We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Lowering Workers' Wages is the Objective [13:21m video]

from The Real News

Paul Jay interviews Leo Panitch, professor of political science at Toronto U. and author of Global Capitalism and American Empire

The professor has an excellent grasp of the contradictions and logic of capitalism that promote unemployment and result in the devastation of large parts of society. 

I think it is interesting that in an earlier segment Panitch describes capitalist behavior as "irrational"; but after being challenged by Jay, he clearly explains that their behavior is rational--from a capitalist point of view or logic.
...pressures have always existed on social programs not to interrupt the capitalist labor market, not to get in the way of people's fears that they may not be able to get employment. ...this is going to get much worse, unless we make very, very radical changes, unless labor movements and intellectuals start making far more radical and forward-looking demands than the defensive ones they're making at the moment, because there's an inherent logic of capitalist globalization.