The economic boom of the 1990s created huge wealth for the bosses, but benefited workers hardly at all. At the same time, the bosses were able to take the political initiative and even the moral high ground, while workers were often divided against each other. This new book by leading labor analyst Michael D. Yates seeks to explain how this happened, and what can be done about it.
Essential to both tasks is "naming the system" -- the system that ensures that those who do the work do not benefit from the wealth they produce. Yates draws on recent data to show that the growing inequality -- globally, and within the United States -- is a necessary consequence of capitalism, and not an unfortunate side-effect that can be remedied by technical measures. To defend working people against ongoing attacks -- on their working conditions, their living standards, and their future and that of their children -- and to challenge inequality, it is necessary to understand capitalism as a system and for labor to challenge the political dominance of capitalist interests.
Naming the System examines contemporary trends in employment and unemployment, in hours of work, and in the nature of jobs. It shows how working life is being reconfigured today, and how the effects of this are masked by mainstream economic theories. It uses numerous concrete examples to relate larger theoretical issues to everyday experience of the present-day economy. And it sets out the strategic options for organized labor in the current political context, in which the U.S.-led war on terrorism threatens to eclipse the anti-globalization movement.
Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One: Getting Our Bearings Chapter Two: Capitalism and Inequality Chapter Three: Unemployment and Underemployment Chapter Four: Bad Jobs, Low Pay, and Overwork Chapter Five: The Neoclassical/Neoliberal Dogma Chapter Six: A Clearer Look at Things Chapter Seven: Capitalism's Contradictions Chapter Eight: Making a Better World
About the Author MICHAEL D. YATES is Associate Editor of Monthly Review and was for many years Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. He is the author of _Longer Hours, Fewer Jobs_ and _Why Unions Matter_ (both Monthly Review Press) and is active in labor education. <http://www.monthlyreview.org/namingthesystem.htm> *****
An Excerpt from _Naming the System_: <http://www.monthlyreview.org/ntsxcerpt.htm>.
A Note from Michael Yates:
***** My new book, "Naming the System: Inequality and Work in the Global Economy" will be published at the end of this month by Monthly Review Press. The table of contents and an excerpt can be seen at the Monthly Review website at <http://www/monthlyreview.org>. The price of the book is $16.95, and I believe that you can get a 20 percent discount if you order online. I also have about 40 single-spaced pages of lecture notes available to accompany the book. The notes are available for a very reasonable fee. If you are interested, email me at <mikey at pitt.edu>. You can request an examination or review copy from Monthly Review by fax at (212) 727-3676.
The book provides ample evidence of growing inequality and misery around the world, with explicit reference to employment and unemployment worldwide. In addition, the book compares two theoretical explanations for what is happening -- neoclassical and Marxist. The theoretical chapters are both exceptionally clear and wide-ranging. The final two chapters lay out capitalism's many contradictions and a variety of social movements which have used these contradictions to bring about progressive social change. These social movements range from rank-and-file union struggles in the United States to grassroots movements among the poor in Brazil and South Africa to revolutionary movements in Colombia and Nepal.
"Naming the System" is geared toward students, labor activists, and those involved in various anti-globalization struggles. It would make a good supplementary text for introductory economics course or a basic textbook for labor studies courses, study groups, and the like. I have used the manuscript for the book in several classes (at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at Cornell) with very good results.
I am currently living in Portland, Oregon. I am available to speak at venues in the Northwest, as well as in most other parts of the country this summer and fall. I normally only require transportation costs and a place to stay.
Michael Yates ***** -- Yoshie
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