Readings for May 19th

• "Crisis and Neoliberal Capitalism," by David Kotz, Dollars and Sense (Dec 2008)
  
• "Capitalism Hits the Fan," by Rick Wolff. Dollars and Sense (Nov 2008)
• "Promissory Notes," by Midnight Notes Collective (April 2009)
• Glossary of Terms About Financial Crisis, Philly Budget Crunchers

Notes
Real Wages go down after '73 --> dependency on credit
What lead to this?

• Corporate and economic elite 'got greedy' / wanted to make more profit
• Where did competition come from?
• 70s- China opens a huge labor pool
• 50-60s Nationalist gov'ts in South America, followed by coups and right wing military gov'ts
• Backlash against gains of social movements
• Worker struggle in 1960s and early 1970s—destroying Keynesianism?
• Did neoliberalism come out of this?

What was Keynesianism?

• Gov't controlling interest rates and markets 'artificially'
• regulates markets and gives people more comfortable living standard
• came out of Great Depression
• (Role of World War II in actually ending the great depression)
• Creating jobs, social security, welfare, foodstamps

Keynesianism and Struggle

• Gave people a means to struggle with
• Powerful social movements of 1960s
• Was a deal that people were asked to be included in...example of civil rights / black power movement
• Other side: control, pacifier, means of regulating the poor
• Keynesian deal mostly included white, male, unionized workers

The Neoliberal model

• unregulated markets
• privatizing all aspects of life
• Attacking unions
• Speculative markets
• dismantling social services
• profit over people

Resistance to neoliberalism: different or the same as resistance to keynesianism?

Rise of Neoliberalism:

• Regean: attack on air-traffic controllers' strike
• Paul Volcker: raising interest rate 20% in 1979
• Now in Obama Admin
• 'Upward mobility for people
• End of FDR era right to organize laws

Neoliberalism: Did it fail?

• Succeeds in fucking over people globally
• Failed in investment / deflated assets etc
• Attempts to take over economies
• Failure in iraq: US told by own puppets to get out, insurgency, struggling oil workers
• IMF/WTO: weren't able to come up with trade rules that were universal, 'globalization failed'
• “3rd world” governments refuse to sign away sovereignty, particularly around agricultural policies, where EU/US try to flood market

Natural resources and resistance to neoliberalism
What are the effects of nationalized vs. privatized natural resources?

• Eg mexico: state oil company, not progressive
• Resources dont' leave countries as fast when resources are nationalized
• OPEC: formally colonized countries sell at artificially higher price
• Brazil MST (landless worker movement)
• India: self-ruled communities
• Bolivia: privatization of gas stopped by protests
• Regional gas integration in S. Am
• Still entering into world market
• Zapatistas
• Chile: Pinochet never privatized copper mines

Still to cover: anti colonial struggles, 70s, 1968