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Summer 2005 Volume 26, No The newsletter of the Section onMarxist Sociology of the American Sociological Association From the Left Summer 2005 Volume 26, No. 1 case of a disputed election, and attempts to block voter fraud. There should be increased A Dysfunctional Electoral System efforts to enable voter access and prevent voter Douglas Kellner, University of California suppression. Voting and counting procedures should be transparent, uniform, safe, and effi- The essence of democracy is the confidence of cient. There should be agreed-upon recount procedures, criteria to count contested votes, the electorate in the accuracy of voting meth- and scrutiny of the process by members of ods and the fairness of voting procedures. In both parties and professional election officials. 2000, that confidence suffered terribly, and we The problems with the U.S. election system, fear that such a blow to our democracy may however, go far beyond the machines. The have occurred in 2004. dysfunctionality evident in Election 2000 and —John Conyers, Jr., Jerrold Nadler, Robert 2004 reveal problems with the arguably out- Wexler,members of the U.S. House Judiciary moded Electoral College system and the prob- Committee (Note 1). lematical nature of the U.S. system of propor- tional voting. Many citizens were surprised to (Continued on page 5) I n retrospect, it is tragic that John Kerry con- ceded so quickly because challenging the vot- Inside This Issue: ing system, insisting that all votes be counted, “Danger: The Presidency of George W. Bush” 2 pointing to well-documented examples of voter by Barbara Chasin suppression, demonstrating problems with ma- chines that do not provide accurate counts, and “Toward a Critical Theory of Tourism” 3 dramatizing the dangers of computer hacking by Kevin Fox Gotham to fix elections could have produced impetus to reform the system. As critics have pointed out, “What a Marxist Professor Should Teach” 4 Elections 2000 and 2004 produced more than 3 by Michael Francisconi million spoiled ballots that could not be read “The Downing Street Memo-Why 19 by voting machines, generally because old ma- It’s Important” chines often malfunction; 75 percent of the by Andrew Austin machines in Ohio were of this vintage. A hand- count of these votes could have made a differ- Book Announcements: ence. There were also thousands of provisional Globalization and Cross-Border Labor 19 ballots to be counted in Ohio, many absentee Solidarity: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement ballots, and many irregularities to check out. It and the Struggle for Social Justice would have been important to carry out close by Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval examinations of the computer voting machines Breaking the Code of Good Intentions: 19 in Ohio and Florida to see if they provided ac- Everyday Forms of Whiteness curate results (Note 2). by Melanie E. L. Bush Examining voting machines could lead to voting reforms, such as those in California and ASA Annual Meeting August 2005: 17 Nevada, which required more transparency in Marxist Sessions & Roundtables the process, a paper trail to scrutinize in the ISA World Congress 2006 Information 22 Page 2 From the Left Summer 2005 Danger: The Presidency of Marxist Section Officers 2004-2005 George W. Bush Chair: David Fasenfest, Wayne State University Barbara Chasin, Montclair State University Chair-Elect: Jeff Haley, University of Texas, San Antonio Past Chair: Kevin Anderson, Purdue Uni versity O n January 19th, 2005, CNN devoted close Secretary/Treasurer: Warren S. Goldstein, to 3 hours of its prime-time evening program- University of Central Florida ming, to answering the question “How Safe Council Are We?” Their coverage added up to an an- Joanna A. Hadjiconstandi, University of Texas swer of “not very.” Even so, the network, un- of the Permian Basin derestimated the threats facing Americans Karen Bettez Halnon, Pennsylvania State since its concern was exclusively with terror- University ism. Not surprisingly, there are no media spe- Arthur J. Jipson, University of Dayton cials on how dangerous life in the U.S. is irre- Lloyd Klein, Louisiana State University spective of terrorism. The presidency of Jennifer Lehmann, University of Nebraska George W. Bush has added to the dangers both from terrorism and from the routine workings Newsletter Editor: Karen Bettez Halnon, of our social system. Americans are at greater Pennsylvania State University risk than people living in comparable coun- Newsletter Assistant Editor: Sharon Gerczyk, tries. (Chasin 2004: 18-23) Both major U.S. Pennsylvania State University political parties are dominated by corporations, while unions and progressive movements are weaker here. The weakening of unions and of organized progressive movements has meant an increase in economic inequality and greater From the Left Seeks Submissions political inequality. The corporate sector’s gains in strength have meant a diminishing of From the Left seeks submissions for its regulations and the fraying of an already inade- Fall 2005 issue (roughly 1,500 words). quate social safety net. Life is less healthy and safe in the United States even when Democrats Please send proposals or texts by email to hold office; but with their electoral base of Karen Bettez Halnon at [email protected] people of color, working people and lower in- by August 30, 2005. come groups, Democrats do pay more attention to the less privileged classes than do Republi- cans. (See Domhoff 2004: 68-69 for how this save them from the dangers he convinced came about) Corporations know that Republi- them of. The irony is that Bush represents a cans are more dependably on their side. This is danger to the very Americans who think he is reflected in the 2004 campaign contributions. their protector. Corporate donors in the major economic sec- tors provided $92,439,064 to the Bush cam- Terrorism paign compared to $48,008,059 to Kerry’s ef- The Bush campaign pushed the message: forts. (Opensecrets 2004) Still, Bush, this time “Vote for George W. or face more terrorist at- did get more of the popular votes than his ri- tacks.” However, the war in Iraq, sold as a way val. to lessen the terrorist threat, has spawned more During the 2004 campaign Bush successfully stoked people’s fears and then promised to (Continued on page 6) Page 3 From the Left Summer 2005 forms of tourism (contrived, recreational, en- tertainment, heritage, etc.), different types of Toward a Critical Theory of tourism sites (mega-events, gambling, sports, Tourism theme parks, tourist-oriented celebrations, his- torical sites, and so on), and different technolo- Kevin Fox Gotham, Tulane University gies of tourism (air travel, automobile travel, theming, simulation, virtual reality, and so on). What unites these diverse forms, types, and technologies of tourism are the twin processes I n this short essay I want to elaborate a nas- of commodification and bureaucratic rationali- cent critical theory of tourism using the theo- zation. In his famous essay, “The Culture In- retical resources and concepts of the Frankfurt dustry Reconsidered,” Adorno ([1967] 1989, p. School and other Marxian scholars. My theo- 129), criticized the transformation of spontane- retical goals are motivated by a concern that ous and authentic “popular culture” into an ad- much of the academic literature on tourism ministered and reified “mass culture.” Rather lacks a critical focus, fails to illuminate social than autonomous culture creation, which is relations of domination and exploitation, and characteristic of social connectedness at the neglects to analyze the contradictory and con- micro or everyday level, the culture industry flicting meanings and effects of tourism. As works through a relentless process of com- the largest industry in the world, tourism com- modification to hollow out the distinctive sub- prises a variety of socio-economic and cultural stantive content of social relations and their activities, including air and automobile travel, creations. In this process, culture, heritage, new forms of mobility, cruise ships, historic and tradition become centrally conceived and preservation sites, museums, casinos, theme controlled social forms, objects of market- parks, and other entertaining spaces that enable based instrumental relations that are devoid of people to consume many different commodi- emotional and sensuous life. Using Adorno’s ties. As a global industry, tourism unfolds insights, a critical theory would interrogate through a process of bureaucratic rationaliza- how tourist spaces exhibit “incessantly re- tion and standardization in which different cit- peated formulae” that suppress spontaneity ies court the same transnational tourism firms and active creativity, and reflect and reinforce (e.g., international hotel chains, casinos, car the trends of commodification, standardization, rental agencies, etc.) and embrace similar mar- and fetishism. keting strategies, thereby creating identicalness Second, a critical theory would eschew gen- and homogeneity. On the other hand, in an era eralized and abstract notions of tourism and of major socio-economic restructuring, places tourists and examine the interconnected politi- vie to differentiate themselves, playing up their cal, economic, and cultural processes that con- cultural distinctiveness, and advertising them- stitute the diverse forms, types, and technolo- selves as places to visit. Yet many of these gies of tourism. A dialectical perspective developments remain under theoretized and would combine both macro- and micro-levels poorly understood. My goal is to begin to to explain how different governments and po- remedy these problems and omissions by litical organizations work with economic elites pointing to five major dimensions of a substan- and private interests to produce tourist sites; tive critical theory for understanding and ana- how different marketers and advertising agents lyzing tourism and its social consequences. use images and theming strategies to represent First, a critical theory embraces an orienta- tourism; which groups and interests oppose tion that views tourism sites and sights as plu- different tourism sites and extravaganzas; and ral, multidimensional, conflictual, and contra- which contending groups use tourism to ad- dictory.
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