God damn it!! Why won’t you people engage with me?!?

So… I was lucky enough to meet with Miriam Solomon the other day and we had an interesting discussion.

For me and my analysis of the world and its’ ills the problem is largely the mode of production (yes, I have a strong Marxist grounding). So the world is a horrible place and this is because we live in an epoch of neoliberalism where rationalism has lead to the dominance of the dollar. I’m a historical determinist and our current epoch is under pinned by its’ economic dominance. This is why we invade Iraq; this is why we don’t invest as much as we should in health and education.

There is sexism and racism in the world but this has an economic function – or more importantly because of its’ economic function. Neoliberalism needs an expendable labour force so it is in their interest to keep women and the third world as a cheap exploitable source of labour. In other words all things are economic so the solution is to change the economic mode and create a more equitable society where all are equal, women, the majority world, homosexuals and so on.

Yes, I’m being crude here; you know what I’m saying.

However, while Miriam didn’t disagree with me she argued that there was a co-current defining human relations. This was that of racism and misogyny itself, separate from the economic base. The world is defined by a) economic interests, and b) a feeling of superiority by white men.

I’m obviously too indoctrinated. I honestly can’t see how the two are separate and more importantly how we address the racism/sexism part of this equation if not economically. For Miriam, we just had to address it.

Maybe it’s because I’m a white male that I don’t get it. I just want a violent insurrection tomorrow.

God bless Bob Brown:

FED: Green collar jobs and a shorter working week, say Greens
Wednesday, 21 July, 2004

By Saffron Howden

SYDNEY, July 20 AAP – Promising “green collar” jobs, the Greens today said a 35-hour working week should be the cornerstone of any national employment strategy.

Greens’ Senator Bob Brown and Cunningham MP Michael Organ outlined their employment policy today in Wollongong, which has one of Australia’s highest youth unemployment rates.

The shorter working week would accompany capped overtime and an employment guarantee to all long-term jobless.

The measures would be funded by increasing the company tax rate, which was cut from 36 per cent to 30 per cent in 2001-02, the Greens said.

Raising the rate to 33 per cent would generate $3.94 billion this financial year, according to party figures.

Job creation in the Illawarra, which has an unemployment rate almost two percentage points higher than the national level of 5.6 per cent, should be in eco-tourism and sustainable energy and technology sectors, Mr Organ said.

Unemployment in the under-20 age bracket, which hovers around 27 per cent for the region and 16 per cent in Wollongong, would be tackled by a shift from heavy industries to service industries.

“(The Illawarra) has got enormous potential in terms of hospitality and entertainment and ecological (assets),” Senator Brown said.

Employment is the key to addressing poverty and education is the cornerstone of full employment, he said.

The party believes the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) should be abolished, and it condemned recent rises in TAFE and university fees.

“Get rid of the barriers to education,” Senator Brown said.

The real unemployment rate in Australia was much higher than the official figure, which was warped by counting under-employed casual and part-time workers, Senator Brown said.

In a report released late last year, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) found real unemployment was 12.9 per cent, double the official rate at the time.

“Part-time and casual jobs are not enough for families to get by on,” Senator Brown said.

The Greens also would provide additional funding for small and home-based businesses.

Overtime would be reduced and jobs created by offering employers financial incentives to cut individual workloads, similar to a scheme introduced in France in 2000.

Australians worked more than 22 million hours of overtime in 2000 showing that, while some Australians were unemployed or under-employed, others were over-worked, the Greens said.

(found at: http://www.cch.com.au/fe_news.asp?document_id=51996&topic_code=1&category_code=0