Saturday, June 06, 2020

USA

Why the Shockingly Good Jobs Report Might Be Bad News

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/unemployment-jobs-report-congress-bls.html

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics offered a troubled nation a bit of shockingly good news: The unemployment rate is now 13.3 percent. That’s a higher rate of involuntary joblessness than America ever saw between the end of the Great Depression and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s also a significant decline from the 14.7 percent rate recorded in April, and far lower than almost all observers had expected.

Private-sector economists had projected that the U.S. economy would bleed 7.5 million jobs in May; instead it added 2.5 million, according to Friday’s BLS report. What makes these gains especially surprising is that this monthly jobs report was derived largely from surveys taken during the reference week of May 12, before many state-level reopenings kicked into gear.

All this said, the report isn’t as rosy as its headline findings would suggest — and if Congress misinterprets those findings, a pleasant surprise in May could yield devastation in August.

For one thing, in the BLS’s own view, its unemployment number comes with a massive asterisk. The bureau’s jobs survey was not written to deliver clear results in a context where many millions of workers have been sidelined by lockdowns. And this fact has produced a systematic misclassification of workers. The BLS survey offers respondents the option of saying that they are “employed but absent from work” due to “other reasons.” Millions of furloughed workers — who, finding themselves involuntarily out of a paying job, are supposed to be classified as unemployed — appear to have mistakenly assigned themselves to the “employed but absent” bucket. As a result, the bureau believes the overall rate is actually closer to 16.3 percent. This error was present in both the May and April surveys. So, even when properly interpreted, the May report suggests the labor market is moving in the right direction. But the hole we’re digging out of is significantly deeper than official statistics suggest, according to the official statisticians themselves.

The second major caveat is that job growth was wholly attributable to temporarily sidelined workers returning to their old jobs. The number of Americans on “temporary layoff” fell by 2.7 million in May to 15.3 million. But the number of Americans who were outright fired last month — as opposed to being furloughed — is actually 295,000 higher than in April, with 2.3 million workers suffering permanent job losses.

The surprisingly rapid rehiring of the furloughed is a positive sign. It suggests that Congress’s Paycheck Protection Program — which subsidizes small businesses that rehire their workers or avoid layoffs, and which kicked into high gear in late April — is doing its job. At the same time, the fact that government subsidies are responsible for much of the rehiring means that many of these recovered jobs remain at risk. American restaurants brought 1.4 million workers back on staff in May. But consumer demand for dining out remains far below its pre-pandemic level. If Congress allows PPP funds to phase out this summer, while demand remains depressed, then many workers could ultimately find themselves being furloughed then rehired then permanently fired.

Similarly, stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits have helped to promote job recovery by keeping sidelined workers solvent. Last month, personal income in the U.S. actually rose by a record high of 10.5 percent, thanks entirely to massive government transfers. But enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire in July. Reports this week suggested that congressional Republicans were softening their opposition to extending at least a portion of those benefits, as rising jobless claims appeared to indicate that unemployment was headed above 20 percent. Now that the president is holding celebratory press conferences about the economy’s strength, however, it is possible that the administration’s supply-siders will gain the upper hand, and opposition to further relief measures will harden. If that happens, today’s cause for hope could become tomorrow’s source of despair.

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THE CANADIAN CORPORATE KNIGHTS
SPRING 2020 MAGAZINE

8 LESSONS FROM THE EU p.18 How to go net zero in a hurry ...

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A paid insert to The Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. SPRING 2020 ... about building the society we want. ... and sustainable solutions the world now ap- ... Or will it usher in a new culture of community and conscience? ... climate goal of achieving net-zero carbon ... well as RBC director Andy Chisholm) recom-.

EARLY FRENCH SOCIALISM RECONSIDERED-I.
THE PROPAGANDA OF FOURIER AND CABET
PAUL E. CORCORAN

https://tinyurl.com/y7x2ds77

UTOPIAN SOCIALISM

History of Europeon Ideas, Vol. 7, No 5, pp. 469-488, 1986
Pergamon Journals Ltd.

I. INTRODUCTION
French soc
ialism in the 1830s and 1840s has often been criticised for its motley
assembly of hopes and ideals, which is perhaps another way of saying that no
single thinker dominated the period with a system of ideas which formed a
paradigm for the general movement. The diversity of early French socialist
thought always involves studying some figures and ignoring others, thus
complicating any simple or comprehensive portrayal of socialism in this period.
Many socialist writers in these two decades have forced individual claims on our
interest and attention, but the entire movement deserves reconsideration if we
are to appreciate its variety as well as discover why French socialism has so often
been misunderstood and unfairly criticised for, among other points, lacking
systematic coherence and practical political realism.
An analysis of early socialist writers from their rhetorical perspective, focusing
upon the disposition of arguments and the rhetorical techniques employed, does
not support the accepted view. It is hardly necessary to rehearse the familiar
contentions that the French socialists somehow lacked originality and critical
depth, that they were wildly enthusiastic but politically impractical or tlitist, or
that they were hopelessly utopian and misunderstood the nature of social
oppression and the play of political forces required for radical social change. The
most superficial, but nonetheless frequent, of such criticism boils down, really, to
saying that they were ‘French’-emotional, dilettante, ingenious but unmethodical-as opposed to English (cool, rational, sceptical) or German
(systematic, thorough, stolid). The merits of that criticism are not enhanced by
the charge that a viewpoint is ‘unoriginal’ simply because a number of able
writers happen to share it. One must also be unpersuaded by an argument that a
thinker is ‘utopian’ when he is criticised on other points for being unsystematic or
reformist. 1
Having sprung to an early defence of the French socialists, one must at the
same time concede that there are a number of problems involved in trying to
make sense of these writers, especially for the modern reader of from any ‘postMarxist’ critical perspective. But this difficulty may well be more our own
problem than it is an indictment of a particular writer. Indeed, our present
concern is to reveal the preconceptions and misconceptions that stand in the way
of a clear view of what the French socialists were trying to do, and how they did it.
It is true that such writers as Etienne Cabet (1788-1856), ThCodore Dezamy
(1808-50) and Jean-Jacques Pillot (1808-77) were remarkably enthusiastic. The
*Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5001.
470 Paul E. Corcoran
sometimes apostolic fervour of Saint-Simonian, Fourier& and communist
journals now strains our modern incredulity. We may also be puzzled that ardent
proletarian revolutionaries proclaimed their highest priority to be moral and
intellectual reform, and that this could most effectively be accomplished by the
propagation of a new religion based upon scientific truths. Many of these
socialists regarded politics with utter disdain and took for granted that social
reform would occur independently of political institutions. Several socialists
believed that the mere publicaton of a book or a ‘system’ was the effective
beginning of the new age, and they seemed curiously indifferent to what steps
might come thereafter. Other socialists frankly doubted the efficacy ofgetting the
working-class involved in what was acknowledged as its revolution. Several
socialists with a ‘system’ to implement, e.g. Dezamy, carefully discussed the
transitional stage, but neglected to specify the critical point of how, by what
process, or even what kind of process (revolution, class war, etc.), power was to
be won so that the mechanical steps of implementation could begin. Moreover,
there was a widely shared assumption that socialism was a work of social science,
and that the movement was best advanced by directing one’s propaganda against
editors of the monarchist or republican daily press or competing socialist
journals. The strict prohibition of workers’ unions was seen as a major handicap
by some ‘worker socialists’, but even they felt that the ‘September laws’
restricting the press were a greater obstacle to the movement.
Such views were clearly paradoxical for a socialist movement which also
typically advocated class struggle, the abolition of private property and
absolute social equality. Nevertheless, a review of the socialist press in the period
183048 illustrates that such a tension was accepted. Representative texts from
two of the largest and most influential movements provide a rhetorical context
for assessing early socialist thought as a meaningful sphere of discourse, rather
than dismissing it as the muddled ideas of mediocre, fatuous minds.*
The intellectual and propagandistic character of a putatively popular
revolutionary struggle may seem less paradoxical if its rhetoric of ‘proclamation’
is understood to embody not merely a style (hortatory, enthusiastic, politically
naive) but rather a theory of communication. This argument, to be treated in
detail in Part Two of this study, requires a fundamental reconsideration of
‘utopian socialists’, and perhaps an overdue recognition that most of the ideas
they so passionately proclaimed-the equality of persons, the social basis of
poverty and crime, the instability of ungoverned enterprise and disorganised
labour-have not only been historically vindicated but have formed the basis of
modern political morality.

The shows and the flows: materials, markets, and innovation in the US
machine tool industry, 1945–1965

https://tinyurl.com/ybta7qzr

History and Technology
Vol. 25, No. 3, September 2009, 257–304
ISSN 0734-1512 print/ISSN 1477-2620 online
© 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/07341510903083245
http://www.informaworld.com

Philip Scranton* Taylor and Francis
GHAT_A_408497.sgm 10.1080/07341510903083245
History and Technology 0734-1512 (print)/1477-2620 (online)
Original Article 2009 Taylor & Francis 253000000
September 2009
PhilipScranton scranton@camden.rutgers.edu

Machine tools may be fundamental to metalworking industrial economies, but their Cold
War era history in the US has rarely been assessed over the last generation. A quarter
century after David Noble’s crucial and critical Forces of Production, perhaps a broadgauged assessment may be timely. This essay aims to offer two theses for discussion.
First, it seems that a sector whose enterprises once specialized in one or more tool types
reconfigured itself into clusters of firms servicing automotive-based automation
demands, aeronautical/aerospace precision and flexibility needs, or providing
specialized auxiliary components, especially instrumentation and controls. Second,
cascades of new industrial materials and processes generated both opportunities for and
constraints on tool firms, as innovations facilitated users’ substituting, for example,
plastics for metals or material-forming for metal-cutting, quietly shifting the technical
and market foundations. Such dynamics set the stage for US machine tool enterprises’
decline as the Cold War ebbed, but they did not chiefly derive from technological
deflections deriving from military contracting.

Keywords: machine tools; automobiles; aeronautics; military contracts; automation;
precision; numerical control

Six Epigraphs

Never have there been so many technical advances made in so short a time as during the past

four years of war, and it is safe to say that the design of machine tools has advanced at least

fifty years in that time. (H.E. Linsley, Machine Tools Editor, Iron Age, January 1946)1

Out of the research on alloy steels, necessitated by the many and rapid advances in aircraft

design during the war, has come the superalloys. These were developed to furnish necessary

high strength at high temperatures. To a considerable extent, the veil of secrecy surrounding

these important developments has been lifted during the past year. (J.M. Hodge and M.A.

Grossman, R&D Division, Carnegie–Illinois Steel, October 1946)2

A recent trend has been to subordinate the clear-cut distinction between general-purpose and

single-purpose machine tools … first in order to obtain the savings of high production techniques on smaller lots and secondly to install equipment adaptable to change in design of the

product. (American Machinist, March 1946)3

Where Taylor had hard, medium, and soft steel, and hard, medium and soft cast iron to

machine, the present-day field covers literally thousands of types of steels and nonferrous

metals …. There are many carbon and alloy steels, plain and alloyed cast irons, malleable and

pearlitic irons, and many high- and low-strength nonferrous metals of copper, aluminum, zinc,

and magnesium, and a great variety of types and forms of nonmetallic plastics. Dozens of these

metals are now being machined at hardnesses not even thought of by Taylor. (Orlan Boston,

College of Engineering, University of Michigan, April 1946)4

The advance noted between the 1947 and the 1955 machine tool shows was unbelievable. If

the industry continues this trend, and there is every indication that it will, who can say what

lies ahead? (George H. Johnson, President, Gisholt Machine Co., February 1956)5

Since the end of World War II, dual trends appear dominant in metalworking. One is toward

greater productivity and more automatic operation. The other is for greater precision and reliability. Spur to the first are the vast production demands of the auto industry. The second may

be in response to the needs of defense: higher-speed aircraft, missiles and space projects. But

resulting improvements are spilling over into all industry. (E.R. Eshelman, Associate Editor,

Iron Age, August 1960)6

THE AYN RAND NON PROFIT CHEERS ON AUTOMATION

SO DO I BUT FOR A DIFFERENT ECONOMIC REASON

Arguments For a Four-Hour Day | Industrial Workers of the World

MY BLOG IS NOT AN ECHO CHAMBER

HOTOCREO Michal Bednarek / Shutterstock

SCIENCE & PROGRESS

Bring On the Robots: Why Automation Is Good

Agustina Vergara Cida

The size of the global automation market is forecast to reach $200 billion by 2020.1 As more industries deploy machines and computers, the labor market is being transformed.

This is one reason why many of us worry that machines will take over our work, leaving us unemployed. But automation has been happening for centuries — more specifically, since the Industrial Revolution. Ever since, some have predicted that automation would cause massive unemployment and make humans obsolete. And today, even the CEOs of tech companies like Facebook2 and Microsoft3 make similar claims — adding that, this time, the impact of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) will be much bigger than that of earlier innovations, since many jobs that were previously thought impossible to automate, no longer are. The people issuing these warnings are knowledgeable about the emerging technologies, so there seems to be legitimate reason for concern.

In order to think clearly about this issue, let’s first get some perspective by taking a look at what happened in the past. How did the patterns of employment shift with the incorporation of new technologies, and how did automation affect the lives of individuals?

To a large extent, automation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries took routine, monotonous, and physical labor out of human life. Work shifted from agriculture to textile manufacturing and trade, which required less physical effort. And despite the fact that a large amount of textile manufacturing was being automated, the number of textile workers grew, because the increase in productivity led to a decrease in the cost of cloth, making it more affordable for people to own several pieces of clothing, which then led to more demand and the need for more workers.

Furthermore, as historian Robert Hessen notes, the factory system helped increase the overall standard of living and even decrease infant mortality rates. It also provided a means of survival to thousands of individuals who would have otherwise perished from their unsanitary or dangerous jobs. During this time, people not only survived automation, they were able to make their lives better and to flourish as never before because of automation.4
The principle is clear: technology has enabled the creation of more wealth by increasing the productivity of human effort.More recently, in the mining industry no longer do miners need to shovel dirt and rocks or face the significant risks involved. Now there are driverless trucks, diggers, bulldozers, trains, and mines run by cell phone networks. In the farming industry, there is no longer the need to spend long, arduous days harvesting crops. Now there are machines that take care of that, with minimal supervision required. The farms produce more in less time, with virtually no physical harm to the farmers.

When ATM machines were introduced in the 1970s, some people predicted that this would mean the end of human bank tellers. This turned out to be wrong: the increased efficiency and low cost of these machines led banks to open more branches, which in turn led to them to hire more tellers (bank teller employment in the US rose by 50,000 between 1980 and 2010). But the work of the new bank tellers changed: their tasks evolved from merely dispensing cash to providing all kinds of financial services, a much more intellectual and less monotonous job, which required more complex abilities.5

The principle is clear: technology has enabled the creation of more wealth by increasing the productivity of human effort. More wealth is being created than ever before, with less human labor — generating new opportunities for people to pursue other types of productive work and create other values. Thanks to technology taking over dangerous, unsanitary, or monotonous jobs, most individuals historically took the initiative to shift to more rewarding, and/or better-paying occupations, sometimes in the same industry, sometimes in new industries. At the end of the eighteenth century, 90 percent of the US working population worked on farms.6 Nowadays, less than 2 percent do.7 Have we witnessed the other 88 percent of the population starving to death or begging in the streets? No — the rest of us have moved on to start or work in other industries.
READ ALSO: The Man Biting the Hands of Creators Who Feed the World

Thanks to technology raising the productivity of our labor, we work fewer hours than did individuals decades ago,8 but we make more money.9 We have more wealth, and more time to spend it on activities other than work. This is partly why new industries have emerged. Consider the video game industry. It employs hundreds of thousands of people around the globe10, in jobs that were unimaginable thirty years ago. Why did this industry develop, and why is it so successful? Because people now have the leisure time to play video games, the money to buy them, and the need for quality entertainment.
Advancements in AI and software are great, but they mean nothing without active human engagement.The fact is that automation makes human life much simpler and more enjoyable in so many ways. Take but one more example: online shopping. People no longer have to spend hours going to stores looking for the items they need. Available to buy with one click and often deliverable within two days, these items are dispatched from highly automated warehouses with computerized inventory and shipping systems.

But what of the warnings about automation and AI from the CEOs of tech companies? Is it true that this time is different?

Yes, in one sense it’s true. Technology is taking over tasks that are not primarily physical but intellectual — such as some aspects of the practice of law and of medicine. In another sense, however, it’s likely that this time is not different. As another tech CEO, Peter Thiel, notes in his book Zero to One, computers are not substitutes for humans but complements. “Men and machines are good at fundamentally different things,” Thiel argues. Humans are good at making plans and decisions in difficult situations, but not at making sense of large amounts of data — and computers are good at exactly the opposite. Advancements in AI and software are great, but they mean nothing without active human engagement.11

Thiel asks us to think of what certain professionals do today. For example, lawyers must be able to come up with solutions to very specific and complex problems with many variables, and they must be able to communicate their views in a variety of ways, depending on whether they are talking to a client, a judge, or opposing counsel. Doctors have to analyze and integrate a wide array of factors, from physical symptoms to psychological aspects, in order to reach a diagnosis, and then they must have the ability to communicate with nonexpert patients. “Computers might be able to do some of these tasks, but they can’t combine them effectively. Better technology in [these occupations] won’t replace professionals; it will allow them to do even more,”12 Thiel explains. And the question of the future, he concludes, is not what problems can be solved with computers alone, but “how can computers help humans solve hard problems?”13

A recent study by the World Economic Forum points in the same direction, forecasting that in the next four years, 75 million jobs will be lost to automation — but 133 million new jobs will emerge, as a new division of labor between man and machine is developed.
The wider point is that the source of technology is the human mind — the best within it. Technology’s purpose is to make human life better, not to destroy it.In other words, the principle remains the same: new technologies will continue to boost the productivity of human labor. And therefore, as economist James Bessen has said, the issue with automation is not “mass unemployment, it’s transitioning people from one job to another.” This transition may not be easy, and it requires individuals to have the right mentality and attitude — and to take it upon themselves to prosper and move forward.

READ ALSO: Free Will vs. Science?

It is important that we understand that automation is not our enemy and that, in order to thrive, each of us must be willing to take responsibility for our career and life. That responsibility entails actively thinking long-range, assessing our options for employment, and pursuing an education in the emerging industries. However, this requires that individuals are free politically to do all of this. So long as they are, it is foolish to think that technological advances will mean the end of the job market. But we need to be entrepreneurial and willing to take risks. We must be willing to take action and move forward, as opposed to sitting idle, complaining that a robot might one day take our job. If you fail to take that responsibility, you can expect to be left behind in a fast-moving labor market.

For example, imagine a typist in the early 1990s, witnessing the rise of personal computers and word processors and realizing that typewriters are going to become obsolete. He faces a choice. A smart step for him to take would be to learn the new technology and become proficient in operating, for instance, Microsoft Office. A wide array of more productive and better-paying job opportunities would open up for him, such as creating Excel spreadsheets and documents in Word.

The wider point is that the source of technology is the human mind — the best within it. Technology’s purpose is to make human life better, not to destroy it. Automation is a form of innovation and we should accept it, value it, and be eager to adapt to it. It enables us to flourish. In the words of the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, “the machine, the frozen form of a living intelligence, is the power that expands the potential of your life by raising the productivity of your time.”

This translates to a better, more productive society as well, in which disruptions occur — that’s the nature of progress — but in which its members, if left free politically, are able to continue to innovate, to retrain and to climb. Human ingenuity is unlimited — who knows what industries will be created in the future, and the jobs that those industries will require? The sky is the limit.

MILLENNIAL YOUTH ORGANIZE THEIR OUTRAGE

AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE

AND NOW POLICE BRUTALITY AND WANTON MURDER OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

WHITE PEOPLE SAYING
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
TO US!

THESE TWO POWERFUL MOVEMENTS SHOULD MAKE COMMON CAUSE IN A UNITED FRONT

AGAINST THE MONARCHIST THEOCRATIC WHITE SUPREMACIST
REPUBLICANS

INCLUDING SO CALLED
LIBERTARIAN RAND PAUL

ALL OF THEM JONESING FOR THE OLD DAYS OF THE WHITE ARISTOCRACY

Max Weber – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS VEBLEN

THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS

by Thorstein Veblen

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/833/833-h/833-h.htm

Chapter One ~~ Introductory

Chapter Two ~~ Pecuniary Emulation

Chapter Three ~~ Conspicuous Leisure

Chapter Four ~~ Conspicuous Consumption

Chapter Five ~~ The Pecuniary Standard of Living

Chapter Six ~~ Pecuniary Canons of Taste

Chapter Seven ~~ Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture

Chapter Eight ~~ Industrial Exemption and Conservatism

Chapter Nine ~~ The Conservation of Archaic Traits

Chapter Ten ~~ Modern Survivals of Prowess

Chapter Eleven ~~ The Belief in Luck

Chapter Twelve ~~ Devout Observances

Chapter Thirteen ~~ Survivals of the Non-Invidious Interests

Chapter Fourteen ~~ The Higher Learning as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.97406/page/n9/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.206146/page/n3/mode/2up

THE ACQUISITIVE SOCIETY R. H. TAWNEY

THE ACQUISITIVE SOCIETY

BY

R. H. TAWNEY

FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD; LATE MEMBER
OF THE COAL INDUSTRY COMMISSION

NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.

PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY, N. J.

CHAPTER
I	INTRODUCTORY
II	RIGHTS AND FUNCTIONS
III	THE ACQUISITIVE SOCIETY
IV	THE NEMESIS OF INDUSTRIALISM
V	PROPERTY AND CREATIVE WORK
VI	THE FUNCTIONAL SOCIETY
VII	INDUSTRY AS A PROFESSION
VIII	THE "VICIOUS CIRCLE"
IX	THE CONDITION OF EFFICIENCY
X	THE POSITION OF THE BRAIN WORKER
XI	PORRO UNUM NECESSARIUM

The author desires to express his acknowledgments to the Editor of the Hibbert Journal for permission to reprint an article which appeared in it.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33741/33741-h/33741-h.htm

The Acquisitive Society

The name of R.H. Tawney still evokes the heroic phase of socialism. His work is associated with the belief in equality and fellowship, with the commitment to strive for the creation of a just social order to replace capitalism, and with the obligation of the educated and the privileged to put their talents at the service of the working class. (It is, of course, one sign that the heroic phase of socialism is over that few of the terms in this sentence can now be used confidently and without qualification.) Within the international history of socialism, and still more within the history of the labor movement in Britain, Tawney has a secure place in the pantheon of influential thinkers. Moreover, he was revered for his personality and example as much as for his writings, above all for his unaffected manner, his unworldly asceticism, and his deep sympathy with the efforts of working people to improve their lot, especially through adult education, to which he devoted a great deal of his own time and energy. He remained a cherished figure in English radical and working-class circles long after his death in 1962 at the age of eighty-two. He is one of the few secular figures to whom the label “saint” gets applied unironically.

Generation Z joins George Floyd demonstrations

Many of those protesting against police brutality and racism in front of the White House and all over the United States are less than 25 years old. For them, giving up is not an option.

These schoolboys are taking part in a "big movement," as Noel puts it, for the first time. Noel adds: "The last time we were just a bit too young. But now that we're old enough to understand what's happening, we're out here just doing what we can for the community." Sammy says: "We want to make America a better place for black people." 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Westen is wearing a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt and a protective face mask embroidered with the words "I can't breathe." The 12-year-old has accompanied his father, who is among those protesting against racism near the White House. For several days, thousands of people have been gathering here to take a stand against police violence and to remember George Floyd, a black man who was killed in Minneapolis on May 25 by a white police officer. He came here "to represent George Floyd, my country and my culture," Westen says. What happened to Floyd "wasn't cool."

Read more: Opinion: US racism part of everyday life

The schoolboy is one of the youngest protesters near the White House. But many of the people vociferously demanding change here today belong to Generation Z — young women and men who were born in the mid-1990s or later. Many of them are participating in a huge protest rally for the first time.

Westen, 12, took part in protests near the White House. "I can't breathe" were George Floyd's last words

"This is sort of the first big movement that we've been a part of. The last time there was one of these marches we were just a bit too young to really understand the message behind it," says 18-year-old Noel, who has joined the rally accompanied by his little brother and a couple of friends. "But now that we're old enough to understand what's happening, we're out here just doing what we can for the community."

Obama: Young people's commitment 'makes me feel optimistic'

Discussing police brutality during a virtual town hall event on Wednesday, former US President Barack Obama praised the commitment of young Americans.

"When sometimes I feel despair, I just see what's happening with young people all across the country, and the talent and the voice and the sophistication that they're displaying," Obama said, adding that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X "were young when they got involved in their causes."

He said young people standing up made him feel optimistic: "It makes me feel as if, you know, this country's gonna get better."

Mya, 21, is also among the young people for whom protesting in the wake of George Floyd's death marks their first participation in a social movement. "We were tired when Trayvon Martin happened, when Eric Garner happened," she says, alluding to African Americans killed by police in recent years. "I'm finally at the age where I can get involved. I've got to make it count."

And it seems as if the young demonstrators' steady protests and demands for justice are making an impact. The charge against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes before he died, has been upgraded from third-degree murder to second-degree murder, which means the officer is now facing a prison sentence of up to 40 instead of up to 25 years. And on Wednesday, it was announced that three police officers who were at the scene during Floyd's arrest and death will be charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

'You're powerful'

Commitment, however, must involve more than just taking part in the protests, says 25-year-old Bryan, who has joined a rally in Washington although his job at the House of Representatives actually bars him from participating. But he's no longer able to just remain on the sidelines. "Initially, we must vote Trump out," Bryan says. "Afterwards, police reforms have to be implemented."

He, too, has been stopped by police officers over trifles numerous times, he says. "I've been pulled over for going five miles over the speed limit. They tried to ask me do I have drugs on me when I just got out of the military." Bryan says he is "tired of seeing my people die." The young man's eyes are now filled with tears of anger over injustice.

Deborah, 18, took part in protests near the White House

Earlier this week, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the global Black Lives Matter movement, directly addressed Generation Z protesters: "What folks in the streets, especially young people, need to hear right now is that you're powerful," the Los Angeles-based activist told online magazine Teen Vogue.

Deborah, 18, isn't just hopeful that she and the other protesters will actually be able to bring about change. "We have to," she says, sitting on the ground while facing a row of uniformed police officers. "We have no other choice."

Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3dJrD
One voice among many

DW RECOMMENDS

Young Black Lives Matter protesters: 'Enough is enough'

Since last week's killing of George Floyd, a black man, cities across the US have seen ongoing protests against police brutality. Many young people are among the demonstrators in Washington D.C., and they want justice. (05.06.2020)

Date 05.06.2020
Author Carla Bleiker (Washington, D.C.)
Related Subjects Barack Obama, Washington, White House, Pentagon
Keywords Black Lives Matter, protests, Washington, police brutality, racism, Barack Obama, Generation Z

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dJrD

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Saturday, June 06, 2020

USA

Why the Shockingly Good Jobs Report Might Be Bad News

8 LESSONS FROM THE EU p.18 How to go net zero in a hurry ...