Economic-union Books

The Bhopal Catastrophe, or The Gas Disaster as it is more commonly referred to, relates to the sudden release of a highly poisonous gas, Methyl Isocyanate (MIC), from a pesticide manufacturing plant. The plant was managed by an Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, Connecticut. The release of the poisonous cloud from the factory settled over the low lying areas of the city, killing thousands and permanently injuring hundreds of thousands. The night of December 2nd to 3rd, 1984 remains etched in history as a scandalous example of corporate greed and governmental inefficiency leading to a calamity of unprecedented proportions.

Dan Kurzman's book about the disaster cleverly interweaves human interest stories of several people who were directly involved with the disaster. The narrative is brought to palpable life through a comprehensive cast of characters that extends from the top echelon management to the ordinary worker on the factory floor. Besides the personalities at Union Carbide, the author takes us into the lives of other ordinary people, includes the bigwigs in positions of power in Bhopal, the capital city in Madhya Pradesh, a state in Central India. Along the way we get valuable insights into several individuals starting with Warren Anderson, CEO, V.P. Gokhale, Managing Director, J. Mukund, Plant Manager, S. Qureshi, Shift Supervisor, S. Dubey, Control Room Technician, all within the Union Carbide hierarchy. We also meet Arjun Singh, Chief Minister, and several ordinary people living in around the factory, like Chandabee a pregnant tribal, Munnibai a water carrier, Syed Ali the TV technician, etc. We also meet Ram Keshwani, who made prophetic forecasts about the possibility of doom that could engulf Bhopal.

Kurzman eloquently sets the scene and poignantly describes the chaos and confusion after the release of the gas, the mayhem as people start to die in the homes and on the streets and their torments as they try in vain to flee a deadly killer. In the chapter entitled "The Aftermath" the author describes the initial accusation and the controversial denials about the release of MIC, leading to the failure in instituting the appropriate antidote therapy. The frenetic efforts in the disposal of the bodies and the failure of the record keeping mechanisms to properly document the details of the afflicted hordes, ultimately led to the even greater tragedy in implementing relief measures. We also find out about Warren Anderson's plans to visit Bhopal, his subsequent arrest and the political maneuvers at damage control by the governmental bureaucrats and politicians.

In subsequent chapters, entitled "The Jungle" and "The Snakepit," besides the ongoing suffering of those who survived the gas exposure, additional characters are introduced into the narrative. It includes the high powered Indian scientific establishment which is completely ignorant about MIC, its effects and how to deal with it. The book also reveals details about the arrival of hordes of American personal injury lawyers, who signed up victims with promises of fantastic compensations. There are several others, especially that despicable sub-species of human parasites who thrive on other people's misery, those who demanded kickbacks to issue certificates and documentation, give treatment, and others who siphoned off the relief food and supplies. Not every one is painted a villain, we also read about the Sadgopals, and other activists, who labored under extreme provocation to provide some succor to the people in Bhopal. Subsequently Kurzman exposes details about the deadlock in the judicial proceeding and finally the unsatisfactory settlement.

Kurzman is a skilled craftsman with words and a magician in what he achieves. By a clever sleight of hand he almost manages to absolve Union Carbide Corporation of responsibility for the accident. In this book, Warren Andersen, CEO of Union Carbide Corporation turns out to be an almost Christ like figure, benevolent, benign, paternalistic and caring. Andersen places his own life in jeopardy, in rushing to Bhopal to help render aid and succor to the afflicted denizens. Andersen also agonizes when forced to cut loose the Indian subsidiary from the parent corporation as a protection against damaging litigation and crippling penalties. The books focus is on the chaos and confusion on the streets of Bhopal and the corruption in the corridors of power, Governmental ineptitude and the vulture like frenzy of the personal injury lawyers. Kurzman manages to convert the big bad monster that is Union Carbide into a rather charming, concerned company out to save the world. The poor people of Bhopal have been victimized thrice - once by the poison, second by politics, and then again by the inaccurate reporting in this book.

This major flaw not withstanding, the book is both illuminating and educational. Without getting too technical, the book gives valuable insight into the disaster, and captures the events of the catastrophe, both its ambiance and the cultural ethos. It's just too bad the author could be objective in his assessments, and not critical of the role of Multi-national corporations.

This good book is mostly about the life of Kondratiev. He was arrested in university days because of this participation in the Social Revolutionary (SR) movement. But he was an opponent of Bolshevism and collective agriculture. He visited the US and UK in 1024-1925; met many distinguished economists including probably J.M. Keynes.

Kondratiev was arrested 1930 and interrogated by Agranov who was one of the most feared Sadists in the Lubyanka. Stalin took a keen personal interest in Kondratiev's trial. As a distinguished economist with an international reputation Kondratiev was considered a threat to the regime. Kondratiev was forced to confess to imaginary crimes and convicted as a "kulak-professor" and banished to Suzdal in 1932. In 1938 he was issued a new sentence - ten years without the right to correspond with the outside world; this phrase was code for a death sentence and Kondratiev was executed on the same day is was issued. (1998 page 197)

This has all been hushed up in the West because of the pro Soviet sympathy or our academic and press establishment. Now with the collapse of communism the truth is coming out but you have to search for it.

This is a well written book on the political struggles in the UAW leadership over the 30-40 (30 hours workweek for 40 hours pay) movement located in UAW Local 600, the famous river rouge plant. The book is clear and reads quite quickly. If your looking for a book that delves into some of the inner workings of the UAW in the post-war era this is a decent start. Unfortunately though, it is written a bit from the perspective of the leadership - - often times as a reader I felt that the rank-and-file were being relegated to a background position. THe pressure from below was always a central factor as to why the leadership acts in certain ways but we often are not privy to the logic that the rank-and-file is coming to the situation with. Throughout, we get a rather one-dimensional view of the membership - especially in Local 600. Again, this is a good book very much so worth reading. However, if you have an interest in the UAW, you should also read "The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit" by Nelson Lichtenstein.

With echoes of today--Carl Weinberg's book is a engrossing story of a lynching during WW1, the ongoing struggle of working men and women, and the question of why those who question power are often accused of a lack of patriotism. Issues that parallel other times in history, or even today's news. As in the classic 1930s Spencer Tracy's film FURY--Robert Prager was the victim of mob violence. Weinberg grabs the reader with his easy to access language that doesn't put off the reader. The best compliment I can give this easy to read book is it is more like a novel than a history book. Given it is about a time that most Americans know nothing about, it is more than worth the read.

The book gives a great background on the Labor movements use of the Internet. I was interested because, as a member of the Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR) steering committee we have made extensive use of the Internet. We have set up a web site, an e-mail alert network, and communicate almost exclusively by e-mail. But I know very little about the history of organized labors use of the Internet. Not only does Eric's book give the essential history of Labors use of the Internet but he has an optimism about the future which we can all benefit from. He sees the opportunity for a "New Internationalism" developing because of this new technology. If labor can grab hold of this technology we can build cross border solidarity like we have never known before. I see what we at the CLR are doing as being on the cutting edge of this "New Internationalism". Most of us in the CLR are approaching this work from a little different direction (coming from the Central America Solidarity Movement) but we are moving in the same direction as the labor movement and their use of the Internet. It was interesting to see time and again the names of people we work with on a regular basis and get to know where they are coming from. Some of these people like Jagdish Parikh and Marc Belanger have extremely interesting histories in working in the labor movement and on the Internet. Reading this book gave me a much deeper appreciation of the people we work with. Much of the book focuses on concrete examples of how the labor movement uses the Internet to build a stronger and more democratic union. It is only with this technology that some things are made possible. For example, as corporations have become even more transnational there has developed a corresponding need for labor to respond internationally. You can't organize a company in one country if that company will shut down and move to another (unorganized and more repressive) country. Worker's of the world need to have the means to communicate with each other, compare notes and show solidarity. It has been prohibitively expensive to get workers in different countries to meet regularly and plan a strategy to confront multinational corporations. With the Internet workers can communicate frequently and inexpensively. There has never been a time like the present for workers to use technology to confront multi-national corporations. The labor movement is just starting to understand the potential of this technology. In addition to the above idea of online transnational company councils, we also learn about the International Labour University, an online International daily labor press, an online archive, discussion group and journal, and an Emergency Response Network (good idea huh Soren). In short this book is talking about building a "New Internationalism." I hope you will take the time to read the book for yourself. It is well worth your time.

There is so far a dearth of one-volume histories covering the whole of the post-war years of the Soviet Union, so this book is very welcome. It is in part a workmanlike narrative account of the events, but it is also a cultural history and a necessarily rather dry economic and sociological history as well, with a lot of statistics. The chapters on Brezhnev's Russia are particularly welcome. There have been excellent biographies of Stalin, Khrushchev and Gorbachev; but, as far as I know, there is as yet none in English of Brezhnev, who after all headed the Soviet government for 18 of the period's 46 years. The book's major omission, admitted by the author four pages from the end to "distort the picture", is of foreign policy. Since the international situation and the economic cost of this foreign policy exacted such an immense price in all sorts of ways throughout the period, up to very nearly its end, I think that is indeed a serious omission.

Though "Learning from Saturn" will undoubtedly not be high on the general public's reading lists, for those interested it is a book that adequately describes the basics of the Saturn system that has gotten a lot of media coverage over the last decade or so from conception to the present. The various innovative structures of Saturn such as teams, modules, business units, and councils are first described, but the book is far more concerned with the interactions among the Saturn management and the local UAW union and with GM and the international UAW. While the authors liberally point out the successes of the Saturn system, they are equally concerned with demonstrating the shortcomings principally in the areas of communications and decision-making among the various parties that have impacted the performance of Saturn. Despite Saturn's cars consistently scoring high on consumer quality ratings, internally Saturn has had difficulties with problem solving, productivity, organizational learning, and even quality.

The more discerning reader will have many questions while reading this book, especially in light of the fact that the authors are highly experienced labor relations academics. After the PATCO wholesale firings in 1980, US corporations declared war on unions. Yet why did GM agree to share management of a business with the UAW in the early 80s? The authors' explanation of a downturn in sales is insufficient. In actuality it was sheer panic, or desperation, on the part of GM coupled with the UAW being the strongest union in the US that prompted GM to go against its every instinct. That is not a trivial point.

The core production unit at Saturn is the work team consisting of 6 to 15 members with one of those individuals being elected as team leader. Teams have the responsibility of dealing with many aspects of production: work planning and scheduling, material and inventory control, budget constraints, repairs, training, quality, hiring, vacation scheduling, absenteeism, etc. Team members do receive several hundred hours of training in these areas, but it strains belief to find that this amount of expertise can be more or less equally imparted among disparate teams. With so much dependency on teams, a few teams that do not perform well despite their best efforts could easily interfere with overall results. Since teams essentially take on the role of HR management, they have to deal competently with such issues as discrimnation in hiring or discipline. What happens to union solidarity when team leaders are forced to discipline co-workers?

Certainly assembly is an essential part of the quality of an automobile but engineering would have to be more important. But the authors do not address the fact that engineering is not co-located with production and is not part of the UAW. How does the local union or teams determine that the highly technical aspects of the car design are correct? Again, expertise issues do not simply disappear with participation.

The authors do discuss organizational problems. They contend that the lack of communications or follow-up is the key to most problems. But not enough information is provided concerning the actual workings of teams to be sure that deeper structural problems do not exist.

The authors point out that the international UAW is concerned that the local Saturn union takes on characteristics much like the company unions that were essentially banned by the Wagner Act of 1935. But the authors could have indicated that unions are not necessarily even needed for substantial employee participation. For example, the legislatively mandated works councils of northern Europe provide for co-determination by employees in workplaces with resort to labor courts in the event of employer conflicts. It is not unions per se that is the key for employee input. There have to be channels for communications regardless of the system and there must be due process for workers that exercise voice. In addition, participation can occur with or without production teams.

It is surprising that the authors did not mention the efforts by some in the US Congress to pass legislation permitting employers to establish work teams on their own terms with no due process for employees. The authors are concerned with learning from Saturn. The authors are undoubtedly fully aware that the closest that most employers will come to a Saturn system is to install some sort of pseudo employee participation scheme.

I do find much to criticize about this book. But I do think that it is essential reading for anyone interested in labor relations and employee participation.

The papers in the book were written in 1992 and 1993, shortly after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. At that time, there arose speculations about the possible routes that the newly independent countries might take, both politically and socially.

The book discusses various possible implementations of free market liberalism. And the desirability of these, concomitant with varying degrees of social justice or a welfare state. Some chapters naturally tend to be discourses on the philosophical underpinnings of democratic capitalism.

Amusingly, perhaps, the word capitalism is largely deprecated in the text, in favour of liberalism. One might speculate that capitalism still retained an undesirable aura, after decades of Communist rule.

Enough time (already!) has elapsed since the book's publication for you to mull over the accuracy of the authors' musings.

Mr Klien has done it again. I read Mr. Klein's The Life And Legend of Jay Gould with much anticipation and found it to be very engaging. That is exactly how i felt about his latest endeavor, The Life and Legend of E.H. Harriman. Mr. Klien handles a complex person with much skill and depth. He brings to life a monumental person who was both very complex and yet very human. His use of the social and cultural aspects of the era help to put his subject in context without detracting from the person. Many biographies fail either because the subject is dimmed by the amount of background information on the social and cultural aspects of the era or just the opposite, the subject is not brought to life by too little backgroung of the forces that helped shapped his/her life. Mr. Klein succeeds in reaching a great balance. The book is a great read.

Lobbying at the EU level has been getting a lot of attention recently so the question arises whether another book on the subject can really tell us something new. This one, at least, can. Particularly interesting is Van Schendelen's introduction which nicely suggests the questions we should ask about the lobbying process: who, why, on whom, where, on what, when and how.

While most case studies focus on business (as usual) the most interesting chapters deal with non-profit organisations. Fisher chronicles the campaign to ban the use of animals for cosmetics research while other authors deal with legislation on the rights of pregnant women and the activities of amnesty international.

Both case studies and the general introduction (as well as the conclusion) fit together well and provide valuable insights into lobbying in Brussels.