Green wage cut

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>James Heartfield wrote:
>
>>In point of fact, they very rarely have a direct effect on consumption
>>but serve the ideological purpose of persuading people to take personal
>>responsibility for capitalism (not nature)'s limits. Once softened up,
>>all are prepared for cuts in wages.
>
>I'd love to know what evidence you have for this. In the U.S., which 
>saw the sharpest fall in real wages of any First World country from 
>1973-1995, people have been "persuaded" to accept them out of 
>economic desperation; blinkered political possibilities, constrained 
>by both structure and ideology; wretched labor laws; fear of job 
>loss; weak and unimaginative unions, a working class divided by 
>ethnicity, region, sector, and gender, etc. As far as I can tell - 
>which may not be much, since I only live here and follow this stuff 
>kind of obsessively - green concerns have contributed almost nothing 
>to the situation.
>
>Doug

Green movements are said to be "post-materialist," in contrast to the 
spirit of Samuel Gompers & the like ("More!").  Old-fashioned trade 
unionism and "post-materialist" environmentalism must be two sides of 
the same capitalist coin.

Yoshie