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'Class Warfare in America': Remarks Made at the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture
Robert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future; The Work of Nations; Locked in the Cabinet; Supercapitalism; and his newest, Beyond Outrage. His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
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Show AllIf amiable time-server Robert Reich is the go-to guy for the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, I can't wait to see who gives the César Chávez Memorial Lecture.
I'm guessing John Yoo is on the short list.
Thanks for the background and first-hand report.
Alberto Gonzales, maybe, or Marco Rubio. Or that Wise Corporatist Latina.
Good one, O.S! I can't stand the sound of his voice. His inflections express a disconnect with his own words, which are just more liberal yada yada......If he represents ows, then its change you can believe in all over again. I think obama's 2008 speeches were along the same lines, and i didn't buy it back then. But i could be wrong since i couldn't sit through the whole thing. And i guess i am rather different from other posters here on CD. I don't find him likeable.
'Amiable time-server' is an acceptable choice, Obedient Servant. I got censored/disappeared from this thread for 'careerist pig' and calling out CD's judgement for posting this rubbish in the first place.
As with any revolutionary urge, liberals are a threat to OWS. It's a tactical and strategic obstacle; whether dumping on the memory of Mario Savio or carrying water for careerist hacks and the Democratic Party, this self-defeating urge to obedience must be confronted.
All true, but I don't think incompatible with what I posted. But I certainly could be persuaded otherwise by you and Obedient Servant.
We mostly agree. My partner disagreed with the same sentence that you did, by the way. Notice I did not say that Reich is risking paying a price. I am predicting that he will pay a price.
I don't share your focus on the "two party system" as an instrument of the oligarchy. I think the problem runs much deeper than that. The entire set of myths and beliefs about "our representative democracy" and the electoral system need to go, in my view.
I also do not share your view that beliefs are more important than actions. I care less whether or not he spoke against Capitalism, then I do about the fact that he lent support to those who are actually standing against Capitalism, not as a matter of ideology or belief but rather in actual fact.
Interesting that the Capitalists themselves know better who their enemies are than we do. They know better what hurts them then we know how to hurt them. I say we support all whom the Capitalists see as a threat to them.
I don't agree that "the 2-party system has fostered the very inequality that Occupy is protesting." Rather, the 2-party system is an expression of that inequality, an effect rather than a cause in my view.
Elections do not determine who is in power. The 2 party system is an expression of power, and are controlled by those in power, it is not the source of their power. That is the problem with the electoral system, and that is why object to it being presented as the ultimate or even an important way for us to cause social and political change, The lever in the voting booth is not the way we control those in power, it is one of the many ways that they control us.
Thanks. No hurry. I am sure these issues will come up again, and I always read what you say carefully and give it much consideration. I am much more interested in exploring and discussing these issues than I am in "winning" or being "right."
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I agree. Very sound analysis.
Reich, unlike so many political commentators, so many professors, so many university officials, virtually all politicians and mass media mouthpieces, actual went out and expressed support for OWS.
Reich demolished the "what are your demands?" attacks on OWS often expressed right here by many CD posters. Reich showed he understands OWS by his reference to the GAs.
He didn't try to get OWS to support anything, to vote for anyone, to do anything differently, he merely came out and expressed solid and unqualified support for movement. He didn't tell people what they were doing wrong, he didn't caution people, he didn't try to undermine or sabotage movement.
None of that is true with very many of the authors or posters right here at CD.
I have no doubt that as the crackdowns on OWS escalate, that Reich's support for it will remain solid. I have no doubt that he will eventually pay a heavy personal and professional price for that.
The administration, Reich's bosses, have declared absolute opposition to the Occupy movement. He went out there and said "keep it up. I support you."
Thanks for posting that, Two Americas. I think Reich is the real deal, although he has sinned in the past. But I forgive him.In connection with that, I note that I and the rest of the white trash have been turned out after engaging in vitriol and venom. I never know what will do it, but reserve the right to be surprised. Must have been the reference to making industrial lubricants in Odessa.
Yawn!
"Maldistribution of wealth and power: bad. Just give Joe Sixpack a bigger cut of the Imperialist pie. All will be well."
An entire system of production that relies on mechanized violence in the form of perpetual warfare, mass-imprisonment, environmental rape, and all other forms of state domination is the problem. A liberal like Reich, as likable as he is, does not represent this point of view, which I believe is at the core of Occupy.
Dear Professor Reich, president obama has stood with the bullies time and time again. Please throw your hat into the political arena and run for president in 2012, challenge this conservative president that continues bush's wars and extends bush's tax cuts for the rich and stands against the environment like a republican and still calls himself a democrat when election time comes around, I think you will find the majority of americans will stand as your protector and elect a short president. Four more years of the current nonsense will only mean many more years before this country begins to recover.
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