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Der Artikel befaßt sich mit den Auswirkungen der dramatischen politischen Umwälzungen in Osteuropa auf Ägypten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der zentralistischen Machtsicherung in diesem Land gegen Demokratisierungsstreben und seine Positionsbestimmung in einer veränderten Welt. Der Autor weist darauf hin, daß - nachdem Ägypten in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten nicht ohne Erfolg Versuche unternommen hatte, aus dem Ost-West-Gegensatz politisches, militärisches und ökonomisches Kapital zu schlagen - sich die Bilanz dieses Agierens doch bescheiden ausnimmt. (DÜI-Sen)

Soziale Probleme in kapitalistischen Gesellschaften sind zu sehen als Resultat 'ökonomischer Prozesse und Determinanten'. Diese Determinanten können klassifiziert werden in 'Eigentums- und Verfügungskriterien', 'Informations- und Koordinationskriterien' und 'Motivationskriterien'. Sie ermöglichen die Analyse der zentralen Probleme der 'kapitalistischen Gesellschaftsformation' ('Institutionalisierung des Klassengegensatzes', 'Profitmotiv und Konzentrationsprozesse', 'Motivationskrise', 'Zyklizität wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung'). Den gemeinsamen Nenner dieser Probleme bildet die 'Divergenz zwischen individueller und gesellschaftlicher Rationalität', die Entstehung gesellschaftlicher Irrationalität aus rationalen Einzelentscheidungen. Diese 'Rationalitätsfalle' ist auch im politisch-administrativen Bereich wirksam. (WZ)

Die Arbeit will positive Ansatzpunkte für die sozialwissenschaftliche Begründung gesellschaftlicher Bildungsplanung liefern. Zum einen müssen dazu qualifikationstheoretische und industriesoziologische Aussagen über langfristige Entwicklungstendenzen der Arbeit im entwickelten Kapitalismus, andererseits die Entwicklung der privaten und staatlichen Bildungsinstitutionen analysiert werden. Da nach Meinung des Autors die gesellschaftliche Qualifikationsstruktur und mithin das Bildungswesen innerhalb der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft relativ autonom ist, versucht er, den bildungsreformerischen Spielraum abzustecken. Er betrachtet arbeitsmarkt- und bildungstheoretische Konzepte zur Reform des westdeutschen Bildungssystems, kritisiert die Ansätze der Schlüsselqualifikation, der Entberuflichung, der Baukasten-Organisation des Bildungswesens und der Expansion der Hochschulbildung als zu partiell und hält nur solche Ansätze für reformpolitisch sinnvoll, die die dualistische Struktur des hiesigen Bildungswesens überwinden wollen.

THIS PAPER ESTABLISHES CRITERIA FOR CITIZEN POLICY CHOICE THAT DO NOT DEPEND ON OPINION SURVEYS. DATA DRAWN FROM NATIONAL PARTY PLATFORMS AND US STATUTES AND AGGREGATE VOTING DATA ARE COMPARED TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT TO WHICH MAJORITY CHOICES ARE TRANSLATED INTO NATIONAL POLICY OVER TIME. THE ANALYSIS SUGGESTS THAT POPULAR MAJORITIES APPEAR TO GOVERN.

Social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups, together with public policy and management objectives. The essay indicates and discusses the most important contemporary problems, solving of which requires social innovations.

Social innovations precondition the progress of civilisation. The world needs not only new technologies, but also new solutions of social and institutional nature that would be conducive to achieving social goals.

Social innovations are experimental social actions of organisational and institutional nature that aim at improving the quality of life of individuals, communities, nations, companies, circles, or social groups. Their experimental nature stems from the fact of introducing unique and one-time solutions on a large scale, the end results of which are often difficult to be fully predicted. For example, it was difficult to believe that opening new labour markets for foreigners in the countries of the European Union, which can be treated as a social innovation aiming at development of the international labour market, will result in the rapid development of the low-cost airlines, the offer of which will be available to a larger group of recipients. In other words, social innovations differ from economic innovations, as they are not about implementation of new types of production or gaining new markets, but about satisfying new needs, which are not provided by the market. Therefore, the most important distinction consists in that social innovations are concerned with improving the well-being of individuals and communities by additional employment, or increased consumption, as well as participation in solving the problems of individuals and social groups [CSTP, 2011]. In general, social innovations are activities aiming at implementation of social objectives, including mainly the improvement of life of individuals and social groups together with the objectives of public policy and management [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017]. Their implementation requires global, national, and individual actions. This requires joint operations, both at the scale of the entire globe, as well as in particular interest groups.

Why are social innovations a key point for the progress of civilisation? This is the effect of the clear domination of economic aspects and discrimination of social aspects of this progress. Until the 19th century, the economy was a part of a social structure. As described by K. Polanyi, it was submerged in social relations [Polanyi, 2010, p. 56]. In traditional societies, the economic system was in fact derived from the organisation of the society itself. The economy, consisting of small and dispersed craft businesses, was a part of the social, family, and neighbourhood structure. In the 20th century the situation reversed – the economy started to be the force shaping social structures, positions of individual groups, areas of wealth and poverty. The economy and the market mechanism have become independent from the world of politics and society. Today, the corporations control our lives. They decide what we eat, what we watch, what we wear, where we work and what we do [Bakan, 2006, p. 13].

The corporations started this spectacular "march to rule the world" in the late 19th century. After about a hundred years, at the end of the 20th century, the state under the pressure of corporations and globalisation, started a gradual, but systematic withdrawal from the economy, market and many other functions traditionally belonging to it. As a result, at the end of the last century, a corporation has become a dominant institution in the world. A characteristic feature of this condition is that it gives a complete priority to the interests of corporations. They make decisions of often adverse consequences for the entire social groups, regions, or local communities. They lead to social tensions, political breakdowns, and most often to repeated market turbulences. Thus, a substantial minority (corporations) obtain inconceivable benefits at the expense of the vast majority, that is broad professional and social groups. The lack of relative balance between the economy and society is a barrier to the progress of civilisation.

A growing global concern is the problem of migration. The present crisis, left unresolved, in the long term will return multiplied. Today, there are about 500 million people living in Europe, 1.5 billion in Africa and the Middle East, but in 2100, the population of Europe will be about 400 million and of the Middle East and Africa approximately 4.5 billion. Solving this problem, mainly through social and political innovations, can take place only by a joint operation of highly developed and developing countries. Is it an easy task? It's very difficult. Unfortunately, today, the world is going in the opposite direction. Instead of pursuing the community, empathic thinking, it aims towards nationalism and chauvinism. An example might be a part of the inaugural address of President Donald Trump, who said that the right of all nations is to put their own interests first. Of course, the United States of America will think about their own interests. As we go in the opposite direction, those who deal with global issues say – nothing will change, unless there is some great crisis, a major disaster that would cause that the great of this world will come to senses.

J.E. Stiglitz [2004], contrary to the current thinking and practice, believes that a different and better world is possible. Globalisation contains the potential of countless benefits from which people both in developing and highly developed countries can benefit. But the practice so far proves that still it is not grown up enough to use its potential in a fair manner. What is needed are new solutions, most of all social and political innovations (political, because they involve a violation of the previous arrangement of interests). Failure to search for breakthrough innovations of social and political nature that would meet the modern challenges, can lead the world to a disaster. Social innovation, and not economic, because the contemporary civilisation problems have their roots in this dimension.

A global problem, solution of which requires innovations of social and political nature, is the disruption of the balance between work and capital. In 2010, 400 richest people had assets such as the half of the poorer population of the world. In 2016, such part was in the possession of only 8 people. This shows the dramatic collapse of the balance between work and capital. The world cannot develop creating the technological progress while increasing unjustified inequalities, which inevitably lead to an outbreak of civil disturbances. This outbreak can have various organisation forms. In the days of the Internet and social media, it is easier to communicate with people. Therefore, paradoxically, some modern technologies create the conditions facilitating social protests. There is one more important and dangerous effect of implementing technological innovations without simultaneous creation and implementation of social innovations limiting the sky-rocketing increase of economic (followed by social) diversification. Sooner or later, technological progress will become so widespread that, due to the relatively low prices, it will make it possible for the weapons of mass destruction, especially biological and chemical weapons, to reach small terrorist groups. Then, a total, individualized war of global reach can develop. The individualisation of war will follow, as described by the famous German sociologist Ulrich Beck.

To avoid this, it is worth looking at the achievements of the Polish scientist Michał Kalecki, who 75 years ago argued that capitalism alone is not able to develop. It is because it aggressively seeks profit growth, but cannot turn profit into some profitable investments. Therefore, when uncertainty grows, capitalism cannot develop itself, and it must be accompanied by external factors, named by Kalecki – external development factors. These factors include state expenses, finances and, in accordance with the nomenclature of Kalecki – epochal innovations. And what are the current possibilities of activation of the external factors? In short – modest. The countries are indebted, and the basis for the development in the last 20 years were loans, which contributed to the growth of debt of economic entities. What, then, should we do? It is necessary to look for cheaper solutions, but such that are effective, that is breakthrough innovations. These undoubtedly include social and political innovations. Contemporary social innovation is not about investing big money and expensive resources in production, e.g. of a very expensive vaccine, which would be available for a small group of recipients. Today's social innovation should stimulate the use of lower amounts of resources to produce more products available to larger groups of recipients.

The progress of civilisation happens only as a result of a sustainable development in economic, social, and now also ecological terms. Economic (business) innovations, which help accelerate the growth rate of production and services, contribute to economic development. Profits of corporations increase and, at the same time, the economic objectives of the corporations are realised. But are the objectives of the society as a whole and its members individually realised equally, in parallel? In the chain of social reproduction there are four repeated phases: production – distribution – exchange – consumption. The key point from the social point of view is the phase of distribution. But what are the rules of distribution, how much and who gets from this "cake" produced in the social process of production? In the today's increasingly global economy, the most important mechanism of distribution is the market mechanism. However, in the long run, this mechanism leads to growing income and welfare disparities of various social groups.
Although, the income and welfare diversity in itself is nothing wrong, as it is the result of the diversification of effectiveness of factors of production, including work, the growing disparities to a large extent cannot be justified. Economic situation of the society members increasingly depends not on the contribution of work, but on the size of the capital invested, and the market position of the economic entity, and on the "governing power of capital" on the market. It should also be noted that this diversification is also related to speculative activities. Disparities between the implemented economic and social innovations can lead to the collapse of the progress of civilisation.

Nowadays, economic crises are often justified by, indeed, social and political considerations, such as marginalisation of nation states, imbalance of power (or imbalance of fear), religious conflicts, nationalism, chauvinism, etc. It is also considered that the first global financial crisis of the 21st century originated from the wrong social policy pursued by the US Government, which led to the creation of a gigantic public debt, which consequently led to an economic breakdown. This resulted in the financial crisis, but also in deepening of the social imbalances and widening of the circles of poverty and social exclusion. It can even be stated that it was a crisis in public confidence. Therefore, the causes of crises are the conflicts between the economic dimension of the development and its social dimension.

Contemporary world is filled with various innovations of economic or business nature (including technological, product, marketing, and in part – organisational). The existing solutions can be a source of economic progress, which is a component of the progress of civilisation. However, economic innovations do not complete the entire progress of civilisation moreover, the saturation, and often supersaturation with implementations and economic innovations leads to an excessive use of material factors of production. As a consequence, it results in lowering of the efficiency of their use, unnecessary extra burden to the planet, and passing of the negative effects on the society and future generations (of consumers). On the other hand, it leads to forcing the consumption of durable consumer goods, and gathering them "just in case", and also to the low degree of their use (e.g. more cars in a household than its members results in the additional load on traffic routes, which results in an increase in the inconvenience of movement of people, thus to the reduction of the quality of life).

Introduction of yet another economic innovation will not solve this problem. It can be solved only by social innovations that are in a permanent shortage. A social innovation which fosters solving the issue of excessive accumulation of tangible production goods is a developing phenomenon called sharing economy. It is based on the principle: "the use of a service provided by some welfare does not require being its owner". This principle allows for an economic use of resources located in households, but which have been "latent" so far. In this way, increasing of the scope of services provided (transport, residential and tourist accommodation) does not require any growth of additional tangible resources of factors of production. So, it contributes to the growth of household incomes, and inhibition of loading the planet with material goods processed by man [see Poniatowska-Jaksch, Sobiecki, 2016]. Another example: we live in times, in which, contrary to the law of T. Malthus, the planet is able to feed all people, that is to guarantee their minimum required nutrients. But still, millions of people die of starvation and malnutrition, but also due to obesity. Can this problem be solved with another economic innovation? Certainly not! Economic innovations will certainly help to partially solve the problem of nutrition, at least by the new methods of storing and preservation of foods, to reduce its waste in the phase of storage and transport. However, a key condition to solve this problem is to create and implement an innovation of a social nature (in many cases also political). We will not be able to speak about the progress of civilisation in a situation, where there are people dying of starvation and malnutrition.

A growing global social concern, resulting from implementation of an economic (technological) innovation will be robotisation, and more specifically – the effects arising from its dissemination on a large scale. So far, the issue has been postponed due to globalisation of the labour market, which led to cheapening of the work factor by more than ten times in the countries of Asia or South America. But it ends slowly. Labour becomes more and more expensive, which means that the robots become relatively cheap. The mechanism leading to low prices of the labour factor expires. Wages increase, and this changes the relationship of the prices of capital and labour. Capital becomes relatively cheaper and cheaper, and this leads to reducing of the demand for work, at the same time increasing the demand for capital (in the form of robots).

The introduction of robots will be an effect of the phenomenon of substitution of the factors of production. A cheaper factor (in this case capital in the form of robots) will be cheaper than the same activities performed by man. According to W. Szymański [2017], such change is a dysfunction of capitalism. A great challenge, because capitalism is based on the market-driven shaping of income. The market-driven shaping of income means that the income is derived from the sale of the factors of production. Most people have income from employment. Robots change this mechanism. It is estimated that scientific progress allows to create such number of robots that will replace billion people in the world. What will happen to those "superseded", what will replace the income from human labour? Capitalism will face an institutional challenge, and must replace the market-driven shaping of income with another, new one. The introduction of robots means microeconomic battle with the barrier of demand. To sell more, one needs to cut costs. The costs are lowered by the introduction of robots, but the use of robots reduces the demand for human labour. Lowering the demand for human labour results in the reduction of employment, and lower wages. Lower wages result in the reduction of the demand for goods and services. To increase the demand for goods and services, the companies must lower their costs, so they increase the involvement of robots, etc.

A mechanism of the vicious circle appears

If such a mass substitution of the factors of production is unfavourable from the point of view of stimulating the development of the economy, then something must be done to improve the adverse price relations for labour. How can the conditions of competition between a robot and a man be made equal, at least partially? Robots should be taxed. Bill Gates, among others, is a supporter of such a solution. However, this is only one of the tools that can be used. The solution of the problem requires a change in the mechanism, so a breakthrough innovation of a social and political nature. We can say that technological and product innovations force the creation of social and political innovations (maybe institutional changes). Product innovations solve some problems (e.g. they contribute to the reduction of production costs), but at the same time, give rise to others.

Progress of civilisation for centuries and even millennia was primarily an intellectual progress. It was difficult to discuss economic progress at that time. Then we had to deal with the imbalance between the economic and the social element. The insufficiency of the economic factor (otherwise than it is today) was the reason for the tensions and crises. Estimates of growth indicate that the increase in industrial production from ancient times to the first industrial revolution, that is until about 1700, was 0.1-0.2 per year on average. Only the next centuries brought about systematically increasing pace of economic growth. During 1700- 1820, it was 0.5% on an annual average, and between 1820-1913 – 1.5%, and between 1913-2012 – 3.0% [Piketty, 2015, p. 97]. So, the significant pace of the economic growth is found only at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Additionally, the growth in this period refers predominantly to Europe and North America. The countries on other continents were either stuck in colonialism, structurally similar to the medieval period, or "lived" on the history of their former glory, as, for example, China and Japan, or to a lesser extent some countries of the Middle East and South America. The growth, having then the signs of the modern growth, that is the growth based on technological progress, was attributed mainly to Europe and the United States.

The progress of civilisation requires the creation of new social initiatives. Social innovations are indeed an additional capital to keep the social structure in balance. The social capital is seen as a means and purpose and as a primary source of new values for the members of the society. Social innovations also motivate every citizen to actively participate in this process. It is necessary, because traditional ways of solving social problems, even those known for a long time as unemployment, ageing of the society, or exclusion of considerable social and professional groups from the social and economic development, simply fail. "Old" problems are joined by new ones, such as the increase of social inequalities, climate change, or rapidly growing environmental pollution. New phenomena and problems require new solutions, changes to existing procedures, programmes, and often a completely different approach and instruments [Kowalczyk, Sobiecki, 2017].

Authors' introductionAlthough Latinas/os have a long history in the United States and represent a growing percentage of the population, they remain largely invisible or stereotyped in popular images and discourses. Ahistoric, fragmented, and individual‐level perspectives often frame Latina/o migration, education, and activism and thus negatively influence public perceptions and policy. Fortunately, over the past 30 years, scholars in disciplines such as sociology, history, Chicana/o–Latina/o Studies, and Latin American Studies have done much to remedy these gaps and misperceptions. However, for a broad and inclusive approach to understanding the structures influencing Latina/o lives and communities, we believe that more work is needed to connect these scholarly developments which are often separated by academic divisions. Thus, we recommend the following materials that together offer a multidisciplinary and multifaceted framework that highlights the significance of global capitalism and white supremacy on Latina/o immigration, education, and activism. Key to this framework is a movement away from individual‐level arguments and assimilationist perspectives to an emphasis on US imperialism, economic exploitation, and schooling within capitalism. By broadening the frameworks for analysis and linking together the factors shaping Latina/o migration, education, and activism, we emphasize the systems of power and inequality that influence the lives of marginalized communities, without losing sight of the legacy of resistance in Latin America and the United States.Suggested textsTomas Almaguer, Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994).Using primary and secondary sources, this book traces the distinct racialized experiences of Native Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and European Americans in late‐19th century California. Almaguer focuses on the material and ideological basis of group placement and delivers one of the few theoretical works on the factors shaping the multiracial hierarchy that characterizes the history of California.Antonia Darder, Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2002).This engaging book roots contemporary schooling to global capitalism and racism. In it, Darder draws on the legacy of renowned Brazilian educator Paulo Freire to offer powerful reflections and examples from today's teachers who are practicing liberatory education in the struggle for social and economic justice.Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation (Philadelphia, PA: Balch Institute Press, 1990).This foundational book is devoted to the history of Chicana/o education and traces the roots of inequality in education from the early 1900s to Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case in 1947. Gonzalez uses historical documents and dissertations to detail the historical relationships between capitalism, sociological theories, and school practices in reproducing a classed, raced, and gendered labor market. He placed particular attention on Americanization Programs, segregated schooling, vocational education, and the political economy. The book ends with an analysis of the role of parents, community, and various organizations in the eventual elimination of de jure segregation for Mexican American students in schools.Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001).Employing a hemispheric approach, journalist Juan Gonzalez analyzes the close connection between US imperial expansion and Latino/a migration. As part of the harvest of empire, Gonzalez examines migration from various countries, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, focusing on the macro‐structural factors that have led to migration.'History and Critical Pedagogies: Transforming Consciousness, Classrooms, and Communities', Radical History Review, 102 (Fall 2008).This special journal issue explores how scholars and activists have used critical pedagogies to challenge unequal power relations in classrooms and communities. A number of articles provide concrete reflections and strategies such as drama‐based pedagogies, service‐learning, and community‐based projects. Interviews with scholars and activists demonstrate how praxis has the power to transform society and popular education employs an asset‐based approach to education.Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo, Doméstica: Central Americans Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).This qualitative study focuses on the lives and experiences of domestic workers and the people who employ them. After beginning with an important overview of the historical, economic, and political context shaping Central American migration and the service industry, Hondagneu‐Sotelo provides an in‐depth and nuanced analysis of domestic work and employee‐employer relationships. She ends the book with crucial strategies for improving the occupation and examples of labor organizing among Los Angeles‐area domestic workers.Enrique C. Ochoa and Gilda L. Ochoa, eds., Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2005).This collection of articles examines diverse Latina/o communities in the greater Los Angeles regions and their formations and activism in the context of global capitalism. The first section examines how migration is connected to macro factors including US foreign policy and capitalist restructuring. The second section explores community and identity (re)formation. The final section examines multiple forms of activism, with articles on the struggle for Chicana/o Studies at UCLA, Justice for Janitors, and labor and community alliances with day laborers.Suggested videos El Norte (1983)This now‐classic feature length film by Gregory Nava traces the harrowing experiences of a young brother and sister as they migrate from Guatemala to the United States. Along with capturing their trying experiences crossing multiple borders, the film also details the struggles they encounter as they try to adjust to the hardships of life in the United States, including their distinct gendered experiences. We recommend combining this film with a discussion of the increased border deaths accompanying the growing criminalization of immigrants and the militarization of the Guatemala–Mexico and the Mexico–United States borders. Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary (1997)In this documentary, Director Laura Angelica Simon details the contemporary impact of anti‐immigration policies and debates on students and teachers at a Los Angeles elementary school. The documentary was made during the 1990s when California was in the midst of an economic recession and citizens were voting on Proposition 187, an initiative that sought to deny social services to undocumented immigrants. It is a powerful teaching tool that includes students' voices and experiences; however, we suggest combining the video with some historical background on US military, economic, and political involvement in Latin America. Viewers might also be encouraged to deconstruct some of the director's images, interview questions, and racially loaded language. Made in L.A. (Hecho in Los Angeles) (2007)This documentary follows the lives of three inspiring Latina garment workers originally from Mexico and El Salvador and their participation in the 3‐year struggle for labor rights. In the process of organizing through the Garment Worker Center for basic labor protections from the trendy clothing retailer Forever 21, the women become increasingly empowered – resulting in one who separates from her husband and another who becomes an organizer. Woven throughout their narratives are the historical struggle of garment workers, the role of nation‐states in dividing families, and the power of coalition building. Salt of the Earth (1954)This feature‐length move is based on an actual labor struggle of the era. It examines the intersections of class, race/ethnicity, and gender as a primarily Mexicana/o community goes on strike and struggles with historic patriarchy to unify against the large mining company that dominates their lives. The movie deals with the legacy of US conquest of the Southwest and capitalist expansion in the region, while showing how communities have struggled to challenge inequalities. Salt of the Earth was made by artists shunned during the McCarthy era and the movie was not played widely in the United States. Much of the cast were not professional actors but were workers and union activists involved in the strike. Taking Back the Schools (1996)This documentary focuses on the 1968 Chicana/o School Blowouts where over 10,000 East Los Angeles students walked out of their high schools demanding bilingual‐bicultural education, more Mexican American teachers, relevant curriculum, accurate textbooks, and the end of curriculum tracking and prejudiced teachers who steered Mexican Americans into vocational classes. It uses original footage from the walkouts and contemporary interviews with the student organizers. It also highlights the precursors to the walkouts such as a history of Spanish language repression and de jure and de facto segregation in schools. Voces inocentes/Innocent Voices (2005)Set in 1980s El Salvador, the movie follows the life of a young boy during the Civil War. It deals with the impacts of war and US intervention on youth.Suggested websites David Bacon, 'Uprooted and Criminalized: The Impact of Free Market on Migrants,'Backgrounder The Oakland Institute (Autumn 2008) http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/backgrounder_uprooted.pdf Renowned journalist and activist David Bacon provides a lively analysis of the link between free trade policies and migration. Drawing on his years of activism and journalism, Bacon underscores the human toll of free trade and migration while laying bare the system that undergirds it. Several powerful photographs complement the report. In Motion Magazine‐Education Rights Section http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/er.html In Motion Magazine is a multicultural progressive on‐line magazine dealing with democracy. Harvard education professor Pedro Noguera co‐edits the Education Rights section to provide 'a forum for activists, educators, parents and students who are searching for alternative ideas to the challenges confronting education today.' Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA) http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php MLNA publishes the latest news on labor and social justice issues in Mexico. It emphasizes labor and working class struggles and does an excellent job of tracking strikes, demonstrations, and demands for social justice. MLNA is published in conjunction with the Authentic Labor Front in Mexico and the United Electrical Workers in the United States. ICED (I Can End Deportation) http://www.icedgame.com This an educational game deals with combating deportation. It focuses on several New York City youth and their struggles. Players must answer a series of questions on immigration and avoid ICE agents. Background lesson material is provided and is aligned with the New York State Standards. Rethinking Schools http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ Rethinking Schools is a monthly publication committed to educational equality and the vision of the public school as foundational in a democratic society. Articles are published by teachers, activists, parents, and students on a wide range of issues affecting schools. In addition to the monthly magazine, it publishes a broad range of progressive educational materials dealing with educating working class students of color.Sample syllabusMost general courses should include materials on Latinas/os especially given the historical presence and the contemporary growth of the population. For example, the following sections, topics, and reading could be incorporated into any of the following courses: Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of (Im)Migration, Sociology of Education, Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, and Chicanas/os‐Latinas/os in the United States.Section 1: Chicana/o‐Latina/o Identities in the U.S.Topics: Latina/o Heterogeneity; Pan‐ethnicity; Identity Formation; Multiple Identities; Racial FormationReadings:Aurora Levins Morales, 'Child of the Americas,' in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, ed. Paula Rothenberg (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press 2001), 660–661.Pat Mora, 'Legal Alien' in Making Face, Making Soul, Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldúa (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Foundation, 1990), p. 376.Martha E. Gimenez, 'Latino/Hispanic – Who Needs a Name?' in Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader, eds. Antonia Darder, Rodolofo D. Torres, and Henry Gutiérrez (New York, NY: Routledge, 1997), 225–238.Gilda L. Ochoa, ' "This is Who I Am": Negotiating Racial/Ethnic Constructions' in Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community: Power, Conflict, and Solidarity (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2004), 70–97.Anulkah Thomas, 'Black Face, Latin Looks: Racial‐Ethnic Identity among Afro‐Latinos in the Los Angeles Region' in Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2005), 197–221.Bernadete Beserra, 'Negotiating Latinidade in Los Angeles: The Case of Brazilian Immigrants' in Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2005), 178–196.Cherrie Moraga, 'La Güera' in Loving in the War Years (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983), 50–59.Nicholas De Genova and Ana Y. Ramos‐Zayas, Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the Politics of Race and Citizenship (New York, NY: Routledge, 2003).Section 2: Theorizing and (De)Constructing Popular Conceptions of Latinas/os and Latin AmericaTopics: White Supremacy; Manifest Destiny; The Social Construction of Race; Dominant Conceptions of Immigration; Linking Migration, Education, and ActivismReadings:Tomás Almaguer, Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994).Clara E. Rodríguez, Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000).Leo R. Chavez, Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).Gilda L. Ochoa and Enrique C. Ochoa, 'Framing Latina/o Immigration, Education, and Activism', Sociology Compass. 1/2 (2007), 701–719.Section 3: US Imperialism and Capitalist Expansion in Latin AmericaReadings:Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Culture of Empire: American Writers, Mexico, Mexican Immigrants (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2003).Laura Briggs, Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, and Science and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico (Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 2002).Robert G. Williams, Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1988).Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001).Greg Grandin, Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2006).Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The U.S. in Central America (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1993).Héctor Tober, Tattooed Soldier (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2000).Judith Adler Hellman, Mexican Lives (New York, NY: The New Press, 1995).David Bacon, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2007).Video: Voces inocentes/Innocent Voices (2005)Section 4: Politics, Economics, and Latin American Migration to the U.S.Topics: The 'Revolving Door Strategy;' Economic Restructuring; Transnational Ties; Gender and Migration; Undocumented MigrationReadings:Saskia Sassen, Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1998).Maria Cristina García, Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006).Jonathan Fox and Gaspar Rivera‐Salgado. Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United States (San Diego, CA: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, 2004).Joseph Nevins, Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Publishers, 2008).Robert Courtney Smith, Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006).Cecilia Menjívar, Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000).Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo, Doméstica: Central Americans Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).Leon Fink, The Maya of Morgantown: Work and Community in the New South (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).Gloria González‐Lopez, Erotic Journeys: Mexican Immigrants and their Sex Lives (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).Video: El Norte (1983)Section 5: Latinas/os and Education: Schools as Reproducers of InequalityTopics: Americanization Programs; De Jure and De Facto Segregation; Curriculum Tracking; Education and Globalization; Raced and Gendered Experiences; Undocumented YouthReadings:Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation (Philadelphia, PA: Balch Institute Press, 1990).Antonia Darder, Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2002).Michael W. Apple, Educating the 'Right' Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality (New York, NY: Routledge Falmer, 2001).Gilda G. Ochoa, Learning from Latino Teachers (San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass Publishers, 2007).Angela Valenzuela, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.‐Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999).Nancy Lopez, Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education (New York, NY: Routledge, 2003).Gabriela Madera, Angelo A. Mathay, Armin M. Najafi, et al. Underground Undergrads: UCLA Undocumented Immigrant Students Speak Out (Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, 2008).Videos:The Lemon Grove Incident (1986)Mendez v. Westminster (2004)Taking Back the Schools (1996)Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary (1997)Section 6: Latina/o Resistance and ActivismTopics: Responses to U.S. Imperialism; union and grassroots activism; school integration; cross‐border organizingWillia V. Flores and Rina Benmayor, Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights (Boston, MA: Beacon, 1997).Mary Pardo, Mexican American Women Activists: Identity and Resistance in Two Los Angeles Communities (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1998).Ruth Milkman, L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement (New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006).Milagros Peña, Latina Activists Across Borders: Women's Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas (Duke University Press, 2007).Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston (College Station, TX: Texas A.M. Press, 2001).Kara Zugman, 'Autonomy in a Poetic Voice: Zapatistas and Politics Organizing in Los Angeles', Latino Studies. 3 (2005): 325–46.Videos:Salt of the Earth (1954)Bread and Roses (2000)Made in L.A. (2007)Focus questionsWhat are the dominant images of Latina/o migration, education, and activism? From where do these images emerge? Why do they exist? Who benefits from them? How have they changed over time? What are their impacts? How are these images being challenged?What connections can be made between Latina/o migration, education, and activism? What theoretical frameworks can be used to understand each one individually and the three of them collectively? What are the relationships between Latina/o migration, education, and activism?Discuss the value of adopting a historical, economic, and political framework of Latina/o migration, education, and activism. Assess the value of applying a similar framework to other contemporary topics.Compare and contrast the similarities and differences that exist among Latinas/os in the United States.How does centering the history and experiences of Latinas/os enhance your understanding of race/ethnicity, class, and gender?Looking toward the future, what do you think will be the state of Latina/o migration, education, and activism in the next ten years? What led you to these hypotheses? What do you need to know to address this question? What do you hope will be the state of Latina/o migration, education, and activism in the next 10 years? Why? How does your desire compare with the desires conveyed in the videos or readings? What might account for these shared or different hopes?Note
* Correspondence address: Pomona College. Email: glo04747@pomona.edu

'With clarity and sophistication, Antonios Broumas presents a bold new theory of intellectual commons and powerful arguments for a new body of supportive law. This book not only reveals the misleading logic of intellectual property law in our time; it reveals the rich possibilities for constructive change that legally protected commoning can bring. Highly recommended!' — David Bollier, Director, Reinventing the Commons Program, Schumacher Center for a New Economics. 'Liberating the Intellectual Commons from the fetters of capital accumulation and appropriation, would give us a renaissance of creative energies and empowered communities: exactly what the world needs to move away from the social and ecological devastations of our times. This book is a thoughtful and compelling argument for making this possible through the works of the law and the redesign of public domain as a common space.' — Massimo De Angelis, Professor of Political Economy and Social Change, Co-director of the Centre for Social Justice and Change, University of East London. 'In this pioneering book, Antonios Broumas argues that philosophically, morally, politically and economically we are in urgent need of a new legal regime that recognizes the intellectual commons, peer production and sharing as the primary practices of intellectual production, distribution and consumption. I cannot imagine a more urgent task today. A legally protected intellectual commons will lead to greater scientific and cultural innovation and creativity and will lead to an urgently needed second Enlightenment. This book should be read by lawyers, critical theorists, economists and the many professionals of science, culture and the academy.' — Costas Douzinas, Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London. 'Antonios Broumas' book is an excellent critical analysis of the cultural commons and a must-read for everyone interested in understanding what the commons, the cultural commons, and the digital commons are all about. This work brilliantly outlines the foundations of an empirically grounded critical theory of the commons and the cultural commons in the context of the interactions of law and society.' — Christian Fuchs, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, author of Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory (2020). 'Broumas takes us on a spellbinding tour of how and why the law could and should change to accommodate the creative multitude, which engages into an emerging mode of production. He tells a vibrant story that makes us shout: "Lawmakers of the world, unite!"' — Vasilis Kostakis, Professor of P2P Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty Associate at Harvard Law School. At the cutting edge of contemporary wealth creation people form self-governed communities of collaborative innovation in conditions of relative equipotency and produce resources with free access to all. The emergent intellectual commons have the potential to commonify intellectual production and distribution, unleash human creativity through collaboration and democratise innovation with wider positive effects for our societies. Contemporary intellectual property laws fail to address this potential. We are, therefore, in pressing need of an institutional alternative beyond the inherent limitations of intellectual property law. This book offers an overall analysis of the moral significance of the intellectual commons and outlines appropriate modes for their regulation. Its principal thesis is that our legal systems are in need of an independent body of law for the protection and promotion of the intellectual commons, in parallel to intellectual property law. In this context, the author of the book proposes the reconstruction of the doctrine of the public domain and the exceptions and limitations of exclusive intellectual property rights into an intellectual commons law, which will underpin a vibrant non-commercial zone of creativity and innovation in intellectual production, distribution and consumption alongside commodity markets enabled by intellectual property law.

Virtual globalization : virtual spaces / Tourist Spaces / edited by David Holmes -- The criminal spectre in law, literature, and aesthetics / Peter Hutchings -- Immigrants and national identity in Europe / Anna Triandafyllidou -- Constructing risk and safety in technological practice / edited by Jane Summerton and Boel Berner -- Europeanisation, national identities and migration : changes in boundary constructions between western and eastern Europe / Willfried Spohn and Anna Triandafyllidou -- Language, identity, and conflict : a comparative study of language in ethnic conflict in Europe and Eurasia / Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost -- Immigrant life in the U.S. : multi-disciplinary perspectives / edited by Donna R. Gabaccia and Colin Wayne Leach -- Rave culture and religion / edited by Graham St. John -- Creation and returns of social capital : a new research program / edited by Henk Flap and Beate Völker -- Self-care : embodiment, personal autonomy, and the shaping of health consciousness / Christopher Ziguras -- Mechanisms of cooperation / Werner Raub and Jeroen Weesie -- After the bell : educational success, public policy, and family background / edited by Dalton Conley and Karen Albright -- Youth crime and youth culture in the inner city / Bill Sanders -- Emotions and social movements / edited by Helena Flam and Debra King -- Globalization, uncertainty, and youth in society / edited by Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Erik Klijzing, Melinda Mills and Karin Kurz -- Love, heterosexuality and society / Paul Johnson -- Agricultural governance : globalization and the new politics of regulation / edited by Vaughan Higgins and Geoffrey Lawrence -- Challenging hegemonic masculinity / Richard Howson -- Social isolation in modern society / Roelof Hortulanus, Anja Machielse, and Ludwien Meeuwesen -- Weber and the persistence of religion : social theory, capitalism, and the sublime / Joseph W. H. Lough -- Globalization, uncertainty, and late careers in society / edited by Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Sandra Buchholz, and Dirk Hofäcker -- Bourdieu's politics : problems and possibilities / Jeremy F. Lane -- Media bias in reporting social research? : the case of reviewing ethnic inequalities in education / Martyn Hammersley -- A general theory of emotions and social life / Warren D. TenHouten -- Sociology, religion, and grace / Arpad Szakolczai -- Youth cultures : scenes, subcultures, and tribes / edited by Paul Hodkinson and Wolfgang Deicke -- The obituary as collective memory / Bridget Fowler -- Tocqueville's virus : utopia and dystopia in western social and political thought / Mark Featherstone -- Jewish eating and identity through the ages / David Kraemer -- The institutionalization of social welfare : a study of medicalizing management / Mikael Holmqvist -- The role of religion in modern societies / edited by Detlef Pollack and Daniel V. A. Olson -- Sex research and sex therapy : a sociological analysis of masters and Johnson /- Ross Morrow -- A crisis of waste? : understanding the rubbish society / Martin O'Brien -- Globalization and transformations of local socioeconomic practices / edited by Ulrike Schuerkens -- The culture of welfare markets : the international recasting of pension and care systems / Ingo Bode -- Cohabitation, family, and society / Tiziana Nazio -- Latin America and contemporary modernity : a sociological interpretation / José Maurízio Domingues -- Exploring the networked worlds of popular music milieu cultures / Peter Webb -- The cultural significance of the child star / Jane O'Connor -- European integration as an elite process : the failure of a dream? / Max Haller -- Queer political performance and protest / Benjamin Shepard -- Cosmopolitan spaces : Europe, globalization, theory / Chris Rumford -- Contexts of social capital : social networks in communities, markets, and organizations / edited by Ray-May Hsung, Nan Lin, and Ronald Breiger -- Feminism, domesticity, and popular culture / edited by Stacy Gillis and Joanne Hollows -- Changing relationships / edited by Malcolm Brynin and John Ermisch -- Formal and informal work : the hidden work regime in Europe / edited by Birgit Pfau-Effinger, Lluis Flaquer, & Per H. Jensen -- Interpreting human rights : social science perspectives / edited by Rhiannon Morgan and Bryan S. Turner -- Club cultures : boundaries, identities, and otherness / Silvia Rief -- Eastern European immigrant families / Mihaela Robila -- People and societies : Rom Harré and designing the social sciences / Luk van Langenhove -- Social theory in contemporary Asia / Ann Brooks

An emergent canon, or putting bodies on the scholarly agenda -- Introduction -- Friedrich Engels on the part played by labor in the transition from ape to man / Robert Hertz -- The pre-eminence of the right hand / Marcel Granet --Right and left in China / Marcel Mauss -- Techniques of the body / Victor Turner --Symbols in Ndembu ritual / Terence Turner -- The social skin -- Philosophical studies, or learning how to think embodiment -- Introduction -- Karl Marx and opposition of the materialist and idealist outlook / Friedrich Engels -- Walter Benjamin on the mimetic faculty / Maurice Merleau-Ponty -- From the phenomenology of perception / Ian Hacking -- Making up people / Judith Butler -- From bodies that matter / Bruno Latour -- Do you believe in reality? -- Fundamental processes, or denaturalizing the given -- Introduction / E. E. Evans-Pritchard -- Time and space / Caroline WalK Bynum -- Women mystics and eucharistic devotion in the thirteenth century / Kristofer M. Schipper -- On breath / Henry Abelove -- Some speculations on the history of "sexual intercourse" during the "long eighteenth century" in England / Margaret Lock -- Human body parts as therapeutic tools : contradictory discourses and transformed subjectivities / Anna Lowenhaupt -- Tsing Meratus embryology -- Everyday life, or exploring the body's times and spaces -- Introduction to Part IV / Michel de Certeau -- Walking in the city / Michael Taussig -- Tactility and distraction / Peter Stallybrass and Allon White -- The city, the gaze, and the contaminating touch -- Judith Farquhar -- Medicinal meals / Nancy K. Miller -- Rereading as a woman : the body in practice -- Colonized bodies, or analyzing the materiality of domination -- Introduction ./ Janice Boddy --Remembering Amal : on birth and the British in Northern Sudan / Susan Pedersen -- National bodies, unspeakable acts : the sexual politics of colonial policy making / Stuart Cosgrove -- The zoot suit and style warfare -- John D. O'Neil -- Cooptation and control : the reconstruction of Inuit birth / Patricia Leyland Kaufert, Jean Langford -- Dosic bodies/docile bodies -- Desires and identities, or negotiating sex and gender -- Introduction / John Boswell -- Men, beasts, and "nature" / Gregory M. Pflugfelder -- Cartographies of desire : male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse / Emily Martin -- The egg and the sperm : how science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles / Gilles Deleuze -- We always make love with worlds / Felix Guattari -- Bodies at the margin, or attending to distress and difference -- Introduction / Barbara Duden -- The woman beneath the skin : a doctor's patients in eighteenth-century Germany / Mariella Pandolfi-- Memory within the body : women's narrative and identity in a Southern Italian village / Nancy Scheper-Hughes -- Nervoso / Arthur Kleinman -- Somatization : the interconnections in Chinese / Joan Kl/nman -- Society among culture, depressive experiences and the meanings of pain -- Alice Domurat Dreger-- Jarring bodies : thoughts on the display of -- Unusual anatomies -- Capitalist production, or accounting the commodification of bodily life -- Introduction / E. P. Thompson --Time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism / Aihwa Ong --The production of possession : spirits and the multinational corporation in Malaysia / Brad Weiss plastic teeth extraction : the iconography of Haya gastro-sexual affliction -- Matthew Schmidt and constructing a "good catch," picking a winner / Lisa Jean Moore -- The development of technosemen and the deconstruction of the monolithic male / Margaret Lock -- Alienation of body parts and the biopolitics of immortalized cell lines -- Knowing systems, or tracking the bodies of the biosciences -- Introduction / Shigehisa Kuriyama -- Pulse diagnosis in the Greek and Chinese traditions / Rayna Rapp -- Real-time fetus : the role of the sonogram in the age of monitored reproduction / Charis Thompson -- Quit sniveling, cryo-baby, we'll work out which one's your mama! / Jos van Dijck -- Bodyworlds : the art of plastinated cadavers / Keith Wailoo -- Inventing the heterozygote : molecular biology, racial identity, and the narratives of sickle-cell disease / Tay-Sachs, and cystic fibrosis

Unite the Union tells us that inflation - in fact everything that's wrong with the economy in general - is because of corporate profiteering. No, really: Thousands of UK companies have exploited their corporate power to increase profit margins since the pandemic, redistributing wealth from employees to employers and shareholders, according to the biggest study yet of data since 2019.A trawl through the accounts of 17,000 companies by the trade union Unite found pre-tax profit margins were 30% higher on average in 2022 compared with the average across 2018 and 2019. Post-tax margins were on average 20% higher.Werl, obvious, innit? There's your problem. The capitalists are stealing it all. In the actual report: We've looked at profit margins before tax in 2022 compared with the average across the two pre-pandemic years of 2018 and 2019. We calculate the mean profit margin (see below) by dividing the total profit of all 16,600 companies by their total revenue. In 2022, the overall average profit margin was 8.3%. That is significantly higher than 7.1% in 2018, and just 5.7% in 2019. Averaging across those two years, profits increased 30% since the pandemic. Those figures are based on profits before companies paid tax. Profit after tax saw a smaller, but still large, increase of 20%. It's possible to wonder whether 5.7% was a good number to be starting with, whether 8.3% is too high now or a return to some welcome stability and so on. Eyeballing very slightly different measures of the same idea tells us that profit margins are significantly down on a decade ago. So it might well be that welcome return to a profitable capitalism. Which says something about this complaint: Profiteering has gone hand-in-hand with under-investment. Have companies put their increased profits to use for long-term investment to rebuild our industries? Our analysis shows they haven't. In fact, investment has fallen.If the returns to investing have risen - that's the claim at least - then clearly we'd expect investment to increase - the gold piled up from doing so has increased and no one's actually accusing the capitalists of being stupid, are they? If investment isn't increasing at a time of risen profitability of investment then there might be something wrong with the numbers being used. And, of course, there is. The measure of "investment" being used here is only of reinvestment into the extant firm from profits made within that firm. Money paid out to shareholders that then gets invested in some other portion of the economy isn't counted at all.But the real issue here is that the numbers being complained about aren't enough to explain the effects claimed. The capital share of the economy is around - and about, you understand - 20%, or which corporate profits is about half. So, 10% of everything. That's gone up by 30% or so - 3% of everything. The labour share (no, the labour share, not wages. The labour share is wages plus taxes paid on employment (both sets of NI) plus pensions contributions, plus, plus plus, all the compensation people gain from going to work) is about 70% of the economy. So, even if this effect is exactly as stated, that means wages are 4.2% lower than they would be without the capitalists carving an ever larger slice off the pig for themselves.Sure, a 4% pay rise is nice, not having it is not nice. But it's not an adequate explanation for everything that's wrong with the British economy now, is it? It's just not large enough to be the problem claimed.

April 4 marked the 75th anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty by the foreign ministers of the original 12 members of the NATO alliance. And rather serendipitously, it was reported this week that NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has proposed standing up a new $100 billion fund to help Ukraine continue its effort against the Russian invasion — just in time for the anniversary.While only in the planning stages, the so-called Mission for Ukraine proposal would also see NATO take control of the Ramstein Group which the U.S. set up to coordinate military supplies to Ukraine (this particular aspect of the plan was immediately met with a cold shoulder by the White House yesterday). The alliance support for the proposal, which seeks to "Trump-proof" support for the Ukraine war in the event the former president is elected and seeks to pull the plug on U.S. funding for Ukraine, is split along lines one might expect, with support coming from the Baltics, Poland, and The Washington Post, and opposition from Hungary. Critics, such as the legendary American diplomat Chas Freeman say that the plan is simply "a case of throwing good money—in this case, borrowed money—after bad." Freeman sees this as a case of NATO clutching at straws, after all, as he tells Responsible Statecraft, "NATO has run out of Ukrainians to sacrifice on the battlefield as well as the armaments production needed to equip the existing, greatly depleted Ukrainian armed forces. A bond fund will neither create more Ukrainians nor produce more weapons to arm those who have so far survived."What both Europe and Ukraine really need, says Freeman, "is peace, and this demands negotiations with Russia. This is a shameless attempt to use financial capitalism to avoid that reality, while further enriching munitions manufacturers. NATO is not a hedge fund and should not attempt to behave like one.When alliances attempt to borrow money for lost causes, you would be right to judge that they know the jig is up."Stoltenberg has reportedly pitched the plan as a means "to shield the mechanism against the winds of political change." As such it is redolent of the way the European Commission functions when it seeks to supplant national law with supranational diktat. If voters in the U.S. or Canada or France or Germany seek to elect people (like Trump) who want to defund the war effort, the existence of such a fund essentially overrules them, i.e., "Trump-proofing."Chicago-based international affairs analyst Neil Bouhan sees this as an attempt to "insulate a fundamentally political body, NATO, from the politics of the body's most important member, the U.S. It hands over billions of dollars to NATO and seemingly discretionary control over the U.S. military."Indeed, the proposal raises a number of questions, such as: does it violate the NATO charter? The NATO treaty posits that "an armed attack against one…shall be considered an attack against them all." But Ukraine is not a NATO member and the treaty, in any case, merely calls for consultations in the event "the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened." Does it mean American military assets in Europe will be controlled by an unaccountable bureaucracy in Brussels? After all, as an unnamed diplomat told the Financial Times yesterday "This will be crossing a Rubicon. Nato will have a role in coordinating lethal support to Ukraine."As of now the White House seems to be taking a 'wait and see' approach. But the Biden administration seems to have a fatal attraction to bad ideas, of which this is yet another in a rather depressingly long series.

There is a little contretemps over the management of Wickes (a matter to do with tradesmen we believe) shouting that of course everyone should be celebrating 2SLGBTQ+ or something. Others insisting that well, if they're going to start ramming that idea down our throats then we'll not shop there - leading to that fall in the share price.Good.Not the idea of 2SLGBTQ+ or not, the celebration of or not, but the idea and practice of boycotts - and their opposite the deliberately thought through extra purchase. As happened with Chik-Fil-A over a related issue some years back, when those supporting their stance deliberately and offensively went to eat mor' chikkin in the parking lots in celebration. How we spend our money is how we bend producers to our will. Capitalists desire our money. In fact, any producer of anything does. In order to get our money the producer has to pleasure us sufficiently to get us to hand over that cash. Free markets mean that anyone can set up - that is what the free means, freedom of entry - to make any attempt to pleasure us enough to hand over our money.Excellent, our job as consumers is to dispose of our money in the manner that most pleasures us - maximises our utility in the technical jargon. If this includes strong celebrations of 2SLGBTQ+ then we should - note should - spend our money with those who display such support. If it doesn't then we should - again note, should - not spend our money in such places. The actual issue here we're not commenting upon, that's not for us to have an official view upon in the slightest. A step back and of course consenting adults get to do as consenting adults wish, that's the core of the liberal argument. But that includes, obviously enough, deploying one's own cash in whatever manner one wishes - again the core of the liberal argument. Which is that joy of the capitalist and free market system. We've got the incentive for producers to do as we wish them to, we've got the feedback mechanism to force that behaviour. Their greed for our cash plus our ability to direct our cash gives us the one and only system where we all get to vote our views each and every day. What an excellent system, eh? We can even go further. Those aiming at the mass market have to be careful of those utils of the mass market. Anheuser Busch trying the idea with Bud Light - the working man's beer heavily associated with F-150s and the like - might not have been the wisest move. Trying it with Michelob wouldn't have worried anyone because who would worry about that beer? Similarly, Wickes might not have made the wisest choice given their customer base. But that free entry does allow capitalist greed to aim at niches too. Someone is making a fortune out of all those flags. There are people profiting from heavier foundation creams and clothes with tucks. The system allows both the mass market offerings that have to average out those utils and also the niches where very specific desires can be profited from.It is only free market capitalism that gives us both kinds of music, country and western. Our role in the system is to force the producers to pleasure us by judicious spending of our own money. Therefore we should do just that, spend on those who pleasure us.What it is that people are using as their measure is the deeply unimportant thing - liberals, recall, your life, your decisions about it. That everyone gets to act upon their desires is the very joy of this capitalist free marketry.

This article brings to bear different strands of critical theory on the issue of police violence and securitarian capitalism, with a focus on the current situation in France, discussing Judith Butler's argument for nonviolence in The Force of Nonviolence in relation to Jacques Rancière's distinction of politics and police, Giorgio Agamben's ideas of gesture and act, and Silvia Federici's understanding of primitive accumulation and reproductive commons. These authors, from their different perspectives, address how the questions of the distribution and the legitimation of violence involve forms of individuation that cut into a common dimension of relationality and interdepen- dency, systematically denying structural violence. On this basis, they understand the ethics and politics of nonviolence to be the matter of a common use of bodies: Butler, in the sense of an aggressive defence of those interrelational bonds that are formative of human subjects; Agamben, in the sense of a shift in our mode of thinking and doing from property and belonging to use and dwelling, as part of the destitution of the biopolitical and juridical capture of lives; Federici, as forms of mutual support organised in a struggle against the imposition of capitalist relations of production and reproduction. Moving from the question of the figuration of violence and the State's semantic monopoly on its attribution to that of police violence and its centrality in the current paradigm of government, the article connects the various epistemologies of subjectivity in Butler, Agamben, and Federici to the critique of techniques of individuation and structural forms of vulnerabilisation that are characteristic of the police State, proposing an anarchist perspective on nonviolence as part of a larger defence of reproductive and gestural commons. ; Este artículo aporta diferentes líneas de teoría crítica sobre el tema de la violencia policial y el capitalismo securitario, con un enfoque en la situación actual en Francia, discutiendo el argumento de Judith Butler a favor de la noviolencia en The Force of Nonviolence (La fuerza de la noviolencia) en relación con la distinción de política y policía de Jacques Rancière, las ideas de gesto y acto de Giorgio Agamben, y la comprensión de Silvia Federici de la acumulación primitiva y los bienes comunes reproductivos. Estos autores, desde sus diferentes perspectivas, abordan cómo las cuestiones de la distribución y la legitimación de la violencia implican formas de individualización que se cruzan en una dimensión común de relacionalidad e interdependencia, negando sistemáticamente la violencia estructural. Sobre esta base, entienden la ética y la política de la noviolencia como materia de un uso común de los organismos: Butler, en el sentido de una defensa agresiva de aquellos lazos interrelacionales que son formativos de los sujetos humanos; Agamben, en el sentido de un cambio en nuestro modo de pensar y hacer desde la propiedad y la pertenencia hasta el uso y la vivienda, como parte de la destitución de la captura biopolítica y jurídica de las vidas; Federici, como formas de apoyo mutuo organizadas en una lucha contra la imposición de las relaciones capitalistas de producción y reproducción. Pasando de la cuestión de la figuración de la violencia y el monopolio semántico del Estado sobre su atribución a la violencia policial y su centralidad en el paradigma de gobierno actual, el artículo conecta las diversas epistemologías de la subjetividad en Butler, Agamben y Federici a la crítica de técnicas de individualización y formas estructurales de vulneración propias del Estado policial, y propone una perspectiva anarquista de la noviolencia como parte de una defensa más amplia de los bienes comunes reproductivos y gestuales.