Lost Writings of SDS..
Revolutionary Youth the the New Working Class: The Praxis Papers, the Port Authority Statement, the RYM Documents and other Lost Writings of SDS
Edited by Carl Davidson
Changemaker, 273pp, $22.50
For the full contents, click the link and view 'Preview' under the cover graphic.
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By Randy Shannon, CCDS
choice "Everyone has the right to work, to free of employment, to
just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment."
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948
I. Introduction
The "Great Recession" that began in 2007 has caused the greatest
percent of job losses since the Great Depression of 1929. This crisis is
the end of an era of unrestrained 'neo-liberal' capitalism that became
public policy during the Reagan administration. The crisis marks a new
level of instability with the growth of a global financial elite that
targeted US workers and our trade unions after World War II. |
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Capitalism may well collapse under its own excesses, but what would one
propose to replace it? Margaret Thatcher's mantra was TINA...There Is No
Alternative. David Schweickart's vision of "Economic Democracy"
proposes a serious alternative. Even more fundamentally, it opens the
door to thinking about alternatives. His may or may not turn out to be
the definitive "successor system," but he is a leader in breaking out of
the box. |
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Lenin Rediscovered:
What Is To Be Done in Context
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Why 'What Is To Be Done' Is a Champion of Democracy. Appendix includes a new translation of the original work.
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An Invitation to CCDSers and Friends...
OWS Under Fire: Will Oakland Strike?
We're the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism...Do you have friends who should see this? Pass it on...Do you have a blog of your own? Others you love to read every day? Well, this is a place where you can share access to them with the rest of your comrades. Just pick your greatest hits for the week and send them to us at carld717@gmail.com! Most of all, it's urgent that you oppose austerity, make solidarity with the Occupy! movement and end the wars! We're doing more than ever, and have big plans. So pay your dues, make a donation and become a sustainer. Do it Now! Check the link at the bottom... |
Oakland Police Violence Raises
the Stakes for the OWS Movement
Despite the police's inept, violent crowd control tactics, a number of protesters said they were steadfast in their goal of reclaiming the space.
By Joshua Holland Alternet.org
Alternet Editor's note: after this article was published, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released a statement in which she promised "a minimal police presence at the plaza for the short term," and "a community effort to improve communications and dialogue with the demonstrators." Quan also said the city would investigate certain acts of police violence on October 25.
Oct 27, 2011 - Occupy Oakland has been the target of a notably vicious smear campaign mounted by the conservative media. They didn't just offer the usual pabulum about how the occupiers hated America or were closet socialists. They painted them as sub-human: mired in filth and gripped by violent anarchy. One right-wing blogger wrote a post amplifying an un-named police officer's comparison of the camp to "The Lord of the Flies." Hundreds of others then ran with the meme. The campaign's racist and classist undertones were none too subtle.
When I first visited the camp on October 22, I found a very different scene. About 150 tents made up a small, self-sufficient community in Frank Ogawa Plaza, located steps away from City Hall. The kernel of truth behind the smears was that it was located in downtown Oakland, a city with some serious problems and a long history of distrust between the community and a police department tasked with serving and protecting it.
"We don't exclude the people at the margins," one occupier told me. "We invite them in and feed them." That may be doing God's work, but it's also provided rich fodder for the Lord of the Flies narrative. In one incident, a homeless man who reportedly had a history of mental illness assaulted several of the protesters. They ejected him from the camp, but didn't involve local police. In other instances, people at the camp insulted, and in one instance reportedly threatened reporters. All of these incidents were the focus of intense media coverage.
The other kernel of truth is the simple fact that camping outdoors for three weeks is always a somewhat messy business.
Mayor Quan Joins the Club
These narratives formed the basis for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's decision to evict the protesters. In the early morning hours of October 25, a large contingent of police clad in riot gear descended on the camp, throwing tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the protesters within. (Oakland police deny using flash-bang grenades.) Eighty-five were reportedly arrested. A National Lawyers' Guild legal observer told AlterNet they had collected reports of, "rampant excessive force." According to the observer, one protester suffered a head injury in the melee, and two more ended up with broken hands.
In a statement made after the "eviction," Mayor Quan said, "Over the last week it was apparent that neither the demonstrators nor the city could maintain safe or sanitary conditions, or control the ongoing vandalism."...(click title for more)
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Oakland's Progressive Mayor in a Reactionary Bind
City Officials Shift
Into 'Damage Control,'
Allow OWS To Continue
By Matt Krupnick, Scott Johnson, Sean Maher and Thomas Peele
Oakland Tribune
OAKLAND, Oct 27, 2011 -- Oakland Mayor Jean Quan shifted into damage control Thursday, asking hospitalized protester Scott Olsen and other Occupy Oakland demonstrators to cooperate with police investigating Olsen's head injury.
Quan visited Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, on Thursday morning at Highland Hospital. She shook his hand, and apologized for what happened to him. She also encouraged him and fellow demonstrators to speak with police, a hospital spokesman said. Olsen was knocked down -- apparently by a tear-gas canister or other police projectile -- Tuesday night as authorities tried to keep protesters away from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, in front of Oakland City Hall.
The protest group had been dislodged from their tents Scott Olsen, left, a few minutes before his injury at the Occupy Oakland protest, 14th Street and Broadway, Oct. 25, 2011. (Ray Chavez, Oakland Tribune) on the plaza by police earlier in the day.
Oakland police have promised a thorough investigation of the incident, which left Olsen with a brain injury that has impeded his speech. Alameda County prosecutors and federal investigators also planned to look into the violent clash.
The city has tried this week to recover from the confrontation, which attracted an avalanche of criticism from pundits, politicians and protesters. Television host Keith Olbermann called for Quan's resignation, and White House press secretary Jay Carney called on U.S. cities to preserve "a long and noble tradition in the United States of free expression and free speech."
Protesters started rebuilding their tent city Thursday, with at least a dozen tents erected on the plaza lawn by the evening. Quan had planned to speak to a large crowd that had gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday night, but she left without speaking because she would have had to wait in line, said her attorney, Dan Siegel.
Police kept a low profile as another crowd of at least 1,000 flocked to the plaza for the second straight evening.
But the heat kept rising for the Oakland Police Department on Thursday. Civil rights attorney Jim Chanin, who has fought the department on many reform issues, said the department on Tuesday had violated its own crowd-control rules, which call for medical services to be available when tear gas and other control measures are used....(Click title for more)
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2010: 50% of All Workers Made Less than $26,000
Background to the OWS Turmoil and Labor Solidarity
By Derek Thompson
TheAtlantic.com
Today we get our first look at American wages in 2010 based on payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration. David Cay Johnston picks out the most important takeaways, including:
1) Half of all workers made less than $26,364, the median wage in 2010. That means the typical wage is at its lowest level since 1999, after adjusting for inflation.
2) The number of millionaires increased by about 20 percent.
3) The size of the missing workforce is 10 million. The number of working people fell by 5.2 million since 2007. But that's not the entire job deficit, because, based on population growth estimates, 4.5 million more would have joined the workforce between 2007 and 2011. Add it up, and you get a 10-million-worker gap.
What you see in the graph above is that median pay took a nosedive after 2007, effectively wiping out all gains made in the previous eight years. The macro explanation is that the economy shrunk, and middle class jobs disappeared and were replaced with (or outlasted by) lower-paying positions that companies kept on. But the economy isn't one giant corporation. It's thousands of giant, medium-sized, and small companies in industries that lived through very different recessions.
The industries with wages growing considerably slower than the rest of the country -- the ones really pulling down the national average -- are construction (huge bubble burst), food service (an unproductive industry that requires little advanced education) and sales and retail (another unproductive industry that requires little advanced education).
So one thing that's keeping wages low is the fact that the most important stimulus of the last decade blew up in our face, and another big thing is that lots of workers without college degrees don't have the skills to demand higher wages in more productive professions. I'm as astounded as Johnston about these wage numbers, but I'm less optimistic that is the kind of trend we can reverse in an election.
Update: There are some reasonable questions about how many of these workers are part-time. I don't know the answer to that question. Our official measures of part-time workers are inconsistent, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics' data on workers by hours-per-week is here. What we know: About 24 million people worked less than 29 hours a week in 2010. About 35 million people worked 34 hours a week or less in 2010
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Zizek: The Violent Silence of a New Beginning
 The Occupy protests are important, but soon the difficult question must be answered: What social organization can replace capitalism?
By Slavoj Zizek
In These Times
We should avoid the temptation of the narcissism of the lost cause. What new positive order should replace the old one the day after, when the sublime enthusiasm of the uprising is over?
What to do after the Wall Street occupation, after the protests that started far away (Middle East, Greece, Spain, UK) reached the center, and now, reinforced, roll back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves, with the nice time they are having in the "occupied" places. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall Street occupation on October 16, a guy invited the crowd to participate as if it was a hippy-style happening in the 1960s: "They are asking us what is our program. We have no program. We are here to have a good time."
Carnivals come cheap-the test of their worth is what remains the day after, and how they change our normal daily life. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work - they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message should be: The taboo is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. We are obliged to think about alternatives.
The Western Left has come full circle: After abandoning the so-called "class struggle essentialism" for the plurality of anti-racist, feminist, gay rights etc., struggles, "capitalism" is now re-emerging as the name of THE problem. So the first lesson to be learned is: Do not blame people and their attitudes. The problem is not corruption or greed, the problem is the system that pushes you to be corrupt. The solution is not found in the slogan "Main Street, not Wall Street," but to change the system in which Main Street cannot function without Wall Street.
There is a long road ahead, and soon we will have to address the truly difficult questions-questions not about what we do not want, but rather about what we DO want. What social organization can replace the existing capitalism? What type of new leaders do we need? What new institutions, including those of control, should we shape? The 20th century alternatives obviously did not work. ...(Click title for more)
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After the Death of Gaddafi:
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Libya
By Alan Woods
In Defense of Marxism
Oct 21, 2011 - The capture and killing of Colonel Gaddafi has been described in detail by the mass media in all its gory details. With the death of Gaddafi and the taking of Sirte the National Transitional Council is talking about forming a transitional government. The NTC is recognized by the imperialist powers whose interests it represents. However, many ordinary Libyans look with justified mistrust at the NTC and their imperialist backers.
Although Gaddafi was captured alive he was summarily shot. But it is not difficult to see why he was not arrested and put on trial. Had he faced a trial he would have exposed all his past dealings with the likes of Blair, Sarkozy and Berlusconi. That explains why they have revelled so much in his death. Their hypocrisy stinks to high heaven, as they had made many lucrative deals with Gaddafi in the past, even handing over people to his regime who were subsequently tortured.
The death of Gaddafi and the final collapse of his regime closes one chapter. However, this merely marks one turning point in the situation. Now that the old regime is finally gone, a struggle will open up over the future of Libya. In this struggle we will see the forces of both revolution and counter-revolution trying to get the upper hand. Here we publish an analysis of the situation by Alan Woods. Confusion of the Left
The Left has displayed enormous confusion over the events in Libya. On the one hand, some people have capitulated to imperialism to the extent of supporting the military intervention of NATO. This was both naive and reactionary. To allow one's judgement to be clouded by the hypocritical chorus of the hired media and to swallow the lies about a so-called "humanitarian" intervention to "protect civilians" was stupid in the extreme.
The intervention of NATO was not at all intended for humanitarian purposes or to protect civilians. It was dictated by cold and cynical calculations. The same people who had established a cosy relationship with Gaddafi, who supplied him with arms and sent political prisoners to Libya to be tortured by his secret police can hardly lay claim to "humanitarian" principles. They have not shown the same tender concern for the suffering people of Bahrain.
The emancipation of the Libyan people is the concern of the Libyan people alone. It cannot be entrusted to the imperialists, who have supported every blood soaked dictatorial regime in North Africa and the Middle East for decades. Our first demand is for an end to all foreign interference in Libya. Let the Libyan people settle their own problems in their own way!...(Click title for more)
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Film Review: 'Margin Call' Exposes High Finance
 By Jeremy Mathews
Paste Magazine
Margin Call has been described as a thriller, but you could also call it a chamber drama. It contains thrills and suspense, yes, but not from chases or murder plots. The only gun barrel that the characters stare down is a metaphorical one, albeit loaded with something scarier than a bullet: the collapse of their financial institution, and perhaps the whole country's economy. Crime and betrayal run rampant but don't manifest physically.
We've already seen the recent economic meltdown explained in documentaries like Inside Job. Now, writer/director J.C. Chandor sets out to explore the psyche of the people behind it. He portrays them with a certain degree of understanding, but makes no excuses for their irresponsibility. His characters are human, often sympathetic, and we can see how they've reached the point they're at in their careers. But they deflect blame, let others take the fall for their mistakes, and make small gestures to cover their asses without actually doing anything to rein in problems.
In his feature debut, Chandor shows a knack for smart dialogue and telling details. Sometimes the characters talk too much, but it's an impressive cast doing the talking.
The film journeys through 30 hours of nonstop work that begins with routine layoffs and quickly veers toward disaster. Penn Badgley and Zachary Quinto play Seth and Peter, two entry-level employees who are still learning the workings of the business. They survive the layoffs, but their boss, played by Stanley Tucci, does not. While security escorts him out, he passes Peter a project he's been working on. Peter stays late to work on it and makes an alarming discovery about the company's assets. In short, they're worthless and will soon self-destruct....(Click title for more)
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Music Review: Gravel Pit
By Sasha Frere-Jones
The New Yorker
Oct31, 2011 - When Waits was a teen-ager, he saw Bob Dylan perform. Like Dylan, Waits is big on characters, stories, and punch lines, and he favors images over confessions.
There is a clich� about Tom Waits, or, as he described it to me, an "oversimplification." In his words, the received version is that he "growls about booze and gargles with nails and screws." In keeping with this perception, an affectionate illustration called "Visible Tom Waits," by the artist Jim Lockey, was posted on Tumblr about a month ago. Waits's body, with fedora, is depicted in cross-section, like a scientific chart, with his brain tagged "Here be monsters," his throat filled with sandpaper and "gravel & spiders," and his lungs noted simply as the location of the furnace.
Waits's new album, "Bad as Me," his twenty-second, has plenty of stone gargling. It was made with a vast constellation of new and old friends, the most prominent of whom is an often overlooked collaborator, his wife, Kathleen Brennan, who has been writing songs with Waits since his album "Swordfishtrombones," from 1983 (for which she was uncredited). "She responds to things like she's in an opium dream. I'm more of a sticks-and-wire guy," he said. (Much of what he says in conversation could, with little intervention, become lyrics.) "Bad as Me" also features the guitarist Marc Ribot, whom Waits called "the Lon Chaney of the guitar-there are so many voices he's able to conjure," and high-profile guests such as Flea and Keith Richards. Central to the album are Clint Maedgen and Ben Jaffe, reed and brass players from New Orleans's Preservation Hall Jazz Band, who appear on many of the tracks.
Since his 1973 d�but, "Closing Time," Waits has been part of a continuum that either predates or runs parallel to rock and roll. In the era of Elvis Presley, Waits preferred Gershwin; he also chose the piano over the guitar, and Mose Allison over Chuck Berry....(Click title for more)
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Become a CCDS member today!
 The
time is long past for 'Lone Rangers'. Being a socialist by your self is
no fun and doesn't help much. Join CCDS today--$36 regular, $48
household and $18 youth.
Better yet, beome a sustainer at $20 per month,
and we'll send you a copy of Jack O'Dell's new book, 'Climbing Jacobs
Ladder,' drawing on the lessons of the movement in the South in the
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Solidarity, Carl Davidson, CCDS |
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