From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jun 1 00:55:05 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:55:05 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] What's new at Links: Shorter work week, population, El Salvador, Lebowitz, Castro, S. Korea, Marta Harnecker, Tamils, Make Greed History, Mexico Message-ID: <4A237B49.4050407@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Shorter work week, population and climate, El Salvador, Michael Lebowitz, Castro, S. Korea, Marta Harnecker, Tamils, Make Greed History, Mexico * * * 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 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/. * * * What's wrong with a 30-hour work week? By *Don Fitz* May 30, 2009 -- With millions of jobs lost during the first part of 2009, who is calling for a shorter work week to spread the work around? In the US, the vehicle industry sets the pace for organised labour. The only discussion at the top levels of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) is how quickly the gains won during the last 50 years can be given back. Does the UAW have no memory of the 1930s and 1940s when a shorter work week was at centre of organising demands? * Read more Ten reasons why population control is not an answer to climate change By* Simon Butler* June 1, 2009 -- Climate change is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. The scientific evidence of the scale of the threat is overwhelming, compelling and frightening. Climate tipping points -- points which if crossed will lead to runaway global warming -- are being crossed now. A discussion has surfaced about whether population-control measures should be a key plank in the climate action movement's campaign arsenal. Below are 10 reasons why such a decision would hinder, rather than help, the necessary task of building a movement that can win. * Read more El Salvador: The beginning of a new era -- and great challenges By *Jay Hartling* May 31, 2009 -- El Salvador -- On Monday, June 1, 2009 El Salvador will turn a new page in its history with the inauguration of the country?s first left government, joining the ranks of the majority of Latin America. Representing the Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN, Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) ), Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren, president and vice-president elect, will face a national assembly in which the FMLN is outnumbered by more than 2:1. Out of a total of 84 seats, the FMLN only have 35. This will make broad sweeping changes difficult, but not impossible, and may force Funes to use the power of the presidential veto as a bargaining chip. It is important that those of us observing from a distance understand the complicated environment within which the new government will be operating. * Read more Michael Lebowitz: '21st century socialism needs a 21st century Marxism' / / May 23, 2009 -- *Michael Lebowitz* is a Canadian Marxist economist. He is the director of the "Transformative practice and human development" program at the Caracas-based left-wing think tank, the Centro Internacional Miranda. He is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University and author of /Build it Now: 21st Century Socialism/ and the 2004 Isaac Deutscher-prize winning /Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class/. *Christopher Kerr* spoke with Lebowitz about capitalism's crisis and the socialist alternative. * Read more Fidel Castro's declarations of resistance Review by *Alex Miller* /The Declarations of Havana, /by *Fidel Castro*, with an introduction by *Tariq Ali*, Verso, 2008, 138 pages May 22, 2009 -- As Cuba celebrates the 50th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, it is fitting that three of the most famous documents relating to the struggle against Batista and the early days of the revolution are published together in a single volume. /The Declarations of Havana/ is part of Verso's new "revolutions" series. * Read more South Korea: The legacy of the 1980 Kwangju uprising On the weekend of May 15-18, 2009, the city of Kwangju, South Korea, held the Kwangju International Peace Forum to celebrate the struggle for democracy in South Korea and to support similar struggles elsewhere in Asia. *Christopher Kerr *of South Korea-based solidarity group Venceremos caught up with *George Katsiaficas* to discuss the legacy of the 1980 Kwangju uprising. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #3 -- To be at the service of popular movements, not displace them [This is the third in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker* We have previously stated that politics is the art of constructing a social and political force capable of changing the balance of forces in order to make possible tomorrow that which today appears to be impossible. But, to be able to construct a social force it *is necessary for political* *organisations to demonstrate a great respect for grassroots movements; to contribute to their autonomous development, leaving behind all attempts at manipulation*. They must take as their starting point that they aren't the only ones with ideas and proposals and, on the contrary, grassroots movements have much to offer us, because through their daily struggles they have also learned things, discovered new paths, found solutions and invented methods which can be of great value. * Read more Socialist Party of Malaysia condemns Sri Lanka's slaughter of Tamils By the *Socialist Party of Malaysia* (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM) May 27, 2009 -- Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory over Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the last LTTE strongpoints crumbled. The victory is for no one but only the chauvinistic nationalist Sinhalese government led by Rajapaksa, which had launched a brutal, merciless and cold-blooded military offensive against the Tamil population for several months, inflicting nothing but death, destruction and misery. The victory proclaimed by Rajapaksa will not put an end to the conflict that has lasted for several decades, but signals a new assault on working people in Sri Lanka -- Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim. * Read more Scottish Socialist Party: `Make Greed History * Read more `The only fight we lose is the one we abandon': Mexico's first openly lesbian MP on LGBT rights and people's power By *Rachel Evans* May 21, 2009 -- Coyacan, Mexico -- I interviewed Patria Jim?nez in Coyacan's normally bustling markets. The onset of the swine flu crisis had emptied the streets and enforced a stiffness into Mexico's normally effusive greetings tradition. No kissing hello or shaking hands was encouraged. Jim?nez ignored swine-flu protocol and greeted me warmly. In 1997, Jim?nez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian member of Mexico's Chamber of Deputies. Representing the Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT), which was in an alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Jim?nez was also the first openly lesbian candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within a coalition, /Salvemos a M?xico /(We Will Save Mexico), for the July 2009 federal elections. She remains a member of the PRT. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #2 -- Convince, not impose [This is the second in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker*Popular movements and, more generally, the different social protagonists who today are engaged in the struggle against neoliberal globalisation both at the international and national levels *reject, with good reason, attitudes that aim to impose hegemony or control on movements*. They don't accept the steamroller policy that some political and social organisations tended to use that, taking advantage of their position of strength and monopolising political positions, attempt to manipulate the movement. *They don't accept the authoritarian imposition of a leadership from above*; they don't accept attempts made to lead movements by simply giving orders, no matter how correct they are. * Read more * * * 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. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism From lueko.willms at t-online.de Mon Jun 1 01:14:01 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:14:01 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Translation history of Das Kapital In-Reply-To: <20090531.112942.6080.3.farmelantj@juno.com> References: <20090531.112942.6080.3.farmelantj@juno.com> Message-ID: <000.50160800b97f234a.009@lws-media.de> Jim Farmelant (farmelantj at juno.com) wrote on 2009-05-31 at 11:29:41 in about [Marxism] Translation history of Das Kapital: > > > Among the works read by Gandhi > was the English translation of > Das Kapital by Samuel Moore > and Edward Aveling. It is my > understanding that Moore & Aveling > only translated volume I, and that > volumes II and III were only > first translated into English later > on by Ernest Untermann > for an American edition that was published > by Charles H. Kerr & Co. of Chicago. > Is that correct, or am I in error on that point? Engels mentions in three letters written in 1889 that Sam Moore went to Africa as Supreme Judge of the Niger Company, and that Moore planned to translate the third volume of Das Kapital there. But there is no mention that this plan was actually carried out. One letter is to Nikolai Franzevitch Danielson in Petersburg (1989-07-04), two to Friedrich Adolph Sorge in Hoboken (1989-06-08 and 1989-10-12). There is no mention of a translation of the second volume of Das Kapital in the index to MEW (Marx-Engels-Werke, the 40 volume Marx/Engels edition of Dietz Verlag, Germany). Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Mon Jun 1 05:59:32 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (Lueko Willms) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:59:32 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] "What is good for General Motors, is good for the United States" Message-ID: <000.30750000a4c2234a.003.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> "What is good for General Motors, is good for the United States" that old slogan -- is it also valid in case of GM going bust? He he... Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt/Main / Lueko.Willms at T-Online.de From christopher.hutch at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 07:08:18 2009 From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 09:08:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Reform (if you can call it that) or Revolution! Message-ID: We hope you all enjoy the new comics this summer after that brief hiatus. today's strip looks at the first 100 days of in office of the Obama Administration and compares it with decrees made day 1 of the Russian revolution. www.GeneralStrikeComics.com keep well, christopher From epoliticus at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 07:18:06 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 09:18:06 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Who_Said_=93Debauch_the_Currency=94=3A?= =?windows-1252?q?_Keynes_or_Lenin=3F?= Message-ID: A rather odd article has appeared in the new issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (Volume 23, Number 2, Spring 2009 , pp. 213-222), with the title specified in the subject line. The abstract and URL appear below. I am not yet quite sure what to make of it. epoliticus *** One frequently quoted passage from the work of John Maynard Keynes is that ?the best way to destroy the capitalist system [is] to debauch the currency.? The passage, attributed to Vladimir Illyich Lenin, appears in Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, which became an international bestseller when it was published in 1919. Economic historian Frank W. Fetter and others have expressed doubt that Keynes was really quoting Lenin because they found no such statement in Lenin's collected published writings. Fetter suggested that Keynes based his remark on stories about what the Soviets were supposed to be saying that he heard at the Paris peace conference of 1919. It is now possible to show that Keynes based his remark on a report of an interview with Lenin published by London and New York newspapers in April 1919. Keynes' discussion of inflation in the Economic Consequences can then be read as an extended commentary on the remarks attributed to Lenin in the interview. While the report of the interview was not reprinted after 1919, it will be also shown here that Lenin responded to Keynes in a speech that was reprinted in his Collected Works. *** Source: From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 07:35:59 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:35:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online Message-ID: <4A23D93F.80103@panix.com> http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online By Kevin Kelly Wikipedia, Flickr, and Twitter aren't just revolutions in online social media. They're the vanguard of a cultural movement. Bill Gates once derided open source advocates with the worst epithet a capitalist can muster. These folks, he said, were a "new modern-day sort of communists," a malevolent force bent on destroying the monopolistic incentive that helps support the American dream. Gates was wrong: Open source zealots are more likely to be libertarians than commie pinkos. Yet there is some truth to his allegation. The frantic global rush to connect everyone to everyone, all the time, is quietly giving rise to a revised version of socialism. Communal aspects of digital culture run deep and wide. Wikipedia is just one remarkable example of an emerging collectivism?and not just Wikipedia but wikiness at large. Ward Cunningham, who invented the first collaborative Web page in 1994, tracks nearly 150 wiki engines today, each powering myriad sites. Wetpaint, launched just three years ago, hosts more than 1 million communal efforts. Widespread adoption of the share-friendly Creative Commons alternative copyright license and the rise of ubiquitous file-sharing are two more steps in this shift. Mushrooming collaborative sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, the Hype Machine, and Twine have added weight to this great upheaval. Nearly every day another startup proudly heralds a new way to harness community action. These developments suggest a steady move toward a sort of socialism uniquely tuned for a networked world. We're not talking about your grandfather's socialism. In fact, there is a long list of past movements this new socialism is not. It is not class warfare. It is not anti-American; indeed, digital socialism may be the newest American innovation. While old-school socialism was an arm of the state, digital socialism is socialism without the state. This new brand of socialism currently operates in the realm of culture and economics, rather than government?for now. The type of communism with which Gates hoped to tar the creators of Linux was born in an era of enforced borders, centralized communications, and top-heavy industrial processes. Those constraints gave rise to a type of collective ownership that replaced the brilliant chaos of a free market with scientific five-year plans devised by an all-powerful politburo. This political operating system failed, to put it mildly. However, unlike those older strains of red-flag socialism, the new socialism runs over a borderless Internet, through a tightly integrated global economy. It is designed to heighten individual autonomy and thwart centralization. It is decentralization extreme. Instead of gathering on collective farms, we gather in collective worlds. Instead of state factories, we have desktop factories connected to virtual co-ops. Instead of sharing drill bits, picks, and shovels, we share apps, scripts, and APIs. Instead of faceless politburos, we have faceless meritocracies, where the only thing that matters is getting things done. Instead of national production, we have peer production. Instead of government rations and subsidies, we have a bounty of free goods. (clip) From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 07:37:17 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:37:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Neo-Liberal Economic Policies in the United States Message-ID: <4A23D98D.7000905@panix.com> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21584 From jjonas at nic.fi Mon Jun 1 07:44:18 2009 From: jjonas at nic.fi (Joonas Laine) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:44:18 +0300 Subject: [Marxism] Swedish Pirate Party have wind in their sails for EU vote Message-ID: <4A23DB32.10608@nic.fi> Swedish pirates have wind in their sails for EU vote Published: 1 Jun 09 11:13 CET http://www.thelocal.se/19794/20090601/ A Swedish party which wants an Internet filesharing free-for-all, the Pirate Party, could become one of the surprise new entrants to the European parliament this week. The party, which also wants to beef up Internet privacy, was founded in January 2006 and quickly attracted members angered by controversial laws adopted in the country that criminalised filesharing and authorised monitoring of emails. Its membership shot up after a Stockholm court on April 17 sentenced four Swedes to a year in jail for running one of the world's biggest filesharing sites, The Pirate Bay. "When the verdict was announced at 11:00 am, we had 14,711 members," Rick Falkvinge, the 37-year-old founder of the party, told AFP. "We tripled in a week, becoming the third-biggest party in Sweden in terms of numbers. All of a sudden we were everywhere." Opinion polls ahead of the June 7th European parliament elections credit the party with between 5.5 and 7.9 percent of votes, well above the four percent required to win a seat. In the 2006 general election, held eight months after it's creation, the Pirate Party won just 0.6 percent of votes. "They have been very lucky because The Pirate Bay verdict came at the same time as the start of the election campaign, but I think The Pirate Party had the potential to grow anyway," a political scientist at Gothenburg University, Ulf Bjereld, told AFP. "The Pirate Party has taken advantage of a new cleavage in Swedish politics, about civil liberties, about who should have the right to decide over knowledge, and that's not a left-right cleavage," Bjereld said. "The traditional parties have been sleeping, they have underestimated the political potential in these issues," he added. The European parliament election, with little at stake in Sweden and a low turnout expected, is considered the perfect opportunity for an election sensation, according to experts. "People tend to think there are very few differences between the parties in the EU elections. If you could have a (unique) profile there, it's easier to succeed," said Toivo Sj?ren, head of the Sifo polling institute. The typical Pirate Party supporter is a young, male internet buff. According to Sifo, some 13 percent of people under 30 plan to vote for the party, compared to seven percent of those aged 30 to 49, and only three percent of those over the age of 49. The party garners some 10.5 percent support among male voters, but only 1.5 percent of women. "It's a 'geek' party," admitted Brian Levinsen, a 31-year-old member, attending a recent campaign meeting in Stockholm. "We use Twitter, Skype, we use blogs," explained Jan Lindgren, the party's campaign director in Stockholm. "There is always someone (from the party) online, even at 2 or 4 in the morning," he added. Many members say they joined not only because they are die-hard fans of the internet and filesharing, but because they fear a "Big Brother" society. "Sweden was built on protecting the freedom of its citizens. This pact is now disappearing," said Levinsen. "They want to impose controls on what we're saying, like in China or in North Korea. We're not there yet, but we're on the way," said Robert Nyberg, a 29-year-old demolition worker clad in a purple tee-shirt bearing the party's black flag. The Pirate Party, which has sister parties in 20 countries, is also standing in the European elections in Poland and Germany. An estimated 375 million voters across the 27 nation bloc will elect 736 deputies for a five-year term at the parliament, which has an important role passing pan-European legislation and the EU commission's annual budget. AFP/The Local (news at thelocal.se) From ecosocialism at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 07:50:09 2009 From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 09:50:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?World_Farmers=92_Alliance_Challenges_F?= =?windows-1252?q?ood_Profiteers?= Message-ID: <733b65360906010650k4079dd12yff5a8476e9c8a0ac@mail.gmail.com> SOCIALIST VOICE Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century www.socialistvoice.ca Online now ... WORLD FARMERS' ALLIANCE CHALLENGES FOOD PROFITEERS La V?a Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants. by Annette Aur?lie Desmarais. Fernwood Publishing, 2007. Reviewed by John Riddell The neoliberal assault that has driven labour into retreat over the last two decades has also sparked the emergence of a peasants? international, La V?a Campesina. Rooted in 56 countries across five continents, this alliance has mounted a sustained and spirited defense of peasant cultivation, community, and control of food production. Annette Desmarais?s book on La V?a Campesina has given us a probing and perceptive account of the world peasant movement?s origins, outlook, and activities Full article: http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=395 From nmgoro at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 08:03:14 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:03:14 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> 2009/5/31 Sam B : > On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 7:34 PM, Lajany Otum wrote: > > > Why should a non-western socialist, whose county has never oppressed > DPRK, nor bombed Iraq or Afghanistan, defend DPRK against imperialism? > In the context of this debate, this question is either provocative or full of ignorance. If the said socialist belongs to a semicolonial country, the answer is obvious: what hapens to happen to the DPRK can happen to her or his own country. If the said socialist belongs to an imperialist country, the answer should be obvious too, but the hegemonic grip of imperialist ideology on many good hearted comrades in those countries blurs it. The answer is that imperialism is a whole structural bloc, where NO IMPERIALIST COUNTRY IS INNOCENT of exploitation of semicolonies. Well, this at least is what Lenin thought on this issue. Maybe he was wrong. Best. -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 08:20:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:20:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Are we in a post-racial America? Message-ID: <4A23E3B6.6050803@panix.com> Are We In A Post-Racial America? by Louis Proyect Book Review Roediger, David: How Race Survived U.S. History: from settlement and slavery to the Obama phenomenon, Verso 2008, ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-275-2, 240 pages. (Swans - June 1, 2009) As part of the euphoria surrounding the election of Barack Obama, members of the punditocracy speculated that the U.S. had entered a "post-racial" epoch. Typical was The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland who editorialized on Election Day last year: Barack Obama has succeeded brilliantly in casting his candidacy -- indeed, his whole life -- as post-racial. Even before the votes have been cast, he has written a glorious coda for the civil rights struggle that provided this nation with many of the finest, and also most horrible, moments of its past 150 years. If the results confirm that race was not a decisive factor in the balloting, generations of campaigners for racial justice and equality will have seen their work vindicated. After deploying data in his introduction to How Race Survived U.S. History to the effect that racism continues unabated (one in three children of color lives in poverty as opposed to one in ten of white families, etc.), David Roediger poses the question: "How did white supremacy in the U.S. not yield to changes that we generally regard as constant, dramatic, and, in the main, progressive?" The remainder of his brilliantly argued and researched book gives the definitive answer to this question. As such, it belongs on the bookshelf next to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States and other such works that offer a "revisionist" history of this country in accordance with truth and -- more importantly -- justice. The theme that Roediger keeps coming back appears initially in Chapter One on colonial Virginia in the 17th century ("Suddenly White Supremacy"); namely, that a white identity was created in order to unite men and women of conflicting classes against the most exploited groups of the day: the slave and the Indian. And when necessary, blacks were also recruited to the master's cause against the Indians. As has always been the case, the British -- including the freedom-loving colonists who would form a new republic in 1776 -- have been adept at dividing and conquering. Roediger writes: The most spectacular example of revolt, Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, took Virginia to the brink of civil war. Broadly arising from the desire for good land among European and African servants and ex-servants, the rebellion therefore also had anti-Indian dimensions, demanding and implementing aggressive policies to speed settlement onto indigenous lands. Bondservants joined those who had recently served out "their time" under the leadership of the young English lawyer and venture capitalist Nathaniel Bacon, laying siege to the capital in Jamestown, burning it, driving Governor William Berkeley into exile, and sustaining insurrection for months. Authorities offered freedom "from their slavery" to "Negroes and servants" who would come over into opposition to the rebellion. Rebels, meanwhile, feared that they would all be made into "slaves, man, woman & child." Both the promise of liberation and the language registering fear of retribution suggest how imperfectly class predicaments aligned with any firm sense of racial division. full: http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy55.html From skeyesvogt at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 08:56:04 2009 From: skeyesvogt at gmail.com (Sky Keyes) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 10:56:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Racism, Police Brutality and Prison State articles Message-ID: US - Michigan: Police shooting draws protesters http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/01/us-michigan-police-shooting-draws-protesters/ US - Minnesota: Fong Lee verdict sparks protest in front of the Hmong Professional Building in St. Paul http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/01/us-minnesota-fong-lee-verdict-sparks-protest-in-front-of-the-hmong-professional-building-in-st-paul/ Australia: Clashes at Melbourne racism protest http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/01/australia-clashes-at-melbourne-racism-protest/ US - California: Family of man killed by West Covina PD alleges excessive force http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/01/us-california-family-of-man-killed-by-west-covina-pd-alleges-excessive-force/ Caribbean - Trinidad: Rioting inmates refuse to be taken back to prison http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/30/caribbean-trinidad-rioting-inmates-refuse-to-be-taken-back-to-prison/ Australia: Racist Attacks On Indian Students http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/29/australia-racist-attacks-on-indian-students/ US - Minnesota: All-White Jury Finds No Excessive Force In Police Murder of Fong Lee http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/29/us-minnesota-all-white-jury-finds-no-excessive-force-in-police-murder-of-fong-lee/ US - Georgia: Officer Charged in Shooting Out on Bond http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/29/us-georgia-officer-charged-in-shooting-out-on-bond/ US - New York: Black officer killed by white officer in ?accident? http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/29/us-new-york-black-officer-killed-by-white-officer-in-accident/ Middle East - Iraq: Photos show rape and sex abuse in Iraq jails http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/28/middle-east-iraq-photos-show-rape-and-sex-abuse-in-iraq-jails/ US - California: Man shot by BART police failed to comply with orders, officer testifies http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/27/us-california-man-shot-by-bart-police-failed-to-comply-with-orders-officer-testifies/ US - Minnesota: Final arguments today in Fong Lee trial http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/05/27/us-minnesota-final-arguments-today-in-fong-lee-trial/ From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 09:09:32 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:09:32 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Costa-Gavras survey Message-ID: <4A23EF2C.6080509@panix.com> http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne100.html (And I thought he was dead.) From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Mon Jun 1 09:13:36 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 08:13:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] infinite thought: "uncut" interview with badiou Message-ID: <737061.36994.qm@web45016.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> http://www.cinestatic.com/infinitethought/2009/05/my-uncut-interview-with-badiou.asp From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 10:07:46 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:07:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bittorrent Message-ID: <4A23FCD2.70902@panix.com> I think email from Bhaskar Sunkara cleared up why I was having problems. I am using a Linksys router and apparently you have to open up some ports since the router has a built-in firewall. Given the headaches I have had with my router over the years, I am not sure it is worth it. From schaffer at optonline.net Mon Jun 1 11:08:49 2009 From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:08:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bittorrent In-Reply-To: <4A23FCD2.70902@panix.com> References: <4A23FCD2.70902@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A240B21.4000308@optonline.net> Louis Proyect wrote: > I think email from Bhaskar Sunkara cleared up why I was having problems. > I am using a Linksys router and apparently you have to open up some > ports since the router has a built-in firewall. Given the headaches I > have had with my router over the years, I am not sure it is worth it. > > __ bittorrent works fine for me with a Linksys router and no port forwarding specifically for bittorrent. Les From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 11:11:39 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 13:11:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Of Abortion, and Women as the Ultimate Source of Evil In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906011011rf1606f7wa607cc563a4d2055@mail.gmail.com> > > > > Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd - The murder of another abortion doctor > > < > http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1773-sex-haunted-saints-and-sinister-clowns-engendering-anti-abortion-terror.html > > > > and an excellent article about the root of the anti choice movement --- > > clip --- > > Evil is located in *woman*, and in her body and its potentialities. Such > evil must be channeled and controlled: it must be brought under the whip of > righteousness. The campaign to limit or even eliminate abortion is not about > pregnancy or the fetus at all: it is about controlling the body, and > controlling *pleasure,* especially sexual pleasure. > > For the most part, men run the world. They are not interested in > controlling themselves, and they will still pursue their own pleasure as > they choose -- but evil must be resisted. So they turn to their eternal > scapegoat, and what they view as the final source of evil in this world, the > barrier between themselves and redemption: *woman.* If our world and men > are to be saved, they must be saved from *woman.* > full article -- > > < > http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/08/of-abortion-and-women-as-ultimate.html > > > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > > From craig at red-bean.com Mon Jun 1 12:20:10 2009 From: craig at red-bean.com (Craig Brozefsky) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:20:10 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Bittorrent In-Reply-To: <4A240B21.4000308@optonline.net> References: <4A23FCD2.70902@panix.com> <4A240B21.4000308@optonline.net> Message-ID: <4A241BDA.1030009@red-bean.com> Les Schaffer wrote: > Louis Proyect wrote: >> I think email from Bhaskar Sunkara cleared up why I was having problems. >> I am using a Linksys router and apparently you have to open up some >> ports since the router has a built-in firewall. Given the headaches I >> have had with my router over the years, I am not sure it is worth it. > > bittorrent works fine for me with a Linksys router and no port > forwarding specifically for bittorrent. Depends on the firmware version, and if it supports (and has enabled) UPnP, which is how your bittorrent client tells the router which ports to forward from its external interface to your laptop. From schaffer at optonline.net Mon Jun 1 12:49:20 2009 From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:49:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bittorrent In-Reply-To: <4A241BDA.1030009@red-bean.com> References: <4A23FCD2.70902@panix.com> <4A240B21.4000308@optonline.net> <4A241BDA.1030009@red-bean.com> Message-ID: <4A2422B0.5040309@optonline.net> Craig Brozefsky wrote: > > Depends on the firmware version, and if it supports (and has enabled) > UPnP, which is how your bittorrent client tells the router which ports > to forward from its external interface to your laptop. > i see. i am using 2.02.7 which is kind of old, and it works fine with no port forwarding. here are instructions for the newer firmware version: http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Linksys/WRT54G/BitTorrent.htm no mention of UPnP, but i trust you: http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/guides/bittorrent-user-manual/chapter-02-basic-guides/port-forwarding http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/guides/bittorrent-user-manual/chapter-03-advanced-guides/more-port-forwarding Les From sam.b.ann.arbor at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 15:33:09 2009 From: sam.b.ann.arbor at gmail.com (Sam B) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 17:33:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <908b689f0906011433o93accabwfbc765ef162db883@mail.gmail.com> On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 10:03 AM, N?stor Gorojovsky wrote: > 2009/5/31 Sam B : >> On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 7:34 PM, Lajany Otum wrote: >> >> >> Why should a non-western socialist, whose county has never oppressed >> DPRK, nor bombed Iraq or Afghanistan, defend DPRK against imperialism? >> > > In the context of this debate, this question is either provocative or > full of ignorance. > > If the said socialist belongs to a semicolonial country, the answer is > obvious: what hapens to happen to the DPRK can happen to her or his > own country. This question came up within the last year in India. Let us recapitulate. About a year ago, the Indian parliamentary left (CPI and CPI(M)) withdrew support from the Congress government because the Congress government was perceived to be getting too close to the USA. I.e. the Indian parliamentary left acted out of anti-imperialism. But, in withdrawing support from the Congress government at the Center, the Left did create the possibility that Congress might fall, which could have left the way open for the rabid Hindu right-wing party BJP, to come to power. (Fortunately the BJP lost seats in the last election, but the danger of it coming to power was real.) Thus, when the alternatives were secularism and anti-imperialism, the Indian parliamentary left chose anti-imperialism. Was this the correct choice? I think it was an irresponsible one. The potental danger to the Indian masses (especially to non-Hindu minorities in India) at this time, is much greater from the rabid Hindu right-wing, than from imperialism. So, the Indian parliamentary left's decision to choose anti-imperialism over protecting secularism was quite irresponsible. There is no formula that says what the left should always choose anti-imperialism over organizing against the home-grown right. To quote the verse from Goethe you yourself like to quote, "Gray is theory..." etc. From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon Jun 1 16:11:27 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 15:11:27 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Human Rights Watch and their "higher collective standard" Message-ID: Links and formatting in the original: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/06/human-rights-watch-and-their-higher.html Human Rights Watch (HRW) today urged the OAS not to readmit Cuba because "OAS members have made an explicit commitment to promote human rights and the rule of law in the region." They go on to say that "Instead of lowering the region's bar to accommodate Cuba, the OAS should press Cuba to raise its respect for human rights to meet a higher collective standard." Yes, we all know about that "higher standard" that permeates the OAS. Like that of its leading member, the United States, which has used its unwanted possession of a portion of Cuban territory to imprison literally hundreds of people with charges, trial, or pretty much any rights at all (and what rights they do have tenaciously won by lawyers, not through any concession by the U.S. government), and which has acknowledged 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees in their custody, people literally tortured to death, with many more unacknowledged. That's the "higher collective standard" that HRW aspires to. Meanwhile HRW slanders Cuba with the charge that "for nearly five decades, the Cuban government has enforced political conformity with criminal prosecutions, long- and short-term detentions, mob harassment, physical abuse, and surveillance." This is an out-and-out lie. There is no one in Cuba who has been criminally prosecuted for "political nonconformity"; unlike the U.S. prison in Cuba (Guantanamo), everyone in prison in Cuba has been charged, tried, and convicted for violating existing laws. Not, by the way, that the U.S. is the only offender in the OAS. On its front page today, HRW features an article describing "an epidemic of violence against transgender people" in Honduras. Meanwhile in Cuba just two weeks ago there was a celebration and march for the International Day against Homophobia, as well as an announcement that government-paid sex-change operations will soon be underway. Want to improve the average human rights level of the members of the OAS? Try expelling the U.S. And to really improve the level, readmit Cuba, the country where respect for the right to education, housing, health care, and a job are placed before the "right" to make a profit. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? has a new way to see what's up with your friends. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/WhatsNew?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_WhatsNew1_052009 From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 16:45:29 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:45:29 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] GM bankruptcy Message-ID: <4A245A09.2020102@panix.com> http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2009/000318.html From Jscotlive at aol.com Mon Jun 1 16:46:21 2009 From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 18:46:21 EDT Subject: [Marxism] The Tragedy of Susan Boyle Message-ID: _http://www.counterpunch.org/wright06012009.html_ (http://www.counterpunch.org/wright06012009.html) From nmgoro at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 17:03:47 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:03:47 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <908b689f0906011433o93accabwfbc765ef162db883@mail.gmail.com> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0906011433o93accabwfbc765ef162db883@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A245E53.9000906@gmail.com> > The > potental danger to the Indian masses (especially to non-Hindu > minorities in India) at this time, is much greater from the rabid > Hindu right-wing, than from imperialism. > > So, the Indian parliamentary left's decision to choose > anti-imperialism over protecting secularism was quite irresponsible. Antisecularism is also a weapon of imperialism. The single home-grown right in any semicolonial country is the right that counts on imperialist support. OTOH, there is no anti-secularist group in the DPRK. Even if I was proven wrong on my first point, it is still wronger to translate the local situation in India to Korea. From sam.b.ann.arbor at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 17:21:08 2009 From: sam.b.ann.arbor at gmail.com (Sam B) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 19:21:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Human Rights Watch and their "higher collective standard" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <908b689f0906011621i7bf56f5bs8c900548227f3307@mail.gmail.com> On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 6:11 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: > > > > unlike the U.S. prison in Cuba (Guantanamo), everyone > in prison in Cuba has been charged, tried, and convicted for violating > existing laws. True. However, Cuba does hold closed trials -- just like US in the case of detainees. "In 2003 Cuba again made international news when it cracked down on political dissidents. The Cuban government arrested about 80 journalists, activists, and opposition party leaders for supposedly plotting to undermine the government and threaten national security. During closed trials, the dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths up to 28 years." From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 1 17:39:53 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:39:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Moderator's note In-Reply-To: <908b689f0906011621i7bf56f5bs8c900548227f3307@mail.gmail.com> References: <908b689f0906011621i7bf56f5bs8c900548227f3307@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A2466C9.400@panix.com> Sam B wrote: > > > True. > > However, Cuba does hold closed trials -- just like US in the case of > detainees. > > "In 2003 Cuba again made international news when it cracked down on > political dissidents. The Cuban government arrested about 80 journalists, > activists, and opposition party leaders for supposedly plotting to undermine > the government and threaten national security. During closed trials, the > dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths up to 28 > years." I am unsubbing Sam B., not because he is likely OK President/Ruthless Critic but because he is annoying troll. From wquimby at embarqmail.com Mon Jun 1 18:42:22 2009 From: wquimby at embarqmail.com (Bill Quimby) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:42:22 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Translation History of Das Kapital Message-ID: <4A24756E.5090706@embarqmail.com> All of which raises the question - is there such a thing as "the best" translation of Kapital? - Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yes, the translation of the Kerr edition (1909) credits both Engels and Untermann. FWIW, the later (1956) Foreign Languages Publishing House edition says in the Publishers Note: "The present English edition follows the German 1893 edition.... "Extensive use has been made of the second volume of Capital published by Charles H. Kerr and Co.... based on the second edition." From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon Jun 1 19:10:00 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 18:10:00 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Human Rights Watch and their "higher collective standard" Message-ID: Sam B. gives us this unsourced quote: "In 2003 Cuba again made international news when it cracked down on political dissidents. The Cuban government arrested about 80 journalists, activists, and opposition party leaders for supposedly plotting to undermine the government and threaten national security. During closed trials, the dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths up to 28 years." This, like the HRW claims, is outright slander. The people convicted in these trials were not convicted of "supposedly plotting etc." They were convicted of plotting directly with, and taking money from, a country whose stated policy towards Cuba is "regime change" - the United States. And, by the way, these arrests occurred just two and three days prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the U.S. demonstrated to the world the lengths it was prepared to go to to effect "regime change." If you want more detail than you can probably stand, read a day-by-day account from Fidel Castro himself here: http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2003/ing/f250403i.html You can read a shorter answer in an interview of Ricardo Alarcon by Saul Landau here: http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02262005.html 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_Storage1_052009 From new.wave.nw at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 19:49:49 2009 From: new.wave.nw at gmail.com (new wave) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 07:19:49 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Two Articles: Sri Lanka and Nepal Message-ID: <5141ec810906011849l6c718f27va2dee515637db4f9@mail.gmail.com> Comrade, Have you checked newly uploaded articles on our site? Link to the site is here: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/ And separate links to the articles are here: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/2009/06/nepal-maoist-backslide-on-prachanda.html http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/search/label/Sri%20Lanka%3A%20Colombo%27s%20War%20on%20LTTE -- New Wave new-wave-nw.blogspot. From humaneco at hsph.harvard.edu Mon Jun 1 20:21:56 2009 From: humaneco at hsph.harvard.edu (Richard Levins) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:21:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Human Rights Watch and their "higher collectivestandard" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A245481.F29D.002C.1@hsph.harvard.edu> Also, the trials were not "closed". Family and lawyers were present. The foreign press was not invited. ========================= Richard Levins >>> Eli Stephens 6/1/2009 9:10 PM >>> Sam B. gives us this unsourced quote: "In 2003 Cuba again made international news when it cracked down on political dissidents. The Cuban government arrested about 80 journalists, activists, and opposition party leaders for supposedly plotting to undermine the government and threaten national security. During closed trials, the dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths up to 28 years." This, like the HRW claims, is outright slander. The people convicted in these trials were not convicted of "supposedly plotting etc." They were convicted of plotting directly with, and taking money from, a country whose stated policy towards Cuba is "regime change" - the United States. And, by the way, these arrests occurred just two and three days prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the U.S. demonstrated to the world the lengths it was prepared to go to to effect "regime change." If you want more detail than you can probably stand, read a day-by-day account from Fidel Castro himself here: http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2003/ing/f250403i.html You can read a shorter answer in an interview of Ricardo Alarcon by Saul Landau here: http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02262005.html 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_Storage1_052009 ________________________________________________ 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/humaneco%40hsph.harvard.edu From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon Jun 1 21:08:45 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:08:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Carter -- the BAD ex-president -- disagrees with Obama on torture photos Message-ID: <7C222214A74041498F3C93130E08C10A@office1pc> Carter disagrees with Obama on torture photo release By David Edwards and Stephen Webster Published: June 1, 2009 Updated 9 hours ago Former president apparently lends support for "Truth Commission" on prisoner abuse, says torture a crime "against our Constitution" Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking to CNN on Monday, said he disagrees with President Barack Obama's decision to withhold photos of prisoner abuse. He added that Obama appears to be resolved against resurrecting the past by punishing those in the Bush administration guilty of what Carter himself considers "crimes against our Constitution" "I respect what his decisions are," he told CNN's Campbell Brown. "I don't have the responsibility to deal with the consequences. But I think that most of his supporters were hoping he would be more open in the revelation of what we've done in the past. "But, ah, he's made a decision with which I really can't contend, that he doesn't want to resurrect the past. He doesn't want to punish those that are guilty of perpetrating what I consider crimes against our own laws and against our constitution." Carter added that while releasing the images may cause "further animosity" toward the United States, the public knowledge that the photos simply exist already serves that cause, whereas instead of seeing them for what they are, the imagination can tend to fill in its own details. And while Carter repeated several times that he will not criticize Obama for his decision, he did seem to lend support for the so-called "Truth Commission" that's been discussed in the House and Senate. Saying that "prosecution is too strong a word," he added that what he would "like to see is a complete examination of what did happen, the identification of any perpetrators of crimes against our own laws or against international law," said Carter. "And then after all that's done, decide whether or not there should be any prosecutions." Brown's interview with Carter will air on CNN, Monday night at 8 p.m. EST. This video is from CNN.com, broadcast June 1, 2009. From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jun 1 21:38:26 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:38:26 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #4 -- Should we reject bureaucratic centralism and simply use consensus? | Links Message-ID: <4A249EB2.10609@greenleft.org.au> [This is the fourth in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker*, translated by *Federico Fuentes* for /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ For a long time, left-wing parties operated along authoritarian lines. The usual practice was that of *bureaucratic* *centralism,* influenced by the experiences of Soviet socialism. *All decisions regarding criterion, tasks, initiatives, and the course of political action to take were restricted to the party elite**, without the participation or debate of the membership*, who were limited to following orders that they never got to discuss and in many cases did not understand. For most people, such practices are increasing intolerable. But in challenging bureaucratic centralisation, it is important to avoid falling into the excesses of *ultra-democracy*, which results in more time being used for discussion than action, since *everything, even the most minor points, are the subject of rigorous debates that frequently impede any concrete action*. http://links.org.au/node/1078 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 michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Mon Jun 1 21:47:43 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 20:47:43 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090602034743.GA26478@ecst.csuchico.edu> Why is this odd? I found it interesting. ---- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From baba.aye at gmail.com Mon Jun 1 22:34:54 2009 From: baba.aye at gmail.com (Baba Aye) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 01:34:54 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] MEND Geurillas in Nigeria's Niger Delta say kidnapped Briton supports cause Message-ID: <4617efae0906012134m2c8ba2a9h52a18738067c82f9@mail.gmail.com> The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) issued a press statement on June 1, that a Briton, Mathew Maguire (kidnapped in September with 27 other foreign hostages), turned down a birthday present of 'freedom'. Maguire according to the Niger Delta militants has tied his breathing of the air of 'liberty' to the release of Henry Okah, MEND's leader earlier arrested in Angola, while negotiating the purchase of arms and a ship, and currently being secretly tried in the country's North Cebtral city of Jos.. http://www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5421047-146/story.csp -- Baba Aye Global Labour University, Unicamp solidarityandstruggle.blogspot.com skype name: iron1lion "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." - Karl Marx (1845), From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 02:21:56 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 04:21:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <20090602034743.GA26478@ecst.csuchico.edu> References: <20090602034743.GA26478@ecst.csuchico.edu> Message-ID: <010AACC1305148A89C7E16E4F0DAF34A@albanta> Michael Perelman: "Why is this odd? I found it interesting." It would be a lot more interesting to read the article, and not an alleged abstract. Of course, the article may not even exist. I would not put such a fabrication beyond the morals of a pirate that charges $16 for an electronic copy of a 10-page article. Joaquin From sabocat59 at mac.com Tue Jun 2 04:05:08 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:05:08 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #4 -- Should we reject bureaucratic centralism and simply use consensus? Message-ID: <433919902-1243937290-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-812258022-@bxe1190.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> By positing consensus as the only alternative to democratic centralism, it smells like Harnecker is using a straw man of ultra democracy to reinforce neo-stalinist tendencies. In the IWW, which I would call democratic decentralist, we do not use consensus. We use Robert's Rules. But we still have a hierarchy with an elected central leadership. There is a certain dynamic tension between local membership bodies and the GHQ, allowing for vigorous debate and much autonomy at the local level. And any member can introduce ideas for reform which are debated locally and voted on at national assemblies. As such, the example of the Wobblies stands as a real non straw man democratic alternative, one which works without the consensus approach criticized by Harnecker. Greg McDonald Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From ecosocialism at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 04:44:30 2009 From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 06:44:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] New Socialist Pamphlets on Farming, Darwin Message-ID: <733b65360906020344l40c51822te1eca65c9761e64f@mail.gmail.com> ***************************************** SOCIALIST VOICE Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century www.socialistvoice.ca June 5, 2008 ***************************************** NEW SOCIALIST PAMPHLETS AS FREE DOWNLOADS FROM SOCIALIST VOICE Two new pamphlets have been posted on the Socialist Voice website. The PDF files may be downloaded without charge. LA VIA CAMPESINA: FARMERS NORTH AND SOUTH CONFRONT AGRIBUSINESS. by John Riddell and Adriana Paz. Around the world, farm income is plummeting, pushing farmers off the land and into destitution. Militant farmers and farmworkers are fighting back. MARX, ENGELS, AND DARWIN. by Ian Angus. How Darwin?s theory of evolution confirmed and extended the most fundamental concepts of Marxism. Why Karl Marx described Darwin?s Origin of Species as ?the book which contains the basis in natural history for our view.? To download these and other Socialist Voice pamphlets, go to: From lueko.willms at t-online.de Mon Jun 1 09:10:45 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:10:45 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <000.587a05002b66234a.006@lws-media.de> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> <000.587a05002b66234a.006@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <000.7011010075ef234a.009@lws-media.de> L?ko Willms (lueko.willms at t-online.de) wrote on 2009-06-01 at 07:24:59 in about Re: [Marxism] What do Koreans think: > > > > Why should a non-western socialist, whose county has never oppressed > > DPRK, nor bombed Iraq or Afghanistan, defend DPRK against imperialism? > > She or he shouldn't in the first place, too much negations of negations of negations makes me dizzy... I meant of course that said person should of course defend the DPRK against imperialism. Comradely, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Mon Jun 1 23:35:50 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:35:50 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <4A245E53.9000906@gmail.com> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0906011433o93accabwfbc765ef162db883@mail.gmail.com> <4A245E53.9000906@gmail.com> Message-ID: <000.4066090036ba244a.001@lws-media.de> Nestor Gorojovsky (nmgoro at gmail.com) wrote on 2009-06-01 at 20:03:47 in about Re: [Marxism] What do Koreans think: > > > OTOH, there is no anti-secularist group in the DPRK. Er ... isn't the Juche religion something anti-secular? Cheers, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From farmelantj at juno.com Tue Jun 2 05:18:29 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:18:29 GMT Subject: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? Message-ID: <20090602.071829.3187.0@webmail21.vgs.untd.com> Wasn't "debauching" the currency something that Keynes explicitly advocated as a way for cutting real wages while leaving money wages untouched, so not exciting opposition from workers? Jim F. ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Michael Perelman To: farmelantj at juno.com Subject: Re: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 20:47:43 -0700 Why is this odd? I found it interesting. ---- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com ____________________________________________________________ Criminal Lawyers - Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTOVoMWE2eVVVWLL0LBudnNEk7fm751Z5bFCts90Zg7OPzWK8cc0mc/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 07:00:23 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:00:23 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] UC Davis and Israel Message-ID: <4A252267.6000706@panix.com> Posted by Doug Henwood to LBO-Talk. I think MLG is Marxist Literary Group. --- [posted to MLG list by Geoffrey Wildanger] Dear All, I apologize for cross posting. UC Davis recently became the first UC to institute a summer abroad program in Israel. This program will ostensibly teach the "Israel-Palestine" conflict--but will do so only without any visits to the occupied territories. Students will also be accompanied by fully armed IDF soldiers at all times. This petition was written by a student coalition which is campaigning to have the program structurally changed so that it is no longer necessarily biased. Please show your support. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/uc-davis-summer-abroad-in-israel From ectoren at sbcglobal.net Tue Jun 2 07:34:39 2009 From: ectoren at sbcglobal.net (Erik Toren) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 08:34:39 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Peace and Freedom Party - National Organizing Conference Message-ID: FYI por el socialismo, ??Erik Carlos Tor?n?? TSEU/CWA IWW Industrial Union 620 http://peaceandfreedom.org/home/noc "The Peace and Freedom Party of California wants to build a nationwide electoral party dedicated to socialism, feminism, democracy, environmentalism, and racial equality. We are holding a National Organizing Conference to advance this effort, set to take place in San Francisco on August 1, 2009, and hope to be able to place candidates on the ballots of a number of states in the 2010 election cycle. " From nmgoro at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 07:51:53 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:51:53 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think In-Reply-To: <000.4066090036ba244a.001@lws-media.de> References: <2fa158550905310932l2a6bd86fo2eeb806c4056a803@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0905311327r5b48ca26gc557a8a4322c51ce@mail.gmail.com> <4A22F805.4020703@gmail.com> <487970.10473.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> <908b689f0905311730q746fd668j9ea0df96e4b2a55b@mail.gmail.com> <2fa158550906010703v5e2eb0fdtd6523fb24941d0ae@mail.gmail.com> <908b689f0906011433o93accabwfbc765ef162db883@mail.gmail.com> <4A245E53.9000906@gmail.com> <000.4066090036ba244a.001@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <4A252E79.7080409@gmail.com> A most insightful suggestion. A couple of ideas to add. a) Bombed out to ashes of ashes, the Northern tier of the Korean territory, which had been the industrial core of the Japanese-occupied bloc in North Eastern Asia together with parts of Manchuria (the Manchu Kuo), saw itself suddenly transformed into a desperately hungry peasant country, deprived of the up to then usual inflow of foodstuff from the South. Perhaps this gives a social base to such religious transformation. b) As a rule of thumb, I find it useful, when thinking of this kind of processes in semicolonial countries, to take into consideration events that took place in Western Europe between the 16th and 17th Century. Starting with the German upheavals, throught the Dutch revolution (the Flanders war was the Viet Nam of Hapbsburg Spain), peaking in the English Revolution. Too busy today. Sorry to leave this at this point. L?ko Willms escribi?: > Nestor Gorojovsky (nmgoro en gmail.com) wrote on 2009-06-01 at 20:03:47 in > about Re: [Marxism] What do Koreans think: >> >> OTOH, there is no anti-secularist group in the DPRK. > > Er ... isn't the Juche religion something anti-secular? > > > > Cheers, > > L?ko Willms > Frankfurt, Germany > -------------------------------- > > ________________________________________________ > 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 michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue Jun 2 08:03:05 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 07:03:05 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <20090602.071829.3187.0@webmail21.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090602.071829.3187.0@webmail21.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <20090602140305.GA26608@ecst.csuchico.edu> Yes, but he changed his policy with changing conditions. Inflation was not a concern during the Depression. It was also hard for him to switch from conventional concern about prices to worrying about unemployment. On Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 11:18:29AM +0000, farmelantj at juno.com wrote: > > Wasn't "debauching" the currency something > that Keynes explicitly advocated as > a way for cutting real wages while > leaving money wages untouched, so not > exciting opposition from workers? > > Jim F. > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue Jun 2 08:04:26 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 07:04:26 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said ?Debauch the Currency?: Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <010AACC1305148A89C7E16E4F0DAF34A@albanta> References: <20090602034743.GA26478@ecst.csuchico.edu> <010AACC1305148A89C7E16E4F0DAF34A@albanta> Message-ID: <20090602140426.GB26608@ecst.csuchico.edu> I read the article. It is solid. On Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 04:21:56AM -0400, Joaquin Bustelo wrote: > Michael Perelman: "Why is this odd? I found it interesting." > > It would be a lot more interesting to read the article, and not an alleged > abstract. Of course, the article may not even exist. I would not put such a > fabrication beyond the morals of a pirate that charges $16 for an electronic > copy of a 10-page article. > > Joaquin > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/michael%40ecst.csuchico.edu -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From epoliticus at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 09:03:36 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:03:36 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Michael, my comment about the article being "odd" was perhaps too brief. I was not referring to the contents of the article per se, rather the oddity that such an article found an outlet in JEP. No article that treats Lenin's thought as a serious matter for inquiry appeared in JEP during the period 1987-2006, for example. With respect to Jim's comment, Michael is correct but let us bear in mind the view that nominal wages are sticky but aggregate prices are not has been held by a long chain of economists and others since Keynes too. In accord with this premise is the political conclusion, held by certain elements of the capitalist class and their intellectuals, that inflation is an instrument of class warfare that weakens the working class (under certain conditions), and thus must be utilized to good effect should the circumstances warrant. A good recent example of this political position can be found in an article by Samuel Brittan (FT, 28 May 2009, 'Inflation can act as a safety valve'), which concludes "[i]n some circumstances a little bit of old-fashioned inflation is the best safety valve available [to induce workers to accept a reduction in the real wage.]" A number of (centrist, neoclassical synthesis) Keynesian economists also would defend this position. epoliticus -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue Jun 2 09:05:41 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 08:05:41 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090602150541.GB26649@ecst.csuchico.edu> The JEP has a special section, called Retrospectives, edited by Joe Persky, an URPE member. It has published me twice & is looking at a third article. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From epoliticus at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 09:13:50 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:13:50 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? Message-ID: Michael Perelman wrote: "The JEP has a special section, called Retrospectives, edited by Joe Persky, an URPE member. It has published me twice & is looking at a third article." That is all well and good. But my statement "[n]o article that treats Lenin's thought as a serious matter for inquiry appeared in JEP during the period 1987-2006, for example" is still true. Thus, this article is an oddity in the sense that I have stipulated. epoliticus -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 09:18:28 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:18:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Princess Mononoke can be viewed online Message-ID: <4A2542C4.7050102@panix.com> View at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2155767557223499994 From my review: In the opening scene of Miyazaki Hayao's 1997 animated feature Princess Mononoke, we witness a battle between young Prince Ashitaka and a giant demon warthog that is attacking his village. In the act of successfully killing the animal, he receives a wound to his arm. In a meeting with the village elders, he learns from a wise woman that the wound is certainly fatal. It is only a matter of time. His only hope is to travel to the forest home of the demon warthog to find out what has driven it to hate and kill humans. Thus begins a quest that is thematically related to many legends and fairy tales, going back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. A young protagonist, usually an adolescent like Ashitaka, goes on a voyage to save either himself, herself or their people. This voyage--in many ways a rite of puberty--leads to self-discovery and a happy ending. Although Miyazaki is known as Japan's Walt Disney, it would be a mistake to assume that Princess Mononoke resembles the sort of saccharine product Disney studios offer up today. In many ways it is a throwback to the darker vision of a Disney past, when his films had the power to both frighten and enchant. Ashikata departs to the East on his steed, a loyal elk in true fairy-tale fashion, the rumored homeland of the demon hog. The only clue to what drove the animal wild and turned it into a demon is the iron ball that is discovered in its corpse. The wise woman of the village tells him that if he discovers the source of the iron ball, he will likely understand the root of his own suffering as well. After a journey across mountains and through forests, he finally arrives at the source of the iron ball. It is Irontown, ruled by Princess Eboshi. Miyazaki's Irontown is a realistic depiction of one of those towns that existed everywhere on the cusp of the introduction of capitalist property relations in the 16th century. Its citizens work in a foundry turning iron ore into guns and bullets. Eboshi dreams of ruling the world. By bringing together wage labor and raw materials, she will achieve mastery over all her enemies, including the feudal Samurai warriors who are constantly attacking her heavily fortified industrial compound. She is symbolic of an emerging Japanese bourgeoisie, whose artisan-based workshop is a mere sprout in the surrounding feudal countryside. Out of such sprouts, capitalism could emerge anywhere, but for geographical reasons was allowed only to emerge in Western Europe and Japan. In the first instance because Western Europe was able to cannibalize the New World, in the second because Japan took advantage of its insular features to resist the cannibals. full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/princess_mononoke.htm From epoliticus at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 09:36:29 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:36:29 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] What do Koreans think? Message-ID: Prior to being removed from the list, Sam B wrote the following. "This question came up within the last year in India. Let us recapitulate. "About a year ago, the Indian parliamentary left (CPI and CPI(M)) withdrew support from the Congress government because the Congress government was perceived to be getting too close to the USA. I.e. the Indian parliamentary left acted out of anti-imperialism ... "Thus, when the alternatives were secularism and anti-imperialism, the Indian parliamentary left chose anti-imperialism. "Was this the correct choice? I think it was an irresponsible one. The potental danger to the Indian masses (especially to non-Hindu minorities in India) at this time, is much greater from the rabid Hindu right-wing, than from imperialism. "So, the Indian parliamentary left's decision to choose anti-imperialism over protecting secularism was quite irresponsible ..." The CPI(M) only ostensibly supported an anti-imperialist politics. Their agitations against U.S. imperialism in S. Asia were perhaps laudable. On the other hand, the party also tacitly approves (and approved) of the foreign policy stance of the Indian state and its ruling classes when those elements direct (or directed) their aggressions towards their South Asian neighbors. The party has not developed a anti-imperialist political stance on the question of Indian foreign policy in the turbulent post-Soviet period. Contradictions abound in their political positions. This is clear in the ?independent? foreign policy that was espoused within the common minimum program and various party documents. The CPI(M) has engaged in political activities consistent with the strategic objective of the Indian state and its ruling fractions to attain ?Great Power? status. What is a ?Great Power? if nothing else than a bourgeois conception of imperialism? Their notion of ?independent? foreign policy has been confused and came to connote a defense of imperialist aspirations for the Indian state. An ?independent foreign policy? has been transformed to mean support for multi-polarity?or the right of the Indian state itself to be accepted as an imperialist power. It wishes to be an imperialism on equal footing with the other ones. I do not believe that the CPI(M) was anti-imperialist in the period to which Sam referred. epoliticus -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 10:21:46 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:21:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] preparing for war against Iran - Obama's "peace plan" for Arabs/Israel Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906020921i28297793kb25e64af09ec48af@mail.gmail.com> > > > > Ali Mustafa, The Electronic Intifada, 1 June 2009 > > Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, > commentator and human rights activist and a leader of the > Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions > to force Israel to uphold international law and universal > human rights. Barghouti discussed the growing worldwide > campaign with The Electronic Intifada contributor Ali > Mustafa. > > http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10562.shtml > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 10:26:39 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:26:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] wrong subject title - "boycotts work" Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906020926n18c28fc2wd6b0e6ff7f51367d@mail.gmail.com> > > > "Boycotts work" - an interview with Omar Barghouti > Ali Mustafa, The Electronic Intifada, 1 June 2009 > > Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, > commentator and human rights activist and a leader of the > Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions > to force Israel to uphold international law and universal > human rights. Barghouti discussed the growing worldwide > campaign with The Electronic Intifada contributor Ali > Mustafa. > > http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10562.shtml > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- Voltaire > From epoliticus at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 10:39:01 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:39:01 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? Message-ID: Joaquin, presently I only have access to a physical copy of the aforementioned article. If comrades want to read it, including Joaquin, I am happy to scan this article and e-mail it to you. Send me an off-list e-mail to that effect, if you are interested. epoliticus -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From farmelantj at juno.com Tue Jun 2 10:37:55 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:37:55 GMT Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? Message-ID: <20090602.123755.16379.0@webmail19.vgs.untd.com> "Politicus E." wrote: --------------------- With respect to Jim's comment, Michael is correct but let us bear in mind the view that nominal wages are sticky but aggregate prices are not has been held by a long chain of economists and others since Keynes too. In accord with this premise is the political conclusion, held by certain elements of the capitalist class and their intellectuals, that inflation is an instrument of class warfare that weakens the working class (under certain conditions), and thus must be utilized to good effect should the circumstances warrant. A good recent example of this political position can be found in an article by Samuel Brittan (FT, 28 May 2009, 'Inflation can act as a safety valve'), which concludes "[i]n some circumstances a little bit of old-fashioned inflation is the best safety valve available [to induce workers to accept a reduction in the real wage.]"" A number of (centrist, neoclassical synthesis) Keynesian economists also would defend this position. ------------------------------- It seems to me that inflation can serve as a weapon for either side of the class struggle depending on particular conditions. Keynes and many other bourgeois economists have noted that it can be used as a means for cutting workers's real wages without eliciting opposition from them since their money wages remain untouched. On the other hand, progressives have often been willing to tolerate a bit of inflation as a side effect of fiscal and monetary policies that enhance the bargaining power of workers in relation to capital. The expressed concerns from capitalists over the virtues of maintaining price stability to some extant veil their real concern which is that wages should not rise higher than productivity gains. When that does happen there is a redistribution of income from capital to labor, which is obviously a big no, no from capital's standpoint. Capitalists in general are quite willing to tolerate recession, even a severe one if the end result is to weaken the bargaining power of labor. This IMO goes a long way to explain the coolness of European ruling circles to Obama's proposal that they reflate their economies in tandem with the US. The US has weak labor unions and a much less developed infrastructure of social protections than does Western Europe. Hence, US labor markets are said to be more flexible. Western European countries generally have much stronger trade unions and a stronger social safety net, hence European capitalists are fearful that reflation would lead to wages their shooting upwards, thus redistributing income away from capital there. Jim Farmelant ____________________________________________________________ Save on Moving Supplies. Click Here! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTQdZB3fr2kdCVs3GdbQvDzNX4l8tdOjLBDmjULlAMYcKZoguTry2M/ From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 10:51:57 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:51:57 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] preparing for war against Iran - Obama's plan for Arab-Israeli "peace" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906020951g1af90b1bl84363bf2907c5e72@mail.gmail.com> > > > PUSHING FOR "NORMALIZATION" OF ISRAELI APARTHEID > > Ziyaad Lunat, The Electronic Intifada, 2 June 2009 > > The US and certain Arab states are pushing for > normalization with Israel despite its ethnic cleansing and > ghettoization of the Palestinians under a racist apartheid > regime. Given this reality, how can we bring back into the > equation principles of justice, equality and human rights? > Ziyaad Lunat comments for EI. > > http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10570.shtml > > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue Jun 2 11:17:54 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:17:54 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> Persky's editorial position is surprising. If you read the article, Lenin's analysis is particularly interesting. On Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 11:13:50AM -0400, Politicus E. wrote: > > That is all well and good. But my statement "[n]o article that treats Lenin's > thought as a serious matter for inquiry appeared in JEP during the > period 1987-2006, for example" is still true. Thus, this article is an > oddity in the sense that I have stipulated. > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:21:53 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:21:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Obama and mountaintop removal Message-ID: <4A255FB1.5070805@panix.com> Although I have become somewhat inured to Barack Obama?s eagerness to continue with much of the agenda of the second Bush term, I felt an almost virginal sense of being violated by his latest thumb in the eye of the Democratic Party base. I am speaking of his giving the green light to 42 more mountaintop removal permits, thus proving his fealty to arguably the most viciously anti-environmental segment of American private enterprise. So disgusting was this action that even Daily Kos, which tends to grovel at Obama?s feet, was forced to take notice. Dgil, a Kos contributor, directed his or her readers to a Los Angeles Times article that broke the story: With the election of President Obama, environmentalists had expected to see the end of the ?Appalachian apocalypse,? their name for exposing coal deposits by blowing the tops off whole mountains. But in recent weeks, the administration has quietly made a decision to open the way for at least two dozen more mountaintop removals. In a letter this month to a coal ally, Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), the Environmental Protection Agency said it would not block dozens of ?surface mining? projects. The list included some controversial mountaintop mines. Dgil added his own two cents at the end of the post: So why has the current administration quietly moved forward with a huge expansion of an ecologically destructive mining process? The end result is expansion of an energy source campaigned against, and whose additional mined energy output can be created in ways with little (wind) or no (hydro) additional environmental impact. The gist of the LAT article is that this decision was made for the crassest of reasons-political expediency to get votes. Additionally, why would an administration that has positioned itself as determined to move forward on trimming atmospheric carbon emissions, purposefully expand the production of highly polluting coal? What benefit will this actually bring the residents of this area? More health problems? A devastated ecology? Destroyed recreational opportunities? With all due respect (well, maybe half respect) to Markos Moulitsas and company, the real goal is not to get votes. Instead, this decision would have been made even if it cost votes. Obama?s calculation was, is it has always been, to act on behalf of the interests of the bourgeoisie, if I might put it in such crass, unrepentant terms. It goes along with putting a shiv in the back of UAW workers, bombing civilians in Afghanistan, catering to Goldman-Sachs and all the rest. It is called capitalist politics and acts independently of the wishes of the gullible voter. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/obama-and-mountaintop-removal/ From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue Jun 2 11:28:06 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:28:06 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <20090602.123755.16379.0@webmail19.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090602.123755.16379.0@webmail19.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <20090602172806.GB26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> Inflation also causes interclass war -- helping industry & hurting the bond market. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:39:47 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:39:47 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <20090602172806.GB26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> References: <20090602.123755.16379.0@webmail19.vgs.untd.com> <20090602172806.GB26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> Message-ID: <4A2563E3.1080600@panix.com> Comrades can read the article here: http://www.marxmail.org/debauch.pdf From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:41:42 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:41:42 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Perfect match between buyer and product Message-ID: <4A256456.5090602@panix.com> NY Times, June 3, 2009 Chinese Company Said to Be Buyer of Hummer By KEITH BRADSHER and NICK BUNKLEY GUANGZHOU, China ? General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker, a person familiar with the Chinese government approval process said Tuesday. The Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in Chengdu, concluded the agreement with G.M., said the person, who insisted on anonymity. Sichuan Tengzhong is a privately owned company, but Tuesday?s deal required preliminary vetting by Beijing officials, who retain the right to veto any effort at an overseas acquisition by a Chinese company and who give special attention to deals over $100 million. G.M. announced the deal early Tuesday morning in Detroit but said that the memorandum of understanding would not allow it to reveal the buyer or the price. Industry analysts have estimated that the Hummer division would sell for less than $500 million. G.M., in a blog posting, said it had seen the report regarding a Hummer buyer but could not comment on speculation. Sichuan Tengzhong is known in China for making a wide range of road equipment, from bridge piers to highway construction and maintenance machinery. But even before the Hummer deal, the company has been moving more into heavy-duty trucks, including tow trucks and oil tankers. Sichuan Tengzhong?s offices were closed on Tuesday evening and calls to its headquarters were not answered. Ray Young, G.M.?s chief financial officer, said Tuesday that the prospective Hummer buyer had asked G.M. not to disclose their identity until the deal was concluded. ?It was their preference, and we respected that preference,? Mr. Young told analysts and reporters on a conference call. G.M. said the deal would save about 3,000 jobs in the United States, including those at its 153 domestic dealerships, and that Hummer would remain based in the United States. ?Over all, we?re pretty pleased,? said a spokesman for Hummer, Nick Richards, without identifying the buyer. ?If you think about the qualities we?d want in a new owner for the brand, this buyer really met all the criteria. They?ve got a proven track record in international business, and they?ve got a long-term vision for the brand. They?ve got the capital to invest in more efficient vehicles, which is what?s necessary to grow the brand.? If the purchase is completed, it would mark the first acquisition of a well-known American automotive brand by a Chinese company, after many months of speculation about when this might occur. Chinese automakers have already purchased the MG and Rover brands, two of the most famous names in British automotive history. As a Chinese company, Sichuan Tengzhong could face a challenge in presenting the deal to American owners of Hummer. The brand has long sought to emphasize patriotism, stressing that the Hummer H1 was essentially the same vehicle built in the same factory as the Humvee that carries American soldiers into battle in Iraq and elsewhere. It was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California who persuaded the longtime maker of Humvees, A. M. General in Mishawaka, Ind., to build a civilian version. As he recounted at a Hummer news conference in 2001, Mr. Schwarzenegger was filming the movie ?Kindergarten Kop? in Oregon in 1990 when he saw a convoy of 50 Humvees drive by and decided that he had to have a civilian model of the same vehicle, which became the Hummer H1. G.M. bought the rights to the Hummer brand in 1999 and began making somewhat smaller Hummers. G.M. initially procured the H1 from A.M. General but discontinued the model in 2006. Under the preliminary agreement announced on Tuesday, GM will initially continue to manufacture Hummers under contract for Sichuan Tengzhong, which will then market them around the world. G.M. will continue making the H3 and H3T models in Shreveport, La., through the end of next year, for example. The buyer plans to shift additional production of the H3 from a plant in South Africa to Shreveport, Mr. Richards said. Sichuan Tengzhong could bring Hummers to the crowded streets of China?s big cities, although the vehicles would face the 40 percent tax that China imposes on cars, S.U.V.s and minivans with engines over 4 liters. G.M. has not set up its own Hummer dealer network in China, but entrepreneurs already import the vehicles and sell them in the biggest cities. Copies of the Hummer by Chinese automakers draw crowds at auto shows, although they are labeled as concept vehicles and are not for sale. G.M., which is hoping to shed unwanted assets and emerge from bankruptcy in about two months, said it expected the deal to close in the third quarter. The automaker had planned to close Hummer if a buyer could not be found. It is also trying to sell Saturn and Saab this year and plans to eliminate a fourth brand, Pontiac, in 2010. G.M., with 60 percent government ownership, will keep Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. ?Hummer is a strong brand,? Troy Clarke, the president of G.M. North America, said in a statement. ?I?m confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership. And for G.M., this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of G.M. into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.? Once considered the ultimate muscle car, the Hummer became a symbol of what was wrong with G.M. and the American auto industry ? big, bulky and gas-guzzling. Sales of Hummers fell 51 percent last year, the worst drop in the industry, and are down 67 percent so far in 2009. Mr. Richards said the buyer planned to continue selling Hummer?s current lineup as it develops ?more efficient? vehicles. The brand would eventually sell trucks fueled by diesel, ethanol and other alternative fuels, he said. In February, G.M. said it had three bidders for Hummer, which has about 220 dealers globally. Hummer?s chief executive, James Taylor, said the sale would allow the company to continue to grow and maximize the brand?s potential. In the telephone conference call, Mr. Young said G.M. had been approached by 16 parties who were interested in bidding on its Saturn division. The group includes financial investors and companies that are interested in distributing Saturn vehicles. He said G.M. had not set a date when it would winnow down the group to a handful of finalists, or when it hoped to announce a sale. One complication is devising the right operating plan for an independent Saturn, he said. G.M. said it would work with the bidders to come up with the right idea. He said G.M. was using advisers and that prospective bidders also had retained advisors, but would not be more specific. Keith Bradsher reported from Guangzhou, China, and Nick Bunkley reported from Detroit. Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from New York. From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:47:48 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:47:48 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Jerry Rosenberg, Jailhouse Lawyer, Dies at 72 Message-ID: <4A2565C4.9030901@panix.com> NY Times, June 2, 2009 Jerry Rosenberg, Jailhouse Lawyer, Dies at 72 By SEWELL CHAN Jerry Rosenberg, who was spared the death penalty for the 1962 murders of two New York City police detectives, and who became a pioneering jailhouse lawyer and a legal adviser for the leaders of the Attica prison uprising in 1971, died on Monday at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, N.Y. He was 72, and the state?s longest-serving inmate at his death. Mr. Rosenberg, who was admitted to the prison?s medical unit in 2000, died of natural causes, according to a spokesman for the State Department of Correctional Services, who said he could not provide further details because of privacy rules. ?Of all the jailhouse lawyers, he was the greatest and the best known,? said Ronald L. Kuby, the defense lawyer, whose former law partner, William M. Kunstler, worked closely with Mr. Rosenberg during the Attica uprising. ?He came of age in prison before there was widespread access to counsel for post-conviction proceedings.? Mr. Rosenberg had already served nearly four years in prison for a robbery conviction in Queens when he was arrested and charged with killing two off-duty police detectives, Luke J. Fallon and John P. Finnegan, in a botched robbery of the Boro Park Tobacco Company in Brooklyn on May 18, 1962. It was the first double homicide of New York City police officers in 35 years, and about 1,000 officers were assigned to the manhunt. Mr. Rosenberg turned himself in, on his 25th birthday, at the offices of The Daily News, then on East 42nd Street. Mr. Rosenberg and an accomplice, Anthony Portelli, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. In 1965, the state?s highest court, the Court of Appeals, upheld the convictions but condemned the Police Department for severely beating a witness who testified at the trial. Later that year, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller commuted the death sentences, saying that they could not have been imposed under a new law that virtually abolished capital punishment in the state. Mr. Rosenberg began his prison sentence on Feb. 19, 1963. Another man, James Moore, who began serving a sentence for murder on July 12 of that year, is now the state?s longest-serving inmate, officials said. Mr. Rosenberg, who always maintained he was not guilty of the killings, studied law through correspondence courses; he received a bachelor?s degree in 1967 from the Blackstone School of Law in Chicago. Nicknamed Jerry the Jew ? ?he developed that moniker at a time when it was not politically incorrect,? Mr. Kuby said ? Mr. Rosenberg soon became a well-known advocate for fellow inmates. (There is no record that he was ever admitted to the bar.) During the Attica uprising in September 1971, which resulted in 43 deaths, Mr. Rosenberg was the chief legal adviser for the uprising?s leaders. After the State Police retook the prison, Mr. Rosenberg was transferred to Sing Sing, in Ossining. Over the years, in various prisons, Mr. Rosenberg worked as a porter and as a substance abuse counselor. From 1996 to 1999, he was a paralegal assistant in the law library at Wende, where he had been held since 1991. Jerome Rosenberg was born on May 23, 1937. Prison officials said that Mr. Rosenberg had at least two brothers, a wife and a son, but that they were not permitted to identify them and did not know whether any of them was still living. At the time of his arrest in 1962, Mr. Rosenberg was reported to have had a young daughter by a former wife. Mr. Rosenberg was the subject of a biography by Stephen Bello, ?Doing Life: The Extraordinary Saga of America?s Greatest Jailhouse Lawyer,? published by St. Martin?s Press in 1982 and later made into a television movie, starring Tony Danza, in 1986. In the biography, Mr. Rosenberg is quoted saying that anyone who was to become a lawyer ought to ?do some time in jail.? --- Ron Kuby on Jerry Rosenberg: http://airamerica.com/doingtime/blog/2009/jun/02/jailhouse-lawyer-jerry-jew-dies-can From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:48:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:48:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The economic crisis and poor countries Message-ID: <4A2565F6.6000402@panix.com> http://www.marxist.com/economic-crisis-and-poor-countries.htm From marvgandall at videotron.ca Tue Jun 2 11:49:46 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:49:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? References: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> Message-ID: <451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> Can someone in a university or elsewhere with access to this article reproduce it to the list or make it available offlist for those interested? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" To: "Marv Gandall" Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:17 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? > Persky's editorial position is surprising. If you read the article, > Lenin's analysis is particularly interesting. > > On Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 11:13:50AM -0400, Politicus E. wrote: >> >> That is all well and good. But my statement "[n]o article that treats >> Lenin's >> thought as a serious matter for inquiry appeared in JEP during the >> period 1987-2006, for example" is still true. Thus, this article is an >> oddity in the sense that I have stipulated. >> > > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu > michaelperelman.wordpress.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/marvgandall%40videotron.ca From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 11:55:34 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:55:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> References: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> <451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> Message-ID: <4A256796.20804@panix.com> Marv Gandall wrote: > Can someone in a university or elsewhere with access to this article > reproduce it to the list or make it available offlist for those interested? > I just did. http://www.marxmail.org/debauch.pdf From marvgandall at videotron.ca Tue Jun 2 11:53:12 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:53:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? References: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> <451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> <4A256796.20804@panix.com> Message-ID: <47A5048FDE8445C08042BE6995B369F3@MARV> Thanks. Our messages crossed... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Proyect" To: "Marv Gandall" Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:55 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? > Marv Gandall wrote: >> Can someone in a university or elsewhere with access to this article >> reproduce it to the list or make it available offlist for those >> interested? >> > > I just did. > > http://www.marxmail.org/debauch.pdf > > ________________________________________________ > 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/marvgandall%40videotron.ca From marvgandall at videotron.ca Tue Jun 2 12:43:45 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:43:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? References: <20090602.123755.16379.0@webmail19.vgs.untd.com> <20090602172806.GB26664@ecst.csuchico.edu> Message-ID: <104B361FC91A4D8B8D0A109B54CE9312@MARV> Within and between classes, lenders are hurt by inflation, borrowers benefit from it. Inflation has a contradictory effect on the working class. Workers experience declining real wages, but this is offset to some degree by the the easing of the debt load which most are forced to carry. Consequently, working class and farmers' organizations have viewed the expansion of the money supply, the end of the gold standard, and inflation with equinimity, quite unlike the banks (the solvent ones) and other "sound money" creditors who don't want to be repaid in inflation-eroded "debauched" dollars and other currencies. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" To: "Marv Gandall" Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:28 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? > Inflation also causes interclass war -- helping industry & hurting the > bond market. > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu > michaelperelman.wordpress.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/marvgandall%40videotron.ca From causecollector at msn.com Tue Jun 2 13:20:49 2009 From: causecollector at msn.com (John Obrien) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:20:49 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Obama to Name N.Y. Congressman as Army Secretary In-Reply-To: <28550-4131-92KH5M-A5QRJ-VHK3L-T1N7Q1-67QKOL-H-M2-20090602-ef3d93b5582051c4c6@e-dialog.com> References: <28550-4131-92KH5M-A5QRJ-VHK3L-T1N7Q1-67QKOL-H-M2-20090602-ef3d93b5582051c4c6@e-dialog.com> Message-ID: If you have any difficulty viewing this newsletterclick here Feedback News Alert 9:52 AM EDT Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Obama to Name N.Y. Congressman as Army Secretary Representative John M. McHugh, a Republican congressman from New York, will be nominated by President Obama to be secretary of the Army, according to officials, as the administration continues to reach into the ranks of the opposition for executive appointments. For more information, visit washingtonpost.com Unsubscribe | E-mail Preference Page | Advertising | Subscribe to the Paper | Privacy Polic From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 2 13:52:16 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:52:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] From ordering steak and lobster, to serving it Message-ID: <4A2582F0.3060402@panix.com> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124390425824574861.html From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 14:56:20 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:56:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: <4A256796.20804@panix.com> References: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu><451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> <4A256796.20804@panix.com> Message-ID: Thanks to Louis for sharing the complete text. I'd have to go back and read what else Lenin and Trotsky were saying around economic matters around this time, but the whole line of argument that they're running the printing presses so as to make the leap to moneyless communism in one swell foop doesn't really sound like Lenin to me. I can kind of half-see the argument around the peasants, but Lenin of all people would have understood that politically, wiping out whatever currency savings of the small and middle peasants as a way of destroying their illusions and the fetishism of money wasn't the sure road to solidifying the worker-peasant alliance. That was Lenin's North Star in terms of policy. These comments about Russia running the presses just to devalue --completely-- fiat currencies just doesn't feel right. There is that, PLUS the failure to provide the name of the interviewer, date, etc.. Also, a piece like this printed in leading New York and London papers would likely not have escaped Soviet notice, so its non-inclusion in the Collected Works raises obvious issues about its authenticity. And Keynes himself, by how he phrases the reference to Lenin, also stops way short of assuming or vouching for the authenticity of the interview. But the second part of the interview, where Lenin is presented as talking about how the capitalists are ruining their currencies, does sound more plausible, albeit not necessarily in the crude, gloating way that Lenin is depicted as having presented it. I do not know how likely it would be that someone would check the leading Soviet papers of the day to see if there is any echo of the interview in there, or indeed whether the other interviews that have been legitimized by inclusion in the Collected Works found reflection in the contemporaneous Soviet press or not. But the key thing is that someone who in really intimate with the evolution of Lenin's policy thinking over this period and its timing take a look and see whether it fits in at all. But it is striking --and I think it says something about academic scholarship-- that this alleged interview apparently had been lost sight of for decades. I was also struck by the fact that the authors of this paper did not carry out or at least propose further investigation and analysis. To me, the paper has a once-over-very-lightly feel to it. Joaquin From shmage at pipeline.com Tue Jun 2 15:36:26 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 17:36:26 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Who Said "Debauch the Currency": Keynes or Lenin? In-Reply-To: References: <20090602171754.GA26664@ecst.csuchico.edu><451930B4782149FB85F126F4587FE8A4@MARV> <4A256796.20804@panix.com> Message-ID: > > I'd have to go back and read what else Lenin and Trotsky were saying > around > economic matters around this time, but the whole line of argument that > they're running the printing presses so as to make the leap to > moneyless > communism in one swell foop doesn't really sound like Lenin to me... I'm certain neither Lenin nor Trotsky said or thought anything of the sort. But one of the enthusiasts of "war communism" (Preobrazhensky? Bukharin?) did praise the printing press as "a machine gun that destroys the bourgeois economy from the rear." 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 bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 16:34:44 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 18:34:44 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "The Activist": Jason Schulman on Kautsky and Revolutionary Strategy Message-ID: Basically concisely lays out I guess what would be called a "left-kautskyian" strategy http://theactivist.org/blog/the-current-relevance-of-an-old-debate From tcod at hotmail.com Tue Jun 2 18:42:43 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 00:42:43 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] "The Activist": Jason Schulman on Kautsky and Revolutionary Strategy In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: which kind of sidesteps his covering for ruling class attacks, right-wing and liberal, on the Bolshevik revolution under the guise of marxist orthodoxy; a neo-con like routine that certain sectarian groups later in the same spirit incorporated-or co-opted-Bolsehvik or Old Bolshevik ostensible traditions into, which in turn, like Marx, was turned into a hallowed, but basically harmless, iconic tradition, like Washington or Lincoln, good for "revolutionary" speechifying on May Day etc., why real marxists aren' t that bad etc. Thus we had ostensible ultra-left marxists of a certain stripe belittling the Sandinista Revolution as a tyranny over the Nicaraguan people, a phony psuedo-leftist outfit etc that oppressed national minorities at a point when Reagan and Jeane Kirkpatrick were making the same arguments. "Kautksyism" pure and simple: caving into right wing bourgois public opinion under the guise of Marxist orthodoxy. Good 'Ol Karl Kautsky, right up there with that fraud Woodrow Wilson in defending "freedom and democracy" from absolutist tyranny of either the traditional or modern stripe embodied by that evil machinator Lenin. bullshit! Moreover, the present situation shows that the capitalists are simply unwilling, if not incapabale-and have been determined on this since the days of Reagan-of granting the concessions that formed the basis for the supposed gravy train of pre-WW1 Germany or of post-World War 2 US, for example, GM being the most current example. _________________________________________________________________ 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 Tue Jun 2 20:06:19 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 22:06:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The continuing crimes against Gaza In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906021906v30f65854mc3ae3785c7b6a06b@mail.gmail.com> > The Rape of Gaza > > *By Roane Carey* > > *June 02, 2009 "The Nation" > -- How* would you feel if you found out that an American school, paid for > with your tax dollars, was bombed and completely destroyed by a US ally? > This happened in Gaza just a few months ago, during Israel's now-infamous > Operation Cast Lead. > > I've been touring Gaza for the past three days as part of a Code Pinkdelegation, and the concrete rubble and twisted rebar of the American > International School in Gaza is just one of the many horrifying images we've > seen on this trip. The school, which taught American progressive values to > Palestinian kids in grades K-12, was bombed by US-supplied Israeli F-16s in > early January. The Israelis claimed, without supplying evidence, that Hamas > fighters had fired rockets from the school. Now several hundred kids have > not only lost the school they dearly loved; they have been given a very > different lesson in American values, one no doubt unintended by the school's > founders and teachers. > > The people of Gaza suffered immensely from the Israeli assault, which not > only killed some 1,400 and injured 5,000 but destroyed or heavily damaged > mosques, schools, hospitals, universities, and industrial and other business > establishments, in addition to thousands of private homes. Dr. Marwan > Sultan, who practices at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, told me his > hospital was so damaged they had to send all patients to al-Shifa Hospital > in Gaza City--which was itself damaged. The bombing of one school in Beit > Lahiya killed about forty kids and injured a hundred, Sultan told me. He saw > scenes of death and mutilation that still give him nightmares. Thousands are > living in tent cities all over the Strip, and the entire population of Gaza > is being strangled to this day by a blockade that is choking off any > possibility of reconstruction or recovery. > > Make no mistake about it: the blockade, directly enforced by Israel and > Egypt but conspired in by their superpower patron in Washington, is a > continuing act of war against an entire civilian population of 1.5 million, > a form of collective punishment and a crime against humanity. John Ging, > director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency > (UNRWA), which officially invited Code Pink to come to Gaza, told our > delegation that billions in aid had been promised in the wake of Israel's > massacre, but so far nothing had arrived. Our delegation, he said, is the > first concrete action of solidarity with an oppressed, long-suffering > population. Four months after a devastating conflict, he added, the siege > continues. "The first thing we need to see is the opening up of crossing > points and an end to collective punishment because of the political failures > and security problems created by a few." It's a matter of life and death, he > said, "and we're running out of time.... The people of Gaza are asking for > help, justice and the rule of law." > > Code Pink--whose organizers, I might add, have done a fabulous job in > arranging this tour--is urging Obama to break the siege himself by visiting > Gaza on his Middle East tour. That's not likely to happen, of course, but > the least he could do is demand an end to the blockade. He's more likely to > do so if Americans put on the pressure. Readers: it's your turn. > > *Roane Carey, managing editor at The Nation, was the editor of The New > Intifada (Verso) and, with Jonathan Shainin, The Other Israel: Voices of > Refusal and Dissent (New Press). * > ? 2009 The Nation > http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22756.htm > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > > From ratbagradio at gmail.com Tue Jun 2 21:32:12 2009 From: ratbagradio at gmail.com (Ratbag Media) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 13:32:12 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] The Tamil Freedom Struggle in Sri Lanka Message-ID: <57b410090906022032l5aceb345m22e728fd896a5f47@mail.gmail.com> The Tamil Freedom Struggle in Sri Lanka Chris Slee, Brian Senewiratne, Vickramabahu Karunarathne Published by Resistance Books 2009, 40pp, ISBN 978-1-876646-65-3, Pamphlet $5.00 Ever since Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) gained independence from Britain in 1948, the basic rights of the Tamil minority have been under attack. The ruling elite from the Sinhala majority have found anti-Tamil racism an extremely convenient device to secure their power and privilege and deflect discontent from below. The history of Sri Lanka is marked by a shameful and bloody series of government-instigated anti-Tamil pogroms. The persecuted and besieged Tamils finally turned to armed struggle to secure independence or self-government in their traditional homeland areas. With the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the death of its main leaders, this phase appears to have come to an end. The victory of the regime was made possible by the backing of the West and China. These governments ? Australia included ? all have blood on their hands. Is the Sri Lankan regime going to continue with its Nazi-like ?final solution? or will the Tamils be offered some measure of autonomy? Now more than ever, the oppressed Tamil people need the solidarity of progressive forces around the world. This pamphlet provides an essential background to the conflict from a socialist and Marxist viewpoint. * Chronology of Key Events * The Tamil Struggle in Sri Lanka by Chris Slee * Sri Lanka: Genocide of the Tamil Minority by Brian Senewiratne * Sri Lanka: A War on Tamils by Brian Senewiratne * Genocide of Tamils & Atrocities in Sri Lanka While Australia Looks On by Brian Senewiratne * Right of Self-determination of Ilankai Tamils by Vickramabahu Karunarathne Published by Resistance Books. 40pp, $5. Available from your local Activist Centre, 7or online at http://www.resistancebooks.com From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 00:54:59 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 02:54:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "The Activist": Jason Schulman on Kautsky and Revolutionary Strategy In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Kautsky was also an apologist for imperialism. Who cares? If someone is trying to take parts of his thought, point out his shortcomings and apply it to tasks for socialists in America today. Why would any of that matter? Why does everything have to be seen through a 1917-paradigm? From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 2 23:22:52 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:22:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" Message-ID: <3BDFD3F3BE9548A9AF090ACD79B63C8E@office1pc> Attached is a proclamation signed by the President today regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. ## THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 1, 2009 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic. Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism. The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect. My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States. These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. BARACK OBAMA From eindeoc at freenet.de Wed Jun 3 03:39:57 2009 From: eindeoc at freenet.de (Einde O'Callaghan) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:39:57 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] "The Activist": Jason Schulman on Kautsky and Revolutionary Strategy In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A2644ED.5030808@freenet.de> Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > Kautsky was also an apologist for imperialism. Who cares? If someone is > trying to take parts of his thought, point out his shortcomings and apply it > to tasks for socialists in America today. Why would any of that matter? Why > does everything have to be seen through a 1917-paradigm? It's not so much a 1917-paradigm - it's more a question of why should we make the same mistakes over and over again. Marxists try to learn from history. Kautsky's trajectory was a tragedy, rooted in certain fundamental weaknesses in his theory - a 21st century retread would be more a farce. Einde O'Callaghan From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Jun 3 03:57:07 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:57:07 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] China: Looking back on the 1989 democracy movement and the Tiananmen Square massacre | Links Message-ID: <4A2648F3.1010404@greenleft.org.au> To mark the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal /reproduces an excerpt from an analysis by an eyewitness to the 1989 democratic upsurge that preceded the brutal attack. The writer is an Australian socialist who was studying in China at the time. * * * The mistake, intentional or otherwise, of many foreign journalists who had flown in for the Gorbachev visit during April and had stayed on to cover the events in the square, was to assume that "democratisation" implied a general desire of the students to embrace Western bourgeois-democratic models within the context of a capitalist system. In reality, few students at the time had more than a very hazy theoretical notion of "bourgeois democracy". Many felt that, given China's poverty and other problems, transplanted "bourgeois-democratic models" were not appropriate. With hindsight, the movement and subsequent massacre and crackdown in Beijing possessed far more in common with earlier democracy movements in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968), and their outcomes under Stalinism, than with a general urge to adopt a US bourgeois "democratic" system. Few at that time were willing to swap the dictatorship of the Stalinist CCP for an outright "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". http://links.org.au/node/1083 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 johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz Wed Jun 3 04:21:34 2009 From: johnedmundson at paradise.net.nz (John) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:21:34 +1200 Subject: [Marxism] The economic crisis and poor countries In-Reply-To: <4A2565F6.6000402@panix.com> References: <4A2565F6.6000402@panix.com> Message-ID: <1244024494.5883.17.camel@john-desktop> On Tue, 2009-06-02 at 13:48 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: > http://www.marxist.com/economic-crisis-and-poor-countries.htm I found that this article, while it certainly contained some interesting stuff, was incredibly frustrating. "What goes up must come down" is hardly a serious Marxist explanation of what's going on in the global economy. Are all the articles on the IMT site as patchy as this one? Cheers, John From Midhurst14 at aol.com Wed Jun 3 05:25:57 2009 From: Midhurst14 at aol.com (Midhurst14 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 07:25:57 EDT Subject: [Marxism] China: Looking back on the 1989 democracy movement and the Tian... Message-ID: Please supply details and numbers of the massacre and your sources George Anthony From sabocat59 at mac.com Wed Jun 3 06:34:33 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 12:34:33 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Aid Program Supports Needy, Boosts Farmers - washingtonpost.com Message-ID: <1579294449-1244032656-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1988460457-@bxe1190.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502144.html Attracting low-income families to farmers markets is the goal of the Wholesome Wave Foundation, which provided a $10,000 grant to the Holyoke market and funds to markets in California and Connecticut. The foundation's pitch: Doubling food assistance money helps needy families afford fresh fruits and vegetables and eat more healthfully, and the money they spend goes to another struggling x population: small farmers. Moreover, studies show that the food stamp program (recently renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) and similar forms of aid are among the most effective ways to stimulate the slumping economy, creating $1.73 worth of economic activity for every dollar spent. This year, the organization will help fund similar programs in Georgia, Michigan, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and the District. "Our goal is to prove to the federal government that matching works," said Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave's chief executive and the executive chef at Dressing Room restaurant in Westport, Conn. "By implementing these programs, a single dollar of stimulus impacts nutrition, helps farmers, stimulates the economy and provides a direct investment in reducing health-care costs." Public-health advocates have long wanted to link food assistance to good nutrition. But the anti-hunger lobby objects, arguing that forcing recipients to buy only healthful products is impractical -- does SunnyD qualify? -- and smacks of paternalism. Incentives, proponents say, make the argument moot by encouraging, not requiring, families to choose healthful fruits and vegetables. "The idea of doubling your money really resonates," said Daniel Ross, executive director of Nuestras Raices, a grass-roots community development group that helped administer the Holyoke matching program. "We've found in all our research that low-income people know what healthy food is, but because of price, they can't afford it. This helps them get the food they really want for their families." Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From Jscotlive at aol.com Wed Jun 3 07:31:34 2009 From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 09:31:34 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Twenty Years On From Tiananmen Message-ID: _http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4145_ (http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4145) From sabocat59 at mac.com Wed Jun 3 10:29:06 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:29:06 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] CISPES on FMLN Inauguration Celebration Message-ID: <172454715-1244046733-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1420880937-@bxe1190.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> On June 1 2009, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Cer?n were sworn in as the President and Vice President of El Salvador at the Feria Internacional Convention Center in San Salvador. ?It was a magical day for the Salvadoran people, social movement organizations, and the leftist FMLN party which Funes and Sanchez Cer?n represent. ?Check out a video of the celebration here ? and view pictures of the inauguration here ? and here. Counted among the two thousand invited guests were many international delegations and heads of state, including President Correa of Ecuador, President Lula of Brazil, Vice President Lazo of Cuba, President Bachelet of Chile, President Lugo of Paraguay, President Uribe of Colombia, and President Arias from Costa Rica. Representatives from the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, China, Taiwan, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among others joined them. ?The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) was also present with a delegation of members from Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York and Minneapolis. ?Notably absent were Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, who were unable to attend due to last-minute concerns regarding their security while in the country. In a powerful inaugural address, President Funes promised that the change the people asked for with the election of the FMLN ?begins now? and is in the hands of the people, not just the individual will of the President. He vowed to work with sectors of the social movement to ?create a new national project? based on social inclusion and guided by the forces of hope and optimism. Several steps that he and cabinet members (link to recent update), who were sworn in immediately following the ceremony, will take to confront the deep economic and social crisis in El Salvador include an employment program to build over 25,000 new houses, a central bank to guarantee credit to small-scale agricultural producers, and the re-imagination of the Rural Community Solidarity Network to guarantee access to health, nutrition and free public education for the most vulnerable sectors of society. The address was imbued with the themes of social justice, equality, and of a ?peaceful and democratic revolution.? He stated that El Salvador would no longer have a ?government of the few, of the privileged? but one where all people would be ?recognized for their talents and honesty, not for their connections or their last name.? He spoke of his teacher and mentor, Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, whose tomb he visited the morning of the inauguration and whose vision of a ?preferential option for the poor? was a pillar in Funes? discourse during the campaign. ? President Funes emphasized the importance of investing in the public sector and of transparent, democratic public administration, marking a clear break from the notorious corruption and policy of rampant privatization of the right-wing ARENA government during the last twenty years. Funes explained that even though the economic crisis was neither the fault of the Salvadoran people or the FMLN party, but rather of the previous ARENA administrations, it is their responsibility to resolve it. He vowed to fight corruption within the government and within the police, stating that ?the time of bankrolling and impunity is over.? He said frankly, ?There are leaders and political parties who have had their chance and they have failed. Now it is our turn and our responsibility. It is time to show that we haven?t waited this long to govern just to frustrate the dreams of the Salvadoran people.? The bold public exposure of corruption and cronyism of the right-wing government signals a major shift in El Salvador?s political climate, as does the homage to the Archbishop Romero, whose assassination was orchestrated by the founder of the ARENA party. It was a very emotional experience for many Salvadorans and long-time solidarity activists to see the leadership of the FMLN, many of whom, including Vice-President Sanchez Cer?n, were guerrilla commanders, being saluted by the Salvadoran military and taking the reigns from the very government that killed over 75,000 Salvadorans in its attempt to stop the FMLN from coming to power during the civil war. Despite the decorum and formality of the inauguration ceremony, many in the crowd erupted into cheers of ?S? se pudo, S? se pudo! (Yes we did!)? and ?El pueblo unido jam?s ser? vencido!? with their left fists in the air. Further revealing the guiding political and ideological principles of many FMLN activists, the loudest cheers were heard during the announcement of international delegations from Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam and Palestine. The excitement and energy of the FMLN?s base only increased at the people?s inauguration (see video and pictures at http://www.cispes.org), the FMLN?s public celebration at Cuscatl?n Stadium that lasted into the night. Salvadorans who came from across the country arrived as early as 3:00 am to be part of what former FMLN leader Schafik Handal once promised would be ?A Date with History.? Over fifty thousand people formed a celebratory sea of red and white in the stadium, cheering and dancing to the music of historic revolutionary groups like Cutumay Camones and Los Guaraguao as they waited for the address of their new President. Before Funes spoke, Latin American leaders including President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua congratulated the Salvadoran people on their triumph and welcomed El Salvador into the consolidation of leftist and progressive countries in Latin America, calling forth the vision of Sim?n Bol?var for the unity and integration of the Americas. Funes announced that earlier in the day he had formally re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba and would move toward regional integration in Central America. Funes also recognized the great sacrifice of many Salvadorans throughout decades of struggle. A banner hanging in the stadium read: ?Only the people can guarantee that the electoral victory will become popular power.? Militant organization by the Salvadoran people, both during thirty years of struggle and during the past year of electoral campaigning, resulted in the first leftist government in El Salvador, and will remain the most powerful force in what Funes called ?the work of re-inventing the world.? Boston CISPES 2161 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02140 tel: 617.576.1709 email: boscispes at speakeasy.net Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From durable at earthlink.net Tue Jun 2 21:34:16 2009 From: durable at earthlink.net (Barry Brooks) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:34:16 +0800 Subject: [Marxism] ABC Tuesday, June 2, at 9 p.m. ET. 'Earth 2100': the Final Century of Civilization? Message-ID: <4A25EF38.3010307@earthlink.net> What makes ABC think scaring people even more is possible? 10% of today's consumption could provide use-value if we could only limit work to doing only the jobs we really need to do... The goal is the product not the process. Labor is surplus relative to resources. Socialism can end wage dependence, and support those who are busy living outside of wage-slavery. With socialism a 90% cut in CO2 emissions would be possible now. Barry http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Earth2100/story?id=7697237 *'Earth 2100': the Final Century of Civilization?* Planet at Risk: Experts Warn Population Growth, Resource Depletion, Climate Change Could Bring Catastrophe in Next Century By ALEXA DANNER *May 29, 2009* It's an idea that most of us would rather not face -- that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end . Our civilization could crumble , leaving only traces of modern human existence behind. It seems outlandish, extreme -- even impossible. But according to cutting edge scientific research, it is a very real possibility. And unless we make drastic changes now, it could very well happen. Experts have a stark warning: that unless we change course, the "perfect storm" of population growth, dwindling resources and climate change has the potential to converge in the next century with catastrophic results. *Watch "Earth 2100," a two-hour television event, Tuesday, June 2, at 9 p.m. ET.* In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it. In that spirit, guided by some of the world's experts, ABC News' "Earth 2100," hosted by Bob Woodruff , will journey through the next century and explore what might be our worst-case scenario. But no one can predict the future, so how do we address the possibilities that lie ahead? Our solution is Lucy, a fictional character devised by the producers at ABC to guide us through the twists and turns of what the next 100 years could look like. It is through her eyes and experiences that we can truly imagine the experts' worst-case scenario -- and be inspired to make changes for the better. The Future: It's Nearer Than We Think By 2015, there are expected to be hopeful signs. Experts predict alternative energy solutions that are currently in their infancy will gain momentum. Windmills may sprout up everywhere. Off the coast of Scotland, a sprawling wave farm will harvest renewable energy from the ocean. Vatican City will meet all of its energy needs with solar power. And the U.S. will produce cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles in accordance with newly unveiled emissions guidelines. But will it be enough? In 2015, global demand for fossil fuels could be massive and growing, but experts say oil will be harder to find and far more expensive to consume. "We have no new source of energy on the horizon that's currently capable of being developed on a large enough scale to replace the supply of oil in any near- term framework," says Michael Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College. If the cost of gasoline skyrockets, few may be able to afford to maintain the lifestyles to which we've grown accustomed. There may be a mass exodus from the suburbs, as driving gas-fueled cars becomes nearly impossible economically. But will that convince us to change our ways? "Until we have a crisis of some kind, I don't think we're going to be motivated to make the really deep changes in the way we use energy, the technologies we use, the density of our cities, our travel patterns," says Thomas Homer-Dixon, a political science professor and author of "The Upside of Down." The imagined crises in Lucy's futuristic world come in the forms of earthshaking hurricanes spawned by over-reliance on climate-damaging coal and other nonrenewable resources. What if climate change in our world is actually much closer than we think? Many experts say we have to start seriously reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, or we may pass a point of no return. "If we continue on the business as usual trajectory, there will be a tipping point that we cannot avert," says John P. Holdren, science advisor to President Obama. "We will indeed drive the car over the cliff." Scientists predict that by 2020, global catastrophes may well begin to accelerate. The human population is expected to explode and animal species may be dying off at a rapid rate. As the world becomes more chaotic, the costs of mending it would grow more and more daunting. By 2030, gradually rising temperatures may have shifted rainfall patterns around the globe, and many experts warn much of the world may face serious shortages of our most basic need -- water. "By 2030, two-thirds of the world's population will be under water stress," says Janine Benyus, science writer and founder of the Biomimicry Institute. Some cities will have the forethought to plan ahead. Starting in 2009, San Diego began building huge desalination plants to turn ocean water into an abundance of fresh water. But in the middle of the country, people may be running out -- and there may well not be funds to transport it from the coast. If and when a place like Tucson, Ariz., runs dry, people will panic. "Something that will catch people's attention is the first rich city that just runs out of water," says Homer-Dixon. Americans may well meet these challenges with resourcefulness and work hard to keep the threats at bay. But even as things stabilize on the home front, experts predict hundreds of thousands of environmental refugees may begin streaming through Europe, fleeing droughts and famines. Millions of Latin Americans could align on the U.S. border seeking entry, and some could encounter violent resistance. "I can't imagine the horrors that will take place on the border as millions of refugees try to get into the United States," says Klare. History Repeats Itself In the history of Earth, there have been five mass extinctions in which at least half the species on the planet disappeared. Scientists believe the extinctions were brought on by natural disasters -- massive volcanic eruptions, rapid climate changes and meteors hitting Earth. Today, scientists say we are in the middle of a "sixth extinction" -- and for the first time, it's being caused by one species -- us. It seems inconceivable that we could do so much damage to our planet that we actually cause society as we know it to collapse. But historical precedent shows that it is, in fact, a very real possibility. "Every society that collapsed thought it couldn't happen to them," says Joseph Tainter, an expert in anthropology and societal collapse. "The Roman Empire thought it couldn't happen. The Maya civilization thought it couldn't happen. Everyone thought it couldn't happen to them. But it did." These populations grew too much and exhausted their resources -- and their climate suddenly changed. People were forced to fight each other for what little was left or face starvation. Entire societies broke down. "Civilizations in the past have lost the fight," says climatologist Heidi Cullen. "They have collapsed as a result of the inability to deal with several different events going on at once. I think the takeaway is that honestly, we are not that special." Our Current Course: Where We're Headed If we remain on the current course, it's estimated that by 2050, the world's population may have increased by at least half and many parts of the world may be facing grave shortages of resources. The Southwest U.S. could face an extended drought, while pests threaten crops. As global sea levels rise, much of the world map could be redrawn. People will begin to migrate back to urban areas in search of better lives. There would likely still be beacons of green living -- massive solar farms may produce enough power to light up entire regions of the country. Towns like Greenburg, Kan., decimated in 2007 by a tornado and rebuilt to be completely self-sustaining, may inspire communities around the globe do the same. But unless the rest of the world gets on board -- and fast -- some experts warn it may just not be enough. "A few hundred years down the line, they'll look back and say the dark ages began with the twenty-first century," says E. O. Wilson, an award-winning evolutionary biologist and professor at Harvard University. But just how bad could things get? In one scenario, scientists imagine that by the year 2100, immense storms irreparably damage major metropolises. Streets, subway tunnels, and buildings would flood and begin to rot. The stagnant water would breed filth and displace residents, forcing them into homelessness. Poverty levels and death rates could skyrocket. A new and virulent strain of disease might develop -- then mutate and spread around the globe, potentially claiming tens of thousands of lives. In this scenario, as the crisis explodes, looting grows rampant, major world powers go to war over water, and millions of people die from famine. Civilization literally collapses under its own weight. From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Wed Jun 3 12:39:00 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 11:39:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Massif: chapter III Message-ID: <91573.22834.qm@web45004.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> (Massif is the name of a "poem-novel" I am writing. This is its third "chapter". It's about a guy smoking the ganji spliff on a snowy soccer-field late at night -- that's it. ? 'Legalize it! And don't criticize it..' --Peter Tosh ? I'm almost sure I'll be dead before I'm ever recognized for my talents. Excuse the Kafkaesque metamorphoses. --Max) ? ? ? Velveteen moss populates his touch. Petrified barbs rake against his turbulence. All is nesting as fungi. His joint gifts enspiraled libations of incense to her clearing under 3am black fur hood. Exhaustive circumlocutions. ??? Every footprint an archive. Time accretes as does?the spiral of?a snail shell. Ricardo tastes sooty blueberries. Glacial wounds melt tears into the dung-blue creases of his racoon-face. ??? Uneven but combined liberation extant even in micrologies. Technology more human than the biological givens of the body. Ricardo recognizes himself only in his residues.?He digests the flesh-of-the-gods. Glossy environs gyrate. ??? Pearlescent void copulates with the perimeters of being. Resignation is will itself. Ressurected embers may come to sear those who once tended them. Osmosis of individualities. ??? All technique approaches the speed of light.. Silence exudes dialogues unto him. A rancidity culled from the marrow of institutions thrashes within him.?All aches with becoming. ??? A thisness encrusted with propellant fidelity. He attends the compaction of the world with care.? White lines of the field shrouded over in white. Hypernatural revelations. From binesi at gvtel.com Wed Jun 3 12:54:34 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:54:34 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" In-Reply-To: <3BDFD3F3BE9548A9AF090ACD79B63C8E@office1pc> References: <3BDFD3F3BE9548A9AF090ACD79B63C8E@office1pc> Message-ID: <4A26C6EA.4040905@gvtel.com> Fred Feldman wrote: > Attached is a proclamation signed by the President today regarding Lesbian, > Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. > ==================================================== > Thanks, Fred, for posting this. However, it hardly warrants a serious examination, hot air puffery as it is. The Stonewall riots had little to do with the spin in this bourgeois co-optation, its reality ignored and twisted into the currently palatable bourgeois/Democrat mythology. The rebels at the Stonewall Inn were largely street people, teenage gay hustlers, drag queens--precisely the kind of social outcasts who are still left out of the gay/lez assimilationist bourgeois nicey-nice version that strips the movement of rebellion and turns it into little more than a marginalized interest group in the bourgeois Rainbow Coalition. Their rebellion was not a "GLBT" movement, but rather kick in the nuts to the same heterosexist dictatorship that now has largely co-opted them. What more to expect from a layer of society that even the SWP pronounced utterly lacking in "social weight" back in 1973 (in its wretched "Memorandum"), a position, if memory hasn't failed me, that Fred also supported. Our Savior places a higher worth on same-sexers than the SWP did--but he is exaggerating for political effect. Gay lib has been tamed, reduced to a pale shadow of its Stonewall spirit, aping failing hetero institutions like marriage and pleading to be allowed to kill third world babies for Wall Street. That's nothing new: the wind went out of the sails of all 1960s social protest movements, including blacks, Hispanics, women, not to mention the totally declawed labor movement, and the left itself. David > > From lnp3 at panix.com Wed Jun 3 13:53:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:53:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] North Korean movies Message-ID: <4A26D4B0.3000203@panix.com> When I received an invitation from the Korea Society in New York to attend a 4-part screening of North Korean films, I jumped at the opportunity for multiple reasons. To begin with, I am a huge fan of Korean movies, admittedly those that come from the south exclusively. As a relic of the cold war, North Korean movies?like Cuban cigars?are hard to come by. I assumed that they would be much different than the deeply ironic and alienated South Korean movies that I had become devoted to, but was curious to see whether the national culture that had been developing for millennia could still be detected in the dogmatically Marxist north. While many of the finest South Korean movies are unavailable on home video, you can rent ?Save the Green Planet? from Netflix, which summarizes the movie thusly: "Believing that aliens in human form are systematically destroying the planet and all humankind, Byung-gu sets out to capture an alien leader and force him to confess. Because all the aliens look like humans, Byung-gu makes an educated guess and kidnaps the head of a chemical company." Now, how can you resist such a movie! I also wondered if North Korean movies would give me insights into one of the two remaining socialist countries in the world, giving the word socialist its broadest interpretation of course. As a long time supporter of the Cuban revolution, my attitude toward North Korea was probably like most leftists. We did not want to see North Korea victimized by economic sanctions or military attack, but there was little to identify with in a society that was bound together by an odd combination of 1930s style Stalinism and centuries old Confucian beliefs. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/north-korean-movies/ From sabocat59 at mac.com Wed Jun 3 13:55:25 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:55:25 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Democracy Now! | Chavez Accuses CIA, Ex-Operative of Assassination Plot Message-ID: <1372918711-1244059108-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-2032908478-@bxe1190.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/3/headlines Chavez Accuses CIA, Ex-Operative of Assassination Plot In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is accusing the CIA of involvement in an alleged attempt on his life. Chavez canceled a planned trip to El Salvador this week to attend Monday?s inauguration of the new president Mauricio Funes. On Tuesday, Chavez said he had abandoned the trip after learning of an assassination attempt planned by the CIA and the Cuban militant and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: ?Yes, I am accusing Luis Posada Carriles. President Obama, I demand justice, that the full extent of the law be applied. Send us, President Obama, that terrorist, because here, we are preparing to send him to where he belongs: in prison. He is a murderer, a war criminal, and it was him that put the bomb on another plane of Cubana Air.? Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From lnp3 at panix.com Wed Jun 3 14:16:47 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:16:47 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] A useful article on the Korean War Message-ID: <4A26DA2F.6090403@panix.com> Despite being hampered by a sectarian framework, this article has a lot of useful information: http://www.bolshevik.org/1917/no16kor.pdf From elishastephens at hotmail.com Wed Jun 3 14:17:56 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 13:17:56 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" Message-ID: Obama: "Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security." Notably omitted in his call is a repeal of the reactionary DOMA legislation, thanks to which my gay cousin, legally married in Massachusetts for five years, cannot think of moving to most other states (or even travelling in them) without suddenly becoming "unmarried," and needing to worry about such things as visiting her spouse in the hospital under "immediate family only" situations, etc. 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 Waistline2 at aol.com Wed Jun 3 14:46:30 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:46:30 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Are we in a post-racial America? Message-ID: Post racial America? Great title. What America exist that is post Obama election as President? Obama elected President is a watershed event. So much in America has changed for the better, so much for the worse. Obama as President is national politics in the age of electronics, where modern means of production further crush wages and in absolute terms destroys the middle class created during th e rise and fall of the industrial era. Moreover, all the things making the election of a black as President impossible and inconceivable - no longer exists as the political foundation of American national politics. Obama?s election confirms this meaning of change. Obama significance is not limited to him being a black man, although being black - African American, or multi-ethic is of the utmost importance. However, he who does not see profound significance in a black man as President is not familiar with American history or for that matter the past 600 year of world history. Barack Obama being multi-ethnic means America is defining itself in the ideological and political sphere. In the political/ideological sphere Obama is confirmation of the meaning of America being 44 years into the post Jim Crow era and at least 20 years into the era of domination of speculative capital over the world total capital. During the past 44 years several political boundaries have been crossed. Is Obama merely domestic capitalism and external American imperialism with a black face? Why does imperialism need a black and non-secular face? What changes America and shifting political relations between countries and classes calls for imperialism in black face? More accurately, why is a multi-ethic face of American imperialism called forth.? The economic basis of white unity has been shattered forever. White unity was not simply an ideological agreement but based in the economic structure of industrial society. From 1865 until the 1950?s, the majority of blacks were located in Southern agriculture. The industrial working class was formed from waves of European immigrants and consolidated as Anglo, or what is called the American melting pot. The American middle class - an industrial working class, grew based on the social dynamics between the various European ethnic immigrants, with first the Irish and Italian at the bottom of the social ladder and then the bulk of Slavic workers at the bottom of the ladder. This relationship shaped our history up until the 1950's. Then the Civil Rights struggle shaped - imprinted, the laws that would reform America for the next period of history. Today, the decisive sectors of our working class can be won over to class unity, but communist are going to have to work very hard to make this happen. This has never been possible in America before the election of Obama. This was certainly the case when the social struggle peaked in 1978. Make no mistake, white unity has been the fundamental ideological block to unity of the working class in our political and ideological sphere since 1776. Beneath the surface of this ideological block is 170 years of wage disparity between North and South; a disparity that evolved from the core South possessing slave labor. A new political era has opened, corresponding with the new era that is the age of electronics. . Peoples wanted change from business as usual. The power of a new generation entered the political sphere in 2008 and is destined to reshape America as much as my generation shaped America in the hot battles to advance human emancipation. The 60?s and 70?s were a period of battle for the streets, universities, factories, hearts and minds of America and involved monumental battles for and through the ballot box and outside the electoral arena. A new generation has arisen to the same cause and task. That is why the voting section of our working class elected Barack Obama. Electing a person to office is one phase, one side of the change process. After the person assumes office another phase unfolds where you fight to get the things you want. One thing my generation learned is that our fight is on every front and requires the fight for the streets, all the way up to the well manicured boulevards that lead to the citadels of political and economic power. Now that he is elected, a new phase of struggle confronts the American working class. And yes, a new generation shall create its new leaders and heroes with new cries of liberty and justice for all. Apparently, the only question the new generation asks is ?what part of 'all' do you not understand.? Political boundaries and eras. A boundary is the point at which something ends or beyond which it becomes something else. Boundaries are hard to pin down in exact detail because generally you do not know you are crossing one until you on the other side. At what exact hour, minute and second and on what day does a girl become a woman; a boy becomes a man; when a toddler stops being a toddler? My dad told me when I was mature enough to take care of myself (had a decent job!) I was a man. Mother always said ?that is a boundary you do not want to cross? when I was confronted with many of the problems all young people face. Mother and father had clear ideas about boundaries; ideas they had learned from life. People vote in America, but not the majority. The political class operates the political system based on those who vote because the ruling class could not maintain a stable democratic society if every four years the country had to go to war to determine President, members of the Senate and House. The two party?s of capitalism - and everyone else, have to appeal to the workers and primarily the voting middle class to settle their disputes as to whom shall loot the treasury and enforce policy to protect capitalist private property and working class poverty. Boundary 1964. The post Jim Crow era as a political boundary began on January 23, 1964, when the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials, to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which began the political and social reform of relations within and between classes in America; into the election of Carl Stokes as big city Mayor (as material verification of the impact of the "Act") down to the November 7, 1989 election of David Norman Dinkins as New York Mayor. Although the social force behind the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, was the result of the Civil Rights Movement, the poll tax denied more whites than blacks the right to vote. The black struggle was a struggle by blacks but a heck of a lot more than black people were involved. Any group that achieves any equality for itself and over come their unequal status, always requires the energy of all layers of American society. Millions of whites always were a part of the equality struggle because they understood their own long term freedom was at stake. More, it was understood that inequality is wrong. When a population group overcomes its unequal status; say blacks, Mexicans or Asians, they merge with the general society where inequality is based on class and economic dimensions of wealth. A black auto worker or Wal Mart worker has more in common with a white auto worker or Wal Mart worker than a black millionaire. No one can be emancipated beyond the class, of which they are a member. Not possible. WL. additional Let?s look at some of the facts about the history of voting and how the American population has been manipulated. In Alabama the poll tax and grandfather clause disfranchised blacks, (they could no longer vote) but had the material impact of disfranchising more whites than blacks. Yep! In the core South the fascist character of the political regime could not be forced on blacks without being forced on whites. The reason is the dialectic of oppression and exploitation. One person on their own cannot hold down ten people. In order to hold down say ten people million people and keep them in the hole of ignorance and poverty, another the million people have to climb into the same hole and sit on them. And then the folks sitting on the head of the other folks must have the moral and legal backing and authority of the government to act as oppressors. Wiki on Alabama states: ?In its new constitution of 1901, the legislature effectively disfranchised African Americans through voting restrictions. While the planter class had engaged poor whites in supporting these efforts, the new restrictions resulted in disfranchising poor whites as well. By 1941, a total of more whites than blacks had been disfranchised: 600,000 whites to 520,000 blacks. This was due mostly to effects of the cumulative poll tax.[25] The damage to the African-American community was pervasive, as nearly all its citizens lost the ability to vote. In 1900, fourteen Black Belt counties (which were primarily African American) had more than 79,000 voters on the rolls. By June 1, 1903, the number of registered voters had dropped to 1,081. In 1900, Alabama had more than 181,000 African Americans eligible to vote. By 1903, only 2,980 had managed to "qualify" to register, although at least 74,000 black voters were literate. The shut out was long-lasting.[25] The disfranchisement was ended only by African Americans leading the Civil Rights Movement and gaining Federal legislation in the mid-1960s to protect their voting and civil rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also protected the suffrage of poor whites. _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama) ?In Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and in some northern and western states, proof of having paid taxes or poll taxes was made a prerequisite to voting. The poll tax was sometimes used alone or together with a literacy qualification. Virginia used this policy until 1882 and resumed it again in 1902. Texas added a requirement for a poll tax by state law in 1901.[19] Such taxes excluded poor whites as well at the turn of the century. Many states required payment of the poll tax at a time separate from the election, and then required voters to bring receipts with them to the polls. If they could not locate such receipts, they could not vote. Many states surrounded registration and voting with complex record-keeping requirements. [7] These were particularly difficult for sharecropper and tenant farmers to comply with, as they moved frequently.? _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disfranchisement_after_Reconstruction_era_(Uni ted_States_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disfranchisement_after_Reconstruction_era_(United_States) ) This same dynamic, wherein exclusion of blacks from the political sphere leads inexorably to exclusion of more whites than blacks, occurred in Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas, more than less. Today, the state of Georgia has implemented a new poll tax being challenged in Federal Court. Interestingly, Georgia was one of the original seven Confederate states, leaving the Union on January 21, 1861, and the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. At 41.5 percent minority, Georgia now ranks eighth in the nation in minorities as a percentage of the total population, with Atlanta being its largest population center with 519,145 people. Augusta places second, 195,182 people followed by Columbus 188,660 people and Savannah: 130,300 people. The states black population increased by 22% and the ?Hispanic? population by 70% in the past seven years. Georgia?s new poll tax - you must purchase government identification or possessed a government issued driver license, which cost money, as a condition for voting, is aimed at the most poverty stricken section of the population and meant to exclude more whites as a condition for excluding non-whites. Georgia?s new ?Black Code? has dropped the ?black? and is simply ?the anti working class code,? meant to politically destroy any impact of the voting section of the working class. Another few words about Georgia help clarify the same old challenge presented by an old degenerate political class, to the working class North and South. ?On April 1, 2009, Senate Resolution 632 passed by a vote of 43-1.[65] It reads in part[66]: ?Any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America.? On April 16, Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote "It wasn ?t quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States."[67] (Also) Several United States military installations are located in Georgia including Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Fort Benning, Moody Air Force Base, Robins Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Atlanta, Fort McPherson, Fort Gillem, Fort Gordon, Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Coast Guard Air Station Savannah and Coast Guard Station Brunswick. However, due to the latest round of BRAC cuts, Forts Gillem and McPherson will be closing and NAS Atlanta will be transferred to the Georgia National Guard. _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state) ) Apparently, the old political class of the state is itching for another round of the American Civil War, perhaps feeling that its military bases can be won to their ?new cause for succession.? In this way at looking at national politics President Obama is the new Lincoln and out to destroy ? Southern civilization.? One ought not forget the outcome of the Civil War and the march of Sherman. Today, the blacks are not slaves and it is going to be virtually impossible to prove to the working class in Georgia or throughout America that government should not be used for the economic betterment of the American working class, including nationalization of entire sections of the economy and these section never being re-privatized. Obama is not the new Lincoln. The Civil Rights Movement completed the revolutionary aspects of the Civil War, which found its greatest expression in the slave rebellion within the Confederacy, then their emancipation as slaves. Today, the working class North and South confronts a common enemy, with the working class of the South having special task to carry out in wiping from the face of the earth the old Southern reaction based in the old Slave Oligarchy and planter class. Today?s fight takes place in the opening of an epoch of social revolution. This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from _http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm_ (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) **************Shop Inspiron, Studio and XPS Laptops at Dell.com (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222616459x1201464730/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.d oubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B215218145%3B37264238%3Bd) From shmage at pipeline.com Wed Jun 3 14:47:50 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:47:50 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5179DF3B-C4F5-4DF2-AE98-AA6CBEBEE40D@pipeline.com> On Jun 3, 2009, at 4:17 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: > > Notably omitted in his call is a repeal of the reactionary DOMA > legislation, thanks to which my gay cousin, legally married in > Massachusetts for five years, cannot think of moving to most other > states (or even travelling in them) without suddenly becoming > "unmarried," and needing to worry about such things as visiting her > spouse in the hospital under "immediate family only" situations, etc. Not so. She is protected by the "full faith and credit" clause of the US Constitution. The DOMA is facially unconstitutional. 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 adambrichmond at yahoo.com Wed Jun 3 15:33:37 2009 From: adambrichmond at yahoo.com (Adam Richmond) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:33:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" Message-ID: <931713.18951.qm@web54604.mail.re2.yahoo.com> It is "unconstituional" only when SCOTUS says so.? Until that day, or until federal law changes, it is the law of the land. Adam --- On Wed, 6/3/09, Shane Mage wrote: From: Shane Mage From elishastephens at hotmail.com Wed Jun 3 15:53:23 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:53:23 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" Message-ID: Shane: "Not so. She is protected by the "full faith and credit" clause of the US Constitution. The DOMA is facially unconstitutional." I'm sure your words will be of great comfort to her should she be travelling and her spouse gets hospitalized, and, when the hospital refuses her spousal rights, she has to go out and find the ACLU and initiate a lawsuit to get them to acknowledge the "full faith and credit" clause so she can get in to see her partner, or, more seriously, take charge of her care should she be incapacitated. By the way, DOMA was passed under Clinton, years ago. If it's such a slam-dunk case in the Supreme Court, as you suggest, surely someone (like my cousin) would have initiated a lawsuit which would have reached the Supreme Court by now. 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 shmage at pipeline.com Wed Jun 3 16:35:34 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:35:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" In-Reply-To: <931713.18951.qm@web54604.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <931713.18951.qm@web54604.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <107B82F2-C639-47D8-9BC1-F9835142F431@pipeline.com> On Jun 3, 2009, at 5:33 PM, Adam Richmond wrote: > It [DOMA]is "unconstituional" only when SCOTUS says so. Until that > day, or until federal law changes, it is the law of the land. Not so. Unconstitutionality is not for the SCOTUS to decide. Statutes not "pursuant to the constitution" are never the law of the land. They do not become unconstitutional when the SCOTUS says so-- they are unconstitutional *ab origio*, invalid from the start. Federal judges, like every citizen, have the obligation to *recognize* that unconstitutional statutes are invalid. If statutes were legally valid until "declared" unconstitutional, governmental and judicial actions enforcing them could never be overturned as unconstitutional because those actions would have been legally valid when the cases that resulted in their invalidation were initiated. 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 bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 16:43:30 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:43:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "The Activist": Jason Schulman on Kautsky and Revolutionary Strategy In-Reply-To: <4A2644ED.5030808@freenet.de> References: <4A2644ED.5030808@freenet.de> Message-ID: Besides for one or two articles from opposition within the CPGB that weren't very good, I've yet to compare a compelling critique of what McNair (and by proxy Schulman) are actually saying. From markalause at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 16:43:46 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:43:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Peace and Freedom Party - National Organizing Conference In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This is an old plan that started unfolding around the time PFP put Nader on its ballot line. The real question that should be addressed by PFP is where it stands in relation to the Greens and other existing organizations. Some of those I've talked to were about as "new" in their thinking on such things as the Socialist Labor Party. What's really needed is a national organization willing to regroup along broad anticapitalist lines. And there are several organizations already claiming to do that. The PFP can't just pretend they don't exist...as tempting as that might seem. ML From shmage at pipeline.com Wed Jun 3 16:48:38 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:48:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Jun 3, 2009, at 5:53 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: > Shane: "Not so. She is protected by the "full faith and credit" > clause of the US Constitution. The DOMA is facially > unconstitutional." > ... DOMA was passed under Clinton, years ago. If it's such a slam- > dunk case in the Supreme Court, as you suggest, surely someone (like > my cousin) would have initiated a lawsuit which would have reached > the Supreme Court by now. I grant that the present SCOTUS majority show no respect for the constitution, so not even the most obvious decision can be taken for granted when it conflicts with their fascistic predilections. But legal same-sex marriages are very, very recent in the US, and the case leading to recognition of DOMA's unconstitutionality would have to be initiated in a *state* court once a cause of action (like some state explicitly refusing to recognize her marriage) had been established. It is scarcely surprising that no such cases have yet been initiated-- but sooner rather than later they certainly will be. 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 glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Jun 3 16:52:13 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:52:13 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Lawyer of PUDEMO (Swaziland) President Arrested Message-ID: <4A26FE9D.8010505@greenleft.org.au> PUDEMO media statement, 3 June 2009 The Swazi regime has gone mad beyond recovery! Advocate Thulani Maseko, lawyer of PUDEMO President was arrested yesterday on charges of TERRORISM! This is a clear indication that the Swazi regime wants to do away with all human rights activists. Thulani Maseko is a founding member of the Swaziland Association of Students, former president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) at the University of Swaziland, former Secretary General of PUDEMO, founding member of Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland, founding member and chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly. He has represented many comrades in their legal battles against the regime including the successful case by the ex-miners in which the court ruled in favour of the people for free education. Advocate Maseko is a well respected lawyer around the world, having been recently invited by the Foreign affairs Minister in the UK and the EU to state the case for Swaziland. It is not clear as yet where he is kept and what is happening to him. But we fear for his life. PUDEMO International Relations c/o Head of Publicity Manzini, Swaziland cell numbers 268-607-3453 (Swaziland) 27-73-142-7594 (South Africa) 27-82-923-1401 (South Africa) from http://freemariomasuku.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From markalause at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 16:54:32 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:54:32 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] African Cherokees In-Reply-To: <4A203F5F.20600@panix.com> References: <4A203F5F.20600@panix.com> Message-ID: The one generalization about slavery in the Indian Territory is that it almost defies generalization. It's not a question of whether or not it was "benign" (which strikes me as a straw argument) or whether it replicated slavery among the whites. You can cherrypick examples that demonstrate one or the other or anything in between. Depending on the place and the owner and the slave it could have been any of this. The bottom line is that white slaveholders in Missouri, Arkansas or Texas did not view slavery in the territory as reliable enough to make buying a slave from Indian owners a good investment. ML From tcod at hotmail.com Wed Jun 3 17:05:19 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 23:05:19 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] A useful article on the Korean War In-Reply-To: <4A26DA2F.6090403@panix.com> References: <4A26DA2F.6090403@panix.com> Message-ID: In that vein, there've been a number of articles in the papers over the last couple years about massacres committed by US and S. Korean forces against civilians during this conflict, info being unearthed by S. Korea's own truth and reconciliation commission. _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 From farmelantj at juno.com Wed Jun 3 17:52:17 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:52:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] New Socialist Pamphlets on Farming, Darwin Message-ID: <20090603.195218.3892.0.farmelantj@juno.com> On Tue, 2 Jun 2009 06:44:30 -0400 Ian Angus writes: > ***************************************** > SOCIALIST VOICE > Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century > www.socialistvoice.ca > June 5, 2008 > ***************************************** > > MARX, ENGELS, AND DARWIN. > by Ian Angus. > How Darwin?s theory of evolution confirmed and extended the most > fundamental concepts of Marxism. Why Karl Marx described Darwin?s > Origin of Species as ?the book which contains the basis in natural > history for our view.? > > To download these and other Socialist Voice pamphlets, go to: > > > Well, concerning the Darwin pamphlet, let it be noted that I discussed the similarities between Darwinian explanations in evolutionary biology and the functionalist explanations that are invoked by historical materialism on Marxmail eleven years ago. See: http://www.marxmail.org/archives/july98/evolution.htm Concerning my point that historical materialist explanations are analogous to the types of explanations that evolutionary biologists rely upon is not exactly a new observation. Arguably, Engels perceived this long ago. Certainly, Kautsky and Plekhanov were quite aware of it. Indeed, Plekhanov seems to emphasized this point. In more recent times, as I pointed out, G.A. Cohen brought the rigor of the analytic philosophy of science to show that historical materialist explanations are a variety of functional explanations and that these explanations admit to what he called "elaborations," which might be either Lamarckian, Darwinian or intentionalist in character. Alan Carling has in turn argued that historical materialism can be given a selectionist interpretation, which would make the theory closely analogous to Darwinism. In the past I have had email exchanges with Carling, in which he agreed that his approach to historical materialism bears some similarities to other attempts to apply Darwinian explanatory models to the social sciences (i.e. Dawkins on memetics, Popper on evolutionary epistemology, and any number of attempts to create Darwinian-type theories of social evolution. Jim Farmelant ____________________________________________________________ Digital Photography - Click Now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTDvmRvYkFFu8V0MvGth4Ak3GlSfim6C1ZODi7NGJliEupYk0JLIuE/ From markalause at gmail.com Wed Jun 3 19:18:59 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 21:18:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] New Socialist Pamphlets on Farming, Darwin In-Reply-To: <20090603.195218.3892.0.farmelantj@juno.com> References: <20090603.195218.3892.0.farmelantj@juno.com> Message-ID: More interestingly, Darwin was wrong in his Victorian assumptions about gradual and incremental change. Huxley argued this matter with him, as I think Wallace did. Evolution (whether biological or in a historical sense) tends to be flashes of lurching in a vast amounts of apparent inaction. There's a real problem with this singular stroke of genius assumption in general. Robert Chamber's made a much more fearless assertion of some of the basic ideas of evolution in 1844...just about the time Marx and Engels were beginning their work... ML From elishastephens at hotmail.com Wed Jun 3 20:14:08 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:14:08 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] US president proclaims June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month" Message-ID: Shane: "But legal same-sex marriages are very, very recent in the US, and the case leading to recognition of DOMA's unconstitutionality would have to be initiated in a *state* court once a cause of action (like some state explicitly refusing to recognize her marriage) had been established." The first part of that statement is definitely wrong and I think the second as well, though I'm no lawyer. As I already wrote, my cousin was legally married in Massachusetts five years ago, which hardly qualifies as "very, very recent" (or even "very recent"). Furthermore, on the day she was married, she was denied the right that I and other heterosexually married people have to be able to move to any state in the union without losing rights that I have, thanks to DOMA, which was in effect on the day she was married. And since DOMA is a FEDERAL statute, it seems to me she would have had an immediate cause of action in a FEDERAL court, not a state court. I can only assume that the reason neither she, nor any other similarly situated person, brought such a suit, was the expectation that they would lose in the Supreme Court. Which bring me back to my original point, which is that, whatever your "theoretical" point may be, in *practice* DOMA is constitutional until it is ruled otherwise, and in *practice*, a state my cousin was visiting would be within their rights to refuse her various rights (like making decisions about medical care of her spouse), requiring her to go to court. Emphasing again the significance of Obama leaving DOMA out of his list of planned accomplishments. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Wed Jun 3 20:48:57 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:48:57 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Michael Perelman's Peace Plan For Iraq Message-ID: <4A273619.8040605@ecst.csuchico.edu> I'm not much of a fan of Milton Friedman, but he once offered a very interesting suggestion to rid society of crime. "The first and most obvious [way to reduce the amount of crime] is to reduce the range of activities that are designated as illegal. Surely, one reason for the growth in crime is that the number of activities that are classified as such, has multiplied in recent decades." Friedman, Milton. 1997. "Economics of Crime." The Journal of Economic Perspectives , Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring): p. 194. Following Friedman's logic the Defense Department found a simple strategy for evacuating the cities. "On a map of Baghdad, the US Army's Forward Operating Base Falcon is clearly within city limits. Except that Iraqi and American military officials have decided it's not. As the June 30 deadline for US soldiers to be out of Iraqi cities approaches, there are no plans to relocate the roughly 3,000 American troops who help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war. "We and the Iraqis decided it wasn't in the city," says a US military official. The base on the southern outskirts of Baghdad's Rasheed district is an example of the fluidity of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) agreed to late last year, which orders all US combat forces out of Iraqi cities, towns, and villages by June 30." Arraf, Jane. 2009. "To Meet June Deadline, US and Iraqis Redraw City Borders." Christian Science Monitor (19 May). http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0519/p06s05-wome.html Here is my suggestion: just redefine Iraq to be the Green Zone. Declare victory now that U.S. government has conquered the country. The rest could be disputed territory, such as Israel defines the West Bank. The United Nations, Iraq's neighbors, or even the Iraqi people could sort out what to do with this disputed. Republicans should be delighted to be able to claim that Bush's policy is vindicated. Democrats could crow about how they achieved peace. And the Defense Department could find a less dangerous land to bomb. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Jun 3 22:08:27 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:08:27 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?James_Kilgore=92s_We_are_All_Zimbabwea?= =?windows-1252?q?ns_Now_=28with_Excerpt=29_=7C_Umuzi?= Message-ID: <4A2748BB.1010909@greenleft.org.au> http://umuzi.book.co.za/blog/2009/06/03/announcing-james-kilgores-we-are-all-zimbabweans-now-with-excerpt/ /Umuzi proudly announces the release of We Are All Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore. Written from a California prison cell by this one-time fugitive author, the book occupies an important place amongst the fictional chronicles of post-independence Zimbabwe./ /We are All Zimbabweans Now/ tells the story of young American historian Ben Dabney who arrives in Harare in 1981, full of admiration for Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe?s policy of reconciliation. His euphoria in this country he calls the ?Land of Forgiveness? heightens when he becomes involved with disabled ex-freedom fighter Florence Matshaka who connects him with the emerging black elite. His research, however, takes him down a different path. When he explores the case of a liberation war leader who died in a mysterious car accident, he receives elusive answers, then threats. An interview with a teacher in rural Matabeleland, propels him into the middle of the army?s offensive against ?dissidents? and civilians in that part of the country. As he delves more into his research the dangers deepen and the connections of Florence to mysteries past and present force Ben to confront difficult decisions about career, love, parenting and political principle. /We are All Zimbabweans Now/ is an accomplished and compelling novel. While written in the style of a detective thriller, the story deftly analyzes the complex struggles for power in post-independence Africa. The characters and events of this fascinating tale will resonate loudly for South Africans as well as those familiar with Zimbabwe. Read an excerpt: http://umuzi.book.co.za/files/2009/06/chapters-2-3-from-waazn-kilgore.pdf _About the author_ *James Kilgore* first made news in South Africa when he was arrested in Cape Town in 2002. He had been living under the alias Dr. John Pape and become a respected academic at the University of Cape Town. U.S. authorities extradited him to California where he served six and a half years in prison. He was released 10 May 2009. Kilgore grew up in California and lived in the volatile San Francisco Bay Area during the late 60s and early 70s. He became immersed in left-wing politics, eventually linking up with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). His involvement with the SLA led to an indictment for possession of explosives in 1975. Kilgore then fled the law for 27 years, living in Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa. He abandoned the politics violence, focusing on a career as an educator. He resided in Harare, the site of /We Are All Zimbabweans Now/, from 1982-91. There he met his wife, Terri and also wrote a doctoral dissertation on the history of domestic workers in Zimbabwe. From Harare Kilgore and Terri moved to South Africa where he worked as an educator and director for both Khanya College in Johannesburg and the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) in Cape Town. He earned a reputation as a champion of workers and the poor. The author currently lives with Terri and their two sons, in Illinois, U.S.A. /We Are All Zimbabweans Now/ is his first novel and his first publication under his real name. He is currently working on manuscripts of seven other novels which he wrote during his incarceration. Umuzi looks forward to a long and productive relationship with this blossoming writer. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Thu Jun 4 00:35:53 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:35:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] OAS revokes Cuba suspension; compromise lingo gets US vote Message-ID: <6011920A16FA40DFA1D7A89B02097C13@office1pc> Cuba currently -- as for the past four-plus decades, rejects the Organization of American states as a front for US intervention and domination. And I doubt that,even if the government changed its mind, it would accept the kind of vetting process possibly suggested -- though not guaranteed -- by the language the US got inserted. Note carefully the role of Human Rights Watch as an arm of the US side in this debate. This has to be kept firmly in mind in assessing all HRW activities. Note that Amnesty International and other independent rights organizations, some of which have criticisms of Cuba, were not lobbying against this measure as HRW did. Useful thought from an observer below: ""The vote sends a powerful signal to the Obama administration that the path of moderate, incremental change in US policy towards Cuba is depleting America's political capital in the region at an alarming rate." Fred Feldman Organisation of American States decides to readmit Cuba Pan-regional body rebuffed the US and revoked 47-year-old cold war measure Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent Wednesday 3 June 2009 23.08 BST Heads of state and authorities from countries members of the Organisation of American States at the body's the 39th general assembly. Photograph: Eduardo Verdugo/AP The Organisation of American States tonight lifted Cuba's half-century-old suspension in a dramatic decision to bring Havana back into Latin America's diplomatic fold. The pan-regional body rebuffed the United States, which lobbied against the move, and revoked a 1962 cold war measure which had marked the communist island as a pariah. "The cold war has ended this day in San Pedro Sula," said Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, who hosted the 34-member organisation in Honduras's second city. Dozens of foreign ministers from the Caribbean as well as central and South America stood to applaud when the announcement was made at the end of the two-day summit. "This is a moment of rejoicing for all of Latin America," Ecuador's foreign minister, Fander Falconi, told reporters. Cuba said it had no interest in rejoining the OAS, which Fidel Castro this week called a "Trojan horse" for US interests, but the opening of the door was a diplomatic victory for Havana and exposed Washington's isolation. Much of Latin America once considered Castro an anachronistic despot but since the 1990s the "maximum commandante" has won respect as an elder statesman and symbol of Latin American nationalism. Only the US still lacks diplomatic relations with the island. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said Havana should not be readmitted until it made concessions on democracy and human rights, a line echoed by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch which said political prisoners and repression continued under President Raul Castro. Those arguments were swept away by largely leftist governments who thought the organisation had been beholden to Washington for too long. "The vote to readmit Cuba to the OAS represents an unprecedented assertion of Latin American power in a hemispheric institution long dominated by the US," said Daniel Erikson, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank and author of The Cuba Wars. Washington recently softened its economic embargo against Cuba - a controversial policy enshrined the same year the OAS suspended the fledgling Castro government - but that was not enough to appease Latin leaders demanding bolder steps. "The vote sends a powerful signal to the Obama administration that the path of moderate, incremental change in US policy towards Cuba is depleting America's political capital in the region at an alarming rate," said Erikson. Latin leaders gave Obama a rapturous reception at an April summit in Trinidad and Tobago, his regional debut, but today's decision showed a steely resolve to stand up to the "gringo" superpower which is considered to have bullied the region for over a century. The US had hoped to engineer a compromise which would hinge Cuba's entry on the condition it met OAS democratic requirements. Instead, isolated and outnumbered, the US was cornered into a consensus agreement which said Cuba could rejoin after a "process of dialogue" in line with OAS "practices, proposals and principles". A US state department spokesman put a brave face on the outcome and said the US had dissuaded other members from automatically readmitting Cuba. "The historic action taken today eliminates a distraction from the past and allows us to focus on the realities of today." In contrast to its diplomatic shine, Cuba's economy darkened this week. Government austerity measures cut fuel and food rations in response to tumbling government revenues. From noah at noahz.org Thu Jun 4 00:48:33 2009 From: noah at noahz.org (Noah Zweig) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 23:48:33 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] UCSB Professor Kevin Anderson: "Race, Class and Slavery: The Civil War as a Second American Revolution" (video) Message-ID: <3DA1E8BC-EAB0-45FA-ACD3-68F0BD1EB368@noahz.org> http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational_and_howto/ watch/v185462538dWnjE62 Kevin Anderson presents "Race, Class and Slavery: The Civil War as a Second American Revolution," from his soon to be published book Marx at the Margins: On Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Non-Western Societies. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Thu Jun 4 01:12:11 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:12:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] NYT says lift blockade, but keep Cuba out of OAS Message-ID: <0B0B85CD0E00448A8F4A13B93BFEE9F4@office1pc> As far as Cuba goes, the usual jive from the Times. Interesting, however, their call for OAS pressure on its "errant members," allegedly Nicaragua and Venezuela, allegedly the least democratic. (Everything's dandy, democracy-wise, in Colombia, as always. As for Daniel Ortega, I'm no fan but I'm for giving credit where credit is due: Three cheers for him!) The Ecuadorian and Bolivian governments, which were quite active in this diplomatic fight, will probably be offended by being excluded from this condemnation of errancy. And note again the key role that Human Rights Watch played on the US side in the OAS gathering. Seems like this "rights" organization has joined the "without borders" family of pro-imperialist political cum "humanitarian" groups. Fred Feldman http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/opinion/04thu1.html June 4, 2009 Editorial Mr. Obama, Cuba and the O.A.S. For 50 years, the Cuban people have suffered under Fidel Castro?s, and now Ra?l Castro?s, repressive rule. But Washington?s embargo ? a cold war anachronism kept alive by Florida politics ? has not lessened that suffering and has given the Castros a far-too-convenient excuse to maintain their iron grip on power. So we are encouraged to see President Obama?s tentative efforts to ease the embargo and reach out to the Cuban people. At the same time, we are absolutely puzzled and dismayed by this week?s frenzied push by many Latin American countries to readmit Cuba to the Organization of American States. Cuba, which says it has no interest in joining, clearly does not meet the group?s standards for democracy and human rights. The campaign was led by the O.A.S.?s least-democratic members (Nicaragua and Venezuela), which seemed intent on picking a fight with Washington ? and deflecting attention from their own unsavory practices. The timing seems especially odd and counterproductive considering Mr. Obama?s strong overtures to the region and to Cuba. In April, Mr. Obama changed the regulations to allow Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives on the island as often as they want (the Bush administration had limited those visits to once every three years). And they can now send unlimited gifts and money. He has also cleared the way for American telecommunications firms to pursue licensing deals in Cuba in an attempt to expand access to cellphones and satellite television. The more contacts Cubans have with the outside world ? and the more they learn about the freedoms just 90 miles away ? the more likely they are to question the privations of their one-family rule. The White House also has offered to negotiate the first direct-mail service in decades and to resume talks with the Cuban government on migration, which were suspended by the Bush administration in 2003 along with most avenues of regular communication. This week, Havana agreed to the talks on migration and mail service as well as to possible cooperation on counterterrorism, drug interdiction and hurricane relief. This is not a reward for the Castro government. Eliciting Cuba?s cooperation is in this country?s clear interest. We also suspect that if Cuban officials talk to their American counterparts regularly, then they, too, may end up questioning their political allegiances. The Obama administration was right to resist the push to precipitously readmit Cuba to the O.A.S. It was right to insist that Havana first improve its treatment of its citizens and embrace the group?s democratic standards. On Wednesday ? after a hyperbole-filled debate that focused almost solely on past resentments of the United States, rather than Cuba?s ongoing repression ? the O.A.S., by acclamation, decided to lift Cuba?s 1962 suspension from the organization. Officials from the United States and the O.A.S. said that Cuba?s re-entry will not be immediate. It will result only from a dialogue in line with O.A.S. ?practices, purposes and principles.? We?re not sure exactly what that means, but we hope Havana will come under strong regional pressure to release political prisoners and make other democratic reforms. We understand the desire to fully reintegrate Cuba into the main regional organization. But as Human Rights Watch argued this week: ?Cuba is the only country in the hemisphere that repudiates nearly all forms of political dissent. For nearly five decades, the Cuban government has enforced political conformity with criminal prosecutions, long- and short-term detentions, mob harassment, physical abuse and surveillance.? Mr. Obama must go further and press Congress to lift the embargo. And the O.A.S. must press Havana to join the democratic mainstream ? and its errant members to adhere to the organization?s own democratic charter. From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 05:31:15 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 07:31:15 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] NYT says lift blockade, but keep Cuba out of OAS In-Reply-To: <0B0B85CD0E00448A8F4A13B93BFEE9F4@office1pc> References: <0B0B85CD0E00448A8F4A13B93BFEE9F4@office1pc> Message-ID: HRW has proportionally devoted far more time to attacking Colombian policy than Venezuela with the exception of that one report filed last year, which was controversial within the organization. Historically it seemed to me their sentiments were actually more liberal than the other human rights organizations. Liberality of course means a commitment to liberal (bourgeois) democracy. If certain aspects of that weren't under threat from Chavez's desire to expand participatory democracy and protect the revolution from the opposition I would be worried. From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 06:49:48 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:49:48 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Iranian elections Message-ID: <4A27C2EC.9090705@panix.com> http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/iran-j04.shtml Iranian presidential election: candidates debate strategic shift By Sahand Avedis and Alex Lantier 4 June 2009 The campaign for Iran?s June 12 presidential elections has been dominated by debate over national strategy between the four candidates allowed by the clerical Guardian Council to run. Amid a global economic crisis and expectations of a shift in US foreign policy after the election of President Barack Obama, significant sections of the Iranian bourgeoisie are seeking to change the social and diplomatic policies pursued by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad scored an upset victory in the 2005 election after denouncing the ?oil mafia? of powerful officials who control Iran?s oil revenues. He has since become one of the Washington?s main antagonists in the Persian Gulf. His government has supported Islamist organizations and parties targeted by US imperialism, such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Palestine, and pursued a nuclear program denounced by Washington. He has stoked tensions with Israel, while repeatedly calling into question the mass extermination of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust. He has been demonized regularly in Western mass media, and the Bush administration refused to publicly negotiate with his government. In the current campaign, a broad consensus has emerged among all the candidates in favor of closer relations with the US, as well as for imposing austerity measures against the working class. This includes Ahmadinejad and the ex-commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezaei?the candidates of the conservative, religious ?principlist? faction?and the more Western-oriented reformist candidates, ex-Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi and ex-Speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karroubi. Ahmadinejad himself signaled support for a shift, sending a letter to Obama on November 6 congratulating him on his victory. He appealed to Obama, writing that ?The great civilization-building and justice-seeking nation of Iran would welcome major, fair and real changes, in policies and actions, especially in this region.? Karroubi, who declared his candidacy last August, has criticized Ahmadinejad for his administration?s repressive measures, especially against university students. He also confronted Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after the 2005 presidential elections, alleging electoral fraud. In a May 21 speech on Iranian public television, he said: ?One major reason I have felt impelled to enter the election is that those in the state are infringing on the freedom of the people, more specifically by filtering the candidates and the presence of organized military forces in the past elections.? In the same speech, Karroubi criticized Ahmadinejad?s relations with other countries: ?It is not either confrontation or surrender. We can have interaction with them based on our national interest. What we see is that our Republic is also under threat because of these irrational policies.? Soon after Obama?s inauguration in January, reports emerged that the US State Department was drafting a letter to Iran, proposing negotiations. On February 10, Ahmadinejad announced that he was willing to negotiate with the US ?in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.? On February 8, ex-President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who held office from 1997 to 2005 and pursued a free-market policy of opening Iran to European and Asian investors, joined the race temporarily. However, he withdrew five weeks later in favor of Mousavi, apparently calculating that Mousavi?s more conservative image would create fewer expectations in reformist voters and less opposition from principlists. The New York Times quoted reformist analyst Saeed Laylaz, an economist who edits the business daily Sarmaye (which translates as Capital): ?There are many who think even if Khatami gets elected, he will face the same obstacles that he did when he was president before.? Laylaz added, ?There are serious concerns that they won?t let Mr. Khatami win under any circumstances, even if it means rigging the elections.? As he withdrew his candidacy, Khatami told the Mehr news agency: ?Opponents want to divide my supporters and supporters of Mousavi. It is not in our interest. Also, some conservatives are supporting Mousavi.... Mousavi is popular and will be able to execute his plans, and I prefer he stays in the race.? As prime minister from 1981 to 1989, Mousavi oversaw social austerity measures imposed to finance the Iran-Iraq war. At the time, he was a proponent of normalizing relations with the US and recognizing Arab regimes. In the lead-up to the American Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s, as the US and Israel sold weapons to Iran, Mousavi organized arms purchases from Israel and oversaw the repression of opposition to the negotiations with US officials on weapons?including the execution of prominent Iranian politician Mehdi Hashemi, who had led a Tehran demonstration against these covert arms deals. In the Western press, Mousavi is widely treated as the most viable challenger in the elections. In a May rally, Mousavi explained his appeal: ?Our people are looking for stable management skills and stable policies that can bring them a sense of relief and freedom.? Speaking in Isfahan, he criticized Ahmadinejad for ?doing things that defame Iranians throughout the world. The nation has not given you that right.... You?ve undermined the might of the nation through your uncalculated actions and have taken us to the point where the value of our passports is equal to that of a country like Somalia.? In March, Ahmadinejad signaled his willingness to carry out further social cuts against working people. He submitted a budget to the Iranian parliament calling for the elimination of government subsidies that keep water, gasoline, natural gas, and electricity prices low. This would ostensibly allow the government to implement ?targeted subsidies? that would be given only to the poorest layers of the population, thereby reducing state spending. Some reformists supported the budget cuts. Leylaz said he considered the budget a ?very great decision,? adding that if it had been proposed by a reformist, ?there would be so much opposition and disruption that the plan would be doomed to failure in its earliest stage.? However, several reformist newspapers criticized the measure. It ultimately foundered in the face of opposition by Ali Larijani, the conservative speaker of parliament who was also Iran?s nuclear negotiator. Larijani rewrote the budget bill without the subsidy cuts, and defeated an appeal by Ahmadinejad at the Guardians Council. The other principlist candidate, Mohsen Rezaei, announced his candidacy only on April 22. Famous for his victory at the 1981 battle of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war, Rezaei has mainly attacked Ahmadinejad on foreign policy issues, calling for a more pro-US line. In a May 11 interview with the German daily Der Tagesspiegel, he said that ?the foreign policy change of Obama should be trusted.? He continued: ?The US is no longer interested in military adventures throughout the globe and this creates a healthy atmosphere for dialogue. When the US changes we should change our attitude as well. We can play our role in the peace process in the Middle East, for example.? In a previous press conference cited by the Wall Street Journal, he described Ahmadinejad?s foreign policy as ?provocative? and ?adventurous.? For the Iranian bourgeoisie, the possibility of improving relations with Washington poses a sea change in its global prospects. Though Iran carries out most of its trade and investment with US capitalism?s European or Asian rivals, Tehran?s confrontational relations with Washington plays an even larger role in the country?s economic and political life. Currently, the US strangles foreign investment in Iran?s infrastructure, limits the development of its energy trade, blocks its access to international financial markets, and threatens it with military attack. It occupies two of Iran?s neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan, and is preparing to intensify an undeclared war in a third?Pakistan. The Iranian bourgeoisie may hope to improve its currently bleak economic situation through access to US investment. Since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, the annual inflation rate has increased from 11 to 25 percent, as the rise in energy revenues due to high oil prices has flooded the stagnating Iranian economy with cash. Industrial output has consistently declined amid high unemployment. Inflation in prices for food and other basic commodities, together with a wave of plant shutdowns, have caused a number of demonstrations throughout Iran. Tehran has already provided valuable support to Washington both in Iraq, where in 2007 it isolated the anti-US Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and in Afghanistan. A Shiite country, Iran is hostile to the bitterly anti-Shiite Taliban, which the US occupation displaced. A US-friendly regime in Tehran would eliminate substantial fears that have arisen in recent years about US access to the region?s energy supplies. There have been concerns in Washington that China may obtain direct overland pipeline access to Middle Eastern oil and gas through Central Asia or Pakistan to Iran; or that India might succeed in arranging a proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline. If the regime in Tehran were aligned with US strategic and energy interests, such developments would pose less of a threat to Washington. The Obama administration?s actions suggest that it is currently considering an improvement in relations with Tehran, and the Western press has called attention to US plans for negotiations with Tehran. In a May 20 article, the New York Times commented, ?Mr. Obama?s strategy is based on a giant gamble: That after the Iranian elections of June 12 the way will be clear to convince the Iranians that it is in their long-term interest to strike a deal, trading their ability to produce their own nuclear fuel for a range of tempting rewards. For months, White House and State Department strategists have been debating just what incentives to offer the Iranians up front, and in what order. But they start with the prospect of opening the spigots of investment in Iran?s decrepit oil infrastructure, and even recognizing?and aiding?a civilian nuclear capability for Iran, as long as the country kept its hand off the nuclear fuel.? The Times added that, should Iranians refuse to negotiate, the Obama administration was preparing to negotiate sanctions with China and European countries to totally isolate the Iranian economy. As the US media?notably investigative journalist Seymour Hersh?s pieces in the New Yorker?have repeatedly reported in past years, the Pentagon has prepared a number of plans for military action against Iran under such conditions. Close US-Iranian ties would not be unprecedented?under the Shah, from 1953 to 1979, Iran was Washington?s main proxy state in the Middle East. However, this bitter history points to an important factor in US-Iranian relations: US imperialism has always insisted that the oversight and distribution of Iran?s oil revenues be subordinated to the profit interests of the US-based energy conglomerates. In 1953, US and British intelligence arranged the overthrow of Iranian Premier Mohammed Mossadeq after the latter arranged passage of a law nationalizing Iran?s oil industry in 1951. They installed the Shah, who ruled through military dictatorship until his overthrow in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, spearheaded by powerful strikes, especially among the oil workers. At this point, the US isolated Iran commercially and diplomatically, in a vindictive policy pursued to this day. A rapprochement with Washington would doubtless mean an acceleration of the moves underway by both Ahmadinejad and the reformists to cut subsidies and concentrate oil revenues even more tightly in the hands of the Iranian ruling elite, in preparation for deals with US corporations and finance capital. In the end, closer relations between Tehran and Washington will only be cemented at the expense of the Iranian masses, who will see further cuts in their living standard, and of American working people, who would pay for it through continuation of the ruinous American military expenditures in the Middle East and Central Asia. About the WSWS | Contact Us | Privacy Statement | Top of page From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 07:00:28 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:00:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Eliot Spitzer: Truly terrifying data about the real state of the U.S. economy Message-ID: <4A27C56C.6060409@panix.com> http://www.slate.com/id/2219599/ From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 07:02:44 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:02:44 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] How Obama's 'Car Czar' Steve Rattner Is Bankrupting GM Message-ID: <4A27C5F4.7050503@panix.com> How Obama's 'Car Czar' Steve Rattner Is Bankrupting GM By Greg Palast, GregPalast.com Posted on June 4, 2009, Printed on June 4, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/story/140441/ Screw the autoworkers. They may be crying about General Motors' bankruptcy today. But dumping 40,000 of the last 60,000 union jobs into a mass grave won't spoil Jamie Dimon's day. Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase bank. While GM workers are losing their retirement health benefits, their jobs, their life savings; while shareholders are getting zilch and many creditors getting hosed, a few privileged GM lenders - led by Morgan and Citibank - expect to get back 100% of their loans to GM, a stunning $6 billion. The way these banks are getting their $6 billion bonanza is stone cold illegal. I smell a rat. Stevie the Rat, to be precise. Steven Rattner, Barack Obama's 'Car Czar' - the man who essentially ordered GM into bankruptcy this morning. When a company goes bankrupt, everyone takes a hit: fair or not, workers lose some contract wages, stockholders get wiped out and creditors get fragments of what's left. That's the law. What workers don't lose are their pensions (including old-age health funds) already taken from their wages and held in their name. But not this time. Stevie the Rat has a different plan for GM: grab the pension funds to pay off Morgan and Citi. Here's the scheme: Rattner is demanding the bankruptcy court simply wipe away the money GM owes workers for their retirement health insurance. Cash in the insurance fund would be replaced by GM stock. The percentage may be 17% of GM's stock - or 25%. Whatever, 17% or 25% is worth, well ? just try paying for your dialysis with 50 shares of bankrupt auto stock. Yet Citibank and Morgan, says Rattner, should get their whole enchilada - $6 billion right now and in cash - from a company that can't pay for auto parts or worker eye exams. Preventive Detention for Pensions So what's wrong with seizing workers' pension fund money in a bankruptcy? The answer, Mr. Obama, Mr. Law Professor, is that it's illegal. In 1974, after a series of scandalous take-downs of pension and retirement funds during the Nixon era, Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA says you can't seize workers' pension funds (whether monthly payments or health insurance) any more than you can seize their private bank accounts. And that's because they are the same thing: workers give up wages in return for retirement benefits. The law is darn explicit that grabbing pension money is a no-no. Company executives must hold these retirement funds as "fiduciaries." Here's the law, Professor Obama, as described on the government's own web site under the heading, "Health Plans and Benefits." "The primary responsibility of fiduciaries is to run the plan solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries and for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits." Every business in America that runs short of cash would love to dip into retirement kitties, but it's not their money any more than a banker can seize your account when the bank's a little short. A plan's assets are for the plan's members only, not for Mr. Dimon nor Mr. Rubin. Yet, in effect, the Obama Administration is demanding that money for an elderly auto worker's spleen should be siphoned off to feed the TARP babies. Workers go without lung transplants so Dimon and Rubin can pimp out their ride. This is another "Guantanamo" moment for the Obama Administration - channeling Nixon to endorse the preventive detention of retiree health insurance. Filching GM's pension assets doesn't become legal because the cash due the fund is replaced with GM stock. Congress saw through that switch-a-roo by requiring that companies, as fiduciaries, must "?act prudently and must diversify the plan's investments in order to minimize the risk of large losses." By "diversify" for safety, the law does not mean put 100% of worker funds into a single busted company's stock. This is dangerous business: The Rattner plan opens the floodgate to every politically-connected or down-on-their-luck company seeking to drain health care retirement funds. House of Rubin Pensions are wiped away and two connected banks don't even get a haircut? How come Citi and Morgan aren't asked, like workers and other creditors, to take stock in GM? As Butch said to Sundance, who ARE these guys? You remember Morgan and Citi. These are the corporate Welfare Queens who've already sucked up over a third of a trillion dollars in aid from the US Treasury and Federal Reserve. Not coincidentally, Citi, the big winner, has paid over $100 million to Robert Rubin, the former US Treasury Secretary. Rubin was Obama's point-man in winning banks' endorsement and campaign donations (by far, his largest source of his corporate funding). With GM's last dying dimes about to fall into one pocket, and the Obama Treasury in his other pocket, Morgan's Jamie Dimon is correct in saying that the last twelve months will prove to be the bank's "finest year ever." Which leaves us to ask the question: is the forced bankruptcy of GM, the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs, just a collection action for favored financiers? And it's been a good year for Seor Rattner. While the Obama Administration made a big deal out of Rattner's youth spent working for the Steelworkers Union, they tried to sweep under the chassis that Rattner was one of the privileged, select group of investors in Cerberus Capital, the owners of Chrysler. "Owning" is a loose term. Cerberus "owned" Chrysler the way a cannibal "hosts" you for dinner. Cerberus paid nothing for Chrysler - indeed, they were paid billions by Germany's Daimler Corporation to haul it away. Cerberus kept the cash, then dumped Chrysler's bankrupt corpse on the US taxpayer. ("Cerberus," by the way, named itself after the Roman's mythical three-headed dog guarding the gates Hell. Subtle these guys are not.) While Stevie the Rat sold his interest in the Dog from Hell when he became Car Czar, he never relinquished his post at the shop of vultures called Quadrangle Hedge Fund. Rattner's personal net worth stands at roughly half a billion dollars. This is Obama's working class hero. If you ran a business and played fast and loose with your workers' funds, you could land in prison. Stevie the Rat's plan is nothing less than Grand Theft Auto Pension. It doesn't make it any less of a crime if the President drives the getaway car. Economist and journalist Greg Palast, a former trade union contract negotiator, is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. He is a GM bondholder and card-carrying member of United Automobile Workers Local 1981. From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 07:04:10 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:04:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Unix turns 40 Message-ID: <4A27C64A.6090203@panix.com> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133570 From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 07:40:42 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:40:42 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Iranian elections #2 In-Reply-To: <4A27C2EC.9090705@panix.com> References: <4A27C2EC.9090705@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A27CEDA.5060208@panix.com> NY Times, June 4, 2009 Iran President and Challenger Clash in Debate By NAZILA FATHI TEHRAN ? A moderate politician who is considered the strongest challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran accused him on live television on Wednesday of undermining the nation?s interest by constantly questioning the Holocaust and by engaging in an adventurist foreign policy. The sharp attacks by the candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, came during a fierce 90-minute debate with Mr. Ahmadinejad that was broadcast throughout Iran. The two candidates clashed repeatedly during the one-on-one debate, with each accusing the other of radicalism and undercutting the country?s interest. Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister whose moderate views have won him support from other reformers in Iran, including former President Mohammad Khatami, has positioned himself as the strongest challenger to Mr. Ahmadinejad. Support from the Islamic authorities for the president, who is a religious conservative, appears to have weakened, and he is now widely criticized for Iran?s economic malaise. With the presidential election to be held June 12, Mr. Moussavi was on the offensive during the debate, which was broadcast by state-run television. At one point he accused Mr. Ahmadinejad of moving Iran toward ?dictatorship.? At another, he said that the president?s foreign policy suffered from ?adventurism, illusionism, exhibitionism, extremism and superficiality.? He also took issue with Mr. Ahmadinejad?s constant questioning of the Holocaust, saying that it harmed the country?s standing with the rest of the world and undermined its dignity. ?For the past four years you kept saying that the United States is collapsing,? Mr. Moussavi said. ?You have said Israel is collapsing. France is collapsing.? He added, ?Your foreign policies have been based on such illusional perceptions.? Mr. Ahmadinejad, who opened the debate, presented himself as a lonely incumbent who was being challenged by a powerful circle of leaders eager to bring him down. He said that two former presidents, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, were supporting Mr. Moussavi to end his tenure. He accused Mr. Rafsanjani, an influential cleric, and Mr. Rafsanjani?s sons of corruption and said they were financing Mr. Moussavi?s campaign. Mr. Ahmadinejad also cited a long list of officials whom he accused of unspecified corrupt acts, including plundering billions of dollars of the country?s wealth. ?These three were together from the beginning, Moussavi, Khatami and Hashemi,? the president said. ?They cooperated together against me.? Mr. Ahmadinejad contended that the early founders of the Iranian revolution, including Mr. Moussavi, had gradually moved away from the values of the revolution?s early days and had become ?a force that considered itself as the owner of the country.? He suggested that some leaders had indulged in an inappropriately lavish lifestyle, naming, among others, a former speaker of Parliament, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, who has opposed some of Mr. Ahmadinejad?s policies. Mr. Nouri, a conservative, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1997. Mr. Ahmadinejad?s remarks seemed to suggest a deepening divide between the president and a number of influential leaders, including some conservatives who belong to a faction that has supported Mr. Ahmadinejad. When Mr. Moussavi called Mr. Ahmadinejad?s foreign policy radical and accused him of trying to stifle political dissent, Mr. Ahmadinejad smiled scornfully and brushed off the accusations. He argued, in response, that Mr. Moussavi?s own government in the early days of the revolution had initiated much more radical policies. The debate had been expected to concentrate on the economy, but it devolved into a series of personal attacks. At one point, Mr. Ahmadinejad pulled out a photo of Mr. Moussavi?s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and accused her of having entered a graduate program without taking the highly competitive entrance exam. Near the end of the debate, Mr. Moussavi raised his hand and, in an angry tone of voice, tried to stop Mr. Ahmadinejad from interrupting him. It was at this point that he said the president was driving the country toward a dictatorship. Because the state-run television has given presidential candidates limited time to broadcast campaign videos, the debates could prove crucial. Analysts believe that in the 2004 election, Mr. Ahmadinejad won the support of many voters with a video in which he showed his modest home. The video was broadcast a few nights before the election. Mr. Ahmadinejad will debate other candidates in the next few days. He will appear Friday with Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of Parliament, and he will debate Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards, on Monday. Mr. Rezai and Mr. Karroubi, who have lagged in public opinion polls, engaged in the first of the presidential debates on Tuesday. They, too, criticized many of Mr. Ahmadinejad?s policies, but they offered differing views on what they would do to mend the country?s troubled economy. There are no private television stations, and candidates have accused Mr. Ahmadinejad of using state-run television for his own political advantage. The head of the state television is appointed by the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on state matters. From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 07:44:24 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:44:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Inuit party wins Greenland elections Message-ID: <4A27CFB8.5070003@panix.com> http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4155 From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 08:00:04 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:00:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Koko Taylor Message-ID: <4A27D364.9000808@panix.com> Wang Dang Doodle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxCa16-nxtM June 3, 2009 Koko Taylor, Blues Queen, Dies at 80 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:08 p.m. ET CHICAGO (AP) -- Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery. She was 80. Taylor died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about two weeks after having surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed, said Marc Lipkin, director of publicity for her record label, Alligator Records, which made the announcement. The break for Tennessee-born Taylor came in 1962, when arranger/composer Willie Dixon, impressed by her voice, got her a Chess recording contract and produced several singles (and two albums) for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," which she called silly, but which launched her recording career. From Chicago blues clubs, Taylor took her raucous, gritty, good-time blues on the road to blues and jazz festivals around the nation, and into Europe. After the Chess label folded, she signed with Alligator Records. In most years, she performed at least 100 concerts a year. "Blues is my life," Taylor once said. "It's a true feeling that comes from the heart, not something that just comes out of my mouth. Blues is what I love, and blues is what I always do." Taylor appeared on national television numerous times, and was the subject of a PBS documentary and had a small part in director David Lynch's "Wild at Heart." In the course of her more than 40-year career, Taylor was nominated seven times for Grammy awards and won in 1984. Born Cora Walton just outside Memphis, Tenn., Taylor said her dream to become a blues singer was nurtured in the cotton fields outside her family's sharecropper shack. "I used to listen to the radio, and when I was about 18 years old, B.B. King was a disc jockey and he had a radio program, 15 minutes a day, over in West Memphis, Arkansas and he would play the blues," she said in a 1990 interview. "I would hear different records and things by Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Sonnyboy Williams and all these people, you know, which I just loved." Although her father encouraged her to sing only gospel music, Cora and her siblings would sneak out back with their homemade instruments and play the blues. With one brother accompanying on a guitar made out of bailing wire and nails and one brother on a fife made out of a corncob, she began on the path to blues woman. Orphaned at 11, Koko -- a nickname she earned because of an early love of chocolate -- at age 18 moved to Chicago with her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert "Pops" Taylor, in search for work. Setting up house on the South Side, Koko found work as a cleaning woman for a wealthy family living in the city's northern suburbs. At night and on weekends, she and her husband frequented Chicago's clubs, where many the artists heard on the radio performed. "I started going to these local clubs, me and my husband, and everybody got to know us," Taylor said. "And then the guys would start letting me sit in, you know, come up on the bandstand and do a tune." In addition to performing, she operated a Chicago nightclub, which closed in November 2001 because her daughter, club manager Joyce Threatt, developed severe asthma and could no longer manage a smoky nightclub. From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 08:07:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:07:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Beijing is courting Santiago Message-ID: <4A27D518.1070601@panix.com> http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905u/china-chile Beijing is courting Santiago. Will Chileans come to like Chairman Mao more than Uncle Sam? by Paul Starobin China?s Copper Road Fidel Castro is an ?hombre,? a real man. So I was being told by Liu Yuqin, China?s ambassador to Chile, a veteran of diplomatic postings to South America, including Cuba and Ecuador. Our conversation at the Chinese embassy in Santiago began over jasmine tea in an ornate room decorated with traditional Chinese vases and a wall-length framed calligraphy scroll of a poem composed by Mao Tse-tung. The ambassador had short-cropped hair and was fashionably attired in a maroon blazer, a green and yellow checked shirt, black slacks, and soft black leather shoes. Next-door Argentina, she confessed, was a terrific place to shop for bargain leather goods and other clothing. She had learned to speak Spanish at a Beijing foreign-language institute in the early 1970s but relied on an interpreter to converse in English. Liu Yuqin was eager to talk about China?s involvement in South America in general, and in Chile in particular. First she dispensed a short history lesson, the main point of which was that there were long-standing fraternal ties between Asians, including the Chinese, and South Americans. It might be the case, she began, that Asians and indigenous South Americans are related by blood, as scientists speculate that Asians might have crossed over to the Americas from the Bering Strait ?land bridge? long ago, during a prehistoric ice age. There is a similarity in cheekbone structure, she pointed out. China?s direct ties with South America, she continued, go back to the 16th century, when a sea route for trade in silk developed between ports in South China and Mexico by way of Manila. In the late 19th century, Chinese workers were among those brought in to dig the Panama Canal, a difficult project the French initiated but failed to complete, with many laborers dying of malaria and yellow fever. (The United States took charge of the Canal Zone early in the 20th century and finished the job under vastly improved health conditions for the workers.) After the People?s Republic of China was established in 1949, no country south of the United States recognized the regime until Castro?s Cuba did so in 1960. Recognition from Chile came in 1970, from Salvador Allende, who, Yuqin noted, had first visited China in 1954, when relations between America and ?Red China? were extremely tense. Skipping ahead to the present, she said China was eager to deepen its ties with Chile, not just on the basis of copper but on cultural initiatives like Chinese-language programs. I asked if Chileans should be concerned about the Chinese succeeding the Spanish and the Americans as the new imperialists of South America. ?It?s not like China comes in to ransack this country of its raw materials?China pays for these raw materials,? she noted evenly. When I pointed out that a union of Chilean copper workers had taken a stand against China?s bid to become an owner of the Gaby mine, she said, ?As in all families, brothers can have an argument.? China has a policy of ?noninterference? in all countries and believes in the motto ?Win together.? China, she insisted, is preoccupied with its own internal development: China?s goal is ?peaceful development, never hegemony. We don?t have as much time as your country does to intervene in the affairs of others.? I had asked about the sensibilities of the Chileans, but she was responding to me as an American. And the truth, not surprisingly, is that Beijing is hoping to extend its ties with Chile to the military domain. So far, that part of the relationship is a modest one, involving Mandarin-language training for Chilean military personnel in Santiago. The next step is a broader initiative in language and cultural training for the Chilean military, who would go to China itself for their courses. A natural step beyond that would be an officer exchange program, such as Chile and the United States long had. Beyond that might be Chilean purchases of routine military gear, such as goggles, as well as weapons, from the Chinese. ?The Chileans have told us that the Chinese are interested in a much more robust military-to-military relationship,? a knowledgeable U.S. official told me. This official also said he would not be surprised to see in the long term? if not in five years, then perhaps in ten? the visitation of Chinese naval ships to ports like Valparaiso or Antofagasta. The Chinese, like the Indians, are actively expanding their blue-water navy because, as Chinese strategists say, ?the oceans are our lifelines? and ?if commerce were cut off, the economy would plummet.? A similar logic drove the expansion of the British Royal Navy in the 19th century. I asked Liu Yuqin whether China recognized the Monroe Doctrine?proclaimed by U.S. president James Monroe in 1823 to keep the Southern Hemisphere free of political systems ?essentially different? from that of the United States. At the time, the intention was to deter South American colonization by the Spanish or other European monarchies. Referencing the imperial European powers, Monroe had said that the United States ?should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.? It was a long time ago, but the Monroe doctrine was one basis for the efforts of cold warriors in Washington to keep communism out of South America after the Second World War, and the doctrine remains alive for hawks in early- 21st-century Washington. Liu Yuqin, with a smile, first corrected me on the date of the proclamation?I had flubbed it at 1815. Then she said, ?It?s not a question of whether we do or do not? recognize the Monroe Doctrine, because it exists as a unilateral declaration of the United States and nothing more than that. That was something of a nonanswer answer, but she added: ?The U.S. has to undergo a change of mentality, as the world has changed.? Shifting tack, she quite correctly noted that it is the Chileans who are soliciting China for an expansion of bilateral ties. This is especially true, she pointed out, in the area of language and culture. Nearly 20 of Chile?s universities, including its most prestigious ones, have in recent years established Mandarin Chinese?language programs, and the country?s number-one university, Universidad Cat?lica de Chile, in Santiago, has requested the establishment of a Confucius Center for learning about Chinese culture as a joint venture with the Chinese. Over lunch?an eight-course, two- hour affair, complete with a menu printed for the occasion?I asked the ambassador if she thought South America was part of the ?West? that includes European and American political and philosophical traditions? The world today is global; such classifications are not very meaningful, the ambassador said. I tried to draw her out on whether South America?s Roman Catholic culture, still vibrant in countries like Chile, was in any sense a barrier for China. No, Liu Yuqin replied; even though most Chinese are atheists, they readily accept that belief may be powerful in other cultures. And what about the vaunted difference between the Asian and Latin American work ethics? Even many Latinos, I said, tended to view their culture as a less hardworking, ma?ana one. (A Chilean lawyer in his sixties told me that Latin Americans had inherited from the Spanish nobility the idea that ?working was for villains? and still retain ?this curse of the Iberian tradition.?) Liu Yuqin laughed and brought up the example of Mexicans. She said, ?Mexicans like to have fun? they enjoy lots of holidays, lots of days off.? They are ?happy people.? Our conversation was over. She signed my copy of the menu to mark the occasion, and I returned to my hotel for an afternoon nap. From lycophidion at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 08:38:09 2009 From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 10:38:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Marxism Digest, Vol 68, Issue 6 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <709f342d0906040738w1ad14e2cq8a54faf92e26be8f@mail.gmail.com> > Message: 19 > Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 21:18:59 -0400 > From: Mark Lause > Subject: Re: [Marxism] New Socialist Pamphlets on Farming, Darwin > To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > ? ? ? ? > Message-ID: > ? ? ? ? > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > More interestingly, Darwin was wrong in his Victorian assumptions > about gradual and incremental change. ?Huxley argued this matter with > him, as I think Wallace did. No, had nothing to say about the pace of evolutionary change. > Evolution (whether biological or in a > historical sense) tends to be flashes of lurching in a vast amounts of > apparent inaction. Nope. Tends to be incremental change -- but, related to the organisms' generation times. "Punk eke" exists, BUT DOESN'T CONSTITUTE THE ONLY OR EVEN MAJOR FORM OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE. > > There's a real problem with this singular stroke of genius assumption > in general. ?Robert Chamber's made a much more fearless assertion of > some of the basic ideas of evolution in 1844...just about the time > Marx and Engels were beginning their work... > > ML > From epoliticus at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 09:05:26 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:05:26 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Deaths_of_U=2ES=2E_and_=91coalition=92?= =?windows-1252?q?_troops_significantly_increase_in_2009?= Message-ID: There has been a significant increase in the total number of deaths of U.S. and ?coalition? troops during 2009 and a corresponding paucity of reportage on this issue. After searching LexisNexis, I found no story in the major U.S. dailies about this fact. Yet the data are clear, i.e., deaths of U.S. and ?coalition? troops have attained a local maximum. During the period 2002-2008, I note that the highest number of deaths were in 2008 (77 fatalities). But there have been 117 fatalities so far in 2009, considering only the first five months of 2009. (Blog entry includes chart.) Interested comrades can read the full entry at http://bit.ly/NBUXq. epoliticus From jeremy at infowells.com Thu Jun 4 08:47:38 2009 From: jeremy at infowells.com (Jerry Wells) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:47:38 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] AFL-CIO: Sweeny Retires; Old Economy Doesn't Work Message-ID: <1244126858.4308.24.camel@pool-96-251-17-10.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net> FYI: I made two comments from a socialist perspective to two articles with the usual conservative perspectives of the AFL-CIO NOW BLOG. My writing is not so great. A few other comments appear sometimes but there is a lack of critical or socialist commentary on this blog. Perhaps others may want to add their two cents worth. 1. Sweeney Receives Lifetime Leadership Award at America?s Future Now! http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/06/03/sweeney-receives-lifetime-leadership- award-at-americas-future-now/#more-14760 2. This article is now posted on the AFL-CIO NOW BLOG. I made a comment about the Peace and Freedom Party National Convention in August Old Economy Doesn't Work - Time for a New Economy http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/06/03/old-economy-doesnt-worktime-for-a-new- model/#comments From epoliticus at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 09:25:37 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:25:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Interview of Bob Rowthorn Message-ID: Visit http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/rowthorn.htm to view both an excerpt of his interview and a link to the interview in its entirety. The interview is interesting and recommended. I believe that Rowthorn was an outstanding Marxist economist in his day, but nowadays apologetically adheres to the "TINA doctrine." For example, he says ".... [I] believe that Marx's biggest mistake was to believe that there is an alternative to capitalism ...." epoliticus -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 09:41:17 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:41:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Zionists target Berkeley newspaper Message-ID: <4A27EB1D.4070007@panix.com> http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-06-04/article/33078 From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 09:44:12 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:44:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Arno Mayer: The Future of Israel and the Decline of the American Empire Message-ID: <4A27EBCC.8010307@panix.com> (Mayer is a distinguished historian who taught at Princeton for many years.) http://www.counterpunch.org/mayer06042009.html From farmelantj at juno.com Thu Jun 4 09:58:46 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 15:58:46 GMT Subject: [Marxism] New Socialist Pamphlets on Farming, Darwin Message-ID: <20090604.115846.19782.0@webmail04.vgs.untd.com> Wikipedia has a couple of interesting articles on Chambers and his book, *Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation*. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Chambers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestiges_of_the_Natural_History_of_Creation It should be noted that in the 1830s and 1840s there was much public discussion of evolution in Great Britain. One reason for Darwin's reluctance to publish his own theory was because the previous public discussions of the subject created in the popular mind the impression that support for evolution was something that was associated with atheism and socialism, an impression that was by no means inaccurate. Jim Farmelant ---------- Original Message ---------- Mark Lause wrote: More interestingly, Darwin was wrong in his Victorian assumptions about gradual and incremental change. Huxley argued this matter with him, as I think Wallace did. Evolution (whether biological or in a historical sense) tends to be flashes of lurching in a vast amounts of apparent inaction. There's a real problem with this singular stroke of genius assumption in general. Robert Chamber's made a much more fearless assertion of some of the basic ideas of evolution in 1844...just about the time Marx and Engels were beginning their work... ML ____________________________________________________________ Click to replace your roof - modern technology. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTJr9CUEdfiWAT3GZ2pyU2jv7nPjCfpT8Zlw7ISrTtDcBhUyfSa4dq/ From lnp3 at panix.com Thu Jun 4 11:27:17 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:27:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Latin America Factor in Iran's Elections Message-ID: <4A2803F5.1090405@panix.com> http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff06042009.html From elishastephens at hotmail.com Thu Jun 4 12:42:37 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:42:37 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Obama in Cairo Message-ID: Links and formatting in the original here: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-in-cairo.html Transcript. "We [the United States] were born out of revolution against an empire," says Obama. Much later in the speech, we see the lesson he learned from that fact, which he hopes the Palestinians will learn: "Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed." Hmmmm. Of course he also claims that's the lesson of the fight against slavery in this country: "For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding." I seem to remember there was a war in there somewhere. It's true that Blacks did not come out of the Civil War with "full and equal rights," but without that war, a great many of them would have had no rights at all. Then we come to Palestine, with so much to say. "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. (Applause.) This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." Actually, it was time for them to stop in 1967, since they were illegal on that day and have been illegal every day since. Not accepting the "legitimacy" of "continued" settlements (by which he means continued building of new settlements, not the "continued" existence of existing ones) is a not-so-clever way to accept the legitimacy of the existing settlements. And the seige of Gaza? "Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build." But the ones in Gaza quite literally can't "build" anything since Israel and Egypt are preventing the importation of all building materials - steel, concrete, glass. "They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation." They do. But starvation, or dying because of the denial of access to medical care, is not just a "humiliation," even a "large" humiliation. It's genocide. "And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society. Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank." Again, 1-year-old Palestinians are dying in Gaza because of lack of medical care, and Obama's reaction to this is that it "does not serve Israel's security." Really, it would be hard to find a more offensive formulation than that. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Obama's talk about how he's going to "pursue this outcome with all the patience and dedication that the task requires" is patent nonsense, particularly when it comes to the siege of Gaza. Obama could break the siege of Gaza tomorrow if he chose to do so, and it wouldn't even have to involve giving an ultimatum to Israel or Egypt: Imagine, instead of the puny "Free Gaza" boats sailing into Gaza with a day or two's worth of supplies, if a U.S. warship (or peaceship if you prefer, but they'll need to be armed to make sure the Israelis take no action) filled with hundreds of tons of supplies were to sail up to Gaza. No, instead he'll keep talking about how "now is the time" to do something about it, instead of acknowledging that that time was long ago. 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq? "Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year." That's what you've got? The actions "contrary to our traditions and our ideals" consisted of torturing people and imprisoning people at Guantanamo? How about invading other countries which didn't attack us? How about the indefinite imprisonment of tens of thousands of people without charges, trials, or any rights at all? How about indiscriminate bombing of civilians? On Iran: "For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country." Yeah, yeah, it's all about you. Iran's concern has nothing to do with the continued threats against it from Israel and the United States. And, by the way, thanks for acknowledging that the United States "played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government." Quite true. The leading role. "But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point...And any nation -- including Iran -- should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." If it complies? Iran is in complete compliance with the NPT, so why we have "reached a decisive point" about nuclear weapons is completely unclear. I'll end on a hopeful (with tongue in cheek) note. Obama did explicitly endorse a "two-state" solution. But doesn't this sound like he should have been endorsing a one-state solution? "Too many tears have been shed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra -- (applause) -- as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer. (Applause.)" Of course (you knew I really couldn't end on a hopeful note, didn't you?), what "God intended" is precisely one of the major sources of the problem; just ask the settlers (and their supporters in the Knesset) who believe God ordained them to possess "Judea and Samaria." Putting your weight behind what "God intended" is precisely the wrong way to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I'm sure there's lots more to say; it's a long speech. But for now I've got to move on. _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 From Jscotlive at aol.com Thu Jun 4 12:53:20 2009 From: Jscotlive at aol.com (Jscotlive at aol.com) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:53:20 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Obama's Speech. Myth and Reality Message-ID: While Middle East analysts, the international press, and capitals throughout the region hung on every world of the President?s keynote speech in Cairo today, and his attempt to outline a new beginning in relations between the US and the Arab and Muslim world, Samia Ihdaidoon, a Palestinian mother of five from East Jerusalem, was probably still be too busy trying to rebuild the shattered lives of her and her children to care. On 25 April, in the early hours of the morning, Samia and her children were rudely awoken by the sound of Israeli bulldozers come to demolish her house. ?They came pounding on the doors and climbed in through the bedroom window, as if it was a raid,? she told a journalist whilst surveying the rubble that was once her home in the aftermath. ?They said I had five minutes to put on my scarf and collect our valuables, then I had to get out. It?s a shock for the children. Look at their faces. I?m in despair.? Samia?s home was in the Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, a predominately Arab area bordered on one side by the Jewish settlement of Armon Hanatziv to the west and the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour to the north. Many of Jabal Mukaber?s 14,000 residents have rejected Israeli citizenship as a gesture of solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank, especially with former neighbours who?ve suddenly found themselves stuck on the ?wrong? side of Israel?s sepearation wall, which runs through the middle of the neighbourhood and has split entire families apart. The demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem has continued, along with the expansion of Israeli settlements, despite East Jerusalem having been agreed as the future capital of a Palestinian state under the provisions of the ?road map? peace process, negotiated by the so-called quartet mediators of the US, UN, EU, and Russia back in 2003. In a recent report on settlement activity in East Jerusalem the Israeli human rights group, Peace Now, stated that: ?The government of Israel is investing tens of millions of shekels per year for projects in East Jerusalem, so to strengthen the Jewish hold over the city and to change the current delicate status quo. The plan is being implemented with the help of ideological right wing associations, and plans to create a contiguity of Jewish settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. ?All of the planning is made unilaterally without the participation and knowledge of the non-Jewish residence of East Jerusalem. They are faced with facts on the ground without a real possibility to object or to present alternative development plans of their own. ?The implementation of the plan will change dramatically the map of Jerusalem, will escalate the tensions between Jews and Muslims and will prevent the possibility of a two states solution based on a compromise in Jerusalem. ? During his recent meeting with the President in Washington, Israel?s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed to dismantle all illegal outposts throughout the occupied territories and to halt the construction of any new settlements. But with regard to existing settlements, the Israeli Prime Minister stated that ?natural growth? should and would be allowed to continue. Both the President, and even more emphatically his Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, responded by reaffirming their desire to see a halt to all settlement activity, including that which might come under the rubric of ? natural growth?, in line with a renewed commitment by both sides to a two state solution, as set out under the provisions of the road map. However, despite both the President?s and the Secretary of State?s recent statements, facts on the ground, married to an entire history of US/Israeli relations, suggests that for people like Samai Ihdaidoon things will continue as before. In the six years between the negotiation of the road map in 2003 and the new administration?s public disagreement over the status of settlements with the Israeli government, Israeli settlements have grown by an average of 4-6% each year, continuing the same pattern of growth of the past two decades, which constitutes a much higher rate than the 1.5% growth in Israeli society as a whole. Currently there are around 121 Israeli settlements on internationally recognised Palestinian land, along with a further 102 outposts, home to approximately 500,000 settlers. While these illegal settlements may occupy just 3% of the West Bank in terms of land mass, the network of settler roads and restrictions on the movements of the Palestinians means that they in fact dominate 40%. As for the settlers themselves, they are largely made up of economic migrants taking advantage of government subsidised housing and amenities. But also making up the settler community are a sizeable number of adherents to the Zionist ideology of a Greater Israel and those with a religious attachment to the same objective. According to the specific interpretation you care to adopt, this can mean anything from all of the land of historic Palestine, to the passage from Genesis in the Old Testament, which states: ?On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates - the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." From ecosocialism at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 13:07:40 2009 From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 15:07:40 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism Message-ID: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> Mark wrote: >More interestingly, Darwin was wrong in his Victorian assumptions?about gradual >and incremental change. Huxley argued this matter with?him, as I think Wallace did. >Evolution (whether biological or in a?historical sense) tends to be flashes of lurching >in a vast amounts of?apparent inaction. Mark, the problem with this argument is that the "Victorian assumptions about gradual and incremental change" didn't exist. The usual Victorian assumption was god-ordained stability, not gradual change. Pre-Darwin theories about the origin of new species consistently rejected the idea that one species could gradually change into another one: they believed that new species appeared suddenly. That was the only logical conclusion they could adopt, given their belief "species" were, im Stephen Jay Gould's words,"entities, not tendencies; things, not arbitrary segments of a flux." For example, Robert Chambers, whom you mention, believed that a species remained constant until, as part of the Divine plan, the females extended their gestation periods and gave birth to something new. The old species was totally replaced by a new one, in one generation. In France, Cuvier explained the changing character of animals in the fossil record not by gradual and incremental change but by multiple waves of extinction and creation. When Huxley argued for a saltationist (sudden leaps) theory, he was defending not a new radical idea but the old essentialist view of species as things. Darwin's realization that species are populations rather than entities, and that evolution results from long-term shifts in the composition of populations rather than sudden changes to the "species-entity" was so radical (and so materialist) that even some of his closest collaborators couldn't get their minds around it. Finally, your statement that "Evolution ... tends to be flashes of lurching in a vast amounts of apparent inaction," should be preceded by, "Some scientists believe that ...." As Marxists, we may think the Gould-Eldridge theory of "punctuated equilibrium" is "dialectical," but it is always dangerous to judge science that way. (As Engels says somewhere, for many radicals "historical materialism" serves as an excuse for not actually studying history.) Punctuated equilibrium may be correct, but it is still very much a minority viewpoint among scientists. Note also that the "rapid" changes envisioned by Gould and Eldridge took place over tens or hundreds of thousands of years -- fast from a geological perspective, but very gradual on a human time scale. I will be speaking on "Marx, Engels and Darwin" at the ISO's Socialism 2009 conference in Chicago on June 18. I look forward to discussing the subject with any Marxmailers who attend. Ian Angus Download "Marx, Engels and Darwin" at From avvakum at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 14:05:29 2009 From: avvakum at gmail.com (Thomas Campbell) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 00:05:29 +0400 Subject: [Marxism] Solidarity with Artem Loskutov, Young Artist Arrested in Novosibirsk Message-ID: On May 15, the young contemporary artist Artem Loskutov was arrested in his native Novisibirsk and charged with possession of a narcotic substance (marijuana) by the local branch of the Interior Ministry's notorious Center for Extremism Prevention (Center "E"). Loskutov and his supporters claim that the police planted the marijuana in his bag in order to incriminate him. As one of the organizers of the annual "Monstration" -- a flash mob street party in which young people march with absurdist slogans -- Loskutov had long been an objection of the Center's attentions. At a pre-trial custody hearing on May 20, it was revealed that the Center had been tapping the phones of Loskutov and his friends for the past six months. In April and on May Day itself, Loskutov had been summoned to the Center for "discussions," and his parents had been called and told that their son was a member of a dangerous sect. The circumstances of the case and the way that he was arrested thus point to a campaign of intimidation directed both at Loskutov and his fellow "monstrators" in Novosibirsk. The Loskutov case has sparked a massive outcry in Russia's activist and art communities. In the past three weeks, artists, activists, and ordinary concerned citizens all over Russia have carried out a series of pickets, protests, and actions in Loskutov's defense. The most inspiring of these actions has been a "plein air" hunger strike organized by several young artists in Petersburg, now in its second week. The artists encamped themselves in a park next to city hall and began producing paintings and drawings whose central theme is the increasingly brutal police repression of social activists and left-wing artists in Russia. The hunger strikers have issued three demands. First, they want a criminal investigation of the mass arrests by riot police of a group of young anarchists on May Day in Petersburg despite their having obtained official written permission to march with the other columns of demonstrators. Second, they call for the creation of a public commission to monitor the work of Center "E." Finally, they ask that all charges against Artem Loskutov be dropped and that he be released. Although the Loskutov case and the Petersburg hunger strike have become one of the hottest topics in the Russian blogosphere, there has been a near-total blackout in the mainstream Russian press, especially television. That is why we ask you to read the article linked below and learn how you can join our campaign of solidarity with Artem and his artist comrades in Petersburg. We have called an international day of solidarity actions for June 9, a day before Artem's next hearing in the Novosibirsk Regional Court. An injury to one is an injury to all! Free Artem Loskutov! http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/free-artem-loskutov/ From billyoc at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 14:45:15 2009 From: billyoc at gmail.com (Billy O'Connor) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:45:15 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Deaths_of_U=2ES=2E_and_=91coalition=92?= =?windows-1252?q?_troops_significantly_increase_in_2009?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Politicus E. wrote: > There has been a significant increase in the total number of deaths of > U.S. and ?coalition? troops during 2009 and a corresponding paucity of > reportage on this issue. After searching LexisNexis, I found no story > in the major U.S. dailies about this fact. Yet the data are clear, > i.e., deaths of U.S. and ?coalition? troops have attained a local > maximum. During the period 2002-2008, I note that the highest number > of deaths were in 2008 (77 fatalities). But there have been 117 > fatalities so far in 2009, considering only the first five months of > 2009. > > (Blog entry includes chart.) > > Interested comrades can read the full entry at http://bit.ly/NBUXq. I heard Doug Henwood say once that you're a true empire when your wars slip under the radar. Now that the leaders of the anti-war movement have been safely folded into the Democratic cocktail party scene, we can concentrate on moving beyond all that protesting. From dbmcdonald at comcast.net Thu Jun 4 14:57:06 2009 From: dbmcdonald at comcast.net (David McDonald) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:57:06 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism Message-ID: <4A283522.2090109@comcast.net> Ian, Nice post. I believe you have committed a bit of an anachronism by stating that Darwin thought of species as "populations." I think that Ernst Mayr was the guy who invented the concept of "population" to indicate a non-essentialist concept of species. I may be wrong about this, but I believe that the Frenchman Lamark, neither a Victorian nor an Englishman, was the originator of the idea of gradual, incremental change. I have noticed that almost no one remarks upon what Darwin actually wrote, which is that the lowest unit of existence beyond the individual is the variety. Species, according to Darwin, are the best-established varieties. Darwin thought varieties were naturally existing entities, and species constructs. This idea is found throughout The Origin. Have you worked your way through The Structure of Evolutionary Theory? Sorry I won't be able to attend the ISO Conference, I would enjoy talking these issues over with you. David McDonald From jbustelo at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 15:00:41 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:00:41 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism In-Reply-To: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> References: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Ian wrote: "Mark, the problem with this argument is that the "Victorian assumptions about gradual and incremental change" didn't exist. The usual Victorian assumption was god-ordained stability, not gradual change." First, let me say that I am in no wise an expert on these matters (and for those who say, "nor on any others" I would add, "OK, but I don't even *claim* to have any special insight or expertise" in this field, as distinct from some others). Nevertheless, I think the Engels and then later Gould critiques of a gradualist interpretation of natural evolution to be very attractive, including on strictly methodological grounds. For example, one of the criticisms that I make of the Communist Manifesto's (and other M-E writings/positions relating to the national question from around that time) is precisely its evolutionary gradualism. The view that Lenin came to towards the end of his life --that the key was the distinction between oppressor and oppressed nations-- is much more satisfying even from a narrow methodological point of view -- and even when extended to pre-modern imperialist relations between nations. In other words, I don't think "dialectics" are simply in our perceptions, in the way we organize data, think about it, or assimilate it. I think dialectics are "out there," in nature, in society, and the more dialectical explanation is likely to be the truer one. As for Gould-Etheridge's "punctuated equilibrium," I was under the impression that much of the fossil record pretty much bears it out, i.e., that it solves the problem of "missing links" between what clearly seem to be "mother" species and "daughter" species. I *think* I understand somewhat the argument against an "essentialist" view of species, but my strictly amateur impression is that the concept of species nevertheless retains a great deal of force and validity. In other words, that lineages of evolutionary change DO frequently, or even normally, arrive at *relatively* stable life-forms whose more important characteristics or adaptations appear stable over extended periods. This does not, of course, answer the question of, for example, whether a given population from, say, five million years ago could even interbreed with its successor population that seems to be essentially identical to the old one, in other words, that the "old" species evolved very substantially and at a good rhythm, but the sum total of its genetic change was to produce a population very much environmentally adapted like the original one. As for the "Victorian outlook" or "Victorian prejudices," I think what Ian says is true, especially of religious thinking, but it doesn't really exclude that gradualism was another paradigm that dominated a different aspect of thinking --thinking focusing on evident ongoing change-- in that epoch. What was unusual, especially in the Anglo Saxon sphere of ideological influence, was the idea of accumulating small changes becoming qualitative, large changes, or to put it in political terms, that revolution is not the opposite of reforms, or of the fight for reforms, but rather the negation/culmination of the reform movement. Joaquin PS: One final thought, this less meta-historical. It seems to me a WONDERFUL thing that the ISO is reaching out beyond its own ideological/political current (defined in the strictest terms) to people like Ian, and serving as a pole of attraction around which to cohere the Marxist ideological "tribe," even if we are not all members of the specific ISO "family" or household. People from my generation and background tend to compare the ISO with the [U.S.] SWP of old, and find that it is tactically less flexible or audacious or in some way or other not quite as good. Be that as it may, I want to suggest that these ISO comrades, in the broader ideological arena, are much, MUCH less sectarian than the SWP of old. Louis is fond of quoting I forget which SWP leader's statement from the mid-1940s to the effect that the SWP was a monopolist in the field of politics. But that is actually an understatement of "our" real attitude, as I understood it, at least by the mid-1970's. Our stance was that you could not expect someone to be sound on, for example, Lenin's philosophical notebooks or Marx's mathematical studies unless they understood the Democratic Party question and *just the exact, same way* that the SWP did. Whatever one might want to criticize about the ISO's tactics or web page layouts, one think must be admitted. They simply don't have the monstrously arrogant and totalitarian view of truth and who was right and wrong that we --or at least I-- held during much of the time that I was in the SWP. And this is a tremendously important thing. Because essential to the old SWP's outlook was a certain psychology that automatically disqualified the views on EVERYTHING held by someone who disagreed with the SWP on some important issue (an "important issue" being something you would write Militant articles about, or even whole books, as distinct from anything having to do with what you did in real life on the ground in your union or some social or protest movement). I mean, in talking to "contacts" and so on, having doubts about "our" tactics in WOMBAT or some other single-issue coalition was an occasion for calm discussion, generous statements about reasonable people having different views, the test of practice, refining tactics over time and so on. But misclassifying East Germany as a *degenerated* workers state as opposed to a *deformed* one, or some such similar distinction, could *easily* lead to the equivalent of all-out thermonuclear war in the ideological sphere -- and especially if there really wasn't any disagreement about what to do in relation to the issue in practice, and MOST OF ALL if there was really nothing to do around the issue in practice AT ALL. Of course, I am exaggerating. But what I am exaggerating is the *PRACTICALITY* and *IMMEDIACY* of the disputes that set off ideological people's war in Trotskyist ranks 40 years ago. We had to-the-death ideological combat with "Bolivio" Maitan and the French LCR for their using formulations that were about 10% as ultraleft as Peter Camejo was in the real (original) versions of his famous talks about ultraleftism and how to make a revolution in the U.S. In this, the ISO comrades, it must be admitted, stand heads and shoulders above the old SWP, or at least this individual miscreant, and most of all in the way they seem to be organizing these socialism confabs. Joaquin From Paula_cerni at msn.com Thu Jun 4 15:09:56 2009 From: Paula_cerni at msn.com (Paula) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 14:09:56 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] geopolitics of global energy Message-ID: International competition, rivalry and conflict. papers from a recent workshop: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/polsoc/download/geopolitics/workshoppapers Paula From sebastian at amadeobordiga.u-net.com Thu Jun 4 15:48:31 2009 From: sebastian at amadeobordiga.u-net.com (Sebastian Budgen) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:48:31 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Ch=E1vez=92s_Gift_to_Obama=3A_What=92s?= =?windows-1252?q?_to_be_Made_of_What_Is_To_Be_Done=3F?= Message-ID: <47AC26FF-94C5-4318-89C5-083AE0CD4F23@amadeobordiga.u-net.com> Ch?vez?s Gift to Obama: What?s to be Made of What Is To Be Done? Lars T. Lih, June 4, 2009 Hugo Ch?vez, President of Venezuela, has just announced on Venezuelan television that the next time he meets with President Barack Obama, he will give the American head of state a short book written in 1902 by one Lenin, entitled What Is to Be Done? (Chto delat??). A surprising announcement. The last time Ch?vez showed his willingness to fill out Obama?s reading list, he gave him a topical book on the situation in Latin America. But what topical interest can be found in a book over a century old, written under the drastically alien circumstances of tsarist Russia? Besides, many of us will remember being taught about this book in a poli sci or history class. Isn?t What Is to Be Done? a ?blueprint for Soviet tyranny?? Isn?t this the book in which Lenin expressed his contempt for workers? or, in any event, his worry that the workers would never be sufficiently revolutionary? These worries, so we are told, led Lenin to advocate a party of ?professional revolutionaries? from the intelligentsia that would replace a genuine democratic mass movement. All in all, isn?t What Is to Be Done? something of an embarrassment for the Left? a book much better forgotten than thrust into the hands of world leaders? I am not privy to Ch?vez?s thoughts on the matter. But, having recently spent several years of my life re-translating What Is to Be Done? into English and recreating the historical context for Lenin?s book, I feel qualified to clear up some of the confusions and misconceptions that surround the book. In preparation for my study Lenin Rediscovered, I read every piece of writing mentioned by Lenin in What Is to Be Done?? and since Lenin was intensely polemical, I had a lot of ground to cover. I had to become well versed, not only in the intricacies of the infighting among the Russian revolutionaries, but also in the ways in which the Western European workers parties inspired Lenin and his comrades. I had to get a sense of the exact political conjuncture in Russia in the few months in late 1901 and early 1902 during which Lenin hastily penned his treatise. A blueprint for Soviet tyranny? On the contrary, What Is to Be Done? represents a heritage that had to be rejected before Soviet tyranny could be established. An expression of elitist ?worry about workers?? On the contrary, Lenin goes way overboard in his sanguine optimism about the workers? revolutionary fervor. Lenin?s organizational suggestions are all about reconciling the contradictory imperatives of avoiding arrest in the underground while simultaneously creating extensive roots in the Russian worker community. As for topicality?well, we shall see. At the turn of the twentieth century, tsarist Russia was run by a religiously-sanctioned elite that was hostile even to the idea of political freedom?that is, freedom of speech, of press, of assembly, of autonomous organization. The tsarist regime showed itself unable and unwilling to adjust to the challenges imposed by a world that was rapidly globalizing and putting pressure on Russia in terms of military rivalry, economic performance and the subversive political ideals wafting in from the west. To prove how incompetent they were, the tsarist government got itself involved in a war with Japan and bungled it big-time. More and more social groups in Russia were losing patience with the tsar?s pretentions?not only such traditional troublemakers as the intellectuals or the national minorities, but also groups that the government had always assumed to be highly loyal, such as the peasants and even many opposition-minded landowners and businessmen. The industrial workers in particular were rapidly being politicized, thus becoming the most dangerous opposition force. All this inchoate and uncoordinated discontent could explode if the right spark fell in the right place?which is why Lenin and his friends called their underground newspaper The Spark (Iskra). The ultimate aim of their newspaper was to make the anti-tsarist revolution happen. An underground newspaper published abroad could hardly provide directly leadership to the many discontented groups throughout the Russian empire. What it could do was make people aware that they were not alone, that discontent everywhere was growing, that tsarism was becoming desperate, and that one group at least?the industrial workers?was increasingly ready to take to the streets, not only for their own sectional economic interests, but to obtain political freedom for all of Russia. Once society as a whole was imbued with this awareness, tsardom was doomed. Such was the reasoning of Lenin and his friends. Today, of course, any such strategy would have to be adapted to forms of communication not dreamt of in 1902. But this strategy leads to a paradox. Lenin, the committed Marxist socialist, the future head of the Soviet one-party state, making political freedom in Russia his most urgent priority? Strange as it may seem?and ignored as it by most Western historians?this is exactly the case. Lenin made political freedom his top priority precisely because he was a dogmatic Marxist socialist. Like many other Russians of his generation?both the intelligentsia and the workers?Lenin was inspired by the stirring example of the massive and powerful German Social Democratic Party (SPD). The SPD was a mass, worker-based party, officially committed to a Marxist brand of socialism, showing radical opposition to the German establishment, and growing in numbers and influence all the time. The outlook of the German party was based on the core Marxist proposition that socialism can only be introduced by the workers themselves, and so the main activity of the party consisted of a ceaseless round of propaganda and agitation, both aimed at spreading the socialist word among the workers. Russian Social Democrats were green with envy at the massive Social Democratic press, the noisy and crowded rallies, the eloquent denunciations by elected socialist deputies in parliament. But in order to emulate the German socialists, they needed something that didn?t exist in Russia: political freedom. Strange but true: the central aim of Lenin?s political career, at least up to the outbreak of war in 1914, was obtaining political freedom for Russia by revolutionary overthrow of the tsar. In a short book written around the time of What Is to Be Done? in which he explained the platform of Russian Social Democracy to a popular audience, Lenin entitled one section ?What Do the Social Democrats Want?? and answered his own question thusly: ?Russian Social Democrats, before anything else, aim at achieving political freedom? (Lenin?s emphasis). As Lenin further explained in a newspaper article, ?without political freedom, all forms of worker representation will remain pitiful frauds, the proletariat will remain as before in prison, without the light, air and space needed to conduct the struggle for its full liberation.? Lenin?s commitment to this goal was no secret to his political rivals. One of the first reviews of What Is to Be Done? appeared in the underground journal of anti-tsarist liberals. The anonymous author (possibly the liberal party?s most famous leader, Paul Miliukov) explained why Lenin opposed the so-called ?economists? within the Russian socialist movement: ?The Russian proletariat? said the advocates of [economism]? had not yet matured enough to understand specific political demands; all that it was capable of now was the struggle for its economic needs. The Russian worker did not yet feel any need for political freedom. [But] in a country that has a despotic regime such as our Russian one, in a country where such elementary democratic rights as the right of free speech, assembly and so on, do not exist, where each worker strike is accounted a political crime and workers are forced by bullets and whips to return to work?in such a country, no party can restrict itself to the narrow framework of an exclusively economic struggle. And Mr. Lenin justly protests against such a program.? Lenin?s Mensheviks critics even accused Lenin of going overboard about political freedom and thereby increasing the danger of letting the workers be politically exploited by the bourgeois liberals. In order to make his strategy plausible, Lenin had to make a strong case that the Russian workers were champing at the bit to fight the tsar and demand political freedom. And in fact, at the very time Lenin was writing What Is to Be Done?, the growing militancy of the workers was evident to everyone?not least to the tsarist authorities, who even tried setting up their own loyal worker movement in order to combat more revolutionary-minded organizations. If Lenin really expressed the views attributed to him in standard textbooks? pessimism, even despair, about the revolutionary mood of the workers? no one would have taken him seriously. As it was, in the words of the anonymous liberal reviewer, ?this book is being read with passion, and will continue to be read, by our revolutionary youth?. For many readers, all of this will seem literally unbelievable, like arguing that Adolf Hitler was a philo-semite. We are talking about the Lenin, aren?t we, the one who founded a state noted for its lack of political freedom and its oppression of workers as well as all other groups? Yes, it?s the same Lenin alright?which means that What Is to Be Done? does not provide a ready-made explanation for the evolution of the Soviet system. Indeed, an accurate reading of Lenin?s 1902 book makes developments after 1917 harder to explain. This is not the place to tackle the necessary explanations. But here?s a suggestion. The same exalted estimate of worker creativity and revolutionary fervor found in his writings of 1902 lead Lenin in 1917 to believe that the dire economic crisis of that year could be easily solved simply by letting the workers smash the repressive state and forcing the capitalists to do their proper job. The result was an accelerated leap into complete economic collapse, and this in turn necessitated some dictatorial back-pedaling. I merely throw this out, but I believe that this kind of explanation is superior to the typical B-movie script in which Lenin rubs his hands, Boris Karloff-style, and cries ?At last?my chance to take political freedom away from the workers, as I have always dreamed!? Lenin?s organizational suggestions only make sense in the context of the aims that I have just outlined: spreading the word under repressive conditions. Thus Lenin?s central organizational value was not conspiracy, but konspiratsiia. The aim of a conspiracy (zagovor in Russian) is to be invisible until the proper time. The Russian word konspiratsiia? one that had been used in Russian socialist circles for over a decade? means the fine art of avoiding arrest, while spreading the word as widely as possible. The konspiratsiia underground was an underground of a new type, worked out bit by bit by local Russian praktiki who dreamt of applying the logic of the German SPD under the inhospitable conditions of tsarist repression. Lenin?s organizational plan was not an original creation out of his own head, but rather a codification of the logic inherent in the konspiratsiia underground improvised by local activists. This applies in particular to Lenin?s most notable terminological innovation, the ?professional revolutionary?. In my new translation, I render Lenin?s term as ?revolutionary by trade?, which brings out the underlying metaphor better. But the essential point is that the professional revolutionary was a functional necessity of a konspiratsiia underground, and thus all Russian underground parties adopted the term and relied heavily on the type, that is, on activists devoted full-time to underground activity and ready to move from place to place so that local organizations did not fall into demoralizing isolation. The concept of ?professional revolutionary? has nothing to do with the intelligentsia vs. the workers. The reliance on professional revolutionaries is precisely what does not separate Lenin?s Bolsheviks from other underground factions. A famous line from Lenin?s What Is to Be Done? is: ?give us an organization of revolutionaries?and we will turn Russia around!?. This is a reference to Archimedes?s lever, a device able to give almost infinite power under the right circumstances to a single person: ?Give me a place to stand and I can move the earth!?. In Lenin?s application, a properly organized party was the place to stand, but the lever itself was the cascading revolutionary awareness that would amplify the message of a small group of activists and turn it into a revolutionary onslaught against the autocracy. Lenin focused on organization because everything else? the enthusiasm of the masses, the universal hatred of the autocracy? was at hand. How topical are the suggestions found in Lenin?s 1902 book? Let the reader judge. The situation Lenin faced was something like this: there existed a potentially wide social consensus in opposition against a religiously-sanctioned regime noted both for its hostility to political freedom and its growing inability to respond to paramount social needs in a globalizing world. Some of the potential opposition groups have a greater capacity than others to combine militant activity on the streets with focused political aims that can unite the opposition. There also exist committed group of activists with international contacts, ready to go underground to spread the word. These are the parameters of the problem as Lenin saw it. Of course, any solutions to similar problems today cannot follow the details of the one Lenin came up with. But they can emulate the creative communication strategies and the focused organizational improvisations that made Lenin?s book such a hit, not only for the Russian undergrounders in 1902, but for the likes of Hugo Ch?vez. (Lars T. Lih lives in Montreal, Canada. He can be reached at larslih at yahoo.ca . His book Lenin Rediscovered was published by Brill in 2006 and republished in 2008 in paperback by Haymarket Books, where it can be ordered at www.haymarketbooks.org) From jbustelo at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 15:49:56 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:49:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] On Human Rights Watch In-Reply-To: References: <0B0B85CD0E00448A8F4A13B93BFEE9F4@office1pc> Message-ID: Bhaskar Sunkara "HRW has proportionally devoted far more time to attacking Colombian policy than Venezuela" I don't know about this. I work in the field of Latin American journalism. My *impression* is that an outfit like Amnesty International has a lot of sincere people, "liberals," bamboozled by the constant media barrage about "human rights" in Cuba and so on. Or to put it very crudely (although I mean this more as metaphor than indictment) these are petty-bourgeois democrats manipulated by the CIA. But Human Rights Watch is completely different. Its origins are in the ideological apparatus of imperialism's offensive against "socialism" (HRW is the old Helsinki Watch). Its top people aren't life-long petty-bourgeois democrats and (bourgeois) human rights crusaders but rather top imperialist anti-communist operatives and policy makers. Again, metaphorically, HRW are CIA operatives PRETENDING to be clueless bourgeois democrats. HRW I would put in essentially the SAME camp as SIP (the Interamerican Press Society, which is an instrument of bourgeois publishers) and Reporters Without Borders (which is an ACTUAL --not just metaphorical-- CIA front organization). The most telling incident in recent memory was HRW Latin American director Vivanco's grandstanding in Venezuela a couple of months ago. He DELIBERATELY went into Venezuela as a TOURIST after having already widely publicized a press conference outrageously interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs. And the FIRST THING he does upon getting tossed out of the country is call CNN. Give me an effing break!!! A very similar thing happened last week with that execrable gusano, Mario Vargas Llosa. Clever handling by the Bolivarian authorities left him sputtering about the "outrageous" 90 minutes it took him to clear customs and the verbal invitation he received from Venezuela's immigration service to avoid interfering in the internal politics of the Venezuelan nation, which Vargas Llosa of course denounced as brutal dictatorial intimindation which he was about to heroically defy. Which, of course, he proceeded to do on Spanish CNN, which gave him all sorts of airtime, along the lines of, "Imagine that! Being forced to wait an ENTIRE hour and a half to clear customs!" Some wag remarked, yeah, if you didn't know better, you'd swear he was trying to get into the US, not Venezuela. But it is not just that sort of tomfoolery. Even granting 100% all the bad things Vivanco, Vargas Llosa and their ilk have to say about supposed violations of human rights that Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil, and now El Salvador have been or could be accused of, no matter how flimsy, quite simply and truthfully, NOTHING going on elsewhere in Latin America can even come close to the situation in Washington's two closest allies in the region, Mexico and Colombia. Terrorist assassinations in those two countries, including of journalists and public officials, are quite literally a dime a dozen. And although the *stance* of the US government and its satellites is that this is all about a struggle against narcotraffickers (linked to leftist guerrillas in Colombia's case, according to the government), reality is much, much more complicated. These are both semi-colonial capitalist countries and the narco-capitalists make up a very important fraction of the bourgeoisie and moreover one fully integrated into broader capitalist institutions (everything from banking to private aviation). An HONEST assessment of human rights in Latin America would have three headlines. First, the economic crisis and how it impacts working people but disproportionately the most oppressed and exploited (i.e., women, Blacks, indigenous peoples); second, the situation in Colombia and third, the situation in Mexico. To try to claim something different TODAY, in 2009, in Latin America, is ridiculous, preposterous, absurd. I think Human Rights Watch (at least in LatAm), as well as Reporters Without Borders and SIP, should NOT be treated as legitimate human rights or press freedom groups, but rather as instruments of imperialist foreign policy operating in human rights milieus. The difference is this: groups like amnesty international, etc., we might DEBATE on one or another specific case, and JOIN WITH in others. Even when we disagree, we treat them with the respect they have earned. HRW, Reporters without borders and the SIP we should DENOUNCE. Even when they adopt positions seemingly coinciding with those of real human rights advocates, we treat them not with respect, but with contempt. Joaquin From shmage at pipeline.com Thu Jun 4 15:52:44 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:52:44 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism In-Reply-To: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> References: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5BF433AC-C520-43DC-9BE5-58169280A74D@pipeline.com> On Jun 4, 2009, at 3:07 PM, Ian Angus wrote: > Mark wrote: > >> More interestingly, Darwin was wrong in his Victorian assumptions >> about gradual >> and incremental change. Huxley argued this matter with him, as I >> think Wallace did. >> Evolution (whether biological or in a historical sense) tends to be >> flashes of lurching >> in a vast amounts of apparent inaction. > > Mark, the problem with this argument is that the "Victorian > assumptions about gradual and incremental change" didn't exist. The > usual Victorian assumption was god-ordained stability, not gradual > change. > The dominant figure in 19th century "science" (and of economics in particular) was Lyell, with his ultra-gradualist "uniformitarian" theory of geological evolution. It was Cuvier, the catastrophist, who saw clearly that the fossil and geological evidence points uniformly to a record of repeated abrupt and violent changes to our planets surface and biosphere. But with the victory of the Holy Alliance the counter-revolutionary ideology of gradualism in all things made the false viewpoint of Lyell the only acceptable outlook. Darwin, despite his own observations that clearly indicated the truth, was a helpless victim of this ideology: "What, then has exterminated so many species and whole genera? The mind at first is irresistibly hurried into the belief of some great catastrophe; but thus to destroy animals, both large and small, in Southern Patagonia, in Brazil, on the Cordillera of Peru, in North America up to Behring's straits, we must shake the entire framework of the globe." (Voyage of the Beagle, 1834). So enslaved to Lyell was Darwin that, when it became time to publish his own theory of evolution via a gradual process of natural selection, he found no place for the fact, which he had so clearly recognized a quarter-century earlier, that "Certainly, no fact in the long history of the world is so startling as the wide and repeated exterminations of its inhabitants." (Ib.) > ...Pre-Darwin theories about the origin of new species consistently > rejected the idea that one species could gradually change into > another one... Darwin's grandfather Erasmus already had believed in organic evolution. Lamark's theory, the real rival to Darwin's, was fully compatible with gradual as well as abrupt evolutionary changes. > > ...Note also that the "rapid" changes envisioned by Gould and > Eldridge took place over tens or hundreds of thousands of years -- > fast from a geological perspective, > but very gradual on a human time scale... Gould and Eldridge, as this recognizes, were never free in the slightest from the Lyellian uniformitarian dogma (which they and the rest of Darwin's epigonoi call "geological perspective").** Darwin saw that the extermination of horses from the North American continent is impossible to explain by either human or climatic factors. The epigonoi remain blind to the reality of catastrophic, not gradual, evolution. Now they blame the Indians! Shane Mage "There have been, and will be hereafter, many and various destructions--of which the greatest are by fire and water, and lesser ones by countless other means. Thus the story that Phaethon, son of Helios, once harnessed his father's chariot but could not guide it on his father's course and so burnt up everything on the face of the earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. That story as it is told seems like a fable; but the truth behind it is a shifting of the bodies that move in the heavens around the earth and a destruction, occurring at long intervals, of things on earth by fierce fire." Plato, Timaios 22 C-D The Lyellian dogma is so entrenched in capitalist ideology that even in the Space Age the "exogeologists" of NASA refuse to admit any explanation for the surface features of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets outside of the factors which Lyell imagined as determining the evolution of the terrestrial surface! From markalause at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 16:09:07 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 18:09:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism In-Reply-To: References: <733b65360906041207s3d3f018k200cf1a7d08e2531@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: There's a lot to say on this subject, and email can hardly scratch the surface. I wrote earlier that Darwin's idea of change suited a faith in gradualism and progress that characterized the Victorian age. The hostility to Darwinism of the churchmen that resisted the idea of evolution hardly belies that faith. Shane's comments well reflect the virtual discovery of this idea of change in terms of geology. I mentioned Chambers earlier because the ideas were also current among naturalists--that they didn't have the evidence Darwin and Wallace brought to bear matters little. I did not say anything particularly about the idea of punctuated equilibrium in any context. I don't think I got my sense of Darwin from Gould, though I can't particularly recall where it came from. All of this was, at the time, part of social and political thinking across the broadest section of the term. Across the western world, bourgeois leaders didn't war against change or the idea of change but believed that the order emerging from the 18th century revolutions would permit a structurally stable framework within which they could manage change.... But I want to add my two cents to Joaquin's comments in appreciation of the ISO's casting a broad net on such questions. ML From jbustelo at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 16:21:24 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 18:21:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Ch=E1vez=27s_Gift_to_Obama=3A_What=27s_t?= =?iso-8859-1?q?o_be_Made_of_What_Is_To_Be_Done=3F?= In-Reply-To: <47AC26FF-94C5-4318-89C5-083AE0CD4F23@amadeobordiga.u-net.com> References: <47AC26FF-94C5-4318-89C5-083AE0CD4F23@amadeobordiga.u-net.com> Message-ID: <753AEBA488E342FB8B4EAF4617CC52D4@albanta> I think if folks listen to Hugo Chavez's original statement, they will realize no special significance should be attached to the detailed content of this specific pamphlet. The feeling one gets is that, having "given" Obama an education on Latin American problems ("Open veins...") the next step is doing something about it. The title of Lenin's pamphlet fit the bill admirably: but it was presented almost as a throw-away punch line. There is an important discussion to be had on the left on de-mystifying "What is to be Done" and Chavez's wisecrack is perhaps useful in reminding us that we haven't finished this assignment yet, but nothing more. Joaquin From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Thu Jun 4 17:02:58 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:02:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Trojan Horse (Fidel on the OAS debate on Cuba) Message-ID: <7B3197A999D94A73A84479E40F944936@office1pc> The following is Fidel's excellent comment on the debate at the OAS meeting in Honduras, which repudiated the exclusion of Cuba from the OAS in 1962 for being anti-capitalist (Marxist-Leninist) but accepted some US "compromise" language which could be used to impose a "human rights" vetting process on Cuba should they decide to rejoin. Part of the excellence of the piece is Fidel's selection of fine quotations from participants in the meeting such as Rafael Correa of Ecuador. Fred Feldman Reflections by Comrade Fidel THE TROJAN HORSE President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, in a visit to Honduras on the eve of the OAS meeting stated: ?I think that the OAS has lost its reason to exist; perhaps it never had a reason to exist.? The news carried by ANSA adds that Correa ?predicted ?the death? of that organization because of the many errors it had committed?. He stated ?that because of geographic conditions the countries on the American continent cannot ?all be lumped together?, and for that reason several months ago Ecuador proposed the creation of the Organization of Latin American States. ??It is not possible that the region?s problems are discussed in Washington; let us make something that is our own, without countries alien to our culture, to our values, obviously including counties that were inexplicably separated from the inter-American system, and I refer to the specific case of Cuba?it was a real embarrassment and shows the double standards existing in international relations??. Upon his arrival in Honduras, both President Zelaya and Correa declared that ?the OAS ought to be reformed and reincorporate Cuba or it would have to disappear?. Another dispatch from the DPA Agency states: ?Reintegrating Cuba into the Organization of American Status (OAS) has moved from being a subject per se of the General Assembly of the body in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula to become, yet again, the excuse for a struggle of interests that go far beyond the limits of the Caribbean island and could question (again) the state of hemispheric relations ?The president of Venezuela, Hugo Ch?vez, put it perfectly clear when he described the hemispheric meeting starting this Tuesday in Honduras in quasi military terms. ?It will be, he said, an ?interesting battle? where if it is shown that the OAS ?continues to be a ministry of the colonies? which isn?t changing to ?subordinate itself to the will of the governments making it up?, it will be necessary to consider ?exiting? from the body and creating another alternative.? ??Latin America is making Cuba the litmus test for the sincerity of the Obama administration?s true rapprochement? in the region, Julia Sweig, the Cuba expert of the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, declared to ?The Washington Post? on the eve of the encounter in Honduras.? By resisting the aggressions of the most powerful empire ever to exist, our people struggled for the other sister nations of this continent. The OAS was an accomplice to all the crimes committed against Cuba. At one time or another, every one of the Latin American countries was victim of interventions and politic and economic aggressions. There is not one that could deny it. It is na?ve to think that the good intentio ns of a president of the United States could justify the existence of that institution that opened the doors to the Trojan horse that supported the Summits of the Americas, neoliberalism, drug- trafficking, military bases and economic crises. Ignorance, underdevelopment, economic dependency, poverty, the forced return of those who emigrate in search of jobs, the brain drain, and even the sophisticated weapons of organized crime were the consequences of the interventions and pillage coming from the North. Cuba, a tiny country, has demonstrated that it is possible to resist the blockade and move forward in many areas, even to cooperate with other countries. The speech given today by President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras at the OAS General Assembly contains principles that may go down in history. He said admirable things about his own country. I shall limit myself to what he said about Cuba. ??At the Assembly of the Organization of American States starting today in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, we must initiate the process of making wise repairs to old errors committed. ?We, Latin Americans here present, a short while ago, a few weeks or months ago, had a great summit meeting of the Rio Group in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. There we entered into a commitment. That commitment, taken down in writing and by the unanimity of all of Latin America, is that in this San Pedro Sula assembly, by majority of votes or by consensus, that old and time-worn error committed in 1962 to expe l the people of Cuba from this organization should be redressed. ?My fellow dignitaries, we should not leave this assembly without abolishing the decree of that eighth meeting which sanctioned an entire people for having proclaimed its socialist ideas and principles, the very same principles that today are being practiced everywhere in the world, including in the United States and in Europe (Applause). Today, the principles of seeking different development alternatives are evident in the change that has occurred in the United States with the election of President Barack Obama? ?We cannot leave this assembly without redressing that error and that infamy because based on this OAS resolution which is now more than four decades old, this sister nation of Cuba has been kept under an unfair and useless blockade, precisely because it hasn?t served any purpose, but it has indeed shown that over there, a few miles away from our country, on a small island, there are a people ready to resist and sacrifice for their independence and sovereignty. ??to not do so would make us accomplices of a resolution in 1962 to expel a state of the Organization of American States simply because it espouses other ideas, other thoughts, and because it proclaims the principles of a different democracy. And we are not going to be accomplices to that. ??We cannot leave this assembly without abolishing what was done in that era. ?Jos? Cecilio del20Valle, an exceptional Honduran and one of our national heroes, who was called ?Wise Man Valle? in our country, said on April 17, 1826, in his famous article ?Sovereignty and Non-intervention? ?we had just declared our independence from Spain: ?The nations of the world are independent and sovereign. Whatever their territorial size or the number of inhabitants, a nation must treat others in the same way it wishes to be treated by them. A nation does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of another nation.?? With these words spoken by Cecilio del Valle and mentioning Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Moraz?n, Mart?, Sandino and Bol?var, he concluded his address. Minutes later, at the press conference following the opening of the assembly, he answered questions and reiterated principles. He then gave the floor to Daniel Ortega who was the author of one of the most profound and articulated presentations at the OAS assembly. By invitation of Zelaya, the following also spoke: President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay and Rigoberta Mench?, both expressing themselves in the same vein as Zelaya and Daniel. The assembly has been in session for hours. At the moment I am finishing this Reflection, practically night-time, there is still no news of the decision. We know that Zelaya?s speech had an influence. Ch?vez chats with Maduro and urges him to be firm on the fact that no resolut ion can be passed that places conditions on the repeal of the unfair sanction against Cuba. Never had so much rebellion been seen. It is certainly a tough battle. Many countries depend on the index finger of the hand of the U.S. government, the one pointing to the Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank or any other outfit to punish rebellion. Having waged this battle is in itself a heroic deed of those who are the most rebellious. The date of June 2, 2009 will be remembered by future generations. Cuba is no enemy to peace, nor is it reluctant to exchanges or cooperation between countries with different political systems, but it has been and will be uncompromising in its defense of its principles. Fidel Castro Ruz June 2, 2009 6:56 p.m. end From ecosocialism at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 17:06:21 2009 From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 19:06:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism Message-ID: <733b65360906041606v11c646f8p567f4bf8cc63ddbd@mail.gmail.com> An interesting discussion! Some brief responses .... David wrote: >I believe you have committed a bit of an anachronism by stating that >Darwin thought of species as "populations." I think that Ernst Mayr was >the guy who invented the concept of "population" to indicate a >non-essentialist concept of species. You're right, the term "population" was introduced and developed by Ernst Mayr, who was not only a great evolutionary biologists, but a consistent materialist. My view is that the population concept was at least implied in Origin of Species, so I used that terminology. I should have been more precise. >I may be wrong about this, but I believe that the Frenchman Lamark, neither a Victorian nor an >Englishman, was the originator of the idea of gradual, incremental change. Lamarck certainly believed in gradual change, but his theory was so unlike anything we know today that it is hard to categorize it. As a result of post-Darwin debates, Lamarck's name has become synonymous with "inheritance of acquired characteristics," but Lamarck himself viewed that as a secondary process. He believed that every living lineage developed separately -- each originated as a spontaneously-generated unicellular animal that had an innate drive to become "more perfect" by which he seems to have meant more complex. Each line would inevitably reach perfection -- ie, each line would ultimately become human. Lines that aren't human simply started up the ladder later than we did. Along the way, some lineages adapted themselves to specific circumstances -- eg the famous giraffe stretching its neck to reach high leaves. He wasn't clear on whether those detours were dead ends or simply alternative routes to perfection. ----------- Joaquin wrote: >In other words, I don't think "dialectics" are simply in our perceptions, >in the way we organize data, think about it, or assimilate it. I think >dialectics are "out there," in nature, in society, and the more dialectical >explanation is likely to be the truer one. I agree. But in the case of evolutionary theory, there is more than one explanation that is"dialectical." The fact that punctuated equilibrium postulates periods of "faster" change doesn't make it "more dialectical" than one that postulates longer term change. The important insight dialectics brings to the discussion is NOT that change sometimes happens quickly, but that over time quantitative changes lead to qualitative change. ---------- Shane wrote >Lyell, with his ultra-gradualist "uniformitarian" theory of geological evolution. >It was Cuvier, the catastrophist, who saw clearly that the fossil and geological evidence points >uniformly to a record of repeated abrupt and violent changes to our planets surface and biosphere. >But with the victory of the Holy Alliance the counter-revolutionary ideology of gradualism in all things >made the false viewpoint of Lyell the only acceptable outlook. All I can say is that you are projecting 20th century views back onto a debate they don't belong in. In its time, Lyell's uniformitarian view was an important and progressive break with the "God did it" explanations of the various catastrophist schools, including Cuvier's. By insisting that science had to assume that past events were caused by processes similar to those we see in the world today, he was excluding miracles from scientific discussion, insisting that we look for natural causes. Of course he was limited by the scientific knowledge of his day -- for example, he rejected "transmutation of species" because he couldn't think of any natural cause that would cause one species to change into another. Darwin took Lyell's insistence on looking for natural causes seriously -- the result was the theory of Natural Selection. Ian Angus From lycophidion at gmail.com Thu Jun 4 17:58:24 2009 From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 19:58:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin, evolution, etc. Message-ID: <709f342d0906041658p7ee3ef23o891aa041cc223678@mail.gmail.com> Just wanted to add that "gradual" and "sudden" are relative terms in evolutionary theory, and "sudden" does not boil down to punctuated equilibrium, which has to do with a mechanism, rather than the speed of change. The rapidity with which a lineage evolves has to do with many things, particularly generation time, and population size. You can have speciation in a "gradualistic" mode taking place over a very brief time period, a real "sudden burst" of decades or centuries -- the blink of an eye, in geological terms. On the other hand, most evolutionary transitions reflected in the fossil record or DNA sequences seem to indicate a gradual (again, with the caveat expressed above) change (for example, whales), with some examples interpretable as punctuated equilibrium. From elishastephens at hotmail.com Thu Jun 4 21:09:48 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 20:09:48 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China Message-ID: Tiananmen Square and the threat of counterrevolution: http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12203 What do socialists defend in China today? http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12205 For the defense of China against counterrevolution, imperialist intervention and dismemberment http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12207 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 shmage at pipeline.com Thu Jun 4 21:30:19 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 23:30:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Darwin and gradualism In-Reply-To: <733b65360906041606v11c646f8p567f4bf8cc63ddbd@mail.gmail.com> References: <733b65360906041606v11c646f8p567f4bf8cc63ddbd@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <686F5FEF-48B8-4D30-8DC3-5D8460B74890@pipeline.com> On Jun 4, 2009, at 7:06 PM, Ian Angus wrote: > >> Lyell, with his ultra-gradualist "uniformitarian" theory of >> geological evolution. >> It was Cuvier, the catastrophist, who saw clearly that the fossil >> and geological evidence points >> uniformly to a record of repeated abrupt and violent changes to our >> planets surface and biosphere. >> But with the victory of the Holy Alliance the counter-revolutionary >> ideology of gradualism in all things >> made the false viewpoint of Lyell the only acceptable outlook. > > All I can say is that you are projecting 20th century views back onto > a debate they don't belong in. In its time, Lyell's uniformitarian > view was an important and progressive break with the "God did it" > explanations of the various catastrophist schools, including Cuvier's. > By insisting that science had to assume that past events were caused > by processes similar to those we see in the world today, he was > excluding miracles from scientific discussion, insisting that we look > for natural causes. How was Plato "projecting 20th century views" when he explicitly defended catastrophism? "God did it" was a nonissue--Cuvier recognized that catastrophes were natural processes, and centuries had passed since Galileo, Spinoza, and Newton had excluded miracles from nature. But Lyell, as a devout CofE Christian, had no right to exclude miracles when he himself had to uphold the virgin birth and similar nonsense in his Articles of Faith. Cuvier, as a respectable RC man, had of course to believe the same nonsense. In that they were the same. On Earth history Cuvier was right and has been proven right. Shane Mage > "There have been, and will be hereafter, many and various > destructions--of which the greatest are by fire and water, and lesser > ones by countless other means. Thus the story that Phaethon, son of > Helios, once harnessed his father's chariot but could not guide it on > his father's course and so burnt up everything on the face of the > earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. That story as it is > told seems like a fable; but the truth behind it is a shifting of the > bodies that move in the heavens around the earth and a destruction, > occurring at long intervals, of things on earth by fierce fire." > > Plato, Timaios 22 C-D > 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 marvgandall at videotron.ca Fri Jun 5 06:48:58 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:48:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Current crisis still tracking course of 30's Depression Message-ID: <18EB5898AF014F4AAD0CB6BAC23E070C@MARV> A Tale of Two Depressions By Barry Eichengreen and Kevin H. O?Rourke 4 June 2009 This is an update of the authors' 6 April 2009 column comparing today's global crisis to the Great Depression. World industrial production, trade, and stock markets are diving faster now than during 1929-30. Fortunately, the policy response to date is much better. The update shows that trade and stock markets have shown some improvement without reversing the overall conclusion -- today's crisis is at least as bad as the Great Depression. Editor?s note: The 6 April 2009 Vox column by Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O?Rourke shattered all Vox readership records, with 30,000 views in less than 48 hours and over 100,000 within the week. The authors will update the charts as new data emerges; this updated column is the first, presenting monthly data up to April 2009. (The updates and much more will eventually appear in a paper the authors are writing a paper for Economic Policy.) New findings: * World industrial production continues to track closely the 1930s fall, with no clear signs of ?green shoots?. * World stock markets have rebounded a bit since March, and world trade has stabilised, but these are still following paths far below the ones they followed in the Great Depression. * There are new charts for individual nations? industrial output. The big-4 EU nations divide north-south; today?s German and British industrial output are closely tracking their rate of fall in the 1930s, while Italy and France are doing much worse. * The North Americans (US & Canada) continue to see their industrial output fall approximately in line with what happened in the 1929 crisis, with no clear signs of a turn around. * Japan?s industrial output in February was 25 percentage points lower than at the equivalent stage in the Great Depression. There was however a sharp rebound in March. The facts for Chile, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Sweden are displayed below; note the rebound in Eastern Europe. For charts, see: http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421 From forliberation at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 07:31:11 2009 From: forliberation at gmail.com (ForLiberation Newsletter) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:31:11 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] ForLiberation Newsletter: June 2009 issue... Message-ID: <44ce0698ed9ef9f8168bc7981ec3c2fe@smtp.ymlp27.net> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email newsletter was sent to you in graphical HTML format. If you're seeing this version, your email program prefers plain text emails. You can read the original version online: http://www.forliberation.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Readers, We are pleased to announce the release of June issue of our newsletter after a delay of many months. In this issue, we have: 1. "The dream of a better world is back" by Alain Gresh For two decades, from the sierras of Latin America to the paddy fields of Asia and the mountains of North Africa, a single hurricane seemed to be sweeping away the old colonial order and the economic dominance of the North. As the title of a 1977 documentary by Chris Marker depicting revolutionary struggles from Paris to La Paz put it: ?Deep down the air is red? (Le fond de l?air est rouge). More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=108 2. "The West?s selective reading of history" by Alain Gresh Shortly after the first world war, the French literary critic and historian Henri Massis (1886-1970) preached a crusade against the dangers threatening European values and thought ? largely identified with those of France, in his mind. More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=120 3. "How to begin from the beginning" by Slavoj ?i?ek War against all odds, had to retreat into the New Economic Policy of allowing a much wider scope to the market economy and private property?Lenin uses the analogy of a climber who must backtrack from his first attempt to reach a new mountain peak to describe what retreat means in a revolutionary process. More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=4 4. ?How faithlessness stalked me? An ?interview? with Charles Darwin in which he describes how he became a student of nature, his initiation into the theory of evolution, and his religious scruples. It seemed he knew the trouble he was getting into..More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=65 5. " A crisis foretold" by Michael T. Klare The world economic meltdown was foreshadowed in many countries by food riots, protests against unemployment, government ineptitude and failure to address the needs of the poor. That anger and fear may outlive the end of the current crisis..More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=101 6. "Obama?s Afghanistan" by William J Astore The Af-Pak war is unlikely to become a real Vietnam in scale, but it may have the capacity to inflict upon the US the sort of defeat the US itself once helped inflict upon the Russians. More at: http://forliberation.org/wp/?p=98 We hope that you would like the selection of the articles for this issue, and would very much appreciate if you could give us your feedback. The email address to contact us: forliberation at gmail.com Best Regards, Omer Khalid and Danish Feroze _____________________________ Change email address / Leave mailing list: http://ymlp123.com/u.php?YMLPID=gueymymgsgjygus Powered by YourMailingListProvider From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 07:36:21 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:36:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A291F55.6060405@panix.com> Eli Stephens wrote: > Tiananmen Square and the threat of counterrevolution: > http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12203 > Many years ago I took a class at Salomon Brothers in writing that was intended to help employees write clearer memos. As it turned out, it was the best writing class I ever took. Two things I learned in the class have stuck with me over the years. The first was the need to avoid very long sentences, which you could detect through the Gunning Fog Index. --- The fog index is generally used by people who want their writing to be read easily by a large segment of the population. Texts that are designed for a wide audience generally require a fog index of less than 12. Texts that require a close-to-universal understanding generally require an index of less than 8. The Gunning fog index can be calculated with the following algorithm: 1. Take a full passage that is around 100 words (do not omit any sentences). 2. Find the average sentence length (divide the number of words by the number of sentences). 3. Count words with three or more syllables (complex words), not including proper nouns (for example, Djibouti), familiar jargon or compound words, or common suffixes such as -es, -ed, or -ing as a syllable. 4. Add the average sentence length and the percentage of complex words (ex., +13.37%, not simply + 0.1337) 5. Multiply the result by 0.4 full: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning-Fog_Index --- The other thing the instructor stressed was the need to avoid the passive voice which could wreak havoc in a business environment. For example: "The foreign exchange transactions punch cards must be received before the nightly batch processing can begin", a typical sentence in EDP documentation. He pointed out that this use of the passive voice ("must be received") leads to unclarity. Who is delivering the cards? If the cards are late, whose responsibility is it to follow up? So I avoid passive voice in my own writing. For example, I would never use a sentence like the one that appears in the sentence below, from the PSL article linked to above: "Many of China?s youth had been sent abroad to study, exposing them to intense bourgeois propaganda in the privileged setting of elite U.S. and European universities." Okay, "sent abroad"? Who sent them? The CIA? The Kuomintang? No, it was the fucking CP that sent them abroad since it needed experts in how to run a capitalist economy. And what better place to send young Chinese than the Columbia Business School et al. --- The New York Times March 29, 1987, Sunday, Late City Final Edition CHINESE STUDENTS LEARN WESTERN-STYLE MANAGEMENT IN BUFFALO About 100 Chinese students at the State University campus here are learning accounting, organizational behavior and the intricacies of the free market system in a new experiment in the compatibility of Marxist economics and Western-style management... Mr. Alutto said the Chinese Government had given every indication that it was happy with the M.B.A. program and that it intended to renew its contract with the university. Two more classes of students are expected to graduate before the current contract expires in 1989. Eager to capitalize on the potential for additional trade, the university has established a China Trade Center. Raymond G. Hunt, director of the center and associate director of the China M.B.A. program, said the center relied on the growing trust between the university and China and served as a conduit for companies that want to trade with China, and Chinese enterprises anxious to enter the United States market. Obstacles and Frustration "By providing China with proper management, we will help them to re-industrialize and in the long run promote bilateral trade," said Richard W. H. Lee, the United States Commerce Department's director of science and technology for East Asia and the Pacific. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 07:51:23 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:51:23 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Sociobiology idiocy Message-ID: <4A2922DB.5020609@panix.com> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/war-what-is-it-good-for-it-made-us-less-selfish-1697321.html June 5, 2009 War, what is it good for? It made us less selfish By Steve Connor, Science Editor Scientists explain how altruism evolved over 200,000 years of conflict One of the defining characteristics of being human is the supreme act of personal sacrifice needed to lay down one's life for the good of the group ? but could such altruism be hard-wired in our genes as a result of Darwinian evolution? Biologists have argued for decades about the evolution of altruism and long ago came to the conclusion that Darwinian natural selection cannot explain acts of supreme personal sacrifice except those directly connected with helping the survival of close blood relatives who share similar genes. But now a study has suggested that altruism in prehistoric human societies may after all have resulted from a form of natural selection caused by a state of near-continual warfare between competing tribes of hunter gatherers, an idea that Charles Darwin himself first suggested in his 1873 book The Descent of Man. A scientist has suggested that because so many of the 200,000 years of human history were spent during our hunter-gatherer phase, before the invention of agriculture, less than 10,000 years ago, this long period in our evolutionary history shaped our social behaviour. Moreover, he believes that altruism may have evolved directly as a result of tribal warfare because personal sacrifice was the key that enabled one group to be victorious over another. Samuel Bowles, of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, said: "Warfare was sufficiently common and lethal among our ancestors to favour the evolution of what I call parochial altruism, a predisposition to be co-operative towards group members and hostile towards outsiders. "Biologists and economists have doubted that a genetic predisposition to behave altruistically ? to help others at a cost to oneself ? could evolve, excepting the help extended to close genetic relatives." In his study, published in the journal Science, Dr Bowles takes on the proponents of the selfish-gene theory of human evolution by suggesting that natural selection worked on groups of people co-operating together, rather than just individuals. Drawing on archaeological data from the Stone Age and ethnographic studies of latter-day tribes of hunter-gatherers, Dr Bowles concluded that it was possible for altruism to have evolved by Darwinian selection ? if the warfare was intense enough between competing tribes and there were sufficient genetic differences between these human groups. He has showed that genetic differences between human groups were indeed greater than previously thought, and that warfare was a near-continual activity that must have shaped early human social behaviour. As a result, altruistic acts of personal sacrifice helped one group to survive in favour of another, he said. Dr Bowles said that the "altruistic warrior" theory is just one scenario that could explain the evolution of altruism in early human societies. "[The] willingness to take mortal risks as a fighter is not the only form of altruism... more altruistic and hence more co-operative groups may be more productive and sustain healthier, stronger, or more numerous members, for example, or make more effective use of information," he said. Ruth Mace, an anthropologist at University College London, said Dr Bowles' study went against the accepted idea of the selfish-gene theory which long ago rejected the proposal that natural selection worked at the level of the group rather than the individual. "Recent literature on social evolution has reopened the debate, arguing that in some circumstances group selection might be important, especially in a cultural species like humans," she said. In a separate study published in Science, scientists proposed that a key driver that led to the evolution of the other defining attributes of being human ? such as sophisticated tool making and the development of art and culture ? resulted from population growth rather than biological changes. Scientist from University College London say they believe the sudden emergence of human cultural traits such as art came about when population density passed a certain threshold, allowing the free exchange of ideas. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 08:07:16 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:07:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A292694.7020302@panix.com> http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0604/p06s14-woap.html Tiananmen Square: Workers bore brunt of repression On 20th anniversary of massacre, few remember the key role state employees played in supporting students ? and the price some paid for organizing. By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the June 4, 2009 edition Beijing - Twenty years after Chinese troops dispersed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square with murderous gunfire, some 50 protesters still languish in jail. Most of the prisoners were workers at the time. None of them was a student. While the world remembers the six weeks of mass rallies in Beijing's central square as a cry for freedom by idealistic students, the workers and other ordinary Chinese citizens who bore the brunt of the repression remain largely forgotten. Yet the severity of the punishment meted out to workers was no coincidence. And some historians see in the brutal crackdown on June 4, 1989, not only an end to hopes for democracy, but also a warning to those likely to suffer from free-market economic reform not to make trouble. "The ones who made the big sacrifice in 1989 were not the students or the intellectuals, but the workers and other citizens," argues Wang Hui, one of the last students to leave the square as the tanks moved in. Now a history professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University, he adds, "The government's big worry was social unrest, and the autonomous trade union was their top target." Supporting the students Workers made up a very small minority of the Tiananmen protesters, and played very little role in setting their agenda. "We just supported the students. They led the protests and gave workers something to follow," recalls Han Dongfang, a railroad worker who was spokesman for the short-lived Autonomous Workers' Federation that sprang up in Tiananmen Square and rallied trade union activists in cities around the country. But the support that workers and ordinary citizens gave the students ? offering them food, water, money, and goodwill ? "was very important," says Professor Wang, who is today a leader of the "New Left" intellectual movement in China. "If it had just been groups of students protesting, as had happened before, they would have immediately disappeared. But 1989 was different. There was massive social mobilization." Feeling the pinch of market reform By 1989, the negative aspects of the free-market reforms that had been launched a decade earlier were beginning to make themselves felt. Inflation, running at close to 30 percent a year, was making life harder for almost everybody, and the new social order was creating unprecedented, and often unwelcome, inequality. "The sense of insecurity and inequality had become very strong, and that was the driving force for all of society to support the students," says Wang. Among those most uncertain of their future, he adds, were the hundreds of millions of employees at state-owned enterprises. "They realized they were at risk of losing their jobs and being sacrificed for the new reforms." Mr. Han, who fled the country after the crackdown but remains active in union issues through the China Labour Bulletin that he founded in Hong Kong, recalls more mundane grievances. "As an ordinary worker, I was confused," he remembers. "We were no longer equally poor. We supported the reforms because they brought wage bonuses, but we were opposed because managers had more power to decide who got them. When we saw our bonus, we were happy, but when we saw others getting bigger bonuses because they got on better with the manager, we were unhappy." Even during the tumultuous six weeks of the Tiananmen movement, however, few workers had the courage to organize themselves into unions independent of the ruling Communist party, Han points out. "Organized counterrevolutionary activity was punishable by death," he recalls. "That was the crystal-clear reality." The Autonomous Workers' Federation lasted only two weeks before the crackdown, when its leaders were imprisoned or fled. Punish the workers' movement Weak as it was, the workers' movement was singled out for punishment. Many workers were charged with "counterrevolutionary assault," "counterrevolutionary sabotage," or "hooliganism," according to a list of current June 4 prisoners compiled by Human Rights in China, a US-based watchdog group. That, says Han, partly reflects the fact that workers, not students, were the most aggressive in resisting the military takeover of the square on the night of June 3, burning buses and tanks. But, he adds, it also shows that "the government wanted to punish workers harder to create more fear. Their biggest fear was that workers would come up with more unhappiness, so they wanted to smash it [dissent] before it even appeared." The dual policy of pushing economic reform and crushing dissent ? later evoked by supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in the slogan "seize with both hands, make both hands tougher" ? worked, says Wang. Price reforms that had failed before the Tiananmen massacre were pushed through that September. "Because of the repression there was no room for protest, and that was the beginning of marketization," he says. Reform, backed by a big stick Though it was uncertain at the time exactly what direction economic policy would take after the crackdown, "it was clear that the reform policy would continue ? and the big stick was clear," remembers Han. Eventually, 60 million workers in state-owned enterprises would lose their jobs with minimal compensation, and the "iron rice bowl" system of social security and healthcare would be dismantled. Nonetheless, labor organizer Han sees a silver lining in all this. "The heavier the exploitation, the greater the fight back," he says. "Today, workers are much braver to take organized action to defend their interests. In 1989, hundreds of thousands were not willing to take the risk." Today, he adds, if people have concrete grievances, "nearly everyone is ready to strike." From meisner at xs4all.nl Fri Jun 5 08:19:04 2009 From: meisner at xs4all.nl (Jeff) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:19:04 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Active/Passive voice in writing In-Reply-To: <4A291F55.6060405@panix.com> References: Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20090605161904.02ceea60@pop.xs4all.nl> At 09:36 05/06/09 -0400, you wrote: > >The Gunning fog index can be calculated with the following algorithm: Very interesting! But... >So I avoid passive voice in my own writing. Well you just touched a sore nerve, because the times in the past that I allowed my writing to be analyzed by a stupid computer, it always flagged sentences which (using its paltry "intelligence") it was able to identify as being in the passive voice. I never use those computer "aids" anymore, I just try to reread what I wrote the next day as if I were seeing it for the first time. I don't think that any "rule" against using the passive voice should be accepted. In either case, the emphasis is on the subject of the sentence. For instance you might write: 1) Jan and his entire family were brutally killed by a hit team using advanced weapons. (passive voice) 2) A hit team using advanced weapons brutally killed Jan and his entire family. (active voice) In (1) the emphasis is on what happened to Jan, and in (2) the emphasis is on what the hit team did. So the choice all depends on what you are trying to say. I don't think there is a "right" and "wrong" involved. Your example: >"Many of China?s youth had been sent abroad to study, exposing them to >intense bourgeois propaganda in the privileged setting of elite U.S. and >European universities." > >Okay, "sent abroad"? Who sent them? Yes, using the passive voice put the emphasis on "China's youth," but that may be exactly what the author was trying to concentrate on. True, the author glossed over those responsible by not even mentioning them. It was easier to hide that little fact by using the passive voice since if the active voice had been used then a subject for the sentence would have been required. But blame the writer for his/her intention, not the fact that the language allows you to omit relevant information. Anyway, I'm not passionate about the issue, and I understand that the passive voice is much more accepted in scientific writing (applying to me). Using it might make the reading slightly more difficult for a functionally illiterate readership, and the active voice may be better for narrating a story. I just don't like seeing an otherwise good writer unjustly criticized by a stupid computer. Which is a better way of saying that I don't like "a stupid computer unjustly criticizing an otherwise good writer" because I already expect stupid computers to do stupid things. The first statement (in the passive voice) was more what I meant. - Jeff From versomail at verso.co.uk Fri Jun 5 08:19:33 2009 From: versomail at verso.co.uk (Verso Mail) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:19:33 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] NEW TITLE: Peter Linebaugh presents Thomas Paine: Rights of Man and Common Sense Message-ID: NEW TITLE: Peter Linebaugh presents Thomas Paine: Rights of Man and Common Sense Published 1st June 2009 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published to commemorate the bicentennial of Thomas Paine's death on June 8th, these texts have remained two of the most influential arguments for liberty in political thought. COMMON SENSE is a pamphlet that Paine wrote in support of American independence. Thanks to its original and simple style, it spread like wildfire through the colonies, helping to inspire the American Revolution. RIGHTS OF MAN is Paine's passionate defense of the French Revolution that led to his trial for sedition and libel. Acclaimed historian Peter Linebaugh reveals the continued significance of Paine's thought and legacy for our understanding of today's world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS ACROSS THE UK TO CELEBRATE PAINE'S LIFE AND WORK AND COMMEMORATING THE BICENTENARY OF HIS DEATH: LONDON: ? 8TH JUNE AT ISLINGTON'S RED LION THEATRE, where Paine wrote some of Rights of Man: readings and discussions to celebrate Paine's legacy with speakers including Tony Benn and Mike Marqusee. For more details please visit: http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/remembering-tom-paine.htm ? 29TH AUGUST - 9TH OCTOBER AT THE GLOBE THEATRE, in association with Richard Attenborough: Trevor Griffiths' new play A New World - A Life of Thomas Paine. For more details please visit: http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/annualtheatreseason/anewworld/ BRISTOL: ? 7TH JUNE AT ST WERBAUGHS CITY FARM: Toast Paine's memory with stories round the bonfire, cider, pikes and guillotines. For more details please visit: http://www.brh.org.uk/spring2009/paine1.html ? 8TH JUNE AT ST MARY REDCLIFFE SCOUT HUT: Talk by radical historian Peter Clark questioning why this British thinker is f?ted more in France and the United States than in his native land. For more details please visit: http://www.brh.org.uk/spring2009/paine2.html NORFOLK: ? 5TH - 8TH JUNE, THETFORD: Paine's birthplace is hosting the Bicentenary Weekend: Re-enactment and Heritage Festival. For more details please visit: http://www.tompaine200.org.uk/ ? 19TH SEPTEMBER - 7TH NOVEMBER, THETFORD: Tom Paine 200 Autumn Lecture Series. For more details please visit: http://www.tompaine200.org.uk/ SUSSEX: ? 4TH - 14TH JULY, LEWES: Paine lived and wrote for some time in Lewes which is holding a festival around Paine's stay. For more details please visit: http://www.thomaspaineandlewes.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISBN 9781844673803 ?7.99 / $14.95 / Paperback 368 pages REVOLUTIONS: Thomas Paine - Rights of Man and Common Sense is available from all good bookshops and: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/nopq-titles/paine_thomas_rights_of_man_rev.shtml UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linebaugh-presents-Rights-Common-Revolutions/dp/1844673804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243610035&sr=8-1 http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/browse/book/isbn/9781844673803 US: http://www.amazon.com/Rights-Man-Common-Sense-Revolutions/dp/1844673804/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243610416&sr=1-4 ------------------------------- Visit Verso's new blog for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers. http://versouk.wordpress.com/ And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK From versomail at verso.co.uk Fri Jun 5 08:23:39 2009 From: versomail at verso.co.uk (Verso Mail) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:23:39 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] NEW TITLE: Peter Linebaugh presents Thomas Paine: Rights of Man and Common Sense Message-ID: NEW TITLE: Peter Linebaugh presents Thomas Paine: Rights of Man and Common Sense Published 1st June 2009 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published to commemorate the bicentennial of Thomas Paine's death on June 8th, these texts have remained two of the most influential arguments for liberty in political thought. COMMON SENSE is a pamphlet that Paine wrote in support of American independence. Thanks to its original and simple style, it spread like wildfire through the colonies, helping to inspire the American Revolution. RIGHTS OF MAN is Paine's passionate defense of the French Revolution that led to his trial for sedition and libel. Acclaimed historian Peter Linebaugh reveals the continued significance of Paine's thought and legacy for our understanding of today's world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVENTS ACROSS THE UK TO CELEBRATE PAINE'S LIFE AND WORK AND COMMEMORATING THE BICENTENARY OF HIS DEATH: LONDON: ? 8TH JUNE AT ISLINGTON'S RED LION THEATRE, where Paine wrote some of Rights of Man: readings and discussions to celebrate Paine's legacy with speakers including Tony Benn and Mike Marqusee. For more details please visit: http://www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk/remembering-tom-paine.htm ? 29TH AUGUST - 9TH OCTOBER AT THE GLOBE THEATRE, in association with Richard Attenborough: Trevor Griffiths' new play A New World - A Life of Thomas Paine. For more details please visit: http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/theatre/annualtheatreseason/anewworld/ BRISTOL: ? 7TH JUNE AT ST WERBAUGHS CITY FARM: Toast Paine's memory with stories round the bonfire, cider, pikes and guillotines. For more details please visit: http://www.brh.org.uk/spring2009/paine1.html ? 8TH JUNE AT ST MARY REDCLIFFE SCOUT HUT: Talk by radical historian Peter Clark questioning why this British thinker is f?ted more in France and the United States than in his native land. For more details please visit: http://www.brh.org.uk/spring2009/paine2.html NORFOLK: ? 5TH - 8TH JUNE, THETFORD: Paine's birthplace is hosting the Bicentenary Weekend: Re-enactment and Heritage Festival. For more details please visit: http://www.tompaine200.org.uk/ ? 19TH SEPTEMBER - 7TH NOVEMBER, THETFORD: Tom Paine 200 Autumn Lecture Series. For more details please visit: http://www.tompaine200.org.uk/ SUSSEX: ? 4TH - 14TH JULY, LEWES: Paine lived and wrote for some time in Lewes which is holding a festival around Paine's stay. For more details please visit: http://www.thomaspaineandlewes.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISBN 9781844673803 ?7.99 / $14.95 / Paperback 368 pages REVOLUTIONS: Thomas Paine - Rights of Man and Common Sense is available from all good bookshops and: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/nopq-titles/paine_thomas_rights_of_man_rev.shtml UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linebaugh-presents-Rights-Common-Revolutions/dp/1844673804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243610035&sr=8-1 http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/browse/book/isbn/9781844673803 US: http://www.amazon.com/Rights-Man-Common-Sense-Revolutions/dp/1844673804/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243610416&sr=1-4 ------------------------------- Visit Verso's new blog for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers. http://versouk.wordpress.com/ And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK From lueko.willms at t-online.de Fri Jun 5 08:31:57 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (Lueko Willms) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:31:57 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] POTUS in Cairo: Great speech, sound principles, same old imperial interventionism Message-ID: <000.a00302005d2c294a.034.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> I guess many of you have followed the current POTUS' speech in Cairo live on TV just as I did (via Al Jazeera english). I think it was a great speech, as was to be expected from Barack Obama. He does really dig deep in his thinking and historical outlook and spoke some wunderful words about Islam in history. The great thing is that he is digging deep not to find differences and reasons for a "clash of civilisations", but to find commen ground. In that respect he recalls me Fidel Castro, the _real_ big unifier. He even acknowledged that the USA was responsible to a certain extent herself for the hatred she draws especially in the Arab and Islamic world. And especially this conciliatory approach drew harsh criticism from the extreme right in the USA itself. I was very positive to reject explicitly the racist anti-Islamism so prominent in the imperialist countries painting Islam as such as a menace, even in a veiled form as concentrating on "Islamism". I jumped up from my armchair when Obama spoke out strongly against the moves to prescribe to women their clothes, this clearly pointing against the corresponding laws in France or Germany. Women shall have the right to decide themselves how much of their body they want to expose or cover. Obama tries to forge together the flock with looked up to the USA after its ascension to world domination by the outcome of the Second World War, and he tries to do this with words and invocations of a common ground and common history. He did this already in Berlin before his election (which was the largest campaign meeting up to then with, according to estimates in the German press, 200'000 people attending). In Cairo, Obama said himself that he is best suited because of his own personal history -- as son of a student from Kenia, having spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's largest muslim country, and by his full name "Barack Hussein Obama". In Berlin he recalled the role the USA had played in the 1948 Berlin crisis when the USSR tried to counter by force and coercion the division of Germany pushed by the Western occupation powers and their German collaborators by creating a new currency in the hands of "Trizonesia" (a popular designation of the three western occupation zones which were on the way to create the Western separate state, the later Federal Republic of Germany). The "air bridge" from West Germany to West Berlin created a solid identification of the West Berlin population with the imperialist powers, creating the "Front city spirit". In Berlin, Obama also spoke about tearing down walls, claiming that the USA's role was decisive in opening the Berlin wall, but he also called for tearing down walls in general separating people and nations from each other. He received big applause for that. Very little applause, on the other hand, he received when he stressed the necessity of fighting militarily in Afghanistan, and this applause came nearly exclusively from the (probably) invited guests in a separate area right in front of the podium from where Obama spoke, and who had a lot of little US flags to wave with. In Cairo, too, Obamas speech was filled with such contradictions. Speaking about the Israel problem, he called upon the Palestinians to renounce violence, giving an explanation which could be sensible when discussing revolutionary strategy e.g. in today's Latin America, but which is cynical when the call to stop violence is not directed against the perpetrator of the utmost violence, the state of Israel. Obama also defended to apply violence against the Jihadist forces in Afghanistan and called for more of it. And then in several points he lectured the Arab and Islam countries to change, e.g. by giving women equal rights, implementing more freedom of the press, etc. I think that this patronizing was out of place for a POTUS visiting the Arab nation. In Berlin he presented his father who did not go to study in Moscow, but in the USA, as the typical person of the second half of the 20th century, who look to the USA as -- let me put it short -- the source of all good and the land of glory. That might seem so for Obama in light of his own personal history. But this view has broken down for many people confronted with the practical evil violence the empire applied and applies around the world, from Korea over Vietnam, Chile etc up to Iraq and Afghanistan and the staunch support for the racist colonial settler state of Israel against the Arab nation. So, lots of contradictions between his unificatory talk and the violent actions he defends as being necessary. Sometimes I think that Obama is just a naive fan of the USA, one of the children of Blue Jeans, Disney and Coca Cola, as there are many on this planet, as if he himself does not perceive the contradition of his talk to the actions of the empire. I think that he is sincere in these his beliefs; this transpires from the way he speaks and acts. But being POTUS is stronger than personal convicions. The office imposes a position in this world of clashes between classes and nations, which is the position of the Empire, and "any means necessary" to defend the empire's interests and domination (remember Obama's talk a short time ago before US military promising that the USA will always be the dominant military might on this planet). Let me end this article with an appeal to my comrades in the fight for the working class and the oppressed nations of this planet: let these contradictions be the contradictions of Barack Obama, not ours. Let us rather seek common ground with those people fascinated by his talk, sincerly believing in the unifying, deep digging talk of Obama, and point out the contradictions of this thinking with the real activity of imperial domination. Let us not reject the unifying talk just because its talker is the current POTUS. By the way, he just delivered another quite good speech at the Buchenwald concentration camp which (the site of it with all the baracks demolished, maintained as a memorial site) together with the German Chancellor, A. Merkel, and Elie Wiesel and the president of the Buchenwald prisoners (whose name I have not memorized). Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt/Main / Lueko.Willms at T-Online.de For those who are not familiar with the abbreviation POTUS: its simple: President Of The United States. From tcod at hotmail.com Fri Jun 5 08:50:32 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:50:32 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: <4A291F55.6060405@panix.com> References: <4A291F55.6060405@panix.com> Message-ID: this doesn't surprise me; its part of the whole knee jerk attitude toward events in the former socialist countries that WWP (PSL is its offspring) had. "your enemies enemy is your friend" etc. is a valuable precept until it becomes a knee-jerk caricature of itself. On this same basis Workers World supported the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968; a mentality that in these contexts puts global political needs of doctrine ahead of individual rights, the former meaning that any serious investigation of the facts is really not necessary; just dismiss them all as counter-revolutionaries. In these instances, a truly Stalinist attitude. _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_BR_life_in_synch_062009 From farmelantj at juno.com Fri Jun 5 09:56:42 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:56:42 GMT Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression Message-ID: <20090605.115642.22157.0@webmail22.vgs.untd.com> Arguably, the entrance of workers into the Tianamen protests was what led the Chinese government to decide to repress them. Up to that point, the government seemed tolerant of the student protesters and was willing to negotiate with them and event to debate them on television. The student protests were not seen as a threat to the regime. When workers began to join the protests then the government's attitude towards them changed radically. While the students were neither able nor willing to overthrow the regime, the same could not necessarily be said for the workers, and the government decided it wasn't going to take any chances. Jim F. ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Louis Proyect To: farmelantj at juno.com Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:07:16 -0400 http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0604/p06s14-woap.html Tiananmen Square: Workers bore brunt of repression On 20th anniversary of massacre, few remember the key role state employees played in supporting students ? and the price some paid for organizing. By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the June 4, 2009 edition ____________________________________________________________ Click to find the latest solutions to enhance your small business. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTI97vTDFVO0lALYeMFrgxNpXZrlXJEf3WuRuvoKvuSfkDwjWk6hU0/ From skeyesvogt at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 10:58:20 2009 From: skeyesvogt at gmail.com (Sky Keyes) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 12:58:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Police Brutality, Racism and Prison State articles Message-ID: US - California: Family calls for prosecution of Inglewood officers http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/05/us-california-family-calls-for-prosecution-of-inglewood-officers/ US - California: Cop that murdered Oscar Grant will face murder charges http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/05/us-california-cop-that-murdered-oscar-grant-will-face-murder-charges/ US: States slimming down inmate meals http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/05/us-states-slimming-down-inmate-meals/ US - California: Oscar Grant trial begins, Cops are contradicted by video http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/04/us-california-oscar-grant-trial-begins-cops-are-contradicted-by-video/ US - Illinois: Murder convictions overturned because of police torture http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/04/us-illinois-murder-convictions-overturned-because-of-police-torture/ US - California: Police Win Precludes State Suit Over Fatal Shooting http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/04/us-california-police-win-precludes-state-suit-over-fatal-shooting/ Canada - Vancouver: Inmates go to court over toilet rights http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/04/canada-vancouver-inmates-go-to-court-over-toilet-rights/ US - North Carolina: Gang Unit Officer Tells Of Racism & Unnecessary Targeting of Latin Kings In Police Department http://www.malcolm-che.com/2009/06/03/us-north-carolina-gang-unit-officer-tells-of-racism-unnecessary-targeting-of-latin-kings-in-police-department/ From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 11:18:30 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:18:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Crisis of the Left Leadership - Rise of the Pakistan People's Party Message-ID: <4A295366.9020804@panix.com> A useful article despite the sectarian framework. http://www.marxist.com/pakistans-other-story-8.htm From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 11:22:56 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:22:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] From the latest Counterpunch Message-ID: <4A295470.8050902@panix.com> Bill Blum on the Iranian "threat" http://www.counterpunch.org/blum06052009.html Obama and Netanyahu: not so far apart http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein06052009.html http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb06052009.html From binesi at gvtel.com Fri Jun 5 12:53:56 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:53:56 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A2969C4.2020201@gvtel.com> Without getting into all the ins and outs of the 1989 Tiananmen protest and its crushing, the least that can be said is that this PSL account is highly selective both in the facts and in its spin. I wonder if PSL heard the student protesters singing "The Internationale," and if they did, was that merely proof that they were inspired by the CIA or imperialism? Some New York City gays were so incensed at Workers World Party's support of the Stalinist crushing of the protest that I intervened at one meeting in the Community Center to try to calm them down. But WWP and PSL have a one-sided and tendentious version, consistent with their longtime Manichaean view of the world. To them, everything is black and white, evil or good, progressive/revolutionary or counterrevolutionary. If things were only so simple. David Eli Stephens wrote: > Tiananmen Square and the threat of counterrevolution: > http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=wsArticle&id203 > > > From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 13:07:10 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:07:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Macbook Pro: first impressions Message-ID: <4A296CDE.1000301@panix.com> http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/macbook-pro-first-impressions/ From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 13:23:03 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:23:03 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Dennis Perrin comments on Obama Cairo Speech Message-ID: <4A297097.4050100@panix.com> RAGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN Friday, June 5, 2009 Love Gravy Attending to family business this weekend, but I'll be back Monday with thoughts about David Carradine. I appeared on KPFT in Houston last night, so if you have any desire to hear me mix it up with a Clinton/Obama fan, check this out (or go here). A fun time for all. One correction: Gaylord Nelson was a Democrat. Other than that, I take nothing back. Thanks again, Scooter! posted by Dennis Perrin at 9:00 AM Thursday, June 4, 2009 The Lawn People posted by Dennis Perrin at 7:15 PM More Fresh Air http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-fresh-air.html I've been reading Obama's Cairo speech, and I must say, the president made some compelling points. I'm not completely finished with the transcript, but here's an early passage that caught my eye. OBAMA: We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world -- tension rooted in Western attempts to suppress or buy off Arab nationalism, using Islamic mercenaries as a violent counterweight until they were no longer needed. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of colonialism, exploitation and religious wars. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by capitalist expansion and global corporate rule led many Muslims, for some strange reason, to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. So long as our relationship is defined by existing power relationships, we will embolden those who sow struggle rather than surrender, and who promote resistance rather than the capitulation that can help rich people achieve even more leverage and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world -- what we call in America a "do over"; one based upon elite interests and phony respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, as our close relationships with oil kingdoms prove. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles ?- principles of greed and private power; intolerance for the dignity of all human beings. I do so recognizing that capitulation cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mass murder and theft, nor do I have any intention of answering all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we know not to be true, as the real policies are often shaped behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground -- well, on your end anyway. For us, nothing substantial will change, only some of the rhetoric. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." Then again, I'm a Christian, so the Holy Koran doesn't really apply to me. But you get the idea. From lajany_otum at yahoo.co.uk Fri Jun 5 13:24:30 2009 From: lajany_otum at yahoo.co.uk (Lajany Otum) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:24:30 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Marxism] SMBIVA on Obama's Cairo speech: Pious hope (and no change) Message-ID: <591389.35175.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Pious hope (and no change) By Michael J. Smith on Thursday June 4 05:42 PM Here's Obie, laying down the law to a group of benighted towelheads: Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the centre of America's founding. As I often ask: Where do you start with this stuff -- this emetic concoction of falsehood, sanctimony, and hypocrisy? "Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed." Really? What were Stalingrad and Omaha Beach about? Gettysburg? Bunker Hill? The storming of the Bastille? Horatio at the bridge? Thermopylae? Needless to say, Obie forgot to send the Israelis the same message. The whole sick-making performance is like this -- Parson Obama, master of the drone aircraft and the cluster bomb for six days in the week, ascends the pulpit on the seventh and tells everybody -- well, almost everybody -- to renounce violence. On Obie's one hand, the Israelis. On his other, the Palestinians. Obie weighs, Obie judges, Obie sits on the throne and apportions the deservedness and destiny of nations. So let it be written! So let it be done! There would be a certain Cecil B DeMille grandeur in it if he could assume a Pharaonic manner, but the closest he can get is Pharisaical -- the I-mean-business furrowed brow, the moralizing scowl, the hollow sepulchral voice of a Methodist parson with a secret vice. The qualities that his admirers admired him for -- intelligence, moral seriousness, high purpose, the whole Eagle Scout package -- curdle, it seems, once mixed with actual power, into a filthy foetid smarmy preacherly pustular effluvium worthy of Woodrow Wilson himself. As Galilee's most illustrious son once observed: For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2009/06/pious_hope_and_no_change.html From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 13:43:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:43:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bill Blum anti-Empire report Message-ID: <4A29756A.9020302@panix.com> http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer70.html From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 13:44:11 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:44:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Academics Message-ID: <4A29758B.1060905@panix.com> http://www.counterpunch.org/thomson06052009.html Weekend Edition June 5 -7, 2009 Fast Times at the Marxist Cash Bar The Academics By DAVID Ker THOMSON For a group whose name means ?having no practical or useful significance,? academics can come in pretty handy. Everyone should have one or two of them around. The landed and merchant classes have always been willing to suffer them, as long as they?ve brought enough wit to their end of the dinner table to pay for their trifle and goose. On the whole, they?re not a bad lot. The standard criticism of them, that they are elitist, out-of-touch, and live in Manhattan, works best inside a subsidized Detroitmobile, where the air is thick with naugahyde vapors, flatulence, and talk radio. Not that they?re perfect. Leftist academics embedded and thriving in the academies of the empire are in almost exactly the position of native collaborationist elites in relation to mid-twentieth-century colonial powers, with the range of options outlined by Frantz Fanon, the Malcolm X of colonial theory, falling no longer only to blacks but to anyone willing to nest themselves inside the state apparatus. I mean, talk about sleeping with the enemy. They say that forensics experts are using bedbugs to finger their suspects these days. If so, imagine the tales the bugs of Manhattan could tell! Still, academics are likeable. There?s a reason for that. My mother always used to tell me proudly that she had an M-R-S degree. It turns out that the letter hat-trick of the doctorate isn?t ?P? or ?h? or ?D?, since anyone petitioning to enter the professoriate has to have the standard sheepskin anyway. The three essential letters are the three letters of recommendation from referees to get an academic posting. Three people have to like you. That?s not ?like? as in ?I like you but I want to see other people too? like you said to Jennifer. It?s not necessarily rude, either, though let?s not discount the full monty, which certainly has its place in the annals of advancement protocol. The ?like? here signals, instead?and I hope you?ll remember this?a certain mutual willingness to suspend disbelief in the coherence of the system, rather in the manner that theatergoers are able to suggest (by the quality of their applause and by their angle of repose in their seats) that they are not likely to leap embarrassingly onto the stage and rescue Hamlet from the villains. The show must go on. Universities in their current configuration are roughly as old as the plague. It?s always been love in the time of cholera at high table, though like traditional drama the actors in the pageantry have been boys until very recently, and the focus on gay rights in the last few decades should be considered as partly a spoof, since universities have always been gay, which in the old days suggested a fluid largesse enabled by the leisure afforded to one?s class by one?s class. Swine flu? Bring it. Take my friend Larry, or Sir Laurence as we?re invited to call him, now that the French have had a go at him. He?s a bit of a fat fuck, is Larry, but he has his charm. The French are more discreet than me, and changed his name, but to me he?ll always be just Larry. I knew him back in the day when he was a plain old full professor and chair of the French department. Larry wrote so many academic articles no one could read them all. The French sent an emissary over to America to make him a knight for having a hundred gold ?toiles plus bonus points. Took him into a chapel right there on our own campus and did something technical to him with a sword. Now, as a chevalier, Larry wears a little garter strap with some other stuff on it that he?s offered to show me. Well, I?m gay, sure, but not that gay (as you might have guessed, Larry is a very traditional academic). Then Larry?s university made him a dean. The thing about academics is that thirty percent of them are in the priestly class of administrators getting extraordinary amounts of money to do nothing useful whatsoever. Well, I exaggerate, of course. They?re actually doing much less than nothing, because they get in everyone else?s way. But they tend to be likeable and the sort of people you?d have over for dinner. One Macbook Pro could replace all administrators at any university and still have enough processing power for World of Warcraft, including Burning Crusade and The Wrath of the Lich King expansion packs, but then who are you going to have over on Saturday night? Sir Larry approached his responsibilities as dean with all the gravity that the prestigious post warranted. Every day he?d go into his office, close the door and unplug the phone, and let his secretary do the dean ?work.? Larry?d write more articles. I wish I could say that Larry passed his idle time boffing slightly-over-age boys with the customary tutorials. Like I said, I wish I could say that. But this is a family magazine. Academics. Can?t live with ?em, can?t live without ?em, you know? We could hint at our ambivalence, for example, by noting academics? bizarre insistence on fetishizing the ?post-? of post-colonialism, as if the deprivations of empire had fallen into nostalgic disuse, like black-and-white film. As if forty thousand children a day weren?t dying from hunger within shooting distance of the seven hundred Battlestar Galactica-sized panoptical outposts of the empire in its American mode. Just cue an academic with prompts like ?subaltern? and ?Spivak,? and the comforting haze of distance falls onto the discussion. There is a whole sepia-colored sub-industry called ?Post-Colonialism,? and a special cadre willing to decry the horrors of colonialism in Algiers or India, places and events safely removed in time and distance. During the first eight years of the century a brief resurgence of critique of the empire (Hardt and Negri, etc.) was fashionable as long as the ills of the empire could be displaced on to a homunculus shipped direct to D.C. from Midland, Texas, with realistic head attachment at no extra charge, but what the left really meant by this was evident in hailing its next chief?the empire ought to be managed with a younger, sexier executive branch. The wars could remain or escalate, as long as they were good wars. And don?t even get me started on who?s blind in the supposedly blind-submission policy of peer review, as if every article not explicitly tagged by one friend for another (almost all of them) isn?t implicitly tagged inside the article. This includes, most innocently, the use of a magisterial tone of writing to cue the adjudicator, phrases like ?see my? in footnotes to call attention to previously published articles, and so on. When Milton was blind, by contrast, he published Paradise Lost. Now that?s blind. Still, we oughtn?t to get too grouchy. It?s not always clear who?s boffing whom. Our friend here wrote a paper against Big Oil during the time he had funding as PetroCanada Young Innovator of the Year. That?s like a bumper sticker against war affixed to a, well, a bumper. As the Chinese couple said when they adopted a Caucasian baby, ?two Wongs make a white,? which is exactly the kind of thing you won?t hear at the Marxist Cash Bar of the Modern Languages Association, let alone in po-co circles. Sounds like the pandemic?s going to be upon us one of these years. Plagues and universities?just like old times. In a recent article in the Guardian, Mike Davis implies that those of us who like to get our food with the efficient use of land by eating organic turnips and whatnot are going to be dragged through the muck with the rest of you oinkers who like your pigs and chickens boiled alive in the bloodshit terror bath of the battery system. Sounds a bit medieval to me. Whatever happens, the clerics will be there, and their robes will be just as loose as the conditions demand. If Chaucer could see us now ? David Ker Thomson sleeps with an academic. He can be reached (for other purposes) at dave.thomson at utoronto.ca From ectoren at sbcglobal.net Fri Jun 5 13:52:15 2009 From: ectoren at sbcglobal.net (Erik Toren) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:52:15 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Macbook Pro: first impressions In-Reply-To: <4A296CDE.1000301@panix.com> References: <4A296CDE.1000301@panix.com> Message-ID: I don't have a beef with either MSWindows or Mac. I really don't care for the pissing match that goes on between users. But...not to get on your bad side: "The latest version of the Mac notebooks uses a buttonless trackpad. While at first this seems to present problems (and it did take some getting use to), it is far better than the pad on my wife?s Dell. [...]?" My Dell has a pad with a section that allows you to do the same thing. As far open source OS, you can always use Ubuntu on Windows either by partitioning your hard drive OR using Wubi. "The Macbook also has an illuminated keyboard" So does Dell. por el socialismo, ??Erik Carlos Tor?n?? TSEU/CWA IWW Industrial Union 620 From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 13:58:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:58:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Macbook Pro: first impressions In-Reply-To: References: <4A296CDE.1000301@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A2978DC.6080007@panix.com> Erik Toren wrote: > "The Macbook also has an illuminated keyboard" > > So does Dell. I have to admit that when it comes to keys dislodging, nothing can beat a Dell. From elishastephens at hotmail.com Fri Jun 5 14:02:12 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:02:12 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression Message-ID: Louis posts an article from the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0604/p06s14-woap.html) which talks about how workers bore the brunt of the repression at Tienanmen Square. The article claims that 50 "protesters" still languish in jail, most of them workers, and says they were charged with "counterrevolutionary assault," "counterrevolutionary sabotage," or "hooliganism." I'd call "hooliganism" something like breaking a store window or setting fire to a trash can. But the article makes clear the actions of these workers were far beyond that: "That, says Han, partly reflects the fact that workers, not students, were the most aggressive in resisting the military takeover of the square on the night of June 3, burning buses and tanks." He might have added, "burning buses and tanks" which contained members of the PLA, some of whom were killed. Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/world/asia/04protester.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print) interviewing two former protesters, both of whom served two years in prison. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989) says that "Wang Dan, the student leader who topped the most wanted list, spent seven years in prison." Given these facts, it seems highly unlikely that anyone still in prison after 20 years was a mere "protester." Far more likely is that were among those involved with physical assaults, including murder, on members of the PLA. 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 ectoren at sbcglobal.net Fri Jun 5 14:03:28 2009 From: ectoren at sbcglobal.net (Erik Toren) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 15:03:28 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Macbook Pro: first impressions In-Reply-To: <4A2978DC.6080007@panix.com> References: <4A296CDE.1000301@panix.com> <4A2978DC.6080007@panix.com> Message-ID: Hey Louis: I have only had one non-PC Dell and has worked fine in so far as keyboards. But. YMMV por el socialismo, ??Erik Carlos Tor?n?? From binesi at gvtel.com Fri Jun 5 14:06:01 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:06:01 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections Message-ID: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> Those who read French might find this critique of the New Anticapitalist Party's approach insightful. David http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2009/06/05/le-megaphone-comme-ideal-platonicien-par-michel-onfray_1202869_3232.html From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 14:09:14 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:09:14 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A297B6A.4010100@panix.com> Eli Stephens wrote: > > Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/world/asia/04protester.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print) interviewing two former protesters, both of whom served two years in prison. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989) says that "Wang Dan, the student leader who topped the most wanted list, spent seven years in prison." Given these facts, it seems highly unlikely that anyone still in prison after 20 years was a mere "protester." Far more likely is that were among those involved with physical assaults, including murder, on members of the PLA. You clearly have a more sanguine view of the Chinese legal system than I do. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/world/asia/20iht-protest.4.15476805.html BEIJING ? Two women in their late 70s have been sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor" after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates. The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to obtain permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing. During their final visit, on Monday, Public Security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for "disturbing the public order," according to Li Xuehui, Wu's son. Li said his mother and Wang, a former neighbor who is nearly blind, were allowed to return home but were told they could be sent to a detention center at any moment. "Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?" he asked. The repeat arrests and detentions of aspiring protesters who appeared to follow official procedures for registering their complaints are perhaps the most striking example of how the Olympics have so far failed to force China to relax political controls, even for the short duration of the games. A man who answered the phone at the Public Security Bureau declined to give out information about the case. At least a half dozen people have been detained by the authorities after they responded to a government announcement late last month designating venues in three city parks as "protest zones" during the Olympics. So far, no demonstrations have taken place. Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that 77 people had submitted protest applications, none of which had been approved. Xinhua, quoting a Public Security spokesperson, said all but three applicants had dropped their requests after their complaints had been "properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations." The last three applications were rejected as incomplete or violating Chinese law. But the authorities have refused to explain what happened to applicants who disappeared after they submitted their paperwork. Gao Chuancai, a farmer from northeast China who was hoping to publicize government corruption, was forcibly escorted back to his hometown last week and remains in custody. Relatives of Zhang Wei, a Beijing resident who was also seeking to protest the demolition of her home, were told she would be kept at a detention center for a month. Two rights advocates from southern China have not been heard from since they were seized at the Public Security Bureau's protest application office last week. Wu and Wang were well known to the authorities for their persistent campaign for greater compensation for the demolition of their homes. Li said his family had given up their home in 2001 with the expectation that they would get one in the new development that replaced it. Instead, he said, the family has been forced to live in a ramshackle apartment on the capital's outskirts. "I feel very sad and angry because we're only asking for the basic right of housing, and it's been six years. But nobody will do anything to help them," Li said. He said he and Wang's daughter tried to apply for their own protest permit on Tuesday but the police would not even give them the necessary forms. The two elderly women were given administrative sentences to what is known as re-education through labor, or laojiao, which seeks to reform political and religious dissenters and those charged with minor crimes such as prostitution and petty theft. Government officials say that more than 200,000 people are detained in re-education centers for terms ranging from one to three years, although detentions can be extended for those whose rehabilitation is deemed inadequate. Human rights advocates have criticized the system because punishment is handed down by officials without a trial or means of appeal. Last year, the government grappled with revamping the system but backed off in the face of opposition from Public Security officials. From elishastephens at hotmail.com Fri Jun 5 14:20:12 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:20:12 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression Message-ID: Louis: You clearly have a more sanguine view of the Chinese legal system than I do. Without excusing the one-year sentence given to this woman (but also without knowing all the facts), this hardly explains how a mere "protester" at Tienanmen would still be in prison after 20 years when one of the known leaders served only 7. I stand by my hypothesis that anyone still in prison was guilty of far more serious offenses than mere "protesting." 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 epoliticus at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 14:21:12 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 16:21:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Keynes: The "Revolutionary" Who Wasn't Message-ID: The following extract is from an article, written by one Alejandro Reuss, published on the Dollars and Sense website (3 June 2009). I enjoyed the concluding section, which I have reproduced below, especially in view of the (most) recent deification of Keynes that has been circulating for the past nine months or so. The full article is at http://bit.ly/eyXDq. epoliticus ********** [...] This argument reflects the strong technocratic streak in Keynes? thought. Keynes thought that the world should be governed by an educated elite that, in his view, would stand above conflicting class interests and govern in the public interest. He did not believe that political, intellectual, or economic elites always acted in the best interests of society as a whole, but he did believe that the right elites could. Moreover, he certainly did not believe that ordinary people could run society well, or should run it at all. In The General Theory, Keynes frames his argument against ?State Socialism??that is, against the comprehensive nationalization of the ?instruments of production??as a caution against the ?homogeneous or totalitarian state.? Too much nationalization, he seems to suggest, and you?re in Stalinist Russia (or Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy). His argument against a socialism that would lift the working class to power is different. Keynes famously wrote, in a rant against Marxism in the essay ?A Short View of Russia? (1925): ?How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, whatever their faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?? That is not an argument against totalitarianism, but against democracy. Keynes? certainly had no sympathy for the radically democratic ideas, advocated by some socialists in his day and ours, that the principles of self-government should not end at the door to the workplace, and that no real democracy can exist in the political sphere as long as the economic sphere is dominated by unelected captains of industry (whether owners or managers). Keynes undoubtedly would have cringed at the idea of allowing the ?boorish proletariat? to decide how a factory should be run, much less an entire economy. If ordinary people were allowed to decide the fate of society, Keynes believed, their ignorance and lack of refinement would stand in the way of ?human advancement.? Keynes? outlook was consistent with political democracy, in the sense of a multiparty system with competitive elections, but not with a very participatory version of it. He was even suspicious of labor-based political parties that?unlike the elite that he imagined standing above all class interests?he denounced as ?class? parties. As biographer Robert Skidelsky notes, Keynes believed society could be ruled by an ?interconnected elite of business managers, bankers, civil servants, economists and scientists, all trained at Oxford and Cambridge and imbued with a public service ethic.? In other words, he thought it should be ruled by people rather suspiciously like him. ********** -- "In the tender annals of Political Economy, the idyllic reigns from time immemorial ... the present year of course always excepted." -- A German refugee, circa 1867 -- http://epoliticus.wordpress.com/ From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Fri Jun 5 14:37:38 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 13:37:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <584884.76821.qm@web110406.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Eli Stephens wrote: "Given these facts, it seems highly unlikely that anyone still in prison after 20 years was a mere "protester." Far more likely is that were among those involved with physical assaults, including murder, on members of the PLA." You're defending the Chinese justice system? "When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano From hartin at mail.desy.de Fri Jun 5 15:37:10 2009 From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 23:37:10 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Marxism] Murder by Maxwell's equation - or how I learnt to love the magic bullet Message-ID: Science magazines have become pop savvy in recent times. They dress up fairly mundane stories in provocative titles like "Hunks get more sex" (New Scientist) or "Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?" (Scientific American). So I was only mildly piqued when I stumbled across "Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide" on the New Scientist site today.Science magazines have become pop savvy in recent times. They dress up fairly mundane stories in provocative titles like "Hunks get more sex" (New Scientist) or "Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?" (Scientific American). So I was only mildly piqued when I stumbled across "Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide" on the New Scientist site today. in full: http://dissidentscience.blogspot.com/2009/06/murder-by-maxwells-equation-or-how-i.html From Waistline2 at aol.com Fri Jun 5 15:43:13 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 17:43:13 EDT Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China Message-ID: >> For almost two years, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation undertook an internal educational campaign, discussion and review of the current government of the People?s Republic of China from the perspective of the struggle for socialism and the interests of the world working class. This discussion was in preparation for the possibility of a major struggle? waged from within and without?against the Chinese government, which is led by the Communist Party of China.<< Comment A political/ideological group in America, with probably less than 1000 members, spending 2 years studying whether or not to support the overthrow of the government in China and the overthrow of the Communist Party of China, struck me as bizarre, incomprehensible, and utterly laughable. I could not stop laughing. I am still laughing! :-) Who but silly Americans, in our imperial arrogance and chauvinistic stupidity can pretend to have the ability to discern what constitutes "the interests of the world working class"? NO . . . really . . . . the interest of the world working class. THE WORLD. Who but charlatans, driven by intellectual foot solider's of the American intelligence community can possess an attitude that publicly states; "Let's us examine (for two years), from the standard point of the interest of the world working class, whether or not we shall advocate and support the overthrow of the government of China." It gets better. "The overthrow of the Communist Party of China by non-revolutionary forces would hurl China backward in its epoch-making struggle to emerge from underdevelopment. The overthrow of the Communist Party under those circumstances would return China to the semi-slavery of comprador neo-colonial rule. China would then also face the possibility of splintering, as happened in Yugoslavia and as may happen in Iraq under the impact of foreign occupation. In the face of this threat, our Party would offer militant political defense of the Chinese government in spite of our profound differences with so-called "market socialism." Incredible! The above apparently means . . . . at this time we support the government of China and will not advocate its overthrow - "in spite of profound differences." Why would one want to support the government of China? Supporting the Chinese people or rather, people of China has always been good enough for me, because government policy and states shift. I see no reason to have to explain any governments policy, especially when I know I had nothing to go with shaping the policy of a foriegn government. We forget history. During the existence of Soviet power, various groupings in America advocated the overthrow of the Soviet government, during different period using different rationales. These groups intersect with the political and ideological intent expressed in a world system of intelligence agencies. Soviet Power existed in collision and collusion with imperialism from its birth. Supporting Soviet Power has always been enough for me. Some matters of politics requires common sense. Advocating the overthrow of a foreign government, as we exist in the citadel of world imperialism (in the United States of North America) is the hall mark of political stupidity. Let's understand what can happen. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Fri Jun 5 16:21:21 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:21:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Hamas leader greets Obama speech, urges "deeds, not words" Message-ID: <4837A79B499F4B0FBFEE4ECA3B3FF4E8@office1pc> The following is the full text of Helena Cobban's IPS article on a central Hamas' leaders' speech. The full text shows that he was welcoming overall of the speech, while insisting that deeds, not just words, were required to change the situation "on the ground" as the Israeli rulers are fond of saying. One of the things that chronic Obama- exposers and Obama-opposers are prone to miss is the way his stands can given encouragement to the oppressed simply by the act of trying to reach out and bring them along. Obama's stated goal of bringing everybody together regardless of their opposing interests except a handful of Al Qaeda types is not likely to be achieved, but we should not leave out the possibilities that the masses will respond to the positive side and decide to ignore the negative core. This would not be a mistake. It is not, for instance, a DANGER that the use of nonviolent tactics in protests might spread in Palestine. This response to Obama's words condemning the settlements, stating that the continuing expansion of the settlements is wrong and must stop, that the situation of the Palestinians is impossible, and suggesting that the model of South Africa is legitimate for Palestine. I have no idea whether this will be the effect or not, but no US president (and all most no prominent US politician) has ever gone so far in the last 60 years in criticizing Israel and suggesting support to SOME forms of Palestinian resistance. And we should not leave out the possibility that the political situation among the true Israelis (who are only the Jews) may become more unstable. And this may be true in the long run, even if he spends the next year or so backing away from what he said in this speech, which would be quite in character. By the way Ahmadinejad in Iran would be well advised to take Obama's advice to drop the claim that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud, and accept the fact that it happened pretty much as described by the mainstream historians, because it did. I notice his competitors in the election are demanding this also, which is to paraphras Sotomayor's supposedly racist word, the approach of a "wise Iranian."". Fred Feldman US-MIDEAST: Hamas Leader to Obama: Deeds, Not Words Helena Cobban* DAMASCUS, Jun 5 (IPS) - The head of Hamas's political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, gave a qualified welcome here Thursday to the big speech that Pres. Barack Obama addressed to the Muslim world in Cairo. "The speech was cleverly written in the way it addressed the Muslim world... and in the way it showed respect to the Muslim heritage," Meshaal told IPS in an exclusive interview. "But I think it's not enough. What's needed are deeds, actions on the ground, and a change of policies." His remarks came just hours after the speech, in a wide-ranging interview in one of the Hamas leader's offices here in the Syrian capital. In the interview, Meshaal was friendly, quietly self-confident, and thoughtful. He was firm in describing his movement's positions, including when he restated that he wants Hamas to be treated as "part of the solution and not part of the problem". He said he would be happy to meet Sen. George Mitchell, who is expected to arrive in Damascus within the next two weeks for the first time in his capacity as U.S. peace envoy. "If Mitchell wants to meet me, we'll welcome him with a cup of fine tea," Meshaal said with a smile. This seems unlikely to happen in the near future. In the Cairo speech, Obama restated the three preconditions that Pres. George W. Bush and his allies in the international "Quartet" defined in 2006 for Hamas, before any members of the Quartet - the U.S. European Union, United Nations and Russia - would agree to deal with it. Meshaal expressed his displeasure with that part of Obama's speech, noting that in the speech Obama also said he was ready to start talks with Iran, "without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect". "Why is Obama ready to deal with Iran without preconditions, but not us?" Meshaal asked. "Obama is using some new words in his rhetoric, somewhat different from what we heard from Bush, but under no circumstances will preconditions be acceptable to us." IPS asked Meshaal if he thought some approach like the one Mitchell used to mediate an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland in the 1990s might work in the Palestinian-Israeli arena. In that effort, Mitchell defined a set of principles regarding issues like abstention from violence and commitment to democratic resolution of differences that he applied equally to all sides in the conflict. Meshaal replied, "Before we get into details, if Mitchell wants to resolve the conflict here, he should talk to everyone. The Northern Ireland principles were the result of dialogue, not of defining preconditions." That was when he extended the invitation to Mitchell to come and meet over a cup of tea. IPS asked whether - and how - he judged that Hamas's longstanding desire to be seen as part of the solution could be meshed with Mitchell's mission. "Yes, we want to be part of the solution, but on the basis of Palestinian rights," he said. "We have already said we'll work for the success of any project that ends the occupation of 1967, restores Palestinian rights, and grants to Palestinians our right of self-determination." "We need two things from Obama, Mitchell, the Quartet, and the rest of the international community. Firstly, pressure on Israel to acknowledge and grant these rights. The obstacle to this is completely on the Israeli side. Secondly, we need the international actors to refrain from intervening in internal Palestinian affairs. You should leave it to the Palestinians to resolve our differences peacefully. You should respect Palestinian democracy and its results," he said. This latter was a reference to the hard-hitting campaign that Israel, the U.S. and its allies have maintained against Hamas ever since its candidates won a strong victory in the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s parliamentary elections in January 2006. That campaign has included sustained efforts to delegitimise the Hamas-led government that emerged from the elections, attempts by Israel to assassinate the government's leaders, including during Israel's recent assault on Gaza, and the mission that U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has led in the West Bank to arm and train an anti-Hamas fighting force loyal to the U.S.-supported Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. In his reaction to Obama's speech, Meshaal referred to the U.S.'s role in this intervention, saying, "Rather than sweet words from President Obama on democratisation, we'd rather see the United States start to respect the results of democratic elections that have already been held. And rather than talk about democratisation and human rights in the Arab world, we'd rather see the removal of Gen. Dayton, who's building a police state there in the West Bank." On Thursday, the tensions between Hamas and forces loyal to the Ramallah-based Fatah Party leadership boiled over into outright fighting in the West Bank town of Qalqilya that left two Hamas fighters and one pro-Ramallah security officer dead. The deep divisions between Hamas and Fatah have also been seen by many as a major obstacle to lifting Israel's extremely damaging siege of Gaza, since Israel refuses to open the crossing points into Gaza unless pro-Fatah people control the Gaza side of the crossings. Meshaal told IPS, "We're eager for the reconciliation with Fatah. It's both a political and a humanitarian necessity. But success is unlikely because of outside intervention." Attempts to effect a reconciliation have been sporadically underway in Cairo since February, but so far with no success. IPS asked Meshaal if he thought Egypt was unsuccessful as a mediator. "Egypt is not the problem," he said. "The problem is not the mediator, but the outside intervention." He also said that the continuing differences between Hamas and Fatah should not be seen as posing an immoveable obstacle to lifting the Gaza siege. He argued that if the international community really wanted the Gaza siege lifted it could find ways to do this. Gaza has its longest land border with Israel, which also controls its coastline. It also has a short land-border with Egypt. IPS pressed Meshaal on an issue of great concern to some Israelis: whether, when he talks about "an end to Israeli occupation" he is referring to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 or to the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948 in what had previously been the area of "Mandate Palestine." He replied, "I have said I accept a Palestinian state if Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 line. That doesn't annul the historical fact of the Israeli occupation of 1948, but Hamas and the other factions have all accepted this solution of a Palestinian state at the 1967 line. But there's still no Israeli acceptance of this, and no international recognition of this outcome." Asked whether the establishment of a Palestinian state in just the areas occupied in 1967 would secure the end of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he responded, "That state is our demand today. When our people are free and have their own state they will decide on this position." In a discussion on the right of the numerous Palestinian refugees from 1948, and their descendants, to return to their ancestral homes and lands in what is now Israel, he defined this as meaning that these refugees still have the right to return to their "home villages or towns". Hamas is often portrayed in the west as politically inflexible, but on some key issues it has acted in a realistic way that demonstrates its leadership's ability to adapt its positions to changing realities on the ground. One of these shifts was its move toward accepting the concept of a Palestinian state in just the West Bank and Gaza. Another was the decision it took in 2005 to participate in the PA's parliamentary elections, though a decade earlier it had opposed such participation. Meshaal explained this latter shift by saying, "In 1996, when we opposed the elections it was because they were seen as derived from the Oslo Agreement, which we opposed. But by 2006 Oslo was dead... Also, by 2005-2006 the PA had become a real burden on the Palestinian people, with all its corruption. The Palestinian people wanted Hamas to enter the PA's institutions, to lift this burden from them, and we had to be responsive to that." In his reaction to Obama's speech, Meshaal welcomed the change from the rhetoric used by Pres. Bush - though he indicated it was not as far-reaching a change as he would have wished. But he also stressed that rhetorical change is not, on its own, nearly enough. "Obama talked about the Palestinian state, but not its borders," he said. "He didn't mention whether it should comprise all the Palestinian land that was occupied in 1967, or just part of it, as Israel demands..." "Yes, he spoke of an end to Israel's continuing settlement activity; but can he really get them to stop? Without addressing these issues, the speech remains rhetoric, not so very different from his predecessor's." Meanwhile, any time George Mitchell comes to Damascus and he needs a cup of tea, he knows where he can find one. *Helena Cobban is a veteran Middle East analyst and author. She blogs at www.JustWorldNews.org. From lycophidion at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 16:25:21 2009 From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 18:25:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY Message-ID: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY By The Editors Created 06/03/2009 - 10:11 Which way forward for the Black Left? The path leads in the same direction it always has: agitation, organization, and confrontation with Power. Cynthia McKinney chose a Harlem church to announce formation of DIGNITY, to bring the Black body politic back from its current comatose state. "Dignity is attempting to show real change is possible" - if people fight for it. "We want to organize networks so that we can relay information quickly to a large number of people." Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY the editors Former congresswoman (D-GA) and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney addressed a packed house at St. Mary?s Church, in Harlem, on Sunday, May 31. Also sharing the podium were Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberley, of Black Agenda Report, Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council, Prof. Anthony Monteiro, of the African American Studies Department, Temple University, and writer/activist Mae Jackson. The event was titled, ?Which Way Forward for the Black Left?? ?We agreed to found an action organization and to call it Dignity.? Thank you all for being here. On Thursday, General Taguba spoke to journalists and said that the photos currently being withheld by President Obama show rape. On Friday, he went even further and said that he saw video of U.S. soldiers raping and sodomizing detainees. From the first batch of photos that were released, we know that detainees were also murdered. In your name and mine. But some of us here in the U.S. are not shocked or surprised that this kind of behavior could occur. For those of us who have our eyes open, the gritty streets of America are filled with the experience of unarmed black and brown men being beaten, raped, sodomized, and even murdered by terroristic agents of the state. We remember the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Kwame Tour?. We remember George Jackson, Soledad and Attica. We remember the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican Independistas, the Chicano Movement, and we remember the FBI. We know about Area A in Chicago and we?ve heard the San Francisco 8 recount for us their experiences of torture at the hands of law enforcement. We?ve heard them tell how 30 years later, the very same people who tortured them showed up on their doorsteps to re-arrest them for crimes they did not commit. So when General Taguba verifies that torture, rape, and murder were used by U.S. service men and women, we cannot be surprised. When we see Dick Cheney say that torture worked, we in this audience, are not surprised. The gritty streets of America are filled with the experience of unarmed black and brown men being beaten, raped, sodomized, and even murdered by terroristic agents of the state.? When we hear that Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown who allowed the San Francisco 8 prosecution to move forward is rumored to want to be the Governor of California, and expects our votes to win, we are not surprised. Or that Gavin Newsome, current mayor of San Francisco who is abetting the ethnic cleansing of the last remaining black neighborhood in that city wants to be Governor and expects black, brown, and progressive white votes, we are not surprised. So, when yet another young man is gunned down by the police, be it Oscar Grant in Oakland or Omar Edwards in New York City, and the policy doesn?t change to stop it. We shouldn?t be surprised. The authorities have proven that they will do everything and more if the people let them get away with it. Our President has breathed new life into the Democratic Party. But the fact is, our precious breath, that gives that Party life, is killing us. Glen Ford, Roy Singham, Dedon Kamathi of the All African People?s Revolutionary Party, and I all came together earlier this year, to not only lament the present, but to change the future. We decided that while our movement was nascent, coming out of my Power to the People campaign, that there was power in organization. That there was hope in mobilization. And that victory was possible in implementation. We agreed to found an action organization and to call it Dignity. There will be some who will maintain that this country, founded as a settler state, never had any dignity since it rested on taking and not sharing land that belonged to someone else. ?We decided that while our movement was nascent, coming out of my Power to the People campaign.? After deep engagement in slavery, the take-over of whole countries, denial of self-determination, and endless war and occupation, still others would say that our country has certainly lost whatever dignity it might have been able at one time to earn. And after Abu Ghraib, dignity is no longer possible. For about ten years, I went around the country proclaiming the black body politic to be at first moribund, then comatose. I now see the same fate awaiting the Progressive community even as we witness ongoing war, even ramping up the war machine during the greatest transfer of wealth out of black and brown communities by the wholesale theft of people?s homes. Bait and switch schemes, whitewashing, and red herrings shouldn?t be left for the people alone to decipher as they are also trying to save themselves from drowning. Some of us know what?s going on and we?re organizing Dignity in order to inform and then stop it. We are tired of watching politicians acknowledge our pain, win office, and then go about their business adding more to the existing pain. We can change the policies only by changing the nature of the debate that leads up to the selection of our policymakers. That means that we must have a way to get our message out independent of CNN, FOX, the New York Times, Clear Channel, or Public Radio. People must know in advance what the issues are, what the possibilities of policy are, and be informed, correctly, not only in slick Madison Avenue style campaigns designed to mislead. We need media of our own. ?I went around the country proclaiming the black body politic to be at first moribund, then comatose.? And finally, we need actions that serve as a wake-up call to all of our elected officials that for a critical number of us, and Glen just happens to believe that we have the right number of people supporting us in general now, business as usual is over. We have brains, we have brawn, and we?ve got guts. But is that enough? We?ve learned from our neighbors to our South, from Mexico, Cuba, and Haiti; Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua that we don?t have to settle for less than what we need from politics. And I?m tired of feeling trapped in the politics of self-abnegation. If people in other parts of the world can do it, then we must be able to do it, too. That remains to be seen, however. So, Dignity is attempting to show that real change is possible. Dignity will show that just voting for special interest politicians who reflect special interest political parties in new faces is not enough. It is clear that some people are satisfied with that, but we demand more. Honestly, I called Glen, ready to give up, saying that I?ve done what I could do. And Glen, then Dedon, then Roy, and so many others across our country said, no. People began contacting me personally, as if they could sense what I was feeling. They started adding comments on our youtube videos, and I know many people are talking among themselves, expressing disappointment in whispered tones with the direction so far of the Obama Administration. ?Dignity is attempting to show that real change is possible.? I was saddened to read a message from Cindy Sheehan saying that she won?t run against Pelosi next election. That?s a big blow to us and I hope she will reconsider. Who was it that said the race goes not to the swift but to he who can endure? I?m willing to try one more thing, one more time. And Dignity is our effort to endure; to deliver a much-needed victory to the people. Before it?s too late. Please support us with your money, your brain, and your time. Please be sure to sign in. In the days ahead, we will contact you. You all have networks. We want to organize networks so that we can relay information quickly to a large number of people. Because of your contributions today, Dignity soon will have an internet presence and a weekly television show. We intend to have a distribution mechanism so that our supporters can place our television show on cable access stations across the country; we want to be on the radio, and we also want to be in the faces of the people who got our votes or have authority over our tax dollars and who continue to disappoint us. We are not abused spouses turning the other cheek for another slap in the face. We are individuals who know that this country can be better because we still have faith in the good will and the values of the American people. Help us organize Dignity, and with dignity, we will stand up for our rights! For more information on DIGNITY, contact Ms. McKinney at hq2600 at gmail.com [1] From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 16:36:33 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 18:36:33 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections In-Reply-To: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> References: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> Message-ID: My French isn't great, but is he critiquing the NPA for not making broader unions with the center-left? In which case I completely disagree. From markalause at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 16:43:07 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 18:43:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY In-Reply-To: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> References: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: What do people think this means for the Greens? I mean, supporters of the GPUS in the last election argued that McKinney's association with the party would represent a new stage in the party's growth. This proposal leaves no role for the Greens, which may reflect a recognition on her part of the GPUS's failure to deliver on her behalf in 2008. What are the thoughts on this interesting new development? ML From lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jun 5 16:55:00 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:55:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY In-Reply-To: References: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> Mark Lause wrote: > What do people think this means for the Greens? I mean, supporters of > the GPUS in the last election argued that McKinney's association with > the party would represent a new stage in the party's growth. > > This proposal leaves no role for the Greens, which may reflect a > recognition on her part of the GPUS's failure to deliver on her behalf > in 2008. > > What are the thoughts on this interesting new development? > > ML > I hope that it has more traction that the Reconstruction Party has. I am a little skeptical since there is so little motion in the Black community now. At the risk of provoking Fred with my Obamaphobic views, I have a feeling that the lack of motion is attributable to his hold over the official Black leadership. In the morning I listen occasionally to long-time Black journalist Earl Louis on WWRL, the Air America station in NY although Louis's show is not part of the Air America lineup. Louis is totally gung-ho over Obama and the largely Black listeners who call in are even more craven. Whatever Obama does, they are for. It is really depressing to hear a young Black man try to explain why Obama was right not to release the photos, escalate in Afghanistan, etc. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Fri Jun 5 17:10:52 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:10:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Obama's Cairo speech deserves to be studied closely Message-ID: <74863C95896241AE94DF8FE6025E1A57@office1pc> I am submitting this to the list because I feel that a genuine discussion of this speech, not just radical critique -- I thought Eli Stephens' points on the Marxmail list were all sound -- but what it reflects about the world today and the US position it it. Including how the US ruling circles or the currently dominant sector that backs Obama Most importantly, whether and, if yes, how the situation will be affected by what he said. I am appending Prof. Mark Jensen's critical comments on the speech, because they are of interest in a serious discussion. We should keep in mind that the last time Obama placed the soft-cop image on display in Port au Prince, Trinidad, his words did not have the affect of bringing his hearers more into line with Washington. In fact that were followed by a shift toward stronger workers activity in Venezuela, and to a lesser degree elsewhere, and gave the Latin governments more nerve to force the US to swallow the revoking of Cuba's suspension. I personally see Venezuelan President Chavez's gift of a copy of "What is to be done?" to Obama as signifying that while it is wonderful to have friendly and normal relations with this administration, the revolutionary process in Venezuela is not changing its course away from US domination and capitalism. Will the effects of this approach in the Middle East be any more to strengthen the hand of US imperialism in that region than his effort in Latin America so far, or will it be an opening for the inevitable weakening of the US grip (the biggest problem he faces is that it is inevitable, I think) may proceed in a somewhat more civil way. Something that I do not think would satisfy Obama, who aims at the restoration of the US to its former pre-eminence in part through sweet talk and rhetoric which shows both a certain literary talent and oratorical power. At any rate these problems can be traced through the succession of giving-with-one-hand and taking-away-the-other pronouncements that speckle the speech. There is more to talk about here than the fact that he is representing imperialism, though that is always worth reminding ourselves and others. Fred Feldman DOCUMENT: In Cairo, Obama appeals to world's Muslims 'for a new beginning' [Declaring that "So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace," President Barack Obama chose in his long-awaited address "to the Muslim world," delivered at Al-Azhar University in Cairo on Thurs., Jun. 4, 2009, to emphasize commonalities. -- Obama spoke for fifty-five minutes. -- He said that both "the United States" and "Muslims around the world" hold "common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."[1] -- "[L]et there be no doubt," the president said in words that are sure to rile right-wing Christianists in the U.S., "Islam is a part of America." -- Obama spoke with more than customary frankness about U.S. wars in the region (which he declined to denominate a "War on Terror") and about U.S. support for Israel. -- But he was unconvincing on the subject of Palestine, instructing Palestinians that they "must abandon violence" because "resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed" only minutes after telling his audience that the U.S. invaded Afghanistan "because of necessity." -- To Muslim ears, preaching from an American presiding over a military that accounts for half the world's "defense" budget to the effect that "violence is a dead end" must appear not only hypocritical but also laughable. -- Still, Obama did seem to hold open the possibility of recognition of Hamas. -- And he said that "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," and that "It is time for these settlements to stop." -- With respect to Iran, Obama seemed to express determination to pursue comprehensive settlement of differences: "[W]e will proceed with courage, rectitude, and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect." -- The president also addressed, rather boldly, women's issues and, rather timidly, economic opportunity. -- In conclusion, Obama waxed philosophical: "All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort -- a sustained effort -- to find common ground . . . It's easier to start wars than to end them. It's easier to blame others than to look inward. . . . There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. (Applause.) This truth . . . [is] a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today. . . . The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now that must be our work here on Earth." --Mark Jensen] http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/8694/ ON A NEW BEGINNING By President Barack Obama Office of the Press Secretary (Cairo,Egypt) Cairo University Cairo, Egypt June 4, 2009 -- 1:10 p.m. (Local) [3:10 a.m. PDT] Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning; and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. And together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I'm grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. And I'm also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: Assalaamu alaykum. (Applause.) We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world -- tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. All this has bred more fear and more mistrust. So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end. I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. I know there's been a lot of publicity about this speech, but no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." (Applause.) That is what I will try to do today -- to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart. Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I'm a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam -- at places like Al-Azhar -- that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities -- (applause) -- it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. (Applause.) I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President, John Adams, wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government, they have stood for civil rights, they have started businesses, they have taught at our universities, they've excelled in our sports arenas, they've won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers -- Thomas Jefferson -- kept in his personal library. (Applause.) So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. (Applause.) But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. (Applause.) Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words -- within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum -- "Out of many, one." Now, much has been made of the fact that an African American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. (Applause.) But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores -- and that includes nearly 7 million American Muslims in our country today who, by the way, enjoy incomes and educational levels that are higher than the American average. (Applause.) Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That's why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it. (Applause.) So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations -- to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity. Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all. For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. When innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. (Applause.) That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings. And this is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes -- and, yes, religions -- subjugating one another in pursuit of their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; our progress must be shared. (Applause.) Now, that does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. Indeed, it suggests the opposite: We must face these tensions squarely. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and as plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together. The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms. In Ankara, I made clear that America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. (Applause.) We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security -- because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people. The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America's goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice; we went because of necessity. I'm aware that there's still some who would question or even justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women, and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with. Now, make no mistake: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We see no military -- we seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and now Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case. And that's why we're partnering with a coalition of 46 countries. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken. Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths -- but more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is as -- it is as if he has killed all mankind. (Applause.) And the Holy Koran also says whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. (Applause.) The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism -- it is an important part of promoting peace. Now, we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who've been displaced. That's why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend on. Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. (Applause.) Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future -- and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. And I have made it clear to the Iraqi people -- (applause) -- I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. And that's why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all of our troops from Iraq by 2012. (Applause.) We will help Iraq train its security forces and develop its economy. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron. And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter or forget our principles. Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year. (Applause.) So America will defend itself, respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer. The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians, and the Arab world. America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot, and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed -- more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction -- or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews -- is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve. On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people -- Muslims and Christians -- have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own. (Applause.) For decades then, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It's easy to point fingers -- for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought about by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security. (Applause.) That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. And that is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience and dedication that the task requires. (Applause.) The obligations -- the obligations that the parties have agreed to under the road map are clear. For peace to come, it is time for them -- and all of us -- to live up to our responsibilities. Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign neither of courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That's not how moral authority is claimed; that's how it is surrendered. Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have to recognize they have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. (Applause.) This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop. (Applause.) And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society. Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be a critical part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress. And finally, the Arab states must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state, to recognize Israel's legitimacy, and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past. America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and we will say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. (Applause.) We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true. Too many tears have been shed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra -- (applause) -- as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer. (Applause.) The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons. This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is in fact a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I've made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build. I recognize it will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude, and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America's interests. It's about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path. I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons. And that's why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. (Applause.) And any nation -- including Iran -- should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I'm hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal. [snip full: http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/8694/] From schaffer at optonline.net Fri Jun 5 17:22:22 2009 From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:22:22 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Murder by Maxwell's equation - or how I learnt to love the magic bullet In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A29A8AE.4090807@optonline.net> Anthony Hartin wrote: > So I was only mildly piqued when I stumbled across "Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide" on the New Scientist site today. the holder of the patent for this fuse system is Alliant Techsystems, Inc (ATK): http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,497,704.PN.&OS=PN/5,497,704&RS=PN/5,497,704 check out ATK revenue stream and the line of ummm physics-based products: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliant_Techsystems http://www.atk.com/corporateoverview/corpover_ataglance.asp i guess layoffs are not an issue here, there are 10 new job postings for today alone: http://jobsearch.money.cnn.com/a/all-jobs/list/q-company%3A%22Alliant+Techsystems%22 although one subsidiary was recently closed: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090530/NEWS/905300349 http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090602/OPINION/906020312 http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090604/NEWS/906040374 http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/massachusetts/wwlp_ap_ma_site_of_07_immigration_raid_to_close_200905292011 here is an interesting right-wing take on the plant closing and marxist agitators (spelling errors and all): http://www.kenpittman.com/blogs/175/Infamous-quotBiancoquot-plant-closing-in-New-Bedford-after-chastising-union-attacks-owners.html ok, ATK makes screwdrivers too: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2321848/ not to mention the solid-rocket boosters that power the screwdrivers into orbit. it appears they are also a large supplier of DU: http://www.cpinternet.com/mbayly/facesofresistance9i.htm the usual connections to Israeli weapons: http://www.menewsline.com/article-1173,3693-Israeli-U-S-Firms-Advance-In-Ro.aspx all in all a run of the mill US weapons manufacturer with plenty of money and time to be screwing around with the laws of electrodynamics. nice blog, can you post here when you put out a new piece? Les From torrent.org at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 17:30:41 2009 From: torrent.org at gmail.com (Torrent) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 18:30:41 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It's another workers' story about Tienanmen event in NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/opinion/31lijia.html?_r=2 'Here Come the Workers!' WHEN I think about 1989, the date I remember most clearly is May 28, a week before the crackdown in Tiananmen Square. That was the day I organized a major demonstration of factoryworkers in Nanjing, hundreds of miles south of Beijing. The reform-minded Hu Yaobang, who had been forced out of his job as Communist Party general secretary by hard-liners, had died a month earlier. When the government rejected their requests for his rehabilitation, Beijing students began marching toward and gathering in Tiananmen, demanding greater freedom and democracy. Their actions were like a match thrown onto kindling; soon students from all over the country took to the streets. They were then joined by millions of ordinary citizens, many of whom were disgusted by corruption, inflation and the lack of personal freedom. Though the Chinese democracy movement is identified with Tiananmen and Beijing, it was really nationwide in character. At that time I was working in a missile-production factory in Nanjing, my hometown. The factory housed us in identical buildings, indoctrinated us in meeting rooms, and barred us from wearing lipstick or flared trousers and from dating anyone within three months of entering the factory. Every month, we had to show blood to the "period police" to prove we were not pregnant. To escape, I taught myself English in the hope of getting a job as an interpreter. Even though I still worked at the factory, I started to wear short skirts and have boyfriends. I listened to the BBC and attended lectures at Nanjing University where we debated whether Western-style democracy was the answer for China. On that Sunday in May, after watching televised images of workers in Guangzhou marching in the rain, I decided to organize a protest. I telephoned all my friends at the factory, and some of them informed their friends. We got the banners and placards ready in just a few hours. Under the wary eyes of our factory leaders, about 300 of us set off, as if for battle. Walking at the very front, I held a red flag and felt a sense of liberation that I had never experienced before. Behind me two workers carried a cloth banner that read, "Here come the workers!" The little strips of bright red cloth tied to our arms and heads flared in the wind. We marched toward the Drum Tower, Nanjing's equivalent of Tiananmen. On the main street, our group melted into a flow of marchers. Before us walked students from a technical school; at our tail were several dozen workers from a glass-making factory. We chanted slogans like "Long live democracy!" "Down with the repressive government!" "Anyone who dares to crack down on the democracy movement will be condemned for 10,000 years!" Onlookers cheered us. Along the way, hundreds more workers from our factory joined in. During that time, my ear was glued to my shortwave radio, and I learned about the crackdown at Tiananmen from foreign broadcasts. Feeling defeated, I left China in 1990. When I returned a few years later, I found a booming economy and, eventually, a space called "privacy" that hadn't really existed before. People could finally dress and date as they pleased. We're still in a cage here. But for many, my fellow marchers included, it has grown so large that we hardly feel its limits. In that sense the 1989 protests weren't a total failure. Without our efforts, China's rulers might have not expanded the cage at all. Lijia Zhang is the author of "'Socialism Is Great!': A Worker's Memoir of the New China." Torrent 0968656172 MSN?torrent at gcn.net.tw Skype?torrentpien 2009/6/5 Eli Stephens > > Louis posts an article from the Christian Science Monitor ( > http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0604/p06s14-woap.html) which talks about how > workers bore the brunt of the repression at Tienanmen Square. The article > claims that 50 "protesters" still languish in jail, most of them workers, > and says they were charged with "counterrevolutionary assault," > "counterrevolutionary sabotage," or "hooliganism." > > I'd call "hooliganism" something like breaking a store window or setting > fire to a trash can. But the article makes clear the actions of these > workers were far beyond that: > > "That, says Han, partly reflects the fact that workers, not students, were > the most aggressive in resisting the military takeover of the square on the > night of June 3, burning buses and tanks." > > He might have added, "burning buses and tanks" which contained members of > the PLA, some of whom were killed. > > Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article ( > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/world/asia/04protester.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print) > interviewing two former protesters, both of whom served two years in prison. > Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989) > says that "Wang Dan, the student leader who topped the most wanted list, > spent seven years in prison." Given these facts, it seems highly unlikely > that anyone still in prison after 20 years was a mere "protester." Far more > likely is that were among those involved with physical assaults, including > murder, on members of the PLA. > > > > Eli Stephens > Left I on the News > http://lefti.blogspot.com > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Windows Live(tm) SkyDrive(tm): Get 25 GB of free online storage. > http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009 > ________________________________________________ > 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/torrent.org%40gmail.com > From fred.fuentes at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 17:41:10 2009 From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 09:41:10 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Over 30 dead in worsening Peruvian Amazon clashes Message-ID: for background info see Peru: Amazonian indigenous people rise up Hugo Blanco http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40809 Peru: Indigenous protests force government negotiation Kiraz Janicke http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/797/41023 Over 30 dead in worsening Peruvian Amazon clashes Fri Jun 5, 2009 7:27pm EDT By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE55463G20090605 LIMA (Reuters) - Up to 31 people died and dozens were injured in clashes on Friday between Peruvian police and Amazon tribes protesting against government efforts to lure foreign energy and mining companies to the rain forest. In the worst unrest to hit President Alan Garcia's current government, 22 protesters and nine police officers died, tribal leaders and the interior ministry said. Angry protesters responded by saying they had taken a group of police hostage near an oil pumping station belonging to state-owned Petroperu. They threatened to set it ablaze unless police called off efforts to break up demonstrations in the Amazon basin. "We have taken 38 police hostage," Carlos Huaman, a protester, said on RPP radio. "There are 2,000 of us and we are ready to burn the station." The conflict, which has prompted calls for Garcia's prime minister and interior minister to quit, has underscored deep divisions in Peru between wealthy elites in Lima and poor indigenous groups in the countryside. Critics say the government has not done enough to lower the poverty rate from 36 percent and that economic boom times enjoyed before the current downturn failed to reach the poor. "I hold the government of President Alan Garcia responsible for ordering this genocide," indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in Lima as the government issued a warrant for his arrest for encouraging the protests. HELICOPTER ATTACKS CHARGED In the violence on Friday, indigenous leaders said police shot at hundreds of protesters from helicopters to end a roadblock on a remote jungle highway 870 miles from Lima, the capital. Police accused protesters of firing first, but the tribesmen denied having guns and said they only carried their traditional spears. Thousands of Amazon natives, demanding more control over natural resources, have intermittently blocked roads and waterways since April to try to force the government to revoke a series of investment laws passed last year and to revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies. The laws encourage oil, mining, and agricultural companies to invest billions of dollars in the mostly pristine region. Opposition leaders from the left and right said Garcia should fire Prime Minister Yehude Simon and Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas for allowing the standoff to turn violent. "This is very damaging for Peru," former President Alejandro Toledo said on TV. "Garcia needs to show leadership." GARCIA BLAMES PROTESTERS, OPPOSITION The protests have shut the main pipeline that carries oil from the Amazon to the Pacific Ocean for weeks and highlighted the risks of investing in Peru. Argentina's Pluspetrol, which had already curtailed most work at its lot 1AB in northern Peru, said on Friday it halted production. It normally pumps about a fifth of Peru's total oil output. In April, lot 1AB produced about 16,770 barrels a day. Garcia, whose approval rating is just 30 percent, blamed protesters for provoking violence and said it was time to lift the blockades of roads, rivers and energy installations. "It appears that this is being done to generate disorder for electoral reasons," Garcia said. Garcia's allies have at times linked the protests to populist opposition leader Ollanta Humala, who spooked investors when he nearly won the 2006 presidential race and is expected to run again in 2011. Humala, who enjoys support among the rural poor, said Garcia's APRA party made a serious error on Thursday, when it blocked a motion in Congress to open debate on a law that tribal leaders want to revise or overturn. Some of the controversial laws encouraging foreign investment in the Amazon were passed last year as Garcia moved to bring Peru's regulatory framework into compliance with a free-trade agreement with the United States. "The government has decided to solve this social, economic and political problem not in Congress, where it should be solved, but on the battlefield," Humala said at a news conference. Analysts said Garcia may also try to pin blame for the lingering protests on Prime Minister Simon, who tried to negotiate a peaceful end to the blockades for weeks. Simon, a former left-wing activist, has struggled since Garcia hired him a year ago to help avert social protests. "Without a doubt, his strategy of dialogue failed," Peruvian political analyst Sinesio Lopez Jimenez said about Simon. "This will probably force him to resign." (Additional reporting by Dana Ford and Teresa Cespedes; Editing by Anthony Boadle and Eric Walsh) From binesi at gvtel.com Fri Jun 5 17:49:50 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:49:50 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections In-Reply-To: References: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> Message-ID: <4A29AF1E.30004@gvtel.com> Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > My French isn't great, but is he critiquing the NPA for not making broader > unions with the center-left? In which case I completely disagree. > > I don't have time or inclination to translate the article, but it struck me as serious (the author says he started out with a favorable view of the NPA). His critique cannot be reduced to such a simple conclusion. More so, it is based on his perception that the NPA is "new" in name only, and that its approach is one of a "megaphone," not responding to the needs of the masses of disaffected and exploited, but, in his view, reflects a continuation of the "chapel" politics of the French far left. How accurate his take is I cannot say, though friends whom I respect and who live in France find his critique accurate. David From tcod at hotmail.com Fri Jun 5 18:07:20 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 00:07:20 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Workers bore brunt of Tiananmen Repression In-Reply-To: <4A297B6A.4010100@panix.com> References: <4A297B6A.4010100@panix.com> Message-ID: there was an interesting article in the NYT the other day about the impact of Tienanmen on the soldiers who carried out the repression. _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? SkyDrive?: Get 25 GB of free online storage. http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009 From kmccook at tampabay.rr.com Fri Jun 5 18:14:09 2009 From: kmccook at tampabay.rr.com (kmccook at tampabay.rr.com) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:14:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] annihilation of NIFL Message-ID: <4A297C91.25770.A3A1A6@kmccook.tampabay.rr.com> Have we truly counted the cost of the annihilation of NIFL?" - Posted at the National Literacy Advocacy (AAACE-NLA) online discussion list on June 5, 2009.. http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=2479 From gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 21:12:57 2009 From: gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com (Gary MacLennan) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 13:12:57 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Hamas leader greets Obama speech, urges "deeds, not words" In-Reply-To: <4837A79B499F4B0FBFEE4ECA3B3FF4E8@office1pc> References: <4837A79B499F4B0FBFEE4ECA3B3FF4E8@office1pc> Message-ID: The Arabs have called for deeds not words following Obama's speech. But nevertheless words do have an effect as Fred has correctly poointed out. Angry Arab has posted a link to this video, showing the reaction among young Israelis to Obama's visit . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxt9HwfPwPo It is scandalous & quite repulsive of course, but underneath the swearing and the racist swaggering, is fear. I dare say that the fear of the Israelis is even greater after Obama's speech . regards Gary From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 22:02:24 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 14:02:24 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Sri Lanka rejects UN's Tamil casualty figures Message-ID: <2c6145850906052102m714174cega50d7bfd4c26069c@mail.gmail.com> The horrific massacres of Tamils, attempting to be downplayed by Sri Lanka and blame placed on the LTTE, are some of the worst in recent history and must go down on the historical record for the great crimes against humantity they were. Sri Lanka rejects UN's civilian casualty figures Julian Borger June 6, 2009 A SRI LANKAN official has estimated the civilian death toll from the last stages of the war with the Tamil Tigers at 3000 to 5000 and defended the use of mortars in a government-designated "no-fire zone". Rajiva Wijesinha, the permanent secretary of the ministry of disaster management and human rights, yesterday rejected reports that 20,000 civilians were killed as the army overran the Tigers. He also rejected an unpublished United Nations report that 7000 people had been killed by the end of April. "I would estimate it altogether at 3000 to 5000," Mr Wijesinha said, attributing the deaths to the Tigers' use of refugees as human shields. "The Tigers had prepared this hostage situation and the figures went up very badly," he said, adding that the UN figures had not officially been made public because they had not been verified. "These UN figures, I'm afraid, are not worth the emphasis that is placed on them." Sri Lanka has been accused by the UN and Western governments of using heavy weapons against a "no-fire zone" it had designated for civilians caught up in the last stages of the conflict on a narrow coastal strip in the north-east of the island. Mr Wijesinha said: "I asked the army and they said 'we said we're not using heavy weaponry' but that does not preclude what they describe as 81-millimetre mortars, an infantry weapon. They were using infantry operations, and never said they were not, in order to get the civilians free." Mr Wijesinha said the mortars were being used against Tamil Tiger heavy weapons, including tanks, which he said were firing on refugees attempting to flee. A British official said there was no agreed definition of a heavy weapon, but added: "Towards the end of the conflict, the civilians were crammed into such a confined space any such weaponry would have a devastating effect." Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The Government told people to go to the no-fire zone. They were packed into a small area. Then they fired on them, with 81-millimetre mortars and other weapons. And they denied again and again they were using these weapons ? there is very strong evidence that they did commit war crimes." The source for many of the early reports of civilian casualties was a handful of government doctors in the war zone, who described the scene at makeshift clinics to the international media as the army offensive unfolded. The Government has since detained them and there is confusion over their fate. Mr Adams said they were being held to prevent information about war crimes getting out. Mr Wijesinha said he hoped the doctors, who include two hospital directors, would be released "fairly soon", arguing they had been forced to give harrowing accounts of civilian suffering by the Tamil Tigers. "I think the doctors were under a lot of stress and they behaved as most people would in such circumstances. We don't hold it against them at all," he said. But the Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, told the BBC yesterday the doctors were being detained on "reasonable suspicion of collaboration with the LTTE [Tamil Tigers]". Guardian News & Media -- "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 leninstombblog at googlemail.com Sat Jun 6 00:05:00 2009 From: leninstombblog at googlemail.com (Lenin's Tomb) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 07:05:00 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections In-Reply-To: <4A29AF1E.30004@gvtel.com> References: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> <4A29AF1E.30004@gvtel.com> Message-ID: On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 12:49 AM, David Thorstad wrote: > I don't have time or inclination to translate the article, but it struck > me as serious (the author says he started out with a favorable view of > the NPA). It wouldn't be that easy to translate at any rate, since Onfray is an extremely mannered writer. The basic critique is that the NPA didn't join the Left Front with the PCF and the Parti de Gauche (PG) to contest the European elections. Part of the political background is that the PCF and PG are both in favour of cooperation and electoral agreements with the Parti Socialiste (PS). On this account, it seems, they rejected the NPA's unity proposal, which called for a more durable coalition based on an agreed emergency plan. The NPA, for their part, will have no truck with what they see as an 'electoral cartel' (or, as they quote M?lenchon saying, an 'electoral coup'). They say that it means cooperation with the right-wing policies of the PS. Onfray thinks the NPA are taking a purist stance, but my limited powers of translation, even with the assistance of Google, don't disclose any particularly profound insights or engagement with the underlying politics. Unfortunately, Onfray appears to borrow some bog-standard liberal terms of abuse for belabouring the far left (they're dogmatic, they only care about gesture politics, they're too pure, etc). I presume that the only reason *Le Monde* carried the article was to exacerbate divisions in the left vote. From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sat Jun 6 03:16:48 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:16:48 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections In-Reply-To: References: <4A297AA9.20101@gvtel.com> <4A29AF1E.30004@gvtel.com> Message-ID: <000.20c5010000342a4a.039@lws-media.de> Lenin's Tomb (leninstombblog at googlemail.com) wrote on 2009-06-06 at 07:05:00 in about Re: [Marxism] Le Monde critique of France's New Anticapitalist Party's approach to the European parliamentary elections: > > > I presume that the only reason *Le Monde* carried the article was to > exacerbate divisions in the left vote. Exactly. It is one in a long row of attacks on the revolutionists pressing them to integrate into the bourgeois parliamentary cretinism. Remember that Besancenot got the second highest scoring in a poll asking for the politician who could "really move things", narrowly following president Bling-Bling, er, Sarkozy. The talking heads of the PS or PC lagged far behind. They would be foolish to surrender to the PCF procapitalist stance in an electoral coalition with them. I am glad that the NPA is standing alone in this election. They would be dead in short time if they hadn't done it. They have to move forward, not buckle to the rightist pressure, especially because of the lack of political clarity in the membership base. Cheers, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From naskha3 at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 03:51:27 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:51:27 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Understanding the root causes of problems in Pakistan Message-ID: <18d70e600906060251p54e313c5ld90e12929d3d6df8@mail.gmail.com> Understanding the root causes of problems in Pakistan by Zafar Bangash | Media Monitors Network, June 5, 2009 For a state and society to function smoothly, some basic services must be provided to its citizens: security, decent education, access to healthcare, prospects of a reasonable job and sound economy. Participation in the political process as well as justice are other important considerations for peace and tranquility. Judged by these criteria, Pakistan falls short on each of these requirements. This is not to suggest that there is no security for anyone or that nobody is making money; a tiny minority is making huge amounts of money sharpening differences in society even further. The ruling elites will even point to the fact that only last March, the activist Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was reinstated after an 18-month struggle led by lawyers and the civil society. So what precisely is the problem and why is Pakistan gripped by an endless series of crises the latest of which has been described by some as an ?existential threat?? Pakistan is not one but several societies in which people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicity and languages reside. This is not unique to Pakistan; neighboring India is far more diverse with a cacophony of languages spoken by people of different religions and backgrounds yet it does not face the kinds of problems confronting Pakistan. Why? Pakistan?s divisions are not merely because of ethnicity although this is a contributing factor. It is a society deeply polarized along class lines. Most privileges and facilities are reserved for the tiny ruling minority while the overwhelming majority languishes in poverty and deprivation. Full article: http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/06/understanding-root-causes-of-problems.html From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sat Jun 6 04:49:31 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:49:31 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Politico.Com (and Newark Star-Ledger): "What Obama Said and What He Didn't" Message-ID: A useful bourgeois, proimperialist dissection of Obama's speech in Cairo. Shows why it is likely to be controversial in this country and the Middle East, including Israel. This appeared in the Friday Newark Star-Ledger on Friday as its report on the speech, and influenced my initial thinking on its possible significance and effects. Fred Feldman http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=ABEB89DD-18FE-70B2-A87370F31AEA1 98F POLITIICO What Obama said and what he didn't By: Josh Gerstein June 4, 2009 11:38 AM EST In a nearly 6,000-word address Thursday extending an olive branch to the Muslim world, President Barack Obama managed never to utter the one word that comes to mind most often when many Americans think about Islam: terrorism. While both the White House and the Pentagon denied earlier this year that the Obama administration had issued orders to stamp out the phrase "war on terror," the president's decision to rely on the word "extremism" throughout his high-profile speech made clear his desire to execute a rhetorical shift. More than that, Obama sought to decouple Islam entirely from those who perpetrate violence. "Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace," Obama said. It's just one aspect of his speech that seems sure to draw fire from conservatives, and particularly those who are strong supporters of Israel. Even some in Obama's own party - already critical of his firmer line against Israel - seem sure to resist some of his harsher language, including comparing the "intolerable" plight of the Palestinians to African slaves in the United States. "This is another Obama blame-America-first moment," said John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. The Politico 44 Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player. Here's a look at how various players are likely to react to what Obama had to say during his highly anticipated address, and perhaps more importantly, what he didn't say: The Israelis What he said: Yes, it was a speech to the Muslim world, but no one took it on the chin from Obama more than the Israelis. His historical comparisons were unmistakable: As the president called on Palestinians to "abandon violence," he noted that "for centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation." He also seemed to compare the Palestinian struggle to that of South African blacks against the apartheid regime. In Israel, Obama's implicit comparisons are likely to draw ire. Look for people to compare the reference to President Jimmy Carter's 2006 book, "Peace Not Apartheid," which deeply angered Israelis and many American Jews. One pro-Israel analyst sought to downplay Obama's slavery and South Africa references as "dog whistles to the fringe left." But others are likely to be less forgiving. And Obama called on those who would seek to deny the Holocaust - a clear reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, without naming him - to stop denying it, or Israel's right to exist. Of the Holocaust, Obama said, "Six million Jews were killed. ... Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful." What he didn't say: Obama repeated his call that "it's time for settlements to stop" - but as before, did not say what would happen if Israel goes ahead with plans to expand them, as Israeli leaders say they'll do. He also offered few new details of how he would bring the Israelis and Palestinians together for further peace talks. The Palestinians What he said: Palestinians will be pleased with much of the same Obama rhetoric that will gall some Israelis - and also seems likely to stoke the debate over whether Obama is as devoted to Israel as past presidents or has more pro-Palestinian sympathies. Among the Palestinians, Obama also will get points for twice using the word "Palestine" - it gives a concreteness to the prospect of a Palestinian state. While diplomats around the world routinely refer to "Palestine," American officials have long shied away from the word. Some militant Palestinians who see themselves at war with Israel may take umbrage at Obama's suggestion that they do not have a right to defend themselves through the use of force. "Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed," he said in Cairo. "It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered." What he didn't say: Again, Palestinians looking for concrete action by Obama would be disappointed. Obama left out any consequences if Israel goes ahead with the settlements, keeps tight reins on Gaza, or refuses to negotiate towards a two-state solution. Some are sure to portray Obama as all talk, but still ultimately beholden to Israel and American Jews. Iran What he said: Iran got off pretty easy in Obama's speech. Maybe he didn't want to give Iran's saber-rattling too much attention, but the nuclear ambitions of the country many national security officials view as the biggest threat to world peace got only a few paragraphs from the U.S. president. "This is not simply about America's interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path," Obama said. Obama alluded to but didn't dwell on Iran's misdeeds, such as the country's support for terrorism. And on the nuclear issue, he made his most explicit statement to date approving of a civilian nuclear energy program for Iran - if the Islamic Republic gives up any aspirations for atomic weapons. "Any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it," the president said. What he didn't say: How long he'd wait for Iran to shape up, and what will happen if it doesn't. Obama has said before he's willing to wait until the end of the year to see if his diplomatic outreach to the Iranians works - a timetable that Israel views as merely giving Iran more time to develop the bomb. The "Arab street" What he said: A lot of Obama's statements were designed to convey to Arabs and Muslims that he is deeply familiar with their religion, culture and concerns. It's an obvious and probably essential thing for American leaders to do as they try to build bridges with Islamic followers. However, it's a tricky thing for Obama because of the trouble he had during the presidential campaign with widespread rumors that he is a Muslim. "I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims," Obama told the crowd at Cairo University. Near the beginning of the Cairo speech, he broke out some Arabic to offered the traditional Muslim greeting of "assalaamu alaykum" or "peace be with you." Barack Hussein Obama proudly recited his full name, offered a quote from the Quran and spoke of hearing the call to prayer when he lived in Indonesia as a boy. And he offered some blunt talk to Muslims, saying they shouldn't be so quick to demonize America - just as he told Americans not to be so quick to demonize Muslims. "That same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire," Obama said. What he didn't say: In saying that "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance," Obama glossed over the fact that religious minorities are treated very poorly, by the public and the government, in most Muslim countries. And as he sought to play up his Muslim roots, Obama made no mention of the Muslim rumors that dogged him in the campaign - or the lengths his campaign went to knock them down, knowing how damaging that perception could have been to Obama the candidate. U.S. Muslims Obama repeatedly mentioned Muslims in the U.S. and suggested they could play an important role in improving America's image in the Arab world, noting that many of them have above-average incomes and education levels. He also mentioned one of their biggest concerns: the difficulty in finding charities to fulfill the Islamic obligation for Zakat, a form of tithing, and promised to work to clear the way to ease donations. What he didn't say: Obama didn't mention that the contributions problem has arisen because so many of the leading Muslim charities have been accused of, or convicted of giving aid to terrorist groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad or Hamas. Under Bush, the federal government refused to tell the Muslim community which charities were considered legit. Obama's team is taking steps to do that or set up entirely new groups. The Republicans Some conservatives are already jumping on Obama's speech as part of an "apology tour." In Cairo, Obama gave the first-ever acknowledgement from a U.S. president for America's "role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government" - referring to the U.S. support for the coup against Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953. In comments that will also be portrayed as an apology, Obama told the Cairo audience that the U.S. overreacted to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals," he said. "I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year." What he didn't say: Obama's reference to Iraq as a "war of choice" will also be taken as a potshot at Bush, though it implicates a host of American politicians, including a host of Obama's fellow Democrats, including his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Jonathan Martin contributed to this report. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sat Jun 6 05:01:11 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:01:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] 30 dead as clashes intensify in Peruvian Amazon Message-ID: <56441045DACB44359E05D6FE758D61BC@office1pc> Peru: Indigenous protests force government negotiation Kiraz Janicke http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/797/41023 Over 30 dead in worsening Peruvian Amazon clashes Fri Jun 5, 2009 7:27pm EDT By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE55463G20090605 LIMA (Reuters) - Up to 31 people died and dozens were injured in clashes on Friday between Peruvian police and Amazon tribes protesting against government efforts to lure foreign energy and mining companies to the rain forest. In the worst unrest to hit President Alan Garcia's current government, 22 protesters and nine police officers died, tribal leaders and the interior ministry said. Angry protesters responded by saying they had taken a group of police hostage near an oil pumping station belonging to state-owned Petroperu. They threatened to set it ablaze unless police called off efforts to break up demonstrations in the Amazon basin. "We have taken 38 police hostage," Carlos Huaman, a protester, said on RPP radio. "There are 2,000 of us and we are ready to burn the station." The conflict, which has prompted calls for Garcia's prime minister and interior minister to quit, has underscored deep divisions in Peru between wealthy elites in Lima and poor indigenous groups in the countryside. Critics say the government has not done enough to lower the poverty rate from 36 percent and that economic boom times enjoyed before the current downturn failed to reach the poor. "I hold the government of President Alan Garcia responsible for ordering this genocide," indigenous leader Alberto Pizango told reporters in Lima as the government issued a warrant for his arrest for encouraging the protests. HELICOPTER ATTACKS CHARGED In the violence on Friday, indigenous leaders said police shot at hundreds of protesters from helicopters to end a roadblock on a remote jungle highway 870 miles from Lima, the capital. Police accused protesters of firing first, but the tribesmen denied having guns and said they only carried their traditional spears. Thousands of Amazon natives, demanding more control over natural resources, have intermittently blocked roads and waterways since April to try to force the government to revoke a series of investment laws passed last year and to revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies. The laws encourage oil, mining, and agricultural companies to invest billions of dollars in the mostly pristine region. Opposition leaders from the left and right said Garcia should fire Prime Minister Yehude Simon and Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas for allowing the standoff to turn violent. "This is very damaging for Peru," former President Alejandro Toledo said on TV. "Garcia needs to show leadership." GARCIA BLAMES PROTESTERS, OPPOSITION The protests have shut the main pipeline that carries oil from the Amazon to the Pacific Ocean for weeks and highlighted the risks of investing in Peru. Argentina's Pluspetrol, which had already curtailed most work at its lot 1AB in northern Peru, said on Friday it halted production. It normally pumps about a fifth of Peru's total oil output. In April, lot 1AB produced about 16,770 barrels a day. Garcia, whose approval rating is just 30 percent, blamed protesters for provoking violence and said it was time to lift the blockades of roads, rivers and energy installations. "It appears that this is being done to generate disorder for electoral reasons," Garcia said. Garcia's allies have at times linked the protests to populist opposition leader Ollanta Humala, who spooked investors when he nearly won the 2006 presidential race and is expected to run again in 2011. Humala, who enjoys support among the rural poor, said Garcia's APRA party made a serious error on Thursday, when it blocked a motion in Congress to open debate on a law that tribal leaders want to revise or overturn. Some of the controversial laws encouraging foreign investment in the Amazon were passed last year as Garcia moved to bring Peru's regulatory framework into compliance with a free-trade agreement with the United States. "The government has decided to solve this social, economic and political problem not in Congress, where it should be solved, but on the battlefield," Humala said at a news conference. Analysts said Garcia may also try to pin blame for the lingering protests on Prime Minister Simon, who tried to negotiate a peaceful end to the blockades for weeks. Simon, a former left-wing activist, has struggled since Garcia hired him a year ago to help avert social protests. "Without a doubt, his strategy of dialogue failed," Peruvian political analyst Sinesio Lopez Jimenez said about Simon. "This will probably force him to resign." (Additional reporting by Dana Ford and Teresa Cespedes; Editing by Anthony Boadle and Eric Walsh) From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sat Jun 6 05:30:08 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:30:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] And David Horowitz praises the imperialist heart of Obama's politics Message-ID: Sounds like even mad-dog David Horowitz is getting a little embarrassed about the crackpot senescence of the Republican Party these days. But be that as it may, his analysis is actually a contribution to understanding Obama's speech. Fred Feldman http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/05/obama_horowitz/print.html Fellow conservatives, admit it: Obama gave a great speech In front of the whole Muslim world, he defended Israel and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. What's not to like? By David Horowitz Jun. 05, 2009 | Yes, he rewrote history, particularly the history of Muslim and Arab rapacity and bigotry, and he pandered a lot. But the pandering was in large part diplomacy and far less than conservatives were predicting, and far less than the pandering that characterized his previous attempts to mollify the Muslim world. He most pointedly did not apologize for American actions after 9/11, or seek to find excuses for the terrorist attacks in our policies and behavior before 9/11. On the contrary, he deliberately opened the wound of 9/11 to justify America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "We did not go by choice, we went because of necessity. I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al-Qaida killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al-Qaida chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts ... " And Iraq! This is the war he had opposed as unnecessary and wrong, until now. In Cairo he did not apologize for "Bush's war" or America's "occupation." He said that the Iraqis were better off without Saddam Hussein, which obviously could not have happened without the war -- a truism, which for seven years Democrats failed to concede. Where Kennedy and Gore and Obama himself condemned America's war as "unnecessary," "illegal," "based on lies," an aggression against a "fragile and unstable" country that could not defend itself, Obama, speaking in a Muslim capital, defended our presence in Iraq as driven by a desire to give Iraqis their freedom and their country. Bush could not have said it better. As for the Middle East conflict, Obama began -- began -- by telling the Muslim world that the bond between Israel and the United States is unbreakable, and by opening the wound of the Jews that made a homeland for them a moral imperative: "America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied." And then he characterized Holocaust deniers like Ahmadinejad as despicable, and identified them as a cause of war in the Middle East, and announced that he was going to Buchenwald the next day (clearly to underscore that fact): "Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed -- more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction -- or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews -- is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve." And while Obama made false parallels between Jews and Arabs as contributors to the intractability of the Middle East conflict and rewrote some history, he also said in no uncertain terms that it was Palestinians who had to renounce violence (and here he drew no parallels and no moral equivalence) and had to recognize the Jewish state -- something even the "moderate" terrorist Abbas refuses to do. And to underscore this point he drew a parallel between the struggles of American blacks for civil rights and Palestinians. But unlike Condoleezza Rice, who not too long ago drew the same parallel to aggrandize the PLO terrorists as civil rights activists, Obama drew a sharp and revealing line of distinction between them: "Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding." And that was really the core of Obama's speech. It was a defense of America's founding and America's mission. We are a tolerant nation and a peaceful nation, Obama told 1.5 billion Muslims, and we will accept and embrace you if you reject the violent and hateful among you and walk a peaceful and tolerant path. And this tolerance must extend not only to the Jews of Israel, and other infidels, but to Muslims among you who are oppressed, specifically Muslim women: "The sixth issue that I want to address is women's rights. I know there is debate about this issue. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams." That is not pandering. It is saying that America's democratic, tolerant, inclusive way needs to be the path to the future for the Muslim world. Conservatives will make a great mistake if they fail to see this speech for what it was, and treat it as another round in the partisan food fight. It was not an appeasement of our enemies. It was a forthright statement by an American leader in a Muslim capital explaining why America is in fact the global leader in those battles that matter most to people everywhere: freedom, equality, and peace. As conservatives we have many quarrels with the Obama administration -- and we should have. But this speech is not one of them. From lnp3 at panix.com Sat Jun 6 07:57:57 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:57:57 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Macbook discussion Message-ID: <4A2A75E5.9020000@panix.com> For an extraordinary discussion of Linux, Apple, etc., go to the comments here: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/macbook-pro-first-impressions/ From lnp3 at panix.com Sat Jun 6 08:06:14 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:06:14 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] They sent this spam to the wrong guy! Message-ID: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> > Subject: > Seattle Division > From: > "F.B.I" > Date: > Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:00:14 -0700 > To: > undisclosed-recipients:; > > Federal Bureau of Investigation > FBI Seattle Division > 1110 Third Avenue > Seattle, Washington 98101-2904 > Payment Code: R5109176K > Reg No: 132731593 > > The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered through our intelligence > Monitoring Network that you are eligible to receive the sum of $7,500,000.00 USD > regarding to an over-due Inheritance/Award payment which was fully endorsed to > be paid in your favor.therefore,the FBI Seattle Division in conjunction with the > United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through our > various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the > transaction you have with the Financial Institution is Legal and you have the > Lawful Right to claim your due fund. > > The President His Excellency Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar Adua President of the Federal > republic of Nigeria has given us the final approval to pay your fun to you > within the next 72hrs, Your fund valued $7,500,000.00 USD has been deposited > into a Gold smart Card number: 5179 1234 5678 personal identification is ATM- > 7997 this card will enable you buy and withdrawal cash anywhere around the world > this is done for your own security, with this card you will not have to take the > risk of sending us your personal banking details online as you have been > strongly advise by your local bank not to send your banking details to anyone > online. > > What you are required to do now to Pay the fees of $210.00 USD for the shipment > of your Gold Smart card to your choice location, $210.00 USD is the only fees > that has been approved by both the FBI and the Bank that you are to pay as cost > of Delivery of your Card to you by the courier company.Once the fees is been > paid your ATM CARD will get to you in the next 2-3 working day. > > Note: Your funds are protected by a hardcover insurance policy, which makes it > Impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it can be remitted to > you.this means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the Funds and > hence must be provided by you before your fund is transferred to you.the payment > for any of the above options should be sent via Western Union Money Transfer in > the name of the Head of accounts Mr. Julius Azuka. > Find below the payment information. > > Name of receiver: JULIUS AZUKA > Office Address: Plot 143, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos 23401 > Nigeria. > Text Question: In God > Answer: We Trust > Name of Sender:..................... > Address of Sender:.................. > MTCN#............................... > > As soon as we receive your payment, he shall proceed with your fund transfer > immediately.We anticipate your prompt response. If you need to contact me at any > stage please do not hesitate to call (+1-206-203-4190) > > Sincerely, > Steven M. Dean (Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge) > cc Robert Mueller (FBI Director) > From lnp3 at panix.com Sat Jun 6 08:15:58 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:15:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice Message-ID: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> NY Times, June 6, 2009 U.S. Charges Couple With Spying for Cuba By ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON ? The Justice Department charged Friday that a former State Department analyst and his wife worked as spies for Cuba for nearly 30 years, using a short-wave radio to pass on secret diplomatic information to their Cuban handlers. Officials said the couple, Walter K. Myers, 72, and Gwendolyn S. Myers, 71, received little in the way of compensation from the Cubans except for the short-wave radio and some travel expenses. Rather, the officials said, the couple appears to have been driven by their strong affinity for Cuba and their bitterness toward ?American imperialism.? ?We think they did it because they love Cuba,? said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The Myerses, who live in Washington, were arrested on Thursday and charged in a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday with serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government and wire fraud. A defense lawyer declined to comment on the charges. The case had been under investigation for three years but intensified two months ago, when an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, posing as a Cuban agent, approached Mr. Myers. That led to a series of meetings in which the Justice Department said that Mr. Myers and his wife made incriminating admissions about their decades-long work for Cuba. Mr. Myers began working as a contract instructor at the State Department in 1977 and rose to the position of senior analyst with top-secret security clearance, specializing in European affairs. He retired from the department in 2007. In the indictment, the Justice Department said that Mr. Myers examined some 200 intelligence reports that dealt with Cuba in 2006 and 2007, many of them classified or top-secret reports that were unrelated to his own duties at the State Department. While some of the material that the government says the Myerses passed on to Cuba apparently related to State Department personnel and internal policy matters, the indictment does not detail the bulk of the material or the sensitivity of it. David Kris, the assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department, called the Myerses? activity for Cuba ?incredibly serious.? The indictment and the government?s supporting material say the Myerses were recruited as spies during an academic trip to Cuba in 1978. In a diary entry that the Justice Department said Mr. Myers wrote at the time of the trip, he expressed his passion for Cuba and its Communist revolutionary goals and his distaste for ?American imperialism? and the United States? indifference to medical care, the poor and other basic public needs. ?Cuba is so exciting!? he wrote, adding that ?the revolution has released enormous potential and liberated the Cuban spirit.? The government alleged that soon after their return to the United States, the Myerses began using Morse code, encrypted messages and the short-wave radio to pass sensitive diplomatic information to Havana. They met Fidel Castro on a clandestine trip to Cuba in 1995 and made trips over the years to meet Cuban contacts in Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Jamaica, the government charged. It appears from government documents that suspicions among American counterintelligence officials about a possible security leak within the State Department first led the authorities to focus on Mr. Myers two or three years ago. This April, an undercover agent from the F.B.I., posing as a Cuban official, approached Mr. Myers outside the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where he taught. The agent said he had instructions to contact him concerning the thawing diplomatic changes in the air between Cuba and the United States. The agent offered Mr. Myers a cigar and wished him a happy birthday. The agent directed Mr. Myers to search out State Department information about Cuba, and at one in a series of follow-up meetings, Mr. Myers and his wife told the agent that they hoped to ?sail home? to Cuba some day on their sailboat, the government said. The couple also expressed some mixed emotions, saying that they were ?burned out? by their clandestine activity yet wanted to continue to help Cubans because of their strong ties. ?It?s forever,? the affidavit quoted Mr. Myers as telling the agent. ?You know, it?s like Fidel. It?s forever.? From markalause at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 08:28:11 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 10:28:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] They sent this spam to the wrong guy! In-Reply-To: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> References: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> Message-ID: I got one of these about a year and a half ago, and chuckled about it for days. The FBI usually uses yahoo addresses, don't they? ML From marvgandall at videotron.ca Sat Jun 6 08:30:59 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:30:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "What Obama Said and What He Didn't" References: Message-ID: <9D7B95B12DB74B99809D4078784E883E@MARV> Obama's speech was a restatement of long-standing US Democratic Party/Israeli Labour Party policy towards the Middle East, delivered in his usual masterful way which makes traditional DP policies sound fresh and exciting. The US Democrats and the Israeli centre-left want an end to the destabilizing occupation of the West Bank and favour the establishment of a weak, shrunken, and demilitarized Palestinian state which is economically and in all other ways dependent on Israel. They're opposed by the US and Israeli right which rejects any notion of a Palestinian state, no matter how enfeebled, and instead supports the "natural growth" of Israeli settlements which increasingly drives Palestinians off their land. The ethnic cleansing favoured by Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman is a more explicit and brutal extension of this stealth policy. These are the main fault lines in US and Israeli politics on which developments in the Middle East have turned. The objective of the US and Israeli liberals was very nearly reached by the Clinton administration and (Ehud) Barak government at Camp David and Taba in 2000, but Arafat balked when it became apparent he could not sell the deal to Hamas and to much of his Fatah base, who jointly represent the Palestinian masses. This failure neatly dovetailed with the interests of the US and Israeli right who came to power shortly thereafter and who put paid to this process. Obama's speech in Cairo heralds it's revival after eight years of uninterrupted and widening conflict in Palestine and the region. It will be difficult for the Netanyahu government, shorn of the support of an allied Republican administration in Washington, to stand in the way. As suggested below, it will have to endorse a Palestinian state in theory while seeking to sabotage it's attainment in the next round of talks led by US envoy George Mitchell. * * * Israeli officials: U.S. leaves no choice but to okay Palestinian state Haaretz Service June 6 2009 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090715.html Officials in Jerusalem told Israel Radio on Saturday that there is no alternative but to ultimately agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel will be forced to acknowledge the necessity of a future Palestinian state because there are no signs that the Obama administration will yield on this issue, a diplomatic source told Israel Radio. Government sources in Jerusalem also told Israel Radio that the quicker Israel adopts the road map for peace as the preferred diplomatic initiative, the more likely it will ward off American pressure to concede to a Palestinian state within the framework of an alternative plan that is less agreeable to Israel. U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he is dispatching his envoy, George Mitchell, to the region. Mitchell, who is due to arrive on Monday, is expected to meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, according to Israel Radio. Israeli officials involved in planning the Mitchell visit told Israel Radio that the Netanyahu government will hold firm on its insistence to allow for continued construction in large settlements to meet the needs of the communities' "natural growth." The officials added that Israel is examining ways to dovetail Jerusalem's needs with Washington's new policy towards the region. One day after his highly touted speech to the Muslim world, Obama said Friday that the "moment is now" to push forward a two-state solution, adding that both the Palestinians and Israel must get serious and prepare to make some difficult compromises. "I am confident that if we stick with it, having started early, we can make some serious progress this year," Obama told a news conference in Dresden with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is that each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises," Obama said after talks with Merkel From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sat Jun 6 08:42:09 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (Lueko Willms) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:42:09 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Uri Avnery on Cairo speech: One man spoke to the world, and the world listened. Message-ID: <000.4084040041802a4a.044.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> Permanent home here: > While I think that Avnery is taken in by illusions, this article at least is a reflection of the power of Obama's Cairo speech. For your information, here the full text: ---------- full text --------------------------------- The Tone and the Music by Uri Avnery 06/06/09 WHILE OBAMA proclaims the 21st century, the government of Israel is returning to the 19th. ONE MAN spoke to the world, and the world listened. He walked onto the stage in Cairo, alone, without hosts and without aides, and delivered a sermon to an audience of billions. Egyptians and Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, Copts and Maronites -- and they all listened attentively. He unfolded before them the map of a new world, a different world, whose values and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language - a mixture of idealism and practical politics, vision and pragmatism. Barack Hussein Obama -- as he took pains to call himself -- is the most powerful man on earth. Every word he utters is a political fact. "A HISTORIC SPEECH", pronounced commentators in a hundred languages. I prefer another adjective: The speech was right. Every word was in its place, every sentence precise, every tone in harmony. The masterpiece of a man bringing a new message to the world. From bob.morris at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 08:45:32 2009 From: bob.morris at gmail.com (Bob Morris) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 07:45:32 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> > > > "To overthrow or not to advocate overthrowing the government of China." > > Unbelievable. > > Is the PSL a group of kids full of vinegar? > The inner cadre are in their 50's-60's and were long-time Workers World members until the split a few years back that resulted in the forming of PSL. I'm sure the government of China is on pins and needles wondering if PSL will swing their all-important, crucial support to them in the fight against imperialism. From tcod at hotmail.com Sat Jun 6 09:23:04 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:23:04 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Volunteer convicted of littering for leaving water jugs for migrants In-Reply-To: References: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> Message-ID: http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/volunteer-is-convicted-of-littering-for-leaving-water-jugs-in-the-desert-to-save-migrants-lives/ _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 From tcod at hotmail.com Sat Jun 6 09:26:34 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:26:34 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> References: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: what was the political basis of this split as I don't see any apparent political differences between them and WWP? I heard it involved the main cadre involved in building ANSWER. I also heard that it occurred in the manner of split as coup with the ostensible dissidents locking out the incumbents in possession from the HQ, which is kinda different, maybe some of us should have tried that with those folks at 410 West St or wherever that was. _________________________________________________________________ Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd_062009 From lnp3 at panix.com Sat Jun 6 09:31:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:31:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: References: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A2A8BC8.8010406@panix.com> Tom Cod wrote: > what was the political basis of this split as I don't see any apparent political differences between them and WWP? I heard it involved the main cadre involved in building ANSWER. I also heard that it occurred in the manner of split as coup with the ostensible dissidents locking out the incumbents in possession from the HQ, which is kinda different, maybe some of us should have tried that with those folks at 410 West St or wherever that was. > None. I can't think of another instance in the history of the "Marxist-Leninist" left in which a split transpired without a public accounting. I imagine that there were internal documents which aired out the differences, but who knows what they contained. As Joaquin has pointed out on many occasions, this is not the way the Bolsheviks functioned. All their debates were carried out in the party press. From absynthe at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 09:46:49 2009 From: absynthe at gmail.com (chegitz guevara) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 11:46:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: <4A2A8BC8.8010406@panix.com> References: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> <4A2A8BC8.8010406@panix.com> Message-ID: On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: > Tom Cod wrote: >> what was the political basis of this split as I don't see any apparent political differences between them and WWP? ?I heard it involved the main cadre involved in building ANSWER. ?I also heard that it occurred in the manner of split as coup with the ostensible dissidents locking out the incumbents in possession from the HQ, which is kinda different, maybe some of us should have tried that with those folks at 410 West St or wherever that was. >> > > None. > > I can't think of another instance in the history of the > "Marxist-Leninist" left in which a split transpired without a public > accounting. I imagine that there were internal documents which aired out > the differences, but who knows what they contained. As Joaquin has > pointed out on many occasions, this is not the way the Bolsheviks > functioned. All their debates were carried out in the party press. From bob.morris at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 09:49:34 2009 From: bob.morris at gmail.com (Bob Morris) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 08:49:34 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China In-Reply-To: References: <275dee160906060745v5a2a2adem7e4d90307f2dd44f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <275dee160906060849i5a0d17delba4e37845e687795@mail.gmail.com> On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Tom Cod wrote: > > what was the political basis of this split as I don't see any apparent > political differences between them and WWP? > > AFAIK, it was something along the lines that WW leadership had the "centralism" part down fine but needed work on the "democratic" aspects. That of course was the view of those who left (or what I was told.) Those in WW no doubt see it differently. I was in ANSWER-LA when the split happened. Later joined PSL and was purged a few years later, apparently for being insufficiently Marxist and unappreciative of their Revealed Dogma. This would have been traumatic had I still cared much (I was walking away from them anyway.) What pissed me off was the way it was done, no explanation, and in a way that insured that any existing friendships were vaporized. FYI: I blog at Politics in the Zeros. http://polizeros.com, which is a mix of leftie politics and cleantech. From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 10:34:24 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 12:34:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Obama=27s_Historic_Speech_=96_A_Post-M?= =?windows-1252?q?ortem?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906060934r178fc7a3yebfe38ad267f7fc1@mail.gmail.com> > > > > > *By John V. Whitbeck* > > clip -- > > President Barack Obama's much anticipated speech in Cairo was truly > astounding. After all the months of lead-up and hype, few could have > imagined that this speech would contain nothing of substance. Surely Obama > would feel the need to announce some new initiative on at least one of the > major matters of concern to the Muslim world. Perhaps a decision to develop > a fully fleshed-out plan for a two-state solution, unilaterally or with the > Quartet and/or the Organization of the Islamic Conference (King Abdallah of > Jordan's "57 Muslim countries" willing to make peace with Israel), dealing > with all the difficult issues, and to present it to Israelis and > Palestinians as the last best chance for peace based on partition and the > acceptance of Israel by the Muslim world. Or perhaps an international > conference involving all concerned regional parties to seek solutions to the > interlinked problems involving Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and/or Iran. > > Surely he had to have some hopeful surprise up his sleeve. Wrong. Nothing. > Absolutely nothing. > > > full -- < > http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15174> > > > *- John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer who has advised the > Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel, is author of "The > World According to Whitbeck". He contributed this article to > PalestineChronicle.com.* > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From naskha3 at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 12:21:23 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 20:21:23 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Israel - Palestine: two peoples one state Message-ID: <18d70e600906061121o7e943ffbxaead96bf84fc1419@mail.gmail.com> Israel/Palestine: Two Peoples One State By Keith Harvey | Permanent Revolution, June 6, 2009 The brutal invasion of Gaza by Israel?s armed forces and the rise of the far right in the Israeli elections that followed has appalled people all over the world. It has also hammered a further nail in the coffin of the idea that a Palestinian state can live in peace alongside the Zionist state. Keith Harvey strips away the last shreds of credibility from the ?two-state solution?? Israel is a state based on ethnic cleansing. The foundation of the state in 1948 was prepared by the bloody, forcible transfer of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their town and villages. Led by David Ben-Gurion, this ethnic cleansing was planned in every detail while the British prepared to hand its Palestinian mandate to a United Nations (UN) still deliberating how to divide the country between the indigenous population and its new colonists. In 1947, while still under the British mandate rule, Palestine had a population of 1.29 million Arab Palestinians and 608,000 Jews, one-third of whom had arrived after the war. Jews owned a mere 6% of the land. The UN eventually proposed to give them 55%; Jews were to get the ?more economically developed part of the country? according to the UNSCOP resolution that recommended partition. 1 In the Jewish state nearly half the population would be Arabs, compared to less than 2% of Jews in the Arab state. Full article: http://sudhan.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/israelpalestine-two-peoples-one-state/ From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sat Jun 6 12:26:17 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:26:17 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] And David Horowitz praises the imperialist heart of Obama's politics Message-ID: <000.08ab0600c9b42a4a.052@lws-media.de> Fred Feldman (ffeldman at bellatlantic.net) wrote on 2009-06-06 at 07:30:08 in about [Marxism] And David Horowitz praises the imperialist heart of Obama's politics: quoting a certain David Horowitz: > Conservatives will make a great mistake if they fail to see this speech for > what it was, and treat it as another round in the partisan food fight. It > was not an appeasement of our enemies. It was a forthright statement by an > American leader in a Muslim capital explaining why America is in fact the > global leader in those battles that matter most to people everywhere: > freedom, equality, and peace. This is the big theme of all Obama speeches -- the one in Berlin, which I mentioned in my previous contribution on the subject, his visit at the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp (where a communist led resistance took over the camp just shortly before the US troops arrived, a fact which is not mentioned in the official talk), and also his participation in the celebrations of the invasion at the Normandy coast where US and British troops established with huge human losses a beach head from where they started their race against the Red Army which already had defeated German imperialism decisively at the Kursk battle, after signalling the turn of the war by the victory of Stalingrad. I just don't really understand the significance of his short visit in Dresden on this trip. Obama spelled it out, I believe, at the NATO summit in Baden Baden and Strasbourg (I quote from memory): The USA needs the collaboration of the European powers, but the European powers can't achieve anything without the USA. But his talk is so much different than the one of his predecessor, and it seems really sincere while Dubya Bush was ostentatively cheating. Comradely, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From shmage at pipeline.com Sat Jun 6 12:43:08 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 14:43:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Israel - Palestine: two peoples one state In-Reply-To: <18d70e600906061121o7e943ffbxaead96bf84fc1419@mail.gmail.com> References: <18d70e600906061121o7e943ffbxaead96bf84fc1419@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: On Jun 6, 2009, at 2:21 PM, Nasir Khan wrote: > Israel/Palestine: Two Peoples One State > By Keith Harvey:"...It is not difficult to envisage a secular, multi- > national state which guarantees equal civil and political rights for > all ethnic groups, underwriting respect for different religious and > cultural traditions...' No, it's not difficult. It's just that it's impossible to imagine such a state coming into existence in any way but as a voluntary federation of two equal and independent states. (Harvey fantasizes a single state coming into existence through a socialist revolution by united Arab and Jewish proletariats--but such a revolution even in fantasy would scarcely limit itself to a tiny Palestinian state rather than a socialist federation of the entire Middle East). 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 jjonas at nic.fi Sat Jun 6 13:08:42 2009 From: jjonas at nic.fi (Joonas Laine) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:08:42 +0300 Subject: [Marxism] Netherlands embraces far right in EU elections Message-ID: <4A2ABEBA.4020002@nic.fi> Netherlands embraces far right in EU elections ANDREW WILLIS 05.06.2009 @ 09:29 CET http://euobserver.com/9/28248 The Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders made the greatest leap forward in the country's EU elections on Thursday (4 June), with 16.9 percent in exit polls. But the ruling conservatives came top overall. The result is a major victory for the openly anti-Islamic party, giving it four seats in the European legislature and a possibility that this could rise to five once the final count is completed. The Freedom Party came second only to the ruling Christian Democrats (CDA) of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which exit polls suggest will win 20 percent of the vote or five of the 25 seats up for grabs. This is a fall of four percent from the last European elections in 2004, resulting in the loss of two MEPs for the party. As the xenophobic party's celebrations got under way, Mr Wilders said his success was a vote against the current administration and an overly costly EU. "People have had enough of Europe as it is now - a big Europe with Turkey possibly joining - that we spend billions on each year," he said according to newswires. "I think some people have also had enough of the Balkenende and Bos Cabinet," he added, referring to the prime minister and his Labour Party finance minister. The results tally with pre-election predictions of greater support for far right and fringe parties as a result of the economic crisis and fears over immigration in the country. The Labour Party - the junior coalition partner in the government - appeared the main loser in Thursday's vote, taking only 12.2 percent of the vote resulting in a drop from seven to three seats in the European parliament. The third party in the government coalition, the small Christen Unie, a religious party that on some economic issues hews somewhat to the left, was at 6.9 percent of the vote, up from 5.9 percent in 2004, and projected to take two seats. The other big winner is the left-liberal D66, which looks poised to take three seats with 11.3 percent of the vote, up from just one at the last European election. It is a major turn-around for the party, which in recent years was feared to be in danger of disappearing. "There has been a clear No vote and a clear Yes vote," party leader Alexander Pechtold said, pointing out that the anti-Europe parties had won just eight of the 25 Dutch seats. "Europe is the big winner tonight," he said. The country's green party, Groenlinks, or 'Green Left' looks set to take 8.9 percent of the vote or three seats, an increase of one on 2004. The far-left SP remained largely steady with 7.1 percent of the vote. Exit polls showed voter turnout of 36.5 percent, down from 39.1 percent in the last European elections in 2004. Muslim concerns The rise of Mr Wilders - who has described the Koran as fascist and who currently receives 24-hour protection following death threats ? clearly came at the expense of governing coalition partners. Fears amongst Protestant and Catholic voters over the country's roughly 800,000 Muslim inhabitants helped drive the strong support for the Freedom Party, which was contesting its first European elections. Mr Wilders, who directed a short film that criticizes the Koran as a "fascist book", urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation union. "Turkey as [an] Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 years, not in a million years," Wilders said after voting. [..] From proletariandan at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 13:49:10 2009 From: proletariandan at gmail.com (Dan Russell) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 14:49:10 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY In-Reply-To: <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> References: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> Message-ID: <517f3cab0906061249i347b83deodca599dd0dc2ede9@mail.gmail.com> I think Louis got to the heart of the matter - until people start to blame Obama, the Democrats, and ultimately the two-party dictatorship for our problems AND are angry enough to get in the streets and get organized, there is no room for the left (Black, Green, or Red) to grow by leaps and bounds. If DIGNITY does well then fantastic, hopefully they and the rest of us will work together to create the conditions where we can really get some traction among the masses. From ecosocialism at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 13:54:07 2009 From: ecosocialism at gmail.com (Ian Angus) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:54:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Uniting the Socialist Left Message-ID: <733b65360906061254u767867d1l4341a5761887fc7f@mail.gmail.com> ****************************************** SOCIALIST VOICE Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century June 6, 2009 Web edition: www.socialistvoice.ca ****************************************** UNITING THE SOCIALIST LEFT: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE An interview with Peter Boyle, Democratic Socialist Perspective Peter Boyle is National Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP), a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance in Australia. He was interviewed last month for Socialist Voice by co-editor Roger Annis. SV: The Australian left founded a project of left unity and activism in 2001. Can you describe the early years of that project and what it achieved? PB: The Socialist Alliance was formed in 2001 on the back of great optimism about the prospects for left revival in the wake of the rise of a movement at that time against capitalist globalization. Some 20,000 people had participated in a three-day long blockade of a summit of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne the previous year. That was Australia?s ?Seattle? and it was followed up on May 1, 2001 with mass blockades of the stock exchanges in all the capital cities of the country. The formation of the Socialist Alliance was just one of a number of initiatives at the time to take this political momentum forward. While it has not had a smooth road since then, the Socialist Alliance is the only one of these initiatives surviving today in Australia. Regroupment projects inspired by anarchist ideology and attempts to create local social forums all proved short-lived. Complete article: http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=400 From Waistline2 at aol.com Sat Jun 6 14:01:50 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 16:01:50 EDT Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China Message-ID: The inner cadre are in their 50's-60's and were long-time Workers World members until the split a few years back that resulted in the forming of PSL.<< Comment The desire to have a correct political line on every government on earth is more than a purely ideological matter in America. America and our working class was formed from continuous waves of European immigrants, formerly residing in political states that colonized earth. For several generations, segments of the population had a living personal interest in "world affairs," through their country of origin. That America is the "big dog" on the block called earth, with political/military outposts in every country drives an impulse to measure policy of every government. Add to this a historical sectarianism imposed on the communist ideological movement and what appears is tiny ideological groups with the "big dog" demeanor. We should not fall into this ideological trap. The "big dog" demeanor flows from a living material/economic relationship rather than a history of mistaken notions of democratic centralism. Comrades over 50 years of age ought to remember real American history and understand the inherent danger to an organization striving to have an official position on everything. Seeking to classify governments as do our imperialist, is political insanity for communists and can only end in creating categories like "failed states." Here is what the imperialist call the majority of states on earth . . . "failed states." Some classified the Soviet state as a "failed state" or degenerate (failed) state. And sought its overthrow for decades. One should learn from their experience. I have no bone to pick with Workers World Party or PSL and actually have a soft spot towards many of Sam Marcy's writings. Mr. Marcy is actually amongst a small group of historical figures in American history inasmuch as his personal history is bound up with the splitting of the communist movement based on the ascendency of Nikita Khrushchev and later the Sino-Soviet split. Most of my life I had looked at this split as more than less ideological but not today. The ideological nature of the split in the communists movement has a material/economic foundation, which Sam Marcy apparently grasped in spite of his earlier anti-Soviet government political orientation. World War II was a turning point in history. At the end of the war the fascist alliance was smashed. Both the Soviet Union and the United States emerged stronger than before the war. The victorious European imperialist countries were weakened and dependent on American imperialism for food. The European regimes and Japan which owned direct colonies were considerably weakened by the war. France in Indo-China, England in India, and Holland in Indonesia did not have the military forces to maintain colonialism or the direct colonial system. The direct colonial system was the material manifestation of pre-financial-industrial imperialism, whose salient feature was the export of commodities as the basis for the expansion of the capital/financial relations or the money economy. . The multi faceted assault on the direct colonial system was exacerbated by American imperialism's drive to open up the closed colonial markets. The colonial world, taking advantage of weakened colonialism, went into political revolution. Suddenly there were two enlarged revolutionary fronts. One was the struggle of the workers in the advanced countries to stop resurgent fascism, prevent NATO from attacking the Soviet Union, contain aggressive American imperialism and expand domestic political liberties and the workers share of the social products. The broads American middle class, expanding in leaps and bounds, and various ideological communists groupings attempted to avoid war in order to consolidate their post- war position. The other front was the expanding militancy of the anti-colonial struggle. This side needed to prevent imperialism from concentrating its military might against the anti-colonial revolutions. They urged revolutionary activity in Europe and the former colonies even at the risk of nuclear war. Thus the split in the international communist movement was much more strategic than ideological. The revolutionary movement in the imperialist countries split between those wanting to seize power and those advocating a broad cross-class front in the fight for peace. In my opinion this split within the international communist movement was outside of and very much indifferent to the old political antagonism between supporters of Soviet Power, called Stalinism and those advocating the overthrow of the Soviet agreement under the rubric of political Trotskyism. In other words the split domestically was not the polarity between the CPUSA and the SWP. Rather, both of these groups split and in the process of reorganization of competing poles within the old polarity a new pole emerged. The new pole to emerged was expressed in groups like the WWP. The split in the communist movement was formalized in 1958 at the CPUSA?s 16th convention. During the pre-convention discussions the fragile peace between the party factions broke down with at least four major factions emerging. During the Convention, one of the major factions walked out of the Party and organized itself as The Provisional Organizing Committee to Reconstitute a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in the United States (POC). Other internal splits took place within the CPUSA, leaving the right wing firmly in control. No matter what the ideological formulations the split in the communist movement has a material/economic reality that cannot be ascertained on the basis of the ideological documents and pronouncement of the groups. One must ascertain shifting economic and political phenomena to understand the context of the ideological component. The colonial revolution split between the national bourgeoisie and the popular forces. The result was a fundamental split within the international communist movement reflected by splits within each national communist party. This split within the world communist movement allowed for the resurgence of a revisionist Marxism, and the demise of the 3rd International and was the impetus for the "New Communist Movement." By the mid-1970s, a series of developments were at play. One, a new economy was arising based on electronic production. Secondly, the colonial revolutions shifted the center of gravity away from the traditional base of the organized industrial worker. Thirdly, the decline of the parties of the 3rd International opened the way for new organizations. In this sense Sam Marcy has a footnote in American history as a leading individual driving the formation of a political group on the basis of the post WW II political reconfiguration of the world. As these new groups spread during the 1970's each sought to have the "correct" political position of all matters earthly. By 1985 it was clear that an entirely new form of production was coming into prominence. The globalization of both the market and production was followed by a dramatic decline of the power of the unions and the practical destruction of the communist parties as revolutionary organizations. New economic classes evolved from the new economy and it was clear that a new type of revolutionary organization was necessary. Sam Marcy grasped the impact of the emergence of a new technological regime and why its coming forth meant the reconfiguration of the working class. "The scientific-technological revolution has become such an enormous economic factor that it has changed the social composition of the U.S. working class." S Marcy. All the grouping formed and recast between 1958 and 1985 collapsed and/or began reformulation under the impact of the change in the material power of the productive forces. The revolutionary movement is now leaping into a new quality of struggle. It cannot help but do so since it is the subjective or political expression of the leap from industry to the electronic economy. This process will go through a number of quantitative stages. At each stage, the revolutionaries will have to regroup on new foundations. History has delivered its verdict. All who supported Soviet Power, despite its warts and distortions cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called in error. All those who advocated the overthrow of the Soviet government, no matter what their reasoning, intersected with the most reactionary and fascistic political currents seeking the overthrow of Soviet socialism. Sam Marcy walked the line, and in my opinion belong amongst the former. Posing the question of China from the standpoint of whether or not to advocate the overthrow of its government and the CPC is on the wrong side of the political equation and places one within the camp of those welding the concept of "failed states" as reasoning for imperialist aggression. In my estimate this is not the legacy of Sam Marcy. Why not lean from the past? None of us are required to wage the correct "principled" struggle for the "correct position" on foreign governments. The idea of forming a political organization where such discussion takes place openly in the groups press means splitting the organization into a hundred tiny ideological groups, when in fact ones attitude toward the Prague Spring of 1968 is irrelevant, except to old farts, stuck in the quicksands of their own mind. And it means opening the doors wide to the political operatives of the intelligence community, who would rather wreck ones group than pass out newspapers, pamphlets and collectivize contacts and potential recruits. Communists should be about the business of educating a new generation in politics, theory and the art of political insurgency. Some of us are still stuck in the 1960s penning away about the black community when a huge section of our working class is in motion. It is slow motion but slow motion beats no motion. We need to grow up quick. Whether or not to support the overthrow of the government of China, as a public question is part of the work of the intelligence community and/or political knuckleheads. Advocacy of political groups to do as did Lenin and publicly debate in their press all the questions of the world is failure to understand the elementary logic of political organization, and blocks American communists from waging the history making battle to detach the workers from the ideological political middle. One might as well form or join a political group and announce, "I am here to destroy the group by endlessly debating the correct position about everything in existence." And then discover the means to get your paycheck. WL. **************Stay connected and tighten your budget with a great mobile device for under $50. Take a Peek! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100122638x1221845911x1201401556/aol?redir=http://www.getpeek.com/aol) From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Sat Jun 6 15:09:36 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:09:36 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] European vs. U.S. Unemployment Explained Message-ID: <4A2ADB10.2000203@ecst.csuchico.edu> When Jaimie Galbraith is good, he can be very good. Here is an example, explaining European unemployment as a result of inequality rather than social democracy. After explaining the close association between inequality and unemployment, he goes on: 97: "The European economy is no longer a collection of separated national systems. Spain, Germany, and France are not independent, mutually isolated national economies. There are no barriers to trade or capital flow, in fact, no formal barriers to the movement of labor throughout Europe. There is now a single currency unit across most of the region. The integration of the European economy in practice -- from the standpoint of a large multinational corporate employer, for instance -- is nearly complete. From every analytical point of view, it is necessary to start thinking of Europe as a single unit. It is therefore necessary, from a statistical and practical point of view, to measure inequality and employment at the European, and not the national, level." 97: "When this is done, the notion of Europe and the United States at the opposite ends of an employment-equality spectrum disappears. Pay inequality within countries of Europe is relatively low, but inequalities between them are very high: much higher than across comparable distances in the United States. Adding the two components, the inequality within and the inequality between countries, one finds that overall inequalities of pay are actually higher in Europe than in the United States. Thus, the standard perception of a European/American counterpoint is simply incorrect. So far as pay is concerned, Europe now is both more unequal and less fully employed than the United States. It is, by the same token, less efficient, but not for the reasons usually given. Rather, the United States wins the efficiency contest -- not because it is less egalitarian but because it is more so than the ungainly ensemble of countries that now make up the European Union." Galbraith, James K. 2008. The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too (New York: Free Press). -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com From ipoulos69 at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 16:13:50 2009 From: ipoulos69 at gmail.com (Christos Mais) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 01:13:50 +0300 Subject: [Marxism] Netherlands embraces far right in EU elections In-Reply-To: <4A2ABEBA.4020002@nic.fi> References: <4A2ABEBA.4020002@nic.fi> Message-ID: Their percentage is much less if you consider that the abstention was more than 60% 2009/6/6 Joonas Laine > Netherlands embraces far right in EU elections > ANDREW WILLIS > 05.06.2009 @ 09:29 CET > http://euobserver.com/9/28248 > > The Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders made the > greatest leap forward in the country's EU elections on Thursday (4 > June), with 16.9 percent in exit polls. But the ruling conservatives > came top overall. > > The result is a major victory for the openly anti-Islamic party, giving > it four seats in the European legislature and a possibility that this > could rise to five once the final count is completed. > > The Freedom Party came second only to the ruling Christian Democrats > (CDA) of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which exit polls suggest > will win 20 percent of the vote or five of the 25 seats up for grabs. > > This is a fall of four percent from the last European elections in 2004, > resulting in the loss of two MEPs for the party. > > As the xenophobic party's celebrations got under way, Mr Wilders said > his success was a vote against the current administration and an overly > costly EU. > > "People have had enough of Europe as it is now - a big Europe with > Turkey possibly joining - that we spend billions on each year," he said > according to newswires. > > "I think some people have also had enough of the Balkenende and Bos > Cabinet," he added, referring to the prime minister and his Labour Party > finance minister. > > The results tally with pre-election predictions of greater support for > far right and fringe parties as a result of the economic crisis and > fears over immigration in the country. > > The Labour Party - the junior coalition partner in the government - > appeared the main loser in Thursday's vote, taking only 12.2 percent of > the vote resulting in a drop from seven to three seats in the European > parliament. > > The third party in the government coalition, the small Christen Unie, a > religious party that on some economic issues hews somewhat to the left, > was at 6.9 percent of the vote, up from 5.9 percent in 2004, and > projected to take two seats. > > The other big winner is the left-liberal D66, which looks poised to take > three seats with 11.3 percent of the vote, up from just one at the last > European election. It is a major turn-around for the party, which in > recent years was feared to be in danger of disappearing. > > "There has been a clear No vote and a clear Yes vote," party leader > Alexander Pechtold said, pointing out that the anti-Europe parties had > won just eight of the 25 Dutch seats. > > "Europe is the big winner tonight," he said. > > The country's green party, Groenlinks, or 'Green Left' looks set to take > 8.9 percent of the vote or three seats, an increase of one on 2004. > > The far-left SP remained largely steady with 7.1 percent of the vote. > > Exit polls showed voter turnout of 36.5 percent, down from 39.1 percent > in the last European elections in 2004. > > Muslim concerns > > The rise of Mr Wilders - who has described the Koran as fascist and who > currently receives 24-hour protection following death threats ? clearly > came at the expense of governing coalition partners. > > Fears amongst Protestant and Catholic voters over the country's roughly > 800,000 Muslim inhabitants helped drive the strong support for the > Freedom Party, which was contesting its first European elections. > > Mr Wilders, who directed a short film that criticizes the Koran as a > "fascist book", urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration > policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation union. > > "Turkey as [an] Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 > years, not in a million years," Wilders said after voting. > > [..] > > ________________________________________________ > 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/ipoulos69%40gmail.com > -- Chris Mais From Waistline2 at aol.com Sat Jun 6 16:14:47 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 18:14:47 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY Message-ID: Comment Anyone that seeks to understand the formation of DIGNITY, is required to familiarize themselves with the history of forming black organizations, whose roots goes back to the Negro Peoples Convention Movement post the Civil War. Specifically, black organizations as organization of black people emerged after the counterrevolution overthrowing the Reconstruction governments and imposing legal segregation of blacks into their own communities. Even though centuries of white supremacy gripped the population, before the overthrow of Reconstruction, the progressive demands of these governments for things like public education, land reform and voting rights were not black demands but demands benefiting all of the poor and landless. With the over throw of Reconstruction, the impact of segregation (enforced by the black codes and Northern Jim Crow) was the social, economic and political platform for the emergence of the peculiar phenomenon of the black leader and the black organization. This process began in the 1890's. This boundary of history begins and is delinated by Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). This was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal". All the legal frameworks for this boundary of history would be set in place by the end of the first decade of the 1900's. In the political sphere this meant the poll tax and disfranchise of the blacks, held in place by extra judicial terror. This legal, social and political form of rule gave rise to the black community and the black organization as its voice. The black organization expressed the fact of social life in the black community, which riveted and pivoted on the harmonious existence of all classes amongst blacks within a neighborhood. The black community as a social fixture in American society is called the black community NOT because the people are black, but because it was a community housing all classes of blacks. This black community no longer exists anywhere in America. Marxists should understand that the change in a "social thing" generally takes place by its underlying essence - content, changing first and then its external form changes . . . leap forward as the conduit for the new content. Obama is not a black leader, although he is black. Black doctors, accountants, entertainers, business folks and capitalist do not live in the same neighborhood as the black proletarians and welfare moms. Look, I cannot just walk though Snoop Dog neighborhood or knock on Ushers door, although I can knock on MC Hammer's door for now. Class as an economic configuration is involved. There are communities with a black majority, but we are talking about proletarian slums and not a damn "black community." Why claim to approach things from a Marxist and class perspective and then jettison class as an economic reality and discard the dialectic of change as form and content? A section of the black lower middle class co-exist with the lower paid black proletarians to the same degree as their white counterparts, with poor black and poor whites increasingly living in the same neighborhoods or areas adjacent to one another. The capitalist and people with big money "live way over there!" The obvious question ignored is the fact that the most poverty stricken section of our working class is overwhelmingly white. Our "key" to the social equation and path forward is organizing these workers and breaking them from the grips of the Democratic Party, and it is this section of our working class that today serves as the social and political basis of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration. We just lived through an exciting and living process anyone can understand. All we have to ask is who voted for who and what were the economic dimensions (class) of the groups of people voting to the candidates? Specifically, a huge section of these workers, historically stable in economic matters and wedded to the Republican Party, were set into political motion as the result of the deepening of this stage of capital crisis. Obama captured this motion and on this basis swung the blacks over to his campaign as the last social group to join his campaign. The blacks were the last grouping of people swung to the Obama campaign, not the first or second. The black peoples were the last on the Obama campaign wagon. They were clinging to Senator Clinton's dress, in a way that made me say, "crap, seems like I might have to vote for Hillary and I hate the Clinton's for what Bill Clinton did to welfare." Bill Clinton lowered, across the board, the living index of the entire American working class and them slapped the organized workers in the face with NAFTA. Yet, it seems that some lament, wondering, "what are the black proletarians going to do?" Why not look at what they just did? The blacks swung behind the mass of working class whites spontaneously set into political motion. "Why?" Because of this tiny thing called "class," is being felt in America If the blacks swung behind the white workers and they did, then the key to the social equation is the white workers in their spontaneous motion and concentrating along this line of march. Or rather, the key is jettisoning the idea "what are the blacks going to do." Dignity. Dignity? In 1969 we formed and called ourselves the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW). We formed in the political after shocks of Detroit July 1967. July 1967 Detroit was the greatest uprising against the state to take place since the Civil War. On the continuum of American history the LRBW inherited the legacy of the previous formation of black proletarians and middle class insurgents as the old "Negro Labor Leagues" The LRBW completed and expressed a quantitative boundary in the evolution of America inaugurating the post Jim Crow era, understood as the emergence of the era of Black Power or the fight for black political representation within the political superstructure. Little did any of us know at the time that this boundary would not be definitively closed and the new boundary appear as Barack Obama. Barack Obama understood the new boundary and describes it in both his books. What happened was that the LRBW split with a section going over to the radical left and us merging with the California Communist League and it becoming the Communist League. The Communist League would evolve and become the Communist Labor Party (CLP) running communist candidates for political office who were black, in contest with the Marxist radical political left, also running black candidates, in the person of Kenneth Cockrel Sr. The latter was consciously tied to the Democratic Party. We were not. Yet, there was a political thread tying the CLP to the Democrats and Democratic Party through various black and multi-ethnic grouping supporting our campaign. These groups in turn expressed the economic composition of the industrial proletariat in Detroit, during the mid and late 1970's. These workers were highly organized and amongst the best paid in the industrial world. Their fighting capacity could not and did not eclipse an economic configuration, which is the American middle class as it was formed on the basis of the organization of the automobile industry. These industrial workers were the economic and political heart of the great American middle class or what Leninists called the "political middle" tied to the Democratic Party, as it fought for the interest of the middle class. One can scream communism and dictatorship of the proletariat from the house top, only to discover that ideology and theory cannot overcome an economic/class boundary. To the degree the middle class was stable and expanding political revolution is out of the question at the front of the curve of industrial development. The old League of Revolutionary Black Workers was the highest form of organization that blacks could achieve, as blacks, in American society and it had to split and leap in two directions: communism and radial black leftism. "Black Left" . . . who comes up with such a political conception, 44 years removed from Jim Crow segregation? A black left is impossible in a society that is not segregated. If one is African American and defines themselves as part of the left, the sum totally of these individuals do not constitute a "black left." Does the sum total of Mexicans and Chicano's on the left constitute the "Chicano Left." Do the sum total of Asians on the left constitute the "Asian Left?" Do the sum total of Anglos on the left constitute the "white left" . . . . in the environment of 2009? We should not think in ideological and political concepts appropriate to an era now exhausted. I cannot think of one single issue a black left or black leader can raise that is not an issue of the working class and its most poverty stricken sector. The black leader as a leader of black has been regulated to history along side the spinning wheel but many leaders who are black do not understand the logic of development and evolution. Marxists who fail to see change, especially when the form of a process is leaping to another boundary, need to restudy their countries history and dialectics. Bet you Obama understand the logic, because it is bound up in him as a person. Remember all the arguments over whether or not Obama was really "black" as defined by the "black leaders?" Wonder what that was really about? The black leaders understood perfectly well that they were being put out of a job. Why on earth would any black person need a another black person to "talk with the man" on their behalf, when society is not segregated? Under conditions of the destruction of Jim Crow, anyone can speak on anyone's behalf - (as leader) and face no political structures based on color. It is not like all classes of blacks are housed together and the "big black" . . . the man with the money and clout, is appointed to talk to the "man." That period of history is long gone. Here is why Obama tossed the Reverend J. Wright under the bus. The Reverend is a Reverend and as a historical configuration the first personification of the Black leader arising under slavery. The Church was the only social institution allowed amongst the slaves and the Minister was the leader. Obama understood that Rev. Wright as a black preacher/leader was expendable because the black masses are divided and polarized into classes and are going to spontaneously follow the path of class like everyone else, rather than a social struggle based on color. Blacks are not incomprehensibly in love with the Obama administration! The majority section of the American working class that voted and elected Obama and is supporting him right now would seem to be as clear as a noon June day. These workers made their presence felt in the largest open air rallies in the history of American presidential campaigns. Don't get me wrong. Dignity can fight for all the dignity it wants and we need dignity real bad. However, the working class seems to be defining its struggle in less ideological terms called meat and potatoes, house note, water bill and job. The good part is we can help define the form of the movement while it is in the process of the leap . . . . transition, from one form to another. The content - essence, of the historic struggle of the blacks has changed. The blacks are not fighting a civil rights struggle. The problem is that none of the old organizations are expressing the new content of the struggle of the blacks and here is where communists can alter history and create a new line of history. A new form of struggle has to be consciously fought out, expressing the revolution in production and the impact of a new technological regime. The problem is that we have never been down this road before and therefore has to pay attention to all forms of struggle that nurtures and bring to the fore class issues. WL. **************Stay connected and tighten your budget with a great mobile device for under $50. Take a Peek! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100122638x1221845911x1201401556/aol?redir=http://www.getpeek.com/aol) From pt_costello at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 16:43:51 2009 From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:43:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Cuban spies very difficult to find Message-ID: <863845.67650.qm@web63105.mail.re1.yahoo.com> AP sources: Cuban spies very difficult to find By PAMELA HESS WASHINGTON (AP) ? Hunting spies is difficult, but Cuban spies are notoriously hard to detect, former senior intelligence officials said a day after an American husband and wife were indicted on charges of spying for Cuba. Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn of Washington were arrested Thursday after a three-year investigation that began before Myers' retirement from the State Department in 2007. They had been spying for Havana for 30 years, according to the U.S. government. Investigations like this typically take years to come together because they usually turn on small pieces of information, and Cuban spies often leave few traces. Cuban intelligence specializes in recruiting "true believers" rather than agents who are out to make money, these officals said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Myers appears to be one of the true believers. He praised Castro in a personal journal he wrote in 1978 as a "brilliant and charismatic leader" who is "one of the great political leaders of our time." And he called the United States government "exploiters" who regularly murdered Cuban revolutionary leaders. full: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hAwPXO8mwICEgIfEDMOwHwfSpyiQD98LDUOG0 From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 18:12:08 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 17:12:08 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] =?utf-8?q?Conservative_Justice_and_the_Ricci_Firefighte?= =?utf-8?q?r=E2=80=99s_Case?= Message-ID: <170575.24596.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Conservative Justice and the Ricci Firefighter?s Case African American Leadership By Dr. Ron Walters, PhD BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board In the developing fight over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, some conservative Republicans such as Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and Tom Delay are raising the charge that she is ?racist? and would be an ?activist? judge because of her ruling in the Ricci v. DeStephano case. Better known as the New Haven Firefighters? case, its opponents apparently believe that activism only applies to Democrats or liberal judges. Moreover, the recent preliminary arguments before the Supreme Court suggest that the Conservatives on the court are poised to attack Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which protects those excluded by testing devices. This has been settled law for over 35 years. The role of political Conservatives in the modern era, as it has been historically, is to protect white interests, not to ensure that the law is fair to all groups in society. In fact, some whites of this persuasion appear to live in a bubble of majority power, where the legitimate interests of other groups are perceived as a threat and where decisions defending their narrow group self interests are perceived to be objective. The 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII, section 7h) prohibited the use of tests that would be used intentionally to discriminate, or tests that would be used without the intention to discriminate but would nevertheless, have an exclusionary (disparate) impact. The continuing importance of this is that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has found that in 2007 discrimination charges involving test screening of job applicants have significantly increased due in part to security concerns raised by 9/11 and the economy. Now all of the protected groups under Title VII, such as the Age Discrimination Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, are protected from biased testing in addition to African Americans. So, any change in the law that seeks to invalidate Title VII for blacks would also affect others in these categories. Yet, activist conservatives on the Court seem poised to do so. My suspicion however, is that the Supreme Court conservatives see red meat in the charge that white firefighter Ricci makes ? that the City of New Haven?s attempt to comply with Title VII is, in itself, race discrimination against whites who are protected by the principle of ?equal protection of the laws? under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This charge has been the great battle ground over Affirmative Action that has had the Conservative movement proposing the ridiculous concept of ?reverse racism.? Since when has limitations on the powerful from exercise of absolute power over employment, seats in college, contracts and etc, actually proven to be racist against whites? The original aim of the law was to attempt to strike a balance by opening the doors of inclusion of blacks who had been excluded from such institutions and practices of American society, but Conservatives believe that any impingement on the power of the majority in an attempt to create an equalitarian and democratic society is oppressive to whites. You would think that the attempt to change settled law in the ?64 Act would get a push-back from other whites to believe in social justice. But the media has all but created a platform where Right wing opinion is promoted. In doing so, they are protecting their fallacious and undemocratic position. In one of my most recent books, White Nationalism, Black Interests, I have written that the reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, as Ricci and his colleagues are attempting to do, amounts to the reconfirmation of ?white rights.? Powerful conservative politicians and judges began this project with the case, Shaw v. Reno which narrowed the basis for the inclusion of African Americans in college enrollment to the point that we now have an ill-defined standard of something called ?diversity.? This move against employment in an atmosphere of economic decline and rampant black unemployment could not come at a worse time. Blacks should not have to confront biased testing if they are to get back to work and to be promoted after this Depression is over. But, we will eventually need two Sonia Sotomayors to have a Court that represents the interests of all the Americans. BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, Director of the African American Leadership Center and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation (The Politics of Race and Ethnicity) (Rowman and Littlefield). Click here to contact Dr. Walters. "When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano From mqduck at mqduck.net Sat Jun 6 18:12:13 2009 From: mqduck at mqduck.net (Jeffrey Thomas Piercy) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:12:13 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice In-Reply-To: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> References: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A2B05DD.6010909@mqduck.net> Does anyone have any photographs of these two? Louis Proyect wrote: > NY Times, June 6, 2009 > U.S. Charges Couple With Spying for Cuba > By ERIC LICHTBLAU > > WASHINGTON ? The Justice Department charged Friday that a former State > Department analyst and his wife worked as spies for Cuba for nearly 30 > years, using a short-wave radio to pass on secret diplomatic information > to their Cuban handlers. > > Officials said the couple, Walter K. Myers, 72, and Gwendolyn S. Myers, > 71, received little in the way of compensation from the Cubans except > for the short-wave radio and some travel expenses. Rather, the officials > said, the couple appears to have been driven by their strong affinity > for Cuba and their bitterness toward ?American imperialism.? > > ?We think they did it because they love Cuba,? said a law enforcement > official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not > authorized to discuss the case. > > The Myerses, who live in Washington, were arrested on Thursday and > charged in a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday with serving as > illegal agents of the Cuban government and wire fraud. A defense lawyer > declined to comment on the charges. > spy > The case had been under investigation for three years but intensified > two months ago, when an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of > Investigation, posing as a Cuban agent, approached Mr. Myers. That led > to a series of meetings in which the Justice Department said that Mr. > Myers and his wife made incriminating admissions about their > decades-long work for Cuba. > > Mr. Myers began working as a contract instructor at the State Department > in 1977 and rose to the position of senior analyst with top-secret > security clearance, specializing in European affairs. He retired from > the department in 2007. > > In the indictment, the Justice Department said that Mr. Myers examined > some 200 intelligence reports that dealt with Cuba in 2006 and 2007, > many of them classified or top-secret reports that were unrelated to his > own duties at the State Department. > > While some of the material that the government says the Myerses passed > on to Cuba apparently related to State Department personnel and internal > policy matters, the indictment does not detail the bulk of the material > or the sensitivity of it. > > David Kris, the assistant attorney general for national security at the > Justice Department, called the Myerses? activity for Cuba ?incredibly > serious.? > > The indictment and the government?s supporting material say the Myerses > were recruited as spies during an academic trip to Cuba in 1978. > > In a diary entry that the Justice Department said Mr. Myers wrote at the > time of the trip, he expressed his passion for Cuba and its Communist > revolutionary goals and his distaste for ?American imperialism? and the > United States? indifference to medical care, the poor and other basic > public needs. ?Cuba is so exciting!? he wrote, adding that ?the > revolution has released enormous potential and liberated the Cuban spirit.? > > The government alleged that soon after their return to the United > States, the Myerses began using Morse code, encrypted messages and the > short-wave radio to pass sensitive diplomatic information to Havana. > They met Fidel Castro on a clandestine trip to Cuba in 1995 and made > trips over the years to meet Cuban contacts in Trinidad and Tobago, > Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Jamaica, the government charged. > > It appears from government documents that suspicions among American > counterintelligence officials about a possible security leak within the > State Department first led the authorities to focus on Mr. Myers two or > three years ago. > > This April, an undercover agent from the F.B.I., posing as a Cuban > official, approached Mr. Myers outside the Johns Hopkins School of > Advanced International Studies in Washington, where he taught. The agent > said he had instructions to contact him concerning the thawing > diplomatic changes in the air between Cuba and the United States. The > agent offered Mr. Myers a cigar and wished him a happy birthday. > > The agent directed Mr. Myers to search out State Department information > about Cuba, and at one in a series of follow-up meetings, Mr. Myers and > his wife told the agent that they hoped to ?sail home? to Cuba some day > on their sailboat, the government said. > > The couple also expressed some mixed emotions, saying that they were > ?burned out? by their clandestine activity yet wanted to continue to > help Cubans because of their strong ties. > > ?It?s forever,? the affidavit quoted Mr. Myers as telling the agent. > ?You know, it?s like Fidel. It?s forever.? > > > > > ________________________________________________ > 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 > -- Human: An animal so lost in loathing contemplation of what it thinks it is as to overlook what it ought to be. From adambrichmond at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 19:37:21 2009 From: adambrichmond at yahoo.com (Adam Richmond) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 18:37:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] PSL on China Message-ID: <339291.57579.qm@web54607.mail.re2.yahoo.com> From tcod at hotmail.com Sat Jun 6 19:41:12 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 01:41:12 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice In-Reply-To: <4A2B05DD.6010909@mqduck.net> References: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> <4A2B05DD.6010909@mqduck.net> Message-ID: No, actually we're not in the spy business. > Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 17:12:13 -0700 > From: mqduck at mqduck.net > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice > To: tcod at hotmail.com > > Does anyone have any photographs of these two? > _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 From mqduck at mqduck.net Sat Jun 6 20:59:16 2009 From: mqduck at mqduck.net (Jeffrey Thomas Piercy) Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:59:16 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice In-Reply-To: References: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> <4A2B05DD.6010909@mqduck.net> Message-ID: <4A2B2D04.2040804@mqduck.net> Yeah, well, I thought some might have turned up in the news, is all. :-P Tom Cod wrote: > No, actually we're not in the spy business. > >> Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 17:12:13 -0700 >> From: mqduck at mqduck.net >> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice >> To: tcod at hotmail.com >> >> Does anyone have any photographs of these two? >> > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that?s right for you. > http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 > ________________________________________________ > 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 > -- Human: An animal so lost in loathing contemplation of what it thinks it is as to overlook what it ought to be. From pt_costello at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 21:50:26 2009 From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 20:50:26 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Israeli Obama hate-speech video censored by Huffington Post Message-ID: <734160.99613.qm@web63108.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Why Did The Huffington Post Censor The Jewish Obama Hate Speech Video? So: remember that terrible, shocking video of the awful frat-tards spewing racial epithets, screaming and trashing President Barack Obama in ways so debase, they're really not even worth quoting here? Well, The Huffington Post actually censored it. Why? Max Blumenthal, the filmmaker who took the video, contributed to The Huffington Post previous to this, so it's not a one-off thing, nor a user-submitted video (like the Euna Ling issue at Current TV). He's a contributor. And he notes of his experience: Within a few hours, I received an email from a Huffington Post administrator informing me he had scrubbed my video from the site. "I don't see that it has any real news value," the administrator told me. "For me it only proves that one can find drunk people willing to say just about anything. Especially drunk, moronic people." For the first time, the premier clearinghouse for online news and opinions had suppressed one of my posts. ...Bringing new meaning to the word "clearinghouse," certainly. Any request for comment has had us referred to Blumenthal's post on Phillip Weiss's blog regarding the fiasco, something it now officially is. http://gawker.com/5281698/why-did-the-huffington-post-censor-the-jewish-obama-hate-speech-video From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 22:06:17 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 21:06:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Indian Maoist Interview: Mainstream Politics are Not for Us Message-ID: <470855.29504.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Indian Maoist Interview: Mainstream Politics are Not for Us Posted by n3wday on June 4, 2009 Many thanks to Ka Frank for passing this to us. This article can be found atLivemint.com. Mainstream politics not for us, says Koteshwar Rao This is a rare interview with Koteshwar Rao, a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the party?s highest decision-making body. He is also head of the party?s guerilla operations in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa. The original comments on this article said ?The 51-year-old Maoist leader refused to be photographed and set his own terms for the meeting. Mint?s reporters were asked to arrive at a school in Chakadoba where they waited for around 5 hours. At around dusk, they were escorted to where Rao was?a clearing in the jungle that was reached after a brisk 30-minute walk. In a conversation that lasted at least 5 hours, Rao, who greeted the reporters with the Maoist ?Lal salaam? or red salute, explained the Maoist philosophy. And his group?s ultimate objective.? Edited excerpts: The administration alleges that you ambush people and run away?that you don?t have the courage to fight them? Absolute rubbish?they know we don?t run away, but say so because they can neither ignore us nor can they fight us. Even on 2 November, when Buddhababu?s (West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) convoy was attacked, I was within a kilometre of where the blast took place. Huge forces were deployed, the area was combed, but I did not run away. All our comrades in (West) Bengal are sons and daughters of the soil. Where will they run away? For the last five years, I am camping here and helping the organization grow. The Intelligence Branch knows everything. They know what I look like?they even have a picture taken last year. We are not scared of appearing before people. Lakhs of villagers and tribals know what I look like since I interact with them regularly. That we do not go out of the area controlled by us is because our central committee has decided that the strategic leadership team would stay put in the forests. That?s out of concern for our security. I hide only from a select few, such as the police and completely unknown persons. How do you forge ties with locals? We play very diverse roles, which the people don?t get to know. Because they have lost faith in the administration, villagers approach us with their day-to-day problems. We organize camps in villages so they can voice the grievances. We deal with the villagers with a lot of compassion and kindness, which is why they love and protect us. We also work for women?s liberation. There are many women who are tortured by their (parents) in-law, husbands or parents. But they cannot protest because they are dependent on them. We fight for liberation of such women. Women are very important for our movement. Many oppressed women have joined us in our struggle across the country. They have led from the front in many a battle that we have fought. However, in terms of the strength, our women cadre in (West) Bengal is slightly weaker compared with other areas such as Jharkhand, Dandakaranya and Andhra Pradesh. Whereas elsewhere the ratio of men to women is 50:50, and even 60:40 in favour of women, in Bengal, the ratio is around 70:30 (in favour of men). Besides our guerilla operations, we also lead strong mass movements in many parts of West Bengal such as Lalgarh and Nandigram. A lot of women are participating in such movements, though they may not be members of the party. Exposure to such movements leads to political maturity. We need mature organizers for the party and would look to recruit women who have actively participated in these movements. How do you fund your operations? We mainly depend on donations and mass collections. Mass collections are of two types. In the harvest season, we go door to door collecting quintals (1 quintal is 100kg) of rice. In (West) Bengal, we depend on cooked food from villages and so don?t go for collection of foodgrain, but in Dandakaranya, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, where we have bigger camps and run our own kitchen, collecting foodgrain is essential. Apart from this, we also collect cash. We appeal to villagers, who earn their living by selling kendu leaves (used to roll bidis) or by selling bamboo to paper mills, to donate a day?s wage?typically Rs50-160 each a month. That apart, we impose fines on rich peasants and charge 2-5% levy on government contractors. We punish corrupt landlords and drive them out from the village. The properties that we seize from them?such as farm equipment and cattle?are used for village development in places where we run a parallel administration. But we don?t charge anything from people?s pay from NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), or (from) contractors building infrastructure such as roads and schools for the poor. We also loot banks, both government and private banks, from time to time. The last time (we) robbed a bank it was a branch of ICICI Bank in Ranchi. We got Rs5 crore from the operation and we attacked another bank to seize the weapons of the security guards. Majority of our weapons have been seized from the administration. In (West) Bengal, for instance, 60% of our weapons have been snatched from the police. We have bought only 10% on our own; the rest has come from other states. Yet, I would say we don?t even have a small fraction of the cache of arms and ammunition that parties such as the Trinamool (Congress? it won a significant victory in the recent Lok Sabha polls and is a rival to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPM, one of the ruling parties in the state) and the CPM have. We don?t even have a small fraction of arms and ammunition that parties such as the CPM and Trinamool have. You see, power doesn?t come through weapons alone. Look at the people of Lalgarh (where tribals seized administrative power after the police allegedly tortured some of them on the suspicion that they were harbouring Maoists)?with just home-made bows and arrows, they have stalled police. Guerilla operations depend a lot on people?s support and because people are with us, we have managed to keep the police from reaching us. Our party runs on an annual budget of Rs15-20 crore. That?s what we spend on our operations across the country, and it?s almost the same amount that we raise through donations, seizures and heists. Most of the money is raised in Dandakaranya, Bihar and Jharkhand. In (West) Bengal, we spend around Rs1 crore a year, but we manage to raise only 10% of that amount locally. So, the rest comes from other states such as Jharkhand and Orissa. How do you recruit people for your movement? We don?t recruit from the villages on our own. We have a party-controlled mechanism under which we receive proposals from the locals. After obtaining the consent of the parents of the applicants, we forward the proposals to one of our committees. It vets them and takes a final call on whether or not to recruit, based on the person?s antecedents, class and disposition towards others in his or her village. The responsibility of the group that I lead is to train the new recruits. Many of them are initially intimidated by the difficult life we live, but most of them eventually learn to cope with it. How do you see this movement ending? Would you join mainstream politics? There is no end to revolution. There is no time frame?it seems it will take time? But, if the war strategy is right, we?ll reach our goal soon. Otherwise, we will have to retreat and change course. But we are strictly against joining mainstream politics. Over the last few years, politicians such as Sonia Gandhi and Buddhababu have been advising us to follow the example of Maoists in Nepal, but look at what happened to them. I met Prachanda several times and told him that they were on the wrong track and urged him to change his political stance. We won?t make the same mistake. Didn?t your party play a key role in mobilizing a mass movement in Nandigram (where the state government started acquiring land for a petrochemical hub, but had to abandon this in the face of strong protests by local farmers)? We were there in Nandigram from the very beginning, in January 2007. One of our local leaders, Narayan, who lives in Haldia, had started mobilizing the local population ever since the government first announced its intention to acquire land there and prepared the ground for a mass uprising. We are still active there since the people of the area want us to be there. The main resistance in Nandigram came from the local youth who took up arms to protest against state-sponsored oppression. Our decision to go to Nandigram was based on our political ideology?to defend the people against state oppression. We were there right from the beginning?January 2007, when the government announced plans to acquire land there. Initially, Narayan was our only person in Nandigram, but after the police killed people on 14 March, we started sending more people and arms?we sent some 150 rifles if I remember correctly?to sustain the fight. Narayan taught the local youth how to use firearms and how to face police firing. But even before we sent arms into Nandigram, the Trinamool Congress activists had gathered a huge cache of arms in the area. The CPM, too, was well equipped?in fact, they had more arms than we did. But in the end, the administration took the help of some retired army officers and attacked us from various points in November 2007 and drove us from there. Your party was there in Singur (where a Tata Motors plant was to come up. The plan was abandoned after land had been acquired for the project because of widespread protests led by the Trinamool Congress) too, wasn?t it? We were the first to take on the Tata (Motors) officials?we attacked their cars on the day they came for the first site survey. But we could not carry the movement forward because the central committee decided not to get involved. We are an underground political party and it is difficult for us to join a movement in which there are a lot of other political parties involved. We pulled out, but now, with the Trinamool having given up in Singur, I think we are going to intensify our movement there. The conditions are right?the CPM?s Hooghly district unit is in a shambles. Our kind of movement thrives in places such as Lalgarh, where the terrain is favourable and there?s mass support. How did your family react to your joining a militant organization? My father was with the Socialist Party of Congress and I joined the Communists during my college days. He made it clear that two divergent political currents cannot exist under the same roof. So, I left home. But my parents have been my greatest inspiration. Like Jijabai supported Shivaji through all his battles, my mother has always been a great source of inspiration for me. The last time I met her was in 1984, after I got married. She told me that if I were to die, it should be the death of a hero on a battlefield. My wife Maina is now at Dandakaranya?she is in charge of a group in Bastar (district of Chhattisgarh). We met in Hyderabad when I was state secretary (of Andhra Pradesh) and she was a comrade. The last time we met was two years ago. We communicate through letters?use of mobile phones has been banned by our central committee. I write poems to her and make sure the Indian postal department delivers them to her. I wrote poems after the landmine attack on Buddhbabu?s convoy and also on the day somebody hurled a shoe at (George) Bush. Have you ever thought of having children? I don?t have kids. Our party doesn?t support the idea of having children. There is no ban as such, but the leadership expects the women in our party to undergo sterilization after marriage. This is done to ensure that their political careers are not compromised. Tell us about your daily life? It must be difficult being a militant, isn?t it? We live a difficult life?constantly on the move and with a 15kg load of arms, ammunition and water. I remember walking seven years ago some 116km in 24 hours without any rest. I sleep very little?maximum four hours (a day) and at times as little as 10 minutes. But because we live a disciplined life it doesn?t matter. No matter how late I sleep at night, I rise by 5. The first thing that I do in the morning is tune in to BBC (Radio) for its bulletin at 5.30. By 6, we start our physical training and military drills?we need to be fighting fit always. So, even at 51, I don?t need glasses to read and can walk for hours without rest. We eat whatever we get. I love eating rice with mashed potatoes and green chillies, but at times, even that is difficult to come by. I was a south Indian Brahmin before joining the party and a strict vegetarian. But I have turned non-vegetarian after I left home. I love eating mangoes and wild fruits that are abundantly available in the forests that we inhabit. I am a dreamer like all revolutionaries, and work hard to realize them. My dreams are about the people in the villages?the people around me. We are soldiers, but we too have emotions such as love, kindness? But without hatred, it is difficult to keep alive the fire of class struggle and to fight against oppression. http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/indian-maoist-interview-mainstream-politics-are-not-for-us/ "When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano From pt_costello at yahoo.com Sat Jun 6 22:07:49 2009 From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 21:07:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video Message-ID: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> (Ironic that the kids in this video mimic African-American hip hop culture.) http://maxblumenthal.com/2009/06/feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem-on-the-eve-of-obamas-speech-in-cairo/ Max Blumenthal writes: On the eve of President Barack Obama?s address to the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt, I stepped out onto the streets of Jerusalem with my friend Joseph Dana to interview young Israelis and American Jews about their reaction to the speech. We encountered rowdy groups of beer sodden twenty-somethings, many from the United States, and all eager to vent their visceral, even violent hatred of Barack Obama and his policies towards Israel. Usually I offer a brief commentary on my video reports, but this one requires no comment at all. Quite simply, it contains some of the most shocking footage I have ever filmed. Watch it and see if you agree. (This video was removed from the Huffington Post on the grounds that it had ?no news value? and ?did not move the conversation forward.?) Update: Joseph Dana, one of the co-creators of the video above, has written the following to explain why he and Max Blumenthal made the video, and what he thinks it shows: It?s about entitlement, stupid. Max and I went on to the streets of Jerusalem at ten o?clock on a Wednesday to ascertain the feelings of the young population about Obama?s upcoming speech in Cairo. As is often the case, the streets of central Jerusalem were not filled with native Israelis but American Jews. Doubtlessly anyone who has visited Jerusalem has encountered the droves of American Jewish kids that are sent to Israel to study for a period of time from Teaneck or Westchester. We asked people a simple question, ?What do you think of Obama and Israel?? Most of the people that we talked to were dual American Israeli citizens. The answers in this video reflect the education and worrisome perspectives that many American Jews harbor towards Israeli politics. The sense of entitlement that the American Jewish community has when it comes to Israeli policy is on full raw display in the words of these young adults. Based on our interviews these people were from high socio economic backgrounds and had developed thoughts about current Israeli politics. The question is why more journalists are not covering this story. All you have to do is walk the streets of Jerusalem and you will find dozens of people that harbor the same beliefs. As a resident of Jerusalem, I can say that the people represented in this video are not members of a fringe group or simply drunk college kids. These people reflect the sentiments shared by many people in this country and this city. These people and their families are the core of the opposition to meaningful peace between Israel and her neighbors. This is what Obama is up against. From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sat Jun 6 22:40:04 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 00:40:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Slightly inebriated Saturday night commentary on a new FOX News Promo Video Message-ID: Just incase anyone wants to take a break from reading *People's Weekly World *or *The Militant* http://theactivist.org/blog/a-soul-stirring-video-from-the-folks-who-resurrected-ollie-north From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sat Jun 6 23:16:52 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:16:52 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <000.b0f40a00444d2b4a.001@lws-media.de> Pat Costello (pt_costello at yahoo.com) wrote on 2009-06-06 at 21:07:49 in about [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video: > > > Update: Joseph Dana, one of the co-creators of the video above, has written the following to explain why he and Max Blumenthal made the video, and what he thinks it shows: > And the one they submitted to this Huffington Post is the only copy they had, so that it can't be seen anyplace else? Curious, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 03:32:17 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:32:17 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Fidel Castro comments on "Spies for Cuba" case In-Reply-To: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> References: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> Message-ID: <000.088d0b0021892b4a.005@lws-media.de> Louis Proyect (lnp3 at panix.com) wrote on 2009-06-06 at 10:15:58 in about [Marxism] Spies for Cuba motivated by hatred for injustice: > > > NY Times, June 6, 2009 > U.S. Charges Couple With Spying for Cuba Fidel Castro's comments in Spanish is here: > On his own website they have not yet posted neither the Spanish original nor any translation. Watch this space: > Among other things, Fidel pointed to the fact that the arrests of the old (both over 70 years old) couple happened just 24 hours after the defeat of the USA in the OAS conference, which decided to lift the exclusion of Cuba. Fidel stressed that out of principled reasons, Cuba [revolutionary Cuba, that is. LW] has never tortured anybody nor has Cuba paid anything to obtain information. All those people who helped to protect the lives of Cuban against the terrorist plans of the USA and the assasination attempts against the country's leaders did this out of their conscience and merit all the honors of this world, Fidel wrote. Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From markalause at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 03:59:37 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 05:59:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY In-Reply-To: <517f3cab0906061249i347b83deodca599dd0dc2ede9@mail.gmail.com> References: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> <517f3cab0906061249i347b83deodca599dd0dc2ede9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I raised this question about Dignity and am still as ignorant of what specifically it proposes to do, where, and how. Other groups have been around saying what the founders of Dignity are saying. In terms of issues of police brutality and other matters directly effecting the black community, strengthening NAACP chapters already long rooted in those communities would seem a more effective approach. What is it that Dignity would do or say that isn't being done or said? I'm not a member of any socialist organization and have no axe to grind on this. I'm skeptical about any organization launched top-down with no connections to any existing struggle. I have the same response to Dignity as to the PFP's decision to go national. As far as that goes, in the last election, I had the same reaction to the Socialist Party and others who placed the priority on their own teensy campaigns with no reference to the larger movement. Or to the various socialists who finally discovered the GPUS and decided it was the neatest thing since Trotsky's recipe for corned beef. Most importantly, perhaps, what's the point of groups that talk about democratic standards incessantly but only talk...and only by the designated talkers. What's the justification for building yet another members-only treehouse in a movement littered with dozens of them? ML From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 04:17:11 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 06:17:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <000.b0f40a00444d2b4a.001@lws-media.de> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> <000.b0f40a00444d2b4a.001@lws-media.de> Message-ID: Nope it's all over the internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmaxblumenthal.com%2F&feature=player_embedded&v=Uxt9HwfPwPo This video reminds me of so many people I know, I love to watch racism hide behind the mask of nationalism. From bob.morris at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 04:55:47 2009 From: bob.morris at gmail.com (Bob Morris) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 03:55:47 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] FYI: Left Luggage: The socialist strategy site Message-ID: <275dee160906070355m6292e362recc44968906dee0b@mail.gmail.com> http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com Left Luggage has been formed by a small, independent group of community organisers and trade union shop-stewards in the UK. This blog is an attempt to initiate a discussion within the British Left around strategic issues, including questioning some of our most fundamental organising principles. We believe addressing these issues is imperative if the Left is to become a significant political force in the near future. Conclusion to their post on the hard left vs soft left in terms of organizing potential http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/what-left/ The experience of the US shows how a vibrant, but overwhelmingly middle class, progressive movement can coexist with a political culture that obscures class division and economic exploitation. America also shows us the consequences, as large numbers of working class people are alienated from liberalism and attracted to the Christian Right. Sections of the hard Left may be associated with some fairly unpleasant and authoritarian ideologies. But as long as the soft Left remains middle class in composition, outlook and orientation, it will remain blighted by the shortcomings of middle class liberalism. From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 05:12:52 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:12:52 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> I have seen the video in the mean time, thanks to Bhaskar Sunkara. Pat Costello (pt_costello at yahoo.com) wrote on 2009-06-06 at 21:07:49 in about [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video: quoting the film's makers: > > Most of the people that we talked to were dual American Israeli citizens. > The answers in this video reflect the education and worrisome > perspectives that many American Jews harbor towards Israeli politics. > The sense of entitlement that the American Jewish community has > when it comes to Israeli policy is on full raw display in the words of > these young adults. From the accent of those people their origin as US-citizens was quite clear. And it appears to me, that for the US mainstream, the state of Israel as a colonial settler state is just an extension of the colonization of North America, the extermination of the American Indians and the whole "Wild West" mentality which is also inextricably linked with the chattel slavery of Black people imported from Africa in chains. Comradely, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 05:34:38 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:34:38 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <000.40840400cea52b4a.002@lws-media.de> L?ko Willms (lueko.willms at t-online.de) wrote on 2009-06-07 at 13:12:52 in about Re: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video: > > > I have seen the video in the mean time, thanks to Bhaskar Sunkara. This video has now been censored on Youtube, too. When one tries to call it up directly in Youtube, > without the "&feature=player_embedded" of Max Blumenthal's site, one gets this message: "This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community. To view this video or group, please verify you are 18 or older by signing in or signing up." Using the embedded way via it works OK. It's incredible. But understandable that the Zionist do not want this video be seen by anybody. HIghly recommended. Cheers, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 05:44:55 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 07:44:55 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <000.40840400cea52b4a.002@lws-media.de> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> <000.40840400cea52b4a.002@lws-media.de> Message-ID: The ratings are decided by the users, in this case due to the vulgarity it makes sense unfortunately. And I'm sure Israeli Zionists don't especially like American Jews exposing the hollowness of their beliefs. It's sad, but in a sick way comic that just because of their ethnic identity American Jews have the "right" to travel to Israel on a stipend, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will die as refugees and never get a chance to see their homeland again. Some world we got here :) From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 05:52:42 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:52:42 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> <000.40840400cea52b4a.002@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <000.006504000aaa2b4a.003@lws-media.de> Bhaskar Sunkara (bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com) wrote on 2009-06-07 at 07:44:55 in about Re: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video: > > > The ratings are decided by the users, in this case due to the vulgarity it > makes sense unfortunately. Sorry, but I disagree. You will find much more vulgarity in many other videos on Youtube. This is politically motivated. Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 06:06:58 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 08:06:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] More on the Israeli hate-speech video In-Reply-To: <000.006504000aaa2b4a.003@lws-media.de> References: <15116.9596.qm@web63103.mail.re1.yahoo.com> <000.a0620700b4a02b4a.007@lws-media.de> <000.40840400cea52b4a.002@lws-media.de> <000.006504000aaa2b4a.003@lws-media.de> Message-ID: Well of course its politically motivated, but it was decided by the users, and there is enough merit in requiring age-verification due to the vulgarity that it won't be overturned. From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:18:00 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:18:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Why Cuban spies are difficult to catch Message-ID: <4A2BBE08.5000706@panix.com> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/06/why-cuban-spies-are-so-di_n_212216.html From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:20:11 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:20:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Go, Lakers! Message-ID: <4A2BBE8B.2030800@panix.com> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21636 From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:21:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:21:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Achcar on Obama's Cairo speech Message-ID: <4A2BBEE2.2050005@panix.com> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21635 Obama's Cairo Speech June 06, 2009 By Gilbert Achcar Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on the 4th of June 2009 definitely lived up to expectations -- provided we agree on what could have been expected. With regard to the form, Obama fully lived up to his role as the new black and human face of America in its relation with the rest of the world in general, and with the Muslim world in particular. He respected the specifications of his mission, seeking to repair the huge damage caused to America's image and "soft power" by the previous administration of George W. Bush. The world witnessed a spectacular attempt at seducing the Muslim world -- its youth in particular. The president's assets were intensively used: the colour of his skin, his Muslim paternal background, his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq and, last but not least, his Rooseveltian posture suited to our times of global economic crisis. The speech was very obviously inspired from FDR's famous "Four Freedoms" speech of the 6th of June 1941: the language of peace and disarmament, i.e. freedom from fear; freedom of thought; and religious freedom. Only Roosevelt's "freedom from want" was missing, a testimony to the extent to which this concept is embarrassing for governments that are temporarily resorting to "Keynesian" tools only in order to rescue the neoliberal economic system. This being said, the difference with the Bush-Cheney administration was not only one of style and tone. The difference in substance too was blatant, despite preconceived hostile assertions that it was pretty much the same discourse and that, although the new president is black, the White House is still... white. The key substantive differences could be summarized as follows: a criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; a commitment to withdraw all troops from that country; an acknowledgement of the Palestinian people's more than sixty-year old tragedy (implicitly recognizing the Nakba); a clear and firm rejection of Israel's expansion of its settlements in the occupied West Bank; a relatively open attitude toward Hamas; an acknowledgment of Iran's right to develop nuclear energy within the boundaries of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; and a willingness to talk to the Iranian government, without preconditions. These are important substantive differences, although they represent no dramatic break with the longer perspective of U.S. foreign policy. The truth is that it is the Bush-Cheney administration that represented a discontinuity with the long tradition: Obama's attitude is actually much closer to that of Bush senior than was that of the latter's own son. The commitment to settle the Israeli-Arab conflict, as a major source of harm to U.S. strategic interests, and the willingness to exert pressure on Israel to that end, were already displayed by the Bush senior administration. And the openness to Tehran (and Damascus) was clearly advocated by the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group in 2006, although the Bush administration refused to follow this part of its recommendations. The rest is hardly new, even when compared to the record of the previous president: the advocacy of a "two-state solution" for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and -- despite all false impressions -- the discourse about Islam, democracy, etc. People tend to confuse the neoconservative discourse with that of the Bush-Cheney, and for that matter Rice, administration: they were different. George W. Bush could outbid anybody in his "respect" for Islam -- and, to be sure, in his close friendship with the Saudi dynasty! And, needless to say, Barack Obama will ultimately be judged for his deeds and not, or not only, for his words. Beyond these differences and convergences, nothing else could be expected from Obama's speech, if one adhered to a sober assessment of what he and his administration represent. Not the leftward shift in domestic and foreign policies brought with the election of FD Roosevelt in 1932 on the crest of a wave of social radicalization, but a return to the centre after eight years of dramatic shift of the White House to the far right of the mainstream political spectrum, and a return to the fundamentals of bipartisan consensus in U.S. foreign policy. On one point however, one could have expected better from Barack Obama than what he delivered: His speech was lamentably constrained within the parameters of the "clash of civilizations" paradigm -- whose main theoretician, the late Samuel Huntington, did not advocate the clash, as his non-readers believe, but warned of it. The paradigm was one of a world divided into blocs, the majority of which are constituted around a single religious criterion. Thus, Obama in Cairo exclusively addressed the "Muslims," scattering his speech with quotes from the Koran, expressing a view of the world dominated by religion -- and only Abrahamic religions at that, forgetting that in his own country there are millions who do not belong to any of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, not to mention those who refuse to belong to any religion at all. In doing so, he paid an unintended tribute to the man whom he mentioned at the beginning of his speech and built up as its main target: Osama bin Laden. Gilbert Achcar is Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. A translation of this article is published in the June 5, 2009 edition of the Italian daily Il Manifesto. From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:25:30 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:25:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cuban spy: Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience" Message-ID: <4A2BBFCA.7050808@panix.com> (Not that different from my own experience in 1966 although I became a different kind of enemy of the system.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060602245.html A Slow Burn Becomes a Raging Fire Disdain for U.S. Policies May Have Led to Alleged Spying for Cuba By Mary Beth Sheridan and Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, June 7, 2009 He was a courtly State Department intelligence analyst from a prominent family who loved to sail and peruse the London Review of Books. Occasionally, he would voice frustration with U.S. policies, but to his liberal neighbors in Northwest D.C. it was nothing out of the ordinary. "We were all appalled by the Bush years," one said. What Walter Kendall Myers kept hidden, according to documents unsealed in court Friday, was a deep and long-standing anger toward his country, an anger that allegedly made him willing to spy for Cuba for three decades. "I have become so bitter these past few months. Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience," he wrote in his diary in 1978, referring to what he described as greedy U.S. oil companies, inadequate health care and "the utter complacency of the oppressed" in America. On a trip to Cuba, federal law enforcement officials said in legal filings, Myers found a new inspiration: the communist revolution. Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn, 71, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy, being agents of a foreign government and wire fraud. Their arrest left friends and former colleagues slack-jawed, unable to square the man depicted in the indictment with the witty intellectual with a prep-school background they knew. The Myerses never talked about Cuba or gave any hint of subversive activities, acquaintances said. "Anyone who knows him finds it baffling and finds this completely out of character," said David P. Calleo, director of European studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a friend of Myers for nearly 40 years. "He has this amazing intellectual curiosity. He is open to all kinds of ideas." Larry MacDonald, who lives at the marina in Anne Arundel County where the Myerses docked their 38-foot sloop, said the couple were admired for their intelligence and graciousness: "When I heard they were arrested, I felt like they had arrested Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny." Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in an article published yesterday on the CubaDebate Web site that, if news reports about the Myerses were true, "I can't help but admire their disinterested and courageous conduct on behalf of Cuba." The State Department and intelligence community are investigating how much damage the alleged spying may have done. Myers had worked as a European political expert for more than 20 years at the State Department, and had been associated with its Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1988 until his retirement in 2007. James Cason, who headed the U.S. interests section in Cuba from 2002 to 2005, said the case is serious because Myers had one of the highest clearances. "If you can get someone into the intelligence bureau, you can have access to everyone's intelligence, not only ours but of allies. The question is, what did they [Cuba] do with it?" he said. "Did it stay with them, or was it given to other countries, as well?" But an official who previously worked in the bureau said the case is probably not as damaging as that of Aldrich Ames, the CIA counterintelligence chief who passed along extensive information about U.S. intelligence operations to Russia. Myers would not have had access to the names of U.S. spies in Cuba, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. Falling in Love With Cuba Myers, who goes by Kendall, grew up in Washington, the eldest of five children. His father, Walter, was a renowned heart surgeon; his mother, Carol, was the daughter of Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the longtime former president of the National Geographic Society, and was the granddaughter of inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Myers went to prep school at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and graduated from Brown University. He went on to get a doctorate in European history from the Johns Hopkins SAIS. He got a taste of spying while serving in the U.S. Army from 1959 through 1962, according to friends. Fluent in Czech, he was stationed in Germany, where he monitored broadcasts from what was then known as Czechoslovakia, which was under communist rule. He went on to teach at the SAIS and in 1977 became a contract instructor at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. During those years, his life was rocked by tragedy and difficulties, friends said. Late one November night in 1975, Myers was driving a car that slammed into a 16-year-old girl in Northwest Washington, near his childhood home, killing her. Myers felt terrible about the crash, friends said. His marriage to his first wife, Maureen Walsh, ended in divorce in 1977. They have a son and daughter, Myers's only children. In 1978, Myers visited Cuba for two weeks, authorities said. He told his supervisors that he had been invited there for an academic trip by the country's United Nations mission. But his guide while on the island was a Cuban intelligence officer, authorities said. The son of privilege fell in love with the communist revolution, according to diary entries released in court. "Everything I hear about Fidel suggests that he is a brilliant and charismatic leader," Myers wrote, according to the documents. The diary entries record his impressions of a visit to a museum, where Myers learned about "the historic interventions of the U.S. into Cuban affairs, including the systematic and regular murdering of revolutionary leaders." It "left me with a lump in my throat," he wrote. The following year, Myers moved to South Dakota, apparently to teach, friends said. He lived with a woman who would soon become his second wife, Gwendolyn Trebilcock, a legislative aide for then-Sen. John Abourezk (D) in her home town of Aberdeen. Abourezk said in an interview yesterday that he liked both of them. "She is a very good woman," he said. "And I always thought he was a decent human being." An official from the Cuban mission visited the couple in South Dakota and recruited them, officials say. He asked Myers to join the State Department or the CIA, authorities said. Gwendolyn Myers would later tell an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Cuban operative, that her husband chose State because he was not "a very good liar." The CIA required regular polygraph tests, Myers said. Worries About Being Caught In the succeeding years, as the couple were allegedly passing information to the Cubans, they never indicated any interest in the island, according to friends and colleagues -- even at long dinner parties in which guests discussed world affairs. "I never heard him say anything about Latin America at all -- ever, ever," said a retired Foreign Service officer who worked with Myers and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was not clear whether the Myerses ever learned Spanish. The couple told the FBI agent during a series of meetings two months ago that they were worried about being caught. They allegedly used code IDs: Kendall Myers was "202," while his wife, who went to work for a bank, was "123." "We have been very cautious, careful with our moves and, uh, trying to be alert to any surveillance," Kendall Myers told the agent, according to court papers. They thought going to New York to meet Cuban agents was "dangerous," apparently because of U.S. monitoring of the country's U.N. mission. Instead, they allegedly met their handlers in third countries, including Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica and Italy. In 1995, they flew to Mexico and then used fake identification to fly to Cuba, where they met Castro, they told the agent. Myers and his wife told the agent they passed along information over a shortwave radio given to them by the Cuban government, and by exchanging shopping carts with handlers in grocery stores, the documents said. But Gwendolyn Myers told the agent they had stopped using that tactic -- it had become too risky with so many security cameras in stores. In recent years, they used encrypted e-mails sent from Internet cafes, they told the agent. In November 2006, Kendall Myers's frustration with U.S. policy boiled over. In what he apparently thought was an off-the-record gathering at Johns Hopkins, he assailed the Bush administration's treatment of one of its closest allies, Britain. "We typically ignore them and take no notice. . . . It's a sad business," Myers told the audience. The British press reported it. Living under such secrecy had taken a toll, the Myerses allegedly told the agent. Kendall Myers had been worried for some time that his name was on a list of suspect employees. In fact, it wasn't until 2006 that the FBI approached the State Department with word of a suspected spy. By the time Myers retired, authorities had strong suspicions. The couple had found an outlet from stress in recent years. They would drive to a marina in the Anne Arundel County town of Galesville on weekends and set out on their yacht. Two years ago, they traded up to a boat with teak decks, according to Nancy Bray, general manager of Hartge Yacht Harbor. "Every weekend and holiday, they were off sailing," said Jacqui Gallagher, a neighbor of the Myerses'. The couple worked out frequently so they would be strong enough to manage their boat, she said. Despite what the couple described as their paranoia about detection, court documents reveal that they readily opened up to an FBI undercover agent who approached Kendall Myers on Massachusetts Avenue NW in April. The agent told Myers that a Cuban intelligence agent had sent him. They went on to meet another three times, along with Myers's wife. The couple told the agent they eventually wanted to sail to Cuba, according to the court documents. "Our idea," said Kendall Myers, "is to sail home." Staff writers Daniel de Vise and Michael Birnbaum, research editor Alice Crites and staff researchers Magda Jean-Louis, Meg Smith and Julie Tate contributed to this report. From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:54:05 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:54:05 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Israeli Marxist on Obama's speech Message-ID: <4A2BC67D.2020301@panix.com> http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/kaminer070609.html The Constantly Widening Gap between Words and Deeds by Reuven Kaminer There are political circles and commentators who live from minute to minute. For them, every squeak from a world leader is a virtual earthquake, a real revolution. This is especially true now that we are dealing with a US president, who is handsome, articulate, and even eloquent. The present level of manipulated excitement stems from the non-revelation that Barak Obama is against settlements and for the two state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also sees importance in improving the tainted image of the United States in the Arab and Moslem worlds. Now who can ask for anything more? It is not that I disregard the significance of declarations but these must be carefully sifted so as to distinguish changes in the usual discourse. Repetition of old and pious wishes means little, while the appearance or disappearance of different formulations and elements is worth attention. But even before seeing how Obama is stacking up to his recent declarations, seen in Israel as criticism of Israeli policy, there is one new Obama element which demands urgent analysis. The Normalization Gambit Obama has added a new, problematic, and dangerous dimension to the formula for the solution of the conflict. He has called on both the Palestinians and the Arab countries to take immediate steps, before the conclusion of peace with Israel, so as to normalize their relations with Israel. Now this demand is quite embarrassing for the so-called moderate pro-USA, Arab countries which already maintain a high level of geo-political coordination with Israel despite the occupation. Moreover, Obama's demand that an occupied people, the Palestinians, who are denied the most basic of rights to their very existence, should take steps normalizing their relations with the occupying power as a condition for reaching a peace agreement is ludicrous, to say the least. This idea, coming from Obama, may indicate a certain lack of understanding of the conflict. Any expression of moderation by the Palestinians has always been interpreted by Israel and its allies as a sign of weakness, and full-scale normalization in the region before peace will become the ultimate proof for the Israeli argument that the occupation is no barrier to peace. This scandalous demand for pre-peace normalization is cause for concern that regional normalization meets, first and foremost, the requirements of US policy, and if normalization before peace and as a condition for peace is inimical to the interests of Israeli-Palestinian peace, then the Palestinians will just have to wait. . . . The Israeli right has already drawn up a long list of confidence measures that it will demand immediately from the Arab world and from the Palestinians. These will be preconditions for moving forward and Obama will be called on to pay the bill. Is this accidental, or just another escape route from peace that must be available in case of need? The Outposts Farce -- Who Is Mocking Whom? Obama, just like Bush, is against settlements since they are quickly destroying the dwindling territorial base for the establishment of a Palestinian entity. The area under discussion is a mere 22% of Palestine and choking it with literally hundreds of towns and villages is designed to wipe out a country and a people, literally to wipe it off the map. The Netanyahu government, like the Olmert government, is a coalition of enthusiastic annexationists, who exploit every opportunity to grab land and drive out the local population. The recent US protests against the settlements should be seen as a request that Israel stop embarrassing Obama on a daily basis, especially when he is busy trying to improve the US image in the Muslim world. The latest phase of the settlement drive, which resulted in the establishment of a spate of tens of illegal outposts, is spearheaded by groups of crazed, young religious fanatics, known in Israel as "the hilltop youth." They carry IDF-issued weapons and recognize no secular authority as they pursue their goal and simply rebuild any of the shanty sites torn down by the IDF. They are enthusiastically backed by the rabbis in the West Bank, who happen to be government employees, and they are the darlings of the right-wing politicians. The IDF acts under the assumption that sheet metal and lumber are the guilty party. The army bulldozes the shanties, declares victory, and goes home. The "hilltop youth" rebuild the shanties and are practically immune from prosecution as long as they stick to shanty building (on Arab land) and serial pogroms against the Palestinian farmers in the area. A few weeks ago, peace activists from the New Profile underwent a degrading police investigation on suspicion that they were encouraging youngsters to question their conscription to an army of occupation and national oppression. The settler rabbis inspire lawlessness and violence against the state, and the settler provocations go on without arrests. Asides from statements, there is no sign that Obama intends any action against Israeli responsibility for the outposts and the "natural growth" of the established settlements. At this point, we have to go back to square one. In its essence, the occupation is not a purely Israeli affair, but a joint US-Israeli project. Indeed, the management is local, but ownership belongs to the US as the financial backer and the provider of the political and military cover for the operation. The United States owns this occupation and is morally and politically responsible for the continued violent repression of the most basic Palestinian rights. At this point, Netanyahu still fears the settlers more than he fears Obama, unless Obama gets serious. He may move against the outposts only to demonstrate that this is a tremendously difficult and politically costly action. He has reasonable hopes of modifying Obama's ban on natural growth, as long as Obama is not clear that the settlements themselves must be dismantled and not "regulated." The very existence of any settlement over the 1967 border is illegal and should be summarily dismantled. This would solve the natural growth dilemma. So far, Netanyahu is a bit worried, along with Barak. His plan is to drag out the whole matter until the US loses interest or prefers to avoid any confrontation with Israel. This tactic, it must be noted, has succeeded in the past. Obama in Cairo It is to be feared that Obama's "dramatic" speech to the Islamic and Arab worlds has more to do with cosmetics than with politics. Obama is certainly right about the need to improve the image of the United States but, alas, this is not a matter of rhetoric. The Washington DC, Riyad, Cairo triangle is one of those decaying power alliances that hold the fort for the United States. Obama's Middle East partners are not squeamish about torture and jail for their opponents who dare to act up. Mubarak and the Saudi king, Abdullah, are the heads of reactionary, brutal regimes. Of course, they are bastards but they are Obama's bastards -- so what else is new? Even speechwise, there was very little of new substance in the Cairo spiel. Especially, if you were at Annapolis. Once again, we are struck with the gap between words and action. Obama's propaganda team is working overtime to present the current problems in a limited and almost meaningless framework. So let's get it clear for the n'th time. The twenty-two outposts are not the problem, nor is the need to restrict the "natural growth" in the more established settlements. The problem is not the lack of an indeterminate, endless peace process. The problem is not even the need that Netanyahu adopt the Olmert-Bush two-state formula. Are we to become excited at the prospect that Obama might nudge Netanyahu back to the negotiating table? Aw, come on! Even in his strongest suit, rhetoric, Obama is way off base. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a conflict between two overzealous national formations that must learn manners and civility from the international community and its leader. Israel, based on the unique advantages of the military, political, and economic support of the United States, has been skimming off Palestinian rights and land for more than forty years as commission for its pro-US services. Obama is not an honest broker, he is not even a biased broker. He is a side to the conflict and he will be one until he, openly and clearly, makes a commitment to cut off the funds and guns which implement policies that he opposes -- ostensibly. Reuven Kaminer blogs at . From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 07:57:29 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:57:29 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Putin confronted by rising protest movement Message-ID: <4A2BC749.2000804@panix.com> NY Times, June 5, 2009 Putin Plays Sheriff for Cowboy Capitalists By ELLEN BARRY PIKALEVO, Russia ? Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin arrived here by helicopter on Thursday to publicly chastise the three businessmen who jointly own the city?s lone factory, which has not paid its workers for the last three months. He saved his sharpest criticism for Oleg Deripaska, once Russia?s richest man. ?I wanted the authors of what happened here to see it with their own eyes,? Mr. Putin said in a televised meeting inside the factory. ?Addressing these authors, I must say that you?ve made thousands of residents of Pikalevo hostages of your ambition, your nonprofessionalism and maybe your greed. Thousands of people. It?s totally unacceptable.? Mr. Deripaska hung his head like a schoolboy. Meanwhile, $1.5 million in back wages flowed into citizens? bank accounts, and snaking lines appeared in front of cash dispensers all over the city. Mr. Putin?s intervention in Pikalevo, population 22,000, comes as similar economic troubles unfold across Russia?s industrial heartland, despite the recent rise in world oil prices, which has relieved some budgetary pressures on the Kremlin. There are at least 400 Russian ?mono-cities,? places like Pikalevo where the shuttering of a single factory could throw a whole population into crisis. Since late last year, sociologists have debated whether these towns had the potential to explode ? or whether Russians would quietly adapt to hardship, as they have in the past. For months, evidence has pointed to the latter. But that calculus changed this week in Pikalevo, where many workers have been surviving on staples like cabbage soup and becoming progressively angrier. When the local utility shut off the city?s hot water over unpaid wages in mid-May, a group of them forced their way into the mayor?s office. On Tuesday, several hundred people blocked a federal highway for six hours; the next step, they said, was blocking the railroad, or a hunger strike. During his visit, Mr. Putin took pains to say he did not approve of the workers? protest actions, and even suggested that demonstrators had been paid to participate. But the police did not disperse Pikalevo?s demonstrators, mostly middle-age women who had logged decades at the factory. As they celebrated, citizens here said they could never have attracted Mr. Putin?s attention if it were not for the protests. Pikalevo ?is not dying, it?s already practically dead,? said Aleksandr Kruglov, 26. ?People were so worried about their families that they went out into the street. I think it is the only way to defend yourself.? That message could resonate in other industrial cities. Mikhail Viktorovich Shmakov, chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, said Thursday that the protest mood was rising in ?many one-factory towns,? among them the cities of Tsvetlogorsk and Baikalsk, where 42 employees of a paper mill have begun a hunger strike over unpaid wages. Svetlana Antropova, the energetic head of Pikalevo?s trade union, was more blunt in her assessment. ?Other trade unions should behave like us,? she said. Pikalevo is a consummate company town ? its factory was built in 1959 and the city grew around it ? and that is the heart of its troubles. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the factory was split into three parts, which remained interdependent. In 2007, a company controlled by Mr. Deripaska, BaselCement, acquired the largest one, which produces alumina, a component of aluminum. Since the economic crisis struck, market prices alumina for have dropped so steeply that the company has been losing $300 for each ton it sold, said Svetlana Andreyeva, a spokeswoman for Mr. Deripaska. In the fourth quarter of 2008 alone, she said, Mr. Deripaska?s business lost $12 million. She said the other two companies were profitable, but would not renegotiate their contracts to relieve the financial pressure on BaselCement. BaselCement cut off production in January, creating a domino effect. The other two companies ? producing cement and potash ? could not operate independently of the alumina factory, and began making deep layoffs. Then BaselCement largely ceased paying its idled work force in February. Mr. Deripaska?s company also operated the utility plant that provided Pikalevo?s heat and hot water, and on May 15 workers at the heating plant announced they would not work until they were paid and shut off the hot water. Each move rippled through the city, where about half the working-age population was employed by the factory. Four of five restaurants have closed, and the fifth goes whole days without a customer. Families have fallen back on stores of canned goods and traditional dishes like stews made of stinging nettles. Lilia Krashenkova, 69, said people had become so desperate that they were stealing from one another?s gardens. ?We used to be a city; now we?re something worse than a village,? she said. ?We are eating ? excuse me ? grass. It?s shameful.? The protests got only sporadic coverage in the Russian news media until May 20, when a group of citizens burst into the meeting of an emergency committee at the mayor?s office. A camera crew from a regional television station, 100-TV, captured a passionate speech by a young mother, which can be accessed on the station?s Web site. Ms. Antropova, the trade union leader, said that film clip was a ?turning point.? Viktor Garmin, who spent much of Thursday waiting outside the factory for a chance to speak to Mr. Putin, said news media coverage had been crucial to the protests? success, preventing a crackdown by the riot police. ?If they start beating demonstrators, everyone has a phone with a camera, and people can say, ?Where is your democracy, Mr. Putin, Mr. Medvedev?? ? said Mr. Garmin, 54, referring to President Dmitri A. Medvedev. He added that recent months had undermined local support for the government. ?By inertia people still trust them, but it is beginning to change,? he said. ?But there is not so much enthusiasm.? In his public meeting in the factory on Thursday, Mr. Putin pointed to a contract that would resume delivery of raw materials, allowing the 50-year-old factory to lurch back to life. ?Has Oleg Vladimirovich signed?? he asked, eyeing Mr. Deripaska. ?I don?t see your signature. Come and sign.? When Mr. Putin emerged from the meeting, visibly angry, he promised a crowd of workers that production would resume shortly. Most citizens said they had hoped he would announce the nationalization of the factory, returning to Pikalevo a taste of its Soviet glory days. But Ms. Antropova, more realistic, said her main concern was that the federal government monitor capitalists who hold sway over large populations. ?The government should bear responsibility not only for Deripaska but for every employer or citizen,? she said. ?Otherwise, you may as well put Deripaska in charge of the government.? --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/07/russia-putin-policies-protests Protests against Putin sweep Russia as factories go broke From Vladivostok to St Petersburg, Russians are taking to the streets in anger over job losses, unpaid wages and controls on imported cars Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is facing the most sustained and serious grassroots protests against his leadership for almost a decade, with demonstrations that began in the far east now spreading rapidly across provincial Russia. Over the past five months car drivers in the towns of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, on Russia's Pacific coast, have staged a series of largely unreported rallies, following a Kremlin decision in December to raise import duties on secondhand Japanese cars. The sale and servicing of Japanese vehicles is a major business, and Putin's diktat has unleashed a wave of protests. Instead of persuading locals to buy box-like Ladas, it has stoked resentment against Moscow, some nine time zones and 3,800 miles (6,100km) away. "They are a bunch of arseholes," Roma Butov said unapologetically, standing in the afternoon sunshine next to a row of unsold Nissans. Asked what he thought of Russia's leaders, he said: "Putin is bad. [President Dmitry] Medvedev is bad. We don't like them in the far east." Butov, 33, and his brother Stas, 25, are car-dealers in Khabarovsk, not far from the Chinese border. Their dusty compound at the edge of town is filled with secondhand models from Japan, including saloons, off-roaders and a bright red fire engine. Here everyone drives a Japanese vehicle. Putin's new import law was designed to boost Russia's struggling car industry, which has been severely battered by the global economic crisis. It doesn't appear to have worked. In the meantime, factories in other parts of Russia have gone bust, leading to rising unemployment, plummeting living standards and a 9.5% slump in Russia's GDP in the first quarter of this year. An uprising that began in Vladivostok is now spreading to European Russia. Last Tuesday some 500 people in the small town of Pikalyovo blocked the federal highway to St Petersburg, 170 miles (270km) away, after their local cement factory shut down, leaving 2,500 people out of work. Two other plants in the town have also closed. The protesters have demanded their unpaid salaries, and have barracked the mayor, telling him they have no money to buy food. They have refused to pay utility bills, prompting the authorities to turn off their hot water. Demonstrators then took to the streets, shouting: "Work, work." Putin visited Pikalyovo on Thursday and administered an unprecedented dressing-down to the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, throwing a pen at him and telling him to sign a contract to resume production at his BaselCement factory in the town. He also announced the government would provide ?850,000 to meet the unpaid wages of local workers. "You have made thousands of people hostages to your ambitions, your lack of professionalism - or maybe simply your trivial greed," a fuming Putin told Deripaska and other local factory owners. But Deripaska had had little choice but to shut his factory, since Russia's construction industry has now virtually collapsed. Across Russia's unhappy provinces, Putin is facing the most significant civic unrest since he became president in 2000. Over the past decade ordinary Russians have been content to put up with less freedom in return for greater prosperity. Now, however, the social contract of the Putin era is unravelling, and disgruntled Russians are taking to the streets, as they did in the 1990s, rediscovering their taste for protest. The events of last week in Pikalyovo also set a dangerous precedent for Russia's other 500 to 700 mono-towns - all dependent on a single industry for their survival. When their factories go bust, residents have no money to buy food. Seemingly, the only answer is to demonstrate - raising the spectre of a wave of instability and social unrest across the world's biggest country. Most embarrassingly for the Kremlin, the latest demonstrations took place just down the road from the St Petersburg Economic Forum, an annual global event designed to showcase Russia's economic might and its re-emergence as a global power. But after almost a decade of high oil prices - until last summer - Russia has done little to invest in infrastructure, or to help its backward, poverty-stricken regions. The uprisings began last December when thousands gathered in Vladivostok, demonstrating against the new law on car imports. To crush the protest, and sceptical as to whether the local militia would do the job, the Kremlin flew in special riot police from Moscow. The police arrested dozens of demonstrators and even beat up a Japanese photographer. In Khabarovsk, around 2,000 drivers staged their own noisy protest, driving in convoy with flashing lights to the railway station. Protesters dragged a Russian-made Zhiguli car to their meeting, decorating it with the slogan: "A present from Putin". They signed it, then dumped it outside the offices of United Russia, Putin's party. Among locals, resentment against Moscow is building. "There is no democracy in Russia. They promise a lot. But they don't listen," Butov said. He added: "Medvedev isn't my president. He's never in the far east." The Kremlin's intransigence could provoke a major backlash, he predicted: "In the next few years there could be a war between the east and west of Russia." The protests have carried on, with demonstrators regularly taking to the streets in Vladivostok, including last month. Russians in the far east all own right-hand-drive vehicles, which are cheaper to import than the left-hand-drive models used and manufactured in European Russia. Until recently, the Kremlin had been relatively successful at concealing the scale of the protests, imposing a virtual media blackout. But the demonstrations have become more difficult to ignore. In April Kommersant newspaper reported that angry motorists had called for Medvedev and Putin to be blasted into space, while others waved a banner with the playful slogan: "Putler kaputt!", apparently comparing Putin, Russia's prime minister since last year, to Hitler. The authorities were not amused and launched an investigation. "Russians are a very forbearing people," Yuri Efimenko, a historian and social activist in Khabarovsk said, sitting in a cafe close to the town's Amur river, which forms part of the border between Russia and China. "There isn't love towards the Kremlin, but there used to be respect. Now that's gone," he said. He added: "People have become more sceptical towards central power." According to Efimenko, there is little danger Russia will have a revolution. Instead of wanting to overthrow the Kremlin, most Russians want Putin to turn up personally and solve their problems - an age-old model in which Putin plays the role of benevolent tsar. Analysts believe there is little possibility of an Orange Revolution in Russia, or much appetite for western-style reform. The big winner from the protests are the siloviki - the hardline military-intelligence faction, who advocate more state control of business, and want to get rid of the Kremlin's remaining liberals. The big loser is Medvedev, the hapless president, who may be turfed out of the presidency when his term expires in 2012. In the meantime, Putin has been promoting Russia's indigenous car industry. Last week he took to the wheel of his Soviet-era Volga Gaz-21 car, giving Russia's patriarch a lift. He also gave a ?505m loan to help AvtoVAZ, a struggling Russian car factory on the Volga. The Butov brothers, however, have a unanimous view of Russian-made cars. "They are crap," Roma said. He recalled how last month Khabarovsk officials gave a free Lada to a war veteran, to celebrate the annual Victory Day on 9 May. "The veteran drove it for a mile. Then it broke down. He came to me and asked if he could swap it for a Japanese model." From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 08:46:35 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 10:46:35 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cuban spy: Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience" In-Reply-To: <4A2BBFCA.7050808@panix.com> References: <4A2BBFCA.7050808@panix.com> Message-ID: Who knew whether they were effective or actually gave important information. Ana Montes on the other hand actually was very valuable for the Cuban government and the Sandinistas in the 1980s, she'll be in prison until 2023 I think. From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 08:52:43 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 10:52:43 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cuban spy: Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience" In-Reply-To: References: <4A2BBFCA.7050808@panix.com> Message-ID: I'm with out a doubt far more critical of the Cuban government and more skeptical about the class nature of its revolution than others on this list, but I think that Ana Montes deserves a place in the history of American radicalism. ** *This is the statement read in federal court Wednesday by Ana Belen Montes, who received a 25-year jail sentence for a 16-year spying career for Cuba. Before her arrest in September 2001, Montes was the senior Cuba analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.* "An Italian proverb perhaps best describes the fundamental truth I believe in: `All the world is one country.' In such a 'world-country,' the principle of loving one's neighbor as much as oneself seems, to me, to be the essential guide to harmonious relations between all of our ''nation-neighborhoods.'' This principle urges tolerance and understanding for the different ways of others. It asks that we treat other nations the way we wish to be treated -- with respect and compassion. It is a principle that, tragically, I believe we have never applied to Cuba. "Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law. I believe our government's policy towards Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it. We have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba's right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality and justice. I do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders, who their leaders cannot be, and what laws are appropriate in their land. Why can't we let Cuba pursue its own internal journey, as the United States has been doing for over two centuries? "My way of responding to our Cuba policy may have been morally wrong. Perhaps Cuba's right to exist free of political and economic coercion did not justify giving the island classified information to help it defend itself. I can only say that I did what I thought right to counter a grave injustice. "My greatest desire is to see amicable relations emerge between the United States and Cuba. I hope my case in some way will encourage our government to abandon its hostility towards Cuba and to work with Havana in a spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding. Today we see more clearly than ever that intolerance and hatred -- by individuals or governments -- spread only pain and suffering. I hope for a U.S. policy that is based instead on neighborly love, a policy that recognizes that Cuba, like any nation, wants to be treated with dignity and not with contempt. Such a policy would bring our government back in harmony with the compassion and generosity of the American people. It would allow Cubans and Americans to learn from and share with each other. It would enable Cuba to drop its defensive measures and experiment more easily with changes. And it would permit the two neighbors to work together and with other nations to promote tolerance and cooperation in our one `world-country,' in our only 'world-homeland.' From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 09:24:35 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:24:35 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Vietnamese workers screwed in Czech republic Message-ID: <4A2BDBB3.4040406@panix.com> NY Times, June 7, 2009 Czechs Cool to Presence of Workers From Asia By DAN BILEFSKY PRAGUE ? Trieu Dinh Van?s long journey two years ago from the rice paddies of northern Vietnam to a truck-welding factory in the Czech Republic was supposed to open up an economic lifeline. His parents, poor farmers, bet everything on him, putting up the family farm as collateral for a loan of about $14,000 to pay an agent for his plane ticket and working visa. Instead, Mr. Van, 25, is jobless, homeless and heavily indebted in a faraway land, set adrift by a global economic crisis that swallowed his $11-an-hour job and those of thousands among the wave of 20,000 Vietnamese workers who came here in 2007. The Vietnamese workers are part of a larger influx of poor Asian workers, including tens of thousands from China, Mongolia and elsewhere, who were recruited to come to Eastern Europe to become low-skilled foot soldiers in then booming economies. Now, they have been hit particularly hard by the sudden contraction of those economies. In Romania, hundreds of desperate Chinese migrants camped out in freezing temperatures in Bucharest for several weeks in a protest against contractors who had stopped paying them. In the Czech Republic, soaring unemployment, which economists think could hit 8 percent by year?s end, has driven many Czechs to seek the low-wage work they once left to foreign laborers. There has been a corresponding surge of resentment against minorities here, leading to fears of attacks like the one last month in which a young Roma child and her parents were severely burned when their home was firebombed in the northeastern town of Vitkov. Vietnamese workers have been a particular point of contention, even though there is a longstanding Vietnamese community here, born amid the fraternal work programs in the 1970s. ?The Czechs don?t like us because we look different,? said Mr. Van, who lamented that he had already been accosted in Chocen, the small industrial town in eastern Bohemia where he worked, by locals shouting, ?Vietnamese, go home!? Vietnamese laborers, he said, were also denied access to local discos and restaurants. The government has responded by trying to find ways to ship out Asian immigrants. Under a voluntary return policy started in February, any unemployed foreign worker who wants to go home is eligible for free one-way air or rail fare and about $700 in cash. In the first two months, about 2,000 Mongolians, Ukrainians and Kazakhs took up the offer. But like Mr. Van, many of the Vietnamese workers here, saddled with debt, would prefer to stay and wait for better times. ?It would not be good for me to go back to Vietnam,? he said on a recent day, wondering where he would spend the night. ?I would return home with empty hands and couldn?t marry or build a house. That would be a great shame for me.? Ivan Langer, who until recently was the interior minister and devised the return policy, said he worried that an estimated 12,000 jobless foreign workers were vulnerable to becoming involved in organized crime or being exploited as slave labor. Julie Lien Vrbkova, who has worked as a Vietnamese interpreter at several automobile factories in the Czech Republic, said she had been shocked by ?slave-like? working conditions, including 12-hour days during which Vietnamese workers were beaten if they stopped working. At one factory, she recalled, a Vietnamese man had worked a week with a broken rib because he was afraid to ask for time off. The tensions are a troubling setback for the Vietnamese community here, long considered a regional success story. Many own thriving corner shops, speak Czech, and send their children to mainstream public schools, where they are routinely ranked at the top of their classes. After the overthrow of Communism in 1989, thousands more Vietnamese joined those who arrived in the 1970s. Today there are an estimated 70,000 Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, the second largest foreign community after Ukrainians. But Vietnamese leaders here say they fear the new class of dispossessed workers threatens to disturb a coexistence they built over decades. An April poll by Stem, a Prague-based public opinion firm, found that 66 percent of Czech respondents said they would not like to have a Vietnamese person as a neighbor. Linh Nguyen, 22, a second-generation Vietnamese Czech who is campaigning for the government to improve its integration policies, said the hardworking Vietnamese preferred to quietly prosper while the Czechs were content to pretend they were not there. He lamented that four decades after the first Asian migrants arrived in the Czech Republic, there were no Asian faces on television, in Czech popular culture or in Parliament. In an effort to improve integration, the government recently introduced new rules that require immigrants who want to acquire a business license to have 120 hours of introductory Czech; but the lessons cost about $250, a price that many poor migrants cannot afford to pay. The challenges of assimilation are evident at Sapa, a sprawling Vietnamese market on the outskirts of Prague, where newly arrived migrants can find Vietnamese hairdressers, Vietnamese insurance companies and a thriving business of Czech-speaking Vietnamese ?middlemen,? who for fees ranging from about $25 to perhaps $7,000, can arrange for visas, take fellow Vietnamese to doctors and attend parent-teacher meetings as surrogates. Trang Thu Tran, 21, a Vietnamese blogger, who came to the Czech Republic when she was 13 and now calls herself Tereza, after a Czech soap opera star, said the construction of a separate and parallel world meant that many Vietnamese, including those in the country for decades, could not speak Czech and were forced to phone a middleman to interpret, even when pulled over in their cars by Czech police officers. Tran Qang Hung, the managing director of Sapa, said many jobless migrants were coming to the market in a vain search for work. He said he had proposed to the Czech government building a school for the migrants, where they could study Czech and become more employable. But he said he had been turned down. ?Now that the economy is bad, the Czechs don?t want these people here,? he said. ?They only want them to go home.? From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 09:45:07 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:45:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The economy is still at the brink Message-ID: <4A2BE083.9050707@panix.com> NY Times, June 7, 2009 Op-Ed Contributors The Economy Is Still at the Brink By SANDY B. LEWIS and WILLIAM D. COHAN WHETHER at a fund-raising dinner for wealthy supporters in Beverly Hills, or at an Air Force base in Nevada, or at Charlie Rose?s table in New York City, President Obama is conducting an all-out campaign to try to make us feel a whole lot better about the economy as quickly as possible. ?It?s safe to say we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn?t exist before,? he told donors at the Beverly Hilton Hotel late last month. Mr. Obama thinks that the way to revive the economy is to restore confidence in it. If the mood is right, the capital will flow. But this belief is dangerously misguided. We are sympathetic to the extraordinary challenge the president faces, but if we?ve learned anything at all two years into the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes, it is that a capital-markets system this dependent on public confidence is a shockingly inadequate foundation upon which to rest our economy. We have both spent large chunks of our lives working on Wall Street, absorbing its ethic and mores. We?re concerned that nothing has really been fixed. We?re doubly concerned that people appear to feel the worst of the storm is over ? and in this, they are aided and abetted by a hugely popular and charismatic president and by the fact that the Dow has increased by 35 percent or so since Mr. Obama started to lay out his economic plans in March. But wishing for improvement and managing by the Dow?s swings are a fool?s game. (Disclosure: One of us, Mr. Lewis, was convicted on federal charges of stock manipulation in 1989, pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001 and had his lifetime trading ban overturned by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006; documents relating to the case can be found at sblewis.net.) The storm is not over, not by a long shot. Huge structural flaws remain in the architecture of our financial system, and many of the fixes that the Obama administration has proposed will do little to address them and may make them worse. At another fund-raising event, for Senator Harry Reid, President Obama said: ?We didn?t ask for the challenges that we face. But we are determined to answer the call to meet those challenges, to cast aside the old arguments and overcome the stubborn divisions and move forward as one people and one nation .... It will take time but I promise you, I promise you, I?ll always tell you the truth about the challenges we face.? Keeping that statement in mind ? as well as an abiding faith in the importance of properly functioning capital markets ? we have come up with a set of questions meant to challenge a popular president, with vast majorities in Congress, to find the flaws in the system, to figure out what?s being done to fix them and to get to the truth about the difficulties we face as we set out to restore the proper functioning of our markets and our standing in the world. ? Six months ago, nobody believed that our banking system was well designed, functioning smoothly or properly regulated ? so why then are we so desperately anxious to restore that model as the status quo? Nearly every new program emanating these days from the Treasury Department ? the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Public Private Investment Program, the ?stress tests? of major banks ? appears to have been designed to either paper over or to prop up a system that has clearly failed. Instead of hauling out the new drywall to cover up the existing studs, let?s seriously consider ripping down the entire structure, dynamiting the foundation and building a new system that rewards taking prudent risks, allocates capital where it is needed, allows all investors to get accurate and timely financial information and increases value to shareholders and creditors. As a start, the best-compensated executives at the top of these big banks, hedge funds and private-equity firms should be treated like general partners of yore. If a firm takes prudent risks that pay off, this top layer of management should be well compensated. But if the risks these people take are imprudent and the losses grave, they should expect to lose their jobs. Instead of getting guaranteed salaries or huge bonuses, they should have the bulk of their net worth completely at risk for a long stretch of time ? 10 years come to mind ? for the decisions they make while in charge. This would go a long way toward re-aligning the interests of these firms with those of their shareholders and clients and the American people, who have been saddled with their risks and mistakes. ? Why is so much effort being put into propping up those at the top of the economic pyramid ? the money-center banks, the insurance companies, the hedge funds and so forth ? when during a period of deflation like the one we are in, any recovery will come only by restoring the confidence of the people down at the bottom of the pyramid? Confidence will return only when jobs can be found and mortgage payments are made. Even if Mr. Obama?s claim is true that his $780 billion stimulus package ?saved or created? some 150,000 jobs, we seem a long way away from the point where those struggling to get by will feel like spending again. What happens when people buy a car once every 10 years instead of once every two or three, especially now that we taxpayers own such a big percentage of the American auto industry? ? Instead of promising the imminent return of good times, why isn?t Mr. Obama talking more about the importance of living within our means and not spending money we don?t have on things we don?t need? We used to be a frugal nation. The president should be talking about kicking our addictions to easy credit, to quick fixes and to a culture of more is better (and Congress?s new credit-card legislation, while perhaps eliminating some of the worst aspects of that industry, certainly didn?t send the right message about personal finance). Gas-guzzling S.U.V.?s, cigarette boats, no-income mortgages and private jets should be relegated to the junk heaps of history, or better yet, put in a museum dedicated to never forgetting the greed and avarice that led us so far astray. ? Why is the morphine drip still in the veins of the financial system? These trillions in profligate federal spending are intended to make us feel better again even though feeling pain, and dealing with it responsibly, would be healthier in the long run. It is time to stop rescuing the banks that got us into this mess. If that means more bank failures on a grander scale or the dismemberment of Citigroup, so be it. Depositors will be protected ? up to $250,000 per account ? but shareholders, creditors and, sadly, many employees will, for the long-term health of the system, need to feel the market?s wrath. ? Is there to be any limit on bailouts? We have now thrown money at the big banks, any number of regional ones, insurance companies, General Motors, Chrysler and state and local governments. Will we soon be bailing out Dartmouth, which just lost its AAA bond rating? Is there no room left for what the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter termed ?creative destruction?? And what is the plan to get the American people out of all these equity stakes we now own and don?t want? Furthermore, for government leaders to decide who shall live and who shall die in an economic sense opens them up to legitimate charges of crony capitalism and favoritism. We will benefit in the long run from a return to market discipline. ? Why has Mr. Obama surrounded himself largely with economic advisers who are theoreticians and academics ? distinguished though they may be ? but not those who have sat on a trading desk, made a market, managed a portfolio or set a spread? In our view, one of the ways out of this economic conundrum is to have experienced traders ? not hothouse flowers ? design incentives that will encourage the market to have buyers and sellers meet anew around the proper valuations of assets, not some artificial construct of a market propped up by a pliant Financial Accounting Standards Board or government-sponsored programs that appear to be virtually giving money away to hedge funds and private-equity firms so that they will buy assets they would not ordinarily buy. We?re not talking about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, just putting people who know how markets function in the real world into the important seats in Washington. ? Why isn?t the Obama administration working night and day to give the public a vastly increased amount of detailed information about what happens in financial markets? Ever since traders started disappearing from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the last decade of the 20th century, there has been less and less transparency about the price and volume of trades. The New York Stock Exchange really exists in name only, as computers execute a very large percentage of all trades, far away from any exchange. As a result, there is little flow of information, and small investors are paying the price. The beneficiaries, no surprise, are the remains of the old Wall Street broker-dealers ? now bank-holding companies like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ? that can see in advance what their clients are interested in buying, and might trade the same stocks for their own accounts. Incredibly, despite the events of last fall, nearly every one of Wall Street?s proprietary trading desks can still take huge risks and then, if they get into trouble, head to the Federal Reserve for short-term rescue financing. Here?s something that should change in terms of transparency. The most recent price that any stock traded for should be published online in real time for all to see. And the public should have access to a new type of electronic ticker that provides market information in language that all can understand, not just the insiders. As for those impossibly complex securities that caused so much of the trouble ? among them derivatives, credit-default swaps and asset-backed securities ? the S.E.C. should have the power to make public all the documentation surrounding these weapons of mass financial destruction, including all data about the current costs of buying and selling them and the cash flow underlying them. We also need widely accessible, real-time reporting of all trades in the bond market. We bet Mike Bloomberg?s company could help design such a system for our benefit. ? Why is the government still complicit in making the system ever less transparent, even when it comes to what should clearly be considered public information? For instance, it took more than a year for the Federal Reserve to disclose that it had agreed to pay BlackRock ? the huge money manager that is 45 percent owned by Bank of America ? and others $71 million in a no-bid contract to manage the $30 billion of toxic assets that JPMorgan did not want when it bought Bear Stearns in March 2008. And that is only one of the five contracts BlackRock has with the government as a result of this crisis ? the nature of the other contracts remains secret. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has made much of financialstability.gov, the Treasury?s new Web site dedicated to ?transparency, oversight and accountability.? But look it over and try to find, for example, just one record of a bona fide credit-default swap, or the names of the hedge-fund and private-equity investors who have participated in the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility bonanza. It was only a lawsuit filed by a watchdog group that convinced the Treasury to divulge details of former Secretary Henry Paulson?s October meeting with the chief executives of the 10 largest Wall Street firms to force them to take money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. A lawsuit filed last November by Bloomberg News to force the Federal Reserve to reveal the details on more than $2 trillion in loans that went to banks including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs is still pending in federal court. And what has become of the S.E.C.?s year-old investigation into who made short-dated, out-of-the-money bets in March 2008 hoping Bear Stearns would fail ? bets that were suddenly worth millions of dollars when the company did collapse later that month? Why do we still not know why Mr. Paulson, Mr. Geithner and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, allowed Lehman Brothers to file bankruptcy last Sept. 15 but then, a day later, saved A.I.G.? Or why last November this trio decided to absorb potential losses on $301 billion of Citigroup?s shaky assets, when conventional wisdom among insiders held that they were worth only $150 billion at best? Also, before Dick Fuld, Lehman Brothers? chief executive, appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last October, it demanded from company executives boxes of documents about what happened at Lehman and why. Where are those documents? ? Why hasn?t President Obama insisted on public hearings over what happened during this financial crisis? Not a single top executive of a Wall Street securities firm responsible for causing the financial crisis has had the courage or the decency to step forward in front of the cameras and explain to the American people in his own words exactly how and why he allowed his firm to cause the crisis. Both Mr. Fuld and Alan Schwartz, the chief executive of Bear Stearns at the end, in their Congressional testimony blamed the proverbial once-in-a-century financial tsunami. Do they or any of their peers really think this is true? There may be a way to find out. There is much talk nowadays coming from top bankers ? Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase, John Mack of Morgan Stanley and even Ken Lewis of Bank of America ? about seeing how quickly they can repay to the Treasury the TARP money Mr. Paulson forced on them. One precondition of their being allowed to repay the funds should be a requirement that each gives a public deposition and explains, under oath, what truly happened and why. Such a public hearing would be meant only to offer a truthful assessment of the errors in judgment made at each firm and to promote understanding, so that we ? somehow ? can avoid repeating the same mistakes again. It would not be about indictments. These men should be offered use immunity from prosecution for their honest testimony, but only with a clear understanding that the failure to tell the truth at any point would result in serious legal consequences. The hearing could be complemented by a truth-seeking commission established to hear the accounts of several people who have departed the scene, including, among others, Mr. Paulson, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and former Wall Street chiefs like Mr. Fuld, Hank Greenberg of A.I.G., Sanford Weill of Citigroup, Jimmy Cayne of Bear Stearns and Stan O?Neal of Merrill Lynch. While far removed from their positions of authority, these men have tales to tell about how this crisis got started and why. ? Why are we not looking to change our current civil and criminal racketeering statutes, which are playing a perverse role in investigations of the crisis? Statutes meant to give prosecutors extraordinary powers of seizure before an indictment is handed up, or to impose treble damages, are appropriately used to break up rings of criminal behavior like the Mafia or drug cartels. But a few clever prosecutors could use such laws to bring charges against people or firms in the financial services industry whose pattern of bad behavior played important roles in the collapse. Such outright seizure of capital or assets through use of the racketeering statutes can do much harm by giving prosecutors an unnecessarily powerful role in our capital markets. There must be a way to keep what is good about the statutes and to make sure they are not used for ill in trying to get to the bottom of the financial meltdown. We are in one of those ?generational revolutions? that Jefferson said were as important as anything else to the proper functioning of our democracy. We can no longer pretend that our collective behavior as a nation for the past 25 years has been worthy of us as a people. Many of us hoped that Barack Obama?s election would redress the dire decline in our collective ethic. We are 139 days into his presidency, and while there is still plenty of hope that Mr. Obama will fulfill his mandate, his record on searching out the causes of the financial crisis has not been reassuring. He must do what is necessary to restore the American people?s ? and the world?s ? faith in American capitalism and in our nation. Answering our questions may help us get back on track. But time is wasting. Sandy B. Lewis, an organic farmer, founded S B Lewis & Co., a brokerage house. William D. Cohan, a contributing editor at Fortune and former Wall Street banker, is the author of ?House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street.? From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sun Jun 7 10:33:05 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:33:05 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton says US may put DPRKorea back on "terror" list Message-ID: <0F96D414B4EC4C7EB345E80C86C200B4@office1pc> Despite what this would reveal about the completely diplomatically and politically opportunist and dishonest character of the list of "terrorist" nations, we should oppose this like any other measure against N. Korea for exercising its sovereign rights to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea has always been willing to negotiate to end its nuclear weapons program, but what they insist on is reliable guarantees that they will not need nuclear weapons as a deterrent. We should defend their sovereignty relative to the United States, the European Union, the UN Security Council, and tutti quanti, whatever our varied judgments of their tactical decisions about how to defend themselves or advance their society. Fred Feldman www.salon.com/wires/ap/2009/06/07/D98LSOO00_us_clinton_nkorea/index.html Clinton says NKorea reconsidered for terror list Jun 7th, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is considering adding North Korea back to a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview broadcast Sunday after President Barack Obama pledged "a very hard look" at tougher measures because of the North's nuclear stance. The communist country has conducted recent nuclear and missile tests, and there are concerns about the North's shipping nuclear material to other nations. Obama's strong language on North Korea appeared to point toward nonmilitary penalties such as financial punishments, either within the United Nations or by Washington alone. Obama made the comments Saturday during his visit to France. The Bush administration agreed to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of terrorist states after the North said it would dismantle its nuclear weapons facilities. It later refused to go forward with the dismantlement. Clinton was asked on ABC's "This Week" about a letter that some senators wrote Obama about returning North Korea to that list. "We're going to look at it. There's a process for it," Clinton said in the interview, taped Thursday in Egypt. "Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism." She added, "We're just beginning to look at it. I don't have an answer for you right now." North Korea, she said, was "taken off of the list for a purpose and that purpose is being thwarted by their actions." Salon provides breaking news articles from the Associated Press as a service to its readers, but does not edit the AP articles it publishes. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sun Jun 7 13:06:16 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:06:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "Cuba goes capitalist" : From the New Statesman Message-ID: I would be glad to see more information on the facts in this article from the New Statesman in Britain. The comparison with "New Labour" is wrong to the point of being semi-criminal, equating what is happening in Cuba to a situation where the living conditions were gutted in the interests of pampering the rich. Cuba has many difficulties -- many of which can be broadly summarized in the old but true catch-phrase "socialism can not be a achieved in a single country alone." I expect there to be many adjustments to the facts that Cuba is a small revolutionary country in a world thoroughly dominated by imperialism and, more broadly, capitalism. The Cuban leaders have always had some awareness of this I pretty much think that just about anything they do to extract more wealth from the available resources and strengthen the day to day social efficiency is okay with me as long as it helps rather than obstructs maintaining the country's world class education, child care, and medical systems; preventsd hunger and any buildup of homeless or loss of living quarters because of poverty; makes it possible to sustain the internationalist missions; continue to expand the human rights of the people in areas from sexuality to public discussion of differences of opinion; preserves the sovereignty of the country from US interference; and deepens integration with the revolutionary processes in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and the course toward integration with Latin America which is Cuba's main road forward for Cuba today. My sense is that these are the basic goals of the core of the Cuban leadership, and that there goals have nothing in common with New Labour. Nor are they at all fully congruent even with China's course in recent decades. They will have to go through a lot of turnings, retreats, steps forward, experiments failed and successful to keep going. I plan to observe their efforts with interest and consistent solidarity. This is an approach I recommend to others as well. Fred Feldman http://www.newstatesman.com/print/200906040028 Cuba goes capitalist Graham Norwood Published 04 June 2009 Observations on private property ?I can talk about cigars but I can?t talk about change,? Christina said sharply, as she showed me the Havana cigar factory where she worked. I had asked how Cuba was evolving under the leadership of Ra?l Castro. Just outside the factory gates, however, the signs of change are everywhere. The Cuban capital now boasts branches of clothing chains such as Benetton, Mango and Zara. Electrical shops sell plasma TVs, hotels advertise wifi and Cuban youths pore over mobile telephones. On every street there are scenes that would have been unimaginable two years ago. Come July, there will be another sign of Cuba?s New Labour-style accommodation of the capitalist 21st century: wealthy foreigners will be able to buy luxury holiday homes on the island. Two hours from Havana, the neatly manicured Varadero tourist resort welcomes a million visitors a year. The complex hosts five-star hotels, shopping malls and even a golf course (and yes, golf is reconcilable with the revolution ? a photo of a club-wielding Che is on display at the course shop). On the edge of Varadero, a 170-hectare plot will soon become the site of the Carbonera Club, a joint venture between the Cuban authorities and a British developer, Esencia. The scheme will consist of some 800 apartments and villas, priced at up to ?1.15m, and marketed exclusively to foreigners. There will be a yacht marina, facilities for scuba diving and tennis, a spa and a gym. That?s all lovely, of course, but it hardly distinguishes the place from playgrounds of the rich around the world. The Carbonera Club?s unique appeal lies elsewhere. In 1959 Fidel Castro nationalised Cuban land and property. Since then no private homes have been built, sold or bought. But that will change, at least for foreigners, when Carbonera goes on sale in July. Esencia expects most buyers this year to be from Canada, Spain and the UK ? the nations that supply the majority of tourists to Cuba. But the company?s long-term goal is to attract US buyers. That will be possible only when the trade embargo between Cuba and the US is finally scrapped. But it looks as if this will be sooner rather than later. Barack Obama has admitted that the embargo has not brought democracy to Cuba. The US Senate recently relaxed travel and financial repatriation controls, and senior Washington politicians visited Havana in April. Ra?l Castro?s embrace of 3G mobiles and foreigners who want holiday homes will no doubt be seen as a reciprocal move in the necessary diplomatic pas de deux. Should Americans start to arrive in volume, post-embargo, you can expect to see more private homes popping up across the island. There is already talk of a dozen resorts. In the meantime, the Carbonera Club has had a few hiccups. Cuba?s government would prefer to sell the properties with a 75-year lease, but the west prefers freehold. And there is uncertainty over Havana?s capacity to handle inquiries from western mortgage companies if a buyer borrows to fund a purchase. But these are small fry compared to the scheme?s political significance. Whether it marks the beginning of the end of Cuba?s revolutionary programme, or the end of the beginning, as some islanders believe, one thing is certain: if you want to see Cuba before it becomes too much like the rest of the world, go there now. Say hello to Christina at the cigar factory. Some day soon she may feel comfortable talking about the changes happening around her. From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 13:20:53 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:20:53 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Fidel Castro comments on "Spies for Cuba" case In-Reply-To: <000.088d0b0021892b4a.005@lws-media.de> References: <4A2A7A1E.3080107@panix.com> <000.088d0b0021892b4a.005@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <000.682a040015132c4a.004@lws-media.de> L?ko Willms (lueko.willms at t-online.de) wrote on 2009-06-07 at 11:32:17 in about [Marxism] Fidel Castro comments on "Spies for Cuba" case: > > > Fidel Castro's comments in Spanish is here: > > > > On his own website they have not yet posted neither the Spanish original > nor any translation. Watch this space: > > There is now an english translation available at > -------- full text ---------------------- Reflections by Comrade Fidel A RIDICULOUS RESPONSE TO A DEFEAT Yesterday in the afternoon, while thoroughly analyzing the speech delivered by Obama at the Muslim University of Cairo, I received some reports published by the news agencies with the weird information that two retired persons more than 70 years old had been arrested on charges of having been spying for the government of Cuba for 30 years. Almost all the important western press agencies - eight of them- disseminated the news. The persons accused are Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers. It is also said that Walter worked as a specialist in European affairs and that in 1995 -14 years ago- the couple had traveled to Cuba and were received by me. During that time I met with thousands of American citizens for different reasons, either individually or in groups; at times there groups that numbered several hundreds, such as the students who traveled to Cuba on the Semester at Sea cruise ship project, so I could hardly remember any details about a meeting with two persons. Now I realize why George W. Bush prevented the cruise ship students to continue visiting Cuba. They talked with me for many hours, despite the fact that they belonged to high-middle class families. That accusation points out that the married couple received numerous awards, but at the same time it acknowledges that they never did it for money or personal benefits. I for one can assert that, as a matter of principle, we have never tortured anyone nor have we paid anyone to obtain any type of information. Those who one way or the other helped to protect the lives of Cuban citizens against terrorist plans and the plots to attempt against the life of their leaders, of the many which were perpetrated by several US administrations, did so moved by the imperatives of their own consciousness and, in my opinion, they deserve every honor in this world. What is curious is the fact that this news is published 24 hours after the defeat suffered by the US diplomacy at the General Assembly of the OAS. What is really weird is this: If these persons were under surveillance, because there were some FBI agents who managed to fool them by pretending that they were Cuban spies, why weren't they arrested before? Why are they arrested now? Now begins the game of the alleged justice against two persons who have been morally torn to shreds beforehand through accusations that will arrange in advance the behavior of the jury that is to decide whether they are guilty or not guilty. Obviously they will not receive the kind treatment accorded to the terrorists who were recruited by the government of that country to destroy the Cubana airliner with all its passengers inside and to commit horrible crimes against our people. They have also violated the US laws, for many of these despicable terrorist actions were carried out in the US territory. A whole campaign has already been launched against the married couple; they are portrayed as traitors who could be sanctioned to 35 years imprisonment, a sentence they will have to serve until they are more than 100 years old. The prosecutors will be able to resort to their traditional maneuvers in their quest for political goals. All of this mess has been created after Obama took office as President of the United States. Perhaps the arrest was influenced not only by the tremendous setback suffered at San Pedro Sula, but also by the news that there have been some contacts between he governments of the United States and Cuba to deal with important issues of common interest. According to a news report published by ANSA, Walter Kendall Myers declared that he tried to be "very prudent" when picking up or transmitting secrets to Cuba. Other articles refer to a diary that was found in Gwendolyn's possession. If all of this were true, I could not but admire her selfless and courageous behavior towards Cuba. The confrontation with the United States is of an ideological character and has nothing to do with the security of that country. However, yesterday other three reports from news agencies released information that does have a lot do with the political moral and the security of the United States: The agency AFP reported that a new debate had taken place on Friday when several Democrat legislators accused the Republican opponents of revealing secret information about torturing techniques, which was made public during a closed door session of the Congress. The report adds that the Representative from Illinois, Jan Schakowski, pointed out that everybody in the commission understands what a closed door hearing means. She further stated in a communiqu? that the members of this commission acted in an irresponsible manner when they left from the confidential meeting before it ended and went straight ahead to speak to the press. The news agency AP stated that the federal prosecutors had accused a man for having launched threats against President Barack Obama after he presumably told a bank employee in Utah that his mission was to kill the president. The local diary Salt Lake Tribune published on Thursday on its website stated that Daniel James Murray had confessed his intentions to a bank cashier on May 27 while he was withdrawing 13 000 dollars from a bank account. According to the newspaper, no one knows where the accused is. A document submitted yesterday to the justice authorities states that Murray is from New York and that very recently he had traveled to California, Utah, Georgia, Oklahoma, and possibly Texas. The newspaper further states that the Secret Service claims that Murray has at least 8 registered fire arms, and adds that Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, had told The Associated Press that he won't make any comments in this regard. According to the AFP news agency, sensitive US military technologies required to manufacture nuclear weapons can easily be acquired in the United States and exported illegally, as advised by the Congress GAO. In a recent report published by that institution it is stated that, using a front company and false identities, the GAO was able to buy sensitive products, such as infrared goggles used by the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify targets during night time, electrodes to detonate nuclear weapons, electronic sensors used in the manufacturing of hand-made bombs and used chips from remotely controlled missiles. Isn't it so that that immense and sophisticated arsenal that has been made available to the market is placing the world at the verge of a precipice? Don't you all find the whole story about Cuban espionage quite ridiculous? Fidel Castro Ruz June 6, 2009 3:12 p.m. ------------------------ end full text ------------- Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Sun Jun 7 14:10:23 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:10:23 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] "Cuba goes capitalist" : From the New Statesman In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000.68ee0d00af1e2c4a.014@lws-media.de> Fred Feldman (ffeldman at bellatlantic.net) wrote on 2009-06-07 at 15:06:16 in about [Marxism] "Cuba goes capitalist" : From the New Statesman: > In 1959 Fidel Castro nationalised Cuban land and property. Since then no > private homes have been built, sold or bought. This is simply not true, in the way it is posed. Sure that the land has been nationalized, but this is a contradictory statement. The revolution, as Fidel Castro once explained, has created a people of private property holders. Lots of farmers became for the first time the owners of the land they till. 80% of the families are owners of the house or apartment they live in. Especially on the countryside, people have built their own individual houses. What is not possible, is the speculation with landed property, to sell and buy houses, land, or apartments. But people can exchange their place, sometimes in a wide ring. But not sell or buy. There is a nice film "Se permuta" (Exchange wanted) made in 1984 by Juan Carlos Tab?o (). > In the meantime, the Carbonera Club has had a few hiccups. > Cuba's government would prefer to sell the properties with > a 75-year lease, but the west prefers freehold. Well, I see this as a big difference. A long term lease is not the same as private property in the capitalist sense. On the other hand, let me point out that the role which the capitalist governments play in "rescuing" financial institutions and industrial companies indicates the high degree of actual socialiasation of the production and distribution, and that the private property turns out to be rather an obstacle than a force to solve the problems which humanity has to organise our life on this planet, to secure clean and safe drinking water for all human beings, to name a simple and basic question, to secure nourishment for us all while the richest countries suffer from an excess of agricultural production of what can be sold. It is time for the working people to take the reign in our common, collective hands to secure the survival of the human race. Comradely, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sun Jun 7 14:14:07 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:14:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Inuit-based left party wins Greenland elections Message-ID: <2CE9AC701AE54D23826B5E69A9047C5A@office1pc> http://links.org.au/node/807/19981#comment-19981 June 3, 2009 COPENHAGEN - A left-wing opposition party won Greenland's parliamentary election and was set to oust the long-governing Social Democrats as the ice-capped island prepares for more autonomy from Denmark, official results showed Wednesday. The next government will be the first to lead the semiautonomous Danish territory under an expanded home rule agreement that takes effect later this month. With all districts counted, the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party, or IA, won nearly 44 percent of the vote, doubling its support from the last election four years ago, the election commission said. The governing Siumut party, in power since 1979, got just over 26 percent, apparently punished by voters in Tuesday's election for a series of corruption scandals. With 14 seats, the IA still needs support from smaller parties to have a majority in the 31-member assembly. "Greenland deserves this," IA leader Kuupik Kleist told celebrating supporters in Nuuk, Greenland's capital. He didn't say which parties he would approach for coalition building but ruled out Premier Hans Enoksen's Siumut party. Enoksen called the snap election after Greenlanders decided in a November referendum to loosen ties with Denmark, which has controlled the giant island since the 18th century. The new arrangement, which takes effect on June 21, will make Greenlandic, an Inuit tongue, the official language and gradually shift control over the local police force, courts and the coast guard to Greenland's government. The plan also sets out new rules for splitting potential oil revenue with Denmark - a key issue in a region where new natural resources could be exposed by melting sea ice and glaciers. Talks with Denmark on implementing the program are set to begin later this month. Copenhagen, whose subsidies account for two-thirds of the island's economy, will still control defense and foreign policy and Danish figurehead monarch Queen Margrethe remains the head of state. More than 70 percent of the 40,000 eligible voters turned out for the election, which was dominated by allegations of nepotism and misuse of public funds. Several politicians, including top Siumut members, have been found guilty of using public money for private uses. Former Housing Minister Jens Napaattooq was convicted of spending 128,366 kroner ($24,000) in taxpayer money on personal dinners, trips and alcohol, and was sentenced to four months in prison. The Siumut party was also hurt by an internal power struggle, with Alega Hammond, a former finance minister, trying to oust Enoksen as party leader. "The figures are, of course, thought-provoking," Enoksen told the Greenland newspaper AG in response to the election results. Siumut and its coalition partner Atasut together won 12 seats, losing their majority in the Landsting, or parliament. The center-right Democrats won four seats and the small Kattusseqatigiit Partiiat grabbed the final seat with 4 percent of the votes. All parties support Greenland's path toward increasing self-governance. Greenland became a colony of Denmark in 1775, and was a Danish province from 1953-1979. From donaloc at hotmail.com Sun Jun 7 14:18:01 2009 From: donaloc at hotmail.com (D OC) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 20:18:01 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] FT Article on Cuban Austerity Message-ID: Austerity bites as Cuba fails to revamp By Marc Frank in Havana Published: June 3 2009 03:00 | Last updated: June 3 2009 03:00 Cubans are in no mood to party today as Raul Castro, the president, turns 78. They are suffering the toughest austerity measures since the post-Soviet crisis of the 1990s, despite diplomatic achievements that have left the US isolated in its tough policy towards the Communist nation. It has been just over a year since Mr Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel with a pledge to improve people's lives and remake one of the most statist economies in the world. But now the population is being called on to sacrifice by a government many view as old and bureaucratic. Cubans this week jostled one another in ever longer lines waiting for buses, sweated to meet mandated reductions in power consumption and grumbled over a 50 per cent reduction in lunch portions served at work place cafeterias. At the same time, the region's foreign ministers battled the US over Cuba's status in the Organisation of American States at a meeting in Honduras which began yesterday. The austerity measures that took effect on Monday have stirred up memories of the dark days after the Soviets fell, called the Special Period, when 18-hour blackouts and food shortages traumatised the population. Cubans are once more confronting darkened stores and offices that are going without air conditioning into the early afternoon. The government has threatened to black out entire provinces if they do not reduce power consumption. "With a combination of global and domestic factors driving a new round of economic and material deprivation, it's hard to imagine a birthday celebration will be on the Cuban president's mind," said Julia Sweig, senior fellow at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations and author of the forthcoming book, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know . "The diplomatic environment for Cuba is arguably the best in memory, but Raul Castro surely understands that it will be hard to leverage a favourable external environment domestically if life is about to get even harder than it already is," Ms Sweig said. The austerity measures followed warnings by the government that it could not meet rising electricity demand because of a cash crunch that has forced it to restructure debt and put off payments to foreign businesses. The import-dependent country purchases more than half its fuel and food requirements abroad and Venezuela, its main ally and economic partner, is struggling with a 50 per cent decline in oil revenues so far this year. The Caribbean and Latin America have seen export earnings, remittances and tourism revenues drop significantly and credit dry up as the international financial crisis and economic downturn spreads to the developing world. The United Nation's Economic Commission on Latin America forecasts foreign investment will decline by as much as 45 per cent and trade 11 per cent in the region this year, undermining years of steady growth. The Cuban government reduced its growth forecast from 6 per cent to 2.5 per cent last week and said the fall in nickel and tourism revenues alone could exceed $1bn in 2009 because of the crisis and US sanctions. But there is a growing feeling among Cubans that Raul Castro's failure to revamp the state-dominated economy as he promised upon taking office is at least partially to blame for renewed hard times. Rafael Hernandez, editor of the often critical Temas Magazine, said that Raul Castro faced not only the international financial crisis, but "an inefficient domestic economic model due to its extreme centralisation and waste, where a dysfunctional bureaucracy resistant to change has prospered". The state-run media have increasingly taken the bureaucracy to task for a range of shortcomings, including its failure to implement wage reform and move crops from the fields to consumers. Bert Hoffmann, Cuba analyst at the German Institute of Global Area Studies in Hamburg, said that Raul Castro recognised that "only a policy of change - controlled, gradual as it may be - can hope to regain public support." Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009 _________________________________________________________________ See all the ways you can stay connected to friends and family http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/default.aspx From lnp3 at panix.com Sun Jun 7 15:06:10 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:06:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Today's NY Times acrostic Message-ID: <4A2C2BC2.50605@panix.com> If you solve it, it will yield this author, title and quote: [Michio] Kaku, "Physics of the Impossible": "Writers on Star Trek were so stung by criticisms from physicists that they added Heisenberg compensators [?] to explain their teleporters. Today because of a recent breakthrough physicists can teleport atoms across a room". Kaku was some kind of Maoist in the 1970s (in or around the CWP) and has also been a theoretical physicist at CCNY for decades. From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Sun Jun 7 16:14:26 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 15:14:26 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] FT Article on Cuban Austerity In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090607221426.GA8@ecst.csuchico.edu> This proves socialism does not work. Cuba will grow by 2.5%. They need to put a minus sign in the front to match the advanced capitalist worl. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com From avvakum at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 17:02:06 2009 From: avvakum at gmail.com (Thomas Campbell) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 03:02:06 +0400 Subject: [Marxism] Putin confronted by rising protest movement Message-ID: From: Louis Proyect Subject: [Marxism] Putin confronted by rising protest movement >The protests got only sporadic coverage in the Russian news media until May 20, when a group of citizens burst into the meeting of an emergency committee at the mayor?s office. A camera crew from a regional television station, 100-TV, captured a passionate speech by a young mother, which can be accessed on the station?s Web site. Ms. Antropova, the trade union leader, said that film clip was a ?turning point.? You can watch that TV report here: http://grani-tv.ru/entries/758/ Good for the folks in Pikalevo, but it should be mentioned that 100-TV (a Petersburg channel that I don't think can even be viewed in Pikalevo) is owned by Oleg Rudnov, a close friend of Putin's. Rudnov's Baltic Media Group also owns a news agency, a popular radio station (Radio Baltika) and four Petersburg dailies. Since regional governors -- including the governor of Leningrad Oblast, Valery Serdiukov -- are now appointed by the president (Putin's strange political reform in response to the Beslan hostage tragedy of 2004), it doesn't hurt for "independent media" like 100-TV to stir up a little populist discontent against local leaders so that the "good tsar" (Putin and/or Medvedev) can then show up in town to give them a dressing down and hand out money to "the people." Then the whole circus is shown at great length later that evening on all the Putin-controlled national channels. To get a better sense of the irony involved in Putin's yelling at Oleg Deripaska and throwing a pen at him, imagine Dubya showing up at Enron headquarters back in the day and doing something similar to Ken Lay. Also, since the Petersburg Economic Forum was under way at the same time, Putin could use his media stunt to kill two birds with one stone -- put an end to an embarrassing situation (which, I repeat, may have been allowed to surface so that he could publicly embarrass a "wayward" governor and a "wayward" oligarch) and impress the foreign press corps on hand for the forum with his personal "crisis management" skills. What the reactionary gangster capitalist ruling class here really thinks about the crisis and their "historical role" was revealed by the wild economic forum "after-party" thrown this past Friday by oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov (Deripaska's ex-business partner) to celebrate the first anniversary of his new magazine "Russian Pioneer." (Among the magazine's celebrity authors are Vladimir Putin -- who contributed a piece about how to fire employees -- and arch Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov -- who wrote about the Woodstock Festival and the murder of Tupac Shakur!) The guests included Petersburg governor Valentina Matvienko, various government ministers, assorted oligarchs, and tons of celebrities. The venue was none other than the battleship Aurora. How is that for counterrevolutionary symbolism! >That message could resonate in other industrial cities. Mikhail Viktorovich Shmakov, chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, said Thursday that the protest mood was rising in ?many one-factory towns,? among them the cities of Tsvetlogorsk and Baikalsk, where 42 employees of a paper mill have begun a hunger strike over unpaid wages. Ah, the intrepid New York Times! Going to Mikhail Shmakov for commentary on labor unrest is like going to George Meany or Lane Kirkland. Shmakov's "Federation of Independent Trade Unions" is the post-perestroika equivalent of the AFL-CIO (but worse). They've sold the Russian trade union movement down the river. A couple years ago, at their congress, Putin and his goon ministers were sitting in the presidium. But now, apparently, Surkov and United Russia are upset that some of Shmakov's locals have done wildcat actions, and so they're shifting their support to another big trade union association, SotsProf, where they installed their own man as chair. I guess that means that Shmakov can allow himself the occasional "funny" comment (to the foreign press) to improve his street cred. If the Times had wanted a real assessment of the situation, they should have gone to someone like Alexei Etmanov, the leader of the quite combative union at the Ford plant in suburban Petersburg. Etmanov is the co-chair of the new militant Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (MPRA), and he's also started talking about forming some kind of new political party for workers. It's a measure of Etmanov's militancy that he's been physically attacked something like four times in the past several months. http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/knuckledusters-as-an-instrument-of-social-dialogue-more-on-the-attack-on-russian-union-leader-alexei-etmanov/ Other MPRA activists have also had a rather rough time of it, as you'll see if you read the following interview by Petersburg Marxist Ruslan Yusifov with two MPRA activists at the TagAZ plant in Taganrog: http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/tagaz-itua-solidarity-campaign/ And this is only the tip of the iceberg. It's very clear that, once they could no longer deny that the crisis had hit Russia, the Kremlin gave the FSB and the Interior Ministry the command to go after "unrepentant" activists of all stripes with everything they had, from wiretaps and constant summons for "prophylactic discussions," to beatings and (even) murders. This has had a depressing and bewildering effect on semi-activists and folks who just keep abreast of such goings on. As for the rest of the population, the TV channels they depend on for their information almost never talk about this stuff. In general, both the Times article and the Guardian piece are examples of wishful thinking. (But what is it they're wishing for?) Russian workers have more than enough reasons to send the criminal gang running the country down the tubes, but they lack all the things that many workers in other countries also lack at the moment -- militancy, solidarity, and political clarity. An article I read the day after Putin's visit to Pikalevo (on a regional news website whose editor is one of Petersburg's most mysterious and controversial leftists) painted a very different portrait: the people of Pikalevo waiting for hours in the pouring rain for Putin to show up; then, after he did show up, waiting for another couple hours while he threw pens at Deripaska during their "landmark" powwow; then hanging on his every word when finally came outside to address them for a couple minutes. In short, it was a portrait of a completely degenerated working class. I hope I'm wrong. From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Sun Jun 7 20:17:02 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:17:02 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Mark-To-Market or Marching to Wall Street's Drummer? Message-ID: <4A2C749E.3060003@ecst.csuchico.edu> Congress coerced financial regulators to let Wall Street redefine the way it measured profits -- allowing the big banks to show profits and pass the highly vaunted stress test. In the next post, I will indicate how effective this technique has been in creating an illusion of profitability. Then in a third post, I will offer some more comments. Pulliam, Susan and Tom McGinty. 2009. "Congress Helped Banks Defang Key Rule." Wall Street Journal (3 June): p. A 1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124396078596677535.html "Not long after the bottom fell out of the market for mortgage securities last fall, a group of financial firms took aim at an accounting rule that forced them to report billions of dollars of losses on those assets. Marshalling a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign, these firms persuaded key members of Congress to pressure the accounting industry to change the rule in April. The payoff is likely to be fatter bottom lines in the second quarter. The accounting issue lies at the heart of the financial crisis: Are the hardest-to-value securities worth no more than what the market is willing to pay, or did the market grow too dysfunctional to properly set values?" More at http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/mark-to-market-or-marching-to-wall-streets-drummer/ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Sun Jun 7 20:38:32 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:38:32 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Coercing Regulators to Create Fictitious Profits Message-ID: <4A2C79A8.7060506@ecst.csuchico.edu> The previous post described how Congress coerced the FASB to change accounting methods to make banks look healther. Floyd Norris at the NY Times gives an aggregate investment of the profits that Wall Street desired accounting changes made possible. The following Bloomberg article gives some estimates about the effects on Citi's and Wells Fargo's profits. Norris concludes "Both the banks and their regulators see virtue in opacity." Norris, Floyd. 2009. "Seeking Reality in Bank Balance Sheets." New York Times Blog (5 June). http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/seeking-reality-in-bank-balance-sheets "David Zion, the accounting analyst at Credit Suisse, is out with a report today on fair value accounting, in which he calculates how many billions of dollars were added to bank "values" by the changes that the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was forced to make: "We estimate first quarter pretax earnings improved by $4.9 billion as a result of the new other-than-temporary impairment (OTTI) rules for the 20 Financials sector companies that early adopted them, including eight companies where the new rules may have increased pretax earnings by more than 5%. In addition, the FASB's mark-to-market clarification resulted in five of the 20 companies marking assets up from $27 million to $4.5 billion"." read more at http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/coercing-regulators-to-create-fictitious-profits/ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Sun Jun 7 21:38:29 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:38:29 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] The Fragility of Economic Data Message-ID: <4A2C87B5.1050608@ecst.csuchico.edu> Measurement of profits always includes a certain degree of subjectivity as long as the operation involves durable physical assets or longer-term financial assets, the value of which will depend upon future economic conditions. The economist who concerns himself most deeply with this issue was J. R. Hicks, a younger contemporary of Keynes. Hicks recognized that accounting is backward looking, while economic values depend upon the unknowable future. I backward looking, Hicks meant that accountants use previous prices and extrapolations based upon historical experience. Economics looks at an investment in terms of how it is expected to perform in the future. For example, when a business purchases a computer for $10,000, it does not write off the full cost in the year of purchase. Instead, it will follow an accounting convention, which will subtract a fixed amount of depreciation for each year of its expected life. Nobody knows whether the computer will be obsolete in two years instead of the expected five. If it has to be replaced sooner than expected, then the computer will have to be depreciated prematurely. The degree of uncertainty becomes far greater with financial instruments. For this reason, accounting rules can become a matter of life and death for a corporation. To make matters worse, accounting tricks permit corporations to create an illusion of success. Such practices do not depend upon Enron-like fraud. Instead, skilled accountants can circumvent the law, making financial regulation into an oxymoron. At the same time, investors presumed to be making informed decisions, even though they have no way of penetrating the opacity of accounting that supposed to measure how well a firm is doing. The FASB is supposed to be there to provide investors with reliable information, but when this information became inconvenient, Congress stepped in. Congress did not have to pass any laws; it merely had to threaten to do so. So now the banks are healthy. The stock market is improving. When will the other shoe drop? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sun Jun 7 23:01:43 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:01:43 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US considers partial naval blockade of DPRKorea Message-ID: New York Times June 8, 2009 U.S. Weighs Intercepting North Korean Shipments By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON - The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was seeking a way to interdict, possibly with China's help, North Korean sea and air shipments suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear technology. The administration also said it was examining whether there was a legal basis to reverse former President George W. Bush's decision last year to remove the North from a list of states that sponsor terrorism. The reference to interdictions - preferably at ports or airfields in countries like China, but possibly involving riskier confrontations on the high seas - was made by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was the highest-ranking official to talk publicly about such a potentially provocative step as a response to North Korea's second nuclear test, conducted two weeks ago. While Mrs. Clinton did not specifically mention assistance from China, other administration officials have been pressing Beijing to take such action under Chinese law. Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Mrs. Clinton said the United States feared that if the test and other recent actions by North Korea did not lead to "strong action," there was a risk of "an arms race in Northeast Asia" - an oblique reference to the concern that Japan would reverse its long-held ban against developing nuclear weapons. So far it is not clear how far the Chinese are willing to go to aid the United States in stopping North Korea's profitable trade in arms, the isolated country's most profitable export. But the American focus on interdiction demonstrates a new and potentially far tougher approach to North Korea than both President Clinton and Mr. Bush, in his second term, took as they tried unsuccessfully to reach deals that would ultimately lead North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal. Mr. Obama, aides say, has decided that he will not offer North Korea new incentives to dismantle the nuclear complex at Yongbyon that the North previously promised to abandon. "I'm tired of buying the same horse twice," Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said last week while touring an antimissile site in Alaska that the Bush administration built to demonstrate its preparedness to destroy North Korean missiles headed toward the United States. (So far, the North Koreans have not successfully tested a missile of sufficient range to reach the United States, though there is evidence that they may be preparing for another test of their long-range Taepodong-2 missile.) In France on Saturday, Mr. Obama referred to the same string of broken deals, telling reporters, "I don't think there should be an assumption that we will simply continue down a path in which North Korea is constantly destabilizing the region and we just react in the same ways." He added, "We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation." While Mr. Obama was in the Middle East and Europe last week, several senior officials said the president's national security team had all but set aside the central assumption that guided American policy toward North Korea over the past 16 years and two presidencies: that the North would be willing to ultimately abandon its small arsenal of nuclear weapons in return for some combination of oil, nuclear power plants, money, food and guarantees that the United States would not topple its government, the world's last Stalinesque regime. Now, after examining the still-inconclusive evidence about the results of North Korea's second nuclear test, the administration has come to different conclusions: that Pyonyang's top priority is to be recognized as a nuclear state, that it is unwilling to bargain away its weapons and that it sees tests as a way to help sell its nuclear technology. "This entirely changes the dynamic of how you deal with them," a senior national security aide said. While Mr. Obama is willing to reopen the six-party talks that Mr. Bush began - the other participants are Japan, South Korea, Russia and China - he has no intention, aides say, of offering new incentives to get the North to fulfill agreements from 1994, 2005 and 2008; all were recently renounced. "Clinton bought it once, Bush bought it again, and we're not going to buy it a third time," one of Mr. Obama's chief strategists said last week, referring to the Yongbyon plant, where the North reprocesses spent nuclear fuel into bomb-grade plutonium. While some officials privately acknowledged that they would still like to roll back what one called North Korea's "rudimentary" nuclear capacity, a more realistic goal is to stop the country from devising a small weapon deliverable on a short-, medium- or long-range missile. In conducting any interdictions, the United States could risk open confrontation with North Korea. That prospect - and the likelihood of escalating conflict if the North resisted an inspection - is why China has balked at American proposals for a resolution by the United Nations Security Council that would explicitly allow interceptions at sea. A previous Security Council resolution, passed after the North's first nuclear test, in 2006, allowed interdictions "consistent with international law." But that term was never defined, and few of the provisions were enforced. North Korea has repeatedly said it would regard any interdiction as an act of war, and officials in Washington have been trying to find ways to stop the shipments without a conflict. Late last week, James B. Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, visited Beijing with a delegation of American officials, seeking ideas from China about sanctions, including financial pressure, that might force North Korea to change direction. "The Chinese face a dilemma that they have always faced," a senior administration official said. "They don't want North Korea to become a full nuclear weapons state. But they don't want to cause the state to collapse." They have been walking a fine line, the official said, taking a tough position against the North of late, but unwilling to publicly embrace steps that would put China in America's camp. To counter the Chinese concern, Mr. Steinberg and his delegation argued to the Chinese that failing to crack down on North Korea would prompt reactions that Beijing would find deeply unsettling, including a greater American military presence in the region and more calls in Japan for that country to develop its own weapons. Mrs. Clinton seemed to reflect this concern in the interview on Sunday. "We will do everything we can to both interdict it and prevent it and shut off their flow of money," she said. "If we do not take significant and effective action against the North Koreans now, we'll spark an arms race in Northeast Asia. I don't think anybody wants to see that." While Mrs. Clinton also said the State Department was examining whether North Korea should be placed back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, she acknowledged that there was a legal process for it. "Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism," she said. That evidence may be hard to come by. While North Korea has engaged in missile sales, it has not been linked to terrorism activity for many years. And North Korea's restoration to the list would be largely symbolic, because it already faces numerous economic sanctions.U From naskha3 at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 04:38:18 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 12:38:18 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Divide and torture Message-ID: <18d70e600906080338r75ac878erf258ff9b98908ff0@mail.gmail.com> Divide and torture redpepper.org.uk The military onslaught on Gaza may have halted but the economic and political onslaught continues. Ewa Jasiewicz reports on a people under siege Israel?s winter assault further disfigured the Palestinian body politic. If the Gazan limb had been kept alive on a drip of international aid, with the West Bank strapped down for economic shock therapy, December and January?s events saw both repeatedly shocked, with Gaza flattened after 22 days of bombardment. In spite of Israel?s destruction of communications masts in the northern Gaza strip, the blockade of basic journalistic materials for Palestine?s main news agencies and attacks on reporters ? killing five ? news, images and voices from Gaza continued to stream forth into ?48 Palestine, the West Bank and the world. People across the globe were collectively traumatised as they watched more than a million and a half people locked into a ghetto bombed with phosphoric bombs, tank shells, flachete shells, surveillance aircraft, warships, F16s, F15s, Apache and Cobra helicopters and M16 machine guns for three unrelenting weeks. Continued: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Divide-and-torture From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon Jun 8 07:28:25 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 06:28:25 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] US considers partial naval blockade of DPRKorea Message-ID: "the world's last Stalinesque regime." "Stalinesque"? 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 editor at intertheory.org Mon Jun 8 07:32:58 2009 From: editor at intertheory.org (Nicholas Ruiz III) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 06:32:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Kritikos, V.6 May-June-2009 Message-ID: <559141.17701.qm@web301.biz.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Kritikos, V.6 May-June-2009 Rethinking Critical Theory...(s.petrucciani) http://intertheory.org/petrucciani.htm Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D Editor, Kritikos http://intertheory.org From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 07:34:30 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:34:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] California budget crisis opens rift between unions and Democrats Message-ID: <4A2D1366.3080803@panix.com> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unions8-2009jun08,0,6680041.story From the Los Angeles Times State's budget crisis opens rift between unions and Democrats Labor wants to offset some cuts with new or higher taxes; legislators don't. By Shane Goldmacher and Evan Halper June 8, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento ? The Capitol's usual political alliances are being tested by the state's severe financial problems as interest groups scramble to hold onto as much as possible of the state's shrinking coffers. The relationship between Democratic leaders and some of their labor benefactors has turned particularly frosty: Many of the programs union members rely on for paychecks -- and the unions rely on for dues -- have been slated for deep cuts. For example, there are pledge forms being passed around to lawmakers by a major labor union that might have attracted takers in budget battles past. The union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wants the legislators to sign statements of support for up to $44 billion in new or higher taxes on the wealthy, oil companies, tobacco and other industries, products and people. But so far the drive hasn't produced a single signed form, even from the Democrats who normally march into California's budget fights in lock-step with organized labor. The friction started when the Democrat-dominated Legislature produced a budget in February that raised taxes but also cut programs and included a GOP-driven plan to put the brakes on state spending. A handful of labor groups then spent millions to help defeat the May ballot measures that the budget spawned. "Many public employee unions, teacher unions [are] thinking that they were thrown under the bus in the last budget," said Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Montebello). "So now they're asking themselves: If these Democrats are not going to stand up for us, then what good is it to have them there?" The union leaders say they are appalled that Democratic leaders are talking openly now about decimating government programs without first making a stand for bigger, broader tax hikes that could substantially offset budget cuts. "Democrats came to Sacramento to help people," said Marty Hittleman, president of the California Federation of Teachers. "I know they did not go there to destroy government. For some reason, they are unwilling to stand up and say 'This is not what I was elected for.' " But even some of the most liberal Democrats say some union leaders are ignoring the reality of an angry public, a sour economy and a state government approaching insolvency. Moreover, more taxes would require Republican support in the Legislature, and the minority party has made clear that there will be none. "We have an economy which is in intensive care, and another round of tax increases . . . would put that patient in cardiac arrest," said Assembly GOP leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo. The Democratic leadership has largely accepted the governor's framing of the budget crisis as one requiring deep cuts, quickly. Any taxes they may push for are expected to be limited. "Of course there are going to be cuts," said Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). "This is the worst drop in revenue since the 1930s. We're going to try to be as surgical as we can in making very difficult decisions, but we will make the decisions." Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), a veteran lawmaker and former caucus leader, said, "When someone tells us 'No new cuts,' I say, 'Look, don't tell me that.'. . . . There is the sense that we must do what we must do to keep California solvent." When the Democrats struck their deal with the governor and Republicans to raise some taxes temporarily, they also agreed to put on the ballot the measure to restrain state spending and proposals to borrow billions and divert money away from social services. The Democrats had just pushed through the first substantial state tax increase in 18 years, and the influential California Teachers Assn. sided with them, spending millions to support two of the ballot measures. But a quartet of labor heavyweights -- the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the teachers federation, the California Faculty Assn. and the state council of the Service Employees International Union -- complained that the Democrats had given away the store. The four launched campaigns against parts of the ballot package, putting about $3.5 million into the fight against the spending cap that was the linchpin of the proposals. The measures failed, expanding the state's deficit by $6 billion. After the election, the relationship between the Democratic leaders and labor deteriorated further. The unions released an analysis of public opinion polls they conducted, concluding: "Voters are frustrated and dismayed at the leadership void in California and clearly want legislators to do their job." Nothing in the election results, union leaders said, suggested that Californians preferred deep cuts in programs to an increase in taxes. "That is not what the voters said, and it is not the approach that the Democratic leadership should take," said Willie Pelote, political director of the public employees federation. Some rank-and-file Democrats are pressing, alongside the unions, for higher taxes. So far, they have been rebuffed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposed budget revisions include the phasing out of Cal Grants, the financial aid the state gives to low-income students of the faculty association and teacher federation members. And state-paid home healthcare services, whose 300,000 workers are largely members of SEIU and the public employees federation, stand to be slashed. Some accuse the governor of seizing on the rift between Democrats and labor as he tries to dismantle parts of the state's social safety net. Schwarzenegger says he is willing to look at any alternatives that will balance the budget -- except more taxes. Democrats are working on their own proposal, for release later this month, to close the projected $24-billion deficit. Although their cuts are not expected to be as deep as those Schwarzenegger wants, there are certain to be serious reductions in the programs most important to unions. "There is a tremendous amount of pain ahead for labor and everyone else," said Larry Gerston, a professor of political science at San Jose State University. "We've got all these groups fighting over increasingly scarce resources." The next step for unions could be going directly to voters. One labor-backed group, the California Tax Reform Assn., has prepared a possible ballot measure to repeal the three corporate tax cuts Democrats agreed to in the last year to get GOP support for the budget. "It's ready to go," said Lenny Goldberg, the group's executive director. shane.goldmacher @latimes.com evan.halper at latimes.com From mikedjyates at msn.com Mon Jun 8 07:42:38 2009 From: mikedjyates at msn.com (MICHAEL YATES) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 06:42:38 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] blog entry: music, music, music, or how amy winehouse made me cry Message-ID: Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org Playwright William Congreve said: "Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." And so it does. Perhaps the Russian revolutionary Lenin had Congreve in mind when he said, according to Maxim Gorky: ?I know the ?Appassionata? inside out and yet I am willing to listen to it every day. It is wonderful, ethereal music. On hearing it I proudly, maybe somewhat naively, think: See! people are able to produce such marvels!? [He then winked, laughed, and added sadly]: ?I?m often unable to listen to music, it gets on my nerves, I would like to stroke my fellow beings and whisper sweet nothings in their ears for being able to produce such beautiful things in spite of the abominable hell they are living.? I used to listen to music everyday. When I began to teach, I met colleagues who knew about classical music. I knew very little then, not much more than the Strauss waltzes on some old 45rpm records we had at home when I was a boy. I was embarrassed by this, so I embarked upon a course of self-education. I read books about Beethoven and Mozart, and I began to buy records of classical music and tune in to the classical music radio station in Pittsburgh. The more I listened to the music, the better I liked it and the more I came to appreciate its beauty and grandeur. Within a few years, I had nearly five hundred record albums, mainly classical but also about one hundred jazz recordings. I liked the old jazz that another Pittsburgh radio station played, and I expanded out from this to more modern jazz music. Not only did I enjoy all this music, but now I could talk at least somewhat intelligently about it. My music appreciation ?course? took a leap forward when I began to take flute lessons. Every week I went to a local music store in downtown Johnstown (PA) for a one-hour lesson with Mr. Nick Gemas. Nick?s pupils were mostly grade-schoolers, and I always felt a bit strange following a kid .about four feet tall. But Nick was happy to talk to an adult. In between our exercises, he told me about his music career. He was trained as a violinist, but he hit the symphony job market just as the Great Depression struck. He needed work, so he learned to play a bunch of other instruments. He could play all of the woodwinds, and he found work as a jazz and popular musician, playing saxophone, clarinet, and flute. He got me excited about the flute, and before long, I bought a nice open-holed instrument to replace the store rental with which I had started. I practiced all the time, so much that my Sicilian landlady scolded me in her inimitable English. I was keeping her and her husband up at night. ?Play inna daytime,? she implored. I bought as much flute music I could find. I loved it all. Classical and jazz. Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Stamitz, Telemann, Rameau, Corrette, Geminiani, Handel, Mozart (who supposedly didn?t like the flute, but listen to his concerto for flute and harp and ask yourself how this could be true), Faure, Gluck, Briccialdi, Debussy, Poulenc; in jazz, Herbie Mann, Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef, Eric Dolphy, James Moody, Sam Most. I had my favorites. One was Vivaldi?s Concerto in D Major for flute, called Il Cardellino (The Goldfinch). I listened to it a hundred times. I used headphones so I could hear when the flutist breathed. I learned to play the slow movement, but I left the brilliant first and third movements to Jean Pierre Rampal, Paula Robison, and James Galway. Humans no doubt made music to imitate sounds they heard in nature. Ancient men and women must have listened to birds and tried to imitate their sounds. A mockingbird or a canary can make delightful and complex music. But Vivaldi went the goldfinch one better in his concerto, with fantastic trills, runs, grace notes, and turns, all built into a structured whole that leaves the listener breathless. And the flutist too. Birds can?t do what Vivaldi did. And while Beethoven glorified and sometimes mimicked nature in his Symphony Number 6 ( the ?Pastoral? Symphony), he did much more. He made a work of art, a great one. Another favorite flute piece was the Menuet from Bizet?s L?Arlesienne Suite No. 2. Here the melody, played slowly, is so beautiful that you really do want to ?stroke [your] fellow beings.? If you want to see human musical inventiveness at work, listen to Rachmaninoff?s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. This is a set of twenty-four variations for piano and symphony orchestra. It is fun to listen to variations, to see if you can hold the theme in mind against the growing complexity of the variations. Keep count of Rachmaninoff?s variations and after seventeen, get ready to be amazed. Number eighteen is a famous and lovely melody, often played alone, and you wonder how it could be a variation on the theme. What the composer did was to invert the theme, that is, literally turn the notes upside down and change the key accordingly. How did he think to do this? He must have been surprised at the result. The wikipedia entry on this work quotes him as saying, ?This one, is for my agent.? From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 07:45:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:45:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Chomsky urges "considerable caution" Message-ID: <4A2D15F0.6010306@panix.com> The Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meetings in May, followed by Obama's speech in Cairo, have been widely interpreted as a turning point in US Middle East policy, leading to consternation in some quarters, exuberance in others. Fairly typical is Middle East analyst Dan Fromkin of the Washington Post, who sees "signs Obama will promote a new regional peace initiative for the Middle East, much like the one championed by Jordan's King Abdullah... [and also] the first distinct signs that Obama is willing to play hardball with Israel." (WP, May 29). A closer look, however, suggests considerable caution. http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21649 From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 07:45:51 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:45:51 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] William Robinson on academic freedom Message-ID: <4A2D160F.9060800@panix.com> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21648 From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 07:48:23 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:48:23 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Confronting the CIA's Mind Maze Message-ID: <4A2D16A7.5090207@panix.com> (Alfred McCoy is the author of "The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade".) Confronting the CIA's Mind Maze America's Political Paralysis Over Torture By Alfred W. McCoy If, like me, you've been following America's torture policies not just for the last few years, but for decades, you can't help but experience that eerie feeling of d?j? vu these days. With the departure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from Washington and the arrival of Barack Obama, it may just be back to the future when it comes to torture policy, a turn away from a dark, do-it-yourself ethos and a return to the outsourcing of torture that went on, with the support of both Democrats and Republicans, in the Cold War years. Like Chile after the regime of General Augusto Pinochet or the Philippines after the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, Washington after Bush is now trapped in the painful politics of impunity. Unlike anything our allies have experienced, however, for Washington, and so for the rest of us, this may prove a political crisis without end or exit. Despite dozens of official inquiries in the five years since the Abu Ghraib photos first exposed our abuse of Iraqi detainees, the torture scandal continues to spread like a virus, infecting all who touch it, including now Obama himself. By embracing a specific methodology of torture, covertly developed by the CIA over decades using countless millions of taxpayer dollars and graphically revealed in those Iraqi prison photos, we have condemned ourselves to retreat from whatever promises might be made to end this sort of abuse and are instead already returning to a bipartisan consensus that made torture America's secret weapon throughout the Cold War. full: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175080/alfred_mccoy_back_to_the_future_in_torture_policy From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 07:48:40 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:48:40 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US considers partial naval blockade of DPRKorea In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It gives Stalinism a bad name, and I wouldn't call it that but it isn't the last. From jeremy at infowells.com Mon Jun 8 08:24:13 2009 From: jeremy at infowells.com (Jerry Wells) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:24:13 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] WSWS: Peruvian massacre aimed at opening Amazon to transnationals Message-ID: <1244471053.4371.11.camel@localhost.localdomain> FYI: A chronology of the massacre, the preparations, and an analysis of why this massacre is taking place. Peruvian massacre aimed at opening Amazon to transnationals By Bill Van Auken 8 June 2009 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/peru-j08.shtml A massacre carried out by heavily armed Peruvian security forces against protesting Amazon Indians left dozens dead, as the government of President Alan Garcia attempts to open up the region to exploitation by the transnational corporations. ... A chronology of events over the past two months strongly suggests that the government had no intentions of listening to indigenous leaders, embarking instead on a meticulous plan to deceive and distract them as it prepared for a bloody confrontation. ... The Garcia government?s claims to represent ?progress? and the social interests of Peruvians in the face of the supposed ?savagery? and backwardness of the indigenous population are beneath contempt. They echo the rationale given for the systematic genocide carried out against these peoples since the Spanish conquistadores. The opening up of the Peruvian Amazon to the energy conglomerates and other transnationals will benefit only foreign capital and Peru?s oligarchy. Production driven by profit and private ownership will inevitably entail the destruction of the indigenous peoples and the environment, while deepening the impoverishment of the masses and the extreme social inequality that characterize Peruvian society. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon Jun 8 11:00:20 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:00:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton threatens attack on Iran "the way that we did" Iraq Message-ID: <91C5421E020D4EEAAD65E93F626CE131@office1pc> http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/07/clinton-threatens-to-attack-iran-the-way- that-we-did-iraq/ Clinton Threatens to Attack Iran 'The Way That We Did' Iraq Posted By Jason Ditz On June 7, 2009 @ 5:25 pm Citing the disastrous 2003 US invasion of Iraq as an example, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today warned that by continuing to refuse to abandon its civilian nuclear program, Iran was risking the possibility of an invasion by the US or "some other enemy that would do that to them." The comments came during an interview on ABC's "This Week" program, and when asked by interviewer and former Clinton-era official George Stephanopoulus, Secretary Clinton reiterated "that's right, as a first strike." The bulk of the interview emphasized US opposition to the Iranian program, along with unquestioned claims that the nation was pursuing nuclear weapons. Secretary Clinton also extended the American nuclear umbrella over Israel in the event that Iran attacked them. [snip] From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon Jun 8 12:15:03 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:15:03 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton threatens attack on Iran "the way that we did" Iraq Message-ID: This is a complete over-reaction and misreading on the part of the Antiwar.com writer of what Clinton actually said. Read the transcript for yourself: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7775502 Here's the relevant section, where she says, in English which is fragmented and not completely grammatical but still I think understandable, that the U.S. has to understand that Iran might think the U.S. or "some other enemy" (gee, who could she be talking about) is going to attack Iran pre-emptively. She fails to note, of course, that many key figures in both the Israeli and U.S. governments and "establishments" have threatened exactly that, this is hardly something in the imagination of the Iranians. Nevertheless, the idea that this can be interpreted as Clinton herself threatening a preemptive attack on Iran is incorrect. Note, by the way, her nonsensical implication that somehow if Iran gets nuclear weapons, that "other Arab countries" are going to get them. As if the U.S. would tolerate Saudi Arabia, or Iraq, or anyone else, getting nuclear weapons any more than Iran. By the way, this, earlier in the conversation (before what appears below), is both a rare admission from a U.S. journalist, as well as (by the end of the sentence) utter nonsense: STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you think they want, deep down? You know, you read some of the public declarations by their supreme leader and others saying that they consider nuclear weapons un-Islamic, and yet they continue to pursue the nuclear program. Uh, George, "pursuing the nuclear program" involves pursuing nuclear energy, which even the President of the U.S. acknowledges they have a right to do. And if you're implying they're pursuing a nuclear *weapons* program, some proof will be required. Anyway, here's the part about "the way that we did" Iraq: ------------ STEPHANOPOULOS: Your own envoy, Dennis Ross, has said one way to strengthen the position of the United States going into these negotiations is to make it very clear that, if Iran used nuclear weapons against Israel or any U.S. ally, that would be met as an attack on the United States, full response. Now, that was your position during the campaign, as well. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States. (END VIDEO CLIP) STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it U.S. policy now? CLINTON: I think it is U.S. policy to the extent that we have alliances and understandings with a number of nations. They may not be formal, as it is with NATO, but I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind that, were Israel to suffer a nuclear attack by Iran, there would be retaliation. STEPHANOPOULOS: By the United States? CLINTON: Well, I think there would be retaliation. And I think part of what is clear is, we want to avoid a -- a Middle East arms race which leads to nuclear weapons being in the possession of other countries in the Middle East, and we want to make clear that there are consequences and costs. Now, let me just put it this way: If Iran is seeking security, if they believe -- and, you know, you have to put yourself into the shoes of the other party when you negotiate -- if they believe that the United States might attack them the way that we did attack Iraq, for example... STEPHANOPOULOS: Before they attack, as a first strike? CLINTON: That's right, as a first strike, or they might have some other enemy that would do that to them, part of what we have to make clear to the Iranians is that their pursuit of nuclear weapons will actually trigger greater insecurity, because, right now, many of the nations in the neighborhood, as you know very well... STEPHANOPOULOS: Because Israel will strike before they can finish? CLINTON: Well, but not only that. I mean, other countries, other Arab countries are deeply concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons. So does Iran want to face a battery of nuclear weapons countries... (CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you get those other Arab nations to say that publicly? That was part of the president's theme today. CLINTON: Well, you know, we've been there a little over four months. And clearly a lot of what we are doing is teeing up our framework for decision-making. We are aggressively pursuing diplomacy, not as an end in itself, but as a means to try to resolve some of these outstanding and very difficult problems. We are trying to make clear that the United States is of course going to pursue our interests in values, but, frankly, we believe there are ways that we can make them consonant with the issues and values that are important to others, as well. STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, when I saw President Ahmadinejad last month, he said the U.S. wasn't really walking the walk here, and he cited the idea that President Obama never responded to his initial letter of congratulations. Why not? CLINTON: Well, I think that President Obama has made very clear that he is going to put forth an open hand, but not as part of an electoral ploy or propaganda. STEPHANOPOULOS: You have to let the elections play out? CLINTON: I think, just like in every country, there is a process that takes place during an election. That will be over soon, and then we're going to hope to get a positive process going. 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 lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 12:28:26 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:28:26 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Obama and the Iranian elections Message-ID: <4A2D584A.4010002@panix.com> Last night NBC Dateline devoted an hour to an extraordinary tour of Iran by Ann Curry that can be viewed online at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31156080#31156080. Wearing a hijab, she spoke to dissidents and supporters of the government alike. The most important aspect of the production was its willingness to combat stereotypes of Iran, including most importantly the idea that it is anti-Semitic or holocaust-denying. She spent a considerable amount of time talking to one of Iran?s most important Jewish leaders who denied that his people were being persecuted. During a fairly lengthy interview, former Iranian President Khatami took pains to distinguish this point of view from that of President Ahmadinejad whose views on the Judeocide were described as those of a ?private citizen?. Little doubt was left during the course of this program that NBC favored the election of Ahmadinejad?s rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a member of Khatami?s party. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/obama-and-the-iranian-elections/ From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 12:50:00 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 14:50:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton threatens attack on Iran "the way that we did" Iraq In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AntiWar is a far-right libertarian outfit right? From mlebowit at sfu.ca Mon Jun 8 13:06:26 2009 From: mlebowit at sfu.ca (michael a. lebowitz) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:36:26 -0430 Subject: [Marxism] New book from Brill now out: Following Marx Message-ID: <4A2D6132.3070308@sfu.ca> Following Marx: Method, Critique and Crisis Michael A. Lebowitz Publication year: 2009 http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=18166 Series: Historical Materialism Book Series, 20 Table of contents Introduction: To Follow Marx Part I: Critiques of Political Economy 1. The Fallacy of Everyday Notions 2. Another Crisis of Economic Theory: the Neo-Ricardian Critique 3. The Neo-Ricardian Reduction 4. Is 'Analytical Marxism' Marxism? Appendix: Roemer's Self-criticism Part II: The Logic of Capital 5. Following Hegel: the Science of Marx 6. Explorations in the Logic of Capital Part III: Essays in the Theory of Crisis 7. Marx's Falling Rate of Profit: A Dialectical View 8. The General and the Specific in Marx's Theory of Crisis 9. Paul M. Sweezy. Appendix: Learning from Paul Sweezy Part IV: Essence and Appearance 10. Marx's Methodological Project 11. What is Competition? 12. Too Many Blindspots About the Media 13. The Theoretical Status of Monopoly Capital 14. Analytical Marxism and the Marxian Theory of Crisis 15. In Brenner, Everything is Reversed Part V: Considering the Other Side of Capital 16. The Silences of Capital 17. Beyond the Capital of Uno-ism 18. Situating the Capitalist State 19. The Politics of Assumption, the Assumption of Politics What does it mean to follow Marx? In this examination of Marx's methodology combined with specific applications on topics in political economy such as neo-Ricardian theory, analytical Marxism, the falling rate of profit, crisis theory, monopoly capital, Paul Sweezy, advertising and the capitalist state, this volume argues that the failure to understand (or explicit rejection of) Marx's method has led astray many who consider themselves Marxists. By focusing particularly upon the concept of a totality and the necessary form of appearance of capital as many capitals in competition,Following Marx both demonstrates why Marx insisted that 'in competition everything is reversed' and provides a guide for following Marx. -- Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development' Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H. Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar Caracas, Venezuela fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231 www.centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve mlebowit at sfu.ca From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon Jun 8 13:11:14 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 12:11:14 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton threatens attack on Iran "the way that we did" Iraq Message-ID: "AntiWar is a far-right libertarian outfit right?" I don't know what "far-right" means in this context. They are certainly libertarian, and also strongly antiwar. They are also the single best daily "roundup" of news of interest to people such as ourselves, with links to articles on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. etc. etc. The article Fred linked to is a new phenomenon. MOST of what is on the size is links to articles in, e.g., the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. They used to link to AP stories, but I think in response to copyright issues, they seem to have replaced that by essentially rewriting news service stories in their own words. The article Fred linked to was such an article. 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 ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon Jun 8 13:35:00 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:35:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Did Clinton threaten to attack Iran "the way we did" Iraq. Not especially.. Message-ID: Thanx and a tip of the Feldman hat to Eli Stephens (of the Marxmail list) for correcting the tendentiously garbled version of Clinton's comments presented by Antiwar.com. Facts are superior to demagogy anytime, and only the truth will lead us to freedom. Fred Correcting my post, Eli submitted the transcript of this section of the Stephanopoulos interview with Clinton: STEPHANOPOULOS: Your own envoy, Dennis Ross, has said one way to strengthen the position of the United States going into these negotiations is to make it very clear that, if Iran used nuclear weapons against Israel or any U.S. ally, that would be met as an attack on the United States, full response. Now, that was your position during the campaign, as well. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States. [END VIDEO CLIP] STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it U.S. policy now? CLINTON: I think it is U.S. policy to the extent that we have alliances and understandings with a number of nations. They may not be formal, as it is with NATO, but I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind that, were Israel to suffer a nuclear attack by Iran, there would be retaliation. STEPHANOPOULOS: By the United States? CLINTON: Well, I think there would be retaliation. And I think part of what is clear is, we want to avoid a -- a Middle East arms race which leads to nuclear weapons being in the possession of other countries in the Middle East, and we want to make clear that there are consequences and costs. Now, let me just put it this way: If Iran is seeking security, if they believe -- and, you know, you have to put yourself into the shoes of the other party when you negotiate -- if they believe that the United States might attack them the way that we did attack Iraq, for example... STEPHANOPOULOS: Before they attack, as a first strike? CLINTON: That's right, as a first strike, or they might have some other enemy that would do that to them, part of what we have to make clear to the Iranians is that their pursuit of nuclear weapons will actually trigger greater insecurity, because, right now, many of the nations in the neighborhood, as you know very well... STEPHANOPOULOS: Because Israel will strike before they can finish? CLINTON: Well, but not only that. I mean, other countries, other Arab countries are deeply concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons. So does Iran want to face a battery of nuclear weapons countries... {CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: Can you get those other Arab nations to say that publicly? That was part of the president's theme today. CLINTON: Well, you know, we've been there a little over four months. And clearly a lot of what we are doing is teeing up our framework for decision-making. We are aggressively pursuing diplomacy, not as an end in itself, but as a means to try to resolve some of these outstanding and very difficult problems. We are trying to make clear that the United States is of course going to pursue our interests in values, but, frankly, we believe there are ways that we can make them consonant with the issues and values that are important to others, as well. STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, when I saw President Ahmadinejad last month, he said the U.S. wasn't really walking the walk here, and he cited the idea that President Obama never responded to his initial letter of congratulations. Why not? CLINTON: Well, I think that President Obama has made very clear that he is going to put forth an open hand, but not as part of an electoral ploy or propaganda. STEPHANOPOULOS: You have to let the elections play out? CLINTON: I think, just like in every country, there is a process that takes place during an election. That will be over soon, and then we're going to hope to get a positive process going. From mjs at smithbowen.net Mon Jun 8 16:22:55 2009 From: mjs at smithbowen.net (Michael Smith) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 18:22:55 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Clinton threatens attack on Iran "the way that we did" Iraq In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090608182255.70ad6a6d@crashcart> On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:15:03 -0700 Eli Stephens wrote: > This is a complete over-reaction and misreading on the part of the Antiwar.com writer of what Clinton actually said. I'm not so sure of that. Here's the bones of the problematic exchange: > CLINTON: If Iran... believe[s] that the United States might attack > them the way that we did attack Iraq, for example... > > STEPHANOPOULOS: Before they attack, as a first strike? > > CLINTON: That's right, as a first strike, or they might have some > other enemy that would do that to them.... their pursuit of nuclear weapons will > actually trigger greater insecurity.... > > STEPHANOPOULOS: Because Israel will strike before they can finish? > > CLINTON: Well, but not only that. I mean, other countries, other > Arab countries are deeply concerned about Iran having nuclear > weapons. So does Iran want to face a battery of nuclear weapons > countries... She brought up sua sponte the notion of a preemptive first-strike attack on Iran; she wasn't asked about it. This persiflage about "other Arab countries" (a sad blunder, by the way; she ought to know that Iran is not an "Arab country", but perhaps the gallons of AIPAC Kool-Ade she's drunk over the years have impaired her ability to distinguish) -- this silliness can only be some kind of improvised fig-leaf for the obvious fact that only Israel or the US are conceivable first-strikers. To my ear, the money line was "their pursuit of nuclear weapons will actually trigger greater insecurity," situated solidly in the context of a hypothetical "first strike... the way that we did attack Iraq." Looks to me like she wants to say it without actually saying it: somebody -- either the US or Israel -- is likely to attack the Iranians if they don't submit. What else could "greater insecurity" mean in this context? It's hard to make any other kind of sense of this exchange, unless you assume that she experienced a minor subclinical brain aneurysm during the course of the interview. In which case one can only regret that the incident wasn't much more grave. -- Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org From marvgandall at videotron.ca Mon Jun 8 16:51:19 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:51:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Unexpected victory for Irish Trotskyist to European Parliament Message-ID: (The Socialist Party is the Irish section of the Committee for a Workers' International.) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0608/breaking2.html?via=mr From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jun 8 18:01:54 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:01:54 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] What's new at Links: GM, Marta Harnecker, El Salvador, Racism in Australia, Via Campesina, Venezuela, Philippines, Malaysia, Tiananmen massacre, Nigeria Message-ID: <4A2DA672.2040405@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: GM, Marta Harnecker, El Salvador, Racism in Australia, Via Campesina, Venezuela nationalisations, Philippines, Malaysia, Tiananmen massacre, Nigeria * * * 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 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/. * * * Rick Wolff: GM -- The system strikes back; Michael Moore: `Convert the factories to build trains, buses, windmills' By * Rick Wolff* June 5, 2009 -- The greatest tragedies among many in the collapse and bankruptcy of General Motors (GM) concern what is /not/ happening. There are those solutions to GM's problems /not /being considered by Obama's administration. There are the solutions /not /being demanded by the United Auto Workers Union (UAW). There are all the solutions /not/ even being discussed by most left commentators on the disaster. Finally there are crucial aspects of GM's demise /not/ getting the attention they deserve. * Read more El Salvador: New FMLN president declares: `Change begins now!' Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, June 3, 2009 -- On June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Cer?n were sworn in as president and vice-president of El Salvador at the Feria Internacional Convention Center in San Salvador. It was a magical day for the Salvadoran people, social movement organisations, and the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which Funes and Sanchez Cer?n represent. * Read more World farmers' alliance V?a Campesina challenges food profiteers (excerpt from new pamphlet) The following review is an excerpt from a new pamphlet, /La V?a Campesina: Farmers North and South Confront Agribusiness, /by John Riddell and Adriana Paz, published by /Socialist Voice/ in Canada. Review by John Riddell**/ La V?a Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants/* *by Annette Aur?lie Desmarais. Fernwood Publishing, 2007. May 31, 2009 -- The neoliberal assault that has driven labour into retreat over the last two decades has also sparked the emergence of a peasants' international, La V?a Campesina. Based in 56 countries across five continents, this alliance has mounted a sustained and spirited defence of peasant cultivation, community and control of food production. * Read more (or download pamphlet) Nationalisations and workers' control in Venezuela: 'When the working class roars, capitalists tremble' By *Federico Fuentes* June 1, 2009 -- Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the "socialist transformation of basic industry", Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted with satisfaction the outcomes of discussions: "I can see, sense and feel the roar of the working class." "When the working class roars, the capitalists tremble", he said. Chavez announced plans to implement a series of radical measures, largely drawn from proposals coming from the workers' discussion that day. The workers greeted each of Chavez's announcements with roars of approval, chanting "This is how you govern!" Chavez said: "The proposals made have emerged from the depths of the working class. I did not come here to tell you what to do! It is you who are proposing this." * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #5 -- Minorities can be right [This is the fifth in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker* Democratic centralism implies not only the subordination of the minority to the majority, but also *the respect of the majority towards the minority*. * Read more Philippines: `Let us now begin the Revolution for Change' Opening talk by *Sonny Melencio* to the "/Pagbabago!/ No More Trapos in 2010!" forum June 1, 2009 -- On behalf of Partido Lakas ng Masa (Party of the Labouring Masses), I would like to extend our thanks to our two guests here who will be speaking together with me in this forum. One has already symbolised the struggle against the /trapo/ [elite politicians], and I refer to Among Ed. Among Ed has in fact defeated not only the three Gs that have come to symbolise the ``guns, goons and gold'' wielded by the trapos. In Pampanga, Among Ed has beaten the five Gs -- which includes two more Gs representing Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the gambling lords. The other one symbolised the call for change, in fact the call for the ouster of the Arroyo regime, during the Manila Peninsula rebellion on November 29, 2007. He is not with us today, because he's still in detention, but he is represented by his lawyer Attorney Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who's going to give us the message from Brigadier General Danilo Lim. * Read more Assaults on Indians in Australia: Globalisation, recession and renewed racism By the *Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation* June 4, 2009 -- The continuing spate of attacks and violence against Indians and Indian students in particular in Australia has once again exploded the much-touted myth that globalisation promotes and respects pluralism and multiculturalism. The response of the Australian government has been shockingly muted, trying to cover up and even deny the racist dimensions of the attacks, terming them as just routine robberies and muggings. If so, why do Indians constitute a disproportionate share of the victims --- 30% in Melbourne? * Read more China: Looking back on the 1989 democracy movement and the Tiananmen Square massacre To mark the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal /reproduces an excerpt from an analysis by an eyewitness to the 1989 democratic upsurge that preceded the brutal attack. The writer was an Australian socialist who was studying in China at the time. It first appeared in /Green Left Weekly/ on June 26, 1996. By *Liang Guosheng* On June 4, 1989, troops, armoured personnel carriers and tanks of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) forced their way through human and constructed barricades into central Beijing, taking control of Tiananmen Square. In the process, according to an estimate by Amnesty International soon afterwards, approximately 1000 unarmed protesters were gunned down or otherwise killed. * Read more New pamphlet: The Tamil Freedom Struggle in Sri Lanka /The Tamil Freedom Struggle in Sri Lanka/ By Chris Slee, Brian Senewiratne, Vickramabahu Karunarathne Published by Resistance Books 2009, 40pages *Click HERE to order.* Nigeria: The video Shell does not want you to see June 1, 2009 -- A pre-trial conference scheduled in the potentially landmark lawsuit brought by Nigerian plaintiffs against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has been delayed until June 3. The conference was announced following the decision by the presiding judge in the US Southern District Court in New York to delay indefinitely the actual trial. Jury selection in the trial itself had been meant to start April 27, but was put off the day before. No new date was set. Shell is accused of complicity in the 1995 hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a renowned writer and activist, and other leaders of a movement protesting alleged environmental destruction and other abuses by Shell against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta. * Read more Malaysian socialists call for communist veteran Chin Peng to be allowed home May 31, 2009 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM, Parti Sosialis Malaysia) became the latest party to urge the government to allow former Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) chief Chin Peng to return home for good. The PSM said the government must honour the peace accord that it signed with the Communist Party of Malaya in 1989 and allow former CPM leader Chin Peng to return. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #4 -- Should we reject bureaucratic centralism and simply use consensus? [This is the fourth in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker*, translated by *Federico Fuentes* For a long time, left-wing parties operated along authoritarian lines. The usual practice was that of *bureaucratic* *centralism,* influenced by the experiences of Soviet socialism. *All decisions regarding criterion, tasks, initiatives, and the course of political action to take were restricted to the party elite**, without the participation or debate of the membership*, who were limited to following orders that they never got to discuss and in many cases did not understand. For most people, such practices are increasing intolerable. * Read more * * * 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. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism From lnp3 at panix.com Mon Jun 8 20:29:46 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:29:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Crackdown on student radicals in Japan Message-ID: <4A2DC91A.7050006@panix.com> http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090609zg.html Rumpus on campus Prestigious university in Tokyo has become a battleground in a war over freedom of political expression By DAVID McNEILL Illegal arrests, forced expulsions, "kidnappings" by security police and beatings by hired thugs. No, it's not another dispatch from a violent banana republic. Those accusations come from the leafy back-streets of Ichigaya, Tokyo, home to a branch campus of the prestigious Hosei University. Hosei authorities and a group of students are locked in a poisonous struggle that has turned the campus into something resembling a low-security prison. Entrances are guarded by newly installed CCTV cameras and jittery guards equipped with Bluetooth headsets. Notices have been published at many sites naming and shaming "troublemakers" who have been expelled, and the police are on call in case things get out of hand. A provisional injunction forbids students from "loitering, putting up banners and making speeches within 200 meters" of the campus. Since the dispute began three years ago, 107 students have been arrested and 24 indicted, some of whom awaited trial in detention centers for up to six months. Last Friday, five more students were formally charged with offenses including trespassing and obstructing the police. Another is being kept in detention for at least two more weeks. Supporters say some have been framed using a prewar law designed to crush labor protests. "They ripped down some of the notices identifying them as having being expelled," explains Tatsuo Suzuki, lawyer for the students. "And for this, they are being prosecuted under a notorious law aimed at punishing physical violence? It is absolutely outrageous and illegal." The origins of the dispute go back to March 2006, when Hosei began removing fliers and other material promoting the activities of a radical student group from campus notice boards. A fragment of the once-powerful Japanese student movement, the group had criticized university policy, along with the usual targets of the left: the military and the business-friendly Liberal Democratic- New Komeito government. Campus security guards subsequently detained 29 students, sparking a series of rallies and lockouts culminating in two-day demonstrations last year in which police were invited on campus and 38 students were arrested. Another large demonstration of 1,500 people took place on April 24 this year, at which six students were arrested. Ordinary students not involved in the protests were swept up by over-zealous cops, say observers. "My friend Makoto Masui was detained because he was taking photographs," recalls a third-year student at the university who requested anonymity. Masui was reportedly held in a Tokyo detention center for 10 days and later expelled from Hosei. The university published his and several other students' names on dozens of campus notice boards, forbidding entry. "Everybody is afraid to talk about what's happening because the university is so over the top. Lives are being destroyed. They invent reasons to expel people then arrest you if you protest. It's really scary. I just want to graduate and leave." Activists allege that Hosei used thugs from a private security firm to rough up protesters. "They're just gangsters hired by the university," says Yoshihisa Uchiyama, a former Hosei student and political activist who was expelled in 2006. Photographs distributed by Uchiyama to journalists at the Japan Foreign Correspondents' Club last week show heavy-set men looming over an apparently unconscious student during a campus demonstration. Some students have reportedly been grabbed by private guards and handed over to Tokyo detectives. Those tactics appear to have radicalized more students than the small core of activists they initially targeted. Supporters from Hiroshima, Osaka and other parts of the country protest every day outside the Ichigaya campus. Several have also been arrested, including Reiko Goto, a student at Osaka City University who claims she was roughed up while in detention for almost six months. About 170 lawyers have reportedly signed a petition protesting the student detentions and the resurrection of legislation from less enlightened times ? the Law Concerning Punishment of Physical Violence. The rarely used 1926 law targets group violence and intimidation and was a key piece of pre-fascist legislation, claims Suzuki. "It's incredible that it is still on the books at all, let alone being used against students." Remarkably, the fracas has stirred almost zero media interest. Hosei, meanwhile, refuses to give interviews or comment on any of the accusations, referring journalists instead to a statement on its Web site. The statement says action was taken to stop disruptions by members of Zengakuren, or the All-Japan Federation of Students' Self-Government Associations, a leftwing group set up in 1948 that famously led student opposition to the Korean and Vietnam wars. Hosei acknowledges the historically positive role played by the federation but claims it has since become an "empty shell controlled . . . by a non-university political sect" that has interfered with teaching and committed incidents of assault and verbal threats on members of staff. The sect has also "infiltrated" the university's Cultural League, which organizes on-campus club activities, bringing in "outsiders" who continue to noisily protest with loudspeakers. We will "deal rigidly" with such acts, adds the statement, and "maintain a firm attitude against trouble-making and any illegal acts disturbing university business." Observers say the "political sect" is the Japan Revolutionary Communist League, or Chukaku-ha, a radical Marxist group perhaps most famous for a 1984 flamethrower attack on the Tokyo headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party. Despite its violent history, Chukaku-ha is pretty much a spent force, known mainly today for peaceful campaigning against military installations. Noisy propagandizing by leftwing factions is still a minor feature of life on a few campuses in Japan, notably Waseda University and the University of Tokyo. Hosei does not suggest that Chukaku-ha violence caused the initial dispute. So why has it decided to crack down on a tiny group of revolutionaries well past its active peak? Apart from the charge of "disruption," the university is not saying. Uchiyama and his colleagues believe the reason is student resistance to university policies. "Until three years ago, students were free to distribute pamphlets and put up items on the notice board. That changed when we said that the university is transforming itself into an instrument of moneymaking," he says, noting a steady rise in tuition fees. "It is clearly a violation of freedom of speech and independent political activities." Graduates of Hosei say, however, that the student activists could be disruptive. "I saw them once barging into a classroom to campaign against something or other," recalls Masami Fukada, who graduated three years ago. "They just seemed completely different to everyone else studying there." Students unconnected to the dispute say much of the campaigning went over their heads anyway. "The information on their flyers was a bit extreme: 'Privatization of university facilities is the road to war,' 'Topple the Aso administration' ? that kind of stuff," said the anonymous student. "Most of us thought: 'What the hell are they going on about?' But you should be able to criticize things in a university to some extent." Ironically perhaps, in its Web site statement Hosei insists that it seeks to develop among its students "strong character" based on the spirit of "freedom and progress" and puts "great value on freedom of thoughts, belief and expression." It says the university "cannot allow campus open spaces to be overpowered by small groups who seek to monopolize them." "Pamphlet distribution and the setting up of signboards on campus are not permitted by persons from outside the university in the name of freedom of expression. The rule is stipulated in order to guarantee freedom of expression for (all) students and fair and efficient usage of common space." The war of words could be the basis for a discussion ? not confined to Japan ? on how far universities should go in allowing on-campus political activity. But Hosei has retreated behind the rhetorical barricades, megaphones have replaced debate and dozens of students have been criminalized. The media has so far declined to adjudicate or even report what is happening. "Japan's press chooses to believe that the student movement is dead," says Suzuki. "That's why they're not writing about this. What is happening at Hosei shows that this is not the case. We are at a turning point in the student movement." From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jun 8 20:53:22 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:53:22 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #6 -- The need to unite the party left and the social left | Links Message-ID: <4A2DCEA2.7000407@greenleft.org.au> [This is the sixth in a series of regular articles. *Click HERE for other articles in the series *. Please return to /Links/ regularly read the next articles in the series.] By *Marta Harnecker* To sum up, I believe that only by uniting the militant efforts of the most diverse expressions of the left will we be able to fully carry out the task of building the broad anti-neoliberal social bloc that we need. *The strategic task therefore is to articulate the party and social left so that, from this starting point, we can unite into a single colossal column, the growing and disperse social opposition.* Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1090 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 dan.dimaggio at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 21:11:07 2009 From: dan.dimaggio at gmail.com (Dan DiMaggio) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 22:11:07 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament Message-ID: Hi everyone, Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in Ireland won election to the European Parliament, beating out the governing Fianna Fail party's candidate in Dublin. I highly recommend listening to his press conference after his victory. Higgins also played a big role in the defeat of the Lisbon Treaty (the EU constitution) in Ireland a few months ago. For video of his press conference see: http://www.socialistparty.net/ or the link below. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/higgins080609.html Joe Higgins, "the Best Fighter Money Can't Buy," Elected as MEP Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party, receiving 82,366 votes (of which 50,510 were first preference votes), was elected to the Dublin Constituency for the European Parliament. Listen to Higgins' speech to the media after his victory. *"This is a roar of opposition by ordinary people in Dublin to the savage policies of the Fianna F?il-Green Party government in making working people and the unemployed pay for a crisis caused by speculators, by big developers, and by big bankers, facilitated by Fianna F?il." -- Joe Higgins* ------------------------------ Click here for a brief biography of Joe Higgins. For more information, go to the Web site of the Socialist Party (at ) or Higgins' campaign Web site (at ). From anthony.boynton at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 20:53:01 2009 From: anthony.boynton at gmail.com (Anthony Boynton) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 21:53:01 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Interesting Survey Message-ID: <7b8a676d0906081953o3c4400f2u5b889a006a22a487@mail.gmail.com> Just 53% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism Thursday, April 09, 2009 [image: Email a Friend] Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better. Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better. Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism. There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism. Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism. *(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls.)* Rasmussen Reports updates also available on Twitter . The question posed by Rasmussen Reports did not define either capitalism or socialism It is interesting to compare the new results to an earlier survey in which 70% of Americans prefer a free-market economy. The fact that a ?free-market economy? attracts substantially more support than ?capitalism? may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets. Other survey data supports that notion. Rather than seeing large corporations as committed to free markets, two-out-of-three Americans believe that big government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. Fifteen percent (15%) of Americans say they prefer a government-managed economy, similar to the 20% support for socialism. Just 14% believe the federal government would do a better job running auto companies, and even fewer believe government would do a better job running financial firms. Most Americans today hold views that can generally be defined as populist while only seven percent (7%) share the elitist views of the Political Class. *Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports **daily e-mail update* * (it?s free)? let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.* From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 22:20:10 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 00:20:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Interesting Survey In-Reply-To: <7b8a676d0906081953o3c4400f2u5b889a006a22a487@mail.gmail.com> References: <7b8a676d0906081953o3c4400f2u5b889a006a22a487@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: This has seriously been talking about ad nauseam for months and months Here's some commentary http://theactivist.org/blog/the-times-they-are-achangin , seriously almost every left-wing mini-publication mentions this poll daily in the US. From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Mon Jun 8 23:00:07 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 22:00:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview 1971 Message-ID: <728065.12938.qm@web110409.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/power-to-the-people-the-lost-john-lennon-interview-1971/ "When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon Jun 8 23:24:16 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:24:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Peru Indian leader enters Nica embassy and asks asylum Message-ID: <6817EF3CA62E44128C4AB090F23D1B36@office1pc> Peru Indian leader seeks Nicaragua exile Buzz up!Share Email Digg Facebook StumbleUpon Reddit Print Jun 8th, 2009 | LIMA, Peru -- A Peruvian Indian leader charged with sedition for heading protests against Amazon development has sought refuge in Nicaragua's Embassy and is seeking asylum, the government said Monday. Alberto Pizango led protests that erupted in violence Friday when police moved in to break up a highway blockade manned by Indians. The clashes left dozens dead, including 23 police officers. Protest leaders accused the government of "genocide" for killing indigenous demonstrators, while the government accused the protesters of brutality and ordered Pizango's arrest for sedition. Peruvian Cabinet chief Yehude Simon said late Monday during a special session of Congress called to discuss the deaths that Pizango had taken refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Lima. Peru's state news agency quoted Nicaragua's ambassador as saying that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega would decide Tuesday whether to grant Pizango asylum. The political violence was the Andean country's worst since the Shining Path insurgency was quelled more than a decade ago. Indians have been blocking roads, waterways and occupying oil facilities on and off since early April, demanding the government repeal laws they say help foreign companies exploit their ancestral lands. The government argues the laws are needed to help the poor country develop. From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Mon Jun 8 20:37:52 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 22:37:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Holocaust Exclusivity Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906081937p3eb9f87crd3c3e9ebe835bd2@mail.gmail.com> > http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/06/08/2009-06-08_off_mark_on_holocaust_park__pol.html#ixzz0Hr7oErlI&D > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- Voltaire From Johannes.Schneider at gmx.net Tue Jun 9 01:20:30 2009 From: Johannes.Schneider at gmx.net (Johannes Schneider) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:20:30 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Vietnamese workers screwed in Czech republic In-Reply-To: <4A2BDBB3.4040406@panix.com> References: <4A2BDBB3.4040406@panix.com> Message-ID: <20090609072030.308670@gmx.net> Louis Proyect forwarded: > NY Times, June 7, 2009 > Czechs Cool to Presence of Workers From Asia > By DAN BILEFSKY > From lueko.willms at t-online.de Tue Jun 9 01:25:40 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:25:40 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Cuba will not return to the OAS - Declaration of the Revolutionary Government Message-ID: <000.f0310600740e2e4a.001@lws-media.de> > From Granma Int'l > Spanish original --------- full english translation --------------------- Declaration of the Revolutionary Government IN an act of unusual historic significance, the OAS has just formally buried the shameful resolution which excluded Cuba from the Inter-American System in 1962. That decision was despicable and illegal, contrary to the declared aims and principles of the OAS Constitution. It was, at the same time, consistent with the trajectory of this organization; with the motive for which was created, promoted and defended by the United States. It was consistent with its role as an instrument of U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere and with Washington's capacity to impose its will on Latin America at the historic moment in which the Cuban Revolution triumphed. Today, Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing another reality. The decision adopted at the 39th session of the OAS General is the fruit of the will of governments more committed to their peoples, with the region's real problems and with a sense of independence that, unfortunately, did not prevail in 1962. Cuba acknowledges the merit of the governments that have undertaken to formally erase that resolution, referred to in that meeting as "an unburied corpse." The decision to rescind Resolution 6 of the 8th OAS Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs constitutes an unquestioned disrespect for the U.S. policy on Cuba followed since 1959. It pursues the aim of repairing a historic injustice and is a vindication for the Cuban people and peoples of the Americas. Despite the last-minute consensus achieved, that decision was adopted against Washington's will and in the face of intensive moves and pressure exerted by governments in the region. In that way, it dealt imperialism a defeat using its very own instrument. Cuba welcomes with satisfaction this expression of sovereignty and civic-mindedness, while thanking those governments which, with a spirit of solidarity, independence and justice, have defended Cuba's right to return to the organization. It also understands the desire to free the OAS from a stigma that has remained as a symbol of the organization's servility. However, Cuba once again confirms that it will not return to the OAS. Since the triumph of the Revolution, the Organization of American States has played an active role in Washington's policy of hostility against Cuba. It made the economic blockade official, ruled on the embargo of weapons and strategic products, and stipulated member countries' obligatory breaking off of diplomatic relations with our revolutionary state. Despite the exclusion in place, over the years it even tried to keep Cuba under its authority and to subject it to its own jurisdiction and that of its specialized agencies. This is an organization with a role and a trajectory that Cuba repudiates. The Cuban people were able to resist the aggressions and the blockade, overcome the diplomatic, political, and economic isolation, and face, on their own, without yielding, the persistent aggressiveness of the most powerful empire known to the planet. Today our country enjoys diplomatic relations with all the countries of the hemisphere apart from the United States. It is developing broad links of friendship and cooperation with the majority of them. Moreover, Cuba has won its full independence and is marching unstoppably toward a society that is more just, equitable, and full of solidarity every day. It has done so with supreme heroism and sacrifice, and with the solidarity of the peoples of the Americas. It shares values that are contrary to those of neoliberal and egotistical capitalism promoted by the OAS, and feels that it has the right and the authority to say "no" to the idea of joining a body in which the United States still exercises oppressive control. The peoples and governments of the region will understand this just position. Today it can be understood more clearly than in 1962 that it is the OAS that is incompatible with the most pressing desires of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, that it is incapable of representing their values, interests and genuine yearning for democracy; it is the OAS that has been unable to solve the problems of inequality, disparities in wealth, corruption, foreign intervention, and the predatory actions of transnational capital. It is the OAS that has remained silent in the face of the most horrendous crimes, communes with the interests of imperialism, and conspires against and subverts governments genuinely and legitimately constituted with demonstrable popular support. The speeches and declarations of San Pedro Sula have been more than eloquent. Well-founded criticisms of the organization's anachronism, given its divorce from continental realities and its disgraceful record, cannot be ignored. The demands to end, once and for all, the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba reflect the growing and unstoppable sentiment of an entire hemisphere. The spirit of independence represented there by the many that spoke is the one with which Cuba identifies. Aspirations for the integration and coordination of Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly manifest. Cuba is actively participating in, and proposes continuing to do so, the representative regional mechanisms of what Jos? Mart? called "Our America," from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, including all of the Caribbean islands. Strengthening, expanding and harmonizing those bodies and groups is the path chosen by Cuba; not the outlandish illusion of returning to an organization that does not allow reform and that has been condemned by history. The response of the people of Cuba to the ignominious 8th Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OAS was the Second Declaration of Havana, approved in a mass assembly on February 4, 1962 by more than one million Cubans in the Plaza de la Revoluci?n. The declaration textually affirmed: "...Great as was the epic of Latin American independence, heroic as was that struggle, today's generation of Latin Americans is called upon to engage in an epic which is even greater and more decisive for humanity. For that struggle was for liberation from Spanish colonial power, from a decadent Spain invaded by Napoleon's armies. Today the call for struggle is for liberation from the most powerful imperial metropolis in the world, from the most important force in the imperialist world and to render humanity an even greater service than that rendered by our predecessors. "...For this great humanity has said, "Enough!" and has begun to march. And its march of giants will not be halted until they conquer real independence, for which they have died in vain more than once." We will be loyal to these ideas which have made it possible for our people to maintain Cuba free, sovereign and independent. Havana, June 8, 2009 Translated by Granma International ---------------------- end text ------------------- Yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 01:38:26 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 17:38:26 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Mark Steel on the British left: Turn left (then left again) Message-ID: <2c6145850906090038j416b25afjd8f8c95d0a2f7fdb@mail.gmail.com> http://www.marksteelinfo.com/writing/default.asp?id=117 Turn left (and then left again) *It's as if the left has a self-destruct button, and can't stand being popular* First published in The Independent on 3rd June 2009 ------------------------------ Poor Gordon Brown has arrived at that point where his life is one long sequence of disasters. The moment Jacqui Smith left his office he probably went "Hang on, I can smell something burning. Oh no, it's the Spanish Minister of Trade, I must have pushed him onto the barbecue as I dropped a pickled onion down Jacqui's cleavage. And now a parrot's shat on my speech to the CBI." And yet there's little sense of enthusiasm for the Tories, the way there was for Thatcher or Blair before they were elected. Instead it reminds me of kids picking teams at the start of a PE lesson, with Brown and Cameron as the last two left that no one wants, and the country muttering "Oh we'll have Cameron I suppose". Nothing the major parties do seems to make them popular, because they both worship the ideals of the super-wealthy that have become hugely unpopular. This ought to make it an ideal time for socialists to win support for radically transforming society, in favour of the majority at the expense of the duck-island owning class. Certainly Tony Benn has become extraordinarily popular, packing huge theatres, and he'd have probably won Britain's Got Talent if he could have made a speech about the Suffragettes while playing the spoons. But while individual socialists attract an audience, no socialist group or party could win more than a tiny vote. Whereas in Europe, new socialist groups have become credible enough to become a pole of attraction for a wide layer of people, and in Germany a group called "The Left" has quickly risen to 10 per cent in the polls. The difference here must be partly that the left in the Labour Party are unmovable in their belief they should remain members, no matter how humiliated they become. If the next Labour leader was The Joker from Gotham City, and he sprayed the world with deadly laughing gas, the last choking gasp of the Labour left would be "Nonetheless Labour is the traditional party of socialism and I will remain loyal although I urge any survivors to raise this matter at the next constituency meeting". But also the attempts to start new socialist groups have gone spectacularly haywire. George Galloway's Respect tore itself apart in a feud about nothing that anyone can work out, and it would have made more sense if one faction had issued a statement that they were leaving because the other lot snored. The Scottish Socialist Party achieved seven per cent of the total vote across Scotland, then went to war with itself over the issue of how to respond to the News of the World, when it accused their leader of going to a swingers' club. It's as if the left has a self-destruct button, and can't stand being popular. The next time a socialist group appears to be doing well, they'll end their party political broadcast by saying "That's why we think you should vote for us. Now to finish, let's see what happens when I put a kitten in a microwave". But the cheery note is that the Green Party has attained credibilty while retaining its principles, and seems to be the home for many people who opposed the Iraq war, oppose the rule of bankers and private finance, and feel it might be worth looking at doing something about the fact the planet's about to melt. So I'm voting for them tomorrow, and if they implode in a petty row about nothing I'm obviously a jinx and I'm joining the bloody Tories. -- "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 ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 9 02:51:21 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:51:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Respecting the vote, Cuba says firm no to joining OAS Message-ID: From rfidler_8 at sympatico.ca Tue Jun 9 06:27:30 2009 From: rfidler_8 at sympatico.ca (Richard Fidler) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 08:27:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Peru: Battle lines drawn over the Amazon (firsthand report from Ben Powless) Message-ID: The rhetoric was sharp enough to cut down Amazonian hardwoods. Yesterday, Sunday June 7th, after a number of ministers had been paraded out Saturday and the day before, Peru's el Se?or Presidente, Alan Garcia decided to make it personal. After a joint police-military operation aimed at stopping an Indigenous protest had gone awry, leaving many dead on both sides, Garcia declared the Indigenous elements to be standing in the way of progress, in the path of national development, wrenches in the gears of modernity, and part of an international conspiracy to keep Peru down. In a troubling statement on the resemblance of the Indigenous protestors to the infamous Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) armed insurrection, Garcia seemed to imply the Natives were a band of terrorists as he stood in front of hundreds of military officers in a nationally televised speech. He continued to decry the Indian barbarity and savagery, and called for all police and military to stand against savagery. Full: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ben-powless/2009/06/peru-battle-lines- drawn-over-amazon From spalmer999 at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 00:53:19 2009 From: spalmer999 at yahoo.com (Steve Palmer) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 23:53:19 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament Message-ID: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> He sounds just like a Sticky/CPI from the '70s ... attacks Republicans as divisive. Ideologically, he comes from a long and unhealthy tradition of pro-imperialist socialists in Ireland. His unfortunate remark about a 'better life for all' recalls the abortive 'Better Life for All' campaign sponsored by British imperialism and trade union bureaucrats to attempt to undermine the liberation struggle. And as for referring to the occupied Six Counties as 'Northern Ireland' ... Nothing to see here folks, move along now ... --- On Mon, 6/8/09, Dan DiMaggio wrote: > From: Dan DiMaggio > Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament > To: "Steve Palmer" > Date: Monday, June 8, 2009, 8:11 PM > Hi everyone, > > Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in Ireland won election > to the European > Parliament, beating out the governing Fianna Fail party's > candidate in > Dublin. I highly recommend listening to his press > conference after his > victory. Higgins also played a big role in the defeat of > the Lisbon Treaty > (the EU constitution) in Ireland a few months ago.? > For video of his press > conference see: http://www.socialistparty.net/ or the > link below. > > http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/higgins080609.html > > Joe Higgins, "the Best Fighter Money Can't Buy," Elected as > MEP > > Joe Higgins of the > Socialist > Party, > receiving 82,366 votes (of which 50,510 were first > preference votes), was > elected to the Dublin Constituency for the European > Parliament. > > Listen to Higgins' speech to the media after his victory. > > *"This is a roar of opposition by ordinary people in Dublin > to the savage > policies of the Fianna F?il-Green Party government in > making working people > and the unemployed pay for a crisis caused by speculators, > by big > developers, and by big bankers, facilitated by Fianna > F?il." -- Joe Higgins* > ------------------------------ > Click here for a > brief > biography of Joe Higgins.? For more information, go to > the Web site of the > Socialist Party (at ) or > Higgins' campaign Web site > (at ). > ________________________________________________ > 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/spalmer999%40yahoo.com > From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 07:19:15 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:19:15 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Shell to pay $15.5 million for Nigerian crimes Message-ID: <4A2E6153.5080604@panix.com> NY Times, June 9, 2009 Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case By JAD MOUAWAD Royal Dutch Shell, the big oil company, agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta in the early 1990s, a striking sum given that the company has denied any wrongdoing. The settlement, announced late Monday, came days before the start of a trial in New York that was expected to reveal extensive details of Shell?s activities in the Niger Delta. The announcement caps a protracted legal battle that began shortly after the death of the Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Mr. Saro-Wiwa, Shell?s most prominent critic at the time in Nigeria, was hanged by that country?s military regime after protesting the company?s environmental practices in the oil-rich delta, especially in his native Ogoni region. Shell continued Monday to deny any role in the death. It called the settlement a ?humanitarian gesture? meant to compensate the plaintiffs, including Mr. Saro-Wiwa?s family, for their loss and to cover a portion of their legal fees and costs. Some of the money will go into an educational and social trust fund intended to benefit the Ogoni people. In a statement, the company said the agreement ?will provide funding for the trust and a compassionate payment to the plaintiffs and the estates they represent in recognition of the tragic turn of events in Ogoni land, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place.? ?Shell has always maintained the allegations were false,? Malcolm Brinded, the company?s executive director for exploration and production, said in the statement. Shell said that the trust being set up is in addition to the contribution to community development made by Shell-run companies in the Niger Delta. According to Shell, these payments totaled more than $240 million in 2008. Ten plaintiffs, including the son of Mr. Saro-Wiwa and his brother, accused Shell of seeking the aid of the former Nigerian regime to silence the critic, as well as paying soldiers who had carried out human rights abuses in the impoverished region where it operated. Mr. Saro-Wiwa, who founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni Peoples in 1990, was one of Shell?s most forceful critics because of the damage done to the delta communities, including gas flaring and the destruction of mangroves to make way for pipelines. The Niger Delta continues to be marred by violence and ethnic strife. Much of Shell?s production in the delta is still the target of militants seeking a larger share of the country?s oil wealth. The prominent case involving Shell was the latest to challenge the behavior of some of the world?s biggest oil companies in developing countries. Companies are increasingly being called to account for their environmental record as well as any collusion with repressive governments. The suit was brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, an arcane United States law that has been increasingly used for lawsuits asserting human rights violations occurring overseas. The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in 2004 that foreigners could bring cases before American courts in some limited circumstances, like crimes against humanity or torture, and the courts have decided that a wide variety of defendants, including multinational corporations, can be called to account. Royal Dutch Shell is headquartered in the Netherlands. So far, no corporation has been found guilty under the alien tort law. Last year, a jury cleared Chevron of wrongdoing after it was accused of complicity in the shooting of Nigerian villagers who occupied an offshore oil barge in 1998 to protest its environmental record and hiring practices. In 2004, Unocal, a California oil company that was accused of using slave labor in the construction of a pipeline in Burma during the 1990s, agreed to compensate villagers there. The terms of that settlement were not made public. For the Nigerian plaintiffs and their lawyers, Shell?s settlement, including publication of the sum involved, is a significant victory. Companies commonly demand that details of such settlements be kept secret, for fear of setting precedents. ?It has been a really long struggle,? said Jennie Greene, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the case on behalf of the plaintiffs. ?But this shows that corporations cannot act without accountability.? Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., the son of the slain rights advocate, was also satisfied with the outcome. ?We hope this sends a signal,? he said in a telephone interview from London. ?It?s a relief also that we?ve been able to draw a line over the past. And from a legal perspective, this historic case means that corporations will have to be much more careful.? From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 07:37:04 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:37:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Curse of the Class of 2009 Message-ID: <4A2E6580.2010501@panix.com> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124181970915002009.html The Curse of the Class of 2009 For College Grads Lucky Enough to Get Work This Year, Low Wages are Likely to Haunt Them for a Decade or More By SARA MURRAY The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years. The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show. Andrew Friedson graduated last year from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics and a stint as student-body president on his r?sum?. After working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign for a few months, Mr. Friedson hoped to get a position in the new administration. When that didn't pan out he looked for jobs on Capitol Hill. No luck there, either. So now, instead of learning about policymaking and legislation, he's earning about $1,250 a month as a high-school tutor and a part-time fundraiser for Hillel, a Jewish campus organization. To save money, he's living with his parents. Low Wages Linger View Interactive For those who graduate during a recession, the effects on their earnings last years. If asked a year ago whether he'd be tutoring now, Mr. Friedson says, "I would have laughed in your face." Trading down to a lower-skilled job isn't just a hit to Mr. Friedson's ego. It could also hurt his bank account for years to come. Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads. In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession. Ms. Kahn found that for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out. View Full Image Andrew Friedson, 23, lives with his parents and works as a high-school tutor. Dominic Bracco II for The Wall Street Journal Andrew Friedson, 23, lives with his parents and works as a high-school tutor. Andrew Friedson, 23, lives with his parents and works as a high-school tutor. Andrew Friedson, 23, lives with his parents and works as a high-school tutor. For example, a man who graduated in December 1982 when unemployment was at 10.8% made, on average, 23% less his first year out of college and 6.6% less 18 years out than one who graduated in May 1981 when the unemployment rate was 7.5%. For a typical worker, that would mean earning $100,000 less over the 18-year period. The impact on wages could be just as severe this time around, says Ms. Kahn. That's because of the depth of this recession and the possibility that the unemployment rate may approach the 10.8% level not seen since the early 1980s. The rate hit 8.9% in April, the Labor Department reported Friday. One reason behind declining wage potential, economists say: The caliber of jobs available in a recession, and their accompanying wages, tend to suffer. High-end firms hire fewer people and drive down salaries because jobs are in such demand. That means many graduates end up with lower-wage, lower-skill jobs at less-prestigious firms or in firms outside their field of interest. Once the economy picks up and they try for better jobs, these workers have to learn skills they should have been developing immediately out of college. In the meantime, colleagues who graduated in a better economy have already developed these skills and progressed much further. For Brad Dechter, a 24-year-old who majored in graphic design, this could mean starting at the bottom when and if he gets a job at an advertising agency. He studied at the Art Institute of Colorado partly because the Denver school advertises that 86% of alumni get a job within six months of graduation. So far, no dice. Two recent college graduates are scraping by in the toughest job market in years. They're stuck between trying to find jobs that advance their careers and landing jobs that pay the bills. WSJ's Matt Rivera reports. Eight months after graduation, Mr. Dechter is making just $500 a month freelancing for bands, designing flyers and album covers. When he runs short of cash, he borrows from his friends. He spends his days on Craigslist searching for job openings instead of learning the marketing and design skills he would have picked up in his first year at an agency. "I've pretty much given up on trying to find my dream job," says Mr. Dechter. Christine Pacheco, director of career services at the Art Institute, acknowledges that graduates face a struggle now. "They may need to take two part-time jobs and do some freelance rather than get a full-time job," she says. College graduates remain better off than those with only high-school diplomas, in good times and bad. The unemployment rate in April among four-year college graduates between 20 and 24 years old was 6.1%; among those the same age with only high-school diplomas, it was 19.6%. But a college degree isn't an automatic ticket to upward mobility, either. Even before the recession began, graduates were seeing their wages shrink. Between 2002 and 2007, according to government data, the inflation-adjusted hourly wage for men ages 25 to 35 with bachelor's degrees (and no graduate degrees) fell 4.5%. For the typical woman, inflation-adjusted wages fell 4.8%. This year, employers say they'll hire 22% fewer college graduates than last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of career counselors. At the same time, colleges are expected to see the highest number of graduates in a decade. The average starting salary for graduates who do get jobs, meanwhile, dropped to $48,515 this spring, down 2.2% from the same time last year, according to NACE. Plenty of recent graduates are making far less than the average. Between her business marketing degree and numerous New York City contacts, Nicole Buckley, 21, figured she would find a marketing job after graduating in December from Siena College, a small Catholic liberal arts college near Albany, N.Y. She didn't expect to be working the jobs she has now, five months after graduation: As a full-time receptionist with a part-time gig as a model, promoting Bacardi rum and Grey Goose vodka to patrons at bars. But after doing two interviews a day and applying to more than 50 jobs, she had to do something to pay the bills. View Full Image Diane Hempe couldn't find a job as a teacher so ended up working at Wells Fargo and switching career paths Dominic Bracco II for The Wall Street Journal Diane Hempe couldn't find a job as a teacher so ended up working at Wells Fargo and switching career paths. Diane Hempe couldn't find a job as a teacher so ended up working at Wells Fargo and switching career paths Diane Hempe couldn't find a job as a teacher so ended up working at Wells Fargo and switching career paths "I don't think anyone went to college and said, 'I want to graduate and make $25,000 a year,' " says Ms. Buckley. She estimates her earnings at a little less than $30,000 between the two jobs. Sarah Veilleux, 22, one of Ms. Buckley's two roommates in a $1,125-a-month Brooklyn apartment, graduated in May 2008 from the University of New Hampshire with a communications degree. For a few months, she worked selling band merchandise at a music venue. Then she found her ideal job: doing promotions for Sirius Satellite Radio. But they need her only 20 hours a week. "As soon as I saw the offer for Sirius," she says, "it didn't matter how many hours a week." She spends the other half of her week doing administrative tasks for a staffing company, earning $1,500 a month -- $18,000 a year -- between the two jobs. Still, Ms. Veilleux probably will be better off than those who take low-wage jobs outside their fields, says Till Marco von Wachter, a Columbia University economist. Mr. von Wachter, with a couple of colleagues, has looked at wage data covering 70% of all Canadians who graduated from college between 1976 and 1995, a span encompassing two recessions. His work indicates that graduates who get jobs in their fields -- even low-paying jobs -- are able to learn the right skills, and thus have an edge when the economy rebounds. Mr. von Wachter also found that what recession-era graduates studied, and where they went to school, made a big difference in how quickly they caught up to workers who graduated in boom times. People who majored in fields that lead to high-paying jobs, such as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering, tended to catch up to other graduates more quickly, primarily by switching jobs during the economic recovery and landing at better firms. In contrast, says Mr. von Wachter, the wages of humanities majors at less prestigious schools were less likely to catch up to the wages of their peers who graduated in healthier times. View Full Image New York roommates Sarah Veilleux, left, and Nicole Buckley each have two jobs to make ends meet Tim Hussin for The Wall Street Journal New York roommates Sarah Veilleux, left, and Nicole Buckley each have two jobs to make ends meet New York roommates Sarah Veilleux, left, and Nicole Buckley each have two jobs to make ends meet New York roommates Sarah Veilleux, left, and Nicole Buckley each have two jobs to make ends meet For some graduates, the recession has had an unintended upside: a career path they never thought they wanted. Diane Hempe, 24, planned to be a teacher. But after graduating from the University of Maryland last year with an elementary education degree, she failed to find a job at a school. So she settled for working at a day-care center, where the $12 an hour she brought in felt like an affront. In December, Ms. Hempe went in an entirely new direction. She took a job in the customer-service department at a Wells Fargo call center in Frederick, Md. "I definitely know I can move up," she says. "I can be in customer service; I can be in collections; I can be in so many different departments." And in the meantime she's shifting her long-term goals. Instead of getting a master's degree in education like she once thought she would, Ms. Hempe says eventually she plans to get her master's in business. Other are opting to ride out the slump doing public service. At AmeriCorps, a nationwide community-service network, applications more than tripled to about 48,500 between November 2008 and March compared to the same time period a year earlier. Teach for America received 35,000 applications this year -- 42% more than last year. About 70% of those were recent college graduates. Among the most common reasons people cited for applying, according to Teach for America, were poor job conditions and President Barack Obama's call to public service. Another alternative to unemployment or a low-paying job: Stay in school. Graduate applications for 2007-2008 were up 8% nationwide compared to the year before, according to the most recent numbers from the Council of Graduate Schools. Schools such as Northwestern University and Harvard are already tracking double-digit increases this year. College grads who went to graduate school instead of the job market during the early '80s recession didn't suffer the same wage losses, says Ms. Kahn, the Yale economist. That's the approach John Bence is taking. A 2008 graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio, the history major worked with a temp agency and did a six-month stint at an international consulting company. After repeatedly losing out on jobs -- at museums, universities, consulting firms -- to more-qualified candidates with master's degrees, he'll head to New York University to get a master's degree in history, specializing in archival management. "I wasn't surprised I didn't get those jobs in, like, museums," Mr. Bence says. "But I was surprised that no one was willing to hire me to do anything." From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 07:38:36 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 09:38:36 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament In-Reply-To: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Welcome to the 21st century. The success of the Socialist Party isn't stopping any imminent victory of republican forces in the Six Counties. It's a soft blow to the ruling class and a promising development. Nothing to see here but a genuine leftist with some popular support among the working class.... From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 07:46:45 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:46:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Matt Taibbi on Henry Paulson Message-ID: <4A2E67C5.8010400@panix.com> http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/06/08/mean-street-it%E2%80%99s-time-to-enshrine-hank-paulson-as-national-hero-deal-journal-wsj/ From ymorvan at cs.tcd.ie Tue Jun 9 07:53:37 2009 From: ymorvan at cs.tcd.ie (Yann Morvan) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:53:37 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament In-Reply-To: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:53:19 +0100, Steve Palmer wrote: > He sounds just like a Sticky/CPI from the '70s ... attacks Republicans > as divisive. Ideologically, he comes from a long and unhealthy tradition > of pro-imperialist socialists in Ireland. > His unfortunate remark about a 'better life for all' recalls the > abortive 'Better Life for All' campaign sponsored by British imperialism > and trade union bureaucrats to attempt to undermine the liberation > struggle. And as for referring to the occupied Six Counties as 'Northern > Ireland' ... > > Nothing to see here folks, move along now ... Huhu, spoken like a true sectarian, well done. Yann > --- On Mon, 6/8/09, Dan DiMaggio wrote: > >> From: Dan DiMaggio >> Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " >> elected to European Parliament >> To: "Steve Palmer" >> Date: Monday, June 8, 2009, 8:11 PM >> Hi everyone, >> >> Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in Ireland won election >> to the European >> Parliament, beating out the governing Fianna Fail party's >> candidate in >> Dublin. I highly recommend listening to his press >> conference after his >> victory. Higgins also played a big role in the defeat of >> the Lisbon Treaty >> (the EU constitution) in Ireland a few months ago.? >> For video of his press >> conference see: http://www.socialistparty.net/ or the >> link below. >> >> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/higgins080609.html >> >> Joe Higgins, "the Best Fighter Money Can't Buy," Elected as >> MEP >> >> Joe Higgins of the >> Socialist >> Party, >> receiving 82,366 votes (of which 50,510 were first >> preference votes), was >> elected to the Dublin Constituency for the European >> Parliament. >> >> Listen to Higgins' speech to the media after his victory. >> >> *"This is a roar of opposition by ordinary people in Dublin >> to the savage >> policies of the Fianna F?il-Green Party government in >> making working people >> and the unemployed pay for a crisis caused by speculators, >> by big >> developers, and by big bankers, facilitated by Fianna >> F?il." -- Joe Higgins* >> ------------------------------ >> Click here for a >> brief >> biography of Joe Higgins.? For more information, go to >> the Web site of the >> Socialist Party (at ) or >> Higgins' campaign Web site >> (at ). >> ________________________________________________ >> 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/spalmer999%40yahoo.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/ymorvan%40cs.tcd.ie From eindeoc at freenet.de Tue Jun 9 08:02:10 2009 From: eindeoc at freenet.de (Einde O'Callaghan) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:02:10 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Joe Higgins, "The Best Fighter Money Can't Buy, " elected to European Parliament In-Reply-To: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <865742.1532.qm@web80408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4A2E6B62.3080807@freenet.de> Steve Palmer wrote: > He sounds just like a Sticky/CPI from the '70s ... attacks Republicans as divisive. Ideologically, he comes from a long and unhealthy tradition of pro-imperialist socialists in Ireland. > His unfortunate remark about a 'better life for all' recalls the abortive 'Better Life for All' campaign sponsored by British imperialism and trade union bureaucrats to attempt to undermine the liberation struggle. And as for referring to the occupied Six Counties as 'Northern Ireland' ... > > Nothing to see here folks, move along now ... > I think it's a serious error to view the situation in the 26 Counties through the mirror of the continuing imperialist occupation of the 6 Counties. The Southern ruling class is a small but relatively independent player on the international stage - politics in teh 26 Counties are not dominated by Partition, although it still throws a shadow that can't be ignored. Whatever teh weaknesses of the Socialist Party on the national question, and I believe they are grave, the support for Joe Higgins reflects a fighting reaction to the crisis and the attempts of the Fianna Fail/Green government ot make the working class pay for it. The defeat of Sinn Fein in Dublin is not a setback for teh national struggle - after all they are participating in running the sectarian Northern state - which is something that not even the Socialist Party has ever advocated. Although Sinn Fein is linked up with the European Left Party on the European level - along with DIE LINKE in Germany - I consider them to be one of the weakest links in the ELP, potentially providing a Trojan horse for neo-liberal policies, even if because of their nationalist roots they are Euro-sceptics. Einde O'Callaghan From mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 09:06:42 2009 From: mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com (Mehmet Cagatay) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 08:06:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview 1971 Message-ID: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Lennon said: "I was also pleased when the movement in America took up 'Give peace a chance' because I had written it with that in mind really" ? Hello Mr. Lennon, Despite that I wholeheartedly appreciate your enthusiasm to write a song that articulates the underlying rebellious frustration of the anti-war movement, your song on the contrary duplicates the universal massage of right-wing ideologies which are also fanatically fond of referring the name "Peace", but just to underline that it can it can only be guaranteed by a dauntless commitment to reactionary objective violence albeit how unbearable or inexcusable it seems. You couldn't believe it, I even run across a rabid Zionist who quoted your song while he was standing for the recent Israeli attack on Gaza. But fortunately for us, in the album you released just couple of months after that interview, there is a song that approaches the politics in a more proper way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op9-D3kdBiw& Best, m?. From markalause at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 09:29:19 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:29:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview 1971 In-Reply-To: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Mehmet Cagatay writes that singing about "peace" fits the right-wing call for military strength. Certainly, it's the nature of capitalist society--in the US, at least--to twist the meaning of all words to suit their own purposes. This complaint about "peace" holds true no less for all words...democracy, freedom, liberty, justice, socialism, etc., etc., etc. I suppose that to win is for the Left to stop using words. There's the ticket. The final triumph of postmodernism. We should communicate with squeaks, grunts, and banging things with sticks. That'll confuse the ruling class to no end. :-) ML From mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 10:04:12 2009 From: mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com (Mehmet Cagatay) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 09:04:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview 1971 Message-ID: <773099.68574.qm@web31708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Mark Lause wrote: "This complaint about "peace" holds true no less for all words...democracy, freedom, liberty, justice, socialism, etc., etc., etc. I suppose that to win is for the Left to stop using words." ? You are absolutely right sir! I feel ashamed now as this solution is beyond my imagination. The Left must stop using those evil words if they are unable to use them in a concrete context. For instance, if one say, (as Lennon did) give up on your meaningless isms and give peace a chance, his massage resides on the side of evil, as this is the standpoint of ideology to maintain the existing social hierarchy. On the other hand, there is a more conventional solution as everyone here knows without a question, as Lenin or Marx did, one may declare his or her desire towards democracy, but a democracy beyond the "bourgeois dictatorship" that disguises as democracy. Best, m?. From farmelantj at juno.com Tue Jun 9 10:06:16 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 16:06:16 GMT Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview 1971 Message-ID: <20090609.120616.23644.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> What exactly was "lost" about this interview? Did Tariq Ali misplace it? It's been available online and was reprinted in innumerable collections, from since, like forever. Jim F. ---------- Original Message ---------- From: milongonsinga http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/power-to-the-people-the-lost-john-lennon-interview-1971/ "When words cannot be better than silence, it's better to shut up." Eduardo Galeano ____________________________________________________________ Be there without being there. Click now for great video conferencing solutions! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTECarZcjdDBGyzR2sYn2SHui7HJd5qBo2OkpXq5YzqHQPm4LVRlhG/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 11:39:26 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:39:26 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Evolutionary psychology and art Message-ID: <4A2E9E4E.6030503@panix.com> Over the next week or so I am going to be blogging about evolutionary psychology (the more au courant term for sociobiology) that will involve a return to Jared Diamond?s ?The Third Chimpanzee?, a book that foreshadowed his more well-known works as well as his boneheaded New Yorker article. I will also be looking at Napoleon Chagnon, the anthropologist who shared Diamond?s Hobbesian take on hunting-and-gathering peoples?in his case the Yanomami rather than the Papuan New Guinea highland tribes. In chapter 9 of ?The Third Chimpanzee?, Diamond writes about the ?Animal Origins of Art?. He begins with a discussion of Siri?s drawings that command prices up to $500 and about which Willem de Kooning had this to say: ?They had a kind of flair and decisiveness and originality?. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/evolutionary-psychology-and-art/ From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 11:42:12 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:42:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bill Blum - Team Obama/Cult Obama Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906091042o2e4e5639l4ed6995d3e8f9c04@mail.gmail.com> *Team Obama/Cult Obama* The praise heaped on President Obama for his speech to the Muslim world by writers on the left, both here and abroad, is disturbing. I'm referring to people who I think should know better, who've taken Politics 101 and can easily see the many hypocrisies in Obama's talk, as well as the distortions, omissions, and contradictions, the true but irrelevant observations, the lies, the optimistic words without any matching action, the insensitivities to victims. Yet, these commentators are impressed, in many cases very impressed. In the world at large, this frame of mind borders on a cult. In such cases one must look beyond the intellect and examine the emotional appeal. We all know the world is in big trouble -- Three Great Problems: universal, incessant violence; financial crisis provoking economic suffering; environmental degradation. In all three areas the United States bears more culpability than any other single country. Who better to satisfy humankind's craving for relief than a new American president who, it appears, understands the problems; admits, to one degree or another, his country's responsibility for them; and "eloquently" expresses his desire and determination to change US policies and embolden the rest of the world to follow his inspiring example. Is it any wonder that it's 1964, the Beatles have just arrived in New York, and everyone is a teenage girl? I could go through the talk Obama gave in Cairo and point out line by line the hypocrisies, the mere platitudes, the plain nonsense, and the rest. ("I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States." -- No mention of it being outsourced, probably to the very country he was speaking in, amongst others. ... "No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons." -- But this is precisely what the United States is trying to do concerning Iran and North Korea.) But since others have been pointing out these lies very well I'd like to try something else in dealing with the problem -- the problem of well-educated people, as well as the not so well-educated, being so moved by a career politician saying "all the right things" to give food for hope to billions starving for it, and swallowing it all as if they had been born yesterday. I'd like to take them back to another charismatic figure, Adolf Hitler, speaking to the German people two years and four months after becoming Chancellor, addressing a Germany still reeling with humiliation from its being The Defeated Nation in the World War, with huge losses of its young men, still being punished by the world for its militarism, suffering mass unemployment and other effects of the great depression. Here are excerpts from the speech of May 21, 1935. Imagine how it fed the hungry German people. --------------------- I conceive it my duty to be perfectly frank and open in addressing the nation. I frequently hear from Anglo-Saxon tribes expressions of regret that Germany has departed from those principles of democracy, which in those countries are held particularly sacred. This opinion is entirely erroneous. Germany, too, has a democratic Constitution. Our love of peace perhaps is greater than in the case of others, for we have suffered most from war. None of us wants to threaten anybody, but we all are determined to obtain the security and equality of our people. The World War should be a cry of warning here. Not for a second time can Europe survive such a catastrophe. Germany has solemnly guaranteed France her present frontiers, resigning herself to the permanent loss of Alsace-Lorraine. She has made a treaty with Poland and we hope it will be renewed and renewed again at every expiry of the set period. The German Reich, especially the present German Government, has no other wish except to live on terms of peace and friendship with all the neighboring States. Germany has nothing to gain from a European war. What we want is liberty and independence. Because of these intentions of ours we are ready to negotiate non-aggression pacts with our neighbor States. Germany has neither the wish nor the intention to mix in internal Austrian affairs, or to annex or to unite with Austria. The German Government is ready in principle to conclude non-aggression pacts with its individual neighbor States and to supplement those provisions which aim at isolating belligerents and localizing war areas. In limiting German air armament to parity with individual other great nations of the west, it makes possible that at any time the upper figure may be limited, which limit Germany will then take as a binding obligation to keep within. Germany is ready to participate actively in any efforts for drastic limitation of unrestricted arming. She sees the only possible way in a return to the principles of the old Geneva Red Cross convention. She believes, to begin with, only in the possibility of the gradual abolition and outlawing of fighting methods which are contrary to this convention, such as dum-dum bullets and other missiles which are a deadly menace to civilian women and children. To abolish fighting places, but to leave the question of bombardment open, seems to us wrong and ineffective. But we believe it is possible to ban certain arms as contrary to international law and to outlaw those who use them. But this, too, can only be done gradually. Therefore, gas and incendiary and explosive bombs outside of the battle area can be banned and the ban extended later to all bombing. As long as bombing is free, a limitation of bombing planes is a doubtful proposition. But as soon as bombing is branded as barbarism, the building of bombing planes will automatically cease. Just as the Red Cross stopped the killing of wounded and prisoners, it should be possible to stop the bombing of civilians. In the adoption of such principles, Germany sees a better means of pacification and security for peoples than in all the assistance pacts and military conventions. The German Government is ready to agree to every limitation leading to abandonment of the heaviest weapons which are especially suitable for aggression. These comprise, first, the heaviest artillery and heaviest tanks. Germany declares herself ready to agree to the delimitation of caliber of artillery and guns on dreadnoughts, cruisers and torpedo boats. Similarly, the German Government is ready to adopt any limitation on naval tonnage, and finally to agree to the limitation of tonnage of submarines or even to their abolition, provided other countries do likewise. The German Government is of the opinion that all attempts effectively to lessen tension between individual States through international agreements or agreements between several States are doomed to failure unless suitable measures are taken to prevent poisoning of public opinion on the part of irresponsible individuals in speech, writing, in the film and the theatre. The German Government is ready any time to agree to an international agreement which will effectively prevent and make impossible all attempts to interfere from the outside in affairs of other States. The term ?interference? should be internationally defined. If people wish for peace it must be possible for governments to maintain it. We believe the restoration of the German defense force will contribute to this peace because of the simple fact that its existence removes a dangerous vacuum in Europe. We believe if the peoples of the world could agree to destroy all their gas and inflammable and explosive bombs this would be cheaper than using them to destroy one another. In saying this I am not speaking any longer as the representative of a defenseless State which could reap only advantages and no obligations from such action from others. I cannot better conclude my speech to you, my fellow-figures and trustees of the nation, than by repeating our confession of faith in peace: Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos. We, however, live in the firm conviction our times will see not the decline but the renaissance of the West. It is our proud hope and our unshakable belief Germany can make an imperishable contribution to this great work.[1] -- End of speech excerpts -- How many people in the world, including numerous highly educated Germans, reading or hearing that speech in 1935, doubted that Adolf Hitler was a sincere man of peace and an inspiring, visionary leader? NOTES [1] The entire speech can be found at: http://members.tripod.com/~Comicism/350521.html "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- Voltaire From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 11:45:01 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:45:01 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bill Blum on Cult Obama Message-ID: <4A2E9F9D.4080007@panix.com> Team Obama/Cult Obama The praise heaped on President Obama for his speech to the Muslim world by writers on the left, both here and abroad, is disturbing. I'm referring to people who I think should know better, who've taken Politics 101 and can easily see the many hypocrisies in Obama's talk, as well as the distortions, omissions, and contradictions, the true but irrelevant observations, the lies, the optimistic words without any matching action, the insensitivities to victims. Yet, these commentators are impressed, in many cases very impressed. In the world at large, this frame of mind borders on a cult. In such cases one must look beyond the intellect and examine the emotional appeal. We all know the world is in big trouble -- Three Great Problems: universal, incessant violence; financial crisis provoking economic suffering; environmental degradation. In all three areas the United States bears more culpability than any other single country. Who better to satisfy humankind's craving for relief than a new American president who, it appears, understands the problems; admits, to one degree or another, his country's responsibility for them; and "eloquently" expresses his desire and determination to change US policies and embolden the rest of the world to follow his inspiring example. Is it any wonder that it's 1964, the Beatles have just arrived in New York, and everyone is a teenage girl? I could go through the talk Obama gave in Cairo and point out line by line the hypocrisies, the mere platitudes, the plain nonsense, and the rest. ("I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States." -- No mention of it being outsourced, probably to the very country he was speaking in, amongst others. ... "No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons." -- But this is precisely what the United States is trying to do concerning Iran and North Korea.) But since others have been pointing out these lies very well I'd like to try something else in dealing with the problem -- the problem of well-educated people, as well as the not so well-educated, being so moved by a career politician saying "all the right things" to give food for hope to billions starving for it, and swallowing it all as if they had been born yesterday. I'd like to take them back to another charismatic figure, Adolf Hitler, speaking to the German people two years and four months after becoming Chancellor, addressing a Germany still reeling with humiliation from its being The Defeated Nation in the World War, with huge losses of its young men, still being punished by the world for its militarism, suffering mass unemployment and other effects of the great depression. Here are excerpts from the speech of May 21, 1935. Imagine how it fed the hungry German people. --------------------- I conceive it my duty to be perfectly frank and open in addressing the nation. I frequently hear from Anglo-Saxon tribes expressions of regret that Germany has departed from those principles of democracy, which in those countries are held particularly sacred. This opinion is entirely erroneous. Germany, too, has a democratic Constitution. Our love of peace perhaps is greater than in the case of others, for we have suffered most from war. None of us wants to threaten anybody, but we all are determined to obtain the security and equality of our people. The World War should be a cry of warning here. Not for a second time can Europe survive such a catastrophe. Germany has solemnly guaranteed France her present frontiers, resigning herself to the permanent loss of Alsace-Lorraine. She has made a treaty with Poland and we hope it will be renewed and renewed again at every expiry of the set period. The German Reich, especially the present German Government, has no other wish except to live on terms of peace and friendship with all the neighboring States. Germany has nothing to gain from a European war. What we want is liberty and independence. Because of these intentions of ours we are ready to negotiate non-aggression pacts with our neighbor States. Germany has neither the wish nor the intention to mix in internal Austrian affairs, or to annex or to unite with Austria. The German Government is ready in principle to conclude non-aggression pacts with its individual neighbor States and to supplement those provisions which aim at isolating belligerents and localizing war areas. In limiting German air armament to parity with individual other great nations of the west, it makes possible that at any time the upper figure may be limited, which limit Germany will then take as a binding obligation to keep within. Germany is ready to participate actively in any efforts for drastic limitation of unrestricted arming. She sees the only possible way in a return to the principles of the old Geneva Red Cross convention. She believes, to begin with, only in the possibility of the gradual abolition and outlawing of fighting methods which are contrary to this convention, such as dum-dum bullets and other missiles which are a deadly menace to civilian women and children. To abolish fighting places, but to leave the question of bombardment open, seems to us wrong and ineffective. But we believe it is possible to ban certain arms as contrary to international law and to outlaw those who use them. But this, too, can only be done gradually. Therefore, gas and incendiary and explosive bombs outside of the battle area can be banned and the ban extended later to all bombing. As long as bombing is free, a limitation of bombing planes is a doubtful proposition. But as soon as bombing is branded as barbarism, the building of bombing planes will automatically cease. Just as the Red Cross stopped the killing of wounded and prisoners, it should be possible to stop the bombing of civilians. In the adoption of such principles, Germany sees a better means of pacification and security for peoples than in all the assistance pacts and military conventions. The German Government is ready to agree to every limitation leading to abandonment of the heaviest weapons which are especially suitable for aggression. These comprise, first, the heaviest artillery and heaviest tanks. Germany declares herself ready to agree to the delimitation of caliber of artillery and guns on dreadnoughts, cruisers and torpedo boats. Similarly, the German Government is ready to adopt any limitation on naval tonnage, and finally to agree to the limitation of tonnage of submarines or even to their abolition, provided other countries do likewise. The German Government is of the opinion that all attempts effectively to lessen tension between individual States through international agreements or agreements between several States are doomed to failure unless suitable measures are taken to prevent poisoning of public opinion on the part of irresponsible individuals in speech, writing, in the film and the theatre. The German Government is ready any time to agree to an international agreement which will effectively prevent and make impossible all attempts to interfere from the outside in affairs of other States. The term ?interference? should be internationally defined. If people wish for peace it must be possible for governments to maintain it. We believe the restoration of the German defense force will contribute to this peace because of the simple fact that its existence removes a dangerous vacuum in Europe. We believe if the peoples of the world could agree to destroy all their gas and inflammable and explosive bombs this would be cheaper than using them to destroy one another. In saying this I am not speaking any longer as the representative of a defenseless State which could reap only advantages and no obligations from such action from others. I cannot better conclude my speech to you, my fellow-figures and trustees of the nation, than by repeating our confession of faith in peace: Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos. We, however, live in the firm conviction our times will see not the decline but the renaissance of the West. It is our proud hope and our unshakable belief Germany can make an imperishable contribution to this great work.[1] -- End of speech excerpts -- How many people in the world, including numerous highly educated Germans, reading or hearing that speech in 1935, doubted that Adolf Hitler was a sincere man of peace and an inspiring, visionary leader? NOTES [1] The entire speech can be found at: http://members.tripod.com/~Comicism/350521.html From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 12:02:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:02:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cocaleros Message-ID: <4A2EA3AC.10503@panix.com> A documentary about Evo Morales: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4001406951948901078 From lnp3 at panix.com Tue Jun 9 12:06:49 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:06:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Online documentary about overfishing Message-ID: <4A2EA4B9.6020809@panix.com> Hey, Babelgum has exclusive rights to whistle-blowing documentary "End of the Line". The film has already caused an uproar with many celebrities like Charlize Theron, Sting, Robert DeNiro, and Sienna Miller taking a stand on the issue of overfishing, by boycotting Nobu. Celebrities Boycott Nobu After viewing "End of the Line" the founder of successful UK chain Pre a Manger has immediately stopped offering tuna salads and sandwiches. Pret A Manger Takes Stand on Over Fishing The film is now playing in select theaters on World Ocean Day and in a landmark deal will also be exclusively available online at Babelgum. You can check out the eye-opening documentary at the following link: http://www.babelgum.com/endoftheline . Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Thanks! Best, Vinti Bhatnagar cornerstone Public Relations Department 71 West 23rd Street, Floor 13 New York, NY 10010 o: 212.652.9278 c: 941.223.2519 f: 212.741.4747 BABELGUM PARTNERS WITH PRODUCERS OF THE END OF THE LINE TO PRESENT WORLDWIDE MOBILE & WEB EXCLUSIVE SERIES BASED ON FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Simultaneous Mobile, Online and Theatrical Release of First Major Film on Impact of Over Fishing Oceans Scheduled for June 8, 2009 to coincide with World Oceans Day New York / London (June 8th, 2009) - Independent web TV service Babelgum and The Fish Film Company have today announced a landmark deal for the worldwide mobile and online release of Rupert Murray's The End of The Line - The Series , timed to coincide with the traditional release of the feature documentary. George Duffield and Christopher Hird on behalf of The Fish Film Company, and Karol Martesko-Fenster, General Manager & Publisher - Film Division on behalf of Babelgum, negotiated the deal. Based on the book by Charles Clover , narrated by Ted Danson and directed by Rupert Murray , The End of the Line is the first major feature documentary about the devastating impact over fishing has had and is having on our oceans. The film, which had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary competition, provides a dramatic expose of those in power who are taking advantage of the seas with catastrophic consequences on the world's fish supplies. Endorsed by and with major marketing support from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) , Oceana , the Marine Conservation Society , Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) , the film has been described by The Economist as 'The inconvenient truth about the impact of over-fishing on the oceans.' The exclusive Babelgum presentation of The End of the Line , along with National Geographic - OceanNow and The Waitt Family Foundation , is an original six-part documentary film series in which director Rupert Murray takes the viewers behind the scenes and deeper into the issues being raised by this year's biggest environmental doc. In a statement from director Rupert Murray and producer George Duffield the filmmakers said: "We always wanted to incorporate mobile and Internet platforms into our release strategy. We worked closely with Babelgum to find the most appropriate and novel approach to create these six custom episodes. We are delighted with the partnership and the fact that Babelgum is already an established destination for high quality environmental programming and major independent film releases." Babelgum has acquired the online and mobile five month worldwide exclusive rights - two year overall rights - and will be showing Episode #1 on June 8th to be day and date with dozens of preview screenings of the film scheduled in the US and the UK , in conjunction with World Oceans Day. The remaining five episodes will be released one every week thereafter. Babelgum's Karol Martesko-Fenster, stated, "We are thrilled to be working with Rupert Murray, and to partner with The Fish Film Company, to present this exclusive mobisodic and webisodic series. And we are very proud to see Babelgum leading a new trend where mobile and Internet delivery is becoming an integral part of the overall distribution process for major film releases." The End of The Line - The Series 6/08/09 - Episode #1 - The End of The Line: The Biggest Problem Most People Have Never Heard Of 6/15/09 - Episode #2 - The End of The Line: The European Union, World Expert In Overfishing 6/22/09 - Episode #3 - The End of The Line: Ocean Heroes and Villains 6/29/09 - Episode #4 - The End of The Line: Marine Protected Areas, Where Are They Now? 7/06/09 - Episode #5 - The End of The Line: The Power Of A Consumer Revolution 7/13/09 - Episode #6 - The End of The Line: The Future Of Fish About Rupert Murray Rupert Murray directed and edited Unknown White Male (2005), which was nominated for awards at the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Grierson Awards and the British Independent Film Awards. The film tells the story of a man's struggle in coming to terms with amnesia. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on Channel 4 and Court TV. Murray has recently directed a feature length documentary Olly and Suzi: Two of a Mind, a film about two artists who paint dangerous predators in the wild. About The Fish Film Company or The End of The Line More information can be found at www.endoftheline.com About Babelgum An integrated mobile and Internet content platform, Babelgum combines the full-screen video quality of traditional television with the interactive capabilities of the Internet, and offers innovative professionally produced programming on-demand to a global audience. Babelgum recently launched an original mobile application in the United States, UK and Italy, that brings regionally tailored programming to smart phones - at present iPhone 3G, iPod Touch, Nokia (N96, N95 and 6210) - via 3G and WiFi. Babelgum's editorial focus is on music, comedy, film, urban culture, nature and the environment. The company has set up two online contests to nurture independent film and music talent: the Babelgum Online Film Festival, chaired by Spike Lee (now in its second year) and the Babelgum Music Video Awards, judged by acclaimed director Michel Gondry. Babelgum also launched a Digital Studio initiative producing new, exclusive and original content. Two productions have already been completed: Downstream , focusing on the controversy over the development of the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, and Extinction Sucks , a wildlife series on the subject of conservation and protection, with the active involvement of WWF. Babelgum's content partners include, amongst others, EMI, Sony BMG, the Associated Press, PBS, BBC, VBS, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Shine Limited, Cinetic Rights Management, Content Republic, IndieFlix, Gong Anime, The Workbook Project, Cinelan, IMG and Off the Fence, as well as the Seattle, Encounters, Rushes, From Here To Awesome and Renderyard Film festivals. Babelgum is an independent and privately held company with offices in the United States, UK, Ireland, France and Italy. www.babelgum.com For further information contact: Andrea Giannotti, Babelgum Media Relations Director Cell: UK +44 7825 892 640 andrea.giannotti at babelgum.com Vinti Bhatnagar Cornerstone/PR Department Tel: +1 212 652 9278 vinti at cornerstonepromotion.com George Duffield, The Fish Film Company Cell: UK +44 7768 815702 duffield at arcanepictures.com From giobon at comcast.net Tue Jun 9 12:07:55 2009 From: giobon at comcast.net (Bonnie Weinstein) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:07:55 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] A Roof Over Our Heads and Other Inalienable Rights In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8FA792AF-5394-45F4-B757-F1CA396F7187@comcast.net> A Roof Over Our Heads and Other Inalienable Rights By Bonnie Weinstein http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/mayjun_09/mayjun_09_01.html In an April 22, 2009, article in The New York Times by David Streitfeld, entitled, ?An Effort to Save Flint, Mich., by Shrinking It,? the first two paragraphs read: "Dozens of proposals have been floated over the years to slow this city?s endless decline. Now another idea is gaining support: speed it up. "Instead of waiting for houses to become abandoned and then pulling them down, local leaders are talking about demolishing entire blocks and even whole neighborhoods." In other words, instead of allowing families to remain in their homes during this severe economic crisis, the city of Flint intends to demolish the homes outright, leaving homeless families to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, a gripping and heartbreaking MSNBC.com Dateline documentary has been circulating on the Internet. It follows the evictions of families from their homes. Some were evicted as the result of being swindled into subprime mortgages with balloon payments; others because they could not afford to keep up rents or mortgages for various reasons, such as work injuries, sickness, cutbacks in hours, or job loss.(1) An FDIC government resource, ForeclosureHelpandHope.org, provides this information from the Mortgage Bankers Association: One out of every 200 homes will be foreclosed upon?. Every three months, 250,000 new families enter into foreclosure?. One child in every classroom in America is at risk of losing his/her home because their parents are unable to pay their mortgage.(2) The Dateline crew accompanies sheriffs, with guns pulled, backed by other officers and flanked by a ?moving crew,? as they break open the door of a home. Finding no one there, they proceed to move all the belongings of a full household out into the street and change the locks on the doors; then they move on to another eviction. They do around 20 a day. The family has 24 hours to pick up their belongings from the street, and then the stuff is carted off to the dump. No security is left to protect the family?s belongings for those 24 hours; they?re simply left out in the street, free for the taking, and the house left abandoned and uncared for. Evictions up close and personal The first family the documentary focuses on is a family of four, the Alvarezes: Junior Alvarez, who works for the city of Coral Gables, Florida, his wife, Maureen, their two children?a two-month-old son and a two-year-old daughter?and an elderly grandmother. Their mortgage payments ballooned from $2,000 to $4,000 a month?an amount Junior could no longer afford. After being evicted they stayed for a short time with friends, sleeping on their living room floor, until they found a small apartment they could afford to rent. The second family featured were renters, Lea and Porey Niscieri, their 11-year-old daughter, Hanna, and her two cats. They did not fare as well as the Alvarezes. When the sheriff came to her door, Lea told him that they were up to date on their rent?that they didn?t owe a dime, she was sure of it. Upon returning home, Porey confessed to the Dateline reporter that he hadn?t told his wife that they were three months behind in the rent. He had had an accident on his job and was unable to work for about seven months. He just couldn?t afford the rent on his disability income. He didn?t tell his wife because he thought he had 30 days after the notice to make a payment, and hoped he?d be able to make it on time since he?d just gone back to work. Luckily, their next-door neighbor took them in temporarily. But then the generous neighbor himself was evicted the very next week! Their daughter Hanna, had to give up her cats to an animal shelter. The family moved into a Howard Johnson?s, but it was too expensive so they moved again, into a cheaper motel. Porey admits that he wanted to kill himself. He felt like a complete failure. They were having a hard time finding a place to live. Their credit rating was by that time so bad no one would rent to them. They finally found a landlord willing to give them a chance in spite of their credit rating and they now live in a small, two-bedroom apartment about half the size of the home they were evicted from. Hanna still misses her cats terribly. ?I don?t have them, but they are in my heart forever. They were a part of me,? she said. Other families are moving from place-to-place, shelter-to-shelter, couch-to-living room floor?or out onto the streets. The bankers are leaving perfectly good homes to rot?or worse, to the mercy of the wrecking ball. This is the chaos that exists under capitalism, a dictatorial economic system that puts profit over people; that tears down homes as homelessness soars. Shelter from the storm The crux of the issue is whether or not human beings have a basic right to a roof over their heads?shelter from the storm. Directly connected to housing is the right to education, jobs, and healthcare. These are all inalienable rights that belong to everyone, because we can?t thrive without them! Youth hit hardest While millions of adult working people are finding themselves teetering on the brink of economic annihilation, joblessness, and homelessness, it?s much worse for our youth. Young people today will earn half of what their parents earned, and even now find it nearly impossible to leave the nest, let alone support families of their own. Fewer youth are able to attend college. The mass entrance into college by working-class youth in the ?60s and ?70s is in high-speed reverse. Our children are forced to endure overcrowded, police-occupied public schools that more closely resemble juvenile detention centers than educational institutions, and have failed to give them the most basic skills and knowledge they need to develop their individual talents, skills and interests. Increasingly our schools are more likely to funnel youth into jail or the military than into higher education or gainful employment. This economic crisis did not appear suddenly out of a void. It has been taking its toll on working people?especially youth?since the 1970s. Women didn?t join the workforce because they were bored; the steadily increasing cost of living forced the necessity of the two- income family. The confidence game The ?conventional wisdom? of the politicians and mass media tell us we must learn to ?tighten our belts,? to ?live more simply.? We are told we must have faith that the government is doing everything possible to keep things from getting even worse. They especially emphasize how ?everyone is hurting,? including the wealthy, and that bailing out the wealthy is the essential key to bailing out the poor! We?re told that the wealthy bankers, who have emptied the wallets of working people to line their own with gold, have to regain the confidence to invest money back into the economy. And we are told that the only way for them to regain that confidence is for us to pay them trillions of dollars from our own pockets?-to keep them confident that they can continue to steal more from us! It?s we who must tighten our belts not them! They implore us, ?How can we save this economy without the sacrifice and support of everyone?? But working people know what this means. The wealthy endure ?restricted retention bonuses? while working people sacrifice their jobs, their healthcare, their pensions, their homes?and their children?s future?for the sake of banking and corporate confidence. My youngest son?s girlfriend commented to him that the economy seems to be doing better after she saw some upbeat story on the local news. (They?re both currently unemployed, with two children and rent coming due again at the end of the month.) My son explained to her: ?You have to understand that they mean the economy is better for some people. Not for most people. They?re talking about making things better for the top wealthiest one percent or less of the population at the expense of the bottom 99 percent. The top wealthiest one percent or less owns 80 percent of the Earth?s wealth. The government is bailing out those people at the top using trillions of dollars of our money. The rest of us have to scramble for a share of the crumbs the wealthy drop from their plates. And at this time they?re not only wiping their plates clean but stealing the food right out of our plates!? A fightback begins But there is some good news. All across the country and around the world, working people are beginning to mount a fightback and they are winning real victories! Not all families are taking it on the chin. In an April 10, 2009, article in The Times, ?With Advocates? Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home,? John Leland wrote: "Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend?s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000. "Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes?some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly. "In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure." The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters. ?We?re seeing sheriffs? departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions,? said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. ?They?re up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone?s overwhelmed.? In an article in the March/April issue of ColorLines (reprinted in this magazine), ?Hitting the Pause on Foreclosures,? Valeria Fern?ndez wrote: "In the last year, Goldberg and his staff at Moratorium NOW!, a coalition of activists and union and religious leaders, have brought at least 50 cases to courts in Detroit on behalf of homeowners. They have been fighting to save homes literally one house at a time through picketing at the banks and legal action." The article ends with a quote from Max Rameau, founder of the group Take Back the Land, a grassroots volunteer organization in Miami, Florida: ?This is a solution coming from the community,? said Rameu. ?We value the human rights of housing over the right of a corporation to make a profit.? As the economy tanks, and evictions and unemployment increase, such organizations and actions will grow across the country. In addition to the anti-eviction/foreclosure organizations and actions sprouting up, there have been sit-down strikes and occupations in jobsites around the globe, in England, Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Canada, and here in the U.S., to name a few. Most recently, coalitions are forming that incorporate all these issues?including those of immigration and war?with demands such as: ?Money for jobs and social services, not for war ?Tax the rich/progressive taxation ?Single-payer healthcare for all ?Pass the Employee Free Choice Act ?Immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions ?No more bailouts for Wall Street?bail out working people ?Stop the ICE raids and deportations These are the demands of a newly formed coalition in the Bay Area. A broad organizing meeting was held in San Francisco on April 11, 2009, at the Plumbers Hall, and was attended by over 70 people. Most attendees were representatives of labor organizations, including the heads of the San Francisco and Santa Clara Central Labor Councils and the President of the AFT 2121 (community college teachers), and of grassroots, community-based groups. Many of these groups are funded to help with such things as tenant and landlord mediation or police-community dialogue, etc. They are being cut out of the budgets of most cities and towns, leaving the poor to fend for themselves. The meeting was called to organize a teach-in based upon the above demands. The outcome was very encouraging and positive; its work is ongoing. The strongest consensus among the participants of this meeting were the demands, ?Bail out working people, not Wall Street!? and ?Tax the rich, not working people.? The goal of the teach-in is to plan a set of actions, including a mass mobilization, and the establishment of independent, labor/community committees to build ongoing, proactive responses to the crisis for the interests of working people. In other words, they intend to organize a real fightback against this current economic program of open season on working people, our homes, healthcare, housing, schools, and all of our social safety nets. Unite and fight back! We don?t have to point out to working people that our future and the very future of our planet are in jeopardy. This is abundantly clear. Our most important task is to build a broad, democratically organized, and independent labor movement that unites working people across the board?-that can organize the unorganized, employed and unemployed, ?documented? or not?-into a movement powerful enough to carry out the kind of mass, unified actions necessary to win decisive victories for working people anywhere and everywhere these attacks occur. Our unity here and with workers across the globe will fortify our weakest links with our strongest protection and defense?-our massive numbers and our solidarity of action against these assaults. We can keep that wrecking ball from our homes and our schools; we can force the hospitals to tend to the sick; we can keep factories from closing; we can move the homeless into homes; we can stop the deportations and the war machine. Together in unity and solidarity we can ensure our own inalienable right to happiness?-to a life of liberty, democracy, economic and human equality, justice, and a peaceful and healthy world for all. We, the majority of working people across the globe, have an inalienable, democratic right to choose people over profits, to bail out working people not the banks?-to choose socialism over the brutal chaos and profound inequality of capitalism! (1) Watch the video at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28303876#28303876 And the update at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28303876#29684262 (2) http://www.fdic.gov/about/comein/files/foreclosure_statistics.pdf From naskha3 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 13:12:05 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:12:05 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] PM visits General Vo Nguyen Giap Message-ID: <18d70e600906091212w7b665e84rd54118c50c062d50@mail.gmail.com> PM visits General Vo Nguyen Giap By sudhan lookatvietnam.com, May 7, 2009 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited senior General Vo Nguyen Giap (97) at his home this morning, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. Full article: http://sudhan.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/pm-visits-general-vo-nguyen-giap/ From naskha3 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 13:14:52 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:14:52 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Hillary_Clinton_Threatens_to_Attack_Ir?= =?windows-1252?q?an_=91The_Way_That_We_Did=92_Iraq?= Message-ID: <18d70e600906091214g247e54e2jf6d24340ef7c34b8@mail.gmail.com> Hillary Clinton Threatens to Attack Iran ?The Way That We Did? Iraq By sudhan Secretary of State Says US or ?Some Other Enemy? May Launch First Strike Against Iran Full article: http://sudhan.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/hillary-clinton-threatens-to-attack-iran-%E2%80%98the-way-that-we-did%E2%80%99-iraq/ From naskha3 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 13:19:47 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:19:47 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Privatization_of_=91Obama=92s_War=92?= Message-ID: <18d70e600906091219o8ea6b95ncef806713f6bbe89@mail.gmail.com> Privatization of ?Obama?s War? By Michael Winship | Consortiumnews.com, June 7, 2009 Editor?s Note: President Barack Obama is making some moves on the international chess board ? reaching out to the Muslim world, chastising Israel for its harsh treatment of Palestinians and seeking to bring Iran and hard-line Arab states into regional peace talks. However, even as Obama makes those rhetorical and diplomatic moves, the wars in Iraq and, especially, Afghanistan grind on, with some disturbing similarities to George W. Bush?s approach, writes Michal Winship in this guest essay: The sudden reappearance of former Vice President Dick Cheney over the last few months ? seeming to emerge from his famous undisclosed location more frequently now than he ever did when he was in office ? does not mean six more weeks of winter. Full article: http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/06/privatization-of-obamas-war.html From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 13:34:33 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 12:34:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] AP: Stolen Picasso Sketchbook Message-ID: <719506.6276.qm@web45012.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090609/ap_en_ce/eu_france_picasso_theft Can someone explain to me again why art rises to such spectacular prices? How such a demand is formed? A stolen Picasso's sketchbook, dated from 1917 to 1924, is said to cost 8 million euros ($11 million) in the article above.?? Also: 'In August 2007, French investigators recovered two Picasso paintings and a drawing worth a total of more than $66 million stolen from the home of the artist's granddaughter in an overnight heist six months earlier.' 'In 1994, seven Picasso paintings worth an estimated $44 million were stolen from a Zurich gallery.' 'The market for stolen art is valued in the billions of dollars annually.' (!!) ? Confused, Max Clark ? http://clarkmax.blogspot.com/ From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 9 12:38:39 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:38:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Status quo wins in Lebanon for now Message-ID: <5368DB75C94E449B9302DF98228E35C9@office1pc> Most interesting item: the US Ambassador's aggressive intervention to warn the Lebanese that the "world" (we all know exactly who that is) will judge them by how they vote. A Bush-Cheney style tactic for when furriners go to the polls. As for Iran, I have no horse in that race. Although getting Iran out from under his great gift to imperialism and Israel -- his holocaust-denial campaign -- will have its benefits. Any temptation I have to back the opposition was killed dead when I read Robert Dreyfuss' nauseating exercise in snobbery and class hatred of the oppressed and exploited. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/442221/ahmadinejad_s_red_tide He classifies everyone who isn't middle class, isn't wearing lots of makeup under her hijab, and isn't going to coke parties a couple times a week as part of a "virtual fascist movement." It was stuff like this that helped make me soft-on-Khomeini in the early stages of the Iranian revolution. The snobs and Euro-American intellectual racists hated him and I them. Anyway, if the Ahmadinejad people get this translated and passed out, they may be able to turn the tide. It certainly helps his case. One elementary factual error. Dreyfuss, consistent with his image of the "lumpenproletarian" Islamist-fascists (hey, didn't Obama say to drop that stuff -- or did he?), says that the Revolutionary Guards are backing Ahmadinejad. This appears to be untrue. Like most of the Islamic political machine, the leaders of the Guard seem to have lined up with Moussavi -- as I suspect are quite a few working people. Anyway, the article on Lebanon follows. Fred Feldman http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb06082009.html June 8, 2009 Return to the Status Quo Lebanon's Elections By FRANKLIN LAMB Today's predawn stillness was shortly and regularly broken by the crowing of Beirut's eternal chanters, its roosters. Some from as many as 20 stories up in downtown and Hamra apartment building balconies and roofs, others shunted and jammed into small cages or pits inside the Palestinian Refugee Camps. They seemed to speak and pass messages from the posh neighborhoods of East Beirut to the gypsy shacks and tents near Ouzai, as they welcomed the new day. The votes have been tallied and the election results show pretty much a status quo ante with the Majority picking up a net four seats (a new total of 71 with 57 for the Opposition) at the expense of the Christian Maronite leader and Opposition ally, former General Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement. Sometimes contentious in the heat of campaign, the FPM was gracious this morning in conceding its opponents will remain the Majority, if obviously disappointed. One FPM supporter was in tears and she explained that having been educated abroad, she returned to Lebanon and hoped an Opposition victory would expose and end rampant corruption and the Ziam graft system and she was depressed because she fears things might remain as they have been. Michel de Chadarevian, a member of Gen. Michel Aoun's FPM political bureau told the media that FPM was disappointed with the election result but would respect the outcome and would now work with all parties to form a government of national unity. "Lebanon can only be governed by a national unity government," he said. "Even if we had won we would have formed a national unity government." Hezbollah, which won all 11 districts in which it fielded its 11 candidates, and along with its allies won 21 seats in southern Lebanon succeeded in raising its vote tallies, despite a Saudi-funded rival Shai party, Lebanon Option Movement. Hezbollah's and its allies also won 10 seats in the eastern Baalbek region. Hezbollah member, Hasan Fadlallah, an MP in the outgoing parliament, explained: "What matters to us now is that Lebanon turns a new page, one based on partnership, cooperation and understanding," he said. "Lebanon's specificity is in its diversity and there is no majority or minority. No party can claim to have won the majority among all communities." Hezbollah MP Mohamed Raad, the Opposition leader in Parliament, reminded his fellow Lebanese that "the majority must commit not to question our role as a resistance party, the legitimacy of our weapons arsenal and the fact that Israel is an enemy state". The US administration is reportedly disappointed that their 'Team' did not achieve a stronger victory. Just before the voting, the Obama administration allowed Jeffrey Feltman, Deputy Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, in clear violation of Lebanon voting laws, which required no campaigning after midnight on Friday, to blitz the media through carefully timed interviews with pro-Majority An-Nahar and al-Hayat newspapers, with his personal calls for the Lebanese to have enough intelligence to vote as Feltman saw fit. Many Lebanese resented the additional interference in which Feltman announced: "The election's outcome will naturally affect the world's stance towards the new Lebanese government and the manner in which the United States and Congress deal with Lebanon. I believe the Lebanese are smart enough to understand that there will be an effect." Feltman attacked the head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP General Michel Aoun, lecturing Lebanese voters: "one of your politicians is proposing that Christians shouldn't depend on the United States. I hope the Lebanese had accurately listened to the president's [Barack Obama] speech that specifically pointed to the widest Christian religious minority in Lebanon, the Maronites. The president spoke about the need for respecting all peoples in the region including minorities.I hope the Lebanese would ask themselves: do we want to be on the side of the international community and close to the stances that president Obama made? I hope they would say, yes." The June 7, 2009 election has done little to change the political landscape here. It was never a question of an Islamic Republic if the Opposition had decisively prevailed or whether Hezbollah's weapons would be decommissioned before Lebanon was able to defend itself. Nor was it in question that a slim majority by either side would not require a renewed commitment to the Taef Accord calls and the full implementation of all the clauses and the need for Parliament to enact a modern electoral law based on proportional representation which a majority in Lebanon desire. With regard to the noisy issue of the arms of the resistance, there remains insufficient political will in Lebanon to force the issue in Parliament, although Israel has wasted no time insisting on it. The new parliament has important business to conduct, from granting women rights, including the right to confer nationality on their children, to aiding the Palestinian refugees with civil rights until the return to their country and many other pressing social issues. Many Lebanese while exhausted are justifiably proud of their generally well-conducted voting day at more than 1,400 polling stations in 26 voting Districts and are willing to work with their political adversaries for the common good of Lebanon. Having spent election day as a last minute appointed "foreign observer" with the Coalition Libanaise pour L'Observation des Elections, I went, for 13 hours, with colleagues from polling place to polling place, from Beirut, Dahiyeh, Saida and Tyre plus some villages near Qana and around Nabiteye. We watched as voter IDs are verified and announced at each voting room; saw them checked again by all the poll watchers against their copy of the master list of registered voters who were allowed to cast ballots at their sites. Once the watchers all approve the name and identity of the would be voter, the voter signs a registration, steps behind the curtain and places a 2 inch by 2 inch "list" with the names of his choice inside an envelope (the voter can cancel a name and 'write in' another candidate if he/she wishes), seals it, exits the curtain and puts in into a large clear plastic box for all in the room to see, sticks a thumb in a bottle of dark purple dye (the first time this precaution, designed to prevent multiple voting, has ever been used in Lebanese elections), signs a form attesting to his vote and leaves the room as another voter enters. Last night at exactly 7 pm all voting stations were closed. Anyone in line was allowed to vote. My observer team happened to be at a school in Dahiyeh. As the army chained and pad locked the school yard gates locking us inside, probably 25 soldiers, and no doubt additional plain clothes security, asked people to move one block away from the voting station. Inside, the chief of the polling station allowed us to watch silently outside the room with the door open and to take photos as the vote count started. Each ballot was removed one by one. It was placed on a scanner and the ballot with its identifying number was shown on a 4 foot by six foot screen. Each watcher, whether from March 8 or March 14 checked it, wrote down of his/her list the voter number (no names are used) nodded to the Chief, marked their Master Sheet, and the next ballot was taken from the voting box. The atmosphere was serious, polite and everyone appeared exhausted but proud of their work. When the chains were removed from the gates ( it took two signatures from ranking officers to accomplish this feat) we departed the voting station commending the soldiers, and poll workers, many of whom had not slept for two days they told us, for their accomplishment of running a largely exemplary voting process. Our delegation concluded that this aspect of Lebanon's election had been administered very well. The serious problem our team observed and one that could have been easily avoided concerned the very long voter lines which were unnecessary. In every voting station we observed, while there may have been an average of eight to ten poll watchers, five security people and three staff at the head table administering the balloting, there was only one voting booth at each station. This resulted in hundreds of people, at many voting stations, spending four hours or more in the sweltering heat, some with small children or babies. I saw many elderly looking as if they could not stand up much longer. Why each station did not have a dozen voting booths is an open question. Many Lebanese worked hard for months from the different parties and all labored proudly with hope for their unique country and society which saw a record average turnout at 53 per cent up from 45 per cent in 2005. In highly contested Districts such in Metn and Akkar, the average turnout was 65 per cent. Hundreds of thousands of registered voters remained abroad and this is one reason why 53 per cent may not seem impressively high, but actually it is. Those based here such as Lebanese government employees, who voted two days early so they could work on Election Day, achieved turnout figures between 89 per cent and 95 per cent, a record for Lebanon. In non-competitive or already decided Districts, some Lebanese preferred a day of relaxation at the beach or with family and friends to a sometimes long trip to their village to vote, and sometimes only then to cast a vote that will not affect the outcome of the election. Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon. He can be reached at fplamb at sabrashatila.org. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 9 13:31:09 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:31:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Fidel Castro -- another sucker for Obama-Hitler? (Fidel's comment on Obama speech) Message-ID: <9D0DCDCDBF0445ED83FE5A900616F667@office1pc> Fidel's array of quotes from Obama's speech -- which masses of Cubans probably won't see any other way -- certainly demonstrates that the politics of his talk are radically different within the imperialist framework from Hitler's "peace" speech. To equate them is to try to resolve a debate with a smear, with demagogy. And it's the kind of thing that can lead to left-right blocs against Obama social-fascism. Fred Feldman The following introductory remarks are from CubaNews: Here Fidel presents extensive excerpts from the remarks Obama made in Cairo, and makes a few of his own observations about them. I've taken the liberty of posting the English translation with Fidel's short comments highlighted. In a remarkable exercise, Fidel Castro is using his comments to present to the Cuban people, as well as other interested readers, so much of the exact words which Obama presented in his Cairo remarks which were aimed at the Islamic world. In the print edition of today's daily Granma, this comprises two full pages, pp. 2-3 of eight. http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-06-08-2009.html ==================================================== Reflections by Comrade Fidel OBAMA'S SPEECH IN CAIRO On Thursday the 4th of June, at the Islamic University of Al-Azhar in Cairo, Obama gave a speech of special interest to those of us who are closely following his political actions given the enormous might of the superpower he leads. I cite his very own words to indicate what I think are the basic ideas he expressed, thus summarizing his speech to save time. Not only do we have to know that he spoke but also what he said. "We meet at a time of great tension between the United Status and Muslims around the World..." "The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. ".colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations." "Violent extremists have exploited these tensions ." ".has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights.." "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect ." ".they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." ".but no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this point. "As the Holy Quran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." "I'm a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.." "It was Islam - at places like Al-Azhar - that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment". ".And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government, they have stood for civil rights, ." "And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." ".America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire." "The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, ." "Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people.." "When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk." "When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations." ".any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail." "In Ankara, I made clear that America is not - and never will be - at war with Islam." ".we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women and children." ".there's still some who would question or even justify the events of 9/11." "The victims were innocent men, women and children from America ." ".Now, make no mistake: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We see no military - we seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can." "The Holy Quran teaches that whoever kills an innocent is as - it is as if he has killed all mankind. And the Holy Quran also says whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind." "Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world." ".I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible." "Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future - and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. "I have made it clear to the Iraqi people - (applause) - I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. "Iraq's sovereignty is its own. And that's why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August." ".remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all of our troops from Iraq by 2012." "Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country." ".in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals." "I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year." ".America will defend itself, respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law" "The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world." "America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable." "On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people - Muslims and Christians - have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they've endured the pain of dislocation." "Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead." "So let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own." ".two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive." "It's easy to point fingers - for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought about by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond." ".if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth." "The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security." ". For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights." "Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist." ".Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." "This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." "And Israel must also live up to its obligation to ensure that Palestinians can live and work and develop their society." "Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be a critical part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress." "The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems." "The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons." "In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government." "Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians." "Rather than remain trapped in the past, I've made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build." "I recognize it will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect." "I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons. And that's why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons." ".any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." In these three first topics of his speech we find the basic objective of his trip to that Islamic University of Egypt. One cannot blame the new president of the United States for the situation created in the Middle East. It is obvious that he wants to find an exit from the colossal mess created there by his predecessors and by the very development of events over the last 100 years. Not even Obama could imagine when he was working in the black communities of Chicago that the terrible effects of a financial crisis would combine with the factors that made his election as president in a strongly racist society possible. He takes office at an exceptionally complex time for his country and the world. He is trying to resolve problems that he perhaps considers to be simpler than they really are. Centuries of colonial and capitalist exploitation have given way to a world where a handful of overdeveloped rich countries coexist with another handful of immensely poor countries that provide raw materials and labor force. If you add China and India, two truly emerging nations, the struggle for natural resources and markets make up an entirely new situation on the planet where human survival itself has yet to be solved. Obama's African roots, his humble background and his amazing ascent awaken hope in many who like shipwreck victims try to hold on to a piece of wood in the middle of the storm. His statement that "any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail" is correct; or when he declares that "people of all faiths reject the killing of innocent men, women and children" or when he reaffirms to the world his opposition to the use of torture. Generally speaking, several of his abovementioned statements are theoretically correct; he clearly perceives the need for all countries, with no exceptions of course, to give up nuclear weapons. Well-known and influential personalities in the US see this as a great danger, as technology and science generalize access to radioactive material and ways of using it, even in small amounts. It is still early to pass judgment on his degree of commitment to the ideas he presents, and up to which point he stands firm in sustaining, for example, the proposal of looking for a peace agreement built on fair bases, with guarantees for all the states in the Middle East. The current president's main difficulty lies in the fact that the principles he is advocating contradict the policy the superpower has pursued for almost seven decades, from the end of the last battles of World War II in August of 1945. I put aside at this moment the aggressive and expansionist policy it applied on the peoples of Latin America, especially Cuba, when it was still far from being the most powerful nation in the world. Each one of the norms advocated by Obama in Cairo contradicts the interventions and the wars promoted by the United States. The first of them was the famous Cold War which he mentions in his speech, unleashed by the government of his country. Ideological differences with the USSR do not justify the hostility towards that state which contributed more than 25 million lives in the war against Nazism. Obama would not be remembering in these days the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings and the liberation of Europe if it were not for the blood of the Soviet troops. Those who freed the survivors of the famous Osviecim concentration camp were Soviet army soldiers. The world was unaware of what was happening there even though quite a few among Western official circles knew the facts. How millions of Jewish children, women and old people were atrociously murdered, and millions of Russian children, women and old people lost their lives as a result of the brutal Nazi invasion in a quest for living space. The West granted concessions to Hitler and conspired to launch him and they finally pushed him to occupy and colonize Slavic lands. During World War II, the Soviets were US allies, not enemies. They dropped and tested the effects of two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two defenseless cities. Those who perished there were mainly Japanese children, women and old people. If one were to analyze the wars promoted, supported or waged by the United States in China, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, among the millions of people who died, many were children, women and old people. The colonial wars of France and Portugal after W.W. II had the support of the United States; the coups and interventions in Central America, Panama, Santo Domingo, Grenada, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru and Argentina were all promoted and supported by the United States. Israel was not a nuclear power. The creation of a state in territory from which the Jews were driven into an exodus by the Roman Empire 2000 years ago was supported in good faith by the USSR as well as other countries in the world. At the triumph of the Cuban Revolution we had relations with that state for more than a decade until its wars of conquest over the Palestinians and other Arab peoples led us to severe them. Total respect for religion and Jewish religious activities has been maintained without any sort of interruption. The US never opposed Israeli conquest of Arab territories, nor did it protest the terrorist methods used against the Palestinians. On the contrary, it created a nuclear power there, one of the most advanced in the world, in the heart of Arab and Muslim territory, creating in the Middle East one of the planet's most dangerous places. The superpower also used Israel to supply nuclear weapons to the armies of apartheid in South Africa, to be used against Cuban troops which alongside Angolan and Namibian forces were defending the Peoples' Republic of Angola. These are fairly recent events which the current US president surely knows about. Thus we are not foreign to the aggression and the danger the Israeli nuclear potential represents for peace. After the three initial points of his speech in Cairo, Obama starts philosophizing and lecturing about US foreign policy: "The fourth issue that I will address is democracy", he said. "So let me be clear: No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation on any other." "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election." "But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; ." "These are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere." "The fifth issue that we must address together is religious freedom." "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance . I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country." "Among some Muslims, there's a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of somebody else's faith." ".fault lines must be closed among Muslims, as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq." ".it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit - for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We can't disguise hostility toward any religion behind the pretence of liberalism." "I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well educated are far more likely to be prosperous." ".the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world." "I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons. Our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential." "The Internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence into the home. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and change in communities." ".invest in online learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a young person in Kansas can communicate instantly with a young person in Cairo." ".we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world that we seek - a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes ." "That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together." "It's easier to start wars than to end them. "that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us "We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written. "The Holy Quran tells us: "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace." The Holy Bible tells us: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Applause.) The people of the world can live together in peace." As you can see, tackling the fourth topic in his speech at Al-Azhar University Obama stumbles into a contradiction. After beginning his words with a maxim as is his custom, stating that: "No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation on any other", a principle in the Charter of the United Nations as a fundamental element of international law, he immediately contradicts himself with a declaration of faith that turns the United States into the supreme judge over democratic values and human rights. Then he refers to subjects related to economic development and equal opportunities. He makes promises to the Arab world; he points our advantages and contradictions. It would really appear to be a public relations campaign carried out by the United States with the Muslim countries; in any case, this is better than threatening to destroy them with bombs. At the end of the speech there is quite a mix of subjects. If one takes into account the length of the speech, without using paper, the number of lapses is negligible as compared with his predecessor who used to make a mistake in every paragraph. He is a very good communicator. I tend to observe historical, political and religious ceremonies with interest. This one at Al-Azhar University seemed to be to be an unreal scene. Not even Pope Benedict XVI had declared such ecumenical phrases as Obama did. For a second I imagined the pious Muslim, Catholic, Christian or Jew, or someone from any other religion, listening to the president in the spacious hall of Al-Azhar University. At a certain moment I couldn't tell whether he was in a Catholic cathedral, a Christian church, a mosque or a synagogue. He left early for Germany. For three days he toured politically significant sites. He participated and spoke at commemorative ceremonies. He visited museums, received his family and dined at famous restaurants. He has an impressive working capacity. Some time will go by before we see anything like it again. Fidel Castro Ruz June 8, 2009 7:12 p.m. From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 13:59:08 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 12:59:08 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] (NEW) Raekwon - Wu Ooh Message-ID: <796668.6238.qm@web45002.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwSZeAgDM-E&feature=channel Raekwon is of the Wu-Tang Clan, one of hip-hop's best selling, most critically acclaimed hip-hop acts. It's just like Public Enemy: reporting on?(representing) mainly minority slum communities. I think its wicked cool, poetic even, provided you can critically distance yourself from some of the?bigotries espoused. But the only reason I post it is to see what individuals of other generations and tastes think. 'Liberation moments, Move like 91 Romans, Cloning everything...' -Rae 'Yo, jumping out of Benz wagons, My family live in the Hill [New Haven?! --MC] They call us Bin Ladens, Laughing...' -Ghost 'I'm what these kids killin' to be...' -Meth They very best, Max Clark http://clarkmax.blogspot.com/ From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 14:37:56 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 16:37:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview1971 In-Reply-To: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <3E6C200100DE48C491D2BE49CB4C5D75@albanta> Mehmet writes: "your song on the contrary duplicates the universal massage of right-wing ideologies." I agree completely with People's Kommissar of sound songs Mehmet Cagatay. Petty-bourgeois dilettante "artists" must not be allowed to besmirch the strategic line of march of the proletariat with half-baked paeans to life, love, peace, revolution, imagination and so on. We must apply a strictly proletrian aesthetic in which there will be no room for effete snobs with funny accents like the Lennon guy. Joaquin Bustelo Jugashvili Kulturkampf Komandos (Chapman Division) From nmgoro at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 15:06:39 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:06:39 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview1971 In-Reply-To: <3E6C200100DE48C491D2BE49CB4C5D75@albanta> References: <528333.82401.qm@web31701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <3E6C200100DE48C491D2BE49CB4C5D75@albanta> Message-ID: <4A2ECEDF.7030803@gmail.com> Joaquin Bustelo escribi?: > Jugashvili Kulturkampf Komandos HAH! You wrote Komandos, and not Kommandos!!! Utterly unakseptable!!!! Please sign on your form for firing squad target, and present it immediately at the Kounter Revolutionary Ignorance Desk. Under penalty of death. From mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com Tue Jun 9 15:46:02 2009 From: mehmetcagatayaydin at yahoo.com (Mehmet Cagatay) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 14:46:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview1971 Message-ID: <692841.24783.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Joaquin Bustelo from Kulturkampf Komandos wrote: "We must apply a strictly proletrian aesthetic in which there will be no room for effete snobs with funny accents like the Lennon guy." ... Hail to you comrade, I couldn't say it better myself. I've been listening his music since I was thirteen and ironically it seems that after twenty years I had been doomed to be criticized for confronting his music with my closet fixation on Proletkult, but not for my guilty pleasure of still listening his early songs from the "muzak" years with the Beatles. I just tried to point out how it is easy to fall into the trap of using enemy's language, nothing more. But, in the age of the demise of symbolic efficiency, as Zizek called, there are always some hyper-canny guys out there who detects the true content of your words, even if you had no intention to be understood in that way. This is very depressing. m?. From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 16:20:16 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 18:20:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Cynthia McKinney Announces Formation of DIGNITY In-Reply-To: <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> References: <709f342d0906051525i64060bcp565deb3308f64dea@mail.gmail.com> <4A29A244.3000404@panix.com> Message-ID: Louis writes: " I am a little skeptical since there is so little motion in the Black community now. At the risk of provoking Fred with my Obamaphobic views, I have a feeling that the lack of motion is attributable to his hold over the official Black leadership." Well, as usual my crystal ball is not working. But it just don't plain feel right what these comments point to -- that the election of Obama was a DEFEAT for the Black community and a SETBACK for political action by Black folks and working people generally. Politics and above all shifts in mass moods are ... complicated. But the dynamics of U.S. ruling class politics having wound up last year that it either was going to be a woman or a Black man for the Democrats and therefore ALMOST CERTAINLY winning the White House, does not overwhelm me with a sensation of ruling class strength and invincibility. Of course, if the oppression of Blacks or women had become trivial, expendable, then these could be described as merely cosmetic changes. But I firmly believe that gender and racial/national oppression are *fundamental* to the existence of capitalism as a system, if for no other reason than WITHOUT them, the overthrow of capitalism as solely a system of CLASS exploitation would be almost automatic, as the communist manifesto argues very cogently. And if that is so, then every time the color line or gender barrier is pushed back, that registers a gain for working and oppressed peoples and the anticapitalist cause. Notice I say "registers a gain" -- not necessarily "constitutes a gain" (1s a victory in and of itself), without ambiguity or contradiction. Quite often, the advance has been a millimeter at a time, in thousands of individual incidents, and what seems like a breakthrough now is also a pulling back by reaction to what it sees as a more compact and defensible front line. It would be very hard to argue that in the 1930's, the election of Roosevelt to his first term in office was in and of itself an advance for working people. Yet quite clearly millions of working people took it that way, and their faith that Roosevelt's victory made possible THEIR OWN victories helped to bring about those working class victories. Everything I see, hear and feel suggests Obama's victory has not had the effect of demobilizing and demoralizing the Black community, the Latino community or other working and oppressed people. Quite the contrary. It is also true that on a whole series of issues, from gay marriage to torture and the war, one immediate effect has been to move some radicals and progressive to the right, as they seek to transform in their own minds Obama's 100% mainstream ruling class positions into progressive and even audaciously radical positions. But it is also true that some of the people who seem to be in this camp instead are trying to maneuver, carrying out what they view as essentially a "flanking tactic." I think it is a bad tactic under these circumstances, but that is the reality of it, not a huge number of political people having taken leave of their senses. However, something ELSE has been going on. Which is a shifting of the political spectrum to the left (on some issues), and a broadening of the spectrum to the left (on others). The clearest example I think is gay marriage and related subjects (like "don't ask, don't tell"). As things stand today, gay marriage/acceptance of gays and lesbians is on the verge of becoming the mainstream American position, just as around 1963-1965 the nominal, ostensible equality of Black folks became part of official American ideology. Now this isn't JUST a subjective appreciation on my part. If you look at how people are answering gay marriage and related questions, "Public Opinion" as registered by CNN's and other surveys is CLEARLY in motion. Obama's position -- "civil unions" which as first staked out was a moderate/progressive "rose by any other name" and "half a loaf is better than none" compromise to supposedly move forwards is becoming the fallback position of the reactionaries: "at least don't call it marriage" -- and don't let flaming fags into the army. And this AM on CNN's "American morning" they had the Asian-American Arabic linguist who has become sort of the poster boy against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." And at one point in the interview, the CNN anchorette (and I know anchorette is a "sexist" term, but the person who plays this role in the CNN morning show very much plays her part as "anchorette," rather than a non-gender-differentiated news reader/interviewer) asks this guy accusingly, in essence, you were in the closet for X number of years why did you come out a year or two ago? And I've seen interviews with this guy, but I never noticed him answering quite this way. He said it was because he fell in love. There he was at the age of 26 (I think that was it) and he was in love for the first time and he felt uplifted and supported by this relationship and he did not want to hide, lie or dissemble about it -- it was too important to him. I don't know if the CNN anchor is this good an actor or it was genuine, and in a sense it doesn't matter. Because the reaction she communicated with her expression and body language was surprise, but also understanding and acceptance, and perhaps even support. And after a little more chit chat she said good bye to the guest but added some half-awkward phrase like, congratulations on your love or something like that -- the sort of vapid sentiment that entertainment ancors always express to their guests upon marriages and births. That what was presented (by the interviewee) as a "significant other" relationship evoked an attempt at the clich?d anchor response tells me something. Homosexual relationships are crossing a line, acquiring a legitimacy that a few years ago they did not have. It may be that this one anchor is somewhat ahead or a little behind the curve, but this is why these kinds of folks get paid the big bucks -- because they're in tune with the zeitgeist. * * * Something similar, I believe, is happening more slowly and more subterraneanly on the war, torture, etc. Dick Chaney's posture is quickly evolving to being outside the mainstream political spectrum. Obama's "compromising" positions are becoming the right wing position, that torture may be wrong but we don't want to print the pictures or air the descriptions because that would be running guns to Al Qaeda. And on the left, increasingly space is opening up for "we need Nuremberg trials." Don't believe me? There was a right-wing Chicago disk jockey who arranged to have himself waterboarded (on the air). This pompous and arrogant jerk had argued waterboarding wasn't a big deal. But he didn't last 20 seconds, and coming out said it was definitely and absolutely torture. In so many big words. I don't believe this guy would have admitted that EXCEPT for the evolving political climate. A year ago he wasn't proposing to do this test, but even if he had done it, he would have said it was much worse than he imagined and we shouldn't do it, but he would not have used the "T" word. * * * What does this have to do with Cynthia McKinney and the formation of "Dignity"? Just that I don't agree with those who think perspectives for organizing in the Black community or in general have been negatively affected by His Hopefulness's' ascension into the big house. I see his election instead as a symptom of broader processes that suggest a drift or shift to the left, and that in this sense is favorable in the medium term (a year or two) for renewed organizing. But one thing that perhaps needs to be taken into account is that while McKinney has proven herself quite righteous on many issues, she's never been accused of having a great deal of interest in or skill at nuts-and-bolts organizing. Sometimes an organization --or the idea of it-- is so right for the moment that it almost organizes itself (like the Panthers among Blacks around 1968 or so, or SDS among [mostly white] campus radicals around the same time). But usually it takes a lot of dedication and effort and attention to detail and people skills. The truth is that here locally, where McKinney was the Congresswoman for several years, the criticism of her among leftists who supported and worked with/for her --folks from Soli, Freedom Road, Workers World, Malcolm x Grassroots Movement and other nationalists, Latino radicals active in the immigrant rights movement, etc., is that McKinney did not seem to understand the importance of building an organization, either "her own" in the 4th CD, or some other form. It was peculiar because she DID prioritize relating to and working with existing community organizations of all kinds but did not recognize that the people who had been drawn around/into her campaigns were ALSO one. Joaquin From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 17:04:10 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 19:04:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] For 300 Years Britain has Outsourced Mayhem - Finally it's Coming Home In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70906091604q3a87a32cv39ff4b578d0156b0@mail.gmail.com> > > > ** > > *By George Monbiot* > > Opium, famine and banks all played their part in this country's plundering > of the globe. Now it's over, we find it hard to accept. > > http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22800.htm > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > > From johnaimani at earthlink.net Tue Jun 9 17:15:16 2009 From: johnaimani at earthlink.net (johnaimani) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 16:15:16 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Telegraph: "Extremists make gains across Europe" Message-ID: (JAI: Lowlights from 3 articles (June 9, 2009) on the European Elections) Telegraph: "European elections 2009: extremists make gains across Europe at the expense of the Left" In Germany, Angela Merkel's Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister, the Christian Social Union, won 37.9 per cent of the EU vote. German Social Democrats took only 20.8 per cent, their worst showing since the Second World War in a nationwide election. French Socialists failed to score against Nicolas Sarkozy as the centre-left vote slumped to 16.8 per cent of the vote while the French President led on 28 per cent. The result is a boost for President Sarkozy who is expected to use the election as a vote of confidence in economic reforms despite his low personal popularity ratings. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, shrugged off his impending divorce, revelations over his relationship with an 18-year-old woman, alleged bribes to a lawyer and the use of state planes to secure a modest victory with 39 per cent of the vote. Geert Wilders and his far-right anti-Islamic immigrant party shot to second place behind the ruling Christian Democrats by taking 17 per cent of the vote in the Netherlands. WSJ: "Labour Backs Brown Despite EU Election Results" Labour finished third in elections for seats in the European Parliament -- behind not just the opposition Conservatives, but also the fringe UK Independence Party, a weak showing for the party that has governed the U.K. since Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997. Labour captured just 15.7% of the vote, its lowest share of a national vote since 1910. Labour also suffered a rift with another crucial constituency -- its traditional left wing -- when Mr. Blair pushed Britain to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124446175919393939.html WSJ: "Election Sets Back Germany's Left Wing" Germany's Social Democrats got their worst result in a nationwide vote in the postwar era. Social Democrats are still paying for having cut back Germany's welfare state when they were last in power on their own, under Ms. Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schr?der. Mr. Steinmeier helped design that overhaul, and it has left "working-class voters who used to be core supporters disillusioned," http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124448519579794935.html From markalause at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 19:31:57 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:31:57 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Power to the People: The Lost John Lennon Interview1971 In-Reply-To: <692841.24783.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <692841.24783.qm@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Mehmet Cagatay deplores being "in the age of the demise of symbolic efficiency" and writes, "I just tried to point out how it is easy to fall into the trap of using enemy's language, nothing more." What language, I wonder, has not been shaped and molded by the class nature of this system? If we refuse to use them because they are the "enemy's language," where does that leave us? Personally, I think we should aim at efficiency rather than "symbolic efficiency," and avoid having to resort to Esperanto or Protonostratic. Peace, ML From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 9 22:21:52 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:21:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Israeli cabinet member urges sanctions on US Message-ID: PELED PROPOSES ISRAELI SANCTIONS ON U.S. By Gil Hoffman and Hilary Leila Krieger Jerusalem Post June 9, 2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371046569&pagename=JPost/JPAr ticle/ShowFull In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government over U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the U.S. in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday. In the 11-page letter, obtained by the *Jerusalem Post* from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends steps Israel can take to compensate for the shift in American policy, which he believes has become hostile to Israel. "Obama's ascendance represents a turning point in America's approach to the region, especially to Israel," he wrote in the letter. "The new administration believes that in order to fight terror, guarantee stability, and withdraw from Iraq, a new diplomatic slant is needed involving drastic steps to pacify the Muslim world and the adoption of a more balanced approach to Israel, including intensive pressure to stop building in settlements, remove outposts, and advance the formation of a Palestinian state." Peled added that faced with an American government with an activist agenda that does not mesh with Israel's, traditional reactions are no longer relevant. He said he expected that Obama would eventually realize that appeasement and dialogue with countries that support terror would not have positive results. But in the interim, the minister suggests reconsidering military and civilian purchases from the U.S., selling sensitive equipment that the Washington opposes distributing internationally, and allowing other countries that compete with the U.S. to get involved with the peace process and be given a foothold for their military forces and intelligence agencies. Peled said that shifting military acquisition to America's competition would make Israel less dependent on the U.S. For instance, he suggested buying planes from the France-based Airbus firm instead of the American Boeing. In what may be his most controversial suggestion, Peled recommends intervening in American congressional races to weaken Obama and asking American Jewish donors not to contribute to Democratic congressional candidates. He predicted that this would result in Democratic candidates pressuring Obama to become more pro-Israel. Peled called for the formation of a new body intended to influence American public opinion. The groups he suggests courting include Hispanic Americans and labor unions in industries that benefit from Israeli military acquisitions. A former OC Northern Command, Peled is considered part of the left flank of the Likud that includes ministers Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan. Unlike Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, he does not have a history of openly criticizing American policies and unlike Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, he does not have personal ties to the Republican Party. Peled told the *Post* on Monday that he still hoped common ground could be found with the Obama administration, but just in case that did not happen, Israel must be ready. "We must make every effort to maintain our relationship with the U.S. and I respect Obama, but Israel has its own interests and we have to know what our alternatives are," Peled said. "I don't think what I suggest is vengeful. I just think that even a superpower must behave like a partner." Peled personally gave the letter to Netanyahu at Sunday's cabinet meeting and urged him to take it seriously. But a source close to the prime minister reacted to it with scorn and stressed that none of Peled's suggestions would be implemented. "The government's goal is to cooperate with the U.S.," an official in the Prime Minister's Office said. "Jerusalem and Washington have a special relationship and we expect that relationship to continue to be strong, intimate and cooperative." Shoshana Bryen, the senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs in Washington, said she could understand Peled's perspective but worried about its consequences. "If what he's doing is expressing the frustration that after being a good friend and ally, as Israel has been, he feels like Israel is being stepped on, then he's right," she said, adding that it was appropriate to make America aware of those feelings. But she warned that such expressions could "take on a life of their own," and that some of Peled's policy prescriptions could be less than helpful for the Jewish state. For instance, while Bryen said it made sense for Israel to diversify its military sales partners in any case, relationships with European and Russian companies and countries were likely to be subject to some of the same issues. In addition, she noted, America might not be pleased. "If you take on a big country when you're a small country, you have to be very, very cognizant of the ways a big country can respond," she said. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Peled's letter. But Democratic political activists in Washington dismissed out of hand Peled's suggestions, saying that such an approach would have little chance of influencing Congress's posture on Israel. "It shows Yossi Peled is terribly uninformed about U.S. politics," said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira Forman. "He doesn't understand the politics of the American Jewish community. He doesn't understand the politics of the Democratic party." Forman argued that Republicans had long tried to use the issue of Israel to peel Jews away from the Democratic Party with limited success, as the constituency continued to vote overwhelmingly Democrat. He predicted that such efforts, if attempted, would neither shift congressional support away from Obama nor boomerang to hurt Israel's backing on Capitol Hill. "Any such efforts would be so quixotic, would be so insignificant, would be so non-workable that I don't think it would have an impact either way," he said. But other Jewish leaders were concerned that Peled's recommendations might create negative repercussions. "Just as it is inadvisable and inappropriate for the United States government to interfere in the domestic political affairs of the State of Israel, it is totally wrong-headed and dangerous for the Government of Israel to attempt to inject itself into American electoral politics," said William Daroff, director of the United Jewish Communities' Washington office. "I have no doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not know in advance about this proposal, and that he would reject it as outlandish." From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Tue Jun 9 22:35:49 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:35:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Stratfor: Iran's political system approaching impasse Message-ID: <99BAB9A10DDB47BDB542769E0AE872D9@office1pc> IRAN'S POLITICAL SYSTEM APPROACHING IMPASSE Stratfor June 8, 2009 http://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical_diary/20090607 The last debate in Iran?s first-ever televised series of presidential candidate debates will take place on Monday. The debates among candidates seeking election on June 12 have been marked by vicious attacks from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- not only against his main challenger, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, but also against several other key figures within the Iranian political establishment. They include Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the regime?s second most influential leader (after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei). The president has made several serious charges against his opponents, laying bare the extent of the rifts within the state. Ahmadinejad claimed to have evidence that Rafsanjani (a former two-term president who currently heads Iran?s two most powerful institutions) and his family accumulated their wealth illegally, and that Rafsanjani had conspired with an Arab state to undermine Ahmadinejad?s government. He went so far as to accuse Mousavi?s wife (an intellectual and dean of a university), who has been at the forefront of her husband?s campaign, of securing her academic credentials through inappropriate or illegal means. The situation is serious enough that Khamenei, who had supported Ahmadinejad in his bid for a second term, criticized the president, saying, ?One doesn?t like to see a nominee, for the sake of proving himself, seeking to negate somebody else. I have no problem with debate, dialogue, and criticism, but these debates must take place within a religious framework.? From gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com Tue Jun 9 23:27:27 2009 From: gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com (Gary MacLennan) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:27:27 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Israeli cabinet member urges sanctions on US In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: So a kite has been flown with a leak of what is surely the Israeli equivalent of a pre-emptive strike. Do the Israelis genuinely realize that the ground is shifting under them? Certainly Obama seems to be stumbling around and causing some anxiety and even paranoia in Israel. It may be he is looking for a way to finesse the excesses of the Bush era. Certainly there do appear to be differences between the Obama and the Bush administrations. But overall the balance is surely on the side of continuity rather than rupture. We will only get change we can believe in in American foreign policy if the Arab revolution manifests itself. On which topic did Obama meet Mubarak when in Cairo? If he did not then there might actually be some substance to the rumours of Mubarak's health. These surfaced recently on the angryarab.blogspot.com and the Mossad site dembka.com. regards Gary From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 00:20:18 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:20:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Radical and progressive ebook archive site Message-ID: I highly doubt that the powers at be at blogger.com will let this one stay up for a while so grab what you can, while you can. "Saviours and Survivors" is up there in a perfectly formatted 6 x 9. A bunch of Harvey's work was there too. I think it's suppose to function as a sort of library where the site limits you to three downloads a week, I was able to get Saviours and No Logo without problems. http://radicalebooks.blogspot.com From lueko.willms at t-online.de Wed Jun 10 01:05:00 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (Lueko Willms) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:05:00 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Berlin: A decades old corpse found in morgue believed to be the real Rosa Luxemburg Message-ID: <000.40600a001c5b2f4a.046.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> Walter asked me to forward this article to Marxmail. The author is the German free lance journalist and historian Ingo Niebel > who gives as his special areas of interest Venezuela, the Basque country, Germany and secret services. > See also I'll give some links to articles in the German press about the controversy in a reply to this article. Yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt am Main Germany ..................Begin Forwarded Message.................. From: Walter Lippmann To: Lueko Willms Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 20:30:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Luko - Would you post this to Marxmail? Thanks! This first appeared in a Spanish-language Basque website. Then it was picked up and reproduced in Cuba's GRANMA, from which CubaNews found it and has had it translated. A link to a related English-language BBC report on this is also posted below. Walter Lippmann ============================================= GRANMA Havana, Monday June 8, 2009. Year 13 / Number 159 90 years later, Rosa Luxemburg's remains are found By Ingo Niebel Gara http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs2466.html A CubaNews translation by Giselle Gil. Edited by Walter Lippmann. Sooner or later victims reappear and demand justice. This typical crime novel thesis has been confirmed once more in Germany. Michael Tsokas, director of Pathology at the Charit? hospital in Berlin, has reported the existence of a body that could be that of communist leader Rosa Luxemburg This charismatic communist leader was killed and made to disappear by right-wing militarists in 1919. The crime was perpetrated with the blessings of the German Social Democrats, one of its perpetrators acknowledged in 1970. The possible appearance of Luxemburg's remains will have consequences for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in a very important election year. This party is fighting for its survival as a mass party. When Michael Tsokas became head of Pathology at the Charit? hospital in 2007 he came across the remains of an anonymous woman who had been part of his institute's collection for 90 years. The body is missing its head, arms and legs. After two years of research, Tsokas made the results of its findings public: he believes that these are the remains of communist heroine Rosa Luxemburg, because the skeleton measured one and a half meters and has a hip deformation consistent with the political activist's characteristic way of walking. However, Tsokas' finding is inconsistent with the report drafted by the two most prestigious German coroners in 1919. It seems they performed an autopsy on another woman's body, whose hip was perfect. Furthermore, the wound they found in her skull is not consistent with the brutal blow inflicted with a rifle butt Luxemburg received, before she was shot in the temple at close range. MANY QUESTIONS: Who was buried with her comrade Karl Liebknecht on June 19, 1919 in the Friedrichsfelde cemetery in Berlin under the name of Rosa Luxemburg? Who ordered this violation of the law? Did the SPD, governing at the time, pressure the forensic experts into falsifying an autopsy so as to rapidly take a dead woman who was still causing them serious problems off their hands? This recent discovery does not change the historical facts. On January 15, 1919, several soldiers led by the ultra right-wing official Waldemar Pabst, arrested Luxemburg and Liebknecht after the failure of a communist uprising in Berlin. They took the two activists to their headquarters where they tortured them brutally. Pabst ordered them killed after receiving approval from the highest echelons of the SPD. The party was carrying out an uncompromising struggle for power against all political parties to their left. They did it with the support of the most reactionary forces of the defunct monarchy. During that civil war, rightwing soldiers executed thousands of leftists without any trial. In 1962 Pabst acknowledged that the Minister of War, Gustav Noske (SPD) authorized all the deaths. In 1970, he added that the authorization required the endorsement of the president and head of the German SPD, Friedrich Ebert. That night in January, Liebknecht was shot in the back. His body was then handed over to the police, claiming he died during an "escape attempt". The lifeless body of Luxemburg was thrown in one of the channels of Berlin, where it appeared four months later. REQUEST FOR A PROPER BURIAL Tsokas believes the arms and legs are missing, because they tied weights to the body with cables and, in an advanced state of decomposition, the cables cut them off. The coroner did not rule out that the skull could have disappeared, because at that time pathologists included the head of the famous in their macabre collections. Now, he is expecting that a DNA test will reveal the identity of the dead woman. A niece of Luxembourg is now living in Warsaw. Should Rosa Luxemburg's identity be confirmed, the head of the Die Linke parliamentary group, Gregor Gysi, will demand from the President, from the Federal Government and from Linke a proper burial in the "cemetery of the Socialists" in Berlin. Every second Sunday in January, thousands of activists pay tribute here to those who died for a better world. In this election year, Die Linke could take advantage of the appearance of Luxemburg in the battle of ideas against the SPD, not just by clarifying the collaboration established by the social democrats with the extreme right-wing in 1919, but also by clarifying the doubts concerning the alleged suicide with firearms of the high echelon of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in a high-security prison in 1977. These violent deaths occurred when Helmut Schmidt was head of the social democratic government. > > > ========================================= WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ "Cuba - Un Para?so bajo el bloqueo" ========================================= ...................End Forwarded Message.................. send by L?ko Willms Frankfurt/Main / Lueko.Willms at T-Online.de From lueko.willms at t-online.de Wed Jun 10 01:42:00 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:42:00 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Berlin: A decades old corpse found in morgue believed to be the real Rosa Luxemburg Message-ID: <000.20830c00c8632f4a.057@lws-media.de> Lueko Willms (lueko.willms at t-online.de) wrote on 2009-06-10 at 09:05:00 in about [Marxism] Berlin: A decades old corpse found in morgue believed to be the real Rosa Luxemburg: > > > Michael Tsokas, director of Pathology at the Charit? hospital in Berlin, > has reported the existence of a body that could be that of communist > leader Rosa Luxemburg Here are some links to articles in the weekly magazine "Der Spiegel" about the case (German language, with images): May 29, 2009: "Doctors have found the corpse of Rosa Luxemburg, they say": > May 29, 2009: "Leiche im Keller" - a long article about the issue > May 30, 2009: "Riddle of supposed corpse of Rosa Luxemburg could be solved" > May 31, 2009: "The hospital 'Charit?' wants to release the corpse of Luxemburg" > In an interview with the leftist daily "junge welt", published May 30, the CEO of the Dietz publishing house (which publishes among others the works of Marx and Engels and of Rosa Luxemburg), J?rn Sch?trumpf, supports the claim that the recently found body is the one by Rosa Luxemburg: > An opposing view is layed out in an article by Klaus Gietinger in the same paper on June 4: > Gietinger claims that a niece of Rosa Luxemburg is living in Warsaw, and that a DNA check could bring certainty about this corpse. According to Sch?trumpf, the fascists had removed the corpse of the revolutionary leaders from the graves in the 1930ies. The grave site of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and other socialists is located at the memorial for socialists at the "Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde" in Berlin-Lichtenberg, to be seen here in Google Maps > Short article on the burial site in English language Wikipedia: > A collection of images: > "Official" website of the memorial: > Another description: > Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in German From naskha3 at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 02:48:46 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:48:46 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] UNHRC blasts United States for killing civilians Message-ID: <18d70e600906100148w46aa8d6bo89eab3c784354120@mail.gmail.com> UN Human Rights Council Blasts US for Killing Civilians, Drone Attacks and Using Mercenaries The UN group is also calling on the US to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate crimes by US officials. By Jeremy Scahill, RebelReports, June 10, 2009 The UN Human Rights Council has issued a report blasting the US for killing civilians, violating human rights and creating a ?zone of impunity? for unaccountable private contractors to fight its wars. The UN group also criticized the US use of drones to attack Pakistan. The report, released this week was authored by Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. ?First, the government has failed to track and make public the number of civilian casualties, or the conditions under which deaths occurred,? he said. ?Second, the military justice system fails to provide ordinary people, including U.S. citizens and families of Iraqi and Afghan victims, basic information on the status of investigations into civilian casualties or prosecutions resulting therefrom.? Alston called on the US to establish a national commission to investigate the killing of civilians and for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to criminally investigate government officials accused of crimes. ?The government has failed to effectively investigate and punish lower-ranking soldiers for such deaths, and has not held senior officers responsible,? Alston said. ?Worse, it has effectively created a zone of impunity for private contractors and civilian intelligence agents by only rarely investigating and prosecuting them.? On the issue of drone attacks, Alston said, ?Targeted killings carried out by drone attacks on the territory of other states are increasingly common and remain deeply troubling? The U.S. government should disclose the legal basis for such killings and identify any safeguards designed to reduce collateral civilian casualties and ensure that the government has targeted the correct person.? According to Reuters: U.S. diplomat Lawrence Richter objected to Alston?s remarks, saying the U.N. investigator did not have the mandate to cover military and intelligence operations related to armed conflict. Richter told the Human Rights Council that the United States has an extensive legal framework to respond to unlawful killings and is doing all it can to provide information about the deaths that occur in its armed conflicts. Alston, who is an Australian law professor, visited the United States last year, before Obama became president. From lueko.willms at t-online.de Wed Jun 10 04:39:39 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:39:39 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] Stratfor about the risks for US imperial interests in Obama's stance towards the Israel-problem In-Reply-To: <000.a0440c00e311154a.053.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> References: <000.a0440c00e311154a.053.lueko.willms.dialin@t-online.de> Message-ID: <000.c80807006b8d2f4a.067@lws-media.de> Lueko Willms (lueko.willms at t-online.de) wrote on 2009-05-21 at 10:33:39 about [Marxism] StratFor: Peace Process a chimera; Israel and US need stable Arab regimes; Israels freedom of action is defined by the US, not Israel: > > > This is a comment on occasion of Netanyahu's visit to Washington by > the "geopoliticians" of Stratfor (Strategic Forcast), a US-american > "think tank" devoted to a world view without class struggle, and > where the USA has the manifest destiny to rule the world. > > An interesting analysis of the limits and interests of the US > imperial power and its beachhead in West Asia, the state of Israel. > > ..................Begin Forwarded Message.................. > > From: Stratfor > Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 16:01:40 -0500 > Subject: Geopolitical Weekly : An Israeli Prime Minister > Comes to Washington Again In that article, Strafor author George Friedman declared the "Peace Process" to be nothing but a chimera to avoid real change and to maintain the relationship between USA, Israel and the reactionary Arab regimes, whose stability was declared to be primordial for US and Israeli interests. In a new article, Friedman speaks out against a "two state solution", supporting Israel's annexation of the West Bank, and criticizes POTUS Obama's new stance demanding a stop to the Jewish settlement expansion and speaking out strongly for a "two-state solution". But read yourself. Just one more remark: The affirmation of a "two-state solution" as the proclaimed political goal belies itself as a treachery by the attitude to the real-existing Palestinian state in the Gaza strip. Democracy in an Arab country is seen as the biggest danger for imperialist interests in West Asia. ..................Begin Forwarded Message.................. From: Stratfor To: "lueko.willms at t-online.de" Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 15:02:06 -0500 Subject: Geopolitical Weekly : West Bank Settlements and the Future of U.S.-Israeli Relations Stratfor --------------------------- WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS AND THE FUTURE OF U.S.-ISRAELI RELATIONS By George Friedman Amid the rhetoric of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech June 4 in Cairo, there was one substantial indication of change, not in the U.S. relationship to the Islamic world but in the U.S. relationship to Israel. This shift actually emerged prior to the speech, and the speech merely touched on it. But it is not a minor change and it must not be underestimated. It has every opportunity of growing into a major breach between Israel and the United States. The immediate issue concerns Israeli settlements on the West Bank. The United States has long expressed opposition to increasing settlements but has not moved much beyond rhetoric. Certainly the continued expansion and development of new settlements on the West Bank did not cause prior administrations to shift their policies toward Israel. And while the Israelis have occasionally modified their policies, they have continued to build settlements. The basic understanding between the two sides has been that the United States would oppose settlements formally but that this would not evolve into a fundamental disagreement. The United States has clearly decided to change the game. Obama has said that, "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to stop building new settlements, but not to halt what he called the "natural growth" of existing settlements. Obama has positioned the settlement issue in such a way that it would be difficult for him to back down. He has repeated it several times, including in his speech to the Islamic world. It is an issue on which he is simply following the formal positions of prior administrations. It is an issue on which prior Israeli governments made commitments. What Obama has done is restated formal U.S. policy, on which there are prior Israeli agreements, and demanded Israeli compliance. Given his initiative in the Islamic world, Obama, having elevated the issue to this level, is going to have problems backing off. Obama is also aware that Netanyahu is not in a political position to comply with the demand, even if he were inclined to. Netanyahu is leading a patchwork coalition in which support from the right is critical. For the Israeli right, settling in what it calls Samaria and Judea is a fundamental principle on which it cannot bend. Unlike Ariel Sharon, a man of the right who was politically powerful, Netanyahu is a man of the right who is politically weak. Netanyahu gave all he could give on this issue when he said there would be no new settlements created. Netanyahu doesn't have the political ability to give Obama what he is demanding. Netanyahu is locked into place, unless he wants to try to restructure his Cabinet or persuade people like Avigdor Lieberman, his right-wing foreign minister, to change their fundamental view of the world. Therefore, Obama has decided to create a crisis with Israel. He has chosen a subject on which Republican and Democratic administrations have had the same formal position. He has also picked a subject that does not affect Israeli national security in any immediate sense (he has not made demands for changes of policy toward Gaza, for example). Obama struck at an issue where he had precedent on his side, and where Israel's immediate safety is not at stake. He also picked an issue on which he would have substantial support in the United States, and he has done this to have a symbolic showdown with Israel. The more Netanyahu resists, the more Obama gets what he wants. Obama's read of the Arab-Israeli situation is that it is not insoluble. He believes in the two-state solution, for better or worse. In order to institute the two-state solution, Obama must establish the principle that the West Bank is Palestinian territory by right and not Israeli territory on which the Israelis might make concessions. The settlements issue is fundamental to establishing this principle. Israel has previously agreed both to the two-state solution and to not expanding settlements. If Obama can force Netanyahu to concede on the settlements issue, then he will break the back of the Israeli right and open the door to a rightist-negotiated settlement of the two-state solution. In the course of all of this, Obama is opening doors in the Islamic world a little wider by demonstrating that the United States is prepared to force Israel to make concessions. By subtext, he wants to drive home the idea that Israel does not control U.S. policy but that, in fact, Israel and the United States are two separate countries with different and sometimes conflicting views. Obama wouldn't mind an open battle on the settlements one bit. For Netanyahu, this is the worst terrain on which to fight. If he could have gotten Obama to attack by demanding that Israel not respond to missiles launched from Gaza or Lebanon, Netanyahu would have had the upper hand in the United States. Israel has support in the United States and in Congress, and any action that would appear to leave Israel's security at risk would trigger an instant strengthening of that support. But there is not much support in the United States for settlements on the West Bank. This is not a subject around which Israel's supporters are going to rally very intensely, in large part because there is substantial support for a two-state solution and very little understanding or sympathy for the historic claim of Jews to Judea and Samaria. Obama has picked a topic on which he has political room for maneuver and on which Netanyahu is politically locked in. Given that, the question is where Obama is going with this. From Obama's point of view, he wins no matter what Netanyahu decides to do. If Netanyahu gives in, then he has established the principle that the United States can demand concessions from a Likud-controlled government in Israel and get them. There will be more demands. If Netanyahu doesn't give in, Obama can create a split with Israel over the one issue he can get public support for in the United States (a halt to settlement expansion in the West Bank), and use that split as a lever with Islamic states. Thus, the question is what Netanyahu is going to do. His best move is to say that this is just a disagreement between friends and assume that the rest of the U.S.-Israeli relationship is intact, from aid to technology transfer to intelligence sharing. That's where Obama is going to have to make his decision. He has elevated the issue to the forefront of U.S.-Israeli relations. The Israelis have refused to comply. If Obama proceeds with the relationship as if nothing has happened, then he is back where he began. Obama did not start this confrontation to wind up there. He calculated carefully when he raised this issue and knew perfectly well that Netanyahu couldn't make concessions on it, so he had to have known that he was going to come to this point. Obviously, he could have made this confrontation as a part of his initiative to the Islamic world. But it is unlikely that he saw that initiative as ending with the speech, and he understands that, for the Islamic world, his relation to Israel is important. Even Islamic countries not warmly inclined toward Palestinians, like Jordan or Egypt, don't want the United States to back off on this issue. Netanyahu has argued in the past that Israel's relationship to the United States was not as important to Israel as it once was. U.S. aid as a percentage of Israel's gross domestic product has plunged. Israel is not facing powerful states, and it is not facing a situation like 1973, when Israeli survival depended on aid being rushed in from the United States. The technology transfer now runs both ways, and the United States relies on Israeli intelligence quite a bit. In other words, over the past generation, Israel has moved from a dependent relationship with the United States to one of mutual dependence. This is very much Netanyahu's point of view, and from this point of view follows the idea that he might simply say no to the United States on the settlements issue and live easily with the consequences. The weakness in this argument is that, while Israel does not now face strategic issues it can't handle, it could in the future. Indeed, while Netanyahu is urging action on Iran, he knows that action is impossible without U.S. involvement. This leads to a political problem. As much as the right would like to blow off the United States, the center and the left would be appalled. For Israel, the United States has been the centerpiece of the national psyche since 1967. A breach with the United States would create a massive crisis on the left and could well bring the government down if Ehud Barak and his Labor Party, for example, bolted from the ruling coalition. Netanyahu's problem is the problem Israel has continually had. It is a politically fragmented country, and there is never an Israeli government that does not consist of fragments. A government that contains Lieberman and Barak is not one likely to be able to make bold moves. It is therefore difficult to see how Netanyahu can both deal with Obama and hold his government together. It is even harder to see how Obama can reduce the pressure. Indeed, we would expect to see him increase the pressure by suspending minor exchanges and programs. Obama is playing to the Israeli center and left, who would oppose any breach with the United States. Obama has the strong hand and the options. Netanyahu has the weak hand and fewer options. It is hard to see how he will solve the problem. And that's what Obama wants. He wants Netanyahu struggling with the problem. In the end, he wants Netanyahu to fold on the settlements issue and keep on folding until he presides over a political settlement with the Palestinians. Obama wants Netanyahu and the right to be responsible for the agreement, as Menachem Begin was responsible for the treaty with Egypt and withdrawal from the Sinai. We find it difficult to imagine how a two-state solution would work, but that concept is at the heart of U.S. policy and Obama wants the victory. He has put into motion processes to create that solution, first of all, by backing Netanyahu into a corner. Left out of Obama's equation is the Palestinian interest, willingness and ability to reach a treaty with Israel, but from Obama's point of view, if the Palestinians reject or undermine an agreement, he will still have leverage in the Islamic world. Right now, given Iraq and Afghanistan, that is where he wants leverage, and backing Netanyahu into a corner is more important than where it all leads in the end. This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com. Copyright 2009 Stratfor. ...................End Forwarded Message.................. L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From lueko.willms at t-online.de Wed Jun 10 06:57:58 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:57:58 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] EU Elections: further decay of Social-democrats, surprise sucess of Cohn-Bendit, failure of victim attitude Message-ID: <000.38790d00d6ad2f4a.086@lws-media.de> From the fourth to the seventh, the seventh elections to the European Parliament, i.e. the parliament of the European Union took place in all 24 countries. Most countries took the poll on Sunday, some others followed their traditions and voted on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. The results were supposed not to be published before Sunday evening midnight UTC (22 o'clock of Central European Time, which is valid in most of the EU countries). See results on the EU pages here: > Just some comments here, since I will have no time for the rest of this week for a full article with concrete numbers. The participation in the election was at an historic low of 43%, with participation rates in Eastern European country even below 30% in some cases. In Germany, the participation with 43% hardly differed from the one in the previous election five years ago. The most visible result is the further weakening of the Social Democracy. In Germany, the SPD's losses were minor, less than one percent point, but with 20.8% it nevertheless got the worst result in any nationwide election since the second world war. In Britain, the Labour Party came in third behind the Tories and the "United Kingdom Indepencence Party" (UKIP) which favors leaving the European Union. In France, the Socialist Party received a little bit more than 16% of the vote, just 0.2 percent points more than the new left-bourgeois formation "Europe Ecologie". In Italy, I can't make out any party with roots in the working class movement. In Germany, the conservative Christian Democrats lost heavily, about 6.5 percentage points down to 37.9% (addition of CDU + CSU), but this was made up by an important increase of votes for the right-liberal FDP. An interesting point is the instant success of "Europe - Ecologie", a coalition patched together by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, of May 1968 fame, and who had successfully stood for the European Parliament interchangeably in Germany and France. Cohn-Bendit had won Larzac farmer rebel Jos? Bov? and the state attorney Eva Jolie to build the formation together. Cohn-Bendit countered with this coalition both the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party) of Olivier Besancenot and the "Left Front" formed by dissident Social Democrats and the stalinist PC. The big difference being that Cohn-Bendit is a staunch supporter of the European Union and of "humanitarian imperialism". In a TV debate a few days before the vote, Cohn-Bendit provoked Fran?ois Bayrou, leader of the recently formed centrist "Mouvement Democratique" (MoDem) by a humiliating langauge and insults to counterattack Cohn-Bendit by mentioning the explanations about child sexuality in a book which Cohn-Bendit had written several decades ago. As said above, this formation won slightly less votes than the PS on national level, but outdistanced the PS in the Ile de France, i.e. the Paris agglomeration, arriving second behind the president's party. The "Front de Gauche" got 6.3%, the NPA "only" slightly under 5%, not very much more than what Olivier Besancenot hat gotten at the presidential elections. I saw Besancenot in one TV debate the evening of the elections, but he did not say very much. The scene was occupied by UMP satisfaction, discord among PS leaders about they bad results, and Cohn-Bendit's triumphalism. The party "Die Linke" in Germany did also not score so well, despite the economic crisis. I see in both those cases the failure of "victimism", i.e. only lamenting about being a victim of the capitalist crisis ("We will not pay for their crisis") but without real proposals which could lead beyond the capitalist system. "We need socialism" and other ultimatist and utopist slogans don't do it either. The Party "Die Linke" in the Hessian regional parliament had last fall introduced together with all other four parliamentary groups a motion to give the German GM subsidiary (Opel) financial guarantees of several hundred million Euros, and voted for it. The party leaders in Berlin complained that not enough bailouts of capitalist companies had been done. The workers solution is to force all car makers and their suppliers into a syndicate under public and workers control, to widen the collaboration between the -- then former -- competitors, and to retool the auto industry to produce more according to human necessities than capitalist profit. Only such a compulsory industry syndicate could shorten the work week for all automobile workers without endangering those who have not a strong enough capitalist government backing their "national industry", as do the USA, Germany and France, to name just a few. This would, of course, also require a nationalisation of all banks and other financial institutions (by changing property titles of the stock owners into savings accounts with variable and low interest, not terminable by the holder). An interesting new political current got one seat in Sweden, the "Pirates Party" (). In Sweden not long time ago the organisers of the Internet "Pirate Bay" had been condemned to prison for infringing the copyright of the music and motion picture industry. There is an international movement of the "Pirate Parties", kind of a Fifth International... The Pirate Parties center their activity very much around the Internet, opposing "Digital Rights Management", surveillance, patents, etc. In this, the "Pirates" represent the productive forces in their conflict with private property which clashes with the technical advances in spreading information and artistic productions. The "Pirate Party USA" is here , from there one can find allied movements in many other countries. Comradely yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From shmage at pipeline.com Wed Jun 10 07:09:53 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:09:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Israeli cabinet member urges sanctions on US In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Jun 10, 2009, at 1:27 AM, Gary MacLennan wrote: > We will only get change we can believe in > in American foreign policy if the Arab revolution manifests itself. Ever since Pablo invented the "Arab revolution" more than a half- century ago we've been waiting for it to "manifest itself." Will we have to go on waiting until the Second Coming--of Pablo? 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 nmgoro at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 07:22:37 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?N=C3=A9stor_Gorojovsky?=) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:22:37 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] Israeli cabinet member urges sanctions on US In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2fa158550906100622o66228b05r81ef99d57f6ddc14@mail.gmail.com> "Invented"? Could you substitute anything better for this sensible and ABC formulation? What?s the merit in inventing that which is obvious? Or, rather, you think like a Left Wing Zionist instructor I had in Israel, 1971? That day I learnt the ways of imperialism. The Argentineans in my group were a bunch of leftwing troublemakers. We had all the weight of the recent popular mobilisations in my own country on our shoulders, and proud of that. We were a pain in the ass of our instructors, really. The one I speak about delivered classes on "geopolitics" of the Middle East. When confronted with the question as to why wouldn?t Israel, a socialist state (wasn?t it?) strike alliances with progressive leaders of the Arab world such as Gammal Abd el Nasser, instead of alliances with the Shah of Iran, he derided us but -please pay attention to this- he did NOT answer bluntly. He chose a clever detour. He told us "But what do socialists have to do with a bourgeois such as Nasser? Who we should link with are the brave guerrilla fighters here", and he very theatrically turned about 90 degrees and pointed to a spot in Southern Arabia, near the sea. "Yes, here, in Dhofar, there is a guerrilla that fights against the Saudi regime, proclaims itself socialist, has no stupid dreams of Arab unity, and, remember this, has never declared itself against Israel!" Of course, the guerrilla in Dhofar, some years later, was destroyed to root. Many of those who attended that course, when back in Argentina, decided to abandon Zionism but in order to enter the various "guerrilla" groups that by the same time had begun to operate in my country. Some have disappeared. Others, live in exile. Well, that IS imperialism in action. If I cannot convince you, I send you to death. Sorry, Shane, but your "anti-Pabloite" negation of the reasonability of an Arab revolution brought this to my mind?s eye. 2009/6/10 Shane Mage : > > On Jun 10, 2009, at 1:27 AM, Gary MacLennan wrote: >> ?We will only get change we can believe in >> in American foreign policy if the Arab revolution manifests itself. > > Ever since Pablo invented the "Arab revolution" more than a half- > century ago we've been waiting for it to "manifest itself." ?Will we > have to go on waiting until the Second Coming--of Pablo? > > Shane Mage -- N?stor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autor?a From lnp3 at panix.com Wed Jun 10 07:59:43 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:59:43 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Tales from the Distant Past In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A2FBC4F.2010401@panix.com> Shane Mage wrote: > > Ever since Pablo invented the "Arab revolution" more than a half- > century ago we've been waiting for it to "manifest itself." Will we > have to go on waiting until the Second Coming--of Pablo? Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!), and there were some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, with lattice windows, gable fronts surmounted with weathercocks, and built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland. In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years since, while the country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad who are under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation, and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice blessed. From lnp3 at panix.com Wed Jun 10 08:12:46 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:12:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Iranian antiwar activists speak out Message-ID: <4A2FBF5E.7060303@panix.com> (From MRZine) Statement by a Group of Iranian Anti-war Activists about Iran's Presidential Elections Monday 8 June 2009 We are a group of Iranian academic and antiwar activists in Europe and the United States who, in the past few years, have consistently defended Iran's national interests in all areas including its right to develop peaceful nuclear technology. Our varied activities in the face of anti-Iran propaganda by the neoconservatives in the West have included organizing press conferences, taking part in radio and TV debates, creating antiwar websites, publishing bulletins and newsletters, writing opinion pieces and letters to editors, attending national and international antiwar conferences and petitioning and lobbying Western politicians and parliamentarians. We have campaigned against the policies of the United States and its Western allies which have unjustifiably targeted Iran -- including sending Iran's nuclear dossier to the United Nations Security Council, issuing UNSC resolutions against Iran, secret and public efforts to provoke strife in Iran and destabilize the country, and threats by the United States and Israel for military intervention and bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities. As we approach Iran's presidential elections, we are duty bound to share the lessons of our antiwar activities and highlight what national policies can defend Iran's interests effectively in the international arena without isolating it or enduring U.N. sanctions. In order to safeguard Iran's national rights successfully, we think Iran's president elect must give priority to the following policies in his programs and plans: (1) Questioning the Holocaust, which has greatly aided the hawks in the West, must be discarded and replaced with a constructive foreign policy devoid of any provocative rhetoric. (2) Release of all political prisoners, freedom of press, organization and political parties, as well as peaceful meetings and gatherings. Recognizing the right of all citizens to run for election without any political vetting. (3) Abolishing medieval punishments, such as stoning and cutting limbs, public executions and execution of minors. (4) Recognizing full and unconditional equality in all areas for women and ethnic minorities. Recognizing the full citizenship and civic rights of official and unofficial religious minorities. Disregarding these tasks will seriously hinder the social and political development of the country, and will divide the Iranian people in their resistance against the unwarranted neo-colonial pressure and double standards of the Western powers. It will also provide powerful propaganda tools to hawks and their allies in mainstream media for isolating Iran and denying its fundamental rights in international organizations. Taking steps to carry out these measures, on the other hand, will put our country on a fast track to progress, will unite Iranians of all walks of life, and disarm the neoconservatives in their aggressive propaganda against Iran. Signed Professor Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, School of Oriental and African Studies Professor Haleh Afshar, University of York Professor Mohammad Ala, Persian Gulf Task Force Professor Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University Professor Abbas Edalat, Imperial College London Ali Fathollah-Nejad, University of Muenster and School of Oriental and African Studies Dr Mehri Honarbin, Canterbury Christ Church University Dr Farhang Jahanpour, University of Oxford Mohammad Kamaali, Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran Professor Mahmoud Karimi-Hakkak, Siena College, New York Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz, Washington University in St. Louis. Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini, School of Oriental and African Studies Professor Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, Tarbiyat Modarres University Professor Davood Nabi-Rahni, Pace University in New York Professor Azam Niroomand-Rad, Georgetown University Dr Ali Rastbeen, International Institute of Strategic Studies Paris Dr Elaheh Rostami, School of Oriental and African Studies Professor Nader Sadeghi, George Washington University Hospital Shirin Saeidi, University of Cambridge Professor Muhammad Sahimi, University of Southern California Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation From jjonas at nic.fi Wed Jun 10 08:31:26 2009 From: jjonas at nic.fi (Joonas Laine) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:31:26 +0300 Subject: [Marxism] EU Elections: further decay of Social-democrats, surprise sucess of Cohn-Bendit, failure of victim attitude In-Reply-To: <000.38790d00d6ad2f4a.086@lws-media.de> References: <000.38790d00d6ad2f4a.086@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <4A2FC3BE.9010105@nic.fi> L?ko Willms wrote: > From the fourth to the seventh, the seventh elections to the European > Parliament, i.e. the parliament of the European Union took place in all 24 > countries. Most countries took the poll on Sunday, some others followed their > traditions and voted on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. The results were > supposed not to be published before Sunday evening midnight UTC (22 > o'clock of Central European Time, which is valid in most of the EU countries). In Finland the Left Alliance lost their only MEP, and the party got only 5,9 % of the vote - less than the Swedish People's Party, who managed to get a swedish-speaking market liberal through. The real winner here was the True Finns party, a petty-bourgeois protest party whose rhetoric about immigration has changed the whole atmosphere to the worse as the bigger parties have adapted to it.. it's a one-man party though, as the chair was the vote king of the whole counrty with his 130 000 votes, whereas the party's next candidate got only 9 000 votes. > An interesting new political current got one seat in Sweden, the "Pirates > Party" (). In Sweden not long time ago the > organisers of the Internet "Pirate Bay" had been condemned to prison for > infringing the copyright of the music and motion picture industry. There is an > international movement of the "Pirate Parties", kind of a Fifth International... > > The Pirate Parties center their activity very much around the Internet, > opposing "Digital Rights Management", surveillance, patents, etc. In this, the > "Pirates" represent the productive forces in their conflict with private property > which clashes with the technical advances in spreading information and > artistic productions. I agree that it's an interesting development, even though the bad news is that they're very likely to join the parliament's liberal group ALDE. The number one candidate on the PP's list, Christian Engstr?m, said before the election that the ALDE had the best civil rights program, and concerning all other questions besides internet freedoms etc, the party is going to vote with the ALDE group on all other issues. I guess that means voting for the Lisbon treaty and other such issues in the future as well. The other possible candidate for them were the Green group, but I think they'll join ALDe because they've said that they'll join the group within which they can have the most influence - i.e. a bigger group rather than a small one. EUobserver: Pirates to join Green or Liberal groups in EU parliament http://euobserver.com/843/28237 Arbetaren: Oklart var Piratpartiet hamnar i parlamentet http://www.arbetaren.se/articles/inrikes20090603-3 From schaffer at optonline.net Wed Jun 10 09:21:36 2009 From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:21:36 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Tales from the Distant Past In-Reply-To: <4A2FBC4F.2010401@panix.com> References: <4A2FBC4F.2010401@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A2FCF80.5040304@optonline.net> Louis Proyect wrote: > Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Catskill > Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian > family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a > noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every > change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the > day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these > mountains, the writing here is so lyrical, i wondered how can this be explained: that no one writes like this anymore, yet the description could still apply? so for amusement i looked thru today's Travel section of the NY Times to see how places are described: here is a piece on Buenos Aires: FOR years, one of the most famous Buenos Aires tourist attractions was in a neighborhood foreigners were told to avoid. Se?or Tango [snip], a flashy, Fosse-esque tango show that includes a live horse, is in Barracas, in the city?s south. Guides often warned bused-in tourists not to wander off for fear of muggings. That?s changing now, largely owing to spillover rejuvenation from neighboring Puerto Madero and San Telmo, two areas that have benefited from a rise in tourism and a real estate boom. Barracas, near the city?s old ports, means barracks or warehouses. Long since abandoned, many warehouses are being renovated into luxury housing and cultural centers. [snip] Pamela Murphy, a native New Yorker and interior designer, moved to Buenos Aires in 2004 and opened Garden Buenos Aires [snip] in February 2008. The sprawling 1907 building serves as her home and has four guest rooms running from $80 to $135 a night. Surveying her back garden, complete with a small pool and found architectural objects, Ms. Murphy said, ?this is where I really get lucky that I have this house here.? Here is from a recent piece on Nicaragua: Remote. Vast. Languid. These describe Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, a region where traditional indigenous cultures have been preserved and development has yet to encroach. Left, birds fly over the pristine waters of Little Corn Island. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/10/travel/20090610-nicaragua-slide-show_index.html of course the Rip Van Winkle piece has disguised its oppression of the natives: It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace!) from wikipedia: Like many merchants and New Yorkers, Irving originally opposed the War of 1812, but the British attack on Washington, D.C. in 1814 convinced him to enlist.[24] He served on the staff of Daniel Tompkins, governor of New York and commander of the New York State Militia. Apart from a reconnaissance mission in the Great Lakes region, he saw no real action.[25] The war was disastrous for many American merchants, including Irving's family, and in mid-1815 he left for England to attempt to salvage the family trading company. He remained in Europe for the next seventeen years.[26] Life in Europe The Sketch Book Irving spent the next two years trying to bail out the family firm financially but was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy.[27] With no job prospects, Irving continued writing throughout 1817 and 1818. In the summer of 1817, he visited the home of novelist Walter Scott, marking the beginning of a lifelong personal and professional friendship for both men.[28] Irving continued writing prolifically?the short story "Rip Van Winkle" was written overnight while staying with his sister Sarah and her husband, Henry van Wart in Birmingham, England, a place that also inspired some of his other works.[29] In October 1818, Irving's brother William secured for Irving a post as chief clerk to the United States Navy, and urged him to return home.[30] Irving, however, turned the offer down, opting to stay in England to pursue a writing career.[31] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Irving Google books has a PDF of the complete "A History of the New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty", including a scan of the last library checkout slip with the date Oct 14, '16 and the words "This book is under no circumstances to be taken from this Building": http://books.google.com/books/download/The_history_of_New_York_from_the_beginni.pdf?id=eCwhAAAAMAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U3O3UxRnz_9BYx78vmrRHgB2CKKJg highly recommended: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with Johnny Depp. Les From epoliticus at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 10:20:08 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:20:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ConAgra's Latest Barbarity: Two dead in North Carolina plant explosion Message-ID: From copito61 at googlemail.com Wed Jun 10 10:48:42 2009 From: copito61 at googlemail.com (Jon Cloke) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:48:42 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] They sent this spam to the wrong guy! In-Reply-To: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> References: <4A2A77D6.9060105@panix.com> Message-ID: When I was living in Nicaragua in 1999 a bloke living in the barrio nearby got a letter version of one of these. His nephew had been in Nigeria (doing god knows what) and he was killed in a road accident. These 419 guys routinely monitor the press for foreign deaths and had the contacts to get his next-of-kin details in Nicaragua, where they contacted his uncle. The uncle got the letter, a photocopy of the 'actual cheque' (drawn on Federal Bank of Nigeria through the Nat West bank in London) that they were going to pay him the millions of dollars with and he'd gotten as far as setting up a bank account for which he was going to provide them with the details before suspicion kicked in and he came and asked me what I thought. That was the first time I'd come across a 419 fraud and because the cheque looked genuine enough I cross-referenced with Nat West HQ in London. Spookily enough, the account number and branch code for the FBN were absolutely genuine but the people there assured me that a cheque of this type would never be drawn on an account of that kind (whatever that was). So, 419 boys; they've got intelligence, they've got powerful contacts and they're coming to an e-mail account near you... Jon Cloke On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: > > Subject: > > Seattle Division > > From: > > "F.B.I" > > Date: > > Sat, 6 Jun 2009 15:00:14 -0700 > > To: > > undisclosed-recipients:; > > > > Federal Bureau of Investigation > > FBI Seattle Division > > 1110 Third Avenue > > Seattle, Washington 98101-2904 > > Payment Code: R5109176K > > Reg No: 132731593 > > > > The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered through our > intelligence > > Monitoring Network that you are eligible to receive the sum of > $7,500,000.00 USD > > regarding to an over-due Inheritance/Award payment which was fully > endorsed to > > be paid in your favor.therefore,the FBI Seattle Division in conjunction > with the > > United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through > our > > various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the > > transaction you have with the Financial Institution is Legal and you > have the > > Lawful Right to claim your due fund. > > > > The President His Excellency Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar Adua President of the > Federal > > republic of Nigeria has given us the final approval to pay your fun to > you > > within the next 72hrs, Your fund valued $7,500,000.00 USD has been > deposited > > into a Gold smart Card number: 5179 1234 5678 personal identification is > ATM- > > 7997 this card will enable you buy and withdrawal cash anywhere around > the world > > this is done for your own security, with this card you will not have to > take the > > risk of sending us your personal banking details online as you have been > > strongly advise by your local bank not to send your banking details to > anyone > > online. > > > > What you are required to do now to Pay the fees of $210.00 USD for the > shipment > > of your Gold Smart card to your choice location, $210.00 USD is the only > fees > > that has been approved by both the FBI and the Bank that you are to pay > as cost > > of Delivery of your Card to you by the courier company.Once the fees is > been > > paid your ATM CARD will get to you in the next 2-3 working day. > > > > Note: Your funds are protected by a hardcover insurance policy, which > makes it > > Impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it can be remitted > to > > you.this means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the Funds > and > > hence must be provided by you before your fund is transferred to you.the > payment > > for any of the above options should be sent via Western Union Money > Transfer in > > the name of the Head of accounts Mr. Julius Azuka. > > Find below the payment information. > > > > Name of receiver: JULIUS AZUKA > > Office Address: Plot 143, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos 23401 > > Nigeria. > > Text Question: In God > > Answer: We Trust > > Name of Sender:..................... > > Address of Sender:.................. > > MTCN#............................... > > > > As soon as we receive your payment, he shall proceed with your fund > transfer > > immediately.We anticipate your prompt response. If you need to contact me > at any > > stage please do not hesitate to call (+1-206-203-4190) > > > > Sincerely, > > Steven M. Dean (Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge) > > cc Robert Mueller (FBI Director) > > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/copito61%40googlemail.com > From nmgoro at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 11:24:12 2009 From: nmgoro at gmail.com (Nestor Gorojovsky) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:24:12 -0300 Subject: [Marxism] Tales from the Distant Past In-Reply-To: <4A2FCF80.5040304@optonline.net> References: <4A2FBC4F.2010401@panix.com> <4A2FCF80.5040304@optonline.net> Message-ID: <4A2FEC3C.4070608@gmail.com> Les Schaffer escribi?: > > FOR years, one of the most famous Buenos Aires tourist attractions > was in a neighborhood foreigners were told to avoid. Se?or Tango > [snip], a flashy, Fosse-esque tango show that includes a live horse, > is in Barracas, in the city?s south. Guides often warned bused-in > tourists not to wander off for fear of muggings. > > That?s changing now, largely owing to spillover rejuvenation from > neighboring Puerto Madero and San Telmo, two areas that have > benefited from a rise in tourism and a real estate boom. > "Spillover rejuvenation" is an Aesopic substitute. What is taking place is an enforced (small mobs kicking paupers out of the streets into Nothingness) gentryfication. It is associated, of course, to a frenzy of real estate speculation. And since Mauricio Macri, the Ayn Randian ultra-rich ultra-right politician, became the head of the city the whole nasty thing goes ahead at the highest speed, with almost vocal official endorsement of the brutality of the gangs, which became a part of the structure of government under the acronym UCEP (Unidad de Control del Espacio P?blico). From epoliticus at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 12:13:52 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:13:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] India: NREGA wage arrears cleared Message-ID: The following article, written by Jean Dreze, appeared in the Hindu newspaper (at http://bit.ly/NtQbK): ***** In what is seen as a victory for workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act here in Jharkhand who had faced hardships because of delayed payment of compensation, as many as 174 of them from 10 villages of Khunti and Murhu blocks have received Rs. 2,000 each under the Payment of Wages Act, the total adding up to Rs. 3.48 lakh. The payment was ordered by M.A. Haque, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Chotanagpur .... The first problem that came to their attention was that of delayed payments in the district. In most of the villages of Khunti and Murhu blocks that were surveyed, wages had not been paid for weeks, even months. In some cases, the delay added up to years. In the absence of timely payments, rural workers had developed an aversion to the NREGA. NREGA workers should receive payment within 15 days, failing which they are entitled to compensation under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, of Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000 each .... ***** From cpimllib at gmail.com Wed Jun 10 11:45:29 2009 From: cpimllib at gmail.com (CPIML Liberation) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:15:29 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] ML Update Vol. 12 No. 24 09 - 15 JUNE 2009 In-Reply-To: <000301c9e9a3$f4563040$1601a8c0@user> References: <000301c9e9a3$f4563040$1601a8c0@user> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: CPIML Central Office Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:57 PM Subject: ML Update Vol. 12 No. 24 09 - 15 JUNE 2009 To: samkaleen.lokyuddh at gmail.com ML Update A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine Vol. 12 No. 24 09 - 15 JUNE 2009 Manmohan Government's Second term: Early Signals and New Rhetoric PRESIDENT Pratibha Patil's address to the joint session of the two houses of Parliament has outlined the priorities and direction of the second term of the UPA government. While the government has listed ten points as priority areas, the basic thrust is essentially three-pronged: an unfettered pursuit of the agenda of privatisation, commercialisation and globalisation; intensification and legitimisation of repressive measures in the name of national security; and strengthening of Indo-US partnership as the cornerstone of India?s foreign policy. The President's speech underlined the UPA government's commitment to attracting "large foreign investment flows ... through an appropriate policy regime," ensuring systematic removal of ?bottlenecks and delays in implementation of infrastructure projects? taking public-private partnership as the key, and granting ?fellow citizens ... every right to own part of the shares of public sector companies.? It is not difficult to figure out the ?fellow citizens? the government has in mind! Combating monopolisation and concentration of wealth in private hands was one major declared objective of public sector units; today the UPA government is advocating wholesale disinvestment of PSUs precisely to promote corporate consolidation. The ?bottlenecks and delays in implementation of infrastructure projects? mentioned in the President?s address can hardly be a reference to bureaucratic or procedural issues ? because on the level of policies and procedures, the framework has already been sufficiently liberalised. The bottlenecks must refer primarily to either popular opposition to land acquisition plans or environmental objections raised by the people and concerned experts. Clearly, the Congress now believes that it has got the strength to bulldoze all such objections and impose all these mega projects in the name of infrastructural development. It is instructive to note in this context the poll results from West Bengal and Maharashtra. The electoral upheaval against the ruling Left Front in West Bengal can only been described as a popular backlash against the government?s arrogant move to treat popular objections as ?bottlenecks? and remove them by force. In Maharashtra too, the Congress lost the Raigad seat, the site of the Reliance's proposed massive Mahamumbai SEZ ? the Congress lost its seat in the Lok Sabha polls. In fact, the Congress-led State Government had held a referendum on the issue of land acquisition for SEZ in some villages of Raigad in 2008. But, flouting the promise of declaring the outcome within a week, the Government never declared the result even as reportedly 92% local people voted against the proposed SEZ. By refusing to allow any further extension to the deadline for land acquisition for this SEZ, the Supreme Court has now set the stage for possible scrapping of the Mahamumbai SEZ project. While the government talks of bulldozing all objections, democratic forces must exert pressure on the government to scrap the SEZ Act and put a complete halt to corporate landgrab. In most parts of the country, a massive fraud is being perpetrated on the rural poor in the name of NREGA and the jobless in rural areas have massive complaints regarding the extremely tardy implementation of this so-called employment ?guarantee? Act. This has however not stopped the President from lauding the NREGA as the world?s largest ongoing rural reconstruction programme. The government has also gone on to promise a slum-free India within the next five years by introducing a Rajiv Awas Yojana on the lines of the corruption-ridden Indira Awas Yojana. Going by past experience the Congress can only try to achieve a slum-free India by organising massive evictions of slum-dwellers. While the Congress beats its drum, the people?s movement will have to boldly confront the government on issues of jobs, housing, health and education for all. The question of national security and a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism figure on top of the ten priority areas underlined in the President?s address. The phrase ?zero-tolerance approach? is borrowed 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. Draconian laws like AFSPA, Chhattisgarh's Public Security Act, or the recent amendments to UAPA and affronts to peace and democracy like the Salwa Judum have all been justified by the UPA Government in the name of countering terrorism and Maoism. Such draconian laws have not only been opposed tooth and nail by the democratic opinion in the country, the judiciary too has occasionally questioned the validity of such moves. The Supreme Court which had earlier made adverse remarks regarding Salwa Judum, recently granted bail to Dr. Binayak Sen, indicating in the tone of its brief order that the last two years of his incarceration in jail was a serious travesty of justice. This order is a reprimand, not just for the BJP Government of Chhattisgarh but also for the UPA Government which also actively backed the Salwa Judum and the jailing of Dr. Sen under Chhattisgarh's draconian anti-terror law. In the name of countering terrorism, the Congress cannot be allowed to ride roughshod on basic democratic rights and norms. The Indian diaspora and India?s ?restless? young population find prominent mention towards the end of the President?s speech. The speech talks of the strength and power of the Indian diaspora, but remains blissfully oblivious of the growing uncertainty and racist assaults that Indian students, workers and professionals abroad are experiencing in today?s recession-marred milieu. There is a glowing mention of how our ?young people are tearing down the narrow domestic walls of religion, region, language, caste, and gender that confine them,? but not a word about the new walls that are daily being erected, whether by a paranoid US desperate not to lose jobs to India and Indians, or a sectarian Raj Thackeray and his men who would like to drive away North Indian students and workers from President Patil?s own home state of Maharashtra. Promises for the poor and performance for the rich; rhetorical commitment to secularism and political concessions to communalism; lip-service to empowerment and democracy, and doles, batons and bullets in practice ? such has been the characteristic track record of the Congress. For all the new phrases and ambitious pronouncements, it is not difficult to discern the familiar trappings in the initial steps and declarations of the new Congress-led regime. Tributes: Habib Tanvir & Kamla Das ?He was our Bertolt Brecht? Habib Tanvir, considered one of the great dramatists not only in India, but in many countries, passed away in Bhopal at the age of 85 on 8th June, 2009. His passing away is really the end of an era. He brought drama so close to life that you felt there is an actor hidden inside every individual whenever you watched his plays. He transformed the labourers living in working class colonies in Okhla in Delhi, students of Jamia and folk artists of Chhatishgarh into brilliant performers. As performers in his plays he relied on common people from the general populace rather than artists trained in big and famous institutes. His intense association with the Indian Left, progressive movements and IPTA since 1945 had taught him that people?s art will emerge from within them and not from intellectuals engrossed in their own world or in elite institutions. Habib saab could turn any place into a stage, whether it was a market place, or street-bylanes, or the villages. He was the Bertolt Brecht of South Asia. Through the staging of ?Agra Bazaar? in 1954 itself he gave shape to his persistent-vision of a rare and extraordinary theatre activism. Through his plays he reinvented Nazir Akbarabadi, the extraordinary people?s poet of 19th century, in similar style as Kumar Gandharva did Kabir through his music. Habib saab was a poet and an actor too. He acted in 9 films including Richard Attenborough?s Gandhi, and wherever he appeared on screen he left others far behind in performance. He had been staging the play ?Ponga Pandit? since 1960?s, but since the 1990's the Sangh Parivar attacked the play repeatedly. But what could they do to this bold and courageous artist. Governments and Academies heaped Habib saab with a lot of awards- Sangit Natak Academy Award, Fellowship, Padmshri, Padmbhushan, membership of the Rajya Sabha, etc., but these awards are dwarfs in front of the artist he had within. It was he who brought international recognition and fame to the folk cultures like Pandwani and Naach. World knows of Chaatisgarhi language due to him as it?s the language of his great play ?Charandas Chor?. How many cultural personalities are there today who earned so much recognition in foreign countries, have been/are associated with the top European institutions, but who had no beginning nor end except his own soil as Habib saab. His play ?Jahrili Hawa? (poisonous air) on the Bhopal Gas tragedy was staged in 2002, and a film on this tragedy by the same name as the play is about to be released, and he has himself acted in the film. Meanwhile, he has taken leave from us and it has made us all sad.