Rose City Sears, however. Some pretty sleazy high-pressure tactics to push people into their friendly 18 percent/ year credit buying were enough to bring out the famous Bender fury. More reports will follow. -TB Industrial Exodus, Edward Kelly, $2.50 from: Alternative State and Local Public Policies 1901 Que Street N.W. Washington, DC 20009· Plant closures and subsequent unemployment have dealt crippling blows to an increasing number of cities and states and have underlined the true costs of loss of local control of local economies. Many closings have nothing to do with profitable operation of the plant-the par_ent company merely has opportunity for higher return on their capital .in some other industry, in real estate or something else. Such closings provide excellent opportunity to regain local. control and reopen the plants; But the majority of plant closings are "runaways"-moving from the Northeast, where unionization has partially balanced out inequitable returns to la.bar vs. capital, to the Southern ,States or overseas where lack of unionization and repressive labor laws provide cheap and docile labor and higher profits. Overseas locations also provide excellent tax dodges for the corporati,;ms. We, of course, have the honor to make up the difference-unemployment, lost state and local tax_revenues, lost federal corporate taxes, widening income gaps between working people and corporate owner's share of national income, and "gifts" or economic incentives given corporations by state and local competition for replacement employment. Kelly lays out an excellent range of federal, state and local regulatory actions that can and ought to be taken. -TB • Your Money and Your Life, $2.50 from: Institute for Policy Studies 1901 Que Street N.W. Washington, D.C 20009 _Summaries and excerpts from a lengthier and more detailed analysis of the Federal budget (The Federal Budget and National Reconstruction, $5.95). A remarkably candid and fresh look at the process of divvying up our tax monies-the Blind Man's Bluff game of trying to do good by it, and the Rich Man's Bluff game of ripping off as much as possible into the pockets of the wealthy. Most of the articles are refreshingly free of the usual proposals for greater government expenditures to solve problem X or ·v, and contain valuable insights and suggestions for specific changes. Good to see for a change something you can more often agree with than disagree with! -TB Memorandum on Loisaida, $3.00 from: Community Ownership Organizing Project 6529 Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA 94609 The sweat-equity rehabilitation in New York's Lower East Side that you've been hearing about in reports on 519 E. 11th Street are happening because of a lucky anomaly-there's such a glut of abandoned buildings that the city hasn't bothered to try to auction them off in spite of high land values, so community groups could get them practically free, making renovation affordable. But once Heighborhood rehabilitation ·gets underway, it becomes a target for speculators and rich professionals looking for a new "chic" neighborhood. Prices, rents and taxes skyrocket, and the ori"ginal neighborhood gets pushed out again. Society Hill in Philly, Adams-Morgan and Georgetown in D.C., Northwest Portland. It's an old pattern. This memorandum lays out possible options for the community to retain control of its land and homes. Some realistic economic development strategies are discussed, along with detailed coverage of pros and cons of different kinds of ownership (co-ops reduce housing costs by an average.of $47 per month by minimizing refinancing interest charges), external sources of capital, and community development corporations. One of the clearest, right-to-the-point summaries of options for neighborhood control we've seen. -TB June 1978 RAIN Page 17 BAD GUYS from NACLA . NACLA-North American Congress on Latin America: NACLA-East P.O. Box 57, Cathedral Stn. New York, NY 10025 NACLA-West P.O. Box 226 Berkeley, CA 94701 NACLA Report, bimonthly, $11/year for individuals For the last dozen years, these folks have been researching and publishing detailed studies on activities of the U.S. government agencies, corporations, banks, labor, foundations, the church, and military that shape and profit from our policies towards Latin America. Detailed documentation of U.S. training programs for foreign military personnel. Importation of agricultural stoop labor by U.S. agribusiness to keep. - from paying minimum U.S. wages. Impacts of U.S. agribusiness expansion in N.W. Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and other countries. Real depressing stuffyou really feel the bludgeoning of people's lives and liberties that our "leaders" are cau.sing. But the patien~ and frustrating documentation that people like NACLA are doing is laying the groundwork for the next confrontation for power in this country. Vietnam and nuclear power revisited-closer to the heart of things, and with an increasingly ~xperienced, sophisticated and believable people working to make humanity safe for the world. We'll see if it can be done! -TB
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