Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Sunday New York Times
BTW In the Sunday New York Times (January 22, 2012) there's a story worth reading, " Apple, America and The Squeezed Middle Class" with an in-depth segment, "The iEconomy: How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work." Every single professor mentioned it today. I'm just sayin....
Meeting Noam Chomsky
Official Noam Chomsky Website
Ok, there is absolutely no excuse for posting such a blurry, bad cellphone excuse for a photograph. Except for the reason that it is a photo of Noam Chomsky and I. In the same room. Shaking hands. He has participated in the Harvard Trade Union Program for the past 23 years and is quite proud of that fact. In the course of an afternoon, he recommends an astonishing number of books or articles to read by authors or scholars he thinks we would find provocative. (I have scribbled each and every one of them into my Hilroy notebook as I plan to read them in my post-meeting-Noam life.)
He is certainly counting on all of us to revitalize the labour movement. He found hope in the dynamism of the Arab Spring. Can Occupiers link with the labour movement? He says many things that stick like a burr in my brain - "Corporations are basically destroying the country. The investment class will clip their coupons." A business-class culture consumed with short-term maximization of profits tends to ignore issues that will affect future generations - like global warming, for example. He is interested in us as labour leaders and encourages us to fight back - "the class war has to be two-sided." I'm so glad Noam is on our side.
He is certainly counting on all of us to revitalize the labour movement. He found hope in the dynamism of the Arab Spring. Can Occupiers link with the labour movement? He says many things that stick like a burr in my brain - "Corporations are basically destroying the country. The investment class will clip their coupons." A business-class culture consumed with short-term maximization of profits tends to ignore issues that will affect future generations - like global warming, for example. He is interested in us as labour leaders and encourages us to fight back - "the class war has to be two-sided." I'm so glad Noam is on our side.
Friday, 20 January 2012
Harvard Yard
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Barry Bluestone
Lest you think I'm not going to classes as I haven't blogged about them, I am. Four a day. Every day. But they're tricky to write about. Complex issues. Big discussions. How do I distill this particular scholastic experience? I'll start by talking about one of today's professors, Barry Bluestone, Dean at the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. A very cool guy and author of 12 books. An economist. An inspiring speaker. The theme of his session was understanding the nuts & bolts of US economic growth, beginning with a simple, powerful, influential formula used to calculate Gross Domestic Product:. Y = C+I+G+X-M
Y is GDP. C is consumption which makes up about 70% of the equation. I is investment. G is government spending. X is exports and M is imports.
Barry led us through the economic history of the US using this formula as a guideline for what happened, beginning in the Roaring Twenties - the decade that began with a grand celebration of US capitalism. In the post WW I economic boom, companies like General Foods, General Motors and General Electric became giants, riding high on a wave of consumption. Packaged foods, electrical power lit up the nation and cars put the whole country on the move. (General Motors grew to become the 18th largest company in the world with a GDP as big as Belgium.) People borrowed money to speculate on the stock market - until the great stock market crash of 1929. Everything burst - nobody could afford to buy anything any more so consumption was bust. Investments were bust. Government had a balanced budget of shrinking revenues and shrinking expenditures. Exports shrunk. So the GDP collapsed. Catastrophically.
The Great Depression of the 1930's hit with 25% unemployment - but it was probably really closer to 50%. We looked at the fiscal stimulus provided by all the massive public investment campaigns, including the WPA (Works Project Administration). Under 4-term President FDR the government's role in the economy increased profoundly - it was the New Deal after all. Social safety net programs came into being including Social Security. New-fangled federal pensions would get money into the hands of retirees so they could spend and increase consumption and improve the GDP!! By 1938 we had the minimum wage and the 40 hour work week, with OT after 40 hours. Rather than pay OT, companies hired more workers, which got more people working - and increased consumption and improved the GDP!! I know none of this is rocket science but viewed through the POV of a labour economist, it becomes new again. At least to me! (My high school economics teacher was the gym teacher. Not to denigrate gym teachers, but she was no economist.)
It gives a different spin to FDR's, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". Fearful people would not spend money which would not boost consumption which would not improve the GDP.
Now I want to read a lot more abour Roosevelt. And Eleanor....
Y is GDP. C is consumption which makes up about 70% of the equation. I is investment. G is government spending. X is exports and M is imports.
Barry led us through the economic history of the US using this formula as a guideline for what happened, beginning in the Roaring Twenties - the decade that began with a grand celebration of US capitalism. In the post WW I economic boom, companies like General Foods, General Motors and General Electric became giants, riding high on a wave of consumption. Packaged foods, electrical power lit up the nation and cars put the whole country on the move. (General Motors grew to become the 18th largest company in the world with a GDP as big as Belgium.) People borrowed money to speculate on the stock market - until the great stock market crash of 1929. Everything burst - nobody could afford to buy anything any more so consumption was bust. Investments were bust. Government had a balanced budget of shrinking revenues and shrinking expenditures. Exports shrunk. So the GDP collapsed. Catastrophically.
The Great Depression of the 1930's hit with 25% unemployment - but it was probably really closer to 50%. We looked at the fiscal stimulus provided by all the massive public investment campaigns, including the WPA (Works Project Administration). Under 4-term President FDR the government's role in the economy increased profoundly - it was the New Deal after all. Social safety net programs came into being including Social Security. New-fangled federal pensions would get money into the hands of retirees so they could spend and increase consumption and improve the GDP!! By 1938 we had the minimum wage and the 40 hour work week, with OT after 40 hours. Rather than pay OT, companies hired more workers, which got more people working - and increased consumption and improved the GDP!! I know none of this is rocket science but viewed through the POV of a labour economist, it becomes new again. At least to me! (My high school economics teacher was the gym teacher. Not to denigrate gym teachers, but she was no economist.)
It gives a different spin to FDR's, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". Fearful people would not spend money which would not boost consumption which would not improve the GDP.
Now I want to read a lot more abour Roosevelt. And Eleanor....
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
On the Freedom Trail Walk
This is an accurate quote from the plaque at Old City Hall in Boston describing this sculpture: "When in 1828 Andrew Jackson established the Democatic Party and ran for the presidency using the populist slogan, "Let the people rule", his opponents thought him silly and labled him a "jackass." Jackson, however, picked up on their name calling and turned it to his advantage by using the donkey on his campaign posters.
Over the years this donkey has become the accepted symbol of the Democratic Party." There are bronze footprints facing the donkey for Republicans who want to 'stand in opposition'. The symbol of the elephant to represent the Republicans came out of the creative imagination of a Harper's cartoonist much later. I'm a Canadian - I had always wondered.
Over the years this donkey has become the accepted symbol of the Democratic Party." There are bronze footprints facing the donkey for Republicans who want to 'stand in opposition'. The symbol of the elephant to represent the Republicans came out of the creative imagination of a Harper's cartoonist much later. I'm a Canadian - I had always wondered.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Remembering Dr. King
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is national holiday, so no classes today. On Saturday we braved the brisk Atlantic wind to walk the Freedom Trail with Dr. Bernard. Clearly, Boston is a city where every single step brings you in touch with the thrill of American history.
The First Church of Boston in Back Bay is not an old building, but it is home to the oldest church congregation in the whole city, dating from 1630. And today I attended a knock-out beautiful and haunting musical celebration called The Ties That Bind concert in honour of Martin Luther King. The hall itself is acoustically heavenly, the singers, musicians and actors were eloquent and the program moved me to tears.
Other classmates screened the excellent documentary about Dr. King and the Memphis sanitation workers strike of 1968, "At The River I Stand." The front page of the Boston Globe trumpeted the Boston connection - Dr. King got his doctorate at Boston University and met his future wife here. Stories, stories, stories...in the red bricks, in the white churches, in the markets.
The First Church of Boston in Back Bay is not an old building, but it is home to the oldest church congregation in the whole city, dating from 1630. And today I attended a knock-out beautiful and haunting musical celebration called The Ties That Bind concert in honour of Martin Luther King. The hall itself is acoustically heavenly, the singers, musicians and actors were eloquent and the program moved me to tears.
Other classmates screened the excellent documentary about Dr. King and the Memphis sanitation workers strike of 1968, "At The River I Stand." The front page of the Boston Globe trumpeted the Boston connection - Dr. King got his doctorate at Boston University and met his future wife here. Stories, stories, stories...in the red bricks, in the white churches, in the markets.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
An Oz video that helped bring down a government
OZ video 2007
"What have unions ever done for us?" Yesterday I was reminded how terrific this Australian video was as part of a broad strategic communications plan to change a goverment. And how effective. Got everyone in class to watch it on a break.
"What have unions ever done for us?" Yesterday I was reminded how terrific this Australian video was as part of a broad strategic communications plan to change a goverment. And how effective. Got everyone in class to watch it on a break.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
The Power of Narrative
In my normal life, I start the day with a very good cup of coffee and the Globe and Mail. A calm set-up to what often becomes a hectic day. You know, that pause - a breath. A purely personal rhythm for that short period of time. Today was a little different - hustle out the door after staying up late to do all the required reading, share the sidewalk with intent young MIT students, squeeze onto the subway with the other Harvard Square-bound students and land at our classroom temporaily housed at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) where some of the greatest economists in the country conduct unbiased economic research. Seriously. I share elevators with them. I am not making this up!
And as the coffee kicks in, Professor Thomas Kochan embarks on the first class of the day - What is Labour's role in the 21st Century? How can Labour get out in front with a positive message in the there ain't no doubt about it attack on Labour that will be full blown in the 2012 US presidential election campaign? What is Labour's big picture vision? What is the labour narrative? Can we tell our story? I'm in heaven! (This is also the kind of work we are doing at the Canadian Labour Congress.) This is soul food, let alone brain food! Ok, back to my required reading for a spell....
And as the coffee kicks in, Professor Thomas Kochan embarks on the first class of the day - What is Labour's role in the 21st Century? How can Labour get out in front with a positive message in the there ain't no doubt about it attack on Labour that will be full blown in the 2012 US presidential election campaign? What is Labour's big picture vision? What is the labour narrative? Can we tell our story? I'm in heaven! (This is also the kind of work we are doing at the Canadian Labour Congress.) This is soul food, let alone brain food! Ok, back to my required reading for a spell....
the cobblestone, the cobblestone!
Harvard University is 375 years young. Certainly the oldest university in America and arguably the most famous. Monday night we were welcomed at a dinner at the Sheraton Commander Hotel - so named because George Washington took command of the continental army right across the street. Harvard's like that - a story in every cobblestone on the road. Two great things happened at dinner: 1) we were greeted warmly by enthusiastic alumni of the HTUP program; and 2) Professor Paul Weiler, Faculty Director Emeritus of Harvard Law School, provided the evening's keynote remarks. It was a great beginning. Did I mention the fact that the amazing and vigourous Dr. Elaine Bernard, Executive Director of HTUP since the late 1980s, is a Canadian?
There are 35 of us labour leaders in the Class of 2012, 24 from the USA and 11 international participants from Canada, UK, Australia and Vietnam. I was a bit intimidated to learn that our workload in the six week period is greater than a full-time student doing an entire term! Classes run from 9 to 5 daily with a heavy reading assignment every night. (I've become a night owl already.) It's an amazingly diverse, articulate, experienced and passionate group. The quality of the classroom conversation is everything I dreamed it would be. Do I have time to read one more chapter? Sure I do - I'm at Harvard.
There are 35 of us labour leaders in the Class of 2012, 24 from the USA and 11 international participants from Canada, UK, Australia and Vietnam. I was a bit intimidated to learn that our workload in the six week period is greater than a full-time student doing an entire term! Classes run from 9 to 5 daily with a heavy reading assignment every night. (I've become a night owl already.) It's an amazingly diverse, articulate, experienced and passionate group. The quality of the classroom conversation is everything I dreamed it would be. Do I have time to read one more chapter? Sure I do - I'm at Harvard.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Walking Down Massachusetts Avenue
Last night's gorgeous full moon welcomed me to Cambridge. I had forgotten it was on the rise but the sky view from the 20th floor of my student apartment sure reminded me. I'm drinking Peet's coffee, listening to NPR radio and readying myself for the big walk down Massachusetts Avenue to Harvard Square for - registration. Dr. Elaine Bernard, the Executive Director of HTUP, is an inspiration in every way but she is also a big walker. I may have met my match - we will be walking a lot.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Leaving Toronto
Check out the Harvard Trade Union Program website. January 9 to February 17, 2012 marks the 101st session, "Preparing Leadership for the Challenges of the Future."What's different about this particular sesssion? I'm going to be there!
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