George C. didn't talk about trade unions -- that was my note, as the Transit Workers Union was the first big union to support Occupy Wall Street .... I'm sure George would agree with just about every point you make here. Moi aussi!
Great points!
Mitchel
*********************************** laura costas wrote:
Hey, thanks for this, Mitchel,
The all-American mortgage is one of the biggest scams of all, hidden in plain sight. Home "ownership" is considered one of the signals of prosperity, of having "arrived" amid the middle class in this country. We're all so proud of ourselves for winning the privilege of paying the bank several times the market value of the house. Moreover, we pay all the interest up front! And we pay both money and time to maintain and improve the bank's property! Finally, this arrangement is explained as a benefit to the mortgagee because we get a few dollars off our income tax liability at the end of every year. The system takes $600 from you, then gives you back $60 and expects you to be grateful.
It's a form of servitude that isn't recognized as such. How great would it be if people had the demystified view of home owner/indebtorship?
Caffentizis in the 5th graph talks about repression of "the conviction that, in an equitable communal society, those in trouble have a right to tap the social surplus." Well, I'd go farther. Why do you need to be in trouble to share that surplus? You created it!
Caffentzis is right about shame--how many people have toiled their lives away in service to the bank, to their mortgage? The options are martyrdom or shame, and just like we love the human sacrifice of war heroes, we justify just about any sacrifice in the worship of work.
I'm not sure I'd use US trade unions as a model for struggle. Even if the origins of unions in this country had been "pure," they didn't stay that way for very long and we can't afford nostalgia. They have a history of giving away the store, and W.E.B. DuBois demonstrates very clearly in his book on Reconstruction that many have the same history of racial division as the rest of the capitalist society. Before approaching US trade unions as a model I suggest we reflect on all the unpaid labor that created the capitalist structures in the first place--Africans and women especially.
Perhaps the nostalgia surrounding labor in general is due for re-examination. As long as we're about the business of reinventing the world, can we get to a celebration of life rather than of work?
On the lighter side, here's a link to a video by a French (I think) artist named Wax Tailor, featuring Charlie Winston. Your basic pop tune, English lyrics, lovely images, same theme. "I Own You" <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYsEo4TTTtM>www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYsEo4TTTtM
L
On Mar 22, 2013, at 5:38 AM, Mitchel Cohen wrote:
>The following piece by George Caffentzis in the current issue of
>Tidal #4 ("Occupy Theory / Occupy Strategy") is the first I've seen
>that examines the different forms of organization that a Debtors'
>movement requires as opposed to a movement around wages (or trade unions).
>
>As such, this is a very important document (which ends much too
>abruptly; probably poor editing involved by the Tidal staff).
>I have written not quite a "response", but further thoughts built on
>George's article, which I'll forward separately.
>
>I thought it would be good to get some discussion of this on our lists.
>
>Mitchel Cohen
>
>
>Debt and/or Wages:
>Organizing Challenges
>
>by George Caffentis
>in Tidal #4, Feb. 2013
Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in. ~ Leonard Cohen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-vSfwIJkjY