[A-List] Fwd: Digest for sid-l at googlegroups.com - 5 Messages in 5 Topics
Suzanne de Kuyper
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Sun Dec 19 12:56:28 MST 2010
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Date: Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Subject: Digest for sid-l at googlegroups.com - 5 Messages in 5 Topics
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Today's Topic Summary
Group: http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/topics
- Promoting Jewish Victimhood as Guise for Victimizing
Palestinians<#12cfda61c71f153c_group_thread_0>[1 Update]
- Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli
occupation?<#12cfda61c71f153c_group_thread_1>[1 Update]
- The death of universities <#12cfda61c71f153c_group_thread_2> [1 Update]
- Student Protests and the Emerging Discontent of
Youth<#12cfda61c71f153c_group_thread_3>[1 Update]
- The New Tax Deal: Reaganomics Redux -- Robert
Reich<#12cfda61c71f153c_group_thread_4>[1 Update]
Topic: Promoting Jewish Victimhood as Guise for Victimizing
Palestinians<http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/t/5733e37065bc202e>
Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com> Dec 18 01:21PM -0800
^<#12cfda61c71f153c_digest_top>
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/12/promoting-jewish-victimhood-as-guise-for-victimizing-palestinians/
**
Dissident
Voice
December 17th, 2010
* Promoting Jewish Victimhood as Guise for Victimizing Palestinians *
by Yves Engler
Last week the House of Commons unanimously passed a private member’s bill
to
establish a national Holocaust monument. While it is a good thing to
commemorate the suffering of Jews in Europe, it is important to point out
that uncritical support for Israel is part of the backdrop.
Edmonton Conservative MP, Tim Uppal, who introduced the private member’s
bill, explained last year: “After I had decided on [accepting Minister
Peter
Kent’s proposal to put forward An Act to Establish a National Holocaust
Monument], I ended up going to Israel with the Canada Israel Committee in
July. Being there, and learning what I did about the Holocaust and
Israel,
just made me feel more reassured that this was the right thing to do and
get
this bill passed.”
Speaking in favour of the bill last week, Winnipeg NDP MP Jim Maloway
also
connected the planned monument to Israel. “I had the privilege and
pleasure
of traveling to Israel. … It was a very inspiring visit … I was amazed to
see the progress made by Israel in turning deserts into productive lands
and
cultivating crops in the middle of the desert.”
Alongside its ardent support for Israel, Stephen Harper’s Conservative
government has promoted the commemoration of Nazi crimes and the idea
that
anti-Semitism is worse than other forms of oppression. Concurrently,
they’ve
repeatedly conflated criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.
During a July 2007 meeting of the Organization for Security and
Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE) Canada supported the appointment of a representative to
the
chair to report on anti-Semitism. Despite calls for a change in OSCE
policy,
Ottawa supported recognizing prejudice against Jews as a unique
phenomenon,
not one among many forms of bigotry. The OSCE meeting condemned all forms
of
racism, discrimination and “aggressive nationalism” but added:
“Recognizing
its unique and historic character, [we] condemn anti-Semitism without
reservation, whether expressed in a traditional manner or through new
forms
and manifestations.”
In mid-2009 the Conservatives created a National Task Force on Holocaust
Research, Remembrance and Education. Headed by the fanatically pro-Israel
group, B’nai Brith, the Conservatives invested $1 million in the project.
This Task Force was tied to a similar European initiative. In 2007 Ottawa
applied to join the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust
Education, Remembrance and Research, an organization that included 24
European nations and the U.S.. Created in 1998 the group promotes
education
of the genocide against European Jewry and “the unprecedented character
of
the Holocaust.”
An outgrowth of the Holocaust Task Force, the first ever
Interparliamentary
Coalition to Combat anti-Semitism meeting was held in London in February
2009. A number of conference participants expressed opposition to the
growing boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign and Canada’s
representative, Minister Jason Kenney, said “The argument is with those
whose premise is that Israel itself is an abomination and that the Jews
alone have no right to a homeland. And in that sense anti-Zionism is
anti-Semitism.”
Last month Ottawa hosted and funded the second meeting of the
Interparliamentary Coalition to Combat anti-Semitism. Prime Minister
Harper
told those gathered that “as long as I am prime minister, whether it is
at
the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand
[in
support of Israel], whatever the cost. Not just because it is the right
thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the
anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well, that those who threaten the
existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.”
He went on to say that this “hateful ideology with global ambitions …
targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as
the
source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the
language of human rights to do so.”
Associated with the Interparliamentary Coalition to Combat anti-Semitism
the
Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) was
formed
last year to investigate what it describes as “this oldest and most
enduring
of hatreds.” Yet Canada has changed significantly since Jews fleeing
Hitler
were refused entry and elite social clubs restricted their access. There
is
little anti-Semitism in Canada today, which even CPCCA architect, Irwin
Cotler, has acknowledged.
The CPCCA is not designed to combat racism against Jews, but rather to
undercut growing public support for the Palestinian cause. Cotler and
Jason
Kenney are trying to intimidate reporters, academics, union leaders and
other public figures into staying away from criticizing Israel, lest they
be
accused of anti-Semitism.
In “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish
Suffering”, Norman Finkelstein argues that the American Jewish
establishment
has exploited the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for financial and
political
gain and to further the interests of Israel. Finkelstein claims that
discussion of the Nazi Holocaust grew exponentially after the June 1967
Six
Day war. Prior to that war, which provided a decisive service to U.S.
geopolitical aims in the Middle East, the genocide of European Jewry was
a
topic largely relegated to private forums and among left wing
intellectuals.
Paralleling the U.S., the Nazi Holocaust was not widely discussed in
Canada
in the two decades after World War II. In fact, the Canadian Jewish
Congress
consciously avoided the subject.
Numerous other commentators also trace the established Jewish community’s
interest in Nazi crimes to the Six Day War. “The 1967 war,” explained
Professor Cyril Leavitt, “alarmed Canadian Jews. Increasingly, the
Holocaust
was invoked as a reminder of the need to support the Jewish state.”
President of the Vancouver Jewish Community Center, Sam Rothstein,
concurred. “The 1967 war … was the one development that led to a
commitment
by community organizations to become more involved in Holocaust
commemoration. … Stephen Cummings, the founder of the Montreal Holocaust
Memorial Center, said that ‘consciousness [of the Holocaust] has changed.
Jews are much more proud, and that’s a post-1967 [phenomenon]. It was the
event that gave Jews around the world confidence.’”
Holocaust memorials proliferated after Israel smashed Egyptian-led
pan-Arabism in six days of fighting. Nearly three decades after World War
II, in 1972, the Canadian Jewish Congress and its local federations began
to
establish standing committees on the Nazi Holocaust. The first Canadian
Holocaust memorial was established in Montreal in 1977.
Nazi crimes, particularly Canada’s various ties to these atrocities,
should
be widely studied and commemorated.
The Nazi Holocaust, however, should not be used as ideological cover for
Israeli crimes. That is an injustice to Palestinians and an insult to
Hitler’s victims.
Yves Engler is the author of *Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid* and
*The
Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy*. For more information visit
yvesengler.com. Read other articles by
Yves<http://dissidentvoice.org/author/YvesEngler/>
.
Topic: Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli
occupation?<http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/t/563638dd3390234c>
Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com> Dec 18 01:16PM -0800
^<#12cfda61c71f153c_digest_top>
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1093667.html
Haaretz
*17.06.09 *
*
Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?*
By Antony Loewenstein
During this year's AIPAC conference in Washington, Executive Director
Howard
Kohr warned the 7,000-plus crowd that the global movement to
"delegitimize
Israel" was gathering steam.
"These voices are laying the predicate for an abandonment," he said.
His sentiments were almost apocalyptic: "The stakes in that battle are
nothing less than the survival of Israel, linked inexorably to the
relationship between Israel and the United States. In this battle we are
the
firewall, the last rampart."
The age of Barack Obama has unleashed a global wave of Jewish unease over
Israel's future and the Diaspora's relationship to the self-described
Jewish
state. It's a debate that is long overdue.
Zionist organizations in Australia campaigned loudly in May against the
allegedly "anti-Semitic" play Seven Jewish Children, a ten-minute
think-piece written by an English playwright accusing Jews of complicity
in
violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A Jewish columnist for The New York Times, Roger Cohen, argued in June
that
the key word among Palestinians now is "humiliation."
"It's not good for the Palestinians, the Israelis or the Jewish soul," he
wrote.
The Jewish Week editor chastised him for such views - for "the anger,
blame
and one-sidedness of his argument" - and wondered "whose heart has grown
brutal?"
An upcoming academic conference at York University in Toronto exploring
the
"one-state, bi-national solution" to the conflict was slammed last week
by
Gerald M. Steinberg, chair of the Department of Political Science at Bar
Ilan University, for fueling "the vicious warfare and mass terror"
against
Israelis and Palestinians.
The decades-old ability of Zionist groups to manage the public narrative
of
Israeli victimhood is breaking down. Damning critics has therefore become
a
key method of control.
But, writes Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald, a leading Jewish-American
blogger,
"whereas these smear tactics once inspired fear in many people, now they
just inspire pity. They no longer work."
He may be overly optimistic, but alternative Jewish voices are rising who
are less concerned with being accused of "self-hatred" or treachery. They
see it as their duty to damn what is wrong and not simply support Israeli
government policies.
A thinking, more enlightened Judaism is emerging, a necessity in the face
of
apartheid realities. The cause is human rights, not Zionist exclusion.
Obama's recent speech in Cairo reflected the new Jewish consciousness.
American Jews were certainly an intended audience because if it this
group
that must challenge their conservative spokespeople to undo years of
following Likudnik thinking. As a candidate in 2008, the then Illinois
senator said that, "there is a strain within the pro-Israel community
that
says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that
you're
anti-Israel and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."
Many Jews in the Diaspora have never imagined anything else; it's been an
imagined Israel in their minds for decades. Lawless behavior in the
occupied
territories is ignored through willful ignorance. Tellingly, the most
reliable information about these truths in the West is found online,
through
blogs and activist Web sites, and not generally in the mainstream media.
The
gate-keepers are clinging on to the Exodus myths for dear life.
Defining a humane Judaism in the 21st century means condemning the brutal
military occupation in the West Bank and resisting the ongoing siege of
Gaza. Jewish-American blogger Phil Weiss, who recently returned from the
Strip, quoted a young Gazan saying in dismay: "We are being experimented
on."
The Palestinian narrative is routinely ignored or dismissed in the U.S.
and
beyond. This must change quickly for any chance of peace to break out in
the
Middle East. However, peace without justice is guaranteed to fail.
After Obama's speech in Cairo, where which he almost acknowledged the
Palestinian "Nakba" without mentioning it by name, most major
Jewish-American groups reacted with caution.
The Anti-Defamation League said it was "disappointed that the President
found the need to balance the suffering of the Jewish people in a
genocide
to the suffering of the Palestinian people resulting from Arab wars."
This was code for "Nakba"-denial, as pernicious as Holocaust revisionism.
But the liberal J Street lobby, still clinging to the delusion of a
viable
two-state solution and a "democratic, Jewish homeland," praised Obama's
"active diplomacy" and claimed that the "overwhelming majority of
American
Jews" supported an end to the West Bank colonies.
Consistent polls suggest they are right, but the devil is in the detail.
Is
there real will to back the necessary steps, namely the removal of
hundreds
of thousands of Jewish settlers in the West Bank? Co-Author of The Israel
Lobby, Stephen Walt, said recently that he couldn't understand why more
American Jews didn't realize the cliff Israel was running toward. Did
they
not see that repression in the occupied territories had defined Israel in
the eyes of the world? Perhaps apartheid didn't bother them. Out of sight
and out of mind. Benjamin Netanyahu's recent speech at Bar-Ilan
University
suggested he wasn't too fussed, either.
I recently attended the Salute to Israel parade in New York -- picture
100,000 American Jews marching to celebrate the state, waving flags in
praise of the IDF. It was a thoroughly depressing affair.
Palestinians didn't exist; they were invisible. The world's biggest
public
display of pro-Israel feeling had no room for 20 percent of the Israeli
population (let alone the millions in the West Bank and Gaza.)
These events are actually a sign of desperate projection, not strength.
Mainstream Zionism wants to completely shield Jews from the uncomfortable
facts of the Israeli occupation and Palestinian self-determination. Jews
were a proud people, a clever people and a victimized people. There was
no
time to indulge in frivolous Arab trivialities.
But facts have an uncomfortable way of seeping back into view. Colonel
Itai
Virob, an IDF brigade commander in the West Bank, recently told an
Israeli
court that, "a slap, sometimes a punch to the scruff of the neck or the
chest, sometimes a knee jab or strangulation to calm somebody [a
Palestinian] down is reasonable."
Where is the Jewish outrage over this?
Antony Loewenstein is a New York-based journalist and author of My Israel
Question.
Topic: The death of
universities<http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/t/6664df26cf38eee>
Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com> Dec 18 12:56PM -0800
^<#12cfda61c71f153c_digest_top>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/17/death-universities-malaise-tuition-fees
The Guardian
17 December 2010
*The death of universities
Academia has become a servant of the status quo. Its malaise runs so much
deeper than tuition fees*
Terry Eagleton
Are the humanities about to disappear from our universities? The question
is
absurd. It would be like asking whether alcohol is about to disappear
from
pubs, or egoism from Hollywood. Just as there cannot be a pub without
alcohol, so there cannot be a university without the humanities. If
history,
philosophy and so on vanish from academic life, what they leave in their
wake may be a technical training facility or corporate research
institute.
But it will not be a university in the classical sense of the term, and
it
would be deceptive to call it one.
Neither, however, can there be a university in the full sense of the word
when the humanities exist in isolation from other disciplines. The
quickest
way of devaluing these subjects – short of disposing of them altogether –
is
to reduce them to an agreeable bonus. Real men study law and engineering,
while ideas and values are for sissies. The humanities should constitute
the
core of any university worth the name. The study of history and
philosophy,
accompanied by some acquaintance with art and literature, should be for
lawyers and engineers as well as for those who study in arts faculties.
If
the humanities are not under such dire threat in the United States, it
is,
among other things, because they are seen as being an integral part of
higher education as such.
When they first emerged in their present shape around the turn of the
18th
century, the so-called humane disciplines had a crucial social role. It
was
to foster and protect the kind of values for which a philistine social
order
had precious little time. The modern humanities and industrial capitalism
were more or less twinned at birth. To preserve a set of values and ideas
under siege, you needed among other things institutions known as
universities set somewhat apart from everyday social life. This
remoteness
meant that humane study could be lamentably ineffectual. But it also
allowed
the humanities to launch a critique of conventional wisdom.
From time to time, as in the late 1960s and in these last few weeks in
Britain, that critique would take to the streets, confronting how we
actually live with how we might live.
What we have witnessed in our own time is the death of universities as
centres of critique. Since Margaret Thatcher, the role of academia has
been
to service the status quo, not challenge it in the name of justice,
tradition, imagination, human welfare, the free play of the mind or
alternative visions of the future. We will not change this simply by
increasing state funding of the humanities as opposed to slashing it to
nothing. We will change it by insisting that a critical reflection on
human
values and principles should be central to everything that goes on in
universities, not just to the study of Rembrandt or Rimbaud.
In the end, the humanities can only be defended by stressing how
indispensable they are; and this means insisting on their vital role in
the
whole business of academic learning, rather than protesting that, like
some
poor relation, they don't cost much to be housed.
How can this be achieved in practice? Financially speaking, it can't be.
Governments are intent on shrinking the humanities, not expanding them.
Might not too much investment in teaching Shelley mean falling behind our
economic competitors? But there is no university without humane inquiry,
which means that universities and advanced capitalism are fundamentally
incompatible. And the political implications of that run far deeper than
the
question of student fees.
Topic: Student Protests and the Emerging Discontent of
Youth<http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/t/860a502abba2d617>
Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com> Dec 18 12:52PM -0800
^<#12cfda61c71f153c_digest_top>
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/442.php#continue
<http://www.socialistproject.ca/> *The B u l l e
t*<http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/>
<http://www.socialistproject.ca/> *Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 442
December 18, 2010* *
Student Protests and the Emerging Discontent of Youth* Oliver Huitson
The “iPod generation” have long been written off as apathetic, pampered
wasters; a collection of illiterate Nathan
Barleys<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Barley>draining their
parents resources. Yet, from the storming of Tory HQ to
campus occupations across the country, it is those same youth now leading
public resistance to the Coalition's cuts. The tripling of tuition fees
is
unquestionably serious, but it represents only a small part of the
problems
facing Britain's young. An increasing awareness of generational
imbalances,
inflamed by [Chancellor of the Exchequer] George
Osborne<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne>'s
austerity measures, could see student protests snowball into a wider
movement of youth discontent.
Generational politics is undoubtedly on the rise. This year has already
seen
the publication of two books on the subject: David Willett's *The
Pinch...*and the indispensable
*Jilted Generation* by Ed Howker and Shiv Malik. Though both texts are
cautious in directing blame, they set out solid and well sourced
arguments
for a nation that has lost touch with generational obligations. From
housing
and PFi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_finance_initiative> to
pensions and education, the picture that emerges is one of rampant asset
stripping from both past and future. The primary losers, throughout, are
young people.
Students and police clash in the streets of London.
High Cost of Housing
Nowhere is the divide between young and old more stark than on the issue
of
housing. In over 60% of local authority districts, buying a home is
unaffordable<
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/6926517/Hope-for-first-time-buyers-as-affordability-improves.html
>for
those on average salary. Fuelled by the opening up of the buy-to-let
market and the supply of easy credit, average house prices more than
tripled
between 1997 and 2009 (*Jilted Generation*). In terms of generational
share,
the proportion of homeowners aged 34 or under has declined from 51% in
1990
to just 29% in 2010. Young people have been effectively priced out of the
market. Far from this being a cause of concern, ballooning house prices
were
endlessly cheered.
This leaves the majority of the young renting, predominantly in the
private
sector where the under 35s now make up over 50% of tenants (*ibid*). In
contrast to either home ownership or renting from the social sector,
private
tenants not only pay considerably more for their home but also suffer the
insecurity of the modern tenancy agreement. Once a twelve month contract
expires, you can be moved on with a mere two months notice. From a
generational perspective, whose mortgages are these tenants funding?
In the boom years, buy-to-lets could be secured with as little as an 11%
deposit. Combined with a favourable tax regime, this was the ideal market
for the asset rich boomers but disastrous for young people. The extensive
social housing constructed in the post-war years was largely sold off
under
Thatcher's ‘right to buy,’ moving the nation's assets from public to
private
hands. The failure to replenish the stock of social housing is another
significant contributor to the current housing shortage. What was
inherited
was not passed on.
“Flexible” Labour Market
The move to a “flexible” labour market has also caused particular
problems
for young people. The term is a generous euphemism for depressed wages
and
low job security, facilitated by the globalised flow of labour and
industry-friendly employment reforms. Consequently, there is little
incentive to train staff or offer apprenticeships; these costs are
instead
offloaded onto employees themselves and the taxpayer in general. The
number
of apprenticeships available has duly plummeted. Earlier this year, a BT
scheme received 24,000 applications for just 221
positions<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/16/bt-apprentice-scheme-may-be-expanded
>.
In this “so called” recession, job losses among young people have risen
faster than any other age group leaving nearly a million 16-24 year olds
currently unemployed (BBC). Swelling the bottom end of a labour market is
undoubtedly good for both business and the well-off, who benefit from
cheaper costs and prices, but it is the young and the low-waged who are
hit
hardest. The generational spread of wealth has grown increasingly
lopsided:
the baby boom generation now own a full half of the country's property
and
assets; the under 45s own less than a
tenth<
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7085489/Baby-boomers-own-half-of-Britains-wealth.html
>.
With the tripling of tuition fees, educational costs are now being
transferred from state to individual almost in their entirety. Having
inherited a system which recognised higher education as a public good,
and
hence paid for *publicly*, what has been passed on is a system in which
many
students will repay nearly £40,000, and many poorer students will be
dissuaded from going entirely. This ‘Cabinet of millionaires’ are now
forcing others to pay for what they themselves received for free.
In contrast, the older generation wield substantial electoral power and
are
wooed accordingly. They are pursued with free bus-passes, free TV
licenses
and, most prized of all, a ring-fenced NHS budget – the NHS is
overwhelmingly used by older people. To ice the cake of discontent, many
new
NHS hospitals have been built under thirty year PFi contracts; they will
largely be paid for by the young, at exorbitant prices. Having run out of
existing assets to sell off, the extensive programme of PFis represents a
£200bn credit card with repayments stretching to the middle of the
century.
Add this to the looming pension crisis and the picture becomes serious
indeed; the scale of liabilities being passed on is breathtaking.
The recurring theme is that of a failure of reciprocity. What was enjoyed
by
one generation should be protected for the next; this debt to posterity
has
in many areas been squandered. Generational friction is not an attractive
prospect, and nor is it fair to tar a whole generation for these emerging
imbalances. But regardless, there are issues here that need addressing,
issues that jar against a basic sense of fairness. With widespread youth
unemployment, crippling national debt and a tightly contracting state,
tensions could easily heighten. What began with a march on Millbank could
soon grow into something far more sweeping. •
Oliver Huitson is a regular contributor to openDemocracy. This article
first
published by New Left Project <http://www.newleftproject.org/>.
Inside the UCL Occupation Edward Lewis, Maeve Mckeown
Maeve Mckeown is a Political Theory PhD Student at University College
London
and has been a participant in UCLOccupation
<http://www.ucloccupation.com/>since it began over two weeks ago. She
gave Edward Lewis an insider's
account of the UCL occupation, increasingly seen as a vital hub of the
student movement.
*Edward Lewis (EL):* Why did you decide to occupy? And how did you go
about
doing it?
*Maeve Mckeown (MM):* On 24 November I gathered with the other students
in
UCL who opposed the education cuts, in the quad. I expected to join the
national demo in Trafalgar Square. Instead, we decided to have a march
around UCL campus. The first room we marched into was the Jeremy Bentham
Room. Almost spontaneously we decided to stay there and occupy it. We've
now
been here for two weeks!
The occupation was immediately well-organised. A few occupiers that had
been
involved with Climate Camp suggested we start up working groups. We
started
groups for media, security, kitchen and demands. The groups got to work
straight away. We fed back that night at our first General Meeting, which
lasted an achingly long 4 hours. But the process was set in place and
we've
operated this way ever since.
*EL:* How many people have been involved in the occupation so far?
*MM:* It's hard to say because people can come and go. But there are
around
200 that are regularly involved.
*EL:* How has the university management responded to your demands and to
the
occupation generally? How have you managed your interaction with the
management?
*MM:* We have been in negotiations with management from early in the
occupation. These are ongoing and I can't really comment on the
situation.
*EL:* What has been the reaction of other students and staff at UCL to
the
occupation? Is there broad support? Is there any hostility?
*MM:* The staff have been very supportive. We've had lectures from the
English, Geography and Architecture departments. We have a staff petition
with hundreds of signatures (they haven't been totalled up yet!). We've
also had UCU reps from UCL here everyday. In terms of other students, we
had an Emergency General Meeting of the students' union on Monday, where
it
was voted by an overwhelming majority that the union should support the
occupation. Many people were turned away, but anecdotally it seemed like
they were also supportive. There is due to be a referendum of the
students
next week and I am confident we will win.
*EL:* What do you think led to Aaron Porter's eventual support for the
occupation? How significant is it that the president of the NUS is
endorsing
this kind of activity?
*MM:* There was quite a lot of pressure put on Aaron Porter. The
occupations around the country started without NUS support and have been
leading the way in student politics. He had to catch up with us. We
wanted
NUS support but the occupations would have continued about it. Unless
Porter comes good on his promise of legal support and to help organise
protests, the NUS endorsement will have largely symbolic value.
*EL:* More generally, what impact do you think the occupations have had?
*MM:* I think the occupations have had a huge impact. There seems to be a
view of students that they are apathetic consumers, with no knowledge of,
or
interest in, politics. These occupations have completely dispelled that
myth. So in terms of perceptions of young people, I think it represents a
paradigm shift. In terms of politics, it seems that Browne's proposals
will
pass in Parliament. Obviously I hope that won’t happen! But if it does it
proves that the government is still failing to listen to mass protests,
as
the Labour government did with Iraq. But because the public sector cuts
are
an ongoing and domestic issue, I think dissent will increase and
intensify.
The occupations have inspired people and showed them that when you
organise
it is possible to make your voice heard.
*EL:* Tell us more about your internal organising practices, and about
how
you are coordinating with other student groups and occupations.
*MM:* We are organised in working groups that work on a specific issue
and
then feedback to the General Meetings. Nothing can happen without
achieving
consensus with the whole group. This can lead to some long meetings! We
are
in contact with other occupations and groups via social networking on the
internet. Also, delegates from occupations across the country have come
here
and we have sent delegates out. We are in constant contact with the other
occupations.
*EL:* Has carrying out the occupation had an effect on the participants?
Has
it been in some sense a ‘consciousness raising’ experience?
*MM:* Yes definitely. I was radical before the occupations and now I'm
even
more radicalised! I think for students who have been involved and weren’t
particularly politicised before, it’s been a life changing experience.
I've
learnt a lot about consensus politics, negotiating with people in
positions
of power, and promotion of social movements.
*EL:* What have you found most surprising or unexpected about the
experience?
*MM:* I've been surprised at how many students have been involved. There
was
a feeling that UCL students in particular were quite conservative, but
that
has been blown out of the water. I was surprised at how tiring and how
much
work it would be! The occupation has been intense. I've basically ditched
my
life for two weeks – haven't seen any friends, done any work, or anything
apart from occupation-related activities!
*EL:* Since the ‘Green revolution’ in Iran there has been a big debate
about
how effective social media are to social movements seeking to
outmanoeuvre
state authority. How has your occupation used Twitter, Facebook, etc.?
And
how effective have they been?
*MM:* One of the first things we did was set up Twitter and Facebook
accounts and a blog. We have over 3000 followers on twitter and several
people within the occupation who retweet and pass on information. Social
networking is how we've got in touch with other students and groups. We
have
tweeted from all the protests and it's been the best way of keeping
people
informed about what we're doing.
*EL:* If the government is successful in the vote to raise tuition fees
on
Thursday, this will undoubtedly have a demoralising impact on the student
movement. How can it respond effectively?
*MM:* We are mentally prepared for that! I realise it will be
demoralising
but I think it's just going to make us more angry. There's already
discussion happening about what we should do in January and beyond.
*EL:* Occupations have taken place in an impressive number of
universities
throughout the country. However, it is only a significant minority that
has
taken such action, and we have yet to see any occupations of FE colleges
or
schools. What advice would you give to other students who are attracted
to
the idea of occupying buildings but aren't sure of how to do it or how
worthwhile it would be?
*MM:* More occupations are happening everyday. Occupations have just been
announced in Glasgow, Birkbeck and Exeter. I would say to people just do
it!
It's incredibly fun! But it has also been effective, and if we can get
occupations going all over the country in different sectors, it will
really
give the government something to get worried about. •
Topic: The New Tax Deal: Reaganomics Redux -- Robert
Reich<http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/t/c9e4723dbc80f1a1>
Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com> Dec 18 12:47PM -0800
^<#12cfda61c71f153c_digest_top>
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/4306-reaganomics-redux/
17 December 2010
*The New Tax Deal: Reaganomics Redux*
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
ore than thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan came to Washington intent on
reducing taxes on the wealthy and shrinking every aspect of government
except defense.
The new tax deal embodies the essence of Reaganomics.
It will not stimulate the economy.
A disproportionate share of the $858 billion deal will go to people in
the
top 1 percent who spend only a fraction of what they earn and save the
rest.
Their savings are sent around the world to wherever they will earn the
highest return.
The only practical effect of adding $858 billion to the deficit will be
to
put more pressure on Democrats to reduce non-defense spending of all
sorts,
including Social Security and Medicare, as well as education and
infrastructure.
It is nothing short of Ronald Reagan's (and David Stockman's) notorious
"starve the beast" strategy.
In 2012, an election year, when congressional Democrats have less power
than
they do now, the pressure to extend the Bush tax cuts further will be
overwhelming.
Worse yet, the deal adds to the underlying structural problem that caused
the Great Recession in the first place.
Since Ronald Reagan was president, median hourly wages have barely
budged,
and America's vast working and middle classes have taken home a steadily
smaller share of the nation's income (adjusted for inflation). The
typical
male worker today is earning less than the typical male worker thirty
years
ago.
Yet the richest 1 percent of Americans is now taking home a larger
percentage of the nation's income than at any time since 1928. And we
recall
what happened in 1929.
Unless the vast majority of Americans has enough purchasing power to keep
the economy going without going ever more deeply into debt, the economy
will
eventually go over a cliff.
That's what happened in 1929 and 2008.
By the late 1990s the middle and working classes could keep spending -
and
thereby keep the economy moving - only by adding debt. This strategy
ended
when the housing bubble burst in 2007.
Without their spending, there can be no buoyant recovery.
Yes, the pending tax bill will give America's middle and working classes
slightly more cash next year. But only for one year. They won't spend it.
They'll use it to help pay down their debts.
Will lower taxes on the rich spur them to create more jobs? Not a chance.
Since 1980, Reagan's supply-siders have said lower taxes on the rich will
trickle down to everyone else. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Look at history.
During the almost three decade spanning 1951 to 1980, when the top rate
was
between 70 and 92 percent, the average annual growth in the American
economy
was 3.7 percent.
Between 1983 and the start of the Great Recession, when the top rate
ranged
between 35 percent and 39 percent, average growth was 3 percent.
Supply siders are also fond of claming that Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cuts
caused the 1980s economic boom. There is no evidence to support this
claim.
In fact, that boom followed Reagan's 1982 tax increase. The 1990s boom
likewise was not the result of a tax cut; most of it followed Bill
Clinton's
1993 tax increase.
Nor did George W. Bush's tax cuts trickle down. Between 2002 and 2007 the
median wage actually dropped. And Bush's record of job creation was
pathetic
relative to Bill Clinton's, when taxes were higher. Under Clinton,
America
added 22 million net new jobs. Under Bush, barely 8 million.
So why are Democrats voting for Reaganomics?
They say they have no choice - either vote for this or watch taxes rise
on
everyone starting January 1.
That Democrats have allowed themselves to get into this fix is a
testament
to either their timidity, obtuseness, or dependence on the campaign
contributions of those at the top.
------------------------------
*Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California
at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most
recently
as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve
books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet,"
"Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and
America's Future<
http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-Next-Economy-Americas-Future/dp/0307592812/
>."
His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on
publicradio.com<
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/collections/coll_display.php?coll_id=20102&refid=0
>and
iTunes.
*
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