From stuartmunckton at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 00:41:26 2009
From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:41:26 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] World condemns Honduras coup:various global statements
Message-ID: <2c6145850906302341r40f9f6f9h9300474843b7082c@mail.gmail.com>

A number of statements have been complied at Green Left Weekly
here<http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/800/41219>
.

There are no doubt many more, feel free to email to
weekly.greenleft at greenleft.org.au

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde

From david at miradoiro.com  Wed Jul  1 02:34:51 2009
From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 10:34:51 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
References: <20090630.212028.5196.10.farmelantj@juno.com>
Message-ID: <466DCB4D2DC741B28262C9188CBF8509@Nautilus>

From: "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj at juno.com>
> Bertrand Russell famously said that he had been
> inclined towards a Hegelian idealism until
> he bothered to read what Hegel wrote
> about mathematics and decided that
> Hegel wrote nothing but nonsense about that
> subject and so Russell abandoned Hegelianism.

To be fair, one could get a similar impression from reading the mathematical 
manuscripts. Or at least their review.

Take this sentence:

As Marx remarks (p. 3): 'First making the differentiation and then removing 
it therefore leads literally to nothing. The whole difficulty in 
understanding
the differential operation (as in the negation of the negation generally) 
lies precisely in seeing how it differs from such a simple procedure and 
therefore
leads to real results.'

I'm reasonably competent when it comes to differentiation and for the life 
of me I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to mean.

--David.



From ratbagradio at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 02:41:54 2009
From: ratbagradio at gmail.com (Ratbag Media)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 18:41:54 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] DSP makes major turn towards building the Socialist
	Alliance
Message-ID: <57b410090907010141n3a0d7f09qa34baa4a18b4028b@mail.gmail.com>

Ratbag Media wrote:
> http://www.dsp.org.au/node/228
>
To which Louis Proyect responds:
>Excellent.

But is this possible? Maybe the DSP should have thrown in a quote from
James P. Cannon just to deflect Louis from his enthusiams...

dave riley


From hartin at mail.desy.de  Wed Jul  1 04:25:44 2009
From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:25:44 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011219150.22538@flc26.desy.de>

"As Marx remarks (p. 3): 'First making the differentiation and then 
removing it therefore leads literally to nothing. The whole difficulty in
understanding the differential operation (as in the negation of the 
negation generally) lies precisely in seeing how it differs from such a 
simple procedure and therefore leads to real results.'
I'm reasonably competent when it comes to differentiation and for the life
of me I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to mean."

------------
He's referring to the definition via difference quotients:

Derivate of f(x) = Limit(step->0) of [f(x+step)-f(x)]/step

In the limit of vanishing step this is essentially (in the 
numerator) subtracting it from itself. Its kind of cool when u think about 
it.



From hartin at mail.desy.de  Wed Jul  1 04:36:36 2009
From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:36:36 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011234240.22538@flc26.desy.de>


There is a nice essay on the mathematical notebooks here:

"The Dialectics of Differentiation: Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts and 
Their Relation to His Economics"
http://ideas.repec.org/p/mdl/mdlpap/0203.html


From david at miradoiro.com  Wed Jul  1 05:18:16 2009
From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:18:16 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
References: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011219150.22538@flc26.desy.de>
Message-ID: <DE09341F7A0D4F5C9C96417759C1C9EB@Nautilus>

From: "Anthony Hartin" <hartin at mail.desy.de>
> In the limit of vanishing step this is essentially (in the
> numerator) subtracting it from itself. Its kind of cool when u think about
> it.

Ah, so he's talking about how when what you called step (usually called h I 
think) goes to zero the operation involves subtracting one thing from 
itself. Ok, that makes some sense, I suppose it's all the stuff about 
negation of the negation that I find completely impenetrable.

Also I suspect, but cannot prove, that the people who were writing the 
review were .... let us say a bit creative on interpretation.

--David.



From hartin at mail.desy.de  Wed Jul  1 05:41:42 2009
From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:41:42 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011331010.22538@flc26.desy.de>


"Ah, so he's talking about how when what you called step (usually called h 
I think) goes to zero the operation involves subtracting one thing from
itself. Ok, that makes some sense, I suppose it's all the stuff about
negation of the negation that I find completely impenetrable."

Yes its usually called h and yes, "negation of the negation" is a bit 
mystifying. Except that the difference quotients (let me write it again:
[f(x+h)-f(x)]/h ) is interesting in that the numerator would go to zero 
except that you keep dividing by a smaller and smaller number. And the 
operation itself becomes undefined at the limit itself - which may be 
what Marx is referring to when he wants to replace it with a thorough 
going dialectical relation (leaving aside if that were possible).

The difference quotients are also wrong when f(x) is a constant, as you 
get 1, whereas we know the derivative of a constant is zero. But you could 
argue that a constant is not really a function of x. And if you plug in a 
real function like x^3 and do some algebra, you can take the limit without 
contradiction.


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Wed Jul  1 05:40:27 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:40:27 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] The coup in Honduras succeeds
Message-ID: <1945757887-1246448602-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-639853562-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

Michael Friedman wrote:

When I lived in Nicaragua, the U.S. pretty much directly ran the Honduran military. I don't imagine that's changed much. And what goes for the military as an institution, also goes for the media. Zelaya probably figured that he has a lot of work to do before he could make a referendum stick
--------------------------------------    
You think? Too bad he didn't come to that conclusion before firing a general.  Then there would not be dozens of people wounded by rubber bullets, the fascists of central america would not be sharpening their knives, and other latin american leaders would not have had to spend political capital and possibly put their bodies on the line (Kirchner). 

Of course, Zelaya in a sense is redeeming himself by promising to return to his country, and one cannot help but admire his courage, but a bit more political circumspection and gravitas beforehand could have ensured at least a small step forward instead of this huge clusterfucking step backward. 

Next thursday will indeed be high political theatre. Hope no one ends up dead or in jail. 

Greg
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 06:27:51 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:27:51 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Why Zelaya's actions were legal and constitutional
Message-ID: <4A4B5647.7030705@panix.com>

http://rebelreports.com/post/133319827/why-president-zelayas-actions-in-honduras-were-legal


From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 06:32:46 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:32:46 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Matt Taibbi's questions for Goldman Sachs
Message-ID: <4A4B576E.10006@panix.com>

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/06/30/on-giving-goldman-a-chance/


From schaffer at optonline.net  Wed Jul  1 06:38:03 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:38:03 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011331010.22538@flc26.desy.de>
References: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011331010.22538@flc26.desy.de>
Message-ID: <4A4B58AB.6000208@optonline.net>

Anthony Hartin wrote:
> The difference quotients are also wrong when f(x) is a constant, as you 
> get 1, whereas we know the derivative of a constant is zero.


hahaha... looks are deceiving, you had me believing it for a minute 
myself!!!

for a constant function, f(x+h) = f(x) for all x and h, not f(x) + h.  ;-)

Les


From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 06:44:48 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:44:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Traffic spike
Message-ID: <4A4B5A40.2000308@panix.com>

On a good day my blog gets 1400 visits based on an 8pm deadline when the 
counter gets reset to zero. I just checked--it is 2664! What do you 
think accounts for all those hits? My critique of Jared Diamond? No, it 
is a Michael Jackson feeding frenzy based on the search results 
maintained on the Wordpress dashboard:

Search		Views
michael jackson	1,993
michael jakson	20
michael jackson bad	18
louis proyect	17
micheal jackson	13
michael jackson elvis presley	12
bird	8
salton sea	7
maikel jackson	6
michael jackson elvis	5

I can't imagine what the average Michael Jackson will make of my 
observation:

The picture that emerges about Presley and Jackson is one of the 
tendency of power to corrupt. Lord Acton?s dictum was applied mostly to 
states, but it applies to individuals as well. They surrounded 
themselves with sycophants who never had the nerve to tell the Kings 
that they were jeopardizing their health. Telling the truth might have 
cost someone a job.

But isn?t that what bourgeois society is about ultimately? Both Jackson 
and Presley came from working class families. Joseph Jackson was a crane 
operator at US Steel in Gary, Indiana while Elvis?s father was a 
sharecropper before becoming a truck driver. The two pop stars not only 
climbed their way out of their class roots, but became as wealthy as 
many ruling class figures at their pinnacle.

Elvis was fortunate enough to have a shrewd manager in Colonel Tom 
Parker who invested the singer?s income wisely even as he squandered his 
natural talents as a singer.

But Michael Jackson was not so fortunate. Once his career took a 
nosedive, he continued to spend money as if he was still on top. They 
report that he might have had $500 million in personal debt the day he 
died, which puts him in good company considering the state of the 
American economy.

It would appear that cultural and economic decay go hand in hand.	


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 07:25:14 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 09:25:14 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Traffic spike
References: <4A4B5A40.2000308@panix.com>
Message-ID: <BB38167A1585448289ED0510E7E515F9@dmsthinkpad>

He should have declared himself a bank and applied for the TARP money....

Or maybe the bankers should do what he did, and overdose on a zombie 
cocktail.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3 at panix.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 8:44 AM
Subject: [Marxism] Traffic spike


But Michael Jackson was not so fortunate. Once his career took a
nosedive, he continued to spend money as if he was still on top. They
report that he might have had $500 million in personal debt the day he
died, which puts him in good company considering the state of the
American economy.




From hartin at mail.desy.de  Wed Jul  1 07:38:24 2009
From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:38:24 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Marxism] Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907011536420.22538@flc26.desy.de>


"hahaha... looks are deceiving, you had me believing it for a minute
myself!!!"

damnation, you're correct. that will teach me to sound authorative.
Maths 1, dialectics 0



From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 07:45:08 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:45:08 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Cuba pays tribute to Michael Jackson
Message-ID: <4A4B6864.8060407@panix.com>

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/30/1983231.aspx


From antidoxic at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 07:50:49 2009
From: antidoxic at gmail.com (Emrah Goker)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:50:49 +0300
Subject: [Marxism] Dramatic Decline in Turkish Wages
Message-ID: <c1da68b60907010650h6d16d53aj2edb9fcabb35c8a7@mail.gmail.com>

The situation is quite bad for the Turkish workers as the crisis rolls
on. But I need to play the devil's advocate for a minute, not to paint
a bright neoliberal future for Turkey, but just for the sake of
statistical consistency. The WSWS article
(http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/turk-j30.shtml) relies on data
analyzed in a research note ("According to economist Professor
Seyfettin Gursel, director of the Centre for Economic and Social
Research (BETAM) at Bah?esehir University...") published on June 29th.

Yet yesterday, the authors re-published the note with a correction:
Their first calculation treated Turk-Stat's gross wages-salaries index
as though it represented industrial employment wages-salaries, but it
did not. The correct calculation, taking into account only industrial
employmeny wages-salaries gives an increase of 7.2% (instead of a 4%
decrease) in nominal wages, compared to the first quarter of 2008, in
the first quarter of 2009. Therefore, the comparative fall of real
wages is not 11.4%, but 2%, accounting for the inflation.

(The corrected research note in Turkish:
http://betam.bahcesehir.edu.tr/UserFiles/File/ArastirmaNotu040.doc)

While the real decline in wages (compared to 2008) is not yet
dramatic, I can follow from the "secret" world of Turkish research
companies (serving "crisis tracking" statistical packages, reinforced
by consumer surveys, to concerned businesses) that (a) purchasing
power did not recover since November 2008, (b) small neighborhood
businesses (according to surveys of pharmacies, groceries, small
liquor stores, etc.) are having a very bad time since January 2009,
and (c) the attempt to boost car and electronic good sales by lowering
the VAT did not work.


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 08:02:49 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:02:49 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <B34E8099-8268-498E-96BC-E0651B5A1B3D@pipeline.com>
References: <b3ea89880906300308w1fc4e753n505bd6f7e933d72e@mail.gmail.com>	<1246358050.5970.393.camel@john-desktop>	<C3543400157240F190D2B3619241F85D@dmsthinkpad>	<b3ea89880906301041u68720125yd91cb065babc2bb4@mail.gmail.com>	<4A4A4FDF.2000307@panix.com><03A3ECF8-13C4-45A8-8B7C-3B12D8959F95@pipeline.com>	<4A4A69B8.20300@panix.com><A8C238F0B4B04DFE88445E047E51695A@dmsthinkpad>	<4A4A8000.6040401@gmail.com>	<C8E5C25D52D747F6BFAD06048D207588@dmsthinkpad>	<9558C8CE-C9DD-4352-A38F-2B35BB78A582@pipeline.com>	<4A4A90A7.7040905@gmail.com>
	<B34E8099-8268-498E-96BC-E0651B5A1B3D@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <4A4B6C89.1000001@gmail.com>

Shane Mage escribi?:
> On Jun 30, 2009, at 6:24 PM, Nestor Gorojovsky wrote:
>> Those who struggle against imperialist bourgeoisies and their local
>> allies around planet Earth are on the same side.
> 
> Right.  And *every* government that oppresses workers, farmers, women,  
> and gays counts among those "local allies," even those too feeble to  
> realize their own imperial dreams.
> 

Shane has written for the records. So will I.

I feel that Shane?s last opinion is abstract outside the imperialist 
nations.

Anyway, and sorry, I repeat: just for the record. Won?t engage in any 
debate on these issues today.

There is a good reason: Latin American revolutionariess have suffered a 
defeat in Argentina, not without a strong push from a good fraction of 
the "abstract Arg left", and I am too busy trying to put my grain of 
sand in the effort to reorganize our forces and strike back.

Unfortunately, the consequences of Sunday?s election in Argentina may 
well be worse in the long term than the consequences of the Honduran 
coup. Hope I am wrong


From donaloc at hotmail.com  Wed Jul  1 07:58:45 2009
From: donaloc at hotmail.com (D OC)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:58:45 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Marx on Mathematics
Message-ID: <BLU138-W865C1D8254D6EEA6F97D2AB2E0@phx.gbl>


The paper forwarded was Anthony Hartin was very interesting indeed. Marx seems to have anticipated both Boole's work on finite calculus and even operator theory which he seems to have described in dialectical terminology as 'strategies of action' (at least to some extent). My academic specialism is Mathematics - primarily analysis - and did not know Marx wrote anything substantial on it aside from his work on logic. So quite something to see this.

 

He correctly identifies underlying problems within Leibnitzian integration which were subsequently dealt with more advanced measure theory. His analytic approach prefigures some similar approaches to wider problems in the decades after his death. 

 

Also very interesting is how his concerns with the logical basis of infinitesmal theory is reflected in his aversion to simplistic mathematical modelling in Economics. The concept of infinitesmals like so many other assumptions underpinning modern economic theory can never really reflect the nature of the real economy (as Joan Robinson said they have substituted mathematics for thinking). Just consider what an infinitesmal increase in labour power represents. While this might seem pedantic to more vulgar economists - from a pure mathematical perspective it is critical. The differential cannot be defined. Perhaps it was this realisation that led him to review the definition of the limit.

 

Yet again the quality and intellectual rigour of Marx's thought stands out. The fact that he could spend such time reading back into Newton's early work (which is tremendously inaccessible particularly the more mathematical bits) is typical of the man. Newton's methods remain largely untapped today - his extensive proofs overhauled by modern methods. But there is likely concepts involved which will inform future studies. 

 

Marx's intellectual honesty and moral courage in tackling difficult issues remain an outstanding example to us all. That it has not been published until relatively recently is a shame. Furthermore his presentation of thought through the dialectic makes it very difficult to grasp what he was saying but it is very coherent - if at times slightly naive from a modern analytic perspective. 

 

The question for me is whether the mathematical books are in the Collected Works. If not, as it appears, why not? Also, what else is missing from the MECW? I would be grateful for any answers.

_________________________________________________________________
Get 30 Free Emoticons for your Windows Live Messenger
http://www.livemessenger-emoticons.com/funfamily/en-ie/

From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 08:03:46 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:03:46 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Dramatic Decline in Turkish Wages
In-Reply-To: <c1da68b60907010650h6d16d53aj2edb9fcabb35c8a7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <c1da68b60907010650h6d16d53aj2edb9fcabb35c8a7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A4B6CC2.30905@panix.com>

Emrah Goker wrote:
> 
> While the real decline in wages (compared to 2008) is not yet
> dramatic, I can follow from the "secret" world of Turkish research
> companies (serving "crisis tracking" statistical packages, reinforced
> by consumer surveys, to concerned businesses) that (a) purchasing
> power did not recover since November 2008, (b) small neighborhood
> businesses (according to surveys of pharmacies, groceries, small
> liquor stores, etc.) are having a very bad time since January 2009,
> and (c) the attempt to boost car and electronic good sales by lowering
> the VAT did not work.

Leaving aside the stats, the word I get from relatives in Istanbul and 
Izmir is a worsening economy.

Speaking of Turkey, here's an article from the latest Harper's (snatched 
from behind their subscriber's firewall, so sorry for the length) on a 
Kemalist coup plot called "Ergenekon". It was translated by Sibel Erol, 
the wife of my elementary and intermediate Turkish language professor at 
Columbia Etem Erol. I have to confess that after taking one class in 
advanced Turkish with her, I dropped out of the class. I think I am 
doing quite well in remaining youthful in my 64th year, but short-term 
memory is beginning to fail me. I can remember what I learned in high 
school Spanish better than what I learned in intermediate Turkish last year.

Harper's Magazine, July 2009
My so-called putsch
By Ozden Ornek and Ayse Sibel Erol (Trans.)

 From the diary of Admiral Ozden Ornek, who served for two years as 
commander of the Turkish navy, beginning in August 2003. The diary has 
been cited as evidence in the ongoing trial of more than one hundred 
alleged members of a group called Ergenekon?including journalists, 
academics, and retired military officers?charged with plotting to 
overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His 
Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has roots in Islamism, gained 
power in the fall of 2002. Excerpts from the diary were published in 
2007 by the Istanbul weekly Nokta. Its offices were soon after raided by 
the government, and it ceased publication. Ornek has claimed that the 
diaries were forged, but an official probe upheld their authenticity. 
The investigation of Ergenekon was launched in the summer of 2007, after 
the discovery of weapons caches in various Turkish cities. In April, 
General Ilker Basbug, who last year became chief of the general staff, 
denied that there was a conspiracy in the military to undermine 
democracy in Turkey. Sarikiz means ?blonde girl.? Translated from the 
Turkish by Ayse Sibel Erol.

september 2, 2003

In the morning, I paid a visit to Ayta? Yalman, commander of the army. 
Ibrahim Firtina, commander of the air force, and Sener Eruygur, 
commander of the military police, joined us. We talked about what 
actions we should take. I offered to prepare an analysis of the 
situation and to come up with some recommendations. They accepted my 
offer. It seems that from this point on, I will have to devote less time 
to the business of the navy and more to following political developments.

september 22

We decided that if the head of the Grand National Assembly welcomes us 
to the opening of the assembly on October 1 accompanied by his wife, who 
wears a head scarf, we won?t attend. We also reached these decisions:

?The proposals prepared for persuading AKP to change its course will be 
presented to Hilmi Ozk?k, the chief of the general staff, this week.

?If he agrees with us, then we will proceed with our undertaking.

?If he does not agree that something should be done, we will say to him, 
?Either you resign or we will resign.?

Everyone says Ozk?k, the chief of the general staff, won?t do anything 
because he thinks like the government. The last thing the nation needs 
at this point is tension among the military. We have to act carefully, 
and we have to make sure we act in unison by winning over Ozk?k.

At the end of the meeting, Firtina got up and said, ?Let us shake 
hands.? All four of us placed our hands on top of each other?s and shook 
hands. This seemed funny to me.

september 26

I worked on the special report till lunch. It is very well prepared. The 
report sounds a bit like a memorandum for a coup, but we asked Yalman to 
soften its language. If Ozk?k does not agree with it, either he will go 
or we will go. The way the country is headed is awful. Somebody has to 
say ?stop? to this. Otherwise we will become another Iran.

september 30

Ozk?k apparently had several objections to the report. Most important, 
he does not believe that the government wants a shar?ia state. I said to 
Yalman, ?If the situation goes on like this, my resignation letter is in 
my briefcase. I can submit it and leave immediately. I don?t care.?

october 7

A law concerning the religious high schools was proposed in the Grand 
National Assembly. The government is deliberately acting against the 
Republic and the principle of secularism. We brought this up with Ozk?k 
at dinner. I told him the law might force us to accept the graduates of 
religious high schools at the military academies in the future. He said 
to me, ?You?re exaggerating. The religious high schools are just like 
any other high school, except that they have additional courses on 
religion.? I could not believe my ears. How can a mind-set developed 
through a religious training, one used to explaining phenomena by the 
existence of a grand creator rather than through the logic of cause and 
effect, adapt to a scientific education? The truth is that this law 
would mean the fanaticization of the university. Yalman said as much to 
Ozk?k, who was discomfited. His expression changed. He scowled.

october 8

None of us thinks that Ozk?k is a man of courage. We believe that he is 
trying to buy time for the AKP government by delaying our reaction. He 
is acting as if he is in a secret agreement with the government. 
Although he knows that we are losing prestige in the eyes of the public 
and losing the people?s trust, he is still trying to get along with the 
government. Even his soft objections to the AKP are pro forma and 
perhaps scripted. It is as if his mission is to keep us waiting and 
soften us. Is he the government?s man? Is he a fundamentalist?

december 3

At a meeting Ozk?k gave everybody present an opportunity to speak, 
starting from the people of lowest rank. At the end, he said, ?I thank 
you. It?s good that everyone is in agreement. I agree with 80 percent of 
what was said. But there are also points that I don?t agree with. I 
thank all of you for speaking openly, but I have no intention of issuing 
a memorandum. This government has to go. We will handle this through 
democratic means. I believe that there are many things we can do.?

I think this was an historic meeting. We relayed the message to Ozk?k 
that we are not in agreement with him. He, for his part, understood that 
he is alone. He is insisting on resisting despite appearances. But it is 
too late now. He has gone down a path he can?t retreat from.

december 6

We all became worried when the amendments to the regulations for 
organizing Koran courses were published. Then we were also disturbed 
when the AKP proposed the opening of dervish lodges. Yalman said, ?I?m 
very much put out by these, and made a plan for myself. If nothing 
happens in January, I will resign.? We all objected to this and decided 
to make a plan of action:

?Win over the media.

?Contact the university presidents and have the students demonstrate on 
the streets.

?Encourage the unions to do the same.

?Hang posters on the streets.

?Contact various organizations and support their anti-government statements.

?Undertake these actions throughout the whole country.

?All of the above was given the code name ?Sarikiz.?

february 3, 2004

Firtina and Eruygur are pushing for a coup on March 10. Yalman is trying 
to stop them, saying the time is not yet right. I told him my thoughts: 
?The public has to be ready for a coup; that is, the public must want 
it. There have to be newspaper headlines asking, ?What is the military 
waiting for? When are they going to take over?? as there were before the 
September 12 coup in 1980. Plus, we are now experiencing circumstances 
not applicable to previous coups. Our economy is broken and is entirely 
dependent on external sources. If we can?t get credit from the outside, 
our economy will crash, and people will suffer. We are not ready to take 
on this responsibility. Another thing: is the military unified? If we 
have differences, our end will be disastrous.? I said that for all these 
reasons, we are not yet ready for a coup. But these are not permanent 
obstacles. We have to follow what is happening in Cyprus. Our greatest 
strength is the subject of Cyprus.


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 09:09:20 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:09:20 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Why President Zelaya's Actions in Honduras Were Legal and
	Constitutional
Message-ID: <709f342d0907010809w2b3c43dxab12ea6aea1c4274@mail.gmail.com>

http://rebelreports.com/post/133319827/why-president-zelayas-actions-in-honduras-were-legal


Why President Zelaya's Actions in Honduras Were Legal and Constitutional

Zelaya attempted to give Hondurans the gift of participatory
democracy. It was the coup leaders who violated the constitution.
Those who say otherwise are wrong.

By Alberto Valiente Thoresen, RebelReports Guest Contributor

EDITOR?S NOTE: RebelReports is publishing this original article as a
response to those who claim that the coup in Honduras was legal and/or
constitutional and to the reporting by those media outlets that
consistently repeat false characterizations of Honduran law and
President Zelaya?s actions.?JS

In the classic Greek tragedy, Prometheus Bound, the playwright
observes: ?Of wrath?s disease wise words the healers are.? Shortly
put, this story is about Prometheus, a titan who was punished by the
almighty gods for having given humanity the capacity to create fire.
This generated a conflict, which ended with Prometheus? banishment and
exile.

Currently, there is a tragedy being staged in the Central American
republic Honduras. Meanwhile, the rest of humanity follows the events,
as spectators of an outdated event in Latin America, which could set a
very unfortunate undemocratic precedent for the region. In their rage,
the almighty gods of Honduran politics have punished an aspiring
titan, President Manuel Zelaya, for attempting to give Hondurans the
gift of participatory democracy. This generated a constitutional
conflict that resulted in president Zelaya?s banishment and exile.  In
this tragedy, words are once again the healers of enraged minds.  If
we, the spectators, are not attentive to these words, we risk
succumbing intellectually, willfully accepting the facts presented by
the angry coup-makers and Honduran gods of politics.

In this respect, media coverage of the recent military coup in
Honduras is often misleading; even when it is presenting a critical
standpoint towards the events. Concentrating on which words are used
to characterize the policies conducted by President Zelaya might seem
trivial at first sight. But any familiarity to the notion of
?manufacturing of consent?, and how slight semantic tricks can be used
to manipulate public opinion and support, is enough to realize the
magnitude of certain omissions. Such oversights rely on the public?s
widespread ignorance about some apparently minor legal intricacies in
the Honduran Constitution.

For example, most reports have stated that Manuel Zelaya was ousted
from his country?s presidency after he tried to carry out a
non-binding referendum to extend his term in office. But this is not
completely accurate. Such presentation of ?facts? merely contributes
to legitimizing the propaganda, which is being employed by the
coup-makers in Honduras to justify their actions. This interpretation
is widespread in US-American liberal environments, especially after
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the coup is unacceptable,
but that ?all parties have a responsibility to address the underlying
problems that led to [Sunday]?s events.? However, President Zelaya
cannot be held responsible for this flagrant violation of the Honduran
democratic institutions that he has tried to expand. This is what has
actually happened:

The Honduran Supreme Court of Justice, Attorney General, National
Congress, Armed Forces and Supreme Electoral Tribunal have all falsely
accused Manuel Zelaya of attempting a referendum to extend his term in
office.

According to Honduran law, this attempt would be illegal. Article 239
of the Honduran Constitution clearly states that persons, who have
served as presidents, cannot be presidential candidates again. The
same article also states that public officials who breach this
article, as well as those that help them, directly or indirectly, will
automatically lose their immunity and are subject to persecution by
law. Additionally, articles 374 and 5 of the Honduran Constitution of
1982 (with amendments of 2005), clearly state that: ?it is not
possible to reform the Constitution regarding matters about the form
of government, presidential periods, re-election and Honduran
territory?, and that ?reforms to article 374 of this Constitution are
not subject to referendum.?

Nevertheless, this is far from what President Zelaya attempted to do
in Honduras the past Sunday and which the Honduran political/military
elites disliked so much.  President Zelaya intended to perform a
non-binding public consultation, about the conformation of an elected
National Constituent Assembly. To do this, he invoked article 5 of the
Honduran ?Civil Participation Act? of 2006.  According to this act,
all public functionaries can perform non-binding public consultations
to inquire what the population thinks about policy measures. This act
was approved by the National Congress and it was not contested by the
Supreme Court of Justice, when it was published in the Official Paper
of 2006.  That is, until the president of the republic employed it in
a manner that was not amicable to the interests of the members of
these institutions.

Furthermore, the Honduran Constitution says nothing against the
conformation of an elected National Constituent Assembly, with the
mandate to draw up a completely new constitution, which the Honduran
public would need to approve. Such a popular participatory process
would bypass the current liberal democratic one specified in article
373 of the current constitution, in which the National Congress has to
approve with 2/3 of the votes, any reform to the 1982 Constitution,
excluding reforms to articles 239 and 374. This means that a perfectly
legal National Constituent Assembly would have a greater mandate and
fewer limitations than the National Congress, because such a National
Constituent Assembly would not be reforming the Constitution, but
re-writing it. The National Constituent Assembly?s mandate would come
directly from the Honduran people, who would have to approve the new
draft for a constitution, unlike constitutional amendments that only
need 2/3 of the votes in Congress. This popular constitution would be
more democratic and it would contrast with the current 1982
Constitution, which was the product of a context characterized by
counter-insurgency policies supported by the US-government, civil
fa?ade military governments and undemocratic policies. In opposition
to other legal systems in the Central American region that (directly
or indirectly) participated in the civil wars of the 1980s, the
Honduran one has not been deeply affected by peace agreements and a
subsequent reformation of the role played by the Armed Forces.

Recalling these observations, we can once again take a look at the
widespread assumption that Zelaya was ousted as president after he
tried to carry out a non-binding referendum to extend his term in
office.

The poll was certainly non-binding, and therefore also not subject to
prohibition.  However it was not a referendum, as such public
consultations are generally understood. Even if it had been, the
objective was not to extend Zelaya?s term in office. In this sense, it
is important to point out that Zelaya?s term concludes in January
2010.  In line with article 239 of the Honduran Constitution of 1982,
Zelaya is not participating in the presidential elections of November
2009, meaning that he could have not been reelected. Moreover, it is
completely uncertain what the probable National Constituent Assembly
would have suggested concerning matters of presidential periods and
re-elections. These suggestions would have to be approved by all
Hondurans and this would have happened at a time when Zelaya would
have concluded his term. Likewise, even if the Honduran public had
decided that earlier presidents could become presidential candidates
again, this disposition would form a part of a completely new
constitution. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as an amendment to the
1982 Constitution and it would not be in violation of articles 5, 239
and 374. The National Constituent Assembly, with a mandate from the
people, would derogate the previous constitution before approving the
new one. The people, not president Zelaya, who by that time would be
ex-president Zelaya, would decide.

It is evident that the opposition had no legal case against President
Zelaya. All they had was speculation about perfectly legal scenarios
which they strongly disliked. Otherwise, they could have followed a
legal procedure sheltered in article 205 nr. 22 of the 1982
Constitution, which states that public officials that are suspected to
violate the law are subject to impeachment by the National Congress.
As a result they helplessly unleashed a violent and barbaric
preemptive strike, which has threatened civility, democracy and
stability in the region.

It is fundamental that media channels do not fall into omissions that
can delay the return of democracy to Honduras and can weaken the
condemnation issued by strong institutions, like the United States
government. It is also important that individuals are informed, so
that they can have a critical attitude to media reports. Honduras
needs democracy back now, and international society can play an
important role in achieving this by not engaging in irresponsible
oversimplifications.

Alberto Valiente Thoresen was born in San Salvador, El Salvador. He
currently resides in Norway where he serves on the board of the
Norwegian Solidarity Committee with Latin America


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 09:13:13 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:13:13 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Why President Zelaya's Actions in Honduras Were Legal and
	Constitutional
In-Reply-To: <709f342d0907010809w2b3c43dxab12ea6aea1c4274@mail.gmail.com>
References: <709f342d0907010809w2b3c43dxab12ea6aea1c4274@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <709f342d0907010813w4f6e1f85v96e8d112c153e313@mail.gmail.com>

Sorry, didn't realize Lou had already posted...


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 09:27:20 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:27:20 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
References: <b3ea89880906300308w1fc4e753n505bd6f7e933d72e@mail.gmail.com>	<1246358050.5970.393.camel@john-desktop>	<C3543400157240F190D2B3619241F85D@dmsthinkpad>	<b3ea89880906301041u68720125yd91cb065babc2bb4@mail.gmail.com>	<4A4A4FDF.2000307@panix.com><03A3ECF8-13C4-45A8-8B7C-3B12D8959F95@pipeline.com>	<4A4A69B8.20300@panix.com><A8C238F0B4B04DFE88445E047E51695A@dmsthinkpad>	<4A4A8000.6040401@gmail.com>	<C8E5C25D52D747F6BFAD06048D207588@dmsthinkpad>	<9558C8CE-C9DD-4352-A38F-2B35BB78A582@pipeline.com>	<4A4A90A7.7040905@gmail.com><B34E8099-8268-498E-96BC-E0651B5A1B3D@pipeline.com>
	<4A4B6C89.1000001@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <97178344A1BE4B9E8724B56450FC5113@dmsthinkpad>

When Nestor gets time, I hope he expands on that.  My limited information--  
from the usual suspect sources-- FT, BBC, "official" Argentine press-- leads 
me to believe that this is a defeat for the "center-left" of the Peronist 
"panoply."  In Buenos Aires, I read that the left socialist candidate ran a 
strong second to the business candidate.

This is exactly what we should expect to happen as the struggle sharpens. 
The task is to take advantage of it-- if indeed this outcome in Buenos Aires 
represents a trend.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:02 AM
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry



Unfortunately, the consequences of Sunday?s election in Argentina may
well be worse in the long term than the consequences of the Honduran
coup. Hope I am wrong




From ewjohnson72 at yahoo.com  Wed Jul  1 09:58:22 2009
From: ewjohnson72 at yahoo.com (Eric Johnson)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 08:58:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
Message-ID: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


the so called far left looked hopelessly divided, here are the numbers,  Conidering what Argentina has gone through I view these results particularily disappointing:  http://www.buenosairesherald.com/election/results


--- On Wed, 7/1/09, S. Artesian <sartesian at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: S. Artesian <sartesian at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
> To: ewjohnson72 at yahoo.com
> Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 11:27 AM
> When Nestor gets time, I hope he
> expands on that.? My limited information--? 
> from the usual suspect sources-- FT, BBC, "official"
> Argentine press-- leads 
> me to believe that this is a defeat for the "center-left"
> of the Peronist 
> "panoply."? In Buenos Aires, I read that the left
> socialist candidate ran a 
> strong second to the business candidate.
> 
> This is exactly what we should expect to happen as the
> struggle sharpens. 
> The task is to take advantage of it-- if indeed this
> outcome in Buenos Aires 
> represents a trend.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
> To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:02 AM
> Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
> 
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, the consequences of Sunday?s election in
> Argentina may
> well be worse in the long term than the consequences of the
> Honduran
> coup. Hope I am wrong
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a
> message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/ewjohnson72%40yahoo.com
> 


      



From sartesian at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 10:36:32 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:36:32 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
References: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>

Thanks.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Johnson" <ewjohnson72 at yahoo.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] For the record and sorry





From cpimllib at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 10:35:58 2009
From: cpimllib at gmail.com (CPIML Liberation)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 22:05:58 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] ML Update Vol. 12, No. 27, 30 JUNE - 06 JULY 2009
In-Reply-To: <002401c9fafb$5e1b9110$1601a8c0@user>
References: <002401c9fafb$5e1b9110$1601a8c0@user>
Message-ID: <df738ddb0907010935g1c9728a9of1e05e943aa3e654@mail.gmail.com>

 *ML** **Update*

*A **CPI**(ML) Weekly News Magazine*

**Vol. 12        No. 27       30 JUNE ? 06 JULY  2009

* *

*Resist the Neoliberal Assault on Education*


The UPA Government in its second term has made it a priority to aggressively
push through ?reform? in education. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has announced
the introduction of sweeping changes in schooling and higher education
policy that are deeply disquieting and will have long term implications for
India?s education system. The changes are being ushered in, in the name of
ridding education of long-standing problems and are as such being hailed by
the corporate media as ?revolutionary.? Closer examination of the proposed
changes reveals, however, that all the progressive-sounding rhetoric are
only a smokescreen for policy changes which spell what the World Bank etc
have been recommending for long: freeing of the government from its
responsibility towards education, and institutionalizing privatization of
education.


The Right to Education Bill, soon to come up for enactment by Parliament, is
a typical example. While paying lip service to ?right to education? and
?free and compulsory education for all children below the age of 14? (which
is after all a long-standing demand of educationists and the student
movement), the RTE Bill actually subverts any meaningful notion of right to
education. Refusing the educationists? recommendations of a system of common
neighbourhood schools to ensure free education of equitable standards for
all, the RTE Bill instead institutionalises the existing system of good
schools for those who can pay and substandard, informal schooling for the
poor. In the name of ?right to education,? Sibal has announced the
introduction of ?public-private partnership? (PPP) in government-run schools
(including MCD schools in the capital) and a ?voucher? system for poor
students. In India, the greatest hurdle to right to education for all is no
doubt the fact that poor students cannot afford to pay for good schooling,
and the schooling available for them is of an extremely poor quality. Right
to education cannot become a reality unless it is backed by the political
and financial will of the government to take full responsibility for
education, and by getting rid of the writ of the private profiteers in
schooling. As it is, government spending on education in India is woefully
inadequate and schooling is de facto privatised; ?PPP? is a euphemism for
further withdrawal of the government from its duty to fund education. When
the powerful private players in schooling with impunity evade the current
stipulations to enrol 25% poor students, there is little doubt that
?vouchers? for poor students in a privatised, profit-based system of
schooling will meet the same fate.


The much-hyped move to make Std. 10th board exams optional is also a
cosmetic and hollow measure. The move is being touted as one that will free
students from excessive exam stress. Exam reforms are no doubt needed ? but
they cannot be divorced from wider school reforms and social changes.
Students do not suffer stress only due to exams ? but rather due to deeper
insecurities that are created and fostered by a system that forces them to
compete for shrinking space in education and employment. The UPA
Government?s policies are intensifying this insecurity by the privatisation
of education and the worsening of the unemployment crisis: and as such this
insecurity cannot be undone by mere cosmetic moves like making 10th boards
optional. Further, so long as these exams are ?optional,? even this limited
measure will go against poorer children. The market?s demand for high marks
in school exams will continue, and it is deprived students who will avail of
the ?option? to opt out of the exam system.


In higher education, too, Sibal has proposed sweeping changes such as
introducing of private and foreign universities, and replacing the UGC and
other government-run regulatory bodies with a single ?autonomous? apex body
? the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER). These
changes have been recommended by the Yashpal Committee on higher education
as well as by the National Knowledge Commission.


The HRD Minister has been quick to utilise major controversies over deemed
universities, capitation fees, and racist attacks on Indian students in
Australia, to push for the agenda of private universities and foreign
universities. Deemed universities have become notorious as fraudulent
enterprises cheating students to sell sub-standard education at a steep
price. Sibal has claimed that such flagrant fraud in the name of education
can be checked by doing away with the ?licence raj in education? and
allowing private players to set up universities without so much ?red tape.?
Such reasoning is self-serving and illogical. If anything, the fate of the
?deemed? universities ought to serve as a nightmare preview of the fate
university education is bound to suffer if left to the mercies of the
market.


The replacement of the UGC/AICTE etc with the NCHER as well as the
withdrawal of the Government from the responsibility of the funding and
functioning of higher education is being pushed in the name of ?autonomy.?
What does ?autonomy? mean in these circumstances? Will it mean the autonomy
to hold students union elections; the autonomy of students to conduct
democratic activity; the autonomy to pursue research of one?s own choosing?
The Yashpal Committee report says that the NCHER will be ?an autonomous
body? with a 7-member board, and that one of its 7 members would be ?an
eminent professional from the world of industry;? further, the NCHER will be
?independent of all ministries of the Government of India.? This makes it
clear that ?autonomy? thus defined is nothing but neoliberal shorthand for
freedom for the market and the specifically the profiteers to dictate the
agenda in education. This can only spell the worst un-freedom for the
teachers, students and researchers, and for the spirit of university
education itself.


The experience of health care is warning enough that private for-profit
players cannot serve the needs of the mass of poor Indians. Their steep
prices put them out of reach of the poor, who remain dependent on the
shrinking public healthcare; their claims of superior ?quality? are suspect,
with rampant cases of neglect and corruption; and they have largely relied
for prestige and ?quality? on the best medical practitioners imported from
the public hospitals, thereby weakening the institutions on which the poor
rely. Private universities will be no different. Foreign universities which
will open shop in India, too, are not likely to be the ?top? universities
unless the government is willing to subsidise them; they will instead be
mediocre institutions seeking to shore up their financial crises by reaching
out to India?s vast market.


Sibal has promised to implement the Yashpal Committee?s recommendations
within 100 days. While in such a hurry to implement the recommendations of
the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission, it is telling
that no government, in the last four decades, implemented the Kothari
Commission?s recommendation that 6% of GDP be spent on education!


Sibal, it is apparent, is not so much throwing out the baby of education
with the bathwater of deemed universities, capitation fees, etc..., he is
throwing out the baby, with a sleight of hand, while pretending to throw out
the bathwater. It is urgent that we expose these ?revolutionary? moves for
what they are ? moves to privatise and commercialise education ? and resist
them with all our might, while demanding that the UPA Government instead
meet the long-pending demands for at least 6% of the GDP to be spent on
education.



Bihar Police Brands as ?Extremist?

legendary Bhojpur MLA Comrade Ram Naresh Ram and other CPI(ML) leaders, CJM
Issues Non-bailable warrant

The Bihar police has decided to target and brand as ?extremist?,
octogenarian CPI(ML) MLA and legendary icon of Bhojpur?s struggling poor,
Comrade Ram Naresh Ram and other CPI(ML) leaders. It has issued non-bailable
warrants against these leaders in a nearly decade-old case pertaining to a
protest against police firing which had claimed the lives of four CPI(ML)
supporters who were participating in a protest demonstration against the
killing of a CPI(ML) leader in a fake encounter.

On 20 August 2000, a massive protest demonstration was held at the Arrah
Collectorate against the fake encounter in which popular CPI(ML) leader
Vishwanath Ram was killed. The police opened fire on the demonstrators and
four of them, including a 16 year old student Anand Kumar, were killed. The
other three martyrs are ? Vishram Pandey, Harey Ram Mushahar and Dharmendra
Kumar. The CPI(ML) filed a case against police firing, and that the case is
still pending trial. The police had also filed a case against CPI(ML)
leaders (No. 237/2000) in the Ara/Nawada Police Station. In the latter case,
the Investigating Officer, a police inspector, recently wrote to the CJM,
asking that non-bailable warrants be issued against Comrades Ram Naresh Ram,
as well as former MLA and AIALA National President Comrade Rameshwar Prasad
and 8 other leaders, invoking various IPC Sections (147, 148, 149, 323, 324,
253, 332, 333, 337, 307, 188) as well as the Arms Act and Explosives Act.
The IO?s letter claimed that ?sufficient evidence? had been obtained against
these leaders, who ?are always taking the law into their own hands and,
hiding secretively, and at the first sign of any carelessness, take up arms
and lay siege to the police? (hamesha kanoon ko apne hi haath me liye rahte
hain aur luk chipkar thodi hi asavdhani hone par hathiyar liye pulis par
dhava bol dete hain). The CJM has reportedly issued NBWs against the CPI(ML)
leaders in question.

The IO?s letter is preposterous to say the least. CPI(ML) leaders like
Comrade Ram Naresh Ram are popular mass leaders, icons for the socially and
economically downtrodden and exploited. The open mass protests led by them,
including the 20 August 2000 demonstration, are not conducted ?hiding
secretively.? The only weapons in evidence on 20 August 2000 was the massive
presence of people and the force of their demand for justice. The IO?s
letter itself reference to ?carelessness? by the police is an oblique
reference to the fake encounters, human rights violations and
high-handedness by the police, often in collusion with upper caste
landlords? private armies and ruling parties. The whole thing is a
calculated move to try and humiliate the revolutionary working masses of
Bhojpur, by slandering their leaders and issuing NBWs against them, branding
them as common criminals and ?extremists.?

On 29 June, CPI(ML) MLAs protested vigorously in the Bihar Assembly and
demanded that the Chief Minister take a stand on this mischievous act of
political targeting of the leaders representing the rural poor. Nitish Kumar
was forced to promise to ?look into it.? The next day again, the Bihar
Assembly witnessed vocal protests, asking the Chief Minister to clarify his
stance. CPI(ML) has declared a statewide protest day on 1 July.

The episode exposes the Nitish Government?s tall claims of justice and good
governance, revealing in Nitish?s rule, too, representatives of the
oppressed will be targeted and harassed. It is also a fresh instance of the
discourse of ?extremism? being deployed against popular forces by struggle ?
by Governments of all hues from Orissa to Punjab to West Bengal and now
Bihar and all over the country. For the CPI(ML), such targeting is nothing
new. In Bihar itself, in Congress rule, the CPI(ML) faced severe state
repression; in Laloo-Rabri rule, popular elected leaders like Shah Chand
were convicted under the lapsed draconian law TADA; and in Nitish rule now,
again, the same pattern continues. In Punjab, too, the CPI(ML) is facing the
same kind of repression.



Table the Liberhan Report Without Delay

Punish the Perpetrators of the Babri Masjid Demolition

After a delay of 17 long years, the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice
Liberhan has submitted its report to the Prime Minister. The Liberhan
Commission was set up to enquire into the fascist act of demolition of the
Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Acts of communal violence ? be it the
Hashimpura-Meerut riots of 1989, the Bombay riot of 1992, the anti-Sikh
riots of 1984, or the Gujarat genocide of 2002, have notoriously evaded
justice. The inordinate delay in the process of enquiry of the Liberhan
Commission ? over the course of governments led by the BJP as well as by
self-proclaimed ?secular? coalitions ? is further indication of the immense
lack of political will to prosecute communal politicians for their crimes.

6 December 1992 is indeed a mark of shame for our democracy: when in full
view of the nation, communal mobs, pre-armed with implements, and egged on
by triumphant and gleefully grinning BJP leaders, laid siege to the
historical Mughal-era monument, the Babri Masjid. The Congress Government at
the Centre, notoriously, turned a blind eye to the full-blown preparations
for the demolition and allowed the saffron mobs to gather at Masjid, thus
facilitating the demolition. The demolition of the Masjid was preceded and
followed by bloody communal violence that claimed the lives of innocent
Muslims. Denial of justice in communal riots, and the impunity to communal
Hindutva leaders even in the face of overwhelming evidence against them, is
the single biggest factor that has deepened the alienation of Muslim
minorities in India.

Even today, while the BJP in its response to the submission of the Liberhan
report has denied involvement of its leaders in the demolition, the RSS
which runs the ?parivar? to which BJP belongs has defended the demolition as
a result of ?pent-up anger? for which BJP leaders cannot be held
responsible. Meanwhile Uma Bharti, who as a BJP leader danced on the
shoulders of Murli Manohar Joshi as the mosque came down, and has now
deserted the BJP, declared that she had wanted the mosque to be demolished
and was not about to apologise for the demolition.

17 years is enough delay: the Congress-led UPA government must immediately
table the Liberhan Report in Parliament and allow the nation to know its
findings. The vacillation and prevarication on matters of majoritarian
communal violence that the Congress has perfected led to the demolition of
the Babri Masjid. The failure of no just Shiv Sena but even Congress
Governments in Maharashtra to implement the recommendations of the
Srikrishna Commission on the 1992 Bombay riots is also part of Congress?
shameful track-record on tackling communal violence. The same must not be
repeated now: the perpetrators of the Babri Masjid demolition must be
brought to book. Justice for 6 December 1992 is a crucial test for Indian
democracy.




Various Protests in West Bengal against the Lalgarh Operation

On 23rd June All India Students? Association (AISA) and Revolutionary Youth
Association (RYA) activists held a militant demonstration in front of the
State Secretariat (known as Writers? Building) in Kolkata in protest against
the operation against the tribal people of Lalgarh by an Indian version of
the "Coalition of the Willing" - comprising of state police force and
central paramilitary battalions. Later, 43 activists courted arrest. At the
police lock-up at Lalbazar, the arrested activists held a political meeting
and the walls of the lock-up echoed with songs and speeches condemning the
police action. The demonstration was led by Com. Shouvik Ghoshal, State
President of RYA and Com. Debolina Ghosh, State President of AISA.

On 27th June, the CPI(ML), Association for Protection of Democratic Rights
(APDR) and Mazdoor Kranti Parishad (MKP) jointly held protest meetings in
Belgharia. At Chuchura, a hundred RYA and All India Progressive women?s
Association (AIPWA) activists held a demonstration and blocked roads. The
police resorted to lathicharge during which an AIPWA activist was injured.
On 29th June, Nagarik Samanyay Manch held a protest meeting at Hazra More in
Kolkata which was attended by many progressive and democratic activists.

On 29th June, AIPWA and RYA, Hoogly dist. committee jointly organised a
protest rally at Chinsura, demanding withdrawal of State and Central joint
forces from Lalgarh, West Bengal. The rally was militant enough. After the
rally the police suddenly started lathi-charging the protestors and did not
spare even the women. Some activists got injured. This is yet another
incident that demonstrates the West Bengal State machinery?s intolerance to
any protest. Even after the lathi charge protest march moved forward
signifying people?s readiness to face all the brutality for restoring the
democratic space.

On 28th June RYA Belghoria local committee and CPIML- Belghoria Party
committee jointly held a protest march on the same issue.



AISA?s  Tamil Nadu Assembly Gherao to Demand Free & Quality Education for
All!

All India Students? Association (AISA) gheraoed (encircled) the TN Assembly
on 30 June demanding free and quality education for all and against the
collection of excess fees in schools and colleges across Tamil Nadu. In TN,
the problem of excess fee has been on the rise for quite some time and
reflected in the State Assembly too. But, there was no voice inside the
Assembly to echo the concerns of students at large. Even the CPI and CPIM
members did not come forward with the demand of putting an end to
commercialisation of education and instead were suggesting corrective
measures to curb excess fee collection.

Outside the assembly dozens of student-activists of AISA raised the demand
for putting an end to the commercialisation of education and tried to gherao
the assembly. The police was taken aback by the sudden gherao, lost its cool
and tore away AISA?s banner and the memorandum given by the agitaitng
students. They snatched away the flags too. This incident attracted
significant media coverage as only AISA has highlighted the issue of excess
fee collection in TN. The agitating students were arrested but released in
the evening. Com. Bharathi, State organiser of AISA led the agitation.



Dharna against Today?s Growing Undeclared Emergency!

To Protest State Repression on People?s Movement!!

The CPI(ML) Delhi State Committee organised a dharna at the Parliament
Street in New Delhi on 26 June, 2009, which marked the 34th anniversary of
the infamous Emergency, in which the Central Government headed by the
Congress Party had muzzled all dissent, jailed all opposition, banned all
forms of protest and criticism of the government?s policies ? all in the
name of ?stable government.?

Behind the soothing rhetoric of ?democracy,? ?development,? and ?good
governance,? we are very much hearing the footfalls of an undeclared
Emergency even today. The dharna cited the paramilitary terror in WB as the
state?s answer to the Lalgarh adivasis? demand for justice against police
atrocities, and the Home Minister telling the civil society not to visit the
area ? so that the repression remains shielded from public scrutiny; Punjab-
the Dalit agricultural labourers who were protesting Govt.?s betrayal of its
promise of house-plots for poor households, are jailed in thousands; in
Shopian, Kashmir, women protesting against the rape and murder of two young
women by security forces are being fired upon or jailed, are a few of other
such incidents being perpetrated.

The dharna was attended and addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar
Bhattacharya, many distinguished citizens of Delhi, Human Rights? Activists,
teachers/professors and students apart from Party?s leaders- comrades
Prabhat Kumar, AICCTU General Secretary Sapan Mukherjee and Delhi?s Party
Secretary Sanjay Sharma among others.

Condemning the paramilitary forces? offensive and terror against the tribal
of Lalgarh who were demanding justice, Com. Dipankar said that the Central
Govt.?s and Home Minister Mr. Chidambaram?s ?zero tolerance approach? is in
reality a borrowed idea and phrase from the American lexicon of ?war on
terror? and it essentially seeks legitimacy for all sorts of infringement
and assault on democracy and human rights, whether directly by the state or
through some Salwa Judum kind of public-private partnership. Criticising the
recent amendments to AFSPA, Chhatisgarh Public Security Act and the UAPA he
said that these have been legislated more for attacking and suppressing the
people?s movements for democracy. He strongly condemned the Govt.?s
justification of gruesome repressive tactics like the Salwa Judum. He also
criticised the Delhi?s Congress Govt. for its extreme reluctance in
conducting a magisterial enquiry into the Batla House encounter despite the
directions from the High Court and the Human Rights? Commission.

Main demands voiced through the dharna are: (1) end to the paramilitary
operations at Lalgarh, (2) peaceful political solution, based on meeting of
adivasis? demand for justice against police atrocities, (3) release of
jailed CPI(ML) leaders in Punjab, (4) Stop fake encounters, scrap draconian
laws! and (5) No to war on civil liberties in the name of war on terror!


NREGA Workers Receive Police Beating against Pending Wages

In Chheta panchayat that comes under Barwadih block of Latehar district in
Jharkhand, the NREGA workers facing several injustice and mal-treatment,
decided to publicly convey their woes to the higher officials of the
Administration at the 18th June ?Development Festival cum Health Camp?
organised by the Administration. The assembled NREGA workers gheraoed the
BDO and asked him to clear their pending wages. It is noteworthy that the
Administration did not ensure the due entry of daily work record and dates
in the job card of many labourers. Neither was there any arrangement of very
basic conditions necessary for continuance of physical labour, like drinking
water, first aid, resting tent etc., whereas these facilities were shown to
be provided on paper and vouchers made and claimed for the same. The workers
demanded action against the officials responsible for the illegal
withdrawing of funds and also demanded implementation of the agreements
reached at, at the Lok Adalat held in 2007-08. When the BDO tried to flee
instead of taking note of the serious injustice meted out to these workers,
he was surrounded by them and slogans were raised against him and the
Administration. At this point the police present there emboldened by more
police reinforcements that just then arrived started to attack these
innocent labourers and severely lathi-charged them. Half a dozen women were
also injured. Incensed by all this hundreds of workers marched in protest at
Barwadih in the evening. This was followed by protests all over Jharkhand on
June 20.

* * *

Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: mlupdate at cpiml.org,
cpimllib at gmail.com,  website: www.cpiml.org


*

From fred.fuentes at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 11:25:40 2009
From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:25:40 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>
References: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <b5a2a8180907011025o42b3a464u4ecc52a385436ba5@mail.gmail.com>

More important that those results are those which Nestor unfortunately
refers to as the "abstract arg left" in the Federal Capital see
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/election/results
Here Proyecto Sur, head by "Pino" Solanas, well-known leftist
filmmaker and campaigner to recuperate state control over natural
resources, came second to the right wing candidate from the same party
as the local mayor, to score an important 24%. Together with the
sectarian left groups they scored around 30% of the vote. The
Kirchnerista candidate (from the Communist Party) came fourth. How the
left reads this phenomenon and relates to it will be key to future
developments in a country that now seems certain to head into a
political crisis
Fred


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 11:43:23 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:43:23 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <97178344A1BE4B9E8724B56450FC5113@dmsthinkpad>
References: <b3ea89880906300308w1fc4e753n505bd6f7e933d72e@mail.gmail.com>	<1246358050.5970.393.camel@john-desktop>	<C3543400157240F190D2B3619241F85D@dmsthinkpad>	<b3ea89880906301041u68720125yd91cb065babc2bb4@mail.gmail.com>	<4A4A4FDF.2000307@panix.com><03A3ECF8-13C4-45A8-8B7C-3B12D8959F95@pipeline.com>	<4A4A69B8.20300@panix.com><A8C238F0B4B04DFE88445E047E51695A@dmsthinkpad>	<4A4A8000.6040401@gmail.com>	<C8E5C25D52D747F6BFAD06048D207588@dmsthinkpad>	<9558C8CE-C9DD-4352-A38F-2B35BB78A582@pipeline.com>	<4A4A90A7.7040905@gmail.com><B34E8099-8268-498E-96BC-E0651B5A1B3D@pipeline.com>	<4A4B6C89.1000001@gmail.com>
	<97178344A1BE4B9E8724B56450FC5113@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <4A4BA03B.3020907@gmail.com>

Solanas may look like a left socialist candidate. He is not.

He is one of the artisans who led to the de la R?a government.

He has collected the fraction of the right wing vote that would not 
stomach voting for an outright neoliberal such as Michetti or Prat Gay 
in a traditionally anti-popular city. At most, he can aspire at becoming 
future Major in Buenos Aires, and trying to turn it into a film set.

Which is of course better than Macri, but almost anything is.

The real dimension of who was defeated can be measured by a single fact 
among many others: the President of Argentina was the FIRST Lat Am Prez 
who offered herself to go by Prez Zelaya in his return to Tegucigalpa.

Can?t explain more. But the Solanas case is becoming the immediate case 
study of "antinational and antipopular pseudo-Leftism". Solanas, BTW, 
was never socialist. He began his political carreer as a young 
moderately left wing developmentist, later on discovered Peronism 
together with all his generation, now he is returning to his origins and 
beyond.

What is true is that Solanas has a a small Socialist group called 
Partido Socialista Aut?ntico -many personal friends in there, once upon 
a time they knew how to distinguish the Sociedad Rural Argentina from 
the Arg people, not now any more- who are helping him. I am absolutely 
sure that Mario Mazzitelli, the head of that group, will be at best 
canibalized by Solanas, at worst -which I am almost 100% convinced won?t 
happen because Mario is one of the most decent guys you can find on 
Earth- corrupted.

The enormous space that the mainstream, oligarchic press and media have 
been giving to Solanas and the praise he has received from neoliberal 
Major of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri are enough signals to define his 
candidature this time.

Whatever you may think of peronism, etc., don?t think that Solanas has 
anything to do with anything else than a fake verbalist socialism.

The first thing he did after Cristina offered him a silver bridge to 
ally against the oligarchic groups in Parliament was to declare that 
there was an abyss between him and the Government. His main diputado, 
Claudio Lozano, not only voted against the tax project against the 
agrarian rent that the Government tried to pass the year before, he 
lobbied for that vote.

Sepoy socialists are first of all sepoys, only later socialists. Solanas 
has decided to cater to that kind of voters. Of course BBC and others 
will present him as an alternative to Kirchner. He is "the Left of Her 
Majesty", unless he turns his steering wheel 180 degrees.

I still keep a little flame of hope. But I happen to know him well.

As a final comment, and although social origin should not be used 
against any person, it should be mentioned that Solanas is not Solanas 
but Solanas Pacheco. The Solanas Pacheco have always been one of the 
core families of the oligarchy in Buenos Aires Province.

S. Artesian escribi?:
> When Nestor gets time, I hope he expands on that.  My limited information--  
> from the usual suspect sources-- FT, BBC, "official" Argentine press-- leads 
> me to believe that this is a defeat for the "center-left" of the Peronist 
> "panoply."  In Buenos Aires, I read that the left socialist candidate ran a 
> strong second to the business candidate.
> 
> This is exactly what we should expect to happen as the struggle sharpens. 
> The task is to take advantage of it-- if indeed this outcome in Buenos Aires 
> represents a trend.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro en gmail.com>
> To: <sartesian en earthlink.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:02 AM
> Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
> 
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, the consequences of Sunday?s election in Argentina may
> well be worse in the long term than the consequences of the Honduran
> coup. Hope I am wrong
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism en lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nmgoro%40gmail.com
> 


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 11:45:48 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:45:48 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <b5a2a8180907011025o42b3a464u4ecc52a385436ba5@mail.gmail.com>
References: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>	<C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>
	<b5a2a8180907011025o42b3a464u4ecc52a385436ba5@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A4BA0CC.5060502@gmail.com>

Unfortunately, it is you who is wrong here, Fred. Don?t harbor 
illussions which will fade away in a bad mood in the future.

What has happened in Argentina is no victory for the Left.

By the way, Solanas has got second place in Buenos Aires City, that is 
400 000 votes at most. And, just like with Macri, the boundary of the 
City is his own boundary.

Fred Fuentes escribi?:
> More important that those results are those which Nestor unfortunately
> refers to as the "abstract arg left" in the Federal Capital see
> http://www.buenosairesherald.com/election/results
> Here Proyecto Sur, head by "Pino" Solanas, well-known leftist
> filmmaker and campaigner to recuperate state control over natural
> resources, came second to the right wing candidate from the same party
> as the local mayor, to score an important 24%. Together with the
> sectarian left groups they scored around 30% of the vote. The
> Kirchnerista candidate (from the Communist Party) came fourth. How the
> left reads this phenomenon and relates to it will be key to future
> developments in a country that now seems certain to head into a
> political crisis
> Fred
> 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism en lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nmgoro%40gmail.com
> 


From Waistline2 at aol.com  Wed Jul  1 11:49:16 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:49:16 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Traffic spike
Message-ID: <c65.4ddae28a.377cfb9c@aol.com>

In a message dated 7/1/2009 8:45:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
_lnp3 at panix.com_ (mailto:lnp3 at panix.com)  writes: 
 
> No, it is a Michael Jackson feeding frenzy based on the search results  
maintained on the Wordpress dashboard: <
 

Comment 
 
Michael Jackson is the perfect gateway to revolutionary politics. His  
"prison video" of "They Don't Really Care About Us" captures the circumstance  
and mood of the world proletariat . . . .. really. 
 
I was to sad, heart broken and disgusted with the bourgeois authority to  
write a meaningful contribution about Michael J and simply poured out anger 
and  contempt for bourgeois society.  All the base political points and the  
salient features of American culture Michael expressed were covered, with 
the  exception of his dance form as the Bob Fosse inheritance; ultimately 
weaving  back to Mr. Bogangles. 
 
MJ was gigantic. His assault on the bourgeois family form - in it  
industrial mode of life, was huge. 
 
The world grief expressed at the passing of MJ is real and communists can  
and should write about him as a cherished son of the proletariat. 
 
Below is a partial rewrite but I cannot quite get it together yet. This  
fragment begins in the middle. 
 
WL. 
 
******** 
 
Michael Jackson carried the Revolution that was Motown to its conclusion.  
Motown - Berry Gordy, road/rode the front curve of the technological 
revolution,  as it affected music production and recast the standard American love 
song using  revolutionary technique to create a different "sound." Motown 
created different  studio music, as this music is experienced via transistors 
and vacuum tube  technology. 
 
Motown remixed the American North mode of European harmonic structure and  
African rhythm by placing rhythm - bass line, in front of harmonic 
structure. To  effect this Motown deployed new technique like eight track recording 
and  plugging the guitar directly into the recording console. "Your Precious 
Love" by  Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell illustrates this. Listen to the 
first 20 seconds  of this song. _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbX66Ddxtow_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbX66Ddxtow)  
 
Witness the "guitar licks." Motown was not the process wherein the guitar  
emerged as instrumental front man. Motown riveted the ?front man? to a 
bassline  as leader. The role of drummer is amplified in the Motown Sound. 
 
The balance between the drummer and piano can be witnessed on "Please Mr.  
Postman." _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9mBWuLRL4&feature=related_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9mBWuLRL4&feature=related)  
 
The first ten seconds of Mary Wells "My Guy" - written by Smokey Robinson,  
is pure magic. _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9mBWuLRL4&feature=related_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9mBWuLRL4&feature=related)  
 
On ?The Girls Alright with Me? the drum is played with a frightening  
intensity and timed to match the prevailing dance form of 1960s Detroit. Listen  
to the first 30 seconds where Eddie Kendrick first tenor embody and carries 
 harmonic structure following the drums. 
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SSroUYt310_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SSroUYt310)  
 
Motown changed and redefined American music. Motown ushered in an epoch of  
the male first tenor as lead singer and popularized falsetto as a musical 
form.  Many thought Smokey Robinson?s first tenor was ?unmanly? and ran 
counter to the  husky barroom vocal of Frank and Sammy and tood in opposition to 
the male vocal  tradition of the Mississippi bluesman. 
 
Before the Motown Sound fully evolved, this "sound" was called the "Detroit 
 Sound." This sound was forged on the segregated street corners of Detroit 
by a  population made homogenous by assembly line production and high 
aspirations. 
 
Several events came together for the triumph of the Motown Sound of which  
the further integration of the black into the industrial proletariat was  
critical. Without the opportunity presented by employment in auto none of the  
other ingredients could come together. 
 
The Negro sections of Detroit?s industrial classes provided the capital  
market to sustain Motown and allow it to reproduce itself as capital on a  
widening and expanding scale. The post WW II economic boom fed and expanded the 
 segregated Negro entertainment market, even as the wall of Jim Crow faced  
shattering and collapse. This new emerging market was buttressed by the 
high  wages of auto. 
 
Several music producers with varying dimensions of capital vied for  
supremacy. Berry Gordy, Edward Wingate, Joseph Von Battle and Don Davis   were to 
emerge as the top contender. In the case of Gordy and Von Battle, both  
began as Record store owners seeking to raise capital through record sales.  
Gordy?s autobiography, ?To Be Loved? explains the market pressure forcing his 
to  shift from promoter of bebop jazz to popular dance music to survive. In 
the  survival fight Gordy emerged as singular winner, due in no same part to 
his  recruitment of the poetic genius, Smokey Robinson. 
 
Motown was the patented brand name and marketing means of the Detroit  
Sound. The owner of the Motown Sound was Berry Gordy, a legendary songwriter, as 
 good as anything produced at New York historical ?tin pan alley.? In fact 
Gordy  recreated and incorporated the historic ?Tin Pan Alley? under one 
roof of  musical production. _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley)  
 
Gordy was a "general market businessman" as he defined himself. 
 
In street parlance a street hustler turned capitalist. 
 
The Jackson 5 would enter this competitive market and had their unique  
signature sound crafted and recast to the Detroit standard - Motown. 
 
II 
 
The 50 years of Michael Jackson - 1958/2009 is the framework, context and  
environment defining MJ as he defines and articulated the subtle social 
forces  driving American society. The domestic American music market was where 
the  Jackson 5 and then Michael Jackson were made stars. American imperialism 
would  be the structural force making MJ a world force. 
 
Michael Jackson career appears different to three generation depending on  
when and where each generation encountered the musical form he popularized 
and  extended. 
 
The Jackson 5 musical career opened at a critical transition period in  
America?s evolution towards a ?more perfect union.? Their six year tenure at  
Motown begins in 1968 or one year after Detroit?s ?Great Rebellion.? By the 
time  of the 1967 rebellion, (at that time the greatest uprising against 
the state  since the Civil War), several cultural changes were underway 
expressed in the  changing of the musical guard. 
 
Motown displaced the leading male vocalist as Italian, expressed in the  
amazing music of Frank Sinatra.  Beginning his career in the swing era,  
ostracized and condemned by the most Anglophile musical critics, Frank would  
become America?s most famous ?barroom? balladeer, and in the post WWII a male  
embodiment of vocal cool. Motown would displace barroom vocal cool with, 
well,  Motown and usher in the era of the male black as lead singer. David 
Ruffin and  Marvin Gaye were the victor. Michael Jackson would further alter 
the cultural  artifact of the lead male vocalist but not after and without 
assimilating and  inheriting all peculiar to David and Marvin. 
 
It is submitted for your inspection the Jackson 5 render of ?Who Loving  
You, ?Michael Jackson?s interpretation of Ruffin?s rendering of the same  
song.   _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVbCpPQBZmU_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVbCpPQBZmU)  
 
The Temptation?s rendering of ?Who?s Loving You,? with David Ruffin on  
lead. _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E66cHwKhH0&feature=related_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E66cHwKhH0&feature=related)  
 
The Temptations rendition is in turn a re intepetation of the original  
release written and song by Smokey Robinson. 
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7twuP2cyIJc_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7twuP2cyIJc)  
 
Motown was musical production on the mode of mass assembly line production, 
 with changing body styles and identical internal guts. Songwriters wrote 
and  producers produced using changing singers. David Ruffin?s history 
altering  singing and performing has yet to be fully recognized in American 
popular music. 
 
As performance art Michael would inherit, assimilate and recast Motown?s  ?
Broadway? presentation with a strong tilt to Bob Fosse?s dance form and 
David  Ruffin?s delivery.  Fosse?s dance form is in the last instance, on a  
continuum extending back to Bogangles. One of Ruffin?s last recoded  
performances, as musical art, can be witnessed in his presentation ?Stature of a  
Fool.? _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18RBbHY16-4_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18RBbHY16-4) . 
 
Here one can witness Michael?s use of his hands as dance form - Bob Fosse,  
and as vocal body art of male vocalist - David Ruffin. 
 
The Jackson?s possessed their own unique sound before arriving at Motown.  
This ?sound? was Northern and industrial as distinct and counterpoised to 
its  Southern counterpart expressed in Stax. 
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stax_Records_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stax_Records)  
 
Michael?s signature dress as military chic was popularized by Marvin Gaye.  
Michael inherited, assimilated and recast all of that, which is the unique  
American musical and dance form and presented this form to the world. The  
Jackson?s technique was honed and further crystallized in the Motown Sound, 
as  the sound dominated and shaped the music market of the 1960?s and 70?s. 
 
Such is the pedestal upon which the Jackson?s and young Michael stood. 
 
Later he would thrill them and then become ?Bad.? 
 
Between 1979 and the release of Thriller, the Jackson?s with Michael as  
lead man would morph into the Michael Jackson my children?s generation love. 
 
III. 
 
America is different. America was not feudal or founded with institutional  
relations of blood monarchy as privilege. Our entertainers are pronounced  
secular Kings and Queens based on their performances. Aretha Franklin is the 
 Queen of Soul. James Brown is the Godfather of Soul. Michael Jackson is 
the King  of Popular Music. 
 
Sing and dance or get off the stage. 
 
Michael Jackson is, was and died a Jackson. The Jackson?s are a musical  
dynasty unlike anything in American history. The Jackson family lived in the 
eye  of the public and a profit driven media thriving on sensation. America 
has an  intimate relationship with the Jackson family in the same way a large 
part of  the world feels an intimate relation with the music of Michael 
Jackson. 
 
When the father outlives the son, the son?s story is a narrative bound to  
the father. Somewhere in this story the Jackson family transition from Gary  
Indiana steel town to the automotive capital of the world - Motown and then 
to  ?world town? is part of the narrative. Michael?s planned ?comeback? - 
musical  resurrection, coincided in time exactly with the planned ?comeback?
 and  resurrection of two of the American based auto producers. 
 
Michael belongs to the world through America. 
 
His story cannot be told and understood without the father because the  
father is alive and he is the seed. Joe Jackson?s musical aspiration are well  
documented but his early life and that of his family was that of the 
American  industrial proletariat of the post WW II years. Joe Jackson was and 
remains hard  as steel and worked in one of the only integrated areas of 1950?s 
American  society: Factory town USA. In this dimension Joe Jackson and Berry 
Gordy?s lives  were perhaps inexplicably bound, with the latter having 
worked in the Lincoln  division of the Ford Motor Company. 
 
Steel and auto. And music. And industrial production of music and assembly  
line family discipline. The Jackson family was forged. Michael became the 
blunt  instrument, the cutting edge of the steel. 
 
Joe and Berry had gigantic dreams where others had big dreams.
 
 (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)  
**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)


From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 12:01:55 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:01:55 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] The Last Jews of Libya
Message-ID: <4A4BA493.6030609@panix.com>

On June 9th, a few days after Obama made his appeal to Muslims in Cairo, 
Andr? Aciman wrote an op-ed piece in the N.Y. Times that tried to 
balance the expulsion of Palestinians with that of Jews from Arab countries:

"The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about 
any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the 
Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in 
the 20th century. With all his references to the history of Islam and to 
its (questionable) ?proud tradition of tolerance? of other faiths, Mr. 
Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been 
living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first 
victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.

"Nor did he bother to mention that with this flight and expulsion, 
Jewish assets were ? let?s call it by its proper name ? looted. Mr. 
Obama never mentioned the belongings I still own in Egypt and will never 
recover. My mother?s house, my father?s factory, our life in Egypt, our 
friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle. We are, each one of us, not 
just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but 
also by the things we call our own. Take away our things and something 
in us dies. Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed 
my father. He didn?t die right away; it took four decades of exile to 
finish him off."

Although it is entirely plausible that such things happened to Egyptian 
Jews, they did not happen to the Jews of Morocco in exactly the same 
way, at least based on the plot line of ?Where are you going, Moshe??, a 
movie I reviewed on December 12th. Despite the fact that the movie was 
directed by an Arab, there was no attempt to cover up for hostile acts 
against Jews that dovetailed with Zionist attempts to lure them to 
Israel. I wrote:

"Moroccan director Hassan Benjelloun describes how Jews were pressured 
by Zionists into emigrating to Israel in 1963, two years after the death 
of King Mohammed V left the country in an uncertain state. His film is 
set in the small village of Bejjad, where the Jews enjoy warm and 
cordial relations with their Muslim neighbors. The only threat to their 
well-being comes from an ascendant group of fundamentalists who are 
anxious to close down the only bar in town that is run by Mustapha, an 
easy-going Muslim who enjoys serving alcohol to his patrons while they 
enjoy musical performances by local talent, including Moshe, an elderly 
Jew who plays the oud and sings in his native language: Arabic.

"After Mustapha is hauled before the local sharia, he defends himself by 
referring to a Moroccan law that allows the sale of alcohol to 
non-Muslims, which Bejjad has in ample number at least for the time 
being. However, as each busload of Jews departs for Israel, Mustapha?s 
anxiety increases. His only hope is to convince Moshe to remain in 
Bejjad, a feasible project given the oud player?s affection for his 
Muslim friends and neighbors."

I was motivated to delve deeper into this subject since I had noticed 
more and more that the expulsion of the Jews had become a talking point 
of the hard-core Zionist right. They liken the ?transfer? of Arab and 
Jewish populations to that which occurred after Turkish independence 
when Greeks were driven from Izmir (Alexandria) and Turks were driven 
from Greece. Or the division of India and Pakistan. Of course, what is 
missing from this formula is any recognition that Palestinians had no 
homeland like Greece or Pakistan that was the equivalent of Israel. 
Instead, they ended up in refugee camps. In a feeble attempt to engage 
with this reality, the Zionists blame the Arab countries for not 
?accepting? them.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/the-last-jews-of-libya/


From schaffer at optonline.net  Wed Jul  1 12:05:55 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:05:55 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <4A4BA0CC.5060502@gmail.com>
References: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>
	<b5a2a8180907011025o42b3a464u4ecc52a385436ba5@mail.gmail.com>
	<4A4BA0CC.5060502@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A4BA583.9040505@optonline.net>

Nestor et al.:

please clip quoted text.

thanks

Les


From Waistline2 at aol.com  Wed Jul  1 12:26:32 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 14:26:32 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
Message-ID: <c38.58b46a91.377d0458@aol.com>

In a message dated 7/1/2009 9:54:42 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nmgoro at gmail.com writes:

I feel that Shane?s last opinion is abstract outside the imperialist  
nations.

There is a good reason: Latin American revolutionariess have  suffered a 
defeat in Argentina, not without a strong push from a good  fraction of 
the "abstract Arg left", and I am too busy trying to put my  grain of 
sand in the effort to reorganize our forces and strike back.
 
Comment
 
Much of what is referred to as "abstract outside the imperialist nations'  
is equally abstract within the imperial states. Intellectual shadow boxing 
has  its place as theory discourse, but fighting calls for one to "man up" 
and engage  the enemy on hostile political and economic terrain. The electoral 
arena is an  arena and communist assigned to this arena should not only be 
respected but  their opinions should carry more weight than those not 
involved in this complex  work. Here general theory is useless. 
 
All this penning away about bourgeois candidates and opposition to them all 
 on principle makes perfect sense for those whose activities is outside the 
 electoral arena. Those outside of electoral work, where the majority of 
the  proletariat thrives, cannot set policy for those inside the electoral 
process.  The electoral arena deal with the material politics of combating the 
ideological  and political middle, which in all countries constitutes the 
economic and social  prop of capital. Those individuals willing to give voice 
to the demands of the  workers - at large, are to be supporter, even if 
conditionally. It is important  that we fight for the podium. 
 
The modern theory of social revolution, defined as society breaking down  
into two major classes, bourgeois and proletariat, means the development of  
polarization and external collision between classes, rather than wage 
struggle. 
 
Here is the dynamic: the proletariat - the lowest section of present day  
society, only enters the electoral process during crisis and as it faces  
increased state violence and in America police murders. To be effective  
revolutionaries have to skillfully combine the immediate demands of "the voters"  
- (the economic and political middle), with the strivings of the lowest 
section  of society - the real proletariat, while tilting to the vocal demands 
of the  middle. This is so because the political middle consistently votes. 
The  economic-political middle is a historic class formation that is capital. 
For  instance the auto workers constituted the core of the economic and 
political  middle between roughly 1920 and 1990's America. Today, these same 
auto  workers are objectively revolutionary in their decay as the political 
middle. 
 
The revolutionary process - as described by Lenin, becomes the  practical 
politics of the realignment and defeat of the political middle as a  social 
prop for capital.  That is its conversion from a social prop of  capital to 
support for the striving of the lowest section of the proletariat. In  
Argentina and America the political middle is being defeated on the basis of the  
bourgeois order rather than the social and political forces of the 
proletarian  revolution. This is the political equation for fascism. 
 
That is the problem and we are not going to talk our way out of this fight. 
 
Comrades suitable to the task are called to "man the up" and saddle  up. 
Comrades more suitable for street corner dissertation and literature  
distribution should do that. 
 
The fight over and against the political middle and for the speakers podium 
 is on. 
 
 
WL. 


**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)


From davidrail68 at yahoo.com  Wed Jul  1 12:19:39 2009
From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:19:39 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] FI (USec) on Iran
Message-ID: <810031.46714.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>

Imperialism just doesn't exist for some people. Dave
Our place is at the side of the Iranian people!Statement by the executive bureau of the Fourth International
Fourth International?Since June 13th, after the faked presidential election, millions of Iranian are expressing their anger with cries of ?down with the dictatorship?. Their mobilization increases the crisis of the regime. Ferocious repression has already caused hundreds of dead and wounded. Our place is at the side of the Iranian people!With the announcement of the re-election of Ahmadinejad, the underground war between the various factions in power was transformed into open war. Four candidates had been authorized to participate. Four of the regime?s dignitaries who share responsibility for the bloody balancesheet of the thirty years of the Islamic Republic. But the Supreme Leader?[1]and the clan in power designated the winner well before the first round. In a context of strong tensions between factions, crisis and social instability, it was unthinkable that the Guide be repudiated by the people. In the same way, the immense economic and
 financial interests in the hands of Pasdaran and their desire to take control of important sectors of the economy, controlled by the clan of the former president of the Rafsandjani Republic, made it impossible for Ahmadinejad and his cronies to give up power and its privileges. In this fight to control oil revenue, the wealth of the country and power, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad carried out a true coup d?etat intended to oust their rivals.For democratic liberties and the claims of working peopleFaced with increasing economic difficulties, with unemployment, with which galloping inflation, corruption and nepotism became increasingly unbearable. The determination of the population throw off the suffocating weight of the mullahs? regime and put an end to the repression against the youth and women who are fighting for their rights, is more and more intertwined with the specific labour demands. The courageous mobilization of the Iranian people accentuates
 divisions within the regime and weakens it.The regime responds to the legitimate aspirations of the population by bloody repression, massive arrests, prohibition of journalists and cutting phone networks and Internet. It is a true state of siege that the Islamic Republic is imposing. In Teheran, Bassidjis, the anti-riot troops, and the Pasdaran brigades took possession of the city in order to choke off the dispute. But to no avail. The rejection of the power is deep and the protest movement takes various forms. It is not repression which will extinguish the anger and the determination of the Iranian people!A new phase of in the struggleA new phase of struggle is opening in Iran. It is to the women, to the workers and the youth - to all the demonstrators who defy the Islamic Republic while not hesitating to risk their lives - that all our support is given. Spontaneous strikes have erupted in several companies, in Teheran in particular and strike calls
 are multiplying. The decisive question of the general strike is put, not by Moussavi, who is trying to ride the wave of the dispute, but by the Iranian workers themselves. The arrival of the working class in this movement can give cohesion and the force necessary to overthrow the Islamic Republic and to establish a new democratic and social republic that stands against imperialist and Zionist attacks. The fight for true democratic rights, the right to strike, the right to hold free elections, to constitute free trade unions and political parties as well as the fight for social justice and the equality between women and men must be based on international solidarity. Their fight is ours!The Fourth International - an international organisation struggling for the socialist revolution - is composed of sections, of militants who accept and apply its principles and programme. Organised in separate national sections, they are united in a single worldwide
 organisation acting together on the main political questions, and discussing freely while respecting the rules of democracy.


      

From christopher.hutch at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 12:29:43 2009
From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 14:29:43 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Red Flag Trading Cards,
	James Connolly
Message-ID: <c81bf1a60907011129m6d4038a6gb806ad65cde71ec@mail.gmail.com>

Collect 'em All!

www.GeneralStrikeComics.com <http://www.generalstrikecomics.com/>

keep well,

christopher

From ecosocialism at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 12:30:56 2009
From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 14:30:56 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by BDS Growth
Message-ID: <733b65360907011130p12e4b924p4cb8de0c4f8e72e@mail.gmail.com>

"Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by Growth of Boycott, Divestment Movement"
By Art Young

In ZNet:
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21807

In The Bullet (Socialist Project, Canada):
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet230.html

The essay reviews the recent advances of the international movement for
boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, in solidarity with
Palestine. It is a wide-ranging treatment of this large, growing, and
diverse international movement. The recent successes of the movement are
impressive and deserve to be known more widely.

From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 12:33:52 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:33:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] The new crisis in aviation
Message-ID: <4A4BAC10.1010205@panix.com>

http://www.counterpunch.org/garcia07012009.html
Clouds, Computers and Composites
The New Crisis in Aviation

By MANUEL GARCIA, Jr.

The recent loss of Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200, has raised 
many doubts among the flying public and even some aviation professionals 
about the safety of the newest generation of passenger airplanes. These 
new airliners have composite materials replacing metal for many 
structural elements and control surfaces, and they are reliant on 
computer-controlled flight and navigation systems.

The impetus for developing this new generation of airliners is the need 
to improve fuel economy so as to maintain the profitability of the 
passenger air transport industry. Between 1986 and 2001, the world price 
of crude oil remained steady at near $22 a barrel. From 2002 to 2008, 
the world price of crude oil rose steadily from $25 to $95 a barrel (the 
prices quoted are rough averages, and in 2007 dollars). Modern airliners 
that are lighter and stronger than their older-generation all-metal size 
equivalents can carry more payload with less fuel consumption, and this 
translates to economic sustainability.

The quest for a more efficient airliner began with the first example of 
the type, Igor Sikorsky's S-22 of 1913, the Ilya Muromets, a four engine 
biplane with an enclosed cabin for 16 passengers. Russia's military 
needs in WW1 swallowed up the commercial potential of the S-22, and the 
production was shifted to bombers. The post-war rebirth of commercial 
aviation began with the Farman twin engine biplane transport of 1919, 
the F-60 Goliath, seating 14 passengers. Since then the quest for 
"better, faster and cheaper" passenger aviation has never stopped.

(clip)

---

James Ridgeway has been covering this story as well here:

http://unsilentgeneration.com/

---

It should be added that the asshole Rick Adam I worked under at 
Goldman-Sachs started a passenger jet manufacturing company some years 
ago that was based on the use of composite material. It figures. It also 
figures that he recently sold the company to Russian investors. Remind 
me not to buy a ticket on a plane that uses composites.


From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 12:42:23 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:42:23 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] New support for Ahmadinejad
Message-ID: <4A4BAE0F.8060405@panix.com>

Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090625-20193.html
German neo-Nazis praise reelection of Iran's Ahmadinejad
Published: 25 Jun 09 16:02 CET

Neo-Nazis in Germany are applauding the repression of protests in Iran 
and publishing statements supporting the reelection of President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad and his hard-line government.

Two extremist parties, the NPD and DVU, have managed to contort their 
racist thinking to embrace the Iranian leader because Ahmadinejad openly 
advocates the elimination of Israel ? and presumably has no plans to 
move to Germany.

The NPD website defended Ahmadinejad against what it called a ?media 
attack on the Iranian people?s spirit,? referring to widespread doubts 
being expressed about the president?s reelection and described him as 
the ?true leader of his people,? according to public broadcaster ARD.

The DVU website carried the message: ?Congratulations on your reelection 
Mr President.?

Censorship in Iran, which makes listening to music a risky business, and 
outlaws dancing in public, is praised by the NPD, which says the music 
could be considered decadent and subversive.

The contradiction between this opinion and the complaints the NPD makes 
when neo-Nazi music containing illegally racist lyrics are banned by the 
German government does not seem to have occurred to the party's members.

Germany?s fascists first took to Ahmadinejad when he said he wanted to 
destroy Israel, and then in 2006 organised a conference for Holocaust 
deniers.

Meanwhile, the Islam Conference taking place this week in Berlin 
condemned the violence and abuse of human rights in Iran, with a 
statement signed by all associations taking part aside from the Central 
Council of Muslims in Germany.

The council said it had a policy of not making statements about events 
in other countries, but called for both sides in Iran to come to an 
agreement and allow freedom of opinion.

?Chain-of-light? demonstrations are planned in cities across Europe on 
Thursday night to show solidarity with the Iranian people and 
commemorate those who have been killed recently during demonstrations.

Organisers in Berlin have taken the title, ?A light to show hope. 
Thousands of lights show themselves? for the demonstration which will 
take place for an hour from 9:30 pm in front of the Ged?chtniskirche in 
the centre of the city. Similar demonstrations are set for Hamburg, 
Cologne, Frankfurt, Paris, London and Rome.


From spalmer999 at yahoo.com  Wed Jul  1 12:58:01 2009
From: spalmer999 at yahoo.com (Steve Palmer)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:58:01 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Manuscripts Re:  Marx on Mathematics
Message-ID: <29226.74392.qm@web80401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


Marx's Mathematical Manuscripts are available at the MIA:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/mathematical-manuscripts/index.htm

You can download a pdf of them from that page.

Also missing from the MECW are Marx's Notes on Indian History and associated notes on Kovalevsky, Phear, Maine etc, the Ethnological notebooks despite there being published transcriptions and Russian and English translations of these already available.

Capital has been mysteriously modified in the MECW in certain ways without explicit indication or explanation. Some of the translations are also controversial and unexplained. After Ryazanov's blistering attack on the Eden and Cedar Paul translation one would expect a certain caution in this sort of thing.

The MECW is not complete or scholarly, unfortunately. But we can be thankful for the letters and many other previously unpublished materials. I blame it on the Eurocommunists, since it fits so nicely with their agenda, but the case is circumstantial and there is no forensic evidence available so feel free to treat this suggestion as a rant.

Even the new new MEGA has question marks hanging over it (cf Michael Heinrich's comments on neo-Ricardianism). Why Shlomo Avineri is on the International Editorial Board, after his highly tendentious and partial edition of Marx on Colonialism and Modernization turned Marx into a common Euromarxist, is a mystery. Why none of it is available online - easily the cheapest way to publish - has never been explained.

Support the MIA!

Steve

> The question for me is whether the mathematical books are
> in the Collected Works. If not, as it appears, why not?
> Also, what else is missing from the MECW? I would be
> grateful for any answers.


      


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Wed Jul  1 13:14:06 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:14:06 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] DC Protest of Colombian Union murders
Message-ID: <813320333-1246475823-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-454989108-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

?Press Conference Concerning President Uribe's visit with Obama in DC
Organized by Witness for Peace in Minneapolis, MN 
Speakers:? Gerardo Cajamarca, SINALTRAINAL, & Meredith Aby, Colombia Action Network 
http://www.youtube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rG26kfF5Vo> com/watch?v=0rG26kfF5Vo 

 
From Metro Washington AFL-CIO: 
Tuesday, June 30, 2009

DC?STREETS BLOCKED TO PROTEST COLOMBIAN UNION MURDERS: Labor and human rights activists shut down traffic in front of the White House yesterday to protest the murders of Colombian trade unionists. The noontime action was timed to coincide with President Obama?s first meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Dressed completely in black, their faces painted a ghostly white to represent murdered union leaders, the activists locked their arms into PVC pipes and laid down in a human chain across the intersection of 16th and?H streets, while over a hundred chanting supporters surrounded them and helped block traffic. ?I took a bus from New York this morning,? Colombian native Amy Velez told Union City, ?My heart is bleeding to see my country with over four million displaced people.? Afro-Colombian activist Marino Cordoba was forced to leave his homeland seven?years ago, after his community was bombed and his neighbors killed. ?We were fighting for the right of Afro-Colombians to own their own land. Uribe?s government kills most Afro-Colombians who received their own land titles.? Curious tourists mingled with activists and their supporters for well over an hour as the demonstration continued to block the street. Eventually, police carefully cut the pipes and chains from the demonstrators arms and released them into the surrounding crowd, which triumphantly chanted ?We are with the resisters, they?re our brothers they?re our sisters!?
- Julia Shindel; photos by Adam Wright
 
? 
? 
? 
-- 
Meredith Aby
antiwarcommittee. <http://antiwarcommittee.org> org
colombiasolidarity. <http://colombiasolidarity.org> org
  

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

From sartesian at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 13:31:14 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:31:14 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] The new crisis in aviation
References: <4A4BAC10.1010205@panix.com>
Message-ID: <71B75B00753D4A968C2E4B5F1A4DA071@dmsthinkpad>

And urban rail mass transit isn't doing well either:

I was afraid that this would prove to be the case-- intermittent failure to 
detect occupancy that was reported and ignored

" After a post-
accident review of recorded track circuit data, WMATA
reported to the NTSB that the track circuit periodically
lost its ability to detect trains after June 17th;"


Negligence, criminal negligence.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: NTSB Press Releases
To: RAIL at LISTSERV.NTSB.GOV
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:59 PM
Subject: SECOND UPDATE ON NTSB INVESTIGATION INTO COLLISION OF TWO METRORAIL 
TRAINS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.


************************************************************
                       NTSB ADVISORY
************************************************************

National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594

July 1, 2009

************************************************************

SECOND UPDATE ON NTSB INVESTIGATION INTO COLLISION OF TWO
METRORAIL TRAINS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

************************************************************

In its continuing investigation of the June 22, 2009,
accident involving the collision of two Washington
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on the
Red Line in Washington, D.C., the National Transportation
Safety Board has developed the following factual
information:

The examination of factors leading up to the accident
continues.  Investigators have been conducting nightly tests
of the train control system at the accident site.  Test
progress was delayed by some water in underground access
areas that made it unsafe for technicians to work on
electrical cables until the water could be pumped out.  The
components being tested include track impedence bonds,
wayside cables, and train control system circuitry for the
track segment between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations.

As previously reported, initial testing showed that when the
test train was stopped at the same location as the train
that was struck in the accident, the train control system
lost detection of the test train.   Additionally, in
subsequent testing over the weekend the train detection
system intermittently failed; data is currently being
collected to further analyze each component in the train
detection system.  Investigators are reviewing recorded
track circuit data for each test configuration.

Maintenance records show that an impedence bond for the
track circuit where the accident occurred was replaced on
June 17th, five days before the accident.  After a post-
accident review of recorded track circuit data, WMATA
reported to the NTSB that the track circuit periodically
lost its ability to detect trains after June 17th; the NTSB
is reviewing documentation on the performance of that track
circuit both before and after the June 17th replacement.

The weekend of July 18th investigators intend to conduct
sight distance tests using trains consisting of similar cars
to those involved in the accident.  The tests will establish
when the struck train would have been visible from the
striking train.  The previously reported rail streak marks
consistent with heavy braking were approximately 125 feet
long, and began approximately 425 feet prior to the point of
collision.

The investigative groups have concluded the on-scene phase
of the investigation except for the Signals Group that
continues to examine the train control system both at the
scene of the accident and at the WMATA Operations Control
Center.

# # #








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3 at panix.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 2:33 PM
Subject: [Marxism] The new crisis in aviation


> http://www.counterpunch.org/garcia07012009.html
> Clouds, Computers and Composites
> The New Crisis in Aviation
>
> By MANUEL GARCIA, Jr.
>
> The recent loss of Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200, has raised
> many doubts among the flying public and even some aviation professionals
> about the safety of the newest generation of passenger airplanes. These
> new airliners have composite materials replacing metal for many
> structural elements and control surfaces, and they are reliant on
> computer-controlled flight and navigation systems.
>
> The impetus for developing this new generation of airliners is the need
> to improve fuel economy so as to maintain the profitability of the
> passenger air transport industry. Between 1986 and 2001, the world price
> of crude oil remained steady at near $22 a barrel. From 2002 to 2008,
> the world price of crude oil rose steadily from $25 to $95 a barrel (the
> prices quoted are rough averages, and in 2007 dollars). Modern airliners
> that are lighter and stronger than their older-generation all-metal size
> equivalents can carry more payload with less fuel consumption, and this
> translates to economic sustainability.
>
> The quest for a more efficient airliner began with the first example of
> the type, Igor Sikorsky's S-22 of 1913, the Ilya Muromets, a four engine
> biplane with an enclosed cabin for 16 passengers. Russia's military
> needs in WW1 swallowed up the commercial potential of the S-22, and the
> production was shifted to bombers. The post-war rebirth of commercial
> aviation began with the Farman twin engine biplane transport of 1919,
> the F-60 Goliath, seating 14 passengers. Since then the quest for
> "better, faster and cheaper" passenger aviation has never stopped.
>
> (clip)
>
> ---
>
> James Ridgeway has been covering this story as well here:
>
> http://unsilentgeneration.com/
>
> ---
>
> It should be added that the asshole Rick Adam I worked under at
> Goldman-Sachs started a passenger jet manufacturing company some years
> ago that was based on the use of composite material. It figures. It also
> figures that he recently sold the company to Russian investors. Remind
> me not to buy a ticket on a plane that uses composites.
>
> ________________________________________________
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From fred.fuentes at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 14:00:32 2009
From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:30:32 -0430
Subject: [Marxism] For the record and sorry
In-Reply-To: <4A4BA0CC.5060502@gmail.com>
References: <825112.13927.qm@web112220.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<C476D6B2BCB94F1B94A6939ABD5B89A3@dmsthinkpad>
	<b5a2a8180907011025o42b3a464u4ecc52a385436ba5@mail.gmail.com>
	<4A4BA0CC.5060502@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <b5a2a8180907011300o5a60957bye62798fbf21f4133@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 1:15 PM, Nestor Gorojovsky<nmgoro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What has happened in Argentina is no victory for the Left.
>

Im sorry Nestor, where did i say that the left won in Argentina?

What i did say is that the country now moves into a period of crisis
and where the left (and I'm not talking about Cristina here) have to
be able to read the significance of the vote, not just for Proyecto
Sur but others, and see how to relate to it. I mean, even Cristina can
see this and is extending her hand to Pino Solanas to try and build a
parliamentary alliance.

Yes, the vote was only in Federal Capital, but other similar
candidates got respectable votes elsewhere (though no where near 25%).
But it is a base to build on thats for sure, regardless of what you
want to make of Pino. I think it would be a mistake to ignore this
phenomenon or dismiss it as the "abstract left".

I would sum up the result as not a particularly good result for
anyone, with the exception of the positive result for the centre-left
ie Proyecto Sur etc particularly in Federal Capital.  And a
particularly bad one for the kirchneristas.


From markalause at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 14:07:43 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 16:07:43 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Huffington Post: Sanders Demands Democrats Commit...
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907011307q3c4a2877ub58ad74bcadff374@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/bernie-sanders-demands-de_n_223765.html

Sam Stein
Bernie Sanders Demands Democrats Commit To Stopping Health Care Filibuster

One of the Senate's most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic
Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now
that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the party has 60 caucusing
members.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called on the White House and Democratic
leadership in Congress to ensure that party members agree unanimously to
support cloture on legislation that would revamp the nation's health care
system. Democratic senators on the fence, he added, could still oppose the
bill. But at the very least they should be required to let the legislation
come to an up-or-down vote.

"I think that with Al Franken coming on board, you have effectively 60
Democrats in the caucus, 58 and two Independents," Sanders said in an
interview with the Huffington Post. "I think the strategy should be to say,
it doesn't take 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. It takes 60 votes
to stop a filibuster. I think the strategy should be that every Democrat, no
matter whether or not they ultimately end up voting for the final bill, is
to say we are going to vote together to stop a Republican filibuster. And if
somebody who votes for that ends up saying, 'I'm not gonna vote for this
bill, it's too radical, blah, blah, blah, that's fine.'"

"I think the idea of going to conservative Republicans, who are essentially
representing the insurance companies and the drug companies, and watering
down this bill substantially, rather than demanding we get 60 votes to stop
the filibuster, I think that is a very wrong political strategy," Sanders
added.

Coming hours after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Franken the winner in a
nearly eight-month recount process, Sanders' remarks reflect what will
likely be a more aggressive political ethos from within the Democratic
Party. Having a sixtieth caucusing member in the Senate gives the party the
margin it needs to stave off a Republican filibuster, which seems all but
certain should health care reform include a public option for insurance
coverage. But the reality remains that the Democratic caucus is far from
united. Corralling all of its members behind one piece of health care
legislation -- especially the public option -- remains elusive.

Sanders' advice, which he hinted at in a separate interview with the
Washington Post's Ezra Klein, is to simply take the parliamentary hurdles
out of the process. The Party wouldn't have to worry about whip counts and
could, in the end, get a more favorable final product, he believes.

"I think that politically that is something everybody can handle. You say,
'Look, I think there should be a vote. I'm gonna vote against it for A, B
and C reasons. But I think the process has to move forward and it's
unacceptable that Republicans keep trying to stop everything," said the
Vermont Independent, who added that "The White House could play a very
important part in this process"

"I think it would be great if we could have 100 senators voting for this,
but what is important is the product that you get, not bipartisanship,"
Sanders went on. "So we should ask Republicans to support it. If they choose
not to they do so at their own political risk. The focus should be on a
strong bill trying to get Republican support rather than a weak bipartisan
bill."
Story continues below

To this point, Senator Ben Nelson has hinted that he may oppose a public
option for insurance coverage but has told constituents in Nebraska that he
could very well support cloture despite opposing the bill itself. Other
Democrats on the fence include Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan,
of North Carolina, and Diane Feinstein of California.

As for the actual legislation itself, Sanders said he expected a strong
public option to come out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions final product, But he worried that it would be "watered down" in
order to bring Republican lawmakers on board. The concern, as Sanders
expressed it, was that key Democrats in the process -- namely Senate Finance
Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. -- were structuring their
efforts to recruit Republican support rather than the best policy. He
ridiculed the so-called "Coalition of the Willing," a group of four
Republicans and three Democrats, organized by Baucus to help craft his
reform proposal.

"The people who are sitting around who may determine health reform in the
Senate are a majority of Republicans," Sanders said, incredulously.

In its place, Sanders proposed a Coalition of Unwilling -- as in a group of
lawmakers unwilling to sacrifice a progressive bill for the sake of
bipartisanship.

"Something is very wrong," he said. "What Sen. Baucus said is that the
strategy should be to reach out to Republicans. All of them, without
exception oppose a public plan. So what you'll end up having is a very weak
piece of legislation probably regressively funded. My strategy is different.


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Wed Jul  1 14:26:47 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 04:26:47 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <CCE5D9CB50734224808CE50C7F371352@gx270>
References: <CCE5D9CB50734224808CE50C7F371352@gx270>
Message-ID: <C986DF9821604F28BA0F281C4C8B002A@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                I'm sorry about the delay in responding to your post.   I 
understand that you are writing from Australia, as I am, so I must say at 
the outset that it is in my opinion a healthy situation that socialists 
should be critical of their 'own' countries' roles in wartime.

I'm not sure that I agree with you that the Japanese were prepared to leave 
the southern Pacific region 'neutral' at the outset of the war.   I'd have 
to check the facts, but didn't Australia declare war separately on Japan in 
December 1941?   The Japanese armed forces attacked British possessions in 
Malaya and then Singapore simultaneously with the attack on the US base at 
Pearl Harbour.   It's difficult to know how much autonomy Australian foreign 
and defence policy had during World War Two, but the Australian government 
responded in the same way as it had in September 1939.   Once Britain was 
involved, then Australia more or less automatically became involved as well.

Was Australia an imperialist country in 1941?   It's an interesting 
question.   I do believe that strategically Australia was very important in 
the war.   To hold the Pacific it was really necessary to hold Australia. 
I think both the Japanese and the USA knew that.   The margin for manouevre 
of the Australian government, as it switched its primary allegiance from 
Britain to the USA during the course of the war, was really rather narrow. 
I believe that Australia's war effort in the Asia/Pacific theatre was mainly 
a defensive one.   Conscription for overseas service was introduced in 
Australia, but a geographical limitation was placed on the deployment of 
troops to a perimeter around Australia's near north.   I think that 
Australia's role in this war was rather different to its role in World War 
One.   In the First World War Australia participated first as a close ally 
of Britain, and to a lesser extent for its own interests in the Pacific 
region (the former German colonies in this region, including German New 
Guinea,  were placed under Australian control at the Paris Peace 
Conference).     I would see World War Two, from an Australian perspective, 
as primarily a war to defend the country from invasion, and then to take the 
war to the enemy (the point is underlined by the recall of the two 
Australian divisions from the Middle East in 1942, and the dispute between 
Curtin's government and Churchill over this decision).   But Australia is a 
'small country', and that category does have some resonance.

Was Japan fascist?   Well, as you might know there is one historian named 
Allardyce who has a completely nominalist position on the definition of 
fascism.   One can narrow down the parameters of one's definition to the 
point where there is no pristine fascist movement or state to fit it.   The 
paradigm fascist state, Italy, still maintained structures of civil society 
into the 1930s, and did not persecute Jews until the exigencies of the 
alliance with Nazi Germany impelled this political programme in the late 
1930s.      Right-wing authoritarianism, even of a fascist type, would 
inevitably take on idiosyncratic features in an Asian culture and polity 
like Japan.   I happened to read a book about Japanese war crimes when I was 
18 years old, and I must say that the account left an indelible impression 
on me.   When I read it, I was already a socialist and an anti-war activist, 
and I absorbed the book not so much as an indictment of the Japanese nation 
but more as an indictment of the crimes of imperialism in general.   I 
cannot agree with your expressed view, however, that Japanese war crimes 
were matched by those of the Allies, in the Asia/Pacific theatre, during 
World War Two.   I acknowledge that the use of nuclear weapons against 
Japanese cities in 1945 was a great crime, but the systematic barbarity 
shown by the Japanese occupying forces throughout Asia and the Pacific, 
against Allied prisoners of war and Asian civilians alike, was on the same 
level in my opinion as the barbarism demonstrated throughout Europe by the 
Nazis and by the Italian fascist regime in Africa and the Balkans.  The 
Allied forces did not behave in the same barbarous fashion.    It might just 
be a matter of degree, but the Japanese ruling class, the military cabal, 
and the circle around the Emperor, although they might not fit the precise 
definition of a fascist regime, nevertheless knew where their allegiances 
lay, and were quite prepared, for example, to send a government delegation 
to the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, not long after the accession to power of the 
Nazi party in Germany.   And of course the Japanese joined the Axis, and 
thereby sealed their bond with the fascist powers.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos at alphalink.com.au>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


There is a very strong case for opposing WW2 in the Pacific. This was
clearly an inter-imperialist war, in many ways the fault of the United
States. And in smaller ways the fault of Australia, for example Australia's
December 1941 invasion of East Timor, which brought the war to an area which
the Japanese were prepared to leave neutral. There was nothing progressive
like the French resistance to point to on the allied side. The era of
Japanese victories had a huge long-term impact in advancing anti-colonial
struggles, and the later stage of western victories was mainly about
restoring what Anthony Eden had called "white  man authority". The USSR 
wasn't
involved  until the final days, for those who think this matters.

Japanese and western war crimes are hard to weigh up against each other, but
there is a reasonable case to say they were of similar dimensions. Here is
article I wrote touching on some of these points, from the Australian
perspective:
http://web.overland.org.au/?page_id=933

Neither was this an "anti-fascist" war. Regarding which, here is something
else I wrote::

***
Was Japan fascist?

No it wasn't. The Japanese state was fairly fragmented, with four main
forces in play: the military; the zaibatsu (cartels); the bureaucracy; and
the emperor and palace. These forces jostled for power before, during and
after the war, leaving some major political ambiguities.   For example,
there is considerable debate about Emperor Hirohito's responsibility for the
war, and just how much he shaped policy compared to other players. Whatever
you think about this, it indicates a very different power structure than a
fascist regime. There are no debates about Hitler or Mussolini's war guilt.

W McMahon Ball, who represented Canberra in Tokyo during the postwar
occupation, wrote:

"In the political life of Japan, from the Restoration of 1868 until the
surrender of 1945, power was never the monopoly of a single group or
organization. There was nothing, even in the war years, to parallel the
one-party rule that existed in Germany under the Nazis or Italy under the
fascists."


From nchamah at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 15:33:39 2009
From: nchamah at gmail.com (nchamah miller)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:33:39 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] interesting... Council on Hemispheric Affairs Press
	Release
Message-ID: <a8cb7b970907011433n59f1e607lfc3b0b1656cb919d@mail.gmail.com>

 Clarification of COHA?s Position on President Zelaya and What Went on
in Honduras



On Friday, June 26, COHA issued a statement regarding recent events in
Honduras. As a result of this communiqu?, the organization has
received a heavy volume of mail on the subject, most of it intensely
critical. The article was drafted by Brian Thompson, an extremely
bright young Honduran national and an ardent opponent of President
Zelaya. Brian was under significant pressure within his community to
steer his piece in a direction that would censor Zelaya?s
?irresponsible actions,? which had been not a few in number. The only
problem was that Brian?s ?take? on what was happening in Honduras
substantially differed from that of COHA. The result was that in a
crowded office of some 30 researchers, the Honduran piece was released
without sufficient oversight, and carried an analysis that was much
different from that of COHA?s.

President Zelaya is the constitutional president of Honduras, but his
conduct has been not always wise and had done damage to his standing
in a very hostile political environment. Over the years, COHA has been
very involved in Honduras?s affairs, dating back to the banana wars of
several decades ago, as well as the development of the country as
Washington?s ?Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier? during the years of the
contra war and the operations of the U.S.- tolerated Honduran death
squad Battalion 316.

As of now, many of Zelaya?s leading foes, including the leaders now
serving in the rump government ruling Honduras, are unworthy and
self-serving politicians who demonstrably are not being driven by
democratic principles. It is true that COHA has been somewhat
suspicious of President Zelayas?s motivation for his adhesion to ALBA,
which we looked upon with approval as an act that pluralized the
political landscape and vitalized the Honduran polity in a way unseen
in the Central American nation since the admirable presidency of Ram?n
Villeda Morales, a half century ago. But alas it has been plain to see
that Zelaya was more a local caudillo than a far-seeing regional
leader.

Overthrow in Honduras
On June 25, Hondurans awoke in a state of anxiety and uncertainty. The
previous night, President Manuel Zelaya announced the ouster of
General Romeo Vasquez, head of the country?s armed forces, on grounds
of insubordination. General Vasquez had declined Zelaya?s order for
the army to lend logistical support to a referendum on constitutional
reform which was scheduled to take place in the country on June 28. As
a result of this vote, the president hoped to eliminate, as has been
recently done in a number of other Latin American countries, and as is
about to take place in Colombia, the existing one-term limit placed on
Honduran presidents to qualify for office. The referendum had just
been declared illegal by Congress and the Supreme Court, and General
Vasquez said that he would be violating the law by instructing the
military to follow the President?s directives. However, having
previously announced that ?orders are meant to be followed, not
analyzed,? Zelaya responded by discharging the general.

In response to General Vasquez?s firing, the nation?s military bases
went into a state of ?high alert.? Armored vehicles rolled out onto
the streets and soldiers took up positions at key intersections. Later
that day, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared Zelaya?s re-election
game plan null and ordered the seizure of all ballot boxes and
election-related materials. According to Spanish daily El Pa?s, the
ballot boxes were being kept at the Tegucigalpa, had been flown in
from Venezuela by the Chavez government, which was closely allied to
Honduras via its trade and solidarity alliance, ALBA. Instead,
investigators from the Ministerio P?blico, the Honduran attorney
general?s office, arrived to seize the election cartons.

Street politics
At this point, the President decided to strike back and called
hundreds of his supporters to follow him to the airport on a ?mission?
to rescue the electoral boxes. Zelaya placed himself at the head of
the march and oversaw the actions of its participants after they
battered in the gates to the base and swelled past riot police, where
they then proceeded to remove the election material from the military
facility.

While some members of the new government, including the ousted General
Vasquez, have called for Hondurans to remain calm, Zelaya moved to
oppose the actions of his foes. By pursuing his referendum, which has
been declared illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court, and unanimously
criticized by Congress, Zelaya challenged the escalating actions of
his political foes, determined to confront what has become an
extremely volatile situation.

The president?s version of events
On June 26, Zelaya announced that Congress was plotting a ?technical
coup? to remove him from power through so-called legal maneuverings.
The technical coup Zelaya was referring to was an impeachment vote,
which is allowed under the constitution, but only under very special
circumstances, which did not appear to be met in this instance. This
strategy also could be viewed as an attempt on Zelaya?s part to garner
international support for his position. Several days later, after the
military had forcibly removed Zelaya from power, an emergency meeting
of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States ruled
in Zelaya?s favor, condemning the coup. By presenting his government
as under attack by rightist, anti-constitutional elements intent on
overthrowing his presidency, Zelaya has managed to present himself as
an emblem of democracy and legitimacy.

President Zelaya successfully won democratic plaudits for himself as
the authentic leader of his country. He also has been immensely aided
by the almost completely unanimous support of the UN, the OAS, many of
the EU countries, as well as Washington, all of which have declared
that any extra-constitutional change will not be tolerated in Honduras
or anywhere else.

It can be surmised that some of those who acted against Zelaya are
worthy people who acted out of a sincere belief that Honduras?
democratic principles were at stake. But no matter how
well-intentioned they may have been, the military must realize that
because of the region?s experience with military seizures of power and
subsequent rule in which thousands of innocent civilians were
subjected to an array of human rights atrocities as well as murder by
armed forces, the hemisphere must stand united in upholding the
principle of no extra-constitutional changes of power.
This analysis was prepared by COHA Director Larry Birns
July 1st, 2009
Word Count: 1000


From markalause at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 15:40:45 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:40:45 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <C986DF9821604F28BA0F281C4C8B002A@GrahamPC>
References: <CCE5D9CB50734224808CE50C7F371352@gx270>
	<C986DF9821604F28BA0F281C4C8B002A@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907011440k1993f4aeo2185d44cf9c91195@mail.gmail.com>

Can the nature of the war in the Pacific be separated from that in
Europe?  How would anyone apply that difference in the real world?

ML


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 15:45:41 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:45:41 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <CCE5D9CB50734224808CE50C7F371352@gx270>
	<C986DF9821604F28BA0F281C4C8B002A@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <0532F1A588064661B411F75C217B0C9A@dmsthinkpad>

So, getting right down to the real nitty-gritty,  is it your position that 
WW2 really was a "good war," fought against the "more barbaric" Japan and 
Germany and so alliances with the the bourgeoisie, voting for war credits, 
buying war bonds, were in fact necessary to save "civilization"?

It certainly sounds that way to me from your reply to Tom.

You talk about the way the Japanese treated the populations of the countries 
they occupied, contasting it to the more benign treatment provided by the US 
or the UK.  I would refer you to the history of the US occupation of the 
Philippines, its war against those who rejected the pacification as provided 
by Gen. Black Jack Pershing some 40 years earlier.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G K Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


Dear Tom,
                I'm sorry about the delay in responding to your post.   I
understand that you are writing from Australia, as I am, so I must say at
the outset that it is in my opinion a healthy situation that socialists
should be critical of their 'own' countries' roles in wartime.




From lnp3 at panix.com  Wed Jul  1 16:28:45 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:28:45 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Fraud in Iran?
Message-ID: <4A4BE31D.6020102@panix.com>

Although I am inclined to believe that Ahmadinejad won the election, for 
what it's worth, this exchange on PEN-L between Robert Naiman, a liberal 
supporter of Hugo Chavez, and an Iranian economist Mohammad Maijoo is 
worth considering.

Robert Naiman wrote:

 >> And, they had a plausible motivation for the Friday announcement: 
the opposition had already declared victory - before any votes were
counted at all - and was already mobilizing protests against a "stolen 
election" based on their own expectations -...<<

Not at all.

Fars news ( a pro-AN agancy) was the first press who announced the final 
result (landslide victory of AN) at  about  8 pm (in Tehran's horizon), 
  that is, two houres  before finishing the voting time, immediately 
after which IRNA ( another pro-AN agency) confirmed the news. Keyhan ( a 
fundamentalist newspaper) seemed to provide its tomorrow headline 
(again, landslide victory of AN) at about 9 pm.  After all these, 
Mousavi announced his victory and was congratulated by Khatami  for such 
victory, at about 12 pm or so. Why Mosavi did so? We didn't sleep that 
night, even for one moment, trying to cover all events as far a s 
possible. Based on the results received from several provinces in which 
the counting process had finished, Mousavi realized that he is most 
probably the great winner. Such sense, as I well remember, was 
undoubtedly confirmed by those several friends of mine who were counting 
the votes in several provinces. After these moments, we suddenly become 
unable to call our friends: their all connections instruments become 
useless (telephone, mobile, sms which had already disconnected,...). 
After this, the  state TV and several  state agencies  were bit  by bit 
  announcing  AN's  landslide victory, with a more or less fixed ratio 
of voting results from the beginning to the end. As an Iranian active 
citizen who has lived these events, I have no doubt that the votes were 
not counted at all at that night.

Anyway,  there are enough  evidences  for  the  hypothesis on a great 
fraud in the election. The lengthy report del ivered by Mousavi to the 
Guardian Council has left no doubt.! But wha t is important here is that 
the struggle is not legal but political. As it has very recently 
revealed from GC' informal sessions, even a few members of GC well aware 
of this. The question is not legal.

M. M.


From shacht at aol.com  Wed Jul  1 16:40:50 2009
From: shacht at aol.com (shacht at aol.com)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:40:50 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Council communism
In-Reply-To: <4A49549A.70800@optonline.net>
References: <4A3D4CFB.1020607@wanadoo.fr><2fa1449b0906221155r3533211bqec6a4e193fdf2f67@mail.gmail.com><c81bf1a60906221732l4b39ac38l27d7dc10f463759f@mail.gmail.com><8CBC7288742D590-1410-507@webmail-mx01.sysops.aol.com>
	<4A49549A.70800@optonline.net>
Message-ID: <8CBC8B41E4E5529-3BC-138A@mblk-d51.sysops.aol.com>

Well, I haven't reached the evolutionary stage where I know what "clipping text" means, but guess I'll ask someone under 60.


-----Original Message-----
From: Les Schaffer <schaffer at optonline.net>
To: Wayne M. Collins <shacht at aol.com>
Sent: Mon, Jun 29, 2009 4:56 pm
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Council communism



shacht at aol.com wrote:
> Deutscher

Shact: clip your quoted text, capiche?

Les

________________________________________________
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From lycophidion at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 17:47:11 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:47:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] State of Siege declared in Honduras
Message-ID: <709f342d0907011647i4b4748b4x99ef68af070311f2@mail.gmail.com>

Peter Rossett reported that "the Honduran parliament today declared a
national state of siege in effect as of 10:00 this evening until 5:00
am during which time individual guarantees are suspended. In other
words, military personal may enter peoples' homes and seize
individuals without any judicial order, among other things."

El d?a de hoy el Congreso Nacional de Honduras decret? Estado de Sitio
a nivel nacional a partir de las 10:00 de la noche hasta las 5:00 a.m.
sin las garantias individuales, esto significa que pueden inrumpir en
domicilios particulares y que pueden capturar a las personas sin
ninguna orden judicial, entre otras cosas.


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 17:49:43 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:49:43 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduran Via Campesina Leader Rafael Alegria: "Some
	Battalions Are Refusing to Repress the Population"
Message-ID: <709f342d0907011649t5333e4d7v6605fc80d21df194@mail.gmail.com>

http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/07/honduran-rural-leader-rafael-alegria.html
Jul 1, 2009

Honduran Rural Leader Rafael Alegria: "Some Battalions Are Refusing to
Repress the Population"

The Americas Program spoke with Rafael Alegria, Via Campesina
International leader and a long-time leader of Honduran rural
organizations, this morning about the crisis in his country. Here is
the interview, translated to English:

LC: Can you tell us about the current situation in the country?

RA: The people are gathering throughout the country and in
Tegucigalpa. President Zelaya is not arriving tomorrow, respecting the
resolution of OAS (Organization of American States) that set a time
limit of 72 hours for this group of military and political leaders who
have betrayed the country to deliver the institutions of the country
and deliver executive power to President Zelaya.

We demand that, in the framework of the 72-hour period set by the OAS,
rule of law must be reestablished, to strengthen democratic processes
like the ones being carried out throughout Latin America.

We're asking social movements to come to Honduras and stand by the
social and popular movements that are in the steets, the highways,
throughout the country, demanding a return to institutional law and
the reinstatement of the government of President Jose Manuel Zelaya
Rosales. We are calling on the Social Continental Alliance, churches
and non-governmental organizations that support democracy in our
country and denounce the coup to support us. As we wait for these 72
hours to pass, we're organizing to intensify mobilizations throughout
the country.

LC: Are you experiencing repression?

RA: Yes, there are battalions placed in strategic zones across the
country that don't allow protesters to travel, protesters against the
coup. In the region of Quebracho, in the eastern part of the country,
the military shot out the tires of eleven buses heading for
Tegucigalpa.

They are recruiting young people, ages 12-30 for military service. We
don't know what the purpose is, but they are inciting people saying
there could be a war. They are also calling out reservists and persons
retired from the armed forces... This is the situation we are seeing
now.

There are some individuals from the military who want to talk to the
popular movement but there is a decision on the part of the social
movements that as long as constitutional order and democratic process
is not reinstated, we cannot support or dialogue with people who form
part of the coup in Honduras.

LC: There have been reports that some battalions have broken with the
coup: Is this true? What is the position of the army?

RA: There are battalions that are refusing to repress the population
and basically are against the coup, but they're not saying this
publicly. We believe that it isn't the whole army that is against the
people of Honduras, but the military command (Estado Mayor), in
complicity with the groups holding de facto power who have carried out
the coup. These are the sectors that oppose democratization and
citizen participation in the country.
Posted by Laura Carlsen at 9:47 AM


From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Wed Jul  1 17:51:10 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:51:10 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] interesting... Council on Hemispheric
	Affairs	Press	Release
In-Reply-To: <a8cb7b970907011433n59f1e607lfc3b0b1656cb919d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a8cb7b970907011433n59f1e607lfc3b0b1656cb919d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1246492270.8056.9.camel@john-desktop>

On Wed, 2009-07-01 at 17:33 -0400, nchamah miller wrote:
> Clarification of COHA?s Position on President Zelaya and What Went on
> in Honduras

Not so much interesting as awful . . .
Cheers,
John




From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Wed Jul  1 18:47:02 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:47:02 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] Obama goes to war
Message-ID: <1246495622.8056.48.camel@john-desktop>

The new US assault on Helmand province in southern Afghanistan is
apparently the biggest US Marine operation since Vietnam. Now there's
change we can believe in!
Cheers,
John





From nchamah at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 19:01:10 2009
From: nchamah at gmail.com (nchamah miller)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 21:01:10 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] NEWS RECEIVED FROM HONDURAS (SPANISH TEXT) PLS CIRCULATE
	WIDELY
Message-ID: <a8cb7b970907011801y7576cc84o918c7d74816aaa30@mail.gmail.com>

RESUMEN DE NOTICIAS

29 de junio

En Conferencia de Prensa desde la Casa Presidencial se ha denunciado
> la detenci?n de tres sindicalistas del Sindicato de la ENEE (STENEE),
> Darwin Orellana, Edwin valladares y Ra?l Pav?n, tambi?n un
> profesor cuyo nombre se desconoce quien estaba acompa?ado de su hijo
> y 30 j?venes que participaron de la manifestaci?n en la Patrulla 1-
> 35. Bombas lacrim?genas en este momento.
>
> Los dirigentes han llamado al paro nacional, la toma de edificios del
> gobierno y que coloquen la Bandera Nacional y a un paro indefinido,
> se han organizado comit?s , de tal manera que puedan permanecer
> tomada en la presidencial.
>
> En este momento se realiza el desalojo

30 de junio

MI NOMBRE ES VERENICE BENGTSSON, SOY UNA CIUDADANA de NACIONALIDAD
COSTARRICENSE Y HONDURENA,  RESIDENTE EN SUECIA.

ME DIRIJO A USTEDES A FIN DE DE DENUNCIAR Y HACER DE CONOCIMIENTO
PUBLICO que  el dia de hoy por via CHAT, a las 11 am hora de Suecia y
3 am hora de Honduras, he sido informada por el conocido caricaturista
ALLAN MC DONALD QUE FUE SECUESTRADO Y DETENIDO POR LAS FUERZAS ARMADAS
DE HONDURAS , JUNTO A SU HIJA ABRIL DE 17 MESES.


Allan Mc Donald es un caricaturista que habia mostrado a trav?s de sus
caricaturas en Diario el Heraldo de Honduras , Times  y
www.rebelion.org su posici?n a favor de la consulta de opini?n popular
promovida por el gobierno de Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Allan, me inform? desde un hotel donde se encontraba detenido junto al
Cons?l de la Republica de Venezuela ,  y dos mujeres periodistas de
Espana y Chile,  a quienes no conoc?a, que el dia de ayer 28 de junio
de 2009 , luego del golpe de estado, un grupo de soldados de las
Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras, habian llegado a su casa en la comunidad
de Santa Lucia, a unos 8 kil?metros de la ciudad capital Tegucigalpa,
y la habian saqueado. Posteriormente hicieron una hoguera con todas
sus caricaturas y su material de dibujo. Fue sustraido de su
residencia junto a su hijita, quien despues de cerca de 24 horas no
habia consumido alimentos y solo le daban agua. No le permitieron
portar ninguna pertenencia, dinero y solo lo acompanaba su pasaporte.


La comunicacion no dur? mas de cinco minutos pues estaban
comunic?ndose desde una computadora portatil perteneciente al
diplom?tico venezolano. Me dijo que no habia luz y la bateria de la
computadora estaba por agotarse. Tambien estaban junto a ellos los
periodistas hondurenos Eduardo Maldonado y Esdras Amado Lopez ,
quienes tambien son conocidos por su fuerte apoyo a la iniciativa
ciudadana del gobierno de Manuel Zelaya. Sin embargo Maldonado y
Lopez,  habian sido sustraidos del lugar  juntos , horas antes y sin
rumbo conocido.

Al momento de despedirse Allan , me dijo RESISTE y DENUNCIA ESTE
HECHO, esto lo vi solo en la television cuando ocurri? el golpe de
estado del 1973. Cort? la comunicaci?n porque me dijo , YA VIENEN POR
NOSOTROS. Aparentemente serian conducidos en un bus y sacados del pais
por la frontera El Espino, en este momento ignoro el destino y
paradero de ALLAN MC DONALD , SU HIJITA ABRIL Y SUS OTROS
ACOMPANIANTES.

Este correo es la DENUNCIA a nivel nacional e internacional , ademas
es un llamado a la CONCIENCIA, esta ?poca de terror parec?a ser
superada pero hemos retrocedido a la d?cada de los 80?s en un claro
desconocimiento de los derechos humanos de un Congreso Nacional y una
Corte Suprema de Justicia confabulados para sostenerse, violent?ndole
los derechos elementales de la mayor?a hondurena empobrecida. Este
golpe de estado y todos los actos de este gobierno usurpador reflejan
la poca vocaci?n democr?tica de nuestra clase pol?tica.

RUEGO A USTEDES QUE ESTAN EN HONDURAS Y EN OTROS PAISES :

COMPARTAN ESTA INFORMACION CON SUS CONTACTOS, DENUNCIEN ESTE HECHO POR
CORREO ELECTRONICO A LAS CADENAS DE TELEVISION Y NOTICIEROS
INTERNACIONALES. y los de otros paises a sus medios locales.

SOLICITO A LOS ORGANISMOS DE DERECHOS HUMANOS , INTERPONGAN UN RECURSO
DE EXHIBICION PERSONAL EN FAVOR DE ALLAN MC DONALD Y SU HIJA ABRIL.

30 de junio

URGENTE... URGENTE, EJERCITO SECUESTRA A JOVENES EN OLANCHO

EL COMITE DE FAMILIARES DE DETENIDOS DESAPARECIDOS EN HONDURAS,
COFADEH, A la comunidad nacional e internacional, le informamos que el
dia de hoy martes 30 de junio, desde las 2 de la madrugada, el
ejercito hondure?o esta allanando las viviendas Y SECUESTRANDO A LOS
JOVENES en las comunidades rurales del departamento de Olancho -de
donde es originario el Presidente Constitucional de la Republica de
Honduras, Jos? Manuel Zelaya Rosales. Muchos de los jovenes han salido
a huir a los montes y monta?as, en donde est?n sufriendo persecuci?n
de los uniformados.

Denunciamos al gobierno usurpador y a las Fuerzas Armadas por la
represion que han desatado en contra del pueblo hondure?o y los
responsabiEl lizamos de todas las violaciones que estan cometiendo en
contra de lideres sociales, pobladores, comunidades rurales,
estudiantes, campesinos, obreros.

Llamamos a la comunidad internacional de derechos humanos para adoptar
medidas que hagan retroceder a este gobiernos usurpador en estas
practicas violatorias en contra del pueblo hondure?o, y mantenerse
alerta para las informaciones que estaremos enviando.

Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., 30 de junio de 2009

30 junio

Cientos de pobladores del Occidente de Honduras se movilizan hacia la
Capital Regional Santa Rosa de Cop?n desde hoy martes por la
madrugada. Desde extremos como La Virtud, Candelaria, Lepaera,
Er?ndique, San Marcos, Santa Rita, La Uni?n. De todos los lugares
traen como consigna reivindicar la soberan?a popular, contra el Golpe
de Estado y por la restituci?n del Presidente Electo Manuel Zelaya
Rosales.
Desde ahora y hasta que el gobierno impuesto por los militares
entregue el poder  estar?n tomadas las carreteras a la altura de
Ocotepeque, San Marcos, Santa Rosa, La 6 de Mayo y otros puntos
calientes de la regi?n.
30 de junio

EJERCITO SECUESTRA A JOVENES EN COMUNIDADES DE HONDURAS

El Comit? de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras ,
COFADEH, a la comunidad nacional e internacional le informamos la
gravedad de la situaci?n en las ?ltimas horas en que el ej?rcito y la
polic?a est?n subiendo el nivel de la violencia contra la poblaci?n
indefensa en diferentes lugares de Honduras, a continuaci?n relatamos
los acontecimientos m?s recientes:
 1.-El d?a de hoy martes 30 de junio, desde las dos de la madrugada,
el ej?rcito hondure?o est? allanando las viviendas Y SECUESTRANDO A
LOS JOVENES en las comunidades rurales del departamento de Olancho -de
donde es originario el Presidente Constitucional de la Rep?blica de
Honduras, Jos? Manuel Zelaya Rosales-. Muchos de los j?venes han
salido a huir a los montes y monta?as, en donde est?n sufriendo
persecuci?n de los uniformados, hasta donde hay desplazamientos
militares para perseguirlos.
2.-Violentando flagrantemente los derechos humanos los militares han
llegado casa por casa, seg?n la denuncia que nos ha llegado de las
comunidades de Guacoca, San Francisco de la Paz, Guarizama y Salam?,
que relataron que el avance de las violaciones se extiende a todo el
departamento.
3.-La tarde de este lunes una persona fue muerta y otra se encuentra
en estado de coma, mientras hay cientos de golpeados y detenidos por
la polic?a y el Ej?rcito, en la capital de la rep?blica, producto de
un desalojo violento perpetrado por las fuerzas de seguridad que
actuaron contra la poblaci?n que en forma pac?fica se manten?a en las
afueras e inmediaciones de casa de gobierno exigiendo la restituci?n
de su presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
 3.-Denunciamos que tanto las Fuerzas Armadas como la polic?a no
act?an por s? mismas sino que necesariamente deben seguir ?rdenes, de
acuerdo a la jerarqu?a de mando le corresponder?a a la presidencia de
la Rep?blica, la cual fue asumida el domingo anterior por el
presidente del Congreso Nacional, Roberto Micheletti , quien fue
nombrado ilegalmente por el Poder Legislativo, despu?s de que el
presidente Manuel Zelaya Rosales fuera sacado por la fuerza de las
armas, violentando la institucionalidad del pa?s.
 4.-Denunciamos al gobierno usurpador, a las Fuerzas Armadas y a la
polic?a por la represi?n que han desatado en contra del pueblo
hondure?o y los responsabilizamos de todas las violaciones que est?n
cometiendo en contra de l?deres sociales -contra quienes hay ?rdenes
de captura-, pobladores, comunidades rurales, estudiantes, campesinos
y obreros.
5.-Llamamos a la comunidad internacional en especial a la de derechos
humanos a adoptar medidas que hagan retroceder a este gobierno
usurpador en estas pr?cticas violatorias en contra del pueblo
hondure?o, y a mantenerse alerta para las informaciones que estaremos
enviando.

30 de junio

Hay 6 personas detenidas una persona desaparecida, hay personas
gravemente heridas y detenidas en el Hospital de El Progreso, Yoro.

La polic?a detuvo a la periodista Dunia Montoya, directora de
Comunicaci?n Comunitaria, COMUN y a otro de los comunicadores
populares de dicha Organizaci?n. La violencia parece ser una apuesta
del gobierno de facto, instaurado a ra?z de un golpe de Estado del
domingo. A favor del Estado de Derecho. Pretender apostar a un
continuismo de Mel Zelaya, es una completa aberraci?n, sin embargo un
golpe de estado, que se ha producido el domingo, es romper la endeble
constituci?n y los avances en materia democr?tica que se hab?a ganado
en Honduras.

La manipulaci?n de la informaci?n ha generado una polarizaci?n de las
personas. Se est? a favor o en contra de la cuarta urna, sin dar lugar
a intermedios, esta manipulaci?n no deja lugar al an?lisis y la
interpretaci?n de los hechos, resultando fortalecida la clase pol?tica
de nuestro pa?s.

Evitar dividir a la poblaci?n, y asegurar el Estado de Derecho es el
reto de la sociedad organizada evitando la manipulaci?n de las
acciones que se realicen. ?No estamos a favor de un continuismo de Mel
y tampoco aceptamos un golpe de Estado? indic? un manifestante en El
Progreso, ?queremos que se respete la institucionalidad?.

La mayor?a de los medios nacionales, manipulan la informaci?n,
diciendo que los manifestantes son pocos y son seguidores de Mel
Zelaya, lo cual no es del todo cierto, la gran mayor?a son obreros,
campesinos y sector organizado de la sociedad civil que entiende que
lo que pas? el domingo fue un golpe a la democracia en Honduras
30 de junio

Denuncia urgente Militares estrechan cerco en Olancho para evitar
movilizaci?n

Con el objetivo de impedir la movilizaci?n popular, cientos de
soldados se encuentran en el departamento de Olancho, donde han
violentado domicilios, en busca de gente para detenerla y as? impedir
que se movilicen hasta la ciudad capital.
Los operativos y la fuerte presencia militar se esta llevando a cado
en los siguientes lugares, Telica, Gualaco, Catacamas, San Esteban y
Juticalpa donde mantienen militarizadas las gasolineras de la ciudad.
Los combustibles los est?n vendiendo de forma racionada.
Olancho y Colon estar?an siendo los departamentos mas militarizados
producto del golpe militar de la ma?ana del domingo pasado.
Tanto en Olancho como en Colon, los militares estar?an volviendo a
implantar de facto, los reclutamientos forzados de j?venes, y la
detenci?n de dirigentes sociales
Hace minutos Marel Medina report? lo siguiente: soldados golpistas
est?n reclutando hombres injustamente, en honduras, no hay legalmente
reclutamiento forzoso. Es una artima?a del ejercito, para detener
manifestantes. Toda la zona del Aguan, Yoro y Colon, esta paralizada.
Municipalidades han sido tomadas, la marcha de tegus no
muestra las marchas en el resto de honduras.

30 de junio

Compa?ero Samuel le confirmo que el sr. Adan Funez fue depuesto en
Tocoa como alcalde municipal por el delito de apoyar una consulta
popular y en su lugar fue nombrado el sr. boris reyez quien fuera el
candidato de micheletty en las pasadas elecciones internas, ademas
tambien aqui nos han cancelado los canales internacionales y aun peor
a un reconocido periodista de la zona al sr. nahun palacios a sido
encarcelado solo por el hecho de haber transmitido la protesta de el
dia de ayer, en la toma que ahorita se efectua en la carretera hacia
trujillo no se encuentra ningun medio de comunicacion.
 Estaremos en comunicacion.
marvin.

30 de junio

ALERTA: Confirmado reclutamiento ilegal de j?venes

Confirmado, las Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras est?n reclutando j?venes
para que presten el servicio militar obligatorio. Se nos informa desde
Olanchito, Yoro, que los j?venes reclutados a la fuerza est?n siendo
concentrados en el estadio de la comunidad de Coyoles Central, sede
municipio de Olanchito.

Llamamos a la comunidad internacional para que condene el
reclutamiento forzado de estos j?venes que de seguro van a ser
expuesto como carne de ca??n mientras los oficiales se protegen y
brindan sus ordenes desde oficinas climatizadas. El reclutamiento
militar obligatorio esta proh?bo constitucionalmente en Honduras.

Las Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras violan con esta acci?n una vez m?s la
Constituci?n de la Rep?blica de Honduras. Los jerarcas militares puede
alegar que los j?venes reclutados fueron detenidos en acciones de
protesta pero eso seria agregar una mentira mas a sus acciones
golpistas. No se dejen sorprender, los reclutados fueron sacados de
sus casas y de eso son testigos sus familiares.

Alerta organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos,
necesitadnos acciones urgentes para proteger a nuestros j?venes.

Esteban
30 de junio

A las organizaciones nacionales de derechos humanos,
pedimos convocar una comisi?n internacional
de organizaciones  de derechos humanos,
que puedan  permanecer unos d?as en Honduras.
A fin de testimoniar y reconocer las situaciones de violentaci?n
de derechos a los ciudadanos/as y observar
una supuesta fabricaci?n de evidencias por supuestos delitos
que se est?n atribuyendo a la persona del presidente, a periodistas y
a otros miembros del gabinete electo.

30 de junio
Carlos Bueso, un joven de dieciocho a?os, miembro de la instituci?n
Comunicaci?n Comunitaria (COMUN) que edita la revista Vida Laboral y
mantiene el sitio www.honduraslaboral.org, se encuentra detenido en
las celdas de la polic?a de El Progreso, Yoro, desde la ma?ana del
martes 30 de junio y ser? presentado a los tribunales este 1 de julio
acusado de sedici?n junto a otros seis detenidos durante protestas
contra el golpe de Estado.

COMUN tiene sus oficinas en El Progreso, a 250 kil?metros al norte de
la capital, en la costa atl?ntica de Honduras y a 26 kil?metros de San
Pedro Sula, la segunda ciudad en importancia de el pa?s. Su actividad
es la promoci?n y defensa de los derechos laborales y humanos mediante
el impulso de la comunicaci?n alternativa.

Carlos Bueso es un t?cnico en inform?tica y realiza desde COMUN
actividades de capacitaci?n en computaci?n y difusi?n del Sofware
Libre. Fue detenido a las 10 de la ma?ana luego que la polic?a
reprimi? con disparos al aire y abundantes bombas lacrim?genas una
marcha contra el golpe de perpetrado el 28 de junio en Honduras.

Se ha tenido entrevista con los detenidos y se encuentran bien, a la
espera de ser trasladados a disposici?n del Ministerio P?blico en la
ma?ana, el cual puede dejarlos en libertad o presentarlos a los
Tribunales. Si los presentan a los tribunales es probables que los
manden al presidio local por seis dias para inquirir.

COMUN ha estado cobertura todos los acontecimientos despu?s del golpe
de estado ante el control absoluta que tienen los medios de
comunicaci?n escritos y electr?nicos que mantiene el gobierno de
facto.

NOTICIA 2

Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, 29 de Junio 2009  8.00 pm

A todos los Movimientos Sociales de Honduras y pa?ses amigos
A la Comunidad Internacional

Denuncio que he sido objeto de persecuci?n y amenazas desde hace dos
semanas por comparecer a los medios de comunicaci?n radial y
televisivo (voz de occidente, radio cat?lica Santa Rosa y canal 49) de
Santa Rosa de Copan, en el occidente de Honduras para apoyar la
iniciativa de la Cuarta Urna y por escribir un art?culo titulado
?Profesor se puede cambiar la Constituci?n??  y otros e-mail que he
enviado a la red de movimientos sociales sobre la situaci?n pol?tica-
jur?dica actual en Honduras.

Este d?a  en diferentes reuniones con la dirigencia de movimientos
sociales de Occidente, di algunas declaraciones en los canales de
televisi?n (canal 49 y 28)  donde hice un llamado ampar?ndome en el
art?culo 3 que dice que el ?pueblo tiene derecho a recurrir a la
insurrecci?n en defensa del orden constitucional?  a la vez que he
hecho un llamado a las Fuerzas Armadas y a la Polic?a a proteger al
pueblo y no prestarse a los intereses de la Oligarqu?a  y poderes
facticos.

Hoy he recibido amenazas por el tel?fono celular, han merodeado mi
casa y me persiguieron toda una tarde (dos individuos vestidos de
civil) por lo cual me vi obligado a entrar a la Catedral a las 5.45 pm
y de all? el obispo me condujo al Obispado para protecci?n. Como en
otras circunstancias, no he pedido protecci?n al Comisionado Nacional
de los Derechos Humanos porque todos sabemos que solo defienden los
intereses de las oligarqu?as y poderes facticos, por lo que hago esto
de conocimiento p?blico a todos los movimientos sociales de Honduras,
de pa?ses amigos y a la comunidad internacional en general,
responsabilizando cualquier atentado contra mi vida y mi familia al
estado policiaco impuesto por el gobierno de facto producto del Golpe
de Estado.

Jose Salomon Orellana
Academico

30 de junio

Desalojan con violencia toma de carretera en Limones Lepaguare

En horas de la madrugada de este primero de julio, fueron desalojados
los manifestantes que se ten?an tomada la carretera, que de
Tegucigalpa Conduce al departamento de Olancho, inform? el coordinador
del Movimiento Ambientalista de Olancho MAO, Ren? Gradiz.

En el desalojo se evit? la captura del Padre Andr?s Tamayo, y otros
miembros de MAO, uno de los objetivos de los militares.

Los manifestantes que reclaman el regreso del presidente Manuel
Zelaya, manten?an tomada  la carretera, desde el pasado lunes al medio
d?a.


From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Wed Jul  1 19:17:40 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:17:40 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <2A6E160606CE4A68A6EA8FF833EF1E5A@gx270>

Mark asked how we can separate the European and Pacific Wars.  Well, the 
Soviet Union kept out of the Pacific War till it was all but over, and as I 
pointed out in my last post, Japanese and German coordination was  minimal 
during the war. In fact a German Nazi general was leading Chinese armies 
against Japan in the late 30s. Naturally the two theatres are 
interconnected. But then everything is interconnected.

Theanks to Graham for  a detailed reply. I have interspersed some replies of 
my own below:

>>I'm not sure that I agree with you that the Japanese were prepared to 
>>leave
the southern Pacific region 'neutral' at the outset of the war.<<

No, they were prepared (even keen) to leave EAST TIMOR neutral, in order to 
keep Portugal out of the war. Australia however violated Portuguese 
neutrality, after which Japan moved in and a terrible war ensued on East 
Timorese soil. See Frei, Henry (1996) 'Japan's Reluctant Decision to Occupy 
Portuguese Timor, 1 January 1942-20 February 1942', Australian Historical 
Studies, vol. 27, no. 107, October.

>>Was Australia an imperialist country in 1941?<<

Well what else do you call its control of Papua New Guinea? It is true that 
Australian imperialism emerged gradually out of Australia's role as a 
frontier of British imperialism. Here is something I've written about the 
latter process:

http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/empire.htm

>>I believe that Australia's war effort in the Asia/Pacific theatre was 
>>mainly
a defensive one.<<

Defending what? Japan had no plans to invade Australia. See Peter Stanley's 
recent book which the publishers have stupidly called "Invading Australia". 
In fact he documents the opposite. Stanley was for a long time the historian 
at the War Memorial, he is a top notch expert. I can also provide many other 
sources.

The Australian war effort was "defensive" in the sense that Australia was 
defending "Australian territories" in Papua and New Guinea. I hopefully don't 
need to tell you how cruel and racist Australian rule in PNG was. Though you 
may not be aware of the terrible forced  labour and vicious punishments 
meted out to the "fuzzy wuzzy angels" on the Kokoda trail.

>>Conscription for overseas service was introduced in
Australia, but a geographical limitation was placed on the deployment of
troops to a perimeter around Australia's near north.<<

Yes, the near north where direct Australian imperial  interests lay. Cynical 
use of the invasion fear allowed the  Australian ruling class to build 
public support for conscription to secure these interests.

>>In the First World War Australia participated first as a close ally
of Britain, and to a lesser extent for its own interests in the Pacific
region (the former German colonies in this region, including German New
Guinea, were placed under Australian control at the Paris Peace
Conference). <<

Here you seem to recognise there was an Australian imperialism. What you 
miss is that Australia's "own interests" included preparing for eventual war 
with Japan, for which purpose Australia needed to ensure British backing. 
Prime Minister Billy Hughes apparently told a closed parliamentary session 
that conscription was necessary because 'Japan would challenge the White 
Australia policy after the war.Australia would need the help of the rest of 
the Empire, and...if she wishes to be sure of getting it she must now throw 
her full strength into the war in Europe.'

>>I would see World War Two, from an Australian perspective,
as primarily a war to defend the country from invasion<<

See above. The Japanese  had no capability to invade, and no plans to do so. 
What's more, because the Japanese codes had been cracked, the Australian 
government knew there was no invasion threat  -- they knew this by late 
April 1942. Yet for about a year after this, the government pushed austerity 
drives, using the supposed invasion threat to impose sacrifices on the 
working class. GDP spiked upwards.

>>I acknowledge that the use of nuclear weapons against  Japanese cities in 
>>1945 was a great crime,<<

What of the allied fire-bombing, in which Japanese civilians 'literally 
caught fire and burned like sticks of wood. Women carrying infants on their 
backs suddenly realised their babies were on fire.streets became carpeted 
with charred bodies.  Rivers grew choked with corpses.'  An aide to General 
Macarthur described the firebombings as 'one of the most barbaric killings 
of non-combatants in all history.'   The overall death toll was larger than 
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. BTW you may have seen in the Australian press the 
other day that the British considered gas attacks on Tokyo. So did the 
Americans. There is an Australian angle to that, too, but space precludes...

But  let's  look at a few other cases. In India, British measures to 
forestall a Japanese invasion included withdrawing boats and rice from the 
Bengali rural population, leading to an aggravation of the Bengali famine. 
It's impossible to say how many deaths this caused directly, but I would be 
surprised if the numbers weren't comparable to the worst Japanese 
atrocities. An additional  motivation was probably to demoralise the 
independence movement through hunger.

Then there is Chiang Kai-shek's 1938 decision to breach the Yellow River 
dykes. To temporarily stall the Japanese advance, up to a million Chinese 
died. That's such a gigantic death toll I'd better give a source: Lary, 
Diana (2004) 'The Waters Covered the Earth: China's War-Induced Natural 
Disasters', in Mark Selden and Alvin So, War and State Terrorism: The United 
States, Japan and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century, Rowman and 
Littlefield, Oxford.

Speaking of Chiang, let me quote from my own book manuscript:

"Japanese atrocities continued in the countryside on a vast scale, but at 
the same time, the Chinese Nationalist movement's 'notorious corruption 
resulted in hoarding and profiteering while millions of peasants starved.' 
In addition, the Nationalist armies - Australia's allies from 1941 onwards - 
extracted annihilating taxes from the peasants. An eyewitness described how

"peasants who were eating elm bark and dried leaves had to haul their last 
sack of seed grain to the tax collector's office. Peasants who were so weak 
they could barely walk had to collect fodder for the army's horses, fodder 
that was more nourishing than the filth they were cramming into their own 
mouths. "

Nor was this the end of it. The Nationalist army forces rampaged out of 
control, pillaging and raping; they were so hated that peasants often killed 
nationalist soldiers who fell into their hands.  Gabriel Kolko says of 
Chiang Kai-shek's military conscription system: 'As a system of direct and 
indirect physical liquidation only the Nazi terror surpassed it during the 
war.'  Those who support the Pacific war on anti-fascist grounds might be 
startled to learn of the fascist tendencies in the Chinese Nationalist 
movement which

"presented an ugly face to the world.and among its own more rightwing 
elements Fascist proclivities soon appeared.the Blue Shirts.soon became 
identified in the public mind with kidnappings, beatings, shootings and all 
the thuggery of fascism.'  "

Moreover, 'Chiang's New life Movement, like the Blue Shirt movement, was 
soon drawn into.Chinese Fascism, providing it with the necessary historical 
myth.'

We also need to remember that the Japanese forces were desperately 
over-stretched, many starving (there was malnutrition in Japan itself by the 
time of Pearl Harbour). They had to live off the land so they plundered. The 
conditions under which they fought generated hysterical behaviour. That 
Japan was making this desperate attempt at conquest was in turn caused by 
American attempts to strangle Japan before 1941. So in a sense you can blame 
the Americans!

But blaming particular nations is really rather pointless. This was an 
imperialist war on all sides. 




From markalause at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 19:26:11 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 21:26:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <2A6E160606CE4A68A6EA8FF833EF1E5A@gx270>
References: <2A6E160606CE4A68A6EA8FF833EF1E5A@gx270>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907011826g338d6d10lcff0198dd6c93b4e@mail.gmail.com>

Perhaps I was being too obtuse.  What I meant by separating the
Pacific war from the European war didn't have to do with our analysis
of the forces at work in one place as opposed to those in another.

It was much more practical and, in part, simply a rhetorical point....

Do you specify if you're buying or selling war bonds that they should
be used for one and not the other?  Or if you volunteer or get
drafted, do you specify that you're doing it for one and not the
other?   How do you resist one and support the other?

This is a bit like the "progressives" who think they can separate the
Iraq occupation from "the good war" in Afghanistan.  Even assuming
that such an analysis is correct, what does it mean in the real world?

ML


From thomasfbarton at earthlink.net  Wed Jul  1 19:33:14 2009
From: thomasfbarton at earthlink.net (T)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 21:33:14 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <25857646.1246498394399.JavaMail.root@wamui-junio.atl.sa.earthlink.net>


?On The Defeat Of One?s Own Government In The Imperialist War?
?A Revolutionary Class In A Reactionary War Cannot But Wish For The Defeat Of Its Government?

July 26, 1915: On The Defeat of One?s Own Government in the Imperialist War, By Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov: Sotsial-Demokrat No. 43 [Excerpts]

A revolutionary class in a reactionary war cannot but ?wish for the defeat of its government.? 

This is an axiom.  It is disputed only by the conscious partisans or the helpless satellites of the social-chauvinists. 

[T]o the latter belong Trotsky and Bukvoyed; in Germany, Kautsky.  To wish Russia?s defeat, Trotsky says, is ?an uncalled-for and unjustifiable political concession to the methodology of social-patriotism which substitutes for the revolutionary struggle against the war and the conditions that cause war, an orientation along the lines of the lesser evil, an orientation which, under given conditions, is perfectly arbitrary? (Nashe Slovo, No. 105.)  This is an example of the inflated phraseology with which Trotsky always justifies opportunism. 

?A revolutionary struggle against the war? is an empty and meaningless exclamation, the like of which the heroes of the Second International are past masters in making, unless it means revolutionary actions against one's own government in times of war. 

A little reasoning suffices to make this clear. 

When we say revolutionary actions in war time against one's own government, we indisputably mean not only the wish for its defeat, but practical actions leading towards such defeat. 

In using phrases to avoid the issue, Trotsky has lost his way amidst very simple surroundings.  It seems to him that to wish Russia's defeat means to wish Germany's victory. (Bukvoyed and Semkovsky express more directly this ?thought,? or rather, thoughtlessness, which they have in common with Trotsky.) In this Trotsky also repeats the ?methodology of social-patriotism?! 

To help people that do not know how to think, the Berne resolution (Sotsial-Demokrat, No. 40) made it clear that in all imperialist countries the proletariat must now wish the defeat of its government.

Revolution in war time is civil war. 

Transformation of war between governments into civil war is, on the one hand, facilitated by military reverses (?defeats?) of the governments; on the other hand, it is impossible to strive in practice towards such a transformation without at the same time working towards military defeat. 

The ?slogan? of defeat is so vehemently repudiated by the chauvinists for the very reason that this slogan alone means a consistent appeal to revolutionary action against one's own government in war time. 

Without such action, millions of the most revolutionary phrases concerning ?war against war and conditions, etc.? are not worth a penny. 

The tsarist government was perfectly right when it asserted that the propaganda of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Fraction was the only example in the International of not only parliamentary opposition but of real revolutionary propaganda in the masses against their government, that this propaganda weakened the military power of Russia and aided its defeat. 

This is a fact.  It is not clever to hide from it. 

The opponents of the defeat slogan are simply afraid of themselves when they do not wish to realize the most obvious fact of the inseparable connection between revolutionary propaganda against the government and actions leading to its defeat. 

An understanding concerning revolutionary actions within even one single country, not to speak of a number of countries, can be realized only by the force of the example of earnest revolutionary actions, by their being launched, by their development. 

It is impossible, however, to launch them without wishing the government defeat, and without contributing to such a defeat. 

The change from imperialist war to civil war cannot be ?made,? as it is impossible to ?make? a revolution - it grows out of the multiplicity of diverse phenomena, phases, traits, characteristics, consequences of the imperialist war. 

Such growth is impossible without a series of military reverses and defeats of those governments which receive blows from their own oppressed classes.

The only policy of a real, not verbal, breaking of ?civil peace,? of accepting the class struggle, is for the proletariat to take advantage of the difficulties of the government and its bourgeoisie with the aim of overthrowing them. 

This, however, cannot be achieved, it cannot be striven at, without wishing the defeat of one's own government, without contributing to such a defeat.

When, before the war, the Italian Social-Democrats raised the question of a mass strike, the bourgeoisie replied, undoubtedly correctly from its standpoint, that this would be high treason, and that they would be dealt with as traitors. 

This is true, and it is also true that fraternization in the trenches is high treason. 

A proletarian cannot help deal his government a class blow; he cannot reach out (in practice) a hand to his brother, the proletarian of the ?foreign? country which is at war with us, without committing ?high treason,? without contributing to the defeat, the dismemberment of ?his? imperialist ?great? power. 

Let us look at the question from one more angle. 

The war cannot but call forth among the masses the most stormy feelings which destroy the usual sluggishness of mass psychology.  Without adjustment to these new stormy feelings, revolutionary tactics are impossible. 

What are the main currents of these stormy feelings? 

(1) Horror and despair.  Hence the growth of religious feelings.  Once more the churches are full, the reactionaries rejoice. ?Wherever there are sufferings, there is religion,? says the arch-reactionary, Barres. 

He is right, too. 

(2) Hatred for the ?enemy,? a feeling carefully fanned by the bourgeoisie (more than by the priests) and of economic and political value only to the bourgeoisie. 

(3) Hatred for one's own government and one's bourgeoisie - a feeling of all class-conscious workers who understand, on the one hand, that war is ?a continuation of politics? on the part of imperialism, which they meet by ?continuing? their hatred for their class enemy; on the other hand, that ?war against war? is a silly phrase if it does not mean revolution against their own government. 

It is impossible to arouse hatred against one's own government and one's bourgeoisie without wishing their defeat, and it is impossible to be non-hypocritical opponent of ?civil? (class) ?peace? without arousing hatred towards one's own government and bourgeoisie!!!





-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Lause <markalause at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 1, 2009 9:26 PM
>To: Thomas F Barton <thomasfbarton at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
>
>Perhaps I was being too obtuse.  What I meant by separating the
>Pacific war from the European war didn't have to do with our analysis
>of the forces at work in one place as opposed to those in another.
>
>It was much more practical and, in part, simply a rhetorical point....
>
>Do you specify if you're buying or selling war bonds that they should
>be used for one and not the other?  Or if you volunteer or get
>drafted, do you specify that you're doing it for one and not the
>other?   How do you resist one and support the other?
>
>This is a bit like the "progressives" who think they can separate the
>Iraq occupation from "the good war" in Afghanistan.  Even assuming
>that such an analysis is correct, what does it mean in the real world?
>
>ML
>
>________________________________________________
>YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
>Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/thomasfbarton%40earthlink.net



From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Wed Jul  1 19:51:08 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:51:08 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <646DFE532B0248E2A2C38D62E972C3DC@gx270>

Thanks Mark, I agree this would have been a difficult one in the US. In 
Australia it was potentially easier. The war in Europe mainly appealed to 
right wingers and the Communists. The bulk of the working class had little 
enthusiasm for it. After December 1941 all that really  mattered to the 
majority was the war with Japan, because of a) the perceived invasion threat 
and b) the related fear of the Yellow Peril.




From markalause at gmail.com  Wed Jul  1 19:59:35 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 21:59:35 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <25857646.1246498394399.JavaMail.root@wamui-junio.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
References: <25857646.1246498394399.JavaMail.root@wamui-junio.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907011859t1ac3641dtc26b02b4c49573d6@mail.gmail.com>

Gee, Lenin from 93 years ago.  At least you didn't have to dig up the poor guy.

Answers every nuance or every question raised, I guess.

ML


From mdriscollrj at charter.net  Wed Jul  1 20:20:13 2009
From: mdriscollrj at charter.net (Ralph Johansen)
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:20:13 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] A List of 1Q 2009 Corporate Lobbying
Message-ID: <4A4C195D.4010602@charter.net>



*Organic Consumers Association - * 6771 South Silver Hill Drive, Finland 
MN 55603
E-mail: Staff <http://www.organicconsumers.org/aboutus.cfm#contact> ? 
Activist or Media Inquiries: 218-226-4164 ? Fax: 218-353-7652
Please support our work. Send a tax-deductible donation to the OCA 
<http://www.organicconsumers.org/donations.cfm>


    A List of Corporate Lobbying by Jill Richardson

    * * By Jill Richardson
      La Vida Locavore, June 18, 2009
      Straight to the Source 
      <http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1937/why-american-policy-sucks>

      *

/The following totals are for the first quarter of 2009:/

1) $42 Million: Health Care, Health Insurance, & Pharma
2) $31 Million: Oil
3) $20 Million: War
4) $17 Million: Telecoms
5) $15 Million: Financial
6) $10 Million: Automotive
7) $7 Million: Life Insurance
8) $6 Million: Biotech

See a full list of what specific corporations are investing in sculpting 
public policy in their favor:

Out of curiosity I decided to see who was spending the most on lobbying 
in America. And Oh My Goodness - NO WONDER our policy sucks. No wonder 
it's nearly impossible to pass health care reform that provides all 
Americans with affordable care, a global warming bill that doesn't suck, 
and the Employee Free Choice Act. No wonder we're in these two stupid 
wars. I know everyone's aware of the problems lobbying poses to our 
country, but good lord, if people saw the sheer magnitude of it (and the 
comparatively paltry amounts spent in the people's interest) they would 
be outraged. So here goes. Here's the list of the top 100 (ranked by 
amount spent on lobbying in Q109). Enjoy.

I pulled up all of the reports for first quarter 2009 but over 20,000 
items came up (and the report only shows the first 3000). OK, try again 
- all reports for over $1 million for first quarter 2009. This time a 
little over 100 came up (including AIG, who spent $1,250,000 on lobbying 
during that period).

So here's how to read this list: These are the amounts spent by the 
corporations listed. However, many (if not most) of these corporations 
ALSO contract out to private lobbying firms, so the amounts you see here 
MIGHT not be the total amount they spent on lobbying in Q109. For 
example, Monsanto spent $2,094,000 for its in house lobbying but then 
contracted out to Arent Fox LLP; Lesher, Russell & Barron, Inc. 
($60,000); Ogilvy Government Relations ($60,000); Parven Pomper 
Strategies ($40,000); Sidley Austin LLP; TCH Group, LLC ($50,000); The 
Nickles Group, LLC ($63,000); The Washington Tax Group, LLC ($40,000); 
and Troutman Sanders Public Affairs Group ($30,000) - for a total of 
$2,437,000 in first quarter 2009.

Health Care, Health Insurance, & Pharma
3. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: $6,910,000
6. Pfizer, Inc: $6,140,000
12. American Medical Association: $4,240,000
18. American Hospital Association: $3,580,000
19. Eli Lilly and Company: $3,440,000
37. America's Health Insurance Plans, Inc: $2,030,000
39. CVS Caremark Inc: $2,005,000
47. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association: $1,800,000
49. GlaxoSmithKline: $1,780,000
63. Merck & Co: $1,500,000
65. United Health Group, Inc: $1,500,000
69. Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc: $1,460,000
76. Novartis: $1,347,134
87. Abbott Laboratories: $1,260,000
89. Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP: $1,250,000
92. Medtronic, Inc: $1,238,000

Oil
2. Exxon Mobil: $9,320,000
4. Chevron U.S.A. Inc: $6,800,000
7. Conoco Phillips: $5,980,935
16. BP America, Inc: $3,610,000
20. Marathon Oil Corporation: $3,380,000
45. American Petroleum Institute: $1,810,000

Defense
5. Lockheed Martin Corporation: $6,380,000
11. General Electric Company: $4,540,000
28. Northrop Grumman Corporation: $2,570,000
30. Boeing Company: $2,410,00
51. Honeywell International: $1,760,000
73. Raytheon Company: $1,360,000

Telecoms
10. AT&T Services, Inc: $5,134,873
14. Verizon (excluding Verizon Wireless): $3,760,000
21. National Cable and Telecommunications Association: $3,370,000
23. Comcast Corporation: $2,760,000
68. Motorola, Inc: $1,470,000

Automotive
22. General Motors: $2,800,000
27. United Services Automobile Association: $2,590,244
52. Ford Motor Company: $1,750,000
84. Toyota Motor North America: $1,290,000
86. Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers: $1,264,400

Financial
32. Financial Services Roundtable: $2,260,000
33. Prudential Financial, Inc: $2,180,000
41. American Bankers Association: $1,890,000
61. Visa, Inc: $1,540,000
74. Investment Company Institute: $1,359,917
75. Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association: $1,350,000
82. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.: $1,310,000
90. Citigroup Management Corp: $1,250,000
90. Credit Union National Association: $1,250,000

Biotech
36. Monsanto: $2,094,000
40. Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO): $1,920,000
44. Bayer Corporation: $1,843,672

Railroads
24. Association of American Railroads: $2,759,545
54. Union Pacific Corporation: $1,717,108
71. BNSF Railway: $1,400,000

Life Insurance
42. American Council of Life Insurers: $1,867,075
44. New York Life Insurance Company: $1,840,000
64. State Farm Insurance: $1,500,000
93. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company: $1,237,000

Other
1. Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A.: $9,996,000
8. National Association of Realtors: $5,727,000
9. U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform: $5,480,000
13. AARP: $4,090,000
15. Southern Company: $3,650,000
17. Altria Client Services Inc: $3,580,000
25. Amgen, Inc: $2,750,000
26. National Association of Broadcasters: $2,600,000
29. Edison Electric Institute: $2,550,000
31. Fedex Corporation: $2,370,000
34. Textron, Inc.: $2,140,000
35. General Dynamics Corp: $2,101,945
38. International Business Machines (IBM): $2,030,000
43. United Technologies Corporation: $1,860,000
46. Recording Industry Association of America: $1,810,000
48. CTIA-The Wireless Association: $1,790,000
50. Time Warner Inc. $1,780,000
53. The Dow Chemical Company: $1,735,000
55. American Electric Power Company: $1,716,913
56. Microsoft Corporation: $1,650,000
57. Qualcomm, Incorporated: $1,620,000
58. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc: $1,600,000
59. L-3 Communications: $1,580,000
60. Exelon Business Services, LLC: $1,540,000
62. Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc: $1,530,000
66. Norfolk Southern Corporation: $1,485,026
67. Koch Companies Public Sector LLC: $1,480,000
70. American Airlines: $1,450,000
72. Oracle Corporation: $1,390,000
77. Air Transport Association of America, Inc.: $1,340,000
78. Disney Worldwide Services, Inc.: $1,330,000
79. Sepracor, Inc: $1,324,157
80. National Association of Home Builders: $1,320,000
81. UPS: $1,316,426
83. Siemens Corporation: $1,300,000
85. Duke Energy Corporation: $1,282,770
94. Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., Inc: $1,230,000
95. Business Roundtable: $1,220,000
96. Wellpoint, Inc: $1,220,000
97. American Wind Energy Association: $1,212,504
98. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: $1,206,427
99. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association: $1,200,000
99. CBS Corporation: $1,200,000

From jbustelo at bellsouth.net  Wed Jul  1 20:47:16 2009
From: jbustelo at bellsouth.net (Joaquin Bustelo)
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 22:47:16 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] interesting... Council on Hemispheric Affairs
	PressRelease
In-Reply-To: <a8cb7b970907011433n59f1e607lfc3b0b1656cb919d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a8cb7b970907011433n59f1e607lfc3b0b1656cb919d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2D9155967F00499EBED392C6994C70B2@albanta>

Why are we subjected to the senile apologetics of liberal imperialists like
Larry Birns?

The situation is quite simple: The Honduran coup plotters thought they could
get away with it and would have at least back-handed support from
Washington. The imperialist water-boy wannabes at COHA saw another
opportunity to "differentiate" themselves from Washington, in this case by
being even more shameless in brazenly backing the coup than Mrs. Clinton.

Unfortunately for Larry Birns, the coup plotters wound up isolated
politically and diplomatically, forcing Washington to formally even demand
the reinstatement of the president. So now Birns is backtracking at 150
miles an hour, covering up, blaming interns and an overloaded staff. 

Anyone who believes this cock-and-bull story about how, "gee, we didn't
really look carefully at the position we were taking" may be interested in
taking a look at a bridge I'm selling in Brooklyn. 

There wasn't a more important issue nor one that riveted the attention of
the entire Latin American nation, not at the beginning of THIS week (sorry,
Nestor, I know the Argentine mid-term elections are important in the longer
run, but this was more important at this moment). 

Moreover, Birnes's statement repeats the same stupid lies about the voting
that was to have taken place last Sunday as an "illegal referendum" that was
"Zelaya's re-election game plan." 

A) There was no "referendum." This was a non-binding popular consultation.

B) There was nothing in there about re-electing Zelaya. It was about WHETHER
to hold a vote to call together a constitutional convention.

C) Zelaya is not running for re-election in the November elections, which
will elect his successor.

This is what liberal imperialists like Birns get for being so stupid as to
rely on the hysterical ravings of an oligarchy that's just waiting for the
sanitation truck to haul them to history's dump.

Joaquin




From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Wed Jul  1 21:09:07 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:09:07 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <2A6E160606CE4A68A6EA8FF833EF1E5A@gx270>
References: <2A6E160606CE4A68A6EA8FF833EF1E5A@gx270>
Message-ID: <C1EED969BB764293B87590EF85C74BB7@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                I looked at your article on Australia's emergence as a 
'sub-imperialist' power in the Pacific, from 'Marxist Interventions'.   I 
accept that Australia was a junior partner of British (and later US) 
imperialism, and had colonial possessions of its own (Papua New Guinea, 
etc).   But it seems unreasonable to me to exaggerate Australia's position 
in world affairs at any time.   I'll try to get hold of  a copy of the book 
by Peter Stanley you mention, arguing that Japan had no intention of 
invading Australia during World War Two.   But it seems paradoxical to me 
that the broken codes you talk about are so definite about Japanese 
intentions.   'Late April' 1942 is only a few weeks before the naval battles 
of Coral Sea and Midway that determined the ultimate fate of the Pacific 
War.

I am only surmising about this, but I would have thought that the Japanese 
military and naval high commands would have been aware that control of the 
Pacific in the long term must involve control of Australia.   For their part 
the US commanders were well aware of this fact, and after the fall of the 
Phillipines to Japan, MacArthur of course based the US Command of the 
Pacific theatre in Australia.   I find it difficult to believe that the 
Japanese would have decided definitively not to invade Australia only a 
short time before the battles that would determine whether such a project 
was possible.   Obviously, as Australia is an island, as well as a 
continent, it would have been necessary to mount an amphibious operation, 
requiring naval supremacy.   In any case, if Japan had won the Coral Sea and 
Midway battles, it is quite possible that they could have altered their 
plans and invaded.

I agree with you completely about the horror of the fire bombing of Tokyo 
and other Japanese cities.   Of course the same criticisms of the Allies 
could be levelled against them for the area bombing of German cities during 
the war.   In China, the Kuomintang had demonstrated its corruption before 
the general war began in 1939, and had proven to be an unreliable factor in 
the war of the Chinese to defend themselves against Japanese imperialism. 
You seem to have a equivocal position with respect to the defence of China, 
in which the best fighters and partisans were no doubt Communists, and you 
seem not to recognise that the conflict was in no way an 'inter-imperialist' 
war, but a war to defend a semi-colonial country from a predatory invasion.

I should respond also to some of the other posts on this subject.   The 
division of World War Two into two major theatres seems to be well 
established in scholarship on the history of the war, to answer Mark Lause's 
point.   One example of a very good, large scale, one volume history of the 
war that I have already mentioned is Guy Wint and Peter Calvocoressi's 
'Total War', which divides the treatment of the history into two halves: 
'The Western Hemisphere' and 'The War in Asia'.   Artesian's comment, and 
the extract from Lenin's war manifestoes posted by 'T', strike me as 
appropriate for World War One, but not so much for World War Two.   A lot of 
Lenin's formulations are relevant also for World War Two, but I do question 
the propriety of a 'revolutionary defeatist' position in every case.   There 
is such a category as the 'small country' as Lenin and Trotsky themselves 
recognised.   When Denmark, for example, which was (and remains) an 
'imperialist' country, owning territorial possessions in Greenland, was 
invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, would the appropriate slogan for the left 
to have raised been 'defeat of your own bourgeoisie'?   There must be a 
better way.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos at alphalink.com.au>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> Mark asked how we can separate the European and Pacific Wars.  Well, the
> Soviet Union kept out of the Pacific War till it was all but over, and as 
> I
> pointed out in my last post, Japanese and German coordination was  minimal
> during the war. In fact a German Nazi general was leading Chinese armies
> against Japan in the late 30s. Naturally the two theatres are
> interconnected. But then everything is interconnected.
>
> Theanks to Graham for  a detailed reply. I have interspersed some replies 
> of
> my own below:
>
>>>I'm not sure that I agree with you that the Japanese were prepared to
>>>leave
> the southern Pacific region 'neutral' at the outset of the war.<<
>
> No, they were prepared (even keen) to leave EAST TIMOR neutral, in order 
> to
> keep Portugal out of the war. Australia however violated Portuguese
> neutrality, after which Japan moved in and a terrible war ensued on East
> Timorese soil. See Frei, Henry (1996) 'Japan's Reluctant Decision to 
> Occupy
> Portuguese Timor, 1 January 1942-20 February 1942', Australian Historical
> Studies, vol. 27, no. 107, October.
>
>>>Was Australia an imperialist country in 1941?<<
>
> Well what else do you call its control of Papua New Guinea? It is true 
> that
> Australian imperialism emerged gradually out of Australia's role as a
> frontier of British imperialism. Here is something I've written about the
> latter process:
>
> http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/empire.htm
>
>>>I believe that Australia's war effort in the Asia/Pacific theatre was
>>>mainly
> a defensive one.<<
>
> Defending what? Japan had no plans to invade Australia. See Peter 
> Stanley's
> recent book which the publishers have stupidly called "Invading 
> Australia".
> In fact he documents the opposite. Stanley was for a long time the 
> historian
> at the War Memorial, he is a top notch expert. I can also provide many 
> other
> sources.
>
> The Australian war effort was "defensive" in the sense that Australia was
> defending "Australian territories" in Papua and New Guinea. I hopefully 
> don't
> need to tell you how cruel and racist Australian rule in PNG was. Though 
> you
> may not be aware of the terrible forced  labour and vicious punishments
> meted out to the "fuzzy wuzzy angels" on the Kokoda trail.
>
>>>Conscription for overseas service was introduced in
> Australia, but a geographical limitation was placed on the deployment of
> troops to a perimeter around Australia's near north.<<
>
> Yes, the near north where direct Australian imperial  interests lay. 
> Cynical
> use of the invasion fear allowed the  Australian ruling class to build
> public support for conscription to secure these interests.
>
>>>In the First World War Australia participated first as a close ally
> of Britain, and to a lesser extent for its own interests in the Pacific
> region (the former German colonies in this region, including German New
> Guinea, were placed under Australian control at the Paris Peace
> Conference). <<
>
> Here you seem to recognise there was an Australian imperialism. What you
> miss is that Australia's "own interests" included preparing for eventual 
> war
> with Japan, for which purpose Australia needed to ensure British backing.
> Prime Minister Billy Hughes apparently told a closed parliamentary session
> that conscription was necessary because 'Japan would challenge the White
> Australia policy after the war.Australia would need the help of the rest 
> of
> the Empire, and...if she wishes to be sure of getting it she must now 
> throw
> her full strength into the war in Europe.'
>
>>>I would see World War Two, from an Australian perspective,
> as primarily a war to defend the country from invasion<<
>
> See above. The Japanese  had no capability to invade, and no plans to do 
> so.
> What's more, because the Japanese codes had been cracked, the Australian
> government knew there was no invasion threat  -- they knew this by late
> April 1942. Yet for about a year after this, the government pushed 
> austerity
> drives, using the supposed invasion threat to impose sacrifices on the
> working class. GDP spiked upwards.
>
>>>I acknowledge that the use of nuclear weapons against  Japanese cities in
>>>1945 was a great crime,<<
>
> What of the allied fire-bombing, in which Japanese civilians 'literally
> caught fire and burned like sticks of wood. Women carrying infants on 
> their
> backs suddenly realised their babies were on fire.streets became carpeted
> with charred bodies.  Rivers grew choked with corpses.'  An aide to 
> General
> Macarthur described the firebombings as 'one of the most barbaric killings
> of non-combatants in all history.'   The overall death toll was larger 
> than
> at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. BTW you may have seen in the Australian press 
> the
> other day that the British considered gas attacks on Tokyo. So did the
> Americans. There is an Australian angle to that, too, but space 
> precludes...
>
> But  let's  look at a few other cases. In India, British measures to
> forestall a Japanese invasion included withdrawing boats and rice from the
> Bengali rural population, leading to an aggravation of the Bengali famine.
> It's impossible to say how many deaths this caused directly, but I would 
> be
> surprised if the numbers weren't comparable to the worst Japanese
> atrocities. An additional  motivation was probably to demoralise the
> independence movement through hunger.
>
> Then there is Chiang Kai-shek's 1938 decision to breach the Yellow River
> dykes. To temporarily stall the Japanese advance, up to a million Chinese
> died. That's such a gigantic death toll I'd better give a source: Lary,
> Diana (2004) 'The Waters Covered the Earth: China's War-Induced Natural
> Disasters', in Mark Selden and Alvin So, War and State Terrorism: The 
> United
> States, Japan and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century, Rowman 
> and
> Littlefield, Oxford.
>
> Speaking of Chiang, let me quote from my own book manuscript:
>
> "Japanese atrocities continued in the countryside on a vast scale, but at
> the same time, the Chinese Nationalist movement's 'notorious corruption
> resulted in hoarding and profiteering while millions of peasants starved.'
> In addition, the Nationalist armies - Australia's allies from 1941 
> onwards -
> extracted annihilating taxes from the peasants. An eyewitness described 
> how
>
> "peasants who were eating elm bark and dried leaves had to haul their last
> sack of seed grain to the tax collector's office. Peasants who were so 
> weak
> they could barely walk had to collect fodder for the army's horses, fodder
> that was more nourishing than the filth they were cramming into their own
> mouths. "
>
> Nor was this the end of it. The Nationalist army forces rampaged out of
> control, pillaging and raping; they were so hated that peasants often 
> killed
> nationalist soldiers who fell into their hands.  Gabriel Kolko says of
> Chiang Kai-shek's military conscription system: 'As a system of direct and
> indirect physical liquidation only the Nazi terror surpassed it during the
> war.'  Those who support the Pacific war on anti-fascist grounds might be
> startled to learn of the fascist tendencies in the Chinese Nationalist
> movement which
>
> "presented an ugly face to the world.and among its own more rightwing
> elements Fascist proclivities soon appeared.the Blue Shirts.soon became
> identified in the public mind with kidnappings, beatings, shootings and 
> all
> the thuggery of fascism.'  "
>
> Moreover, 'Chiang's New life Movement, like the Blue Shirt movement, was
> soon drawn into.Chinese Fascism, providing it with the necessary 
> historical
> myth.'
>
> We also need to remember that the Japanese forces were desperately
> over-stretched, many starving (there was malnutrition in Japan itself by 
> the
> time of Pearl Harbour). They had to live off the land so they plundered. 
> The
> conditions under which they fought generated hysterical behaviour. That
> Japan was making this desperate attempt at conquest was in turn caused by
> American attempts to strangle Japan before 1941. So in a sense you can 
> blame
> the Americans!
>
> But blaming particular nations is really rather pointless. This was an
> imperialist war on all sides.
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Wed Jul  1 22:01:38 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:01:38 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>

Thanks Graham

A few replies are interspersed below.

>>It seems unreasonable to me to exaggerate Australia's position
in world affairs at any time.<<

Yes I agree. The same could be said of the Vietnam war, but that didn't stop 
us opposing the Australian war effort on anti-imperialist grounds.

>>You seem to have a equivocal position with respect to the defence of 
>>China,
in which the best fighters and partisans were no doubt Communists, and you
seem not to recognise that the conflict was in no way an 'inter-imperialist'
war, but a war to defend a semi-colonial country from a predatory 
invasion.<<

I can see it might seem that way, the result of shovelling a lot of material 
into an e-mail and thereby conflating several issues:

1. was the war as a whole anti-fascist? To which I made the point that there 
were fascists on the allied side.
2. were the Japanese war crimes worse than those of the allies? To which I 
made the point that Chiang Kai-shek was a mass murderer (as were British in 
Bengal and the  Americans in the skies over Japan).
3. was it imperialist on both sides? Which I think it was at the global 
level, but yes I would certainly make a qualification about China. Let's 
turn to that.

Yes it was also a national liberation struggle in China, but as you say the 
best fighters for liberation were the Communists, which is  one reason the 
American and Australian governments  hated them (because Washington and 
Canberra didn't give a fig for  Chinese liberation, on the contrary they 
feared it.)  Chiang meanwhile was chronically unable to mobilise the Chinese 
people against Japan despite the horrors inflicted by the Japanese  --  
because he was pretty horrible himself. And it's Chiang who was Australia's 
and America's ally.

Hypotheticals about invasion: Well who knows what  might have happened if 
Japan had won at Midway.The fact is they didn't, and at no time did they 
plan to invade Australia. So as a matter of empirical fact, the Australian 
war effort was at no time "defensive". Had circumstances changed, and with 
them the nature of the war, Marxists might have needed a different policy, 
but actually I doubt it. Try to seriously imagine Japan staging an invasion 
of this huge continent. What forces did they have?  As I pointed out, they 
were desperately stretched holding the territory they had already seized. In 
his book Green Armour, the war correspondent Osmar White described the 
Japanese forces in PNG around this time: "they were exhausted, diseased and 
starving. They had no combat air support, no artillery except a few mountain 
guns  hauled in pieces up and down muddy precipices, no transport planes to 
drop them food."  Any attempt to take this force to Australia would have 
been madness. They couldn't even take Port Moresby.

There is in fact a military historian (Theodore Cook) who has written a 
"counter-factual" about the consequences of a Japanese victory at Midway. 
Cook goes no further than to say that Australia risked 'being completely cut 
off', not  invaded. [Cook, Theodore (1999) 'Our Military Midway Disaster' in 
Cowley, Robert  (ed) What if? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have 
Been, MacMillan, London, p. 328.]  This is consistent with the proponderance 
of serious scholarship, which sees the Japanese hoping to establish a 
southern perimeter in PNG. They would have loved to isolate Australia from 
the US, not as prelude to a lunatic invasion, but because it was the only 
way to stop the industrially vastly stronger Americans from using Australia 
as a base for a crushing offensive  sooner or later.








From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Wed Jul  1 22:58:38 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:58:38 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson's Business (was: Traffic spike)
In-Reply-To: <4A4B5A40.2000308@panix.com>
References: <4A4B5A40.2000308@panix.com>
Message-ID: <000.f0960a007e3e4c4a.007@lws-media.de>

Louis Proyect (lnp3 at panix.com) wrote on 2009-07-01 at 08:44:48 in  about 
[Marxism] Traffic spike:
> 
> 
> Elvis was fortunate enough to have a shrewd manager in Colonel Tom 
> Parker who invested the singers income wisely even as he squandered his 
> natural talents as a singer.
> 
> But Michael Jackson was not so fortunate. 

  on the contrary. Elvis Presley sold off the rights to his songs for small 
change, while Michael Jackson did the opposite: he bought the rights to an 
big chunk of today's pop music, a large part of The Beatles' songs among 
them. This is now owned by the company SonyATV, which is (was) owned to 
50% by Michael Jackson. Owning the rights to some artistic production is 
today more important than being able to press a CD or disk. The fight to get 
hold of this asset will produce some nasty scenes in the time ahead, I fear. 

  The problem of Michael Jackson was only that he overspent his income, 
trying to recreate a youth as a child which he never had, instead of leaving it 
behind and becoming an adult person. 

  There is his song "My Childhood" - "have you seen my childhood", a song 
which he himself termed as being autobiographical:
> The video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc>
   
   And two verses of the text:

---------- cut ----------
> Have you seen my Childhood?
> I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
> Like pirates and adventurous dreams,
> Of conquest and kings on the throne...
> 
> Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
> Look within your heart then ask,
> Have you seen my Childhood?
> People say I'm strange that way
> 'Cause I love such elementary things,
> It's been my fate to compensate,
> For the Childhood I've never known...
>
------------ off ---------------

  (Was Jackson a secret supporter of the Pirates Party?). 

  I also found an opinion piece of the New York Times of 2003-11-22
> 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/opinion/the-childhood-of-michael-jack
son.html>
  saying among others:
"A case could be made, though not a legal one, that Mr. 
Jackson's prolonged innocence -- if the better word isn't infantilism 
-- is for him a refuge from a career that both deprived him of his 
childhood and gave him the means to try to reclaim it."

   I heard Jackson saying "yes" in in interview when he was asked if his 
father had beaten him, but then in another show somebody else saying that 
Michael J. effectively stopped his father's beating by threatening that he 
would stop singing -- and Michael Jackson was the soul of the "Jackson 
Five", who would falter if little Michael stopped performing. 

  Michael Jackson learned in early years that he could have power over other 
people. 


Comradely yours, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Wed Jul  1 23:05:24 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:05:24 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Marx on Mathematics
In-Reply-To: <BLU138-W865C1D8254D6EEA6F97D2AB2E0@phx.gbl>
References: <BLU138-W865C1D8254D6EEA6F97D2AB2E0@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <000.d8be040014404c4a.009@lws-media.de>

D OC (donaloc at hotmail.com) wrote on 2009-07-01 at 13:58:45 in  about 
[Marxism] Marx on Mathematics:
> 
> 
> The question for me is whether the mathematical books are in the Collected 
Works. 

  No. 

> If not, as it appears, why not? 

  It has never been published, and was also not prepared neither be Engels 
not by Kautsky to be published, it required the work of later researchers to 
be made ready for publication. 

  There are also other manuscripts which have not been published until the 
mid of second half of the 20th century. 

  The fact that his notes on mathematics are not of direct political value is 
certainly one of the reasons, also for Engels, not to push the work on them. 
He had enough to to by making volumes 2 and 3 of Das Kapital ready for 
publication. And then he died...

> Also, what else is missing from the MECW? 

  I think the "Grundrisse" had also not been included, having been published 
only in the 20th century. 

  If you want read more, turn the the MEGA (Marx - Engels GesamtAusgabe) 
which is a work in progress. 

>  I would be grateful for any answers.

  Me too.


cheers, 


L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 00:51:44 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:51:44 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>
Message-ID: <DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                I'm still not convinced that there was no prospect of a 
Japanese invasion of Australia during World War Two.   The extraordinary 
success initially of Japanese arms in the Asia-Pacific region, after the 
attack on Pearl Harbour, was only checked with the Battles of Midway and the 
Coral Sea, when Japan lost overall naval supremacy.   There is a story that 
Admiral Yamamoto, who was one of the more perspicacious members of the 
Japanese High Command, was essentially philosophical about the plan to 
attack the USA.   He believed that Japan would probably benefit initially 
from the planned surprise attack, but would be overwhelmed in the course of 
time by the USA's industrial might.   I understand that Yamamoto considered 
that Japan could hold out for a maximum of only three or four years before 
being defeated.   I have no expertise in this field by any means, but it 
does seem clear to me from the point of view of strategy that the Pacific 
could not be held for any length of time without securing its southern 
flank, which meant taking Australia.   As I understand it, a Japanese fleet 
was heading for Port Moresby in May 1942, and it was engaged by an Allied 
fleet, and it was at this battle (Coral Sea) where the Japanese forces were 
checked.   Japanese plans must have been flexible enough to at least 
consider an invasion of Australia.   Had the US aircraft carriers not been 
out of port on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and 
therefore not spared destruction, it is easily conceivable that the Japanese 
navy, with its aircraft carriers, could have defeated the rest of the US 
Pacific Fleet at Midway, and the Allied fleet at the Coral Sea.

It is certainly true that the Australian population was in the belief that 
an invasion was a very real possibility, and indeed an imminent one, in 
1942.   I myself visited an exhibition at the Perth Town Hall here in 
Western Australia a year or so ago.   The exhibits clearly indicated the 
overwhelming feeling in the community here in Perth that an invasion was a 
very real possibility, and they also conveyed a sense of the resolve of the 
country to deal with the threat of invasion.   I was very surprised to learn 
that Perth, which is situated on the South-West tip of the Australian 
continent, had a blackout during the war to deal with the potential danger 
from air-raids, and that other precautions I would normally have only 
associated with locales more immediately in the 'firing line' in this war 
were in place.

What did people involved in this war themselves believe that they were 
fighting about?    Depending on their primary allegiances, they would have 
probably said it was a 'war to defeat fascism'.   Of course the general 
service medal from the First World War has on it the legend, if I remember 
rightly: 'The Great War for Civilisation', and we know that that's nonsense. 
So should we think any differently about similar claims for World War Two? 
Well I would say yes.   I believe that the defeat of the Axis was a victory 
for progressive forces, and indeed for humanity as a whole.   The war was 
appallingly destructive, and it did have several distinct facets, which I 
think Ernest Mandel outlined quite well.   I do firmly believe that there 
was a qualitative distinction between the Allies - the USSR, the USA and the 
British Commonwealth on the one hand, and the Axis on the other.   The 
concepts in the Atlantic Charter, which was adopted mid way through the war, 
formed the basis for Allied war aims and led to the foundation after victory 
of the United Nations.   Call me a Popular Frontist if you like, but I 
reckon that if one can't see a qualitative distinction between the ideals 
put forward in the Atlantic Charter on the one hand, and the ideology of an 
editorial in the 'Voelkische Beobachter' (Nazi party daily) on the other, 
then there must be something wrong with one's Marxism.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos at alphalink.com.au>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> Thanks Graham
>
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Thu Jul  2 02:02:28 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:02:28 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>

Graham, as I see it, your latest post offers the following:

Another  hypothetical -- what if the American carriers had been smashed at 
Pearl Harbor? I dunno, but the fact is they weren't. And cnsequentlly there 
was no actual danger of Japan invading Australia.

An account of popular community beliefs that the country was faced with 
invasion. All very true, but it only proves the power of government 
propaganda, historical myth, and yellow-peril fears.

Praise of the Atlantic Charter as the programmatic foundation of the United 
Nations. You may recalll the United Nations was the vehicle for the Korean 
War, whose  horrors would make another interesting discussion.

And a gratuitous swipe about the V?lkische Beobachter, as if I had argued 
that Germany wasn't fascist. What this proves about the Pacific War is a 
mystery. 




From anthony.hartin at desy.de  Thu Jul  2 02:10:36 2009
From: anthony.hartin at desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:10:36 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <4A4C6B7C.10002@desy.de>

 >"What did people involved in this war themselves believe that they were
 >fighting about? Depending on their primary allegiances, they would have
 >probably said it was a 'war to defeat fascism'."

The people from that generation that I've had conversations with say it 
was a war against the dirty japs. If pressed they will mutter something 
or other about "freedom". I dont usually hang around in unusually racist 
and/or ruling class circles

 >"it was engaged by an Allied fleet, and it was at this battle (Coral 
Sea) where the Japanese forces were
 >checked."

how many times have I heard that? The next sentence is usually, "the 
americans saved us which is why we must be friends with them".

 >"Well I would say yes. I believe that the defeat of the Axis was a 
victory
 >for progressive forces, and indeed for humanity as a whole."

It seems to me that we are still to fight the same battles as we faced 
then..


From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Thu Jul  2 02:37:29 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:37:29 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <0642D344A6B342C7B8B59AFD49DA68C6@gx270>

Tony, you're quite right, the celebration of the Coral Sea battle ("when the 
Yanks saved us") used to be a prop for the US alliance. More recently this 
has been superceded by something called "The Battle for Australia" aimed at 
boosting Aussie pride specifically. The notion of a "Battle for Australia" 
naturally assumes there was an invasion threat.  But its most iconic 
celebration is Paul Keating's Kokoda speech, which was of course celebrating 
a battle in PNG, not Australia. 




From hartin at mail.desy.de  Thu Jul  2 03:05:52 2009
From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:05:52 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0907021101020.17208@flc26.desy.de>


>Tony, you're quite right, the celebration of the Coral Sea battle ("when 
>the Yanks saved us") used to be a prop for the US alliance. More recently 
>this has been superceded by something called "The Battle for Australia" 
>aimed at boosting Aussie pride specifically. The notion of a "Battle for 
>Australia" naturally assumes there was an invasion threat. But its most 
>iconic celebration is Paul Keating's Kokoda speech, which was of course 
>celebrating a battle in PNG, not Australia.

They nuanced the nationalist message already? I've been away too long. 
Does that tie in with The Solomons, Fiji, East Timor etc. becoming 
"our" sphere of influence more overtly?



From sabocat59 at mac.com  Thu Jul  2 03:07:58 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:07:58 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?The_Field=3A_White_House=3A_72_Hours_?=
	=?windows-1252?q?=93Before_Actions_Kick_In=94_on_Honduras_Coup?=
Message-ID: <1243826131-1246525854-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-38042576-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/white-house-72-hours-%E2%80%9C-actions-kick-in%E2%80%9D-honduras-coup
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Thu Jul  2 03:12:01 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:12:01 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] The Field: Honduras' Coup Congress Cancels Five Basic
	Liberties
Message-ID: <268492712-1246526099-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1067991645-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/honduras-coup-congress-cancels-five-basic-liberties


The Oligarch Diaspora - and hey, Larry Birns (yes, you to whom I sent that memo on Sunday) didn't you and your organization COHA find out the hard way this week how they swarm and leech upon NGOs and media organizations to spread their falsehoods, causing your organization to have to issue another embarrassed "clarification"? - will continue to deceive the gullible into thinking they're really of democratic and freedom-loving tendencies. But what they don't tell you is that they don't want those freedoms for all Hondurans, just for the ones with money and property and political power and privilege: themselves. The rest must be subordinated to them and controlled, by force if necessary. And so today, Honduras said goodbye to the following articles of its Constitution: Article 69: "A persons liberty is inviolable and can only be restricted or suspended temporarily through process of law." Article 71: "No person can be arrested nor kept incommunicado for more than 24 hours without being placed before a competent authority to be judged. Judicial detention during an investigation must not exceed six consecutive days from the moment that the same is ordered." Article 78: "Freedoms of association and meeting are always guaranteed when they are not contrary to public order and good customs. Article 79: "All persons have the right to meet with others, peacefully and without weapons, in public demonstration or transitory assembly, in relation to their common interests of any type, without necessity of notice or special permission." Article 81: "All persons have the right to circulate freely, leave, enter, and remain in national territory. No one can be obligated to change home or residence except in special cases and with those requirements that the Law establishes."  The Oligarch Diaspora says that the democratically elected president was removed by force because he supposedly "violated the Constitution" by proposing a nonbinding referendum to ask all Hondurans if they wanted the chance to vote about whether they wanted to rewrite it through a Constitutional Convention. But the coup leaders the Oligarch Diaspora defends just rewrote that same constitution today without any formal process of consulting the people at all. They claim they're fighting for their constitution, but they just ripped it apart. Gone. All gone. Everything they claim to be defending is gone now, destroyed and in tatters at the hands of the very political class that claimed it was protecting them. And now, with the Congress' invitation to enter the people's door, the vampires begin to come out... tonight. 
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From sabocat59 at mac.com  Thu Jul  2 03:20:40 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:20:40 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Obama suspends military support to Honduras
Message-ID: <330853446-1246526616-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1710141121-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile. The U.S. withheld stronger action in hopes of negotiating a peaceful return of the country's elected leader.The Organization of American States, meeting in Washington, gave Honduran coup leaders three days to restore Zelaya to power ? under threat of suspending Honduras's OAS membership. Afterward, several officials said the administration is still reviewing the possibility of cutting off U.S. aid.Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said, "We continue to monitor the situation and will respond accordingly as events transpire."At the State Department, spokesman Ian C. Kelly said the department's top diplomat for the Americas, Thomas Shannon, met with Zelaya at OAS headquarters on Tuesday evening. Kelly would not reveal details, except to say Zelaya thanked the administration for supporting his unconditional return to power.Kelly said he was not aware of any plan to recall the U.S. ambassador from the Honduran capital. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the administration believes it stands a better chance of achieving a peaceful outcome if it keeps a diplomat in Tegucigalpa.The official also said the U.S. was not advocating that the matter be taken up by the U.N. Security Council.Kelly said the administration was still studying whether the forced removal of Zelaya was a military coup in a legal sense that would trigger a cutoff or suspension of American financial assistance."Our legal advisers are actively assessing the facts and the law in question, which we take very seriously," Kelly said.The administration appeared to be counting on the threat of Honduras having its OAS membership suspended as leverage in getting Zelaya back in power. While the administration joined the OAS in calling for Zelaya's unconditional return, with no limits on his presidential powers, it also seemed open to some form of compromise.U.S. officials said they were pleased that Zelaya, who had vowed to return to Honduras on Thursday, put that off after the OAS announced the three-day deadline for the country's interim leaders to accept him back. Zelaya was in Panama on Wednesday to attend that country's presidential inauguration.Zelaya said he would put off his return until the weekend.The decision to suspend U.S. military activities in Honduras was announced by Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, who said, "We've postponed any activities in Honduras right now as we assess that situation."Whitman would not be specific, but the suspension could have broad implications because the United States runs a large Central American security and counternarcotics operation from a jointly run air base in Honduras. Whitman said only operations affecting Honduras itself are on hold.Earlier, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza delivered what he called "an ultimatum" for Zelaya's safe return.In a sharply worded resolution, the OAS said it vehemently condemned the coup and "the arbitrary detention and expulsion" of Zelaya.The coup, the OAS resolution said, has produced an "unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order."Calling Zelaya's overthrow an "old-fashioned coup," Insulza said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere."Zelaya has said he intends to return home accompanied by Insulza, the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador and the head of the U.N. General Assembly to seek restoration of his authority.Roberto Micheletti, named by Honduras' Congress as the new president, said Tuesday that Zelaya could be met with an arrest warrant if he returned.  
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From sabocat59 at mac.com  Thu Jul  2 03:23:46 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:23:46 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Unions react to Coup
Message-ID: <165145038-1246526801-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-985196798-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>

HONDURAS: UNIONS REACT TO COUP
 
The international trade union movement has expressed its strong support for democracy in Honduras and its solidarity with the trade union movement in that country following the recent coup. ?For full coverage of the trade union response, go here:
 
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Honduras&amp;alllanguages=1 <http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Honduras&amp;alllanguages=1> 


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From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 03:41:25 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 17:41:25 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
Message-ID: <E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                You know, Marxists are often accused of being narrow 
determinists.   I worked with a member of the Communist Party of Australia 
back in the 1970s in various campaigns here in Perth, and I remember once 
debating with this person the historical issue of the reasons for the 
triumph of the Nazi party in Germany in 1933.   He held that Hitler won 
because there was no other possibility.   In other words,  whatever happens, 
must have happened.   This CPA member was quite convinced I think that this 
kind of narrow determinism was authentic Marxism.    He was  putting forward 
the notion that the German Communist Party's ultra-left policy, which so 
much contributed to the victory of Hitler, even had it been different could 
not have affected the outcome of events.   I thought, later, that this 
position was really just a cover and let-off for the Stalinist policies of 
the KPD.

There are a lot of imponderables in history, and some freakish episodes too. 
It was by no means certain that Japan would by preference attack the Western 
Allies, and the Japanese ruling circle had seriously weighed up the option 
of attacking the USSR from the east in 1941, after the Nazi invasion. 
Probably the factor that deterred the Japanese was the memory of the brief 
military struggle, in  the late 1930s if I remember correctly, when a 
portion of Siberia was attacked from Manchuria by the Japanese.   The Red 
Army forces stationed there aquitted themselves very capably and the 
Japanese army received a very bloody nose.    Probably, the Japanese 
concluded from this encounter that the Soviet Union was too tough a nut to 
crack.

History, while being a 'seamless web' is also a three dimensional 
kaleidoscope.   You seem determined to establish the belief that Australia 
was not under threat of invasion in 1942, and you evidently want to nail 
this piece of  'information' to the mast.   I still remain committed to the 
position that it is not possible strategically to hold the Pacific region 
without taking Australia.   The Americans knew this, and established their 
Allied HQ in Australia after the fall of the Phillippines, with the 
intention of mounting a counter-offensive against the Japanese from that 
base (Australia).   I intend to look into this issue in more detail, but as 
I said I am not a specialist in this area.   I would say that Japanese 
intentions vis a vis Australia must have been at least more fluid than you 
claim.

Although I am a naturalised Australian, I was not born or brought up in this 
country, and I have always kept my distance from the vagaries of Australian 
nationalism.   In World War Two, I  believe that, relatively speaking, 
Australia was a bit-player.   For goodness sake, compared with the big 
imperialist powers like Britain and the USA, Australia was really only in 
the Anglo-American orbit, and was very much  a junior partner of these 
powers

There has been historically a great deal of racism in Australian perceptions 
about Japan (and Asian peoples in general), and I think that your concern to 
keep this issue at the forefront when discussing Australian attitudes to its 
northern neighbours is a very healthy one.   It's not pleasant to see some 
of the propaganda posters of the war period, and the way in which Asian 
people are depicted.

You accuse me of making a 'gratuitous swipe' with respect to the Nazi 
'Voelkische Beobachter'.   I had no intention of implying that you did not 
acknowledge that Germany was fascist.   But this thread began with a post 
from me that dealt with the whole of the Second World War, and not just the 
Pacific War.   But then you make your own gratuitous swipe, implying that I 
might have some supporte for the reactionary war waged by the US and its 
allies against Korea, under the banner of the United Nations!

I actually didn't know a lot about the Atlantic Charter until I saw a 
documentary on it some years ago.   The Charter does strike me strongly as 
being fundamentally a humanitarian document, which espouses 'universal' 
concepts about human rights.   The document does support the right of 
nations to self-determination, and other demands which are implictly 
anti-colonialist (a reason why apparently Churchill had deep misgivings 
about it).   Of course you could say that the League of Nations was based on 
similar, noble-sounding sentiments, while in fact that body was little more 
than a decorative front for the reality of imperialist rule.   But it does 
seem to me to be self-evident that socialists would have more leverage under 
a regime where such humanitarian concepts are established as guiding 
principles, than they would under the sway of the ideologies and practices 
of the Axis.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos at alphalink.com.au>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


Graham, as I see it, your latest post offers the following:

Another  hypothetical -- what if the American carriers had been smashed at
Pearl Harbor? I dunno, but the fact is they weren't. And cnsequentlly there
was no actual danger of Japan invading Australia.




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From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Thu Jul  2 06:16:02 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:16:02 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>
	<DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <1246536962.8056.175.camel@john-desktop>

On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 14:51 +0800, G K Milner wrote:

> Japanese plans must have been flexible enough to at least 
> consider an invasion of Australia.

But you don't have a strategy that is "flexible enough" to include a
plan (b) to invade an entire continent, like Australia. Such an assault
would have been a huge undertaking, as Tom has pointed out. It isn't
just some "flexible" option in a plan. And as Tom pointed out, the
Japanese army was critically overstretched.

Ultimately it is not so much the USA that Australians (or New
Zealanders) should thank for Japan never formulating a plan to head
further south. It is people like Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min and Kim Il Sung
and the millions of people in Asia who struggled alongside or supported
them and at great human cost to themselves tied down tens of thousands
of Japanese soldiers throughout Asia. They are the real reason that the
Japanese could not even contemplate expansion into Australia.
Cheers,
John



From elishastephens at hotmail.com  Thu Jul  2 07:45:46 2009
From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 06:45:46 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Washington Post fabricates the news to justify the
	invasion of Iraq
Message-ID: <COL112-W733C31BDEEBBEECD7414ED72F0@phx.gbl>


Links and formatting in the original:
 http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/07/justifying-invasion-of-iraq.html

A major story in the Washington Post today begins with the following claim:

    Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday.

This (not the FBI interview, obviously, but the claim itself) was one of the major pieces of "evidence" used to justify the invasion of Iraq at the time, so its repetition now, from the mouth of Saddam Hussein no less, would be an important post-facto justification for the invasion. But the claim itself was bullshit at the time. The truth, as I wrote at the time, was that while Gen. Colin Powell was at the U.N. lying through his teeth (or spouting lies put in his mouth by others, if you prefer to be generous to Powell) about the "evidence" the U.S. had, Iraqi Gen. Amer Al-Saadi (still imprisoned as far as we know) was saying clearly and quite publicly that Iraq had no WMD whatsoever. That's one funny way to "allow the world to believe that you have WMD."

And, guess what? No such statement from Saddam Hussein appears in the interviews, which are all online at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The interviews aren't even transcripts, they are all simply summaries of the conversations made by an FBI agent, with only a tiny amount of direct quotations embedded within them. But even in those summaries, no such claim appears. Glenn Kessler, the author of the Post article, writes: "The formal interviews covered Hussein's rise to power, the Kuwait invasion, and Hussein's crackdown on the Shiite uprising in extensive detail, while the subject of the weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda were raised in the casual conversations, after the formal interviews." As a result, I read every word of the five "casual conversations" that are posted online, twice. I repeat - no such claim by Saddam Hussein appears (nor does it appear in the summary of the documents prepared by the NSA) - that is entirely a fiction created by the Post.

The Post also omits some rather interesting material, like this:

    The former Iraqi leader, when asked about his accomplishments, listed social progress for the people of Iraq, a temporary truce with the Kurds in the early 1970s, the nationalization of Iraq?s oil in 1972, support for the Arab side during the 1973 Middle East war with Israel, and after that, for the remaining 30 years of his rule, simple survival ? through a devastating eight year war with Iran that he had launched, and a 12-year sanctions regime imposed on his people after another war that he began.

But it wasn't just the Post omitting things. The FBI either neglected to ask Hussein about some rather interesting subjects (or has simply not released the notes of those interviews, even redacted), like this:

    Not included in these FBI reports are issues of particular interest to students of Iraq?s complicated relationship with the U.S. ? the reported role of the CIA in facilitating the Ba?ath party?s rise to power, the uneasy alliance forged between Iraq and the U.S. during the Iran-Iraq war, and the precise nature of U.S. views regarding Iraq?s chemical weapons policy during that conflict, given its contemporaneous knowledge of their repeated use against Iranians and the Kurds.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009

From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 08:06:26 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 10:06:26 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Another Iranian Researcher Jailed
In-Reply-To: <20090702093505.41673@merip.biglist.com>
References: <20090702093505.41673@merip.biglist.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907020706y79c11387rd763b03778494218@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Middle East Report Online <
meronline-service at merip.biglist.com> wrote:

> NEWS RELEASE
> July 2, 2009
>
> Middle East Research and Information Project
> 1500 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 119
> Washington, DC 20005
> www.merip.org
>
> Another Iranian Researcher Jailed
>
> The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) condemns the
> arbitrary arrest and detention of the economist Bijan Khajehpour by
> authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khajehpour was snatched from
> the Tehran airport on June 27 upon arrival from Britain. His whereabouts are
> thus far unknown to his wife, two young children, family, friends and
> colleagues.
>
> His arrest fits into the deeply disturbing pattern on display since the
> Islamic Republic moved to quash popular dissent from the official "result"
> of the June 12 presidential election. On June 30 the Guardian Council, an
> unelected and unaccountable clerical body, "certified" that "result" on the
> basis of an internal review of only 10 percent of the ballots. Hundreds, if
> not thousands, of Iranian citizens are in jail because they have spoken out
> for more transparent democratic procedures and the rule of law in Iran.
>
> Khajehpour is chief executive officer of Atieh Bahar Consulting, a highly
> respected firm based in Tehran, and author of tens of articles on Iranian
> political economy. He suffers from diabetes, and MERIP is very concerned
> about his health while in detention.
>
> "It's impossible to know what is happening in the hardliners' 'black
> sites,'" remarked Kaveh Ehsani, an editor of Middle East Report, where
> Khajehpour's work has been published. Reports of torture during the
> post-election crackdown are so numerous as to be impossible to dismiss. The
> Islamic Republic has an execrable record of maltreatment of prisoners, one
> no better than that of the regime it replaced.
>
> MERIP points to articles of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of
> Iran which prohibit such maltreatment, outlaw the persecution of individuals
> for their beliefs, protect freedom of speech and the press and permit the
> free holding of public gatherings. These articles correspond to legal
> protections enshrined in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to
> which Iran is a signatory.
>
> "Unfortunately, the powers that be in today's Islamic Republic seem bent on
> flouting the constitution, with a brazenness unseen in recent years,"
> continued Arang Keshavarzian, another Middle East Report editor who was in
> Iran during the June 12 voting. The Guardian Council's opaque and incomplete
> review of ballots is the most recent signal to this effect.
>
> "Anyone who is still attuned to the hardliners' 'anti-imperialist' siren
> song should ask themselves why so many principled Iranians are in jail for
> closing their ears to it," added Chris Toensing, executive director of
> MERIP.
>
> MERIP calls upon all defenders of human rights to press for an immediate
> halt to the crackdown on the Iranian dissenters and the prompt release of
> all persons unjustly detained.
>
> "Protest and Regime Resilience in Iran," Khajehpour's analysis of a
> previous episode of pro-democracy dissent, is available on the MERIP website
> at: http://www.merip.org/mero/mero121102.html
>
> For background on Iran, see the spring 2009 issue of Middle East Report,
> "The Islamic Revolution at 30," accessible online at:
> http://www.merip.org/mer/mer250/mer250.html
>
> See also Kaveh Ehsani, Arang Keshavarzian and Norma Claire Moruzzi,
> "Tehran, June 2009," Middle East Report Online, June 28, 2009.
> http://www.merip.org/mero/mero062809.html
>
>
> .
> Middle East Report Online is a free service of the Middle East Research
> and Information Project (MERIP).
> .
>
>

From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Thu Jul  2 08:33:52 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:33:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Pay rebounds strongly...on Wall Street
Message-ID: <C24DBA2D1E3A480396663F7701279C25@MARV>

Less than a month after outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas 
reported a huge surge in firms forcing their workers to take pay cuts, with 
state and local governments following suit and requiring employees to take 
long periods of unpaid leave, today's Wall Street Journal headlines: "Big 
Pay Packages Return to Wall Street: Compensation on Track to Soar as 
Earnings Recover From Crisis; 'Like It's 2007 Again'."

Nothing stoked class anger like the highly-publicized bonus and severance 
packages doled out to Wall Street executives at the height of the financial 
crisis, and this time the industry is seeking the Obama administration's 
help to contain it - so far, it would appear, with some success. According 
to the Journal account, "in at least one case, bank executives or their 
representatives have discussed pay with the Obama administration's pay czar 
Kenneth Feinberg ahead of time, seeking to head off any public reprimand..."
======================================
Big Pay Packages Return to Wall Street
Compensation on Track to Soar as Earnings Recover From Crisis; 'Like It's
2007 Again'
By AARON LUCCHETTI
Wall Street Journal
July 2 2009

Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty
pay packages may be set for a comeback as well.

Based on analysts' earnings forecasts for 2009, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is
on track to pay out as much as $20 billion this year, or about $700,000 per
employee. That would be nearly double the firm's $363,000 average last year,
and slightly higher than the $661,000 for the average Goldman employee in
fiscal 2007, according to analyst estimates reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal.

Morgan Stanley, the only other huge U.S. securities firm left as an
independent company, will likely pay out $11 billion to $14 billion in
compensation and benefits this year, analysts predict. On a per-employee
basis, payouts are expected to exceed last year's average of $262,000.
Howard Chen, an analyst at Credit Suisse, projects that the company's
average pay will come close to the $340,000 paid out by Morgan Stanley in
fiscal 2007.

Some of the most lucrative pay packages are being offered in businesses that
are improving, such as junk-bond trading. Jobs and pay remain iffy in areas
like asset-backed securities where markets remain frozen.Russ Gerson, who
runs an executive-recruiting firm that fills jobs on Wall Street, says it is
too soon to tell if the strong results from securities firms in the first
and second quarters will translate into huge paychecks at the end of the
year. "All this euphoria about bonuses is based on the expectation that the
business is returning to normal and that we will be in a robust environment
again. If the fourth quarter is significantly down, I would expect bonuses
not to recover too much from 2008 levels," he said.

Whether the higher payouts occur will depend on whether Wall Street earnings
continue to recover from last year's bruising losses on troubled assets and
bad trading bets. If the market's resilience since early March fades or a
new crisis erupts, then securities firms would likely set aside far less to
pay their employees than they did in this year's first two quarters. Firms
can set aside money for compensation and then decide not to pay it later.

Still, the comeback in compensation so far this year shows how hard it is
for Wall Street to break its old habits. Repaying last year's capital
infusions from the government freed Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other big
financial firms from curbs on compensation. Meanwhile, non-U.S. banks that
didn't get Troubled Asset Relief Program funds are becoming increasingly
aggressive.

Deutsche Bank AG, for example, has discussed a two-year guarantee with
prospective fixed-income traders and salespeople in conversations about
potential job offers, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Deutsche Bank declined comment.

"I'm seeing deals like it's 2007 again," says Steven Eckhaus, an
executive-employment lawyer at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York. He's
worked on several deals recently that featured eight-figure guaranteed pay
packages stretched over one to three years.

The recent increases in compensation reflect efforts by Wall Street
executives to keep pay high enough to remain competitive but low enough to
avoid the wrath of angry lawmakers. In at least one case, bank executives or
their representatives have discussed pay with the Obama administration's pay
czar Kenneth Feinberg ahead of time, seeking to head off any public
reprimand, according to a person familiar with the meetings.

A Treasury spokesman said Mr. Feinberg "has just begun his process for
reviewing compensation at the seven firms receiving exceptional assistance;
he has yet to approve any plans."

While Wall Street firms remain loath to cap pay levels, some are changing
the mix of salary and bonus, partly in response to the financial crisis and
added scrutiny from Washington. Some are boosting salaries and adding more
stock, as well as so-called "clawback" provisions aimed at tying employee
pay packages more closely to the long-term fortunes of their firms. As a
rule, securities firms pay out about 50% of revenue in compensation.

The practice of offering two-year guarantees in compensation to certain new
hires isn't widespread so far, with just a handful of firms doling out such
packages. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executives, for example, feel the
company's relative strength is enough of a selling point to prospective
employees. Citigroup Inc. is steering clear of such guarantees partly
because its pay practices already are under tough scrutiny from investors
and the government.

Goldman, which has suffered less than most of its rivals since the credit
crisis began in 2007, remains committed to using bonuses, increasingly from
stock, to reward its top performers. Still, the firm is trying to carefully
manage compensation, perks and other expenses that could be criticized.

When the company repaid its $10 billion in TARP last month, Goldman
President Gary Cohn left a companywide voicemail message reminding employees
to keep their focus and not to change what they were doing. Other Goldman
officials warned junior employees not to go out to bars near the office and
pay with a corporate credit card, according to a person familiar with the
matter.

"We've only accrued one quarter for compensation and benefits" for 2009, a
Goldman spokesman said, noting that the 18% increase from a year earlier was
"primarily due to higher revenues." He added that "compensation practices at
Goldman Sachs remain fundamentally tied to the firm's performance."

In the first quarter, Morgan Stanley set aside $2.08 billion for
compensation. That's down from the previous year's first quarter, but
represents an unusually high 68% of its revenue. Mr. Chen, the Credit Suisse
analyst, expects the firm to set aside roughly 54% of 2009 revenue for
compensation and benefits, showing "the need to competitively pay
employees," he wrote.Morgan Stanley declined to comment on Mr. Chen's
report.



From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Thu Jul  2 08:45:37 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 07:45:37 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Iran and Us  By VIJAY PRASHAD
Message-ID: <649790.80018.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


Made for Revolution
Iran and Us
By VIJAY PRASHAD
For Leften Stavrianos, 1913-2004.
No longer can it be said that Iran?s society is authoritarian. The robust display on the streets and within the Parliament, and indeed, within the circle of the ?minence grises, particularly the turbaned mullahs of both the Council of Guardians and the deliciously named Expediency Discernment Council of the System, puts paid to the idea that social forces in Iran are suppressed beyond measure. The Iranian State is not fully able to absorb the energetic forces of its society, but it is, in the breech forced to accept them (most recently, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had to call for a judicial inquiry into the street killing of Neha Agha-Soltan). Ludicrous comparisons between contemporary Iran and Nazi Germany should be given their due burial (not two months ago, Israel?s Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom made just this claim, one often repeated by the now haggard looking neo-conservatives).
Equally unimpressive is the hasty drawing of dogmatic lines among progressives in the United States, many throwing their lot in with the ?Green Revolution,? others holding fast to Ahmadinejad. When yesterday the details of Iranian politics were alien, today everyone has a cemented opinion. To blindly back something that one does not fully understand is hardly the stuff of international solidarity. Iran is a divided society, with social forces arrayed against each other in a debate that has old roots. Our Facebook updates and Twitter squeals do not contribute to their debate. And since both sides (if there are indeed only two) are fairly equally distributed, it is not a situation where a defenseless minority is being persecuted (a situation that does call for immediate outrage). I believe that it is correct to demand that the State refrain from use of force against the protestors, and that there be a political dialogue to find a way to deal with what
 appears likely to have been election fraud. But that is not the same as making all kinds of maximalist demands (such as, calling for the end of the Islamic Republic) which are not on the lips of many of those on the streets in Tehran and which those on the streets are incapable of delivering in the short-term.
Looking Backward
Iran?s democratic traditions stretch back as far as the 19th century, although the most recent dynamic seems to have opened up in 1905. Frustrated by the obscene shenanigans of the Qajar Dynasty and inspired by the 1905 Russian Revolution, an alliance of the emergent urban middle-class, the clergy and the oil workers in the North rose up in a fractured unity in December 1905. Tehran erupted against the cruel Vizier Ayn al-Dowleh (who had a criminal ?shod, like a horse, with horseshoes, nails having been driven into his bare heels, into his flesh?) and inflated sugar prices. A second strike in July 1906 forced the Shah to remove the Vizier, and to write a constitution. Shah Mozaffar ad-Din followed the example of the Russian bluebloods, and promised a constitution. This concession came largely because of murmurings among the armed forces and the clergy. As the elites formed their majlis, their legislative assembly, the people formed anjomans, the
 Soviets of Persia. These ?independent assemblies,? wrote British Ambassador Sir Cecil Spring-Rice to his betters in London, have cultivated ?a spirit of resistance to oppression and even to all authority. The sentiment of independence in the widest sense, of nationality, of the right to resist oppression and to manage their own affairs is rapidly growing among the people.? This uprising was rapidly betrayed by the British and the Russians, whose entente of 1907 allowed the latter to invade the country (as they said in Moscow, ?Persia is not a foreign country just as a hen is not really a bird?). The people did not give up quietly: the working-class and dispossessed peasantry formed a feda?iyan, and took to humid Gilan (it was here some years later, and inspired by the same dynamic that the Jangal [forest] movement erupted under the leadership of the extraordinary Mirza Kuchak Khan, which created the short-lived Socialist Republic of Gilan,
 1920-21). As well, the social forces unleashed by the majlis movement provided the foundation for women to exert themselves in the workplace and in society (in the 1910s, women entered colleges in increasing numbers, and by the 1930s, it had become a social fact for women to aspire to education and social mobility).
In the detritus of the invasion and on the flattened carcass of the anjomans, emerged the Persian Cossack leader, Reza Khan, who wiled his way to the Peacock Throne, where he and his son sat till 1979. Reza Khan was enthralled by the technologies of the imperial powers, which he imported at great cost to the exchequer (here following the example of Turkey?s Ataturk). His son would carry on this faith, leaning heavily on arms imports as a way to modernize Iran, but keeping the general population in abject misery (the literacy rate in 1978 was not more than 40%). A generally sympathetic biography of the first Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty could not help offer a dose of reality, ?Wealth was concentrated at Tehran, largely in the hands of the contractors, merchants, and individuals associated with the monopolies. Industrialization failed to benefit the growing class of industrial workers. Wages remained low, and a rudimentary labor law of 1932 did little
 to protect workers from exploitation.?
Reza Khan made way for his son in 1941. The new Shah inherited a country in social turmoil. During World War 2, Iran became a fundamental provider of oil for the Allied forces, and after the war, for the Atlantic states. The unevenly named Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) took the lion?s share of the profits, increased drilling and put pressure on a workforce with a long tradition of militancy. It was here that the Tudeh (the Communist party) would make its base, and it was against them that the Allied forces tested their mettle (the U. S. commander who was sent to modernize the Iranian army was the father of the Gulf War?s Stormin? Norman Schwarzkopf, and hisgendarmerie, egged on by U. S. ambassador George Allen, was used by the allies against the People?s Republic of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan). Beneath the Peacock Throne, various social forces gathered to fight over the re-negotiation of the oil contracts. Drawing from the mass discontent with
 the regime, Mohammad Mosaddeq?s National Front pushed for nationalization of the oil industry and for an agrarian policy that forced landlords to part with a fifth of their profits (sending half to their peasants and half to newly created rural banks). Mosaddeq alienated the ?old granite block,? the elite who had grown accustomed to their treasures. Mossaddeq tried to take control of the army, a pillar of Pahlavi power, and it was for this outrage that the Atlantic powers engineered a cheap coup (it cost $1 million).
The overthrow of Mossaddeq dampened the democratic abilities of the population. The Shah set up an authoritarian structure that would have made his father blush. In 1957, he created SAVAK, an acronym now synonymous with terror. U. S. and Israeli expertise modernized it, although it was still not far from the ways of Ayn al-Dowleh. Oil revenue and grateful Atlantic ?aid? rushed in and allowed the Shah to buy out sections of the population, or at least to try to do so. The petro-dollars simply held off the inevitable. The fa?ade of the Shah-created political parties (Melliyun and Mardom) could not contain the people?s desires. A damp squib ?White Revolution? in 1963 moved a generally conformist leading clergy into the camp of revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini took the lead in opposing the reforms not only because he might have disagreed with them (voting rights for women), but because he argued that an illegal regime cannot reform itself. The Shah
 pushed the Family Protection Law in 1967, partly under pressure from liberals, but also to paint the mullahs as reactionaries who were in favor of polygamy and against divorce (the Shah?s contention was false, as women exercised their right to the ballot box from the first election of the Islamic Republic in April 1979). Historian Nikki Keddie is right to point out that ?for lower-class women there have been fewer changes. They generally have the lowest paid jobs, and are often ignorant of their rights.? Even so, the floor produced by these reforms (however illegal the regime) created a contradictory result: it cemented the idea of rights among women.
Economic troubles in the 1970s were compounded by the deflationary tactics of Prime Minister Jamshid Amuzegar, and in November 25, 1977 a new period opened up for Iran. Five thousand university students clashed with the police that day, and thereafter protests spiraled to September 1978 when the Shah invited the military to rule under his behest. The sporadic protests were joined by strikes in the oil fields, a significant development that put paid to the attempt to simply seize control of the streets by force (nevertheless the street protestors, men and women, faced the full brunt of the Shah?s SAVAK machinery; twenty thousand people died in the revolution). The Iranian Revolution once more called forth all classes, including the crucial oil workers and the factory workers. There was little Islamic about the struggles, since these were born of nationalist aspirations and anger at the Shah. Once victory was at hand, Khomeini and his cadre seized
 control of the dynamic. It became the Islamic Republic. As the Left complained, ?The dictatorship of the crown has been replaced by the dictatorship of the turban.? The Left was suppressed (Ahmadinejad was part of the Office for Strengthening Unity, which went after the Mojahedin-e Khalq, a popular Islamic socialist party, and later, after a brief respite, the Tudeh, the main Communist Party). ?Our enemy is not only Mohammed Reza Pahlavi,? Khomeini said, ?Our enemy is anyone whose direction is separate from Islam. Anyone who uses the words ?democracy? or ?republic.??
But it is precisely those traditions of democracy and republicanism that re-emerged in Iran after 1979, of course in the dissenting groups but also among the clerical elite. Splits above into the ?reformers? and ?conservatives? run through Iran?s electoral history, and in recent years these terms have had a class connotation. The ?millionaire mullahs,? as Paul Klebnikov put it a few years ago, have run Iran in a manner similar to the Russian oligarchs after 1991. Ali Rafsanjani, former president and now head of the Expediency Council, is fashioned as a reformer. His family is one of the richest in Iran: his brother owns Iran?s largest copper mine, another heads the state TV network, a cousin dominates the country?s pistachio business, and his sons controls parts of the crucial oil and construction business. Rafsanjani speaks for those who live in the northern Tehran district of Elahiyeh (Shemiran), and who drive up and down Fereshteh
 Avenue in fancy cars. For this section, liberty means not only the end to the social rituals of the conservatives, but also the privatization of the economy. But the reformers also include an activist section that fights the Islamic Republic on gender rights, human rights, labor rights, free speech rights ? in other words, from the perspective of the Left. It is an unwieldy alliance, between those who want freedom for hedonism and those who want freedom from autocracy. For the latter, there are considerable leaders, feminists such as Mehrangiz Kar and Shirin Ebadi, journalists such as Akbar Ganji, and working class organizers such as Mansour Osanlou, head of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs, and Mahoud Salehi, head of the Bakery Workers? Association. The ?reformers? are allied largely on the limitations of social rights, but they are not united on an economic agenda.
Ahmadinejad?s campaign in 2005 gave voice to sections of Iran previously shut out from the process, the slum dwellers and the rural workers. He stood for them, and he knew it. At a public event in October 2006, Ahmadinejad announced the idea of the Justice Share, where the state would divide shares to some companies among 4.6 million of the poorest Iranians, who would automatically become stockholders in the nation's wealth. The rising economic inequality, the awareness of the class based sacrifices during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s and the lack of secular alternatives probably play a significant role in the movement of the poor toward such characters as Ahmadinejad, who displays a personal piety and an antipathy to the nouveau riche, as well as a populism that appeals in the youth-depleted rural areas and in the slums of cities (44% of urban Iranians live in slums). Ahmadinejad's policies are idiosyncratic, buoyed partly by oil prices (which were
 high last year), and stretched thin by the easy recourse to anti-Americanism. Washington under Bush made it easy to draw on the Islamic Republic's stock dogmas, and it is to this that Ahmadinejad retreats when his economic forays falter. Lower oil prices, the defeat of Bush by Obama and high inflation have ruptured the enormous faith that the vast mass had in Ahmadinejad (even as they still seem to hold to him). It has given strength to the reformers, who remain unwilling to allow him to return to office. Whether the election was stolen or not, the contradictions of Iranian society have made their way forward. The Left traverses the divide between reformer and conservative, finding its home on both sides of this flank. It is hard to fully throw oneself into the camp of the Elahiyeh elites or into the camp of Ahmadinejad.
Where does this leave us?
When the 1978-79 Iranian revolution began to heat up, General Robert Huyser went on a mission to Tehran on behalf of the U. S. government. In one dispatch home in January 1979, a week after the Shah decamped for Cairo, Huyser wrote, ?we must go to a straight military takeover.? He warned that if Khomeini came back to Iran, ?things would go to hell in a handbasket.? The Carter administration prepared itself for a coup, sending a tanker to supply the military with fuel. Things did not go as planned. The U. S. is not a credible actor in Iran?s domestic future (although, as Esam al-Amin pointed out, Washington has not giving up trying).
Iran?s social contradictions have once more erupted into conflict. It does not help for us to wave the flag of intervention, or even to throw our support between one or the other camp in this current situation. Mass action within Iran is now a well-developed institution. In 1953, the U. S. could conduct a coup in the country. In 1979, mass action made it impossible. It remains the basic instinct of the population. The best solidarity from afar is to be analytical, not emotional about what is occurring. Sober analysis of the situation might help us appreciate the fluidity of the politics, the difficulty of finding in this crisis an easy way forward for the left. Things are easier in the case of the Honduras, where the Generals are not only trained by the U. S. at Fort Benning but where it seems plain that the U. S. State Department might bank on this coup to send a message against Bolivarianism across Central and South America. Here we have a clear
 role, to demand an end to interference in Central America and an end to the School of the Americas. Here our task is simpler, because we are, after all, agents in the demise of the most progressive government Honduras has seen in decades. This is genuine solidarity, where our muscle counts for the good side of history. Shoulders to the wheel, comrades!
Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: vijay.prashad at trincoll.edu 
 http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad07012009.html
 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 08:50:48 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 10:50:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>
	<DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <93992D30-5FCB-4931-B7FD-A457E354744D@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 2:51 AM, G K Milner wrote:
> ... Had the US aircraft carriers not been
> out of port on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and
> therefore not spared destruction, it is easily conceivable that the  
> Japanese
> navy, with its aircraft carriers, could have defeated the rest of  
> the US
> Pacific Fleet at Midway, and the Allied fleet at the Coral Sea...

This is a false counterfactual.  The goal of US policy throughout  
1941, as Stimson declared in his diary, was to force the Japanese to  
strike first. The fleet at Pearl Harbor was a staked-goat offered to  
tempt the tiger.  That the important military assets had been placed  
out of the tiger's reach was key to the whole strategy.

A more interesting counterfactual would be to imagine that Yamamoto  
had been heeded and Roosevelt forced to make war over the Indonesian  
oil fields against a country that had not attacked or even menaced the  
USA.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Thu Jul  2 09:01:19 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:01:19 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Obama administration needs to maintain tough stance
 against Honduran coup | The Progressive
Message-ID: <0B0C92BC-3E91-4603-BF35-CB6D5E04C7B7@mac.com>

http://www.progressive.org/mpballve70209.html


From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 09:06:59 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:06:59 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 5:41 AM, G K Milner wrote:
> ...the Japanese ruling circle had seriously weighed up the option
> of attacking the USSR from the east in 1941, after the Nazi invasion.
> Probably the factor that deterred the Japanese was the memory of the  
> brief
> military struggle, in  the late 1930s...


Japan went to war because it was being strangled by the oil boycott.   
It had no reason to invade Siberia where there were no oil fields and  
a nonaggression treaty was in effect.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Thu Jul  2 09:16:59 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:16:59 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <CCE5D9CB50734224808CE50C7F371352@gx270>
	<C986DF9821604F28BA0F281C4C8B002A@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <FECB64E0003E432998067586BBC87135@dmsthinkpad>

The bottom line here is that there's nothing new in GK's take on WW2.  It's 
the standard bourgeois analysis:  a struggle for civilization, a struggle 
against beasts, a struggle of the more human against the less humane.  GK 
adds the proviso, of course, that the cause of the war was capitalism, but 
the proviso is pro forma, there only to be discarded as a basis for further 
analysis.

Here's what I think would be an interesting path for analysis:  Yes, the war 
was caused by capitalism.  The war was ENABLED by the defeat of the 
proletarian revolution throughout Europe and Asia, a defeat embodied in the 
survival of the USSR.   The war itself combines those latter 2 elements, and 
whatever we say about the emergence, and expansion of the USSR's power on 
the international stage, and the victory of Chinese national liberation 
revolution, we have to recognize the defeat of the prospects for socialist 
revoluton in that expansion, and that victory.

Certainly the bourgeoisie were liquidated in localities, only to be propped 
up internationally.

I can feel comrade Waistline wincing. 



From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Thu Jul  2 09:15:36 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:15:36 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Washington Post fabricates the news to justify
	the	invasion of Iraq
References: <COL112-W733C31BDEEBBEECD7414ED72F0@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <CBAF979654654DD095BBCF17C6D3A73C@MARV>

Eli S. writes:

A major story in the Washington Post today begins with the following claim:

    Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he
allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he
was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts
of the interviews released yesterday.

This (not the FBI interview, obviously, but the claim itself) was one of the
major pieces of "evidence" used to justify the invasion of Iraq at the time,
so its repetition now, from the mouth of Saddam Hussein no less, would be an
important post-facto justification for the invasion.

[...]

And, guess what? No such statement from Saddam Hussein appears in the
interviews, which are all online at the National Security Archive at George
Washington University.
=====================================================
Good debunking job.

Actually, the New York Daily News broke the story last week, but it did not
spin it the way the Post did and was not as widely picked up by the MSM.

See:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/24/2009-06-24_former_iraqi_leader_saddam_hussein_feared_iran_more_than_us_secret_fbi_files_sho.html

The News reported that "asked about WMDs, Saddam insisted:We destroyed them.
We told you."

He told this to George Piro, the FBI agent who interrogated him and whose
reports form the basis of the recently declassified documents on which the
news accounts are based. You've very correctly noted that he never claimed
that "he wanted the world to think he had WMD's", as reported by the Post.




From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 09:22:18 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:22:18 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Lean Cuisine: Counting Calories On the Checkpoint Diet
In-Reply-To: <c8c.43cb48b9.377e2607@aol.com>
References: <c8c.43cb48b9.377e2607@aol.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907020822s665f94wf4acf3ff1d6c79b@mail.gmail.com>

  Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd
>
>
>
> Posted: 01 Jul 2009 06:14 AM PDT
> Remember, no matter what the facts say, just keep repeating to yourself:
> This is not a ghetto. This is not a ghetto. This is not a ghetto....
>
> A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not
> allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food
> items, Haaretz has learned....<http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096322.html>
>
> The private security company Modi'in Ezrahi...stops Palestinian workers
> from passing through the checkpoint with the following items: Large bottles
> of frozen water, large bottles of soft drinks, home-cooked food, coffee, tea
> and the spice zaatar. The security company also dictates the quantity of
> items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one
> small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few
> spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to
> carry cooking utensils and work tools.
>
> MachsomWatch told Haaretz that Sunday, a 32-year-old construction worker
> from Tul Karm, who is employed in Hadera, was not allowed to carry his lunch
> bag through the checkpoint. The bag contained six pitas, 2 cans of cream
> cheese, one kilogram of sugar in a plastic bag, and a salad, also in a
> plastic bag.
>
> The typical Palestinian laborer in Israel has a 12-hour workday, including
> travel time and checkpoint delays. Many leave home as early as 2 A.M. in
> order to wait in line at the checkpoint; tardiness to work often results in
> immediate dismissal. Workers return home around 5 P.M. The wait at the
> checkpoint can take one to two hours in each direction, if not longer.
>
> The food quantities allowed by Modi'in Ezrahi do not meet the daily dietary
> needs of the workers, and they prefer not to buy food at the considerably
> more expensive Israeli stores.
>
>
> *Two *cans of cream cheese? *Two*? And we're supposed to feel *sorry *for
> these people? My god, they're living in the lap of luxury, just like those
> chicken-gobbling freeloaders down in Gitmo. Well, this is why the West is
> losing out to the Islamofascists, isn't it? We've grown too soft, we just
> *mollycoddle *these people, we really do.
>
>
>  <
> http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1790-lean-cuisine-counting-calories-on-the-checkpoint-diet.html
> >
>
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>

From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 09:30:50 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:30:50 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Weekly Worker 776 Online
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907020830q728a644au6ed2dc924cda3756@mail.gmail.com>

The latest edition of the Weekly Worker is now available on the CPGB
website at http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/776/

In this week?s issue:

AGAINST IMPERIALIST WAR, AGAINST THEOCRATIC RULE
Mike Macnair explains why it is now more urgent than ever to fight on two
fronts

LETTERS
Clumsy CPGB; Kill dogmatism; PR job; Oppressor rights; Zionist;
Ragamuffin; Well regulated; Not for Britain; Gross; Cruel

SOLIDARITY PROTESTS
Anne Mc Shane reports from the Hopi Ireland demo in the capital

EVOLUTION?S REVOLUTION
Mike Belbin looks at the emergence of human culture and the vital role
of symbolism

UNITY FOR WHAT?
In the latest ?broad left? initiatives, Marxist politics are once more
being forgotten, argues Peter Manson

FANTASY LIBERATION
Michael Jackson?s death serves to remind us of the amorality of the
pop and entertainment industry, writes Eddie Ford

MEAT AND MONEY
Howard Roake gives the lowdown on Hopi and why we need the Summer Offensive

WORKER-INTELLECTUAL WHO FELL PREY TO THE RIGHT
David Douglass looks back at the life of Lawrence Daly: October 20
1924-May 23 2009

BACK TO THE FUTURISTS
Dani Thomas reviews Futurism at Tate Modern

POLITICAL FIGHT TO MAKE THE GAINS PERMANENT
James Turley draws lessons from the Lindsey workers? victory

From cpimllib at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 09:51:29 2009
From: cpimllib at gmail.com (CPIML Liberation)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 21:21:29 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] Fw: MLIN [July-Aug 09] Lalgarh | Elections | Sri
	Lanka | Racism | and More
In-Reply-To: <002c01c9fb27$bdc60f60$0201a8c0@gsn>
References: <002c01c9fb27$bdc60f60$0201a8c0@gsn>
Message-ID: <df738ddb0907020851m6cdbddc0m3944ccd6127b6b77@mail.gmail.com>

----- Original Message ----- *From:* CPI (ML) Intl Liaison
Office<cpiml_elo at yahoo.com>




*ML International Newsletter*

July-August 2009



***********************************************************************

*An **update on news and ideas from the revolutionary left in India. *

*Produced by: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
international team*

***********************************************************************

**

*Table of Contents *

*1)       **Lalgarh?s Battle for Dignity and Justice*

*2)       **Verdict 2009 and the Left*

*3)       **Manmohan Government's Second Term*

*4)       **Sri Lanka: the Nationalist Quagmire*

*5)       **Crackdown on Struggles of the Rural Poor in Punjab*

*6)       **Realities of Recession and Racism*

*7)       **People?s Health? Seminar in Kolkata*

*8)       **Habib Tanveer*

View all articles at http://mlint.wordpress.com/

From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 10:16:23 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:16:23 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <4A4CDD57.7020604@gmail.com>

Tom...Japanese designs on Australia were never set in stone. There has 
been much writing of late, mostly in well researched counter-factual 
fiction writing, of possible Japanese invasion of Hawaii which, of 
course, in December of 1941, they had no plans to do. As you noted, they 
were after the carriers. They were not capable of finding the carriers 
and thus history unfolded is it did (also they failed to launch the 
famous 'third assault' and take out the massive diesel and fuel oil 
tanks at Pearl).

But...it is also clear that the Japanese, like any experienced military 
force was flexible, not just in their tactical approach for this or that 
battle, but of over all strategy. There were, in fact, "plans", more in 
terms of discussions, but jotted down in references, about the 
*possible* occupation of Hawaii by the Japanese Imperial Army should the 
carriers have been found and sunk, but with the subsequent U.S. reaction 
to fully focus on the Pacific war; that such a occupation, purely for 
military reasons as opposed to integrating it in the Japanese 
Co-Prosperity Zone, was considered. The Japanese would of faced huge 
obstacles to such an occupation, logistically, as all the food in Hawaii 
had to be imported and supporting a garrison from 8000 miles away was a 
nightmare for them to consider, but it was considered.

I would argue that a similar situation was considered, or could of been, 
for a temporary occupation of Darwin and, some other coastal areas, 
essentially to knock the British/Aussie navy out of the war, deny them 
bases, destroy supplies, rain terror down on the civilian population and 
burn down as many cities as they could. Unlike the proposed occupation 
of Hawaii, I don't know if this was considered. But if one places 
oneself in the mindset of the Emperor's General Staff, I think it's VERY 
plausible that this could of occurred, even thought it would not be a 
flat out invasion, per se.

Just a thought...a thought that surely could of passed through the minds 
of Japan's war machine...

David


From gw57 at cornell.edu  Thu Jul  2 10:29:48 2009
From: gw57 at cornell.edu (Gavin Walker)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:29:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Marx on Mathematics
In-Reply-To: <mailman.5489.1246545944.2553.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
References: <mailman.5489.1246545944.2553.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
Message-ID: <4A4CE07C.5020605@cornell.edu>

> Also, what else is missing from the MECW? 

>I think the "Grundrisse" had also not been included, having been published 
>only in the 20th century. 

_Grundrisse_ is included in MECW. It is in Volumes 28 (Moscow: Progress, 1986) and 29 (Moscow: Progress, 1987), and is a different, later translation than the Martin Nicolaus one (which is more widely circulated in English). 





From christopher.hutch at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 10:32:13 2009
From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:32:13 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Mr., Can you Spare any Change?
Message-ID: <c81bf1a60907020932j4151d199q32425e74c8210521@mail.gmail.com>

www.GeneralStrikeComics.com <http://www.generalstrikecomics.com/>


keep well,

christopher

From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 10:37:40 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:37:40 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Latest from Cynthia McKinney in Zionist jail
Message-ID: <4A4CE254.30006@gmail.com>

Cynthia's Phone Call from Israeli prison on Cynthia

Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 11:12 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkPvzSZRuDo

Dear Friends,

I just got off the phone with Alisa Green of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. 
She told me that Cynthia refused to sign the deportation. The order 
states that she violated the Israeli blockade.  The embassy told me that 
Israeli law requires that inmates that refuse to sign a deportation must 
be kept in jail for 3 days before they are sent away.  It will be Sunday 
before we know when and if she will leave Israel.

David Josue

    Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 3:35 AM

    One of Cynthia's friends received a phone call from Ramle prison.
    The incarcerated prisoners are calling themselves "Free Gaza 21" --
    even though Huwaida and Lubna have been released. Below is Cynthia's
    statement;

    We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian
    aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and
    illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment,
    boarded and confiscated the ship.

    All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody,
    and brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in
    Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned.
    State Department and White House officials have not effected our
    release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal
    actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian
    assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been
    condemned by President Obama.


    --
    Greta Berlin
    Free Gaza Movement
    357 99 284 102
    www.freegaza.org <http://www.freegaza.org/>
    www.flickr.com/photos/29205195 at N02/
    <http://www.flickr.com/photos/29205195 at N02/>




From markalause at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 11:57:21 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 13:57:21 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Tom Paine
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907021057y25ea8e02v9e69747ea1fb5cf2@mail.gmail.com>

Fellow fans of old Common Sense everywhere should know about Ken
Burchell's Paine-centric new blog at
http://kenburchell.blogspot.com/

ML


From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Thu Jul  2 12:05:16 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:05:16 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if
	diplomacy fails
Message-ID: <D8B6CF5811BB4C8E892195EDA163A893@office1pc>


Venezuela Proposes United Nations Military Action if Diplomacy Fails in
Honduras Coup
 
July 1st 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com 
 
 
 
The presidents of Honduras (left), Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ecuador in
Nicaragua (Minci) 
M?rida, July 1st 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- On Tuesday Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez proposed multi-national military, economic, and legal
measures to restore Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to the presidency and
bring an end to the military coup d'etat that began last Sunday, if planned
diplomatic measures fail.   
 
Zelaya plans to defy the coup and return to Honduras on Saturday along with
a delegation of Latin American leaders, including the presidents of
Argentina and Ecuador. The coup leaders have vowed to arrest Zelaya upon his
return. 
 
"Aggression against the delegation that goes to Honduras would open another
type of door," said Chavez. "Then, we would have to consider, for example, a
military intervention by the United Nations."   
 
Chavez explained his proposal. "I am not a supporter of this measure, but I
throw it out there as a hypothesis: A United Nations or OAS resolution, a
political and diplomatic force with international military backup, this
would have to be considered," he said.   
 
Chavez also urged the Honduran armed forces to oppose the coup. "We call on
the military of Honduras not to attack the people or the president," said
Chavez, who himself was kidnapped in a military coup in 2002 and restored to
power by a counter-coup led by the pro-Chavez ranks within the military. 
 
 
Chavez's proposals came as the United Nations (UN), the Organization of
American States (OAS), and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America (ALBA), a Latin American fair trade bloc, condemned the coup and
called for Zelaya's immediate reinstatement. 
 
 
Chavez commended these declarations, but said nations who oppose the coup
should be prepared to back up their words with actions, and force the coup
leaders to turn power over to the legitimate president, Zelaya, "without
conditions." 
 
"We have to put an end to public condemnation followed by silence; this is
complicity. We should not leave these important meetings just with very
important declarations, and then leave Manuel Zelaya as a lost soul," said
Chavez. 
 
Chavez also said he will propose cutting off oil supplies to Honduras during
an emergency meeting of the Caribbean energy integration bloc Petrocaribe,
of which Honduras is a member. Petrocaribe countries receive favorable rates
on Venezuelan oil and loans for energy development, in exchange for goods
and services. 
 
As a legal measure, Chavez urged the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,
an autonomous institution of the OAS, to send a commission to assess the
situation in Honduras. Likewise, Bolivian President Evo Morales sent a
proposal to the OAS for the creation of an ad hoc inter-American tribunal to
"file and process complaints, investigate, and sanction those who have
committed crimes against democracy in Honduras."  
 
Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, have already cut off cross-border
commerce with Honduras. Also, the European Union suspended talks of an
association with Central American nations due to the coup. 
 
Member countries of the ALBA bloc have pulled their ambassadors from
Honduras, which joined the bloc last year to the dismay of the right wing
opposition. On Tuesday, the de facto coup government passed a resolution to
evaluate the "convenience" of Honduras's continued membership in the ALBA. 
 
Meanwhile, coup leaders have violently shut down or taken over most media
outlets by breaking down doors, throwing transmittion equipment on the
floor, detaining reporters in military vehicles, and threatening to shoot
them if they move, according to independent video recordings circulated by
internet. 
 
Military personnel also detained several reporters from the Caracas-based
Telesur television channel, which had provided detailed coverage of the coup
early on. According to Edgardo Castro, a Telesur correspondent in Honduras,
"The coup government has obligated the owners of cable companies to cut off
Telesur's signal and only permit international signals that support the coup
government," such as CNN. 
 
Journalists, activists, and government officials demonstrated in a car
parade through Caracas in defense of Telesur on Tuesday. 
 
The remaining independent media in Honduras have released video recordings
of thousands of anti-coup protestors singing songs, chanting for Zelaya's
return, and blocking off streets by burning tires and throwing rocks at
security forces. Military and riot police have reportedly used rubber
bullets, tear gas, and other unidentified chemicals to break up the protests
outside the presidential palace, causing at least one death and many
injuries. The coup government has continued to arrest pro-Zelaya government
officials. 
 
The United States government tentatively acknowledged that an "illegal" coup
occurred in Honduras, but has not called for Zelaya's reinstatement. On
Wednesday, the U.S. embassy in Honduras cut off travel and business visas
for those involved in the coup. One of the coup leaders, General Romeo
V?squez, was trained in the U.S. School of the Americas between 1976 and
1984, according to School of the Americas Watch. 
 
After Vasquez disobeyed Zelaya's orders to distribute electoral material for
a non-binding national poll on whether to hold a referendum to re-write the
nation's constitution last week, Zelaya fired Vasquez. The Honduran Supreme
court ordered Vasquez's reinstatement, and the Congress declared Zelaya's
electoral initiative illegal. On Sunday morning, military personnel
kidnapped Zelaya at his home and left him in Costa Rica. 
 
See also:
30/06/2009: Telesur Reporters Beaten in Honduras 
29/06/2009: Venezuela: Chavez Calls for Continent-Wide Protests against
Honduran Coup 
28/06/2009: Venezuelan Foreign Minister: Latin America has to Guarantee the
Defeat of the Coup in Honduras
-----------------
 
Honduras: Congress suspends constitutional rights 
This is Honduras (photo taken today)



The new blog out of Honduras is called "Honduras Frente Al Golpe De Estado"
(Honduras Confronts the Coup D'Etat...more or less). Make it part of your
RSS feed as there are already 13 posts and a lot of information and photos
available at the site For example this post entitled "Individual Guarantees
(rights) Suspended".
 


The following is spine-chilling for anyone who knows their LatAm history. I
wrote when all this started on Sunday "welcome to the 1980's"...well forget
that, we're now in the 1970's of dictatorship, Dirty War Argentina. Remember
that this usurper Micheletti has illegally seized power by claiming some
sort of technical infringement of the constitution on the part of Zelaya.
But as soon as he has control he simply suspends six fundamental articles of
the very same constitution that pertain to public freedom. This is nothing
short of outrageous. This is the direct road to secret police, disappeared
people and every other Latin American nightmare of the last century. Do you
support what you're about to read "in the name of freedom and democracy?"
Shame on anyone with a word to defend this scum. Shame on you.


The following constitutional rights have been suspended by the Honduran
congress under the de facto command of Roberto Micheletti between the hours
of 9pm and 5am Also, congress has given the right to hold a person without
arrest or allowing contact with the outside world for 24 hours (renewable,
of course, which means they can be held indefinitely without trial or
disclosure). My translation.


SUSPENDED, Article 71: No person can be detained for more than 24 hours
without being presented to the orders of the competent authority for
judgment. Judicial inquiry detention cannot exceed six days from the moment
of detention.


SUSPENDED, Article 78: Freedom of association and reunion is guaranteed as
long as it does not contravene public order and good custom.


SUSPENDED, Article 81: All persons have the right of free passage, to leave
enter and stay in national territory. No person can be forced to move from
their domicile or residence, except in special circumstances and when the
requisits of law allow.


SUSPENDED, Article 84: No person can be arrest or detained without the
virtue of a written mandate of the competent authority, expidited with legal
formalities and for a motive previously established by law. However,
in-fragranti criminals may be apprehended by any person in order to deliver
them to authorities. The arrested or detained must be informed in the act
and with total clarity of their rights and the reasons for the arrest; also,
the authority must communicate theri detention to a family member of choice.


SUSPENDED, Article 88: No class of violence or coercion may be exercised on
persons to force or make them declare. In a penal, disciplinary or police
issue, nobody can be made to declare against themself, against a spouse or
living companion, or against family members inside fourth grade of bloodline
or second of affinity. Only in front of a competent judge make statements be
taken. Any decalration obtained by infringement of these dispositions is
null and void.


SUSPENDED, Article 99: The domicile cannot be violated. No entry or register
can take place without the consent of the person who resides in the domicile
or without a resolution from acompentent authority. However, the domicile
may be searched in the case of emergency to impede the commission or the
impunity of a crime or to avoid serious harm to person or property.






From nmgoro at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 13:15:21 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:15:21 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if
 diplomacy fails
In-Reply-To: <D8B6CF5811BB4C8E892195EDA163A893@office1pc>
References: <D8B6CF5811BB4C8E892195EDA163A893@office1pc>
Message-ID: <4A4D0749.1080408@gmail.com>

This implies that VEnezuela does not trust OAS, which is perfect.

Fred Feldman escribi?:
> Venezuela Proposes United Nations Military Action if Diplomacy Fails in
> Honduras Coup
>  
> July 1st 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com 
>  
>  
>  
> The presidents of Honduras (left), Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ecuador in
> Nicaragua (Minci) 


From intnsred at golgotha.net  Thu Jul  2 13:09:42 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:09:42 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
Message-ID: <200907021509.42612.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > Another  hypothetical -- what if the American carriers had been smashed at
 > Pearl Harbor? I dunno, but the fact is they weren't.

   Another hypothetical: What if the US Navy had been allowed to defend 
Hawaii?

   The Navy had war-gamed attacks on Pearl Harbor many times. It was clear 
that the only way to attack Pearl Harbor was from the northwest, where the 
lack of shipping lanes increased the odds of getting close to the island 
undetected.

   When Washington initially warned Pearl Harbor of the possibility of an 
attack (along with warnings to make sure not to provoke the Japanese and to 
ensure that Japan started any hostilities), Admiral Kimmel immediately 
ordered the bulk of his ships to northwestern Hawaii. However, Washington 
overruled him and ordered his ships back to port.

   In the book "Day of Deceit" the author makes the argument that the US 
deliberately provoked Japan into attacking the US. The author makes many 
strong points (such as US records that the US did detect the Japanese fleet 
heading west towards Hawaii) and cites much circumstantial evidence and some 
conjecture. Overall, however, his argument is surprisingly strong.



-- 
"...[T]he commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic 
regime of torture.... There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current 
administration has committed war crimes." -- Army Major General Antonio 
Taguba, commissioned by the Pentagon in 2004 to investigate the abuses at Abu 
Ghraib, and forced to retire after issuing the report quoted above.


From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 13:33:10 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:33:10 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <4A4D0B76.6010709@gmail.com>

"Another hypothetical: What if the US Navy had been allowed to defend
Hawaii?" asks Intense Red.

Good question. But easily answered by subsequent US actions against the 
Japanese: the US would of had it's add handed to them. Assuming for a 
minute we are not talking about a battleship war lobbing shells at each 
other, alone, the US would of lost, and badly. In fact, it's good thing 
for the U.S. navy that the carriers were not only missing from Pearl, 
but didn't even shortly engage them. Almost every air encounter between 
the US and Japan for the year after Peal Harbor went very, very badly 
for the US.

US Navy pilots were some of the least experienced fighter pilots among 
the imperialists powers. The Japanese had some of the best. The US navy 
had the least technologically advanced fighters (wildcats vs zero). US 
carrier attack techniques were probably the worse AND US carriers were 
probably the least 'best built' carriers of anyone (the British had the 
best ones of anyone, smaller 'pocket ' carriers with highly armored 
flight decks).

About the only 'change' in this history that was reasonable would of 
been for the US battleship fleet to have also disappeared from Peal 
Harbor that Sunday morning and thus they could of been used in 
subsequent campaigns against the Japanese later in the war.

But in all seriousness, I don't think the US Navy could of defended 
Pearl Harbor even if it wanted to.

David



From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 13:39:20 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:39:20 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if
 diplomacy fails
Message-ID: <4A4D0CE8.9060408@gmail.com>

I would suggest that the "OAS" itself is not the same 'thing' as the UN. 
The UN has actual military capability. The OAS, on the other hand, is 
really just a "political" alliance with no formal or even informal 
military force (real or implied). The UN, despite being the waterboys 
for US imperialism, doesn't *include* the US in it's military operations 
generally because the US refuses to allow any of it's troops under any 
non-US command structure. So, yes, it's 'smart' on Chavez's part from 
the purely military-political point of view.

As a sideline commentator, I'd say the best thing, from a military 
'threat' perspective would be for another organization, say ALBA, or an 
ad-hoc alliance, to suggest this military threat, mobilize El Salvadoran 
and Nicaraguan Army units; *invite* the  Guatemalans to do the same; 
have the Venezuelan navy to 'train' off of Honduras' coast and generally 
make life hell for the regime there. I mean, this is what Imperialism 
would do, right?

David


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Thu Jul  2 13:57:06 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:57:06 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if
	diplomacy fails
References: <D8B6CF5811BB4C8E892195EDA163A893@office1pc>
	<4A4D0749.1080408@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <E27814DC44444E4C8092333D95998D07@dmsthinkpad>

And he does trust the UN?  Not perfect at all, not by a  mile.

Chavez doesn't support the notion, but he throws it out there for 
consideration?

This is hardly a cause for rejoicing.  Why would we support the executive 
committee of the bourgeoisie authorizing military actions in Honduras? 
Because they will be "good," "more democratic" actions?  Because 
"peacekeepers" will keep the peace?  Baloney.  Those weapons will be turned 
on those who will be in the streets.

C



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if 
diplomacy fails




From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Thu Jul  2 14:38:20 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:38:20 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>

John (johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz) wrote on 2009-07-03 at 00:16:02 in  
about Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
> Ultimately it is not so much the USA that Australians (or New
> Zealanders) should thank for Japan never formulating a plan to head
> further south. It is people like Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Min and Kim Il Sung
> and the millions of people in Asia who struggled alongside or supported
> them and at great human cost to themselves tied down tens of thousands
> of Japanese soldiers throughout Asia. 

  Why should Australians (who is that? Are the Aborigines incorporated? Have 
they always been? What about the Chinese and other Asian immigrants?) 
thank anybody for Japan not having invaded Australia? 

  Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour in defense against the US-american 
advance to conquer the Pacific, was to thank for providing the ground for 
Asia to get rid of colonial domination. And without Japan's war, maybe 
Australia would still be ruled from London, and I mean really ruled instead of 
just having a non-elected monarch as the head of state. 

   The war between Japanese and US imperialism over the conquest of the 
Pacific, which for the USA had the "manifest destiny" to become the US 
American "mare nostrum", offered the various colonies to look for their own 
affairs, and for the colonial settler states in Australia and New Zealand to get 
their full independence from London. If Japan had not stood in the way of the 
USA continuing their "Go West" without resitance over the whole Pacific Rim, 
Australia would now be a dependent territory of the USA, just like Alaska, 
Hawaii, or Guam, with the formal race segragation of the US "motherland" 
imposed on its new territory. 

  The main price of the war in the Pacific, the rule over China went awry for 
the USA. China was conquered neither by the USA nor by Japan, but by the 
Chinese themselves, what the US ruling class still considers to be an 
unforgivable crime of the Chinese, the original sin of the Chinese people. 

  

Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------
visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in 
German


From editor at intertheory.org  Thu Jul  2 14:48:17 2009
From: editor at intertheory.org (Nicholas Ruiz III)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 13:48:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] put your theory where your praxis is
Message-ID: <252890.17784.qm@web308.biz.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


Greetings all!

Happy Independence Day weekend!

In the name of putting my theory where my praxis is - I am running for Congress in 2010, FL District 24...tell your friends and neighbors! 

http://intertheory.org/nriiiforcongress2010.html

...and an Independence Day gift:

Bjork - Declare Independence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igOWR_-BXJU

pax et lux,

NRIII


 Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
Editor, Kritikos
http://intertheory.org


From markalause at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 15:06:11 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 17:06:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>
References: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907021406m632eb44ds449be952e6904220@mail.gmail.com>

L?ko Willms<lueko.willms at t-online.de> wrote: "Japan's attack on Pearl
Harbour in defense against the US-american advance to conquer the
Pacific, was to thank for providing the ground for Asia to get rid of
colonial domination."

So, this wasn't an inter-imperialist rivalry, but a defensive war by
Japan against the US push into the Pacific (which really came a
generation before Pearl Harbor).

And the various nationalist anticolonial movements that looked to the
Allies actually owed their freedom to the Japanese.

I see....

ML

PS: Frankly, the
what-would-happen-if-Doctor-Who-was-there-changing-things has begun to
break new ground on this subject.  Be careful, though, you may have
hit a sewer line.


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 15:19:42 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 05:19:42 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>

Dear Shane,
                  I agree with you about the conflict between Japan and the 
USA over oil supplies being a primary motive for the Japanese attack on 
Pearl Harbour.   But I'm pretty sure that the Japanese ruling circle had, 
before the attack on Pearl, at least contemplated an assault on the USSR, 
then embroiled in a mighty struggle with the Nazi Wehrmacht.   The Soviet 
intelligence agent Richard Sorge, who was stationed in Japan at this time 
and had access to the highest circles of the Japanese High Command, was able 
to convey to his superiors in Moscow the information in early December 1941 
that the Japanese would attack the USA, and not the USSR.   This piece of 
intelligence enabled the Soviet Union to transfer crucial divisions of crack 
troops with winter clothing and equipment from Eastern Siberia to the front 
in Europe, and these troops contributed to the successful defence of Moscow 
that winter.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 11:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


>
> On Jul 2, 2009, at 5:41 AM, G K Milner wrote:
>> ...the Japanese ruling circle had seriously weighed up the option
>> of attacking the USSR from the east in 1941, after the Nazi invasion.
>> Probably the factor that deterred the Japanese was the memory of the
>> brief
>> military struggle, in  the late 1930s...
>
>
> Japan went to war because it was being strangled by the oil boycott.
> It had no reason to invade Siberia where there were no oil fields and
> a nonaggression treaty was in effect.
>
>
> Shane Mage
>
>>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From schaffer at optonline.net  Thu Jul  2 15:21:58 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:21:58 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <4A4D24F6.70102@optonline.net>

G K Milner wrote:

i am putting  graham  on moderation for failure to clean up his posts 
after numerous emails on and offlist.

Les




From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Thu Jul  2 15:23:03 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:23:03 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <D4C7A9A5BD7048DCAFCFA49DA9FBFCD0@GrahamPC>
References: <CD18B2C521AA4C58AD4993CCC8F6766D@GrahamPC>
	<879A66184775455282898036EFAEBC94@dmsthinkpad>
	<D4C7A9A5BD7048DCAFCFA49DA9FBFCD0@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <000.b8ff010037254d4a.400@lws-media.de>

G K Milner (gkmilner at eftel.net.au) wrote on 2009-07-01 at 06:13:51 in  about 
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
> But the fact remains, in my view, 
> and I am prepared to consider other points of view of course, 
> that the crimes of the Nazi regime were of a wholly exceptional 
> character, and it is necessary to draw a clear distinction between the 
> political form of rule under national socialism in Germany, and that 
> prevailing in the bourgeois democracies.   

  The most important difference was that the "Allies" had huge colonial 
empires, populated by colonial slaves who had nothing to say about their 
fate, and German imperialism wanted to conquer those. 

  Now, if the Western imperialist competitors of German and Italian 
imperialism had really a struggle for democracy in mind, they would have 
declared, and started to practice democracy in their own realm: they would 
have declared the dictatorship of the "motherlands" over hundreds of millions 
of colonial slaves to be over and finished and all colonies, from Ireland and 
Greenland over India and all of Africa to Vietnam, the Philippines and 
Australia, to be independent immediately. 

  This would have ended the interimperialist immediately. It would have 
eliminated the reason for German imperialism to attack France, Britain, and 
other colonial powers in Europe, and it would have converted the war for 
those countries from a war to defend their bloody dictatorial rule over the 
rest of humanity into wars for national independence. But fighting those wars 
would have had no more sense for German imperialism. And the fascist rule 
would have started to crumble by the specter of freedom and democracy 
suddenly prevailing in the world, giving the oppressed the power to rule 
themselves. 

  BTW, actually, the US imperialism also wanted to conquer those colonies, if 
maybe only as neocolonies. So there was actually also a war of the USA 
against Britain, but fought by German weapons. 

  In another message, G. K. Milner made an eulogy of the "Atlantic Charta". 
Well, actually the Atlantic charter codifies the extortion forced by 
Washington on London, saying basically that Britain no longer had the right to 
keep the superior US industry and finance out of the British colonies, what 
the USA called the "politics of the open door". Britain is actually one of the 
big losers of the interimperialist war of the first half of the 20th century, 
even if they acquired new colonies in the first round (e.g. Palestine and Iraq). 


Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Thu Jul  2 15:36:25 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:36:25 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <000.10f7070059284d4a.409@lws-media.de>

G K Milner (gkmilner at eftel.net.au) wrote on 2009-07-03 at 05:19:42 in  about 
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
>  I agree with you about the conflict between Japan and the 
> USA over oil supplies being a primary motive for the Japanese attack on 
> Pearl Harbour. 

  The oil embargo or blockade was certainly a fact which hastened the 
Japanese decision to move the hostilites between US and Japanese 
imperialisms to a military stage, but it was only giving the occasion for the 
attack. 

   The underlying motive is the inextricable conflict over who would conquer 
the Pacific and especially China: USA or Japan. 

>  But I'm pretty sure that the Japanese ruling circle had, 
> before the attack on Pearl, at least contemplated an assault on the USSR, 

  They would have been fools if they hadn't pondered all possibilities of 
expanding their sphere of imperialist influence. But they decided to go south 
instead. 


Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 15:52:35 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 17:52:35 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] The Persecution of Michael Jackson
In-Reply-To: <bc3.4d024160.377e62a0@aol.com>
References: <bc3.4d024160.377e62a0@aol.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907021452v79ea54cbl4d65b5916d3727ef@mail.gmail.com>

>
>
> *The Mad Dog DA and the Mad Dog Media *
>  *The Persecution of Michael Jackson *
>
> By ISHMAEL REED
> http://counterpunch.org/reed06292009.html
>
>
>
>
>
>

From rfls12802 at blueyonder.co.uk  Thu Jul  2 15:57:19 2009
From: rfls12802 at blueyonder.co.uk (Paul Flewers)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 22:57:19 +0100
Subject: [Marxism] The new crisis in aviation
In-Reply-To: <mailman.5302.1246488068.2553.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
References: <mailman.5302.1246488068.2553.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
Message-ID: <003901c9fb60$120aa710$361ff530$@co.uk>

There's another piece on Airbus aeroplanes and composite materials, 'Ground
the Airbus?' by William John Cox, here:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14025 

Paul F





From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 15:58:30 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 17:58:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 5:19 PM, G K Milner wrote:
>                  I agree with you about the conflict between Japan  
> and the
> USA over oil supplies being a primary motive for the Japanese attack  
> on
> Pearl Harbour.   But I'm pretty sure that the Japanese ruling circle  
> had,
> before the attack on Pearl, at least contemplated an assault on the  
> USSR,
> then embroiled in a mighty struggle with the Nazi Wehrmacht.   The  
> Soviet
> intelligence agent Richard Sorge, who was stationed in Japan at this  
> time
> and had access to the highest circles of the Japanese High Command,  
> was able to convey to his superiors in Moscow the information in  
> early December 1941 that the Japanese would attack the USA, and not  
> the USSR.   This piece of intelligence enabled the Soviet Union to  
> transfer crucial divisions of crack
> troops with winter clothing and equipment from Eastern Siberia to  
> the front
> in Europe, and these troops contributed to the successful defence of  
> Moscow
> that winter.


Except that by the start of December the Nazi armies were in retreat  
on both the northern and southern fronts.  So Sorge's intelligence had  
no impact at all on the Eastern Front war.  In any case the Japanese  
had no reason at all to attack Russia, and every reason not to.



Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 16:02:20 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:02:20 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907021406m632eb44ds449be952e6904220@mail.gmail.com>
References: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>
	<b16d8daf0907021406m632eb44ds449be952e6904220@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <452A086F-E2A4-4983-9E5C-B0BB3AC34D70@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 5:06 PM, Mark Lause wrote:
>
> And the various nationalist anticolonial movements that looked to the
> Allies actually owed their freedom to the Japanese.
>
> I see....


The only native support the Allies had (apart from Chiang-kai-shek  
et.al.) was from the Stalinist fractions in China, Korea, and  
Indochina.  In India, Burma, the East Indies, and the Philippines the  
nationalist movements sided with the Japanese.

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From lnp3 at panix.com  Thu Jul  2 16:16:50 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:16:50 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <452A086F-E2A4-4983-9E5C-B0BB3AC34D70@pipeline.com>
References: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>	<b16d8daf0907021406m632eb44ds449be952e6904220@mail.gmail.com>
	<452A086F-E2A4-4983-9E5C-B0BB3AC34D70@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <4A4D31D2.5030405@panix.com>

Shane Mage wrote:

> 
> The only native support the Allies had (apart from Chiang-kai-shek  
> et.al.) was from the Stalinist fractions in China, Korea, and  
> Indochina.  In India, Burma, the East Indies, and the Philippines the  
> nationalist movements sided with the Japanese.
> 

I imagine that if Japan had occupied India, the nationalists would have 
not sided with Japan. Burma's non-Communist nationalists did favor Japan 
but not after the reality of occupation sunk in. In the Philippines, I 
don't know of any substantial nationalist movement other than the CP led 
Huks who fought against Japanese occupation. As far as the East Indies 
is concerned, I haven't heard that quaint term since 7th grade social 
studies class in 1958.




From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 16:24:24 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:24:24 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <4A4D3398.1070604@gmail.com>

Luko wrote:
"The most important difference was that the "Allies" had huge colonial
empires, populated by colonial slaves who had nothing to say about their
fate, and German imperialism wanted to conquer those. "

Really? And Japan had, what? Chopped liver and stale bread? Japan's 
colonial ambitions were as...ambitious as the U.S. In fact, the U.S. 
ambition was basically 'status quo': ownership of the Philippines, a few 
other small islands, and access to, but not colonization, of China.

Japan had *colonized* Manchuria for decades, and invaded the rest of 
China to complete it's fake "Co-Prosperity" zone of open colonization. I 
wonder what the reaction of the colonized Koreans would be to Luko's 
implication that the Japanese were simply "defensive" in their headlong 
rush to conquer most of Asia? Basically the Japanese were intent on 
replacing the U.S., Britain, France and the Dutch as *masters* over the 
region. It was exactly an inter-imperialist rivalry.

The idea that the was started because the Japanese were somehow 
"provoked" reduces this rivalry to a *policy* by one imperialist power 
(The U.S. embargo on scrap steel and Indonesian oil to the Japanese), as 
it they could of avoided the war. Nonsense. There was going to be a 
fight and the "provocation" scenario is more an academic conspiracy 
theory one than one based on an understanding of imperialism and it's 
contridictions.

David


From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 16:35:31 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:35:31 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two [nationalism and
 Japan...]
Message-ID: <4A4D3633.5020900@gmail.com>

In Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines and to a lesser extent India 
(Burma WAS part of British India until 1936) not just "nationalists" but 
masses of the population welcomed the arrival of the Japanese Imperial 
Army. As in parades, parties and waving the Japanese flag. The Japanese 
set up armed front groups to fight the British and Allied armies 
everywhere, not unlike what the Germans did and the Allies themselves 
did during the war.

Everywhere, the reality of occupation, as Louis poised it, turned, 
rapidly, the Japanese occupation into one of brutish repression. One can 
put this toward the huge military mobilization of all resources by the 
Japanese, I'm sure, but the facts are that in almost every case (but 
Burma) just about *everyone* went over the Allied side in one form or 
other. In the Philippines where their were several armed nationalist 
groups (including the Huks) fitfully fighting the U.S. colonial 
occupation since the time of the Spanish-American war, without 
exception, they went over to the U.S. to fight the Japanese. Part of the 
reason for this was the treatment of the Filipino POWs who had been part 
of the fight *against* the nationalists themselves, by the Japanese 
occupation army. The other reason is that what is now Metro Manila was 
essentially raped wholesale by the Japanese.

In Burma the Japanese, already very extended in their ill-conceived 
(militarily) thrust toward India, never really had time to set up a 
formal "occupation" like did everywhere else. What they did get out of 
the western front there was the cutting of the Burmese-China road and 
land route by the U.S. and British to supply KMT forces in China.

David


From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 16:36:02 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:36:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <4A4D31D2.5030405@panix.com>
References: <000.387f0c00bc1a4d4a.377@lws-media.de>	<b16d8daf0907021406m632eb44ds449be952e6904220@mail.gmail.com>
	<452A086F-E2A4-4983-9E5C-B0BB3AC34D70@pipeline.com>
	<4A4D31D2.5030405@panix.com>
Message-ID: <0AC88345-7C55-4DED-A5B0-1485A8BA36C9@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:

> Shane Mage wrote:
>  As far as the East Indies is concerned, I haven't heard that quaint  
> term since 7th grade social studies class in 1958.


The official term may have been "The Netherlands' Indies," but back in  
the day it was usually referred to as "The Dutch East Indies." Would  
either be preferable?

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 16:28:11 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 06:28:11 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <7FEC6EB76A2D4A08AB7419AA516A474C@GrahamPC>

Dear Shane,
                  With reference to Sorge's intelligence about Japanese 
intentions sent to Moscow in December 1941, my understanding is that this 
intelligence coup was vital to the USSR's defence effort.   I'm pretty damn 
sure that those winter troops from Siberia played an important role in 
holding back the Wehrmacht in 1941-42.   A detailed military history of the 
war should provide the information.   Mind you, I acknowledge that some of 
these stories might be the stuff of legend to some extent.   Richard Sorge 
was certainly a legendary figure in Soviet intelligence.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 16:45:00 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:45:00 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <4A4D3398.1070604@gmail.com>
References: <4A4D3398.1070604@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <415CC172-FCBB-49A4-861A-A478B58D4F4F@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 6:24 PM, nada wrote:
>
> The idea that the war started because the Japanese were somehow
> "provoked" reduces this rivalry to a *policy* by one imperialist power
> (The U.S. embargo on scrap steel and Indonesian oil to the  
> Japanese), as
> it they could have avoided the war. Nonsense. There was going to be a
> fight...

Of course there was going to be a fight.  But the oil embargo was  
decisive in how and when the fight was to begin.  The Japanese had to  
take over the Malay archipelago (East Indies) and they knew that for  
Roosevelt this was causus belli.  Nevertheless, the US population was  
absolutely against the war--and nobody was going to sign up to  
"Remember Singapore" or "Remember Batavia."  That is why the Pearl  
Harbor trap was crucial to Roosevelt's strategy.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Thu Jul  2 17:04:34 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:04:34 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <4A4D3D02.2040900@gmail.com>

Shane:
"Of course there was going to be a fight. But the oil embargo was
decisive in how and when the fight was to begin. The Japanese had to
take over the Malay archipelago (East Indies) and they knew that for
Roosevelt this was causus belli. Nevertheless, the US population was
absolutely against the war--and nobody was going to sign up to
"Remember Singapore" or "Remember Batavia." That is why the Pearl
Harbor trap was crucial to Roosevelt's strategy."

True enough, Shane, but the Japanese would of known this. The attack on 
Pearl was designed to 'knock the US out of the war'. But they knew, too, 
that the US would react and fight back. So why, from the Japanese 
perspective, would they have to provoke the US and not just make a play 
for the Dutch East Indies and British Malaysia? Especially, as you put 
it, no one in the U.S. would even burp at Singapore falling?

There was almost a 100,000 US troops in the Philippines, but with almost 
zero offensive capability. There would be little the U.S. could do about 
an invasion of a Dutch colony. I don't disagree about FDR's intentions. 
It's the Japanese then that are most bewildering. I agree, however, the 
oil embargo was a key ploy in Allied attempts to both contain the 
Japanese navy, and provoke it at the same time.

David


From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Thu Jul  2 17:11:41 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 09:11:41 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <186FADF5EB9045FA9F9ABB322CBD1102@gx270>

As often happens, this threat had moved a longway while I was asleep, and I 
won't go back to where it was at 12 hours ago.

Instead, briefly on Japanese victories and anti-colonialism, I would say we 
need a nuanced understanding.

It would be silly to see the Japanese as anti-colonial heros. They were 
basically creating a new colonial empire in emulation of the west. And after 
the Asian peoples experienced Japanese rule, they disliked it and in most 
cases hated it. We should not, however, make the opposite and equally 
simplistic error of thinking the Japanese were horrible because they were 
"fascist". There were a range of historical, institutional and material 
factors.

On the other hand, it's not true that everyone rallied to the allies later 
on. In Indonesia the independence movement essentially collaborated with the 
Japanese right to the end. BUT there was a  kind of division of labour in 
the independence  movement if I can put it that way. The pro-western social 
democrats were also part of the  movement, as were the Communists, and these 
provided the movement with a pro-western aspect at the war's end. One 
significant factor in this case, and some others, was I suspect that the 
movements wanted to keep their options open, hoping to use the eventual 
victors -- whoever they were -- for their own ends. Thus Thailand had a 
pro-Japanese government until the allies were close to winning, then 
suddenly it had a pro-allied regime.

Or consider these remarks from a local participant in Papua New Guinea:

"The kiawa [white men] treated us badly before the war and they deserted the 
people when the Japanese landed at Buna. We tried the Japanese but we did 
not like them at all. So all we could do is organise ourselves and settle 
our own differences before we can hope to fight the external enemies."

And here is another local PNG person speaking to an Australian:

"We thought the Japanese could beat you when you left these places, so we 
went their way. Afterwards when you bombed and bombed we were doubtful so we 
made up our mind to sit in the middle, but when you hunt them from these 
places we will know you are the stronger."





From lnp3 at panix.com  Thu Jul  2 17:17:48 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:17:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Fordlandia
Message-ID: <4A4D401C.8040703@panix.com>

?Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford?s Forgotten Jungle City?

We speak with NYU professor Greg Grandin about his new book, Fordlandia: 
The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford?s Forgotten Jungle City. The book tells 
the story of Henry Ford, the richest man in the world in the 1920s, and 
his attempt to build a rubber plantation and a miniature Midwest factory 
town deep in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.


http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/2/fordlandia_the_rise_and_fall_of


From intnsred at golgotha.net  Thu Jul  2 18:34:14 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 20:34:14 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <200907022034.14498.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > Japan went to war because it was being strangled by the oil boycott. ?

   That was a key reason; seizing the oil supplies in now-Indonesia was 
critical to continuing Japan's war on China.

   In Robert Stinnett's book "Day of Deceit" 
<http://www3.addall.com/New/compare.cgi?dispCurr=USD&id=8910&isbn=0743201299&location=10000&thetime=20090702172543&author=&title=&state=>, 
Stinnett uncovered an October 1940 Naval Intelligence secret strategy memo 
from a mid-level Navy officer who was high enough in the Navy Dept. to be 
CC'ing key admirals linked to FDR. The memo focused on provoking Japan to 
attack and listed out 8 actions the US would have to do to provoke Japan into 
attacking the US. It included things such as moving Pacific Fleet HQ from San 
Francisco to Hawaii (something the Navy Dept. opposed), aggressive probing 
in/near Japanese waters and, of course, cutting off scrap iron and oil 
shipments to Japan.

   The US implemented all 8 of the steps before Japan decided to attack. 
Stinnett's claim was that a Japanese attack on the US was needed in order for 
the US to enter the war in a united manner. At that time, the US was already 
de facto fighting Germany by attacking U-boats, but the Germans weren't 
taking the bait. So, the author maintains, the US decided to enter the war 
via Japan and the Axis pact of military alliances.

-- 
There's no such thing as "Intellectual 'Property'".  All ideas are owned by 
the public and are in the public domain.  The creator of an idea is granted a 
temporary monopoly called a copyright (or patent) before the idea returns to 
the public.


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 18:38:05 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 08:38:05 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Fw:  Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <21CECE4FC30146DA9233DB9307D7CC5D@GrahamPC>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G K Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition" 
<marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 5:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


>I don't really agree with any of this.   In my opinion the victory of the 
>USSR over its enemies, and its central role in breaking the back of the 
>Nazi Wehrmacht, was a tremendous blow against global imperialism.   The 
>victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949, which emerged directly from the 
>Civil War in China following World War Two, gave a huge boost  to the 
>anti-colonial struggle throughout Asia, and later, Africa.  As Trotsky 
>predicted at the outset of World War Two, the conflict was followed by a 
>revolutionary wave around the world.   Trotsky had held of course that this 
>wave would be captured by his Fourth International, but this proved not to 
>be the case.
>
> If you are claiming that the USSR under Stalin's hegemony played a role in 
> restoring capitalist stability after the war, than I do agree with that. 
> But whatever the Communist Parties did in Western Europe and Asia, it is I 
> believe a fair comment to say that the defeat of fascism, the survival of 
> the Soviet Union, and the immense boost given to the movement to 
> decolonise Asia and Africa, may all be seen as positive outcomes of the 
> war.
>
> I think that I would regard the writings on this subject of Isaac 
> Deutscher, James Cannon and Ernest Mandel, who all wrote in the 
> revolutionary Marxist tradition, as providing a sort of lodestone for a 
> Marxist position on World War Two.   This is not a 'standard bourgeois 
> analysis'.   The internationalist framework that Marxism is based on 
> inevitably collides with the special pleading of nationalisms, where 
> bourgeois accounts are concerned.   Of course the bourgeoisie, even in its 
> various national manifestations, considers that it has a global view, but 
> in my opinion the only genuine internationalist perspective comes from the 
> application of Marxist historical materialism.
>
> In solidarity,
>
> Graham Milner
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "S. Artesian" <sartesian at earthlink.net>
> To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 11:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
>
>
>> The bottom line here is that there's nothing new in GK's take on WW2. 
>> It's
>> the standard bourgeois analysis: .
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________________
>> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
>> Set your options at: 
>> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
>>
> 



From schaffer at optonline.net  Thu Jul  2 19:05:10 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:05:10 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] archive problems
Message-ID: <4A4D5946.8040304@optonline.net>

i've just learned that the searchable archives for marxmail are not up 
to date. while we get that back up and running, list readers can find 
all the posts here:

    http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/

Les



From sartesian at earthlink.net  Thu Jul  2 19:19:36 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 21:19:36 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>

Nazi armies on retreat in Dec 41 where?  


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two




From thomasfbarton at earthlink.net  Thu Jul  2 19:30:40 2009
From: thomasfbarton at earthlink.net (Thomas F Barton)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 21:30:40 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
	<1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>

12/16/1941

Rommel's Afrika Korps forced to retreat in North Africa

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: S. Artesian 
  To: Thomas F Barton 
  Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 9:19 PM
  Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


  Nazi armies on retreat in Dec 41 where?  


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
  To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
  Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 5:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two



  ________________________________________________
  YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
  Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
  Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/thomasfbarton%40earthlink.net

From Waistline2 at aol.com  Thu Jul  2 19:39:53 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 21:39:53 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <c41.5f61eae0.377ebb69@aol.com>


In a message dated 7/2/2009 11:17:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
_sartesian at earthlink.net_ (mailto:sartesian at earthlink.net)  writes:
 
Certainly the bourgeoisie were liquidated in localities, only to be propped 
 
up internationally.
 
I can feel comrade Waistline wincing. 

Reply  

Wincing is correct because I have to consider how defeat has  informed my 
view. 

Really. 

Defeat and the defensive  strategy, defensive strategic thinking and 
defensive material tactics breed a  certain pessimists and conservatism and I am 
to old to lie to myself and dismiss  other probabilities and different 
insights concerning the motion of the  proletarian revolution. 

This thread called "Socialist Policy in  World War Two" is in the main 
foreign to how I think things out. Was WW II not  the "Second World Imperialist 
War" and al this implies? 

WW II, as  if  humanity just have wars without a class and property 
content.  

I cannot side with a domestic foreign capital.  

Period. 

I'm still to shaken with the passing of  Michael Jackson and how he 
connects with Motown to be coherent. .  

There's nothing left for me. 

"Off the Wall" . . .  .  1979 was my limit. 

I am so angry. 

The third  quarter of 79 was when Chrysler went belly up. Your specific 
analysis is riveted  to 1973 - yes I read everything all the time, but the 
material social  consequence was not felt as a shock wave until the peaking of 
the movement in  1978 and then felt in 79 (3rd quarter) when Chrysler failed 
to meet it  obligations in the bond market. 

I agree with 73 . .  as the  material application of the result of the 
historical tendency of the falling  rate of profit. .  

Somebody getting ready to get hurt real  bad.  I do not care who it is 
provided I am not the last one to get hurt.  Someone else must speak from the 
podium because my feeling are to hurt.  

They take every fucking thing we have in life and expect you to  pretend 
that all is well. I can't do it. All is not well. 

They  beat my mother and father down. I will never rest in peace. 
 
I remember how your parents escaped the reaction in Russia and landed you  
here in America. 

The bourgeois political figures in Detroit are  going down. 

Fuck the class struggle. These muthefuckers going down  in the most 
personal sense. 

"You bootlicking muttherfucker!"  

My feet hurt and my comrades are laughing at me because I advocate  a 
"Michael Jackson" enrollment as a form to recruit the next generation.  

Dammit . . . watch the prison video version of "They Don;t Really  Care 
About Us." 

Watch it and then make the critique.  

My feelings are very hurt.

Man, I'm  fucked up.  

I'm fucked up man! 

Will write something about the  Second World Imperialist War; the rise of 
finance capital, the liquidation of  the last remaining feudal political 
structures in Eastern Europe and the far  East and what this meant for the 
proletarian revolution, the Second imperialist  World War and the so-called 
"Third World  Movement."   

I am so full. 
 
This dumb shit about some fucking national movement that exhausted itself  
pre-October 1917 and was discussed on this list almost a decade ago . . .  

I'm to full right now. 

I'm emotionally fucked up. 
 
Michael collapsed me back to 1979.  I swear to God comrade . . . my  thing 
is all fucked up. 

Off the Wall . . . 1979.  

Mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn . .  some of us are going to take the  freaking podium. 

Fuck Dave Bing and that basketball crap fronting  as new/old industrial 
policy for the modern  era.  


Sorry Comrade  . . . . brother, I  am full. 

Wl. 
**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)


From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Thu Jul  2 19:45:36 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:45:36 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
	<1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
Message-ID: <1246585536.8056.227.camel@john-desktop>

On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 21:30 -0400, Thomas F Barton wrote:
> 12/16/1941
> 
> Rommel's Afrika Korps forced to retreat in North Africa
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: S. Artesian 
>   To: Thomas F Barton 
>   Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 9:19 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
> 
> 
>   Nazi armies on retreat in Dec 41 where?  

North Africa was a sideshow. The German army only committed about 3
divisions there. The bulk of the fascist forces in North Africa were the
8 Italian divisions. I doubt the Japanese war effort made much
difference to the fighting in North Africa.

As I said before, the bit of the war in the Asia/Pacific theatre that is
ignored in most mainstream histories is the , largely communist,
insurgencies that fought the Japanese army and caused a huge drain on
Japanese military resources. They are a significant reason that the
defeat of Japan was so total, as well as the fact that its expansion was
less than it might otherwise have been.

Korea had been colonised since 1910, Manchuria soon after, the rest of
China from the mid 30s. For North Asians, WWII was a very long affair
and it was about real imperialist expansion.
Cheers,
John



From lnp3 at panix.com  Thu Jul  2 20:04:02 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:04:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] A more readable version of Matt Taibbi article on Goldman
	Sachs
Message-ID: <4A4D6712.7060500@panix.com>

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Thu Jul  2 21:02:47 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:02:47 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
Message-ID: <96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>

No, that's not correct.  Yes there was a retreat, but that was temporary. 
After resupply, Rommel initiated further offensive actions in the early part 
of 1942, gaining back much of the territory he had ceded.

And the German forces in Russia were not in retreat in December 1941.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas F Barton" <thomasfbarton at earthlink.net>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 9:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> 12/16/1941
>
> Rommel's Afrika Korps forced to retreat in North Africa
>



From shmage at pipeline.com  Thu Jul  2 21:23:56 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:23:56 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
	<96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>


On Jul 2, 2009, at 11:02 PM, S. Artesian wrote:
>
> And the German forces in Russia were not in retreat in December 1941.

S.L.A. Marshall in Colliers Encyclopedia, v.23 p.613:
"...resistance mounted ever higher, and the German power began to ebb  
before it had met the real strength of the defending garrison.  In the  
first days of December the Germans were forced to withdraw...an even  
greater tonic to the national morale was the repulse of the German  
armies in the south. Stiffened by the arrival of a fresh corps from  
Siberia, Timoshenko counterattacked on November 24 and drove the  
Germans back along a 120-mile front.  The retreat did not end until  
the Germans had passed Taganrog, 120 miles to the west.  The extent to  
which Germany felt these defeats was indicated a few weeks later when  
Hitler dismissed his commander-in-chief, Field Marshal  von  
Brauchitsch and took personal charge of the Russian battle."

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From syaavashaan at yahoo.co.uk  Thu Jul  2 23:17:56 2009
From: syaavashaan at yahoo.co.uk (syaavashaan syaavashaan)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 05:17:56 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Marxism] Petition supporting protest movement in Iran
Message-ID: <501304.29011.qm@web24713.mail.ird.yahoo.com>

?
TO: All progressive and pro-human rights individuals and organisations
The protest document that follows has been signed by a number of people. The names of a selection are appended. We invite all those who identify with this protest to add their names to the petition. You can do so on the following websites:
http://www.iran-bulletin.org, or, http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/iran-protest/
The people of Iran who over the last few weeks have shown enormous courage in heroically resisting the repressive measures unleashed on them expect the widest support from all freedom-loving people the world over.
Editors: Middle East Left Forum ? (formerly, Iran Bulletin) 
?
Protest against repressions in Iran
?
In the last few weeks the world has witnessed extensive and savage suppression of peaceful protests of hundreds of thousands of Iranian people triggered off by the blatant theft of the June presidential elections.? 
The religious despotism ruling the country has responded to the youth, students, women, workers, ethnic minorities, as well as political and social activists, lawyers, journalists, artists, and writers demonstrating in Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, and hundreds of other cities and towns with bullets and batons. Many have been killed, thousands injured and many thousands detained with some under torture.? Houses and shops were raided and cars smashed by police, para-military Basij and revolutionary guards. 
We the undersigned express our unequivocal solidarity with the people of Iran in their struggle for democracy and freedom.? We strongly condemn the brutality of the Iranian regime and demand an immediate stop of all acts of violence against demonstrators and the release of all those detained.
We call on all progressive and pro-human rights individuals and organisations in all the corners of the world to raise their voice against these murderous acts of the Iranian regime against the people of Iran. 
June 2009
. 
Signatories (partial list)
Aziz Al Azmeh, Professor, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest (Hungary)
Aijaz Ahmad, Writer and Journalist, (India)
Geof Barr, University of Exeter (UK)
Sohrab Behdad, Professor, Denison University, (USA)
Robert Brecher ? University of Brighton (UK)
Terry Brotherstone, University of Aberdeen, Department of History; Past President University and College Union Scotland, (UK)
Andrew Chitty, University of Sussex, (UK)
Noam Chomsky, MIT (USA)
John P. Clark, Gregory Curtin Distinguished Professor of Humane Studies and the Professions Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University New Orleans, (USA)
Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University (USA)
Mark Gasiorowski, Professor, Political Science and International Studies, Louisiana State University, (USA)
Guemiche, professeur de mathematiques, (France)
Mark Fischer, Communist Party ofGreat Britain (UK)
Bridget Fowler - SAASS, University of?Glasgow (UK)
Charles Fox, Consultant, Northampton General Hospital, (UK) 
Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London, (UK)
Bill Fletcher, The executive editor of The Black Commentator, (USA)
Betty H. Fussell, writer (USA)
Mahmood Hakak, Siena College, NY, (USA)
Amir Hassanpour, University of Toronto, (Canada)
Robert Heimer, professor, Yale University School of Public Health, (USA)
Khalil Hindi, American University of Beirut (Lebanon) 
Geoffrey M Hodgson University of Hertfordshire, (UK)
Anton Holberg, political activist (Germany)
Ted Hiscock, doctor, general practitioner, Birmingham (UK)
Laura Hope, Loyola University New Orleans, (USA)
Assad Jalali, University UCU, Swansea, (UK)
Carla Jodice, University of Rome, Tor Vergata (Italy)Esmail Khoi, Poet & critique, (UK)
Mosh? Machover, professor, Kings College, University of London, (UK)
Bahman Maghsoudlou, Writer/Filmmaker, (USA)
Adeline Masquelier, Professor, Director, Religious Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University (USA)
Yassamine Mather, Glasgow University, (UK)
Philippa Matthews, doctor, general practitioner, London (UK)
Mike Macnair, St Hugh?s College, University of Oxford and CPGB (UK)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, filmmaker (France)
Ardeshir Mehrdad, Writer /Researcher (UK)
Robert Milgrom, Professor and Co-chair, Humanities and Sciences Department, School of Visual Arts. NY, (USA)
Behrooz Moazami, Loyola University New Orleans, (USA)Haideh Moghissi, Professor of Sociology and Women?s Studies, York University, Toronto, (Canada)
Shahrzad Mojab, University of Toronto, (Canada)
.................................


      

From jayroth6 at cox.net  Thu Jul  2 23:20:07 2009
From: jayroth6 at cox.net (J Rothermel)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:20:07 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Iran's rank-and-file speaks
Message-ID: <4A4D9507.9060709@cox.net>

http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=420#more-420
June 29, 2009


    Iranian Workers in Action for Democratic Rights
    <http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=420>

*Introduction by Robert Johnson and John Riddell.* /The mass protests in 
Iran, sparked by charges of fraud in the June 12 presidential elections, 
express deeply felt demands for expanded democratic rights. The 
establishment press has been silent on the aspirations of rank-and-file 
protesters. Socialist Voice is therefore pleased to be able to publish 
several statements by components of Iran's vigorous trade union 
movement, which has been a major target of repression by Iran's security 
forces. We have provided the titles and some introductory comments./

/The U.S. government and its allies hypocritically claim to be 
"pro-democracy," a lie exposed by their enthusiastic support of 
repressive dictatorships in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere, and 
their alliance with the apartheid regime in Israel. For 30 years they 
have raged against Iran, jealous of the sovereignty established by its 
great revolution in 1979. Now they hope that the protest movement can 
provide an opening for them to undermine Iranian sovereignty and return 
the country to their sphere of influence. They hope to break Iran's 
alignment with the Palestinian freedom struggle and with the progressive 
nations of Latin America's Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA)./

/By repressing mass protests, the Iranian government is weakening the 
country's defenses against such imperialist attacks. Continued social 
progress in Iran depends on the expansion of democratic rights, and the 
strengthening the working class and other popular forces that are the 
main pillar of national sovereignty./

/Progressive activists in Canada should not take sides between the 
competing factions in Iran's capitalist class, nor should we try to 
instruct the Iranian people on how the present crisis might be resolved. 
These questions can only be settled by the Iranian people themselves./

/We should, however, support the right of the Iranian people to 
communicate freely, to demonstrate, and to form trade unions and other 
popular associations independent of government supervision or control. 
We should support calls for freeing political prisoners and for an end 
to the repression./

/At the same time, we should strongly oppose attempts by imperialism to 
take advantage of this crisis, and call for an end to sanctions and 
other forms of foreign oppression of the Iranian people./

/The position adopted by the Vancouver antiwar coalition Stopwar.ca 
provides a good example of this approach. Its resolution also appears 
below./

* * * * * *

*TEHRAN BUS DRIVERS' UNION
"General prosperity depends on general cooperation, and we must not let 
others make decisions for us. We must take the initiative ourselves."*

/[In 2005-2006, the strike movement of Tehran's bus drivers won respect 
among working people in Iran and worldwide. The movement was repressed 
and hundreds of drivers were arrested, but the union continues to function./

/[Mansour Osanloo, the president of the bus drivers' union, has been in 
jail since July 2007, serving a five-year sentence for "threatening 
national security "and "propaganda against the state." He has suffered 
gross mistreatment at the hands of his jailers. He is being denied 
appropriate medical treatment and his health is failing. Other leaders 
and activists of the bus drivers' union have suffered arbitrary arrests, 
beatings, and loss of their jobs./

/[The union issued the following statement during the campaign for 
Iran's tenth presidential election, before the outbreak of the national 
crisis.]/

The Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company Workers' Trade Union is purely 
a trade and workers' organisation. This trade union was formed in 2005 
based on the consciousness of the workers and the broad support and 
involvement of workers, and despite its ups and downs and many problems, 
has continued its activity as before until today.

The Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company Workers' Trade Union does not 
support any candidate in the tenth presidential election and does not 
view supporting any candidate as within the scope of the activities of 
independent workers' organisations. With the absence of freedom [of 
activity] for parties, naturally our organisation is also deprived of a 
social association that would protect it. While the Tehran and Suburbs 
Vahed Bus Company Workers' Trade Union views political intervention and 
activity as the absolute right of every single person in society, it 
believes that if the presidential candidates present workers' 
manifestoes and give practical guarantees about their electoral slogans, 
workers throughout Iran can either participate or not participate in the 
election.

But the Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company Workers' Trade Union, as a 
workers' association, sees it as its duty to ask all candidates [some 
questions], so that in case there is a logical answer, workers can make 
a decision about these [replies]. But unfortunately, until now the 
presidential candidates have not expressed any views about workers, the 
unemployed, and their demands in the press, at conferences, in press 
conferences or during provincial trips.

Today, for workers and their families, encouragement about participation 
in the election is one of the most meaningless of existing debates, 
because during the past three decades the workers have experienced all 
the presidents from the time of the [Iran-Iraq] war and the [post-war] 
reconstruction and reform, and also the affection-cultivating president.

We want all our workmates and people of our class, if there is a 
discussion about the election in their place of work or study, home or 
neighbourhood, to not forget to ask themselves and others what is the 
programme of the presidential pretenders for workers?

   1. What is the clear position of the candidates of the tenth
      presidential election on the formation of independent workers'
      organisations without the interference of the government and
      employers?
   2. How do you justify the suppression of independent workers'
      organisations like the Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company
      Workers' Trade Union?
   3. Considering the accumulated demands of workers and that the
      poverty line announced for this year is 850,000 tomans [$874], but
      on the other hand the monthly wage has been set at 263,000 tomans
      [$270], will you accept the demand of workers' organisations that
      the minimum wage should be one million tomans [$1,021]? This was
      what the signatures of factory workers throughout the country have
      proclaimed.
   4. To announce their opinion on international conventions on labour
      rights, children's rights, women's and human rights, and to say
      how they will adhere to them?
   5. To say what their opinion and programme is on job security, job
      creation, housing, and unemployment insurance for people over 18
      years old, medical insurance for everyone, and scrapping temporary
      contracts that are the cause of hardship and poverty for working
      class families?

During these past years, the workers have been told to make sacrifices 
and to accept their hardship and their lack of rights. While the workers 
can neither go to work with security or hope, nor to their homes for 
rest, thousands of plain-clothes and security force [officers] -- forces 
that perform no productive work and are used everywhere and for any deed 
that is necessary, with any level of violence and use of force -- are 
kept to deprive and detain workers from a free life. Yet [the 
candidates] refuse to [devote] one day to talking about the workers' 
demands and needs.

These are not issues specific to the time of the election. These 
problems depend on the co-operation of all toilers who see this dam in 
front of them.

We must strive to go past this dam and reach a society where the solving 
of social problems is not handed over to the president and parliament only.

General prosperity depends on general cooperation, and we must not let 
others make decisions for us. We must take the initiative ourselves.

/--Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company Workers' Trade Union May 2009/

* * * * * *

*TEHRAN BUS DRIVERS' UNION
We "fully support this movement of [the] Iranian people to build a free 
and independent civil society and condemn any violence and oppression."*

/[In this later statement, the union states its position on the 
post-election crisis.]/

In recent days, we continue witnessing the magnificent demonstration of 
millions of people from all ages, genders, and national and religious 
minorities in Iran. They request that their basic human rights -- 
particularly the right to freedom and to choose independently and 
without deception -- be recognized. These rights are not only 
constitutional in most of the countries, but also have been protected 
against all odds.

Amid such turmoil, one witnesses threats, arrests, murders and brutal 
suppression that one fears only to escalate on all its aspects, 
resulting in more innocent bloodshed, more protests, and certainly no 
retreats. Iranian society is facing a deep political-economical crisis. 
Million-strong silent protests, ironically loud with unspoken words, 
have turned into iconic stature and are expanding from all sides. These 
protests demand reaction from each and every responsible individual and 
institution.

As previously expressed in a statement published on-line in May of this 
year, since the Vahed Syndicate does not view any of the candidates 
support the activities of the workers' organizations in Iran, it would 
not endorse any presidential candidate in the election. Vahed members 
nevertheless have the right to participate or not to participate in the 
elections and vote for their individually selected candidate.

Moreover, the fact remains that demands of almost an absolute majority 
of the Iranians go far beyond the demands of a particular group. In the 
past, we have emphasized that [so long as] the freedom of choice and 
right to organize are not recognized, talk of any social or particular 
right would be more of a mockery than a reality.

The Syndicate [Union] of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company 
fully supports this movement of [the] Iranian people to build a free and 
independent civil society and condemns any violence and oppression.

In line with the recognition of the labour rights, the Syndicate 
requests that June 26, which has been called by the International Trade 
Unions Organization "Day of Action" for justice for Iranian workers, 
include the human rights of all Iranians who have been deprived of their 
rights.

With hope for freedom and equality

--The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company June 
18, 2009

* * * * * *

*AUTOWORKERS AT IRAN KHODRO
Organize 30-minute protest strike; "it is our duty to join this people's 
movement"*

/[Khodro, Iran's leading car company and the largest vehicle producer of 
automobiles in the Middle East, has a strong recent history of labor 
militancy, strikes, and repression. It employs more than 100,000 workers 
and produces more than half a million vehicles a year./

/[A few weeks before Iran's June elections, a strike by the Khodro 
workers quickly won its two demands: for payment of unpaid wages and for 
Khodro itself to sign up employees previously supplied by third-party 
contractors./

/[In a recent letter to the International Labour Organization, Khodro 
workers have also made their long-term demands clear, asking that ILO 
work to help ensure that Iran:/

    * /Observes workers rights./
    * /Does not prevent the formation of free workers' organisations./
    * /Does not arrest and jail workers for the offence of going on
      strikes and forming workers' organisations./
    * /Respects the conventions of the International Labour Organisation./

/[The following is the Khodro workers' response to the crisis.]/

Autoworkers, fellow labourers: What we witness today, is an insult to 
the intelligence of the people, and disregard for their votes, the 
trampling of the principles of the Constitution by the government. It is 
our duty to join this people's movement.

We the workers of Iran Khodro, Thursday 28/3/88 [June 18], in each 
working shift will stop working for half an hour to protest the 
suppression of students, workers, women, and the Constitution and 
declare our solidarity with the movement of the people of Iran. The 
morning and afternoon shifts from 10 to 10:30. The night shift from 3 to 
3:30.

/--Labourers of Iran Khodro/

* * * * * *

*TEACHERS' ORGANIZATION OF IRAN
"Honour the will and the vote of the people"*

/[We have been unable to find an English translation of the statement by 
the teachers' union. Below is a summary and partial translation of the 
statement as it appeared on the LaborNerd website June 19.]/

Sazman-e Moalleman-e Iran (Teachers' Organization of Iran) is writing a 
statement protesting the arrest three days ago of its leader, Ali-Reza 
Hashemi. It expresses the view that the wave of arrests by the 
government will only serve to unite the people. It says, "The only way 
out of this situation is to accept the request of the candidates and to 
honour the will and the vote of the people." It expresses extreme 
objection to the arrest of Hashemi and other activists and says that 
freeing those who have been arrested will serve to decrease the amount 
of conflict in the country. It also says, "The Teachers' Organization of 
Iran, further, supports the goals of Messrs. Mir Hossein Mousavi and 
Mehdi Karroubi and calls on the election authorities to annul this 
election and undertake a free election."

* * * * * *

*STOPWAR COALITION (Vancouver, Canada)
Statement on the Iran crisis*

/[The Vancouver antiwar coalition StopWar adopted the following 
statement at its June 24 monthly membership meeting.]/

StopWar, the broad-based anti-war coalition which has been active in the 
Vancouver area since 2002, sends warm greetings and solidarity to all 
those who are rallying for democracy and justice in Iran and abroad this 
week. We share your commitment to a peaceful and just resolution of the 
disputes brought to the surface by the recent presidential election in 
Iran, and your desire for Iranians themselves to determine the future of 
their country.

We condemn the regime's killing of protesters and we join with others in 
demanding the right to organize, strike and protest, and to free speech 
and assembly for all Iranians. We demand the release of all arrested 
workers, students, and political prisoners.

We condemn any attempt by pro-war forces in the United States, Canada, 
and other countries to take advantage of this situation to push for 
'regime change' imposed by outside powers. The drumbeat of threats 
against Iran should remind all peace-loving people of the build-up for 
war against Iraq seven years ago, which brought a terrible tragedy to 
that country without advancing the rights of the Iraqi people.

StopWar expresses our full confidence that the people of Iran will 
achieve their goals without the interference of governments such as that 
of Canada, which has only hindered genuine progress towards democracy, 
social justice and gender equality with the ongoing military mission in 
Afghanistan.

* * * * *

*Sources*

1. Tehran bus drivers' union (pre-election statement) 
<http://www.iwsn.org/labour/vahed-election2009.htm>^1 Translated by 
Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network.

2. Tehran bus drivers' union (post-election statement) 
<http://www.justiceforiranianworkers.org/?p=594>^2

3. Iran Khodro autoworkers <http://tinyurl.com/nt6hn8>^3 . Translated 
for The Field by Iraj Omidvar.

4. Teachers' Organization Of Ira <http://tinyurl.com/mq5768>^4 
n. Summary and partial translation posted on LaborNerd website.

5. Stopwar website. <http://www.stopwar.ca/>



From jayroth6 at cox.net  Thu Jul  2 23:28:15 2009
From: jayroth6 at cox.net (J Rothermel)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:28:15 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Fordlandia
Message-ID: <4A4D96EF.9080303@cox.net>

This is the book of the year. [We got a reviewer's copy a while ago.]

More than the history of Ford's attempts to circumvent a perceived 
British-Dutch rubber monopoly, it is a history in miniature of Ford and 
US "ur-globalization" in the Southern Hemisphere.

The excess and egomania involved are profound, as is the overweening 
imperial arrogance and contempt for our class.
The absurd cross-purposes and corporate blindness are worthy of Bunel or 
the Cohen brothers. 

Like the relics of Ozymandias, only the wreckage remains...

Buy and read.

JR




From tcod at hotmail.com  Thu Jul  2 23:51:27 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 05:51:27 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270>
	<DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W34C48DCF82220B6A8C8F89D32C0@phx.gbl>


C'mon, that's bullshit.

> From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au
> Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:51:44 +0800
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
> To: tcod at hotmail.com
> 
> Dear Tom,
>                 I'm still not convinced that there was no prospect of a 
> Japanese invasion of Australia during World War Two.   

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From tcod at hotmail.com  Fri Jul  3 00:04:35 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 06:04:35 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Council communism
In-Reply-To: <8CBC7288742D590-1410-507@webmail-mx01.sysops.aol.com>
References: <4A3D4CFB.1020607@wanadoo.fr><2fa1449b0906221155r3533211bqec6a4e193fdf2f67@mail.gmail.com>
	<c81bf1a60906221732l4b39ac38l27d7dc10f463759f@mail.gmail.com> 
	<8CBC7288742D590-1410-507@webmail-mx01.sysops.aol.com>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W13E50C73926F4CCAB061CDD32C0@phx.gbl>


Abel Paz' biography of Spanish CNT leader Buenaventura Durrutti, "The People Armed", is written in the style of Deutscher's bio of Trotsky (e.g. "The Prophet Armed").   As one obituary of this great leader, whose funeral in Barcelona in 1936 was attended by half a million people stated, while he was a great leader, he wasn't one of those "Leaders" (Fuhrer in German) or one of those "Greats of Fascism" of History like Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin or whomever and that they were definitely against this concept of the "crisis" of "leadership" espoused by political gangsters and other cultists, including Trotsky, to justify their own mythology.  Paz book also talks about the role Durrutti played in building solidarity for Sacco & Vanzetti in Spain and in the international workers movement.

> Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:29:05 -0400
> From: shacht at aol.com
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Council communism
> To: tcod at hotmail.com
> 
> Deutscher, an ardent admirer of Trotsky is hardly a Trotskyist, and his works have served to mislead many.


_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail? has ever-growing storage! Don?t worry about storage limits. 
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From baba.aye at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 00:30:44 2009
From: baba.aye at gmail.com (Baba Aye)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 03:30:44 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Council communism
In-Reply-To: <BAY123-W2FA22C14CD620D704DAA6D3360@phx.gbl>
References: <4A3D4CFB.1020607@wanadoo.fr>
	<2fa1449b0906221155r3533211bqec6a4e193fdf2f67@mail.gmail.com>
	<c81bf1a60906221732l4b39ac38l27d7dc10f463759f@mail.gmail.com>
	<BAY123-W29AC5D6FB0D8F8A3C19B1DD3360@phx.gbl>
	<4A40282F.8000104@panix.com>
	<BAY123-W2FA22C14CD620D704DAA6D3360@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4617efae0907022330g550e9f91q8406004354cd1e4@mail.gmail.com>

Tom Cod writes:
I thought this was supposed to be a big tent Marxism group not a sectarian
trotskyist one

I think it is as well and I do not think that the position in response to
DK's vitiates this. As Mark Luase puts it: The problem isn't council
communism but dogmatic council communism.Or dogmatic anything, I think...I
also think. If you ask me DK's lambasts seemed the more sectarian...and not
the Louis response to it.

Marxist regards,
Baba Aye

Global Labour University, Unicamp
solidarityandstruggle.blogspot.com
skype name: iron1lion


"Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness
of necessity." - Karl Marx

From sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com  Fri Jul  3 00:45:30 2009
From: sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com (sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:45:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
Message-ID: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>


>On Jul 2, 2009, at 5:41 AM, G K Milner wrote:
>> ...the Japanese ruling circle had seriously weighed up the 
>option of attacking the USSR from the east in 1941, after the Nazi 
>invasion. Probably the factor that deterred the Japanese was the 
memory of 
>the brief military struggle, in  the late 1930s...
>
To which Shane replied:
>Japan went to war because it was being strangled by the oil 
>boycott.  It had no reason to invade Siberia where there were no 
oil fields 
>and  a nonaggression treaty was in effect.
>
You are both partially correct. There was serious Japanese 
consideration 
of a Siberian campaign because this was pushed by the Army who 
would 
play then play lead role in the war. Granted Zhukov had defeated 
them 
at Nomohon but there was a large force in Manchuria not directly 
engaged 
in fighting the Chinese which was poised to attack. The Navy wanted 
a Pacific 
campaign because they would play the lead role and it was this 
position which 
won out under the slogan, "guard the north and advance to the 
south." By the way,
that non agression treaty did not prevent Stalin from sending large 
amounts of military aid to Jiang and the Nationalists which gave 
the Japanese 
army an argument for targeting the Soviet Union. I believe the navy 
plan prevailed 
because it did have the capability of quickly securing both oil and 
other 
raw materials in SE Asia critical to Japan once the Ameicans cut 
them off.

I am not sure how to respond to Shane's assertion that the American 
government baited the Japanese with the Pacific fleet at Pearl 
Harbor but 
knowingly had the carriers on manuvers the day of the attack. That 
line 
of argument is the work of conspiracy theory and not history unless 
he is privy to something that has alluded the decades of 
scholarship on 
Dec. 7th. There were plenty of people then who believed FDR 
arranged 
the whole thing then just as there are plenty of people now who 
believe 
a missle from an F16 slamed into the Pentagon and someone on the US 
govt. 
payroll wired explosives to the structual supports of the WTC. 
Perhaps
this is whay the 9-11 Truth commision uses the slogan that
"9-11 is the new Pearl Harbor."

--
Click here for great quotes from top international movers!
 http://tagline.hushmail.com/fc/BLSrjkqhoPW42SWN9EjSjLHt67cil9X1WwCezSJccQ6QEtK5cFIA7J3cNbS/



From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Fri Jul  3 04:00:30 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:00:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic
 isolation being pressed
Message-ID: <64DD0D52087F47EFB3EF6554AD69EEC6@office1pc>

The revving up of the war drive against Iran since the definitive setback to
the opposition in the weeks after the election, and the liberals are
spearheading the renewed hawk-talk. See Juan Cole's column this morning,
where he ends up hinting that Iran may in the end have to be treated like
Iraq. 

The liberals have picked up the banner of regime change as something the US
is entitled to try to acheve in Iran. After all the candidate they liked
didn't get the presidency. You understand, this means war!

By the way, I doubt that the general strike Cole reports being called by
Mousavi and wife will amount to much. First of all it will be hard to
determine if it is a bosses' strike, a middle class strike, or a labor
strike or how much of all three. Its an activity that is very hard to pull
off successfully, but very easy to wildly exaggerate the turnout since there
may be no gatherings and people can just issue whatever estimate they want
-- especially for international consumption -- of how many stayed home from
work. I am pretty sure the "Assembly of  Experts" in the media will proclaim
that it was nothing less than world-shaking.. 

"Engagement" with Iran is out, and "regime change" is the goal again. That
definitely points to war with Iran.

The comments of the Venezuelan official at theh end of the LA Times item
that follows this piece are dead right. US, Britain, France, Canada, etc.,
HANDS OFF IRAN!
Fred Feldman


IRAN?S AHMADINEJAD FACES DIPLOMATIC ISOLATION
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Borzou Daragahi

Los Angeles Times
July 3, 2009 (0800 Tehran time -- Jul. 2, 2030 PDT)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-ostracize3-2009jul0
3,0,3454095.story

[PHOTO (http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2009-07/47846722.jpg) CAPTION: 
Russia?s President Dmitry Medvedev, center, greets Afghanistan?s
president, Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistan?s Asif Ali Zardari in June. He
did not offer a private meeting to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.]

CAIRO and BEIRUT -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can in one
instant appear the diplomatic equivalent of damaged goods and in the next
a confident leader whose bellicose speeches leave the West wondering how
to deal with him and his perplexing nation now that he's won a
much-disputed reelection.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent
meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a
private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In
Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko,
but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.

A similar pattern has emerged in the Middle East, where Arab r?gimes have
long been wary of Iran's ambitions. Authorities in Jordan withdrew
licenses for two Iranian news organizations this week and the sultan of
Oman reportedly canceled a trip to Tehran following the unrest after
Iran's June 12 election.

Snubs and slights in the diplomatic world are common, sometimes almost
imperceptible. But as long as Ahmadinejad remains in power, with the
support of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there are
concerns about how the messy fallout over his reelection will influence
diplomacy regarding Iran's nuclear program, regional stature, and
relations with the U.S. and Europe.

Tehran's crackdown on dissent and its accusations of Western meddling have
led the Obama administration, which had sought to open dialogue with Iran,
to toughen its tone. The European Union is contemplating recalling its
ambassadors unless Iran releases the last three of nine Iranian employees
of the British Embassy arrested over the weekend.

Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel comments and Tehran's spats with U.N. nuclear
inspectors have sparked anger in the West over the years, but the current
crisis is evoking deeper criticism over Iran's tactics and intentions. It
is apparent that the West and Iran are peering through separate prisms: 
As Britain argued for the release of its employees, a commander of the
Revolutionary Guard threatened that Iran would pull out of talks over its
nuclear program unless the European Union decided to "apologize" for
interfering.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Iran's arrest of the embassy
employees was "completely contrary to the sort of good political
engagement that Iran says that it wants."

European leaders are "very troubled, and don't really know what to do. 
They can't excuse the Iranian r?gime, and they see that they have to try
to avoid an Iranian bomb," said Hubert V?drine, France's foreign minister
from 1997 to 2002. "With the Iranian elections, there's a feeling of
discouragement that has settled in. I find that absurd, because we could
have never seriously imagined that Ahmadinejad would be beaten."

The question is how to engage Iran and Ahmadinejad. The major powers have
rarely been unified on this, but Europe and the U.S. cannot fully
ostracize Iran given the importance of the negotiations over its nuclear
program. A new round of trade sanctions could bolster Ahmadinejad's
claims of Western intervention and rally the Iranian public, diverting
attention from opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi's pro-democracy
movement.

On Thursday in Tehran, hard-line politicians renewed calls for Mousavi's
prosecution over the recent protests and ensuing violence. State-run
Press TV reported that Iranian intelligence forces had arrested seven
members of an anti-government group that had an "active role in provoking"
postelection unrest.

"The international community may mount only a weak response to the Iranian
crisis, given competing U.S. and EU priorities and the traditional
difficulty of organizing international action to defend democracy,"
according to Michael Singh, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy and former senior director for Middle East Affairs on the
National Security Council.

A recent statement by the Group of 8 foreign ministers did not condemn
Iran's postelection crackdown and showed the divisions among
industrialized nations on how to respond to Iran. France and Italy sought
a toughly worded statement. Russia, often criticized for violations of
civil liberties, essentially did not question Iran's election results and
opposed any outside effort at promoting democracy. Medvedev may have
snubbed Ahmadinejad at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, but
he did not question his return to power.

Iran's future relations with the world will depend on the "r?gime's
ability to recover from the deep separations that are currently present
within its ranks," said Wahid Abdul Magid, a Middle East affairs analyst
at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "If they
manage to somehow retain stability, then relations with other countries
will remain as they were before the latest elections. It is also obvious
that Ahmadinejad's attitude toward the West will be even more acute."

Ahmadinejad called off a visit this week to Libya, where President Moammar
Kadafi had invited him to speak at the African Summit. Iranian TV
reported Iranian spokesman Hassan Qashqavi as saying that Ahmadinejad's
"busy work schedule" prevented him from attending. Instead, the president
stayed home and met with an official from a nation that shares his
anti-U.S. stance: Rafael Ramirez, the Venezuelan energy minister.

The conservative Mehr news agency reported that "Ramirez, for his part,
praised the massive voter turnout in the presidential election in Iran,
saying the widespread support of the Iranian nation for [Ahmadinejad] in
the election overwhelmed the world.

"On the Western interference in postelection events in Iran, the
Venezuelan minister said, it is evident to the world that the United
States and Britain always try to foment divisions among nations around the
world."

jeffrey.fleishman at latimes.com
borzou.daragahi at latimes.com

--Special correspondent Devorah Lauter in Paris and Amro Hassan of the
*Times*'s Cairo Bureau contributed to this report.



__._,_.___




From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Fri Jul  3 05:05:45 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:05:45 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Not since Depression have all jobs from previous cycle
	been lost
Message-ID: <E0C5639343054BF3B1D8F004B7E7D572@MARV>

"The U.S. economy has lost the equivalent of every job created in the past
nine years...All job growth since the final year of the dot-com bubble, its
recovery from the bust, and the ensuing six years of consumer-driven boom is
now gone...

'This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs
growth from the previous business cycle, a testament both to the enormity of
the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth over the
business cycle from 2000 to 2007,' said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at
Washington-based think tank The Economic Policy Institute."

http://www.financialpost.com/working/story.html?id=1752178



From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Fri Jul  3 05:13:13 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:13:13 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] How many Chinese troops presently in Iraq?
Message-ID: <0BFC356452F34557B50B37D4CFDF1AE8@MARV>

As Iraq Stabilizes, China Bids on Its Oil Fields
By KEITH BRADSHER
The New York Times
July 1, 2009

HONG KONG ? Oil companies from China, the world?s second-largest and 
fastest-growing consumer of oil, bid aggressively on Tuesday as Iraq began 
auctioning licenses in six large oil fields.

A partnership of BP and the China National Petroleum Corporation, or 
C.N.P.C., won the first contract awarded, in the latest indication of 
Chinese interest in Iraq, a country that has until recently seemed to be 
firmly in the American sphere of influence for natural resources.

In another sign of China?s interest in Iraqi oil fields, Sinopec, China?s 
refining giant, offered $7.22 billion last week to buy Addax Petroleum, a 
Swiss-Canadian company with operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and 
in West Africa. If Addax?s shareholders and Canadian regulators approve the 
deal, which Addax?s board is recommending, it would be China?s largest 
overseas energy acquisition.

Sinopec?s rival, the China National Petroleum Corporation, started drilling 
in the spring in the Ahdab oil field in southeastern Iraq. China?s three 
main oil companies ? Sinopec, C.N.P.C. and the China National Offshore Oil 
Corporation ? all bid in various combinations with Western multinationals on 
Tuesday in Baghdad, although further negotiations remain to iron out the 
details of each of their contracts.

It is common in the oil industry for initial auction results to be followed 
by weeks of dickering over details. But the bidding in Baghdad on Tuesday 
was particularly contentious, as multinationals demanded that the Iraqi 
government allow them to keep more of the revenue from each extra barrel of 
oil they pump beyond levels previously sustained by Iraq?s chronically 
corrupt and technologically weak national oil industry.

Few Americans or Iraqis may have expected China to emerge as one of the 
winners in Iraqi oil, particularly after six years of war. But signs of 
stability in Iraq this year, and a planned American military pullout from 
Iraqi cities on Tuesday, happened to coincide with an aggressive Chinese 
push to buy or develop overseas oil fields.

The Chinese companies ?have been interested in Iraq,? said David Zweig, a 
specialist in Chinese natural resource policies at the Hong Kong University 
of Science and Technology. ?They were interested in Iraq before the war, and 
now that things have improved somewhat there, it?s on their agenda.?

Some experts contend that the West should not be concerned about a 
substantial Chinese presence in Iraqi oil fields, because it gives China 
greater stake in improving stability in the region.

?If you want China to be a responsible stakeholder in the world, you need to 
let China buy stakes in the world,? said Mark P. Thirlwell, the program 
director for international economics at the Lowy Institute for International 
Policy in Sydney, during a speech in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

The Iraqi government originally tried last year to award oil fields to 
Western companies through a no-bid process. That prompted objections from a 
group of United States senators, who wanted greater transparency, and the 
plan was replaced with the auction, which had the effect of letting Chinese 
companies play a much larger role.

China?s leaders were surprised by the steep rise in commodity prices early 
last year, which exposed the vulnerability of their country?s huge 
manufacturing sector to high raw material prices. When oil prices plunged in 
the autumn, China began buying, importing and storing oil in huge 
quantities, helping to drive a partial rebound in world oil prices in 
spring. And China stepped up its hunt to acquire foreign oil.

Chinese officials, economists and advisers have been almost unanimous in 
recent weeks in saying that their country needed to invest more in natural 
resources, while also voicing concerns about the long-term creditworthiness 
of the United States and the buying power of the dollar.

China has $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, mostly invested in 
dollar-denominated bonds, and has been looking for ways to diversify 
gradually into other assets like commodities, said a Chinese government 
adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of 
Chinese reserve policies.

China?s central bank, the People?s Bank of China, called Friday for the 
development of an international currency other than the dollar that would be 
a safe repository of value, in the latest sign of China?s search for other 
ways to invest its international reserves.

Philip Andrews-Speed, a specialist in China?s oil industry at the University 
of Dundee in Scotland, said Iraq was clearly attractive for China and its 
oil industry.

?All, or nearly all, oil companies who have the courage want to be in Iraq 
because of the large size of the proven resource base and the potential for 
new discoveries,? he wrote in an e-mail message. ?So, in this respect, the 
Chinese are part of the herd.?

Chinese oil companies have been particularly interested in buying oil fields 
ever since crude prices plunged late last summer, because that dragged down 
the cost of the fields as well, Mr. Andrews-Speed wrote. And with their 
experience in some of the most turbulent countries in Africa, Chinese oil 
companies may have the ability to cope with the unpredictability of Iraq.

?They may be no more competent at managing these risks than other companies, 
but they do seem to be prepared to accept a higher level of risk,? he wrote, 
citing China?s willingness to do business in Sudan.

Chinese companies have suffered a series of setbacks in their efforts to buy 
natural resources companies in industrialized countries, from Cnooc?s 
unsuccessful bid for Unocal in the United States four years ago to Chinalco?s 
failed attempt this spring to acquire a $19.5 billion stake in Rio Tinto of 
Australia.

Those setbacks, driven partly by political objections in Washington to the 
Unocal transaction and in Canberra to the Rio Tinto deal, have forced 
Chinese companies to show more interest in resources in less stable 
countries like Iraq.

?It?s really hard for them to do anything in the developed world, including 
Australia,? Mr. Thirlwell said in an interview on Tuesday.

Driving China?s interest is the country?s voracious thirst for oil. As 
recently as the early 1990s, China was a net exporter of oil because of 
production mainly from aging oil fields in the northeastern corner of the 
country.

But China?s oil consumption has soared since then, thanks to an economic 
boom and climbing car sales that have produced traffic jams in big cities. 
China surpassed the United States this year as the world?s largest car 
market, partly because China has weathered the global economic downturn 
better than the United States; China?s oil consumption reached 8 million 
barrels a day last year, up from 4.9 million in 2001, according to a 
statistical review from BP, the British oil company.

Oil production has grown much more slowly, as older oil fields have run dry. 
New fields, either offshore or in western China, have barely replaced them. 
China produced 3.8 million barrels a day of oil last year, up from 3.3 
million barrels per day in 2001, which still left the country dependent on 
imports for more than half its oil.

Iraq has the world?s third-largest proven reserves, after Saudi Arabia and 
Iran. Many geologists say that the true oil resources of Iraq are even 
greater than official statistics suggest, because Iraq?s oil industry has 
suffered from decades of disruption and underinvestment. Many oil fields 
have not been fully explored as a result.

Addax has oil licenses in two oil fields in northern Iraq, the Taqtaq and 
Sangaw North fields, both near Kirkuk, and its drilling has already struck 
large quantities of oil repeatedly in the Taqtaq field.

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from 
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm 




From naskha3 at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 05:37:25 2009
From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:37:25 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] In praise of Ezra Nawi
Message-ID: <18d70e600907030437l10c01e3etd6879c73631f1f7e@mail.gmail.com>

In praise of ? Ezra Nawi

    * Editorial
    * The Guardian/UK, Friday 3 July 2009

He is a rarity, even among that most endangered of species, the
Israeli peace activist. Born in Basra to an Iraqi Jewish family, Ezra
Nawi lives on the modest wages he earns as a plumber. As such, he
comes from the same background which generates the hardline views in
Israel. So he was speaking to his own kind when he told laughing
border police who had just demolished Palestinian Bedouin shacks that
all they would leave behind was hatred. Not content with the Bedouin
shacks, the prosecuting authorities are now trying to demolish Mr
Nawi?s life by threatening him with a prolonged stay in prison. His
arresting officers claim that the non-violent resister had assaulted
them ? although the alleged assault was not included in their original
statements. The whole incident (barring the alleged assault, of
course) was caught on film, but the presiding judge believed the
police. The sentencing was delayed on Wednesday because so many
supporters turned up in court, some bearing a petition with 15,000
signatures. Mr Nawi is asking a bigger question of his countrymen: who
is perpetrating the greater violence? Is it people like him, or is it
a state which bulldozes Palestinian shacks while protecting the homes
of South Hebron settlers which the rest of the world considers
illegal? As Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu trade in the semantics
of a settlement freeze, it falls to a humble plumber to focus the
world?s attention on the routine brutalities of occupation.


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Thu Jul  2 22:17:17 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 12:17:17 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad><8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC><96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>
	<5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>

Dear Shane,
                  Richard Sorge, the Soviet intelligence agent, obtained his 
information with respect to the Japanese decision to attack the USA, rather 
than the USSR through Mongolia, earlier than I stated in an earlier message. 
Clearly the USSR was concerned that the Japanese might take advantage of the 
critical situation on their western front, after Barbarossa began.   Sorge 
obtained the information not in early December 1941, as I wrote, but in fact 
not long after the German invasion of the USSR began in June.   Stalin 
delayed acting on the information, but he finally transferred forces from 
the eastern frontier in early November 1941.

In the words of Guy Wint and Peter Calvocoressi, 'Total War: Causes and 
Courses of the Second World War': 'Reinforcements from the east, including 
1,700 tanks and 1,500 aircraft, reached Zhukhov on the Moscow front at the 
beginning of November at the point when the Russians had drained the last 
reserves from their training schools and the Germans thought that the 
Russians were finished'.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 11:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


>
> On Jul 2, 2009, at 11:02 PM, S. Artesian wrote:
>>
>> And the German forces in Russia were not in retreat in December 1941.
>
> S.L.A. Marshall in Colliers Encyclopedia, v.23 p.613:
> "...resistance mounted ever higher, and the German power began to ebb
>>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Fri Jul  3 01:51:33 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 15:51:33 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <BAY123-W34C48DCF82220B6A8C8F89D32C0@phx.gbl>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270><DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
	<BAY123-W34C48DCF82220B6A8C8F89D32C0@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <6B9991B329AA4B609F650AADF7DEA7B2@GrahamPC>


Your one-liner doesn't contribute anything to historical understanding, or 
much else, as I see it.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Cod" <tcod at hotmail.com>
To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two



C'mon, that's bullshit.

> From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au
> Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:51:44 +0800
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
> To: tcod at hotmail.com
>
> Dear Tom,
>                 I'm still not convinced that there was no prospect of a
> Japanese invasion of Australia during World War Two.

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au



From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Fri Jul  3 01:55:36 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 15:55:36 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Fw:  Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <21D3B810212F447DB2ABF7CA65DCBA61@GrahamPC>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G K Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition" 
<marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> Dear Shane,
>                  Richard Sorge, the Soviet intelligence agent, obtained 
> his information with respect to the Japanese decision to attack the USA, 
> rather than the USSR through Mongolia, earlier than I stated in an earlier 
> message. Clearly the USSR was concerned that the Japanese might take 
> advantage of the critical situation on their western front, after 
> Barbarossa began.   Sorge obtained the information not in early December 
> 1941, as I wrote, but in fact not long after the German invasion of the 
> USSR began in June.   Stalin delayed acting on the information, but he 
> finally transferred forces from the eastern frontier in early November 
> 1941.
>
> In the words of Guy Wint and Peter Calvocoressi, 'Total War: Causes and 
> Courses of the Second World War': 'Reinforcements from the east, including 
> 1,700 tanks and 1,500 aircraft, reached Zhukhov on the Moscow front at the 
> beginning of November at the point when the Russians had drained the last 
> reserves from their training schools and the Germans thought that the 
> Russians were finished'.
>
> In solidarity,
>
> Graham Milner
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
> To: "Graham Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
> Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 11:23 AM
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
>
>
>>
>> On Jul 2, 2009, at 11:02 PM, S. Artesian wrote:
>>>
>>> And the German forces in Russia were not in retreat in December 1941.
>>
>> S.L.A. Marshall in Colliers Encyclopedia, v.23 p.613:
>> "...resistance mounted ever higher, and the German power began to ebb
>>>
>> ________________________________________________
>> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
>> Set your options at: 
>> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
>>
> 



From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Fri Jul  3 06:09:52 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:09:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic
 isolation being pressed
References: <64DD0D52087F47EFB3EF6554AD69EEC6@office1pc>
Message-ID: <445CFCFC62954E4CA4129BBC222DA681@MARV>

Fred Feldman writes:

The revving up of the war drive against Iran since the definitive setback to
the opposition in the weeks after the election, and the liberals are
spearheading the renewed hawk-talk. See Juan Cole's column this morning,
where he ends up hinting that Iran may in the end have to be treated like
Iraq.

The liberals have picked up the banner of regime change as something the US
is entitled to try to acheve in Iran. After all the candidate they liked
didn't get the presidency. You understand, this means war!
=============================================
Although I'm not yet ready to assign Juan Cole to this camp, the "cruise
missile liberals" are wooly-minded idealists, typically academics far from
the centres of power. The financial press tends to be a better barometer of
what those closer to the top are thinking. The Financial Times comments on
the current state of opinion in both Israel and the US in relation to the
recent events in Iran, and suggests it's best summarized in the words of the
diplomat quoted below: ?How do you bomb Neda??

*    *    *

Israel struggles to adapt to a changing picture of Iran
By Philip Stephens
Financial Times
July 2 2009

No one watches events in Iran more closely than Israel. Tehran has long been
the abiding preoccupation, some would say obsession of political discourse
in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Now the story line has changed.

At first glance the violent repression deployed by Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad?s
regime in the wake of last month?s presidential election has been grist to
the mill. The images of beaten and bloodied demonstrators have described
vividly to a global audience Israel?s long-held view of the Iranian
theocracy. Yet the implications do not all run in the same direction. The
apparent fixing of the poll result and the subsequent crushing of dissent
has also made the case for more rather than less engagement by the west.

Before one or two of my regular correspondents of a neo-conservative leaning
accuse me of going soft on an authoritarian Islamist regime with nuclear
ambitions, I should say that this point was made to me this week in Tel Aviv
by a shrewd member of the Israeli diplomatic establishment and sometime
adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ? no friend of the ayatollahs,
in other words.

The reaction of western governments to Mr Ahmadi-Nejad?s determination to
remain in power suggests a different course. The Group of Eight rich nations
has issued a strong ? by diplomatic standards ? denunciation of violence
against demonstrators. I am sure I was not alone in seeing a certain irony
in Russia?s signature on a document affirming individual liberties. That
aside, the condemnations of the suppression of peaceful protest ? including
those of the European Union and the US administration ? were surely right in
their rejection of Tehran?s flimsy efforts to blame the west for the
flowering of Iranian democracy.

Mir-Hossein Moussavi, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad?s opponent, was not offering the
radical departure in Iranian politics that some Republicans in Washington
have chosen to imagine. The presidential contest was a power struggle within
Iran?s revolutionary family.

That said, the popular reaction to the apparent vote-rigging has indeed
changed the game. The authority of the regime has suffered irrecoverable
damage. Few of those who took to the streets will believe that it was all an
American, or even more unlikely, a British plot.

This observation was offered to me by another Israeli. Isaac Herzog, the
Labour minister for welfare and social services in the government coalition,
recalled the occasions when his famous father visited the Shah?s Iran during
the 1960s. Chaim Herzog would report back that the Shah was living on
borrowed time: the ruler had grown too distant from the ruled.

The same can now be said of the gulf between Mr Ahmadi-Nejad and Iran?s
youthful middle classes, although, as with the Shah, the end may be some
time in coming.

The earlier point made by the Israeli diplomat was that Iran was no longer
the country the west had thought, or wanted to think, it was. The
post-election scenes on the streets of Iranian cities would surely
strengthen those who argued that the way to encourage Iran?s return to the
international community was through engagement ? by embracing the ambitions
of the protesters rather than shutting them out along with the regime. No
one could pretend that Iran was the monolith that is North Korea.

As for suggestions that Israel is ready to bomb Iran to prevent Mr
Ahmadi-Nejad from getting his hands on nuclear weapons, the issue was now
more complicated. ?How do you bomb Neda?? the diplomat said, in a reference
to Neda Salehi Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose death on the streets of
Tehran has become a symbol of the regime?s repression.

Mr Netanyahu would doubtless dispute this analysis, but the Israeli prime
minister?s views no longer carry weight. Until my discussions this week with
Israeli politicians and scholars from across the political spectrum I had
not realised quite how comprehensively he had wrecked his own foreign
policy.

If Mr Netanyahu had started out with a single strategic objective it was to
engage Barack?s Obama?s administration in a joint project to put an end to
Iran?s nuclear ambitions. As an academic sympathetic to the prime minister?s
predicament put it, he wanted above all from Washington ?a credible policy
on Iran?.

No matter that no one quite knew what such a policy would have amounted to;
focusing on Iran would have allowed the prime minister to put the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the back-burner and sidestep international
pressure to accept a two-state solution.

That was the plan. And what has happened? Mr Obama upturned the argument: a
deal between Israel and the Palestinians was promoted in Washington as part
of the broad regional initiative necessary to deal properly with Iran.
Worse, from Mr Netanyahu?s perspective, Israeli-US relations have been
reduced to an increasingly bitter argument about his refusal to halt
settlement building on the West Bank.

As for Iran, the US president has indeed stepped back from immediate
engagement. Doubtless he has been influenced by those who argue that
restoring relations with Tehran would ?legitimise? Mr Ahmadi-Nejad. Much the
same argument was heard a few decades ago about d?tente with the Soviet
Union.

But Mr Obama?s options remain open, as do those of European leaders. They
should listen carefully to the voices in Iran who want the country to join
the modern world.

Before visiting Israel I heard a prominent, Tehran-based academic put the
case well. The policy of isolating Iran, he said, played into the hands of
the regime by allowing it to demonise the US and its allies and forestall,
in the name of national security, the opening up of society.

Breaking into this vicious circle will not be easy. It will require from Mr
Obama a willingness to expend more political capital in explaining that
diplomacy is not a synonym for defeatism. Engagement may well fail to
persuade Iran to give up its quest for full mastery of the nuclear cycle ?
an ambition, incidentally, that the ayatollahs inherited from the Shah. It
might just persuade Tehran not to build a bomb. In any event, the
alternatives are all worse ? unless, of course, Mr Obama feels he should
take some foreign policy advice from Mr Netanyahu.




From e.c.apling at btinternet.com  Fri Jul  3 06:14:49 2009
From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:14:49 +0100
Subject: [Marxism] BBC4 In Our Time - Logical Positivism
Message-ID: <547102B810FF49138C1ACD674252373A@PaddyPC>

A very interesting presentation on In Our Time on BBC Radio4 yesterday (Melvyn Bragg's programme).

Details of the item, including links for downloading are available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml.

Greetings,
Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com

From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Fri Jul  3 06:31:40 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:31:40 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran --
	diplomatic	isolation being pressed
In-Reply-To: <445CFCFC62954E4CA4129BBC222DA681@MARV>
References: <64DD0D52087F47EFB3EF6554AD69EEC6@office1pc>
	<445CFCFC62954E4CA4129BBC222DA681@MARV>
Message-ID: <1246624300.8056.311.camel@john-desktop>

On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 08:09 -0400, Marv Gandall quotes the FT:
> The Financial Times comments on the current state of opinion in both
> Israel and the US in relation to the recent events in Iran, and
> suggests it's best summarized in the words of the [Israeli] diplomat
> quoted below: ?How do you bomb Neda??

Please . . .
They "bomb Neda" every day of the week, when they're not shooting her,
starving her, denying her essential medical treatment. It's easy to
"bomb Neda". You just stop seeing her as human, or pretend she doesn't
exist. There weren't pretty young Palestinian women in Gaza? There
weren't pretty young Iraqi women in Baghdad? There aren't pretty young
Afghani women in Helmand? "How do you bomb Neda?" means nothing. Hell,
in Yugoslavia, some of the pretty young women were even blonde. When the
imperialists want to bomb, they'll bomb, and Israel is well enough
practiced that it'll send in the war machine with no second thought
about "Bombing Neda".
Cheers,
John




From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 06:34:17 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:34:17 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Sovietology exercise
Message-ID: <4A4DFAC9.9000606@panix.com>

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2009/07/03/communism/
The un-American way of life
A controversial new history of Communism suggests that most everything 
we think we know about it is wrong

By Andrew O'Hehir

Jul. 03, 2009 |

Most adults now living were born during the Cold War, a 45-year standoff 
between competing political and economic systems that threatened 
civilization with nuclear annihilation and asked virtually every human 
being on earth to pick a side. One of those systems was called 
Communism, and it cast such a long, dark shadow across the 20th century 
that it's amazing to reflect how thoroughly it has vanished from the 
scene and how poorly its history is understood.

Genuine support for Communism -- meaning the Marxist-Leninist governing 
ideology of the Soviet Union and its allies, as distinct from various 
flavors of socialism or social democracy -- was minimal in the Western 
world, despite the United States government's best efforts to uncover 
it. But you didn't have to endorse Communism to be fascinated by it. 
Simply the existence of that alternate model, with its claim of 
scientific inevitability and its alleged utopian aims, had a bizarre, 
distorting effect on political discourse clear across the ideological 
spectrum.

Significant sectors of the left were paralyzed by Communism, unwilling 
or unable to criticize regimes (no matter how nightmarish and 
autocratic) that nominated themselves as the enemies of capitalism and 
imperialism and the champions of third-world revolution. Right-wingers 
became hysterically obsessed by it, finding a creeping Red stain in 
Hollywood movies, pop music and abstract art (and never realizing how 
much they were mirroring the paranoia of the Soviet commissars). Eager 
to prove they weren't closet pinkos, the mainstream liberals of the 
Kennedy and Johnson administrations launched a disastrous series of 
overt and covert anti-Communist proxy wars, whose echoes continue to 
reverberate today. (Osama bin Laden, after all, was a nasty little piece 
of Cold War blowback.)

Academics pumped out scholarly treatises on the theory and practice of 
Marxism-Leninism by the yard, and debated the Soviet system's merits and 
flaws feverishly. Now all those copies of "The Lenin Anthology" and 
Leszek Kolakowski's "Main Currents in Marxism" are moldering in the 
garages of former grad students, and our collective memory of the great 
20th-century struggle between capitalism and Communism is a series of 
clich?s and blurry newsreel images: Stalin and FDR guffawing as they 
carve up the postwar world, Kennedy and Khrushchev daring each other to 
push the button, Soviet tanks rumbling through the streets of Prague, 
Reagan instructing Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall!"

Archie Brown's whopping study, "The Rise and Fall of Communism," which 
is modest in tone but comprehensive in scholarship, marks an important 
effort to dig past those iconic stereotypes and painful memories and 
figure out what the hell was going on in that 75-year-long failed 
experiment called Communism. This is still an exceptionally difficult 
subject for Americans to confront with any clarity, I think. Our 
political life remains haunted in peculiar ways by the specter of 
Communism, which has become (to mix metaphors) an all-purpose 
ideological cudgel to use against one's enemies.

In some quarters, President Obama is denounced as a Leninist for 
suggesting tepid social-democratic reforms to the healthcare system 
(which come nowhere near the government-administered programs of Canada 
or Western Europe). To other critics, Obama is merely a spineless 
replica of a Cold War liberal, unable or unwilling to stand tall against 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei the way Reagan did against 
the Soviet Union. Or, that is, the way he did in their mythical version 
of the story.

As Brown sees it, Reagan definitely played a role in the dissolution of 
Communism, but not the role most Americans think. Brown describes 
Reagan's confrontational first-term cowboy act, and his "evil empire" 
rhetoric, as almost entirely destructive, heightening tensions and 
strengthening the resolve of Kremlin hard-liners. It was in Reagan's 
second term, under the guidance of his pragmatic secretary of state, 
George Shultz, that he strolled amicably through Red Square with Mikhail 
Gorbachev, and negotiated a series of arms-control agreements that ended 
the threat of nuclear war in Europe.

One might summarize the central argument of Brown's sweeping tome this 
way: Communism meant different things to different people in different 
contexts, but the very things that made it successful, at least for a 
while, also paved the way for its destruction. A professor emeritus at 
Oxford and perhaps Britain's most prestigious Sovietologist, Brown has 
crafted a readable and judicious account of Communist history, from its 
theoretical beginnings in 19th-century Europe to its practical collapse 
at the end of the 1980s, that is both controversial and commonsensical.

Having served as an informal advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 
during a crucial period in the early 1980s, Brown has anti-Communist 
bona fides, and does not pretend to be a neutral observer. But given the 
immense sweep of time, ideology and geography he strives to cover in 
600-odd pages -- as Brown observes, almost every one of his chapters 
could be a book on its own -- "The Rise and Fall of Communism" is a work 
of considerable delicacy and nuance.

Brown draws an important distinction between upper-case "Communism," to 
describe states governed by Marxist-Leninist political parties, and 
lower-case "communism," to describe the classless future utopia imagined 
by Marx, which no such state ever claimed to have reached. Furthermore, 
although those countries typically called themselves "socialist," Brown 
avoids the term. For one thing, Lenin and his followers were trying to 
steal the word away from the Western social-democratic tradition, which 
has produced elected leaders in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, 
Australia and elsewhere. There is an evolutionary relationship between 
Western socialism and Soviet Communism, to be sure, but their bitter 
split predates the Russian Revolution, and many of Communism's sharpest 
critics have been socialists. It is no more meaningful to say that 
Stalin and George Orwell were both socialists than to observe that 
Martin Luther King Jr. and George Wallace were both Christians.

There is none of the jingoistic cheerleading in Brown's book that you'd 
get from an American neocon. He firmly believes that constructive 
engagement with the Communist world was morally and strategically 
superior to tough talk and saber-rattling. In fact, between the lines 
you can read an account of his influence: In 1983 Brown delivered a 
paper at Chequers, the prime minister's private retreat, that convinced 
Thatcher to talk directly to the Soviet leadership. In turn, she 
convinced her good friend Reagan to follow suit. Brown does not see all 
Communist regimes as identical or uniformly totalitarian -- the 
notorious police state of East Germany was vastly different from the 
relative tolerance and openness of Communist Hungary -- and believes 
they contained the possibility for genuine reform. Indeed, he points out 
that Gorbachev did reform Communism from within, before deciding to 
abandon it entirely.

As many anecdotes Brown lifts from recently opened Communist archives 
reveal, leading officials in the Soviet bloc were keenly concerned with 
events and perceptions in the outside world. To most ordinary people in 
the West -- and to many of our politicians, who ought to have known 
better -- the Soviet bloc looked like an implacable monolith in which a 
mysterious elite ruled over the terrorized and/or brainwashed masses. 
Men inside the Kremlin and other centers of Communist power, on the 
other hand, knew that their own populations were increasingly restive 
and saw the wealth and might of the "bourgeois democracies" arrayed 
against them. They understood that their hold on the reins of power was 
tenuous and contingent.

Brown focuses tightly on a series of factual historical questions as he 
hopscotches from the Soviet Union and its satellite states through Mao 
Zedong's China, Fidel Castro's Cuba, Pol Pot's Cambodia and other 
epiphenomena of international Communism. He pays some attention to 
significant non-ruling Communist parties -- especially the big ones in 
Italy, Spain and South Africa -- but his principal concern is the 16 
nations that at one time or another were ruled by a Marxist-Leninist 
party recognized as such by the Soviet Union.

His central questions are these: How and why did Communists come to 
power in so many different places? How did their authoritarian and 
manifestly unpopular regimes hold onto power for so long? And why did 
most of them collapse so abruptly? He also addresses, at the end of the 
book, what might be called the question of Communist hangover: How have 
self-described Communist regimes endured in Cuba, North Korea and (at 
least nominally) China, long after the collapse of the international 
movement that once sustained them?

For Brown, a Communist system had three pairs of identifying 
characteristics, all of which have their origins in Lenin's ideology and 
philosophy. In the political realm, a monopoly of power was held by one 
party, with most of the power concentrated at the top, and that party 
operated through the process Lenin called "democratic centralism." That 
was supposed to mean that open discussion could precede decision-making, 
which was then administered with unanimity and iron discipline. It 
usually meant, of course, that decisions were handed down from a 
dictator or a small circle of oligarchs, and were neither discussed nor 
questioned. In the economic realm, the state controlled the means of 
production, and a command economy, rather than a market economy, 
predominated. In the ideological realm, the declared aim of building 
communism -- for Marx, the classless, stateless final stage of human 
development -- was the state's "ultimate, legitimizing goal," and the 
state belonged to an international Communist movement aimed at moving 
the whole world toward that future society.

Communism remained a politically effective force as long as these three 
pillars worked to support each other. While the command economy was 
notoriously bad at delivering consumer goods and the one-party state 
offered little room for civil rights or liberties, they did deliver 
improved healthcare and education and widespread social mobility, along 
with rapid industrial progress. As long as at least some people in a 
society truly believed that they were part of a historic and inevitable 
shift away from capitalism toward something better, the hardships seemed 
to be worth it. Brown suggests that many people in Communist societies, 
including their leaders, did believe that until at least the 1960s.

Yet as people in such societies became healthier and better educated, 
they began to wonder about the massive social costs that "socialist 
progress" required in the best of times, not to mention the famine, 
starvation and murder it occasioned at others. They wondered about the 
police state the ruling party always seemed to require to maintain 
order, about the fantastical future that seemed to be getting no closer 
and about the non-Communist world, where higher living standards and 
greater political and personal freedom seemed to go hand in hand.

According to Brown, Nikita Khrushchev -- probably the last Soviet leader 
who believed in the future promise of small-C communism -- used to tell 
a joke in which a party apparatchik delivers a talk at a collective farm 
deep in the Russian countryside. "Comrades, some of you may doubt that 
we will ever live under communism," he intones, "but I tell you it lies 
just beyond the horizon!" An aged peasant sticks up his hand and says, 
"Comrade Lecturer, what is the horizon?" The lecturer says, "I am glad 
you asked that, Venerable Comrade. The horizon is the imaginary line 
where the land meets the sky, which has the unique property of always 
moving further away as you approach it." The aged peasant replies, 
"Thank you, Comrade Lecturer. Now I understand completely."

Brown has read virtually every available scholarly work published about 
the Communist era in either English or Russian, and has studied the 
now-declassified Soviet archives extensively. Arguably he offers nothing 
startling or new on such well-rehearsed topics as the October 
Revolution, the brilliant and ruthless figures of Lenin and Trotsky, and 
the Stalinist reign of terror that followed. But his arguments are 
balanced and clear. One doesn't have to excuse the brutality and 
bloodshed of Lenin's revolutionary regime, for instance, to grasp that 
he would have been horrified by Stalin's paranoid and murderous 
expansion of it.

When Brown turns to the long endgame of the Communist era, from 
Khrushchev's 1956 revelations about Stalin to the long, slow percolation 
of dissent under Brezhnev and the sudden explosion of perestroika, his 
account is frequently mesmerizing and leavened with colorful anecdotes. 
He offers considerable new insight into what leading figures within the 
Communist bloc were saying and thinking at such critical junctures as 
the Cuban missile crisis, the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Solidarity 
uprising in Poland during the early '80s. In all three of those cases, 
the Soviet leadership tried to walk a fine line invisible to outsiders. 
They could feel their empire slipping away and sought to preserve it, 
while also trying to stave off an intra-Kremlin coup by Stalinist 
hard-liners.

Brown does not believe that Soviet Communism was fated to die because of 
its economic failures or its autocratic character, nor does he think it 
was brought down by the arms race or Reagan's muscular rhetoric. If 
anything, he is a charmingly old-fashioned historian who sees the slow 
process of social change embodied in individual personalities. He 
suggests that if either Yuri Andropov or Konstantin Chernenko -- 
Gorbachev's short-lived predecessors -- had survived a few more years, 
or if the ruling Politburo had elected any other member as general 
secretary after Chernenko's death in March 1985, recent history might 
look very different. Furthermore, if the Politburo members had 
understood Gorbachev's thinking a little better, they would certainly 
not have chosen him.

Gorbachev's life experience and philosophy, Brown argues, gave him a 
mental flexibility and imagination that were unique among leading 
Communists. He began as leader with the genuine aim of reforming the 
one-party state, largely by relaxing censorship and encouraging open 
dialogue. Some of his fellow Communists were ready for this, but few 
were prepared for Gorbachev's rapid evolution into a social democrat. By 
1989 he had decided that it was too late to save Communist rule, and 
abruptly announced that the party would abandon its "leading role" in 
society and hold free elections.

This launched a process Gorbachev could no longer control, which 
included an explosion of nationalist feeling in Russia and the other 
Soviet republics and the unexpected emergence of a one-time Moscow 
Communist boss named Boris Yeltsin. In this exciting, pell-mell 
experiment in democracy -- Brown says 100 million Soviet citizens 
watched the early legislative sessions on TV -- Gorbachev hoped to 
preserve the Soviet state, or most of it, while fundamentally changing 
its character. After the failed putsch by hard-line Communists late in 
1991, that was no longer possible. But Brown is always cautious about 
hindsight, and says only that the question of whether the Soviet breakup 
could have been avoided is "unanswered and unanswerable."

Brown is a big believer in the idea that history is not carved in stone. 
If Czechoslovakia had been allowed to become a social-democratic state 
in 1968, as both its citizens and its Communist leaders wanted, the Cold 
War might have ended 20 years earlier than it did. On the other hand, if 
Gorbachev had been ousted by the Politburo in early 1989 and Soviet 
tanks sent into Poland (as urged by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu) 
then the Communist states might not have toppled one after another. As 
Brown explains it, the now-legendary opening of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 
9, 1989, was an accident rather than a policy decision, the result of a 
careless remark made to Tom Brokaw by a spokesman for the East German 
Politburo.

One thing was not a historical fluke or accident, though: the fact that 
a political system based on some half-baked utopian musing by Marx and 
Engels, and their bogus claims of scientific certainty, was not going to 
work out well for anybody. There's room for argument about whether it 
had to turn out quite as badly as it did, and plenty of room for 
discussing the continuing validity of Marx's insights into capitalism. 
But there's no denying that the works of a philosopher who championed 
human creativity became the basis for a social system devoted to 
crushing it. It's the platonic ideal of historical irony, to which other 
historical ironies can only aspire, and suggests some very dark 
possibilities about human nature.

In much of the world, the term "socialism" has been poisoned by its 
association with Soviet-style Communism; in the United States, it is 
virtually a term of hate speech. But as Brown (who is certainly no 
socialist) makes clear, it was socialists who saw the dangers of 
Communism first and most clearly. In 1918, at the dawn of the Soviet 
era, Karl Kautsky, who had personally known Marx and Engels in his 
youth, wrote a diatribe against Lenin's use of the vague Marxist term 
"dictatorship of the proletariat."

Kautsky insisted it had been meant metaphorically, and that genuine 
class struggle presupposed genuine democracy. The so-called dictatorship 
of the proletariat "always leads to the dictatorship of a single man, or 
of a small knot of leaders" and to a situation where ordinary people 
"only become instruments for carrying out orders."

Although Lenin was trying to defend the Soviet Union against very real 
enemies within and without, he took time out to bang out an angry 
broadside against "the despicable renegade Kautsky," which suggests how 
much the criticism stung. (With characteristic directness, he described 
his newborn state as "a machine for the suppression of the 
bourgeoisie.") Lenin was too intelligent not to understand that there 
were real dangers in conflating the dictatorship of the proletariat with 
the dictatorship of those who claimed to know what was best for the 
proletariat, but he had long since convinced himself that the imaginary 
ends justified the brutal means. Seventy years later, the last leader of 
Lenin's party and Lenin's state would decide that Kautsky had been right 
all along.



From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 07:32:48 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:32:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Roger Burbach on Honduras
Message-ID: <4A4E0880.3040805@panix.com>

Honduran Coup Tries to Halt Advance of Latin American Left

New America Media

By Roger Burbach

The coup against Manuel Zelaya of Honduras represents a last ditch 
effort by Honduras? entrenched economic and political interests to stave 
off the advance of the new left governments that have taken hold in 
Latin America over the past decade. As Zelaya proclaimed after being 
forcibly dumped in Costa Rica: ?This is a vicious plot planned by 
elites. The elites only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme 
poverty.?

Zelaya should know, since his roots are in the country?s large, 
land-owning class, having devoted most of his life to agriculture and 
forestry enterprises that he inherited. He ran for president as the head 
of the center-right Liberal Party on a fairly conservative platform, 
promising to be tough on crime and to cut the budget. Inaugurated in 
January, 2006, he supported the US-backed Central American Free Trade 
Agreement, which been signed two years earlier, and continued the 
economic policies of neo-liberalism, privatizing state held enterprises.

But about half way into his four year term, the winds of change blowing 
from the south caught his imagination, particularly those coming from 
Hugo Chavez?s Venezuela, the largest regional power fronting on the 
Caribbean. With no petroleum resources, Honduras signed a generous oil 
subsidy deal with Venezuela, and then last year joined the emergent 
regional trade bloc, ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. 
Inspired by Venezuela it now has Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominica and 
Ecuador as members. Simultaneously, Zelaya implemented domestic reform 
policies, significantly increasing the minimum wage of workers and 
teachers? salaries, while stepping up spending in health care and 
education.

The upshot is that a reform-minded president supported by labor unions 
and social organizations is now pitted against a mafia-like, 
drug-ridden, corrupt political elite that is accustomed to controlling 
the Supreme Court, as well as congress and the presidency. It is a story 
often repeated elsewhere in Latin America, with the United States almost 
always weighing in on the side of the established, entrenched interests.

The Honduran elites were outraged that a member of their class would 
carry out even modest reforms. They began to portray Zelaya as a 
demagogue, and demonized Hugo Chavez as trying to take over the country. 
When Zelaya announced that he would hold a plebiscite on June 28 to see 
if the country wanted to have the option in the upcoming November 
presidential elections to vote for the convening of a constituent 
assembly that would draft a new constitution, the political 
establishment would have none of it. They incorrectly claimed that 
Zelaya was trying to stand for re-election. In fact the possibility that 
a president might serve a second term could only emerge in a new 
constitution that would not be drafted until well after Zelaya left 
office in January, 2010. The elites did however have reason to fear a 
new magna carta, since this is the path that Chavez in Venezuela, Evo 
Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador have used to draft new 
constitutions to begin transforming their countries political, social 
and economic structures.

The political establishment decided to nip this process in the bud by 
quashing the plebiscite scheduled for Sunday, June 28. The Supreme Court 
declared it unconstitutional and the military refused to help distribute 
the ballots. Then Zelaya fired the head of the army, General Romeo 
Vasquez, and led workers and social movement activists to seize ballots 
stored at an air force base for distribution. On Sunday at 6AM, the day 
of the plebiscite, the military sent a special army unit to seize Zelaya 
in his pajamas and to deport him to Costa Rica. The next day the Supreme 
Court levied charges of treason against Zelaya, and the Congress 
elevated its president, Roberto Micheletti to be the interim president 
of the country.

The rest of the Americas, and most of the world, reacted with outrage 
against the coup. The Organization of the Americas convened an emergency 
session and voted unanimously to call upon the coup makers to restore 
Zelaya to power. Regional organizations like the Group of Rio also 
denounced the coup, while the European Economic Union and the World Bank 
announced that they were suspending economic assistance to Honduras. 
Even the governments of Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Felipe Calderon of 
Mexico felt compelled to denounce the coup.

What explains this virtually unanimous opposition to the coup? Most of 
Latin America still remembers the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when 
three-quarters of the continent?s population fell under military rule. 
Countries like Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil still bear the scars 
and traumas of this period, and do not want to contemplate any opening 
that would allow their militaries to begin interfering once again in the 
political sphere.

The United States is also opposed to the coup, with President Obama 
denouncing it, saying it set a ?terrible precedent? and that ?We do not 
want to go back to a dark past? in which coups often trumped elections. 
He added: ?We always want to stand with democracy.?

Many observers are suspicious of how solid the US stand against the coup 
is.  Obama given his emphasis on multilateralism, may have had little 
choice, knowing that his predecessor George W. Bush had roiled Latin 
America when he rushed to endorse the last coup attempt in the region 
against Hugo Chavez in October, 2002.

The State Department has taken a more tepid stance. When Secretary of 
State Hillary Clinton was asked if ?restoring the constitutional order? 
in Honduras meant restoring Zelaya, she would not say yes. The New York 
Times reports that she did not take to the Honduran president when she 
met him on June 2 at the meeting of the OAS in Tegucigalpa. Zelaya 
annoyed her by asking her to a private room late at night to have her 
meet and shake hands with his extended family. In a more formal meeting 
Zelaya brought up his plans for the referendum on June 28 with US 
officials taking the position that it was unconstitutional and would 
inflame the political situation.

Washington also has a very close relationship with the Honduran 
military, which goes back decades. During the 1980s the US used bases in 
Honduras to train and arm the Contras, Nicaraguan paramilitaries who 
became known for their atrocities in their war against the Sandinista 
government in neighboring Nicaragua. John Negroponte who became the czar 
of intelligence during the Bush administration after serving as US 
ambassador to Iraq, first achieved notoriety when he served as US 
ambassador to Honduras in the early 1980s and granted US approval to 
death squads run by a special Honduran military unit against domestic 
opponents.

On Wednesday, the OAS meeting in Washington called for the restoration 
of Zelaya to office by Saturday, July 4. The head of the OAS, Jose 
Miguel Insulza of Chile, along with the president of the UN General 
Assembly Miguel d?Escota of Nicaragua, and Presidents Cristina Fernandez 
de Kirchner and Rafael Correa of Argentina and Ecuador respectively have 
said they will accompany Zelaya on his return.

But it is doubtful if he will be allowed to return by the coup leaders. 
For Micheletti and Vasquez, the Rubicon has been crossed and they cannot 
abandon power without suffering consequences. Any aircraft trying to 
descend with this list of dignitaries would require air-landing 
clearance by Honduran authorities and this would likely be denied. The 
key may well be whether the Obama administration is willing to bring 
inordinate pressure to bear on its historic allies or use its military 
air power to impose the deadline for Zelaya?s return. And if the 
external pressure gets Zelaya back in office, will he be allowed to get 
the vote for a constituent assembly that the country so badly needs to 
become a progressive society?

Roger Burbach is author of ?The Pinochet Affair? and Director of the 
Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, California.


From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 07:33:47 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:33:47 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Malalai Joya Australia tour
Message-ID: <4A4E08BB.8030109@panix.com>


Malalai Joya is currently on tour in Australia, launching her memoir, 
Raising My Voice: The extraordinary story of the Afghan woman who dares 
to speak out (Pan MacMillan). The UK edition is out later this month and 
the North American version is due to be published in October. It has 
also just come out in Germany. (I've worked with Malalai on the writing 
of this book for the past year and a half). We are planning to organize 
an extensive North American book tour in late October/November.

It's my hope, and I know it's Malalai's as well, that this book can have 
a real impact on the debate around the war in Afghanistan in all of the 
occupying forces' countries in particular. In addition to telling her 
inspiring personal life story, the book spells out her opposition to the 
NATO occupation and to the whole history of foreign interference and 
fundamentalism in her country. As she explains in the introduction:

"I hope that the lessons of this book will reach President Obama and his 
policymakers in Washington, and warn them that the people of Afghanistan 
reject their brutal occupation and their support of the warlords and 
drug-lords."

I've heard that the first couple of events in Australia have been well 
attended -- hope that we can have some reports over this list -- and 
there seems to be some fairly sympathetic coverage in the mainstream 
press. Here are a couple of articles:

Sydney Morning Herald: 'Dust in the eyes of the world'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/books/dust-in-the-eyes-of-the-world/2009/07/01/1246127571560.html

ABC News: 'Countries wasting money and blood in Afghanistan'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/03/2616020.htm


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Fri Jul  3 08:15:11 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 10:15:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad><8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC><96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad><5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>
	<37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>

Thanks to Shane for the information.

Well, the discussion has certainly taken a twist, no?  From the attempt to 
come to grips about what really was different about  WW2, to speculations 
about...speculations.

Graham--, I expect you to disagree, but I expect you to disagree on the 
terms you utilized to open this discussion-- and that means-- "property 
relations."

So if you want to claim that it was the qualitative difference of WW2 vs WW1 
that provided the impetus to a international anti-colonial national 
liberation struggle-- you need to do that with an analysis of property 
relations before, during, and after WW2, and exactly what the changes in 
property relation meant, and mean, in the former colonies, and how WW2 
represented, triggered, fed that conflict between means and relations of 
production in the then/now former colonies.

The history of the 20th century contains numerous examples of revolutions 
that restructure, reconfigure, and radically so, capitalist property 
relations without overthrowing capitalism-- Mexico's revolutionary struggles 
1910-1920 being the case that leaps to mind.

Much needs to be sorted out in this discussion of WW2, but dividing the 
camps into "progressive" or "humane," vs. regressive, inhumane  doesn't do 
the trick.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G K Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 12:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two




From tcod at hotmail.com  Fri Jul  3 08:23:58 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 14:23:58 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <6B9991B329AA4B609F650AADF7DEA7B2@GrahamPC>
References: <2E381D4C4EED4D50ABC684946A078AB9@gx270><DA7515BBA4594BA593BDD12F29CD4D81@GrahamPC>
	<BAY123-W34C48DCF82220B6A8C8F89D32C0@phx.gbl> 
	<6B9991B329AA4B609F650AADF7DEA7B2@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W273C019E368DF7DABC4F65D32C0@phx.gbl>


the idea that Japan was going to invade Australia is preposterous.

> From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au
> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 15:51:33 +0800
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
> To: tcod at hotmail.com
> 
> 
> Your one-liner doesn't contribute anything to historical understanding, or 
> much else, as I see it.
> 


_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From markalause at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 08:24:35 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 10:24:35 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Statement by Cynthia McKinney
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907030724m73d5f379q9f527276f73b5eee@mail.gmail.com>

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Mark
To: Flyby News Alert
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 10:20 AM
Subject: [ohioleft] McKinney-Interview & H1N1 Law Suit

Flyby News
Editor - Jonathan Mark
03 July 2009 - Alert

Notes: Following is from Cynthia McKinney calling from Israeli prison,
and more connections of H1N1 coming from a lab and bad medicine.
Updated Links @  Flyby News

CRITICAL BREAKING NEWS

Cynthia McKinney Reportedly
Taken Captive By Israeli Navy
02 July 2009 - Audio - YouTube
Telephone interview from Israeli prison

Statement by Cynthia McKinney:

"We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid
to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and
illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded
and confiscated the ship.

All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody, and
brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in Israel
said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned. State
Department and White House officials have not effected our release or
taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the
Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the
Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President
Obama."

http://911truth.org/article.php?story=20090630161315845


From intnsred at golgotha.net  Fri Jul  3 08:53:54 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 10:53:54 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
Message-ID: <200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > I am not sure how to respond to Shane's assertion that the American
 > government baited the Japanese with the Pacific fleet at Pearl
 > Harbor but knowingly had the carriers on manuvers the day of the attack.

   And, I might add, that after warning the Pacific Fleet to be on alert, 
Washington ordered Kimmel's other (non-carrier) ships back into port rather 
than allow Kimmel to have them guard the NW approaches to Hawaii.

 > That line of argument is the work of conspiracy theory and not history
 > unless he is privy to something that has alluded the decades of
 > scholarship on Dec. 7th.

   At this point, isn't the matter settled on WWII and Pearl Harbor? Hasn't 
the ruling class defined this as the "good war" and finished with the story?

   There are, IMHO, some pieces of evidence that support revisiting the issue. 
2 pieces of hard evidence:

(1) As documented in his book "Day of Deceit", author Robert Stinnett 
uncovered a previously unknown October 1940 Naval Intelligence strategy memo 
from a mid-level Navy officer who was high enough in the Navy bureaucracy to 
be addressing key admirals linked to FDR. The memo focused on provoking Japan 
into attacking and listed out 8 actions the US would have to take to provoke 
Japan. The US then carried out those 8 steps.

(2) The US has always maintained it was completely surprised by the Japanese 
attack on Pearl Harbor and had no idea the fleet was approaching Hawaii. But 
at that time the US did routinely keep track of all Japanese fleets by radio 
intercepts and had that process down to a fine science. Stinnett uncovered a 
radio intercept from Alaska that ID'd the Japanese attack fleet heading 
towards Hawaii. A storm had scattered the Japanese ships and the Japanese 
broke radio silence to regroup their task force.

   Those are two previously unknown important pieces of evidence. Stinnett 
makes many other points based on circumstantial evidence and/or conjecture. 
But the argument he creates cannot, IMHO, be dismissed out of hand.


-- 
"In California in 2004, there were 360 people serving life sentences for 
shoplifting." -- Journalists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 09:17:51 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 11:17:51 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Amnesty: Israel Used Children as Human Shields in Gaza
In-Reply-To: <c94.491fece0.377f6caa@aol.com>
References: <c94.491fece0.377f6caa@aol.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907030817k11bdd4cah5fa78c69b2621e6@mail.gmail.com>

>
> http://www.alternet.org/world/141078/
>
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>
>

From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Fri Jul  3 09:23:55 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:23:55 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] NYT columnist Roger Cohen joins "regime change or bust"
	camp
Message-ID: <9696997BB32248EA8CF0C3BE36D15A86@office1pc>

This column by Roger Cohen is important because he is someone who quite
recently had quite sane views about engagement with Iran (until he found out
-- what an arrogant American jerk, frankly -- that his favored candidate
would not become the president. Now it's no holds barred and devil take the
hindmost. 

I am truly amazed -- even somewhat awed -- at how many liberals have
responded to the fact that Ahmadinejad is still president in the spirit of
"this means war!"`

Let me cite another example, partly because for me it is down-home. In the
Newark Star Ledger today (July 3) I find an editorial page column by Trudy
Rubin, editorial board member of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a liberal
newspaper today (when I was a bairn it was nothing of the kind). The
headline declares "Iran's behavior is making 'engagement' impossible."

She writes: "In fact, the engagement policy must of necessity be put in the
deep freeze [i.e., absolutely excluded from the situation with the tactic of
pure boycott dominating--FF]. The events in Iran have left the
administration with no other choice." 

There are a few modest demurs from this conventional liberal wisdom. Robert
Dreyfuss in the Nation continues to press for serious negotiations with
Iran, starting, of course, from the interests of the United States as the
only true and moral standard. He thinks the current Iranian regime is a
product of a mass fascist movement.

The New York Times also favors engagement editorially (today), but in the
spirit that opposes any engagement that does not "help" the opposition. If
the central purpose of the "engagement" is "regime change", why should the
regime which is to be overthrown engage in it? Sounds unpromising.

The goal of "regime change" in Iran points toward war with Iran, pure and
simple. Since the Iranian people failed to liberate themselves, the mighty
US -- the liberator of all humanity -- must in someway or another do the
job. The whole issue of "regime change" as a legitimate goal of US foreign
policy is about aggression and exploitation and nothing else, whatever.

Finally, I want to reaffirm my view that the US imperialists (as opposed to
the middle class liberals, who dream of being secretaries of state, like
Cole and Dreyfuss) had no horse in this race. Neither camp in this election
was a US puppet. Neither camp campaigned for US goals, except in passing and
without much thought. Both were thoroughly bourgeois. It was the, frankly,
inevitable repression and such that they looked forward to, not the election
of a supposed "puppet regme" composed of trained agents.. 

As some liberals and right-wingers stressed, the election of the opposition
would not have resolved a single question really in dispute between Iranian
capitalism and US imperialism.

The current fad of "everything for the opposition, nothing for the
government" is simply a reflection of how deep the irreconcilability between
US imperialism and a relatively independent Iran really runs.
Fred Feldman





July 2, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Let the Usurpers Writhe 
By ROGER COHEN
TEHRAN ? Think of normalized relations with the United States as the big
prize. Who gets to deliver it? One thing is certain: Iran?s ruthless
usurpers are determined to ensure reformists are never in a position to
claim the breakthrough.

That at least is the view of Mohsen Mahmoudi, a 34-year-old conservative
cleric I ran into at a post-electoral rally for President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and got to know over the ensuing week.

Rightist yet drawn to America, a card-carrying Basij militiaman from the
University of Qom, a prayer leader at an Islamic cultural center in north
Tehran, Mahmoudi backs the regime?s brutal clampdown but concedes there will
be a cost.

?This is going to cause a huge gulf between generations,? he told me. ?I was
talking to a young woman who was a good friend of mine before the vote and
she said she doesn?t respect me any more. She?s so angry she?s ready to
die.?

Mahmoudi looked surprised. I?m not. Sentiment has shifted radically in Iran
as multiple security forces deploy in defense of a lie. For Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, the supreme leader, the question of how to win back support will
in time arise. Enter America, the target of Great-Satanism but dear to most
Iranians.

?Relations with the United States are the big taboo, and whoever breaks the
taboo will be a hero,? Mahmoudi said. ?The real fight is over whether the
right or the left should rebuild ties.?

Referring to the opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, and the former
reformist President Mohammad Khatami, the cleric explained: ?We would never
allow Moussavi or Khatami to restore relations, because they would then have
heroic status.?

Two weeks after Iran?s ballot-box putsch, mysteries still envelop it. Why
have a pre-electoral freedom-fest, bring hundreds of journalists to Tehran
to witness it, then put on a horror show, throwing them into jail or out of
the country? Everything I saw ? the sheer brazen clumsiness of the vote
theft and its hysterical, club-wielding aftermath ? suggest a last-minute
decision.

I think there were two determining factors ? one internal and the other
external ? behind this violent gamble, this historic error.

Nobody predicted the Moussavi surge in the last two weeks of the campaign.
Even in mid-May, he was dead in the water. Then his why-spurn-the-world
message connected, delivering millions of young Iranians from apathy to
activism, and sparking the green wave that had ?Velvet Revolution? alarms
flashing in every Ahmadinejad acolyte?s zealous little mind.

You can hear the militia and Revolutionary Guard commanders conspiring: ?We
let this Moussavi guy win, or we go to a run-off, and this thing could get
away from us.? For ?this thing? read, our revolution and our ideology and
our piles of cash (not necessarily in that order.)

The external factor was subtler. President Obama had unsettled the regime
with his outreach. Questions from within assailed Khamenei: Is Great
Satanism so integral to the revolution that you won?t talk to Barack Hussein
Obama ? black man of part Muslim heritage ? even as the economy nosedives
and the Middle East map shifts?

Then the regime sees Moussavi looming and the danger of a rapprochement with
the United States over which it loses control: the nightmare scenario.

The guardian of the revolution panics. Operation Jackboot goes into effect
on the night of June 12, decreed in the name of a co-opted God, despised and
derided by a clear majority of Iranians. As repression (once selective and
now general) spreads, so does popular rage.

I asked Mahmoudi, a big and garrulous man who sat in the front row at
Khamenei?s ferocious June 19 sermon, about the election hailed as ?a
miracle? by the leader.

?Moussavi was supported by people who have lost faith,? he said. ?We believe
legitimacy comes from God. They believe legitimacy comes from the people,
from votes. As long as it was a fraternal fight, it was O.K., but when it?s
a fight about religious belief, the situation becomes unacceptable.?

The facts don?t support this view. Moussavi has redoubled his expressions of
devotion to Islam; Allahu Akbar is the cry of his followers. No, the issue
is simpler: Iranians, Moussavi among them, believe votes must be counted in
the uneasy hybrid of a country called the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei may be transplanted from heaven, as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was
before him, but this transplant embedded in the Constitution has a price:
The people don?t get to reverse the transplant but have some marginal,
quadrennial say about its nature. At least they believed that until June 12.
Now they don?t, which is why the regime may have stuck a dagger in its own
heart.

So, I asked Mahmoudi, if legitimacy comes from God, why hold an election?
?To get a level of acceptance,? he said. ?The legitimacy of the election
comes from the supreme leader?s approval, but the level of acceptance comes
from votes.?

That Talmudic clarification is helpful. Demonstrations may have disappeared
from Tehran?s streets of shame, but Iranian acceptance is at an all-time
low. The government is now illegitimate. Power has been usurped. The
equation has changed.

I think Mahmoudi?s right. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad may begin to unclench
their fist, as isolation and sullen defiance grow, in a bid to deliver what
they would not allow the reformists to initiate: d?tente with America. 

Obama must leave them dangling for the foreseeable future. He should refrain
indefinitely from talk of engagement.

To do otherwise would be to betray millions of Iranians who have been
defrauded and have risked their lives to have their votes count. To do
otherwise would be to allow Khamenei to gloat that, in the end, what the
United States respects is force. To do otherwise would be to embrace the
usurpers. 

The slow arc of moral justice is fine but Iran is gripped by the fierce
urgency of now. Obama, the realist on whom idealism is projected, is obliged
to make a course correction.

I say all this with a heavy heart. Non-communication between America and
Iran is bad for both countries and the world. It complicates and undermines
every U.S. objective from Gaza to Afghanistan. It?s dangerous and it?s
unnecessary.

I?ve argued strongly for engagement with Iran as a game-changer. America
renewed relations with the Soviet Union at the time of the Great Terror and
China at the time of the Cultural Revolution. Operation Jackboot has not, as
yet at least, involved mass killings.

But the Iran of today is not the Iran of three weeks ago; it is in volatile
flux from without and within. Its Robespierres are running amok. Obama must
do nothing to suggest business as usual. Let Ahmadinejad, he of the bipolar
mood swings, fret and sweat. Let him writhe in the turbid puddle of his
self-proclaimed ?justice? and ?ethics.?

Mahmoudi told me that when he went to study in Qom, he had no idea what
Iran?s nuclear program was. But there were regular classes on it. Scientists
were brought in to enlighten the clerics. They were sensitized. The aim was
that ?We go back to towns and villages and talk in the mosques about the
people?s nuclear rights.?

?It?s because Ahmadinejad stood for this that he became a hero to many,?
Mahmoudi said. ?He equated it with the nationalization of our oil industry
and made it the core symbol of our independence and pride.?

But Ahmadinejad made many enemies along his mystical-militaristic way, not
least Ali Larijani, the finger-to-the-wind speaker of the Majlis, or
Parliament, and a potential compromise replacement. Larijani is not alone in
realizing that the president has become the most divisive politician in the
revolution?s 30-year history.

The price of Obama?s engagement may just have become Ahmadinejad?s
departure. I think it has. His defenestration is not impossible; it would be
forced from within where disaffected clerics and moderates abound; and it
would restore an Islamic Republic, recognized by Obama, where both words of
that self-description mean something, a land of God and people.





From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com  Fri Jul  3 09:32:54 2009
From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 08:32:54 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Jeong Seong-jin (ISJ): Karl Marx in Beijing [contra
	Arrighi]
Message-ID: <843680.21950.qm@web45015.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>


http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=563&issue=123

Jeong Seong-jin
Reviewing: Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing (Verso, 2007), ?14.99
________________________________

Translation by Owen Miller

(The [above] review was written by Jeong Seong-jin, professor of economics at Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. Professor Jeong is the author of a number of books in Korean, including Marx and the Korean Economy and Marx and Trotsky. He is also co-editor of the English-language volume Marxist Perspectives on South Korea in the Global Economy (Ashgate, 2007), editor of the bilingual journal Marxism21 and translator (into Korean) of An Anticapitalist Manifesto and The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx by Alex Callinicos.

In South Korea the writings of Giovanni Arrighi have become popular among a section of the intellectual left who have wholeheartedly adopted his reworking of Marxism and welcomed his positive appraisal of a possible China-centred future. Jeong?s polemical attack on Arrighi?s concept of a ?non-capitalist market society? should therefore also be understood in the context of South Korean left politics.)
________________________________

excerpt:

'If we want to hold China up as a possible alternative in the 21st century that can not be in the sense of a ?non-capitalist? system that other countries can model themselves on. Rather it should be as a country akin to Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: the ?weakest link? of the global capitalist system where the contradictions of uneven and combined development reach their highest level of intensity and compression?in other words, as the country where a workers? revolution against capitalism is most likely to erupt.'
________________________________

http://clarkmax.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zy4_zv9SHc

'The presentation of something 
called "dialectical materialism" 
as Marx's "philosophic system" 
is one of the great hoaxes in history, 
probably invented by Plekhanov.' 
--Hal Draper, Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution Vol. 4: Critique of Other Socialisms


      



From sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com  Fri Jul  3 10:18:42 2009
From: sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com (sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:18:42 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
Message-ID: <20090703161842.3C4FFB8040@smtp.hushmail.com>

I'm lovin' all this WWII trivia although I am not sure what point 
it serves. 
Shane is right that the intel from Sorge in Tokyo was not decisive 
as
much as any number of accounts try to give him the credit for the
 Soviet Victory at the gates of Moscow. Even if the Japanese had 
been 
preparing a full blown invasion of Siberia, STAVKA would have 
shifted troops
from the Far East because they were the last reserves they had and 
the 
situation was that desperate. Zhukov's counter-attack began 
on Dec. 6th I believe and did manage to push the Germans back 
around 100 miles. Nazi armies were not in full retreat in '41 
as the Wehrmacht quickly stabilized the front, at the insistence 
of Hitler who intervened to prevent a rout, and retained the 
initiative 
all through 1942 until the Soviet triumph at Stalingrad in Jan 43.

As it was all the strategic objectives of Barbarossa failed in 
1941. 
The Wehrmacht did not seize Murmansk, or Leningrad, 
or Moscow, or make it to Volga river in the south. The reason 
for that was the tenacious resistance and unrelenting casualties 
inflicted by the Red Army even as they were out maneuvered and 
destroyed in vast numbers. I suppose there is some formula in which
all this can be rendered as a meaningless exercise in intra-
imperialist
blood letting but I just don't buy it. 

This is not to say that there weren't plenty of less than heroic 
deals 
emanating from the Kremlin. I support the thesis of Mastney that 
after Stalingrad Stalin was both willing to make, and discretely 
pursuing,
 a separate peace with Hitler on the condition that German forces 
withdrew from all Soviet territory. Throughout the war in Asia, the 
Soviet Government was in such a tight alliance with Jiang Jieshi 
that even news of the Chinese Communist forces virtually 
disappeared from Soviet press accounts. The flow of Soviet military 
aid 
ended only with the dire situation brought about by Barabarrosa and 
as late 
as 1947-48, I believe the Soviet  Government was willing to support
 Jiang and the Nationalists if they were given certain economic 
concessions. Despite all this the  Communist Party of China 
never broke with the Soviet Union even though Mao vigorously
 asserted an independent analysis of the nature of the GMD.
In the liberated zones of China, international communist unity 
was real and certainly not scripted in Moscow.

Bourgeoisie WWII nostalgia is nauseating as typified by he myth of a
 "greatest generation." Regardless, in the end Fascism was 
decisively 
defeated and the People's Republic of China was established. 
I have yet to find a formula to make those two signal events of the 
1940's into a bad thing.



--
Click here to find the perfect banking opportunity!
 http://tagline.hushmail.com/fc/BLSrjkqhzPot7pUlfsmBcpkcQXudhSF2ImkrXo4XxRufRYwpnMVvjbcS4U4/



From markalause at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 11:36:32 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:36:32 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>

Any analysis of World War II based primarily on conspiracy theories
about Pearl Harbor is Marxist only in the sense of Grouche, Chiko,
Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo.

ML


From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 12:39:51 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:39:51 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
Message-ID: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com>

http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?sprache=en&id=179
Vladimir Putin:
We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of 
international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, 
coming increasingly closer to one state?s legal system. One state and, 
of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its 
national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, 
political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other 
nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?

---

NY Times, July 4, 2009
Russia Opens Route for U.S. to Fly Arms to Afghanistan
By PETER BAKER

MOSCOW ? The Russian government has agreed to allow American troops and
weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory, providing
an important new corridor for the United States military as it escalates
efforts to win the eight-year-old war, officials from both sides said
Friday.

The agreement, to be formally announced when President Obama visits here
on Monday and Tuesday, represents one of the most concrete achievements
of the effort to rebuild a relationship severely strained by last year?s
war between Russia and Georgia. The new transit route will give American
forces more alternatives as they encounter increasing trouble elsewhere.

?Afghanistan is one of the areas where we must cooperate,? Mikhail
Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia?s upper
house of Parliament, said in an interview. Russia understands, he said,
that the United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan are effectively
defending Russia?s southern flank.

Until now, Russia has allowed only restricted use of its territory for
the Afghan war, permitting shipments of nonlethal supplies by train.
Under the new agreement, American officials said, military planes
carrying lethal equipment as well as troops will be allowed to make
thousands of flights a year through Russian airspace.

As Mr. Obama prepared to leave Sunday for his first visit here since
taking office, negotiators were trying to work out a preliminary
agreement on nuclear arms cuts that he could announce along with
President Dmitri A. Medvedev. But officials said they were still divided
on important elements and not sure whether they would make a
breakthrough in time.

If successful, the two leaders hope to lay out a range of possible
limits for warheads and delivery vehicles as well as address issues like
the verification of conventional arms. The so-called framework agreement
under discussion would lay out the parameters of a treaty to be drafted
by the end of the year to replace the expiring cold war Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty.

But Russia wants to tie the negotiations to the dispute over American
plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. While
Washington maintains the system is intended to defend against a future
threat from Iran, Moscow sees it as aimed at itself and wants the
agreement that Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev sign to link limits on
offensive and defensive weapons.

The agreement on Afghanistan was a high priority for Mr. Obama, who has
ordered an additional 21,000 American troops to join the fight against
the Taliban and Al Qaeda there. Supply routes through Pakistan have
become complicated by that country?s increasing volatility, while
Uzbekistan evicted American troops from a base a few years ago and
Kyrgyzstan threatened recently to do the same. American negotiators
recently persuaded Kyrgyzstan to change its mind by increasing payments
for the base there.



From intnsred at golgotha.net  Fri Jul  3 14:22:32 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 16:22:32 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <200907031622.33208.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > Any analysis of World War II based primarily on conspiracy theories
 > about Pearl Harbor is Marxist only in the sense of Grouche, Chiko,
 > Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo.

   Cute slam. I hardly think it's appropriate in this case.

   How does science work? It takes into account evidence, postulates a theory, 
and various people use evidence to confirm or refute the theory. If need be, 
the theory is revised and the whole cycle starts again.

   Marxism factors in class and economic factors into the mix. Few Marxists 
that I know of dispute the class and economic factors which led to the US 
entry on the side of the Allies in WWI. Though there is no "smoking gun" 
there is a lot of circumstantial evidence of class/economic factors into US 
entry into the war, and Marxists typically laugh at the sinking of the 
Lusitania and submarine warfare as the "real" cause. But the WWII Pearl 
Harbor story is sacred, it seems.

   We know that the idea of a US attack on Hawaii was fairly common. It was 
front-page news in a Hawaiian newspaper before the attack. Nimitz predicted 
it and deliberately moved into a bureaucrat's job in anticipation of the 
attack and knowing that active Navy commanders would be reshuffled after an 
attack. We know that the scapegoats for Pearl Harbor put on an active 
defense -- in the courts martials of Gen. Short and Adm. Kimmel -- and in 
1941 there were many who cried that "Roosevelt let it happen". That theory 
went on for years but basically died, until it was revived briefly in 
academia with the publishing of "Day of Infamy" which again brought up the 
FDR conspiracy. The theory then died down once again.

   The author of "Day of Deceit", the book I mentioned, personally discovered 
new evidence. I mentioned two in a previous post -- and I've read of no one 
that disputes the authenticity of those two pieces of evidence.

   It would seem that a famous economist's words about what one does in the 
face of new evidence would seem to be entirely applicable. The scientific 
method and logic would seem to call for the issue to be reexamined.

   Or, one can dismiss the new evidence and stick to the convenient and heroic 
tale of the start of the war -- and perhaps take a few pot-shots 
about "conspiracy theorists" along the way.

-- 
Fast fact: Since 1984 the state of California has built 21 new prisons -- and 
1 new college.


From intnsred at golgotha.net  Fri Jul  3 14:40:46 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 16:40:46 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
In-Reply-To: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com>
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com>
Message-ID: <200907031640.46650.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > The Russian government has agreed to allow American troops and
 > weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory, providing an
 > important new corridor for the United States military as ...

   Russia has a complex equation at hand. Obviously it wants to oppose the US 
moves into central Asia. But it also doesn't want Muslim fundamentalists in 
power or on the ascendency in Afghanistan or elsewhere in central Asia.

   Russia no doubt has larger interests (e.g. Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and 
Georgia) than merely Afghanistan. But I have to wonder whether the change in 
position in the Kyrgyz airbase is a significant factor. If that made Russia's 
no-transit position moot, Medvedev and Putin may just be trying to make the 
best of a bad situation -- allowing weapons flights, making some money or 
potential good will, and trying to create a minor dependency by the US on 
Russia.


-- 
"My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I'm going 
to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no 
fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?" -- 
Singer Paul Robeson addressing the US Congress' House Un-American Activities 
Committee anti-communist witchhunt in 1956.


From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 14:51:21 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:51:21 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] New radio shows from Doug Henwood
Message-ID: <4A4E6F49.50605@panix.com>

BEHIND THE NEWS with Doug Henwood

"Best Music on an Economics & Politics Radio Show"
Village Voice Best of NYC 2005

podcast:
<http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/radio-feed.php>
iTunes:
<http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=73801817>
or
<http://tinyurl.com/3bsaqb>

opening commentaries now at:
<http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/>

Facebook group:
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53240558375>.

--------------------------------------------------

Just posted to my radio archive
<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>:

July 2, 2009 Leo Panitch, author of this cover story inForeign Policy, 
on why the bourgeoisie is interested in Marx (and, of course, why they 
should be) * Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of 
Modern America, 1877-1920, on American regeneration (mainly through 
violence) after the Civil War

it joins:
--------

June 25, 2009 Alyssa Katz, author of Our Lot, on the homeownership 
fetish and the housing bubble/bust * Liza Featherstone (author of this 
article, and, it should be disclosed, wife/beloved of the host) and 
Adolph Reed on the burdens of college tuition and how the problem can be 
solved by making it free

June 18, 2009 Dan Fleshler, author of Transforming America's Israel 
Lobby, on the exaggerated power of the lobby and what can be done about 
it * Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University on the Iranian election and 
its aftermath

June 11, 2009 Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief of the Dallas 
Morning News, on Mexican drug gangs on both sides of the border * Justin 
Fox, author of The Myth of the Rational Market, on the loopy notion of 
market efficiency and its toxic political effects

June 6, 2009 (KPFA version) Steffie Woolhandler on the (very high) 
contribution of medical costs to personal bankruptcy (article here) * 
Bethany Moreton, author of To Serve God and Wal-Mart, on Christian free 
enterprise and the Behemoth of Bentonville

May 30, 2009 (KPFA only) Daniel Geary, author Radical Ambition, on the 
life and thought of C. Wright Mills * Claudia Goldin on the labor market 
penalty suffered by women who have a kid

May 23, 2009 (KPFA only) Vijay Prashad of Trinity College on the Indian 
elections * David Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania Law School on 
how bankruptcy (rather than trillion dollar checks) could be used to 
deal with the financial crisis

April 30, 2009 Andrew Ross, author of Nice Work If You Can Get It, on 
life and labor in precarious times * Michael Yates, author of Why Unions 
Matter, just out in a second edition, on just that topic

April 23, 2009 William Robinson, UCSB sociology prof under attack by the 
Zionist lobby, on his case (more, with links, here) * Richard Seymour, 
keeper of the Lenin's Tomb blog and author of The Liberal Defense of 
Murder, on the U.S. left, and imperialism under Obama * Paul Mason, 
author of Meltdown, on The Crisis

---

Doug Henwood
Producer, Behind the News
Thursdays, 5-6 PM, WBAI, New York 99.5 FM
Saturdays, 10-11 AM, KPFA, Berkeley 94.1 FM
"best music on a show about economics & politics" - Village Voice

Left Business Observer
242 Greene Ave - #1C
Brooklyn, NY 11238-1398 USA

+1-347-599-2211 voice
+1-917-865-2813 cell
email: <mailto:dhenwood at panix.com>
web: <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>
podcast: <http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/radio-feed.php>
iTunes: 
<http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=73801817>
or <http://tinyurl.com/3bsaqb>
"blog": <http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/>

--------------------------------------------

download my book Wall Street (for free!) at
<http://www.wallstreetthebook.com>



From billyoc at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 14:57:16 2009
From: billyoc at gmail.com (Bill O'Connor)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:57:16 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
In-Reply-To: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com> (Louis Proyect's message of "Fri, 03
	Jul 2009 14:39:51 -0400")
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com>
Message-ID: <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>

Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> writes:

> http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?sprache=en&id=179
> Vladimir Putin:
> We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of 
> international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, 
> coming increasingly closer to one state?s legal system. One state and, 
> of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its 
> national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, 
> political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other 
> nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?

I would think that the Russian military commanders would be more than
happy to give the U.S. a boost over the fence into the quicksand.

-- 
In Solidarity,
Billy O'Connor


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Fri Jul  3 15:19:38 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:19:38 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com> <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>
Message-ID: <84C80C9A905C43238D2042CCB76249EE@dmsthinkpad>

Right, like Afghanistan is the sole purpose, aim, target, reason for the US 
military presence in the region; like the US hasn't also just restored its 
access to the base in Kyrgyzstan...


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill O'Connor" <billyoc at gmail.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony




From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Fri Jul  3 15:37:10 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:37:10 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
In-Reply-To: <84C80C9A905C43238D2042CCB76249EE@dmsthinkpad>
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com> <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>
	<84C80C9A905C43238D2042CCB76249EE@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <1246657030.8056.324.camel@john-desktop>

On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 17:19 -0400, S. Artesian wrote:
> Right, like Afghanistan is the sole purpose, aim, target, reason for the US 
> military presence in the region; like the US hasn't also just restored its 
> access to the base in Kyrgyzstan...

It's also unwise to simply describe Afghanistan as "quicksand". The war
in Afghanistan isn't unwinnable for the US. We'd like to think it is,
and we can cite any number of previous unsuccessful
invasions/occupations of Afghanistan to reassure ourselves that we're
right. But in reality, there is no war that is guaranteed unwinnable
when you're the most powerful nation on the planet several times over.
Obama has taken the pressure off the US military in Iraq, and he's
avoiding getting embroiled "at the moment" in Central America. He's back
to 2001 - one theatre of war and the enhanced support or at least
goodwill of more of the world than Bush could ever have dreamed of.
Expanding the war into Pakistan is probably a smart move for him.

So I don't think the Russian generals are doing a "Welcome to my
parlour" with the agreement to allow access over their airspace. I think
it just represents the fact that Russia does not have the will or the
capacity to tell the US to sod off.
Cheers,
John



From intnsred at golgotha.net  Fri Jul  3 15:44:22 2009
From: intnsred at golgotha.net (Intense Red)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:44:22 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
In-Reply-To: <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com> <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>
Message-ID: <200907031744.22647.intnsred@golgotha.net>

 > I would think that the Russian military commanders would be more than
 > happy to give the U.S. a boost over the fence into the quicksand.

   Quite true. But remember, despite how dire the situation is and looks, the 
US hasn't lost. There's a lot of bullets and a lot of killing to do -- and if 
you haven't lost, you still have a chance to win.

   Iraq is a good case in point. Things looked bleak in 2005/2006 and it 
looked as if the US might lose. And the US still might. But in 2009 we see a 
more stable Iraq regime and the west tightening its grip on the real prize -- 
Iraqi oil -- and the country littered with US bases. Few would have expected 
such a turnaround a few years ago.

   It'll only take one empire to break Afghanistan's claim as being the place 
where empires go to die. And the US presently still has a chance to break 
that claim.


-- 
"The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with 
misery in the name of liberty." -- Simon Bolivar, the liberator of several 
Latin American nations from imperial Spain.


From binesi at gvtel.com  Fri Jul  3 15:51:50 2009
From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:51:50 -0500
Subject: [Marxism] Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern Germans
 Feel Life Better under Communism
Message-ID: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>

Twenty years after the Wall fell, what to say about the young people who 
voice nostalgia for the GDR? The subject is surely more complex than 
Spiegel presents it, but are these young people very different from 
Americans, who also have accommodated themselves to living in a growing 
police state? Engels said, "The existence of the state is inseparable 
from the existence of slavery," but do most people like being slaves? It 
would seem so. Our team vs. your team. There was something deadening 
about East Germany: the conformism, the fear, the ever-present fist of 
authority. Anyone who visited it could sense that. It also had one of 
Europe's most innovative theaters, Brecht's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, 
where I saw Helene Weigel in the /Threepenny Opera/ in 1964 for about 
fifty cents--a high point of my first European escape. And I suspect 
these interviewees are right to not see in Western capitalist Germany a 
great improvement over the GDR. Still, they seem confused and somewhat 
unconvincing in their yearning for the old alleged "paradise."
David
=============================================================================================

SPIEGEL ONLINE, 07/03/2009

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life
Better under Communism
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two
decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Young people and the better off
are among those rebuffing criticism of East Germany as an
"illegitimate state." In a new poll, more than half of former eastern
Germans defend the GDR.

By Julia Bonstein

You can download the complete article over the Internet at the
following URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,634122,00.html




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From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Fri Jul  3 16:05:43 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:05:43 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic
 isolation being pressed, 
Message-ID: <7D0086A642724BE78120CE66831072B7@office1pc>

Marvin Gandall: 
The Financial Times comments on
the current state of opinion in both Israel and the US in relation to the
recent events in Iran, and suggests it's best summarized in the words of the
diplomat quoted below: "How do you bomb Neda?"

Fred replies;
Frankly, the Israelis have not yet thought this throught to the very end.
They are stumped at the beginning of the puzzle. The Yankees, much more
metrosexually and cosmopolitanly up to date (including the Republicans, who
are obliged to admit this between broken sobs) have already solved this
problem.

If the US is ever able to bomb Iran massively and invade the country, they
would never dream of bombing wonderful Neva. They will be AVENGING Neva and
all the other wonderful people who gave their lives to replace abominable
Iranian culture with glorious American culture.

Neva, in the American image, is not truly an Iranian woman but a good
American girl (forced to hide under the clothing, skin color, and language
of an Iranian woman by the repressive regime that arises out of the bad
national traditions). In fact, she is a high spirited, sweet American girl
like Debbie Reynolds in Singin' In the Rain or Judy Garland in Meet Me in
St. Louis, mischievous but good-behaving and, it need hardly be said,
militantly veil hating.

Nobody knows much about what Neva thought as yet. About all she got to say
before she was shot by persons unknown was that she did not oppose the
government really but thought that people should have more rights. Bang! End
of Story. Here, however, I am dealing not with the real Neva, whom I don't
doubt was very interesting, but the US social construction of Neva as the
ideal American woman. And I am not doing this to criticize women who streak
their hair blond, hate the veil, wear cosmetics, and so forth but to
highlight an imperialist image of Iranian women that dehumanizes those who
do these things. I have nothing against Iranian women who want to wear
cosmetics. After thirty years of this regime, I admit I would probably be
wearing cosmetics in my underground apartment a la Invisible Man.


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Fri Jul  3 16:20:52 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 18:20:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic
	isolation being pressed, 
References: <7D0086A642724BE78120CE66831072B7@office1pc>
Message-ID: <92068DB8A5BD4B3CA566CF7E5EDF561A@dmsthinkpad>

FWIW, here's my view.  Pretty soon, all the TARPS, TALFS, PPIPS, ECB rate 
cuts, UK capital injections, etc. are going flop-- let's just say the other 
shoes are going to come off- particularly in commercial real estate in the 
US-- $3.5 trillion with about 20% in commercial mortgage backed securities, 
with about 40% of that coming due on the next 3 years, and 55% of that 
probably NOT qualifying for refinancing;  and there's the credit card debt--  
spun off in special investment vehicles so that collateralized credit card 
debt obligations could be issued as securities-- well you know the rest, and 
now the banks, given the 10.44% default rate are taking them back onto their 
balance sheets, because as collateralized obligations, when the default rate 
reaches a certain level, the issuers have to repay the value of the 
obligation EARLY,  and with it back on the bank books  they can use some of 
your tax-dollars to pay the bill but since the FASB now allows banks to 
carry the securities at face value, not market value, they don't have to 
declare the loss......... whew, let me take a breath.

What I mean is once again the rent is coming due, and I can't see the 
bourgeoisie aggrandizing profit any way other than--------jacking up the 
price of oil again to reinflate the economy and the best way to do that, Mr. 
OPEC?  Why let's get us a real war going this time-- in the Caspian maybe, 
yeah take out the #2 OPEC producer, threaten the whole pipeline arrangement, 
threaten the Caspian, and bang on Russia's door while we're at it.

Sometimes, even I wish the bourgeoisie were smarter, but I know they're not.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Feldman" <ffeldman at bellatlantic.net>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic 
isolation being pressed,




From shmage at pipeline.com  Fri Jul  3 16:35:18 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 18:35:18 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>


On Jul 3, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Mark Lause wrote:

> Any analysis of World War II based primarily on conspiracy theories
> about Pearl Harbor...

Stimson wrote in his diary  in mid-1941 that the aim of US policy was  
to "get the Japs to fire the first shot."  Fact, not theory.  Policy,  
not conspiracy.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Fri Jul  3 16:50:50 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 18:50:50 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
References: <4A4E5077.5040704@panix.com> <87ocs1o577.fsf@t22.Belkin>
	<200907031744.22647.intnsred@golgotha.net>
Message-ID: <794E09DA074148A1A1FD297572A67232@dmsthinkpad>

The real prize?  The fact is that Iraq's first oil-licensing round in 3 
decades was a resounding FAILURE.  Only 1 of 8 fields was awarded.  The 
other 7 either went no bid, or failed as bidders did not meet Iraq's 
production price ceiling.

.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Intense Red" <intnsred at golgotha.net>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony

"in 2009 we see a more stable Iraq regime and the west tightening its grip 
on the real prize --  Iraqi oil -- and the country littered with US bases. 
Few would have expected  such a turnaround a few years ago."



From markalause at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 16:55:06 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 18:55:06 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
	<6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907031555q64dfd17ma5edece1d2863c82@mail.gmail.com>

This "fact" of what someone said about their intentions after the fact
tells us absolutely nothing about what was done at Pearl Harbor.

Certainly since the Enlightenment, haven't rival nations going to war
always tried to get the other side to shoot first?   Of course,
there's even a relatively recent book by Garrison Webb, I think, that
blames Lincoln for starting the Civil War by cleverly getting the
Confederates to fire the first shot.

These sort of things become fashionable as US imperialism has itself
been striving to blur the line between "defense war" and a preemptive
invasion and conquest.

ML


From shmage at pipeline.com  Fri Jul  3 17:08:22 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 19:08:22 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907031555q64dfd17ma5edece1d2863c82@mail.gmail.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
	<6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
	<b16d8daf0907031555q64dfd17ma5edece1d2863c82@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <88293B42-61B3-4041-9677-CF473F085834@pipeline.com>


On Jul 3, 2009, at 6:55 PM, Mark Lause wrote:

> This "fact" of what someone said about their intentions after the fact
> tells us absolutely nothing about what was done at Pearl Harbor.
>
  "After the fact?"  It was mid-1941.

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Fri Jul  3 17:27:02 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:27:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Escalating aggression against Iran -- diplomatic
 isolation being pressed, 
Message-ID: <B2D8AF0FAB3B426F93036FC6BCD9F3E2@office1pc>

Marvin Gandall: 
The Financial Times comments on
the current state of opinion in both Israel and the US in relation to the
recent events in Iran, and suggests it's best summarized in the words of the
diplomat quoted below: "How do you bomb Neda?"

Fred replies;
Frankly, the Israelis have not yet thought this through to the very end.
They are stumped at the beginning of the puzzle. The Yankees, much more
metrosexually and cosmopolitanly up to date (including the Republicans, who
are obliged to admit this between broken sobs) have already solved this
problem.

If the US is ever able to bomb Iran massively and invade the country, they
would never dream of bombing wonderful Neva. They will be AVENGING Neva and
all the other wonderful people who supposedly gave their lives to replace
abominable Iranian culture with glorious American culture.

Neva, in the American image, is not truly an Iranian woman but a good
American girl in Iranian (forced to hide under the clothing, skin color, and
language of an Iranian woman by the repressive regime that arises out of the
bad national traditions). In fact, she is a high spirited, sweet American
girl like Debbie Reynolds in Singin' In the Rain or Judy Garland in Meet Me
in St. Louis (two of my favorite movies), mischievous but basically
good-behaving and rules-abiding, but, it need hardly be said, militantly
veil hating, considering it a very foreign un-American institution.

Nobody knows much about what Neda thought as yet. About all she got to say
before she was shot by persons unknown was that she did not oppose the
government really but thought that people should have more rights. Bang! End
of known history of Neda political activity. 

Here, however, I am dealing not with the real Neva, whom I don't doubt was
very interesting, but the US social construction of Neva as the ideal
Iranian woman for Americans.

I am not doing this to criticize women who streak their hair blond, hate the
veil, wear cosmetics, and so forth but to highlight an imperialist image of
Iranian women that dehumanizes those who do these things. I have nothing
against Iranian women who want to wear cosmetics. After thirty years of this
regime, I admit I would probably be wearing cosmetics and color-streaking my
baldness in my underground apartment a la Invisible Man.


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 19:12:10 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 21:12:10 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Honduran_sociologist_Leticia_Salomon=3A_?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?Pol=EDticos=2C_empresarios_y_militares=3A_protagoni?=
	=?iso-8859-1?q?stas_de_un_golpe_anunciado?=
Message-ID: <709f342d0907031812v48aac545j579732de5364a9ba@mail.gmail.com>

For those who speak Spanish, an excellent analysis of the coup in
Honduras by Leticia Salomon, a professor of sociology and economics at
the National Autonomous University of Honduras:

<http://chiapas.indymedia.org/print.php3?article_id=165395>


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Fri Jul  3 19:17:39 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:17:39 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Cockburn on the coup
Message-ID: <B7C1E9B2-875E-4BF5-9DA1-09D77AB0D69C@mac.com>

http://www.counterpunch.com/


Gob Smacked

We so want to believe that Obama is not just another dangerous prick  
that we are willing to delude ourselves to the nth degree, or  
something like that. He is right of course, because usually self- 
delusion requires self effort and professional help to recover one's  
senses. in other words, one has to be open to the idea that one could  
be in need of help. Collective self delusion seems much more  
difficult to arrest, because everyone feeds off of everyone else's  
hallucination. Its collectively self-reinforcing.  This is how  
empires go down in flames.  Interesting to feel it from the inside out.

Greg McD





From sabocat59 at mac.com  Fri Jul  3 19:56:49 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:56:49 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] BBC NEWS | Americas | Honduran court defiant on Zelaya
Message-ID: <63E51BC3-FEC6-4FEB-9B63-8EFC46D478F3@mac.com>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8133981.stm

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If it could be  
proven that the USA was behind the coup, that could theoretically be  
grounds for their expulsion from the OAS along with Honduras.  Then  
Cuba could take their place and they could vote to change the name to  
OOAS--Organization of Our American States. 


From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Fri Jul  3 20:39:30 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 19:39:30 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern
	Germans Feel Life Better under Communism
In-Reply-To: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>
References: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>
Message-ID: <265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>




"And I suspect these interviewees are right to not see in Western capitalist Germany a great improvement over the GDR."

Nazi West Germany colonized East Germany. I believe this is what folks are sensing and what they're expressing.

 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From lnp3 at panix.com  Fri Jul  3 20:45:30 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:45:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Latest anti-Empire report from Bill Blum
Message-ID: <4A4EC24A.4030203@panix.com>

Anti-Empire Report, July 3, 2009


http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer71.html


From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 21:21:06 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 23:21:06 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern
	Germans Feel Life Better under Communism
In-Reply-To: <265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>
	<265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907032021q1d3bda18l4006c9b2f21cc2b4@mail.gmail.com>

Nazi West Germany colonized East Germany. I believe this is what folks are
sensing and what they're expressing.

*"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo
Galeano*

From markalause at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 21:41:02 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 23:41:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <88293B42-61B3-4041-9677-CF473F085834@pipeline.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com>
	<6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
	<b16d8daf0907031555q64dfd17ma5edece1d2863c82@mail.gmail.com>
	<88293B42-61B3-4041-9677-CF473F085834@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907032041g37de409bj87e87729e3f41bdb@mail.gmail.com>

Yes, mid-1941 is after the fact if the US had been manipulating the
Japanese towards war.  Or do you think that the US performed this feat
in a few months?   And perhaps they walked across the waters of Pearl
Harbor in the process...

You credit them with far too much coherence, organization, and
expertise.  All the considerable arguments and evidence do not amount
to a smoking gun.

ML


From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Fri Jul  3 22:32:16 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 21:32:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern
	Germans Feel Life Better under Communism
In-Reply-To: <bee7ff780907032021q1d3bda18l4006c9b2f21cc2b4@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>
	<265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<bee7ff780907032021q1d3bda18l4006c9b2f21cc2b4@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <892343.94941.qm@web110406.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


Bhaskar. Go read something.

 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Fri Jul  3 22:37:37 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:37:37 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] USA: Imperialist Policy in WWII (was: Socialist Policy in
	WWII)
In-Reply-To: <200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
Message-ID: <000.e0e60b0091dc4e4a.1654@lws-media.de>

Intense Red (intnsred at golgotha.net) wrote on 2009-07-03 at 10:53:54 in  
about Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII:
> 
> 
>    At this point, isn't the matter settled on WWII and Pearl Harbor? Hasn't 
> the ruling class defined this as the "good war" and finished with the story?
> 
>    There are, IMHO, some pieces of evidence that support revisiting the 
issue. 

   Maybe, but then the header "Socialist Policy in WWII" is wrong. I changed 
the subject accordingly. 


Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From mina.khanlar at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 23:07:57 2009
From: mina.khanlar at gmail.com (mina khanlarzadeh)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 01:07:57 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Iran: let the earth bear witness:
Message-ID: <3d5371650907032207l6aaf370ai103870b9e990330a@mail.gmail.com>

Two good videos about Iran:


Iran not a twitter revolution:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGSplRR7oI

Let the earth bear witness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEWQQa6lpqY

From lycophidion at gmail.com  Fri Jul  3 23:15:34 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 01:15:34 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Cockburn: Obama, the U.S. left and the coup in Honduras
Message-ID: <709f342d0907032215r30b45abcjbbf9c8a933e20455@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07032009.html

Gob Smacked

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

There?s no continent where the pwogwessive  ?left? (I have to set this
exhausted noun on the crutches of gloomy quotemarks) in the United
States has entertained higher hopes of Obamian change from traditional
U.S. thuggery than Latin America. This was a big constituency for
Obama to allure last year. Radicals here in their senior decades have
been rooting for Cuba ever since they cheered Fidel?s triumphant entry
into Havana in 1959. Twenty-five years later in the late 70s and
mid-80s the hottest issue for young people on the left in the US was
the brutal and ultimately successful efforts of the US government in
the Carter and Reagan years to crush revolutions in El Salvador and
Nicaragua. To this day the ?Hands off Central America?  movement of
those years remains by far the most determined mobilization of the US
left in the post Vietnam era.

Now, after six months, the desire among many of these  pwogs to
believe that in the White House resides  Gob (Good Obama) rather than
Jaaap (Just Another Awful American President) is pitiful to behold.
What, in Latin America, do they have to hang their hat on, regarding
Gob?s actual performance? He?s maintaining the embargo on Cuba,
pushing for the ?free trade pacts? that have laid waste Latin American
for a generation. He fondly embraces the vicious Uribe regime in
Colombia.

The zig-zagging response of the Obama administration to last Sunday?s
coup in Honduras has now put these hopes to to the test of reality yet
again, and already the progressives are successfully persuading
themselves that either it?s ?unclear? what Obama?s complicity amounted
to, or even that he opposed it from the getgo.  To believe this
nonsense requires powerful doses of self-deception about the nature of
this presidency.

The coup itself was an entirely traditional enterprise. Honduras is a
wretchedly poor place ? the third poorest in the hemisphere, where
about 70 per cent of the population live in grinding poverty.
President Zelaya, ousted last weekend, took office as a credentialed
member of the commercial and political elite and then, against all
expectation, moved to the left, as well described on this site last
week by Nicholas Kozloff and other writers.

He ordered a 60 per cent increase in the minimum wage This, he
declared, would ?force the business oligarchy to start paying what is
fair.? He joined a regional organization, the Bolivarian Alternative
of the Americas - known by its Spanish acronym ALBA - a socially
progressive trade pact backed by Hugo Ch?vez of Venezuela opposing the
 U.S ?free trade? model. He  started using Chavezian rhetoric,
declaring his to be ?a government of great social transformations,
committed to the poor.? He welcomed Cuban doctors and harshly
denounced  US meddling in the region.

The Honduran elite viewed Zelaya, elected to his 4-year term in 2006,
with growing alarm and diligently communicated their disquiet to
Washington, where the military and civilian intelligence agencies were
already being primed by their substantial assets and agents inside
Honduras, historically an important CIA and military staging post in
Central America, from which  many sinister and lethal operations in
the region, such as the Contra war,  were supervised.

A large number of Honduran military commanders have their own
long-term relationships with the Pentagon and the intelligence
agencies, many of them forged during their training at Fort Benning,
Georgia. Here is the notorious School of the Americas where promising
officers from Argentina, Colombia, Honduras and other US allies are
given training such useful skills as seizing power, hunting down
leftists and torture.

In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at
the School providing expertise in torture, extortion and execution.
Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are Manuel Noriega  of Panama,
Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco
Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer
Suarez of Bolivia. SOA graduates were responsible for the
assassination of El Salvador?s Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador
and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. Check out the excellent
School of the Americas Watch website for the detailed history.   In
2001 the Pentagon tried to clean up the School?s image by changing its
name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. It
didn?t catch on.

School of the Americas alumni are thick on the ground in Honduras,
including General Juan Melgar Castro who seized power in 1975,
followed five years later by another grad, Policarpo Paz Garcia,
patron of the infamous Battalion 3-16, a death squad founded by
Honduran SOA graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates. There
is profuse evidence available in declassified files that these SOA men
were in constant touch with CIA case officers and the US Embassy in
Tegucigalpa.

Last Sunday?s power grab was led by yet another SOA grad, Romeo
Vasquez, whose men bundled Zelaya, still  in his pajamas, onto a plane
to Costa Rica and installed as interim president, Roberto Micheletti,
a conservative businessman and creature of the elites.The rationale
was an alleged effort by Zelaya to cling to office beyond a Honduran
president?s single four year term. Actually Zelaya had merely asked
the military to help in distributing materials for a non-binding
referendum to assay whether Hondurans were interested in proceeding
towards another referendum on constitutional changes.

The US government has admitted that its officials had been in touch
with the conspirators in the run-up to the coup, It  makes the claim
that it was seeking to head off any coup. This is as absurd as Henry
11 claiming he tried to talk his knights out of killing Thomas Becket
and that what he really said was ?Do not rid of me of this meddlesome
priest? and it somehow got garbled and came out as ?Who will rid me of
this meddlesome  priest.? We can take it as an absolute certainly that
CIA and Pentagon advisors were at the elbows of the Honduran plotters,
giving the green light and barely bothering to maintain deniability,
and that Obama and Mrs Clinton had been fully briefed.  The coup was
modeled on the initial stages of the attempted ouster of Chavez in
2002, before popular resistance put Chavez back in power. Earlier
versions of the script are profuse in the archives of the School of
the Americas.

The first statements from Obama and Secretary of State Clinton bear
all the marks of careful preparation. In the coup?s immediate
aftermath last Sunday they merely urged negotiations with the coup
plotters to "restore constitutional order?, feebly enjoining "all
political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms,
the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic
Charter?, which has all the moral and persuasive power of  telling a
child not to go swimming immediately after lunch. Carefully avoided
was any tough demand by Obama or Clinton ? still hoarse from shouts
for ?democracy? in Iran --  for the legitimate Honduran President
Zelaya to be returned to office. The plan was obviously to try and run
out the clock with indecisive parleys until Zelaya?s term ends in six
months.

It was only after  furious denunciation of the coup  and  call for
Zelaya?s reinstatement from the Organization of American States, the
presidents of Brazil and Argentina , the Rio Group,  the European
Union, and the UN General Assembly ? that Obama was forced  to climb
off the fence and declare on Monday that "We believe that the coup was
not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of
Honduras..." Secretary of State Clinton did not call for Zelaya?s
reinstatement. There have  been no tough words from Obama or Clinton,
about the shutting down of all opposition press, the curfew, the
violent suppression of free  speech.

The silver lining may conceivably be, as in 2002 in Venezuela, that
Honduras has been another miscalculation in Washington of the strength
of the spirit of real as opposed to merely rhetorical change across
Latin America.


From Jscotlive at aol.com  Fri Jul  3 23:54:29 2009
From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 01:54:29 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
Message-ID: <d12.23260738.37804895@aol.com>

_http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-ve
ry-dangerous-1731258.html_ 
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-very-dangerous-1731258.html) 

From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Sat Jul  4 00:17:49 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 14:17:49 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad><8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC><96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad><5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com><37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>
	<EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>

It's taken me a while to respond, I know, but I think that you have perhaps 
misunderstood my meaning in the original post on 'Socialist Policy in World 
War Two'.   The conflict between 'property relations' I was talking about 
refers to the clash between imperialism in general, and Nazi German 
imperialism in particular, on the one hand, and the socialised relations of 
production at the basis of the social and political system in the USSR, on 
the other.   I took for my major source on this aspect of World War Two the 
section from Trotsky's 'In Defense of Marxism': "The USSR in War".   In this 
piece, Trotsky strongly criticised the capitulationist position of the 
Schachtman/Burnham opposition in the US Socialist Workers Party, which 
advocated abandoning the traditional perspective of the party on the defence 
in wartime of the Soviet Union as a workers' state (albeit a degenerated 
one).    For Trotsky, it is the property relations at the basis of a state 
which are decisive for a materialist analysis.   In 1940, there were no 
other post-capitalist states, and it was never my intention to state or 
imply that any colonial or semi-colonial country had, at this stage, broken 
with imperialism or capitalism.

The participation of the USSR in World War Two would by itself, in my 
opinion, require a different assessment from Marxists to the one they gave 
to the First World War.   Nevertheless, I agree with you that the war was 
caused by the accumulating contradictions of capitalism and imperialism, and 
thus was at root an inter-imperialist war.   But I believe that the 
qualifying factors - the involvement of a workers' state; the developed 
political level of the colonial independence movement (especially in Asia); 
the struggle of China against a predatory invasion, and the resistance of 
occupied peoples in Europe to their occupiers, all required a modified 
assessment from Marxists, and a recognition that there was a difference in 
kind between World War One and World War Two.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "S. Artesian" <sartesian at earthlink.net>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> Thanks to Shane for the information.
>
> Well, the discussion has certainly taken a twist, no?  From the attempt to
> come to grips about what really was different about  WW2, to speculations
> about...speculations.
>
> 


From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au  Sat Jul  4 00:35:08 2009
From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:35:08 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Iranian and Sudanese communists on Iran protests: `A
 deeply genuine struggle for democracy' | Links
Message-ID: <4A4EF81B.2080005@greenleft.org.au>

Joint statement by the *Sudanese Communist Party* and the *Tudeh Party* 
of Iran

Recently, representatives of the central committees of the Tudeh Party 
of Iran and the Sudanese Communist Party exchanged views and consulted 
on the political situation unfolding in Iran, in light of the rigged 
elections of June 12 and the mass protests that quickly took place and 
began to gain momentum shortly thereafter. The two parties discussed the 
political situation in their respective countries and the conditions in 
which the struggle for peace, human rights, democracy and social justice 
is taking place. Based on their discussion and deliberations the 
leaderships of the two fraternal parties hereby issue the following 
statement:

The existing electoral process in Iran is a mockery of democracy, 
designed to disenfranchise the Iranian electorate. Its entire se- up is 
not related to the pursuit and furthering of democracy or any concept of 
progress within Iranian society but to keep the reins of power firmly in 
the hands of the despotic theocratic regime regardless of the wishes and 
aspirations of the Iranian people. Despite using every method to 
orientate the electoral process in their favour, the ruling guard of the 
theocracy still sought fit to directly rig the outcome of the ballots 
cast on the day of the election.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1134

Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism




From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Sat Jul  4 00:54:25 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:54:25 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Iranian oppositionists said to cconfess "velvet
	revolution" plot
Message-ID: <3068B96441564E2F8C426A4F4275156A@office1pc>

The introductory comments that follow are by Prof. Mark Jensen of United for
Peace of Pierce County (Washington):

["Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top reformist
officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a 'velvet'
revolution," the *New York Times* reported Friday evening.[1] -- 

"The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from
political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often
subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement,
and torture, according to human rights groups and former political
prisoners,"Michael Slackman said. 

"Human rights groups . . . fear the confessionsare part of a concerted
effort to lay the groundwork for banning existing reformist political
parties and preventing any organized reform movement in the future." -- 

"Fars, a semiofficial news agency, reported the
confession of a *Newsweek* reporter, Mazaiar Bahari, that he had done the
bidding of foreign governments, as well as a confession by the editor of a
newspaper run by Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader. And at
Friday Prayer, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the government planned to put
on trial several Iranian employees of the British Embassy -- after
confessions were extracted." -- 

Slackman quoted post-confession
testimony about how Iranian interrogators force confessions from Omid
Memarian, a former Iranian journalist who was arrested and forced to issue
his own confession in 2004, and Ali Afshari a student leader arrested in
2001. -- 

"Reports on Iranian Web sites associated with prominent
conservatives said that leading reformers have confessed to taking velvet
revolution 'training courses' outside the country. Atef, a Web site of a
conservative member of Parliament, referred to a video of Mohammad Ali
Abtahi, who served as vice president in the reform government of former
President Mohammed Khatami, as showing that he tearfully 'welcomed being
defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension, and
creating media chaos.' -- 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the
Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour, said in a speech Thursday that
almost everyone now detained had confessed -- raising the prospect that
more confessions will be made public." --Mark]

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/8812/


TOP REFORMERS ADMITTED PLOT, IRAN DECLARES
By Michael Slackman

New York Times
July 3, 2009 (2244 EDT -- 1944 PDT -- Jul. 4, 0714 Tehran time)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/world/middleeast/04confess.html

CAIRO -- Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top
reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a
"velvet" revolution. Such confessions, almost always extracted under
duress, are part of an effort to recast the civil unrest set off by Iran's
disputed presidential election as a conspiracy orchestrated by foreign
nations, human rights groups say.

Reports on Iranian Web sites associated with prominent conservatives said
that leading reformers have confessed to taking velvet revolution
"training courses" outside the country. Atef, a Web site of a
conservative member of Parliament, referred to a video of Mohammad Ali
Abtahi, who served as vice president in the reform government of former
President Mohammed Khatami, as showing that he tearfully "welcomed being
defrocked and has confessed to provoking people, causing tension, and
creating media chaos."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the Revolutionary Guards,
Mojtaba Zolnour, said in a speech Thursday that almost everyone now
detained had confessed -- raising the prospect that more confessions will
be made public. Ayatollah Khamenei is supreme religious leader.

The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from
political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often
subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary
confinement, and torture, according to human rights groups and former
political prisoners. Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people
have been detained.

They fear the confessions are part of a concerted effort to lay the
groundwork for banning existing reformist political parties and preventing
any organized reform movement in the future. "They hope with this
scenario they can expunge them completely from the political process,"
said Hadi Ghaemi, coordinator of International Campaign for Human Rights
in Iran, a New York-based group. "They don't want them to come back as
part of a political party."

The confessions are used to persuade a domestic audience that even
cultural and academic outreach by some of the nation's top academics is
really cover to usher in a velvet revolution, human rights workers and
former prisoners say.

"If they talk about the velvet revolution 24 hours a day people don't
care," said Omid Memarian, a former Iranian journalist who was arrested
and forced to issue his own confession in 2004. "But if reformers and
journalists say they are involved in it, it makes the point for them. 
Once my interrogators said, 'Whatever you say is worth 100 times more than
having a conservative newspaper say the same thing.'"

Fars, a semiofficial news agency, reported the confession of a *Newsweek*
reporter, Mazaiar Bahari, that he had done the bidding of foreign
governments, as well as a confession by the editor of a newspaper run by
Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader. And at Friday Prayer,
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the government planned to put on trial
several Iranian employees of the British Embassy -- after confessions were
extracted.

In addition to Mr. Abtahi, other prominent reformers being held include
Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, Mr. Khatami's spokesman, and Mostafa Tajzadeh, a
former deputy interior minister.

In 2007, Iran produced a pseudo-documentary called "In the Name of
Democracy," which served as a vehicle to highlight what it called
confessions of three academic researchers charged with trying to overthrow
the state. "They don't like new ideas to get to Iran," said a researcher
once investigated about his work, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisal. "They don't like social and cultural figures in Iranian
society to become very popular."

In 2001, Ali Afshari was arrested for his work as a student leader. He
said he was held in solitary confinement for 335 days and resisted
confessing for the first two months. But after two mock executions and a
five-day stretch where his interrogators would not let him sleep, he said
he eventually caved in.

"They tortured me, some beatings, sleep deprivation, insults,
psychological torture, standing me for several hours in front of a wall,
keeping me in solitary confinement for one year," Mr. Afshari said in an
interview from his home in Washington. "They eventually broke my
resistance."

The problem, he said, was that he was not sure what he was supposed to
confess to. So over the next several months, he said, he and his
interrogators "negotiated" what he would say -- and, more ominously, whom
he would implicate. Once his confession was complete, he said, he
practiced it for 7 to 10 days, and then it ran on state-run television.

Three years later, Mr. Memarian, the journalist and blogger, was arrested
in another security sweep. He said that his interrogator at first sought
to humiliate him by forcing him to discuss details of his sex life, and
that when he hesitated, the interrogator would grab his hair and smash his
head against the wall. He said the interrogator asked him about prominent
politicians he had interviewed, asked if they ever had affairs, and asked
if he had ever slept with their wives.

"I was crying, I begged him, please do not ask me this," said Mr.
Memarian, who is in exile now in the United States. "They said if you
don't talk now you will talk in a month, in two months, in a year. If you
don't talk now, you will talk. You will just stay here."

The pressure was agonizing, he said, as he was forced to live in a small
cell for 35 days with a light burning all the time and only three trips to
the bathroom allowed every 24 hours. He was forced to shower in front of
a camera, he said. At one point the interrogators threatened to break his
fingers.

"They came up with names, and topics," he said. "They gave me a
three-page analysis and said read this and include it in your confession. 
My interrogator once said, 'You have written seven years for the
reformists; it's O.K. to write for us for two months.'"

Mr. Memarian said that even in 2004, his interrogators were most
interested in several leading reformers, including Mr. Abtahi, who at the
time was an adviser to the president. When he was finally released, and
after his confession was published by Fars, he was asked to testify before
a committee led by the reform government investigating confessions, which
included Mr. Abtahi. Mr. Abtahi, who has not been heard from since his
arrest on June 16, understood even back then just how vulnerable he was,
Mr. Memarian recalled.

"Abtahi said, 'We cannot guarantee anyone's security,'" Mr. Memarian said.
"'We know what happened to you guys. When you leave this building we do
not know will happen to you, or what can happen to us in this committee.'"




From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sat Jul  4 04:02:11 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:02:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela proposes UN military action in Honduras if
 diplomacy fails
Message-ID: <4A46877C-D067-46B9-8AC6-0376622D2706@mac.com>

S. Artesian wrote:

And he does trust the UN? Not perfect at all, not by a mile.

Chavez doesn't support the notion, but he throws it out there for
consideration?

This is hardly a cause for rejoicing. Why would we support the executive
committee of the bourgeoisie authorizing military actions in Honduras?
Because they will be "good," "more democratic" actions? Because
"peacekeepers" will keep the peace? Baloney. Those weapons will be  
turned
on those who will be in the streets.


------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
------------------------------------

There is no good military solution to this problem. Chavez should  
keep his mouth shut with respect to the use of military force, either  
through a unilateral ALBA move, or through the UN. Either way, the US  
could turn the military terrain to its advantage. The use of force in  
latin america, either directly or through proxies, has always been  
the strong play of the USA.

The best bet is the continued diplomatic isolation of Honduras, to  
keep the USA bogged down along with the political ineptitude of the  
coup leaders. Rub their face in it by hammering home the idea that  
Obama is behind the coup. We need an incessant campaign media  
campaign to put the new administration on trial in the international  
arena, to weaken support for Obama's coups and wars inside the USA.  
At this point I don't think Zelaya should return because the pro- 
Zelaya movement is too weak to confront the coup regime in the  
streets. He will be arrested and that will be that, unless of course  
he is willing to use his trial as a bully pulpit to polarize the  
situation internally and force a confrontation. But again, the wild  
card is in the street, and the popular movement is too weak to  
confront the Honduran military directly. Already hundreds of  
demonstrators have been arrested. The result of Zelaya's  
miscalculations are clear.  He overplayed his hand. We're at a  
stalemate, which means the coup will hold until new elections are held.

Greg




From david at miradoiro.com  Sat Jul  4 05:04:23 2009
From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 13:04:23 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] The Honduras situation.
Message-ID: <CEADA487EBAE4BA4A48FE8063D084653@Nautilus>

I keep seeing the same false arguments about Honduras over and over again. 
Amusingly some right wing people are saying Obama is supporting Zelaya 
because of his undercover communist Marxist-Leninist agenda. So basing 
myself largely on the info on this list I've attempted to put together a 
couple of articles on the issue, trying to sum up the reasons why the 
typical press narrative (president tried to extent term limits, military 
acted) is wrong:

The last one, written as an FAQ: 
http://spiritofcontradiction.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/honduras-frequently-unasked-questions-that-should-be-asked/

Here's a previous, less complete one, more directed towards leftists (I got 
a bit carried away perhaps): 
http://spiritofcontradiction.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/on-honduras-dont-buy-the-bullshit/

Anyway, if anyone finds these articles useful or persuasive in getting rid 
of the misconceptions put forward by the bourgeois press, you're welcome of 
making of them what you will.

I had been reluctant to talk about my weblog articles on this list, both 
because I'm not always sure of them and because it seems like 
self-promotion, but since other people do it, why not me?

--David.
Weblog: http://spiritofcontradiction.worddpress.com



From christopher.hutch at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 07:29:11 2009
From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 09:29:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Honduras
Message-ID: <c81bf1a60907040629i320ae22ei9ac1ce80cf4a6030@mail.gmail.com>

www.GeneralStrikeComics.com <http://www.generalstrikecomics.com/>


keep well,

Christopher

From lnp3 at panix.com  Sat Jul  4 07:40:26 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:40:26 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Where the Hungarian left went wrong
Message-ID: <4A4F5BCA.2020109@panix.com>

http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=555


From spalmer999 at yahoo.com  Sat Jul  4 07:54:43 2009
From: spalmer999 at yahoo.com (Steve Palmer)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 06:54:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] For Banks, Wads of Cash and Loads of Trouble
Message-ID: <949176.84887.qm@web80401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


For Banks, Wads of Cash and Loads of Trouble
By ERIC LIPTON and ANDREW MARTIN

MACON, Ga. ? H. Averett Walker used hot money to turn Security Bank from a sleepy Southern lender into a regional powerhouse. Darrell D. Pittard used hot money to jump-start his brand-new MagnetBank, allowing it to lend hundreds of millions of dollars even though it did not have a single drive-up window or even a customer with a checking account.

It is a formula being replicated at banks across the United States. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/business/04brokered.html


      


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sat Jul  4 07:57:37 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:57:37 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson as symbol of the Reagan era
Message-ID: <4A4F5FD1.60009@panix.com>

NY Times, July 4, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Behind the Facade
By BOB HERBERT

Meeting Michael Jackson in the mid-1980s was one of the creepier 
experiences of my life. I was an editor at The Daily News and had to 
present him with an award in a large room with just a handful of 
onlookers and a photographer at Madison Square Garden.

I wasn?t put off by the fact that Jackson, then in his mid-20s, couldn?t 
make small talk. Lots of people have trouble with that. There was 
something about his overall behavior that weirded me out. He seemed, 
even then, to be a person who was trying with all of his being to step 
outside of reality and leave it behind.

Emmanuel Lewis, the child star of the hit TV series ?Webster,? was with 
Jackson that evening. The undersized Lewis was probably 13 at the time, 
but he looked much younger, maybe 7 or 8.

Jackson seemed to relate only to Lewis. He made faces at the tiny boy 
and giggled as Lewis hopped around and climbed over furniture, much to 
Jackson?s delight. I remember thinking as I left the Garden that Jackson 
had treated Lewis almost as a pet.

I?ve never heard any suggestion of anything improper about the 
relationship between Jackson and Lewis. But what I wish I had thought 
more about in those long-ago days of Michael-mania was the era of 
extreme immaturity and grotesque irresponsibility that was already well 
under way in America. The craziness played out on a shockingly broad 
front and Jackson?s life, among many others, would prove to be a shining 
and ultimately tragic example.

Ronald Reagan was president, making promises he couldn?t keep about 
taxes and deficits and allowing the readings of a West Coast astrologer 
to shape his public schedule. The movie ?Wall Street? would soon appear, 
accurately reflecting the nation?s wholesale acceptance of unrestrained 
greed and other excesses of the rich and powerful.

In neighborhoods through much of black America, crack was taking a 
fearful toll. Young criminals were arming themselves with ever more 
powerful weapons, and prison garb was used to set fashion trends.

Motown was the label that gave us the Jackson 5. But when Michael and 
his brothers released their first album in 1969, the label had already 
reached its creative peak and most of the best work ? the stunning 
originality of the Miracles, the Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Martha and the 
Vandellas, the Supremes, the Temptations, and others ? had been done. 
Hip-hop would soon appear, and then the violence and misogyny of gangsta 
rap.

All kinds of restraints were coming off. It was almost as if the adults 
had gone into hiding. The deregulation that we were told would be great 
for the economy was being applied to the culture as a whole. Women could 
be treated as sex objects again as misogyny, hardly limited to hip-hop, 
went mainstream. (Have you looked at network television lately, or 
listened to the radio?) Astonishing numbers of men abandoned their 
children with impunity. Most of the nation seemed fine with the idea of 
going to war without a draft and without raising taxes.

In many ways we descended as a society into a fantasyland, trying to 
leave the limits and consequences and obligations of the real world 
behind. Politicians stopped talking about the poor. We built up 
staggering amounts of debt and called it an economic boom. We shipped 
jobs overseas by the millions without ever thinking seriously about how 
to replace them. We let New Orleans drown.

Jackson was the perfect star for the era, the embodiment of fantasy gone 
wild. He tried to carve himself up into another person, but, of course, 
there was the same Michael Jackson underneath ? talented but 
psychologically disabled to the point where he was a danger to himself 
and others.

Reality is unforgiving. There is no escape. Behind the Jackson facade 
was the horror of child abuse. Court records and reams of 
well-documented media accounts contain a stream of serious allegations 
of child sex abuse and other inappropriate behavior with very young 
boys. Jackson, a multimillionaire megastar, was excused as an eccentric. 
Small children were delivered into his company, to spend the night in 
his bed, often by their parents.

One case of alleged pedophilia against Jackson, the details of which 
would make your hair stand on end, was settled for a reported $25 
million. He beat another case in court.

The Michael-mania that has erupted since Jackson?s death ? not just an 
appreciation of his music, but a giddy celebration of his life ? is yet 
another spasm of the culture opting for fantasy over reality. We don?t 
want to look under the rock that was Jackson?s real life.

As with so many other things, we don?t want to know.



From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Sat Jul  4 08:04:47 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:04:47 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] DP leaders seek to quell internal revolt over health care
Message-ID: <CB6EFFDF9986401DA1207BCC5155C118@MARV>

Obama Urges Groups to Stop Attacks
Advocates Should Turn Attention to Promoting Legislation, President Says
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 4, 2009

President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about
health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop
their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting
passage of comprehensive legislation.

In a pre-holiday call with half a dozen top House and Senate Democrats,
Obama expressed his concern over advertisements and online campaigns
targeting moderate Democrats, whom they criticize for not being fully
devoted to "true" health-care reform.

"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama opined in the
call, according to three sources who participated in or listened to the
conversation. "We ought to be focused on winning this debate."

Specifically, Obama said he is hoping left-leaning organizations that worked
on his behalf in the presidential campaign will now rally support for
"advancing legislation" that fulfills his goal of expanding coverage,
controlling rising costs and modernizing the health system.

In the call, leaders of both chambers expressed optimism that they will hold
floor votes on legislation to overhaul the $2.2 trillion health system
before Congress breaks in early August.

For his part, the president vowed to use his strong approval rating with
voters to continue making the case for sweeping reform, according to one
congressional staffer with knowledge of the conversation. Obama also hinted
that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on
Democrats, according to the source, who did not have permission to speak on
the record about the discussion.

The White House had no comment on the president's call.

In recent weeks, liberal bloggers and grass-roots groups such as MoveOn.org,
Democracy for America, Service Employees International Union and Progressive
Change Campaign Committee have targeted Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (Neb.),
Mary Landrieu (La.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Dianne
Feinstein (Calif.).

A fundraising video produced by Democracy for America suggests Landrieu is a
"sellout" because she has received $1.6 million in campaign contributions
from the health-care industry and has yet to endorse the concept of a
government-run health insurance plan to compete against the private
companies. The public-option concept, which Obama supports, has become a
litmus test for many pro-reform activists who accuse the insurance industry
of failing to deliver affordable, accessible care.

"Tell Senator Landrieu to support the people of Louisiana, not insurance
companies," the spot concludes.

Founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Democracy for America argues
that inclusion of a Medicare-style public option in health-care legislation
is "non-negotiable."

MoveOn, a Web-based political action committee that works to elect
"progressive" leaders, intended to run commercials over the Fourth of July
holiday criticizing Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) for her silence on the public
option. But after she endorsed legislation crafted by Democratic colleagues
on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that
includes that provision, the group dropped its plans.

"This measure is the heart of health-care reform and is supported by
MoveOn's 5 million members, as well as the majority of the American people,"
said MoveOn's executive director, Justin Ruben. "With the support of
legislators like Senator Hagan, we can come closer to our goal of making
quality health insurance accessible and affordable for everyone."

Health Care for American Now, a labor-based coalition of 1,000 groups, has
organized a petition pressuring Feinstein to support legislation that
includes a public option.

"We need a senator who is championing, not nay saying, the need for reform,"
the petition says. "We're hoping Sen. Feinstein becomes a 'champion' for the
people of California and stands up for President Obama's health reform."

Richard Kirsch, who runs the coalition, said most of the group's ads are
educational or focused generally on the need for broad-based change.

"We've been promoting reform and yes, asking members of the public to
contact their senators," he said yesterday. "It's all in support of reform."

Feinstein said in an interview last week that she does support health reform
but has concerns about the cost of legislation and the impact on her home
state. She discounted the attacks as unhelpful and counterproductive.

Obama was joined on the call with lawmakers by White House health czar
Nancy-Ann DeParle, though he led most of the conversation. DeParle and White
House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina have been in intense negotiations
with hospital representatives in the hope of extracting guaranteed spending
reductions from the industry.



From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sat Jul  4 08:11:11 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:11:11 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
	<1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
	<96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>
	<5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>
	<37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>
	<EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>
	<48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>

G K Milner (gkmilner at eftel.net.au) wrote on 2009-07-04 at 14:17:49 in  about 
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
> The participation of the USSR in World War Two would by itself, in my 
> opinion, require a different assessment from Marxists to the one they gave 
> to the First World War.   

  Sure, in the sense that there existed no workers state in the first phase of 
the interimperialist wars of the first half of the 20th century, whom the 
working class around the globe would defend unconditionally. 

  But this did not change the character of the war between the imperialist 
powers from being an interimperialist war of conquest or defence of former 
conquests from earlier predatory wars, nor did it change the struggle of 
oppressed nations, i.e. mainly the then existing colonies for their national 
sovereignty, i.e. to take the bounty, for which the imperalist robber barons 
fought among themselves, out of their hands. 

  This applies also to the fight between the various entrenched and upstarting 
imperialist predators for the control over the Pacific Ocean and the whole 
Pacific Rim. 

  
Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From spalmer999 at yahoo.com  Sat Jul  4 08:15:32 2009
From: spalmer999 at yahoo.com (Steve Palmer)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 07:15:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
Message-ID: <995968.61414.qm@web80405.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


If the US is so hegemonic, it wouldn't need this access, it wouldn't need to negotiate over missiles and Obama wouldn't bother visiting Russia.

It's a very cheap insurance against any more US screwing around in Georgia. If it's a choice between that nitwit and this access it's clear what Obama will sacrifice.
And if Russia pulls the plug, what is the US going to do about it? Zip.
Business as usual in a multi-polar world.

--- On Fri, 7/3/09, Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> wrote:

> From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com>
> Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
> To: "Steve Palmer" <spalmer999 at yahoo.com>
> Date: Friday, July 3, 2009, 11:39 AM
> http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?sprache=en&id=179
> Vladimir Putin:
> We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic
> principles of 
> international law. And independent legal norms are, as a
> matter of fact, 
> coming increasingly closer to one state?s legal system.
> One state and, 
> of course, first and foremost the United States, has
> overstepped its 
> national borders in every way. This is visible in the
> economic, 
> political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on
> other 
> nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?
> 
> ---
> 
> NY Times, July 4, 2009
> Russia Opens Route for U.S. to Fly Arms to Afghanistan
> By PETER BAKER
> 
> MOSCOW ? The Russian government has agreed to allow
> American troops and
> weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian
> territory, providing
> an important new corridor for the United States military as
> it escalates
> efforts to win the eight-year-old war, officials from both
> sides said
> Friday.


      


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sat Jul  4 08:16:05 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:16:05 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras leaves OAS on its own accord
Message-ID: <000.c027090025644f4a.002@lws-media.de>


 After the OAS had in an unprecedented move threatened to suspend the OAS 
membership of Honduras if the elected president Zelaya would not be 
reinstated into his offcie within two days, the current rulers of Honduras have 
declared their exit from the organisation. 

  My impression is that the OAS will be in shambles after all this is over. 

  On the other hand, Zelaya has postponed his return to Honduras until this 
Saturday, i.e. today. 


Comradely yours, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From mina.khanlar at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 08:39:21 2009
From: mina.khanlar at gmail.com (mina khanlarzadeh)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 10:39:21 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Iranian Green Wave movement
Message-ID: <3d5371650907040739s48d08208n54816c54090574a4@mail.gmail.com>

Iranian Green Wave movement for democracy and US Left's skepticism:
http://kboo.fm/node/15065

From nmgoro at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 09:19:16 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:19:16 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>	<1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>	<96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>	<5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>	<37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>	<EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>	<48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>
	<000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <4A4F72F4.8040503@gmail.com>

L?ko Willms escribi?:
> 
>   But this did not change the character of the war between the imperialist 
> powers from being an interimperialist war of conquest or defence of former 
> conquests from earlier predatory wars, nor did it change the struggle of 
> oppressed nations, i.e. mainly the then existing colonies for their national 
> sovereignty, i.e. to take the bounty, for which the imperalist robber barons 
> fought among themselves, out of their hands. 

Not only that. If we consider the Soviet Union from what remains of all 
its struggle, it is exactly a defensive apparatus which still struggles 
"to take the bounty, for which the imperialist robber barons fought 
among themselves, out of their hands".

In this sense, the most enduring part of the October Revolution is its 
"national" side, the fact that it was _also_ a national revolution 
against imperialist predation of a decaying multinational Empire.

Lenin was so astonishly right in his "imperialist nations / oppressed 
peoples" thesis that in the end it became applicable to the peoples of 
the former Tsarist Empire as well.


From farmelantj at juno.com  Sat Jul  4 09:22:19 2009
From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 11:22:19 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] So much for challenges to American hegemony
Message-ID: <20090704.112220.1788.0.farmelantj@juno.com>

 
On Sat, 4 Jul 2009 07:15:32 -0700 (PDT) Steve Palmer
<spalmer999 at yahoo.com> writes:
> 
> If the US is so hegemonic, it wouldn't need this access, it wouldn't 
> need to negotiate over missiles and Obama wouldn't bother visiting 
> Russia.
> 
> It's a very cheap insurance against any more US screwing around in 
> Georgia. If it's a choice between that nitwit and this access it's 
> clear what Obama will sacrifice.
> And if Russia pulls the plug, what is the US going to do about it? 
> Zip.
> Business as usual in a multi-polar world.
> 

It's basically a no lose situation from the Russians' standpoint.
If the US can somehow successfully stabilize Afghanistan,
the Russians would be more than happy, since the one
thing they don't need is a radical Islamist state on their
borders.  If the US should find itself getting more and
more bogged down in an Afghan quagmire, well
that too works to the Russians' benefit, since a
weakened US cannot bully them around as much
as they used to.

Jim F.
____________________________________________________________
Store more data on a reliable tape drive. Click now!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTEqwjUBTMSvtyIfFu6uBlfdCOrsyNTv53sJjFWTRvxBwdXO0vHVrK/


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Sat Jul  4 09:31:38 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 23:31:38 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad><8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC><96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad><5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com><37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC><EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad><48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>
	<000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <0AA06CA2EA9D43CF9C4C1632AE230947@GrahamPC>


Dear Luko,
                 I don't think we are really in disagreement.   I did state 
in my last message that I thought World War Two was 'at root' an 
inter-imperialist war.   But the existence of the USSR as a workers' state 
and the embroilment of that state in the war would inevitably affect the way 
socialists viewed the war as a whole.

I met a young member of the old pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia, 
while I was selling the newspaper of the socialist group I supported back in 
the 1980s (before the emergence of Gorbachev), and he offered the 
observation to me that he saw World War Two as 'mainly a German-Russian 
war'.   I essentially agreed with him, and said so.   When you look at the 
titanic forces involved in the struggle between the Nazi imperium and Soviet 
Russia, it is tempting to put into perspective the fighting everywhere else, 
including in North Africa and in the Pacific.   Trotsky once described 
Hitler as the equivalent of a 'super Wrangel of the world bourgeoisie' 
(Baron Wrangel being one of the most ruthless and unpleasant commanders of 
the White, counter-revolutionary armies that attempted to destroy the Soviet 
power during the Civil War).   There were of course contradictions between 
the imperialist powers, but they all agreed on the desirability of 
destroying the USSR.   In a certain sense Hitler was doing a job for the 
entire world bourgeoisie by invading and attempting to destroy the Soviet 
Union.   I think that this is what Trotsky meant.   Paradoxically, the 
beneficiary of the conflict between the Western imperialist and Axis powers 
for economic and military/political supremacy was, as Trotsky predicted, the 
world revolution (including the survival and entrenchment of the USSR).

As I have stated before, I consider that the defeat of fascism, the survival 
of the USSR, the victory of the Chinese Revolution in 1949, and the boost to 
decolonisation around the world that these outcomes all contributed to,  are 
indices of a weakening of imperialism globally that was the result of World 
War Two.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "L?ko Willms" <lueko.willms at t-online.de>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two




From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 09:52:06 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:52:06 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Fundraising effort for Ezili's HLLN - Letter From Cynthia
 McKinney asking that you support Ezili/HLLN's work
Message-ID: <4A4F7AA6.7080407@gmail.com>

*Please Distribute Widely; Please Excuse Duplicate Postings*

[Forwarded from posting by Sister Ezili Dant? of HLLN]

Ezili Dant?'s Note:

Folks,

Before she left for Gaza, Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, one of HLLN
most treasured supporters and members, wrote a letter to assist us in our
fundraising efforts to keep HLLN and the newspostings going. At the time
Cynthia McKinney wrote us the fundraising letter, we were dealing with the
sudden death of Father Jean Juste and then the subsequent crisis surrounding
the UN shooting at Jean Juste's funeral in Haiti, so it never did go out as
intended.

But it is essential, if we are to continue to provide this Haitian-led,
Haiti-capacity-building coverage that you won't find anywhere else on this
planet about Haiti by Haitians that we also address this critical issue of
financial support. So I write to you today to ask you to help Ezili's HLLN
continue its work by making a donation and becoming a paid subscriber. 
As you
know we work hard at giving voice to the voiceless in Haiti. And we want to
continue providing the counter-colonial narrative on Haiti, news analysis,
original writings and being the firewall against untruths as well as to
continue pursuing our various campaigns against injustice, debt, 
dependency and
foreign domination in Haiti. But we need your financial support to keep this
work going, the website updated, the listserve well-researched, the
FreeHaitiMovement campaigns growing, the Ezili Danto Witness Project 
operating,
as well as our grassroots reform project in Haiti on track.

We, at HLLN, are asking for your financial support in order to continue 
Ezili
Danto's Work. We must raise at least $60,000 dollars to keep this work 
and our
programs going until the end of this year. So, please consider making an
immediate donation towards this goal, as well as becoming a paid subscriber.
Paid subscribers pay $12.50 per month/paid quarterly at $37.50 in an 
automatic
credit card withdrawal every three month through our pay pal account 
on-line.

You may also send your checks by mail. Donation specifics are readily 
available
on our website at: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/donate/donate.html 
And, we
have a non-for-profit sponsor.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call 203 829 7210 or drop 
us an
email at erzilidanto at yahoo.com. If a "certificate" icon comes up as you're
trying to make your donation, just accept the "temporary certificate" and
continue. Our donation page is perfectly safe. We are trying to add at least
300 new subscribers to our list by the end of the summer and count on you to
become a paid subscriber. Below is the kind letter written by Congresswoman
Cynthia Mckinney urging you to do so.

To understand Ezili HLLN's common ground with Cynthia Mckinney is to 
know that
Cynthia Mckinney, might as well be Haitian right now, she currently 
languishes
in an Israeli prison awaiting deportation for not even entering 
illegally into
Israeli territory. Her crime: bringing needed aid to the people of Gaza on a
ship fittingly called "The Spirit of Humanity." For almost two decades, 
we have
urged, through Ezili Danto's original writings, HLLN legal advocacy and 
Haiti
cultural work, lifting the spirit of humane treatment for the people of 
Haiti
who are constantly being lifted from international waters and "deported." We
know well the arrogance of power that summarily denies certain human 
beings the
benefits of life, amnesty, justice and human rights. But in these economic
times, Ezili Danto's and HLLN's relief work cannot continue without your
donations, paid subscriptions and support.


******

Dear Reader:

I'm writing to you because I'm concerned about the Haitian Lawyers 
Leadership
Network's future and their decades of dedication to the voiceless of the
Republic of Haiti.

As a former Member of the United States House of Representatives and a 
former
presidential candidate of the Green Party, I am passionate about strong
journalism and its role in binding a community together. Too many of the
mainstream media outlets have proven to us that they are the voices of big
corporate interests and oligarchs. HLLN and Marguerite Laurent make a
difference by giving us the Ezili Danto's news analysis and have over the
years proven it to be the reference when it comes to Haitian issues.
It only takes a moment to understand why Ezili Danto's List is 
irreplaceable:
 No other news or online source tells the Haitian narrative in such a
comprehensive manner. 

The HLLN Ezili Danto List is a critical reference for community leaders,
opinion makers, activists and those concerned about Haiti and the Haitian
people everywhere. If this includes you, then I am asking you to please 
stand
up during these uncertain time, make a donation to help HLLN meet its 
financial
goals and maintain its work. Become a Paid Subscriber for just $12.50 per
month, which is less than .50cents per day. (For donations to support this
work, go to - http://www.margueritelaurent.com/donate/donate.html)  Your
generous donation to help HLLN meet its current financial obligations 
and then
to maintain its work by becoming a paid subscriber, which is less than 
.50cents
per day will ensure that HLLN continues to provide us the Ezili Danto List
needed to stay informed, engaged and effective.  

I can't imagine us without our HLLN Ezili Danto List. If you can't either,
become a member now. (For donations to support this work, go to -
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/donate/donate.html)
Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney
Presidential Nominee Green Party of the United States
Former Member of the U.S House of Representatives
*******************************************************
Forwarded by Ezili's Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
*******************************************************

Donate to Support this Work:
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From sartesian at earthlink.net  Sat Jul  4 09:59:38 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 11:59:38 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270><E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC><7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com><A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC><81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com><1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad><8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC><96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad><5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com><37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC><EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad><48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC><000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
	<0AA06CA2EA9D43CF9C4C1632AE230947@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <A19A26C2F3874FEDAC357E86009873C4@dmsthinkpad>

The beneficiary of  WW2 was the USSR and the world revolution?-- that's a 
hell of a check the beneficiaries received.

This is where I think the so-called new take on WW2 turns into cognitive 
dissonance.

The destruction endured by the USSR was so great that it never truly 
recovered, with agricultural productivity in particular stagnant and even 
declining in its last decade.


The Chinese Revolution did destroy the war-lords, the large landholders, and 
what little there was of a bourgeoisie, and certainly deserves defense from 
advanced capitalist attack, but a great victory for humanity?  The Chinese 
Revolution did not change the configuration of a agricultural production; it 
did not lead to any great industrial leap forward, and the Chinese 
themselves hardly played an unequivocating role in other liberation 
struggles around the world.

Look at Russia now. Look at China now.  How can we assess the results of WW2 
without assessing the current results, unless we suppose something equally 
cataclysmic to WW2 occurred to reverse the "great benefits" to the world 
revolution?

And to Nestor-- the Russian Revolution in its origin, manifestation, and 
requirements for success was not a "national liberation" struggle.  The 
national liberation elements are something grafted onto it only in its 
retreat.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G K Milner" <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 11:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two





From farmelantj at juno.com  Sat Jul  4 10:34:35 2009
From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 12:34:35 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
Message-ID: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com>

 
On Sat, 4 Jul 2009 11:59:38 -0400 "S. Artesian" <sartesian at earthlink.net>
writes:
> The beneficiary of  WW2 was the USSR and the world revolution?-- 
> that's a 
> hell of a check the beneficiaries received.
> 
> This is where I think the so-called new take on WW2 turns into 
> cognitive 
> dissonance.
> 
> The destruction endured by the USSR was so great that it never truly 
> 
> recovered, with agricultural productivity in particular stagnant and 
> even 
> declining in its last decade.

Well, the Soviet Union did manage to survive for another
45 years or so, during which period it provided an
important counterweight to Western imperialism.
The Second World War, at least temporarily, weakened
imperialism, making possible the wave of decolonialization
that followed the war.

> 
> 
> The Chinese Revolution did destroy the war-lords, the large 
> landholders, and 
> what little there was of a bourgeoisie, and certainly deserves 
> defense from 
> advanced capitalist attack, but a great victory for humanity?  The 
> Chinese 
> Revolution did not change the configuration of a agricultural 
> production; it 
> did not lead to any great industrial leap forward, and the Chinese 
> themselves hardly played an unequivocating role in other liberation 
> 
> struggles around the world.

I agree that China's role in the world is equivocal, but China
is now a days, a major economic power, an achievement that
does follow from the Chinese Revolution.

> 
> Look at Russia now. Look at China now.  How can we assess the 
> results of WW2 
> without assessing the current results, unless we suppose something 
> equally 
> cataclysmic to WW2 occurred to reverse the "great benefits" to the 
> world 
> revolution?
> 
> And to Nestor-- the Russian Revolution in its origin, manifestation, 
> and 
> requirements for success was not a "national liberation" struggle.  
> The 
> national liberation elements are something grafted onto it only in 
> its 
> retreat.
> 
>
____________________________________________________________
Free info on hundreds of money making restaurants and food franchises.  Click Now!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTOnEftb3QXFAIbk6jEigkcsT508uODDCHfOO4LOLOiBjVJIZ9fVvS/


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 10:49:08 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 12:49:08 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] FAIR petition to demand media coverage for single-payer
Message-ID: <709f342d0907040949l6b4b3bdds1c7ef292d77b8986@mail.gmail.com>

<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/t/9039/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1993>


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Sat Jul  4 10:53:33 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 12:53:33 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
References: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com>
Message-ID: <7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad>

Yes the USSR survived another 45 years, and yes it was a counterweight to 
advanced capitalism-- preventing, probably, nuclear attacks on itself, 
China, Vietnam.  Yes, I support the view that argues/argued for defense of 
the USSR, would have nice for it to be a revolutionary defense, but...  But 
I don't think that defense, and that right of the USSR to conclude military 
alliances with countries,  requires support endorsement of the "Allies" as 
Allies; doesn't for example require a communist member of parliament, 
congress to vote for war funding in the UK or the US.

We have to come to grips with the clear defeat and sacrifice of socialist 
revolutionary struggles that is coincident with the survival of the USSR, 
the major economic power of China, etc.  We didn't get one without the 
other, and it cannot be parsed out along the old "on the one hand....while 
the other hand" lines.

I don't think we can grasp where we are today, without subjecting all that 
baggage about WW2 and beneficiaries to close examination.

Regarding China-- not that major an economic power, except on and with 
paper,  and its power  is a capitalist power.  Where the benefit is in that 
escapes me.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj at juno.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two




From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 12:56:38 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 14:56:38 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] From the sublime to the ridiculous: OBAMA: "Stop
	targeting Conservatives who oppose the public option."
Message-ID: <709f342d0907041156jc579db3x4797b7e29ae6141a@mail.gmail.com>

Obama Urges Groups to Stop Attacks*
Advocates Should Turn Attention to Promoting Legislation, President Says

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 4, 2009

 President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about
health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop
their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting
passage of comprehensive legislation.

In a pre-holiday call with half a dozen top House and Senate Democrats,
Obama expressed his concern over advertisements and online campaigns
targeting moderate Democrats, whom they criticize for not being fully
devoted to "true" health-care reform.

"We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama opined in the
call, according to three sources who participated in or listened to the
conversation. "We ought to be focused on winning this debate."

Specifically, Obama said he is hoping left-leaning organizations that worked
on his behalf in the presidential campaign will now rally support for
"advancing legislation" that fulfills his goal of expanding coverage,
controlling rising costs and modernizing the health system.

In the call, leaders of both chambers expressed optimism that they will hold
floor votes on legislation to overhaul the $2.2 trillion health system
before Congress breaks in early August.

For his part, the president vowed to use his strong approval rating with
voters to continue making the case for sweeping reform, according to one
congressional staffer with knowledge of the conversation. Obama also hinted
that efforts are under way to discourage allies from future attacks on
Democrats, according to the source, who did not have permission to speak on
the record about the discussion.

The White House had no comment on the president's call.

In recent weeks, liberal bloggers and grass-roots groups such as MoveOn.org,
Democracy for America, Service Employees International Union and Progressive
Change Campaign Committee have targeted Democratic Sens. Ben
Nelson<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/n000180/>(Neb.),
Mary
Landrieu <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/l000550/>(La.),
Arlen
Specter <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/s000709/>(Pa.),
Ron
Wyden <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/w000779/> (Ore.)
and Dianne Feinstein<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/f000062/>(Calif.).

A fundraising video produced by Democracy for America suggests Landrieu is a
"sellout" because she has received $1.6 million in campaign contributions
from the health-care industry and has yet to endorse the concept of a
government-run health insurance plan to compete against the private
companies. The public-option concept, which Obama supports, has become a
litmus test for many pro-reform activists who accuse the insurance industry
of failing to deliver affordable, accessible care.

"Tell Senator Landrieu to support the people of Louisiana, not insurance
companies," the spot concludes.

Founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Democracy for America argues
that inclusion of a Medicare-style public option in health-care legislation
is "non-negotiable."

MoveOn, a Web-based political action committee that works to elect
"progressive" leaders, intended to run commercials over the Fourth of July
holiday criticizing Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) for her silence on the public
option. But after she endorsed legislation crafted by Democratic colleagues
on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that
includes that provision, the group dropped its plans.

"This measure is the heart of health-care reform and is supported by
MoveOn's 5 million members, as well as the majority of the American people,"
said MoveOn's executive director, Justin Ruben. "With the support of
legislators like Senator Hagan, we can come closer to our goal of making
quality health insurance accessible and affordable for everyone."

Health Care for American Now, a labor-based coalition of 1,000 groups, has
organized a petition pressuring Feinstein to support legislation that
includes a public option.

"We need a senator who is championing, not nay saying, the need for reform,"
the petition says. "We're hoping Sen. Feinstein becomes a 'champion' for the
people of California and stands up for President Obama's health reform."

Richard Kirsch, who runs the coalition, said most of the group's ads are
educational or focused generally on the need for broad-based change.

"We've been promoting reform and yes, asking members of the public to
contact their senators," he said yesterday. "It's all in support of reform."


Feinstein said in an interview last week that she does support health reform
but has concerns about the cost of legislation and the impact on her home
state. She discounted the attacks as unhelpful and counterproductive.

Obama was joined on the call with lawmakers by White House health czar
Nancy-Ann DeParle, though he led most of the conversation. DeParle and White
House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina have been in intense negotiations
with hospital representatives in the hope of extracting guaranteed spending
reductions from the industry.


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Sat Jul  4 13:01:37 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 03:01:37 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad>
References: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com>
	<7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <F788EEFBFCC24BC99D2421B8A446CDE5@GrahamPC>


James P. Cannon, the leader of the US Socialist Workers Party, put forward 
at the Minneapolis 'sedition' trial in 1941, where he faced an indictment 
with other leaders of the party on charges of advocating the forcible 
overthrow of the US government, the notion that his party would support a 
war against Hitler, and military conscription, only if the organisation and 
deployment of the armed forces was put under the control of the US labour 
movement (meaning the trades unions).   I think I have that right.   The 
policy is presented in 'Socialism on Trial', the transcript of Cannon's 
testimony.

I first came across 'Socialism on Trial' in 1973, as a fresh recruit to the 
youth organisation of the group in Australia sympathetic to the Fourth 
International's then minority tendency (of which the US SWP was the most 
influential component).   I must admit that, even then, I found Cannon's 
concepts difficult to come to terms with, at least on that question. 
Pretty well everything else in 'Socialism on Trial' seemed to me to be very 
well argued and presented, but the 'proletarian military policy', as I think 
it was called, seemed aberrant to me.   It strikes me as being a bit like 
the 'trade union defence guards' advocacy that the Spartacist League (and 
probably other groups on the left) raised in the USA, back in the 1970s, 
during the struggle to desegregate Boston schools.   These 'defence guards' 
were advocated as an alternative to the demand that most of the left in the 
USA, including the SWP, were raising for the despatch of federal troops to 
Boston to enforce busing.

What I mean is that Cannon's demand is simply unrealistic, and it means that 
in practice the Nazis will not be fought with the willing participation of 
the labour movement, if it is left up to the SWP.   I might be 
misrepresenting Cannon, someone for whom I have a great deal of respect, and 
if I am I regret it.   But, overlooking the anachronism, if federal troops 
can be used to put racists out of action in Boston in the 1970s, then surely 
units of the US armed forces can be deployed to crack 'Festung Europa'. 
I'm prepared to listen to other points of view about this matter, but my own 
personal opinion, as I outlined in my original piece on this subject, is 
that, had I been of the right age, I would have been alongside George Orwell 
in 1939 (and my father, too, actually!), volunteering for the fighting 
services in some capacity.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "S. Artesian" <sartesian at earthlink.net>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 12:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two


> Yes the USSR survived another 45 years, and yes it was a counterweight to
> advanced capitalism-- preventing, probably, nuclear attacks on itself,
> China, Vietnam.  Yes, I support the view that argues/argued for defense of
> the USSR, would have nice for it to be a revolutionary defense, but... 
> But
> I don't think that defense, and that right of the USSR to conclude 
> military
> alliances with countries,  requires support endorsement of the "Allies" as
> Allies; doesn't for example require a communist member of parliament,
> congress to vote for war funding in the UK or the US.
>
> We have to come to grips with the clear defeat and sacrifice of socialist
> revolutionary struggles that is coincident with the survival of the USSR,
> the major economic power of China, etc.  We didn't get one without the
> other, and it cannot be parsed out along the old "on the one hand....while
> the other hand" lines.
>
> I don't think we can grasp where we are today, without subjecting all that
> baggage about WW2 and beneficiaries to close examination.
>
> Regarding China-- not that major an economic power, except on and with
> paper,  and its power  is a capitalist power.  Where the benefit is in 
> that
> escapes me.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj at juno.com>
> To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: 
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gkmilner%40eftel.net.au
> 



From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sat Jul  4 13:15:46 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:15:46 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <0AA06CA2EA9D43CF9C4C1632AE230947@GrahamPC>
References: <6665D3BBCA204F21B42642A82EDBBB7E@gx270>
	<E07E8E99807C40B292C817EF6ECF5FF4@GrahamPC>
	<7393430A-C670-43CC-8328-3F8B7845D1F7@pipeline.com>
	<A306D9DB96FE4B6BB688786FDE3F11FE@GrahamPC>
	<81BF597C-6E59-4575-8C5E-1CCF6537C31E@pipeline.com>
	<1A1836E6A85A4644853B60120BE6E291@dmsthinkpad>
	<8460EAC2F1F44C4DB617C33A0E167E7F@ThomasPC>
	<96DD2944F33E42CA8CB7364199D97DFC@dmsthinkpad>
	<5E66BD60-F835-42BE-A5E4-1F675955EB44@pipeline.com>
	<37D14F0B1F6C4ACD87D6F0B3215DC9F2@GrahamPC>
	<EA8B4C9D40624CB98691CE03DFDAD1ED@dmsthinkpad>
	<48264D8755D1495FAD0F6EE345EA38A3@GrahamPC>
	<000.383e0200ff624f4a.1666@lws-media.de>
	<0AA06CA2EA9D43CF9C4C1632AE230947@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <000.a84f030062aa4f4a.014@lws-media.de>

G K Milner (gkmilner at eftel.net.au) wrote on 2009-07-04 at 23:31:38 in  about 
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
>                  I don't think we are really in disagreement.   

  Well, according to everything which I have read from you, we are in very 
very deep disagreement. Reread my previous answer to you about the 
strange idea that an "Australian" (who is that) should thank somebody of 
having prevented a Japanese invation of that island-continent. 

  I understood your contributions as supporting the US, British and French 
colonialy robber barons against the Japanese colonial robber barons, which 
is certainly the opposite of what I have said and written nearly all my life. 

> I did state in my last message that I thought World War Two 
> was 'at root' an inter-imperialist war.  

   That was it main cause, and was the reason for all the imperialist powers, 
from Britain and their colonial-settler states in Oceania wen to war: to defend 
their colonial dictatorship over hundreds of millions of colonial slaves. 

> But the existence of the USSR as a workers' state and the embroilment 
> of that state in the war would inevitably affect the way socialists viewed 
> the war as a whole.

  As a war which was a combination of many wars: of the war of the 
oppressed nations, i.e. colonies like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, China, etc 
fighting for their independence, their national self-determination, the 
revolutionary war of the USSR defending the conquests of the October 
Revolution against the imperialis onslaught (well, revolunionary at least in its 
basis, even if the Stalinist burocracy tried its utmost to suppress the 
revolutionary character of the war), the struggle of the imperialist newcomers 
in Europe, mainly Germany and Italy, for a redivision of the colonial empires 
of all European colonial powers, which meant that France, England, Belgium, 
Netherlands and Denmark would have to give up at least a large part of the 
colonies in Africa and Asia, the struggle of the USA to impose their rule over 
_all_ of the Pacific Ocean and Pacific Rim, i.e. to take over the British, 
French, Portuguese and Dutch colonies as they had taken over before the 
Spanish colonies in the Pacific, and at the same time to keep their Japanese 
rival in check, who tried to expand their empire, too. And then the war of the 
USA against Britain where the shooting was done not by US arms, but by 
German and Japanese, but which resulting nontheless in a victory of the USA 
over Britain in this second phase of the interimperialist slaughter. 

> I met a young member of the old pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia, 
     
> I essentially agreed with him, and said so.   
 
   That is what you are writing all the time, and I do sharply disagree with the 
Stalinist support for the imperialist war. 

   The big crime of Stalinism in this so called Second World War (it was the 
continuation of the so called First) was to prevent the Communist Parties all 
over the world to fight their own oppressors and to fight for national 
liberation. So the Brits could even free a CP leader in India during the war, 
and he would support his slaveholder. 


Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From mqduck at mqduck.net  Sat Jul  4 14:01:47 2009
From: mqduck at mqduck.net (Jeffrey Thomas Piercy)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:01:47 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
In-Reply-To: <d12.23260738.37804895@aol.com>
References: <d12.23260738.37804895@aol.com>
Message-ID: <4A4FB52B.6060300@mqduck.net>

Very relieving. For a moment there I feared the mindless media obsession
over the sins of this strange and deviant celebrity pervert might have
fallen out of fashion.

Jscotlive at aol.com wrote:
> _http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-ve
> ry-dangerous-1731258.html_ 
> (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-very-dangerous-1731258.html) 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/mqduck%40mqduck.net
>   


From shmage at pipeline.com  Sat Jul  4 14:37:08 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 16:37:08 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
In-Reply-To: <4A4FB52B.6060300@mqduck.net>
References: <d12.23260738.37804895@aol.com> <4A4FB52B.6060300@mqduck.net>
Message-ID: <9D18E116-4AF7-40DC-AB9C-A7BBC1D4507D@pipeline.com>

>
> Jscotlive at aol.com wrote:
>> _http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-ve
>> ry-dangerous-1731258.html_
>> (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-very-dangerous-1731258.html 
>> )
>>
How brave! To wait until your victim is dead and can no longer sue!


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sat Jul  4 14:38:25 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:38:25 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] The revolutionary party: moving forward and standing pat
Message-ID: <4A4FBDC1.2050500@panix.com>

As a long-time observer of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (it used 
to be Party rather than Perspective) in Australia, I was very pleased to 
see them departing from conventional ?Leninist? thinking and announce 
what amounts to an entirely different approach to the Socialist 
Alliance, a formation they have been leading for a number of years. 
Their inspiration is the NPA in France, a broad anti-capitalist 
formation that was initiated by the LCR, the official section of the 
Fourth International that has dissolved itself into the NPA.

The DSP lays out its new relationship to the SA in a document approved 
by their National Committee on June 7th. There is much to appreciate in 
this document, especially this:

Small socialist organisations operating in relative isolation in the 
working class movements, or sometimes substantially outside these 
movements because they are composed almost totally of small groups of 
?socialist intellectuals? are chronically plagued with what might be 
called ?Marxist? identity politics. That is they are more concerned 
about ?proving? to themselves that they are ?real Marxists? than 
actually applying what Marx, Engels and Lenin taught which is to build 
real socialist leadership in the working class. In fact, the further 
away such groups are from that objective, the more loudly they assert 
their ?Marxist? identity. What passes as politics in ?the left? as we 
have it in this country can degenerate to little more than a ridiculous 
I?m-more-Marxist-than-you pissing competition. We?ve all seen this time 
and again with various little sects. And we?ve also seen this tendency 
in our own organisation.

Read full article at: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/the-revolutionary-party-moving-forward-and-standing-pat/


From eindeoc at freenet.de  Sat Jul  4 14:46:59 2009
From: eindeoc at freenet.de (Einde O'Callaghan)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:46:59 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of
 Eastern	Germans Feel Life Better under Communism
In-Reply-To: <265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <4A4E7D76.3090102@gvtel.com>
	<265390.15104.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4A4FBFC3.9050004@freenet.de>

milongonsinga wrote:
> 
> 
> "And I suspect these interviewees are right to not see in Western capitalist Germany a great improvement over the GDR."
> 
> Nazi West Germany colonized East Germany. I believe this is what folks are sensing and what they're expressing.
> 
If you actually understood what Naziism really is you wouldn't throw the 
word around so carelessly. There definitely was a hostile takeover of 
the GDR by West German capitalism, but to describe West Germany then or 
Germany now as being Nazi is to show no understanding of what Naziism or 
fascism is.

I live in former East Germany and am well aware of what has happened 
here having lived through it. People do look back with a certain amount 
of nostalgia to a period when there was full employment and a certain 
level of egalitarianism, financial security and social solidarity. 
However, most people I know - including people who were members of the 
SED, the ruling party in the GDR - look back at what was lost but very 
few, if any, of them actually want to go back to the old system, which 
they realise had reached a political and economic impasse in the 1980s.

Einde O'Callaghan


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sat Jul  4 14:54:59 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:54:59 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <F788EEFBFCC24BC99D2421B8A446CDE5@GrahamPC>
References: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com>
	<7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad>
	<F788EEFBFCC24BC99D2421B8A446CDE5@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <000.d8a00900a3c14f4a.019@lws-media.de>

G K Milner (gkmilner at eftel.net.au) wrote on 2009-07-05 at 03:01:37 in  about 
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two:
> 
> 
> James P. Cannon, the leader of the US Socialist Workers Party, put forward 
> at the Minneapolis 'sedition' trial in 1941, where he faced an indictment 
> with other leaders of the party on charges of advocating the forcible 
> overthrow of the US government, the notion that his party would support a 
> war against Hitler, and military conscription, only if the organisation and 
> deployment of the armed forces was put under the control of the US labour 
> movement (meaning the trades unions).   

   Or to say the same in the words of an independence fighter in India or 
Vietnam or Indonesia: "Sure, we will fight a war against Hitler or the Tenno, if 
they ever attack our country and want to subjugate us under their colonial 
rule, and we will fight against them the same way as we fight now against 
you, the British or French colonialist slaveholders."

  And: "If you really care about fighting for democracy, show how serious you 
are by giving making way for democracy in our country, and do it NOW,  
withdraw all your troops and police and judges and colonial administrators 
and bring them home, leave us alone with independence and our national 
sovereignty, and you will have -- besides scoring a convincing political point 
against the fascists -- additional forces to defend your own country."

  And they might also explain that such a political move would have a huge 
impact in Germany, Italy and Japan, proving by deed that not "all are the 
same and all have to fight for 'Lebensraum'", and giving a new hope to the 
workers being oppressed by the fascist dictatorship. 

  That is the revolutionary policy in the inter-imperialist war. 

  The opposite was one of the main causes for the victory of fascism in 
Spain -- the Republic did not declare independence for the Spanish colonies. 

  And of course, those independence fighters would also vow to help the 
USSR defending itself against the imperialist onslaught, becauset that was 
their own struggle, too. 

> What I mean is that Cannon's demand is simply unrealistic, 

   But what you voice are utopian illusions. 

   Cannon pointed out the only realistic way to fight fascism by fighting 
against imperialism, for workers rights and national liberation of the colonies. 



Cheers, 
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From davidrail68 at yahoo.com  Sat Jul  4 15:10:56 2009
From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 14:10:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro" by
	Frederick Douglass
Message-ID: <685817.28012.qm@web45316.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html

"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine."

Che


      

From markalause at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 15:38:47 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:38:47 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro" by
	Frederick Douglass
In-Reply-To: <685817.28012.qm@web45316.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
References: <685817.28012.qm@web45316.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907041438w7c3c5332s67aa66348a510a95@mail.gmail.com>

"Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States is none
other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable War of one
portion of its citizens upon another portion; the only conditions of
which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute
extermination; in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and
self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence:" --
John Brown, 1858


From marvgandall at videotron.ca  Sat Jul  4 15:43:43 2009
From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:43:43 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Telegraph columnist: now comes the social crisis
Message-ID: <172871E691464F838A13A1217FF66667@MARV>

The unemployment timebomb is quietly ticking
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph
July 4 2009

One dog has yet to bark in this long winding crisis. Beyond riots in Athens
and a Baltic bust-up, we have not seen evidence of bitter political protest
as the slump eats away at the legitimacy of governing elites in North
America, Europe, and Japan. It may just be a matter of time.

One of my odd experiences covering the US in the early 1990s was visiting
militia groups that sprang up in Texas, Idaho, and Ohio in the aftermath of
recession. These were mostly blue-collar workers, ? early victims of global
"labour arbitrage" ? angry enough with Washington to spend weekends in
fatigues with M16 rifles. Most backed protest candidate Ross Perot, who won
19pc of the presidential vote in 1992 with talk of shutting trade with
Mexico.

The inchoate protest dissipated once recovery fed through to jobs, although
one fringe group blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995.
Unfortunately, there will be no such jobs this time. Capacity use has fallen
to record-low levels (68pc in the US, 71 in the eurozone). A deep purge of
labour is yet to come.

The shocker last week was not just that the US lost 467,000 jobs in May, but
also that time worked fell 6.9pc from a year earlier, dropping to 33 hours a
week. "At no time in the 1990 or 2001 recessions did we ever come close to
seeing such a detonating jobs figure," said David Rosenberg from Glukin
Sheff. "We have lost a record nine million full-time jobs this cycle."

Earnings have fallen at a 1.6pc annual rate over the last three months. Wage
deflation is setting in ? like Japan. Interestingly, The International
Labour Organisation is worried enough to push for a global pact, fearing
countries may set off a ruinous spiral by chipping away at wages try to gain
beggar-thy-neighbour advantage.

Some of the US pay cuts are disguised. Over 238,000 state workers in
California have been working two days less a month without pay since
February. Variants of this are happening in 22 states.

The Centre for Labour Market Studies (CLMS) in Boston says US unemployment
is now 18.2pc, counting the old-fashioned way. The reason why this does not
"feel" like the 1930s is that we tend to compress the chronology of the
Depression. It takes time for people to deplete their savings and sink into
destitution. Perhaps our greater cushion of wealth today will prevent
another Grapes of Wrath, but 20m US homeowners are already in negative
equity (zillow.com data). Evictions are running at a terrifying pace.

Some 342,000 homes were foreclosed in April, pushing a small army of
children into a network of charity shelters. This compares to 273,000 homes
lost in the entire year of 1932. Sheriffs in Michigan and Illinois are
quietly refusing to toss families on to the streets, like the non-compliance
of Catholic police in the Slump.

Europe is a year or so behind, but catching up fast. Unemployment has
reached 18.7pc in Spain (37pc for youths), and 16.3pc in Latvia. Germany has
delayed the cliff-edge effect by paying companies to keep furloughed workers
through "Kurzarbeit". Germany's "Wise Men" fear that the jobless rate will
jump from 3.7m to 5.1m by next year. The OECD expects unemployment to reach
57m in the rich countries by the end of next year.

This is the deadly lag effect. What is so disturbing is that governments
have not even begun the spending squeeze that must come to stop their
countries spiralling into a debt compound trap.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, with a good nose for popular moods, says:
"We must overhaul everything. We cannot have a system of rentiers and social
dumping under globalisation. Either we have justice or we will have
violence. It is a chimera to think that this crisis is just a footnote and
that we can carry on as before."

The message has not reached Wall Street or the City. If bankers know what is
good for them, they will take a teacher's salary for a few years until the
storm passes. If they proceed with the bonuses now on the table, even as
taxpayers pay for the errors of their caste, they must expect a ferocious
backlash.

We are fortunate that the US has a new president enjoying a great reservoir
of sympathy, and a clean-broom Congress. Other nations must limp on with
carcass governments: Germany's paralysed Left-Right coalition, the
burned-out relics of Japan's LDP, and Labour's death march in Britain. Some
are taking precautions: Silvio Berlusconi is trying to emasculate Italy's
parliament (with little protest) while the Kremlin has activated
"anti-crisis" units to nip protest in the bud.

We are moving into Phase II of the Great Unwinding. It may be time to put
away our texts of Keynes, Friedman, and Fisher, so useful for Phase 1, and
start studying what happened to society when global unemployment went
haywire in 1932.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5742937/The-unemployment-timebomb-is-quietly-ticking.html




From Waistline2 at aol.com  Sat Jul  4 17:21:29 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 19:21:29 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
Message-ID: <d00.59f06057.37813df9@aol.com>

In a message dated 7/4/2009 4:02:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
mqduck at mqduck.net writes:

Very relieving. For a moment there I feared the mindless media  obsession
over the sins of this strange and deviant celebrity pervert might  have
fallen out of fashion.

Jscotlive at aol.com wrote:
> 
(_http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-very-dangerous-1731258.html_ 
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michael-jackson-bad-and-very-dangerous-1731258.html) ) 
 
 
Comment
 
The article above and those who support it are degenerates and fools. The  
worse sort of white fascists and should be suspended from the list. 
 
Do you want a detailed accounting of the article?  I do expect  this from 
this list. 
 
Here is what the article above states and that you support . . . . you  
degenerate fuck. 
 
 
?Hang on a minute. I'm not the kind of person to start Paedogeddon-style  
witch-hunts gratuitously, but ... I thought I'd find some real analysis of 
the  "troubling stuff" somewhere.? 
 
?He was acquitted, we are reminded. Well, like many people in our post-OJ,  
post-Tyson world, I am not inclined to treat the acquittal of a celebrity 
with a  billion-dollar legal team behind him by a Californian court as a 
gold-plated  get-out-of-jail-free card.? 
 
?There were also, presumably, different Hitlers. Some people might like to  
remember the Hitler who reunited Germany and brought back full employment. 
Not  the later Hitlers, with their "attendant problems". The problem is that 
people  keep on bringing up all the bloody stuff that these other later, 
more  troublesome, Hitlers did.? 
 
?To go back to the Nazi analogy: our Kirsty, having the chance to bring up  
the concentration camps, cuts in with a reference to one of the other pesky 
 Hitlers dishonouring the Nazi/Soviet pact. 
 
?And this was Newsnight. I wanted to weep. 
 
?At this point let me state my own position baldly: I believe that, at  
least in his later life, Michael Jackson was an active, predatory paedophile.  
(In terms of focusing on this I seem to be in the minority: Google "Jackson  
death" and you'll get something like 65 million hits. Google "Jackson  
paedophile" and you'll get around 150,000.)? 
 
 
The message comes through clear; Michael Jackson is akin to Adolph Hitler  
and the phenomena of German fascism.   
 
?Michael Jackson was an active, predatory paedophile. (In terms of focusing 
 on this I seem to be in the minority:? but it matters little to the author 
why  they are in the minority.  
 
There is a supposed connection between Michael Jackson, as a   ?predatory 
paedophile? and OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson and Adolph Hitler. Together  this 
deadly matrix of black male entertainers constituted a deadly and  degenerate 
force of history sufficient to divide history into ?before? and  ?after? 
categories, based on their crimes. Read the article submitted to this  Marxist 
list for yourself. 
 
You degenerate fuck. 
 
Go to hell. 
 
 
Wl. 




**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sat Jul  4 20:12:09 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:12:09 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] TeleSURtv.net - Nicaragua denounces Violent and Macabre
 plot by Honduran Coup-mongers
Message-ID: <B2D6BBC2-F7AD-427A-B5B4-9485280A8FB2@mac.com>

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/53444-NN/nicaragua- 
advierte-en-la-oea--sobre-planes-macabros-de-golpistas-en-honduras/


The Nicaraguan rep. to the OAS reports that the coup mongers in  
Honduras are planning to use the mass media to foment a macabre and  
violent strategy against the popular resistance with the pretext that  
Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela are preparing to send armed and  
irregular combat forces to attack the forces of reaction there. 


From Waistline2 at aol.com  Sat Jul  4 22:02:08 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 00:02:08 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia Mike Tyson and OJ
	Simpson
Message-ID: <c93.4b0143db.37817fc0@aol.com>

"Hang on a minute. I'm not the kind of person to start Paedogeddon-style  
witch-hunts gratuitously, but ... I thought I'd find some real analysis of 
the  "troubling stuff" somewhere." 
 
"He was acquitted, we are reminded. Well, like many people in our post-OJ,  
post-Tyson world, I am not inclined to treat the acquittal of a celebrity 
with a  billion-dollar legal team behind him by a Californian court as a 
gold-plated  get-out-of-jail-free card." 
 
"There were also, presumably, different Hitlers. Some people might like to  
remember the Hitler who reunited Germany and brought back full employment. 
Not  the later Hitlers, with their "attendant problems". The problem is that 
people  keep on bringing up all the bloody stuff that these other later, 
more  troublesome, Hitlers did." 
 
"To go back to the Nazi analogy: our Kirsty, having the chance to bring up  
the concentration camps, cuts in with a reference to one of the other pesky 
 Hitlers dishonouring the Nazi/Soviet pact. 
 
"And this was Newsnight. I wanted to weep. 
 
"At this point let me state my own position baldly: I believe that, at  
least in his later life, Michael Jackson was an active, predatory paedophile.  
(In terms of focusing on this I seem to be in the minority: Google "Jackson  
death" and you'll get something like 65 million hits. Google "Jackson  
paedophile" and you'll get around 150,000.)" 
 

Comment 
 
There is a supposed connection between Michael Jackson, as a   "predatory 
paedophile" and OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson and Adolph Hitler. Together  this 
matrix of entertainers constituted a deadly force of history sufficient to  
divide history into "before" and "after" categories, based on their crimes. 
 
"Like many people in our post-OJ, post-Tyson world," our author   "wanted 
to weep" because the "masses" choose to not talk about or focus on  Michael 
Jackson being an "active, predatory paedophile." 
 
Is not an active pedophile by definition predatory? That is to say an  
inactive pedophile - (one who enjoys say child pornography but does not act upon 
 this impulse and pursue children a victims), has not cross the line of 
criminal  conduct. 
 
The author weaves OJ Simpson and Mike Tyson together in an ideological  
concoction of murder and rape and then drags in the Nazi movement as it 
defeated  the German working class and laid waste to Europe to the tune of perhaps 
50  million people; 22 - 25 million Soviets, six million Jews, a million 
here and a  million there,  . . . . but one gets the drift. 
 
Somehow O J Simpson and Mike Tyson are connected to and equated with  the 
Nazi/Soviet pact. Pardon if this history and these connection are not  
immediately apparent. 
 
Apparently if you do not condemn Michael Jackson as criminal (active)  
pedophile, you are no more than a collaborator and supporter of Hitler according 
 to the logic of this article. Why was such an article forwarded to this 
list? I  had no intention of replying if no one else replied. 
 
"I believe that, . . . . Michael Jackson was an active, predatory  
paedophile," pleads the author and the rest of humanity - us, who choose to  
celebrate his musical contributions are akin to "ignorant peasant like masses,"  
who fail to understand the world altering impact of Mike Tyson, O J Simpson  
and Michael Jackson as he offered children liquor - (a drug for God sake),  
the art of masturbation and carried out adult sexual violation of minors. 
 
According to the author, the issue is not Michael Jackson being acquitted. 
 
The issue is the mass attitude that fails to divine the post OJ and Mike  
Tyson world, which has something to do with German fascism as an ideological  
current and Hitler. 
 
"Michael Jackson: Bad! And very dangerous" is an extremely reactionary  
article. 
 
This democratic attitude of this radical imperial prostitute of capital has 
 no place on this list. This democratic attitude and ideology is present 
and  remains me of the old silent supports of that degenerate criminal rapists 
and  Black Panther, Elbridge Cleaver. 
 
This is about to get real ugly and cover a lot of ground. 
 
******** 
 
What is the connection betweem Mike Tyson conviction of rape and  Michael 
Jackson non-conviction?
 
Let us talk about rape, since the author raises Mike Tyson as an  issue.
 
There is no need to rehabilitate the criminal rapist or "tree jumper."  
Criminal rape is distinct from "date rape" or "statutory rape" in several ways. 
 I believe each case has to be measured and weighted by the law, the jury 
and the  local community. In the case of criminal rape, I have always sided 
with that  part of the community that advocated one bullet to the head of the 
criminal  rapists: that is to say, legal and public execution. I further 
believe that the  victim of criminal rape and their family should have the 
last and binding say on  the punishment to be melted out. 
 
Mike Tyson was charged with "date rape." 
 
Thus, the community attitude throughout America, which uniformly held that  
the young woman involved was violated, presented a consensus substantially 
lower  or less intense than criminal rape. Mike Tyson was sentenced, went to 
jail and  did his time. Why is Mike Tyson compared to Hitler and Michael 
Jackson? What is  the connection and how does Mike Tyson manifest and bring 
forth a period  characterized as post Tyson?
 
What is the connection between Mike Tyson conviction and jail time and OJ  
Simpson acquittal of murder? 
 
What is the connection between Mike Tyson being convicted and sent to jail  
and the coming to power of Adolph Hitler? That is, what is the connection  
between Mike Tyson going to jail and employment rising under the Nazi 
regime? 
 
Hitler is responsible for criminal rape on a vast scale, including  
converting women within and outside the German state into the whores of the  German 
state and individual rape of women children by the military. 
 
Rape is rape, but the community and legal system draws a distinction based  
on circumstance and degree of criminality. 
 
For instance my daughter ********** is the product of date rape, when my  
wife was 15. She helped create the circumstance when she invited her rapist 
into  her home after having invited him in repeatedly, against her parents  
instructions. The instruction was "no company without parental supervision." 
I  believe this young man - 20 at the time,  should have been sentenced to  
jail, after we "beat him down." 
 
If he had waited in a "dark corner" and operated as criminal predator - a  
"tree jumper," one bullet to the head would be most valid. Common sense and 
the  law allows for distinction in degree of depravity and violation of the  
social/community norm. I most certainly hold no conciliatory attitude 
towards  rape or the pedophile. I am one of those communist that will vote in 
favor of  the death penalty in cases criminal rape. 
 
In criminal rape, I fall on the side of the victim and family being able to 
 instruct the state to melt out punishment up to and including the death  
sentence. Sorry. However, I see no reason to rehabilitate the criminal 
rapists. 
 
In my case, you are not making it to trial if you rape any of mine, because 
 I am personally putting a bullet in your fathead. Then, I am going to 
trial with  the utmost of confidence of being freed IF I get a jury of MY peers. 
If not  then I am going to jail, which will not be very different from the 
neighborhood  I moved out of. 
 
Criminal rape is different from the horrible violence wrought by Nazism and 
 Hitler. In its totality, criminal rape is a social pathology that is a  
spontaneous movement of the depraved and degenerate, conditioned by 40 
centuries  of property and wars of conquest, as this property shape of history made 
women  the very first oppressed society class within some sections of 
humanity. As an  organized force in modern society, criminal rape is a conscious 
instrument of  the state organized as the military and police aspects of the 
state. 
 
It does not matter how much legal equality women win in society or within  
the military itself. The nature of class rule and property relations 
regulates  the female body to a category of property of the male, devoid of 
inalienable  rights other than as these "rights" are fused to capital of primarily 
a male.  Thus, modern men - at least a militant section of us, must shoulder 
the burden  of the unwavering insurgent and inflict the ultimate price upon 
the criminal  rapist; "one bullet to the head." 
 
Period. 
 
Nazism is a conscious political movement whose goal is seizure of state  
power and the physically annihilation of one part of humanity on behalf of  
another, while converting the physical body of women into the society property 
 of men and the state as state. Fascism is a class movement seeking state  
authority, while the spontaneous criminal rape pathology, looms throughout  
society as a semi-extra judicial movement. 
 
The alleged link between Mike Tyson and Adolph Hitler is contrived. Hitler  
possessed no individual courage and his personal life was no more than that 
of a  coward and thug with a gun; a person that discovered the meaning of 
life in  imperial slaughter against whatever section of the working class he 
was directed  to slaughter. 
 
As a young man, Mike Tyson?s personal courage proved to be his undoing.  
Today, he appears as a man that has learnt bitter lessons and become humane. 
The  American proletariat have long ago discussed what Mike Tyson means to us 
and  instructed our children and especially girls accordingly. 
 
Here is what I told the girls. "Baby  . . . . Do not go to men?s hotel  
rooms in the wee hours of the morning, unless you want to be their and you can  
expect sexual advances and demands for sex, because this is how male 
peoples  behave. Do not marry a professional boxer, without an expectation of 
being hit,  because many of them will hit you in the jaw in anger. Fighters 
fight. If you  marry a wrestler, do not be surprised where he wrestles you down. 
. Don?t make  me kill a young man because you were in his hotel room at 
2:00 in the morning." 
 
"Cause you daddy will kill a brick over you and go to jail or hell or both  
over you." 
 
There is a reason why American society and I are willing to  be judged by 
12 jurors after putting "one in your fathead" over criminal  rape of our 
wives and girls, but not date rape. Statutory rape is more complex  because it 
deals with the individuals involved. A young man of 17 and a girl of  15, 
where consent is given my the 15 year old is different  . . . . . when  this 
same 15 year old gives consent to a 40 year old man. Neither case involves  
criminal rape as the "tree jumper." 
 
What is the connection that is Mike Tyson being convicted of rap and  
Michael Jackson being acquitted of sexual violation of minors? The attitude of  
the masses towards these individuals are totally different. What is the  
connection? 
 
 
 
II 
 
Then there is OJ Simpson whose murder trial still causes such grief and  
anguish in America and apparently elsewhere. What is the connection between 
Mike  Tyson being convicted of rape and O J being acquitted and why these 
individuals  crate a post world of events? 
 
One can of course present a sound appraisal and argument against the  
judicial system in America. Our judicial system is attacked from the fascist  
right and extreme left for very different and complex reasons. The system is  
always under spontaneous attack by sections and segments of the working 
class,  as the class strive to expand the boundary of political liberty. 
 
Money purchases one more justice than one without money. The other  
peculiarity is the behavior of jurors. Black jurors as majority and all black  
juries have a distinct behavior that the prosecutors seeks to avoid at all time. 
 Black juries tend towards a different conception of applied justice and 
tend to  favor minimum sentences or discarding a criminal charge in favor of a 
community  sense of justice. Black juries hold the burden of proof by the 
state to a  somewhat different standard; and "intent" on the part of the 
accused becomes a  material category defining justice. 
 
For instance, "I killed him because the raped my daughter and would kill  
him again if I could." On the other hand, if a male boy slaps his mother, one 
 section of the jury is going to advocate the death penalty. 
 
The burden of proof in the OJ trial was not sufficient for the jury. If OJ  
had been a white male, the verdict would have been the exact same with the 
same  jury mix. Juries with four and more blacks do not embrace the legality 
and  "legitimacy of the state" to the same degree and in the same way as 
other  sections of the populations. The state is held to lie for conviction 
and justice  is not blind. Justice is subject to how much money you have or 
class, family  connections and the color factor. The system itself is held in 
distrust. 
 
The prosecution job is to convict and its member?s role in society is to  
seek a higher position of privilege based on sending people to jail. A black  
jury would not have convicted a "white" O.J. Simpson, even if his wife were 
 black. An all white jury would have convicted O.J. Simpson with no 
physical  evidence, but not if he was white, because an all white jury trying a 
wealthy  white male requires a different burden of proof, although one can 
discern a  shift in this attitude as women push forth on all fronts of society. 
 
For black and white juries the burden of proof is subject to dimensions of  
wealth and social standing but to different degrees. 
 
The public evidence I was exposed to, "says" O.J. murdered his wife. 
Public evidence is not sufficient enough for me to vote to convict. 
 
Did the state present overwhelming evidence to meet the criteria of "burden 
 of proof" or "beyond a reasonable doubt?"  Well, I sat on a murder trial  
before and was convinced the charges were accurate and the defendant was 
guilty,  but voted "not guilty" because the state did not meet the criteria of 
"burden of  proof" to my satisfaction. 
 
What is the connection the author of this horrible article draws between  
Mike Tyson who was found guilty of rape and O.J. Simpson who was found not  
guilty of murder? 
 
How does this connect with Hitler and Michael Jackson? 
 
What is this nonsense about Hitler and employment anyway? 
 

III. 
 
What is the connection between Michael Jackson and Adolph Hitler as  
historical figures that the author writes so passionately about and wants to  
weep? 
 
Michael Jackson is fair game for the press because his stature,  
contribution to music and performing arts and his name generates and reproduces  
capital. Was he a pedophile? The evidence I am aware of suggest "yes!" I  
consider one a pedophile that looks at child pornography, with criminal  pedophile 
being one who acts on impulse and carried out criminal sexual acts  against 
children. Criminal sexual acts against children as defined in law and  the 
local standards of a community is the basis for a trial. 
 
Michael had his day in court and the jury would him "not guilty." Not  
guilty means a couple of things including the state did not prove its charges  
beyond a reasonable doubt and/or that the jury chooses "not to convict." 
 
I have written on this list about charges leveled against Michael Jackson  
as being a pedophile. Michael mistake was believing he could make it without 
his  brothers and family. He apparently felt exploited by his father and 
family until  he got out in the real world. 
 
I am not trying to be "funny" or offensive to any of the black folks, but  
you can tell when a rich and famous black person in America feels pressured 
and  face criminal charges because the first thing they do is call for 
protection  from the FOI of the Nation of Islam. Michael Jackson got his wake up 
call late  in life and everyone tried to tell his ignorant ass, that "you 
cannot be the  King of Pop" . . . . marry Elvis daughter and do not like women 
in the first  place, and then not sleep with women, without having some 
serious issues to face  in the press. Then Michael was told to "go home" and 
"leave the kids along."  

All I did was repeat this message from my peer group, on this list years  
ago. Michael Jackson was sick as far as I am concerned. However, the article 
in  question is about something else using Michael Jackson name because  his 
name sells papers.  
 
The article in question parades as something progressive and moral. It is  
not. This article has very little to do with Michael Jackson as pedophile, 
which  I most certainly believe he was. 
 
Rather, this article is about Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson  
as they face a juror of their peers. This article is a harsh condemnation 
of the  jury for acquitting the latter and apparently "not being tough 
enough" on Mike  Tyson.
 
 
WL. 
 
 (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)  
**************Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the 
grill. (http://food.aol.com/grilling?ncid=emlcntusfood00000005)


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Sat Jul  4 22:26:44 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 01:26:44 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <000.d8a00900a3c14f4a.019@lws-media.de>
References: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com>
	<7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad>
	<F788EEFBFCC24BC99D2421B8A446CDE5@GrahamPC>
	<000.d8a00900a3c14f4a.019@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <2fa158550907042126o2cddd91brb13fc8ae6a6cabaf@mail.gmail.com>

2009/7/4 L?ko Willms <lueko.willms en t-online.de>:
>
> ? Or to say the same in the words of an independence fighter in India or
> Vietnam or Indonesia: "Sure, we will fight a war against Hitler or the Tenno, if
> they ever attack our country and want to subjugate us under their colonial
> rule, and we will fight against them the same way as we fight now against
> you, the British or French colonialist slaveholders."
>

In the words attributed to an independence fighter in early Latin
America (during the 1810s), "No se trata de cambiar de collar, se
trata de dejar de ser perro". Whether the attribution is true or not,
this is the idea: "It is not an issue of changing rope, it is an issue
of not being a dog anymore"


From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sat Jul  4 20:44:37 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:44:37 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
Message-ID: <000.08cf00009513504a.025@lws-media.de>

Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) wrote on 2009-07-04 at 19:21:29 
in  about Re: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia:
> 
> 
> Go to hell. 

  <seconded>

   Six years ago, the NYT (New York Times) had published, on occasion of 
the prosecution of Michael Jackson, a much more thought out article, 
although still treating him quite harshly: 

> 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/opinion/the-childhood-of-michael-jack
son.html>


---------- schnipp ------------------- 

The Childhood of Michael Jackson
Published: Saturday, November 22, 2003

Unless he is proved guilty in a court of law, Michael Jackson is, of 
course, presumed to be innocent of the charges that led to his arrest 
on Thursday. But even before his trial begins -- a trial that 
threatens to suck all of civilization into its maw -- there is no 
doubt that Mr. Jackson is guilty of trying too hard to protect his 
innocence. Not the legal innocence that is vested in each of us, but 
the childlike innocence that we set aside sooner or later in order to 
get on with our lives. Most people have given up having slumber 
parties with prepubescent children by the time they cease being 
prepubescent themselves. Most people never need to be exiled from the 
Neverland of childhood. We leave it willingly on our own.

Of course, Michael Jackson is not most people. A case could be made, 
though not a legal one, that Mr. Jackson's prolonged innocence -- if 
the better word isn't infantilism -- is for him a refuge from a career
that both deprived him of his childhood and gave him the means to try 
to reclaim it. His seemingly helpless protestations of his own 
pure-heartedness clearly betray a distrust, if not a loathing, of 
adults. Even if Mr. Jackson's strange behavior were just a matter of 
trying to bring comfort to afflicted children, that behavior has long 
since ceased to look selfless to the world around him.

Cruel or not, the world reserves a special kind of contempt for adults
who choose to see themselves mainly through the eyes of children. Mr. 
Jackson has earned that contempt as surely as he has earned our 
respect for his musical talents.

------------- schnapp ----------------------

  Well, Michael Jackson is now history. We will remember him not only for his 
musical and dance performances, but also as a human being tormented by 
this profit-over-human-needs society and its insolvable class conflicts. 



Cheers,  
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------
visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in 
German


From robertojorquera at yahoo.com  Sat Jul  4 23:08:16 2009
From: robertojorquera at yahoo.com (Roberto Jorquera)
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 22:08:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] President Zelaya due to return to Honduras
Message-ID: <616372.74744.qm@web32002.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

                   President Zelaya due to return to Honduras
 
July 4, 2009
 
 
President Zelaya
spoke to the People of Honduras via Telesur in the early ours of Saturday
morning July 4
Zelaya announced
that he would arrive at the International airport in Tegucigalpa on Sunday.
Below are sections
of his speech. Translated by Roberto Jorquera
``My life is in the hands of the people of Honduras. By
force I was removed from my country. Those people do not defend our country or
our democracy. I urge the people to continue to show their support . We can
overcome these problems and move forward.
You (coup leaders) are surrounded and should give up now.
The people of the word are against you. I am organising my return to Honduras.
``I ask the peasants, heads of households, the workers, indigenous
people, the youth, workers groups and organisations, friendly businesses,
political organisations throughout the country, mayor's and deputies to
accompany me in my return to Honduras. This is a return of a President that was
elected freely by the people who are the only ones that are able to elect or
dismiss a President. Lets not loose our rights, let us not permit others to make
decisions that can only be made by the people.
I am ready to make any effort and sacrifice necessary to
achieve the liberty that our people deserve. We will be free or permanent
slaves if we do not have the valor to defend ourselves. 
Do not take arms, any arms, practice what I have always
preached: no to violence. Let them (coup plotters) take the arms, the violence
and the repression. I declare that the coup plotters are now responsible for
any loss of life and the integrity of our Hondorean people
We will arrive at Tegucigalpa International Airport with
various Presidents (Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina) and international
personalities. This Sunday we will be in Tegucigalpa embrassing and accompaning
you to defend what we have valued in our lives, the will of God and the people.
My destiny is in
the hands of the Honduran people.
They (The Military) do not defend democracy or the nation.
This situation has provided evidence in front of the entire world that there is
a species of barbarity in Honduras and people that have no conscience of the
damage they impose on the people and future generations.
I urge the people to continue to get involve, you are the
principle actors in our democracy and in the solutions that might overcome our
great problems of poverty and inequality in our nation.
This is a great opportunity to show the rest of the world
that the people of Honduras are capable of moving forward after these criminals
have tried to expropriate the destiny of our country and our children. 
I speak to the traitors being the coup leaders those that
kissed me on the cheek and then organised a coup against our country and our
democracy.
You should rectify your errors as soon as possible. You
are surrounded, the world has surrounded you, all the countries of the world
have condemned you without exceptions.
There is a general condemnation against you and your acts
will no be forgoten, they will be brought before International courts for
attacking liberties and our people??.


      

From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Sat Jul  4 23:44:54 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:44:54 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] NYT's two-faced condemnation of torture -- in Iran (Glenn
	Greenwald)
Message-ID: <317E2E3073D74C19BB62A6516458BFF6@office1pc>

The NYT calls Iranian interrogation tactics "torture"
Techniques which the paper refuses to call "torture" when used by the U.S.
magically transform when used by others. 
Glenn Greenwald

Jul. 04, 2009 | 

(updated below)
Today is the ideal day to celebrate America's specialness, and America's
paper of record inspirationally leads the ritual:

Clark Hoyt, New York Times Public Editor, April 26, 2009:

A LINGUISTIC shift took place in this newspaper as it reported the details
of how the Central Intelligence Agency was allowed to strip Al Qaeda
prisoners naked, bash them against walls, keep them awake for up to 11
straight days, sometimes with their arms chained to the ceiling, confine
them in dark boxes and make them feel as if they were drowning.

Until this month, what the Bush administration called "enhanced"
interrogation techniques were "harsh" techniques in the news pages of The
Times. Increasingly, they are "brutal". . . . .

The word had appeared a few times before in this context, most recently on
April 10, when the Central Intelligence Agency said it was closing the
network of secret overseas prisons where interrogations took place. Scott
Shane, who covers national security, said he and his editor in the
Washington bureau, Douglas Jehl, negotiated over the wording of the first
paragraph. Shane wrote that methods used in the prisons were "widely
denounced as illegal torture." Jehl changed that to the "harshest
interrogation methods" since the Sept. 11 attacks. Shane said he felt that
with more information coming to light, including a leaked report by the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the words harsh and even harshest
no longer sufficed. He proposed brutal, and Jehl agreed. . . .

And why not, then, go all the way to torture?  Jehl said that when the paper
is discussing what is generally regarded as the most extreme interrogation
method the C.I.A. used, waterboarding, "we've become more explicit in saying
in a first reference that it's a near-drowning technique" that Obama,
Attorney General Eric Holder and many other experts "have called torture."
But he said: "I have resisted using torture without qualification or to
describe all the techniques. Exactly what constitutes torture continues to
be a matter of debate and hasn't been resolved by a court. This president
and this attorney general say waterboarding is torture, but the previous
president and attorney general said it is not. On what basis should a
newspaper render its own verdict, short of charges being filed or a legal
judgment rendered?" Jehl argued for precision and caution. I agree.

The New York Times today:

Top Reformers Admitted Plot, Iran Declares 

CAIRO -- Iranian leaders say they have obtained confessions from top
reformist officials that they plotted to bring down the government with a
"velvet" revolution. Such confessions, almost always extracted under duress,
are part of an effort to recast the civil unrest set off by Iran's disputed
presidential election as a conspiracy orchestrated by foreign nations, human
rights groups say. . . .

The government has made it a practice to publicize confessions from
political prisoners held without charge or legal representation, often
subjected to pressure tactics like sleep deprivation, solitary confinement
and torture, according to human rights groups and former political
prisoners. . . .

In 2001, Ali Afshari was arrested for his work as a student leader. He said
he was held in solitary confinement for 335 days and resisted confessing for
the first two months. But after two mock executions and a five-day stretch
where his interrogators would not let him sleep, he said he eventually caved
in.

"They tortured me, some beatings, sleep deprivation, insults, psychological
torture, standing me for several hours in front of a wall, keeping me in
solitary confinement for one year," Mr. Afshari said in an interview from
his home in Washington. "They eventually broke my resistance."

Virtually every tactic which the article describes the Iranians as using has
been used by the U.S. during the War on Terror, while several tactics
authorized by Bush officials (waterboarding, placing detainees in
coffin-like boxes, hypothermia) aren't among those the article claims are
used by the Iranians.  Nonetheless, "torture" appears to be a perfectly fine
term for The New York Times to use to describe what the Iranians do, but one
that is explicitly banned to describe what the U.S. did.  Despite its
claimed policy, the NYT has also recently demonstrated its eagerness to use
the word "torture" to describe these same tactics . . . when used by the
Chinese against an American detainee.

Notably, the NYT article today seems to take particular offense that the
Iranian Government is putting people on trial using confessions they
obtained via torture ("the government planned to put on trial several
Iranian employees of the British Embassy - after confessions were
extracted").  Just two days ago, The Washington Post reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama
administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the
confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others
made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who may have been as young as 12 when he
was captured. His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in U.S. custody,
threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation.

"The government's continued reliance on evidence gained by torture and other
abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the current administration
is not really serious about breaking with the past," said ACLU lawyer
Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his
detention."The government's continued reliance on evidence gained by torture
and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the current
administration is not really serious about breaking with the past," said
ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit
challenging his detention.

Just read the details of what we did to this adolescent to marvel at what
the NYT (and, of course, NPR) refuse to call "torture" when done by us.
Though the human rights abuses of the Iranian Government are well-documented
and severe, there's also no mention in the NYT article of these
interrogation tactics being applied by Iran to teenagers (such as Jawad) or
resulting in numerous detainee deaths (as happened during the Bush era).

During the presidential campaign, Rudy Giuliani was widely ridiculed for
arguing that whether these tactics are "torture" depends, at least in part,
on who uses them (it's torture if They do it, but not when We do it).  But
he could take that definitive moral relativism to any leading American
newspaper, become an Editor, and fit right in, since that's exactly the
editorial policy of our leading media outlets.  What's most striking about
all this media behavior is that people around the world -- outside of the
U.S.  -- aren't fooled by these sorts of blatant double standards, whereby
the U.S. even claims the power to change the meaning of words based on
whether it or another country is doing something.   The target of this
government and media behavior is purely domestic.

It's not particularly unusual for a government to permit itself to do
something that it prohibits others from doing.  The U.S. is hardly the only
country that does that.  But when that country's media collectively abets
that government effort by molding its language to reflect that
exceptionalism, it elevates the propaganda to a much different level.  When
I documented the American media's obsession with journalists detained by
other countries and its virtually complete blackout of much, much longer
(and often more oppressive) detentions of foreign journalists by the U.S.,
that was the central point I tried to emphasize:

Pointing to other governments and highlighting their oppressive behavior can
be cathartic, fun and gratifying in a self-justifying sort of way. Ask Fred
Hiatt; it's virtually all he ever does.  But the first duty of the American
media -- like the first duty of American citizens -- is to oppose oppressive
behavior by our own government.  That's not as fun or as easy, but it is far
more important.  Moreover, obsessively complaining about the
rights-abridging behavior of other countries while ignoring the same
behavior from our own government is worse than a mere failure of duty.  It
is propagandistic and deceitful, as it paints a misleading picture that it
is other governments -- but not our own -- which engage in such conduct.

Since the American Government has acted -- and continues to act -- overtly
to protect and shield those who engaged in this conduct, will it condemn
Iran for torturing detainees? As for The New York Times, at this point, they
don't even seem interested in pretending that they make these editorial
judgments independently or with a pretense of objectivity.  They're
perfectly happy to have you know that when the U.S. Government does X, it is
called one thing, but when foreign governments do X, it is called something
else entirely.

On Freedom: Refugee Finds Peace In U.S.
Musa Saidykhan had been a reporter in his home country of Gambia for more
than a decade when he was arrested and later tortured by government
officials. Following Saidykhan's imprisonment, he fled the country with his
family and now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Saidykhan explains how he
will commemorate freedom on this, his first, Independence Day in the U.S.

All the impediments that prevent American media organizations from using the
word "torture" certainly do evaporate quickly when it comes to other
countries.




From robertojorquera at yahoo.com  Sun Jul  5 01:12:12 2009
From: robertojorquera at yahoo.com (Roberto Jorquera)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 00:12:12 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Fw: [CLASS] Solidarity rally with Honduras Part 1-3
Message-ID: <146611.95906.qm@web32007.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


[CLASS] Solidarity rally with HondurasCLASS has posted a new item, 'Solidarity rally with Honduras Part 1-3'


http://www.youtube.com/v/9NNunzRNn_U&hl=en&fs=1&
Solidarity rally with the people of Honduras was held on July 4 in Melbourne. It was organised by the sponsoring organisations of the 2009 Latin America Solidarity Conference.Filmed by Roberto Jorquera for Direct Action Films

For more information please visit www.solidarityconference2009.org 


      

From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 01:14:30 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 03:14:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Reflection on "Honduras and U.S. "Two-track" Policy (esp)
Message-ID: <709f342d0907050014q774d5dc8t3ae80e5363533907@mail.gmail.com>

<http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=88166>


From stuartmunckton at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 01:54:42 2009
From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 17:54:42 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras: Coup regime leaves OAS
Message-ID: <2c6145850907050054x3522cc6ap521ec1fdd354ea40@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/day-7-coup-government-in-honduras.html

Saturday, July 4, 2009  DAY 7: COUP GOVERNMENT IN HONDURAS WITHDRAWS FROM
OAS<http://www.chavezcode.com/2009/07/day-7-coup-government-in-honduras.html>
Well,
it's official! The Organization of American States (OAS) doesn't need to
bother suspending Honduras from the OAS because the coup government has
decided it is withdrawing from the most important regional body in the
Americas. Roberto Micheletti, the dictator who was sworn in as de facto
president in Honduras on Sunday, after the democratically elected president
Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped at gunpoint by masked soldiers and forced into
exile, has said, "to hell with you OAS", "we don't need you either!" During
Secretary General of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza's visit to the Central
American nation to hand deliver the 72-hour ultimatum demanding the coup
government step down or face suspension (the most severe sanction the OAS
can impose), coup leader Roberto Micheletti gave a speech before supporters
and later issued a formal statement withdrawing Honduras from the OAS,
declaring, "we don't have to respond to anybody, we are a sovereign nation".
The OAS visit was intended to reach some kind of dialogue or solution to the
crisis in Honduras since the coup occurred on early Sunday morning, yet the
coup government held tight to its position of power.

On Saturday, the OAS will convene a new meeting to review the results of its
failure in Honduras and the decision of the coup government to defiantly
ignore the regional body's intentions to resolve the conflict peacefully (if
that is even possible at this point). Several presidents, such as Cristina
Fernandez of Argentina and Rafael Correa of Ecuador will travel to
Washington for the special OAS follow up meeting to the Honduran crisis.

President Zelaya had hoped to return Saturday to his elected post, yet the
situation in his country, post-coup, is more complicated than originally
imagined. Hondurans supporting Zelaya marched cross the nation to the
capital, Tegucigalpa, on Friday to send a message to the OAS General
Secretary that they are waiting for their legitimate president to return.

If the Obama administration doesn't formally sanction the coup government in
Honduras and suspend all relations, as every other country around the world
has done so far, a terrible precedent will be set in the hemisphere,
allowing for coups that produce "friendly" results for Washington. The
United States is pleased with the outcome of Sunday's coup, which deposed a
leftist president aligned with countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia,
but at the same time is not happy with the method - a military coup- to
achieve the end goal. However, if Washington continues without firmly
condemning the coup government's actions and withdrawal from the OAS, Obama
will lose all credibility in Latin America.

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde

From lueko.willms at t-online.de  Sun Jul  5 02:09:45 2009
From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:09:45 +0200 (MES)
Subject: [Marxism] NYT's two-faced condemnation of torture -- in Iran
	(Glenn Greenwald)
In-Reply-To: <317E2E3073D74C19BB62A6516458BFF6@office1pc>
References: <317E2E3073D74C19BB62A6516458BFF6@office1pc>
Message-ID: <000.c0c80300c95f504a.028@lws-media.de>

Fred Feldman (ffeldman at bellatlantic.net) wrote on 2009-07-05 at 01:44:54 in  
about [Marxism] NYT's two-faced condemnation of torture -- in Iran (Glenn 
Greenwald):
> 
> 
> During the presidential campaign, Rudy Giuliani was widely ridiculed for
> arguing that whether these tactics are "torture" depends, at least in part,
> on who uses them (it's torture if They do it, but not when We do it).  But
> he could take that definitive moral relativism to any leading American
> newspaper, become an Editor, and fit right in, since that's exactly the
> editorial policy of our leading media outlets.  What's most striking about
> all this media behavior is that people around the world -- outside of the
> U.S.  -- aren't fooled by these sorts of blatant double standards, whereby
> the U.S. even claims the power to change the meaning of words based on
> whether it or another country is doing something.   The target of this
> government and media behavior is purely domestic.

  Unfortunately not. The bourgeois press which dominates here in Germany, 
too, follows the same double standards. 

  
Cheers,  
L?ko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------


From stuartmunckton at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 02:19:06 2009
From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:19:06 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras fascist new chancellor: Obama a "little black
	man who knows nothing"
Message-ID: <2c6145850907050119h125eea6ex12319a543800ae53@mail.gmail.com>

Some people are profoundly ungrateful.

To say nothing of disgustingly racist

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/07/hondurass-de-facto-chancellor-obama-is.html

UPDATE: I've had a couple of mails from people about what this Ortez scumbag
actually said about Obama, so here goes with a bit more. His precise words
in Spanish were "Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada". I decided to
translate this as "that little black man who knows nothing" or "that little
black man who doesn't know anything" to stay away from the controversial
side of the statement and be as bland as possible. In fact the use of the
word "negrito", i.e. the diminuitive of "negro", is very derogatory in
nature and overtly racist in context; the kind of racism that would force
the resignation of any public figure in the USA (for example). One mailer
offered up the translation of "that know-nothing black boy" to get the
proper feeling of the message implied by Ortez, and although it's extremely
difficult to hit the translatory nail on the head in this case, I'd tend to
agree that the offered translation captures the sentiment better than my
deliberately bland version. Another way of catching the drift would be "That
blackie that knows nothing about anything", or even "That negro...." would
work, even the other "N" word would be a fair translation of what he meant.

The bottom line is that Ortez's statement, alongside the equally offensive
words he has for Zapatero and the nation of El Salvador (note Revolter's
comment below and Google up about the "football war" if you haven't heard
about it previously) is dripping with bigotry and hatred.

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde

From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Sun Jul  5 02:36:46 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:36:46 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two
In-Reply-To: <000.d8a00900a3c14f4a.019@lws-media.de>
References: <20090704.123436.1788.1.farmelantj@juno.com><7FF3A289D8E4440AB64BAC809E2BF4B0@dmsthinkpad><F788EEFBFCC24BC99D2421B8A446CDE5@GrahamPC>
	<000.d8a00900a3c14f4a.019@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <C35A6F8DD8CE4B4CBFBF2CA8AB1B3032@GrahamPC>

Dear Lueko,
                   First, I should deal with your earlier post querying the 
issue of a possible invasion of Australia by Japan.   I take your point 
concerning the character of Australia as a colonial-settler state, and a 
country with sections of its population that were marginalised: eg. the 
Indigenous Aborigines and Asian Australians.   Some of the points that Tom 
O'Lincoln made earlier about Australian government attitudes, and the stance 
of the Returned Services League, towards dissidents and 'enemy aliens', etc. 
are valid.   It has been pointed out that Aboriginal Australians in the 
tropical North volunteered for militia training and service during the war 
in quite large numbers, in the expectation of an invasion by Japan.   Of 
course these soldiers received precious little thanks from the Australian 
government after the danger had passed.

Should the Australian left have had a 'revolutionary defeatist' position 
towards a Japanese invasion and occupation of part or all of the Australian 
continent, should it have eventuated?    Assuming that such an invasion and 
occupation had taken place, and that Japanese occupying forces had conducted 
themselves towards the civilian population of this country in their 
customary manner, I should think that a resistance movement would have 
developed very quickly.   I cannot see how any leftists or socialists worthy 
of the title could have expected to have any credibility with the people if 
they had avoided participating in such a resistance struggle.   But the 
question then has to be asked, as it was to me by a friend many years ago 
when I expounded the 'revolutionary defeatist' position vis a vis Australia 
to him: 'Well, why not have joined in the defence of the country from 
invasion in the first place: why wait until the country was occupied before 
resisting?'   I must admit I was stumped for a reply.

On the question of the inter-imperialist aspect of the war, I agree with 
most of your comments.   But it is noteworthy that James P. Cannon, in his 
testimony at the Minneapolis trial, actually endorses a fight against 
Hitler, but puts provisos on support for a war.   He does not have a 
'revolutionary defeatist' position.   The article I submitted to the list at 
the beginning of this thread states: 'The defeat of Hitler's regime was the 
most important thing - to support British and French military moves against 
Hitler did not necessarily imply support for the retention of these powers' 
colonial empires, or of their capitalist economic systems: there were enough 
socialists in Britain and France who supported the war but were against 
capitalism and colonialism'.   I have never suggested that the Western 
imperialist powers should have been given carte blanche, as far as their war 
aims and tactics were concerned.   Socialists needed an independent policy 
that supported all the struggles of the working class and the oppressed. 
Such a policy would have been clearly quite distinct from the Communist 
Parties' positions, which altered in an opportunist fashion with the 
Kremlin's requirements during the war.

I do not resile from my position overall that the conflict between the 
Allies and the Axis in World War Two was not simply an inter-imperialist 
war.   There were other aspects to the war which I have tried to describe. 
I am not happy with the idea of a 'long' war from 1914-45, a view that seems 
to have established itself in some quarters.   I believe that the outcome of 
World War One certainly contained the seeds of another world war, but it 
also opened the possibility for revolutionary transformation globally, and 
only the defeats for socialism in the 'inter-war' era made a new war 
virtually inevitable.   Given a different and more positive outcome to the 
intense class struggles internationally of the 1920s and 30s, it is quite 
conceivable and likely that another disastrous world war could have been 
avoided.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


From: "L?ko Willms" <lueko.willms at t-online.de>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 4:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in World War Two




From markalause at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 02:49:01 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 04:49:01 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] NYT's two-faced condemnation of torture -- in Iran
	(Glenn Greenwald)
In-Reply-To: <000.c0c80300c95f504a.028@lws-media.de>
References: <317E2E3073D74C19BB62A6516458BFF6@office1pc>
	<000.c0c80300c95f504a.028@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907050149w6f6fb105q95b9bc91bd48f678@mail.gmail.com>

Like many features of U.S. imperialism, this double standard has deep
roots in the Manifest Destiny idea.  The white civilizing mission
among the savage Indians was a "civilizing" mission against the
barbarities practiced by the Indians.  Success for that civilizing
mission, of course, involved pretty much all of those same barbarities
and more practiced by the civilizers.  In fact, practices identified
as Indian (scalping, for example) now seem to have been introduced by
the whites...or, at least, exaggerated and encouraged by the
civilizers who created a commerce in scalps.

ML


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 03:48:10 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:48:10 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] An Ocean of 200,000 breaks through military blockade;
 20,000 military troops deployed, including Cobra sharpshooters at
 airport
Message-ID: <EA58F507-F0D6-48FD-93D6-7E717144E0F7@mac.com>

http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/n138016.html

A virtual sea of humanity managed to break through the military  
blockade to arrive at the airport in Tegucigalpa yesterday. Beginning  
at 6:00 am, the popular resistance has called on everyone to return  
to the airport this morning to greet President Zelaya. The Fascist  
Narco Coup-mongers have deployed 20,00 troops to repel the popular  
tide, and has positioned Cobra unit sharpshooters at the airport. 


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 04:28:49 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 06:28:49 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Frank Rich -- Bernie Madoff is no John Dillinger
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907050328hf8eab85ib648843a6bb1355d@mail.gmail.com>

>
> Frank Rich - NY Times - July 5, 2009
>
> clip -
>
> ?Public Enemies? doesn?t make a federal case of parallels between its era
> and ours. It doesn?t have to. But it?s instructive to revisit the actual
> history. In the book that inspired the film, the journalist Bryan Burrough
> writes that Detective magazine polled movie theater owners during
> Dillinger?s yearlong spree of 1933-34, and found that in terms of drawing
> audience applause Public Enemy No. 1 beat out F.D.R. and Charles Lindbergh.
> Roosevelt ran with it. As Steve Fraser writes in his cultural history of
> Wall Street, ?Every Man a Speculator,? F.D.R. ?likened his Wall Street
> villains to ?kidnappers and bank robbers? eluding capture? in his 1936
> re-election campaign. He knew Wall Street manipulators were the real targets
> of the public?s ire.
>
> Another look at this much-chronicled past, ?Dillinger?s Wild Ride,? by
> Elliott J. Gorn, a professor of history at Brown University, is the first
> to be published during our own hard times<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062601724.html>.
> In it you learn that ordinary law-abiding Americans even wrote letters to
> newspapers and politicians defending Dillinger?s assault on banks.
> ?Dillinger did not rob poor people,? wrote one correspondent to The
> Indianapolis Star. ?He robbed those who became rich by robbing the poor.?
>
> Gorn writes that the current economic crisis helped him understand better
> why Americans could root for a homicidal bank robber: ?As our own day?s
> story of stupid policies and lax regulations, of greedy moneymen,
> free-market hucksters, white-collar thieves, and self-serving politicians
> unfolds, and as banks foreclose on millions of families? homes, workers lose
> their jobs, and life savings disappear, it becomes clear why Dillinger?s
> wild ride so fascinated America during the 1930s.? An outlaw could channel a
> people?s ?sense of rage at the system that had failed them.?
>
> As Gorn reminds us, Americans who felt betrayed didn?t just take to
> cheering Dillinger; some turned to the populism of Huey Long, or to
> right-wing and anti-Semitic demagogues like Father Coughlin, or to the
> Communist Party. The passions unleashed by economic inequities are explosive
> because those inequities violate the fundamental capitalist faith. It?s the
> bedrock American dream that virtues like hard work and playing by the rules
> are rewarded with prosperity.
>
> full article --      <
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05rich.html>
>
>
>

From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in  Sun Jul  5 04:50:01 2009
From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxistfront at yahoo.co.in)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:20:01 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] Cuba's Extraordinary Generosity Risking its own Survival
Message-ID: <mailman.57.1246791021.2550.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>





Cuba's Extraordinary Generosity Risking its own Survival 
Alberto N. Jones
June 24, 2009

Although I am acutely aware how busy most are is today's world, but given
the importance of this issue I hope, it may capture the attention of someone
in position to evaluate and act upon any or all of these troubling matters.

As a 70 year old Afro-Cuban Veterinary Pathologist/Environmentalist, who
have lived half of his life in Cuba and another half in the US, have given
me a unique perspective to develop a comparative analysis of the problems
afflicting Blacks in the United States, Cuba and the Caribbean. 

Growing up in Cuba, where Blacks had nothing except a vicious racism,
segregation and ignorance, have not been adequately documented by the US
mainstream media, who prefer to focus repeatedly on a host of social,
political or religious mistakes that the Cuban government have made over the
past 50 years, while intentionally withholding from the public, the
existence of one of the largest pool of educated Blacks per capita in the
world, presently at risk of being lost forever.

In addition to their academic training, Cubans have been groomed into
providing their moral/material support to those less fortunate, making that
nation, the premier country in the world for its humanitarian outreach to
hundreds20of millions of people throughout the developing world. 

At the same time, the standard of living for most Cubans have remained at
poverty levels and far worse for those of African ancestry, especially
following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s and the
introduction by the Cuban government of what is known as the Special Period
in times of Peace, leading to the creation of Corporations and Joint
Ventures, primarily with Canadian and European companies. 

This single act of allowing foreign employers to freely choose and
preferentially hire employees of Hispanic ancestry with access to hard
currency, have created a huge race income disparity, resurgence of
segregation and racism, which most Cubans presumed had been wiped out in the
early 1960s.

Further compounding this already volatile environment, is a humanitarian
outreach to their emigrant communities by countries such as Spain, Chinese
communities in Canada, Arabs in the middle east and Jews in the United
States, who created lifelines of monetary funds and material support for
their piers in Cuba. No country or humanitarian organization in the world,
created a similar lifeline for Blacks in Cuba.

Finally, the bulk of the Cuban -American emigrant community and those
elsewhere, are predominantly of Hispanic ancestry, which makes it extremely
unusual to find any Hispanic/Mulatto family in Cuba without family members
living abroad, capable of sending remittances back home. The exact opposite
is true for the majority=2
0of those of African ancestry.

These and other factors combined , have had a devastating impact on the
Afro-Cuban community, which can be seen in a severe weakening of their moral
fiber, increased delinquency, high incarceration rate, prostitution, loss of
hope and an entire sector of the Cuban society on the verge of collapse.

For much too long, many in position to act, pretended not to know, see or
hear, allowing ethnic, social, religious, linguistic or sexual differences
to supersede the anguish, pain and suffering of millions of Afro-Cubans.

To allow this tragedy to continue, will not only decimate the Afro-Cuban
community beyond repair, but it would also consciously enable the best and
largest technical/scientific support base of African ancestry in the world
to cease to exist, as tens of millions of people in the developing world
desperately needs their expertise to either preserve their health, educate
their children or foster their culture.

Haiti with its well publicized social disaster, is a textbook example of
what a loss of Cuba's humanitarian support can mean for its 8 million
inhabitants. Since 1995, 500 physicians, nurses and a host of support
personnel, constitute the backbone of that country's healthcare system. Over
250 Haitians physicians graduates in Cuba are slowly entering the Haitian
healthcare system. Another 900 students are currently enrolled at the
Caribbean School of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba, at an incremental
rate of 100 scholarship per year for the next 20 years. 

Hundreds of agricultural, engineering and environmental professionals work
in country all free of charge. This is the uncertain future that lies in
wait for tens of other developing countries, totally dependant on Cuba's
solidarity.

While Spanish, Arabs, Chinese and Jewish organizations have been allowed to
open private businesses in Cuba, fostering their culture, generating jobs
and economical benefits for their descendents, again, no primarily black
country or important black institution in the world , have taken steps or
presented similar proposals on behalf of the citizens of such nations or of
the Afro-Cuban community.

Afro-Cubans desperately needs outside moral/material support from
institutions such as the US Congressional Black Caucus, Pastors For Peace,
The National Black Chamber of Commerce, NAACP, National Medical Association,
Black Attorneys Guild, Black Farmers, worldwide Black Institutions and Black
nations with excess financial resources, to present clear, precise
development projects to the Cuban government, that may be capable of
generating resources benefiting the donor country or institutions, and in so
doing, elevate thousands of Afro-Cubans out of their abject poverty.

Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Granma in eastern Cuba, have all of the
educational, cultural, historical, scientific and agro-industrial
ingredients to become, the most highly developed region in the world of
people of African ancestry and a model for African integration, from where
must emanate, the development and transformation strategy of the third
world, with its millions of underdeveloped people, ravaged by hunger,
ignorance and disease. 

Irrefutable, historical facts demonstrate, that Afro-Cubans do not need to
come on their knees to the bargaining table with the Cuban or any other
government in the world. With our sweat, tears, blood and our lives during
350 years of slavery, we built everything visible and invisible in Cuba.
Most important, Cuba is free of Spanish colonialism today, only because sons
and daughters of Africa contributed the largest contingency of fighters and
bore the brunt of the dead and wounded during our wars of independence, for
which we were cruelly rewarded with the massacre of 3,000 members of the
Independent Party of Color, struggling for justice and equality in 1912.

And today, despite our tragic past, the unjustifiable, unresolved, shameful
social inequalities described above, Afro-Cubans are convinced beyond any
doubt, that they have advanced more in every measurable human parameter
during the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years; which have made
this sector of society, the staunchest supporters of the Cuban Revolution.

Afro-Cubans can no longer be taken for granted by the Cuban government, nor
can the treacherous forces organized by foreign interests bent on
decapitating the Cuban government, attempt hypocritically to share our
misery or join our suffering, in a cynical attempt to enlist us into their
counterrevolutionary forc
es, as if we have forgotten that these were in Cuba and are everywhere else,
the tormentors, the butchers of everything related to Africa, native
America, women or gays, with their segregationists souls.

As gloomy as these realities may seem, there is an unprecedented opportunity
for the development of sons of Africa in Cuba, the United States, the
Caribbean and elsewhere, if our leaders would only identify, evaluate,
implement, supervise and bring together most African, Caribbean leaders and
every leading Afro-American institution, to poo l our intellect and
financial resources into a unified incubation center for an integral
development of the third world. 

For much too long, Cuba have focused and centered its meager resources on
the wellbeing of others at the expense of its own. The time have come for
the world to say in unison, enough is enough! As of now, the Cuban
government and all conscious people of African ancestry and other developing
world, must take a step forward and support a speedy development of Cuba, to
enable it to reach the basic level of development to satisfy the needs of
its people and by closing a major diversionist loophole.

No false pride, no unacceptable excuses on part of the Cuban government to
refuse a worldwide collaboration with the country that have been most
generous, should be accepted by the developing world. Cuba have never asked
for anything in return for its unparallel generosity and this is not an
attempt to seal an un-payable debt of gratitude.

But, beyond our moral commitment to demand or even impose upon the Cuban
government our rights as beneficiaries of their incredible humanitarian
acts, we have a direct interest in insuring that Cuba will survive and
strive. Following are some collaborative projects that are available to the
developing world, if we only dared to dream. 

Cuba is the only place on earth today, where 20 thousands qualified
educators can be enlisted immediately, to begin reversing the failed inner
cities educational system, plagued by apathy, violence and other socials
ills, transforming them into model, productive educational centers,
producing highly trained, exemplary students for society, as it was proven
in the 70's with tens of thousands of African students educated on the
Island of Youth.

Only Cuba can create immediately an integral, affordable, quality healthcare
Insurance plan for 5-10 million uninsured or underinsured low income
citizens of the US and beyond.

Cuba is the only country in the world, that is capable of providing Mental
Health care at affordable rate, for tens of thousands of Hispanics in the US
and Latin America suffering from mental disorders related to drug addictions
or battlefield trauma.

Only in Cuba can we provide affordable Nursing and Rehab services for
thousands of Afro-Americans and Hispanics senior citizens, forced into
Nursing Homes settings devoid of their cultural/dietary experiences,
accelerating their demise.

Only in Cuba, with hundreds of thousands of fallow acreage of agricultural
lands, severe shortfall in food production, can we salvage what is left of
the dwindling Black Farmers Association, which in conjunction with Cuban
farmers and immigrants from the20Caribbean and Central America under a
humane migration policy, would be able to rapidly triple or quadruple
today's production levels of produce/husbandry, generate sufficient income
to support their families in their countries of origin, reduce the dangerous
and illegal migratory tendency to the United States and encourage the
formation of minority food supplier/distributor, strengthening the region
food safety net.

Only in Cuba, can the US Congressional Black Caucus work out an agreement
with the Cuban government, to expand its very effective prison
rehabilitation programs to include US minorities, in order to restore the
lives of tens of thousands inmates, condemned to rot in prison or released
unprepared into society, only to rejoin the ranks of recidivists.

Only in Cuba, can a massive integral healthcare training program be
assembled for 20,000 Afro-Americans and other minorities as primary care
physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, environmentalists and
engineering, to satisfy present and future demands of these critically
anemic professionals fields in the world. 

Only in Cuba can we muster immediately 20,000 technically trained or
trainable youngsters to be incorporated into the high-tech communication
industry, that have migrated to Asia in detriment of our regional economy.

Only the US Congressional Black Caucus has the moral authority to enter into
negotiations with the US Government, leading to the return intact of the
United States Naval Base in Guantanamo to the Cuban government, initiate a
massive environmental impact clean-up of toxic waste from years of practice
bombings and turn this sprawling complex into the world largest
educational/research center for 100, 000 secondary/HS students and 50,000
higher education health and environmental students from developing countries
around the world, and

Construction of the largest tropical medicine research center in the world
for wide scale production of low cost harmaceutical/biological products
against transmissible and chronic diseases. For many, these profoundly
humane, transformative projects, geared to create a world of peace, equality
and the elimination of strife and destruction, may become a source of
skepticism regarding its financing ability. If most international bodies
would approve and sanction this project and would agree to apply a 2% levy
on all developed nations GDP and a 0.01% on the developing world, this and
much more can be easily accomplished.

That is why, the specter of the world loosing its best hope for breaking the
noose of subjugation and dependency, sends shivers down the spine of
millions. The values and principles of the Cuban people must not be allowed
to be corroded by outsiders, nor should the failure of the Cuban government
to aggressively remove all vestiges of racism and its absurd insistence in
perpetuating extra low wages which disincentive production, weaken
discipline and promote illegalities, should be actively opposed, especially
by those respectful of Cuba's integrit y, future and wellbeing of its
people, as it is expressed in:

A critical look at the future of Cuba, 12/07, 2/08 and 3/08
A region at risk of famine and the need of a survival strategy, 4/08
If they were only here, 6/08 
Big problems demand big solutions 9/08
Caribbean Unification. A non deferrable reality 11/08 and
The dawning of America 12/08

In this defining moment, no one who is respectful of Cuba's Independence and
Sovereignty, can remain on the sidelines. It is a moral imperative to stand
up, speak out and fight for what we believe in. 

Cubans must not suffer anymore! Cuba must cease to divide and sub-divide its
meager resources! Cuba must start multiplying and elevating geometrically
everything it produces and will produce. Strong nations are not threatened,
weak ones are!

 


From schaffer at optonline.net  Sun Jul  5 05:01:58 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:01:58 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] (fwd) Ralph Dumain revisits Boris Hessen
Message-ID: <4A508826.8040808@optonline.net>

[from Jim Farmelant, came as html-only]




----- Forwarded Message -----

Introduction to The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's 'Principia' by
Boris Hessen

Hessen's famous essay was originally published in English translation in:

Science at the Cross Roads; Papers Presented to the [2nd] International
Congress of the History of Science and Technology Held in London from
June 20th to July 3rd, 1931 by the delegates of the U.S.S.R. (London:
Kniga, Ltd., 1931), pp. 151-212.

Note also:

" The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's Principia" by Boris Hessen
Translated by Phlippa Shimrat; edited by Peter McLaughlin & Gideon
Freudenthal
(Note: different translation from the original published translation)

Social Milieu and Evolution of Logic, Epistemology, and History of Science.
The Case of Marxism
by Valentin A. Bazhanov



From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in  Sun Jul  5 05:17:59 2009
From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxistfront at yahoo.co.in)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:47:59 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] Lalgarh's Battle for Dignity and Justice
Message-ID: <mailman.58.1246792696.2550.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>

Another analysis on LALGARH this time from CPI ML Liberation...

 

http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2009/july_09/editorial.html

 

Lalgarh's Battle for Dignity and Justice

A concerted paramilitary campaign is now underway in Lalgarh and surrounding
areas in the tribal-dominated western region of West Bengal bordering
Jharkhand and Orissa, ostensibly to flush out Maoists and restore the
authority of the state. The campaign though being carried out by the state
government is being actively guided and sponsored by the Union Home
Ministry. The Union Home Minister has warned that the operation may take
longer than expected and has appealed to political leaders and civil society
organizations not to visit Lalgarh while the operation is on. Mamata
Banerjee has called for declaring the three districts of West Medinipur,
Bankura and Purulia a disturbed area. The Union Home Ministry has meanwhile
included the CPI(Maoist) in the list of unlawful associations under the
recently amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. 
Chidambaram's appeal against civilian visits to Lalgarh, coming apparently
after a group of Left Front MPs wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his
personal intervention to this effect, clearly shows that the government
wants to keep the operation beyond the purview of public scrutiny. This is
as good as an indirect admission about the real nature and purpose of
Operation Lalgarh - a brutal war on the adivasis who had been offering such
a determined resistance to state repression. In the absence of independent
investigations, the actual extent of casualties and injuries inflicted by
the ongoing operation is not really known. But hundreds of people have
already been forced to flee and there are disturbing reports that the
paramilitary forces are forcing local adivasi youth under duress to locate
mines and explosives - under threat that they will be arrested as 'Maoists'
if they refuse.
Lalgarh had first shot into national prominence in November last year when
the local adivasis in their thousands revolted against police atrocities
following an unsuccessful Maoist mine attack targeting the Chief Minister's
cavalcade. The resistance has since continued unabated and during the recent
elections the state had to negotiate with the People's Committee against
Police Atrocities (PCAPA) which is spearheading the resistance, for setting
up polling booths outside the resistance area. The state was obviously
waiting for an opportune moment and pretext to go for a crackdown. The
opportunity came when Lalgarh recently erupted again against provocations by
local CPI(M) leaders and Maoists made tall claims regarding their leading
role in the Lalgarh resistance and dared the state to intervene. 
At the heart of it, Lalgarh is a typical adivasi revolt against repression
and injustice. The entire history of our anti-colonial struggle is replete
with many such instances and the Indian state today has no problem
recognizing the leaders of those revolts as popular heroes. In the eyes of
the oppressed and deprived tribal people the Indian state in all these years
has not really changed much and retains many of the colonial era trappings
of utter insensitivity and unbridled brutality. But when the inheritors of
Birsa Munda, Sidho-Kanu and Tilka Manjhi revolt against this contemporary
reality, our post-colonial democratic system knows no other way but to
declare a virtual war on these seekers of justice. It should be noted that
the allegations of police atrocities made by the PCAPA have been found to be
true by a senior official of the West Bengal government (Backward Classes
Welfare Secretary RD Meena) but instead of taking adequate corrective
measures as demanded by the PCAPA the state government has only announced
meagre compensation of only a few thousand rupees to the eleven women
victims of police repression!
For the UPA government and its belligerent Home Minister who managed to win
the recent election by administratively converting defeat into victory,
Lalgarh is a test case to unleash a new pattern of governance in which
paramilitary forces will become the custodian of constitutional niceties.
There is also the larger political gameplan to trap the ruling Left of West
Bengal in an increasingly repressive role while the Congress plays the
benefactor and monopolises the mask of welfare measures!
For the people of West Bengal, Operation Lalgarh is a political eye-opener.
During the recent elections, Mamata Banerjee claimed to champion the cause
of the struggles in Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh and the TMC-Congress
combined reaped a bumper electoral harvest. Elections over, it is now time
to thank the people and what could be a more suitable gift than Operation
Lalgarh! Mamata Banerjee now says that the TMC expelled the PCAPA chief
Chhatradhar Mahato two years ago when it came to know about his Maoist link!
Chhatradhar says he was never expelled but quit the TMC when he found it
incapable of meeting the tribals' needs. He then recalls how following the
killing of three PCAPA members in police firing in February, Mamata Banerjee
had visited Jangalmahal, shed tears and said, 'If these people are Maoists,
then I too am a Maoist.' "We never doubted her sincerity then", says
Chhatradhar. But he realizes that the circumstances have now changed: "after
the elections, the same Mamata Banerjee got a Cabinet post, joined the
government at the Centre, which in turn sent paramilitary forces to Lalgarh.
Therefore, it is quite natural for Banerjee now to link me with the
Maoists."
It is also important to look at the doublespeak of the CPI(M) leadership.
Prakash Karat says the Maoists need to be politically isolated from the
people they are mobilizing even as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee demands more
central forces and Sitaram Yechury asks the Prime Minister to demonstrate
his seriousness in tackling what his government claims to be the biggest
threat to internal security! On the one hand, the government spearheads a
paramilitary operation, and the MPs seek personal intervention of the Prime
Minister to prevent political leaders from visiting the operation area, and
on the other hand the party talks of fighting a political battle against
Maoists! If the CPI(M) thinks that all this can be justified by invoking the
party-government distinction and that the Centre-state or Congress-CPI(M)
cooperation in 'restoring the authority of the state' in Lalgarh could help
check the TMC's advance, it is only deceiving itself. 
As for the Maoists, they have only once again demonstrated the
incompatibility of their ideas and actions with the needs of any radical
people's movement. With their penchant for exclusive and sensational
military actions and aversion to the mass political process, they ultimately
only produce a dampening and disruptive effect on any powerful people's
movement while letting the Mamata Banerjees reap the political benefit of
people's struggles and sacrifices. 
We join the democratic opinion of the country and the justice-loving people
of Lalgarh to demand an immediate end to the paramilitary offensive,
withdrawal of paramilitary forces and a negotiated resolution of the
conflict through fulfillment of the just demands of the Lalgarh people and
quick redressal of all their long-standing grievances. We also do not
support the idea of banning the CPI(Maoist) as a terrorist organization. The
Maoists are anyway an underground organization and the experience of states
like Chhattisgarh and Orissa where they have been banned for years clearly
shows that the ban has been ineffective from the point of view of checking
Maoist military actions. The ban is actually a weapon to terrorise the
common people and stifle the democratic voice of protest. The case of Dr.
Binayak Sen is a clear instance and for every Binayak Sen case that comes to
the limelight, there are always hundreds of lesser known activists and
ordinary men and women whose human rights continue to be brutally trampled
upon. 

Victory to Lalgarh's glorious battle for dignity and justice!


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 05:32:18 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 07:32:18 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] "The Israeli Idea of a 'Palestinian State'"
In-Reply-To: <c1a.5fa6cffc.3781e856@aol.com>
References: <c1a.5fa6cffc.3781e856@aol.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907050432p1056e23ap3b9788c071f596d4@mail.gmail.com>

>
>
>
>  *Saree Makdisi, "The Israeli Idea of a 'Palestinian State'"<http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=39864524&f=17475&u=171835>
> *
>
> The strange thing is that Netanyahu's speech marked both the definitive end
> and a symbolic return to the beginning of the two-state solution as that
> hapless notion has been peddled since the Oslo Accords of 1993-95. For what
> he said the Palestinians might -- perhaps -- be entitled to is pretty much
> what Oslo had said they might be entitled to fifteen years ago: a
> "self-government authority" not allowed to control its own borders or
> airspace, shorn of any vestige of sovereignty, etc. And on top of that they
> can also forget about Jerusalem -- that is and will forever remain the
> eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish people. If it sounds so drearily
> familiar, that's because it is: we have come full circle. First time as
> tragedy, second time as farce. . . . The Palestinians who still cling to the
> idea of a Palestinian state to be achieved through negotiations (from a
> position of weakness) with Israel had better absorb this once and for all
> and move on to other objectives -- and other strategies to succeed.
>
> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/makdisi040709.html
>
>
>

From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in  Sun Jul  5 05:32:46 2009
From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxistfront at yahoo.co.in)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 17:02:46 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] Lalgarh and the Subsequent Adivasi Struggle in West Bengal
Message-ID: <mailman.60.1246793584.2550.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>



From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 05:55:30 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:55:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Blum has Fun with Obama and Micheletti
Message-ID: <9B0303EC-0DA7-4D02-8CFD-20695BEF4EB9@mac.com>

http://www.theassassinatedpress.com/kao.htm

Washington, CIA, Military Paralyzed With Fear at Vociferousness of  
Honduran Coup.
Rahm Emanuel Says Honduran Coup Leaders? Determination Terrifies Him  
to ?the core of his very being.?
Obama Soils Himself and Trembles in Fear Whenever Tough Honduran  
Micheletti?s Name Is Mentioned.
U.S. Military Ill-equipped to Open Another Front Against Rugged,  
American Trained, Equipped and Financed Honduran Military, Says  
Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

By LEONLY KAOWOOD
The Assassinated Press
7/2/09

?I?ve never been so frightened in all my life. Mr. Michiletti yelled  
at me and made me cry,? pled Barack Obama wiping tears from his eyes,  
his hands shaking and knees knocking. ?These fat white Honduran  
oligarchs are some tough motherfuckers. They make homicidal maniacs  
like Richard Perle or Jeffrey Dahmer look like pussies. Oh and please  
excuse my comparison of Perle to Dahmer. I by no means intend to  
besmirch the memory of Jeffrey Dahmer by comparing him to Richard  
Perle.?

?But I?m not the only one frozen in terror at the mere nano-thought  
of the School of the Americas trained Honduran military coup  
leaders,? Obama added. ?All of official Washington is paralyzed with  
fear. Congress, the CIA, the State Department and the USAID. We?re  
just terrified. You know what Ronald Reagan said of Nicaragua is also  
true of Honduras. Honduras like Nicaragua is just a 3 day drive from  
Harlingen Texas and Honduras has seven million people over twice the  
population of Nicaragua. Fuckin? ?A? that?s chilling. If we push the  
Honduran military too hard they might invade us and overthrow me.  
Poor prissy me and my lying cocksucker of a chief of staff, Rahm ?Da  
Bomb?.?

Obama?s remarks came after left-wing Latin American leaders declared  
their support for the deposed leader, who was expelled by the  
military on Sunday.

Us. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens begged to be recalled to  
Washington crying like school girl when coup president Michiletti  
raised his voice to him. ?I was so non-plussed. Michiletti is such a  
beast.?

General Douglas Fraser Commander of the U.S. Southern Command said  
?We?ve known for months the Honduran kleptocracy planned this coup,  
way fucking before this referendum canard. And we were helping them.  
Then we said we didn?t think it was such a hot idea, but they fucking  
went and did it anyway. That kind of mad dog, out of the box scares  
me. I don?t want to mess with no Hondurans.?

In Honduras, pro-Zelaya protestors have been demonstrating in the  
country's capital, Tegucigalpa. Mr Zelaya's removal followed a power  
struggle after he raised the minmum wage from $157.00 a month to  
$289.00 and the tiny central American country was flooded with  
migrant workers from the U.S.

The BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Tegucigalpa says all day hundreds of pro- 
Zelaya protesters have been taunting the thousands of soldiers  
deployed around the presidential residence, accusing them of taking  
part in a "criminal coup".

The ousted president, who was in office since 2006, had wanted to  
hold a referendum that could have led to an extension of his non- 
renewable four-year term in office.

Expulsion condemned

Polls for the vote were due to open early on Sunday, but instead  
troops stormed the presidential palace at dawn, detained Mr Zelaya  
and flew him to Costa Rica.

The military, the Supreme Court and the part of Congress that also  
stooges for the wealthy in the Central American nation had all  
opposed Mr Zelaya's referendum.

Our correspondent says that even though the international community  
regards the exiled leader as the legitimate leader of the country,  
any comeback will not be easy with Obama and official Washington so  
terrified of the Honduran coup leaders.

Speaking after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Mr  
Obama said Mr Zelaya remained the democratically-elected leader of  
Honduras but he was on his own. Obama said, He could not risk  
retaliation against the U.S. from the coup led Honduran government.  
?The U.S. relies on Honduras for its very survival, he added.?

And he said a "terrible precedent" would be set if the U.S. lost a  
military confrontation with the Honduran coup leaders.

Earlier on Monday, speaking in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua,  
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spelled out his opposition to the  
situation in Honduras.

"We cannot allow a return to the past. We will not permit it," Mr.  
Chavez said thinking back to the golden age when the U.S. was strong  
enough to launch multiple coups around the world simultaneously as  
interchangeably as launching multiple warheads. ?Who is this pussy,  
Obama?? the people of Latin America ask, ?And when can we get a piece  
of him??

Chavez spoke after talks with Mr Zelaya, President Rafael Correa of  
Ecuador and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

'Voracious elite.' NAM Quiet but Grinning Broadly with a Canary in  
Its Maw

After turning up in Costa Rica on Sunday, Mr Zelaya called his ouster  
a plot "by a very voracious elite including many U.S. manufacturers  
like Nike and Tom?s Shoes, an elite which wants only to keep this  
country [Honduras] isolated, in an extreme level of poverty".

"Hey, hold on Mr. Zelaya," sputtered David 'Vasiline' Asseline the  
Executive Director of the Council of Manufacturing Associations.  
"With that new minumum wage it meant the end of the 99 cent thong  
three pack so popular with our young people here in the good ol' U.S.  
of fucking A. You don't wnat our youth going around in dirty thongs  
does ya."

In Tegucigalpa protestors defied a curfew order between Sunday night  
and Monday morning, imposed by fat yet imposing stuffed shirt Mr  
Micheletti.

As Speaker of Congress, Mr Micheletti had been the next in line to  
the presidency. His swearing-in was greeted with much swearing and a  
trickle of applause by those who have not gone into hiding and remain  
in Congress.

In a speech, he said that he had not assumed power under the  
"ignominy" of a coup d'etat and anyone who said otherwise would be  
shot by the coup leaders.

The army had complied with the constitution, he said, and he had  
reached the presidency "as the result of an absolutely legal  
transition process". ?I mean, the constitution is made of paper,  
right. So we wiped our ass with it. I?m sure in the eyes of god if  
god be Mammon, Allen Dulles, Rick Santelli and every rich fuck in the  
world that?s worried about preserving his ill-gotten billions, we?re  
fucking patriots.

Congress said he would serve until 27 January, when Mr Zelaya's term  
had been due to expire.

Presidential elections are planned for 29 November and Mr Micheletti  
promised the elections would have gone ahead if his new referendum on  
allowing coup leaders to serve an indefinite number of terms hadn?t  
passed unanimously among the new coup led Congress.

?Its fucking Zelaya?s fault,? Mr. Michiletti added. ? If he hadn?t  
started paying people a living wage the Honduran people would have  
had their elections in November. Now, only if our guy is elected will  
we have had elections. Just the way Uncle Slimey likes it. Poor,  
frightened little Uncle Slimey.?

From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in  Sun Jul  5 05:20:41 2009
From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxistfront at yahoo.co.in)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:50:41 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] Verdict 2009 and the Left: Key Issues and the Road Ahead
Message-ID: <mailman.64.1246795812.2550.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>

Verdict 2009 and the Left: Key Issues and the Road Ahead: 

 

http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2009/july_09/commentary.html

Political Observer

Five years ago, the 14th Lok Sabha had witnessed the largest ever presence
of Left parliamentarians. Along with the defeat of the NDA, the arrival of
the Left as a major player in national politics was a key message of the
2004 elections. Five years later, the 15th Lok Sabha now presents a
drastically different picture. The CPI(M) and the CPI, the two biggest
constituents of the Left bloc in Parliament, have secured their lowest ever
tallies, reducing the overall Left presence to a meagre 24. 
On the face of it, this outcome appears quite baffling and out of sync with
contemporary global reality. Global capitalism is passing through one of its
roughest patches and in many parts of the world we can see a renewed
assertion of the working people and a consequent tilt towards the Left. For
quite some time India too has been in the grip of a protracted agrarian
crisis aggravated by the onslaught of neoliberal policies, and now, thanks
to increasing globalisation, more and more sectors of the Indian economy are
feeling the heat of the global capitalist meltdown. Millions of toiling
Indians are faced with the threat of outright pauperisation and ever
shrinking means of livelihood. 
On top of it, there has been this pronounced pro-US policy shift pushing
India into a strategic alliance with the US and consequently rendering India
much more vulnerable to both terror threats as well as greater American
intervention in domestic affairs. 
Such a context should have proved conducive to further growth of the Left,
especially when the CPI(M) and its partners had already acquired a firm
foothold in the 14th Lok Sabha. But the results of the 15th Lok Sabha
elections tell a totally different story. Where and how did the CPI(M) lose
the plot? There is a growing debate in Left circles on this question, and as
the crisis of the CPI(M) deepens, the debate should also get deeper and
sharper.  
How does the CPI(M) look at its electoral debacle? The communiqu? issued
after the CPI(M) CC meeting in Delhi on June 20-21 describes the outcome as
?serious reverses? amounting to an ?electoral setback?. It acknowledged
?political, governmental and organisational reasons for the setbacks
suffered? in West Bengal including ?shortcomings in the functioning of
government, panchayats and municipalities based on a proper class outlook?,
?failure of the government to implement properly various measures directly
concerning the lives of the people? and ?alienation amongst some sections of
the peasantry?. According to the communiqu?, the CPI(M) CC also felt it was
a mistake to extend the call for building a third alternative to the
formation of an alternative government. The CC admitted that ?In the absence
of a countrywide alliance and no common policy platform being presented, the
call for an alternative government was unrealistic.? 
This CC review of course comes in the wake of a whole range of public
statements already made by several CPI(M) leaders pointing accusing fingers
in different directions. Kerala Chief Minister and veteran PB member VS
Achuthanandan has ruled out any ?anti-incumbency? factor against his
government, thus indicating that the problems lie at the doorsteps of the
party. Several West Bengal leaders hold the ?third front? experiment
responsible while some have started blaming the decision to withdraw support
to the Congress. Two days before the last leg of the LS election, a Bengali
TV channel broadcast an exclusive interview with veteran West Bengal
minister Subhas Chakraborty where he openly questioned the party?s choice of
third front allies and described the Congress as an indispensable partner
not only for the defence of secularism but also in any fight against
imperialism! Only a handful of West Bengal leaders, most notably Land and
Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, have dared mention the Left Front
government?s forcible land acquisition drive as the main factor. 
Addressing the press after the CC meeting Prakash Karat talked of ?near
unanimity? in the CC over the party?s act of withdrawal of support to UPA
government on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal, thereby indirectly
acknowledging differences within the CC over the subject. The review which
expresses the majority opinion does mention some of the key problems
associated with the party and governments in West Bengal and Kerala as well
as with the implementation of the party?s all-India tactical line. But these
problems and mistakes are symptomatic of a deeper malady rooted in the
party?s understanding and practice of dealing with governments whether in
the state or at the Centre. The obsession with somehow retaining or
acquiring power has been pushing the party deeper into the quagmire of right
opportunism and in the same proportion the party has been moving away from
the basic masses and their interests and struggles. The erosion in the
CPI(M)?s votes is only a belated electoral reflection of this growing
disjunction between the party and the people, between governance and
struggle. The CC review of course scrupulously shies away from any inquiry
into the root causes. 
As far as West Bengal is concerned, the results indicate nothing short of a
massive anti-CPI(M) electoral explosion and this can no longer be attributed
to any one single factor. Singur and Nandigram have definitely been big
issues but we need to understand why Singur and Nadigram happened in the
first place. There is something fundamentally wrong with the notion of
governance and industrialisation that believes that a modest Tata plant
could be showcased as a Left-ruled state?s biggest achievement in
?industrialisation?, and then pulls out all stops to appease the ?investor?
and crush every protest of the land-losing peasants and livelihood-losing
sharecroppers and labourers. After Singur, many had expected the CPI(M) to
learn its lessons, but Nandigram showed that the Left rulers had lost the
very will or ability to learn any positive lesson. One really had to see the
CPI(M)?s election campaign in West Bengal to have a sense of its world of
political make-believe. While Mamata Banerjee?s campaign endlessly invoked
the now famous trinity of ?Ma-Mati-Manush?, giving a highly emotive human
form to the agenda of land, livelihood and liberty, the CPI(M) campaign
revolved primarily around Nano, the promised lakhtakia (Rs. one lakh) Tata
car! The CPI(M) believed it could win the elections by holding Mamata
Banerjee responsible for the Tata?s decision to relocate the Nano plant in
Gujarat and projecting her as a demon who killed Bengal?s dream of
industrialisation and employment generation! 
The spectacular past electoral successes of the CPI(M) in West Bengal were
rooted primarily in a broad class alliance that carried the rural poor along
with the middle classes, erstwhile landed gentry and the neo-rich sections.
Having consolidated the rural poor base through a combination of much touted
rural reforms (Operation Barga, land redistribution and panchayati raj, to
name the three most well-known measures), the CPI(M) thought it could switch
over to the usual trajectory of the ?trickle-down pattern of development?.
The class contradictions and popular grievances that are handled in other
states largely within the matrix of competitive bourgeois politics were
sought to be contained with measured doses of coercion and patronage as the
party retained its overall grip over the broad social coalition. But with
the rise and consolidation of a narrow nexus of corrupt officials, leaders
and middlemen and steady reversal of much of the earlier gains won by the
rural poor, the coalition had already started cracking and Singur and
Nandigram widened the cracks and opened the floodgates for popular
resentment and resistance. 
The CPI(M) has suffered an equally severe setback in Kerala too. Unlike in
West Bengal, the CPI(M)?s domination in Kerala has never been unchallenged
and the party here has always had to operate within a highly competitive
environment. Yet the intensity of the rout suffered by the CPI(M) in the
2009 elections indicates a deeper structural erosion in the party?s support
beyond the alternating cyclical swings one expects in Kerala. The CPI(M) in
Kerala remains mired in factionalism, the spirit of commerce dominates the
official culture of the party and now we have this shocking case of major
corruption allegations and CBI enquiry against the party?s state secretary.
Alienation of landless dalit labourers has also assumed serious proportions
in Kerala. 
The poll debacle of the CPI(M) must also be analysed in the context of the
party?s all-India tactical line. With a sixty-plus-strong contingent of
parliamentarians at its command, in 2004 the CPI(M) had come to acquire a
greatly increased visibility and say in national politics. Even after
cobbling a post-poll alliance, in 2004 the Congress had to rely on the
CPI(M)?s support to form government. While not joining the UPA government,
the CPI(M) utilised this juncture to enter into a programmatic alliance with
the Congress, limiting dissent against Congress policies to talks within the
framework of UPA-Left coordination committee. Even on the one issue of
Indo-US nuclear deal, the opposition came too late and encumbered in lot of
technicalities and devoid of any attempt to build any significant mass
resistance.  
The CPI(M) now claims credit for ?pressurising? the Congress to legislate
NREGA and waive farm loans. These claims would have sounded somewhat
convincing had the CPI(M) ever unleashed any major mass political initiative
on the issues of rural unemployment or farmers? suicides, or for that
matter, if West Bengal could top the list of states in terms of
implementation of NREGA. Ironically, while the Congress derived considerable
political mileage from measures like NREGA and farm loan waiver, the CPI(M)
exposed itself as the most brutal defender of corporate landgrab. Indeed,
the failure of the Left to oppose the SEZ Act 2005 in Parliament and the
wholesale adoption and implementation of neoliberal economic policies by the
West Bengal government seriously dented the CPI(M)?s oppositional claims on
the economic policy front. 
After the eventual withdrawal of support, instead of going to the masses the
CPI(M) leadership got busy with desperate attempts to seek dubious allies.
On the eve of the elections, the CPI(M) formed a programme-free ?third
front? with motley regional forces ranging from the AIADMK and TDP to the
BJD and projected it as the core of the next government. The CPI(M) now
admits that the ?third front? did not fit the bill of a credible and viable
national alternative, yet Prakash Karat would like us to believe that it
served two important purposes. 
His first claim is that the third front denied the BJP the luxury of finding
any ally in the southern states and thus prevented the NDA from emerging as
a national alternative. Well, if the AIADMK or TDP did not choose to ally
with the BJP, it was because they did not expect to gain anything by
entering into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP which has little presence in
the southern states except Karnataka. Likewise, the BJD?s decision to dump
the BJP just on the eve of the elections was also prompted by the BJD?s own
electoral calculations and had nothing to do with the CPI(M)?s ?third front?
initiative. In the event of a hung parliament if the BJP-led NDA had any
realistic chance of forming government, these parties would have had no
problem in jumping on to the NDA bandwagon. Did not we all see how the TRS
switched sides in anticipation of an NDA victory? 
Karat?s second argument deals with the combined vote share of the ?third
front? parties and the BSP, a respectable 21 per cent. According to him,
?this shows the potential for building up a third alternative ... which is
not merely an electoral alliance but a coming together of the parties and
forces on a common platform through movements and struggles for alternative
policies distinct from that of the Congress and the BJP.? If the combined
vote share of the BJD and the BSP, and the AIADMK and the TDP shows the
potential for a movement-based third front committed to ?alternative
policies distinct from that of the Congress and the BJP?, what prevented the
CPI(M) from actualising that alliance? Karat?s answer is simple and smart:
since electoral combinations were forged statewise, it ?precluded any
national policy platform from being projected.? But if all these parties are
committed to alternative policies why could not they agree to a common
policy platform? And if it was indeed so difficult on the national level
what stopped the alternative policies from being projected in the respective
states?
While Karat valorises the whole range of non-Congress non-BJP parties as
prospective anti-corporate anti-imperialist partners, many of his comrades
would love to return to the safety of a strategic understanding with the
good old Congress. Both Karat and his detractors who find him ?dogmatic? and
?adventurist? actually reduce the question of revival and independence of
the Left to the choice of allies and forging of convenient electoral
combinations. Instead of sticking to a set pattern of alliance, Karat would
prefer to swap allies and we have already seen this line in action in Tamil
Nadu, Andhra, Orissa and Assam. Dumping the DMK the CPI(M) has now chosen
the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu; in Andhra electoral understanding with the
Congress has given way to mahakutumi (grand alliance) with TDP and even TRS
(the TDP has all along been opposed to the idea of a separate Telangana and
so has been the CPI(M), yet they had no problem in forging a grand alliance
with the TRS whose sole agenda is the formation of a separate Telangana
state); in Orissa the CPI(M) has tied up with the ruling BJD and in Assam it
wanted to have a seat sharing pact with the AUDF. 
On paper, the combinations looked pretty formidable, but on the ground the
results have been quite dismal. The alliance arithmetic has yielded only two
seats to the CPI(M) ? one LS seat in Tamil Nadu and one Assembly seat in
Andhra. In Orissa and Assam, the CPI(M) has not only failed to win any seat
but it has also suffered a major erosion in terms of votes. The loss must
not of course be assessed only in terms of seats and votes, the credibility
of the party and the morale of the party?s support base are far more
important parameters. What did the CPI(M) expect to gain by glorifying and
allying with Naveen Patnaik in Orissa? While Kandhamal happened, Naveen
Patnaik?s government did nothing to stop the anti-Christian violence. On the
eve of the elections, Naveen Patnaik dumped the BJP and the CPI and the
CPI(M) rushed to glorify him as a new-found secular hero, enabling him to
reduce the Orissa elections to a contrived showdown between the two
estranged partners ? the BJD and the BJP. The issues of displacement and
deprivation of the tribal and other toiling masses were conveniently brushed
aside. Will the CPI(M) ever be able to stand up in Orissa by glorifying
Naveen Patnaik? (The story of the CPI?s victory from the Jagatsinghpur LS
constituency that includes the site of the ongoing popular struggle against
the land acquisition plans of the South Korean steel major Posco is no less
shocking ? while the local CPI leaders spearheading the anti-Posco movement
languish in jail, a Congress leader opposed to the movement joined the CPI
and won on the party?s ticket with the blessings of Posco and Naveen
Patnaik!)
Basing on its stable bases in West Bengal and Kerala, the CPI(M) has over
the years evolved a political line and praxis in which the oppositional role
of the party is thoroughly subordinated to the agenda of power-sharing at
the central level. The party programme too has been suitably ?updated? to
provide for this scheme of things. In 1977 when the CPI(M) first came to
power, it projected the Left Front government as a weapon of struggle. But
now in the party?s perception state governments have been delinked from any
idea of struggle and are seen exclusively as instruments of ?development?
and ?governance? and, in the national context, as stepping stones towards
power-sharing at the Centre. The CPI(M) now fights elections only with the
slogan of government formation no matter whether the party is in a position
to form one or not. The concept of a committed and vigorous Left opposition
has virtually become alien to the CPI(M)?s entire tactical framework and
political praxis. 
While the CPI(M) has theoretically and practically ?upgraded? itself as a
party of power, ironically the 2009 elections have pushed it closer to the
oppositional slot. Nationally it has no other choice but to sit in the
opposition and if the present trend continues, the CPI(M) will soon also
have to reinvent itself as an opposition party in West Bengal too. 
The other big question that confronts the CPI(M) is the issue of its
attitude to people?s struggle and the democratic intelligentsia. While the
CPI(M) has developed considerable expertise and experience in forging fronts
with disparate forces and brokering peace among sparring bourgeois parties,
it exhibits a near-pathological inability to deal with popular movements and
people?s outbursts. To take a few examples, we can recall the CPI(M)?s
response to the Naxalbari movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s in West
Bengal, the 1974 youth movement in Bihar, the Assam movement in the late
1970s and early 1980s, the Gorkhaland agitation in the 1980s which
resurfaced again in the recent past and most recently the Singur-Nandigram
movement in West Bengal. It has been a habit of the CPI(M) to dismiss every
such popular movement as a conspiracy and side with the state in crushing
these movements. And now in Lalgarh, the Congress has once again trapped the
CPI(M) into discharging its repressive ?responsibility?. 
In the 1970s the Congress had usurped powers in West Bengal through highly
dubious means and gone on to unleash systematic state terror on all sections
of the Left. Even though the CPI(M) could not put up any significant
resistance to the Congress-led reign of terror, and the CPI(ML) had already
suffered a massive setback, the overwhelming public mood in West Bengal
remained very much against the Congress. The semi-fascist terror in West
Bengal soon gave way to a countrywide reign of Emergency that was overthrown
by the people through the historic mandate of 1977. The CPI(M)?s ascent to
power in West Bengal was an integral part of that larger democratic upsurge.
But today, West Bengal is witnessing a reverse phenomenon when the CPI(M) is
being rejected not only by large sections of the democratic opinion but also
a significant section of its own base. 
Prakash Karat is right when he says that the CPI(M) has in the past overcome
many difficult periods, but the present juncture poses a different kind of
challenge when the party is fast losing ground in what used to be its most
stable and powerful stronghold. Karat is again right when he says that
?anti-Communist quarters who have been rejoicing at the setbacks suffered by
the Left ... will be proved wrong.? But the point is not just to counter
anti-Communist canards and wild dreams, but more importantly to address the
questions that have emerged from within the CPI(M)?s own base and the larger
Left and democratic circles that once provided such tremendous support to
the party.

It is quite clear that the ruling classes see the poll outcome as a handle
to malign and marginalise the Left. As mentioned in the CPI(ML) CC
communiqu? of 27 May, ?Armed with a security doctrine that identifies
Maoism/Naxalism/Left extremism as the biggest threat to internal security
and an electoral outcome which has handed out the worst ever electoral
drubbing to the parliamentary left, the ruling classes are now all set to
launch a comprehensive assault on the Left as a whole.? The Left can thwart
this design only by mounting a powerful counter-offensive. Reclaiming the
Left role as a consistently secular, democratic and anti-imperialist
opposition and reasserting the Left identity as the most committed and
trusted champion of people?s interests and struggles is the need of the
hour. 

 


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sun Jul  5 06:27:21 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:27:21 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Leading clerics: Ahmadinejad victory is illegitimate
Message-ID: <4A509C29.3040206@panix.com>

NY Times, July 5, 2009
Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NAZILA FATHI

CAIRO ? The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the 
disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on 
Saturday, an act of defiance against the country?s supreme leader and 
the most public sign of a major split in the country?s clerical 
establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of 
Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the 
government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah 
Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has 
tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir 
Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes 
more difficult ? if not impossible.

?This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding 
with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in 
the 30 years of the Islamic republic,? said Abbas Milani, director of 
the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. ?Remember, they are 
going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.?

The announcement came on a day when Mr. Moussavi released documents 
detailing a campaign of fraud by the current president?s supporters, and 
as a close associate of the supreme leader called Mr. Moussavi and 
former President Mohammad Khatami ?foreign agents,? saying they should 
be treated as criminals.

The documents, published on Mr. Moussavi?s Web site, accused supporters 
of the president of printing more than 20 million extra ballots before 
the vote and handing out cash bonuses to voters.

Since the election, the bulk of the clerical establishment in the holy 
city of Qum, an important religious and political center of power, has 
remained largely silent, leaving many to wonder when, or if, the 
nation?s most senior religious leaders would jump into the controversy 
that has posed the most significant challenge to the country?s 
leadership since the Islamic Revolution.

With its statement Saturday, the association of clerics ? formed under 
the leadership of the revolution?s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini 
? came down squarely on the side of the reform movement.

The association includes reformists, but Iranian political analysts 
describe it as independent, and it did not support any candidate in the 
recent election.

The group had earlier asked for the election to be nullified because so 
many Iranians objected to the results, but it never directly challenged 
the legitimacy of the government and, by extension, the supreme leader.

The earlier statement also came before the election was certified by the 
country?s religious leaders, who have since said that opposition to the 
results must cease.

The clerics? decision to speak up again is not itself a turning point 
and could fizzle under pressure from the state, which has continued to 
threaten its critics. Some seminaries in Qum rely on the government for 
funds, and Ayatollah Khamenei and the man he has declared the winner of 
the election, incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have powerful 
backers there.

They also retain the support of the powerful security forces and the 
elite Revolutionary Guards. In addition, the country?s highest-ranking 
clerics have yet to speak out individually against the election results.

But the association?s latest statement does help Mr. Moussavi, Mr. 
Khatami and a former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who have 
been the most vocal in calling the election illegitimate and who, in 
their attempts to force change, have been hindered by the jailing of 
influential backers.

?The significance is that even within the clergy, there are many who 
refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the election results as announced 
by the supreme leader,? said an Iranian political analyst who spoke on 
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

While the government could continue vilifying the three opposition 
leaders, analysts say it was highly unlikely that the leadership would 
use the same tactic against the clerical establishment in Qum.

The backing also came at a sensitive time for Mr. Moussavi, because the 
accusations that he is a foreign agent ran in a newspaper, Kayhan, that 
has often been used to build cases against critics of the government.

The editorial was written by Hossein Shariatmadari, who was picked by 
the supreme leader to run the newspaper.

The clerics? statement chastised the leadership for failing to 
adequately study complaints of vote rigging and lashed out at the use of 
force in crushing huge public protests.

It even directly criticized the Guardian Council, the powerful group of 
clerics charged with certifying elections.

?Is it possible to consider the results of the election as legitimate by 
merely the validation of the Guardian Council?? the association said.

Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on 
other clerics to join the fight against the government?s refusal to 
adequately reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked 
powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during 
demonstrations with the martyrs who died in the early days of the 
revolution and the war with Iraq, asking other clerics to save what it 
called ?the dignity that was earned with the blood of tens of thousands 
of martyrs.?

The statement was posted on the association?s Web site late Saturday and 
carried on many other sites, including the Persian BBC, but it was 
impossible to reach senior clerics in the group to independently confirm 
its veracity.

The statement was issued after a meeting Mr. Moussavi had with the 
committee 10 days ago and a decision by the Guardian Council to certify 
the election and declare that all matters concerning the vote were closed.

But the defiance has not ended.

With heavy security on the streets, there is a forced calm. But each 
day, slowly, another link falls from the chain of government control. 
Last week, in what appeared a coordinated thrust, Mr. Moussavi, Mr. 
Karroubi and Mr. Khatami all called the new government illegitimate. On 
Saturday, Mr. Milani of Stanford said, former President Ali Akbar 
Hashemi Rafsanjani met with families of those who had been arrested, 
another sign that he was working behind the scenes to keep the issue alive.

?I don?t ever remember in the 20 years of Khamenei?s rule where he was 
clearly and categorically on one side and so many clergy were on the 
other side,? Mr. Milani said. ?This might embolden other clergy to come 
forward.?

The committee of clergy was formed in the 1960s. Mr. Milani said that 
for years, Ayatollah Khamenei also belonged to the group, and that it 
had developed some political clout by backing successful candidates for 
national office.

Many of the accusations of fraud posted on Mr. Moussavi?s Web site 
Saturday had been published before, but the report did give some more 
specific charges.

For instance, although the government had announced that two of the 
losing presidential contenders had received relatively few votes in 
their hometowns, the documents stated that some ballot boxes in those 
towns contained no votes for the two men.

Michael Slackman reported from Cairo, and Nazila Fathi from Toronto.


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sun Jul  5 06:30:44 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:30:44 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Mousavi details fraud
Message-ID: <4A509CF4.8000602@panix.com>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070402685.html
Iranian Details Alleged Fraud
Mousavi Is Also Accused of Treason

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 5, 2009

TEHRAN, July 4 -- Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate 
in last month's disputed election, released documents Saturday detailing 
a campaign of alleged fraud by supporters of President Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad that assured his reelection, while an adviser to Iran's 
supreme leader accused Mousavi of treason.

Hossein Shariatmadari, a special adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 
accused Mousavi of being a "foreign agent" working for the United States 
and a member of a "fifth column" determined to topple Iran's Islamic 
system of governance. The accusation of treason was the highest and most 
direct issued by an Iranian official since the June 12 election.

Many in Iran say that government forces are laying the groundwork for 
arresting Mousavi, who has not been seen in public in more than a week.

In a 24-page document posted on his Web site, Mousavi's special 
committee studying election fraud accused influential Ahmadinejad 
supporters of handing out cash bonuses and food, increasing wages, 
printing millions of extra ballots and other acts in the run-up to the vote.

The committee, whose members were appointed by Mousavi, said the state 
did everything in its power to get Ahmadinejad reelected, including 
using military forces and government planes to support his campaign.

The disputed election led to massive demonstrations in the streets of 
Tehran as the opposition demanded that the results be annulled. An 
ensuing government crackdown on protesters, which resulted in several 
deaths, was widely condemned abroad.

Last week, the Guardian Council, Iran's top electoral supervisory body, 
dismissed the fraud allegations, describing the election as "a golden 
page . . . of Iran's democratic history." On Saturday, Ahmadinejad 
blamed what he called Western efforts to "divert" Iranian public opinion 
during the demonstrations.

"They wanted to break our dignity and independence," the ILNA news 
agency quoted him as saying.

The government had previously denied the allegations and branded 
Mousavi, who is supported by another challenger, cleric Mehdi Karroubi, 
a bad loser.

The report released by Mousavi pointed out that the Interior Ministry, 
which counted the votes, is headed by Sadegh Mahsouli, a longtime friend 
of Ahmadinejad. The secretary of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad 
Jannati, had publicly supported Ahmadinejad, as had six others on the 
12-member council despite a law requiring them to remain impartial, 
according to the report.

"The law here was completely broken," said Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a 
top Mousavi campaign official. "What these documents prove is that the 
two entities that organized the elections were biased and in favor of 
one candidate."

Mousavi and his supporters say that commanders of the Revolutionary 
Guard Corps played an instrumental role in the election by campaigning 
for Ahmadinejad. The report pointed to interviews with Guard Corps 
publications in which commanders allegedly implied that they would not 
accept victory by any candidate except Ahmadinejad.

In an editorial, Shariatmadari, who is also editor in chief of the state 
newspaper Kayhan, identified Mousavi's main supporters as the United 
States, Israel, the European Union, Iranian foreign-based opposition 
groups and domestic "plunderers."

"That corrupt movement has been implementing a foreign mission in order 
to encourage unlawful activities, kill innocent people, create a 
rebellion, plunder public property and weaken the power of the Islamic 
system," he wrote.

Shariatmadari said Mousavi was trying to cover up his "crimes" after 
saying Wednesday that he still fully backs Iran's system of governance.

"His aim is to escape from definite punishment for the murder of 
innocent individuals, inciting riots and rebellions, hiring some thugs 
and ruffians to attack the lives, property and honor of the people, 
clear collaboration with foreigners, performing the role of the fifth 
column inside the country, and scores of other undeniable crimes," 
Shariatmadari wrote.

He called for an open trial of Mousavi and former president Mohammad 
Khatami, one of Mousavi's main supporters, saying, "They must be tried 
in an open court in front of the eyes of the oppressed people who demand 
that the blood of their loved ones should be avenged."

Meanwhile, resistance to the disputed elections continued among 
religious figures.

Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Saanei, who has supported politicians close to 
Mousavi and advocates more freedoms for young people, women and ethnic 
minorities, said Friday that many Iranians remain unconvinced that 
Ahmadinejad's victory was legitimate and urged authorities to safeguard 
rights.

"I remind you that no instruction or command can be a permission or 
excuse to violate people's rights, and this could be a great sin," he said.


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sun Jul  5 06:44:41 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:44:41 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Labor's last stand
Message-ID: <4A50A039.8090901@panix.com>

The corporate campaign to kill the Employee Free Choice Act

July 05, 2009 By Ken Silverstein
Source: Harpers (July)

On a Monday morning this past April, a few dozen Arkansans from that 
state's Chamber of Commerce could be found holing up in a Marriott hotel 
in Crystal City, Virginia, less than a mile from Washington's Ronald 
Reagan National Airport. They assembled in the hotel's Jefferson 
Ballroom, on one wall of which hangs a portrait of the third president 
standing before a giant Declaration of Independence. Despite the early 
hour, the visitors were cheerful, sipping from big Starbucks cups as 
they gathered up political literature and hard candies and waited for 
their program to begin.

These men and women had come to town as part of a lobbying "fly-in" 
coordinated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Their mission: to battle 
the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill that would make it easier 
for workers to organize unions, which now represent only 12 percent of 
the American labor force (compared with nearly a third in Canada and 
more than a quarter in the United Kingdom). That morning the group was 
to be briefed by Glenn Spencer, a deputy chief of staff at the Labor 
Department during the George W. Bush years who is now coordinating the 
Chamber of Commerce's campaign against EFCA. Another squad of fly-ins 
from Arkansas was meeting at the Chamber's downtown Washington 
headquarters, and the two forces would soon join to fan out across 
Capitol Hill for meetings with members of the state's congressional 
delegation.


read full article: http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21891


From e.c.apling at btinternet.com  Sun Jul  5 07:20:11 2009
From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 14:20:11 +0100
Subject: [Marxism] (fwd) Ralph Dumain revisits Boris Hessen
In-Reply-To: <4A508826.8040808@optonline.net>
References: <4A508826.8040808@optonline.net>
Message-ID: <24BAFE0851DC445689E49A5CD90FAC41@PaddyPC>

A fanous meeting and paper indeed, which really brought Soviet science to 
worldwide notice.  I was only 6 at the time, but not many years passed 
before I began to learn a lot from two English participants: Desmond Bernal 
and, particularly at first, J B S Haldane, whose science articles in the 
Daily Worker really raised my imagination about both science and marxism. 
It was JBS who really got me interested in statistics while I was still at 
school - and I have never forgotten to use his criteria for trusting the 
results from models.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Les Schaffer" <schaffer at optonline.net>
To: <e.c.apling at btinternet.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 12:01 PM
Subject: [Marxism] (fwd) Ralph Dumain revisits Boris Hessen


> [from Jim Farmelant, came as html-only]
>
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
>
> Introduction to The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's 'Principia' by
> Boris Hessen
>
> Hessen's famous essay was originally published in English translation in:
>
> Science at the Cross Roads; Papers Presented to the [2nd] International
> Congress of the History of Science and Technology Held in London from
> June 20th to July 3rd, 1931 by the delegates of the U.S.S.R. (London:
> Kniga, Ltd., 1931), pp. 151-212.
>
> snip 




From acpollack2 at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 07:45:46 2009
From: acpollack2 at gmail.com (Andrew Pollack)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 09:45:46 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Al-Awda-NY blog from VPUS Gaza convoy now online
Message-ID: <2fa1449b0907050645n52327317gab47a5c284dc839d@mail.gmail.com>

The Viva Palestina US delegation has arrived in Cairo, and Al-Awda-NY
delegates on the Convoy have started to send blog entries (see also
the earlier entries on a couple events building support for the
Convoy):

http://alawdavpusconvoy.blogspot.com/


From lnp3 at panix.com  Sun Jul  5 10:46:37 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:46:37 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Democratic dictatorship?
Message-ID: <4A50D8ED.3070200@panix.com>

Looks like Zelaya's enemies have been reading Lenin:

"It was the same scheme Ch?vez had in Venezuela," said Benjamin Bogran, 
the new minister of industry and commerce. "Ch?vez considers Honduras to 
be inside his orbit."

Elizabeth Zu?iga, a member of Congress and leader of the Nationalist 
Party, said: "Little by little, step by step, he was looking at the 
South Americans for help and guidance. They were his new best friends." 
Zu?iga, who supports the ouster, said, "What I believe we were seeing 
was the evolution of a democratic dictatorship.

full: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070400879.html


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 11:19:25 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 13:19:25 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Cuba's Extraordinary Generosity Risking its own Survival
Message-ID: <709f342d0907051019l402265dsad906f970f5fcb28@mail.gmail.com>

This is the line of some sectors of the gusaneria -- that the Cuban
State sacrifices Cubans', particularly Black Cubans' -- wellbeing,
while sending doctors abroad. This note is presumably a bit of
fishing?


> Message: 10
> Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:20:01 +0530
> From: <marxistfront at yahoo.co.in>
> Subject: [Marxism] Cuba's Extraordinary Generosity Risking its own
>        Survival
>
>
>
>
>
> Cuba's Extraordinary Generosity Risking its own Survival
> Alberto N. Jones
> June 24, 2009
>
> Although I am acutely aware how busy most are is today's world, but given
> the importance of this issue I hope, it may capture the attention of someone
> in position to evaluate and act upon any or all of these troubling matters.
>
> As a 70 year old Afro-Cuban Veterinary Pathologist/Environmentalist, who
> have lived half of his life in Cuba and another half in the US, have given
> me a unique perspective to develop a comparative analysis of the problems
> afflicting Blacks in the United States, Cuba and the Caribbean.
>


From tcod at hotmail.com  Sun Jul  5 11:53:14 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 17:53:14 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] "Tony Manero": Dark Chilean Take on "Saturday Night Fever"
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907041438w7c3c5332s67aa66348a510a95@mail.gmail.com>
References: <685817.28012.qm@web45316.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
	<b16d8daf0907041438w7c3c5332s67aa66348a510a95@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W26B97EE6F789463A2CFA2BD32A0@phx.gbl>


"Tony Manero":  Someone in Chile Worships Disco-Era Travolta
by Stephen Holden
NYT, 7/3/09

Talk about self-delusion! The grotesque spectacle of a 52-year-old thug with a graying pompadour, stripped to his briefs in front of a mirror gracelessly imitating John Travolta?s dance moves from ?Saturday Night Fever,? haunts Pablo Larra?n?s film ?Tony Manero? like a nightmare apparition. During his repeated visits to the nearly empty theater showing the film in Santiago, Chile, this obsessed fan, Ra?l Peralta (Alfredo Castro), a petty criminal who lives on the outskirts of the city, mouths the dialogue spoken by Mr. Travolta?s character, Tony Manero, as though memorizing catechism. When he visits the theater one afternoon and discovers that ?Saturday Night Fever? has been replaced by ?Grease,? he goes berserk. Nothing is allowed to stand in the way of his indulging a tawdry fantasy that gives him his only sense of identity.

?Tony Manero? is set in Santiago in 1978, four years into Augusto Pinochet?s military dictatorship. As Ra?l scuttles around the city like a rodent, ducking behind doorways at any sign of trouble, scenes of undercover policemen beating up and arresting suspected opponents of the dictatorship play out on the movie?s fringes without comment or elaboration. The handheld, sometimes out-of-focus camera, which trails him, often from behind, lends the action a queasy verisimilitude.  For Ra?l incidents of street violence are opportunities for robbery. From the window of his apartment he notices an old woman with groceries being mugged and runs downstairs to chase the crooks away. Escorting her to her home, he spies her color television set and promptly bludgeons her to death, pausing long enough to feed the cat and eat lunch from the same can. He pawns the television to buy chipped glass bricks for an illuminated dance floor like the one in ?Saturday Night Fever.?

More than an indelible portrait of a sociopath with the soul of a zombie, ?Tony Manero? is an extremely dark meditation on borrowed cultural identity. Poker faced, emotionally cauterized and sexually impotent (the scenes of Ra?l?s trying and failing with women are unremittingly ugly), he symbolizes this Chilean director?s vision of a Latin American country mired in passivity and despair. For the illiterate Ra?l, Tony Manero?s night of glory on a New York dance floor is the only dream in sight. Each week the tacky television contest in which he plans to impersonate Tony, strutting his dance moves in a white suit and black shirt, is devoted to a different star. In the movie?s opening scene he arrives a week early at the studio to find himself standing in line with a bunch of Chuck Norris look-alikes.

Ra?l is polishing his act in a run-down cantina where he leads a weekly revue in homage to his hero. His fellow performers not only buy his fantasy, they also look up to him. Wilma (Elsa Poblete), a Pinochet supporter who runs the cantina, and Cony (Amparo Noguera) and Pauli (Paola Lattus), a mother and teenage daughter who perform in the show, are all rivals for his affection. Goyo (H?ctor Morales), the fourth member of the troupe, is a young man with polished dance moves who rents his own white suit intending to compete in the television contest; he is also secretly distributing anti-Pinochet literature.  Unmentioned in a movie that touches glancingly on politics is the C.I.A.?s role in the 1973 coup that deposed Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as president. ?Tony Manero? implies that Ra?l?s worship of a Hollywood movie is an indirect form of consorting with the oppressor.

Although Mr. Larra?n, who wrote the screenplay with Mr. Castro and Mateo Iribarren, was only 2 years old at the time the movie is set, he makes no bones about his disgust with Chile, both then and now. In his director?s statement, he writes, ?With this story, I intended to take a harsh look at a society that is incapable of coming face to face with its recent past; a society whose hands are covered in blood but that tries to look stylish and trendy, dancing under flashy lights while ignoring others? suffering; a country that turns its back on itself, in exchange for the dream of progress.?

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From tcod at hotmail.com  Sun Jul  5 12:04:33 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:04:33 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
In-Reply-To: <d00.59f06057.37813df9@aol.com>
References: <d00.59f06057.37813df9@aol.com>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W248B00B09947363C7E69E2D32A0@phx.gbl>


Right and we shouldn't be suckered into being set-up by people, misguided or not, or just simply provocateurs, into associating ourselves with this degeneracy, whether from those for whom this is their "signature issue" or not, becoming foils for the likes of O'Reilly and Limbaugh.  Just incredibly naive and chump-like politically stupid, aside from being just plain wrong and which I might add plays into reactionary stereotypes about gay people as well.  Solzhenitisyn at one points talks about how both the Nazis and the Stalinists used the tactic of accusing their political opponents of being pedophiles. Why play into that?  No, it's not OK!  and its alien to working people and "proletarian morality".  For example, these type of individuals are isolated in pc along with informers.  You might want to check out what happened at the New Mexico prison riot in 1979 for a glimpse into what that attitude is.  

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. 
http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_BR_life_in_synch_062009

From tcod at hotmail.com  Sun Jul  5 12:09:10 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:09:10 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
References: <20090703064530.B64BA20047@smtp.hushmail.com>
	<200907031053.55236.intnsred@golgotha.net>
	<b16d8daf0907031036g679ff4d8g12a43fb569526a0c@mail.gmail.com> 
	<6161AA9C-11BB-426C-A904-5BF75E6F9B89@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W302E0F670305AAB4DCC8A9D32A0@phx.gbl>


Yeah but they thought the first blow would come in the Phillipines, a rich colony ripe for the taking, not Hawaii.



_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org  Sun Jul  5 12:45:01 2009
From: hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org (Hunter Gray)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 12:45:01 -0600
Subject: [Marxism] A Long Talk and a Long Walk -- Back and Forth Through Time
Message-ID: <0BE8134F5BB24E7E9B8D8D615435B4E6@HunterGray>

Yesterday around these parts -- as has been the case for weeks -- we've had extremely heavy rain. Record-setting and the whole region is under a serious flash-flood watch. Up here on our Idaho hill we are, of course, "high and dry" with a large blooming green yard area and the ever-imperialistic Russian Olive tree [only one of our many trees] moving again to try to envelop our house. Josie [our youngest] and Cameron and Baby Aiden ["Exit"] were in the nearby small town of Inkom which was inundated with flash flood stuff but were on higher ground at Cameron's aunt's home -- and eventually got back to Pocatello. Last night, my great Cat, the indefatigable Sky Gray awakened me as usual around 2 a.m. There is some question as to whether she sees me as a playmate or a plaything but her singular attention and devotion to me are infinite. [I am sure this strikes a considerable note of resonance with the several Cat people on some of these lists, e.g., David McReynolds, Sam Friedman, and Lois Chaffee.]

Intermixed with all of this, was a very long and excellent phone visit with Cleveland Donald, Jr. who called from the East Coast where he's a Black Studies -- and also Caribbean -- professor at a large university. And, at the same time, he's a busy clergyman. It was a time machine kind of conversation -- laced with dramatic Mississippi episodes and the names of old friends, some still with us, some gone, and some -- like murdered Medgar Evers -- long gone. Cleveland was one of the first Jackson kids I met when I assumed the role of "Adult Advisor" of the then tiny -- about nine members -- North Jackson NAACP Youth Council at the end of the summer of 1961 soon after we came to Tougaloo College. At that time, he was 14, a serious guy who, when he visited us at Tougaloo, often became engrossed in Eldri's several books on philosophy -- some of which she subsequently gave him.

Meeting in semi-clandestine fashion in an old church in the northern part of Jackson, the Youth Council grew steadily, carried out manageable and effective single-issue civil rights thrusts, and in the early fall of 1962, numbered several dozen stalwarts -- ranging in age from nine years into the early 'twenties. Most were in high school. Early on we ditched and ignored -- with Medgar Evers' [NAACP field secretary] quiet approval the requirement by the National NAACP office that all Youth Council members anywhere had to belong formally to the NAACP. At the same time, the Youth Council began to stimulate student activism at Tougaloo College -- then a few miles north of Jackson. I met regularly with the North Jackson kids at the church and many began coming to our home on the Tougaloo campus. Lots of Tougaloo students also came to our place -- and the Salter home became known to Magnolia friends and foes alike as "Salter's coffee house." The activist dream of a widespread multi-issue economic boycott of downtown Jackson -- with the longer range vision of widespread and massive nonviolent direct action focused on even more issues -- began with the Youth Council but very early on sparked great good fire at Tougaloo. Thus in that fall of '62, we planned the Jackson Boycott and its increasingly possible large scale direct action connotations with almost militaristic precision. [Given the state of militarism today, I would use the very apt term, "Iroquoian organizational methodology" -- very systematic, carefully and reasonably structured, democratic.] Through all of this, Cleveland was a major stalwart.

On our discussion lists, Lois Chaffee, Joan Mulholland, and Steve Rutledge join me [and Cleveland] with those forever engraved-in-our-minds images of those truly Great -- and extraordinarily dangerous -- times. They certainly and personally know the score.

We launched the Jackson Boycott on December 12, 1962, when Eldri [my spouse] and I and four Black students picketed the Woolworth store on downtown Capitol Street. It was the first civil rights picket in the city's history. We were immediately arrested by between 75 and 100 of Jackson's huge all-White police force. The hysterical reaction by the power structure and news media gave us the publicity we needed. Concurrently, North Jackson and Tougaloo students began what became months of heavy sub-rosa boycott leafleting in the Black neighborhoods, and speaking appearances at Black churches began in earnest. The Youth Council flowered out with hundreds of youthful supporters and there was great activism from Tougaloo -- where Eldri emerged as the Adult Advisor to the Tougaloo NAACP Chapter. In the meantime, we all welcomed support from those -- not really that many in Jackson itself at that time -- involved with other civil rights organizational perspectives.

The saga of the Jackson Boycott Movement and its emergence into the massively non-violent Jackson Movement -- in the face of the most brutal and often bloody repression by hordes of "lawmen" and vigilante Klan types is covered in great detail, along with many collateral matters, in my own book, Jackson Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm We also have a number of Hunterbear website pages on our wild -- but always well organized -- crusade -- out on one of the most dramatic of "social frontiers."

At one point, at the end of May 1963, hundreds of Youth Council members and supporters gathered at Farish Street Baptist Church. After various speeches, they formed into a developing mass march and -- as they moved out onto Farish Street, pointed toward the downtown area -- Cleveland was at the very front rank. He gave me a huge smile. The marchers were confronted by hundreds of Mississippi lawmen of various kinds who clubbed many, threw the "subversive" American flags carried by some marchers into the gutters of Farish street, and loaded the hundreds of demonstrators into a long fleet of dirty, filthy garbage trucks -- carrying them to the Mississippi State Fairgrounds concentration camp on the edge of Jackson. Standing on Farish Street, Medgar Evers and I watched this display of the highest courage and the essence of rank brutality, and Medgar -- a veteran of the late War's European theatre -- commented,

"Just like Nazi Germany."

The Jackson Movement fought on through increasing drama and bloodshed. In the end, it cracked Jackson and sent deep fissures across the entire state. It played a key role in sparking comparable efforts in the Southern region -- and, very well publicized, it did a tremendous amount indeed to breach the "Cotton Curtain" and bring Dixie's version of racist totalitarianism to the attention of the nation and world.

Cleveland, like all of us, was always very supportive of Jim Meredith, whose entrance into Ole Miss as the first Black to crack Mississippi's rigidly segregated multi-level educational system came at the end of September 1962. That signal Happening was accompanied by massive racist demonstrations at Jackson itself, a destructive and lethal White riot at the Oxford-based University -- well to the north of Jackson -- involving at least many hundreds of White Mississippians and sympathetic racists from across the South, and more Federal and Federalized National Guard troops [with U.S. Marshals] than General Washington had commanded during the Revolutionary War.

But, after Meredith, always heavily guarded by Federals, was finally installed at Ole Miss, Cleveland told me, wistfully, "I wanted to be the first Negro into Ole Miss."

And I told him, "You'll get there."

And he did. He was a very, very early indeed Black student into that citadel -- his entrance, though marked by tension, outwardly routine. 

In 1979, he was a professor of Black Studies at Ole Miss. A large civil rights retrospective conference sponsored by Tougaloo and previously all-White Millsaps College at Jackson, was scheduled and I was one of a number of featured speakers. Cleveland asked me if I'd come to Ole Miss and speak to the Black students and any interested others. John, oldest son, and I came from the Navajo Nation in our big yellow Chev pickup [with New Mexico plates]. Cleveland, meeting us at our Oxford motel, escorted us to the meeting. There were, by that time, close to 900 Black students at the University and, in addition to his personal sponsorship, the very large and enthusiastic meeting was under the auspices of the Black Student Union. Some interested non-Blacks, mostly Mississippians, were there as well.

Cleveland and I have always kept in touch. And when we talked for so long last night -- traveling back and forth through personal and Movement epochs and contemporary challenges -- we were, frequently and somehow still, the high school kid with the philosophy interests and the new-to-Mississippi agitator from Northern Arizona.

So, as the rain came down in Idaho, we covered a lot of time and turf.

We didn't say a word about Michael Jackson.

In the mountains of Eastern Idaho
Nialetch/Onen

Hunter [Hunter Bear]


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na?shdo?i?ba?i? 
and Ohkwari' 

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm 
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray: 
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

See Outlaw Trail: The Native As Organizer:
http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm

And see Forces And Faces Along The Activist Trail:
http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 12:52:45 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 14:52:45 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras and left-liberalism
In-Reply-To: <c2c.5f4da906.37824fa7@aol.com>
References: <c2c.5f4da906.37824fa7@aol.com>
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907051152h7234ff68va854fa09508f45ec@mail.gmail.com>

>
>
> http://www.maxajl.com/?p=1506
>
> <
> http://lifeaftergonzales.blogspot.com/2009/07/doctrine-of-change-of-course-case-study.html
> >
>
>
>

>  "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>

From pt_costello at yahoo.com  Sun Jul  5 13:14:27 2009
From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 12:14:27 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Live coverage of huge demonstration in support of
	Zalaya's return
Message-ID: <704135.75440.qm@web63104.mail.re1.yahoo.com>


Zalaya is planning to land at the Tegucigalpa airport today and there is an enormous demonstration going on right now. 

http://www.telesurtv.net/solotexto/senal_vivo.php


      


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 13:21:57 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:21:57 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Radio Honduras
Message-ID: <E8EB9C95-7ED4-41FC-B726-4FE9C4DFF3D5@mac.com>

Walter posted this Honduran Radio Station url this morning; it has  
even more up to date info.  Real pueblo a pueblo. Live and blow by blow.





I tried it and it is working:
http://www.radioglobohonduras.com/

From farmelantj at juno.com  Sun Jul  5 13:22:26 2009
From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 15:22:26 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] (fwd) Ralph Dumain revisits Boris Hessen
Message-ID: <20090705.152227.6012.1.farmelantj@juno.com>

 
On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:01:58 -0400 Les Schaffer <schaffer at optonline.net>
writes:
> [from Jim Farmelant, came as html-only]
> 
 
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> 
> Introduction to The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's 
> 'Principia' by
> Boris Hessen

Robert S. Cohen's essay on Hessen is at:
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/hessen-cohen.html

> 
> Hessen's famous essay was originally published in English 
> translation in:
> 
> Science at the Cross Roads; Papers Presented to the [2nd] 
> International
> Congress of the History of Science and Technology Held in London 
> from
> June 20th to July 3rd, 1931 by the delegates of the U.S.S.R. 
> (London:
> Kniga, Ltd., 1931), pp. 151-212.

Hessen's essay is at:
http://webfiles.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/rereadingClassics/Hessen.pdf/V1_Hesse
n.pdf

> 
> Note also:
> 
> " The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's Principia" by Boris 
> Hessen
> Translated by Phlippa Shimrat; edited by Peter McLaughlin & Gideon
> Freudenthal
> (Note: different translation from the original published 
> translation)
> 
> Social Milieu and Evolution of Logic, Epistemology, and History of 
> Science.
> The Case of Marxism
> by Valentin A. Bazhanov

Bazhanov's essay is at:
http://www.ulsu.ru/staff/homepages/bazhanov/english/canary_e.pdf

> 
> 
____________________________________________________________
Workers Compensation Legal Advice. Click here
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTOcqD7p264rAQiIo9zERSmWPDWMKFLLfxj9EzN1nAsqr0fS1RB5PS/


From shmage at pipeline.com  Sun Jul  5 14:00:12 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 16:00:12 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
In-Reply-To: <000.08cf00009513504a.025@lws-media.de>
References: <000.08cf00009513504a.025@lws-media.de>
Message-ID: <913BF0C2-B628-45DA-932F-C22D98D5DEB5@pipeline.com>


On Jul 4, 2009, at 10:44 PM, L?ko Willms wrote:

> Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) wrote on 2009-07-04 at  
> 19:21:29
> in  about Re: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia:
>> Go to hell.
>  <seconded>
>   Six years ago, the NYT (New York Times) had published, on occasion  
> of
> the prosecution of Michael Jackson, a much more thought out article,
> although still treating him quite harshly:

> Even if Mr. Jackson's strange behavior were just a matter of trying  
> to bring comfort to afflicted children, that behavior has long since  
> ceased to look selfless to the world around him.
>
> Cruel or not, the world reserves a special kind of contempt for adults
> who choose to see themselves mainly through the eyes of children.

Now that everyone can see that the world loved MJ,  we can once again  
undergo feeling the "special kind of contempt" deserved by the New  
York Times--and even more by those alleged leftists on this list who  
have jumped to add their mouthfuls of bile to the cesspit of bourgeois  
slander.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz  Sun Jul  5 14:21:30 2009
From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:21:30 +1200
Subject: [Marxism] Blum has Fun with Obama and Micheletti
In-Reply-To: <9B0303EC-0DA7-4D02-8CFD-20695BEF4EB9@mac.com>
References: <9B0303EC-0DA7-4D02-8CFD-20695BEF4EB9@mac.com>
Message-ID: <1246825290.8056.383.camel@john-desktop>

Even Blum repeats the lie . . .

> The ousted president, who was in office since 2006, had wanted to  
> hold a referendum that could have led to an extension of his non- 
> renewable four-year term in office.

Cheers,
John



From lnp3 at panix.com  Sun Jul  5 14:22:16 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:22:16 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
In-Reply-To: <913BF0C2-B628-45DA-932F-C22D98D5DEB5@pipeline.com>
References: <000.08cf00009513504a.025@lws-media.de>
	<913BF0C2-B628-45DA-932F-C22D98D5DEB5@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <4A510B78.70803@panix.com>

This thread really has no purpose on a Marxism list. Let's drop it.


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 15:43:07 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 17:43:07 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] videos of today's massive demonstrations in Honduras
Message-ID: <709f342d0907051443w628d2540r6e2711e9d40dce87@mail.gmail.com>

<http://chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=165237>


From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 16:02:43 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:02:43 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Saudi's to allow Israel to use their air space for
	bombing Iran.
Message-ID: <4A512303.10701@gmail.com>

[This is all bad news. --David]

AFP reports:

Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over the 
kingdom in any raid on Iran's nuclear sites, The Sunday Times said in a 
report denied by Israel.

Citing diplomatic sources, it said the head of Israel's Mossad 
intelligence service had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu that Saudi Arabia has tacitly agreed to the use of its airspace.

Netanyahu's office denied the report, however, calling it "fundamentally 
wrong and baseless".

The Sunday Times said Mossad director Meir Dagan had held secret talks 
with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gPVnnIfhTK1vU7W1xjFXw2DaBrMA


 From Iranian TV:

Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli bombers to use its airspace for an 
aerial attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, diplomatic sources say.

Director of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, has assured Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu that Saudi airspace would be available for Israel in case it 
plans to move forward with a long-threatened military foray into Iran, 
reported The Sunday Times.

According to the report, Saudi officials, in secret talks held earlier 
this year, have agreed to ?turn a blind eye? to Israeli bombers flying 
over the kingdom to strike Iran's nuclear sites.

?The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through 
their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common 
interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,? the newspaper quoted an 
Israeli diplomatic source as saying.

While Saudi officials deny having diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, an 
Israeli defense source recently confirmed that the Mossad spy agency 
maintained ?working relations? with the kingdom.

On Thursday, John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United 
Nations, said it was ?entirely logical? for the Israelis to use Saudi 
airspace to attack Iran.

Bolton said he had discussed the possibility with Saudi officials in 
closed-door meetings. ?None of them would say anything about it publicly 
but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis 
didn't trumpet it as a big success.?

Tel Aviv accuses Tehran of nuclear weapons development - a charge 
rejected by both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, which has so far made 
"21 unannounced inspections" of the country's nuclear facilities.

With eyes firmly fixed on Iran's nuclear progressions, the right-wing 
government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly 
threatened to bomb the country's enrichment facilities out of existence.

There are three main routes for Israel to launch go-it-alone air strikes 
on Iran.

The northern route would take Israeli fighter jets to the north toward 
the corner of the Syrian-Turkish border, then turning east, along the 
Syrian border.

The central route would go over Jordan and iraq, while the southern 
route would entail flying through Saudi Arabia and then to Iran via iraq 
or even Kuwait.


From robertojorquera at yahoo.com  Sun Jul  5 16:12:18 2009
From: robertojorquera at yahoo.com (Roberto Jorquera)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 15:12:18 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] President Zelaya attempts to return to Honduras
Message-ID: <241233.85593.qm@web32007.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

 
President Zelaya
returns to Honduras
By
Roberto Jorquera - 8am AEST

www.directaction.org.au

President
Manuel Zelaya is attempting to return to Honduras together with Miquel D'Escotto
President of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Zelaya flew
in from Washington after a meeting of the Organisation of American
States (OAS) that suspended the membership of Honduras. At the same
time another delegation led by the President of the OAS Jos? Miguel
Insulza and the Presidents of Argentina Cristina Fern?ndez, ,
Paraguay Fernando Lugo and Ecuador Rafael Correa  flew to
neighbouring El Salvador.
Foreign
Minister of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro spoke to TeleSUR via phone.
Maduro reported that the coup leaders made it clear that the
Presidents of Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay where not permitted to
land in Honduras and so it was decided that they fly to El Salvador.
Zelaya
spoke to TeleSUR via phone whilst on the plane en route to Honduras.
The plane was  Venezuelan with Venezuelan pilots.
I ask
all Hondurans not to use any force against the police or military. We
want a peaceful resolution to this. We want calm and peace. I ask
Hondureans to talk to the police , military and say we want peace and
want to meet our President.
I am the
Commander in Chief and I order that the military open the airport so
us to allow me to land. It is against the constitution to expel a
citizen of the country. I am the legitimate President of Honduras.
The
youth have been shown over the last 6 days what a dictatorship looks
like. We want a Honduras that is democratic and involves the
population.
I call
on the people of Honduras the we need to defend our values peacefully
and with a sense of pride in our country. I will always fight for the
majority so that we can overcome poverty and the problems in our
country.  
The
de-facto government of Honduras held a Press Conference just hours
before the return of Zelaya .
Roberto
Micheletti said, ``We call on the Presidents of Nicaragua and
Venezuela to stop threats of military intervention and stop the lies.
I ask the OAS to not intervene in internal affairs''.
The
President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega strongly denied that there was
any plan of a military intervention via Nicaragua.
``Honduras
condemns the decision of the OAS to suspend the membership of
Honduras. We will not leave our post''.
``I
have arrived here via constitutional methods. What has happened is
legal. The deputies of the National Assembly have elected me. I do
not have to negotiate with anyone except the people of Honduras'',
said Micheletti.
Hondurans resist
A human
tide that grew by the minute moved towards the airport. Tens of
thousands of people gathered in route to Tegucigalpa International
airport to welcome President Zelaya. Military Units tried to prevent
the demonstration from arriving at the airport a number of times. A
wall of Police and Military personnel where forced to retreat as
protesters moved forward step by step.
Throughout
the day military helicopters flew over the demonstration and hundreds
of police and military continued to harass and intimidate the mass
mobilisation of Hondurans. Hundreds of military personnel also
gathered inside the perimeter of the international airport.
As the
sun began to set the mobilisation in support of President Zelaya
started to arrive at the gates of the International airport.
Thousands had walked hundreds of kilometres to support Zelaya. Many
transport vehicles that where taking people into the rally had been
stopped by the military and their tyres shot at.
At the
airport speaker after speaker condemned the coup and called on the
people to celebrate the day of Resistance. One protester said ``the
army are the people they can not shoot at the mobilisation as they
are their brothers and sisters''.
Soon
after these comments sections of the military threw tear gas and
began shooting at the mobilisation in an attempt to disperse them
from the area surrounding the airport. It was confirmed via a TeleSUR
reporter on the ground that at least two protester where killed.
Via
Phone Zelaya told TeleSUR ``we are within minutes of Honduran
airspace''. ``We want to restore the legitimate Presidency of the
country''.``I hope that the military will obey my orders and not
shoot.''. ``we are living in a period of social change. We can no
longer accept military coups, we have passed this barbarity''.


Article
to be continued...............


      

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 16:35:33 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:35:33 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras: Sharpshooters open Fire
Message-ID: <66460FB4-D1AD-47A2-9149-6AF9446E2DAE@mac.com>

RadioGlobo reports that military sharpshooters at the airport have  
opened fire on the massive demonstration estimated at more than half  
a million, which has succeeded in entering the airport. Various  
people wounded and at least two dead.  Apparently the demonstration  
is regrouping and preparing to retake the area. The National Police  
backed off, but not the army.  A Colonel of the National Police  
stated in an interview on RadioGlobo that the police are not with the  
military in this action. It is unclear whether or not elements of the  
Police have sided actively with the demonstration, or if they are  
just maintaining neutrality.

Telesur is interviewing Zelaya, who is still in the air.  He is  
renewing his vow to be with the people at this moment. He thinks his  
presence will calm the troops.
Upon being informed that there is a helicopter and soldiers on the  
tarmac waiting to take him into custody by force (or worse), Zelaya  
states that he will be able to reason with the soldiers.

Greg McDonald


From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Sun Jul  5 16:55:48 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:55:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Biden suggests US not blocking Israel attack on Iran
Message-ID: <0B2F3FB719404B29AFA51496C613C1B9@office1pc>

This is significant primarily as an indication that sentimental liberal US
and Israeli estimates that the US and Israel can no longer dream of
militarily attacking Iran since millions of Iranians have proven to be
"moderates" (by what definition, precisely?) and, after all, "how can you
bomb Neda?"  


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 17:55:49 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 19:55:49 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduran soldiers kill 3 protestors at airport,
	including a minor
Message-ID: <709f342d0907051655i64290254keae3ec0d45143968@mail.gmail.com>

Sangre del pueblo en el aeropuerto de Tegucigalpa

<http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/general/56089>


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 18:13:17 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 20:13:17 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] "U.S. Southern Command Takes Power in an ALBA Member
	State" (Esp)
Message-ID: <709f342d0907051713u77e20d27t9e7adb234a2e2433@mail.gmail.com>

<http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/general/55994>


From lycophidion at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 18:16:14 2009
From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 20:16:14 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Chavez warns: "It's a Blow Against ALBA" (Esp)
Message-ID: <709f342d0907051716v5eaa945bl3b2e37ff58bd891e@mail.gmail.com>

<http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/general/56045>


From robertojorquera at yahoo.com  Sun Jul  5 18:26:41 2009
From: robertojorquera at yahoo.com (Roberto Jorquera)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 17:26:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] President Zelaya forced to land in Nicaragua
Message-ID: <156603.31018.qm@web32002.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

 
President Zelaya
forced to land in Nicaragua
10am AEST
By
Roberto Jorquera
www.directaction.org.au
President
Manuel Zelaya attempted to return to Honduras together with Miquel
D'Escotto President of the General Assembly of the United Nations,
however the airstrip was blocked and Zelaya was forced to land in
Nicaragua. Zelaya flew in from Washington after a meeting of the
Organisation of American States (OAS) that suspended the membership
of Honduras. At the same time another delegation led by the President
of the OAS Jos? Miguel Insulza and the Presidents of Argentina
Cristina Fern?ndez, , Paraguay Fernando Lugo and Ecuador Rafael
Correa  flew to neighbouring El Salvador.
Foreign
Minister of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro spoke to TeleSUR via phone.
Maduro reported that the coup leaders made it clear that the
Presidents of Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay where not permitted to
land in Honduras and so it was decided that they fly to El Salvador.
Zelaya
spoke to TeleSUR via phone whilst on the plane en route to Honduras.
The plane that transported Zelaya belonged to PDVSA with Venezuelan
pilots and was used by the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of the
Americas.
I ask
all Hondurans not to use any force against the police or military. We
want a peaceful resolution to this. We want calm and peace. I ask
Hondurans to talk to the police , military and say we want peace and
want to meet our President.
I am the
Commander in Chief and I order that the military open the airport so
us to allow me to land. It is against the constitution to expel a
citizen of the country. I am the legitimate President of Honduras.
The
youth have been shown over the last 6 days what a dictatorship looks
like. We want a Honduras that is democratic and involves the
population.
I call
on the people of Honduras the we need to defend our values peacefully
and with a sense of pride in our country. I will always fight for the
majority so that we can overcome poverty and the problems in our
country.  
The
de-facto government of Honduras held a Press Conference just hours
before the return of Zelaya .
Roberto
Micheletti said, ``We call on the Presidents of Nicaragua and
Venezuela to stop threats of military intervention and stop the lies.
I ask the OAS to not intervene in internal affairs''.
The
President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega strongly denied that there was
any plan of a military intervention via Nicaragua.
``Honduras
condemns the decision of the OAS to suspend the membership of
Honduras. We will not leave our post''.
``I
have arrived here via constitutional methods. What has happened is
legal. The deputies of the National Assembly have elected me. I do
not have to negotiate with anyone except the people of Honduras'',
said Micheletti.
Enrique
Ortez defacto Foreign Minister of Honduras was reported as saying in
reference to the President of the United States, ``This black guy
doesn't even know where Tegucigulpa is''.
Hondurans resist
A human
tide that grew by the minute moved towards the airport. Tens of
thousands of people gathered in route to Tegucigalpa International
airport to welcome President Zelaya. Military Units tried to prevent
the demonstration from arriving at the airport a number of times. A
wall of Police and Military personnel where forced to retreat as
protesters moved forward step by step.
Throughout
the day military helicopters flew over the demonstration and hundreds
of police and military continued to harass and intimidate the mass
mobilisation of Hondurans. Hundreds of military personnel also
gathered inside the perimeter of the international airport.
As the
sun began to set the mobilisation in support of President Zelaya
started to arrive at the gates of the International airport.
Thousands had walked for days and hundreds of kilometres to support
Zelaya. Many transport vehicles that where taking people into the
rally had been stopped by the military and their tyres shot at.
At the
airport speaker after speaker condemned the coup and called on the
people to celebrate the day of Resistance. One protester said ``the
army are the people they can not shoot at the mobilisation as they
are their brothers and sisters''.
Soon
after these comments sections of the military threw tear gas and
began shooting at the mobilisation in an attempt to disperse them
from the area surrounding the airport. It was confirmed via a TeleSUR
reporter on the ground that at least two protester where killed one
was 16 years old..
Via
Phone Zelaya told TeleSUR ``we are within minutes of Honduran
airspace''. ``We want to restore the legitimate Presidency of the
country''.``I hope that the military will obey my orders and not
shoot.''. ``we are living in a period of social change. We can no
longer accept military coups, we have passed this barbarity''.


Article continued...............


Manuel
Zelaya via phone en route to Honduras condemned the repression by the
military. ``I should be next to the people in front of the people. I
cant wait to get to Honduras. In the name of God , the people and
justice I think the repression will stop when I arrive. I am ready to
address the soldiers to stop the repression. I am the President of
the Republic I will be arriving without arms and the military should
obey me.  
``The
coup plotters can not govern for the people are in the streets. They
will make the decisions. TeleSUR told Zelaya that the airstrip was
filled with military personnel. Zelaya assured that they would
attempt to land. Zelaya said ``the military that had damaged the
country should leave the country today''. ``They may have the arms
but we have the moral force''. ``We will continue to fight for a more
just Honduras''.
Protesters
demanded justice and spoke of the indiscriminate shooting by the
military. They shouted ``assassins and  dictators '' to the military
that stood within the grounds of the airport. Red Cross Ambulances
ferried the dead and injured to local hospitals. Others injured where
taken to local medical centres by friends or fellow protesters.
TeleSUR
reported that a Sub commander of the National Police Force released a
statement that condemned the Military for its aggression towards the
people and that they would be held responsible for the deaths.
Zelaya's
plane flew around the airport numerous times checking if it would be
able to land. Military personnel on the ground began to move once the
plan began to fly around the airport, however army vehicles where
placed on the run way, one was placed in the middle of the runway in
an attempt stop the plane landing. Helicopters also flew around the
airport. The pilot of the plan said to TeleSUR that the airport tower
refused to allow them to land. Zelaya's plane was told that if they
did not leave they would be intercepted by the Honduran airforce.
Zelaya said that they had been threatened if they tried to land''.
``We will look at a variety of ways in which we can enter the country
if not today then tomorrow or the day after''.
``This
coup represents the elite it was not put into power by a social
movement''. According to Zelaya ``the pilots are not confident that
they can land the plane safely, with the vehicles on the runway''.
``The
Presidents of Latin America will not allow this coup to
succeed''.``There is a social rebellion that has been undertaken that
will not allow the military junta to govern in Honduras''.
President
of Venezuela Hugo Chavez told TeleSUR via phone that he had been in
contact with the Venezuelan pilots in the last few minutes.``Zelaya
has completed his mission together with the people of Honduras''.
``They (military junta) will not be able to stop Zelay's
return''.``Wouldn't it be good to hear the the United States condemn
the way they have treated Manuel Zelaya and the presidents of the
organisation of American States''. ``This is an imperialist plot not
necessarily one that Obama supports, he is a prisoner of
imperialism''.``We can not allow the military to take control the way
they did decades ago in Latin America''.
Zelaya in Nicaragua
TeleSUR
reporter Abraham Istillarte who was on board with Manuel Zelaya said
that they where forced to land in Managua, capital of Nicaragua.
Zelaya said that he would communicate with the Presidents of El
Salvador, Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina that where in El Salvador
to see what would be their next steps.
``I am a
person that likes to be on the streets with the people''. I hope that
we will be able to resolve this situation shortly''. ``I did not
think that they would physically stop the plane from landing... the
people of Honduras where planning to make sure that the airstrip
would be clear of any obstacles but they where stopped by the
military.''
``The
Presidents of the world should not go to sleep tonight because the
military think that they can determine who is President and not the
people''.``Micheletti must realise that you can only become President
via a popular vote. He is responsible for the deaths today and must
be tried for that crime''.
``I call
on the catholic church to rectify their position''. ``I call on the
Cardinal to condemn what has happened to me''.``I will not resign, I
will not go away''.`` These criminals must leave their post
immediately''.``I do want to make changes in Honduras''.
Zelaya
told TeleSUR that he would immediately fly to El Salvador to meet
with the other Presidents and see how to enter Honduras. 


      

From suarsos at alphalink.com.au  Sun Jul  5 18:48:21 2009
From: suarsos at alphalink.com.au (Tom O'Lincoln)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 10:48:21 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
Message-ID: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>

Graham asks 'Well, why not have joined in the defence of the country from
invasion in the first place: why wait until the country was occupied before
resisting?"

This seems perplexing only because class politics is missing. If I'd been in 
Australia in 1941 I would definitely have been for fighting Japanese 
imperialism prior to any invasion. And in fact the Waterside Workers union 
did fight Japanese imperialism and show solidarity with China in 1938, in a 
very concrete manner, by placing bans on a ship carrying raw materials to 
Japan. Of course the Australian government hated this, because it raised the 
spectre of independent class action - which was a threat to the Australian 
imperialists as well. Despite some nationalist dangers, I would have 
supported this action.

What's at issue is whether socialists should have encouraged workers to 
enlist in the army, whether we should have favoured conscription, whether we 
should have encouraged everyone to work harder for the war effort - all of 
which was, as a matter of empirical fact, devoted to restoring Australian 
imperialism's control of its colonies, and not to defending the workers of 
Australia.

Hypothetically, had the Japanese somehow managed to mount an occupation of 
Australia, I agree that a resistance movement would  probably have sprung 
up, and that revolutionaries would probably have been part of it. How is 
this different to joining the conventional army in 1941? It's different 
because a resistance movement, like the waterside workers' action mentioned 
above, raises the prospect of mass action independent of the ruling class 
and its state.

You might say, why not start building the resistance movement before the 
invasion? The answer, I think, is that the potential for a strong, 
independent resistance movement grows dramatically after a successful 
invasion, which discredits the ruling class and the state. Before that, 
people look overwhelmingly to the national state for defence; so there is a 
huge danger of mobilisation along nationalist rather than class lines. This 
happened when the Communist Party tried to establish a "People's Army". 
According to Robin Gollan, veteran Communist and historian, the main 
significance of the people's army episode lay in reflecting the party's 
"growing claim.to express the genuine interests of the Australian nation"; 
and in the aftermath the CPA "became the most aggressive and vocally 
nationalistic ginger group behind the government and its policies."





From elishastephens at hotmail.com  Sun Jul  5 19:23:02 2009
From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:23:02 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Live coverage of huge demonstration in support of
 Zalaya's return
Message-ID: <COL112-W402E6777C9D91CEBFE029AD72B0@phx.gbl>


It's over for today, but I'm sure it will pick up again tomorrow. For comrades who don't speak Spanish, Al Jazeera today was featuring largely live footage from Telesur, but with their own English commentary (including their own reporters live at the airport, interviewing Zelaya on the plane, etc.).

To listen to Al Jazeera, go to http://www.livestation.com and download the standalone app.

For those in the San Francisco area, I've just heard there's yet another emergency demonstration tomorrow (there was a big one yesterday at the Honduran embassy) at 5 pm at Market & Powell.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail? has ever-growing storage! Don?t worry about storage limits. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009

From elishastephens at hotmail.com  Sun Jul  5 19:25:08 2009
From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:25:08 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Mousavi details fraud
Message-ID: <COL112-W59EEB18CE62FBA9C8E1A82D72B0@phx.gbl>


I recaptioned this headline "Mousavi admits Ahmadinejad won the election"

Formatting in the original here: 
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/07/mousavi-admits-ahmadinejad-won-election.html

What, you didn't read that? Well, that's because the headlines read the opposite: "Iranian Details Alleged Fraud." But if you remember, the last we heard from Mousavi, he was claiming he actually won the election (a claim he made even before the polls had closed), and that millions, perhaps more than ten million, votes had been stolen from him and/or fraudulently cast for his opponent. But the exact nature of the fraud was always a bit nebulous. Mostly we just heard that Mousavi "should have" won, we know it, look at the support he had (and has), etc.

And now, at long last, Mousavi has released his 24 pages of "evidence" that fraud was committed during the election. And what is that evidence? Testimony from people who stuffed ballot boxes? Proof that the announced count was at wild variance with the actual count? No, this:

    In a 24-page document posted on his Web site, Mousavi's special committee studying election fraud accused influential Ahmadinejad supporters of handing out cash bonuses and food, increasing wages, printing millions of extra ballots and other acts in the run-up to the vote.

    The committee, whose members were appointed by Mousavi, said the state did everything in its power to get Ahmadinejad reelected, including using military forces and government planes to support his campaign.

That's it. Not a word about actual election fraud. Did Ahmadinejad use the power of his office to help get himself reelected, like every other incumbent in the world? I have little doubt. He may even have broken some campaign laws, again like an awful lot of other politicians. But when your best charges against someone including "increasing wages," that's pretty solid evidence that what you've got is no evidence at all. Mousavi has shown his cards and he was bluffing all along, he doesn't even have a pair of deuces. Queen high at best.

Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 19:39:32 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:39:32 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Chavez excuses Obama's Silence
Message-ID: <E25B1F06-0065-4430-AB66-D96F67FF8955@mac.com>

http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/general/56090


Excerpt: El presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Ch?vez, se comunic? con  
teleSUR para expresar su rotundo rechazo a las acciones del Ej?rcito  
de Honduras. Ch?vez advirti? que en estos momentos "se agudizan las  
contradicciones, hay una rebeli?n social, popular".


Consider? que es necesario que el Gobierno de Estados Unidos se  
pronuncie al respecto. "Yo creo que Obama es un prisionero del  
Imperio", dijo. La llegada de Zelaya se produjo en medio de la  
represi?n que militares y polic?as ejecutaron en contra del pueblo  
que se apost? en la base a?rea para recibir al mandatario y de la que  
resultaron muertas al menos dos personas.

Chavez reacts to the forceful and bloody repression of the massive  
non-violent demonstration at the airport today in Tegucigalpa, and  
says Obama should renounce these violent acts by the Honduran  
military. Curiously, he says that "Obama is a prisoner of the  
Empire", implying he would no doubt like to respond but that his  
hands are tied.

Could it be that Chavez has developed a bad case of Obamania?

Greg McD



http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/02/ 
the_possibility_of_an_obama-chavez_understanding/?ref=fpd

The Possibility of an Obama-Chavez Understanding

By Tom Hayden - July 2, 2009, 2:03PM
The media is full of speculation about President Obama's deft  
"deflection" against President Hugo Chavez' maneuvering and finger- 
pointing in the Honduras crisis. But another narrative is possible,  
of an undisclosed new diplomatic collaboration replacing the constant  
tensions and CIA foreknowledge of the brief 2002 coup against the  
Venezuelan leader.

It is too early to define a new era, but something profoundly new  
began developing between Obama and Chavez at the hemispheric  
conference in April in Trinidad.

According to eyewitness sources, under the apparently blind eye of  
the global media, the two leaders had lengthy conversations. The  
media covered the friendly photo of the initial handshake between the  
two leaders, then made much ado about an apparently-impertinent  
Chavez handing Obama a book in Spanish by Eduardo Galleano.

What has not been reported is that Obama, leaving his advisers  
behind, held lengthy private conversations with Chavez where only an  
interpreter was present.

It is not known what occurred in the secret talks. But sources in  
Caracas say that Chavez has become fascinated with Obama, seeking to  
understand the new US president and the forces around him, partly  
with advice from Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The Honduran crisis has been mounting for weeks. According to the New  
York Times', Chavez "had his playbook ready", planning to blame the  
CIA. But Obama, according to the Times' headlines, "deflected" the  
Venezuelan president by coming out strongly against the coup.

The real story is that a gradual rapprochement - not an alliance but  
a dialogue - is happening between the US and Venezuela, and it began  
in Trinidad, was pushed by Latin American leaders and welcomed by  
those like Obama, who prefer diplomacy over a return to US Cold War  
isolation.

It was no accident that Venezuela's ambassador to Washington,  
Bernardo Alvarez, returned to Washington in recent days after his  
expulsion several months ago.

The rapprochement, if it holds, would seem to be welcome news. The  
fact that is has occurred so silently is evidence that peace has its  
enemies.



From stuartmunckton at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 19:40:27 2009
From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:40:27 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Israel 'faces serious PR problem',
	draws up plans for PR offensive
Message-ID: <2c6145850907051840o16895fe1s30dfa280e455537d@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.smh.com.au/world/israel-draws-up-strategy-for-pr-offensive-20090703-d7rv.html?skin=text-only

Israel draws up strategy for PR offensive

Date: July 04 2009

*Jason Koutsoukis Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem*

THE Israeli Prime Minister's closest adviser and key strategist, Ron Dermer,
has admitted that Israel faces a serious public relations problem and needs
aggressively to tackle negative perceptions around the world.

In his first media interview since Benjamin Netanyahu took office in March,
Mr Dermer, director of policy planning and communications for the
Government, told the *Herald * it was time Israel switched its PR strategy
from defence to offence.

"We have to break out of the straitjacket," he said. "We have to defend our
own right to defend ourselves. It's not for other people to do it for us."

In a stinging critique of the way foreign media and other organisations
report on Israel, he nonetheless acknowledged that successive Israeli
governments were also to blame for presenting a narrow argument.

"It is not enough for Israel to say that it wants peace," he said. "You must
also say that you are not a thief. We did not steal another people's land.
That is the core of this conflict."

In the six months since Israel began a 22-day offensive against Hamas in
Gaza that killed more than 1400 Palestinians, the country has faced some of
the worst public relations in its 61-year history.

In the past week alone, there have been harsh criticisms in reports
published by the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency, and Human Rights Watch.

Revelations that the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, had pressed Mr
Netanyahu to dump his Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, because he was an
embarrassment to Israel caused more headaches.

Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University, Israel's leading public diplomacy
expert, said Israel would have to spend 10 times its current PR budget to
change international perceptions.

"We need to be spending $US100 million [$125 million] a year on information
campaigns abroad - primarily in Arab countries and then in Europe, where
there is a complete lack of knowledge of what Israel is and what Israel
does," he said.

Professor Gilboa said the power to persuade and shape understanding, what he
calls soft power, is a concept that Israeli governments have never properly
understood.

"In terms of power, a properly organised information campaign can be worth
several brigades."

He said modern media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also have
to become part of a properly organised public diplomacy arsenal.

Others reject the notion that Israel's image abroad is the issue.

"I think Israel has a policy problem, not a PR problem," said Uri Dromi, who
was director of the Government Press Office under the former prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin. "The biggest problem is that Israel should not be in the West
Bank in the first place - who cares what people write about us?"

Mr Dermer, an American-born Israeli who has worked closely with Mr Netanyahu
over the past decade, says his main focus will nonetheless be on "hasbara" -
a Hebrew word roughly translated as "projected image".

In pursuing a strategy that will centralise the Government's responses to
issues raised by the foreign media into a kind of war room, and make better
use of public opinion research, Mr Dermer says Israel has to start shaming
countries and organisations that hold Israel to a different standard.

"[People] who get together to call for a boycott against Israel, are they
also calling for a boycott against North Korea, the world's largest
concentration camp? When you hold Israel to a standard that you won't hold
another country to, what are you doing? You are being anti-Semitic."

Mr Dermer said the combined narratives of Israel as a Jewish state, the
importance of Jerusalem to the three great faiths of Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, and the Middle East's tremendous oil reserves, make a compelling
world story that Israel must try to influence.

"Within this story is this narrative that has grown much stronger in recent
years that is essentially false: people who see us as colonialist invaders.

"But once the Palestinians accept that we, the Jews, are here by right, that
we are not foreign colonialists and we're not invaders, even if they say
[the land] it's 1 per cent yours and 99 per cent ours, then we're in real
negotiations."

This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or
mirroring is prohibited.

[ SMH <http://www.smh.com.au/> | Text-only
index<http://www.smh.com.au/text/>]



-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde

From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 19:49:16 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 21:49:16 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] This almost made me gag
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907051849k7f473b28r87133263088bd2a1@mail.gmail.com>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683595220397927.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_O'Grady

Ugh.  At least you know what side the WSJ is on, you have to read between
the lines at the other news outlets.

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Sun Jul  5 20:00:34 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:00:34 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] James Petras: As long as the USA continues to support
 Honduras diplomatically and economically,
 the Bloodthirsty Coup Mongers will not leave power
Message-ID: <77FBD379-F0BC-4424-9610-5CFFE46416C8@mac.com>

http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/n138098.html

"Bueno, por lo menos veamos los indicadores concretos. Primero, el  
embajador norteamericano sigue all?. Segundo, los generales, mayores  
y coroneles estadounidenses estacionados en la base de Honduras  
siguen en contacto con los asesinos como si fuera una cosa rutinaria.  
Todav?a el presidente norteamericano no ha definido las acciones en  
Honduras como un golpe de Estado ni ha roto relaciones ni ha cortado  
la ayuda. Mientras los golpistas masacradores sigan pensando que  
Washington va a seguir dando apoyo econ?mico y diplom?tico o  
manteniendo relaciones, ellos no van a renunciar".


At the very least we have concrete indicators. First, the north  
american ambassador is still there (in Honduras). Second, the US  
generals, mayors and colonels stationed at the US military base in  
Honduras continue to maintain contact with these assassins as if it  
were routine. And still the north american president has not defined  
the actions in Honduras as a coup, nor has Washington cut off aid. As  
long as these coup mongering killers continue to believe that  
Washington will back them with  economic support and maintain  
diplomatic relations, they will not give up.

From stuartmunckton at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 21:14:30 2009
From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 13:14:30 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] GLW and The Flame respond to The Australian: Proud to
	stand with Palestine
Message-ID: <2c6145850907052014s3804fc41o41c9f39237ad170b@mail.gmail.com>

The Australian do not appear to be willing to run this response to an op-ed
dedicateing to an outrageous attack Green Left Weekly and specicially the
aArabic-language insert we regularly run, The Flame,  in the July 1 edition
by Ilan Grapel "A Willing ally to Hamas's
hatred"<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25715206-7583,00.html>

Grapel is a researcher with the Australian/Israel and Jewish Affairs
Council. *
*
The opinion editor, Rebecca Weisser, told GLW twice to merely submit a
letter and said she wouldn't run something without seeing it. We have sent
her our response, the same number of words as the attack, with no response
so far.

You can email or call Rebecca to insist the Australian run GLW's reply in
the interests of fairness. Having allowed its pages be used for an
outrageous and offensive attack, that played on anti-Arabic racist
sentiments as part of attempting to discredit opponents of Israel, the very
least the Australian could do is run our response

Tel: +61 2 9288 1634

Fax: +61 2 9288 2227

Mob: +61 (0) 438 645 562

Email: weisserr at theaustralian.com.au

Editorial Department

2 Holt Street

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Australian


*EDITORIAL*
Proud to stand with Palestine http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/801/41233

Soubhi Iskander, Stuart Munckton & Emma Murphy
4 July 2009


*The July 1 Australian carried an extraordinary attack by Ilan Grapel on Green
Left Weekly and its monthly Arabic insert the Flame titled ?A willing ally
to Hamas?s hatred?. Both publications are guilty of a ?radical anti-Israel
stance?, Grapel said. *

 But the *Flame*, ?unbeknown to its English readers?, also allegedly
?supports terrorist groups and promotes violence?.

Grapel claims that, through the *Flame*, GLW is ?openly promoting
extremism?.

Grapel relies on a few selected quotes that defend the right of Palestinians
to resist Israel?s illegal occupation ? a right recognised by international
law ? to argue the *Flame* promotes ?terrorism?.

The issue of the *Flame* he takes these quotes from was produced in January,
as Israel?s bombs, including banned chemical weapons, rained down on Gazan
civilians.

Apparently, this is not ?terrorism? to Grapel. The *Flame* and *GLW* both
disagree.

Grapel relies on selected quotes, minus their context, in a language most
readers of the *Australian* don?t speak to suggest something sinister. He is
playing on anti-Arab sentiment that exists in some quarters to feed
suspicions that anything in Arabic is likely to promote fundamentalist
extremism.

In fact, the team of Sudanese refugees who produce the *Flame* themselves
fled from persecution at the hands of the repressive Islamic regime in
Sudan. They are victims of the sort of Islamic fundamentalism Grapel
disingenuously accuses them of supporting in Palestine.

The *Flame*?s only crime is to support the Palestinian people against
oppression and occupation. This is the same position that *GLW* holds.

This is not ?extremism?. Israel?s illegal occupation is in violation of
international law and hundreds of United Nations resolutions.

Supporters of Israel regularly seek to deflect legitimate criticism of
Israel?s appalling human rights record by labelling detractors as supporters
of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Such tactics are designed to intimidate and stifle dissent. But the big
problem is that these tactics are not working.

Israel is more isolated than ever. A worldwide boycott, sanctions and
divestment campaign against Israel ? inspired by similar tactics employed
against the South African apartheid regime ? is beginning to hurt the
Israeli economy.

Sympathy with the Palestinian cause is growing in Australia. A June Roy
Morgan poll commissioned by the Sydney-based Coalition for Justice and Peace
in Palestine and the Adelaide-based Australian Friends of Palestine found
many more Australians found the Israeli military action in Gaza in January
unjustified (42%) than justified (29%).

More respondents sympathised with Palestine (28%) than Israel (24.5%).

The barefaced brutality of Israel?s December-January war on Gaza, in which
more than 1300 civilians were killed, shifted world opinion further away
from Israel. Record numbers, in the millions, protested Israel?s war in
cities around the world.

Contrary to the claims of its defenders, Israel is no more a democracy than
apartheid South Africa was. It was founded on the ethnic cleansing of
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Those Palestinians who remain in
Israel are second-class citizens, while those driven out are denied the
right to return.

Israel?s deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an October 2006
interview that, ?when there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish
values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important?.

Lieberman spoke aloud what has been the unspoken policy of successive
Israeli governments.

In January, Israeli academic Ilan Pappe wrote: ?It seems that even the most
horrendous crimes, such as the genocide in Gaza, are treated as desperate
events, unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated
with any ideology or system ? Very much as the apartheid ideology explained
the oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology ? in
its most consensual and simplistic variety ? has allowed all the Israeli
governments in the past and the present to dehumanise the Palestinians
wherever they are and strive to destroy them.?

Finding it hard to defend such actions, Israel?s supporters, like Grapel,
resort to attempts to demonise opponents of Israel?s crimes.

However, Grapel clearly had difficulty in finding evidence in *GLW* or the *
Flame* to back up his allegations. He failed to quote a single sentence from
the *Flame* advocating terrorism. Rather, he offered his own interpretations
of a few selected words and phrases.

A reference in support of the Palestinian resistance to what Amnesty
International called a ?wanton and deliberate? assault on Gaza is really a
?euphemism for terrorist violence?, Grapel decided.

Criticism of the region?s US-allied Arab dictatorships for collaborating
with Israel in its siege and war on Gaza somehow becomes ?implicit calls for
other Arab states to expand the Gaza war?.

*GLW* and the *Flame* stand for peace in Palestine. It is Israel that
prevents peace by denying freedom and justice for the long-suffering
Palestinian people.

[Soubhi Iskander is the editor of the *Flame*. Stuart Munckton and Emma
Murphy are editors of *Green Left Weekly*].

From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue
#801<http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2009/801>6 July 2009.

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde

From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 21:45:28 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 23:45:28 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] "Literature and Revolution"
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907052045o20027faqa76f37d0fbe2ab9d@mail.gmail.com>

I'm sure this classic by Leon Trotsky has been discussed on Marxmail, but I
can't seem to find it in the archives.  Does anyone know of any decent
analysis of it?

From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Sun Jul  5 21:52:44 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:52:44 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] WaPo,
	Slate push libeal "critical support" to Honduras coup
Message-ID: <CF543E20EC7C4303857584824FCADB1D@office1pc>


http://www.slate.com/id/2222241/
foreigners
Everyone's Wrong About Honduras
Reinstating deposed President Manuel Zelaya would be a disaster.
By Dan Rosenheck
Updated Sunday, July 5, 2009, at 10:40 AM ET 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras?Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez and President Barack
Obama make for strange bedfellows, but the two men have found an unlikely
common cause in Manuel Zelaya. A mustachioed rancher with a signature
Stetson hat, Zelaya was toppled from Honduras' presidency on June 28 in
Latin America's first successful military coup since the Cold War. His
ouster has prompted a virtually unprecedented outbreak of consensus in the
hemisphere, with every leader in the Americas demanding Zelaya's immediate
reinstatement. There's just one problem with this uncharacteristic eruption
of regional harmony: It's likely to move Honduras even further away from the
re-establishment of constitutional order that the international community
claims to desire.

While the army's ultimate decision to whisk Zelaya out of the country was
indeed an illegal coup, the deposed president bears full responsibility for
plunging Honduras into the constitutional crisis that led to his
extrajudicial removal from office. In the 2005 election, he ran as a
centrist law-and-order candidate and won a runoff vote by just four
percentage points. To solidify his relatively weak mandate, he handed out
generous salary increases to teachers and raised the minimum wage. This blew
a hole in the budget; scared off the International Monetary Fund, which had
previously made loans to Honduras; and forced Zelaya to turn to Hugo Ch?vez,
Latin America's pre-eminent sugar daddy, for financing.

Ch?vez's price was that Honduras join his Bolivarian Alternative for the
Americas (recently rechristened the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas),
an anti-U.S. political trade bloc. The move stunned Honduras, a fiercely
conservative nation that has traditionally been a staunch U.S. ally. Zelaya,
whose term ends in January 2010, further alienated voters by floating plans
for a constituent assembly, a new constitutional convention that would
enable him to remove the country's inconvenient ban on presidential
re-election. The current Honduran Constitution makes no provision for such a
mechanism and explicitly states that its one-term limit can never be
amended.

Zelaya's call for a poll asking Hondurans whether a formal vote should be
held on staging a constituent assembly was ruled illegal by the nation's
supreme court. The president went ahead anyway, ordering the army to
distribute ballots. When Gen. Romeo V?squez Vel?squez, the head of the
Honduran military, refused, Zelaya fired him; the supreme court then
reinstated Gen. V?squez and ordered the ballots confiscated. Finally, Zelaya
himself led a group of supporters to an air force base to recover the
ballots. This blatant disregard of judicial orders led the supreme court to
issue a warrant for his arrest.

In virtually every other country in the world, Zelaya would have been
removed from office. But, peculiarly, the Honduran Constitution does not
include an impeachment procedure?Congress is entitled to name a new
president only in the absence of the current one. So, rather than bringing
Zelaya before a judge to be tried for his criminal misbehavior, the army
rousted him out of bed and flew him off to Costa Rica in his pajamas. The
legislature then voted to replace him with Roberto Micheletti, the head of
Congress, who was next in the line of succession.

There is no doubt that this last move should not be allowed to stand. But
the international community's single-minded insistence that Zelaya be
reinstated as soon as possible?ignoring his own campaign to undermine
constitutional order?is likely to backfire. Zelaya's behavior has left him
every bit as isolated within his country as Micheletti is outside of it. The
entire Honduran political establishment, including virtually every member of
Congress, the courts, the military, and the business community, is dead-set
against his return. And while the opinion of the population as a whole is
tougher to measure?no one has taken a poll in the last week?the deck seems
stacked against him. His approval rating was a mere 30 percent even before
this episode began, and the demonstrations against him have been larger and
more numerous than those in favor (although a strong military presence has
surely caused many Zelaya supporters to stay home). 

The region's leaders, who seem blind to these realities, have not budged
from their campaign to shove Zelaya back down Honduras' throat. In fact,
Jos? Miguel Insulza, the secretary-general of the Organization of American
States, along with the left-leaning presidents of Ecuador and Argentina, has
volunteered to personally accompany Zelaya on his return to Honduras, as a
"diplomatic shield" against his (entirely legitimate) arrest. 

This has prompted a dangerous surge of reactionary, jingoistic nationalism
in Honduras. The media are awash with accusations of "infiltration" by
"Communist" agents from Nicaragua and Venezuela, and Micheletti's backers
feel the country's sovereignty is being trampled on. "Neither Ch?vez nor
Obama should interfere with our country," said Rosario del Carmen, a
government employee at an anti-Zelaya rally in Tegucigalpa's central square.
"We already had a dictatorship in the '80s, and Zelaya was making another
one." 

By backing the Micheletti administration into a corner, the region's leaders
are forcing it to take a defiant posture. Rather than allowing itself to be
kicked out of the OAS, the new government pre-emptively withdrew from the
organization on Saturday. The OAS "is a political organization, not a
court," Micheletti wrote in a letter to Insulza, "and it can't judge us."
The harder the international community pushes for Zelaya's reinstatement,
the more determined plucky Hondurans will be to prevent it?and to make it
impossible for him to govern if he does return to office.

None of this means foreign governments should accept the coup and recognize
Micheletti as president. But rather than framing the issue as a contest of
wills, Insulza needs to recognize that Zelaya had sacrificed most of his
political support and legitimacy in the weeks leading up to the coup and aim
to engineer a negotiated solution. That means talking to Micheletti (which
he refused to do on a visit to Tegucigalpa), offering Zelaya the option
either to resign or to stand trial in Honduras, and probably a call for
swift new elections. The generals who gave the order to deport Zelaya should
also be tried.

Finally, to make sure this situation never happens again, any deal should
also include the introduction of an impeachment mechanism into the Honduran
political system. Zelaya was right that the country needed constitutional
change?just not the one he was advocating.

Dan Rosenheck is the Economist's bureau chief for Mexico, Central America,
and the Caribbean.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2222241/


Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC




From ratbagradio at gmail.com  Sun Jul  5 22:32:26 2009
From: ratbagradio at gmail.com (Ratbag Media)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 14:32:26 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Louis Proyect and Derek Wall celebrate the DSP's
	Socialist Alliance perspectives.
Message-ID: <57b410090907052132m6f4d9cf3o4ecbf0ceabe85ca@mail.gmail.com>

DEREK WALL, spokesperson for the Green Party of England & Wales --
Marxist, ecosocialist and strong supporter of the Venezuelan
revolution has used a post on the very popular Socialist Unity blog to
draw
attention to the DSP's June 3 NC report on the Socialist Alliance:

The ?I?m-more-Marxist-than-you pissing competition?
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4343

Similarly, LOUIS PROYECT -- no DSP groupie as we know -- ?writes:"As a
long-time observer of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (it used to
be Party rather than Perspective) in Australia, I was very pleased to
see them departing from conventional ?Leninist? thinking and announce
what amounts to an entirely different approach to the Socialist
Alliance, a formation they have been leading for a number of years.

The revolutionary party: moving forward and standing pat
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/the-revolutionary-party-moving-forward-and-standing-pat/




___________________________________________
RatbagMedia
https://ratbagmedia.wikispaces.com/
Phone:07 33331805
Email/GoogleTalk RRN: ratbagradio at gmail.com
___________________________________________


From Jscotlive at aol.com  Sun Jul  5 23:41:35 2009
From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 01:41:35 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Michael Jackson and Pedophilia
Message-ID: <c3d.5d40690b.3782e88f@aol.com>

Shane:
 
'Now that everyone can see that the world loved MJ, we can once again  
undergo feeling the "special kind of contempt" deserved by the New 
York  Times--and even more by those alleged leftists on this list who 
have jumped  to add their mouthfuls of bile to the cesspit of bourgeois 
slander.'
 
Reply:
 
What complete and utter bullshit. The world loved MJ? You'd think we were  
talking about MLK. Half of the UK came out in mass grief when Princess Diana 
 popped her expensive clogs too. You think that's a good thing, for 
Marxists to  indulge this crap? Please read the following passage from the piece 
below and  tell me what is slander and what is fact? And then explain how the 
world you  live in works, where it is fine for children to be made available 
for  the sexual gratification of men if they happen to be famous pop stars?
 
Jordy Chandler, Jackson's first accuser, gave detectives a detailed  
description of Jackson's genital area, including distinctive "splotches" on his  
buttocks and one on his penis. The boy's information was so accurate he was 
able  to locate where the splotch moved to when Jackson's penis became erect 
and the  fact that he was circumcised. Jackson was brought in and his 
genitals duly  photographed. Soon after this shoot (surely one of the stranger 
photo sessions  endured by the singer) was matched up to Chandler's 
description, Jackson  suddenly agreed to settle Chandler's civil claim out of court for 
somewhere  north of $20m (?12.2m). 
 
At this juncture, some details recounted in the affidavit of Gavin Arvizo,  
Jackson's second accuser, are also worth remembering: "Jackson told him 
[Arvizo]  that boys have to masturbate or they go crazy, and related a story 
about a boy  who had sex with a dog. Jackson, he said, then told him he wanted 
to show him  how to masturbate." 


From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au  Mon Jul  6 01:34:57 2009
From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:34:57 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] What's new at Links: Honduras, Iran,
 Slump and the poor world, forests, Marta Harnecker on Lat Am, Jean Hale,
 W. Sahara film scandal, Arabic, Boycott Israel
Message-ID: <4A51A921.6070001@greenleft.org.au>

What's new at Links: Honduras, Iran, Slump and the poor world, forests, 
Marta Harnecker on Lat Am, Jean Hale, W. Sahara film scandal, Arabic, 
Boycott Israel

***
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at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism

Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed 
(http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to
consider an article, please send it to links at dsp.org.au

*Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/.

* * *


    Patrick Bond, Adam Hanieh (video): World slump and class struggles
    in the global South <http://links.org.au/node/1135>

Toronto, June 28, 2009 - The political period that has opened up since 
the financial turbulence of 2007 began to grip the world market has led 
to both a crisis of neoliberalism and an attempt to reconstruct it. The 
overaccumulation of capital in key sectors in the US and Europe, 
particularly in real estate markets, auto production and financial 
services, has led to an economic contraction that has spread across 
global capitalism.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1135>


    Honduras: (Updated July 3) Solidarity and left movements condemn
    coup, demand elected president be returned to powe
    <http://links.org.au/node/1130>

Below are just some of the statements released by solidarity groups, 
left parties and governments, and international organisations demanding 
the return to power of Honduras' elected presidet Manuel Zelaya.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1130>


    Can carbon trading save our forests? <http://links.org.au/node/1129>

By *Susan Austin*
June 26, 2009 -- Hobart, Tasmania -- Along with over 400 other people, I 
turned up to the Wrest Point Casino here to attend the premiere of /The 
Burning Season/ on June 1. I had the film's headline --  "As inspiring 
as /The Inconvenient Truth/ was frightening" in the back of my mind, 
hoping for a good news story. Instead I sat through a well-orchestrated 
promo for a carbon trading company, set up by a young Australian-based 
millionaire whose message was that it is possible to make money and save 
the environment at the same time.
By setting up a carbon trading company called Carbon Conservation, and 
brokering high-level deals between big banks and provincial Indonesian 
governors, the film's "star", young entrepreneur Dorjee Sun, was able to 
secure the protection of large areas of forests that may otherwise have 
been logged or burnt.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1129>


    Marta Harnecker: Popular power in Latin America -- Inventing in
    order to not make errors <http://links.org.au/node/1136>

By *Marta Harnecker*, translated by *Coral Wynter* and *Federico Fuentes*
Closing lecture given at the XXVI Gallega Week of Philosophy, 
Pontevedra, April 17, 2009.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1136>


    Iranian and Sudanese communists on Iran protests: `A deeply genuine
    struggle for democracy' <http://links.org.au/node/1134>

Joint statement by the *Sudanese Communist Party* and the *Tudeh Party* 
of Iran
Recently, representatives of the central committees of the Tudeh Party 
of Iran and the Sudanese Communist Party exchanged views and consulted 
on the political situation unfolding in Iran, in light of the rigged 
elections of June 12 and the mass protests that quickly took place and 
began to gain momentum shortly thereafter. The two parties discussed the 
political situation in their respective countries and the conditions in 
which the struggle for peace, human rights, democracy and social justice 
is taking place. Based on their discussion and deliberations the 
leaderships of the two fraternal parties hereby issue the following 
statement:
The existing electoral process in Iran is a mockery of democracy, 
designed to disenfranchise the Iranian electorate. Its entire se- up is 
not related to the pursuit and furthering of democracy or any concept of 
progress within Iranian society but to keep the reins of power firmly in 
the hands of the despotic theocratic regime regardless of the wishes and 
aspirations of the Iranian people. Despite using every method to 
orientate the electoral process in their favour, the ruling guard of the 
theocracy still sought fit to directly rig the outcome of the ballots 
cast on the day of the election.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1134>


    Jean Hale, 1912-2009 -- Farewell to a `most revered activist'
    <http://links.org.au/node/1133>

By *Sylvia Hale*
June 13, 2009 -- Jean Hale (nee Heathcote) was born on July 29, 1912, in 
Brisbane. Her grandfather, Wyndham Selfe Heathcote, was an Anglican 
clergyman who opposed the Boer War. His opposition to the Anglican 
Church's social policies and his opinions, such as this from one of his 
essays --- "The death of Jesus, as a social reformer using direct 
action, has been transmuted into the death of a God dying for the world" 
--- found him at loggerheads with the church and resulted in his leaving 
to become a Unitarian minister. His public speaking skills, which Jean 
inherited, were considerable. In October 1916 the /Woman Voter/ reported 
that, "despite the large seating capacity of the building, thousands of 
people were turned away" from a debate between himself and Adela 
Pankhurst (the youngest member of the British suffragist family).

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1133>


    Australia: Damage on many fronts in false charge of slavery in
    Western Sahara <http://links.org.au/node/1132>

/ /

A documentary on Western Sahara refugees marks a low point, *Kamal 
Fadel* writes.
July 1, 2009 -- Last month in Sydney, the notion of democracy took a 
pounding. The launch of the documentary /Stolen/ at the Sydney Film 
Festival marked a low point in local film culture, and signified the 
tenuous grip on truth we now have in contemporary society. That such a 
film should be financed with about A$350,000 of public money --- through 
Screen Australia --- and accepted by the prestigious festival raises 
questions about the nature of reality and on how it is depicted in 
mainstream media, such as through the medium of the film documentary.
The film purports, in a sensationalistic way, to reveal widespread 
evidence of racially based slavery in the Saharawi refugee camps on the 
Western Sahara-Algeria border. Central to the apparent scoop is an 
interview with Fetim Sallem, a 36-year-old mother of four. She was in 
Australia to explain her story, which is significantly at odds with the 
film's take on it (so much so that Fetim requested unsuccessfully to 
have her interviews removed from the film).

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1132>


    The Flame, June-July 2009 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language
    supplement <http://links.org.au/node/1131>

With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese 
community in Australia, /Green Left Weekly/ -- Australia's leading 
socialist newspaper -- is publishing a regular Arabic language 
supplement. The /Flame /covers news from the Arabic-speaking world as 
well as news and issues from within Australia. The editor-in-chief is 
Soubhi Iskander, a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and 
torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1131>


    Pro-Israel lobby alarmed by growth of boycott, divestment movement
    <http://links.org.au/node/1128>

By *Art Young*
June 24, 2009 -- The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes 
against the Palestinian people is growing, it is "invading the 
mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting 
drumbeat against Israel". It could eventually threaten the existence of 
the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its 
strongest backer, the US government.
That was the message of alarm delivered by the executive director of the 
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC 
Policy Conference on May 3.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1128>


    Selling Iran: Ahmadinejad, privatisation and a bus driver who said
    `no' <http://links.org.au/node/1127>

By *Billy Wharton*
June 26, 2009 -- A creeping assumption lies just beneath the surface of 
arguments concerning the disputed election in Iran. Incumbent Mahmoud 
Ahmadinejad is cast as an anti-US populist crusader resisting the 
materialistic advances of the West. His opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, 
as his foil -- a Western-backed liberal intent on implementing 
free-market policies. Violent street battles have been presented as a 
reinforcement of the Western disposition to see the two idealised 
positions as the limit of what is politically imaginable. Such arguments 
conveniently avoid a third force -- the people of Iran, whose street 
politics threaten to move well beyond the confines of the electoral 
campaigns. Questions remain. Is Ahmadinejad really a populist -- the 
only force preventing a wave of pro-market policies in Iran? Does 
Mousavi's campaign mark the limits of the reform movement?

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1127>


    Iranian workers in action for democratic rights
    <http://links.org.au/node/1126> / /

Introduction by *Robert Johnson* and *John Riddell*
June 29, 2009 -- The mass protests in Iran, sparked by charges of fraud 
in the June 12 presidential elections, express deeply felt demands for 
expanded democratic rights. The establishment press has been silent on 
the aspirations of rank-and-file protesters. /Socialist Voice/ is 
therefore pleased to be able to publish several statements by components 
of Iran's vigorous trade union movement, which has been a major target 
of repression by Iran's security forces. We have provided the titles and 
some introductory comments.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1126>


    Iran: (Video) Not a Twitter revolution, not a CIA revolution
    <http://links.org.au/node/1125>

By *Reese Erlich*

June 26, 2009 -- Iran is not undergoing a ``Twitter Revolution''. The 
term simultaneously mischaracterizes and trivialises the important mass 
movement developing in Iran. Here's how it all began. The Iranian 
government prohibited foreign reporters from traveling outside Tehran 
without special permission, and later confined them to their hotel rooms 
and offices. CNN and other cable networks were particularly desperate to 
find ways to show the large demonstrations and government repression. So 
they turned to internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter in a frantic 
effort to get information. Since reporters were getting most of their 
information from Tweets and You Tube video clips, the notion of a 
"Twitter Revolution" was born.
We reporters love a catch phrase and, Twitter being all a flutter in the 
West, it seemed to fit. It's a catchy phrase but highly misleading.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1125>

* * *
Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, 
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political 
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for 
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from 
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the 
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social 
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in 
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing 
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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From Jscotlive at aol.com  Mon Jul  6 01:49:34 2009
From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 03:49:34 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Biden Ramps Up Pressure On Iran
Message-ID: <cf9.5c0bdff7.3783068e@aol.com>

Biden's public statement that the US will not stand in the way of a  
military action by Israel against Iran constitutes a step-change in US policy.  
Towards the end of the Bush administration, it was revealed that such a green  
light had been denied to the Israelis.
 
Of course, Biden is prone to regular bouts of 'foot in mouth' disease, but  
given the recent crisis, this seems more like a considered tactic designed  
to ramp up the pressure on the regime.
 
_http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8135414.stm_ 
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8135414.stm) 

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 04:09:03 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:09:03 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Website of the Honduran Resistance (english and spanish)
Message-ID: <A38E3A1A-EC5A-4AA2-82DA-95D77B587E8A@mac.com>

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/


From naskha3 at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 04:25:11 2009
From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:25:11 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?The_=93left=94_and_the_US_military_off?=
	=?windows-1252?q?ensive_in_Afghanistan?=
Message-ID: <18d70e600907060325u3634d2bcs4e6dc054e67d13de@mail.gmail.com>

The ?left? and the US military offensive in Afghanistan

Joe Kishore, wsws.org, 6 July 2009

The American military is in the midst of a major offensive in
Afghanistan, aimed at wiping out opposition to the US occupation in
the country?s southern Helmand province.

Some 4,000 US Marines, along with 600 members of the Afghan Army, are
participating in the drive to gain control of areas with populations
deeply hostile to the American occupation.

Continued >>  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j06.shtml


From naskha3 at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 04:30:12 2009
From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:30:12 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Joe Biden -- US won't stand in Israel's way on Iran
Message-ID: <18d70e600907060330m77c608a6w3065f2dc54fa1007@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=33049


From naskha3 at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 04:35:47 2009
From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:35:47 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence: An Aircraft
	did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
Message-ID: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>

VIDEO: Former General of all American Intelligence: An Aircraft did
not hit the Pentagon on 9/11; the stories about  9/11 are false

 >>  http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14239


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 07:24:37 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:24:37 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Death Squads pursue Popular Honduran Leaders
Message-ID: <E9BFE08C-46DA-45D5-94A1-92472EE478CD@mac.com>

Death Squads in Honduras Pursue Protest Leaders

Death Squads, organized by the coup mongers, are pursuing popular  
leaders in the northern coast of Honduras to make them pay for their  
cry of protest against the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti.

Hugh Maldonado, president of the Committee for Human Rights, in San  
Pedro Sula, informed Prensa Latina that in recent hours armed men  
have been snooping around his home and that of other popular leaders.

"I have information that they now have set up privately owned  
buildings as de facto prisons to hold the leaders that they detain",  
said Maldonado.

The leader requested that the United Nations intervene immediately  
before the country is converted into a human hunting party.

Death squads have been searching for the leaders of the  protests in  
San Pedro Sula since Sunday afternoon. The peaceful demonstrations   
were organized in expectation of the arrival of the legitimate  
president Manuel Zelaya.

"We are in a worse situation than that of the 1980's, when much of  
the military, which formed part of the coup government, disappeared  
many Hondurans", recounted Maldonado.

Hundreds of detentions

A total of 651 persons have been detained in Honduras since the state  
of siege was announced by the coup regime, which deposed Manuel  
Zelaya on June 28th.

According to "The Tribune" of Honduras,  last Sunday 278 persons were  
arrested, added to the sum of 373 people who were detained this  
weekend by officials of the National Police.

The newspaper emphasized that in spite of risking their lives, many  
people gave little importance to complying with the requirements of  
the state of siege, which was ordered by the regime of Roberto  
Micheletti.

The Subinspector of the National Police, German Rivera, called on the  
population to come into compliance with the measure. The curfew will  
now be prolonged.

Police Promise to Investigate Massacre

The Honduran police promised yesterday to investigate the repression  
against thousands of demonstrators who protested n favor of the  
constitutional president of Manuel Zelaya, an event which ended in  
two deaths and several wounded.

In a declaration transmitted by radio and television, their  
spokesperson, Hector Mejia, assured that he will open an inquiry into  
the causes behind the acts  which occurred in the vicinity of the  
international airport of Toncontin, located in the capital.

We have ordered an investigation to clarify the cause behind these  
acts, said the spokesperson, who offered no further information with  
respect to the dead and wounded.

Social organizations and citizens have testified to the massacre  
which occurred at Toncontin. They told foreign journalists that the  
people are being killed,  showing them the blood left by the victims  
of the repression.

Noticias
Escuadrones paramilitares persiguen a dirigentes populares hondure?os
Tegucigalpa. Agencia PL. | julio 6, 2009

Escuadrones de la muerte, organizados por las fuerzas golpistas,  
persiguen a dirigentes populares en la costa norte hondure?a para  
apagar la voz de protesta contra el gobierno golpista de Roberto  
Micheletti.

Hugo Maldonado, presidente del Comit? de los Derechos Humanos, en San  
Pedro Sula, inform? a Prensa Latina que en las ?ltimas horas  
individuos armados merodean su vivienda y la de otros l?deres populares.

"Tengo informes que ya tienen casas, propiedad de particulares, para  
mantener presos de los dirigentes que detengan", dijo Maldonado.

El dirigente solicit? a la Organizaci?n de las Naciones Unidas (ONU)  
intervenir inmediatamente antes de que el pa?s se convierta  
totalmente en un escenario de cacer?a humana.

Luego de que en la tarde de hoy realizar?n manifestaciones pac?ficas  
en San Pedro Sula en espera del presidente leg?timo Manuel Zelaya,  
los escuadrones de la muerte persiguen a los l?deres, dijo el  
activista de derechos humanos.

"Estamos en una situaci?n que es peor a la que vivimos en la d?cada  
de los ochenta, cuando muchos de los militares, que forman parte del  
gobierno golpista, desparecieron a muchos hondure?os", record?  
Maldonado.

Centenares de detenidos

Un total de 651 personas en Honduras han sido detenidas a partir del  
toque de queda anunciado por el gobierno de facto el domingo 28 de  
junio, d?a en el cual se llev? a cabo un golpe de Estado contra el  
presidente constitucional de esa naci?n, Manuel Zelaya.

De acuerdo con el diario La Tribuna de Honduras, el pasado domingo se  
detuvieron a 278 personas, cifra a la que se suman 373 personas que  
fueron detenidas este fin de semana (viernes 03 y s?bado 04 de julio)  
por los funcionarios de la Polic?a Nacional.

El diario destaca que a pesar de poner en riesgo su libertad temporal  
e incluso su integridad f?sica, a muchas personas poco les import?  
cumplir con la medida del toque de queda, ordenada por gobierno de  
facto de Roberto Micheletti, la cual concluye el martes a las 5:00 de  
la ma?ana.

En ese sentido, el subinspector de la Polic?a Nacional, German  
Rivera, hizo un llamado a la poblaci?n para que cumplan con la  
medida, la cual podr?a tener una nueva prolongaci?n.

Polic?a promete investigar masacre

La polic?a de Honduras prometi? el domingo investigar la represi?n a  
miles de manifestantes partidarios del presidente constitucional  
Manuel Zelaya, con saldo de dos muertos y varios heridos.

En una declaraci?n transmitida por radio y televisi?n, el portavoz de  
ese cuerpo, H?ctor Mej?a, asegur? que se puso en marcha una pesquisa  
a ra?z de lo sucedido en las inmediaciones del aeropuerto  
internacional de Toncont?n, en esta capital.

Se ordenaron investigaciones para establecer la claridad de los  
hechos, dijo el portavoz, quien no ofreci? datos sobre los muertos y  
heridos.

Organizaciones sociales y ciudadanos calificaron de masacre lo  
sucedido en las inmediaciones de Toncont?n. Est?n masacrando al  
pueblo, advirtieron mientras mostraban a periodistas extranjeros  
acreditados aqu? la sangre dejada por las v?ctimas de la represi?n.




From sartesian at earthlink.net  Mon Jul  6 07:27:04 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 09:27:04 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Overproduction and Semiconductors or... Thanks for the
	Memory
Message-ID: <49F46A0836C749609A83588095372F88@dmsthinkpad>

Those of you, us, who think overproduction-- not to be confused with 
underconsumption-- is the source of capital's current, and repeating, 
predicament will be interested in the NYT article on Micron and the 
semiconductor industry, available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/technology/business-computing/06micron.html?_r=1&ref=technology



A couple of juicy bits:

"The seeds of the industry's current financial straits were sown in 2006 and 
2007, when memory makers went on a capital spending binge to expand 
capacity, said Jim Handy, a director of objective analysis, a chip industry 
research firm.  "It takes two years from spending before capacity reaches 
full volume production, so the onset of the overcapacity was in early 2008, 
two years after the 2006 spending spree commenced...

As a result of the upheaval, the industry's capacity has shrunk about 
one-third, although some of that will eventually return..."


And my personal favorite:

"This is a horrible, terrible business that no one should be in, the way 
it's organized currently.... You get some incremental profits for a little 
while, then everybody moves in and there's oversupply again."


Gee, sounds like something we could say about all of capitalism, doesn't it? 



From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 07:30:13 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 06:30:13 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Taibbi: New Secrecy Rule Lets Goldman Sachs Control Stock
	Prices Unmolested by Public Scrutiny
Message-ID: <978649.73266.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141106/taibbi:_new_secrecy_rule_lets_goldman_sachs_control_stock_prices_unmolested_by_public_scrutiny/

Taibbi: New Secrecy Rule Lets Goldman Sachs Control Stock Prices Unmolested by Public Scrutiny
By Daniel Tencer, Raw Story
Posted on July 6, 2009, Printed on July 6, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/141106/
The New York Stock Exchange quietly announced last week that it would end its practice of requiring companies to report all their program trading -- a move that helps shield large investment banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, from public scrutiny.
The new rule means the public will no longer be able to tell if large investment banks are manipulating the stock market for their own gain, says Matt Taibbi, the journalist whose Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs? role in asset bubbles over the past century has rocked the financial world.
According to previous NYSE rules, any company that carried out program trading -- essentially, large computer-automated trades worth more than $1 million -- had to report the trades to the NYSE, which then made the information publicly available.
But, under new regulations (PDF) published last week, that requirement has been removed.
"The NYSE announced that it will no longer be releasing its weekly program trading data," Taibbi wrote in a blog posting. "This is quiet obviously a move designed to make it even more impossible to track what?s going on in the NYSE and shield, in particular, Goldman Sachs."
Taibbi argues that the move is designed to protect investment banks from bloggers who are exposing the companies? stock market manipulations. Goldman Sachs is singled out because the investment bank?s share of principal NYSE trading has gone from 27 percent at the end of 2008 to fully 50 percent of trades in recent months.
Blogs such as Zero Hedge have been using NYSE data to argue that Goldman Sachs now has an almost unfettered ability to control stock prices.
Responding last week to news of the NYSE?s rule change, Zero Hedge argued:
The NYSE has taken action to make sure that nobody will henceforth be able to keep track of the complete dominance that Goldman Sachs exerts over the New York Stock Exchange. This basically ends our weekly Program Trading updates disclosed every Thursday indicating that Goldman has singlehandedly captured all of NYSE?s program trading.
Taibbi?s article on Goldman Sachs? long history of involvement in asset bubbles and crashes can be found here.
 
Matt Taibbi is a writer for Rolling Stone.
? 2009 Raw Story All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/141106/ 
 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 07:34:07 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 09:34:07 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] the obscenity known as senior care USA-style - can the
	outrage be organized?
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907060634v3cb35d3fm2d9f5e9e053c8cc9@mail.gmail.com>

Thanks to the "no big government" tradition in the US ruling class-imposed
political/philosophical paradigm, the care of seniors has been dumped upon
the shoulders of the individual family unit, regardless of whether or not
those shoulders were able to bear the burden, financially and emotionally.
In light of the epidemic of Alzheimers, dementia and Parkinsons, this has
become an issue that, combined with the contraction of the economy threatens
to overwhelm the baby boomer generation. Due to the atomization of the
working class and the non existence of anything of substance to the left of
the Democratic Party, there is no one voicing the plight of these tens of
millions of people. As bad as that is, add good old American racism to the
mix and you have the nightmarish scenario described below.

Dennis Brasky

>
>
> Critical Condition
> Lower Standards
> Jeff Kelly Lowenstein
> The Chicago Reporter
> July 2009
>
>
> clip -
>



>  Luzella Roberts knew something was wrong when a nurse in
> the dialysis room at her nursing home approached her
> with a syringe and moved it toward her left arm. It was
> Sept. 25, 2006, and Roberts' sixth day at International
> Nursing and Rehab Center in Chicago's New City
> neighborhood.
>
> There were explicit instructions on her medical chart
> not to administer dialysis through that arm, said the
> family's lawyer Steven M. Levin. Instead, they were to
> use a catheter that was surgically implanted in Roberts'
> right arm. It was there for the dialysis treatments that
> Roberts, an African American, received three times a
> week to remove waste from her body, Levin said.
>
> But now, the nurse was preparing to insert the needle in
> Roberts' left arm. It was the same arm that for 60 years
> had cooked dinner for her husband, dressed her four
> children, and had three weeks earlier cupped her newest
> great-granddaughter.
>
> Roberts didn't have an M.D. or RN behind her name and
> thought, perhaps, that the medical staff knew something
> she didn't. So she kept quiet.
>
> An hour went by with the needle still intact. Then two
> hours. Then three before Roberts' daughter, Cynthia
> Wade, stopped by to visit and saw her mother's arm and
> face gray and swollen. Wade began screaming at the nurse
> to remove the needle. As she did, Roberts' arm began to
> bleed uncontrollably and she was rushed to the emergency
> room.
>
> An investigation by The Chicago Reporter found that
> Illinois is arguably the worst state in the nation for
> black senior citizens seeking quality nursing home care.
> There is just one home in Illinois rated "excellent" by
> the federal government when more than 50 percent of the
> home's residents are black. In Illinois, these
> facilities get the worst federal ratings and on average
> have more violations than facilities where a majority of
> residents are white. And in Chicago, on average, these
> homes have more medical malpractice and personal injury
> lawsuits. People in white homes got better care than
> those in black homes, even if both were poor.
>
> The Reporter also found that the staff at Illinois'
> black nursing homes spent less time daily with residents
> than staff at facilities where a majority of the
> residents are white. Of that time, black residents got a
> smaller percentage of time with more-skilled registered
> nurses than facilities where the residents were white.
>
> full article --
>

<
http://www.chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Cover%20Stories/d/Lower_Standards>


>
>
>  from portside.org
>


>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>

From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 07:50:41 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 06:50:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Hondurans pour into the streets to demand Zelaya's return
	-- `We are more determined than ever to overthrow this
	terrible coup'
Message-ID: <49709.27802.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


http://links.org.au/node/1138

Hondurans pour into the streets to demand Zelaya's return -- `We are more determined than ever to overthrow this terrible coup'
Photo by James Rodr?guez.
By Medea Benjamin
Tegucigalpa, July 5, 2009 -- The day started out full of joy, as thousands of Hondurans converged in front of the National Institute of Pedagogy, intent on marching about three miles to the airport to greet the plane that was supposed to bring deposed President Zelaya back to Honduras.
"Our president's coming home today, this is going to be a great day", said Jose Rodriguez, a campesino who came from Santa Barbara with his farmer's group to join the anti-coup movement. The military tried to stop them from getting to the capital, so they had to divide up and take local buses from town to town. "It took us two days to get here, and we slept outside in the forest last night, but we had to be here", said Rodriguez.
A group of young girls came with their church from Olancho. They were determined to greet Zelaya, who they said was sent by God to be president. "The Cardinal is against our president, but he doesn't represent many of us in the religious community. Our pastor is against the coup and so are we", said Alejandra Fernandez, a 23-year-old university student.
I asked why she supported Manuel Zelaya, or "Mel", as his supporters call him. "The government said he broke the law and is guilty of 18 crimes", she said. "Do you know what they are?" She pulled out her cell phone and started to read from a list: He raised the minimum wage, gave out free school lunches, provided milk for the babies and pensions for the elderly, distributed energy-saving lightbulbs, decreased the price of public transportation, made more scholarships available for students." Suddenly a crowd gathered around us and started chiming in. "He fixed the roads", said one. "He put schools in remote rural areas, like my little village, that never had them before", added another. "He let anyone go into the Presidential Palace and converted it from an elite residence to the people's house", said another.
"You see?", Alejandra smiled. "He is guilty of even more then 18 crimes. That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back. This is really a class struggle."
The march wound its way through the streets of Tegucigalpa, gathering more and more people along the way. The massive crowd sang and chanted slogans like "No somos cinco, no somos cien. Prensa vendida, cuentenos bien" (We're not five, we're not 100, you sold-out press, count us well") -- referring to the fact that the mainstream press has been ignoring or grossly undercounting the movement that had been holding street demonstrations every day since the June 28 coup.
"I've never had anything like this in my lifetime", said an ecstatic Miriam Nunez, a 46-year-old teacher from Tegucigalpa. "Look around you-you can't even see the beginning or the end of this march! It's full of teachers, students, campesinos, union workers, indigenous people. One thing the coup succeeded in doing is bringing together the social movements in a way that never exited before in this country."
What made the march particularly exciting is that as it approached the airport, there were rows and rows of soldiers and police in riot gear blocking their path. Each time the security forces tried to stop the crowd, there would be negotiations with the police, who would finally back down and allow the protesters to get closer and closer to the airport.
Luis Sosa, a university professor and anti-coup leader, was one of those negotiating with Police Commissioner Mendosa. "Mendosa and I went to school together 20 years ago and we play soccer together every Sunday. So he knows that if his men get rough with us, there will be hell to pay next Sunday", laughed Sosa. "But seriously, we're trying hard to maintain discipline among our ranks -- taking sticks and rocks away from people who want to provoke violence -- and the police say that as long as we are peaceful, they'll let us go all the way to the airport."
Sure enough, the crowd made it to the airport peacefully and waited patiently for Zelaya's plane to arrive. Suddenly, a plane flew in low and circled around the airport. The crowd went wild, cheering and jumping up and down, but became angry when they saw that the plane was not able to land. Military vehicles and soldiers were on the runway, making it impossible for the pilot to maneuvre safely.
On the far end of the airport, a group of mostly young people tried to get through the fence to make their way to the tarmac. According to Al Jazeera camera operator Alfredo Delara, some of them started throwing stones and bottles at security forces. The troops responded by lobbying tear gas and then firing their weapons in the air. Suddenly, at least one soldier pointed his weapon directly at the crowd.
"A young boy was hit right in the head, his brains gushing out. He was killed instantly", said Delara. "His mother came running, screaming hysterically, ?My son, my son, they've killed my son.'" Others in the crowd were wounded and it was reported that another person was killed.
Between the violence and the fact that President Zelaya was forced to fly on to El Salvador, the crowd became despondent. The organisers tried to keep up their hopes. "Perhaps the United Nations will send peacekeepers", one of the leaders shouted through the sound system. The crowd cheered and yelled, "We want the blue helmets, we want the blue helmets."
"Can you believe this?", asked Indigenous leader Berta Caceres, her eyes welling up with tears. "Now they are killing our people. Where will this end? We need the international community to step in and stop the crazy people who have stolen our country."
Meanwhile, another piece of news circulated -- that the government had just moved up the curfew from 10pm to 6.30pm. The crowd rushed to disperse, fearing they could be arrested for violating the curfew. But they vowed to keep up the fight. "We will be marching again tomorrow, come join us", the leaders announced. "This struggle is not over."
"If they think that were are going to give up, they are badly mistaken", said Caceres. "The events of today make us more determined than ever to overthrow this terrible coup."[Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace . She is part of a delegation an International Emergency Delegation to Honduras that includes members of Nonviolence International, Global Exchange, CODEPINK and Rights Action.]
	* Honduras 	* latin america
 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From schaffer at optonline.net  Mon Jul  6 09:00:26 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:00:26 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] server problems
Message-ID: <4A52118A.2040401@optonline.net>

We are having some problems with the marxmail server. many of us are not 
receiving any emails, though you can see from the web that messages are 
getting TO the server and archived.

please do not send multiple posts: submit just one copy and then WAIT 
until the problem clears itself.

in the meantime you can read the posts at the fast-update archive here:

  http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2009-July/date.html

Les


From schaffer at optonline.net  Mon Jul  6 09:58:02 2009
From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:58:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] fwd from Verso
Message-ID: <4A521F0A.2010506@optonline.net>

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Walter Benjamin: THE ORIGIN OF GERMAN TRAGIC DRAMA
Simon Critchley: ETHICS-POLITICS-SUBJECTIVITY
Guy Debord: PANEGYRIC
Terry Eagleton: WALTER BENJAMIN
Fredric Jameson: THE CULTURAL TURN
Georg Luk?cs: LENIN
Chantal Mouffe: THE DEMOCRATIC PARADOX
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From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 10:07:01 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:07:01 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Biden gives Iran green light to attack Israel!
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907060907s4762818eqaf5be8aecd4c03dd@mail.gmail.com>

Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque

<
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1792-slip-sliding-away-joe-biden-gives-iran-green-light-to-attack-israel.html
>

From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 11:08:26 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:08:26 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Diana Johnstone on Zionist attacks in France
Message-ID: <4A522F8A.10005@panix.com>

http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone07062009.html


From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 11:37:09 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:37:09 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Query
Message-ID: <4A523645.9070707@panix.com>

I posted this on the Wordpress users forum, but got no answer. Any ideas?



For the past several days, this post has been visited about 500 percent 
more than my usual post:

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/michael-jackson-elvis-presley-and-the-perils-of-fame/

The log on my dashboard indicates that people came to the page through a 
"michael jackson" search but when I use Google, Yahoo, Answer or Bing I 
find no link to my blog. I am thoroughly mystified and understand that 
this is not exactly germane to the topic of using Wordpress but I would 
truly appreciate some feedback. Thanks!


I should add that there was an attempt to answer it, followed by my reply:

1. Could it possibly be a Google Image search instead? I've noticed that 
Google has severely downgraded blogs lately relative to Mainstream Media 
sites, but the same doesn't apply to their image search.

Also, Google divides its search by country, so perhaps you're ranking 
high in some Google zone you, yourself, don't happen to be in.

2.    I am linking to a wikipedia image for the album "Bad" but that 
wouldn't affect my traffic, would it?

3.    Not if you're linking out from there, no.




From david at miradoiro.com  Mon Jul  6 12:14:33 2009
From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:14:33 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Query
References: <4A523645.9070707@panix.com>
Message-ID: <30FAA5C1462C4FB88FBC7D267D7D55CB@Nautilus>

Not sure, but I believe the search engine system is not limited to google 
and such, so my suggestion is that it may refer to something like 
http://blogsearch.google.com/ or even the Internal WordPres.com search 
engine.

--David.



From elishastephens at hotmail.com  Mon Jul  6 12:16:02 2009
From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:16:02 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Death Squads pursue Popular Honduran Leaders
Message-ID: <COL112-W211BD6789E601BE81B2AC3D72B0@phx.gbl>


I humbly implore everyone - PLEASE do not post things without including a URL so we can know what the source was, and, if there is no URL, label it clearly as "private email from a friend" or something. Something like this might be great material for my (or someone else's) blog, but I'm hardly going to pass on unsourced information.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009

From mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 12:19:48 2009
From: mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com (Mehmet Cagatay)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:19:48 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Query
Message-ID: <408755.24552.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


Louis wrote:

"I posted this on the Wordpress users forum, but got no answer. Any ideas?"

...

Maybe it is because your blog appears at the top of Google search for the query: Michael Jackson Elvis Presley or in the second page for: Michael Jackson Presley. 


      


From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 12:23:03 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:23:03 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Query
In-Reply-To: <408755.24552.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <408755.24552.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4A524107.3000201@panix.com>

Mehmet Cagatay wrote:
> Louis wrote:
> 
> "I posted this on the Wordpress users forum, but got no answer. Any ideas?"
> 
> ...
> 
> Maybe it is because your blog appears at the top of Google search for the query: Michael Jackson Elvis Presley or in the second page for: Michael Jackson Presley. 
> 
> 

Yes, that's it.

But one of the problems is how Wordpress delivers these stats. This is 
for today so far:

Search    Views
michael jackson    2,343
micheal jackson    34
michael jakson    27
louis proyect    24
salton sea    9
michael jackson elvis    7
the salton sea    6
maikel jackson    6
bird    6
michael jacson    5

In other words, there is nothing about "Elvis Presley", just MJ--except 
for the sixth row, which only indicates 7 searches. Kind of confusing...


From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 12:28:03 2009
From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 11:28:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] H. Post: Washington Abetting Racism in China (156 killed
	in Uighur protest!)
Message-ID: <501207.28859.qm@web45005.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-c-anderson/washington-abetting-racis_b_226265.html
Posted?by Eric C. Anderson
?
Racism, alas, is not a uniquely American or European phenomenon. I can personally attest to the fact that racism abounds in Asia. The Japanese have long discriminated against immigrants, the Koreans like to contend they are most homogeneous population on the planet, and Han Chinese have a thinly disguised disdain for minority groups who constitute the other 8% of Beijing's 1.3 billion constituents.. On 5 July 2009, that disdain became painfully evident in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Xinhua, Beijing's official news agency, is now reporting riots in Xinjiang's capital resulted in over 140 deaths, more than 800 injured, and significant property damage. 
?
Xinhua's explanation for this carnage is little more than a reiteration of the standard party-line: "terrorism, separatism, and extremism." Unfortunately, Washington is poorly positioned to refute this claim. The Bush administration's blind haste to launch a global war on terrorism provided Beijing with the ultimate excuse to crackdown on the Uyghurs. China's pledge of support for the U.S. campaign was secured by having our State Department place an obscure Uyghur group on the watch list of global terrorist organizations. In one fell swoop Washington blessed Han Chinese racism and granted Beijing a license to hunt Uyghurs at will. 
?
The results were predictable. Human Rights Watch reports Beijing has established "a multi-tiered system of surveillance, control, and suppression of religious activity aimed at Xinjiang's Uyghurs." The group goes on to state, "peaceful activists who practice their religion in a manner deemed unacceptable by state authorities or Chinese Communist Party officials are arrested, tortured, and at times executed."
?
That's just for openers. According to Human Rights Watch, "The harshest punishments are meted out to those accused of involvement in separatist activity, which is increasingly equated by officials with 'terrorism'." This focus on alleged separatists is not accidental. The Chinese Communist Party cannot afford to be perceived as incapable of maintaining a unified China. This explains the continuing crackdowns in Tibet, the development of military capabilities sufficient to corral Taiwan, and curtailment of civil liberties in Xinjiang.
?
The real issue here, however, is not Beijing's persistent separatist paranoia. The real problem is how local officials seek to realize Beijing's intentions. China attempts to protect minority populations in her constitution, legal system, and via official statements guaranteeing religious freedom. The intent is noble; the execution is atrocious. As Human Rights Watch notes, "The reality is that Muslims in Xinjiang have only as much religious freedom as local and national authorities choose to allow at any given moment. For many who experience state repression, arbitrariness is the touchstone: what is permissible for some can result in harsh punishment for others, particularly those suspected of having separatist tendencies, leadership qualities, or disloyal political views."
?
Now let's return to the actual cause of the 5 July 2009 riots. In June 2009, a blogger in southern Guangdong province posted a message claiming six boys from Xinjiang had "raped two innocent girls." Local readers took this to mean "two Han women" and reacted by attacking Uyghurs employed at a factory where the alleged rape occurred. By the time local officials cleared the crowds 2 Uyghurs were dead and 118 people had been injured. At this stage, the horrific similarity to the 1923 riots in Rosewood, Florida, should cause some members of the Obama administration to immediately contemplate changing the State Department terrorist watch list--but, I suspect that's just wishful thinking on my behalf. 
?
On 5 July 2009, several thousand Uyghur youths--many said to be university students--peacefully gathered at several locations in Urumchi, Xingjiang's capital city. According to a press release from the World Uyghur Congress, the protestors waved Chinese national flags as they loudly demanded justice for the Uyghurs killed in Guangdong. The demonstrators were also said to be protesting the increased racial discrimination Uyghurs encounter in China. The World Uyghur Congress claims authorities responded to these protests by dispatching a large security force equipped with tear gas, rifles, and armored vehicles. 
?
We don't know who threw the first stone or fired the first shot. We do know the violence assumed a racial overtone from the outset. An official at one of Urumchi's largest hospitals told the Wall Street Journal they had treated 291 injured people. Of that lot, 233 were Han Chinese, 39 Uyghurs, and the remainder belonged to other ethnic minority groups. This body count alone speaks volumes. A more politically correct official might have declared 291 Chinese were injured--instead we have casualties identified by ethnic or racial composition.. One can only speculate who was treated first...my bet is the Han.
?
How should Washington respond to this incident? First, avoid lectures on human rights. Beijing is not interested--and, as I have previously argued--the human rights rhetoric is widely understood as little more than a condemnation of another state's government. Instead, Washington should remove the Uyghurs from Secretary of State Clinton's terrorism watch list. We should not condone nor abet prosecution of any minority group by simply declaring them suspects in the war on terrorism. Finally, President Obama needs to make a statement concerning racism as it exists abroad and at home. The United States has come a long way since 1923 Rosewood, Florida, now we need to help other nations commit to a similar voyage. 
-------------------------------------------
Note: without falsifying the content of the rest of?his document, the last sentence gives away?Anderson's "liberal imperialism".


      



From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 12:35:58 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 18:35:58 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Death Squads pursue Popular Honduran Leaders
Message-ID: <1996083876-1246905538-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1029809933-@bxe1038.bisx.prod.on.blackberry>


 humbly implore everyone - PLEASE do not post things without including a URL so we can know what the source was, and, if there is no URL, label it clearly as "private email from a friend" or something. Something like this might be great material for my (or someone else's) blog, but I'm hardly going to pass on unsourced information.Eli StephensLeft I on the Newshttp://lefti.blogspot.com________________

Sorry Eli. It is a Prensa Latina article. 

http://mobi.rlp.com.ni/noticias/general/56101
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T


From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 12:53:45 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:53:45 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Princeton University article on Jeff Perry.,
 author of Hubert Harrison bio
Message-ID: <4A524839.5030206@panix.com>

http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2009/04/22/pages/5110/


From markalause at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 12:57:02 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 14:57:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence: An
	Aircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
In-Reply-To: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907061157h2d3cd080ua3ff18e24999542a@mail.gmail.com>

When people in the intelligence community say it was a plane, the
"9-11 truth" folks say, quite reasonably, that you can't trust what
people in the intelligence community say.  It can just as easily be
disinformation.  However, when people in the intelligence community
say something the "9-11 truth" folks like, we are supposed to believe
it?

Whatever became of critical thinking, eh?

ML


From david at miradoiro.com  Mon Jul  6 13:05:08 2009
From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 21:05:08 +0200
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence:
	AnAircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
References: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
	<b16d8daf0907061157h2d3cd080ua3ff18e24999542a@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <88F007AC48734343AA3AD25E9A69F592@Nautilus>

From: "Mark Lause" <markalause at gmail.com>
> When people in the intelligence community say it was a plane, the
> "9-11 truth" folks say, quite reasonably, that you can't trust what
> people in the intelligence community say.  It can just as easily be
> disinformation.  However, when people in the intelligence community
> say something the "9-11 truth" folks like, we are supposed to believe
> it?

Disclaimer: I think the so-called 911 truth movement is 1) full of crap and 
2) a distraction. However, it's different to consider assertions favourable 
to interest and assertions against interest. If a capitalist said capitalism 
is awesome and totally rockin' I would be quite sceptical. If a capitalist 
said, however, that capitalism has proven incapable of fulfilling people's 
basic needs, I would take that statement more seriously, not just because I 
believe it, but also because it's an assertion against interest.

--David.
Weblog: http://spiritofcontradiction.wordpress.com



From danlabotz at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 13:08:58 2009
From: danlabotz at gmail.com (Dan La Botz)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:08:58 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Obama, Crisis and Movements
Message-ID: <bce8ec0a0907061208u79fce712s553f6b2e0803a01d@mail.gmail.com>

Dear Readers of Marxism List,
         I am new to this list and not familiar with how you function, but,
if you are interested, I would be interested in your reactions to an attempt
at a Marxist understanding of the Obama administration and its policies as
found in the working paper written a couple of months ago "Obama, the Crisis
and the Movements" at: http://www.solidarity-us.org/obamaworkingpaper
         I welcome your comments, criticisms and suggestion for how to
better understand the Obama administration.
         In solidarity,
         Dan La Botz

Dan La Botz
3503 Middleton Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45220
513-861-8722 Home
513-600-9405 Cell

From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 13:14:15 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:14:15 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Obama, Crisis and Movements
In-Reply-To: <bce8ec0a0907061208u79fce712s553f6b2e0803a01d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <bce8ec0a0907061208u79fce712s553f6b2e0803a01d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A524D07.1080002@panix.com>

Dan La Botz wrote:
> Dear Readers of Marxism List,
>          I am new to this list and not familiar with how you function, but,
> if you are interested, I would be interested in your reactions to an attempt
> at a Marxist understanding of the Obama administration and its policies as
> found in the working paper written a couple of months ago "Obama, the Crisis
> and the Movements" at: http://www.solidarity-us.org/obamaworkingpaper
>          I welcome your comments, criticisms and suggestion for how to
> better understand the Obama administration.
>          In solidarity,
>          Dan La Botz
> 

For people not familiar with Dan La Botz, he is a long time analyst of 
the American labor movement whose book on the Teamsters union had a big 
influence on something I wrote a while back on the UPS strike:

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/labor/ups.htm



From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 13:19:13 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:19:13 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence: An
 Aircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
In-Reply-To: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A524E31.5060105@panix.com>

Nasir Khan wrote:
> VIDEO: Former General of all American Intelligence: An Aircraft did
> not hit the Pentagon on 9/11; the stories about  9/11 are false
> 
>  >>  http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14239

This is from Michel Chossudovsky's website. Sort of Jared Israel for the 
carriage trade.


From elishastephens at hotmail.com  Mon Jul  6 14:03:02 2009
From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 13:03:02 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence: An
 Aircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
Message-ID: <COL112-W4D4EB5E25DA39E005D395D72B0@phx.gbl>


A quick read of the headline might lead the unsuspecting reader to assume this man had something to do with the Pentagon on 9/11. In point of fact, he retired in 1984, and has no more "inside knowledge" of what happened at the Pentagon than anyone on this list.

More about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stubblebine



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. 
http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_BR_life_in_synch_062009

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 15:06:38 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:06:38 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] In Honduras, Two Political Lines of the USA at work,
 states Jose Vicente Rangel
Message-ID: <FA2D8E8E-8E0C-40F8-98F8-0D7A885034BD@mac.com>

http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/07/06/interna/artic07.html

In Honduras, Two Political Lines of the USA at work, states Jose  
Vicente Rangel



Venezuelan Journalist Jose Vicente Rangel reported this sunday that  
in Honduras two political lines of the United States were at work  
before the coup plot was hatched against the constitutional president  
of the country, Manuel Zelaya.

"In Honduras  two distinct lines of north american politics revealed  
themselves, one coming from the White House and the other through the  
machinery put in place by the administration of George W. Bush at the  
military base of Palmarola", he said.

Rangel explained that this became apparent on the morning of June 28,  
when two important functionaries of the State Department, James  
Steimberg and Tom Shannon, contacted the US embassy in Tegucigalpa  
and the military base in Palmarola to discuss the coup d'etat and to  
impede any intention to support it.

"In Honduras, in addition to the political slant of the State  
Department, the line of the Pentagon operates through the military  
base, whose chief, General Douglas Fraser, just days before the coup,  
made two declarations against President Chavez.  Fraser's  
pronouncement was adopted at once by the coup regime of Micheletti",  
commented Rangel.

He indicated this is why the US ambassador, Hugo Llorens, was forced  
to pronounce opposition to the coup, at first with a certain reserve,  
and later more emphatically.

En Honduras actuaron dos l?neas pol?ticas de EE.UU.,
afirma Jos? Vicente Rangel

El periodista venezolano Jos? Vicente Rangel denunci? este domingo  
que en Honduras actuaron dos l?neas pol?ticas de Estados Unidos antes  
de que se fraguara el golpe de Estado contra el presidente  
constitucional de ese pa?s, Manuel Zelaya.

"En Honduras se hicieron presentes dos niveles de la pol?tica del  
gobierno nor-teamericano, una proveniente de la Casa Blanca y otra de  
la maquinaria que dej? montada la administraci?n de George W. Bush a  
trav?s de la base militar implantada en la poblaci?n hondure?a de  
Palmarola", sostuvo.

Rangel explic? que la raz?n es que en la madrugada del domingo 28 de  
junio dos importantes funcionarios del Departamento de Estado, James  
Steimberg y Tom Shannon, contactaron la embajada estadounidense en  
Tegucigalpa y la base militar de Palmarola para advertir del golpe y  
disuadir cualquier intento de apoyo.

"En Honduras operar?a, adem?s del Departamento de Estado, la l?nea  
del Pent?gono a trav?s de la base militar cuyo jefe, el general  
Douglas Fraser, d?as antes del golpe en ese pa?s, hizo declaraciones  
contra el presidente (Hugo) Ch?vez, las cuales asumi? de inmediato el  
gobierno usurpador de (Roberto) Micheletti", coment? Rangel.

Indic? que fue por esa situaci?n que el embajador estadounidense,  
Hugo Llorens, se vio forzado a pronunciarse en contra de lo ocurrido,  
con reservas al principio y luego en forma m?s categ?rica. (YVKE  
Mundial)

From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net  Mon Jul  6 15:56:29 2009
From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:56:29 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduran coupsters  may be  losing fight for streets
Message-ID: <45A456E8631445F48ECCBDCD2C1958C6@office1pc>

The Times' take on Honduras interested me.  They clearly fear that the
Honduran government may be on the road to a defeat that could be truly
historic for central America -- perhaps the most important gain for the
people there since the Nicaraguan revolution of 1979.

The participation in Zelaya's effort to return of the presidents of Ecuador,
Paraguay, and Argentina. Along with the current head of the OAS, highlighted
the isolation of the government which is a powerful weapon in the hands of
the resisting people.

The most important assessment of the situation in the Times article stated:

In a telephone interview, a senior Obama administration official
[Clinton? Gates?] said that the United States, worried about the worsening
tensions on the streets of Honduras, was also beginning its own diplomatic
efforts, in coordination with the O.A.S., to get the negotiations with the
de facto government moving sooner rather than later. The officials would not
give details of their efforts.

?This is an extremely difficult and delicate situation,? the senior
administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, ?and from
our point of view, speed is of the essence.?

So things are going badly for the coup-makers, in my opinion. And something
like the resistance to the anti-Chavez coup is taking shape in slower
motion. 

The situation calls for us to be patient, while being unstinting in our
solidarity with the people of Honduras. Just because it didn/t end in 24
hours doesn't mean our side is losing.
Fred Feldman  

www.nyt.com
July 6, 2009
Honduras Is Rattled as Leader Tries Return 
By MARC LACEY and GINGER THOMPSON
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras ? An airborne drama that held Honduras in suspense for
most of the day ended Sunday evening with the ousted president?s plane
circling over the airport here in the capital, where soldiers and riot
police officers blocked the runway and used tear gas and bullets to disperse
supporters who had awaited what was supposed to have been his triumphal
return.

As the plane carrying the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, swept in low and
made two passes over the city, cheers erupted from the crowds below. An air
force jet then streaked across the sky and Mr. Zelaya?s plane flew off to
Nicaragua, where he made a brief stopover before heading to El Salvador.

?The runway is blocked,? Mr. Zelaya said in an interview from the sky that
was broadcast over loudspeakers to his supporters on the ground. ?There is
no way I can land.?

He vowed to make another attempt soon.

Despite the anticlimax of the landing efforts, diplomatic efforts to resolve
the crisis seemed to move forward.

Earlier in the day, the interim president in Honduras, Roberto Micheletti,
said he was willing to negotiate with the Organization of American States,
the group that suspended Honduras on Saturday night for ousting the
president. It remained unclear whether Mr. Micheletti?s proposal represented
a breakthrough, as some Obama administration officials said might be the
case. 

Mr. Zelaya?s return to Honduras, however, was out of the question, officials
said. The leaders who expelled Mr. Zelaya in an early-morning coup last
Sunday had bluntly declared that the plane carrying the deposed president
and other aircraft accompanying it would be denied permission to enter
Honduran air space. ?If he pushes it, there will be 10,000 people on the
runway to prevent him,? said Enrique Ortez, foreign minister of the
caretaker government.

But Mr. Zelaya went ahead anyway. He boarded a Venezuelan plane in
Washington on Sunday afternoon with the United Nations General Assembly
president, Miguel d?Escoto Brockmann, and a small group of advisers and
others. As he flew, large crowds gathered at the airport in Tegucigalpa to
greet him. 

When hundreds of demonstrators tried to gain access to the airport, the
soldiers at one of the runways began firing. At least one protester was
killed and eight people were injured, rescue officials said.

Adding to the tensions, Mr. Zelaya was giving interviews from the air as he
approached Central America. ?No one can obligate me to turn around,? he told
Telesur, a Venezuelan network that had reporters on the plane. ?The
Constitution prohibits expelling Hondurans from the country. I am returning
with all of my constitutional guarantees.?

The presidents of Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina as well as Jos? Miguel
Insulza, the secretary general of the O.A.S., were flying in a separate
plane and they had plans to land only if Mr. Zelaya?s plane landed safely.

As Mr. Zelaya?s plane neared the airport, he addressed the military directly
on live television, asking soldiers to return their loyalty to him ?in the
name of God, in the name of the people, and in the name of justice.?

But soldiers and military vehicles blocked the runway, making a landing
impossible.

The flyover infuriated some members of Honduras?s air force. ?That was a
flagrant violation of our sovereignty by a Venezuelan aircraft,? said an air
force officer who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. ?They
entered our airspace without permission and they were flying lower than
allowed. It was an act of provocation.?

Tensions were high throughout the region. Mr. Micheletti said that
Nicaraguan troops had been observed near the Honduras border, which he
called a provocation. He called on President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua to
withdraw the troops and vowed to defend Honduran territory.

But Mr. Ortega denied in a radio interview that any troops were massing, and
American officials in Washington said they lacked any information of
Nicaraguan troop movements.

Even as they vowed to discuss the matter with the O.A.S., members of the new
government did not back off a bit from their contention that the ouster of
Mr. Zelaya by the army was legal and that under no circumstances would he be
allowed to complete the final six months of his presidency.

Mr. Micheletti said he was concerned that Mr. Zelaya?s arrival in the
country would cause violence. ?We don?t want internal conflicts,? he said.
?We don?t want bloodshed and this could be the consequence of his coming
back.?

Awaiting him upon return, Mr. Micheletti said, were 18 arrest warrants for
treason, abuse of authority and other charges. The new government said Mr.
Zelaya had broken the law by pushing ahead, even when the courts ordered him
not to, with a referendum on whether to change the Constitution. Critics
feared he intended to extend his rule past January, when he would have been
required to step down.

But even as Mr. Zelaya?s flight approached Honduras, a flurry of diplomatic
efforts were under way to try to stop the crisis from spinning out of
control. 

In a possible reciprocation of the de facto government?s offer to talk, the
O.A.S. shifted away from a strategy that prohibited its diplomats from
speaking with Mr. Micheletti. For the first time, officials indicated that
the organization would open direct channels of communication.

In a telephone interview, a senior Obama administration official said that
the United States, worried about the worsening tensions on the streets of
Honduras, was also beginning its own diplomatic efforts, in coordination
with the O.A.S., to get the negotiations with the de facto government moving
sooner rather than later. The officials would not give details of their
efforts.

?This is an extremely difficult and delicate situation,? the senior
administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, ?and from
our point of view, speed is of the essence.?

Marc Lacey reported from Tegucigalpa, and Ginger Thompson from Washington.






From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 16:08:48 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:08:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Employee emulates thieving employer
Message-ID: <4A5275F0.5070104@panix.com>

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9135216
Programmer steals Wall Street trading code, FBI alleges
Sources confirm Sergey Aleynikov worked at Goldman Sachs
Gregg Keizer


July 6, 2009 (Computerworld) A high-level developer for Goldman Sachs 
was arrested by the FBI Friday and charged with stealing computer code 
that automates the firm's high-volume trading on stock and commodities 
markets, according to court documents and sources close to the case.

The Reuters news service, which broke the story yesterday, tied the 
developer, Sergey Aleynikov, to Goldman Sachs, where he was allegedly a 
vice president of equity strategy.

Today, sources with knowledge of the case confirmed that Aleynikov had 
worked for Goldman Sachs for the last two years, and allegedly tried to 
steal code from the company.

In the days before his June 5 resignation from Goldman Sachs, Aleynikov 
copied, encrypted and transferred approximately 32MB of proprietary code 
to a server located in Germany, the FBI claimed in the complaint filed 
July 4 by Special Agent Michael McSwain, a member of the agency's 
securities fraud squad.

Aleynikov resigned to take a job with a new company "that intended to 
engage in high-volume automated trading," for triple his $400,000 
salary, the complaint said.

McSwain spelled out four data transfers from Aleynikov's workstation -- 
both locally and remotely -- on June 1, June 4 and June 5, then tied the 
dates and times to Aleynikov's use of his keycard to access the office, 
or logging in remotely from his home computer.

Aleynikov tried to cover his tracks, alleged McSwain. "The program used 
to encrypt the files was then erased," the FBI agent swore in the 
complaint. "An attempt was also made to erase the bash history, which 
was unsuccessful, because of a feature of the Financial Institution's 
computer system that retains a back-up copy of each user's bash history."

A "bash history" is a log of the most-recently-executed commands by a 
user on a Unix-based operating system.

The FBI arrested Aleynikov late Friday night at the Newark Airport, and 
charged him with theft of trade secrets and transporting stolen property.

The complaint said that Aleynikov had made a statement after his arrest, 
admitting that he had copied and encrypted files from his company's 
servers, then transferred them to the remote server, deleted the 
encryption software and attempted to erase the bash history. "Aleynikov 
claimed, however, that he only intended to collect 'open source' files 
on which he had worked, but later realized that he had obtained more 
files than he had intended," McSwain said.

Before sources confirmed that Aleynikov worked for Goldman Sachs, 
Reuters had used facts in the FBI's complaint to match a LinkedIn 
profile for someone named "Serge Aleynikov," including his May 2007 
start date and the description of his job. In the complaint, for 
example, McSwain said Aleynikov worked as a computer programmer on a 
platform that "allows the Financial Institution to engage in 
sophisticated, high-speed, and high-volume trades on various stocks and 
commodities markets."

In the LinkedIn profile, meanwhile, Aleynikov notes his position with 
Goldman Sachs and says he "lead development of a distributed real-time 
co-located high-frequency trading (HFT) platform" at the firm.

As of 2:30 p.m. ET Monday, Aleynikov was still being held in federal 
custody, pending bail. A Saturday hearing had set bail at $750,000, and 
placed both travel restrictions and computer access limitations on him 
assuming he posts a bond. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in the 
Southern District of New York declined to comment further on the case.

Goldman Sachs also declined to comment today.


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 16:22:01 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:22:01 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Honduras Resists / Honduras Resiste: Things Gringos can
 do in solidarity
Message-ID: <FF98E99A-C359-4E54-AF01-2598EC99B5FA@mac.com>

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/



CONTACT in Honduras: Grahame Russell (Rights Action co-director),  
info at rightsaction.org, tel, from USA or Canada: [011] 504 9507-3835

Please re-distribute this information all around

To get on/ off Rights Action's email list: http:// 
www.rightsaction.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=3/

FUNDS ARE NEEDED FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE IN HONDURAS

Rights Action staff are in Honduras working with the pro-democracy  
and rule of law sectors. Funds are being sent to Honduras and used by  
community development and human rights organizations for: food and  
shelter, transportation and communication costs, urgent action  
outreach and human rights accompaniment work.

Make tax deductible donations to Rights Action and mail to:

UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552-351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

AMERICANS AND CANADIANS SHOULD CONTACT YOUR OWN MEDIA, MEMBERS OF  
CONGRESS, SENATORS & MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, TO DEMAND:

? unequivocal denunciation of the military coup
? no recognition of this military coup and the ?de facto? government  
of Roberto Michelletti
? a return of the constitutional government
? respect for safety and human rights of all Hondurans
? justice and reparations for the illegal actions and rights  
violations committed during this illegal coup

********************

SOA Watch has an automated message to that effect for the white house  
and state dept.


http://www.soaw.org/


In Chicago today there is a demo with the theme: "We are all  
Hondurans". Gringos can attend these marches as well.




From lnp3 at panix.com  Mon Jul  6 16:25:18 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:25:18 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Lenin's Tomb report on David Harvey talk
Message-ID: <4A5279CE.80403@panix.com>

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/07/david-harvey-on-enigma-of-capital.html


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Mon Jul  6 17:07:50 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 07:07:50 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
Message-ID: <2F58B81529924AE5984106BA2596AFB7@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                Thank you for your comments, and I'm sorry about the delay 
in responding - I have had a problem with receiving Marxmail posts.

I should say something about the national/class aspects of  a 'defencist' 
policy for the left in Australia during World War Two.   For many, many 
years I was a subscriber to 'Vanguard', the weekly newspaper of the 
Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist).   Although the Maoist 
politics of 'Vanguard' were in many respects rather far removed from my own, 
I must say that the focus on (what I would regard as) the residual national 
question in Australian politics by this paper did have its effect on me over 
the long term.   When the Port Kembla waterside workers, whom you allude to 
in your post, refused in 1938 to load pig iron onto ships bound for Japan, 
raw materials which the Port Kembla community and Australian workers as a 
whole knew would be used to make guns and tanks for the Japanese military, 
in its predatory war against China, and potentially against Australia, they 
were sending a warning signal to major BHP shareholders, to the Australian 
bourgeoisie in general, and to the spineless, craven, Australian federal 
government of J.A. Lyons and R.G. Menzies.

That quote you have there from Robin Gollan, about the nationalism of the 
wartime Communist Party of Australia, provokes a comment.   I'm not sure if 
the quote is from Gollan's book 'Revolutionaries and Reformists'.   I don't 
have that book any longer, but I do remember reading it (as a Trotskyist) 
back in the 1970s.   There are good and bad aspects to taking a stand on the 
national question in Australia.   Overall, the left requires a consistently 
internationalist perspective.   But that doesn't mean that a socialist party 
cannot attempt to lead the nation, especially in a grave crisis like the one 
facing Australia in 1941-2.   I won't say anything much here about Curtin 
and the ALP and their role, except to point out that I agree in the main 
with the view that the ALP tends to 'fill in' for the Australian bourgeoisie 
as an alternative party during times of crisis.   But every party in 
Australian political history has always had to offer a 'national' 
perspective on the situation facing this country, in order to gain a hearing 
from the Australian masses.   In that sense I'd have been sympathetic to the 
CPA's attempts to capture the 'national ear' by attempting to champion the 
fight against fascism, and to mobilise the people against the threat of 
invasion and occupation.   There is a danger here, of course, that 
nationalist and jingoist sentiments might be aroused, and that the sectional 
interests of the working class might be sidelined, but if the left is to 
isolate and supplant the ruling bourgeoisie in this country then it must 
sink deep roots in the lives and consciousness of the broadest masses of the 
Australian people.

The Bolshevik leaders of the Russian Revolution, when the Civil War began in 
1918-19, considered the use of irregular, militia-type units to deal with 
the counter-revolution and provide troops for the war.   Trotsky, who was 
commissioned with the task of raising an army, and his advisors, rapidly 
realised in the light of the experience of using irregular warfare 
techniques, that a regular army was required, with a centralised command 
structure.   The Red Army was thus built along those latter lines, and the 
Civil War was ultimately won by 1921.   It strikes me that the left in 
Australia during World War Two needed to heed this lesson.   Militia units 
aquitted themselves very effectively in PNG in 1942, and checked the advance 
of Japanese troops over the Owen Stanley Ranges on the island.   But the 
Curtin government was sensible in recalling the two Australian AIF divisions 
from North Africa, and deploying them for the defence of this country. 
Again, I don't want to get into the 'Curtin cult' stuff, but I believe that 
the left (including the CPA) would rightly have applauded Curtin's decision 
(which required that the Australian government overrule Churchill's 
objections to the redeployment).

There were many Communists and other socialists fighting in the Australian 
army by 1942.    And all members of the AIF were at this time volunteers, as 
I understand it.    To defend this country from the threat of invasion, why 
not have utilised the highly trained forces available?   You yourself accept 
the proposition that Australia should have been defended 'prior to an 
invasion', and yet baulk at the use of professionally-trained troops.   The 
attitude that the left in this context should quibble at supporting the 
'bourgeois state', etc., smacks to me of the attitudes of ultra-left, 
sectarian groups like the Spartacists, who opposed, for example, the 
deployment of Federal troops in the USA to enforce desegregation because 
they claimed that such a policy meant 'capitulating' to the capitalist 
state.

Perhaps a rethink by the far-left about its history, and about the history 
of the CPA in particular, is required.   Tomorrow evening I am intending to 
go to a forum at the Resistance Centre here in Perth on the historical 
subject of the CPA and the post-World War Two radicalisation in Australia. 
I think that today's revolutionary Marxists have a lot to learn from the 
previous generations of socialist and left activists in Australia, and I am 
looking forward to hearing the views of the speaker and others at tomorrow's 
meeting.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom O'Lincoln" <suarsos at alphalink.com.au>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 8:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII


> Graham asks 'Well, why not have joined in the defence of the country from
> invasion in the first place: why wait until the country was occupied 
> before
> resisting?"
> 



From markalause at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 17:23:11 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 19:23:11 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Former General of all American Intelligence:
	AnAircraft did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11
In-Reply-To: <88F007AC48734343AA3AD25E9A69F592@Nautilus>
References: <18d70e600907060335p2ec703bdsc1573c1f3633615f@mail.gmail.com>
	<b16d8daf0907061157h2d3cd080ua3ff18e24999542a@mail.gmail.com>
	<88F007AC48734343AA3AD25E9A69F592@Nautilus>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907061623p693f7641s6254254338b05826@mail.gmail.com>

David Pic?n ?lvarez<david at miradoiro.com> wrote: "it's different to
consider assertions favourable to interest and assertions against
interest."

This is, of course, the problem.  What is and isn't to interest on
this level isn't that simple.

As an interesting aside, I was talking a while back to a number of
relatively conservative and unreflective veterans just back from Iraq.
 They were simply scoffing at the idea that war was about oil.  The
definitive argument for them was, as one said: "If the U.S. went in
for oil, why didn't the price of gas go down after we invaded."  The
fallacies involved in this are legion, but the most obvious is the
assumption that there is such a thing as an American national interest
in which the entire society shares.

So, too, the idea of one coherent, unifying position about what
happened on 9-11 as "favourable to interest," and another "against
interest" involves serious oversimplifications.

In fact it's not at all unusual for the intelligence community to talk
out of both sides of its mouth, both being "to interest."  Remember
how these people fueled, if not started, the entire UFO conspiracy
paranoia.

ML


From mqduck at mqduck.net  Mon Jul  6 18:21:46 2009
From: mqduck at mqduck.net (Jeffrey Thomas Piercy)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:21:46 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Television Online
Message-ID: <4A52951A.8040602@mqduck.net>

There's a computer program (maybe two?) that allows you to watch various
television channels from around the world, including several Al Jazeera
channels. I had it installed, but my drive got wiped and I can't for the
life of me remember what it (they?) were called. I'm pretty sure they
were discussed on this list before. Does anybody remember?


From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 18:24:33 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:24:33 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Television Online
In-Reply-To: <4A52951A.8040602@mqduck.net>
References: <4A52951A.8040602@mqduck.net>
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907061724yfa285edp9b61072957e1dae7@mail.gmail.com>

http://tvants.en.softonic.com/ <http://tvants.en.softonic.com/>
http://www.tvunetworks.com/
<http://www.tvunetworks.com/>http://www.sopcast.com/

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 8:21 PM, Jeffrey Thomas Piercy <mqduck at mqduck.net>wrote:

> There's a computer program (maybe two?) that allows you to watch various
> television channels from around the world, including several Al Jazeera
> channels.

From markalause at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 18:28:37 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:28:37 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Television Online
In-Reply-To: <bee7ff780907061724yfa285edp9b61072957e1dae7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4A52951A.8040602@mqduck.net>
	<bee7ff780907061724yfa285edp9b61072957e1dae7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907061728v344a26c7sa6b88e952fb206a8@mail.gmail.com>

I think it was earlier on this list that someone also suggested LiveStation.com

http://www.livestation.com/

ML


From mqduck at mqduck.net  Mon Jul  6 18:38:33 2009
From: mqduck at mqduck.net (Jeffrey Thomas Piercy)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:38:33 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Television Online
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907061728v344a26c7sa6b88e952fb206a8@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4A52951A.8040602@mqduck.net>	<bee7ff780907061724yfa285edp9b61072957e1dae7@mail.gmail.com>
	<b16d8daf0907061728v344a26c7sa6b88e952fb206a8@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A529909.6000804@mqduck.net>

Mark Lause wrote:
> I think it was earlier on this list that someone also suggested LiveStation.com
>
> http://www.livestation.com/
>
> ML

Indeed, it was Livestation that I was thinking of. I just noticed a link
on Al Jazeera's own website. There's even a GNU/Linux client, which is
what I've since switched to, so I'm a very happy camper.


From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Mon Jul  6 18:47:40 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 20:47:40 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Lenin's Tomb report on David Harvey talk
In-Reply-To: <4A5279CE.80403@panix.com>
References: <4A5279CE.80403@panix.com>
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907061747u11e66830kb2349bf155970977@mail.gmail.com>

Excellent analysis.  I have some problems with Harvey, but "A Brief History
of Neoliberalism" and "The Limits to Capital" were both great.
This is a response to some of Harvey's more questionable recent stances:
http://platypus1917.org/2009/05/15/resurrecting-the-30s/

From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 18:57:38 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 17:57:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Reformers Hold Firm in Iran
Message-ID: <601470.76243.qm@web110413.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


http://tehranbureau.com/reformers-hold-firm-iran/

 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From youcanemailbenhere at yahoo.co.uk  Mon Jul  6 18:57:57 2009
From: youcanemailbenhere at yahoo.co.uk (Ben Ben)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 00:57:57 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Marxism] South Africa dossier / Mediations journal
Message-ID: <99650.63720.qm@web26302.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>




The editorial collective of Mediations, the journal of the Marxist Literary Group, is pleased to announce issue 24.1, a dossier of new work from South Africa. Mediations is published twice yearly. The Fall issues are dossiers of non-U.S. material of interest; the Spring issues are open submission and peer reviewed. Mediations has circulated in various forms and formats since the early 1970s, and is now available free on the web. Both a web edition and a print edition, downloadable in pdf form, can be accessed at mediationsjournal.org. Featured authors in the current issue include Dennis Brutus, Patrick Bond, Kelwyn Sole, Ashwin Desai, Franco Barchiesi, Dale T. McKinley, Ulrike Kistner, and Shane Graham.

http://www.mediationsjournal.org

Volume 24, No. 1 || Dossier: South Africa
Pier Paolo Frassinelli, guest editor


CONTENTS


Editor's Note


Patrick Bond: South Africa's "Developmental State" Distraction
The idea that the South African ruling elite has the political will to establish a ?developmental state? project early in the 21st century is popular, but is not borne out by evidence thus far. Patrick Bond reviews new information about the neoliberal project?s failures, which range from macroeconomics to microdevelopment to pro-corporate megaprojects, and which are accompanied by a tokenistic welfare policy not designed to provide sufficient sustenance or entitlements to the society. The critique by the independent left might be revised in the event that the trade unions and communist influences within the ruling Alliance strengthen, but there is a greater likelihood that the world capitalist crisis will have the opposite impact. Nevertheless, widespread grassroots protests and impressive campaigning by civil society keep alive the hope for a post-capitalist, post-nationalist politics, as bandaiding South African capitalism runs into trouble.


Ashwin Desai: Productivity Pacts, the 2000 Volkswagen Strike,
and the Trajectory of COSATU in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Focusing mainly on the 2000 strike at Volkswagen in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, Ashwin Desai argues that the signing of productivity pacts by the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) involved the signing away of many of the shopfloor gains made during the struggles of the 1980s. It also meant that management was able to call upon the union to discipline workers who challenged the pacts. This in turn saw workers come out in a strike that in reality was a strike against their own union. The strike and the changing nature of labor relations in the auto industry prompt some conclusions about the role of the biggest labor federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), in the contested transition in South Africa.


Franco Barchiesi: Hybrid Social Citizenship and the Normative Centrality
of Wage Labor in Post-Apartheid South Africa
The post-1994 ANC-led government has tried to combine institutional interventions aimed at overcoming racialized social inequality with a fundamental acceptance of the need to make the economy competitive within the scenarios of neoliberal globalization. The resulting social policy discourse placed a priority on waged employment and individual job-seeking initiative, to the detriment of universal, non-work-related social programs. The state?s promotion of a form of social disciplining centered on wage labor has, however, clashed with a material reality in which waged employment faces an enduring crisis evident in both spiraling unemployment and the proliferation of precarious and unprotected occupations underscoring growing working-class poverty. The policy discourse?s growing inability to reflect material realities of marginalization in relation to the crisis of waged employment raises important questions concerning the capacity of the new
 institutional dispensation to gove!
 rn South Africa?s long transition.


Dale T. McKinley: The Crisis of the Left in Contemporary South Africa
The left in South Africa, fourteen years into the post-apartheid era, needs to face harsh realities: despite a long and often courageous left history, there does not exist an anti-capitalist and socialist vision that has the potential to challenge fundamentally, and to change, South African capitalism and to unite left forces. The practical result is a strategic crisis in which an unnecessary dichotomy has been erected between anti-capitalist mass struggle and action, and the need for a socialist organizational form to give politically strategic expression to such struggles. Dale McKinley argues that it is the left?s responsibility to work towards a political alternative that emanates from, and is grounded in, the ongoing and linked struggles of the mass of organized workers and poor against the impact and consequences of neoliberalism. Not to undertake this task is to condemn class struggle and left politics in South Africa to the realm of cyclical
 mitigation and crisis.


Ulrike Kistner: "Africanization in Tuition": African National Education?
The current rhetoric of ?Africanization? ostensibly refers back to pan-African or national-liberationist ideals. However, the ?transformation agendas? of South African higher education institutions, of which ?Africanization? forms an integral part, have been shown to be closely linked with the commercialization and corporatization of the university, and with elite nationalism. Many African academics across the continent have articulated this development in terms of a sense of loss. This article investigates that sense of loss. To the extent that African intellectuals expected their visions for political and social transformation to be taken over by the postcolonial developmentalist state, their hopes were dashed by national chauvinism, by the recession of the state and the tightening grip of repression. Rather than revisiting nationalism and ?indigeneity? as potentially critical forces, this article cautions against such reclamations,
 proposing a renewal of the emancipatory !
 aims of higher education focused on the teaching-learning relationship.


Shane Graham: Layers of Permanence: A Spatial-Materialist Reading of Ivan Vladislavi?s The Exploded View
Critics of Vladislavi??s fiction have tended toward dehistoricized textual readings focusing on the author?s clear preoccupation with words and word games. Such readings have
often ignored or downplayed Vladislavi??s equally clear interest in the material processes and socio-physical spaces that shape and enable life in the city. This essay develops a spatial-materialist interpretation of his novel The Exploded View, reading word games and puzzles as part of a larger attempt to map the labyrinthine geographies of the post-apartheid city. Vladislavi? forges a mode of representation that can register the continual inscription and effacement of social relations onto the physical urban landscape. This narrative strategy, similar to what William Kentridge calls an aesthetic of ?imperfect erasure,? operates in tandem with the trope of the ?exploded view? to dissect contemporary Johannesburg and lay bare the social and economic processes that create and intersect it.


Kelwyn Sole: Licking the Stage Clean or Hauling Down the Sky?:
The Profile of the Poet and the Politics of Poetry in Contemporary South Africa
Kelwyn Sole describes some of the issues and trends in contemporary English-language poetry in South Africa. Focusing on the current fashionability of poetry and the aura that surrounds the figure of the poet in the media and public sphere, he summarizes some of the uses being made of poetry at the moment. On the one hand, it is being utilized as a tool of nation-building and an advertising medium for big business. On the other (and usually in sharp distinction to this) it is being mobilized by poets as a means of social critique and an expression of anger vis-?-vis current structures of power. Questions are asked of the susceptibility of lyric poetry in particular to usage by political and business elites as a means to assist the construction, in its audiences, of a consumerist sense of self; as well as to provide models of citizenship in tune with the discursive priorities of the South African state in its current, capitalist form.


Dennis Brutus: Africa's Struggles Today
New poems from Dennis Brutus, as well as a 2003 interview on ?Africa?s Struggles Today.? In line with the integrated discursive, aesthetic, and conceptual modes of Brutus?s political engagement, the form of presentation of this material breaks up the boundaries both between poetry and prose, and between literature and politics.


BOOK REVIEW

Imre Szeman: Marxism after Marxism
Imre Szeman reviews G?ran Therborn?s From Marxism to Post-Marxism? The title is posed as a question, but the book leaves little doubt about the necessity of such a move. But would ?post-Marxism? involve the abandonment of the insights of Marx and of the dialectic, or would it be better thought of as the refocusing of these very traditions on our own ?bad new days??
ISSN: 1942-2458 // ? 2007-09 Mediations
       
       



      


From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 19:04:21 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 18:04:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] =?utf-8?q?Wall_Street=E2=80=99s_Toxic_Message?=
Message-ID: <568288.41055.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/07/third-world-debt200907

When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating?not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security.
By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ
July 2009
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano



From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au  Mon Jul  6 19:07:41 2009
From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:07:41 +1000
Subject: [Marxism] Moving photo essays: Honduras, July 4-5: 100,
 000s gather to greet `Mel' Zelaya, army kills protesters | Links
Message-ID: <4A529FDD.10905@greenleft.org.au>

Photos and text by *James Rodr?guez *(posted at /Links International
Journal of Socialist Renewal// /with permission.)

[See also ``Photo essay: Honduras, July 4 -- `Mel, Amigo, El Pueblo Est?
Contigo' (`Mel, our friend, the people are with you!')'' by James
Rodr?guez.]

Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- July 5, 2009 -- /MiMundo.org/ -- On the day
when ousted President Manuel Zelaya was slated to return, thousands of
supporters gathered at the Pedagogica University in order to march
towards Toncontin Airport. Meanwhile, at the airport, some gathered
early to await Mel?s arrival despite the suffocating presence of
Honduran security forces.

Brilliant and moving photos at http://links.org.au/node/1139 (please
foreward!)

Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism



From milongonsinga at yahoo.com  Mon Jul  6 19:37:31 2009
From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga)
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 18:37:31 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Banks own the US government
Message-ID: <498620.44044.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jun/30/congress-financial-reform-banks/print

Banks own the US government
There are smart ways to raise money and regulate the market, but Wall Street is working to kill any meaningful financial reform
	* 
	* 	* Dean Baker
	* guardian.co.uk,	 Tuesday 30 June 2009 18.00 BST
	*  larger | smaller
Last month, when the US Congress failed to pass a bankruptcy reform measure that would have allowed home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy, senator Dick Durbin succinctly commented: "The banks own the place." That seems pretty clear.
After all, it was the banks' greed that fed the housing bubble with loony loans that were guaranteed to go bad. Of course the finance guys also made a fortune guaranteeing the loans that were guaranteed to go bad (ie AIG), and when everything went bust, the taxpayers got handed the bill. The cost of the bailout will certainly be in the hundreds of billions, if not more than $1tn when it is all over.
More importantly, we are looking at the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. The cumulative lost output over the years 2008-2012 will almost certainly exceed $5tn. That comes to more than $60,000 for an average family of four. This is the price that we are paying for the bankers' greed, coupled with incredible incompetence and/or corruption from our regulators.
Under these circumstances, it would be reasonable to think that the bankers would be keeping a low profile for a while. That's not the way it works in Washington. The banks are aggressively pushing their case in Congress and Obama administration. Not only are we not going to see bankruptcy reform, but any financial reform package that gets through Congress will probably contain enough loopholes that it will be almost useless.
In this political environment, the poor might get empathy, but Wall Street gets money, and lots of it. Even when the issue is global warming Wall Street has its hand out. The fees on trading carbon permits could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades. A simple carbon tax would have been far more efficient, but efficiency is not the most important value when it comes to making Wall Street richer.
This is why it was so encouraging to see congressman Peter DeFazio's proposal to tax trades in oil options and futures. DeFazio proposed a tax of 0.02% on trades in oil futures and options as a way to make up a shortfall in the federal government's highway trust fund. This tax could raise billions of dollars each year in revenue and make speculation in the oil market a more dangerous affair.
The logic is very simple. For someone using these markets to hedge, the tax will be inconsequential. For example, a farmer that hedges a $400,000 wheat crop will pay $80 when selling a future. Similarly, airlines that hedge by buying oil futures will barely notice the higher cost. In fact, because trading costs have fallen so much in recent decades, a tax at this level would just be raising costs back to their levels of two decades ago, a point at which there was already a very vibrant futures and options market.
However, even a modest tax will make life much more difficult for speculators. Many of them expect to make quick short-term gains, often buying and selling the same day. For these traders, an increase in transactions costs of 0.02% would be a burden.
Of course, a modest tax will not drive the speculators out of the market altogether, it is just likely to reduce the volume of speculation. For this reason, even a modest tax can still raise an enormous amount of money in a market where tens of trillions of dollars of derivatives changes hands each year.
This tax can best be thought of as a tax on gambling. Gambling is heavily taxed in every state that allows it. DeFazio's bill is effectively a tax on gambling in the oil markets. It will not stop it, but it would discourage it, and in the process raise a huge amount of money that could go to productive purposes.
The bill faces an enormous uphill struggle in Congress. As Durbin said, the banks own the place, and they are not going to just step aside and let Congress impose a tax on such a lucrative business. But, it is important that people know about the DeFazio bill. First, DeFazio deserves a place on the honour roll for standing up to Wall Street.
Also, it is important for the public to know that there is a relatively low-cost way to make up the shortfall in the highway trust fund. When Congress raises some other tax and/or cuts a useful programme, people should know that there was a better alternative. It just didn't happen because, as we know, the banks own the place.
 
"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Mon Jul  6 20:25:30 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:25:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] State Dept. Briefing on Honduras
Message-ID: <2861B5BD-6D37-4664-9A1A-DEFDD0DCE807@mac.com>


Home National/Int'l State Department Briefing by Ian Kelly, July 6, 2009
State Department Briefing by Ian Kelly, July 6, 2009
Monday, 06 July 2009 22:12 Press Release Latest National News



Washington, D.C.--(ENEWSPF)--July 6, 2009 - 12:45 PM EDT
MR. KELLY: All right. Well, welcome on Monday to the briefing room.  
Hope you all had a relatively relaxing three-day weekend. I can?t say  
mine was entirely unbrokenly relaxed, but it was a good weekend.
Let me ? I just want to make first a couple of updates to the  
Secretary?s schedule and then just read some remarks at the top. The  
Secretary is in the office today. She stopped by Deputy Steinberg?s  
meeting with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, his meeting  
today. No readout of that yet. She?s also going over to the NSC this  
afternoon for a small group meeting.
And then a few words on the dramatic developments over the weekend  
with the OAS: As you know, on July 4th, the U.S. joined other OAS  
member-states in unanimously deciding to suspend the right of  
Honduras to participate in the OAS. Our goal remains the restoration  
of the democratic order in Honduras. And we renew our call on all  
political and social actors in Honduras to find a peaceful solution  
to this crisis.
We regret the necessity of this measure and look forward to the day  
when circumstances will allow the measure to be lifted and Honduras?  
participation resumed. It?s important to note that under the  
provisions of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, this suspension  
does not mean the end of OAS diplomatic initiatives to resolve the  
situation, nor does it relieve Honduras of its legal obligations to  
the organization, particularly full respect for human rights and  
fundamental freedoms.
In this regard, we deplore the use of force against demonstrators in  
Tegucigalpa in recent days. We once again call upon the de facto  
regime and all actors in Honduras to refrain from all acts of  
violence and seek a peaceful, constitutional, and lasting solution to  
the serious divisions in that country through dialogue. Similarly, we  
call on all OAS member-states to act individually and collectively in  
a manner that protects and enhances the well-being of the Honduran  
people by ensuring continued outreach to Honduran civil society,  
maintaining the effective flow of humanitarian assistance, and  
rejecting the incitement and use of violence to effect political change.
And with that, I will take your questions.
QUESTION: Hey, Ian.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: Have you figured out yet what ? when you say you seek the  
restoration of democratic order, have you guys yet figured out  
exactly what that means?
MR. KELLY: Well, I think it means ? in the most immediate instance,  
it means the return of the democratically elected president to  
Tegucigalpa --
QUESTION: Why don?t you say --
MR. KELLY: -- the return of Mel Zelaya.
QUESTION: Why don?t you say that, though? I mean, I guess you just  
said it --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- but why don?t you just say, ?We call for his return??
MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, we do call for his return.
QUESTION: Okay. And then have you guys made a decision yet on ? a  
determination on whether a military coup has indeed transpired, and  
therefore whether U.S. aid would have to be cut off?
MR. KELLY: Well, as I said on Thursday, we decided that no aid that  
would be subject to termination under this law ? that none of this  
kind of aid is now flowing to the de facto regime. We are still in  
the ongoing process of determining whether the law applies. But we?re  
not inclined to make a statutory decision while diplomatic  
initiatives are ongoing.
QUESTION: But there are people on the Hill who feel strongly that  
despite concern ? despite uncertainty about whether or not this was a  
military coup or not, their view is that it is. I mean, you know, he  
was arrested in his residence --
MR. KELLY: Yeah. Yeah.
QUESTION: -- detained, put on a plane by the military, even if the  
transfer of authority may have actually been conducted by the ? you  
know, by the congress.
MR. KELLY: Right.
QUESTION: And I suspect you?re going to have some explaining to do if  
you don?t actually make a determination one way or the other --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- on this. Do you ? you know, while diplomatic efforts are  
underway, it could be a week, days or weeks or months. Are you  
essentially going to put this decision in, which is, you know,  
legally mandated --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- in abeyance until all diplomatic efforts have been  
exhausted?
MR. KELLY: Well, just a couple of points. One is that there are ?  
most of our activities are excluded under this particular section of  
the law, and that?s the humanitarian aid and aid to support democracy- 
building programs.
What we?ve decided to not continue our funding of are those programs  
that could be construed as having ? directly aiding the government or  
the ? what we?re calling the de facto regime of Honduras. And it?s a  
complicated process, but we recognize that we may make this  
determination to terminate, and that?s why any programs that could be  
construed as aiding the government have ? none of this aid is flowing  
through the pipeline now.
QUESTION: What about the ? sorry, just a last one from me on this. I  
thought that the language only specifies aid that is ? only excludes  
aid that is democracy- or democratic processes-related. I didn?t  
think that it excluded humanitarian aid.
MR. KELLY: I believe it includes humanitarian aid, as well.
QUESTION: Could you double check that?
MR. KELLY: Yeah. We can double check that.
QUESTION: Do you have any amount? How much of it has stopped?
MR. KELLY: I don?t have that information, but I can see if we can get  
it.
QUESTION: Well, presumably if you stopped it, someone has an idea of  
how much; at least, I would hope so.
MR. KELLY: That?s a fair assumption.
QUESTION: Yeah?
MR. KELLY: We?ll see if we can get you that.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: That was my question, but I have another one on your  
contacts with the de facto government.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: Both the ambassador and ? do you plan on meeting a  
delegation coming here?
MR. KELLY: First of all, we don?t know about a delegation coming  
here. So this is ? if the delegation is from this de facto regime,  
the State Department wouldn?t meet with them. I mean, if ? this is a  
regime that we don?t recognize. But we don?t have any information  
about a delegation coming here.
We?ve heard that there may be a delegation going to San Salvador,  
where President Zelaya is now, but that?s just ? again, that?s just  
reports that we?ve heard.
QUESTION: What about President Zelaya himself?
MR. KELLY: President Zelaya, as I understand it, and you should  
probably check ?
QUESTION: Check exactly where? With his office in San Salvador?
MR. KELLY: You should probably check with his office in San Salvador,  
yeah.
Well, you know what happened yesterday. He tried to travel to  
Honduras. The flight was denied clearance to land. The plane first  
went to Nicaragua and then to El Salvador. President Zelaya met  
briefly with our charg? in San Salvador last night to discuss his  
plans. We understand his plans are to remain in San Salvador today  
and come back to the U.S. tomorrow. And of course, we ? we?re just  
very focused on the need for a dialogue to restore him back and  
restore the democratic order.
QUESTION: If he comes to the United States tomorrow, does the  
Administration have any plans to meet him at a senior level?
MR. KELLY: We haven?t made any set plans, but I?m sure we will meet  
with him at a senior level, but there?s no definite plans yet.
QUESTION: Above the assistant secretary?
MR. KELLY: I?m not prepared to give you sort of definite information  
on that yet.
QUESTION: So the charg? is the only U.S. official who?s talked with  
him in recent days?
MR. KELLY: No. I know that Tom Shannon and Dan Restrepo met with him  
whenever that was, early Sunday morning, July 5th.
QUESTION: Ian, Chinese --
MR. KELLY: Is this also on ? same ? yeah. Also on Honduras? Yeah.
QUESTION: Same issue. Same issue?
MR. KELLY: Okay. We?ll go here and then we?ll come back to you,  
Goyal. Yeah, go ahead.
QUESTION: We understand that Roberto Flores, who used to be the  
ambassador before the White House for Mr. Zelaya?s government, he?s  
back in Honduras. The initial ? we were told that he went back to  
Honduras to present his resignation to the government of Micheletti.  
Now, there are some reports saying that he?s coming back to the U.S.  
as ambassador of the de facto government. Do you have any information  
on that matter?
MR. KELLY: No. No, I don?t, although I would venture to say that  
somebody who is representing a regime that we do not recognize would  
have a hard time getting credentialed.
QUESTION: But as far as you ? I mean, as far as you concerned, Mr.  
Flores -- this is still the formal Honduran ambassador before the  
White House?
MR. KELLY: I?m not sure. I?m not sure if he?s ? whatever the reverse  
of a credentialing process is. I?m not sure if he?s submitted his  
letter informing the White House and the State Department that he was  
no longer acting as ambassador. I don?t know. I don?t know if that?s  
been done or not.
We?ll go back to Goyal because I know he had a related question to that.
QUESTION: Thank you, Ian. China?s influence have been rising in the  
area, in the region. Do you know now ? right now who?s behind this  
coup or whatever took place in Honduras?
MR. KELLY: I don?t have any information about any kind of external  
factors in Honduras. But we?re very focused on our common goal, which  
is a restoration of the democratic order.
Yeah.
QUESTION: Any military aid will be cut? Do you have any information  
about that?
MR. KELLY: Yeah. I think we covered that on Thursday, or even  
Wednesday. You know that the Southern Command has minimized contact  
with Honduran military --
QUESTION: But monetary.
MR. KELLY: -- personnel.
QUESTION: I mean, monetarily.
MR. KELLY: But in terms of the assistance programs, military assistance?
QUESTION: Money.
MR. KELLY: I think the only contact we have is whatever is necessary  
to conduct the activities of American personnel there. And I think  
it?s all being reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
QUESTION: Do you know what is the situation in Soto Cano? I mean, you  
have a considerable deployment --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- of U.S. troops in that base. That base is under direct  
control by the Honduran Government.
MR. KELLY: That?s right.
QUESTION: What is the situation right now there?
MR. KELLY: Yeah. I have to refer you to my colleagues in the Defense  
Department on that. But as far as I know, the situation is calm.
Yes.
QUESTION: Was there any talk of allowing Zelaya?s plane to land at  
the U.S. military base there?
MR. KELLY: That would be ? that wouldn?t be our decision, anyway.  
That ? as your colleague points out, that base is controlled by the  
Honduran authorities, so it?s not up to us to allow landing rights or  
anything.
Also on Honduras? No? New subject?



From tcod at hotmail.com  Mon Jul  6 20:26:02 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 02:26:02 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl>


Yes, but Australia is a country the size of the continental US.  Is it really plausible that Japan was going to invade the place?  sure the more hysterical Allied propaganda played that up, including that "the Japs" were hell bent on invading the US.  C'mon,  not only is Australia a huge, mostly inhospitable place, the people and the culture there, unlike in say Indonesia or the Phillipines, would have been almost wholly hostile, except maybe for the Aboriginal folks who could have been pandered to with the psuedo-anti-European rhetoric used elsewhere in Asia by them.   Moreover, I don't know that Australia had known natural resources like these other places had at the time that would have been realistically accessible.  Nor is there any evidence that the Japanese seriously considered such a foolhardy and reckless move.  Rather their realistic objective, as with the US, was to knock it out of the war on a negotiated basis that recognized its new expanded imperial realm and sphere in Asia.  Don't forget, which is left out in almost all mainstream histories, that Japan was mired in a wide ranging quagmire in China.  Thus, all one liners aside, the prospect of an invasion of Australia by Japan in WW2, versus say episodic bombing, was entirely illusory something I don't believe any serious Allied war planner took seriously beyond the level of propaganda.  



_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail? has ever-growing storage! Don?t worry about storage limits. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009

From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Mon Jul  6 21:26:10 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 11:26:10 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
	<BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>

Dear Tom,
                Thank you for spelling out your argument on the question of 
a potential invasion of Australia by Japan during World War Two.   I believe 
that the Japanese war plans in December 1941 were already based on an 
overassessment of the capacity of its war machine to carve out militarily a 
'Co Prosperity Sphere' in Asia and the Pacific.   In some ways the attack on 
the USA by Japan was an act of desperation, and as I mentioned in an earlier 
post Admiral Yamamoto held the belief privately that Japan could not conduct 
a war successfully for longer than a few years.   Conquering Australia, in 
this context, would have been an almost insuperable objective, I agree. 
But nevertheless, strategically, control of Australia was vital to command 
the Pacific.   Thus MacArthur set up his base in Australia after the 
Phillippines were lost to the Japanese, and Australia became the launching 
pad in the theatre for the overall Allied counter-offensive.

Looking at things from an Australian perspective, it is perhaps not so well 
known overseas just how imminent and likely the threat of a Japanese 
invasion of this country was felt to be in 1942.   The government here 
actually prepared to divide up the continent into military zones for 
defence, and as I understand it a 'line' was drawn between Brisbane on the 
mid-eastern seabord on the one hand, and Adelaide in the south-centre on the 
other.   The south and east of this 'Brisbane Line' were considered 
defensible, and the rest of the country would not be defended in the event 
of an invasion.   The Japanese heavily bombed Darwin, Broome, Port Hedland 
and other cities on Australia's north and north-west coasts during the 
course of 1942.

Sometimes people's perceptions of the likelihood of events might not be 
entirely based on facts, but there can be no doubt at all that Australians 
were preparing themselves for a possible invasion of their country in 1942. 
Had the outcome of the naval battles at Midway and the Coral Sea been 
reversed, it is quite conceivable in my opinion that Japan could have 
possessed the required military and naval resources to invade and occupy at 
least the northerly reaches of the Australian continent.   Of course, these 
are hypotheticals, but it strikes me that there was more than simply the 
workings of 'government propaganda' and a traditional fear of the 'yellow 
peril' in operation in Australia in 1942.   The invasion threat was a real 
one.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Cod" <tcod at hotmail.com>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII



Yes, but Australia is a country the size of the continental US.  Is it 
really plausible that Japan was going to invade the place?  sure 



From e.c.apling at btinternet.com  Tue Jul  7 02:03:40 2009
From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:03:40 +0100
Subject: [Marxism] BBC interview with Tony Benn
Message-ID: <1A03D0D87B4040D7B913BE80B80B8E59@PaddyPC>

See my web-site TODAY.  I have no idea how long it will last - but a welcome and good humoured interview with Tony Benn, veteran British socialist (same age as me !!)

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com

From dmozart1756 at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 02:11:34 2009
From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 04:11:34 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] from the archives-Principles of the New Imperial World
	Order-Ed Herman
Message-ID: <53a1ffe70907070111r787e2e2fu156eb11e0cc74fc3@mail.gmail.com>

>
> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17209
>
>
>

From Midhurst14 at aol.com  Tue Jul  7 02:31:33 2009
From: Midhurst14 at aol.com (Midhurst14 at aol.com)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 04:31:33 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
Message-ID: <c91.4338fcff.378461e5@aol.com>

 
Day of Deceit: 
The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbour 
Robert  B  Stinnett 
(Free Press 2000). 
This book makes it clear  that the US manipulated Japan into the attack on 
Pearl Harbour 
To allow America to come into  the war against Germany 
George  Anthony

From pt_costello at yahoo.com  Tue Jul  7 03:55:05 2009
From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 02:55:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Galloway on Robert McNamara: Reading an obit with great
	pleasure
Message-ID: <114507.6881.qm@web63104.mail.re1.yahoo.com>


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/71328.html



McClatchy Washington Bureau

Posted on Mon, Jul. 06, 2009
Commentary: Galloway on McNamara: Reading an obit with great pleasure

Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 06, 2009 03:56:15 PM

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." ?Clarence Darrow (1857?1938)

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter ? a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McMamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme ? when they were not bald-faced lies.

Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.

The only disagreement i ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.

When McNamara published his first book ? filled with those distortions of history ? Halberstam, at his own expense, set out on a journey following McNamara on his book tour around America as a one-man truth squad.

McNamara abandoned the tour.

The most bizarre incident involving McNamara occurred when he was president of the World Bank and, off on his summer holiday, he caught the Martha's Vineyard ferry. It was a night crossing in bad weather. McNamara was in the salon, drink in hand, schmoozing with fellow passengers. On the deck outside a vineyard local, a hippie artist, glanced through the window and did a double-take. The artist was outraged to see McNamara, whom he viewed as a war criminal, so enjoying himself.

He immediately opened the door and told McNamara there was a radiophone call for him on the bridge. McNamara set down his drink and stepped outside. The artist immediately grabbed him, wrestled him to the railing and pushed him over the side. McNamara managed to get his fingers through the holes in the metal plate that ran from the top of the railing to the scuppers.

McNamara was screaming bloody murder; the artist was prying his fingers loose one at a time. Someone heard the racket and raced out and pulled the artist off.

By the time the ferry docked in the vineyard McNamara had decided against filing charges against the artist, and he was freed and walked away.




      


From sabocat59 at mac.com  Tue Jul  7 04:03:22 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:03:22 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Harper's government isolated as opposition to coup in
	Honduras grows
Message-ID: <4D461B38-D197-4CF9-80AF-9F10DA19BB91@mac.com>



Harper government isolated as opposition to coup in Honduras
grows
By Yves Engler
July 6, 2009

At Saturday's special meeting of the Organization of
American States (OAS) minister for the Americas, Peter Kent,
recommended that ousted President Manuel Zelaya delay his
planned return to the country.

Kent said the "time is not right," prompting Zelaya to
respond dryly: "I could delay until January 27 [2010]," when
his term ends. Kent added that it was important to take into
account the context in which the military overthrew Zelaya,
particularly whether he had violated the Constitution.

Along with three Latin American heads of states, Zelaya
tried to return to Honduras on Sunday. But the military
blocked his plane from landing and kept a 100,000 plus
supporters at bay. In doing so the military killed two
protesters and wounded at least 30. On CTV Kent blamed
Zelaya for the violence.

This was Kent's most recent attack against Zelaya. In June
Kent criticized Zelaya's plan for a non-binding public poll
on whether to hold consultations to reopen the constitution.

"We have concerns with the government of Honduras," he said
a couple of weeks ago. "There are elections coming up this
year and we are watching very carefully the behaviour of the
government and what seems to be an attempt to amend the
constitution to allow consecutive presidencies."

With political tensions increasing in Honduras, two days
before the coup the OAS passed a resolution supporting
democracy and the rule of law in that country.

Ottawa's representative to the OAS remained silent on the
issue. Foreign Affairs took a similar position in the hours
after Zelaya was kidnapped by the military. Eight hours
after Zelaya's ouster last Sunday morning a Foreign Affairs
spokesperson told Notimex that Canada had "no comment"
regarding the coup. It was not until late in the evening,
after basically every country in the hemisphere denounced
the coup, that Ottawa finally did so.

Canada, reports Notimex, is the only country in the
hemisphere that did not explicitly call for Zelaya's return
to power. Unlike the World Bank and others, Ottawa has not
announced plans to suspend aid to Honduras, which is the
largest recipient of Canadian assistance in Central America.
Nor has Ottawa mentioned that it will exclude the Honduran
military from its Military Training Assistance Programme.

Ottawa's hostility towards Zelaya is likely motivated by
particular corporate interests and his support for the
social transformation taking place across Latin America.

 From 1996-2006 Canadian companies were the second-biggest
investors in the Central American country. It is unlikely
that Zelaya won brownie points from the large Canadian
mining sector -- including Breakwater Resources, Yamana Gold
and Goldcorp that are active in Honduras -- when he
announced that no new mining concessions would be granted.

Likewise, Zelaya's move earlier this year to raise the
minimum wage by 60 per cent could not have gone down well
with the world's biggest blank T-shirt maker, Montr?al-based
Gildan. Employing thousands of Hondurans at low wages Gildan
produces about half of its garments in the country. While
the political instability in Honduras initially hit the
company's stock price, a Desjardins Securities analyst
Martin Landry noted that in the long term the coup could
help Gildan if it leads to a more pro-business government.

More broadly, the Harper government opposes Zelaya's
gravitation towards the governments in the region leading
the push towards a more united Latin America. A year ago
Honduras joined the Hugo Chavez led ALBA, the Bolivarian
Alliance for the People of Our Americas, which is a fast
growing response to North American capitalist domination of
the region.

Two years ago Harper toured South America to help stunt the
region's recent rejection of neoliberalism and U.S
dependence. "To show [the region] that Canada functions and
that it can be a better model than Venezuela," in the words
of a high-level Foreign Affairs official.

During the trip, Harper and his entourage made a number of
comments critical of the Venezuelan government. In a coded
reference to Chavez, Harper discussed a "Latin American
dictator."

Demonizing Chavez is part of Ottawa's attempt to block the
leftward shift in the region. Supporting the coup in
Honduras is part of the same plan.

Yves Engler is the author of The Black Book of Canadian
Foreign Policy and other books. If you would like to help
organize a talk as part of a book tour in September Please
e-mail: yvesengler [at] hotmail [dot] com.

http://rabble.ca/news/2009/07/harper-government-isolated-opposition- 
coup-honduras-grows

__._,_.___


From pt_costello at yahoo.com  Tue Jul  7 04:43:07 2009
From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 03:43:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Fleeing the Mexican army and the "wave of gore"
Message-ID: <72539.77111.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com>



"We Bring Fear"
By Charles Bowden | Wed June 17, 2009 4:09 PM PST

THERE IS A MAN DRIVING FAST down a dirt road leading to the border. A rooster tail of dust marks his passage. He is very frightened and his 15-year-old son sits beside him in silence. The boy is that way?very bright, yet very quiet. They are unusually close. The father has raised him as a single parent since he was four.

The father and son are fleeing to the United States. Back in their hometown of Ascensi?n, Chihuahua, men with assault rifles are searching for them. These men are soldiers in the Mexican Army and intend to kill the father, and perhaps the son, also. As the man drives toward the border crossing at Antelope Wells, New Mexico, he thinks the soldiers are ransacking his house. No one in the town will have the guts to speak up.

The man knows this absolutely.

His name is Emilio Guti?rrez Soto and he is a reporter and that is why he is a dead man driving. He recalls how back when Carlos Salinas was president, the Mexican Army came to this same part of northern Chihuahua, beat up a bunch of peasants, tortured prisoners, and terrorized the community under the guise of fighting drug cartels. The peasants never filed any grievances because they knew any complaints would be ignored by their government. Or they would be disappeared. This is the kind of thing the reporter has understood since childhood but does not write and publish. Like the peasants, he knows his place in the system.

It is June 16, 2008, and in two days he will have his 45th birthday, should he live that long.

The military has again flooded northern Mexico, ever since President Felipe Calder?n assumed office in December 2006 with a margin so razor thin that many Mexicans think he is an illegitimate president. One of his first acts was to declare a war on the nation's thriving drug industry, and his favorite tool was to be the Mexican Army, portrayed as less corrupt than the local or national police. Now some 45,000 soldiers, nearly 25 percent of the Army, are marauding all over the country, escalating the mayhem that consumes Mexico. In 2008, more than 6,000 Mexicans died in the drug violence, a larger loss than the United States has endured during the entire Iraq War. Since 2000, two dozen reporters have been officially recorded as murdered, at least seven more have vanished, and an unknown number have fled into the United States. But all numbers in Mexico are slippery, because people have so many ways of disappearing. In 2008, 188 Mexicans?cops,
 reporters, businesspeople?sought political asylum at US border crossings, more than twice as many as the year before. This is the wave of gore the man rides as he heads north.

He has tried to avoid this harsh reality. He has been careful in his work. His publisher has told him it is better to lose a story than to take a big risk. He does not look too closely into things. If someone is murdered, he prints what the police tell him and lets it go at that. If people sell or warehouse drugs in his town, he ignores it. Nor does he inquire about who controls the drug industry in his town or anywhere else.

The man driving is terrified of hitting an Army checkpoint. They are random and they are everywhere. The entire Mexican north has become a killing field. In Palomas, a nearby border town of maybe 7,500 souls, more than 40 men have already been executed in the past year, and several more have vanished in kidnappings; a mass grave was discovered in May. Some of these murders are by drug cartels. Some of these murders are by state and federal police. Some of these murders are by the Mexican Army. There are now many ways to die.....

full:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/we-bring-fear


      


From christopher.hutch at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 05:18:30 2009
From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 07:18:30 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Bringin' Home the Bacon
Message-ID: <c81bf1a60907070418s114d9336ye10411676750c267@mail.gmail.com>

Congratulations to the workers at Smithfield who struggled for so long for a
union contract!

www.GeneralStrikeComics.com <http://www.generalstrikecomics.com/>

keep well,

Christopher

From sabocat59 at mac.com  Tue Jul  7 05:35:08 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:35:08 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?A_Few_Facts_About_the_Honduran_Militar?=
 =?windows-1252?q?y_Coup=97By_Ken_Silverstein_=28Harper=27s_Magazine=29?=
Message-ID: <950AFCF0-186B-44AE-AAAE-D3AB720C0D32@mac.com>

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/hbc-90005301

A Few Facts About the Honduran Military Coup

By Ken Silverstein

    1.

       There?s very little truth to anything you?ve read about the  
coup in American newspapers.
    2.

       President Manuel Zelaya is no radical. He approved a big  
minimum wage increase, which was desperately needed in a country  
where so many workers are poor, but he otherwise has been a very  
cautious, ineffectual reformer. The intensity of the reaction against  
him by the Honduran elite ? as seen in the coup ? reflects the feudal  
mentality of the traditional economic and political leadership, not  
Zelaya?s politics.
    3.

       Zelaya was not seeking to stay in power by unconstitutional  
means; even if his political reforms had succeeded, he would have  
been out of power within the year. The only side guilty of  
unconstitutional action is the coup plotters.
    4.

       Based on his response to events in Honduras, Barack Obama may  
as well be Ronald Reagan or George Bush when it comes to coups in  
Latin America. The Obama administration initially managed to muster  
?concern? about the coup, and has been acting in a cowardly fashion  
ever since. The only reason it has moved at all was that it was  
forced by the united front by Latin governments of left and right. If  
Zelaya is returned to power, it won?t be because of anything Obama did.
    5.

       The American media does not believe in democracy, as seen in  
the routine portrayal of a moral equivalence between the elected  
government and the coup plotters. The Washington Post is the worst of  
the pack. For its editorial page, ?democracy? is strictly  
utilitarian; it?s OK when our side wins; otherwise, we will justify  
vote-rigging or military action by the other side, even while  
pretending we support constitutional order.

But what else would you expect from a newspaper that fired its only  
opinion writer who was right about Iraq and that has offered to sell  
its reporters to the highest bidder? Maybe the Honduran military is  
buying up advertising space in the Post in order to ensure favorable  
treatment from Fred Hiatt & Co.



From antilandgrab at ymail.com  Mon Jul  6 20:50:06 2009
From: antilandgrab at ymail.com (AntiLandGrab Campaign)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 02:50:06 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [Marxism] Picket Indian consulate Birmingham, UK - Lalgarh violence
Message-ID: <494732.87347.qm@web25903.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Friends,

A picket has been organised at the Indian consulate, Birmingham, Friday 10th Julky 4pm against the state terror unleashed on the people of Lalgarh, a village in West Bengal, India, who refused complying with a government sanctioned corporate landgrab of 5000 acres of land uprooting them from their habitat and depriving them of their means of livelihood.

For details please see the leaflet attached and join us.

regards,
Saif

Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People
antilandgrab.wordpress.com


      

From lnp3 at panix.com  Tue Jul  7 06:41:52 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:41:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Picket Indian consulate Birmingham,
	UK - Lalgarh violence
In-Reply-To: <494732.87347.qm@web25903.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
References: <494732.87347.qm@web25903.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4A534290.3010608@panix.com>

AntiLandGrab Campaign wrote:
> Friends,
> 
> A picket has been organised at the Indian consulate, Birmingham, Friday 10th Julky 4pm against the state terror unleashed on the people of Lalgarh, a village in West Bengal, India, who refused complying with a government sanctioned corporate landgrab of 5000 acres of land uprooting them from their habitat and depriving them of their means of livelihood.
> 
> For details please see the leaflet attached and join us.
> 
> regards,
> Saif

This is the leaflet referred to above:

STRUGGLE OF THE OPPRESSED CONTINUES:
LALGARH (INDIA) AND THE STATE TERROR

On 18 June 2009, in a massive operation, the central government of India 
rushed 6 companies of Border Security Force (BSF) and 4 teams of CoBra 
special security force to Lalgarh, in West Midnapore region of the West 
Bengal state of India, in a massive operation against the local tribal 
populations. Why? Because they protested against the state facilitated 
corporate land-grab for one of the notorious Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Since the mid nineties when the Indian government launched its economic 
liberalization programme following ?globalization?, it has seized 
thousands of acres of land uprooting tribals, dalits, small farmers and 
landless farm workers  (by one estimate affecting approximately 250 
million) and handed it over to the transnational corporations - Indian 
and foreign. The Indian state created SEZs where industries are exempted 
from labour and environmental laws, bestowed complete tax exemption and 
are constitutionally to be treated as foreign territories on Indian 
soil, come fully equipped with the special courts to serve purposes of 
the corporations.

Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People
Indian Workers Association (GB)
South Asia Solidarity Group
Call
PICKET

STOP STATE TERROR IN LALGARH

FRIDAY 10 July 2009 at 4.00 pm

INDIAN CONSULATE
1 The Spencers, 20 Augusta St, Jewellery Quater, Hockley
  Birmingham, B18 6JL

antilandgrab at ymail.com
antilandgrab.wordpress.com

Discontent among the largely neglected tribal population started 
mounting since the state government of West Bengal seized 5000 acres of 
land for an SEZ  in Salboni, West Midnapore district which includes 
Lalgarh, to be handed over to Jindal Steel Works, a leading Indian 
multinational steel company with interests in India and outside, 
including Bolivia. On 2nd November last year when the Chief Minister of 
West Bengal and the central minister for mining were returning from the 
inauguration of the Jindal Steel Works in the SEZ, a landmine explosion 
occurred targeting the ministerial convoy.

Instead of investigating the mine blast, on 5 November 2008 the state 
government began a massive police operation against the people of the 
region - arresting them indiscriminately, torturing, raping and killing 
many. None of this is unusual. Tribals have mostly been ignored by the 
policy makers, kept safely hidden from the public discourse to be 
exploited or persecuted when they try to stand up against their 
exploitation.

What is different is that this time the people of Lalgarh said ENOUGH IS 
ENOUGH. They gathered at the police station where three school boys had 
been detained and demanded:

1. Unconditional apology from the superintendent of police for the 
indiscriminate arrests, torture, rape and illegal detention of the people.

2. Apology from the policemen involved in the operations.

3. Compensation for those injured and families of the dead.

4. All negotiations be held in public and not behind closed doors.

Their demands have met with support from a wide area to the point where 
1000 sq. acres has been bounded off and the area is expanding. The 
Indian state has labelled this is an attempt to create a ?liberated 
zone? and has lately sent a massive special security force to suppress 
the people.

YOU DECIDE ? ARE THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE OF LALGARH JUST?

In South Asia people have spoken. Some are with the state or 
fence-sitting - supporting the state with their silence, and others with 
the people of Lalgarh supporting their struggle for economic and social 
justice.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
-------------------------------
antilandgrab at ymail.com
antilandgrab.wordpress.com



From lnp3 at panix.com  Tue Jul  7 07:00:48 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:00:48 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Obama not firm on public option
Message-ID: <4A534700.9050204@panix.com>

The Wall Street Journal
JULY 7, 2009
White House Open to Deal on Public Health Plan
By LAURA MECKLER and JANET ADAMY

WASHINGTON -- It is more important that health-care legislation inject 
stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to 
create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm 
Emanuel said Monday.

"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private 
insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; 
the path is" negotiable.

His comments came as the Senate Finance Committee pushed for a 
bipartisan deal. To help pay for the package, the committee planned to 
announce an agreement Wednesday with hospitals and the White House for 
$155 billion over a decade in reductions to Medicare and charity-care 
payments for hospitals, according to a person familiar with the 
agreement. That will help pay for the legislation, expected to cost at 
least $1 trillion over 10 years.

One of the most contentious issues is whether to create a public 
health-insurance plan to compete with private companies.

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama's 
goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the 
marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted 
that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when 
they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that 
case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public 
option has never gone into effect.

Mr. Obama has pushed hard for a vigorous public option. But he has also 
said he won't draw a "line in the sand" over this point.

The deal with the hospitals follows a similar agreement with brand-name 
drug companies. And insurance companies were talking to Senate 
negotiators about cuts worth at least $100 billion over 10 years, 
according to two officials with knowledge of the negotiations.

Congressional negotiators and the White House hope to lock in support 
from the industry groups, which are backing a health bill in general 
terms but have opposed past efforts.

Hospitals and insurers hope to gain some degree of control over cuts to 
their federal payments. In principle, a health-care overhaul could 
benefit both groups by raising the number of Americans who buy and have 
health insurance.

"They've made an assessment reform is going to happen, so it's better to 
be part of that than not," Mr. Emanuel said.

However, insurers, and most Republicans, strongly oppose creation of a 
government-run insurance option, saying it would ultimately drive them 
out of business. Most Democrats support a public option.

The president and his aides already have signaled a willingness to 
consider an alternative to a public plan under which a network of 
nonprofit cooperatives would compete with for-profit insurance 
companies. That is the leading idea in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, meanwhile, 
has put forward its own version of a government-run plan, closer to what 
most liberals and the White House favor.

On Monday, Mr. Emanuel said the trigger mechanism would also accomplish 
the White House's goals. Under this scenario, a public plan would kick 
in under certain circumstances when competition was judged to be 
lacking. Exactly what circumstances would trigger the option would have 
to be worked out.

Some Democrats pushing for a vigorous public plan say the trigger idea 
isn't good enough. Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in an interview, 
"If it's not there on day one, those of us who support a public option 
have a real problem with it."


From editor at intertheory.org  Tue Jul  7 07:22:42 2009
From: editor at intertheory.org (Nicholas Ruiz III)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 06:22:42 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Marxism] Banks own the US government
In-Reply-To: <498620.44044.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <498620.44044.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <84164.25884.qm@web305.biz.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


Now we're talking; it's a start...but the financing the Public really needs is an issuance of at least 10% of the Market in general - a stake in tradable shares and derivative contracts - tradable and managed by the US government as a Public Trust - as I've advocated here:

http://intertheory.org/platform.html

 Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
NRIII for Congress 2010
http://intertheory.org/nriiiforcongress2010.html
____________________________________
Editor, Kritikos
http://intertheory.org




----- Original Message ----
From: milongonsinga <milongonsinga at yahoo.com>
To: editor at intertheory.org
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2009 9:37:31 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Banks own the US government


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jun/30/congress-financial-reform-banks/print

Banks own the US government
There are smart ways to raise money and regulate the market, but Wall Street is working to kill any meaningful financial reform
    * 
    *     * Dean Baker
    * guardian.co.uk,     Tuesday 30 June 2009 18.00 BST
    *  larger | smaller
Last month, when the US Congress failed to pass a bankruptcy reform measure that would have allowed home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy, senator Dick Durbin succinctly commented: "The banks own the place." That seems pretty clear.
After all, it was the banks' greed that fed the housing bubble with loony loans that were guaranteed to go bad. Of course the finance guys also made a fortune guaranteeing the loans that were guaranteed to go bad (ie AIG), and when everything went bust, the taxpayers got handed the bill. The cost of the bailout will certainly be in the hundreds of billions, if not more than $1tn when it is all over.
More importantly, we are looking at the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. The cumulative lost output over the years 2008-2012 will almost certainly exceed $5tn. That comes to more than $60,000 for an average family of four. This is the price that we are paying for the bankers' greed, coupled with incredible incompetence and/or corruption from our regulators.
Under these circumstances, it would be reasonable to think that the bankers would be keeping a low profile for a while. That's not the way it works in Washington. The banks are aggressively pushing their case in Congress and Obama administration. Not only are we not going to see bankruptcy reform, but any financial reform package that gets through Congress will probably contain enough loopholes that it will be almost useless.
In this political environment, the poor might get empathy, but Wall Street gets money, and lots of it. Even when the issue is global warming Wall Street has its hand out. The fees on trading carbon permits could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades. A simple carbon tax would have been far more efficient, but efficiency is not the most important value when it comes to making Wall Street richer.
This is why it was so encouraging to see congressman Peter DeFazio's proposal to tax trades in oil options and futures. DeFazio proposed a tax of 0.02% on trades in oil futures and options as a way to make up a shortfall in the federal government's highway trust fund. This tax could raise billions of dollars each year in revenue and make speculation in the oil market a more dangerous affair.
The logic is very simple. For someone using these markets to hedge, the tax will be inconsequential. For example, a farmer that hedges a $400,000 wheat crop will pay $80 when selling a future. Similarly, airlines that hedge by buying oil futures will barely notice the higher cost. In fact, because trading costs have fallen so much in recent decades, a tax at this level would just be raising costs back to their levels of two decades ago, a point at which there was already a very vibrant futures and options market.
However, even a modest tax will make life much more difficult for speculators. Many of them expect to make quick short-term gains, often buying and selling the same day. For these traders, an increase in transactions costs of 0.02% would be a burden.
Of course, a modest tax will not drive the speculators out of the market altogether, it is just likely to reduce the volume of speculation. For this reason, even a modest tax can still raise an enormous amount of money in a market where tens of trillions of dollars of derivatives changes hands each year.
This tax can best be thought of as a tax on gambling. Gambling is heavily taxed in every state that allows it. DeFazio's bill is effectively a tax on gambling in the oil markets. It will not stop it, but it would discourage it, and in the process raise a huge amount of money that could go to productive purposes.
The bill faces an enormous uphill struggle in Congress. As Durbin said, the banks own the place, and they are not going to just step aside and let Congress impose a tax on such a lucrative business. But, it is important that people know about the DeFazio bill. First, DeFazio deserves a place on the honour roll for standing up to Wall Street.
Also, it is important for the public to know that there is a relatively low-cost way to make up the shortfall in the highway trust fund. When Congress raises some other tax and/or cuts a useful programme, people should know that there was a better alternative. It just didn't happen because, as we know, the banks own the place.

"When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano

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From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 07:33:36 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:33:36 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] A quiz
In-Reply-To: <4A534700.9050204@panix.com>
References: <4A534700.9050204@panix.com>
Message-ID: <4A534EB0.9090102@gmail.com>

Do you know what does the Honduran flag (two sky blue ribbons with five 
stars on a central white ribbon) stand for?

There is a relation between this flag and the presence of the Arg 
president there.




From sabocat59 at mac.com  Tue Jul  7 07:31:10 2009
From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:31:10 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] A Quiz
Message-ID: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>

http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/hn.html

 From Flags of the World (Talocci 1982):
Honduras achieved independence in 1821 as part of the Central  
American federation along with El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua,  
and Guatemala. The present flag, which was officially adopted in  
1949, is similar to that of the federation, which came to an end in  
the years 1838 to 1839.
The blue bands stand for the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The  
five stars, introduced in 1866, reflect the hope that the five states  
may once again form an association...

 From Collins Gem Flags (Shaw 1994):
Honduras was one of the five member states of the United Provinces of  
Central America and, like other constituent states, has retained a  
blue and white tribanded flag based on the federation's flag, itself  
modelled on that of Argentina. Honduras' flag was adopted in 1866,  
with the five central stars representing a desire for the rebirth of  
the federation...
David Cohen, 3 March 1998 


From markalause at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 07:34:08 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:34:08 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <c91.4338fcff.378461e5@aol.com>
References: <c91.4338fcff.378461e5@aol.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907070634y4baad9b9u35dc3267dc2948a5@mail.gmail.com>

A capsule version of Stinnett's arguments are in his interview at
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=408

Governments and parts of governments are always trying to position
each other to their benefit.  In this case, there's not only
considerable evidence for manipulation, but even some for
foreknowledge of the attack among some in the British and, perhaps,
even the US government.  At the time, Charles Beard, the historian
made the intitial charges about US foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor.

Nevertheless, I think it smacks of paternalism to think the Japanese
did not make their own choices.  (And this is not to make an argument
for WWII as "the good war," etc.)

Btw, I just heard this silly guest on Bill Maher's show talking about
how the Russians are responsible for putting the Taliban in place in
Afghanistan.  Their intervention, you see, forced the US to foster and
finance the Taliban.  The fact is that the US authorities made its own
choices in that case, as did the Japan in attacking Pearl Harbor.

Just because their plans went sour or backfired doesn't men they didn't.

ML
.


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Tue Jul  7 07:53:44 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:53:44 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Banks own the US government
References: <498620.44044.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<84164.25884.qm@web305.biz.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <7FA5ADFA2F584C9F9E0821903DB74D99@dmsthinkpad>

Whatever the talk is, it is certainly not Marxist in its analyis and 
proposals.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicholas Ruiz III" <editor at intertheory.org>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Banks own the US government




From terrence.finnerty at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 08:25:36 2009
From: terrence.finnerty at gmail.com (Terry Burke)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 08:25:36 -0600
Subject: [Marxism] Marxism Digest, Vol 69, Issue 20
In-Reply-To: <mailman.264.1246973655.29130.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
References: <mailman.264.1246973655.29130.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>
Message-ID: <ecbbb8580907070725k2ddf727ei53d2aff48eb996e4@mail.gmail.com>

Just a note of gratitude to this list, o sea, a los
dirigentes/administradores/contribuyentes de as? mismo...

In more than a decade of internet activity, the Marxism Digest stands out as
the single most educational, useful and readable list or source I have yet
encountered.

Thanks to you all.
finnerty

From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 08:59:41 2009
From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:59:41 -0700
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
Message-ID: <4A5362DD.1020308@gmail.com>

I think you are overlooking something I raised earlier. Japan had a lot 
of 'plans' including attacks on the West Coast of the U.S. (as in a 
serious attempt to flatten US air plane manufacture and refinery 
capability in the LA area). Historians who went over Japanese documents 
in the 1980s published some of this stuff (includes agreements with 
Germany on how to split the U.S. continent if the US surrendered, and 
all that).

What was considered, I will raise again, is an "attack", on Australia of 
which the Darwin attack, had it been successful and with enough forces, 
would of been a model. The idea was never to "occupy" Australia. It is 
simply inconceivable for Japan to consider this option. What was on the 
table had US not started sinking their navy effectively, would of been a 
shellacking of the coastal cities on a scale somewhat larger than what 
the Japanese Navy did to Pearl Harbor (which, in reality, was 
"light-weight" considering what they did NOT destroy).

All these was dependent on the Japanese sinking the US carrier fleet at 
Mid-Way and preventing the British from entering Easter Aussie waters 
from the Indian Ocean and other military victories by the Japanese that 
never came to pass. There were actually several variations of this but 
all involved task force size fleets and including selected landings here 
and there for follow up work. This was all purely from a *military* POV 
and had nothing to do with Imperial ambitions beyond that.

David


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 09:12:41 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:12:41 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Second and final on the quiz
In-Reply-To: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>
Message-ID: <4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com>

Yes, Greg found the meaning of the five stars. Now I will tell you the 
story of the colors, which were not modeled on the "Arg" flag.

Greg McDonald escribi?:
> http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/hn.html
> 
> 
>  From Collins Gem Flags (Shaw 1994):
> Honduras was one of the five member states of the United Provinces of  
> Central America and, like other constituent states, has retained a  
> blue and white tribanded flag based on the federation's flag, itself  
> modelled on that of Argentina. Honduras' flag was adopted in 1866,  
> with the five central stars representing a desire for the rebirth of  
> the federation...

How did the "Argentinean" model reach Honduras and Central America?

On July 9th, 1816, a Congress -that had been convened at Tucum?n, today 
in Argentina- declared the Independence of the United Provinces _in 
South America_ (please note the geographical extent of the name).

It was a complex moment. The revolutionaries of 1809-1810 were losing 
ground (materially) on every corner in South America. Bol?var was just 
beginning to reap the consequences of his late understanding that if he 
wanted to finish Absolutism, he had set the slaves free and fully 
embrace the struggle of the peasants against the landowners. San Mart?n 
-who was eagerly urging the Congress to declare Independence because he 
was preparing his campaign against the Absolutists in Per? by way of 
Chile, and he "needed" some authority on whose name to do it- had 
organized a full defensive system along the Arg Andes, with General 
Mart?n G?emes and his gaucho guerrillas holding the "Northern" front 
against the Absolutists in Higher Peru. On the Eastern front, the 
Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro (cunningly brought there by the British 
Fleet) were advancing on what today is Uruguay (and thus forcing the 
third in the gang of rebels, Jos? Artigas, to fight a defensive war 
where the local oligarchy in Buenos Aires was already betraying the 
American struggle -to the point that Artigas could not send 
representatives to the Tucum?n Congress).

The assembly was representative of the more conservative tendencies in 
the revolutionary camp. Worse than that, many were scared to hell and 
reluctant to declare Independence (Fernando the 7th was already in 
Madrid, and he was menacing with an invasion to curb the resistence of 
the American subjects). There were others, like the Director Supremo 
Pueyrred?n in Buenos Aires, who were negotiating the submission of the 
sovereignty of these Provinces to the French Crown (Pueyrred?n himself 
was of French origin). This was the dismal political and military landscape.

And under the pressure of San Mart?n, the Congresspeople in Tucum?n, 
however, decided to declare Independence from Spain! Moreover, when San 
Mart?n realized that there were negotiations with other European powers 
he forced an addition whereby the document would read "of Spain or of 
any other power on Earth". This was intercalated in the original 
document, and can be seen in the Declaration of Independence that is 
kept in Tucum?n, in the Historic House where the declaration was issued.

In those times, the bunch of tiny provinces in the South Eastern tip of 
the former Spanish Empire in America were the single really free 
fraction of the whole continent. And they, in that small corner of 
America, declared the Independence of (repeat) the United Provinces in 
South America.

Thus, the blue-white-blue flag (which had to do not with the oceans but 
with a cunningly devised revolutionary position on legitimacy, light 
blue being the colors of the Borb?n family) became the SINGLE operating 
flag of American independentists ("Americans" they called themselves, 
and for good reason I won?t deal with on this posting; suffice it to say 
for the time being that the social formation they were leading into 
independence had had 100 years of history before the USofAm were even 
starting their historical course in 1620).

These were the colors that flew on the ship of Corsair Bouchard, who in 
the name of the Provincias Unidas fought against Spanish ship and navy 
the globe over, in a cruising expedition that among other places touched 
at the ports of Central America, took the then capital of California (if 
you go to Sacramento you can see the "Argentinean" flag among those that 
flew on California some day), obtained in Hawaii the first international 
recognition of the sovereignty of the United Provinces, and so on. The 
ship?s name was "La Argentina", but the goal was American.

Bouchard brought to Central America the ideals of the River Plate 
revolutionaries and their flag.

And that is why the flag is blue-white-blue, and precisely the same kind 
of blue of the "Arg" flag.

Well that?s the full story.

The fact that Honduras, home to the Bol?var of Central America Moraz?n, 
has become the poorest country in the region may well not be a matter of 
historical chance. Same thing happened to Paraguay, the country that 
offered the last resistence to the British-oligarchic machination 
against the last embers of the ill-fated bourgeois revolution in Spanish 
America during the early years of the 19th Century.


From markalause at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 09:23:40 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 11:23:40 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Second and final on the quiz
In-Reply-To: <4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com>
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>
	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>

I would suspect that the resurrection of interest in a unified Central
America--reflected in the Honduran flag of 1866--would have grown out,
in part, from the earlier common efforts of those nations to remove
William Walker from Nicaragua and thwart further filibustering
ventures by the Norteamericanos (like those of Kinney on the opposite
coast).

ML


From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Tue Jul  7 10:14:48 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 00:14:48 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <4A5362DD.1020308@gmail.com>
References: <4A5362DD.1020308@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6A3C74957AF548AE870A0844F2F5C5B0@GrahamPC>

Dear David,
                  I'm not sure whether your post is directed at me or Mark 
Lause, or both of us.   Anyway, I do find it to be a judicious summary of 
the situation regards the threat of a Japanese invasion of Australia in 
1942.   Darwin in particular, however, was bombed very heavily by Japanese 
aircraft in 1942, but I do accept that a full-scale invasion and occupation 
of Australia, as an imperial objective of Japan, was probably beyond its 
means, even assuming that the naval setbacks for Japan at Midway and the 
Coral Sea had not occurred.

But when one looks at the extraordinary zest and elan of the Japanese 
military conquests throughout Asia and the Pacific in the first few months 
of the Pacific war, when that country's armed forces swept all before them, 
it does seem far from surprising that Australians perceived that an invasion 
and an occupation of their country were very real possibilities.   When 
Singapore fell (and virtually an entire Australian division was lost), and 
the Japanese forces then swept on through Indonesia and then into New 
Guinea, it must have seemed to Australians that their defences were denuded. 

From bogus@does.not.exist.com  Mon Jul  6 09:31:04 2009
From: bogus@does.not.exist.com ()
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:31:04 -0000
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <mailman.3.1246983288.29127.marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>

get the impression that people living in this country felt, probably for the 
first time in their nation's history, that there was a real threat of them 
losing their sovereignty to an enemy invader.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "nada" <dwaltersMIA at gmail.com>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII


>I think you are overlooking something I raised earlier. Japan had a lot
> 


From cpimllib at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 10:15:10 2009
From: cpimllib at gmail.com (CPIML Liberation)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 21:45:10 +0530
Subject: [Marxism] CPI(ML)-Liberation PRESS RELEASE - Budget 2009: Raw Deal
	for the Working People, Agriculture and Social Sectors
Message-ID: <df738ddb0907070915l2a8d6532o65ca1c177518361c@mail.gmail.com>

Budget 2009:

Raw Deal for the Working People, Agriculture and Social Sectors

New Delhi, 6 July.

The budget proposals of the newly re-elected Manmohan Singh government
pay only lip-service to the aam aadmi while promising huge loans for
the private sector and announcing massive hike in defence budget.

Contrary to the popular demand of the rural poor for a monthly
provision of 50 kg rice/wheat at Rs. 2 per kg, the proposed food
security measure promises only 25 kg at Rs. 3 per kg. Likewise, the
Finance Minister has repeated the well known figure that 92 per cent
of India?s work force work without making any specific provision to
improve the living conditions of workers in the unorganized sector. A
committee set up by the UPA government had pointed out that 77% of
Indians live on a daily budget of less than Rs. 20, yet the budget
proposals are conspicuously silent about the vast majority of these
unorganized workers.

Agriculture has once again got a raw deal. Even as the country
continues to reel under an acute agrarian crisis, the government has
refused to reduce the interest rate on crop loans, letting it continue
at the prevailing 7% rate as opposed to the widespread demand for an
interest rate of 4%. As for the problem of usury, the Finance Minister
has only promised to set up a task force. Far from augmenting
effective farm subsidy, the government has increased the burden on
farmers by raising the rate of petrol and diesel just on the eve of
the budget.

In contrast, the budget talks about providing 60% refinance to
commercial banks for loans given to PPPs in infrastructure sector. The
PPPs are nothing but a convenient mask for privatization and the IIFCL
is ready to finance PPP projects on a scale of Rs. 100,000 crore.
Close on the heels of a hefty increase announced in the pre-poll
interim budget, the Finance Minister has announced another massive
hike in defence budget taking it close to Rs. 140,000 crore. Compared
to this, key sectors like agriculture, health, education, housing etc.
remain heavily deprived and under-funded.

The CPI(ML) calls upon all sections of the working people to protest
the raw deal handed out by the Manmohan Singh government and demand
substantially increased allocation for food and social security,
agricultural development and social sectors with special emphasis on
healthcare, housing and education.

(Prabhat Kumar)
Central Office Secretary
CPI(ML) Liberation


From tcod at hotmail.com  Tue Jul  7 10:20:03 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:20:03 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
	<BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl> 
	<C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W29AFBD646C4ED226C24914D3280@phx.gbl>


I think your assessment of Australian public opinion and the psychological atmosphere there is pretty accurate.  And there were as I recall some bombing raids on Darwin, and I as I recall reading somewhere, Alice Springs was actually bombed at one point.  Moreover, leaving the prospect of invasion aside, Australians were pretty outraged at Japan storming around their imperial neighborhood and so forth.  Nonetheless, I don't think Japan considered or needed control of Australia to implement its plans.  Rather as David suggested, from a military standpoint they could have seen at most controlling Darwin and other northern ports as to their advantage.   It also keeps bearing in mind that Japan didn't need Australia as a vast staging area for its operations, as it had already taken most of East Asia; more specifically it had Manchuria and eastern China as its hinterland for that purpose.  US in 1942 had nothing besides Australia out there.  

Actually what the whole thing blew up over was control over the Indonesian oil fields which were crucial to Japan in the wake of the US oil embargo; it was in order to carry out that objective, necessary to step up its campaigns in China and SE Asia, that the attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor was carried out.  Like the other Axis powers, their objective was to neutralize the US, not the impossible task of defeating it when it appeared that US was waiting to jump in.  Particularly in 1941 where the Axis seemed invincible and on the cusp of victory, the idea was to go for a quick victory that would force the US to back off and out into Fortress America neutrality.   An interesting take on this is the movie "Fatherland" which depicts a post-World War 2 era circa 1964 with a "cold war" between Nazi Germany Europe and the US as superpowers with the US president being . . . Joseph Kennedy who negotiated the "armistice of 1946" in the wake of the defeat of Soviet Russia.  Having said all that, the Pearl Harbor attack was incredibly reckless and foolhardy act even from the standpoint of that objective which completely backfired, not the most prudent or sophisticated approach to say the least.  



_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage.
http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009

From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 10:33:16 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:33:16 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Second and final on the quiz
In-Reply-To: <b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com>
	<b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A5378CC.1050002@gmail.com>

Yes, the adventures by Walker and Kinney had an impact.

But the will for unification never died completely, and what should be 
understood is how did the will for balkanization, fostered basically by 
Great Britain and the USofAm, prevail. All the history of Central 
America up to the late decades of the 19th Century should be understood 
in the light of this struggle, which is still alive.

Mark Lause escribi?:
> I would suspect that the resurrection of interest in a unified Central
> America--reflected in the Honduran flag of 1866--would have grown out,
> in part, from the earlier common efforts of those nations to remove
> William Walker from Nicaragua and thwart further filibustering
> ventures by the Norteamericanos (like those of Kinney on the opposite
> coast).
> 
> ML
> 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism en lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nmgoro%40gmail.com
> 


From tcod at hotmail.com  Tue Jul  7 10:32:40 2009
From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:32:40 +0000
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <BAY123-W29AFBD646C4ED226C24914D3280@phx.gbl>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
	<BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl> 
	<C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC> 
	<BAY123-W29AFBD646C4ED226C24914D3280@phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <BAY123-W470E72503D77E047B916E7D3280@phx.gbl>


quick follow up:
while I don't think FDR set-up Japan for Pearl Harbor, there's no question the interventionist wing of the ruling class viewed it as a godsend as they were having some serious political problems in building a consensus for jumping into the war; they had made some progress in that regard with the elevation of Willkie to leadership of the GOP over the pro fascist "isolationist" types around Taft and Dewey, but they still had a long way to go.  It would have taken them some time, at least a year to build up enough of a consensus and set up a pretext to intervene on some basis the way Wilson did in April 1917: thus all the focus on shipping and convoys etc in the media which actually were important.  The question is whether time would have run out by then as Nazis were confident, with some good reason, of securing victory in 1942.  Thus axis planners could have viewed Pearl Harbor as inept.

_________________________________________________________________
Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009

From shmage at pipeline.com  Tue Jul  7 10:48:52 2009
From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 12:48:52 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270>
	<BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl>
	<C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>
Message-ID: <A681EBAC-A792-4026-A90C-69B4EEA220D2@pipeline.com>


On Jul 6, 2009, at 11:26 PM, G K Milner wrote:
> ... it strikes me that there was more than simply the
> workings of 'government propaganda' and a traditional fear of the  
> 'yellow
> peril' in operation in Australia in 1942.   The invasion threat was  
> a real one.


But Australia had declared war against Japan in 1941 instead of  
remaining neutral. If Australia had been genuinely neutral, what  
reason would there have been to invade it?


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


From jayroth6 at cox.net  Tue Jul  7 12:11:29 2009
From: jayroth6 at cox.net (J Rothermel)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:11:29 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] "Bruno" reviewed
Message-ID: <4A538FD1.7060406@cox.net>


  Bruno: A homophobic and tedious failure of a film

Dressed up as irony, this caricature of ?gayness? is a boost for the 
bigots, writes Colin Wilson

Bruno, Sasha Baron Cohen?s latest comic persona, is an airheaded 
Austrian gay fashionista who has come to the US in search of fame.

Along this thin plot line are strung a series of scenes about Bruno?s 
homosexuality and the homophobia he provokes in people ? from wrestling 
fans to army sergeant majors.

The first thing that strikes you is that this is a grotesquely 
homophobic film, a compendium of everything that a particularly bigoted 
12 year old boy might think he knows about gay people.

There?s an obsession with anal sex, which is treated as both revolting 
and hilarious.

Every teenage myth is referenced ? from the belief that gay men have sex 
in front of children to the story that we push gerbils up each others? 
backsides.

Undermine

When homophobic bullying frequently goes unchallenged in schools, and 
Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles can use the word ?gay? to mean ?rubbish? with 
impunity, it?s depressing to imagine the effect this film will have for 
LGBT school students.

With its most memorable moments stressing that gay people are either 
absurd or revolting, it can only give confidence to bigots.

It?s no excuse that Baron Cohen also mocks homophobic Christians and US 
rednecks in the film.

Attacking both gays and bigots doesn?t make everything equal and leave 
us where we started ? the film fails to take sides, and as such does 
nothing to undermine anyone?s anti-gay ideas.

The really strange thing for me is that this film is all about 
homosexuality, but there are no gay people in it.

In that sense it has as much to do with gay men as the Black and White 
Minstrel Show had to do with the reality of black people?s lives in the 
Deep South.

In both cases we have a bizarre series of stereotypes which end up being 
just plain offensive.

Some commentators have claimed that Baron Cohen confronts homophobia in 
the film. But confronting homophobia is about explaining the truth about 
the lives gay people live. Most LGBT people do this, and we know it 
requires patience and sympathy.

Because Bruno is an idiot, he?s not in a position to do that. Nobody 
learns anything or changes their ideas.

The rednecks go on being rednecks, and the world is presented as a 
mixture of mutually uncomprehending groups between whom no real contact 
or discussion is possible.

It?s a deeply miserable view of the world rather than a comic one.

In fact the film mocks everybody and everything. Models and Hollywood PR 
consultants are revealed to be facile people, which hardly counts as 
biting satire.

Bruno?s attempts to bring peace to the Middle East pokes fun at both 
Hassidic Jews and Palestinians. Nothing is worth taking seriously.

If this was the unfocussed, slightly crazy rage of Jonathan Swift or 
Eminem against the whole world, it might be interesting.

Gnat-brained

But the belief that the whole of human life and struggle is just the 
opportunity for one more joke about anal sex is tedious.

Even Bruno?s victims quickly get bored ? most of them realise pretty 
soon that something isn?t right and are out of there, and the film?s 
gnat-brained attention span moves on.

This would be a truly depressing film if Baron Cohen found it easier to 
provoke homophobia.

However, he has to work really hard, in absurdly contrived ways, to make 
this happen.

Bruno goes hunting with rednecks who only throw him out after he has 
woken them up twice at night with crude seduction attempts.

He winds up a black talkshow audience by pretending to have adopted a 
black child and called him OJ.

Most of the people he encounters are remarkably tolerant of his dreadful 
behaviour until repeatedly provoked.

Sasha Baron Cohen is clearly an intelligent and creative person. He 
could presumably produce a film worth remembering in some way.

But Bruno deserves to be forgotten about as quickly as possible.





http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=18381


From Waistline2 at aol.com  Tue Jul  7 12:16:43 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:16:43 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] MJ: the Bogangles legacy.
Message-ID: <c52.53aa5446.3784eb0b@aol.com>

Reply: 
 
>> What complete and utter bullshit. The world loved MJ? You'd think  we 
were talking about MLK. Half of the UK came out in mass grief when Princess  
Diana popped her expensive clogs too. You think that's a good thing, for  
Marxists to indulge this crap?<< 
 
Comment 
 
There has never been a performing artist of the magnitude of Michael  
Jackson. 
 
Princess Diana was a princess or symbolic representative of the state. This 
 symbolic relation has a history and function. Class, property, wealth and  
rulership as monarchy or the landed property relation underlie this 
symbolic  relation. As royalty Princess Diana was expected to visit hospitals, 
other state  agencies, former colonies and various charitable causes in a 20th 
century  rendering of royal patronage - noble obligation. Contained in the 
"mass grief"  expressed towards Princess Diana, (amongst "half of the UK") is 
varying degrees  of support of the state as a historical institution. 
 
It appears that many masses idolized and loved Princess Diana individuality 
 and personal choices over which causes she lent her name and prestige to. 
 
Michael Jackson was different. 
 
If MLK means Martin Luther King Jr. he did not embody support for the  
symbolic state or government policy of the era in which he lived. Martin Luther  
King Jr. was imprinted by history as he imprinted it. His name is forever  
associated with social change in American society as the shattering of legal 
 segregation. King spoke with the prophetic voice of the Black Church. 
Reverend  King could be entertaining but was not an entertainer. 
 
II. 
 
Marxism and Marxists are more of an intellectual and ideological phenomenon 
 rather than "cultural" unless one signifies culture to mean 
market/property  behavior - ethics, flowing from means of production; its specific 
expression of  cooperation and as this cooperation is fused to a specific state of 
development  of the division of labor. From this standpoint, Michael Jackson 
conveyed an  industrial/post industrial sound of music as distinct from the 
historic pastoral  sensibility. 
 
Marxists wed the individual and events to a historically specific time  
frame; the environment of circumstances defining how the human is productively  
active and operates with a division of labor and the impact of property on 
the  society of the individual. Then there is art/culture with a small "c". 
The  essence of American art/culture is the song. Actually, the work song. 
He who  cannot feel a song in their heart has been deprived of one of life 
great  experiences. Michael Jackson is the song in the heart of millions. 
 
It is not for me to define what Michael Jackson meant to the world. 
 
That Michael Jackson emerged as a seminal figure in American history is  
beyond dispute. MJ is a historical figure and at this writing the biggest  
star on earth. Stars illuminate and generate energy.  Living bodies and  bodies 
with the potential for life - as we define life in 2009, revolve around  
stars. 
 
Historical figures leave an indelible imprint on history. 
Historical figures are in fact historical in as much as their names signify 
 a shift in a current of history. The name of a historical figure is a time 
 index. 
 
Michael Jackson was such a person. 
 
The era of Michael Jackson is 1970 - 2009. 
 
The "Michael Jackson imprint" on humanity and history is as a performing  
singer/song smith. Michael Jackson also altered the way humanity dances and  
performs music as live performances. The relationship Michael Jackson  
established with his audiences planet wide, was personal and of an emotional  
intensity requiring a new language to articulate. This personal relationship  
expressed was devoid of any elements of coercion, state authority and  
transcended market - value, ethics. 
 
Michael Jackson is to be recorded in history as the greatest song and dance 
 man in human history. 
 
He was also a superb studio singer, music arranger and producer. MJ was  
also a historian of music. 
 
III 
 
Michael Jackson is the undisputed King of Popular Music. 
 
Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Jeramine Jackson, the Jackson?s, the  
Jackson 5, and Joe Jackson together constitute a musical dynasty . . . reign . .  
. .house, perhaps "brand?" The Jackson family transcended their proletarian 
 class roots, but not their proletarian sensibility. The Jackson family   
began ascendancy at the precise moment of the peaking of world capitalism and 
 the industrial system. 
 
In a way not unlike the great Bruce Lee, these individuals applied their  
talent and iron will towards the pursuit of their artistic goals and  
aspirations. Michael and Janet emerged as internationally acclaimed artist. 
 
Janet Jackson is ranked by Billboard magazine as one of the top ten  
best-selling music artists in the history of contemporary music, having sold  over 
100 million albums worldwide.[1] The Recording Industry Association of  
America lists her as the eleventh best-selling female artist in the United  
States, with 26 million certified albums. 
(_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Jackson_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Jackson) ) 
 
One can add an additional five million count to Janet numbers and as much  
as 40 million to Michaels count to account for domestic and international 
"back  door" sales from the production factories and distribution networks.  
Distribution via internet raise these figures even higher even as legal sales 
of  Michael Jackson?s recordings leap pass the half a million a week mark. 
 
The oldest of the Jackson children, Rebbie Jackson achieved a short lived  
fame with her 1984 hit, "Centipede." Centipede was written and produced by  
Michael Jackson with background vocals by Michael and Latoya. 
(_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7MidxMUcJg_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7MidxMUcJg) 
) 
 
Latoya Jackson released two albums with both charting poorly.  
Interestingly, In March 1989, Latoya posed nude for the Playboy magazine and  front 
cover, which turned out to be one of the most successful issues in  Playboy's 
history. At its time of release, it sold over 8 million copies, going  on to 
become the best selling issue of the magazine ever. Even though Ms.  Jackson 
has expressed regret and immaturity over her market driven public  nudity, 
this Jackson display of black female nudity; or rather contemporary  Negro 
female public nudity, contains something within it liberating. Perhaps  this 
is no more than my boyish giddiness over female nakedness. At any rate,  
something accounts for eight million copies and "the best selling issue of the  
magazine ever." 
 
The infatuation - love, expressed towards the Jackson family and the music  
and art of Michael Jackson, would by all sober reasoning seems to 
unprecedented.  Michael Jackson completes and universalizes a music transition 
nurtured and  birthed in the bowels of American slavery while combing this new 
musical form  with and completes the Bogangles legacy. 
 
The Jackson family convey a mesh of complex and historical cultural  
strivings, whose universal aspects are embraced by hundreds of millions and this  
alone is worthy of the professional writer and cultural historian. 
 
 
IV. 
 
In the continuum of American music and dance history, Michael Jackson is  
the measure and standard of excellence. 
 
A Marx like materialist approach to the historical figure that is Michael  
Jackson answers the question "why is he a historical figure?" 
 
One can debate whether or not Princess Diana was a historical figure, and  
then ask "how did she imprint humanity" with that which is individual and  
peculiar to her? That is to say, what aspects of the symbolic monarchy as  
representative of the state did she change and/or what changes in this 
symbolic  form of state, did Princess Diana convey and imprinted upon the mass? 
 
The same approach can be applied to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with  
opinions sharply dividing over his role in American history. No one disputes  
that Dr. King Jr. played a singular historical role as he manifested and was  
part of deep social impulses and society change. 
 
Michael Jackson was not a man in the mold of Dr. King. 
 
MJ was the Bogangles legacy made manifest. The circle of history that  
completes itself. Bogangles shoes are mightier than the sword. 
 
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Robinson_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Robinson)  
 
And the state.
 
 (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)  
**************Looking for love this summer? Find it now on AOL Personals. 
(http://personals.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntuslove00000003)


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Tue Jul  7 12:28:02 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:28:02 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] MJ: the Bogangles legacy.
References: <c52.53aa5446.3784eb0b@aol.com>
Message-ID: <CD5CDEC697564E4083F4C8F0633FD7F0@dmsthinkpad>

Comrades,

The moderator called for an end to this thread.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Waistline2 at aol.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 2:16 PM
Subject: [Marxism] MJ: the Bogangles legacy.




From gkmilner at eftel.net.au  Tue Jul  7 12:34:17 2009
From: gkmilner at eftel.net.au (G K Milner)
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 02:34:17 +0800
Subject: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII
In-Reply-To: <A681EBAC-A792-4026-A90C-69B4EEA220D2@pipeline.com>
References: <389A8932A38E48BD987E60016995A28B@gx270><BAY123-W290D57BBF4569BAE5E55AD3280@phx.gbl><C8D89BDC83DE4B189C5F95A2E88AB4CD@GrahamPC>
	<A681EBAC-A792-4026-A90C-69B4EEA220D2@pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <CC059BA2B463438A837300C6AE348979@GrahamPC>


Dear Shane,
                  I'm not certain how the state of war between Japan and 
Australia came about.   I understood that Australia did in fact declare war 
on Japan in December 1941, as you write.   But because Japan attacked 
British possessions in Asia without warning and without a declaration of 
war, this procedure on the part of Australia would have been similar to the 
Australian government's entry into the Second World War in September 1939. 
As the 'Mother Country' was involved, so Australia automatically became 
involved.   In fact most of Australia's 'imperial' involvements, from the 
participation of Australians in the Maori Wars in New Zealand in the 1860s, 
through the Sudan Expedition of the 1880s and the South African War at the 
turn of the 20th century, and beyond, were the actions of a British 
colonial-settler state.   Only with the emergence of a degree of national 
autonomy in the 20th century did Australia exercise an increasing degree of 
independence from Britain, although I do accept that Australia was an 
imperialist country in its own right, albeit a junior partner of the big 
powers (Britain and the USA) throughout this period.   No one will be 
allowed to forget that Billy Hughes, the Australian Prime Minister, demanded 
to know at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 what Australia would receive 
in return for 'our 60,000 dead'.

Therefore, I acknowledge that there was a conflict between Japan and 
Australia as between two imperialist states.   But considering the 
relatively small size in terms of population and military strength of 
Australia it strikes me that it is possible to overstress the imperialist 
character of the Australian state.   Japan emerged as a big power very 
quickly following the industrialisation consequent to the Meiji Restoration 
in the 1860s, and was conducting a predatory foreign policy from at least 
the Sino-Japanese war in the 1890s onwards.   The British connection is very 
important for understanding Australia's situation.   The British Empire was 
seen as Australia's first line of defence - the Royal Navy would protect 
Australia (from the Japanese, or the Germans, or the Russians, or whoever it 
might be).   Later, of course it was the US navy.   So when Singapore fell 
to the Japanese, and the British capital ships The 'Prince of Wales' and the 
'Repulse' were sunk by Japanese aircraft, these events would have come as a 
massive shock to the Australians.

To answer your question directly.   Australia was not neutral.   It had 
never been neutral in Britain's wars.   The armed conflict that began in 
December 1941 between Imperial Japan on the one hand, and the British Empire 
and the United States on the other, inevitably involved Australia as the 
country perceived its interests at that time.   But Australia's defence 
capacity was heavily dependent on its British and US allies, and the serious 
defeats inflicted on these allies during Japan's 'Hundred Days', where the 
Japanese armed forces seemed unstoppable, led to a widespread belief in 1942 
in Australia that attacks on the Australian mainland, and possibly even 
Japanese landings, were an imminent possibility.   As I understand it, the 
blocking by Australian militia units of Japanese thrusts across the Owen 
Stanley Ranges in New Guinea, as the Japanese army attempted to reach Port 
Moresby in 1942, and the naval Battle of the Coral Sea in the same year, 
were the first substantial reverses suffered by the Japanese armed forces in 
World War Two.

In solidarity,

Graham Milner


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com>
To: <gkmilner at eftel.net.au>
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 12:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Socialist Policy in WWII




From sartesian at earthlink.net  Tue Jul  7 12:35:40 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:35:40 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Second and final on the quiz
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com><b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>
	<4A5378CC.1050002@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <DA26FEA0F61D4A7992ED8EEBC7FB1B93@dmsthinkpad>

Nestor,

I think your take on this misses the rivalries, divisions, conflicts 
internal to the amalgam of forces participating in the independence 
struggles.

Bolivar's vision of the greater unified republic did not come apart because 
of the pressure of the US or UK, but rather because of just those rivalries 
on the part of the ranchers, hacendados, etc. in Colombia, in Venezuela, 
and Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia-- because of the lack of a class with a coherent, 
unifying program, beyond the boundaries of this or that administrative 
district, previous vice-royalty.  The lack of class, and class coherence, 
sometimes known as "program," was the legacy of the Spanish colonization..


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Second and final on the quiz




From lnp3 at panix.com  Tue Jul  7 12:36:34 2009
From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:36:34 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Uighur oppression
Message-ID: <4A5395B2.3040104@panix.com>

My Turkish language professor at Columbia University once made an 
interesting observation. He said that variations on the Turkish language 
(Turkic) can be heard from Turkey to China and that he could understand 
it if he proceeded eastward. But the further east you go, the harder it 
would be for him to understand. Azeris would be quite easy to 
understand; Kazakhs somewhat more difficult; and Uighurs (or Uyghurs) 
the most difficult of all.

On the Uighur Language website, there?s a comparison between Turkish and 
Uighur drawn from the Nasreddin folklore. ?Bir gun? in Turkish means one 
day; in Uighur it is ?bir kun?. Hoca is Turkish for teacher; in Uighur 
it is ?hoja?, etc.

Turkish

Bir gun sevmedigi bir komsusu Nasreddin Hoca?nin kapisini caldi; bir 
gunlugune esegini kendisine vermesini rica etti.

Uighur

Bir kun yahxikurmeydighan bir hoxnisi Nasirdin Hojaning ixigini urup, 
exigini bir kunlik otnige berixini soraptu.

During the rise of the Mongols, the Turks, who were also a nomadic 
people historically, settled into the region that became known as 
Turkestan. As such, it was a key element in the Silk Road that 
facilitated trade between Europe and Asia until the end of the 15th century.

This area languished for centuries until competition between China, 
Russia, and European powers during the 19th century prompted an invasion 
by the Manchus into East Turkestan with the encouragement of British 
banks who were participating in the ?Great Game?. ?Xinjiang? or 
?Sinkiang?, which means ?New Dominion? or ?New Territory?, was annexed 
by the Manchu empire on November 18, 1884.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/uighur-oppression/


From markalause at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 12:59:53 2009
From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:59:53 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] H-Net Review: Lewis E. Lehrman's Lincoln at Peoria
Message-ID: <b16d8daf0907071159o74e739e7n151cbfcf727e16d9@mail.gmail.com>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Mason" <matthew_mason at BYU.EDU>
To: <H-CIVWAR at H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 1:10 PM
Subject: H-Net Review Publication: 'Of Turning Points and Milestones'

Lewis E. Lehrman.  Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point.
Mechanicsburg  Stackpole Books, 2008.  xix + 412 pp.  $29.95 (cloth),
ISBN 978-0-8117-0361-1.

Reviewed by Chandra Manning (Georgetown University)
Published on H-CivWar (July, 2009)
Commissioned by Matthew E. Mason

Of Turning Points and Milestones

As one who struggles to be pithy, I can only admire Lewis E.
Lehrman's knack for summing up his entire 412-page book, _Lincoln at
Peoria_, in the title of chapter 7: "Peoria Characterizes the Lincoln
Presidency." While Lehrman, along with Richard Gilder, has long been
influential in the U.S. history field, _Lincoln at Peoria_ represents
his first book. Part exhaustive survey of Abraham Lincoln
scholarship, part close reading of an underappreciated Lincoln
speech, part lively recreation of Illinois's antebellum political
climate, and part brief for reinstating Lincoln as Great Emancipator,
_Lincoln at Peoria_ argues that the principles and skills that would
equip Lincoln to end slavery in the United States came together in
the fall of 1854, when he delivered a speech so powerful that it set
the country on the road to emancipation and unification. In clear,
businesslike prose, Lehrman persuasively establishes that the main
ideas that would animate Lincoln from 1854 to his inauguration as
president were in place by the time he delivered a three-hour speech
against the Kansas-Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16,
1854. Yet the book raises at least two important questions: First,
did the Lincoln who came intellectually of age at Peoria actually
_cause_ all of the events that followed? Second, if the Lincoln who
took office in March 1861 was intellectually in place by October
1854, is it certain that the Lincoln of 1862-65 was, or did the Civil
War occasion further changes in Lincoln's thinking?

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854 rekindled
Lincoln's smoldering political ambitions and career. Since 1820, the
Missouri Compromise had barred slavery from territories (other than
Missouri itself) carved out of the Louisiana Purchase and located
above the 36?30' line of latitude. Sponsored by Illinois Senator
Stephen Douglas, the Kansas-Nebraska Act organized territories above
the 36?30' line according to the principle of popular sovereignty,
which would allow slavery to spread if territorial voters opted for
it. As Douglas and his supporters saw it, the Kansas-Nebraska Act
would speed construction of a railroad to the Pacific by removing the
slavery proscription in territories whose organization was necessary
for railroad construction, but which southern members of Congress
would not allow to be organized because of the slavery ban. As
opponents of the bill (including Lincoln) saw it, the chief effect of
the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to throw out the Missouri Compromise and
open thousands of square miles to slavery. One lackluster
congressional term and some electoral disappointments in Illinois had
seemed to close the lid on Lincoln's political ambitions prior to the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but, as Lehrman writes, "the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 1854 had opened up the possibility that
slavery could be extended" and, in so doing, "drew Lincoln from
private life into the incendiary struggle over the future of slavery
in America" (p. xix). That summer, Lincoln haunted the library at the
Illinois State Capitol to prepare a thorough refutation of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty. By early autumn, he was
ready to launch what Lehrman perceptively describes as the "less
famous [than 1858] Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1854" about the future
of slavery (p. xix).

The fall election season of 1854 provided the context in which
Lincoln's "Peoria Speech" came to be. Douglas was not up for
reelection, but the term of Illinois's other senator, Democrat James
Shields, was expiring, and the Illinois legislature chosen by the
fall 1854 elections would select a new senator. Douglas stumped the
state for Democratic candidates and defended himself against crowds
hostile to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln also took to the campaign
circuit, stumping for the reelection of Illinois Congressman Richard
Yates and even running for state legislature himself, but primarily
disputing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On August 26, Lincoln tried out
his ideas on a smallish crowd at Winchester, Illinois; encouraged by
the reception, he took his show on the road throughout central
Illinois in September and October. On September 9, he debated the
Kansas-Nebraska Act with a prominent Douglas Democrat, and two days
later published an unsigned anti-Nebraska editorial in the _Illinois
State Journal._ The following day, September 12, he delivered a
ringing speech at Bloomington, Illinois, but nobody thought to write
it down. Lincoln was now ready to battle Douglas himself, and two
weeks later, he and Douglas both delivered speeches at Bloomington.
Once again, nobody recorded Lincoln's remarks. As the state fair
opened (late because of rain) in Springfield in early October,
Douglas mesmerized the soggy crowd with a three-hour speech at the
State Capitol on October 3. Lincoln countered the next day, but still
there was no written record. On October 16, Douglas and Lincoln
delivered competing speeches in Peoria, and this time, Lincoln took
no chances. He personally provided the _Illinois State Journal_ with
a carefully edited text of his remarks, which is how the "Peoria
speech" entered the historical record and got its name, which is
easier to remember than the "Bloomington, Bloomington, Springfield,
and Peoria speech." After Peoria, Lincoln delivered substantively the
same speech at Urbana, Chicago, and Quincy. On November 7, Lincoln
won election to the state legislature, but so did a comfortable
majority of candidates opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, so he
declined the office in order to vie for the Senate seat that would be
filled by the state legislature in early 1855. He lost, but the
campaign season and the sentiments and ideas recorded in the Peoria
speech had launched new trajectories for his, and the nation's,
political futures.

Lehrman narrates these events with verve, doing an especially nice
job of bringing the Lincoln-Douglas relationship to life, and of
tracing Lincoln's road from Peoria through Illinois politics. In
February 1856, Lincoln was the only non-editor of a newspaper to make
it through a snowstorm to a meeting in Decatur during which attendees
drafted moderate antislavery resolutions that would form the
foundation of Illinois's Republican Party. In May, delegates of the
new party convened in Bloomington, where Lincoln closed the
proceedings with a spicier version of the Peoria speech to such good
effect that his name entered into consideration for the vice
presidency at the Republican national convention the following month.
When Democrat James Buchanan won the presidency in 1856, Lincoln
consoled Chicago Republicans with his own version of "yes, we can" in
a speech that urged, "let us reinaugurate the good old 'central
ideas' of the Republic. We _can_ do it. The human heart _is_ with
us--God is with us. We shall again be able ... to renew the broader,
better declaration ... that 'all _men_ are created equal" (p. 184).
Lincoln then began to campaign outside of Illinois. When Lehrman's
analysis crosses state lines its grasp on the bigger picture loosens,
but the journey to that point is a rich one.

The crux of _Lincoln at Peoria_ is Lehrman's exegesis of the content
and impact of the Peoria speech. The seventeen-thousand-word speech
(reprinted in the appendix) is carefully analyzed in chapters 4
through 7 of the book, which draw on Lincoln's writings, contemporary
newspapers, and secondary sources. That several themes of Lincoln's
thought had congealed by Peoria is made clear. Lehrman shows that the
speech refutes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, slavery expansion, and
Douglas's indifference toward slavery by portraying them as
antithetical to the founding principles expressed in the Declaration
of Independence, and as fundamentally immoral. The Peoria speech
further links the salvation of those principles with the preservation
of the Union. In so doing, the Peoria speech laid out the case that
Lincoln would consistently make all the way through his first
inaugural address. In fact, Lehrman argues that Peoria's "spirit and
even exact phrases can be found at the center of almost every
subsequent major speech, public letter and state paper" that Lincoln
delivered (p. xviii). The book compellingly illustrates echoes of
Peoria in later, more famous works, such as the Lincoln-Douglas
debates of 1858, the "House Divided" speech of 1858, and the Cooper
Union Address of 1860. Lehrman also shows that specific
characteristics, such as Lincoln's distinctive speaking style, his
habit of editing speeches for newspaper publication, his regard for
public opinion, and his recognition of the global ramifications of
U.S. politics, were also in place by the October 1854 Peoria speech.
In sum, Lehrman makes a compelling case that "President-elect Lincoln
would go to Washington, but he would take with him the antislavery
principles first defined at Peoria" (p. 215).

Yet Lehrman seeks to show not simply that the Peoria speech
foreshadows later events, but rather, that it helped cause them, and
here the book opens the door for discussion. Tantalizing links
between Peoria and subsequent events do appear; for example, Lehrman
retells a delightful anecdote in which a skeptical Mary Livermore's
doubts about Lincoln's suitability for the 1860 presidential
nomination were quieted when a reporter handed her a copy of the
Peoria speech. But it is not clear that the Peoria speech or its
author explain everything all by themselves. Lincoln's ideas
mattered, but there were particular reasons why they got the
responses that they increasingly did as the 1850s progressed, and the
bright spotlight trained solely on Lincoln throughout the book
relegates many of the events and ideas necessary to his rise so
deeply into the shadows that it is not clear how Lincoln got onto
that stage in the first place. In particular, the book gives short
shrift to growing northern fears of a slave power conspiracy, going
so far as to write, "Lincoln generally dismissed the intimidating
threats of the slave power" (p. 214). On the contrary, had Lincoln
and other Republicans not taken very seriously the possibility that
elite slaveholders would and could spread slavery throughout the
United States despite their small numbers, there is no way a
Republican Party committed to stemming the spread of slavery could
have gelled so fast. Further, the book's attention to violence in
Kansas is too scant to adequately account for the party's growth.
Lehrman notes John Brown's massacre of proslavery settlers at
Pottawatomie, but does not link it to the sack of the abolitionist
town of Lawrence that prompted Brown's murders, and that, by
occurring within hours of South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks's
caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, made Republican
claims of a slave power conspiracy credible and electrifying. No
credible Republican Party would have meant no President Lincoln, no
matter how splendid a speech he delivered at Peoria in 1854. In
short, the book opens the door to fruitful discussions about the
interplay between individual leaders and events.

In addition, the book opens opportunities for discussion of the Civil
War's impact on Lincoln's thinking with its claim that "Lincoln's
essential antislavery policy can be traced from the Peoria court
house in 1854 to Ford's Theatre in 1865" (p. 140). Lehrman plainly
shows that what Lincoln in 1864 called his "primary abstract judgment
on the moral question of slavery" was in place by 1854, but questions
remain about whether that "primary abstract judgment" and Lincoln's
later willingness to use federal power to end slavery immediately
without compensation or colonization are truly the same thing.[1] At
Peoria, Lincoln expressed willingness to admit "Utah and New Mexico,
even should they ask to come in as slave States," which contrasts
with his instructions to Republicans in December 1860 to "entertain
no proposition for a compromise in regard to the _extension_ of
slavery" anywhere, which itself contrasts with the categorical
abolition of slavery effected by the Thirteenth Amendment (pp. 303,
220). Further, at Peoria, Lincoln insisted that slavery was a
strictly local, not national, institution, whereas by 1862, Lincoln
insisted that slavery "is a part of our national life" and must be
eradicated nationally, a point reiterated in the second inaugural
address (p. 243). The logical question is what accounts for these
changes, and the logical answer seems to be the progress of the war.
Insisting on October 1854 as the date at which Lincoln emerged fully
formed obscures important questions about precisely _how_ the war
altered Lincoln's thinking. Certainly, one could argue that disliking
slavery is disliking slavery, whether expressed by limiting slavery's
extension in the hopes that non-extension might end slavery someday,
or by championing a Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
immediately abolishing slavery. But to four million people who were
slaves in 1860, the difference between a "primary abstract judgment"
and immediate emancipation was more than just semantics. Moreover,
the important question of how the Civil War made it possible for
Lincoln to get from abstract judgment to immediate emancipation goes
away if we insist on seeing no difference between Lincoln's ideas in
1854 and 1865, for in that interpretation, the war did not change
anything for Lincoln, it simply provided him with a useful tool.

In sum, _Lincoln at Peoria_ adroitly establishes that Lincoln's
response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was formative for both
Lincoln and the United States. Whether Lincoln's Peoria speech is
best understood as one of several important milestones or as _the_
turning point remains a question that will continue to animate
debate. But if the book cannot fairly be said to offer the last word,
it surely can be praised for stimulating ongoing conversation, a
worthy accomplishment for any book.

Note

[1]. Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, in Roy P.
Basler, ed., _The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln_, vol. 7 (New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 281-282.

Citation: Chandra Manning. Review of Lehrman, Lewis E., _Lincoln at
Peoria: The Turning Point_. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. July, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24498

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License.


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 13:18:07 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:18:07 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Weak bourgeoisie and Balkanization [Re: Second and final
 on the quiz]
In-Reply-To: <DA26FEA0F61D4A7992ED8EEBC7FB1B93@dmsthinkpad>
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com><b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>	<4A5378CC.1050002@gmail.com>
	<DA26FEA0F61D4A7992ED8EEBC7FB1B93@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <4A539F6F.1040907@gmail.com>

S. Artesian escribi?:
> Nestor,
> 
> I think your take on this misses the rivalries, divisions, conflicts 
> internal to the amalgam of forces participating in the independence 
> struggles. [etc.]

I am afraid you are wrong. I _do_ take all those disruptive forces into 
account. Without them, the very real pressure of the US or UK wouldn?t 
have prevailed. This is a truism.

Yes, the bourgeois revolution lacked "a class with a coherent, unifying 
program", that is it lacked a bourgeoisie. That is another truism. And 
that was not just the legacy of the "Spanish colonization" (as if 
colonization by other powers than Spain would have brought with it that 
boon) but of the particular history of Spain and Portugal after the 
defeat of the Comuneros de Castilla and the German?as de Valencia by the 
Hapbsburgs: the reconstruction and strengthening of the old feudal 
classes at the price of the destruction of Spanish manufacture, 
navigation, commerce, etc.

What I stressed in my comments to Honduran colors was precisely that 
"Bol?var?s vision" was not just "Bol?var?s". This is what I wanted to 
stress, by showing what did the colors of both Honduras and Argentina 
display. The red thread in the revolution of Latin America is this 
common belief of the Emancipators, and the not less common belief of the 
Balkanizators in the historic necessity of their own task.

Now, you have a bourgeois revolution that cannot take root because the 
single bourgeoisie that could have led it (the Spanish bourgeoisie) was 
either as weak or as stupid as to reject, in the 18th Century, the plan 
of the Conde de Aranda who proposed some kind of Commonwealth to foster 
bourgeois development in the half rotten empire that the Borb?n dinasty 
attempted, at first, to restore as a modern Empire. It was also too weak 
to understand that their counterparts in America would be forced to 
emancipate if they, Spanish bourgeois, lost their war against absolutism 
at home, which happened. And that those splinters of "bourgeoisie", 
which in the end coallesced into a heroic intellectual and military 
generation, would have a hard time to tame and subdue the local 
interests that would bring the whole edifice to ashes.

Yes, that is what you have.

But this does not obstruct my own case. Because in absence of foreign 
intervention, some kind of military-based revolutionary dictatorship 
could have served the end, as indeed it served that end half a century 
later in bourgeoisie-starved but 
_fiercely-isolated-from-foreign-influence_ Japan.

It was not unconceivable. Bol?var even thought of a "Perpetual 
presidency", and the enemies of San Mart?n charged him with "monarchic 
aspirations" (the "Rey Jos?" they nicknamed him). Artigas and G?emes, in 
the South, and Bol?var himself, in the North, had discovered the secret 
of popular support through military action to defend the social gains 
derived from revolution, as the tool to bring that revolution ahead 
against all odds. A military-backed popular monarchy? Why not? It would 
_not_ have been impossible, but...

But foreign intervention, basically British and USofAm, buttressed the 
local oligarchies, fueled their rivalries as well as the same rivalries 
were dampened in Brazil (due to the same reasons, but so to say in 
reverse), and made sure that the revolutionary ?lan of the age that 
began in Latin America with the Comuneros in Bogot? and the Amarus in 
Per? and High Per? would drop dead as a rotten corpse in a filthy ditch.

Let us not forget that Buenos Aires was invaded by British troops twice, 
both times triumphed on those troops, but the core of the higher classes 
of Buenos Aires, who were openly against the power of the _Spanish_ 
state as a class of smugglers that they were, found it most convenient 
to eagerly proclaim themselves the most loyal subjects of the _British_ 
Crown in 1806/7. Suffice it to remind you that the Mart?nez de Hoz 
family (and Jos? Alfredo Mart?nez de Hoz was the actual President in 
Argentina after March 24, 1976) enjoys British citizenship ever since, 
after the first British invasion to Buenos Aires, the then head of the 
family (also a Jos? Alfredo) was the first "native" to offer his 
services to the occuppier, and he offered himself to manage the main 
source of income of the whole Vice Royalty, the Customs House of Buenos 
Aires.

Again: far from diminishing the power of the local oligarchies, far from 
  diminishing the sorry and miserable state of the local bourgeoisie, I 
simply show that without the influence of foreign states such as US and 
UK, the lower classes in Latin America might well have been able to win 
over their oligarchies, and to do a bourgeois revolution in the benefit 
of that extremely weak class. This is all.


From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 13:18:38 2009
From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 15:18:38 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] A quiz
In-Reply-To: <4A534EB0.9090102@gmail.com>
References: <4A534700.9050204@panix.com> <4A534EB0.9090102@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <bee7ff780907071218h3f168f5ckca657dfdeae2ca9f@mail.gmail.com>

The blue stripes represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The five
stars represent the five nations of the United States of Central America
(Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala) and the hope
that the nations may form a union again.
The Honduran flag was adopted on January 9, 1866, making it one of the
world's oldest flags.

From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 13:36:05 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:36:05 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] A quiz
In-Reply-To: <bee7ff780907071218h3f168f5ckca657dfdeae2ca9f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4A534700.9050204@panix.com> <4A534EB0.9090102@gmail.com>
	<bee7ff780907071218h3f168f5ckca657dfdeae2ca9f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4A53A3A5.6090503@gmail.com>

Bhaskar Sunkara escribi?:
> The blue stripes represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The five
> stars represent the five nations of the United States of Central America
> (Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala) and the hope
> that the nations may form a union again.

That is what they represent in the 1866 flag.

Not what they represented in the predecessor, 1822, flag.

Not what they represented in the predecessor, 1812 flag of Manuel 
Belgrano (the current flag of Argentina, though the original kept two 
white and one blue, central, band), the flag that with the addition of 
the Inca Sun in the middle was saluted with an uproar of fierce joy by 
the troops of the Revolutionary Army marching against the High Peru 
Absolutist and Encomendero garrrison.

Please refer to my previous postings.


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Tue Jul  7 14:14:01 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:14:01 -0400
Subject: [Marxism] Weak bourgeoisie and Balkanization [Re: Second and
	final on the quiz]
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com><b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>	<4A5378CC.1050002@gmail.com><DA26FEA0F61D4A7992ED8EEBC7FB1B93@dmsthinkpad>
	<4A539F6F.1040907@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <59496A26BCC345009CAAA9983C660F47@dmsthinkpad>

You showed nothing of the influence of the US.  Yes, the British did land 
troops twice, but the US was so undeveloped, so weak, so occupied with other 
issues that it provided no intervention into the struggles in Venezuela, 
Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador.

British influence in "Gran Colombia" was also minimal.  As for its 
intervention in Brazil, the history of Brazil gives no evidence of any 
nascent popular revolt against empire, monarchy scotched by the British.  On 
the contrary,  Brazil became the actual seat of the empire.

As for the defeat of Spanish and Portuguese navigation-- sorry that also 
doesn't wash, certainly not in the case of Portugal.

I don't know what history you've been reading but it has little contact with 
the actual struggle as it developed in Latin America.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 3:18 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Weak bourgeoisie and Balkanization [Re: Second and final 
on the quiz]


S. Artesian escribi?:
> Nestor,
>
> I think your take on this misses the rivalries, divisions, conflicts
> internal to the amalgam of forces participating in the independence
> struggles. [etc.]




From Waistline2 at aol.com  Tue Jul  7 14:17:14 2009
From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:17:14 EDT
Subject: [Marxism] MJ: the Bogangles legacy.
Message-ID: <cd5.53d0abff.3785074a@aol.com>

In a message dated 7/7/2009 2:28:24 P.M. Eastern  Daylight Time, 
sartesian at earthlink.net writes:
Comrades,

The moderator  called for an end to this thread.

Reply

Not true. 

Go back  and reread the threads. The call was not to halt any discussion of 
MJ role as/in  American cultural history. 

If in fact the call is for no discussion on  this subject I will conform. 

No big thing. 

WL  

**************Looking for love this summer? Find it now on AOL Personals. 
(http://personals.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntuslove00000003)


From nmgoro at gmail.com  Tue Jul  7 14:40:03 2009
From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:40:03 -0300
Subject: [Marxism] Weak bourgeoisie and Balkanization [Re: Second and
 final on the quiz]
In-Reply-To: <59496A26BCC345009CAAA9983C660F47@dmsthinkpad>
References: <5977C35A-DE34-4B6C-B10C-5566EF893E73@mac.com>	<4A5365E9.3080505@gmail.com><b16d8daf0907070823g71e6d187nd76bcfe866aeb2b7@mail.gmail.com>	<4A5378CC.1050002@gmail.com><DA26FEA0F61D4A7992ED8EEBC7FB1B93@dmsthinkpad>	<4A539F6F.1040907@gmail.com>
	<59496A26BCC345009CAAA9983C660F47@dmsthinkpad>
Message-ID: <4A53B2A3.4080604@gmail.com>

Well, since I am too worried and busy with current events I won?t be 
able to lay all my case. On that ground, you "win".

However, some short remarks may be of interest:

though US intervention appeared in full only when the British influence 
began to fade (first in the North, later in the South), I would like to 
call your attention to the Yorkist party in Mexico, for example, as well 
as to the attempts by US diplomats in the River Plate to enforce the 
influence of the nascent US states. It is almost laughable to read how 
they complained for their impotence as against British ministers.

Not to speak of US participation in the occupation of Malvinas.

British influence in "Gran Colombia" is attested by Bol?var?s indictment 
of Santander, whose policy through foreign loans he loathed publicly. 
Foreign loans was the prime lever of British policy (after other 
influences, at least in the River Plate AFAIK, drained the country of 
specie).

Portuguese navigation worked under British surveillance as well as since 
the Methuen treaty the whole of Portugal lived under the conditions of a 
semicolony of Britain.

The Brazilian case is more complex, but of course there were popular 
revolts of many kinds against the slaveholders. And separatism was the 
key political issue in Brazil up to 1930.

You say you don?t know the history I have been reading. That?s a point 
of agreement between both of us. But I _do_ know the history YOU have 
been reading. It has a strong contact with the actual struggle as it 
developed in Latin America, indeed. You have read the oligarchic and 
British version of history.

Most probably in the "leftist" versions.

I have read it too. Critically. And I have read a lot of other sources. 
Which you don?t seem to know about.

A pity.

Best.

S. Artesian escribi?:
> You showed nothing of the influence of the US.  Yes, the British did land 
> troops twice, but the US was so undeveloped, so weak, so occupied with other 
> issues that it provided no intervention into the struggles in Venezuela, 
> Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador.
> 
> British influence in "Gran Colombia" was also minimal.  As for its 
> intervention in Brazil, the history of Brazil gives no evidence of any 
> nascent popular revolt against empire, monarchy scotched by the British.  On 
> the contrary,  Brazil became the actual seat of the empire.
> 
> As for the defeat of Spanish and Portuguese navigation-- sorry that also 
> doesn't wash, certainly not in the case of Portugal.
> 
> I don't know what history you've been reading but it has little contact with 
> the actual struggle as it developed in Latin America.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro en gmail.com>
> To: <sartesian en earthlink.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 3:18 PM
> Subject: [Marxism] Weak bourgeoisie and Balkanization [Re: Second and final 
> on the quiz]
> 
> 
> S. Artesian escribi?:
>> Nestor,
>>
>> I think your take on this misses the rivalries, divisions, conflicts
>> internal to the amalgam of forces participating in the independence
>> struggles. [etc.]
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________
> YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> Send list submissions to: Marxism en lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nmgoro%40gmail.com
> 


From sartesian at earthlink.net  Tue Jul  7 14:39:03 2009
From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesi