Tag: neoliberalism

Panelists include John Temple, investigative reporting program director at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism; David Snyder, attorney and director of the First Amendment Coalition; and civil rights attorney Daniel Sheehan, who worked on the Pentagon Papers case. Sponsored by the Community Water Center, Sierra Club California, and the David Brower Center. Sponsored by YR Media and the Commonwealth Club’s Inforum. $30 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Sponsored by St. Andrew’s Society of San Francisco. 7 p.m., 1088 Green St., San Francisco. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. 10 a.m., starting and ending at the Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco. 7 p.m., Evans Hall, UC Berkeley. $30 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students.

Congratulations to Mike Carter on raising such important issues (The country I walked through deserves better than Brexit, 11 February). My husband, Colin Barnett, was – like Mike’s father – also instrumental in organising the People’s March for Jobs, as the then north-west regional secretary of the Trades Union Congress. His deep belief in trying to improve their pay and working conditions meant he tirelessly spent time travelling to their places of work, talking to them and persuading them to join the union. Why has it taken until now to realise how neglected many communities, especially outside the south of England, have become? What was the Labour party doing supporting contracting out when it was obvious that savings were made by reducing the pay and terms and conditions of the low-paid? Why was removing control and assets from democratically elected local authorities to establish academy schools pursued? I have banged on about this publication to the annoyance of friends, family and colleagues ever since I read it. We all need to read this book – it is a page-turning thriller. I was old enough, however, to see the destruction of houses and factories during that time. Victor Gilbert Pathhead, Midlothian • Re Mike Carter’s references to neoliberalism, some remainers are prone to accusing Brexiters of being dyed-in-the-wool neoliberals.

Let’s Grow Our Own Farm Workers. But globalism also has its discontents, none less acknowledged than the American farm worker. In 1870, at the height of the labor market in agriculture, fully half of all working Americans were employed in the agriculture industry. Chavez organized major labor strikes against U.S. farmers, resulting in some cases, massive shortages and price increases in agricultural staples. First, farming organizations began to break the organized labor stranglehold on production by secretly importing undocumented workers from Mexico. But it was sold to the American consumer as a way of getting goods on the table at lower cost. It takes both workers and consumers to drive the type of economic growth America needs now. It is that America – and especially the Republican Party – is going to have to come to terms with organized labor. American voters are not likely to return to farming and other industries under the same working conditions as undocumented immigrants. On the other hand, both producers and consumers of American agricultural products are going to have to adjust to the higher costs of labor that will necessarily arise when American citizens are called upon to take over the jobs currently occupied by undocumented immigrants.