Re: Shiller on housing bubble

[sam gindin <sgindin@xxxxxxxx>]

Louis,

I'll certainly pass this on, and we have no disagreement on the significance
of what is going on in Venezuela, which is inspiring other struggles in
Latin America and to some extent, also here.  (I recently spoke to a group
of auto stewards on the crisis in auto and 'tacked on' some points about
Venezuela; turned out what they really wanted to talk about after was the
specifics of Venezuela).

-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect
Sent: June 18, 2005 1:44 PM
To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Shiller on housing bubble

Sam Gindin:
>As for the Socialist Register, your point about paying more attention
>to struggles elsewhere,(a point you raised in your generally
>sympathetic review of SR earlier) is fair enough. You are certainly
>right to raise the importance of something specifically on Venezuela
>and Bolivia.  What is unfair, however, is to imply that SR is
>completely ignoring this.  Aside from the fact that the issues on
>imperialism are clearly meant to be of relevance to those struggles
>(and, in fact , the last issue of SR was translated into Spanish with
>the first run selling out surprisingly fast) note that over the past
>five years, SR has also included: 4 articles on the struggles going on in
Latin America; 3 each on struggles within India,
>Africa, and the Mid-East   (including in both the formal anf informal
>sectors);  4 articles addressing forced migration and the impact of
>immigration; and articles on the struggles in Chiapas, the working
>class in Russia, the general relationship between workers in the north
>and south, the tenuous borders  between 'peasants' and the working class.

I suppose I am expecting too much from SR, which does provide first-rate
analysis about various aspects of the global economy. But if I were editor
of such a journal, I'd have a different emphasis--one that engaged the South
as a subject rather than an object. For example, I am very familiar with the
work of Vivek Chibber but I am far more receptive to the writings of
somebody like Hamza Alavi or even M. Shahid Alam who is not a Marxist.
As Yaffee pointed out, even if hyperbolically so, Chibber and Greenfield
find little value in national struggles. If you can't see the value in such
struggles, then much of what's going on the South will seem unimportant. I
think that's one thing you folks share with Michael Hardt, despite appearing
as his adversary on debates--a belief that national liberation struggles are
some kind of exercise in futility or worse.

My strong suggestion is to include something on Venezuela in 2006 by
Lebowitz or Harnecker. I also would approach Tom Kruse about writing
something on Bolivia. Kruse, who used to post to pen-l, is a brilliant
writer and scholar.