[WSF-Discuss] Decent Work Analysis - and Beyond

[Kim Scipes]

Dear Peter and others on this list, some of whom I know and some I  
don't--

I have been reading your interaction re Decent Work and thought I'd  
throw my two cents in.  I look at things at least somewhat differently  
than how the others who have commented do, but I think the discussion  
needs to be widened.

(For those that don't know me, besides having a Ph.D. in Sociology and  
currently  teaching at a regional campus of Purdue University in  
Indiana, USA, I have been a labor activist for over 25 years, focusing  
both globally and domestically, and was the North American  
representative of International Labour Reports between 1984-98.)

One thing that strikes me in this discussion, is--and here I follow  
Jan Nederveen Pieterse's point in his 2008 book, IS THERE HOPE FOR  
UNCLE SAM? GETTING OUT OF THE AMERICAN BUBBLE, although others have  
made it before--that folks are treating capitalism as a monolith  
instead of considering that there might be multiple capitalisms.   
Basically, this suggests there might be a number of approaches to this  
issue instead of "one size fits all."

Second, Peter previously referred to Bill Fletcher, Jr., and Fernando  
Gapasin's recent book in the US, SOLIDARITY DIVIDED:  THE CRISIS IN  
ORGANIZED LABOR AND A NEW PATH TOWARD SOCIAL JUSTICE (University of  
California Press, 2008).  This is the best book I've seen on what's  
happening within organized labor in the US, and well worth a read.   
(Quickly, they argue the split in the AFL-CIO in 2005 did not address  
the myriad of problems within the US labor movement, and that to  
overcome our problems, we have to reject "business unionism," which  
has been the predominant form of unionism in the US since the late  
1800s.)  However, I have just done an extended review of this book,  
and I think they take an economic approach to globalization.  (My  
review, published on-line on December 27, is at http://www.zmag.org/zbooks/review/108 
  .)

Third, while I don't know enough about elsewhere, I am convinced that  
capitalism will NEVER create the number of needed jobs in the United  
States, much less good jobs.  I say this off of much empirical  
research and practical engagement--I'm not approaching this  
ideologically.  I have been researching and (episodically) writing  
about this since 1983.  My latest piece on this--I've got a slightly  
later piece that builds on it, but I haven't completed it for  
publication--is a piece I published in February 2007:  it's at http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/2139 
  .  This is best read along with watching a wonderful You Tube video  
based on a song by James McMurtry called "We Can't Make It Here  
Anymore"--put the title of the song in Google, and select the first  
item.  Warning:  this version of what's going on for working people  
differs from the "Happy Face" presented by most of the mainstream US  
media.  (By the way, both my article and the McMurtry video are from  
before the current financial crisis.)

And fourth, I think it's time we need to start thinking about creating  
a global, post-capitalist economic and political order.  Besides not  
seeing any way capitalism can create enough jobs in the US, there is  
this minor detail generally referred to as "global warming" (in  
reality, it should be known as "climate change") that is literally  
threatening the existence of all life on this planet.  Again, I'm not  
saying this ideologically.  (In fact, my 1991 MA paper at the  
Institute of Social Studies was a future oriented policy proposal on  
creating a new American labor movement in the struggle for a new  
society that was economically and ecologically sustainable.)  So, even  
if we could provide "Decent Work" for everyone on the planet--which I  
argue we cannot--and if it was within the confines of today's existing  
societies, then we'd all have decent work, and we would all be dead or  
soon to be!  Again, I just had something that begins to discuss how we  
create a global economic system that works for all of us on the planet  
that was published in a journal called Synthesis/Regeneration:  A  
Magazine of Green Social Thought, and it is on-line at http://www.zmag.org/zspace/viewCommentaryPrint/3704 
  .

Please excuse me for plugging my own work, but these are issues I  
think need to be addressed--and yet, I don't see anyone else talking/ 
writing about them.  (If anyone else is, PLEASE let me know--and send  
links!)

I hope these points are worthy of your consideration!


In solidarity--


Kim Scipes
Chicago


On Dec 27, 2008, at 1:37 PM, Peter Waterman wrote:

> Having provoked a discussion about Decent Work, the ITUC and ILO  
> Connection, I find I do not have on my mahcine in Lima a copy of the  
> Guy Standing article from Development and Change (my old house  
> journal).
>
> This document has been available on the web somewhere and I may have  
> copied through to one or more of you folks.
>
> If someone has an online copy of this - including Guy himself of  
> course - I would appreciate a copy - preferably b4 New Year.
>
> Thanx,
>
> Peter W

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/worldsocialforum-discuss_openspaceforum.net/attachments/20081228/9e9ff8ae/attachment.html>