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Whose Millennium?: Theirs or Ours?: 1st (First) Edition
"Magisterial in its historical sweep, fiercely democratic in its vision, Whose Millennium? is the thinking person's 'bridge to the 21st century.' There is an alternative to rampant inequality and the corruptions of power, and-ever so modestly and persuasively-Daniel Singer points the way." --Barbara EhrenreichThis visionary book challenges the chorus of resignation-the notion that there is no alternative, that profit is the best relationship between people, and that the market guarantees democracy. Daniel Singer insists that a more free and egalitarian society can be won, and he predicts that the new millennium will be an age of confrontation, not consensus, with Western Europe as a probable first battlefield.In social criticism of rare scope and insight, Singer probes the outcome of the Russian Revolution and Russia's post-1989 turmoil, the transformation of the Polish trade union movement Solidarity into a reactionary and clerical force, the failure of social democracy in Western Europe, the emergence of an unbalanced world after the collapse of one superpower, and the massive 1995 strikes and demonstrations in France-which, Singer argues, were the first revolt against the prevailing idea that there is no alternative to market stringency.As an alternative, Singer calls for "realistic utopia": a politics engaged with present-day possibilities but daring to pursue a world beyond capitalism, one that would put into consistent practice the ideals of democracy and equality.
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First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Daniel Singer
34 books3 followersDaniel Singer was a Polish-American socialist writer and journalist. He was best known for his articles for The Nation in the United States and for The Economist in Britain, serving for decades as a European correspondent for each magazine.
Gore Vidal described Singer as "one of the best, and certainly the sanest, interpreters of things European for American readers", with a "Balzacian eye for human detail." Mike Davis labelled Singer "the left's most brilliant arsonist", with a talent for "set[ting] ablaze whole forests of desiccated cliches".
Gore Vidal described Singer as "one of the best, and certainly the sanest, interpreters of things European for American readers", with a "Balzacian eye for human detail." Mike Davis labelled Singer "the left's most brilliant arsonist", with a talent for "set[ting] ablaze whole forests of desiccated cliches".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 3, 2017
This was a great book written on the trailing edge of the 20th C as an unheard call for action against the various forces that are now controlling the media and society at large. Singer predicted that without critical thinking being foremost in education and that rampant, unfettered capitalism is not the inevitable solution to the issues to be faced in the 21st C. He was right, but unfortunately died in Paris of lung cancer in 2000. He would hardly have been surprised at how things have turned out since as his widow told me when I met her back in 2001 not long after 9/11. In their apartment on the Left Bank over coffee, she told me what a gentle person he was but how heartbroken he would have been to see that the warnings he issued in this fantastic book went unheeded and ignored. Perhaps, with Drumpf's swamp seeping into the White House and threatening to erode basic liberties for non-white and non-male citizens of the US, this is a critical read and call to action.
April 11, 2023
Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours?, Daniel Singer (1926-2000), 1998, 282 pages, ISBN 0853459460, Dewey 332.12'2, Library-of-Congress HX73 S557 1999 Memorial Library
This is 215 pages of economic and political history (1800s-1998), followed by 67 pages of, I would say, wishful thinking. A good statement of the problem, but no solution.
Tina--There Is No Alternative to a lords-of-capital-and-wage-slaves world--is now the unwritten premise of the whole political debate. pp. 2, 150-151.
Governments worldwide are in thrall to financial capital, whose movement across borders has been unfettered since 1974. The threat of capital flight keeps wages, working conditions, and environmental protections poor. pp. 64-65. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, enforce exportation of the American nightmare to the world: unlivable minimum wages, lack of job security, inadequate or no unemployment insurance, inadequate or no medical insurance, inadequate or no pensions. pp. 58, 66-67.
The combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world nearly equals the annual income of the poorer half of the earth's population. (>2.5 billion, 1998). pp. 6, 181.
Capitalism cannot ensure our ecological survival. The biosphere cannot bear worldwide consumption at current Western levels. [Population is still growing by 1 billion per 12 years. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=... ] p. 215.
At the time of this writing, the Eastern European command economies had been taken over by looter capitalists, creating obscene poverty and obscene wealth, the West salivating for spoils. pp. 36-42. The Asian economic crisis exemplified the destructive excesses of capitalism. The author had hope that the obviousness of capitalism's horrors would prompt people to seek some way other than either party-boss command or aristocracy of wealth.
CAPITAL WINS
By downsizing, outsourcing, and re-engineering, a substantial share of U.S. national income shifted from wages to profits, 1970s-1990s. p. 158. Reagan showed the world how to crush a labor union, 1981-1982. p. 163. Japanese management disguised coercion as consent, and exported management-by-stress to the world. p. 167. Lean production, myriad sweatshop subsubsubcontractors, meant reduced resistance, lower wages, fewer social benefits. p. 169. Armaments, universal debt, planned obsolescence enrich the rich. pp. 170, 179.
DIVIDE, CONQUER
Wealth attacks alternately the public- and private-sector workers. The impudence of tycoons who earn millions or of academics, getting a nice bonus from the media for their mainstream views, describing the postal or railway workers as pampered or privileged is just indecent. p. 141.
The collapse of Bretton Woods in the early 1970s made room for globalization. pp. 188, 192-193.
WWI birthed the Bolshevik Revolution. The Great Depression birthed Nazism. p. 190.
Economically, WWII had a lone victor. Postwar, the U.S. made half of global manufactures, one-third of global exports, and had 61% of global gold. pp. 191-192.
By the 1970s, the U.S. had spent more than the value of its gold; foreign competition was limiting profits. The U.S. lifted all restrictions on movements of capital in 1974. p. 196. The U.S. has been a net debtor since 1986, and is now the world's biggest borrower. p. 202.
After the value of the peso fell in 1994, the U.S. bailed out the Mexican government and the American investors, leaving Mexicans to bear unemployment, inflation, and a sharp drop in living standards. pp. 203-205.
This book is a call to action, but a vague one. p. 280. If we do not quickly offer progressive solutions to the growing popular discontent, there are plenty of dark saviours waiting in the wings. p. 8. Only collective action can prevent the millennium from being /theirs/--apocalypse, or at best barbarism. pp. 282, 176-178. If globalization is the way in which profit conquers the world, internationalism must be the reply of the working people. p. 214.
The author wants us all to produce according to our ability and consume according to our need. pp. 235-236. He seems to reject pricing and payment as ways to allocate scarce resources, but offers nothing in their stead. p. 233. He thinks people will work out of a sense of duty, or for the satisfaction of it. p. 235. He advocates a world of worker co-ops, but says little of really existing worker co-ops. He thinks workers should "bring the whole system down," without offering a viable replacement. p. 183.
The author's bibles are /The Communist Manifesto/, 1848, by Marx and Engels, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... , and /Beyond Capital/, 1995, by István Mészáros, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... . p. vi.
Capitalism needs state protection of private property. p. 209.
For the men clinging to power and privilege, victory was worth any price. p. 79.
It's difficult to recover freedoms deprived. p. 240.
UNIONIZATION RATES 2016-2020
The U.S. has set the trend. Unions and the welfare state are in retreat. pp. 146, 150-151.
10% United States
11% France
12% Korea, Mexico
16% Germany
17% Japan
20% Costa Rica
23% United Kingdom
27% Canada
33% Italy
65% Sweden
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employm...
More countries: https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/union-...
Singer's wikipedia page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danie...
Glossary
Fabian tactics = war of attrition. p. 3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabia...
Maastricht = European Union. 1992 treaty. p. 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maast...
Pascalian wager = If you live as if God exists and God does exist, you get infinite reward in heaven. If you live as if God does not exist and God does exist, you get infinite punishment in hell. If God does not exist, your rewards or punishments are merely finite ones in this life. p. 280. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasca...
This is 215 pages of economic and political history (1800s-1998), followed by 67 pages of, I would say, wishful thinking. A good statement of the problem, but no solution.
Tina--There Is No Alternative to a lords-of-capital-and-wage-slaves world--is now the unwritten premise of the whole political debate. pp. 2, 150-151.
Governments worldwide are in thrall to financial capital, whose movement across borders has been unfettered since 1974. The threat of capital flight keeps wages, working conditions, and environmental protections poor. pp. 64-65. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, enforce exportation of the American nightmare to the world: unlivable minimum wages, lack of job security, inadequate or no unemployment insurance, inadequate or no medical insurance, inadequate or no pensions. pp. 58, 66-67.
The combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world nearly equals the annual income of the poorer half of the earth's population. (>2.5 billion, 1998). pp. 6, 181.
Capitalism cannot ensure our ecological survival. The biosphere cannot bear worldwide consumption at current Western levels. [Population is still growing by 1 billion per 12 years. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=... ] p. 215.
At the time of this writing, the Eastern European command economies had been taken over by looter capitalists, creating obscene poverty and obscene wealth, the West salivating for spoils. pp. 36-42. The Asian economic crisis exemplified the destructive excesses of capitalism. The author had hope that the obviousness of capitalism's horrors would prompt people to seek some way other than either party-boss command or aristocracy of wealth.
CAPITAL WINS
By downsizing, outsourcing, and re-engineering, a substantial share of U.S. national income shifted from wages to profits, 1970s-1990s. p. 158. Reagan showed the world how to crush a labor union, 1981-1982. p. 163. Japanese management disguised coercion as consent, and exported management-by-stress to the world. p. 167. Lean production, myriad sweatshop subsubsubcontractors, meant reduced resistance, lower wages, fewer social benefits. p. 169. Armaments, universal debt, planned obsolescence enrich the rich. pp. 170, 179.
DIVIDE, CONQUER
Wealth attacks alternately the public- and private-sector workers. The impudence of tycoons who earn millions or of academics, getting a nice bonus from the media for their mainstream views, describing the postal or railway workers as pampered or privileged is just indecent. p. 141.
The collapse of Bretton Woods in the early 1970s made room for globalization. pp. 188, 192-193.
WWI birthed the Bolshevik Revolution. The Great Depression birthed Nazism. p. 190.
Economically, WWII had a lone victor. Postwar, the U.S. made half of global manufactures, one-third of global exports, and had 61% of global gold. pp. 191-192.
By the 1970s, the U.S. had spent more than the value of its gold; foreign competition was limiting profits. The U.S. lifted all restrictions on movements of capital in 1974. p. 196. The U.S. has been a net debtor since 1986, and is now the world's biggest borrower. p. 202.
After the value of the peso fell in 1994, the U.S. bailed out the Mexican government and the American investors, leaving Mexicans to bear unemployment, inflation, and a sharp drop in living standards. pp. 203-205.
This book is a call to action, but a vague one. p. 280. If we do not quickly offer progressive solutions to the growing popular discontent, there are plenty of dark saviours waiting in the wings. p. 8. Only collective action can prevent the millennium from being /theirs/--apocalypse, or at best barbarism. pp. 282, 176-178. If globalization is the way in which profit conquers the world, internationalism must be the reply of the working people. p. 214.
The author wants us all to produce according to our ability and consume according to our need. pp. 235-236. He seems to reject pricing and payment as ways to allocate scarce resources, but offers nothing in their stead. p. 233. He thinks people will work out of a sense of duty, or for the satisfaction of it. p. 235. He advocates a world of worker co-ops, but says little of really existing worker co-ops. He thinks workers should "bring the whole system down," without offering a viable replacement. p. 183.
The author's bibles are /The Communist Manifesto/, 1848, by Marx and Engels, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... , and /Beyond Capital/, 1995, by István Mészáros, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... . p. vi.
Capitalism needs state protection of private property. p. 209.
For the men clinging to power and privilege, victory was worth any price. p. 79.
It's difficult to recover freedoms deprived. p. 240.
UNIONIZATION RATES 2016-2020
The U.S. has set the trend. Unions and the welfare state are in retreat. pp. 146, 150-151.
10% United States
11% France
12% Korea, Mexico
16% Germany
17% Japan
20% Costa Rica
23% United Kingdom
27% Canada
33% Italy
65% Sweden
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employm...
More countries: https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/union-...
Singer's wikipedia page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danie...
Glossary
Fabian tactics = war of attrition. p. 3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabia...
Maastricht = European Union. 1992 treaty. p. 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maast...
Pascalian wager = If you live as if God exists and God does exist, you get infinite reward in heaven. If you live as if God does not exist and God does exist, you get infinite punishment in hell. If God does not exist, your rewards or punishments are merely finite ones in this life. p. 280. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasca...
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March 31, 2007The ISO sold me this book in hardcover with no dust jacket. I think one of our perspectives was straight jacked from this book too.
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