comic and pathetic cargo of souls. Some of them found pleasure and even
a cure in the changing surroundings, in the isolation of being cast off, while
others withdrew further, became worse, or died alone and away from their
families. The cities and villages which had thus rid themselves of their
crazed and crazy, could now take pleasure in watching the exciting sideshow
when a ship full of foreign lunatics would dock at their harbors."
Katherine Ann Porter’s novel Ship of Fools invokes the Narrenschiff motif in her depiction of representative figures aboard a ship who are oblivious to the forces at work to create World War II.
I thought of the tradition of Das Narrenschiff while on a cruise around the boot of Italy as part of my Wanderjahr. Except for crossings of the English Channel or the Irish Sea I had not traveled on a ship for over thirty years and looked at ship travel exclusively as transportation. (I did not risk air travel until 1977, when I was already 39 years old.) I knew, however, that “cruises” had become popular over the intervening years. Cruises take place on ships fitted with amusements of all kinds, including gambling. Disneyland and Las Vegas influence the planning of the ships as do luxury resorts and grand hotels. All entertainment having been concluded, the cruise returns to the port from which it set forth.
The ship that my companion Diane and I were on was the Costa Fortuna, an Italian ship but staffed largely by people from South America and Asia. The ship is so massive--over 100,000 tons--and so thoroughly stabilized that one is rarely aware of being on the ocean. Indeed, unlike the ships on my Atlantic crossings, it is difficult to find an open deck from which to view the sea. The experience is that of life in a grand hotel although the sense of enclosure made me at times remember the Beatles’ song that sees us all living in a yellow submarine. The Costa Fortuna attempts to reproduce some of the most impressive features of the famous Italian ships of the 1920s and 1930s: the slightly ominous result--if one remembers Porter’s Ship of Fools--is that the décor might well be described as Mussolini Modern.
But was this a Ship of Fools, a Narrenschiff? Not exactly, we were fools not because of madness but because of being fooled. It was a ship of the fooled. The genuine boom of the post-war years and the credit bubble that followed encouraged ordinary people to aspire to consumption that was previously only possible for the wealthy . The cruise ship is part of that fantasy world in which everyone is “middle class,” a fantasy that is a feature of the economy now winding down. It is a good thing that these pleasures seem available for all, and the cruise is democratic in character once you have paid the stiff price of a ticket. It is meant as “affordable luxury.“ Every large ship on which my late wife Donna and I had previously sailed--with the exception of the Soviet ship the Alexander Pushkin--had a First Class from which we were firmly excluded. I remember that we tried to get a peek into First to spot celebrities--the kind of people who now travel by private yacht or private jet. Dress is now casual, and there were no tuxedos even on Gala Night. One meal a day is served with traditional restaurant service, but breakfast and lunch are usually taken from a buffet of one’s own choosing, including one always offering hamburgers and hot dogs. The entertainment was for all ages, but I would say 70s disco music got a heavy play. I did like the Cole Porter and Sinatra era piano music in the bars. The only entertainment that I disliked was an event in which fat men from among the passengers--not me though!--dressed in drag, but were mostly bare-chested with their layers of fat hanging out as they postured sexily (with bumps and grinds) to compete for applause and a prize. Well, different strokes for different folks.
People had fun, and that’s a good thing. Because port visits were on quick bus tours, I can’t say that anyone experienced a new country or culture. It reminds me of the resorts that I hear about where guards with machine guns protect the hotels used by Americans lest they come in contact with the natives. It also reminds me of some executives and university administrators who boast of their international experience, which seems to consist of having stayed in the Hilton in numerous cities around the world. Cruises will soon suffer from the brutal fact that the affluent “middle class” for whom cruises were created will find themselves again a struggling working-class.
While we were on our cruise, the protests against austerity programs contined across Europe. We, however, pushed on to Amsterdam, where the fantasy world that began in the the mid-70s there, continues, especially for narco-tourists, including many American students. Even there, however, there is a sense that the party is winding down. Proposed new regulations would turn the coffee shops that sell cannabis into private clubs that would not be open to foreign visitors, and the Dutch do not themselves smoke more dope per capita than people in neighboring countries. Earlier we had been in Ireland, where the Celtic Tiger economy is dead, and a grim reality is being faced. A strong protest movement in which the Socialist Party of Ireland (CWI) plays a leading role is, in effect, demanding default on Irish debt and independence from the Eurozone. Amsterdam and Dublin had been Ships of Fools during the bubble economy.
Opposition to the austerity measures is rapidly bringing large groups into protest. Diane and I got off the train at Charing Cross just as the huge protest against tuition increases was occurring at nearby Trafalgar Square. The station was in a chaotic condition, and we were hampered by too much baggage, so Diane’s wallet was snatched. What Marx calls “the dangerous classes" see opportunities in times of crisis, and so does the fascist movement. The challenge is to build the movement for socialism even more rapidly than the forces of barbarism grow. It’s time to disembark from Das Narrenschiff.
allegory that has long been a fixture in Western literature and art. The
allegory depicts a vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged,
frivolous, or oblivious, passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly
ignorant of their own direction.” Jose Barchilon explains in his introduction
to Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization that
"Renaissance men developed a delightful, yet horrible way of dealing with
their mad denizens: they were put on a ship and entrusted to mariners because
folly, water, and sea, as everyone then "knew," had an affinity for each
other. Thus, "Ship of Fools" crisscrossed the sea and canals of Europe with
their comic and pathetic cargo of souls. Some of them found pleasure and even
a cure in the changing surroundings, in the isolation of being cast off, while
others withdrew further, became worse, or died alone and away from their
families. The cities and villages which had thus rid themselves of their
crazed and crazy, could now take pleasure in watching the exciting sideshow
when a ship full of foreign lunatics would dock at their harbors."
Katherine Ann Porter’s novel Ship of Fools invokes the Narrenschiff motif in her depiction of representative figures aboard a ship who are oblivious to the forces at work to create World War II.
I thought of the tradition of Das Narrenschiff while on a cruise around the boot of Italy as part of my Wanderjahr. Except for crossings of the English Channel or the Irish Sea I had not traveled on a ship for over thirty years and looked at ship travel exclusively as transportation. (I did not risk air travel until 1977, when I was already 39 years old.) I knew, however, that “cruises” had become popular over the intervening years. Cruises take place on ships fitted with amusements of all kinds, including gambling. Disneyland and Las Vegas influence the planning of the ships as do luxury resorts and grand hotels. All entertainment having been concluded, the cruise returns to the port from which it set forth.
The ship that my companion Diane and I were on was the Costa Fortuna, an Italian ship but staffed largely by people from South America and Asia. The ship is so massive--over 100,000 tons--and so thoroughly stabilized that one is rarely aware of being on the ocean. Indeed, unlike the ships on my Atlantic crossings, it is difficult to find an open deck from which to view the sea. The experience is that of life in a grand hotel although the sense of enclosure made me at times remember the Beatles’ song that sees us all living in a yellow submarine. The Costa Fortuna attempts to reproduce some of the most impressive features of the famous Italian ships of the 1920s and 1930s: the slightly ominous result--if one remembers Porter’s Ship of Fools--is that the décor might well be described as Mussolini Modern.
But was this a Ship of Fools, a Narrenschiff? Not exactly, we were fools not because of madness but because of being fooled. It was a ship of the fooled. The genuine boom of the post-war years and the credit bubble that followed encouraged ordinary people to aspire to consumption that was previously only possible for the wealthy . The cruise ship is part of that fantasy world in which everyone is “middle class,” a fantasy that is a feature of the economy now winding down. It is a good thing that these pleasures seem available for all, and the cruise is democratic in character once you have paid the stiff price of a ticket. It is meant as “affordable luxury.“ Every large ship on which my late wife Donna and I had previously sailed--with the exception of the Soviet ship the Alexander Pushkin--had a First Class from which we were firmly excluded. I remember that we tried to get a peek into First to spot celebrities--the kind of people who now travel by private yacht or private jet. Dress is now casual, and there were no tuxedos even on Gala Night. One meal a day is served with traditional restaurant service, but breakfast and lunch are usually taken from a buffet of one’s own choosing, including one always offering hamburgers and hot dogs. The entertainment was for all ages, but I would say 70s disco music got a heavy play. I did like the Cole Porter and Sinatra era piano music in the bars. The only entertainment that I disliked was an event in which fat men from among the passengers--not me though!--dressed in drag, but were mostly bare-chested with their layers of fat hanging out as they postured sexily (with bumps and grinds) to compete for applause and a prize. Well, different strokes for different folks.
People had fun, and that’s a good thing. Because port visits were on quick bus tours, I can’t say that anyone experienced a new country or culture. It reminds me of the resorts that I hear about where guards with machine guns protect the hotels used by Americans lest they come in contact with the natives. It also reminds me of some executives and university administrators who boast of their international experience, which seems to consist of having stayed in the Hilton in numerous cities around the world. Cruises will soon suffer from the brutal fact that the affluent “middle class” for whom cruises were created will find themselves again a struggling working-class.
While we were on our cruise, the protests against austerity programs contined across Europe. We, however, pushed on to Amsterdam, where the fantasy world that began in the the mid-70s there, continues, especially for narco-tourists, including many American students. Even there, however, there is a sense that the party is winding down. Proposed new regulations would turn the coffee shops that sell cannabis into private clubs that would not be open to foreign visitors, and the Dutch do not themselves smoke more dope per capita than people in neighboring countries. Earlier we had been in Ireland, where the Celtic Tiger economy is dead, and a grim reality is being faced. A strong protest movement in which the Socialist Party of Ireland (CWI) plays a leading role is, in effect, demanding default on Irish debt and independence from the Eurozone. Amsterdam and Dublin had been Ships of Fools during the bubble economy.
Opposition to the austerity measures is rapidly bringing large groups into protest. Diane and I got off the train at Charing Cross just as the huge protest against tuition increases was occurring at nearby Trafalgar Square. The station was in a chaotic condition, and we were hampered by too much baggage, so Diane’s wallet was snatched. What Marx calls “the dangerous classes" see opportunities in times of crisis, and so does the fascist movement. The challenge is to build the movement for socialism even more rapidly than the forces of barbarism grow. It’s time to disembark from Das Narrenschiff.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
It's Not Just About the Pensions--Listen to the Music
The protests that continue in France are not just about the pensions. The US media fail to understand that and also distort the pension --“Social Security” in the US--issue. The age for full pension benefits in France is 65. The Sarkozy government wants to raise that to 67. Just as Americans can start receiving Social Security benefits at a reduced rate at age 62, the French can get reduced payments at age 60, but only if they have worked for 40.5 years.
The early stages of the protests, largely organized by the trade unions, were a response to the proposed changes in the pension. For millions of French people the protests also became an opportunity to voice many other suppressed demands and dissatisfactions. The protests are rightly called a referendum on the Sarkozy administration, which is seen as pandering to the rich elites. The protests also target the huge economic inequality in French society, the squalor of the housing projects, and the way that immigrant populations have been received. The placards show a wide range of demands. In Nanterre, where, as in 1968, the protests are at times violent, issues include the fact that the opening of the University has this fall been delayed because of overcrowding, with 35,000 students squeezed onto a campus built for 14,000.
Taking to the streets and erecting barricades are what the French turn to when democratic participation in government policy is denied. Sarkozy is very unpopular. 70% of the French people support the strikers. The police are not liked because they resort too easily to violence.
My initial Wanderjahr project involved looking at the economic and cultural aspects of this late phase of late capitalism, particularly in Europe. Were I there, I would I hope grasp enough of the consciousness and mood of the protestors to offer some assessment. From this distance, the best insight that I have comes from the song adopted by the movement: “On Lache Rien” or “Never Give an Inch” as originally performed by HK and Les Saltimbanks but now cropping up everywhere on videos of the protests, on YouTube and other video and music-sharing sites.
“Never Give an Inch” speaks from the “urban project” and in behalf of “the homeless, the unemployed, workers/ Farmers, immigrants, the undocumented.” It directly indicts Sarkozy: “It’s crazy the way they’re protected/ All our rich and powerful/Not to mention the help they get/For being the friends of the president.” HK, who sings the song, is Kadour Haddadi, from an Algerian family settled in Calais. The music is a blend of Algerian Chaabi, reggae, rock, hip hop, blues, and gipsy, a mixture which reflects the emergent culture of France. But it must be heard, and its performance seen. It is perhaps the sound of revolution, but it is life-affirming, joyful, and sexual. One hears within it the potential for the completion within this new France of the project of human liberation that Marx set forth.
The early stages of the protests, largely organized by the trade unions, were a response to the proposed changes in the pension. For millions of French people the protests also became an opportunity to voice many other suppressed demands and dissatisfactions. The protests are rightly called a referendum on the Sarkozy administration, which is seen as pandering to the rich elites. The protests also target the huge economic inequality in French society, the squalor of the housing projects, and the way that immigrant populations have been received. The placards show a wide range of demands. In Nanterre, where, as in 1968, the protests are at times violent, issues include the fact that the opening of the University has this fall been delayed because of overcrowding, with 35,000 students squeezed onto a campus built for 14,000.
Taking to the streets and erecting barricades are what the French turn to when democratic participation in government policy is denied. Sarkozy is very unpopular. 70% of the French people support the strikers. The police are not liked because they resort too easily to violence.
My initial Wanderjahr project involved looking at the economic and cultural aspects of this late phase of late capitalism, particularly in Europe. Were I there, I would I hope grasp enough of the consciousness and mood of the protestors to offer some assessment. From this distance, the best insight that I have comes from the song adopted by the movement: “On Lache Rien” or “Never Give an Inch” as originally performed by HK and Les Saltimbanks but now cropping up everywhere on videos of the protests, on YouTube and other video and music-sharing sites.
“Never Give an Inch” speaks from the “urban project” and in behalf of “the homeless, the unemployed, workers/ Farmers, immigrants, the undocumented.” It directly indicts Sarkozy: “It’s crazy the way they’re protected/ All our rich and powerful/Not to mention the help they get/For being the friends of the president.” HK, who sings the song, is Kadour Haddadi, from an Algerian family settled in Calais. The music is a blend of Algerian Chaabi, reggae, rock, hip hop, blues, and gipsy, a mixture which reflects the emergent culture of France. But it must be heard, and its performance seen. It is perhaps the sound of revolution, but it is life-affirming, joyful, and sexual. One hears within it the potential for the completion within this new France of the project of human liberation that Marx set forth.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The Tea Party on the Eve of Mid-term Elections
Earlier in the blog, I expressed the opinion that there is not substantial evidence for the rise of a fascist movement in the United States. And, even though some leading figures in the Tea Party and one of its internal tendencies have, as the Guardian (UK) reported, allied themselves, with a violent neo-fascist group in England, I am still not convinced that neo-fascism is precisely what the Tea Party as a whole intends to embrace. I must now, however, admit that the danger of a turn to overt fascism exists and try to explain why it does.
I quoted earlier in the blog the formula that says that fascism is the socialism of the middle class. I also tried to explain that the illusion that someone is “middle class,” although really a well-paid member of the working-class, is a fantasy fed by genuine boom periods or by credit bubbles such as the one recently ended. With the disappointment, felt in both consumption and aspiration, that ensues when the boom ends or the bubble bursts, a labor aristocracy experiences the same emotions as the fading petite bourgeoisie (the class of small shopkeepers), and these emotions are largely those of fear.
The fears of a “middle class” are fears of falling into a working-class that lacks opportunities for consumption and prestige. Fascist groups have directed such fears into suspicion of working-class organizations and of socialists, who are reputed to be levelers or equalizers. This ’middle class” itself finds groups to scapegoat for reduced opportunities. It fears minorities who take jobs and university places through affirmative action and immigrants who receive support from the taxes the middle class feels itself unfairly forced to pay. It resists welfare programs that tend to equalize quality of life between the middle class and the lower orders. It feels that the American way of life is what brought its own benefits, and it fears the enemies of America, whether political or ideological. 9/11 added an immediate sense of being under siege, and one result is the anti-Islamic hysteria of one wing of the Tea Party including those in discussions with the English Defence League in the UK.
An identity coming out of all these middle class fears would seem to present a group of people ready for fascism: disappointed, robbed of their chances, scapegoating Reds (including the “Marxist” Obama), Affirmative Action recipients (seen as African-American and Hispanic or even, simply, female), and immigrants, and ready to cleanse America of the Muslim menace. They look for a strong and charismatic Leader (Glenn Beck? Sarah Palin?). They defend their right to bear arms (as I do myself). For the most part, the Tea Party supports the costly wars that are one large factor in their threatened impoverishment. They have strong financial support and a major television network to back them up. Do they project a new form--or is it an old form?-- of patriotic, industrial, and military state? The neoconservative intellectuals serve them by putting an intellectual gloss on such a vision when they pontificate on Fox News.
I must seem pretty naïve to my faithful reader by not getting the point by now, but I still wonder whether they are, precisely, fascist. They will certainly take their revenge on their perceived enemies by assuring the election of representatives who will cut funding of social services--and giving tax cuts to the party’s wealthy supporters. They are definitely an electoral force. I don’t, however, believe that they do envision a society in which a powerful centralized government with pervasive military and police control runs the country for the benefit of the corporations--or for the benefit of what I think I’ll call the Financial, Industrial, Military, Political Complex (FIMPCO). Perhaps I take their Libertarian rhetoric too seriously. Maybe I shouldn’t believe that they dislike big government, but in the bank bailouts FIMPCO exerted its presence and power, and the Tea Party didn’t like it. With the austerity programs now, however, beginning to wreak destruction at the state and city level, the recession will worsen. The bottom won’t, I think, be reached until 2012--without prospects for an upturn. Maybe the uniforms, armbands, and jack boots will have more appeal for these people by then. And I will be one of those who could not see the dangers.
I quoted earlier in the blog the formula that says that fascism is the socialism of the middle class. I also tried to explain that the illusion that someone is “middle class,” although really a well-paid member of the working-class, is a fantasy fed by genuine boom periods or by credit bubbles such as the one recently ended. With the disappointment, felt in both consumption and aspiration, that ensues when the boom ends or the bubble bursts, a labor aristocracy experiences the same emotions as the fading petite bourgeoisie (the class of small shopkeepers), and these emotions are largely those of fear.
The fears of a “middle class” are fears of falling into a working-class that lacks opportunities for consumption and prestige. Fascist groups have directed such fears into suspicion of working-class organizations and of socialists, who are reputed to be levelers or equalizers. This ’middle class” itself finds groups to scapegoat for reduced opportunities. It fears minorities who take jobs and university places through affirmative action and immigrants who receive support from the taxes the middle class feels itself unfairly forced to pay. It resists welfare programs that tend to equalize quality of life between the middle class and the lower orders. It feels that the American way of life is what brought its own benefits, and it fears the enemies of America, whether political or ideological. 9/11 added an immediate sense of being under siege, and one result is the anti-Islamic hysteria of one wing of the Tea Party including those in discussions with the English Defence League in the UK.
An identity coming out of all these middle class fears would seem to present a group of people ready for fascism: disappointed, robbed of their chances, scapegoating Reds (including the “Marxist” Obama), Affirmative Action recipients (seen as African-American and Hispanic or even, simply, female), and immigrants, and ready to cleanse America of the Muslim menace. They look for a strong and charismatic Leader (Glenn Beck? Sarah Palin?). They defend their right to bear arms (as I do myself). For the most part, the Tea Party supports the costly wars that are one large factor in their threatened impoverishment. They have strong financial support and a major television network to back them up. Do they project a new form--or is it an old form?-- of patriotic, industrial, and military state? The neoconservative intellectuals serve them by putting an intellectual gloss on such a vision when they pontificate on Fox News.
I must seem pretty naïve to my faithful reader by not getting the point by now, but I still wonder whether they are, precisely, fascist. They will certainly take their revenge on their perceived enemies by assuring the election of representatives who will cut funding of social services--and giving tax cuts to the party’s wealthy supporters. They are definitely an electoral force. I don’t, however, believe that they do envision a society in which a powerful centralized government with pervasive military and police control runs the country for the benefit of the corporations--or for the benefit of what I think I’ll call the Financial, Industrial, Military, Political Complex (FIMPCO). Perhaps I take their Libertarian rhetoric too seriously. Maybe I shouldn’t believe that they dislike big government, but in the bank bailouts FIMPCO exerted its presence and power, and the Tea Party didn’t like it. With the austerity programs now, however, beginning to wreak destruction at the state and city level, the recession will worsen. The bottom won’t, I think, be reached until 2012--without prospects for an upturn. Maybe the uniforms, armbands, and jack boots will have more appeal for these people by then. And I will be one of those who could not see the dangers.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Twilight of the Liberals
The sun shone brightly at the One Nation Working Together rally in Washington, D.C. on October 2, and there may have been 100,000 people there, but watching all four hours of it on C-Span, I realized that I was watching the Twilight of the Liberals. It was perhaps not yet their death agony, and there was energy and eloquence throughout, but the speakers were caught up in the dilemma of reformists, the dilemma of the social democracy, and the dilemma of the parties of the Second International. Indeed there was not even the electoral campaign of a party like Britain’s compromised Labour Party to support --although there were numerous speakers from the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that has been given Second International recognition. The DSA, however, supports the Democrats, and that points up the fatal contradiction in the claim to relevance made by the participating groups.
The contradiction that was almost always at work was evident in one of the best speeches, that by Harry Belafonte. He clearly condemned Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and pointed to Congress’s having funded it over social programs. Then he went into a sustained litany about being sure to vote in November.
For whom are we supposed to vote? One guy had a sign that said, “I’ll vote. You betcha.” Yeah, but for whom?
This movement, sincere and eloquent, has no electoral outlet. And some of the speakers were the same kind of trade unionists who killed off the Labor Party that we were trying to create with them.
The One Nation rally was undertaken to show the relevance of these activist groups in meeting the unmet needs of this country, but such groups come up against the fact that capitalism cannot be reformed. The Democrats and Republicans will finally say, “We can’t afford it”--a statement that means that Our Masters cannot afford it. Systemic change is needed, but the corporation-supported parties--Democrats and Republicans, ultimately the parties of Wall Street-- cannot run on a platform of genuine change. How would they get campaign contributions?
It was the end of an era, a twilight, for the forces that ended segregation, fought for basic healthcare, equal pay, and educational opportunity. It was the end of the Great Society, the end of the 1960s, a twilight or worse. Without a party to sustain it, the movement is dead.
The most encouraging aspect of the day’s events was the presence of many young people. They heard what demands can be made. And, although not invited to speak, the socialists did turn out. I hope that they succeeded in revealing some glimmerings of the socialist alternative.
****
In the meantime, the struggle continues in Europe. The RMT has shut down London again today in its effort to stop job cuts on the Underground. The new leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has not yet endorsed the strike and is unlikely to do so. Ironically enough, he was called “Red Ed’” as a candidate for the party leadership. Instead, good old “Red Ken” (as he’s been called for ages) Livingstone has come out in support of the RMT. The Left in Britain has rightly been critical of Livingstone since his return to the reformist Labour Party, but he does have some memory of what it means to be pro-labor. In the UK, and in the USA, what is needed is a new mass worker’s party. In the USA, we haven’t approached that since the days of Eugene V. Debs.
The contradiction that was almost always at work was evident in one of the best speeches, that by Harry Belafonte. He clearly condemned Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and pointed to Congress’s having funded it over social programs. Then he went into a sustained litany about being sure to vote in November.
For whom are we supposed to vote? One guy had a sign that said, “I’ll vote. You betcha.” Yeah, but for whom?
This movement, sincere and eloquent, has no electoral outlet. And some of the speakers were the same kind of trade unionists who killed off the Labor Party that we were trying to create with them.
The One Nation rally was undertaken to show the relevance of these activist groups in meeting the unmet needs of this country, but such groups come up against the fact that capitalism cannot be reformed. The Democrats and Republicans will finally say, “We can’t afford it”--a statement that means that Our Masters cannot afford it. Systemic change is needed, but the corporation-supported parties--Democrats and Republicans, ultimately the parties of Wall Street-- cannot run on a platform of genuine change. How would they get campaign contributions?
It was the end of an era, a twilight, for the forces that ended segregation, fought for basic healthcare, equal pay, and educational opportunity. It was the end of the Great Society, the end of the 1960s, a twilight or worse. Without a party to sustain it, the movement is dead.
The most encouraging aspect of the day’s events was the presence of many young people. They heard what demands can be made. And, although not invited to speak, the socialists did turn out. I hope that they succeeded in revealing some glimmerings of the socialist alternative.
****
In the meantime, the struggle continues in Europe. The RMT has shut down London again today in its effort to stop job cuts on the Underground. The new leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has not yet endorsed the strike and is unlikely to do so. Ironically enough, he was called “Red Ed’” as a candidate for the party leadership. Instead, good old “Red Ken” (as he’s been called for ages) Livingstone has come out in support of the RMT. The Left in Britain has rightly been critical of Livingstone since his return to the reformist Labour Party, but he does have some memory of what it means to be pro-labor. In the UK, and in the USA, what is needed is a new mass worker’s party. In the USA, we haven’t approached that since the days of Eugene V. Debs.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Understanding the Line of March
The general strike in Spain, continued confrontation in Greece, a mass rally in Brussels, and auxiliary actions elsewhere all took place on September 29, yesterday, as planned. News reports have been a little hard to find, but the Guardian(UK) and Morning Star(UK) websites have done a pretty good job. The website of the CWI not only offers on-the-scene reports--from Greece and Brussels in particular--but some solid analysis of what the Left usually calls the Line of March--I.e, the way forward. I thought that I should myself say something about what to expect as the struggle continues. I do admit, however, that it is difficult at this distance to assess the mood of the European working-class.
Support for the actual strikes, as well as for marches and demonstrations without strikes, has been strong. Still, the time will come when some who do not feel themselves directly affected by the cuts will hesitate to give up another day’s pay. Nonetheless, as the RMT strike in London proved, one union in one industry can paralyze a city, and the cuts will shame the leadership of other unions into action. The hard left will make some gains in membership in the process, but the well-known pattern is that workers turn first to their trade unions and then to the established workers’ parties in a time of economic crisis. The parties of the Second International do, however, find themselves in a compromised position. So-called “Socialist” parties are implementing the austerity programs in Greece and Spain, and the Labour Party in the UK had already worked out a program of cuts before its recent electoral defeat. Circumstances would seem to favor parties with more radical programs to offer. Against the “Socialists” in Greece, the Greek section of the CWI campaigns with the slogans “Don’t Pay the Debt,” “Nationalize the Banks,” and “Tax the Rich.”
The protestors in Europe are conscious of their working-class identity. In the USA, the most successful protest movement, the Tea Party, defends those who imagine themselves to be “middle class” (see earlier blogs for discussion of this largely American fantasy), and I am fairly certain that this formation will assure victory in the November 2010 elections for the Republicans, possibly including control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives. The American version of the European austerity programs is being implemented unevenly and at the state-level, but these cuts should assure a double-dip recession. At this critical moment, there is to be an appeal to the hearts and minds of working people, including those in the Tea Party, with a mass demonstration for jobs and peace in Washington, D.C. on October 2. Just as the European demonstrations and strikes were in part a show of strength by the weakened trade unions in those countries, the UAW and RainbowPush organized this event, with a preview event in Detroit in August, to show that they are still relevant to the lives of the working class. With AFL-CIO and NAACP support, and with the participation of the American Left, the event will be too large to ignore. Unfortunately, the Democrats will try to high-jack this event, participating in what should be seen as a protest against their own policies as the party in power. I have not heard whether Obama will speak.
All in all, it is still early days. The CWI is calling for protests that become multi-national in scope. The large protest in Brussels did include delegations from several European countries, and, with the European Central Bank and the IMF as the major players in the austerity programs, it is impossible not to see the crisis as encompassing many countries. A small event in solidarity with the Europeans was held at the Massachusetts State House yesterday with Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Party, and the IWW participating.
It is also early days in the economic crisis. Austerity measures will make it worse. The most basic rule of Keynesian economics says that you don’t cut in a recession. Europe and the states are doing that. American economists watch the consumer confidence number that the University of Michigan produces monthly. That number will continue to fall. The capitalist confidence number will continue to fall too--that’s called the Dow-Jones Industrial Average! Robert Prechter was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on CNBC a couple of days ago. He said that technical analysis based on the Elliott Wave Theory forecasts the Dow falling to 1,000. Bartiromo struggled desperately to keep a straight face, and finally failed in the effort. Well, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. . . .
Support for the actual strikes, as well as for marches and demonstrations without strikes, has been strong. Still, the time will come when some who do not feel themselves directly affected by the cuts will hesitate to give up another day’s pay. Nonetheless, as the RMT strike in London proved, one union in one industry can paralyze a city, and the cuts will shame the leadership of other unions into action. The hard left will make some gains in membership in the process, but the well-known pattern is that workers turn first to their trade unions and then to the established workers’ parties in a time of economic crisis. The parties of the Second International do, however, find themselves in a compromised position. So-called “Socialist” parties are implementing the austerity programs in Greece and Spain, and the Labour Party in the UK had already worked out a program of cuts before its recent electoral defeat. Circumstances would seem to favor parties with more radical programs to offer. Against the “Socialists” in Greece, the Greek section of the CWI campaigns with the slogans “Don’t Pay the Debt,” “Nationalize the Banks,” and “Tax the Rich.”
The protestors in Europe are conscious of their working-class identity. In the USA, the most successful protest movement, the Tea Party, defends those who imagine themselves to be “middle class” (see earlier blogs for discussion of this largely American fantasy), and I am fairly certain that this formation will assure victory in the November 2010 elections for the Republicans, possibly including control of the Senate as well as the House of Representatives. The American version of the European austerity programs is being implemented unevenly and at the state-level, but these cuts should assure a double-dip recession. At this critical moment, there is to be an appeal to the hearts and minds of working people, including those in the Tea Party, with a mass demonstration for jobs and peace in Washington, D.C. on October 2. Just as the European demonstrations and strikes were in part a show of strength by the weakened trade unions in those countries, the UAW and RainbowPush organized this event, with a preview event in Detroit in August, to show that they are still relevant to the lives of the working class. With AFL-CIO and NAACP support, and with the participation of the American Left, the event will be too large to ignore. Unfortunately, the Democrats will try to high-jack this event, participating in what should be seen as a protest against their own policies as the party in power. I have not heard whether Obama will speak.
All in all, it is still early days. The CWI is calling for protests that become multi-national in scope. The large protest in Brussels did include delegations from several European countries, and, with the European Central Bank and the IMF as the major players in the austerity programs, it is impossible not to see the crisis as encompassing many countries. A small event in solidarity with the Europeans was held at the Massachusetts State House yesterday with Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Party, and the IWW participating.
It is also early days in the economic crisis. Austerity measures will make it worse. The most basic rule of Keynesian economics says that you don’t cut in a recession. Europe and the states are doing that. American economists watch the consumer confidence number that the University of Michigan produces monthly. That number will continue to fall. The capitalist confidence number will continue to fall too--that’s called the Dow-Jones Industrial Average! Robert Prechter was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on CNBC a couple of days ago. He said that technical analysis based on the Elliott Wave Theory forecasts the Dow falling to 1,000. Bartiromo struggled desperately to keep a straight face, and finally failed in the effort. Well, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. . . .
Monday, September 20, 2010
Changing the Subject
Enough about me. This long digression into one thread in my life history was meant to locate the “subject” in the subjective responses that I hope to supply to current events through writing this blog. I am aware that Zizek labels the “subject” a “fiction” and in saying that he supports a consensus that twentieth century French philosophy also reached. My readers, if I have any, may be surprised to find that I agree with Zizek and the French, but I do not follow their tortuous path to that conclusion from the neo-Freudianism of Lacan. I feel that Engels takes us down that route in his insight that in the division of labor human individuals are themselves divided.
The division of labor means that we are denied the use of the wide-ranging creativity that we possess. The free development of each is not possible under capitalism. Instead, we suffer alienation from ourselves and from our labor. In this state, we reason from a false consciousness and produce ideology rather than science. The hegemonic forces in our culture, shaped to defend capitalism, further block us from knowledge of our own humanity. We occupy an “identity” that can fairly be called a fiction.
Marx saw that humans differed from other species in their ability consciously to change the world. They perform conscious labor upon the world to provide sustenance for themselves and their offspring. The alienation endured under capitalism divorces us from this fundamental transformative power, from the full humanity found in free conscious labor. The individual in the species fears the extinction of his own identity through death even though that identity is, as all seem to agree, a “fiction,” and there is no comforting that fear. An identity that is not a fiction is to be found only as the individual resumes the potentialities of species being. In creating socialism, we initiate the return to the humanity of species being. To not be a socialist is to be less than human.
While I have pursued my navel-gazing here--what better metaphor for exploring one’s subjectivity?--the European working-class has again been on the move. You have to love the French. Now even the champagne makers and bottlers are on strike. And autumn is here.
The division of labor means that we are denied the use of the wide-ranging creativity that we possess. The free development of each is not possible under capitalism. Instead, we suffer alienation from ourselves and from our labor. In this state, we reason from a false consciousness and produce ideology rather than science. The hegemonic forces in our culture, shaped to defend capitalism, further block us from knowledge of our own humanity. We occupy an “identity” that can fairly be called a fiction.
Marx saw that humans differed from other species in their ability consciously to change the world. They perform conscious labor upon the world to provide sustenance for themselves and their offspring. The alienation endured under capitalism divorces us from this fundamental transformative power, from the full humanity found in free conscious labor. The individual in the species fears the extinction of his own identity through death even though that identity is, as all seem to agree, a “fiction,” and there is no comforting that fear. An identity that is not a fiction is to be found only as the individual resumes the potentialities of species being. In creating socialism, we initiate the return to the humanity of species being. To not be a socialist is to be less than human.
While I have pursued my navel-gazing here--what better metaphor for exploring one’s subjectivity?--the European working-class has again been on the move. You have to love the French. Now even the champagne makers and bottlers are on strike. And autumn is here.
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