Traverse Machine

Sat Aug 26 09:05:40 CDT 2017

Just a one-note remark to Joseph's remark in para 2. In that Robert Reich
film I mentioned, he gently, non-violently even verbally--it is
poignant--just says that he left the Clinton Administration --he was Labor
Secretary, we remember--when he felt his concerns for workers (labor) were
no longer even being heard.

On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 9:53 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Interesting thesis but I would like to see a sketch of supporting story
> lines/evidence in VL.  I see it as a more political, social control /vs
> resistance novel focusing on consolidation of power within increasingly
> aggressive gov/police alliance and various forms of reistance including
> labor but in many ways it is about a more full spectrum resistance: free
> thought, self liberation using psychedelics/cannabis, war resistance, labor
> resistance, feminism, race, music, turning off tv, making local
> communities. I have a hard time recalling a particular emphasis on labor. I
> remember the part about the labor issues for loggers and that some of the
> film collective’s actions were at labor protests. Am I missing something
> obvious?
>    One thing implicit in VL is the variety of ways in which a movement is
> intimidated, seduced, scattered, killed by the state, while the state
> maintains the facade of legitimate concern for law and order. In Pynchon’s
> 1984 big brother is experty heroized on TV by taxpaying advertisers, and
> mostly only shows up with an arrest warrant when you are connected to
> direct resistance.
>
> I agree with your premise of labor power decline and certainly we see HOW
> that was accomplished in VL.  Interesting focus which just came up in
> discussion with friends. Nobody talks about labor much anymore. I would
> argue that the Clinton administration put the final nail in that coffin.
> The democrats relation to their base is more memory and habit than
> representative commitment.
>
>
>
>
> > On Aug 25, 2017, at 11:37 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Vineland picks up where GR left off.
> >
> > GR is, in part, about labors relationship with the giant conglomerates
> > of the 1970s, with post-WWII America.
> >
> > Vineland explores the decline, and even the collapse of the stable
> > and steady giant conglomerates: GE, G&W, ITT, RCA, AT&T, IBM....as
> > they face the challenges of competition, as increasing returns from
> > size suddenly become bloated complacency.
> >
> > The garage geeks take big risks, and while most fail, a few are enough
> > to make a major impact: Apple, Microsoft.
> >
> > Jobs at the Big Olds decline and jobs are created at smaller companies.
> >
> > The BIGS turn lean and mean, spin off, LBO, M&A....VC and so on and
> > labor has no chance.
> >
> > VL & Nostalgia has been much discussed and VL is certainly a novel in
> > the tradition of American labor literature that honors 4 bread and
> > butter ideas that we find in American Lit.
> >
> > 1. division of labor argues that those that do dangerous work get higher
> wages.
> > 2.work that requires more skill, skill that is acquired not in months
> > but in years, get higher wages.
> > 3. work that is irregular, because of weather, for example,  steel
> > worker in Boston, get higher wages
> > 4. Pride / Trust in work requires higher wages
> >
> > Zoyd is a parody of the lost wages.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 7:55 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> In Robert Reich's first movie, he had a few charts. One was of
> >> the growth of GDP in America since WW2...
> >> charted with the growth of
> >> median income in Americas since WW2.......
> >> And a chart of union membership in America over that time.
> >>
> >> I was in about 1977 that the growth of GDP slowly but noticeably
> started to
> >> outpace the growth of median income, which flattened over time.
> >>
> >> It was at about that time that the fast decline of union membership
> started.
> >> (If I remember it was leaking away even earlier in the decade.) Reich
> >> pointed out how non-union wage growth also slowed. Union monetary
> >> achievements helped all workers.
> >>
> >> I am working with a retired economist--one who was part of the
> leadership in
> >> founding
> >> the radical economists group of the 60s, early 70s. I am bringing his
> best
> >> book, The Money Mandarins
> >> back into print with him, revised, updated, but the bulk of the
> analysis is
> >> the same since real predictive insight can be like that.
> >> He basically predicted all of the adverse effects of globalization on
> >> workers.
> >>
> >> When I told him the above examples from Reich's film, he told me this,
> still
> >> baffled and self-surprised at it.He said that around that time, in his
> >> prime, he poured through scads of data--to see economic
> >> trends, anomalies, truths....this was worldwide but he was working in
> >> Europe, unlike many American economists
> >> so.......
> >>
> >> This became unexplainably evident to him.....slowed growth and even a
> >> visible decline in economic value of wages WORLDWIDE (even as many of
> the
> >> most poor in major countries--China, India, for example---forged
> forward, as
> >> has steadily happened)
> >> which, according to classical head-in-ass econ theory, will always
> balance
> >> with new "creatively destructive" growth of
> >> new occupations...
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 7:36 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> There’s also the fact that many traditional jobs are no longer very
> >>> well paid. The 1980s recession, timed with the beginning of the Reagan
> >>> years, was the beginning of a progressive destruction of unions in an
> >>> industry which had at a time been the centre of the most militant
> >>> labor struggles in the history of the American west. In 1978, a
> >>> forestry worker with no high-school diploma could earn up to 40% more
> >>> than the state’s average wage. Now, fellers can earn as little as $18
> >>> an hour.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/23/logging-
> industry-work-employment-oregon
> >>> -
> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>
> >>
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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