post 2

Global Decisions,

Local Collisions

Urban Life in the

New World Order

David Ranney

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA

TIMELINE

1940 1950 1960 1970

I

( ' )!'* ----- -·Fordism·------------------------------------------------------------------)- '

International

1980 1990 2000

<-.-------------------------------------.. "New World Order" --------------------------->1

I I I I

( wto )2nd OPEC Global Debt CUFTA (1989) NAFrA

I

1944

Bretton Woods

I Nixon ends Gold Stand. (1971)

I

lstOPEC

Crisis

(1974)

I

Currencies

Crisis Crisis Berlin Wall Falls (1994) (1979) (19821 (19891

I 1 (1995) GATI Collapse of

Uruguay Soviet Union

Rourid (1991) I

.i Float (1973) I

(1986)

Asian

I

!<------ Cold War·-----------------------------------------------------------------

National {U.S.)

Vietnam War Ends I (1975)

Coup in Chile

-------------(-1-9-7-4)-------------------------------------------->1

Financial Crisis

(1997)

I Public Housing

I

GM-UAW

Contract

I

stfrtan

Ci

Rights Act

I Housing and Civil Rights

I

Housing and Community

I

Savings&.

Brady

I

Bond Plan

I

Long Term

Ao< (1937)

(1946)

I

Taft-Hartley

Redevelopment (1949)

I

Housing Act:

(1964)

Act (1968)

----Vietnam

Development Act

-section 8 (1974)

Loan Crisis

(1982)

(1989)

Capital Man.

Crisis (1998)

Ao<

(1947)

I

Urban Renewal

(1954) I

(19651

I

---------------->1

(1975)

k---- Banking Acts ----

1980, 1982, 1989

I

Courts Ban Racial Exclusion in Housing (1948)

Courts Ban Segregated Schools (1954)

Dr. King Assassination (1968)

I Neighborhood Development Program

I Moratorium on Public Housing Construction

(1974) 1

Full Employment

Balanced Growth Act (1978) Community

Personal

Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (1998)

I

I

Employment

I MDTA (1962)

(1978)

I

CETA

Reinvestment Act

(1977)

I

Community Development

Block Grant Program

(CDBG) (1974)

1

I Reagan Fires PATCO (1982)

( I )I

TPA

1982)

Responsibility

and Work Opportunities

Reconciliation Act

(1996)

I Workforce Investment

Ao< (1946)

(1973)

Urban Development Action

Grant Program (1978)

I

Volker Chairs FED (1980)

(1998)

U.S. Presidents and

<-------------)- <------------------)- <Iii--------------------)- <------)- <---------)<Iii------------ Roosevelt Truman Eisenhower Kennedy Johnson Nixon Truman Barkley Nixon Johnson Humphrey Ford

1933-45 1945-53 1943-61 1961-63 1963-69 1969-74

Chicago

Vice Presidents

------------)- <-------) <::----------)- <----------------)- -E------------)<-----------------)

Ford Carter Reagan Bush Clint : n

Rockefeller Mondale Bush Quail Gore

1974-77 1977-81 1981-89 1989-93 1993-2001

I Hyde Park Urban Renewal (1956)

I

I Gatreaux v. CHA (1966)

I

I

Chicago 21

Plan (1973)

I I

Closing of New White Sox

Wisconsin Steel (1980) Stadium (1980)

!'*--·Net Loss of 150,000 ---->1

I

Richard M.Daley

Moves to South

Loop (1995)

UICUrbnn Renewal (1960)

I Sandburg Village Urban Renewal

(1960-61)

Dr. King Comes to Chicago (1966)

I

Fred Hampton

Mark Clark

Assassination

Manufacturing Jobs

(1980-90)

I

Defeat of World's

Fair Proposal(1985)

1<--------)

------- PublicHousing ·------)j

Building Boom (1955-66)

I

Chicago Area Plan

(1958)

(1969)

I

Illinois Tax Increment

Finance Law (1977)

I

Tax Increment Finance

(TIF) Ordinance (1990)

Destruction of Public

Housing (1996-2001)

Cabn!u TIP Bond Deal (1999)

Chicago Mayors

<-------------)- <::---------------------------------------------

Martin Kennelly Richard J, Daley

(1947-55) (1955-76)

1<-----------· South Loop Gentrification -----------)j

I

Expansion of

Central Station TIP (1994)

------------------------) <;------)- <-----)-<-----------)--(----) ----------------------------

Michael Jayne Harold Eugene Richard M.Daley

Bilandk Byrne Washington Sawyer (1989- 1

(1977-7!1 (1979-831 (1983-87) (1987-891

CHAPTER I

i Introduction

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The history of people living and working in the global capitalist system since the fourteenth century can be divided into distinct periods or eras. These pe­ riods are defined in part by the broad strategy used by the system as a whole to accumulate a social surplus that is used to keep the system going. They are also defined by the social struggles of ordinary people who find the specific rules that define this strategy to be contradictory to their own development as human beings. Historically, each period has ended in crisis and has ushered in a new strategy for the accumulation of surplus. Each period has also gen­ erated the need for people to find new ways to struggle for their humanity by contesting the terms of the new era.

We entered a new period in the mid-I97DS. Both aspects of the period­

the global rules that define its strategy and the character of social struggles contesting its terms--'-have been evolving since then. I call this period a "new world order, 11 using the phrase originally coined by U.S. President George H. Bush. This book traces the iropact of this shift on urban public policies and on the lives of the people who are affected by those policies. It also looks crit­ ically at current efforts to organize against the abuses of this new world order, offering an alternative organizing strategy better suited to the present era.

The Dawn of a New Era

In the late I97os, I lived and worked in Southeast Chicago. At the time the neighborhood was a vibrant, mixed-race, working-class commUnity of solid single-family homes and manicured lawns. Its economic anchor was the steel industry. U.S. Steel Southworks, Wisqmsin Steel, Republic Steel, and Acme Steel employed over 25,ooo workers. Southeast Chicago was also teeming with businesses that used steel or that sold products to the steel mills: steel fabrication shops, industrial machinery factories, plants that made farm

2 CHAPTER I

equipment, and railroad cars. There were also firms that sold the mills indus­ trial gloves, shoes, tools, nuts and bolts, and welding equipment. The com­ mercial strip had retail stores, bars, and restaurants. Many of these, like the steel mills, were open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not only were the community and its economy vibrant, there was a system in place that looked to future generations. The mills and many of the related firms had strong unions. Through the union you could get your children into the steel mills to learn a trade or get a well-paying job that would allow them to save and go on to college.

Some of the nostalgic accounts of these times, however, leave out important considerations that are critical for understanding today's realities and possi­ bilities. One is that in the 1930s and 1940s workers fought for the good pay and benefits of the heavy industrial economy. The formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) artd its union constituents, like the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), was bitterly contested by corporate man­ agement. On Memorial Day 1937, police in the employ of steel mill owners attacked a peaceful protest of workers and their families in front of Chicago's Republic Steelmill. Ten workers died and dozens were badly wounded. The living wage jobs enjoyed by workers in the 1970s did not come easily.

The multiracial character of the steel mills was also the result of struggle­ often among co-workers as well as with the corporations. International Har­ vester's Wisconsin Steel Company, for example, was racially integrated only after being forced to do so by President Roosevelt's executive order in 1940. But racism in and around the mill persisted. During this period, the white workers living near the mill fought the integration of their community and the mill by systematically stoning the cars of black workers as they traveled to and from work. Despite protests to management and city of Chicago officials, this p'ractice persisted for two years. 1 Up· to the early 198os, struggles against racism in the workplace continued. Inspired by the civil rights movements of the 196os and 1970s, all of the major steel mills had black, Latino, and women's caucuses that operated in the mills and the union. The caucuses struggled to modify work rules that kept members of their group in the worst jobs with the lowest pay. .

In addition, not all people of color and women wOrkers had access to the "better-paying union jobs that dominated the Southeast Chicago economy. For those who lacked access to the better workplaces, there were many smaller firms, which had either corrupt unions or no unions at all. The bulk of workers at these firms were African Americans, Latinos, arid sometimes women. Pay and b nefits

and duty. I worked at two such plants during the late 1970s and early 198os. I was fired from both for organizing for better pay and working conditions.

Oe

ductlOn workers. All but three were African American or Latino. Basic pay

INTRODUCTION 3

was half of what was available in the steel mills and benefits were poor. The w rking

ment of Agriculture inspectors frequently shut the plant down because of unsanitary conditions. Also, the union was corrupt. Workers believed that contract ratification votes were routinely fixed. n

ratification vote we took our own poll and found that nearly all of the work­

ers claimed to h ve

(who counted the votes together without workers present) maintained that an

overwhelming majority voted for it. So we went on strike.

The wildcat strike was unde!taken with a certain confidence that if things

didn't work out we could get work elsewhere. There seemed to be plenty of jobs; and even though pay, benefits, and working conditions werbad in many

of them a worker could still make a living that supported a fam1ly. And there

was alsa sense of militancy and optimism that had grown out of the civil rights movement and the related social justice movements of the late I?6os and 1970s. We all believed that worker solidarity could improve our hves. During the strike both the anger at injustice and the optimism that things could change for the better were summed up by one worker when he joked,

11There ain't no justice, there's just us."

We lost the strike and the company fired nearly all of us. While the loss

of the strike and our jobs was hard to take, there was still a strong sense of

optimism. As one of the workers said after the firings were announced and we watched scab replacements walk into the plant, 11If I had known what would happen when we started this I would have still done it. These were the

proudest days of my life.11

But this sense of optimism and the militancy that went with it were about to

come to an abrupt halt. During th.e 198os, the Chicago steel industry collapsed and ·took down with it much of the related industrial and service economy that depended on it. Both Wisconsin Steel and U.S. Steel Southworks eventu­ ally closed. Republic Steel was bought out by a conglomerate and was greatly downsized. Steel jobs in Southeast Chicago declined from about 25,ooo work­

ers to less than s,ooo in a decade. And the decline in manufacturing extended

far beyond steel. The Chicago metropolitan area suffered a net loss of rso,ooo manufacturing jobs "durillg the 1980s. People's lives were torn asunder in the

wake of massive layoffs. Divorces, alcoholism, even suicides were on the rise. Industrial unions were decimated and union membership declined through­ out the United States The new jobs Created in the wake of this decline paid far less than the jobs that had been lost. Many were-temporary or part-time and usually lacked benefits like health care. Workers taking these jobs no longer made enough to live on. So they worked two or sometimes three jobs to make what they had previously made at one. Many of the dislocated workers never worked again. This turn of events hit people of color and women the hard­ est. The struggle over civil rights in the workplace and within the union was

[t

4 Cf{APTER 1

over because the workplace itself no longer existed. And a certain nostalgia emergep. for the previous life in the mills or even that at plants like Chicago

INTRODUCTION 5

jacked the social character of the old job. Individualism, fueled by President

Reagan and his British sidekick Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, prevailed.

Shortening.

A global economy that favored deregulation and a high d egree

f hili

( . . ) ( . )o mo ty

A New World Order

In the 196os and 19705, when African American, Latino, and women workers struggled for justice within their unions and workplaces and workers generally continued to push for better pay·and working conditions, certain aspects of the society we lived in were considered to be permanent._ The manufacturing­ based economy with jobs that paid living wages were seen this way. The gains that had come out of social struggle were also seen as permanent. Not only better pay, benefits, and decent working conditions, but also social gains for women, African Americans, and Latinos were viewed as conditions that, once established, acted as a social ratchet. They could be improved upon, but they also provided a floor that we could never go below again. The large indus­ trial workplaces of the-period also played an important role in the creation of a widespread faith in the efficacy of social struggle. The interdependence of workers ill their places of work revealed the reality of social power based on class.

( 1 )Government was viewed as the protector of the;se conditions. If you had ala­ bor dispute, you could go to the labor board for relief.If you were discriroinated against by your company Or union based on your race or gender you could file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. If you were laid Qf£1 you could pick up your unemployment compensation and find another job through the Department of Employment Security Jobs Service. If unemployment became prolonged1 there was always the social safety net­ food stamps1 Medicaid, public housing, and welfare. If government agencies treated you unfairly, you organized to protest with the expectation that justice would be done.

It was the sense of permanence of such conditions combined with the social character of the manufacturing workplace that produced the militancy and optimism that marked our strie

it. The fact was, however1 that there were social processes under way even before the strike occurred that were undermining the stability of all of these "permanent" features· of U.S. society.·Global decisions were being made that

propelled us into a period of transition to what former U.S. President George H. Bush called a new world order. But at the time, we didn't have any idea we were in such a transitory state. And when the collapse of manufacturing jobs came to Chicago, we were unprepared to understand it and to figure out what to do about it. Very quickly a new set of permanent conditions replaced the old ones. The new world order required each individual and every fum to be globally competitive. The new workplaces and the state of unemployment

f apital goods and services was developing. And m this world/ Improved

c':n tion,

rograms but from individual effort and.free markets. And those who did not pfit · who wouldn't conform to the standards of the new world order, were catmeg,orized and demonized as part of a pat o og1ca l un ere as. .

To many workers, and especially to people of color, _the new world order

has meant lower living standards and, in many cases, abJeCt p.overty.s certainly been true in the developing world, where-not only JObsecunty, but even food security has been destroyed. But it has also been true m the Uruted States and speci.fi.cally in Chicago, the focus of much ?f this book. Many are searching for a solution to their plight that is.cor;stramed by the new sense of permanence. They take for granted the instltutions and values of he

world order, which appear as permanent attributes o! societto which they

must adapt. The discipline of the market is _increasmgly bemg accepted as

the highest arbiter of social concerns. Each mdiVldual must make himself

or herself 11competi ive."

ior rather than as a source of income. A job is omethmg

worker with "discipline and regularity," which IS key to bemg competitiVe. This means that holding a job-any job, even if it is dangerous and doesn't pay enough to live on-is considered critical to s rvival

reality. The issues of the Chicago Shortening stnke are now passe. The co ­ cems of the African Americans, Latinos, and women who formed caucuses m the mills are not only outmoded but condemned as having been wrongheaded

to start with. .

During a television debate in the early ·I99os, that I had with <I?- economist

( :o ) ( l )in the employ of Citicorp she talked about the tragedy of her family mother, father brothers and sisters: who had ill been autoworkers m DetrOit. We were debating the merits of the North American ·Free Trade. Agreem nt (NAFTA) and a simultaneous proposal then bef?e rru.se the mm­

iroum wage. She was for NAFTA and against r:usmg the mrn:mum wage. The

( l )1 tragedy of her family, in her view, was not that they lost therr Jobs as General

Motors and Ford shifted production to low-wagefhigh-productlVlty plants m

Mexico or that they were forced to take low-wage jobs that didn't pay enough to live on. The tragedy was that the high pay they had rece ved

ers in the past had destroyed their jobs and underllll?-ed therr en Ive

I more education, which would have made them more competitive _1r; today s

world. None of them wonld ever be economists in the employ of Cltlcorp be­

cause they had been misguided by their high pay and decent hvmg standards.

\ Essentially, she argued that decent living standards had distorted or masked

the market signals that would have led them in. a more fruitful directwn. To

the extent that one agrees With this view, any social action to Improve condi

6 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION 7

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tions is pointless, silly, and self·defeating. Such a line of reasoning is part of the new world order.

Philosophical Perspectives

The new world order has been evolving for more than two decades. Yet, throughout the developing world, peasants whose labor once fed their na· tionS and themselves are forced to export cash crops while they go hungry. Some eventually have to abandon their lands. They come to the cities, where they live in poverty through the informal economy. Others go to work in the export·processing zones, where firms from Chicago and throughout the developed world pay poverty wages and workers toil long hours to survive in squalid shantytowns. Still others come to the developed world in search of work. Here they are often met by racist hysteria from workers suffering under the new world order in their own nation. In the United States they are met by the militirization of the U.S. border with Mexico, new laws that violate their civil rights, and vigilantism.

In the developed world, and specifically in the United States, workers have felt the pain of the elimination of hundreds of thousands of living wage manu­ facturing jobs. Many have been unable to find comparable work, and their sons and daughters are facing the prospect of either flo work at all or jobs that are temporary or part·time and that pay below what it takes to live a decent life. Government is more interested in balancing its budget and getting smaller (except when it comes to going to war) than in offering protection to workers caught in the fallout of the new world order. The U.S. government is destroy· ing publicly subsidized housing and shtinking housing subsidy programs as the ranks of the homeless soar. In Chicago, a program is under way to elim· inate over 18,ooo units of public housing at a time when there is a shortage of affordable housing-more than two families looking for every unit that is available. Public funds for basic subsistence living (food, clothing, and medical care)-programs won by workers' struggles of the past-are being eliminated and people are being told to find nonexistent jobs. In the Chicago area during the height of. the 1990s economic expansion, there were over thirty people available for every entry-level job that paid a living wage.

I describe and begin a critique of this period in Chapter 3. However, it is not enough simply to condemn this state of affairs or to argue about exactly what the new world order is. A key point of this book is to seek ways to organize to improve social conditions for everyone. If we are to find a direction forward that can truly improve the lives of the millions of people who are presently hungry and without adequate housing and health care, we need to initiate a discussion that is grounded in the experience of real people. Summarizing that experience with numbers is important, and this book does so. But change comes about when people are able to bring their experiences together and con·

nectthem to the bigger picture. That process is necessarily social in nature. A book can serve the purpose of initiating dialogues to stimulate such a social process. Toward that end, this book combines social science research on the new world order and its impacts with a memoir that includes reflections on my own experiences-my recollections of countless encounters with other people and more deliberate personal interviews.

My perspective on the nature of the new world order, its impacts on ur·

ban life, and the implications for approaches to social change-the subject of this book-are necessarily grounded in philosophy. Philosophy is the method through which all of us comprehend the world around us. It is also the basis of action. Everyone, in this sense, is a philosopher. Thus in initiating a dialogue, which is the purpose of this book, it is important to lay out. the philosophic ground each of us brings to that dialogue. Chapter 2 formally presents the philosophic ground of this book. There are three philosophic themes that are

central to the analysis in the remainder of the book: value and its relation to broader values; space, place, and time; and social change.

Value and Values

A full understanding of the issues analyzed and discussed in the following chapters requires us to delink the concept of value from Values. Marx argued that under capitalism money becomes the community because it is the ba· sis for survival and the outcome of society's production _process. In such a system, value becomes expressed as the price of a commodity or a service­ in other words, money. All other values of life-people's needs, the devel· opment of various capacities (loving, learning, creating), and their means of enjoyment-become subsumed under the money form of value. Broader val· ue t economic analysis are reduced to the abstract concept of utility, which is expressed as the choices one rna es consumer in The markets societ nstructed for this purpose.

The dominant culture's tendency tb re uce a v ues to their expression as monetary bids in markets is nothing new. But the historical primacy of the money form of value takes on a specific character in the new world order. One aspect of this character is the individualization of everyday life. The credo of the new world order-markets make the best decisions; individuals must be competitive; social action to improve your life is illy

defeating-has reduced all meaningful human activity to individllaiConsumer choices expressed in money terms. The combinatiori of this credo :With the material fact of the destruction of workplaces where production was soCial in both appearance and essence means that the social dimension of everyday life is masked or obscured. This makes the development of a social movement whose goals are based on the betterment of classes and groups difficult to achieve. I argue in this book that an understanding of individualism in social

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8 CHAPTER I

terms the_

such a movement. And it is crucial to our approach- to organizing in this age. Second, if value is reduced to money price, needs-even survival needs like food, clothing, shelter, health care, and a toxic-free environment-can only be ffiet or expressed as needs if the people whose needs are not being met can pay for them. The very notiOn that there are universal human rights such as those contained in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights or the Interna­ tional Labor Organization's (ILO) protocols becomes relegated to the trashcan of history. During his· administration, President Clinton blocked international resolutions that declared housing and enough to eat to be human rights rather than manifestations of individual consumer sovereignty. Indoing so, the Clin­ ton administration essentially declared the illty-year-old UN Declaration of

Human Rights null and void. This book not only looks at the implications of

this in terms of the housing of the poor and employment opportunities, it also demonstrates the importance of reestablishing fundamental human rights as the ground for organizing.

A third aspect of the primacy of the money form of value in the new world order is its global dimension. The extension of global rules for unimpeded capital and commodity mobility through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank structural adjustment programs and multilateral free trade agreements like NAFTA has enhanced the political power of a handful of global corporations. Simultaneously, it has reduced political accountability at the national and locallevels3 Establishing a global-locallink is thus critical to organizing in the present period.

Chapter 2 develops these idea·s in greater detail and also presents an alter­

native conception of value that offers a framework for considering the tension between money price and other values.

Space, Place, and Time

The dimensions of space, place, and time are key features of the new world order. Many have observed that falling transportation costs and the elimina­ tion of constraints on the flow of goods and capital around the world have given economic enterprises great mob_ility. But this observ.ation is treated as an independent and permanent reality inmuch urban socioeconomic analysis. Some analysts have concluded that in these circUmstances it is necessary to

·adapt to this new spatial reality by becoming more 11Competitive."4 I make two basic arguments to the contrary. One is that our conception and use .of

INTRODUCTION 9

ecqnomy) is undermined.6 I use this line of reasoning to critique the spatial dimension of the new world order. A key to social change in this new world order of high ccipital, commodity, and service mobility is to broaden the per­ spective of place-based social movements to include other places where people are also struggling with aspects of the new world order. The practical impor­ tance of this will be developed in ChapteJ,"S 2 and 9, where I use notions of the social construction of space and place to discuss the importance and practi­ cality of a global movement based on conditions and perceptions in multiple places-making the global-local link

Social Change

My research and teaching in an urban planning graduate school and my ex­ periences as a factory worker in the 1970s and early 198os, along with the subsequent collapse of manufacturing in Chicago, has led to an insight that informs this book. Much traditional economic analysis treats permanence as the natural state of things. Economic models often begin by defining a state of equilibrium as a price where the amount of goods or services that suppli­ ers are willing to produce and those that consumers are willing to purchase are equal. Analysis attempts to discover why or how things get out of balance when supply is either more or less than demand. Yet, when I think back to the Chicago Shortening strike, the general attitudes of industrial workers in the

196os and 1970s, and the cataclysmic events that followed, I am compelled to turn this type of analysis on its head. From the perspective of my experiences and reflection on this period, change is'the natural state of things and analysis should attempt to explain the appearance of stability.

( l )Why is this so important? If permanence is only the appearance of our present circumstances, then a study of the underlying forces that both cre­ te

mto how change can come about. Part of the new world order involves a per­

I

I ception about 11the way things are." Markets make the best decisions! Indi­

I viduals must be competitive! Government must not interfere! Social action

to improve your life is silly and self- defeating! Treated as permanent these ideas place limits on change by failing to consider alternatives that f;ll out­ side the prescriptions of the new world order. Unwittingly, the accePtance of these rescriptions

hand, if we choose to study the historical forces from which the new world order emerged, and which continue to sustain the system, then we can see

( I i )' space is no more permanent than any other feature of social life.5 Social forces have given the mobility of capital, goods, and services the appearance of per­ manence. However, definitions of time, space, and place change. When they do, the place-based foundation of militant movements (such as the strike at Chicago Shortening being grounded in the Southeast Chicago manufacturing

that these permanent structures are historically contingent. And we can then

envision many new paths forward.

Ordinary people play a key role in ·either maintaining the appearance of permanence or destabilizing it. Much of social discourse attempts to under­ mine such a notion. When the subject of economics is discussed in the news-

IO CHAPTER I

papers or on television, commentators talk about markets being ''happy" or

11unhappy"; or they reduce economic events to abstract concepts like gross domestic product, the federal funds rate, and the strength Ior weakness) of

the dollar. But rarely is economics associated with human beings. It is as if economics has a life of its own apart from the people who work, go to school, and enter into all sorts of relationships with other human beings.ln the words of President Bill Clinton: 11It's the Economy, stupid!11

Thus we are told that we must give up important health- and safety-related work rules on our jobs because of (/competition." We can't find decent hous­ ing because of "the market." If we don't cut government social programs and

balance the budget, we might have inflation, which will "upset the financial markets." Even much of the left falls into this trap by accepting many of the conditions we face as permanent, urging (/practical" strategies that take these things into account.

What is the meaning of Marx's famous statement in his preface to Critique

ofPolitical Economy: 11lt is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence but their social existence that determines their conscious­ ness"?? Does it mean (and do we agree)' that consciousness is determined by the material stiuctures in which people work and live? A more dialectical view is in order. As people come up against material conditions that adversely affect their own development, they develop new ideas about how to get rid of the old and create the elements of something new.8 The practical implication of such a view is that the road to change lies with ordinary people who are fully informed about their own situation. The tendency to see the role of people in a social movement as "bodies" at a demonstration or as "votes 11 to convince

congresspeople of the wisdom Ior lack thereof) of a particular piece of legis­

lation will not lead to meaningful changes in today's new world order. What

is missing in this approach to social change is the subjective element-the need and possibility of changing the basic perception of permanence. Again, these views of the nature of change inform the critique of much of today's organizing strategies and the approach taken in Chapter 9·

Global Decisions

Chapter 3 argues that in the mid-1970s there was a basic shift in the way global capitalism functions. The previous Fordist era had been in force since the end of World War IT. It was a regime that was grounded in U.S. supremacy among capitalist nations. And it was fueled initially by the rebuilding of Eu­

:I rope after World War II. In the United States workers were essentially offered

a share of the benefits derived from U.S. hegemony. In return, organized labor

( I )agreed to a set of rules that ensured a degree of labor peace. Labor leaders also agreed to support U.S. foreign policy, which was focused on competition with the Soviet bloc nations for world supremacy and the exploitation of the

INTRODUCTION II

developing world. Yet, by the late 196os, this system was beginning to un­ ravel. This evolving crisis manifested itself in both economic and political terms. Economically, the world was experiencing stagflation-simultaneous unemployment and inflation. Politically, there was growing unrest at home and abroad. In the United States people of color were demanding a fair share of the largess of the Fordist era. In addition, there was a militant anti-war movement that challenged the assumptions of U.S. cold war foreign policy. And many nations in the developing world began to resist and contest U.S. hegemony, which began its decline with the Vietnam War.

The evolution of the present period eased the economic and political crisis

that marked the end of the Fordist era. Chapter 3 argues that the new world order combines global deregulation of business with high mobility of goods, services, and capital that is fueled by expanded credit and speculation. More­ over, the system has become institutionalized, with public policies grounded in specific ideologies that feed socioeconomic theory and politics. I refer to these developments as 11global decisions." The new world order's hegemonic grip on the world presently seems awesome.9

Local Collisions

The present system has produced a growing polarization of income and wealth both between and within nations. 10 Polarization is the result of the local colli­ sions resulting from new world order practices and policies. In the developing world, despite some periods of economic growth, there has been growing pov­ erty and an enormous increase in debt. In developed nations like the United States, the early days of the new world order brough.t with it terrible social dis location. In the I98os, hundreds of thousands of workers were displaced from living wage jobs. Chapter 4 examins

tailed case studies that include interviews with workers who talk about what

this period did to them and their families. Some of thes·e workers and their children were permanently removed from the labor force. Others found work at lower pay in the service sector or in the temporary and part-time work industry. In the United States generally, the consolidation of the new world order also brought about major shifts in urban policy. Chapters 5-7 look at these shifts and their impact on people from the middle to the lower end of the polarization as local collisions. The focus is on Chicago, but combines lo­ cal data and case studies with trends in the United States. Chapter 5 discusses local politics as they apply to urban development strategies. City government not only provides public services, but helps organize production and distribu­ tion at a local level. Thus, it must deal with contradictions and conflicts that

the broader system of each era generates. These roles shape local politics and place limits on what local government can accomplish for city residents. The

chapter con rasts J. Daley, whose administration

12 CHAPTER I

coincided with the previous Fordist era, to that of Mayor Harold Washington, who attempted reform at a time when the new world order was beginning to take hold. Case studies of citizen efforts to contest development strategies during the Washington years that had carried over from the previous regime are used to discuss the limits of local government itself.

This theme is further developed in Chapter 6, which first shows how shifts in U.S. policies in the 1980s and 1990s that affect housing the poor are linked to the new world order. I then examine how this has played out in Chicago under the regime of the present mayor, Richard M. Daley. Two cases, one on gentrification and another on the destruction of public housing, show how

citizens are trying to fight back. Chapter 7 focuses on employment, including the theories and policies that govern welfare 11reform," job training, free trade, and labor rights. Again, there have been policy shifts that are linked to the evolving new world order. Because employment, wages, and their distribution profoundly influence urban development possibilities and housing, the lens of employment policy shifts and the theories and ideologies behind them are an appropriate way to sum up the link between global decisions arid local collisions.

That linlc also has profound implications for what peoplecan do about the

polarization that marks the new world order. Chapters 8 and 9 include a dis­ cussion of how to organize to combat the illeffects of this period. While Chap­ ters 5-7 include case studies of citizens organizing against various local col­ lisions, Chapter 8 discusses the growing movement against institutions and programs that generate global decisions. Since the Seattle demonstrations in

1999, opposition to the World Trade Organization [WTO), JMF, World Bank, NAFTA, and related institutions and programs has been growing.In the chap­ ter I offer insights into the origins and conduct of part of this movement through a detailed case study of the anti-NAFTA effort that began in r991 and continues to this day. A major point of this chapter is that there is a dis­ connect between the struggles against the new world order that generated local collisions in cities like Chicago and those against the global decisions themselves. The root of this disconnect lies in both the practice of the anti­ globalization movement and the approach to organizing used at both global and local levels. Approaches to organizing used during the Fordist era cannot siniply be readapted to the new era. I develop these points first through the case study of the anti-NAFTA work and then through a return to the philo­ sophic discussion of Chapter 2. Thus, in Chapter 9, which is the conclusion of the book, the concepts of value, space/place, and social change are used to sum up the limitations of current organizing to combat both global decisions and local collisions. and to offer a framework for alternative approaches to organizing that can make the needed global-local link.

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CHAPTER 2

Philosophical

Perspectives

Philosophy is the method through which we comprehend the world around us. It is also a basis for action. Often the philosophic premises of both thought and action lie beneath the surface and go unexamined. This is a mistake. There are many dilferent philosophic premises that underlie how we try to understand and comprehend the world we live in and how we act on this understanding. And many of these premises ate in conflict. The purpose of this chapter is to establish the philosophic ground that will become the method of this book

That ground can be illuminated through a personal experience.

On a warm early spring day in. 1980, I was sitting outside at a pic ic

a small, rectangular concrete area adjacent to a cinder block factory building. The concrete slab was fully enclosed on three sides by a chain-link fence; there was no way in or out except through the factory. The place was the Solo Cup Company's area for employee breaks on warm days. I was on break from my job as a maintenance mechanic. r·was alone, since the break schedule of mainte· nance people was based on times when everything was running properly. Soon, however, a small group of Latino material handlers arrived for their regularly scheduled break. They were talking rapidly and with considerable agitation. Un­ abashed eavesdropping revealed two facts: "Mucha policia acerca de Wisconsin Steel" (There are a lot of police around WisConsin Steel); and "Cerrado! 11 {Closed). Knowing a number of workers at Wisconsin Steel, I went and sat with the other Solo Cup Company workers in order to learn more.

What I learned was this. In the dead of night, the Chase Manhattan Bank Cor­

poration of New York City flew a planeload of security guards to this Southeast Chicago steel mill to secure their assets. Wisconsin Steel had gone bankrupt. The private security force entered the mill, escorted workers inside to the plant gates, and placed a bilingual sign there: Closed/Cerrado. Workers arriving for the next shift found themillsurrounded by Chicago police. A mill that for nearly 100 years had been a mainstay of the Chicago economy was gone in a period of less than an