[PEN-L:3009] Re: Re: Long waves

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you, Doug. The advice to workers would be "don't believe them if they say they don't have the money for big raises" perhaps ?
But when you say "we'll see", it does not seem to me that that gives a lead to workers to seize agency, become self-determining. I would think something like, " but the wage increases will only be had through fierce struggle by class conscious workers. " Otherwise, we definitely won't see it.

Charles

>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx> 02/05 6:35 PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:

>What is the political significance of long waves ? At the crest or  the
>trough or in between , capitalism still needs to go. How does knowing
>there are long waves help to bring that about ?
>What is Shaikh's practice ?

I don't know how much Anwar plans to speak for himself on this, but he told
me that an upwave would mean there was plenty of profit cushion around for
workers to make and win demands. It also might mean that the strong and
very broad increases in real wages in the U.S. over the last 2-3 years
aren't a blip, but the prelude to more. We'll see, won't we?

Doug