This is intriguing. I noticed also, a couple of years ago, SOMEONE (thank you!!) at least briefly covered the important work of several young people of color when all eyes were on Greta. Maybe it was at the time of the first Friday strike? That single article is where I learned about Autumn Peltier, also--another brave activist (First Nation/Anishinaabe, working in Canada) for the environment. Since then, I always notice Autumn Peltier; now I'll be watching for Nakate, also. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK! Thanks, xxxxxx, for sharing this.
This is an important issue, but the headline is a bit misleading. At present, only some 37% of faculty in the U.S. are either tenured or tenure track. The majority of faculty are now hired on a contingent basis, with little if any job security. So it's 80% of that 37% who are tenured or tenure track who are from the elite institutions mentioned. (And that doesn't nearly constitute "most.")
I wish progressive media would stop reporting the new families code in Cuba as though it were JUST about gay rights. That is one very important aspect of the new code but not the only one. Please READ it before you WRITE about it.
Gawdawmighty. Maybe talk about the vast numbers of working class married women who did factory/industrial work thruout the twentieth century. "Tradwifery" in the way these knobheads imagine it never really existed.
The common notion that extreme poverty is the “natural” condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to essential goods.
Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism.
The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality.
In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, wages and/or height have still not recovered.
Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began only around the 20th century. These gains coincide with the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements.
Abstract
This paper assesses claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty (defined as the inability to access essential goods), and that global human welfare only began to improve with the rise of capitalism. These claims rely on national accounts and PPP exchange rates that do not adequately capture changes in people’s access to essential goods. We assess this narrative against extant data on three empirical indicators of human welfare: real wages (with respect to a subsistence basket), human height, and mortality. We ask whether these indicators improved or deteriorated with the rise of capitalism in five world regions - Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China – using the chronology put forward by world-systems theorists. The evidence we review here points to three conclusions. (1) It is unlikely that 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty prior to the 19th century. Historically, unskilled urban labourers in all regions tended to have wages high enough to support a family of four above the poverty line by working 250 days or 12 months a year, except during periods of severe social dislocation, such as famines, wars, and institutionalized dispossession – particularly under colonialism. (2) The rise of capitalism caused a dramatic deterioration of human welfare. In all regions studied here, incorporation into the capitalist world-system was associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, key welfare metrics have still not recovered. (3) Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began several centuries after the rise of capitalism. In the core regions of Northwest Europe, progress began in the 1880s, while in the periphery and semi-periphery it began in the mid-20th century, a period characterized by the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements that redistributed incomes and established public provisioning systems.
When we opened the Center for Cuban Studies 50 years ago, we opened as a library, because almost NO DIRECT INFORMATION FROM CUBA was coming into the U.S. Few were traveling, the blockade was not only economic but informational and cultural.
We decided to use every means possible to change that situation. Within a year we had organized our first professional trip to Cuba via Mexico— of lawyers.
We started educational exchanges during the Carter administration in the 1980s and opened a Spanish language school in Havana until the Reagan administration forced its closure. We fought to help pass the Berman amendment of 1987 to allow the import of informational materials from Cuba.
By 1992 we insured the legality of the importation of Cuban art. And once Cuba opened its doors to tourism in the 1990s, we started organizing dozens of educational and humanitarian trips to Cuba each year.
There’s much to be proud of—but the blockade continues. We have a lot of work to do.
50 years of helping thousands of North Americans know Cuba — its people, daily life, its art & music, its politics & problems. Help us celebrate CCS’s 50 years and pledge to redouble our effort to end the US blockade of Cuba.