1- What is Neoliberalism

ucla | HIST 12B | 2023-09-28T12:30

Table of Contents

Supplemental

  • Treaty of detroit (1950)
    • landmark contract by UAW w/ big 3 auto
    • institutionalized colelctive bargaiining, tieed wages and beneits to productivity, ooffered COLA, healthcare, vacation, pension
    • in exchange for5 year no strike pledge
    • secured insudtrial peae through consumerism - higher wages allow labor to buy homes, but weakened workers coontrol (hours, tech)
  • example of racial capitalism
    • 1960s (1967 detroit rebellion in dodge revolutionary union)
    • black workerss in detroit striked while under treaty of no striking and spread to other plants or - safer workplace, lower prod demands, end to racist hiring
    • this was due to racism within workers and companies → although treaty allowed workers to buy homes, mortgage companies did not offer mortgages to black labor, etc.
  • example of Flint michigan 1960
    • oone of the highest per capita wages post war growth → decline:
    • outsourcing GM prod to south and global south - heaper labor to compete with internatioonal brands
    • flint offered tax cuts and legal immunity from car defectss, pollution of flint river
    • but outsourcing continued to compete with japan & germany and made billions → flint lost 87.5% of manufacturing jobs
    • GM started offering finance: iinsurance, banking, mortgages, home eq loans and subprimes → housing crisis → 2008 financial crisis
    • flint lost tax rev, deeper debt (tried to swithc water soure to flint river but was polluted and caused havoc) → privatized water, land,
  • liberalization weakened UAW
    • 1990s UAW accepted two-tiered wage due to previous loss of jobs
    • 2007 - agrreed to 4 year wage freeze → wages dropped 20%
    • 2008-09 - federal bailouts → GM offered 51 billion for 2nd tier workers to take 50% paycut
    • GM then maid 35 billion
    • 2019 UAW trike - bad settlement → militant caucus within UAW gets hold and begins 2023 strikes
    • GM push for green energy → exploitive labor in Congo to mine cobalt for li-on batteries

Lecture

  • capitalism - privat ownrship, surplus in haand of few, exploit labor
    • capitalism - privatized
    • stat capitalism - manageed by govt
    • with the rise of nation-states, borders, citizenship
    • Walia - borders usd too criminaliz migrants, uphold racialized hierarchy of citiznship, and “state-mediated” exploitation of labor
    • capitalism emerged as racial and gendered regimes
    • dynamic - fordism, keynesianism, neoliberaalism, etc.
    • prone to crises due to falls in profit → capital doesn’t circulate → crises
    • cyclical crises
      • regularly, recessions, self-correcting
    • structural cirses
      • usually due to policies and ideas → requires retructuring (World Bank, IMF) e.g., great depression → new deal
    • systemic crises
      • requires major systematic replacement otherwise system collapse
      • every structural crisis has the possibility oof systemic crises
      • outcome iss not predetermineedd, depends on society and polotics
  • neoliberalism
    • fluid definition - became an epithet to characterize current political/economc zeitgeist - marked by inequallity
    • self-identiffied neoliberalist emerged after WW1 - economic order to eliminate tariffs, open border, extreme free market, and creation off international institutes to manage global politcal/economic affairs
    • our definiton - a socioeconomic theory that lasseiz faire, reduced/no regulations, privatization of every sphere of socioeconomic life is the BEST way to tructure society
    • NOT anti-state, but anti-regulation, anti-safety-net (welfare)
    • state should do the following
      • make publi land and resources available or private ownership (eminent domain)
      • provide infrastructure
      • bailout corps resulting from risk, when colllapse would adversley affect society
      • coercive force to protect property, wage war to protect economic intereest, supress strikes
    • Key Features
      • maximize profits by driving down labor
        • outsourcing and exploiting migrant labor, weakening unions, increasing free trade policies
      • dismantling welfare state
        • deregulation, eroding govt protections
      • change monetary and fiscal pollicies to promote free market activity
      • financialization
        • shift toward finance as a mode of accumulation than production
      • shrinking federal spending
      • expanding national security state
        • military, policing, protetion services
      • dismantling democratic institutions
        • destroying colelctive bargaining rights, voting rights

Discussion

Resources

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**SUMMARY
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