Jason S > Recent Status Updates

I skipped the China chapter - sue me. Harvey later revised his stance on China as neoliberal, he was coming at it without the proper context. Perhaps I will return to it in the future but for now I will carry on, too much to read to spend time on this chapter

Ch.6/7 - why did no one tell me UE was organizing Twitter pre- and during Musk? What Musk did to Twitter was incredible, and at multiple points in the book, you can see how tactics are tried at one major company, and the others follow suit. Following musk, the other tech giants felt they could get away with massive layoffs. They are a class that is organized, we need to be as well. Shout out to UE for trying

Ch4+5. The kickstarter story was gripping, loved that. The recognition playbook section seems to be setting up the rest of the story. Formal recognition brought less political struggles, but more legal protections. Yet, at the end, it resulted in bad contracts and laid off organizers. The potential for class consciousness seems to be lost when the international unions like CWA step in. I hope they bring it back

Ch 3. - The way Google tried to celebrate the walkouts surrounding sexism is insane. What a great PR strategy for them. All the while, they were retaliating against employees. Each example brought up demonstrates how the boss is the best organizer: the more they retaliate, the more people get involved. The public shaming strat is interesting bcuz that’s what we do in higher ed as well with no right to strike

I like that he is not a billionaire 🙂

Ch 2’s examples of workplace organizing around political issues makes the claim that class consciousness was being developed through these struggles. To some degree, yes, but organizing efforts alone won’t produce a class analysis spontaneously, it was the political interventions that helped people begin to expand beyond just their particular employer. Book is great so far, and I can’t wait to continue

1st chapter goes through the different eras of tech. Starting from countercultural roots, this ethos carries the industry forward through two massive events: the dot com bubble and 08 crises. Along the way, consolidation of the market by a few players in order to win the platform economy, causes the mythos of revolutionary’s to come face to face with the reality of their status as the new establishment. So good!

Each chapter goes through feminism in different aspects. The last chapter discussed “work” in relation to feminism and how wealthy, homebound women (white) often saw integration into the workplace as liberation, ignoring the existing working women of color who were working for poverty wages. Entering the workforce is not liberation, although self-sufficiency. Hooks is interesting, nothing groundbreaking thus far

1. The definition of feminism as: Feminism is the movement to end sexism,sexist exploitation, and oppression
2. Academic capture of feminist thinking
3. Sisterhood as a version of solidarity

Starting to get the feeling that these finance bros are not as bright as they’d like us to believe…

Reading about the 08 crises, I realize I have much more to learn. I have not taken the time to sit down and understand what forces were at play and this is a large blind spot for me

If the IMF comes to your door, don’t open

Harvey does an excellent job of tracing the origins of neoliberalism and framing it in terms of class struggle. The second chapter, which discusses how the wealthy influenced culture to accept neoliberalism, has been especially interesting to me. In particular, the way post-modernism naturally fits in with Neoliberal logic and therefore works in the favor of the capitalist class is something I’m thinking about

The willingness of women’s suffrage leaders like Susan B Antony and Stanton to throw aside black women and black liberation as a whole is gross. In what world do we get our rights by casting others aside in hopes of appearing “acceptable” to our oppressors? Despite all this, black women still fought for and supported the suffrage movement with leaders like Well’s continuously making her voice heard

Davis does an amazing job of connecting the motivations of all political actors to their economic conditions and debunking idealists myths such as how white women joined the early stages of the abolition movement due to “maternal” instincts. Instead, their economic position being upended by industrialization, led them to see themselves in black women (it was however, a grossly off base comparison on their part).

The description of counterinsurgency methods are sickening to read but impossible not to connect with genocide happening in Gaza. So much of this period post-Vietnam into the Reagan admin where Central America was used to test these tactics, has stuck with us in ways I fear have only gotten worse. Also, If soldiers can be made into animals who carry this out, I worry populations can be made to accept it even easier

The rise of the new right following the Vietnam war sheds some light on Carters failure as a president. When he died, I didn’t know much about him. His moral language was a catalyst to Regan’s marvel cinematic understanding of global politics which still defines much of our attitudes today .Evil bad man Maduro, Putler, etc. must be stopped by the good guys! Want to learn more about the 70’s anti war congress

First couple of pages are packed with historical examples and explanations of how the US slowly became what it is today through workshopping strategies and tactics in Latin America. The groundwork of so much of what we are seeing today with Trumps move back to the western hemisphere is laid bare by Grandin early in this work