DAVID MacBRYDE
1942-2015
Reminiscences & Accomplishments
David MacBryde’s Journalism.
RAG RADIO
Thorne Dreyer :
November 12, 2012
Interview with Activist David MacBryde
Berlin-based activist David MacBryde in the KOOP studios in Austin, Texas, Friday, November 9, 2012. Photo by Tracey Schulz / Rag Radio.
Inset photo below, Rag Radio’s Tracey Schulz and Thorne Dreyer and guest David Macbryde.
Photo by Charlie Martin / KOOP.
Rag Radio podcasts transcript
Our man in Berlin David MacBryde
By Rag RadioThe Rag Blog| November 1, 2012
David MacBryde — a Berlin-based correspondent forThe Rag Blog— offered a progressive perspective on developments in Germany and the Eurozone to The Rag Radio’s audience on Friday, November 9.
David MacBryde, a former Austin peace and justice activist, is a faith- and economics-based social activist with roots in the Quaker church. Much of his work in Germany has involved the “Swords to Plowshares” movement, especially in the work of converting military bases to peaceful civilian use, and with the anti-war American Voices Abroad in Berlin. He discussed the European Occupy Movement and economic justice and environmental activities among other topics.
MacBryde studied physics and mathematics at Yale and philosophy at the University of Texas, was a staffer atThe Rag, Austin’s influential ‘60s underground newspaper, and worked with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and with Austin’s Armadillo Press, an IWW union print shop. He was also a UT shuttle bus driver and worked with the drivers’ union, ATU Local 1549. David MacBryde moved to Germany in 1981.
David also reported on the October 31-November 2, 2012, conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, honoring the 50th anniversary of the Port Huron Statement, which he attended, and discussed how the SDS concept of “participatory democracy” influenced his life and his politics.
The German dailyDie Tageszeitunghumorously splashed on their front page a decades old archive photo of environmental pioneers.
The headline: “This is what winners look like.”
Power (grid) to the people!
Germany’s ‘great transformation’
By David MacBryde,The Rag Blog / August 3, 2011
BERLIN — In Germany the decision has just been made to shut down ALL nuclear power plants by 2022. This is broadly seen here as a major step in the “great transformation” away from economic activity that endangers and depletes future opportunities and towards activities that achieve sustainable energy and value creation.
During the debate in the German Parliament about energy, Renate Kunast (of the German Green Party) began her presentation by thanking a number of persons by name for their pioneer work decades ago.
Before writing about developments in Germany, I too want to express thanks – for decades of hard work — to Rag Blogcontributor Ray Reece, author o The Sun Betrayed, Gail Vittori and Pliny Fisk at the Center for Maximum Potential, Scott Pittman, founder of thePermaculture Institute, recentlyinterviewed by Thorne Dreyer on Rag Radio, and of course many, many others.
The 2012 decision made in Germany will have an effect on physics, economic activity, politics, philosophy, and more.
The main breakthrough here that I want to focus on – and this gets to my headline of “Power to the People” — is what is called the“Einspeisungsgesetzgebung.” That is a (typically German) very long word which refers to the legislative achievement by Jurgen Trittin (of the German Greens) when he was Minister for the Environment and got — in coalition with the SPD (the Social Democratic Party) — majority approval for an energy policy that enables decentrally-produced energy to be fed into the (at the time not-yet-so-smart) grid.
There are several points here:
- Physical: The legislation enables the transformation of power lines away from one-way transmission and into being a genuine interactive networks.
- Economic: This opens opportunities for decentralized power production. And it is a significant step in the very large scale transformation from using up depletable energy to using sustainable, renewable, energy.
- The politics of power and power politics: In Germany four energy corporations effectively had (note the past tense) oligo-polistic power, both in controlling energy and politically controlling energy policy.
- Philosophy: (I will focus on this in this article) “Ontology” is a technical philosophical term for the study of what “is” is — thus raising the question, “What is reality?”
It can be helpful to distinguish between an “impoverished ontology” that only handles a single kind of reality and an “enriched ontology” that can handle a variety of kinds of reality.
In this context we can more specifically ask, What “is” economic growth?
And we can enrich our understanding if we ask, “What kinds of economic growth are helpful, what kinds are harmful? And for whom? And who gets to participate in decisions about that?
The recent decisions made in Germany are part of what here is called the “great transformation” away from “growth” that actually depletes future opportunities to growth that enhances future opportunities.
[Rag BlogBerlin correspondentDavid MacBrydeworked with Austin’s Sixties underground newspaper,The Rag.
See more articles by David MacBrydeonThe Rag Blog.]
The Rag Blog
Berlin : “Promoting the General Welfare”
by Dave MacBryde
Posted onMarch 21, 2010byThorne Dreyer
Frieze by New Deal sculptor Lenore Thomas
at Center School in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photo by Anomalous_A’s / Flickr.
Americans in Berlin:
How do we ‘promote the general welfare’?
By David MacBryde / The Rag Blog/ March 21, 2010
BERLIN —The Rag Bloghas posted a number of articles about health care in other parts of the world, likeVictoria Foe’s earlier featureexposing myths about the Canadian system, andmy earlier articleabout health care in Germany.
Now I’d like to offer a little background and two comments, a personal and a philosophical one.
American Voices Abroad (AVA)-Berlin occasionally convenes “Café Americain,” a political salon. Recently we read and discussed theU.S. Constitution, line by line. A core stated purpose in founding the United States of America was “to promote the general welfare.”
Question: How and by whom does that get defined? It can be a difficult process, and has changed over time. Originally, at the time the constitution was written, Indians, slaves, and women had no vote in defining that.
Since then the constitution has been improved some.
When I was a kid in the 1950’s “the general welfare” seemed to be defined simply as, “What is good for GM is good for the USA” — in a corporate led economic boom, with “everything getting better for everybody.”
But that boom has been over for a long time now.
GM drove over a cliff. And recently in a spectacular way, with “innovative investment grade products,” the capital market made what were not — shall we say —efficientinvestment decisions, misallocating vast sums.
The issue of “the general welfare,” of how and by whom that gets defined, has become dramatic indeed. The effort to reform health care in the U.S. certainly provides insight into that process. The process has been messy, and some have compared it to making sausage.
(I will note that I once helped make sausage, literally. One of my best friends when I was a kid invited me to his home when the family pig was turned into sausage. The family knew how to do that well. I found it rather grisly, but do not, just now, want to philosophize about the pros and cons of eating meat or being a vegetarian.)
Now, living in Germany and looking at the health care efforts here and in the USA, I will make a philosophical point. While there are intense issues here, there is a general cultural agreement that promoting a good health care system is an important part of promoting the general welfare — that there are “common goods” that are worth maintaining and improving upon. And there are processes here to work on that.
A technical term in philosophy is “ontology” — which humorously put, is the study of what “is” is. What “is” reality? What kinds of “reality” “are” there? What entities exist or can be said to exist. Moving further, are there “common goods,” or “the general welfare,” and by whom and how are decisions made about “common goods” and “the general welfare”?
What do you think?
I will raise this issue again in a different context, in early May, when in Berlin there will be a celebration at the historical inner city Tempelhoff airport. Air traffic has been moved to another airport on the edge of town, and the Tempelhoff airfield will be opened to public use. There are some similarities between Tempelhoff airport in Berlin and the old Mueller Airport area in Austin, Texas.
Historically, the Tempelhoff airfield has defined a large part of Berlin, especially during the “Berlin Airlift.” Now the closing of that field for air traffic has opened it for flights of fantasy about future use.
Practical decisions will be made, over a long period of time. Here those decisions will be made in the context of promoting the general welfare and urban living conditions in Berlin going on into the 21st century.
I will try to report on future developments concerning those efforts.
In the meantime, below is a letter that members of AVA-Berlin wrote about supporting the health care fight in the U.S.
[Editor’s note: as we publish this, Congress appears to be in the process of passing President Obama’s compromise health care bill.]
Americans in Berlin. Our man David MacBryde, in the hat, is fifth from the right Photo by Karen Axelrad.
Dear AVA-Berliners,
The health care reform bill is still alive and headed for a vote within the next week or so. Although not as far-reaching as many of us had hoped, the bill has real merit. It is expected to cover 34 million uninsured, to eliminate pre-existing condition clauses, close the gap in the Medicare drug program, and eventually control the spiraling costs of health care spending. It will also provide a basis for future changes and improvements.
Passing a health care bill will also affirm and strengthen the Obama administration against a powerful right wing backlash. If health care doesn’t pass, the administration is unlikely to be able to be effective in other critical areas such as environmental protection, energy policy and foreign relations, to name but a few.
Many Democrats are moving into the Yes column for this bill, but unfortunately many are afraid that a vote for a health care bill will damage their re-election chances. In the next few days, their offices will be virtually under siege from those who listen to Beck, Hannity, etc. If you would like to counter this onslaught with a powerful positive message to your Senators and Representatives — emphasizing that health care reform is so important to you that you are calling from Germany — links to phone numbers are provided below.
Links to numbers:
If you have a flat rate for calls to the U.S., great! If not, use one of the special prefixes to make an inexpensive call to the U.S. And remember, this e-mail can be passed along to family and friends, to remind everyone who cares about the state of health care in the U.S. to stand up for it now.
You can check with our website for up-to-the-minute rates. And again, we urge you to call your people in Congress even if they have a good voting record.
To call your Senators, use , select your state (the state to which you send your absentee vote) and go from there. For your Representative, use Click on Find Your Representative (by zip code) or Write Your Representative in the top left hand corner.
Carolyn Prescott,member
Ann Wertheimer,chair
American Voices Abroad – Berlin
[David MacBryde worked forThe Rag, Austin’s Sixties underground newspaper.
He sends us the occasional dispatch from Berlin where he now lives.]
Berlin : A Look at Health Care in Germany
By David MacBryde
Posted onAugust 21, 2009byThorne Dreyer
Some U.S. Citizens in Germany comparing, contrasting and acting upon health care issues. That’s The Rag Blog’s David MacBryde hovering in the back and scratching his head (lower picture). Photos by Karen Axelrad / The Rag Blog.
Americans in Germany:
How health care works here in Germany
By David MacBryde/ The Rag Blog / August 21, 2009
BERLIN — While health care issues are difficult and can be complicated, there was certainly a shared sense that although health care in Germany can be improved, on the whole it is comparatively better than the current situation in the USA.
There was no controversy about the point that some German beers are great. There was lots of controversy about health care issues, but a common sense that on the whole health care in Germany is better and is worth looking at.
Footnotes:
(1) Interview with Kurt Lauterbach, in Frontline: Sick Around the World: Five Capitalist Democracies and How They Do It, Public Broadcasting System series, April 2008.
(2) “Most Germans Happy with German Health Care,” National Public Radio feature, reported by Richard Knox, produced by Jane Greenhalgh, June, 2008.
(3)Krankenkassentarife, an independent website that provides information (in German) on the German health care laws, 2009:
(4) Krankenkassentarife website.
(5) Frontline: Sick Around the World: Five Capitalist Democracies and How They Do It , Public Broadcasting System series, April 2008. http:
(6) Frontline interview with Kurt Lauterbach.
(7) Ursula Weide, “Law and the German Universal Health Care System: A Contemporary Overview,” German Law Journal No. 8 (1 August 2005).
(8) Frontline interview with Kurt Lauterbach.
(9) Frontline interview with Kurt Lauterbach.
(10) Krankenkassentarife website.
[David MacBryde — our correspondent in Berlin — was an Austin activist and a contributor to The Rag Blog’s historical precursor,The Rag, a pioneering member of the Sixties underground press.]
The Rag Blog
Some Fundamental Changes in Decision-Making
in Germany and the USA
By David MacBryde
Posted onMarch 12, 2009byRagBlog
THIS IS SATIRE on the front page of “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.”
Photo by David MacBryde.
Some fundamental changes in decision-making in Germany and the USA — pointed at by the Rag Blog Berlin correspondent
By David MacBryde / The Rag Blog / March 11, 2009
News in Berlin:
Germans debate and draft legislation to enable
bank expropriation if necessary for the public good.
(A) Acting now in the capital market crisis, the decision about this specific legislation marks a seismic change in Germany about economic decision-making. For a comparison to the USA, Joseph Stiglitz’s article “Capitalist Fools” is helpful.
(B) Forecasting the crises, and what is “beyond” the crises:Will we get a U, I, L or E ?
BERLIN – Something new and something old: The conservative “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) on 19 February 2009 headlines the cabinet decision on legislation that would enable bank expropriation if that becomes necessary for the common good. The editorial expresses concern, but acknowledges the decision.
The front page picture by Helga Lade, in an attempt at humor in these times, is titled “In Times Like These” and shows a 1987 photo of the communist East German flag flying at the “Peoples’ Own Enterprise” ( “Volkseigenebetrieb”, VEB) PERFEKT – a factory, rather dilapidated, making crash helmets. THIS IS SATIRE.
What is at stake here? Who is being satirized? What changes are happening?
First, something old, and what is NOT happening: While the FAZ jokes with a flash-back to monopoly state socialism, that is not what is happening and is not the issue. Indeed the conservative FAZ satires and explicitly chastises the few residual neo-liberal extreme market fundamentalists who try to attack the current democratic government decision about expropriation by trying to paint it as some kind of a march back to monopoly socialism. The conservative FAZ editors, and most people in Germany, view such attacks by residual market fundamentalists as untenable and not helpful in the current work for solutions.
What is now happening is a lot: — A nation-wide warning strike by 700,000 public employees. Brief, Successful. — The passage of a second anti-depression stimulus package, after extensive and intense debates. – Local school districts deciding about their stimulus efforts. — The decision to change motor vehicle tax to include exhaust emissions. — Emergency European meetings acting on the capital market crisis, and working towards the international economic summit decisions scheduled for April. — Considerable anger at General Motors management, with concern about what to do with the GM subsidiary in Germany , Opel. — And more, such as the exciting Berlin Film Festival. The specially featured opening film, out of competition, was appropriately “The International”, a finance system crime thriller. The Golden Bear best film prize (the Berlin mascot is a bear) was awarded to a film from Peru — about a mother’s trauma — raped by paramilitary mercenaries — affecting her daughter.
What I want to focus on isone particular change in decision-making processeshere.
The decision was made to draft legislation specifying and enabling the decision-making process involved in bank expropriation. The particular acute problem now only involves one bank, the Hypo Real Estate Bank. Germany already has publicly owned banks in the “mixed” economy here. The issue is not having publicly owned banks. (And it should be noted that there have been some cases of disastrous mismanagement in “publicly owned” banks here, and with convictions.) The issue now at hand is what happens when there is a conflict between a privately owned bank, private capital, and the public interest as represented by an elected government.