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JULY 2009 READING SCHEDULE

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, 9/11, energy geopolitics, the debt crisis, and the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.  --  Participation is free; anyone interested is welcome. Try King's Books (218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma) or other local bookstores for copies. More information: contact Mark Jensen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or see www.ufppc.org.

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July 6, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER LXXXVI – Mark Rudd

Mark Rudd, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen (William Morrow, 2009). — “[H]onest and funny, passionate and contrite, meticulously researched and deeply philosophical: an essential document on the '60s. While the author hasn't resolved all the contradictions inherent in his old urban-guerrilla guise, he confronts them admirably, ready to acknowledge the worst in himself. . . . Rudd was radicalized soon after his arrival at Columbia University in 1965. . . . Expelled from Columbia, Rudd became a full-time SDS organizer, preaching antiwar radicalism across the nation . . . [In June 1969] Rudd and a few hardened comrades -- among them Bill Ayers, whose early support for Barack Obama became an unlikely issue in last year's presidential campaign -- broke away to form the Weathermen. . . . [Rudd] is left today with considerable regret that he either took part in the madness or stood idly by, like a good German. The most wrenching scenes in Underground depict the suffering of the author's beloved parents, simple, hard-working people . . .” —Washington Post.

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July 13, 2009: The 2nd annual BASTILLE DAY LUAU @ Leilani’s

No book discussion tonight. Instead, commemorate a great day linked to the history of human freedom! It’s the 220th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, launching the French Revolution’s destruction of feudal privilege, the 185th anniversary of the death of Kamehameha II, the Hawaiian king famous for breaking of the ancient kapu (taboo) system of religious laws six months into his reign when he sat down with Queen Kaahumanu and his mother Keopuolani and ate a meal, and the 5th anniversary of UFPPC’s book group “Digging Deeper”!!!  —  You’re encouraged to come in costume. Put on your coconuts, your best tourist shirt, and your grass skirt, and bring your favorite beverage or snack.  Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the address.

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July 20 & 27, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER LXXXVII – The financial crisis—what happened?

John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (Monthly Review Press, 2009). “Those of us who are dissatisfied with the analyses of the financial-economic meltdown of 2008 that attribute it to easily remediable ‘mistakes’ on the part of financial institutions, regulators, or policy-makers can learn a lot from John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff’s The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences. Foster and Magdoff follow up the theses of Paul Sweezy, Paul Baran, and Harry Magdoff that diagnose the structural problems of U.S. capitalism in its chronic tendency toward stagnation rooted in inadequate business investment and leading to slow growth, unemployment of labor, and low utilization of capital. This book makes the case that the excesses of financialization and the widening inequality of income distribution are themselves indirect effects of stagnation in the real economy, and explains with sobering clarity why the roots of this crisis may turn out to be deep and difficult to address with conventional policy measures.” -- Duncan K. Foley, New School for Social Research.

Lawrence E. Mitchell, The Speculation Economy: How Finance Triumphed over Industry (Berrett-Koehler, 2007; paperback 2008). “American businesses today are obsessed with the price of their stock, and no wonder. The consequences of even a modest decrease can be so dire that some executives would rather damage their corporation's long-term health than allow quarterly returns to fall below projections. But how did this situation come about? When did the stock market become the driver of the American economy? Lawrence E. Mitchell identifies the moment in American history when finance triumphed over industry. He shows how the birth of the giant modern corporation spurred the rise of the stock market and how, by the dawn of the 1920s, the stock market left behind its business origins to become the very reason for the creation of business itself.” —Book description.  --  “A fascinating account of the early 20th century emergence of a stock-market-oriented economy.”  —Business Week (December 3, 2007).