Lynn Koh's blog

Reflections on the debt debate

Lynn Koh

Hi friends, I'm offering this long-ish essay -- written a few weeks ago -- on the heels of both Obama's announcement to forego regulation of ozone-destroying pollutants as well as his call for a second stimulus package. It will be properly footnoted/hyperlinked in a week or so (please ignore the # signs in the meantime).

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Hard Times?

Lynn Koh

Not if you're a Silicon Valley CEO. According to the San Jose Mercury News, which does an annual survey of CEO compensation called 'What the Boss Makes,' CEO compensation increased 37 percent, while the median worker pay increased 1.6 percent.  Median profit for companies surveyed was $35 million.

Capitalism: back to normal?

Lynn Koh

Mother Jones has a great chart detailing CEO pay alongside what happened to the CEO's workforce this past year.

 

Tunis, Cairo, Madison?

Lynn Koh

The workers' movement in Wisconsin is, for youth of my generation, the first time that the collective action of hundreds of thousands within the US has felt like a shift in the direction of history. The closest thing, in my experience, was the huge anti-war demonstrations leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 which -- wrongly, in my opinion -- is now experienced more as disappointment than success.

Does Wisconsin mark a true turning point in US politics?

The Rising Tide

Lynn Koh

I won't be able to blog much for the next month or so, as I'm all-out working on a nonunion organizing campaign. But I have to say that, like so many others, the courage and intelligence of the revolutionaries in Egypt and Tunisia inspires me and pushes me to be even more committed to achieving justice and freedom.

Whither Imperial Power?

Lynn Koh

After two full years with Obama in office, a review and prospect of strategies to maintain US hegemony is in order.

Populism then and now

Lynn Koh

Back blogging after a lingering flu...

I just finished The Populist Moment, by Lawrence Goodwyn. It describes a period of radicalism - the 1880s and 1890s - that is far less well-known than either the 1930s or the 60s. Goodwyn describes Populism as the country's largest mass democratic movement, which is a mildly curious judgment for an author writing just after the civil rights movement scored enormous victories.

Silicon Valley - involuted growth (ver 2.0)

Lynn Koh

I do most of my organizing work in Silicon Valley, the land of the super-rich. The top 150 companies of Silicon Valley are doing splendidly in this economic crisis, doubling their profits over last year and scoring the second highest annual profits in the past twenty-five years.

It's enough to make you sick:

Georgia Prison protest

Lynn Koh

I first heard about this protest in the Georgia prisons a few days ago while listening to KPFA.  It's a quite inspiring protest over the degrading conditions that the inmates face in Georgia.  Their demands include adequate health care, better access to their families, and real wages for the labor they do.  Apparently, the New York Times saw fit to cover this mostly because the prisoners are coordinating their actions using cell phones.  (Lead: 

FBI raids update

Lynn Koh

In September we learned that the FBI had raided the homes of 14 anti-war and solidarity activists. All, I believe, refused to appear before the grand jury. 3 of those 14 have been called back before the grand jury, meaning that they risk incarceration if they refuse again.

It also seems like an additional 3 subpoenas were served to Palestine solidarity activists in Chicago.

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