Economics for Everyone

SEPTEMBER 2: Labour Day was the hook for the Vancouver Province to run a nice story on Economics for Everyone, complete with full-length photo of the author (Aussie friends take note: you can see I am wearing my RMWilliams shit-kickers!).

Here's a somewhat fuzzy pdf of the original story.

Here's the link to the Province's electronic version of the story (sans photo!).

I do believe, as I state in e4e, that strong unions are essential for anything close to mass, inclusive prosperity.  Left to its own devices, the "autonomous" distribution mechanisms of capitalism create and recreate systemic poverty and inequality -- not just because it's unfair, but because these social ills play a functional role in the capitalist system of labour extraction.

So Labour Day's a good moment for us all to reflect on the need to rejuvenate trade unionism: organizing new members, yes, but also mobilizing the members we have to raise their expectations and fight for a better share of the pie they produce.