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AN
INTERVIEW WITH: |
c o n t e n t s » The growth and eventual bursting of
financial bubbles is an inherent feature of capitalist accumulation, as can be
seen in the long history of such crises from the South Sea Bubble of the early
eighteenth century to the financial blowouts of the present day. In the first
half of the summer a dramatic bubble-bursting decline in the U.S. and European
stock exchanges wiped out the stock market gains of the previous five
years—a period characterized by manic speculation. REVIEW
OF THE MONTH History has provided us with numerous examples of economic stagnation and breakdown, as well as environmental degradation caused by human activity, even before capitalism existed. But capitalism's central characteristic—the incessant drive to invest and accumulate wealth—gives birth to never-ending economic and environmental crises. II. Capitalism and
Ecology: The social relation of capital, as we all know, is a contradictory one. These contradictions, though stemming from capitalism's internal laws of motion, extend out to phenomena that are usually conceived as external to the system, threatening the integrity of the entire biosphere and everything within it as a result of capital's relentless expansion. How to understand capitalism's ecological contradictions has therefore become a subject of heated debate among socialists. Two crucial issues in this debate are: (1) must ecological crisis lead to economic crisis under capitalism?, and (2) to what extent is there an ecological contradiction at the heart of capitalist society? The Clash of
Barbarisms Every attempt to explain the descent into terrorism that culminated in the suicide attacks of September 11, 2001, as a consequence of the deplorable state of the world we live in has run up against a barrage of vicious polemical artillery. In a climate of intellectual intimidation bearing a certain resemblance to the dark hours of the Cold War, the intimidation relied on two deliberate amalgams. Feminist
Consciousness After There is no longer an organized feminist movement in the United States that influences the lives and actions of millions of women and engages their political support. There are many organizations, ranging from the National Organization for Women to women's caucuses in labor unions and professional groups, which fight for women's rights, and there are many more organizations, many of them including men as well as women, whose priorities include women's issues. But the mass women's movement of the late sixties, seventies, and early eighties no longer exists. Few, among the many women who regard themselves as feminists, have anything to do with feminist organizations other than reading about them in the newspapers. Young women who are drawn to political activism do not, for the most part, join women's groups. They are much more likely to join anticorporate, antiglobalization, or social justice groups. These young women are likely to regard themselves as feminists, and in the groups that they join a feminist perspective is likely to affect the way in which issues are defined and addressed. But this is not the same thing as a mass movement of women for gender equality. A similar dynamic has taken place in other circles as well. There are now very large numbers of women who identify with feminism, or, if they are reluctant to adopt that label, nevertheless expect to be treated as the equals of men. And there are large numbers of men who support this view. Borderland Visions: Maroons and Outlyers in
Early American History In 1893, the Columbian Exposition at Chicago celebrated the western world's discovery and occupation of the Americas. Against that backdrop, a convention of the new historical profession heard Frederick Jackson Turner's persuasive "frontier thesis," which ascribed the pervasiveness of such acquisitive and individualist values to a specifically American experience. Here, he argued, an ongoing process of white settlement that had lasted for generations had shaped a New World. How I Became a Socialist The story of how Helen Keller (1880-1967), struck blind and deaf while a toddler, overcame her disabilities with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, is a familiar one. William Gibson's drama, The Miracle Worker, made into a movie, popularized that part of her story. She is remembered for accomplishments such as graduating cum laude from Radcliffe College; as an internationally famous advocate for the deaf and blind; and as a celebrity, writing books, appearing in films and on the vaudeville stage. Her friend Mark Twain described her, along with Napoleon, as one of the "two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century." What is usually forgotten, however, is that she was also a prominent, articulate, and passionate voice for socialism. From a condition of profound isolation she grew into an inspired communicator, fully engaged with the world around her. She joined the Socialist Party in 1909 (later she'd join the Industrial Workers of the World, too) and championed her socialist vision while lecturing and writing on the issues of her day-in support of worker's struggles, the Russian Revolution, and women's suffrage, and against the First World War. There was no separation in her mind between her struggle on behalf of the disabled and her struggle for socialism. She attributed the greater portion of the ills experienced by the disabled, and the cause of these disabilities in many cases, to capitalism and industrialism. After 1921, she focused her energies on raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind but she remained a supporter of radical causes for the rest of her life. This essay appeared in the New York Call, a daily newspaper of the Socialist Party, on November 3, 1912.—The Editors CORRESPONDENCE I read with great personal interest Pete Seeger ’s review of Doris Haddock’s trek to Point Hope, Alaska and her effort to stop Edward Teller’s plan to use an H-bomb explosion to create a harbor at Cape Lisbon (near Point Hope) which could be used to ship coal from nearby deposits.* In reality this was Teller’s attempt to evade the then existing Test Ban Agreements with the Soviet Union. BOOK
REVIEWS A review of Students Against Sweatshops by Liza Featherstone and United Students Against Sweatshops. What Alternative to Globalization
A review of The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance by Walden Bello, edited with Preface by Anuradha Mittal. |
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