Suchergebnisse

Houston, Tex, has emerged over recent years as a constantly growing Ur center, at first through proximity to petrochemical resources & later through its role as a center of petrochemical technology. The city has a great deal of economic vitality; as a result, its local politics are dominated by economic elites concerned with protecting their own status. The government that performs this task is under strong mayoral control; the mayor is prevented from developing his own political strength by an electoral system that makes strong financial support necessary to anyone wishing to be elected, support that must be sought in the business community. A large element of the population has an active interest in Houston's continuing growth. The city has a growing black & Hispanic population, & appears to be under social stress & to have a deteriorating infrastructure; it also has just developed a new council electoral system. What effect these factors will have on the city's political future remains to be seen. W. H. Stoddard.

In order to understand Iran's transformation into a theocracy, it is essential first to review the causes & events leading to the Feb 1979 revolution. The concept of Islamic government, long viewed as a utopian ideal, became especially attractive in contrast to the Shah's autocratic regime. Characterized are various groups of religious revolutionaries arraigned against the imperialist government & the gradual emergence of Khomeini as the leading political authority in present-day Iran. Four revolutionary factions are analyzed: (1) the religious elite, (2) the merchant-artisan class, which supported the general strike of 1978/79, (3) radical Islamic reformists in the intelligentsia, & (4) newly migrated workers & vagrants. A parallel between Khomeini supporters & those of European fascism is drawn, showing the power of the LMc. D. Dunseath.

Union organization in Tex enjoyed several successes in the early twentieth century, though these were undermined after 1919; labor again made progress from 1934 on, despite various opposition to labor activity. The recent history of labor in Tex has revealed both favorable & unfavorable developments. Tex remains relatively ununionized, with a large poor population including many illegal immigrants. Nevertheless, there is great potential for union growth, & some unions are taking advantage of this. W. H. Stoddard.

Frances Fox Piven & Richard A. Cloward (Poor People's Movements, New York: Pantheon, 1977) offer a faulty thesis when they contend that civil disruption & not organization force the state to improve conditions. Evidence does not support the cases they use to advance their argument. During the Depression, worker disruptions did not force an increase in welfare payments; they had increased dramatically prior to this. Workers' strikes did not force New Deal labor reforms; rather, the reforms facilitated the strikes. Organization has not reduced workers' economic & political power. The one element of their argument that rings true is that protest movements have not accomplished much. Answers to this problem lie not in advocating more disruption, but in understanding the lack of class-consciousness in US workers, the dominance of two-party politics, & ethnic divisions among workers. Questions that need to be asked concern when disruption is a useful tactic, & what kinds of organization work best in different circumstances. H. Chaiklin.

Analyzed are political events that led to Menachim Begin's electoral success in 1977 & the conclusion of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty at Camp David. Begin's victory & the defeat of the Labor Party are attributed in part to the 1967 war, which gave a legitimacy to Begin's rightist Herut party. Issues of defense & security took precedence over matters of social justice, & the easy answers supplied by the nationalist Herut party held wide secular appeal. Also affected by the Six-Day War were aspects of Zionist ideology; the differences between socialist & revisionist Zionism became aggravated by questions regarding the West Bank & Gaza. The inappropriateness of a laissez-faire economy in Israel is argued. D. Dunseath.

The concept of conflict between the Sunbelt & the Northeast requires clarification. It appears that the crucial feature of the South that attracts industry is good business climate, meaning low levels of unionization, social benefits, & wages. Industries have been moving south for decades, drawn by these conditions, & southern states tend to enact legislation & support national legislation favorable to this. Lower wage levels are apparently due not to lower productivity but to lower unionization; in fact, evidence suggests that productivity is higher in the South, due to investment of southern firms in more modern equipment. This provides a basis for northern firms to deal with the present economic situation by asking their workers to accept lower levels of pay & benefits. The fiscal crisis of New York City illustrates many of the probable results. If this is to be avoided, a national change of policy is needed, including outlawing open shops, penalizing National Labor Relations Board ruling violations, unionizing throughout the South, a guaranteed annual income, & national welfare reform & benefit increases. W. H. Stoddard.