CALENDAR: Digging Deeper VI: Study circle on the corporation at work in peace & war

Details

Beginning Monday, June 13, at 7:00 p.m. at the Mandolin Cafe and continuing for several weeks, UFPPC's book discussion series "Digging Deeper" will conduct a study circle on the corporation at work in peace and war.  --  Five books are available for borrowing or purchase; there is no charge for participation....

WHAT: A study circle on the corporation at work in peace and war
WHO: Facilitated by members of UFPPC
WHEN: Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in June and early July (June 13, 20, 27 & July 11)
WHERE: Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma

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DIGGING DEEPER VI:
The UFPPC Study Circle
on the Corporation at Work in Peace and War
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A United for Peace of Pierce
County Book Discussion Series
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Corporation, n. A legal entity that exists independently of the person or persons who have been granted the charter creating it and that is invested with many of the rights given to individuals: a corporation may enter into contracts, buy and sell property, etc. ―- Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed. (1999).

In 2005 United for Peace of Pierce County has continued its Monday night book discussion group by conducting study circles on peak oil, climate change, and the corporation. Continuing in this vein, on June 13 Digging Deeper VI will begin a four-week study circle examining five diverse works touching on a common theme: the corporation at work in peace and war. While we’re used to thinking of nations as the most important decision makers in today’s world, this series will look at a variety of situations at home and abroad and ask: What if the most important decision makers in today’s world are corporations?

  • Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Picador, 2002; orig. ed. 1999). “As global corporations compete for the loyal hearts, minds, and bodies of consumers who not only buy their products but willingly advertise them from head to toe, from schoolbooks to sporting arenas, a new generation is beginning to fight consumerism with its own weapons. At once infuriating, provocative, and inspiring, No Logo uncovers the insidious practices and effects of corporate marketing — and the powerful potential of a growing activist movement that is changing the face of the twenty-first century.”

  • John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Berrett-Koehler, 2004). “In this riveting personal story, John Perkins tells of his own inner journey from willing servant of empire to impassioned advocate for the rights of oppressed people. Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world — to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other strategically important countries. His job was to implement policies that promoted the interests of the U.S. corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations) while professing to alleviate poverty — policies that alienated many nations and ultimately led to September 11 and growing anti-Americanism. Perkins’ story illuminates just how far he and his colleagues — self-described as economic hit men — were willing to go.”

  • Kevin Phillips, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (Broadway Books, 2002). “While his main thrust is an examination of ‘the increasing reliance of the American economy on finance,’ Phillips weaves a far wider, nuanced tapestry. . . . Lucidly written, scrupulously argued and culturally wide-ranging, this is an important and deeply original analysis of U.S. history and economics.”

  • Paul Roberts, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World (Houghton Mifflin, 2004). “Brilliantly reported from around the world, The End of Oil brings the world situation into fresh and dramatic focus for business and general readers alike. Roberts talks to both oil optimists and oil pessimists, delves deep into the economics and politics of oil, considers the promises and pitfalls of alternatives, and show that, although the world energy system has begun its epoch-defining transition, disruption and violent dislocation are almost assured if we do not take a more proactive stance.”

  • Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (South End Press, 2004). “Arundhati Roy masterfully draws the thread of empire through ostensibly disconnected arenas, highlighting the parallels between the poverty draft in the United States, caste politics in India, AIDS in South Africa, reconstruction contracts in Iraq, and the perverse machinery of mass media worldwide.”

    UFPPC has copies of these books available for borrowing or purchase (contact Mark Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-756-7519, or Ted Nation at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-983-8997). Participants will read one or more of these five books in the course of the month. Monday evening meetings will consist of brief reports from participants on their reading and discussion of points of difference and convergence that emerge. There is no charge for participation, but a purchase from the Mandolin Café, which supports this activity, is kindly requested.

    MEETING SCHEDULE ―- Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in June and July (June 13, 20, 27 & July 11) at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma.

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    Digging Deeper, UFPPC’s book discussion series, has been meeting weekly since July. We have considered these books bearing on matters related to UFPPC’s mission statement: "We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy": Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (Viking, 2004); Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties (Scribner, 2004); Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (Simon and Schuster, 2004); Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War (Putnam, 2004); Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies (Free Press, 2004); David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink, 2004); James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (Viking, 2004); Dana Priest, The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military (Norton, 2003); Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan Books, 2004); Joel Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Free Press, 2004); Catherine Lutz, Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century (Beacon, 2001); Robert McChesney, The Problem of the Media: US Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Monthly Review Press, 2004); Peter Dale Scott, Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Indochina (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); Rahul Mahajan, Full Spectrum Dominance: US Power in Iraq and Beyond (Seven Stories Press, 2003); Anonymous [Michael Scheuer], Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey's, 2004); Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Simon & Schuster, 1991); Michael T. Klare, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (Metropolitan Books, 2004); Ross Gelbspan, Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis -– and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster (Basic Books, 2004); Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation (Three Rivers Press, 1999); Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (New Society, 2003); Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage (Princeton UP, 2001); Amory Lovins et al., Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs, and Security (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2005); Mark Lynas, High Tide: The Truth about Our Climate Crisis (Picador, 2004); Brian M. Fagan, The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization (Basic Books, 2004); Patrick J. Michaels, Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (Cato Institute, 2004); Richard B. Alley, The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future (Princeton University Press, 2002); T.E. Graedel and Paul J. Crutzen, Atmospheric Change: An Earth System Perspective (W.H. Freeman, 1992); Spencer R. Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (Harvard University Press, 2003); Douglas V. Hoyt & Kenneth H. Schatten, The Role of the Sun in Climate Change (Oxford University Press, 1997); Jim Wallis, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2004); The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, by Joel Bakan (Free Press, 2004); Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy, by Ted Nace (Berret-Koehler, 2001); Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, by P.W. Singer (Cornell University Press, 2003); Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business, by Roland Marchand (University of California Press, 1998); Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins (Back Bay Books, 2000); The Selling of Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960, by Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf (University of Illinois Press, 1994); When Corporations Rule the World, 2nd ed., by David C. Korten (Berret-Koehler, 2001); You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization, by Elliott D. Sclar and Richard C. Leone (Cornell University Press, 2001); Dismantling Democratic States, by Ezra N. Suleiman (Princeton University Press, 2003).

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    Regular meetings of UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY are held on 1st & 3rd Thursdays at First United Methodist, 423 MLK Jr. Way, at 7:00 p.m. ―- See UFPPC’s web site for more information. -― www.ufppc.org

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