Books Briefly
BOOKS BRIEFLY Service Economy SOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW WORK FORCE: Policies for a New Social Contract by John J. Sweeney and Karen Nussbaum Seven Locks Press. 220 pp. $15.95. "The new work...
...10.00, paper...
...Sweeney and Nussbaum do not buy the notion that service sector jobs inherently lead to lower living standards...
...The struggle against apartheid in South Africa and its profound impact on the ruling white minority and the oppressed non-white majority is the stuff of which great literature can be—and has been—made...
...G-Men at Work AGENTS OF REPRESSION: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall South End Press...
...He has worked as a technical writer for civilian and military electronics manufacturers, and covers the industry for the West Coast magazine Processed World...
...They note that the FBI placed an infiltrator in the Chicago office of the Black Panther Party in 1968...
...From beginning to end, the entire operation was simply a drive to break the spirit of a people, to break their will and ability to resist the imposition of unjust authority...
...The new work force" in the title of this important book refers to the women and men in the burgeoning service sector of the U.S...
...The infiltrator became the personal bodyguard of Panther leader Fred Hampton...
...High-Tech Horrors BEHIND THE SILICON CURTAIN: The Seductions of Work in a Lonely Era by Dennis Hayes South End Press...
...300 pp...
...Lake View Press, Box 578279, Chicago, IL 60657...
...MacEoin is a thoughtful observer with a quick eye for the significant (and largely unknown) detail...
...7.95, paper...
...His portrait of life and work in Silicon Valley stands in stark contrast to the shiny hype that has been so widely disseminated in the mass media...
...Instead, it has generally been the willing servant of South Africa's apartheid regime...
...130 pp...
...Hayes takes an unsentimental but extremely informative look at the structure of the industry, its fragile economic base, the intellectual processes that guide its young professionals and entrepreneurs...
...Dennis Hayes is an insider...
...After delineating the slip in living standards with more graphs and charts than you'll find in Samuelson's Economics, the authors get down to the business of proposing solutions...
...The authors discuss other FBI actions against the Black Panthers, including a sustained effort to isolate Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who was convicted of murder after being fingered by another FBI informant...
...Some of these are old and familiar (national health insurance, a shorter work week, a higher minimum wage), but many are new, addressed to the specific needs of service workers: pay-equity policies, pro-rated benefits for part-time and temporary workers, flex time, child and dependent care programs, and extensive job training...
...11.95, paper...
...But this book is at its best when it deals with the underclass of Silicon Valley—the working stiffs who are no better off than the sweat-shop drudges of an earlier era...
...29.95, cloth...
...role in it...
...MacEoin minces no words in placing the United States in that imperial tradition...
...After discussing the Bureau's COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) strategy, the authors examine the FBI's specific campaign against the Black Panthers...
...The deliberate choices of service-industry leaders are responsible for the stagnation, decline, and inequality...
...They sketch the early years of the FBI, focusing on J. Edgar Hoover's rise to untrammeled power...
...Rather, the culprit is a dramatic, systematic shift in corporate job policy...
...What did begin in 1492 was the exploitation—and, often, the extermination—of native populations by wave after wave of conquerors...
...But they do demonstrate that there is no shortage of feasible proposals for transforming the work place into a more humane, just, and productive environment...
...15.00 paper...
...The Bureau was founded, maintained, and steadily expanded as a mechanism to forestall, curtail, and repress the expression of political diversity within the United States," the authors argue...
...Unfortunately, the authors don't say how the Government in the current political climate can be moved toward assuming these more progressive functions...
...215 pp...
...in this expose of the FBI...
...From that assignment, MacEoin, the author of more than twenty books and innumerable articles (including several for The Progressive) produced four illuminating essays, and these have now been expanded into Central America's Options...
...Public policy must take the lead," they write, and they call for "new national spending, tax, and legislative controls" on capital...
...He begins his book by reminding us that the history of the Hemisphere did not "begin" when the first Europeans arrived almost five centuries ago: About 100 million people lived here then, twice the population of Europe...
...Tomaselli, who teaches at the University of Natal in South Africa, has surveyed the economics, politics, and aesthetics of South African cinema, and the result should be of great interest to students of film, students of repressive racism, and students of propaganda and the manipulation of public attitudes...
...300 pp...
...on December 4, 1969, kicked down the door of Hampton's apartment and opened fire, killing Hampton and another Party member...
...The authors recognize that private companies are unlikely to take the lead in developing these solutions, so they urge the Government to take a more assertive role...
...economy...
...But, as Keyan Tomaselli reports in this thorough and absorbing book, South Africa's film industry has failed absolutely to rise to the occasion...
...It is also likely material for motion pictures of compelling impact...
...In the early 1960s," he writes with typical insight, "the United States took the initiative with the Alliance for Progress to lower social tensions without changing the oppressive structures...
...Racism on Film THE CINEMA OF APARTHEID: Race and Class in South African Film by Keyan Tomaselli Smyrna Press, Box 021803 GPO, Brooklyn, NY 11202...
...Using the floorplan the infiltrator drew of Hampton's apartment, the Chicago police at 4:30 a.m...
...Under the Volcano CENTRAL AMERICA'S OPTIONS: Death or Life by Gary MacEoin Sheed & Ward...
...509 pp...
...Motivated partly by corporate greed, partly by bureaucratic timidity, and partly by its own blatant sympathies with racism, the industry has either ignored the issue in South African life or churned out propaganda pieces designed to help preserve the ugly status quo...
...This book will be an eye-opener for those who've bought into the myth of a hightech Utopia...
...The authors demonstrate how the FBI systematically sought to destroy AIM, first by the siege at Wounded Knee and then by going after AIM's leadership, including Leonard Peltier and a host of others...
...In 1987, National Catholic Reporter asked Gary MacEoin to travel in Central America and in the United States, gathering information for a series on the region and the U.S...
...The authors know these people and their troubles...
...John J. Sweeney is president of the Service Employees International Union, and Karen Nussbaum is executive director of "9 to 5" and president of SEIU district 925...
...Unless the oppressive structures are changed, the author warns, events in Central America are sure to take an increasingly volatile and violent turn...
...It is not the nature of service jobs that accounts for the growing hardships for working families," the authors write...
...The bulk of this book, however, is not about the FBI's assault on the Panthers but the Bureau's systematic attack on the American Indian Movement in the 1970s...
...Though at times needlessly rhetorical and occasionally in error (the authors have Ramsey Clark as Richard Nixon's Attorney General), this book is a useful addition to the literature on the FBI's sordid role in American politics...
...Central America's Options provides the background needed to comprehend tomorrow's headlines from Nicaragua and El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica...
...Don't look for the brave deeds of Efram Zimbalist Jr...
...Typically, they receive the lowest wages and least benefits of any group in the economy...
Vol. 53 • August 1989 • No. 8
