Where was the Color at A16 in D.C.?

[Alex LoCascio]

I've not read Michel's work on bureaucracy, but I have read Kim Moody's
various works on the decline of organized labor in the U.S., and I was
always under the impression that Michel's work is intended as an apology for
bureaucracy, not an attack on it.

- Alex L.

------Original Message------
From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Sent: June 20, 2000 4:30:29 PM GMT
Subject: RE: Where was the Color at A16 in D.C.?

On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, Max Sawicky wrote:


> I've started reading "Poor Peoples Movements" by Cloward and Piven,
> and they raise the -- for me -- intriguing question of whether
> "organization" in the usual sense is the real key to social change.
> C&P say that organization only happens as an upsurge recedes, and orgs
> tend to reconcile with the status quo in the aftermath.  It's the
> disruption and potential threat that force the change.  Where this
> takes us I couldn't say yet, since I haven't finished the book.

I think if you follow this book you'll have have to end up coming down on
ChuckO's side, since Piven & Cloward's argument is pretty much modelled on
Roberto Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy, which is the classic argument
about the downside of representative organization for the left.

Michael

__________________________________________________________________________
Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com

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