Book
Resensies
Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United State By Craig Hughes, Steve Peace, and Kevin Van Meter for the Team Colors Collective (ed.)
AK Press: Oakland, 2010, 400 pp.
Winds from Below: Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible by Team Color Collective (ed.)
Microcosm Publishing:
Reviews by Robert Ovetz
Where are the pitchforks and torches? That’s the number one question following the meager response to the meltdown of the
Contributer George Caffentzis lays out the mission of Gebruike van 'n warrelwind in his piece “Notes on the financial crisis”: “If class struggles had the power to create the crisis, then understanding them might guide us to the path that would lead out of the crisis with more class power.” Caffentzis has continued his project begun with Zerowork and Midnight Notes in the 1970s to illuminate new forms of working class struggle that lay just beyond our perception. At first glance, long stagnant median wages, vastly increased work, castrated labor unions, eroded social programs, exploding personal debt, and the evaporation of trillions of dollars of household wealth would seem to point to absolute and utter decomposition of the U.S. and global working class. After 30-plus years of defeat after bloody defeat, it now appears that business and the neoliberal state are going in for the kill. Not so, suggests Brian Marks in “Living in a whirlwind.” Marks’s analysis sweeps the reader across the landscape of pitched battles over wages, rural enclosures, and debt financed growth in
Om die oorsaak van die krisis te verstaan, is meer as om bloot te dokumenteer hoe “finansiering” van kapitaal ’n vlug van “produktiewe” belegging is. Noukeurige en deeglike ontleding is nodig om te verstaan waarom die vlug sedert die 1990's meer woes geword het. Dit is veral nodig aangesien neoliberale herstrukturering blykbaar onverpoosd voortgegaan het in die hersamestelling van kapitaal se mag sedert die historiese nederlae van die 1930's tot die vroeë 1970's.
The missing pieces make the puzzle, Marks seems to be saying. Yet, as far as class analysis goes, the dynamic process of conflict means both that the pieces have yet to be cut and we still lack a complete picture of the spaces in which they fit. This is what he suggests when he concludes that “the tools of class composition analysis and militant research…are a good place to begin mapping class composition and plotting a course towards recompo- sition.”
Terwyl die Team Colors Collective saamstem in beide Marks en Caffentzis se missie om 'n opkomende wêreldwye werkersklas-hersamestelling van mag te dokumenteer en te verwoord, val sommige van die res van die bundel verkeerd. Baie van die bydraers voeg min of niks by tot Team Colors se projek nie. Afgesien van baie insiggewende deelnemer-waarnemings van hoe om onseker dienswerkers deur die Starbucks Workers Union te organiseer en die hurkbewegings onder leiding van Take Back the Land and City Life/Vida Urbana te laat herleef, Gebruike van 'n warrelwind moet meer selektief wees om te verseker dat bydraers in staat is om by te dra tot die projek. Dit is onduidelik of die oorblywende bydraers óf die missie deel óf oor die analitiese raamwerk of gereedskap beskik om die vereiste swaar analitiese opheffing te doen. Gevolglik trek sommige van die bydraers te maklik terug in verslete formule- en sinnelose oordrywing van watter aktivistiese projek hulle ook al behoort. Maar soos Team Colors self getuig, maak aktivistiese bewegings en nie-regeringsorganisasies wat deur korporatiewe stigtings befonds word nie 'n beweging of hersaamgestelde werkersklas nie.
While Team Colors’ intent was to give voice to those in the midst of battle, this invaluable project would have been much better served if they had done the analyses themselves—as they manage to do in their compact companion Winde van onder. This essential volume, which was intended to be their theoretical contribution to Gebruike van 'n warrelwind, lays out their analysis of working class recomposition in the
Team Colors se mees insiggewende insig is dat om hulself voort te plant, werkersklasbewegings moet organiseer vir die voortplanting van hul lede as mense met werklike behoeftes vir wat hulle "sorg" noem. Leen van Sylvia Federici se bydrae in Gebruike van 'n warrelwind, "Feminisme en die politiek van die gemeenskaplike gemeenskappe in 'n era van primitiewe akkumulasie," kom Team Colors tot die gevolgtrekking dat "die potensiaal van selfreproduserende bewegings ... is dat dit poog om hierdie voortplanting te hersentreer as 'n organiserende prinsipaal en praktyk." Team Colors herinner ons blykbaar dat die pad na sukses vir baie militante bewegings deur die verlede in die Amerikaanse geskiedenis en meer onlangs in Latyns-Amerika en die Midde-Ooste is dat hierdie bewegings hul mag opgebou en onderhou het deur nie net kapitaal te konfronteer nie, maar selforganiseer die groeiende onvervulde behoeftes vir kindersorg, onderwys, kos, behuising, gesondheid, geselskap en selfs musiek. Die verwesenliking en sirkulasie van hierdie klein "toekoms in die hede", soos CLR James dit genoem het, is noodsaaklik as ons wil voortgaan om ons klasmag te hersaamstel in die aangesig van die meedoënlose neoliberale aanranding.
Vir Team Colors word die duisternis wat voor ons gelê het net soveel veroorsaak deur die afwesigheid van die fakkels as die dowwe ligte van ons analitiese gereedskap. Die pad deur, beweer hulle, is om op ons eie outonome vermoë te gebruik om die soort samelewing te bou wat ons nou wil hê.
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Robert Ovetz is a precarious mindworker of academia at several
How Working People Can Regain Power And Transform
Resensie deur Carl Finamore
'n Nuwe boek deur arbeidsprokureur en veteraanvakbondonderhandelaar Joe Burns, Herleef die staking, is a valuable contribution to resurrecting fundamental lessons from the neglected history of American labor. As the title suggests and as he emphasized to me, “The only way we can revive the labor movement is to revive a strike based on the traditional tactics of the labor movement.” But he doesn’t stop there. The author reviews for the reader the full range of tactics and strategy during the exciting, turbulent, and often violent history of American labor.
Refreshingly, he also provides critical assessments normally avoided by labor analysts of a whole series of union tactics that have grown enormously popular over the last several decades. For example, he examines and reviews the mixed results of boycotts, temporary strikes of very short duration, and corporate campaigns. Even organizing the unorganized membership drives come under his scrutiny for a bit of criticism, especially when they are mistakenly cast as the main formula for reversing labor’s rapid descent. Membership will only increase, Burns believes, once labor adopts a more militant strategy, outlined in the book, which successfully leads to substantial economic gains for workers. Here, the author refers to the experience of the 1930s when millions flocked to fledgling unions only because they were seen as immediately capable of improving the everyday lives of working people.
It will be similar victories, Burns strongly emphasizes, and not any secret- weapon ingenious organizing techniques that will boost union membership. But Burns reserves most of the blame for labor’s alarming decline on the last several generations of union leaders who have largely abandoned labor’s most powerful weapons of striking, of establishing national industry contract standards and of standing for solidarity with others under attack from capital. And, of course, the author particularly deplores the virtual disappearance from today’s labor scene of classical strikes that totally shut down production.
Hy haal statistieke aan dat “in 1952 was daar 470 groot stakings (dié van meer as 1,000 2,746,000 werkers) waarby 2008 15 72,000 werkers betrokke was. Daarenteen was daar vandag, in XNUMX, net XNUMX groot werkonderbrekings, waarby XNUMX XNUMX werkers betrokke was.”
Herwin ons geskiedenis
Of course, workers engage in strikes only as a last resort, when all other forms of negotiations have broken down, because it is well understood the conflicts involved such big personal commitments. Harry Bridges, International Longshore & Warehouse union (ILWU) founder and leader of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, compared a strike to a small revolution in his oral history, “Centennial Retrospective”: “You see, in a small way, temporarily, a strike is a small revolution. It simply means a form of revolution because you take over an industry or a plant owned by the capitalists and temporarily you seize it. Temporarily you take it away.”
Die
Beperkings op die mobilisering van lidmaatskapmag as die finale arbiter in arbeidsgeskille het verskerp met die moeilike 1947 "Slave-Labor" Taft-Hartley-wet en die 1959 Landrum-Griffin-wetgewing. Die leser behoort dit nogal interessant te vind om die besonderhede te leer van hoe arbeidsmilitantheid en die vermoë om die lidmaatskap te mobiliseer toenemend deur hierdie regeringsregulasies ingekort is.
Nuwe strategieë vervang die staking
To traditional trade unionists, the point of a strike was to stop production or otherwise inflict sufficient economic harm to force an employer to agree to union demands. That simple, commonsense notion formed the basis of labor economics for the first 150-odd years of American trade unionism. “By the 1980s, however, conventional wisdom had reversed, and stopping production had become a fringe idea. That, more than anything else,” the author concludes, “explains the weakness of the modern union movement.”
As gevolg hiervan, voer Burns aan, het die meeste vakbonde grootliks laat vaar om 'n werkgewer heeltemal te sluit as deel van hul strategie. Soos vroeër genoem, aanvaar sommige korttermyn een-, twee- of driedaagse stakings as alternatief; ander neem korporatiewe veldtogte aan wat die fokus nog verder verskuif van massa-optogte by die werkplek.
Alhoewel sommige gedeeltelike oorwinnings met hierdie taktiek behaal is, veral die JP Stevens se korporatiewe veldtog van die laat 1970's, en onlangse hotelvakbondoorwinnings wat beide boikotte en korttermynstakings gebruik, kan geen van hierdie benaderings, beweer die skrywer, die arbeid se in die vergetelheid dompel. Burns verwerp hierdie benaderings nie soseer heeltemal as deel van 'n algehele program nie, hy verwerp dit bloot as 'n plaasvervanger vir 'n meer militante strategie wat begin met die sluiting van produksie. Hy skryf byvoorbeeld "terwyl die korporatiewe veldtog soms saam met 'n stakingstrategie kan werk, sal dit nooit 'n staking vervang wat produksie stop nie."
Hy het 'n punt.
Recent public employee battles in
The dilemma of our times is that unions react defensively rather than offensively to the numerous and myriad undemocratic restrictions on our freedom of mass assembly, of free speech, and of our rights to express solidarity through secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes. Unjust laws must be aggressively challenged that prevent people from organizing massive picket lines capable of shutting down production and stopping scabs from taking their jobs. This is the history of labor and it is well documented by Burns. In fact, it is the history of the
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Carl Finamore is Machinist Local 1781 afgevaardigde na die San Francisco Labour Council, AFL-CIO.
A Queer History of the
Resensie deur Michael McGehee
Michael Bronski se nuwe boek 'n Queer-geskiedenis van die Verenigde State is to the history of sexuality in this country as Howard Zinn’s classic 'N Volksgeskiedenis van die Verenigde State is tot die geskiedenis van klassestryd. En terwyl Bronski se boek nie amptelik deel is van die 'n Volksgeskiedenis reeks, moet dit regtig wees. Soos Zinn se werk en diegene wat in sy voetspore gevolg het, gaan Bronski se nuwe boek daaroor om 'n meer volledige weergawe van ons geskiedenis te verskaf.
American history, as taught in our public education system, is often presented in a very narrow fashion that tells the stories of presidents, members of Congress, military leaders, and leaders from the business community (with a sprinkle of everyday people who made a big impact). History is often left to the study of political events and students are simply taught to learn names, dates, and places. Then they take a test and that is all. To make matters worse, history is often sanitized so that students only learn what is “proper,” or as it is for my state of
“Throughout social studies in Kindergarten-Grade 12, students build a foundation in history [that] enables students to understand the importance of patriotism, function in a free enterprise society, and appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation,” as referenced in the Texas Education Code (TEC). Students learn that Martin Luther King Jr had a “dream” but they do not learn that he was growing more radical against war, militarism, and capitalism. And students learn that Helen Keller overcame the adversities of being blind, deaf, and mute and learned to communicate, but learn nothing of her socialist and feminist views. And what of the sexuality of Walt Whitman or Eleanor Roosevelt? There is a wide gap in what students learn for it is these ignored social elements that were a big part in defining who these people were. This gap, at least in regards to sexuality (though he does touch on race, gender, culture, class and politics), is what Bronski goes a long way to fill in with his book.
Bronski is quick to point out that history is more than politics or economics. It’s not always sanitary (it can be very messy and outrageous to prevailing senses of normalcy) and it’s not about just knowing general information of particular events. It’s about knowing who we are, even those considered to be on the fringe, and how who we have been and where we have gone has brought us to where we are today. Do we want right-wing Christians using mob rule to limit the constitutional rights of other citizens, or for the government to use epidemics to police the sexuality of those deemed deviant simply because they do not reflect the lifestyles of the “general community”?
And as far as our collective sense of sexuality is concerned Bronski does just that—he richly explores our history from the earliest days of when Europeans stepped foot on the continents of the Western Hemisphere to 1990, at which point he says we are leaving history and entering the realm of “news.” In this reviewer’s opinion the book is a valuable contribution to American history. In fact, when I finished reading the book I thought to myself, “I may not be queer—outside of my absence of bigotry I am a pretty ‘normal’ heterosexual male—but if I were I would be loud and proud about it.” Because what Bronski shows is that a liberated sexuality—the advancement in personal freedom to explore and discover one’s self is always a good thing—has come a long way from colonists dismembering indigenous people to feed to dogs because those Europeans were disturbed by the natives different culture of sexuality.
The social purity movements, the wars, the urbanization, the move from biological families to social communities, the emergence of a consumer market for LGBT people, and the social achievements in labor and race and gender have all impacted the queer community—because they too were workers or of a certain skin pigmentation or were women or were natives or immigrants—and helped give them a sense of identity and community. These social achievements of the oppressed, the persecuted and disenfranchised have a rich history in civil disobedience, agitation, and direct action. Bronski touches on these actions and I bring this up because it is something students are too often robbed of understanding. The progress we have made in this country has not been by voting or leaving our struggles to political leaders to decide the outcomes. Just as slaves did not vote for abolition so too did women not vote for suffrage or workers for labor rights or African Americans to end Jim Crow laws or LGBT people for broader tolerance, acceptance, and equal protection under the law. The ongoing issue of getting protection from the law while also getting government out of our personal lives is likely to come from a variety of tactics to aid our struggles, and though voting may in some settings be a useful tool, community organizing, civil disobedience, direct action and other activities outside of lobbying politicians or voting will undoubtedly be necessary, as history ought to show us.
I would like to imagine that one day our government, under pressure of successful social movements, will establish a Queer History Month so that students can learn about the history of sexuality and Bronski’s A Queer History will be an important reference. That would be the first step and who knows? Maybe from there it—as well as Black History Month or maybe even Class History Month—will be incorporated into classes as a complementary view of history. Because as Bronski concluded in his epilogue: "All of which goes to prove that LGBT people are simply Americans—no less and no more. The idea of
Their history is our history and should be recorded and taught as such.
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Michael McGehee is an independent writer and working class family man from Kennedale, Texas.