Economic-union Books

It does not matter if you are a banking proffessional or a finance layman this book is for you. It teaches everything most people would want to know about a credit union going from its origins in Germany, from a union of farmers, to the comercial institutions of today. The book tells the story in detail of why you should support credit unions and how and when they can save you money. I think that it's worth it to read some history and pay a $100 if you can lower your loan payments among others.

The complexity of taxation exceeds all bounds when fastened to a multinational corporation (MNC). In a maze of rules that are always changing, a tax practitioner in the MNC landscape must be extremely well informed and ready to act with sound strategic judgement. To such a practitioner, this planning guide - which covers tax-planning considerations in depth for US companies doing business in the EU - should be of value. Starting from the proposition that holding company regimes are generally favourable in Europe - and poised to become more so as the Societas Europaea (SE) becomes established - PhD Dorfmueller analyzes the design of tax conversion and deferral structures that are advantageous to US multinationals as they pursue the following crucial objectives of tax planning. It covers: satisfying goals, such as minimizing liability, maximizing credits, deducting expenses and utilizing losses; using appropriate tools, such as routing of income and classification of entities; and overcoming barriers, especially those erected by the controlled foreign corporation (CFC) provisions of the US tax law known as "Subpart F". A detailed examination of how these methodologies are best pursued under US federal corporate law is complemented by an equally precise analysis of European company taxation, with specific tax planning techniques spelled out for Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The reader should find many valuable suggestions on such specialised techniques as onshore pooling in the UK, gaining access to favourable Argentine taxation via a Spanish holding company, and the potential tax ramifications of EU enlargement.

THIS REVIEW IS ALSO BEING USED IN TEAMSTER REBELLION THE FIRST PART OF THE STORY PRESENTED HERE. THE POLITICAL POINTS APPLY TO BOTH BOOKS.

ORGANIZE WALMART! ORGANIZE THE SOUTH! These are the slogans which outline the tasks that the American labor movement, particularly the organized trade union movement under the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition, need to address. With those tasks in mind it was refreshing for this old militant to re-read Farrell Dobbs' analysis of the fight to organize the truckers in the 1930's. This volume, and an earlier one detailing the struggles to organize truckers in Minneapolis, are little handbooks for model labor organizing. Dobbs himself was instrumental in organizing the truckers of Minneapolis in the great strikes in that city in 1934 and as documented here the later, successful organizing of the over the road drivers in the Midwest which created the modern, powerful Teamsters International Union. He was, more importantly, a supporter of what later in the decade became the Socialist Workers Party- American section of the Trotsky-led Forth International.

Whatever else may be true about Dobbs this man could organize workers. Why? The last sentence in the previous paragraph gives the answer. In the modern labor movement it is not enough to be a militant on the picket line but one must also have a political approach to labor actions. With the merging of corporate and governmental interests on the labor question in the modern state militants better think politically. As the December, 2005 unsuccessful struggle of the transport workers in New York City demonstrated militants better know the enemy and his tactics well. Moreover, these days, unlike in the 1930's when it went without question by advanced workers, it is as important to know there is an enemy. On the other hand think what it would be like to have a political militant like Dobbs organizing the drivers of those 7000 trucks that Wal-Mart owns to distribute its merchandise. You get my drift. Read what he has to say carefully.

To even introduce this militant labor leader of the 1930's is to state the fundamental problem of today's labor leaders. They do not exist in the modern labor movement. Yes, there are militants out there in the rank and file but militant leaders are no longer produced and that is the rub. Unlike the strategy of independent political action which underlined Dobbs' work the strategy of today's labor leaders can be summed up in two words-class collaboration. That is a strategy of dependence by the labor movement on the good will of the `friends of labor', essentially the Democratic Party- not to fight for victory in the streets but by what at times amounts to parliamentary cretinism. Just start to organize Wal-Mart seriously or organize the South and militants will quickly see who their `friends' are.

The natural audience for this book are today's labor activists so the reviewer would draw attention to the following issues that Dobbs and his associates had to confront and which militants today will confront in any serious organizing efforts. (1)The role of the labor bureaucracy in limiting the scope of struggle. (2) The role of governmental mediators, courts, legislation and the above-mentioned `friends of labor' in curtailing the struggle. (3) The role of scabs and others, including government troops, who will try to break the up the struggle.

On the positive side- the following should be noted; have your own publicity organ (newspapers, etc.) to get out your message; organize other labor and pro-labor sources to assist in strike action; anticipate that governmental and corporate sources will try to `freeze' workers out so have your own transport, commissary and medical operations. Finally, in the words of the old Wobblie song by Joe Hill- "Don't Mourn, Organize!!

Ben Rosamond's book describes the current (and past) political science approaches regarding the EU. A strange animal indeed: not a federality or a state, but takes some of the members' soveirgnity; sometimes its an international organisation, sometimes it isn't.

It is an important book to read BEFORE any other about the EU, so you'll understand to which "side" in the approaches debate other writers belongs.

This is an excellent and innovative examination of the effects the Marxist approach to time had on the Soviet Union. A masterful blend of historical and philosophical discourse--a great read!

"It is not a question of what this or that proletarian, or even the whole proletariat, at the moment regards as its aim. It is a question of what the proletariat is, and what, in accordance with this being, it will historically be compelled to do."
- Karl Marx, The Holy Family

Jorge Parodi's analysis of the rapid development and subsequent decline of the Metal Empresa union offers both an opportunity to examine the emergence and extent of class-consciousness in the workers at Metal Empresa, as well as a history of trade unionism in Peru. Parodi, through his ethnography at the Metal Empresa plant, charts the evolution of the metallurgical unions by dissecting the history of working conditions and the internal conflicts at Metal Empresa; examining the political situation and the influence of outside actors; and the individual motivations that converged and, in the end, did not provide a sufficient base for sustaining a strong clasista consciousness and, subsequently, a strong union movement.

The workers' motivations for establishing a union are clear: workers received inadequate compensation for their labor, worked under repressive management, and as a result of the intense competition for jobs, were left with few options for steady employment. Until 1970, workers at Metal Empresa were largely constrained from unionizing in any effective capacity due to the threat of firing. However, following the enactment of the Law of Security of Labor Employment, there was motivation without constraint. This also converged with an outside interest: political competition by the nueva izquierda with the military regime.

Although circumstances aligned for creating a union at Metal Empresa, as the rationale for doing so was in the self-interest of all workers, competition among workers could potentially undercut solidarity. The conflicting identities that the workers ascribed to themselves and to those around them immediately established the boundaries that needed to be overcome in order to establish a collective identity. The serranos held firmly to their self-image as hard working, versatile, and saving for the future. They considered the criollos to be lazy and only interested in immediate comforts and gains, and therefore inferior workers. Likewise, the disdain that the criollos felt for the serranos separated them from each other, at least in their own consciousnesses. Simply because both groups were workers, and therefore in natural competition with their employers, did not mean in their perceptions of each other that they were equals.

Marx was aware of the natural conflict of self-interest to class-consciousness, which is why he emphasized solidarity. In the case of the Metal Empresa workers, was needed to overcome the management's efforts to divide them by favoring some groups, such as the talareños, over others, as well as their own self-ascribed competing identities. Instead of viewing each other as serranos, criollos, and talareños, they would need to identify themselves as workers in solidarity with each other against management.

Lenin, however, argued that only a shallow "trade union consciousness" could emerge from the proletariat directly and that an intellectual cadre needed to foster and direct the sense of class-consciousness within the proletariat. This is obviously the role that the university students and the nueva izquierda sought to play in relation to the Metal Empresa workers. Because although the workers knew that they wanted to obtain better compensation for their labor, they largely felt that they did not know how to organize and obtain such compensation. The university students that offered such assistance did so with the expectation that the workers would be willing foot soldiers in their political campaign against the regime. On the students' part, this either required them to assume that the workers were aligned with them politically, or that if they were not, it was because they needed intellectual leaders to expand their struggle beyond that of fighting for better working conditions to fighting for a better political situation for their country. The first assumption, that the workers would be politically aligned, is flawed inasmuch as many of the workers express their frustrations to Parodi with political demonstrations; they simply want to obtain and maintain acceptable labor conditions for themselves.

The second assumption that the workers would want to participate in political struggles of the nueva izquierda also assumes the subordination of the workers' class-consciousness to the political goals of the nueva izquierda. This, according to Luxemburg, is contrary to the workers' ability to maintain solidarity and continue progress in their struggle. However, Marx acknowledges the importance of the union and party leaders, which in the case of the Metal Empresa union were steeped in clasista thinking, who were able to mobilize the workers and articulate their grievances to management.

In the end, the Metal Empresa workers were uninterested in larger political battles, and as Parodi suggests, capitalists at heart. The documentation of the workers who engaged in enterprises outside the factory, time and again, regardless of the gains made by the union, suggest that the workers were seeking a personal security for themselves in the future. This security was individualistic and trumped the concerns of the union and the clasista leaders. In fact, it is interesting to note that clasista thinking was only adopted by the union leaders, such as Jesus Zuñiga, and not by the body of workers. Although workers accepted that leaders subscribed to the ideology of class thinking, which may have been necessary for the leaders to accept in order to effectively fight for union interests, the workers themselves showed no need to personalize such beliefs.

Parodi also points to a paradox that conscribed la lucha for the Metal Empresa workers. Despite the nueva izquierda's opposition to the military regime, without the Law of Security of Labor Employment, enacted by the regime, the labor unions would not have had the ability to mobilize. Without the mobilization of the unions, the nueva izquierda would have been deprived of their largest and most reliable source or protest and legitimization.

Unexplored by Parodi, but nonetheless a possible epilogue to his analysis, is the possible impact that the void of political opposition created by the decline of unionism may have played in the rise of Sendero Luminoso in the early to mid 1980s.

Considering that the Vanguardia Revolucionaria (VR) could not foster a movement beyond the individual struggles for workers' rights in industry, it seems plausible that the intellectual Left may have turned to more anti-system options to pursue its political goals. In fact, Sendero was founded primarily by a group of frustrated intellectuals from Ayacucho, and it received a significant Leninist contribution from VR.

If one accepts this theory, then it is reasonable to suggest that the military regime in the 1970s may have taken a lesson from Bolivia's history. In Bolivia the strong militancy of the miners' unions possibly prevented the rise of an armed guerilla movement. By purposefully providing a "release valve" for leftist frustrations in allowing unions to form, the regime offered the VR and nueva izquierda a possible outlet for political development, although in the end, not a lasting one. It would have been a gamble for the regime, because if the VR were able to create a powerful militancy in the unions, major confrontations may have ensued. In the end, the radical Left's battle took place in the 1980s and 1990s, with Presidente Gonzalo at the helm.

References

Bottomore, T. (1991). A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Lenin, V.I. (1902). What is to be Done?

Marx, K. (1852). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (S. Padover, Trans.).

Marx, K. & Engels, F. (1845). The Holy Family (R. Dixon & C. Dutts, Trans. 1956.).

After reading this book and use it as a reference book for my research I found that is a comprehensive review about ecotourism in protected areas, written by an expert with many years of experience worlwide. No doubt that it could be a reference book to any person either new or with experience in the field. It covers not only the basics, but different aspects related to design, marketing and planning, among others. It's a most in any library.

This book represents the best of political and social ethnography as it provides an account of how micro-organizing among the unemployed transformed the national unemployment law. At the book's core is an examination of the testy relationship between labor unions and social movements. Simply put, the author asserts that unions and organized labor bodies typically ignore those that are not members while those unions that rely on hiring halls remain intertwined with the jobless. While this analysis is novel, I would like to see the author further elaborate on this theoretical perspective and provide additional case study material to prove his point. Overall, however, this book richly documents organized labor's relationship to the jobless as the neoliberal policies of the United States were undercut by the federal government. I highly recommend this book. The book, however, is quite expensive, so I suggest you take it out of your library, as I did.

This book is extremely timely. It addresses central issues facing trade unions at the workplace, taking a contrast between manufacturing, privatised utilities and the public services. It opens up key debates about the future of unions in major capitalist countries. The author insists that any understanding of trade unionism today must take the workplace as a starting place. It is here workers experience the contradictions of international restructuring and local imperatives. The book raises these issues in a sharp and focused way and should be read by commentators and trade unionsists around the world.

If you want to read a great book about the European Union and its trade policy, this is it. Actually, if you want to read any book about EU trade policy, this is it! Trading Voices explains how the Europeans plot and bargain to get their way in world trade. Unfortunately it does not talk about the current dispute between Europe and China over textiles, but the analysis could be extended to that case. I highly recommend this book.