DOUG HENWOOD, editor of LEFT BUSINESS OBSERVER, to speak at Chicago activist conference.

DOUG HENWOOD, editor of Left Business Observer, and author of Wall Street will be speaking on “The End of the Miracle Economy” on June 15th at Socialist Summer School 2001.

JUST A year ago the stock market seemed to have no ceiling and mainstream economists and corporate pundits were talking about the goldilocks economy and an end to the economic crises of the past.

BUT NOW, with corporate profits declining and layoffs increasing at places like Montgomery Wards, the retail chain that went bankrupt three days after Christmas, leaving 28,000 workers without jobs, the question of what happened to the miracle economy has come front and center. 60,000 auto workers have been on temporary or permanent layoff. Aetna has laid off 5,000 employees and cut hundreds of thousands of senior citizens from their insurance rolls. And layoffs have continued at Motorola, which shut down its plant in Harvard, Illinois. Even “new economy” powerhouse, AOL-Time Warner has axed over 4,000 workers.

THIS PAST WINTER heating oil and natural gas prices skyrocketed, and rent is going through the roof in cities across the country. What is going on? And what will a recession mean for working class people, especially after President Clinton’s 1996 “Welfare De-form” Bill gutted the social safety net?

HEAR DOUG Henwood, editor of the Left Business Observer, speak about what has happened to the “Miracle Economy” of the 1990s, and participate in a discussion of how we can fight layoffs and the other attempts to make us pay the price for an economic downturn.

Congress Plaza Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Ave., Downtown Chicago,
FOR MORE INFORMATION e-mail socialistsummerschool2001 (at) hotmail.com, visit www.socialistsummerschool.org, call 773 583 8665.

AND CHECK OUT OTHER MEETINGS AT SOCIALIST SUMMER SCHOOL ON THE ECONOMY, THE FIGHT FOR WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND MORE:
Thursday, June 14:
Fighting Corporate Power, with former sweatshop worker Chie Abad
Friday, June 15:
Marxism and the Trade Union Struggle
The Great Depression: How Workers Fought Back
Marx’s Theory of Economic Crisis and Its Critics
Saturday, June 16:
Is the U.S. Headed for Recession?
Marxist Economics: Does the Rate of Profit Fall over the Long Term?
Can Labor Organize the New Economy?
On the Front Lines of Labor’s Battles Today
Can a Planned Economy Work?
Sunday, June 17:
The Politics of Neoliberalism
Why “Buying American” Won’t Help Workers
Is There An Energy Crisis?

Sponsored by the International Socailist Organization (www.internationalsocialist.org) and the Center for Economic Research and Social Change.