February 25th, 2010
The USA, along with the rest of world, is facing a series of daunting economic, social, and environmental crises. Only a civic revolution based on the recognition of human rights and responsibilities offers the possibility of a sustainable and democratic future for the nation and the world.
Read the article and comment.
Tags: civic revolution, climate change, global economic meltdown, globalization, human responsibilities, human rights, increasing inequality, neoliberal globalization, offshoring jobs, unemployment, US military
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
December 17th, 2009
Royal Dutch Shell’s program to slash 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009, many of them at its US headquarters in Houston, Texas, is the latest example of the impact of neoliberal globalization on working people. Dubbed a “job migration” by Shell, the program will transfer many good-paying corporate white-collar jobs to “shared service centers” in India and the Philippines.
The history of Shell in the USA follows the corporate strategy of what we have called a war of attrition against US labor. Shell moved its US headquarters from New York City to Houston in 1970 at the height of the runaway shop movement in order to exploit cheaper white-collar labor in the US South and is now jumping on the bandwagon of offshoring to the Far East for the same purpose — to increase profitability.
The rationale that Shell offers is that they must “get leaner to compete”, but their latest labor program, dubbed, Transition 2009, though good for the company’s bottom line, exacerbates the economic crisis in the US — every job lost reduces the demand for goods and services and undermines the position of working people even more. This pervasive practice of offshoring is another neoliberal initiative that is as short-sighted as the runaway shop program was.
Until sustainable economic policies replace the opportunistic schemes of neoliberal globalization — the position of working people across the nation will continue to deteriorate. We have listed specific policy changes for meeting the present crisis in the Fighting Back section of “The Fight of Our Lives”.
Tags: combating globalization, globalization, job migration, neoliberal globalization, offshoring jobs, Shell, unemployment
Posted in Uncategorized, offshoring jobs | No Comments »
December 15th, 2009
Neoliberal globalization, which began after World War II and has expanded exponentially since the 1980s, has produced dramatic inequality between and within nations, fostered continuing militarism, and contributed the lion’s share to the looming crisis of climate change. The very idea of somehow combating what appeared to be an irresistible force has been a daunting enterprise, to say the least. Until now…
It is now clear that neoliberal globalization does not serve the needs of a majority of the world’s population, and, as economic metapolicy, is simply not sustainable. The question of combating globalization is rapidly becoming the question of what will follow the meltdown of the neoliberal global economic system.
From the Left is committed to looking at possible alternatives to the present world economic order and ways out of the ongoing economic crisis. In that vein, Ruben Botello has submitted the following article about the possibility of an American Union based on the model of the European Union (EU) — it deserves careful consideration.
His concept of an American Union is not to be confused with the neoliberal scheme of a North American Union that lurked behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The SPP, negotiated behind closed doors, appears to be nothing more than an expansion of NAFTA for those who benefited from NAFTA — SPPM if you will — a Security and Prosperity Partnership for the Multinationals. The American Union, on the other hand, attempts to resolve national contradictions rather than just profit the executives and stockholders of the multinationals and their government brokers.
Read Ruben’s article closely — the debate about the future of the Americas after the meltdown of neoliberal globalization must begin now.
Read the article and comment.
Tags: American Union, combating globalization, European Union, fair trade, immigration, international trade, NAFTA, North American Union, SPP, trade barriers
Posted in political economy | 3 Comments »
December 3rd, 2009
There are two key criteria for evaluating national incarceration policy: 1) the number of citizens that are incarcerated in a nation, and 2) the treatment of those prisoners. US incarceration rates — the highest in the modern world — and their causes, are thoroughly explored in “Dismantling the Prisonhouse of Nations: A Socialist Prison Reform Proposal”. http://combatingglobalization.com/articles/dismantling_the_prisonhouse_of_nations.html
The present article focuses on the treatment of prisoners in the USA.
Read and Comment on this article.
Tags: denial of ue process for prisoners, maximum prison size, prison healthcare, prison locations, prison overcrowding, prisoner education, prisoner rehabilitation, racial discrimination in US prisons, supermax incarceration, US prisons
Posted in US prisons | No Comments »
November 29th, 2009
The Killing Continues
Since the suspension of the death penalty in Japan in September of 2009, the US is the only developed nation in the world that continues to execute its citizens — but, perhaps, not for long. The unmasking of the political agenda behind state sanctioned killing during the past 25 years and the growing number of exonerations of prisoners on death row could lead to the final demise of the death penalty in the USA.
Civil executions across the nation were halted temporarily 40 years ago and should never have resumed. Understanding why the death penalty was restored opens the door for the campaign to permanently abolish capital punishment.
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Tags: abolition of capital punishment, abolition of the death penalty, capital punishment, death penalty, the politics of capital punishment, the politics of the death penalty, the question of innocence, wrongful convictions, wrongful executions
Posted in US prisons | No Comments »
September 24th, 2009
The United States deserves the title, the Prisonhouse of Nations[i] :
- The US is also a world leader in executing its citizens, following only the repressive political regimes of China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in the number of executions in 2008. The US and Japan are the only states in the developed world that continue to impose capital punishment on their citizens. (http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty)
Both of these repressive social practices — mass incarceration and the continuing use of the death penalty — are direct results of the reactionary US prison policies that have been in effect for the last 30 years. This Socialist Prison Reform Proposal (SPRP) provides a starting point to reverse these trends of political repression and secure justice for working people in the US.
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The entire article, entitled Dismantling the Prisonhouse of Nations: A Socialist Prison Reform Proposal, is available online or as a pdf download at http://combatingglobalization.com.
[i] The phrase “Prisonhouse of Nations” is borrowed from journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal’s latest book,
Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners in the U.S.A. (San Francisco: City Light Books, 2009). For a review of this important book go to
http://combatingglobalization.com/articles/jailhouse_lawyers.html
Tags: abolition of capital punishment, abolition of the death penalty, capital punishment, death penalty, mass incarceration, PLRA, Prison Litigation Reform Act, prison reform, US law enforcement, War on Drugs
Posted in US prisons | No Comments »
September 13th, 2009
Hans Bennett’s Neoliberalism Needs Death Squads in Colombia adds an international dimension to From the Left. Bennett’s review of Blood & Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia by Jasmin Hristov provides the background necessary to understand how neoliberal globalization has shaped the political landscape of Colombia.
Read this important article.
Tags: Alvaro Uribe, cocaine, Colombia, counterinsurgency, death squads, globalization, human rights, Latin America, militarism, War on Drugs
Posted in Book Reviews, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
September 4th, 2009
More than a book about prisoners defending prisoners in what the author justly calls “the Prisonhouse of Nations”, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Jailhouse Lawyers has the potential to jump-start the prison reform movement in the US. In addition to telling the individual stories of the best (and worst) jailhouse lawyers defending themselves and their fellow prisoners in the face of official hostility and, in many instances personal danger, and presenting a lively history of jailhouse lawyering in modern America, Abu-Jamal clearly exposes the political and racial bias of the US criminal justice system and explores the role of jailhouse lawyers in the jungle of American law.
Read the complete review.
Tags: Angela Y. Davis, Attica prison, capital punishment, George Jackson, politics of incarceration, prison lawyers, Prison Litigation Reform Act, prison litigators, prison reform, Richard Mayberry
Posted in Book Reviews | No Comments »
June 24th, 2009
Incarceration practices in the United States are egregious by any standards, and, although the issue is obscured by pundits and politicians, rigorous political analysis of national prison policy exposes the root of the issue.
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Tags: capital punishment, Contract with America, criminal justice spending, illegal immigration, neoliberal globalization, unemployment, urban riots, urban unrest, US prison system, War on Drugs
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 17th, 2009
Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are legally defined areas provided and underwritten by governments to facilitate the exploitation of FTL within their jurisdictions. Free trade zones in North America are undermining US and Canadian transportation workers across the continent.
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Posted in Comment on Articles, Free Trade Zones, capitalism, free trade labor, managed labor mobility programs, offshoring jobs, onshoring foreign labor, socialism | No Comments »
North American Free Trade Zones (FTZs) — Comment
June 17th, 2009Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are legally defined areas provided and underwritten by governments to facilitate the exploitation of FTL within their jurisdictions. Free trade zones in North America are undermining US and Canadian transportation workers across the continent.
Read the article.
Posted in Comment on Articles, Free Trade Zones, capitalism, free trade labor, managed labor mobility programs, offshoring jobs, onshoring foreign labor, socialism | No Comments »