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Folks: A conference on something called "social exclusion" was advertised on this list a few weeks ago. To me it seemed a bit weird. The following message was posted to a Marxism list today and I'm forwarding it to cgf because it may be relevant. May not. Cheers Jim Blaut -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Eugenics Date: 04-Nov-98 at 18:02 From: INTERNET:marxismists.panix.com, INTERNET:marxismists.panix.com TO: INTERNET:marxismists.panix.com Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 00:58:37 -0800 From: Paul Flewers <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Eugenics Reply-To: [log in to unmask] Re the recent correspondence on eugenics. Britain's New Labour has resurrected the notion of the 'undeserving poor' under the euphemism of the 'socially excluded'. I think that the welfare think-tanks will go in the future towards the idea of a eugenical solution, that is, to make sure that the problem families, drug addicts, petty criminals, long-term unemployed, teenage mothers and others that officialdom see as a drain on welfare funds will be discouraged from having children. As chemical contraceptive devices preventing several years of conception are becoming available, no permanent sterilisation will be needed. Getting welfare money will probably be based upon people's 'good' behaviour, including refraining from having children. One real problem is that whilst practically everyone in Britain is opposed to racially-based eugenical programmes, quite a few people would not oppose them based on social grounds. In the absence of a strong working-class movement that can force the bourgeoisie to finance schemes that can reduce the three million or so unemployment total and give some hope to the really downtrodden poor, I think that such coercive social policies will not meet with much opposition, and only a few isolated voices will speak out. Paul Flewers New Interventions %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%