[lit-ideas] Re: Marxi's influence in America
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 18:06:05 -0500
I hate to keep putting your cake out in the rain, but when these so called
Marxists were so influential, the U.S. was a great power. Since the 80's the
U.S. gradually went downhill and since the neocons it plummeted with soaring
debt, misguided use of power, cities that literally need other countries to
help them out and a military run ragged by an insurgency. You conflate Marxism
with the Soviet system. The Soviet state may have had stated Marxist goals,
but they were just a totalitarian horror story. It's a stretch to even call
them a government. Also, Lawrence, how do you explain that the Chinese are
wielding capitalism like they were born into it, and they are quite Communist.
We can skip the Iraq part, since we all know your thoughts on that. BTW, the
Civil War was about slavery, not states rights, or states rights to have
slavery if you insist.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 2/7/2006 5:21:27 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Marxi's influence in America
Robert,
Sorry, I didn't intend to imply that anything was settled just that the matters
were discussed. It?s difficult for me to access evidence on that subject at
this point in my life. I studied those matters a long time ago and no longer
have my Marxist and Leftist libraries, but I remain convinced of the matters I
recall. How can I not unless presented with something conclusively to the
contrary? If someone later adopted polices that Marx previously advocated it
might be a coincidence, but it cannot be proved that it is, and Marx was such
an influential force I tend to discount the coincidences. Also, I have read
Marxists, better studied on the subject than I am who take credit (for Marx)
for many of these influences in American life.
Here is another quote about Marx and the eight hour day. This one from
http://www.workers.org/cm/ch08.html
?Not less skillfully did the London delegates defend Marx's resolution
concerning the eight-hour day. In contradistinction to the French delegates,
they maintained together with Marx that a condition precedent to any further
efforts to improve and liberate the working class and without which all efforts
would be futile was a legislative limitation of the length of the working day.
It was essential to restore the health and the physical energy of the working
class -- the vast majority of each nation -- and also to insure them the
possibility of intellectual development, social communion, and political
activity. The Congress, on the recommendation of the General Council, declared
the eight-hour day as the legislative maximum. This limiting of the workday to
eight hours was one of the demands of the workers in the United States. The
Geneva Congress incorporated this demand into the platform of the working class
of the whole world. Night work was allowed only in exceptional cases
, in branches of industry and certain professions definitely specified by the
law. The ideal was the elimination of all night work.? [Italics added]
In the American labor movement in the early decades of the 20th century, Marx?s
ideas were out there in the form of pamphlets and word of mouth. Communists
attempted to capture the American labor movement. Big Bill Haywood organized a
home-grown Marxist labor Union which was overthrown by Hoover. The Communists
never did very well here because our labor movements were convinced that they
could succeed on their own, and they did.
Thugs hired by Capitalist enterprises to break up unions and strikes and
intimidate or kill union leaders were extremely vicious. Business policies
were equally ruthless and vicious. I grew up in a union family. My father was
a member of the Operating Engineers. He drove a lumber carrier on the docks in
the L.A. Harbor. When I was going to college, I was a member of the Teamster?s
Union and worked part time out of the Teamster?s Hiring Hall. Things were much
mellower by that time, but I grew up knowing about Unions and the ruthlessness
of Big Business.
In modern times, businesses understand that ?Parkinson?s Law? is at work:
Businesses grow (in numbers) in direct proportion to the length of time they
have been in existence rather than in terms of the amount of work to be done,
so they all, if they are to remain successful have periodic ?layoffs.? I
worked in Aerospace for 39 years and ?survived? a great number of them. They
were supposed to be based upon merit. That is, managers were told to layoff a
certain percentage of their workers, say 10%. The best workers were to be
retained. The manager didn?t need to be told this, because the best workers
would make him look better than the worst workers. The workers had an
incentive to work hard to make sure they were never at the bottom of a ?totem
poll? for they knew that another layoff was eventually coming.
There was a time when I was in my late 50s working on the C-17 and the company
modified the layoff philosophy slightly. The emphasis wasn?t just on the
poorest performers. It also included the oldest and higher paid workers.
Since I was in that category I thought it likely I would be laid off at that
time, but the Air Force sent our management a formal letter ?viewing with
alarm? the rate at which the experience level was dropping at the company. If
it dropped any further, our management was told, the Air Force could not retain
its current high degree of confidence in our ability to design, produce,
deliver and maintain the superior product they were paying for and expected.
Thus, I was not laid off after all.
Interestingly, and very much to the point, in the last few years before I
(voluntarily) retired (at age 64)I received very poor ?merit? increases,
despite the fact that I was doing some very responsible work representing
engineering on a Change Review Board and getting glowing reviews by the
Managers familiar with my work. The management I technically worked for was
young (paid less than I was) and unfamiliar with what I did. I doubted they
could understand it. They said ?The managers over there say you are the best
thing since sliced bread. We find that hard to believe.? At the same time my
pay was not increasing very rapidly, my 401 was growing by leaps and bounds as
a result of Boeing stock increasing because of their ruthless management
practices (something investors are very fond of). So I was suffering and
benefiting at the same time.
Lawrence
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