John Berg's Page of Personal Idiosyncracies and Progressive Politics
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Is the earth getting warmer? See for
yourself--look at the data from |
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Convinced? Then leave your car at home
and ride a bike! |
Lot's more below, so please scroll down
New!
Things to buy!
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No Globalization Without Representation! Follow the wave of protests against the WTO, the IMF, and capitalist-dominated globalization at http://www.indymedia.org/.
Historical Perspective
on Ralph Nader's Campaign( Get Rid
of the Electoral College!
(
Listen
to my interview on "Democracy Now," broadcast on the Pacificia
Network
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There's plenty of food--but too
many people don't have the money to buy it, because of corporate greed.
Everyone concerned about world hunger should read World
Hunger: 12 Myths, 2d ed., by Frances Moore Lappe,
Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset, with Luis Esparza.
Some
interesting websites: Ron Hayduk - Voting Rights for Immigrants (and
other issues) |
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Let's go shopping! (shameless commercialism)
"French kiss" -- a romantic wine
package for Valentine's Day
(click on the picture)
John C. Berg 
93 Lyndhurst Street
Dorchester, Massachusetts 02124-2113
This page will tell you something about me, my work, my current political views and activities, and my recreational interests.
Me--
I live in Dorchester, until recently
with Emily Berg, from whom I am now separated after 31 years.
Our three adult children,
Andy 
, Tom 
, and Kate 
, are all grown and have their own places now..
Where I work--
Suffolk University, 
where I teach in the Government Department
Politics
Are you sick and tired of elections where both candidates represent
corporate capital? I am, and I think the only way to change things is to work
to create a new party, one oriented toward people, not profits.
Several groups are working to start such a party now. I think we should support them all, and encourage them to come together, rather than choosing one over the others. Here are some groups that I work with myself.
Indepependent Progressive Politics Network
The
Massachusetts Rainbow Coalition Party grew out of Mel King's campaign
for mayor of Boston and the Massachusetts Jesse Jackson campaigns in 1984 and
1988. The party has been established as an offical
"political designation," meaning that voters can register as Rainbow
Coalition Party members. A mass registration drive in the summer and fall of
1997 will seek to sign up 35,000 voters by January 15, 1998. The Rainbow
Coalition Party does not have a website, but can be telephoned c/o Mel King at
617-253-3287.
Here are some other links about socialism, Marxism, and radical politics:
- Labour Left Briefing Links is a UK-centered compilation of links to libraries, campaigns, parties, and labor movement organizations.
- The Political Information Exchange has as its mission statement "To do everything we
can to help bring transparency to the left and to the world of political
ideas." They are just starting out; right now (as of
Political Science
For more details, take a look at my vita. My book, Unequal
Struggle: Class, Gender, Race, and Power in the
1998 is the 150th anniversary of publication of the Communist Manifesto--a book which, in my opinion, remains highly relevant today. Take a look at the site 150 years of the Communist Manifesto for more discussion about the anniversary.
I spend a lot of time working on New Political
Science. Please subscribe!
And after you subscribe, please buy some books from our book series!
Recreation
Aside from politics, I enjoy music, photography, and outdoor activities,
especially birds. I also like to drink wine (at least, if it's good!)
These links show some sites I have found useful.
Something to think about--
Even where there is no prospect whatsoever of their being elected, the workers must put up their own candidates in order to preserve their independence, to count their forces and to bring before the public their revolutionary attitude and party standpoint. In this connection they must not allow themselves to be seduced by such arguments of the democrats as, for example, that by so doing they are splitting the democratic party and making it possible for the reactionaries to win. . . . The advance which the proletarian party is bound to make by such independent action is infinitely more important than the disadvantage that might be incurred by the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body.
Science is politics by other means.
--Bruno Latour, Sandra Harding, Kim Stanley Robinson,
. . .?
(I first attributed this to
Kim Stanley Robinson, one of my favorite science fiction writers; he
uses the phrase in his 3-part series on the settlement and terraforming
of Mars (and simultaneous revolutionary struggle), Red
Mars (1993), Green
Mars (1995), and Blue
Mars (1997). However, I later learned that the phrase is used by
Harding in Whose
Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives (1991), p. 10.
Still, later, I was informed by Gisle Hannemyr that it was used even earlier by Bruno Latour in The
Pasteurization of France (1988), p. 229 (a translation of Les Microbes:
guerre et paix, suivi de Irréductions,
published in
When you see an animal, it's only natural to wonder what kind of flavor it has.
--Kuang Zuoqiao, quoted by Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times, June 25, 2002
This site is hosted by The World
Your comments are invited--send them to
jberg@world.std.com
Revised