The economic case for an independent Scotland

This article puts forward an economic case for Scotland becoming independent. There have been many debates regarding the economic consequences of independence. This paper sets out Scotland’s economic and financial potential, and how economic prosperity and resilience are not well served by the current UK economic model of constitutional framework

Documenting the Social Cost of Unemployment

[Excerpt] In the commercial press, unemployment figures, are frequently cited and there are periodic human interest stories about the unemployed. But rarely are the causes of plant closings analyzed and linked to the profound and terrible impact they have on the communities that have nurtured these same corporations for generations. Costs, profits, and industrial development are perceived in narrow corporate terms, not in their full relationship to our society

Broadening The Arena for Participation & Control

[Excerpt] Andy Banks and Jack Metzgar have made a critically important contribution to untangling the concepts of participation and cooperation, in making the case for labor to be aggressive in areas historically reserved for management and to do so in a way that builds the organizing model of unionism. The concepts of participation and cooperation have been brought to the bargaining table in a way similar to ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans). Rather than recoil and withdraw from the discussion, the authors provide us with an approach that can effectively counter frequently narrow and self-serving management objectives with a program that furthers labor\u27s interests

Debate: Worker Ownership: A Tactic for Labor

[Excerpt] Two years ago Taylor Forge, a subsidiary of Gulf + Western, I closed. I had worked there for almost eight years as a production I machinist, and I was Grievance Chairman of United Steelworkers Local 8787. During the last two years before the doors shut, G + W I had demanded concessions as a trade-off for the possibility of job security. By that time, through our own research, we knew we were victims of G + W\u27s milking strategy. Concessions wouldn\u27t have saved jobs. They would have just increased the demoralization and financial strain on our members as the place went down. We didn\u27t grant concessions. The factory died department by department and order by order, led by a smart-ass company accountant who was hated by his own management team as much as by the workers. It was common to hear on the floor, as workers watched the source of their income and pride collapse, We could run this better ourselves without them. When you looked at the probable 20% profit rate that G + W expected from Taylor Forge, the policy for maintenance and inventory geared to draining rather than maintaining, the enormous morale problems, and the incredible mismanagement contrasted to the skill,commitment and; knowledge of a veteran work force—workers\u27 capacity to run it better wasn\u27t an idea that was out of the question. Certainly difficult, but not impossible. But this was an option that neither my local nor myself knew much about at the time

Expanding the Fight Against Shutdowns

[Excerpt] The Midwest Center for Labor Research has been involved, in both direct and secondary ways, in fighting dozens of plant closings. We\u27ve studied similar efforts of labor-community coalitions around the country, beginning with the Ecumenical Coalition\u27s fight to save Youngstown Sheet & Tube in 1977. We also have several years\u27 experience in building community-based economic development projects on Chicago\u27s West Side and in Northwest Indiana. This article argues that, as the crisis of manufacturing has deepened, the fight against shutdowns has accumulated a rich mine of experience and insight upon which it is now possible to wage a series of more effective struggles. It argues that, while fighting shutdowns on one front, labor must take the lead in building diverse local coalitions engaged in systematic efforts to retain and create jobs in the community. This is not only essential for immediate objectives, but can provide an opportunity for labor to begin to mount an aggressive political and economic offensive in the broad public interest

Influence of friction on granular segregation

Vertical shaking of a mixture of small and large beads can lead to segregation where the large beads either accumulate at the top of the sample, the so called Brazil Nut effect (BNE), or at the bottom, the Reverse Brazil Nut effect (RBNE). Here we demonstrate experimentally a sharp transition from the RBNE to the BNE when the particle coefficient of friction increases due to aging of the particles. This result can be explained by the two competing mechanisms of buoyancy and sidewall-driven convection, where the latter is assumed to grow in strength with increasing friction.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Observations of the stratorotational instability in rotating concentric cylinders

We study the stability of density stratified flow between co-rotating vertical cylinders with rotation rates $\Omega_o < \Omega_i$ and radius ratio $r_i/r_o=0.877$, where subscripts $o$ and $i$ refer to the outer and inner cylinders. Just as in stellar and planetary accretion disks, the flow has rotation, anticyclonic shear, and a stabilizing density gradient parallel to the rotation axis. The primary instability of the laminar state leads not to axisymmetric Taylor vortex flow but to the non-axisymmetric {\it stratorotational instability} (SRI), so named by Shalybkov and R\"udiger (2005). The present work extends the range of Reynolds numbers and buoyancy frequencies ($N=\sqrt{(-g/\rho)(\partial \rho/\partial z)}$) examined in the previous experiments by Boubnov and Hopfinger (1997) and Le Bars and Le Gal (2007). Our observations reveal that the axial wavelength of the SRI instability increases nearly linearly with Froude number, $Fr= \Omega_i/N$. For small outer cylinder Reynolds number, the SRI occurs for inner inner Reynolds number larger than for the axisymmetric Taylor vortex flow (i.e., the SRI is more stable). For somewhat larger outer Reynolds numbers the SRI occurs for smaller inner Reynolds numbers than Taylor vortex flow and even below the Rayleigh stability line for an inviscid fluid. Shalybkov and R\"udiger (2005) proposed that the laminar state of a stably stratified rotating shear flow should be stable for $\Omega_o/ \Omega_i > r_i/r_o$, but we find that this stability criterion is violated for $N$ sufficiently large; however, the destabilizing effect of the density stratification diminishes as the Reynolds number increases. At large Reynolds number the primary instability leads not to the SRI but to a previously unreported nonperiodic state that mixes the fluid