From social contract to 'social contrick' : the depoliticisation of economic policy-making under Harold Wilson, 1974–75

The 1974-79 Labour Governments were elected on the basis of an agreement with the TUC promising a redistribution of income and wealth known as the Social Contract. However, the Government immediately began to marginalise these commitments in favour of preferences for incomes policy and public expenditure cuts, which has led the Social Contract to be described as the 'Social Contrick'. These changes were legitimised through a process of depoliticisation, and using an Open Marxist framework and evidence from the National Archives, the paper will show that the Treasury's exchange rate strategy and the need to secure external finance placed issues of confidence at the centre of political debate, allowing the Government to argue there was no alternative to the introduction of incomes policy and the reduction of public expenditure

European economic constitution and the transformation of democracy : on class and the state of law

In the context of contemporary analyses of the Europe Union as a post-democratic form of economic governance, this article explores the (ordo)liberal character of monetary union as a regime of imposed liberty. The argument holds that rather than forcing the member states into retreat, the economic constitution of Europe strengthens their liberal foundation, securing their utility as the organised force of a mode of social reproduction founded on free labour. It develops the character of the liberal state as the political form of a free market economy with reference to Adam Smith’s classical political economy and the German ordoliberal tradition, which calls for a rule-based system of federated forms of economic governance to secure a free labour economy in conditions of mass democratic aspirations for a freedom from want. It explores the rationale of the ordoliberal distinction between the liberal character and the democratic character of the state and, in this context, assesses the meaning of liberal democracy in a post-democratic Eurozone

Occupy: 'struggles for the common or an 'anti-politics of dignity? Reflections on Hardt and Negri and John Holloway

This article provides a critical examination of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s and John Holloway’s theory of revolutionary subjectivity, and does so by applying their theories to the Occupy movement of 2011. Its central argument is that one should avoid collapsing ‘autonomist’ and ‘open’ Marxism, for whilst both approaches share Tronti’s (1979) insistence on the constituent role of class struggle, and also share an emphasis on a prefigurative politics which engages a non-hierarchical and highly participatory politics, there nevertheless remain some significant differences between their approaches. Ultimately, when applied to Occupy Movement whilst their theory isn’t entirely unproblematic, I will argue that Hardt and Negri’s ‘autonomist’ approach offers the stronger interpretation, due mainly to their revised historical materialism

(Im)possibilities of Autonomy:? Social Movements In and Beyond Capital, the State and Development

In this paper we interrogate the demand and practice of autonomy in social movements. We begin by identifying three main conceptions of autonomy: (1) autonomous practices vis-à-vis capital; (2) self-determination and independence from the state; and (3) alternatives to hegemonic discourses of development. We then point to limits associated with autonomy and discuss how demands for autonomy are tied up with contemporary re-organizations of: (1) the capitalist workplace, characterized by discourses of autonomy, creativity and self-management; (2) the state, which increasingly outsources public services to independent, autonomous providers, which often have a more radical, social movement history; and (3) regimes of development, which today often emphasize local practices, participation and self-determination. This capturing of autonomy reminds us that autonomy can never be fixed. Instead, social movements' demands for autonomy are embedded in specific social, economic, political and cultural contexts, giving rise to possibilities as well as impossibilities of autonomous practices

Comparison of Short-Term Estrogenicity Tests for Identification of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals

The aim of this study was to compare results obtained by eight different short-term assays of estrogenlike actions of chemicals conducted in 10 different laboratories in five countries. Twenty chemicals were selected to represent direct-acting estrogens, compounds with estrogenic metabolites, estrogenic antagonists, and a known cytotoxic agent. Also included in the test panel were 17β-estradiol as a positive control and ethanol as solvent control. The test compounds were coded before distribution. Test methods included direct binding to the estrogen receptor (ER), proliferation of MCF-7 cells, transient reporter gene expression in MCF-7 cells, reporter gene expression in yeast strains stably transfected with the human ER and an estrogen-responsive reporter gene, and vitellogenin production in juvenile rainbow trout. 17β-Estradiol, 17α-ethynyl estradiol, and diethylstilbestrol induced a strong estrogenic response in all test systems. Colchicine caused cytotoxicity only. Bisphenol A induced an estrogenic response in all assays. The results obtained for the remaining test compounds—tamoxifen, ICI 182.780, testosterone, bisphenol A dimethacrylate, 4-n-octylphenol, 4-n-nonylphenol, nonylphenol dodecylethoxylate, butylbenzylphthalate, dibutylphthalate, methoxychlor, o,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDE, endosulfan, chlomequat chloride, and ethanol—varied among the assays. The results demonstrate that careful standardization is necessary to obtain a reasonable degree of reproducibility. Also, similar methods vary in their sensitivity to estrogenic compounds. Thus, short-term tests are useful for screening purposes, but the methods must be further validated by additional interlaboratory and interassay comparisons to document the reliability of the methods

Inhibition of E2-induced expression of BRCA1 by persistent organochlorines

BACKGROUND: Environmental persistent organochlorines (POCs) biomagnify in the food chain, and the chemicals are suspected of being involved in a broad range of human malignancies. It is speculated that some POCs that can interfere with estrogen receptor-mediated responses are involved in the initiation and progression of human breast cancer. The tumor suppressor gene BRCA1 plays a role in cell-cycle control, in DNA repair, and in genomic stability, and it is often downregulated in sporadic mammary cancers. The aim of the present study was to elucidate whether POCs have the potential to alter the expression of BRCA1. METHODS: Using human breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, the effect on BRCA1 expression of chemicals belonging to different classes of organochlorine chemicals (the pesticide toxaphene, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, and three polychlorinated biphenyls [PCB#138, PCB#153 and PCB#180]) was measured by a reporter gene construct carrying 267 bp of the BRCA1 promoter. A twofold concentration range was analyzed in MCF-7, and the results were supported by northern blot analysis of BRCA1 mRNA using the highest concentrations of the chemicals. RESULTS: All three polychlorinated biphenyls and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin reduced 17β-estradiol (E2)-induced expression as well as basal reporter gene expression in both cell lines, whereas northern blot analysis only revealed a downregulation of E2-induced BRCA1 mRNA expression in MCF-7 cells. Toxaphene, like E2, induced BRCA1 expression in MCF-7. CONCLUSION: The present study shows that some POCs have the capability to alter the expression of the tumor suppressor gene BRCA1 without affecting the cell-cycle control protein p21(Waf/Cip1). Some POCs therefore have the potential to affect breast cancer risk

Neoliberalism and the Right Symposium: Introduction

The four articles in this symposium were originally presented as papers at a research workshop on ‘the right and neoliberalism’ held at Queen Mary, University of London, in September 2015. The impetus for the workshop was twofold. First, to reflect on and engage with the avalanche of academic literature and commentary (Gamble, 2009; Mason, 2009; Crouch, 2011; Roubini and Mihm, 2011; Mirowski, 2013) that had emerged in response to the 2008 global financial crisis and, in particular, the question of the ongoing durability and resilience of the neoliberal regime of political economy across the mature capitalist democracies. Secondly, the role of the right and, notably, farright political currents both within neoliberalism and in many of the political responses to the 2008 crisis. Writing this introduction in the wake of the decision by UK voters in June 2016 to depart from the European Union and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency in November of the same year on a platform defined by nationalist and racist rhetoric and scapegoating reveals all too starkly the connections between neoliberalism and the right that the original workshop was concerned with exploring