From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Fri May 1 03:28:41 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 10:28:41 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Benevolent Islam and the Slave Trade In-Reply-To: <49F9C927.2040803@panix.com> References: <49F84EB6.1010400@panix.com> <49F9C927.2040803@panix.com> Message-ID: Really? That's what Papa Sarty does pretty much all the time, and for some strange reason y'all big bull Mastodons of the list seem to take him pretty seriously.... Jon Cloke From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Fri May 1 06:20:45 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 08:20:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Laura Carlsen - Mexico's Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905010520n43614638ja1a3a906b9492a2f@mail.gmail.com> > > > > > Mexico's Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease > > Laura Carlsen > Americas MexicoBlog > > > clip -- > > Mexico has long been considered the laboratory of > globalization. Now a potentially deadly virus has > germinated in that laboratory, finding ideal conditions > to move quickly along a path toward global pandemic. > > Those conditions include: a rapid transition from small > livestock production to industrial meat farms after > NAFTA established incentives for foreign investment, > the failed decentralization of Mexico's health system > along lines established by multilateral lending banks, > lax and non-enforced environmental and health > regulations as the Mexican government was forced to > downsize, the increased flow of goods and persons > across borders, and restricted access to life-saving > medicines due to NAFTA intellectual property monopolies > for pharmaceutical companies. > > full -- > > < > http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/04/mexicos-swine-flu-and-globalization-of.html > > > > > > From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Fri May 1 06:23:43 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 08:23:43 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] the newest Democrat - another supporter of war, oligarchy and torture Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905010523t37f23dbfl7edc48ab4a43265f@mail.gmail.com> > > > > > Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd > > > The Bolter: Specter Spectacle Hides Deadly New Folly in Terror War > > Posted: 29 Apr 2009 06:12 AM PDT > > clip -- > > So the Democrats have yet another supporter of aggressive war, oligarchy, > authoritarianism and torture in their Senate ranks. Wow, that will certainly > shake up the political landscape in Washington! It looks like the promised > New Jerusalem of hope and change has well and truly arrived at last. > > The chattering classes are all, well, a-chatter with the cosmic > significance of the switcheroo by the aptly named Arlen Specter from the > Republican faction of the imperial court to the Democratic faction. The > late-life conversion of this greasy, cadaverous bagman apparently heralds > not only a filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats > (once they > are joined by that guy who used to be on Saturday Night Live), but also the > potential death of the entire Republican Party! > Who knew that little old Arlen -- who has been obediently toting > Establishment water since he devised the "single bullet theory" for the > Warren Commission (one of the first great instances of "magical realism" in > modern fiction) -- was such a linchpin of the American political system? > > The reaction to Specter's turning of his blood-spattered coat (or rather, > his *re*-turning, as he began his political life as a Democrat) has been > marked by the total amnesia that is the chronic affliction of our dozy, cozy > media mandarins. The idea that Specter will vote in lockstep with the > Democratic leadership's wishes, thus providing a "filibuster-proof" > majority, is, of course, ludicrous, and flies in the face not only of > Specter's own extensive (and deeply conservative) legislative record, but > also the record of the current Democratic Party in the Senate. They can't > even get "real" Democrats to vote their way on every issue. (Nor should we > want them to; mindless factional conformity is hardly something to aspire to > -- although our media analysts seem to think it's the cat's meow.) > > As for Specter's bolting presaging the death of the GOP, what can one say? > This is a level of political analysis worthy of a 12-year-old who just > started watching CNN for the first time a few months ago. Backed by the > nation's wealthy elite and most powerful corporations, in control of > statehouses and city halls across the land, buttressed by lavishly funded > think tanks, political operations and a vast network of partisan media > outlets -- and supported by tens of millions of ordinary citizens -- the > Republican Party is not going to "die" or wither away anytime soon. Any more > than the Democratic Party "died" after the much-larger wipeout it suffered > in the Reagan landslide of 1984, or the so-called "Republican Revolution" of > 1994. If the Republican Party didn't "die" in 1964 or1944, when it was > thrust much farther to the margins than it is now, it is not about to expire > or even become irrelevant in the imperial politics of our day. > > Anyway, wasn't it just a few years ago we were talking about a "permanent > realignment" of American politics to the Right, under the unbreakable, > unshakeable strategies of the great helmsman, Karl Rove? Such "permanent > realignments" generally have a short shelf-life. But it seems our > progressive triumphalists are just as giddily oblivious of history as their > Bushist predecessors. > > And where does the idea that a high-ranking politician switching sides > sounds the death knell of a party come from? Have our savvy analysts never > heard of, say, Phil Gramm? Ben Nighthorse Campbell? Richard Shelby? Or even > the man who was wounded with John Kennedy by Specter's "magic bullet," John > Connally? All of these prominent Democrats sidled over to the Republican > trough -- but the Democratic Party hardly died because of it. > > full - > > > http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1752-the-bolter-specter-spectacle-hides-deadly-new-folly-in-terror-war.html > > > From bbauerly at gmail.com Fri May 1 07:23:01 2009 From: bbauerly at gmail.com (brad bauerly) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 09:23:01 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Interesting trade data Message-ID: <55868ddf0905010623x5ad1ec20h685c6c93caea5ef1@mail.gmail.com> The fed put out National Economic Trends Report for 2008:( http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/) . I found the data on trade rather interesting and counter the common conception ( http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/page18.pdf). Goods Import Share 2008 China...........15.99% Canada........15.89% Mexico.........10.22% Japan............6.59% Germany.......4.62% France..........2.08% Other OECD.12.12% All Other.......29.71% I think most people (probably not Artesian ;) would find the fact that China makes up less than 16% of imports and that Canada imports nearly as much quite shocking. Also the fact that Canada, Mexico and Japan together constitute twice the import share of China. Interesting as well is that the Other OECD's share is twice as big as Germany and France combined. This category of other is also interesting. It would appear that it is a rather large and dispersed group that accounts for the US's imports, contrary to popular conception. Food for thought. Brad -- Brad A. Bauerly PhD Candidate Political Science York University Toronto, Canada 647-345-2072 bauerly at yorku.ca From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 07:53:16 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 09:53:16 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Carl Finamore: new prescription for healthy union Message-ID: <49FAFECC.4020703@panix.com> http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21322 From bbauerly at gmail.com Fri May 1 07:54:34 2009 From: bbauerly at gmail.com (brad bauerly) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 09:54:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Crisis good for US K'ists Message-ID: <55868ddf0905010654t435e4919ke1856b653c971ff1@mail.gmail.com> Looking over the recent data it strikes me that the outcome of the crisis may be beneficial for US capitalists. Nothing really shocking there to us, however it is interesting to see how this was already occurring in 2008 and to think about how we could use this politically. This shows clearly how their crisis will be paid for by working people, both in the US and across the rest of the world. Here are some examples: exports continued to grow through 2008 by 6.2% (percent change over last year in constant dollars) while imports shrank by 3.5%. Also, nonfarm output per hour doubled its increase over percent change from last year to increase by 2.8%, while nonfarm compensation decreased its percent change over the last year. In short, people are working harder for less. All of the doom and gloom media about the crisis is placing real pressure on people to work harder in an increasingly competitive labor market. The threat of loosing your home, your retirement fund and your source of cheap credit has worked to increase the output per worker. The problem is that this has also lowered demand and increased the corporate bankruptcies. Thus, we will once again see a consolidation of capitalist power and the renewal of US dynamism that is the root of the US empire. Interesting to see how this crisis will turn out to be functional to capitalism and how this process started so early. Also, the complete lack of discussion of how this is taking place and the inability of the left to put this out for public consumption/outrage and build a movement to take advantage of the situation. Brad -- Brad A. Bauerly PhD Candidate Political Science York University Toronto, Canada 647-345-2072 bauerly at yorku.ca From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 08:57:18 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 10:57:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Graphic adaptation of Studs Terkel's "Working" Message-ID: <49FB0DCE.7090204@panix.com> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-terkel1-2009may01,0,7643798.story From the Los Angeles Times Opinion Studs Terkel's 'Working' reimagined A new book takes the famous book and puts it in graphic form. May 1, 2009 Studs Terkel's oral history book, "Working," came out more than 35 years ago. In Terkel's introduction, he explained that the book, "being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence -- to the spirit as well as to the body. ... It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash. ... To be remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of the heroes and heroines of the book. ... I was constantly astonished by the extraordinary dreams of ordinary people. ... Perhaps it is time the 'work ethic' was redefined and its ideas reclaimed from the banal men who invoke it." During today's difficult economic times, Terkel's words and those of his "workers" still resonate. Harvey Pekar has adapted and Paul Buhle edited text from that work for "Studs Terkel's Working: a Graphic Adaptation." Buhle writes in the introduction to the new book: "Terkel's interviewing has found a counterpart, for the last thirty years or so, in the comics scripted by Harvey Pekar. The two are joined here, adapted by a dozen talented artists, in ... a fresh approach to the lives and labor of ordinary Americans." The illustrations here by Peter Kuper are based on Terkel's interview with Bill Talcott, an organizer who, as he put it, "came into consciousness during the '50s" and worked with black communities in San Francisco and mine workers in Appalachia, among others. An excerpt from "Working": http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-terkel-image,0,7747555.htmlpage From nchamah at gmail.com Fri May 1 08:59:58 2009 From: nchamah at gmail.com (nchamah miller) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 10:59:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] interview nchamah miller on political economy of Canada - Colombia trade agreement Message-ID: Interview Saturday 10:30 (EST) and 10:00 (PST) on www.cjsf.ca/pguide/grid/description.php?ID=126 From mikedjyates at msn.com Fri May 1 09:06:28 2009 From: mikedjyates at msn.com (MICHAEL YATES) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 08:06:28 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] new blog post/what if the uaw owned an auto company? Message-ID: Full at http://www.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org The troubles in the U.S. automobile industry have taken an interesting turn. In return for considerable concessions to Chrysler and General Motors, the United Auto Workers may become a majority shareholder in Chrysler and a large stakeholder in General Motors. The federal government will also own a large fraction of the shares of the two corporations, making both of them a lot less capitalist in their ownership structure than would have been imaginable only a few months ago. Doug Henwood, on his lbo-talk email list, raised a critical question: what does ownership mean for the union? Or perhaps a better formulation: what could it mean for the union? Let?s look at this. Like any organization, a union must have goals, and strategy and tactics aimed at realizing them. When capitalism was much younger and workers were beginning to understand it, the organizations of the working class?labor unions and political parties?had as their aim the abolition of the system of wage labor. This meant that they hoped to bring an end to capitalism itself, since wage labor is its lifeblood. It is through the ability of employers?an ability that rests on their ownership of society?s productive wealth?to compel workers to labor enough hours to produce an output which, when sold, will generate for employers a surplus over their costs that allows employers to make a profit.. This profit is the property of the owners, and they use it to expand their operations and their political and social power. If there is no wage labor, there is no capitalism. There were good reasons for the working class movement to want to abolish wage labor. Here is how I summed it up in an article I wrote more than a decade ago: Now, the whole thrust of capitalism is to alienate us from our humanity, to deny to us that which makes us human. We enter the workplace, having sold our labor power, our ability to create, to the capitalist, who considers it to be property, on a par with the other means of production. To the capitalist, we are costs of production, costs to be minimized whatever the human cost, which does not enter into the capitalist?s calculations at all. However, we are not happy to have sold our humanity, so we have to be forced to do the capitalist?s bidding. While this force is often enough effectuated violently, the true and perverted genius of capital is to accomplish it indirectly by reorganizing the labor process so that it is extraordinarily difficult for the workers to control it. [As Harry] Braverman shows us with wonderful clarity [in his book Labor and Monopoly Capital] . . .the essence of capitalist management is control, control over the labor process and therefore control over the worker. First, the workers are herded into factories, then they are watched and the divisions that they make in their own labors are turned against them through the detailed division of labor. Machines threaten them with redundance and further deskill their work. All of the piecemeal efforts at control are systematized by [Frederick]Taylor, who makes the separation of conception and execution the sine qua non of capitalist production. Both Taylorism and personnel management are reconceptualized again with lean production and its super-systematic hiring, just-in-time inventories, design for manufacture, team production, subcontracting, andon boards, and constant kaizening of the work. So careful have become the capitalist?s calculations that workers in modern automobile factories, places that autoworker, Ben Hamper, in his book, Rivethead, calls gulags, work as much as fifty-seven seconds of every minute, often for ten to twelve hours per day. The constant pressure to produce in circumstances in which the worker can exert virtually no control over the work, is what Braverman aptly describes as "a generalized social insanity." From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Fri May 1 09:14:39 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 16:14:39 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Crisis good for US K'ists In-Reply-To: <55868ddf0905010654t435e4919ke1856b653c971ff1@mail.gmail.com> References: <55868ddf0905010654t435e4919ke1856b653c971ff1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: -- Dr Jon Cloke Project Officer EnergyCentral and Research Associate Global and World Cities Group Geography Department Loughborough University Loughborough LE11 3TU E-mail: j.m.p.cloke at lboro.ac.uk Tel: 00 44 07984 813681 On Fri, 1 May 2009 09:54:34 -0400 ?brad bauerly wrote: > Looking over the recent data it strikes me that the >outcome of the crisis > may be beneficial for US capitalists.??Nothing really >shocking there to us, > however it is interesting to see how this was already >occurring in 2008 and > to think about how we could use this politically.??This >shows clearly how > their crisis will be paid for by working people, both in >the US and across > the rest of the world. > > Here are some examples: exports continued to grow >through 2008 by 6.2% > (percent change over last year in constant dollars) >while imports shrank by > 3.5%.??Also, nonfarm output per hour doubled its >increase over percent > change from last year to increase by 2.8%, while nonfarm >compensation > decreased its percent change over the last year. > > In short, people are working harder for less.??All of >the doom and gloom > media about the crisis is placing real pressure on >people to work harder in > an increasingly competitive labor market.??The threat of >loosing your home, > your retirement fund and your source of cheap credit has >worked to increase > the output per worker. The problem is that this has also >lowered demand and > increased the corporate bankruptcies.??Thus, we will >once again see a > consolidation of capitalist power and the renewal of US >dynamism that is the > root of the US empire.??Interesting to see how this >crisis will turn out to > be functional to capitalism and how this process started >so early.??Also, > the complete lack of discussion of how this is taking >place and the > inability of the left to put this out for public >consumption/outrage and > build a movement to take advantage of the situation. > > Brad > > -- > Brad A. Bauerly > PhD Candidate > Political Science > York University > Toronto, Canada > 647-345-2072 > bauerly at yorku.ca > ________________________________________________ > 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/j.m.p.cloke%40lboro.ac.uk From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 09:30:45 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 11:30:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Three Monkeys Message-ID: <49FB15A5.2010306@panix.com> I came to Nuri Bilge Ceylan?s ?Three Monkeys? (?? Maymun) with high expectations since his prior films??Clouds of May?, ?Distant? and ?Climates??were extremely impressive despite holding one at arm?s length using a kind of updated ?alienation? effect associated with Antonioni. Whatever his movies lacked in terms of plot, character development and dialog?the customary building blocks of all drama?they made up for through stunning cinematography and acting. The acting, it should be stressed, was not of the classic Laurence Olivier variety, nor was it the method acting of a Marlon Brando. It was instead mostly acting geared to facial expressions and physical gestures, harking back in a way to the era of silent film. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/three-monkeys/ From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Fri May 1 09:39:41 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 16:39:41 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Muslim Vs Atlantic slave trade - comparative apocalyptics 101 In-Reply-To: References: <49F84EB6.1010400@panix.com> Message-ID: I suppose this is really my fault; I?d imagined that there was slightly more knowledge on Islamic slavery on the list than there plainly is, and thus allowed Papa Sarty to indulge in his habitually orotund persiflage at (as he fondly imagines it) my expense for longer than I should, to allow others to chip in. However, since dearth there be (which dearth is, if I might say so, hiatus valde deflendus) and it falls to my lot to undertake the schooling, then schooling let there be. I shall tackle the points about the Muslim slave trade in three parts, according to the three main objections raised by Papa Sarty, Waistline and Farmelantj: 1 ?Are you really claiming that slave practices of the Ottomans, the Chinese, and the indigenous North Americans are the same, were identical in their impacts on the populations so enslaved as that of the Atlantic slave trade?? (Papa Sarty) As Willis (1985) puts it in Slaves and slavery in Muslim Africa (JR Willis, 1985), by comparison with the transatlantic trade the? Islamic slave trade in Africa ?compares in scale and scope, and out-distances the more popular subject in its length of duration.? When the Muslim community erupted out of the Arabian peninsula under the al-khulafa ar-rashidun (?Rightly Guided Caliphs?) after the death of Abu Bakr in 634, as well as peoples, settlements and goods the Muslims took over social and economic trade networks, including the extensive slaving networks into the interior of Africa established by the Romans and Byzantines. Because slavery was so widespread at the time of the birth of Islam, it is accepted implicitly (if not condoned) in the Quran as it was in the Bible and the Torah (for instance, Surah 24:58: ?O ye who believe! Let your slaves, and those of you who have not come to puberty, ask leave of you at three times (before they come into your presence.?). As Islam spread across the Middle East and the North of Africa during the early medieval period, so did its own particular and characteristic take on slavery. In what we might refer to still as the early period of the spread of Islam, from the Seldjuk defeat of the Byzantines, the rise of the Mamelukes and the beginnings of the Ottoman empire, as Willis again puts it. ?Slaves of African origin formed a vital thread in the living lines of economic production in the Near and Middle East and formed the cord of economic activity in Islamic Africa itself.? According to Toledano (Slavery and abolition in the Ottoman Middle East, 1998) by the 19th century there were principally three slave markets in Africa; the trans-atlantic, the muslim and the internal slave market; interestingly, Toledano claims that the internal market (African-African slavery) was the biggest, although you have to be careful about that since these would certainly not have been distinct markets ? the original, pre-Phoenician, pre-Greek and pre-Roman internal markets would have been small and primitive and would no doubt have grown massively in response, firstly to the demands of the Roman market, secondly the Muslim market and then latterly the transatlantic market, and as these markets grew there would have been a considerable degree of overlap, to the extent that distinguishing between them would in some areas have been a bit meaningless. So, not only am I claiming (as I shall expand on below) that the Muslim slave trade had as big an impact as the trans-Atlantic trade, because it lasted far longer I am claiming that it had a greater impact, as the statistics for intensity and type that I cite below give evidence of. 2? ?Slavery as practiced by the Ottoman's and Moors had nothing in common with the commercial slavery based on new world production as practiced by the French, Spanish, Portuguese, British, and US.? (Waistline) As we all (I hope) know, all figures for the slave trade are controversial and subject to revision, particularly those of the Muslim slave trade, which for some reason (much to the puzzlement of the relatively small number of scholars researching it) is nowhere near as popular a topic as the transatlantic trade - I suggest some reasons why this might be at the end. Having said which, Professor Ralph A. Austen (University of Chicago, cited in Willis, p. x) suggests an estimated figure of 17,000,000 for Islamic slave trade out of Africa from c.650-1905 (and I don?t know if this includes figures for people ?killed during their storage, shipment and initial landing?). Compare this with some of the estimates for the transatlantic trade which include the numbers of Africans who died in the process of capture, storage and on landing: ?Approximately 8 million Africans were killed during their storage, shipment and initial landing in the New World. The amount of life lost in the actual procurement of slaves remains a mystery, but may equal or exceed the amount actually enslaved. These figures would indicate the total number of deaths at around 16 million? (David Stannard, American Holocaust, Oxford University Press, 1993). So in terms of numbers at least, bearing in mind that the Muslim slave trade preceded the trans-Atlantic trade by hundreds of years (and indeed the first slaves brought into Europe in the 1440s and probably a lot longer ago than that were seized from Muslim communities in North Africa and would have included people made slaves by the Muslims as? well as Muslims themselves), and that the Muslim trade didn?t end when the trans-Atlantic trade did and continues (by many estimates, including let us not forget those 90,000 poor souls in Mauritania) to this day, it is most probable that the Muslim slave trade was at least the equal of the trans-Atlantic trade. Slavery was both familiar to and widely accepted in all walks of life in Ottoman Empire from its beginnings in 13th century; it was more institutionalized in the home countries of those Islamic nations conducting the trade than was the case for Spain, Portugal and Britain and by the 18th century in the Ottoman empire the number of slaves being imported rose to between 16,000 and 18,000 per annum for first 70 years of the century (compare with estimated 25,000 per annum in 1700 for trans-Atlantic trade, rising to about 80,000 p.a. by 1850 and rapid decline thereafter) and whereas under pressure from the new anti-saving nations the numbers of slaves being traded in the Ottoman Empire began to diminish rapidly from about 1840, it never actually ended. 3 ?The latter variety of slaves could become quite wealthy and powerful in their own right despite their status as being the property of the state or of the emperors.? (Farmelantj) Speaking to the quality and type of slavery, Farmelantj and others suggest that the trans-Atlantic trade was ?chattel? slavery and therefore involved a type and intensity of slavery that was far worse than Muslim slavery. There are doubtless those on this list who know a little more about the trans-Atlantic trade than I, who will also doubtless be aware that the kind of slavery that took place in the New World was not monolithic in type, but also varied greatly, which is not to underplay the suffering that took place but to suggest that qualitatively there would have been a good deal of difference between the short and brutal life of a slave imported to cut sugar cane in the West Indies (for example) and (for want of a better example) one of the house slaves owned by the Bush family in Maryland, or a slave in Brazil. The Muslim slave trade did differ in some distinctive characteristics from the transatlantic trade ? it was for instance a far more feminized phenomenon than trans-atlantic trade, and the taking of particularly female slaves was driven by Islamic concept of concubinage ? the percentage of that estimated 17,000,000 would have been characterised by a far greater number of women and children than the transatlantic trade. So far as the Ottoman empire itself was concerned, there were almost certainly a far greater variety of types and class of slave. The main classes of Ottoman slaves were: domestic slaves, female harem slaves, Sultan?s Kuls (officeholders), court and elite eunuchs, Circassian agricultural slaves, slave dealers and slave owners. There is another controversy over the quality and intensity of slavery of all of these different types of slave amongst scholars of the Muslim trade. For instance, despite distinctions between types of slaves (e.g. kuls), the environment in which conventional slavery of all types took place meant that, from the beginning to the end of the Empire, the Sultan could confiscate all property of all of these classes of slaves and kill them with no legal process at all. Over time, though, the status and absolute nature of the condition of slavery changed as the Ottoman empire matured; after the 16th century it became quite rare for the Sultan to order this kind of execution and then it tended to occur mainly as a political example. Some critical scholars maintain, however, that right to the end of the Ottoman Empire, slavery in some countries and regions was conducted with unequalled savagery. Jay Spaulding, for instance (in ?Slavery, Land Tenure, and Social Class in the Northern Turkish Sudan," International Journal of African Historical Studies 15/1 (1981): 1-10) reckons that in Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan slaves were considered to be nothing more than ?talking animals? (al-hayawan al natiq); that slaves were given different names to prevent their integration with free people; that slaves in some districts were not even buried in order to save money, instead they were either left for animals to eat or dumped in rivers; that the Ottoman government demanded slaves as taxes, and that household slaves were frequently sold and very rarely manumitted. By way of concluding, for me it is fairly plain that one reason that research into the Muslim slave trade is so badly neglected is because of political instrumentality. Firstly, Lefties/Marxists in the rich countries of the North have the trans-Atlantic trade fixed as part of their capitalism-orientated compass and, as for the Muslim trade, well, what?s that got to do with the development of Capitalism? Secondly, owing to the increasing centre of gravity constituted by the North American scholastic world (as well as its financial power) and its increasing absorption in African-American culture, obviously the trans-Atlantic/Triangular Trade has become increasingly important to African-American studies and the overall perception of ?African-American-ness?. It would be tempting but unjustifiable to add a third motive, that the more feminized Muslim slave trade simply wasn?t that interesting to overwhelmingly andro-centric, patriarchal hierarchy of Marxist thought because it simply wasn?t that interested in anything to do with women. Which is strange really, because you?d have thought that Marx above anybody would have been interested in female slavery and the economics of the dual reproductive/ productive role played by women, given the amount of time he spent boning the hired help. ? And now, to lighten the tone, I am introducing a Happy May Day competition! The winner of the prize will be the first person to send me an e-mail with their name and address and the correct answer to the following question: When I read Papa Sarty's e-mails, what fictional character immediately springs to my mind? Is it: a) Captain Haddock from the Tintin books? b) Colonel Hathi from Disney's Jungle Book? c) Smaug from the Hobbit? d) A combination of the above? The winner of this competition will receive the magnificent prize of Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins wonderful 1984 book, The Battle for the Falklands! Happy May Day! Jon Cloke From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com Fri May 1 09:49:46 2009 From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 08:49:46 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] SF - 1934 General Strike Laid Base for Counterculture Message-ID: <49FB1A1A.1050509@gmail.com> While the review is supposed to be about the counter-culture of the Bay Area, Glass makes the almost universally typical labor history 101 mistake about the 1934 *maritime* strike, but not noting that the strike was a join strike by longshore of the ILA AND merchant seamen of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. This is almost always a typical outgrowth of pro-CP labor history influence that seeks to down play the role other unions during this and other strikes. I would urge list members to read a wide variety of points of view on this, the West Coast Maritime Strike of 1934 of which the General Strike in SF was a pinnacle event. Any good reading list of this history should start with this book: "Maritime solidarity: Pacific Coast unionism, 1929-1938" by Ottilie Markholt. Markholt was married to the president of the Tacoma ILA local during the strike and remained an active Wobbly for most of her life. She played a major role in organizing solidarity for the strike maritime workers throughout the many strikes in the 1930s. David From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 09:57:54 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 11:57:54 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Muslim Vs Atlantic slave trade - comparative apocalyptics 101 In-Reply-To: References: <49F84EB6.1010400@panix.com> Message-ID: <49FB1C02.7010806@panix.com> J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk wrote: > Some critical scholars maintain, however, that right to > the end of the Ottoman Empire, slavery in some countries > and regions was conducted with unequalled savagery. Jay > Spaulding, for instance (in ?Slavery, Land Tenure, and > Social Class in the Northern Turkish Sudan," International > Journal of African Historical Studies 15/1 (1981): 1-10) > reckons that in Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan slaves were > considered to be nothing more than ?talking animals? > (al-hayawan al natiq); that slaves were given different > names to prevent their integration with free people; that > slaves in some districts were not even buried in order to > save money, instead they were either left for animals to > eat or dumped in rivers; that the Ottoman government > demanded slaves as taxes, and that household slaves were > frequently sold and very rarely manumitted. But this is the problem. Slavery in the Sudan was CHATTEL slavery. The Sudan was colonized by Egypt (and indirectly by Great Britain) in the mid-1800s as a way to compete with American cotton-production. I dealt with this here: If Egypt was to be bled dry while satisfying its creditors, it was only natural that it would make its colony Sudan share the pain. Since Sudan was not part of the cash economy and had few natural resources that could generate foreign revenues, Egypt resorted to a time-tested method, one that in fact had been pioneered in Europe. By imposing a tax, the Sudanese tribesmen would be forced to enter the cash economy. But except for ivory what did the Sudan have that could yield currency on the world market? The answer was human bodies. By imposing taxes on the ethnically mixed Arab-black Beggara pastoralists of the north and east, they would naturally be pressured into capturing black Africans of the Dinka tribes who lived in the south and who could be sold for hard currency. The male slaves ended up as soldiers or cotton-picking fellaheen in Egypt, while the women became domestic servants or consigned to the harems of North Africa and Turkey. In order to line up British support for its initial foray into the Sudan, Egypt made all sorts of verbal commitments to ending slavery. The real solution to the problem was not in codes, nor in proper enforcement. As long as Egypt put pressure on Sudan to help meet its financial obligations to European creditors, there would be a slave trade. It was the world capitalist system that created a market for slaves, just as capitalist immiseration has created a market for prostitutes from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. To end prostitution or slavery, you need to end want and the commodity it generates: cash. full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/fascism_and_war/mahdism.htm Now the revolt against Egyptian/British colonialism was led by the Mahdi, who held slaves but NOT on a chattel basis. This was used demagogically by the British as an excuse to intervene in the Sudan. Basically, unless you look at modes of production, any discussion of slavery soon becomes detached from historical materialism and goes down the road of moralism. From adgagne at yahoo.com Fri May 1 10:02:58 2009 From: adgagne at yahoo.com (adgagne at yahoo.com) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 09:02:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Fw: the gay community and zionist attacks on palestine, iran Message-ID: <124775.86869.qm@web54405.mail.yahoo.com> From: adgagne at yahoo.com Subject: the gay community and zionist attacks on palestine, iran To: "annette gagne" Cc: "Bill Bateman" , "kevin dejesus" , gayatheists at yahoogroups.com, marxism-request at lists.econ.utah.edu, peace-ri at yahoogroups.com, radicaldykes at yahoogroups.com, "wally sillanpoa" , "David Walsh" Date: Friday, May 1, 2009, 11:52 AM dear friends, this is an approach that the queer left needs to fight for within the very mainsteaming glbt organizations. best wishes,? -A????????? ?? "if they give you lined paper, write sideways."? ?? ?? ? contact info for annette gagne:? po box 40573? providence, ri 02940? ?? adgagne at yahoo.com? ?? AIM ID - adgagne? ?? yahoo IM ID - adgagne _____________________________________________________________________ by: "Yoshie Furuhashi" critical.montages at gmail.com???yoshie_furuhashi Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:02 pm (PDT) Israel has been using the "Israel as gay oasis and refuge" campaign against the Palestinians for some time: cf. . I don't know about Europe, but, in the US, this "Israel Is Gay" PR offensive so far doesn't seem to have won the Jewish state many new friends among ordinary gay men and lesbians, who still mostly lean to the Left. Regardless, this offensive appears to be just extended to the Iran front. Left to their own devices, the Iranians will probably get to liberalize their sexual affairs eventually, but such a change will surely take decades to make, and in the meantime there will be a lot of problems that pro-Tel Aviv ideologues can exploit. Yoshie Israel Plans to Use Gays to Bomb Iran Amal Amireh Published 04/25/2009 - 2:32 p.m. CST Israel is so worried about the International community's willingness to talk to Iran before bombing it that they are launching a new "bomb-before- you-talk" public "relation" campaign. Gay rights in Iran are at the center of this public "tarnation" campaign. Israel is planning to use Iran's treatment of its homosexuals to convince the world that Iran deserves to be bombed to smithereens. They are planning to recruit western gay rights activists to do their propaganda for them, according to this report in Ha'aretz. [LINK: ] This is bad news for homosexuals in Iran and for those who care about them. Ask the women of Afghanistan. Not long ago, they were mobilized for another public relation campaign that wanted to sell the war on Afghanistan to every American household. This is when CNN, Fox, and Opera discovered Afghani women and were so moved by their plight that they decided to bomb them to free them from their misery. And look at the result! The Afghani government that was produced by years of war has just decided that a husband has the legal right to have sex with his wife every four days. No ifs, buts or headaches are acceptable. In other words, the Afghani constitution legalizes marital rape now. Afghani women, those who survived the bombing, had taken to the streets to protest this new legislation and were pelted with stones for their immodesty. But, hey, stones are better than bombs. So there is progress after all. You can also ask the gays of Iraq, who have been tortured and assassinated by one militia or another after years of mayhem that brought them a new "democracy." And while you are at it, talk to the women, those who are starved, raped, sold, and beheaded in the new Iraq. The lesson from Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Gaza, and wherever the bombs are falling) is that bombing a country does not improve human rights in that country. Bombs do not make progress. In fact, the weakest groups will be the ones to suffer most: the poor, children, women, gays, minorities. They will pay the heaviest price of war and militarization. Even if war does not take place, using gays in Iran as pawn in the war rhetoric will increase their vulnerability to violence and prejudice. Israel knows this very well. But it doesn't give a damn about Iranian gays. It's on the war path. But for those of us who do give a damn, our work has just got harder. International LGBT groups must distance themselves from the Israeli agenda because it is the kiss of death for Iranian gays. And we all must find ways to continue to advocate for human rights and at the same time expose the cynical manipulation of these rights by politicians and generals. It is the only way. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 10:05:21 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 12:05:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] May day stuff! In-Reply-To: <49FA6251.6000505@ix.netcom.com> References: <49F0D3F7.5090008@gmail.com> <49FA6251.6000505@ix.netcom.com> Message-ID: <49FB1DC1.8020705@panix.com> Juan Fajardo wrote: > A growing list of internet links to info on planned May Day events > around the world is available at: > > http://www.marxists.org/espanol/tematica/1demayo/index.htm#eventos > > HAPPY MAY DAY, COMRADES! > Btw, this is also the 11th anniversary of the Marxism mailing list and Doug Henwood's LBO-Talk mailing list. We now have 1218 subscribers. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 10:11:11 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 12:11:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Israel Boycott is Biting Message-ID: <49FB1F1F.8010601@panix.com> Counterpunch Weekend Edition May 1 - 3, 2009 "When Companies Begin to Lose Money, They Start to Listen" The Israel Boycott is Biting By NADIA HIJAB On May 4, protesters will greet Motorola shareholders, already disgruntled by the company's losses, as they arrive for their annual meeting at the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, Illinois. The protest, organized by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, is part of a drive to "Hang Up On Motorola" until it ends sales of communications and other products that support Israel's military occupation of Palestinian land. Inside the meeting, the Presbyterian, United Methodist and other churches will urge shareholders to support their resolution, which calls for corporate standards grounded in international law. Doing the right thing could also reduce the risk of "consumer boycotts, divestment campaigns and lawsuits." Although Motorola executives deny it, such risks must have played a part in their decision to sell the department making bomb fuses shortly after Human Rights Watch teams found shrapnel with Motorola serial numbers at some of the civilian sites bombed by Israel in its December-January assault on Gaza. The US protests are part of a growing global movement that has taken international law into its own hands because governments have not. And, especially since the attacks on Gaza, the boycotts have been biting. There are three reasons why. First, boycotts enable ordinary citizens to take direct action. For instance, the New York group Adalah decided to target diamond merchant Lev Leviev, whose profits are plowed into colonizing the West Bank. During the Christmas season, they sing carols with the words creatively altered to urge shoppers to boycott his Madison Avenue store. The British group Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine teamed up with Adalah NY and others to exert public pressure on the British government regarding Leviev. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv recently cancelled plans to rent premises from Leviev's company Africa-Israel. There are other results. Activists in Britain have targeted the supermarket chain Tesco to stop the sales of Israeli goods produced in settlements. In a video of one such action -- over 38,000 YouTube views to date -- Welsh activists load up a trolley with settlement products and push it out of the shop without paying. All the while, they calmly explain to the camera just what they are doing and why. They talk away as they pour red paint over the produce, and as British Bobbies quietly lead them away to a police van. The result of such consumer boycotts? A fifth of Israeli producers have reported a drop in demand since the assault on Gaza, particularly in Britain and Scandinavia. The second reason boycotts are more effective is the visible role of Jewish human rights advocates, making it harder for Israel to argue that these actions are anti-Semitic. For example, British architect Abe Hayeem, an Iraqi Jew, describes in a passionate column in The Guardian exactly how Leviev tramples on Palestinian rights, and warns Israeli architects involved in settlements that they will be held to account by their international peers. In the United States, Jewish Voice for Peace has led an ongoing campaign to stop Caterpillar from selling bulldozers to Israel, which militarizes them and uses them in home demolitions and building the separation wall. The third, key, reason for the growing success of this global movement is the determined leadership of Palestinian civil society. The spark was lit at the world conference against racism in Durban in 2001. In 2004, Palestinian civil society launched an academic and cultural boycott that is having an impact. In 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society coalitions, organizations, and unions, from the occupied territories, within Israel, and in exile issued a formal call for an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) until Israel abides by international law. The call sets out clear goals for the movement and provides a framework for action. In November 2008, Palestinian NGOs helped convene an international BDS conference in Bilbao, Spain, to adopt common actions. This launched a "Derail Veolia" campaign. That French multinational corporation, together with another French company, Alstom, is building a light railway linking East Jerusalem to illegal settlements. The light rail project was cited by the Swedish national pension fund in its decision to exclude Alstom from its $15 billion portfolio, and by the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in its decision not to consider further Veolia's bid for a $1.9 billion waste improvement plan. There were active grassroots campaigns in both areas. Other hits: Veolia lost the contract to operate the city of Stockholm subway and an urban network in Bordeaux. Although these were reportedly "business decisions" there were also activist campaigns in both places. The Galway city council in Ireland decided to follow Stockholm's example. Meanwhile, Connex, the company that is supposed to operate the light rail, is being targeted by activists in Australia. The "Derail Veolia" campaign has been the movement's biggest success to date. Veolia and its subsidiaries are estimated to have lost as much as $7.5 billion. As one of the BDS movement leaders, Omar Barghouti, put it, "When companies start to lose money, then they listen." Perhaps governments will too. Nadia Hijab is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies. From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 1 11:42:51 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 13:42:51 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Muslim Vs Atlantic slave trade - comparative apocalyptics101 References: <49F84EB6.1010400@panix.com> Message-ID: Thanks very much to our bloke Cloke for the information on Muslim slavery. Couple of points-- while our bloke Cloke refers to the total numbers involved in the Islamic slave trade-- 17,000,000 stretching over 1300 years, when discussing the Atlantic slave trade he refers only to estimates of the numbers killed, which is then estimated at twice the 8 million lost in capture, transport, and landing, or 16 million, or the total numbers enslaved. So 16 million killed, 16 million enslaved, sounds like more than 17,000, 000 to me. And despite his claims, he never discusses the impact of the trade on the sources of supply. Would appreciate a reference to that, as the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on community and kinship in Africa has been analyzed. And after that, Cloke glosses over with his usual scholastic imprecision that actual distinctions in the slavery practiced. He tips his hat to the kinder gentler slavery of the domestic slaves in Maryland vs. the plantation slavery of ... anywhere. Our bloke Cloke even intimates that slaves in Brazil had it better than slaves in the West Indies. Shows how little Cloke knows about slavery in Brazil, which was, like that in the West Indies driven initially by sugar cane production-- and where mortality rates upon slaves were to put it simply, staggering. But what our bloke Cloke never grasps, in any of his rumblings, is that the driver of the Atlantic slave trade was the commercial, plantation slavery, and that the domestic slavery was derivative, minor and inconsequential. What was of consequence was another thing our bloke Cloke cannot comprehend-- production. [Parenthetical note: It's the same problem Cloke has in his argument about domestic laborers as workers. Yes they are workers. No, they are not reproducing capital. Production, the organization of social labor, and the products of social labor, not to mention products of social labor encapsulated in specific property forms are simply beyond his understanding.] And the drivers of the Islamic slave trade were-- well they were not centered on plantation production. According to our bloke Cloke, the trade was "feminized," with slaves taken for concubinage, domestic service, military service, court officials, agricultural labors-- [and in certain limited circumstances, plantation type production did exist]-- but overall the organization of the trade, and the USE or consumption of slave labor in the Islamic world was fundamentally different than that practiced at then ends of the Atlantic trade. I have not claimed that Islamic slavery was benevolent. What was claimed was that the defeat of the Moors in Spain, Spain's consolidation under the houses of Castile and Aragon and Catholicism was a blow to human emancipation. Certainly the history of Spain and the Church prove that. What was claimed that the defeat of the Ottomans in Austria and Hungary was also a setback. I think both of those things precisely because the Atlantic slave trade, organized and conducted for commercial purposes, originating in the feudal/mercantile capital alliance that then fed the furnace of developing capitalism,-- that commercial plantation slavery would not have developed. Might have even hindered Britain's ability to penetrate the Americas and seize the Malvinas. From: To: Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 11:39 AM Subject: [Marxism] Muslim Vs Atlantic slave trade - comparative apocalyptics101 From anthony.boynton at gmail.com Fri May 1 11:44:31 2009 From: anthony.boynton at gmail.com (Anthony Boynton) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 12:44:31 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Opportunity knocks for Parliamentary Cretinism: California Greens and Peace and Freedom Party Message-ID: <7b8a676d0905011044n8b2da55n39011067a33f5e1d@mail.gmail.com> The article below is from today's Sacramento Bee. I have no idea how bad is the state of the California Green Party, nor of how much worse the state of the California Peace and Freedom Party's state is, but the local elections this Novemeber, and the 2010 midterm elections are almost certain to open a great opportunity for both parties to grow, increase the numbers of people and candidates involved, and gain larger %s of the votes. The Greens, who have elected people to various local offices, certainly stand to a chance to significantly increase the numbers they elect. I know the anti-parliamentarians, and maybe even the antidisestablishmentarians on the list, will think this is no big deal, but it is another opening for rebuilding the left in the USA, which should not be dropped. Although dropping the ball is powerful left tradition in the USA. Anthony Voters take a dim view of governor, Legislature By Kevin Yamamura kyamamura at sacbee.com Published: Friday, May. 1, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A With the economy and state budget in turmoil, California voters are more frustrated than ever with state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a Field Poll released today. Only 14 percent of registered voters approve of the Legislature's performance, compared with 74 percent who disapprove of the Democratic-led institution. That is the lowest mark for the California Legislature in the Field Poll's 27-year history of tracking its job performance rating. Schwarzenegger also hit a new personal low, with 33 percent saying they approve of the Republican governor, compared with 55 percent who disapprove. And a slightly higher percentage of Democrats approve of him than do members of his own Republican Party, according to the poll. "You have to budget in your own home, and if you can't do the job in balancing the state budget on time, you should step down," said Claire Northcutt, a 49-year-old independent voter from Sacramento who runs an in-home nursing business. "If I didn't pass the budget of my business on time, where would I be?" The paltry approval numbers couldn't come at a worse time for state leaders. They are asking voters to approve six measures they placed on the May 19 special election ballot to help close the state's budget deficit. With the election fast approaching, Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have done little publicly this week to promote the measures. Instead, they have relied on teachers, firefighters and AARP to promote their cause in ads and events, perhaps a recognition that state leaders are politically toxic right now. For instance, backers of Propositions 1A through 1F are running an ad that actually uses politicians as a foil. In the 30-second spot, a father says that politicians have "got us in quite a mess." "We're not going to be on the TV ads," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "We're involved, however. You know, the Legislature is generally unpopular, but people tend to like their own legislator. So in my caucus, people are out there speaking in their communities." Schwarzenegger is a rare politician in that Democrats, Republicans and independent voters all have roughly the same view of his performance. Republicans give him the lowest support, with 30 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval. By comparison, 32 percent of Democrats said they approve and 56 percent said they disapprove. The governor has drawn criticism from Republicans for helping to craft a budget that contains temporary tax hikes on sales, income and vehicles. "What's remarkable about his job rating numbers is that there's no differentiation between the two parties," said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. "I can't think of another elected official who, when getting negative ratings, scores just as poorly among his own party as among the opposing party." Julie Soderlund, a political spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger and the campaign to pass the ballot measures, said that voters should resist taking their anger out on the special election propositions because various programs will suffer as a result. One measure, Proposition 1C, would raise $5 billion for the budget by borrowing against future California Lottery revenues. "If these don't pass, there will be a significant hole in the budget, and that has a direct impact on people as a whole, not the politicians," Soderlund said. Donald Dougherty, 60, a Colfax retiree, said he plans to consider the ballot measures on their own merits because "we shouldn't get sucked up in our negativity." Though he's a Democrat, Dougherty approves of Schwarzenegger but disapproves of the Legislature. "I think he's trying to do the right thing," Dougherty said of the governor. "He's not perfect, but he's got some good ideas." Of the Legislature, he said, "They're not helping the people to succeed. They're fighting amongst themselves and have their own agendas individually." Northcutt, however, says she plans to take out her frustrations on the ballot measures. "I've decided that if it involves any taxes whatsoever, I'm voting no," she said. "I would have to say I'm just down on all government. It wouldn't matter if it was Arnold in there or Billy Bob, I just don't think they've done a good job." From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 12:57:28 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 14:57:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Jon Wiener reviews Mark Rudd memoir Message-ID: <49FB4618.9010304@panix.com> http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-ca-mark-rudd29-2009mar29,0,3918461.story BOOK REVIEW 'Underground' by Mark Rudd A memoir by a former member of SDS and the Weathermen -- and we're not talking about William Ayers. By Jon Wiener Underground My Life With SDS and the Weathermen Mark Rudd William Morrow: 326 pp., $25.99 Mark Rudd is the guy from the Weather Underground who is not Bill Ayers. Both were leaders of the group that worked for the violent overthrow of the United States government in the 1970s, but while Ayers remains unapologetic, Rudd is full of regrets. Rudd is not Bill Ayers in other ways: Sarah Palin did not accuse Barack Obama of palling around with him, nor has he been featured on the New York Times op-ed page or interviewed on "Fresh Air With Terry Gross." Instead, he has lived in obscurity, as a community college math teacher in New Mexico, since the government dropped charges against him in 1977. The 2003 documentary "The Weather Underground" celebrated the "idealistic passion" that led Ayers and his comrades to their campaign of bombing public buildings. At the end of the film, Rudd appeared briefly for the first time in 25 years, "a befuddled, gray-haired, overweight, middle-aged guy" full of "guilt and shame." At least that's the way he describes himself at the beginning of "Underground: My Life With SDS and the Weathermen." It was that image, Rudd says, that drove him to write this book -- because in the film "I never get to explain what I'm guilty and ashamed of." The Weather Underground was a splinter faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the radical antiwar group that by the late 1960s had chapters on hundreds of campuses. Around 1969, the Weathermen (who named themselves after Bob Dylan's line "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows") concluded that the American people would never stop the war in Vietnam. Rather, it was up to them -- a few dozen kids -- to act on behalf of the Vietnamese people by placing small bombs in places like the Capitol and the Pentagon. The kids knew best This, or so the logic went, would somehow spark an uprising of young blacks and Latinos to overthrow the government. Even the Vietnamese Communist leaders believed the Weathermen had the wrong strategy, that they should work to persuade mainstream Americans to end the war. But the American kids knew better. Rudd gets right to the point in the opening pages of "Underground": "Much of what the Weathermen did had the opposite effect of what we intended," he writes. "We de-organized SDS while we claimed we were making it stronger; we isolated ourselves from our friends and allies as we helped split the larger antiwar movement around the issue of violence. In general, we played into the hands of the FBI. . . . We might as well have been on their payroll." Rudd's story begins with his parents dropping him off at Columbia University the first day of freshman week 1965. What follows is a straightforward narrative of events, in which he and millions of other young Americans were radicalized by the war. The book has a series of climaxes: first, the triumphant student occupation of Columbia's administration building in the spring of 1968 and the brutal police bust that followed -- which made headlines internationally and set an example for radical students at colleges across the country. Next, he details the formation of the Weathermen in 1969 and the disastrous explosion that killed three members in a Greenwich Village town house in 1970. After that came seven years of life underground, lonely and intermittently terrifying. Finally, we get the happy ending -- Rudd coming up from underground in 1977, settling his legal case, embracing normal life and returning to antiwar activism when President George W. Bush invaded Iraq. Rebellion in bloom Rudd conveys well the festival-like joy of the springtime campus uprisings of the late 1960s: passionate discussions under the trees about the causes of war and strategies for stopping it; music and drugs on all sides; dancing long into the night; "a fluorescence of energy and imagination such as Columbia had never seen." It was like that at hundreds of other schools over the next few years. The authorities looked at these developments and saw only violence and destruction. The New York Times quoted a Columbia administrator's description of Rudd as "totally unscrupulous and morally very dangerous . . . an adolescent having a temper tantrum." The media embraced this image of him as quintessential student rebel, but to his credit, Rudd says that "the organizing at Columbia was the work of hundreds of people at least as committed, intelligent, and articulate as I was." The heart of "Underground" comes about halfway through, in 1969, when SDS was challenged by the hard-core Maoists of the Progressive Labor Party. The Progressive Labor faction had a strategy for revolution: a "worker-student alliance" to overthrow capitalism. The national leadership of SDS -- Rudd and his friends -- concluded that they needed one too. What they came up with was to call on young people to become urban guerrillas to fight "Amerikka." The overwhelming majority of SDS rejected both perspectives, but the faction fight destroyed the organization. "The destruction of SDS was probably the single greatest mistake I've made in my life," Rudd declares forthrightly. "It was a historical crime." You might think all that is obvious now. But it isn't -- at least not to Ayers. He wrote about the Weather Underground in the New York Times in December 2008, declaring that "our effectiveness can be -- and still is being -- debated." His only real regret, he said on "Fresh Air," is that the violent tactics of the Weathermen didn't end the war. But, he added, neither did peaceful protest -- so who can say who was right and who was wrong? Both Rudd and Ayers want today's activists to learn from the mistakes of the 1960s. But nobody opposed to the war in Iraq thinks that becoming an urban guerrilla and putting a bomb in the Pentagon is going to help bring the troops home. Rudd's historical judgments are, to use a phrase from the era, "right on." Still, what may be most striking about "Underground" is how irrelevant its lessons are for our time. Wiener teaches American history at UC Irvine and is a contributing editor to the Nation. From mdriscollrj at charter.net Fri May 1 13:04:22 2009 From: mdriscollrj at charter.net (Ralph Johansen) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 12:04:22 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] 94-YEAR-OLD PHYSICIAN TAKING ACTION, DEFYING CUBA TRAVEL BAN Message-ID: <49FB47B6.70906@charter.net> [Incremental surely, but positive. By the way, remember Jessica Mitford's son Benjamin Treuhaft's long-time campaign to ship pianos to Cuba, involving convoluted-comical-indecisive exchanges with the US government? rj] From Mike Munk: *RETIRED OREGON PHYSICIAN TO DEFY CUBA TRAVEL BAN, CHALLENGE PRESIDENT OBAMA TO LIFT BAN* *Press Conference May 1 (tomorrow) 10:30 a.m. Law Offices of Kafoury & McDougal 320 SW Stark Suite 202 * Charles Grossman, MD, a retired Portland physician, will hold a press conference Friday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m., at the law offices of Kafoury & McDougal, 320 SW Stark, Ste 202. Dr. Grossman will formally announce his intention to challenge the federal ban on tourist visits to Cuba, and to encourage President Obama to lift the ban /now/. Dr. Grossman released the following statement: In view of the lack of action by President Obama on lifting the ban on tourist visits to Cuba (Wall Street Journal, 4/17/09), I have decided that I shall challenge the ban by going as a tourist to Cuba on May 3, 2009. Legislation has been introduced in Congress regarding lifting all bans for US citizens to visit Cuba; however, President Obama has failed to administratively permit tourists access to free travel. His lack of action is not satisfactory for several reasons: 1) needed US leadership in international diplomacy; 2) the chance to support and strengthen both Cuban and US economies regarding trade/tourism; 3) the chance to study the positive and negative benefits of a single-payer healthcare system. Senator Michael Enzi (R) of Wyoming introduced The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act (S. 428), and it is co-sponsored by 25 Senators, inluding Oregon's Ron Wyden, and the companion version House HR (828) is co-sponsored by 125 Representatives, including Oregon's Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio. [Where are Merkley, Wu and Schrader?] I demonstrate my support for the legislation to permit tourist travel by leaving tomorrow. It is my hope that my travel will draw attention to the slowness of Congressional action. As a 94 year-old, retired physician, I am not sure how long it will be before I can "legally" visit Cuba, or whether I shall live that long. In the tradition of Linus Pauling, an old personal friend, who always called a press conference when he had difficulty traveling abroad, I encourage all Americans to follow my lead to challenge injustice as I am demonstrating today, and as I have tried to demonstrate my entire medical career. Charles Grossman, MD Recipient of Citizen of Year Award by Oregon Social Workers (1980) Recipient of Albert Schweizer Peace Award by the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (1989) Member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 Dr. Grossman was the first physician in the U.S. to administer penicillin. The patient was a moribund woman at Yale University in 1942. She made a full recovery. From Waistline2 at aol.com Fri May 1 14:22:41 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 16:22:41 EDT Subject: [Marxism] new blog post/what if the uaw owned an auto company? Message-ID: What if the UAW owned an auto company? This very same question was asked 30 years ago - 1979. In the third quarter of 79, unable to meet it's bond obligations, Chrysler went belly up, and was bailed out by the Carter administration. The Union made horrific economic concessions, which amounted to freezing wages and benefits. The government demanded more concessions than the company asked for and both went back to the table further slashing wages and ending the 3% annual raise and periodic wage adjustments, called COLA, cost of living allowance. When the union owns a company the union becomes the capitalists. When the union or workers own companies, even under socialism where the government is the primary property owner, the union and workers are locked into the value relation and evolve - acquire, material interest governed by the underlying economic law of exchange. Is workers control or workers ownership, with or without unions a step forward? I would say No! Is workers control or workers ownership, with or without unions a step backwards? I would say, No! Workers ownership is no more or less than a last ditch effort to stabilize a company and increase its competitive edge by unlocking hidden pools of productivity and achieve greater levels of rationalization of production withheld from "the bosses" and institutional capital. Workers control in the 21st century - the era of the speculator dominating the total social capital and writing the agenda for the bourgeoisie as a class, is the last gasp of historical syndicalism and industrial forms of collusion and colliding with capital. At last this is true for the working class at the front of the curve of industrial and post industrial development. Just because a certain kind of reform works best in Venezuela or some other less developed capitalist country does not mean it is appropriate to American circumstances. State or government ownership of companies becomes a preferable option for various political segments of capital world wide, preferring employment of labor producing hard commodities as oppose to the direct injection of money, commodities and services to the unemployed. The idea that the American working class should embrace the idea of scuffling another 100 years trying to stay competitive in the market is bullshit. It is better to take all socially necessary means of life out of the market relations and let society work for itself providing these services. What is meant is your water bill, basic rent is subsidized housing, health care, basic transportation, basic clothing, public schools, baby sitting and who every wants more can slave for the capitalists, who cannot employ everyone anyway. Such is the immediate solution to this crisis as it is being felt on May 1, 2009. The capitalist are not sent by God to run society forever in their interest. Just as the slave system was overthrown the so-called free market is reducing millions below the status of the old Southern slaves. Master had to feed his slaves and provide for their basic life necessities. Corporate capital will not feed one mutherfucker that is not making them a profit. So the issue slowly becomes who is going to survive into the 22 nd century. Us or them? Specifically, should socialists, progressives and communists support the current concession package endorsed by the Union, company and government? I cannot answer this question for anyone. I vote yes to the concessions, with communist literature in hand. Not literature about abstract Marxism but literature explaining in popular terms the fight to create a new system and new laws of sovereign birth rights and advocating for a Third Edition of the American Revolution: Proletarian Revolution. We have a right to live and enjoy the basic fruits of society outside the ups and downs of the business cycle, which has become a permanent crisis. The reasoning for my actions would be the entire historical curve of defensive actions and fights by the working class against capitalist exploitation. For Marxist rhetoric? Perhaps, but I am not a liar or prepare to stand in front of anyone and pretend our fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can come of fruition within the bounds of capital. Fuck that! Yet, it is clear that the workers cannot NOT fight to survive and achieve employment or maintain their status as capital. 80 - 90% of the workers, at all times are going to vote or express the desire to remain employed rather than unemployed. Some workers will occupy plants, some will chain themselves to the machine and demand the union protect their right to employment. Anyone that stands in front of this mass of workers and tell them to just go home and passively join the swelling ranks of the unemployed is going to be politely listened to and completely ignored. No one is going to go quietly into the night pretending that everything is going to be alright. Stated another way, the only way out of this contradiction, that is really the contradiction called labor and capital, is the fight to reshape, reform, bend and finally overthrow the power of the Constitutional regime. And create a new constitutional regime that guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by all members of the working class, especially when they are unable to provide for their families and loved ones. That is to say, the fight of the workers have to be pushed outside the framework of the capital-labor contradiction or the trade union struggle and placed at the table of our Constitutional authority. The spontaneous movement and evolution of capital, on its own, pushes the workers outside the narrow trade union framework, and we communist must explain this process, over and over again, even if it means saying the same thing a million more times. Here is the issue that must be placed before the Obama administration. Nor do I care if Obama did not create the current crisis. He is the top dog and the buck stops at his desk. Concretely, small segments of the union have pushed for years - decades, to place the issue of health care at the feet of government, which company and union leaders - at the highest level, have refused to do. If the "retirees" owning 55% of Chrysler is to mean anything then the union must be mobilized on as a permanent battle formation, marching on government until all of our arches collapse. In America one gets nothing without protest. "Be quiet, you are going to get us in trouble and mess things up for us" was the attitude of the last generation of union leaders. In frustration some of us blamed the union leaders as the problem rather than a symptom of a bigger problem: capitalist control over the life of the country. Then the social consequences of the revolution in the machinery of society began to be felt. More later. Brain scrambled. WL. **************Join ChristianMingle.com? FREE! Meet Christian Singles in your area. Start now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221673648x1201419171/aol?redir=http://www.christianmingle.com/campaign.html%3Fcat%3Dadbuy%26 src%3Dplatforma%26adid%3Dfooter:050109%26newurl%3Dreg_path.html) From pieinsky at igc.org Fri May 1 14:33:30 2009 From: pieinsky at igc.org (Jay Moore) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 16:33:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] May day stuff! In-Reply-To: <49FB1DC1.8020705@panix.com> References: <49F0D3F7.5090008@gmail.com> <49FA6251.6000505@ix.netcom.com> <49FB1DC1.8020705@panix.com> Message-ID: <49FB5C9A.4020805@igc.org> Happy May Day, everybody, as the class-struggle around the world intensifies! Just came from a mid-day rally for universal health care at the State House in Montpelier. 800 to 1000 in attendance. Organized by the Vermont Workers' Center. jay From mdriscollrj at charter.net Fri May 1 15:15:09 2009 From: mdriscollrj at charter.net (Ralph Johansen) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 14:15:09 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Europe Clashes mar May Day celebrations - Al Jazeera Message-ID: <49FB665D.7070605@charter.net> ["No one could have imagined that this crisis could have been so profound," Michael Sommer, head of the DGB trade union federation, told a crowd in Berlin. "There is no light at the end of the tunnel."] Al Jazeera UPDATED ON: Friday, May 01, 2009 19:26 Mecca time, 16:26 GMT Europe Clashes mar May Day celebrations Protesters in Moscow called for a return to communism [AFP] Tens of thousands of May Day protesters have taken to the streets across the world, clashing with police in several European cities amid mounting social unrest over the global economic crisis. Traditional Labour Day demonstrations were reported to have turned violent in Germany, Greece and Turkey, while thousands of protesters rallied in Russia, France and Spain. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans filed through Havana's Revolution Square where they were exhorted to work harder to help their country's battered economy. Earlier, marches were held in the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, where demonstrators called on officials to work harder to protect jobs. Cuba march In Cuba, Raul Castro, the country's president, waved from a podium overlooking Revolution Square in the capital as the flag-waving crowd moved past. Castro did not speak, leaving that task to Salvador Valdes Mesa Cuban, a labour leader and high-ranking Communist Party official . Valdes spoke about Cuba's economic woes, saying three hurricanes last year and an ongoing global financial crisis had inflicted much damage. Workers, he said, needed to work to raise "production and productivity, for the reduction of costs and expenditures, to grow exports and [reduce] imports". Fidel Castro, who led Cuba for 49 years before ceding power last year to his younger brother, was not present, missing his third straight May 1 parade. Bottles hurled Twenty people were injured and five arrested after police clashed with demonstrators at a rally in the city of Linz, in north Austria. In Berlin, demonstrators hurled bottles and rocks at police on Friday, injuring a number of officers, while clashes were also reported in Hamburg. The protests were fuelled by the worsening financial crisis, especially in Germany, where the economy is expected to shrink by six per cent this year. "No one could have imagined that this crisis could have been so profound," Michael Sommer, head of the DGB trade union federation, told a crowd in Berlin. "There is no light at the end of the tunnel." About 5,000 officers were on standby in the German capital, where counter-demonstrations were also expected to cause havoc. Turkish clashes Clashes between police and demonstrators were taking place in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with hundreds of protesters battling riot police in the streets. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in cities across France [AFP] Security forces fired water cannons and arrested several protesters, largely made up of union and left-wing activists. The violence has overshadowed the landmark return of annual labour rallies to the city's central Taksim Square, where on May 1, 1977, suspected rightwing snipers killed 34 people. Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Istanbul, said the square had "become a lightning conductor for protests because of previous crackdowns and because of the events of 1977. "Today, the decision has been made to allow a limited number of protesters to come right to Taksim Square to commemorate workers' day but also to commemorate the people who died in 1977. "This is a test of crowd control on the part of the Turkish authorities but also a test of restraint on the part of the demonstrators." Call for communism In Greece, police fired tear gas at demonstrators who burned a car in Athens, while other activists attacked banks and traffic cameras. Thousands of protesters in Moscow called for a return of communism, waving banners and red Soviet flags. Far-right protests also took place in Russia, with police arresting members of anti-immigration groups in St Petersburg. Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets across France in protest against their government's handling of the economic crisis. France's eight main trade unions had agreed to hold united rallies across the country for the first time since the end of World War II. Leaders of Italy's main unions held a rally in the earthquake-hit town of L'Aquila, in a show of solidarity. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Fri May 1 15:33:58 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 14:33:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Early B: Poor Class Want Mas (dancehall music) Message-ID: <301250.64987.qm@web45009.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJoFXNV3He4&feature=related 'Go tell the boss, the poor class want mas'. Big 'chune' going out to the Marx-Mail massif! This is perhaps the most class conscious reggae-dancehall ever produced. http://clarkmax.blogspot.com/ From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 15:51:42 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 17:51:42 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Doug Henwood on the UAW Message-ID: <49FB6EEE.3060101@panix.com> Job market, GDP, and the braindeadness of the UAW: http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/radio-commentary-april-30-2009/ From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 1 15:52:32 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 17:52:32 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Latest on Manufacturing Message-ID: <384BD07CFCDE4CEC8D16AF7AC2564E56@dmsthinkpad> Summary New orders for manufactured goods in March, down seven of the last eight months, decreased $3.2 billion or 0.9 percent to $345.3 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 0.7 percent February increase. Excluding transportation, new orders also decreased 0.9 percent. Shipments, down eight consecutive months, decreased $4.5 billion or 1.2 percent to $360.0 billion. This was the longest streak of consecutive monthly decreases since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.5 percent February decrease. Unfilled orders, down six consecutive months, decreased $11.9 billion or 1.5 percent to $759.0 billion. This was the longest streak of consecutive monthly decreases since November 2001-July 2002. This followed a 1.7 percent February decrease. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 5.96, down from 5.98 in February. Inventories, down seven consecutive months, decreased $4.1 billion or 0.8 percent to $524.8 billion. This also was the longest streak of consecutive monthly decreases since March 2003-January 2004 and followed a 1.3 percent February decrease. The inventories-toshipments ratio was 1.46, up from 1.45 in February. New Orders New orders for manufactured durable goods in March, down seven of the last eight months, decreased $1.3 billion or 0.8 percent to $160.5 billion, unchanged from the previously published decrease. This followed a 1.6 percent February increase. Machinery, down five of the last six months, had the largest decrease, $0.8 billion or 3.4 percent to $21.6 billion. New orders for manufactured nondurable goods decreased $1.8 billion or 1.0 percent to $184.8 billion full at: http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/prel/pdf/s-i-o.pdf From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 1 16:00:02 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 18:00:02 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Crisis good for US K'ists References: <55868ddf0905010654t435e4919ke1856b653c971ff1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <657CC6C83DF64B8AA9E02DB2F756A98B@dmsthinkpad> I agree with Brad's analysis, except I would be a little more charitable regarding attempts by the left to point out the functionality of crisis to the actual strengthening of the bourgeoisie. Just a little bit more charitable. Still, much more needs to be done in pointing out how all the mechanisms deployed so far amount to nothing more, and nothing less, than transferring wealth from workers to the bourgeoisie-- and even if bondholders, lenders, etc. take a haircut here and there, the real price is paid elsewhere, and it is paid to, not by, the bourgeoisie. ----- Original Message ----- From: "brad bauerly" To: Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 9:54 AM Subject: [Marxism] Crisis good for US K'ists From craig at red-bean.com Fri May 1 16:10:02 2009 From: craig at red-bean.com (Craig Brozefsky) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 17:10:02 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Early B: Poor Class Want Mas (dancehall music) In-Reply-To: <301250.64987.qm@web45009.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> (Max Clark's message of "Fri\, 1 May 2009 14\:33\:58 -0700 \(PDT\)") References: <301250.64987.qm@web45009.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <87ab5wlbk5.fsf@piracy.kokonino.net> Max Clark writes: > Big 'chune' going out to the Marx-Mail massif! This is perhaps the > most class conscious reggae-dancehall ever produced. Check out some Sizzla. -- Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky From davidrail68 at yahoo.com Fri May 1 16:45:52 2009 From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 15:45:52 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] "Swine flu, pigs and profits" from Workers World Message-ID: <934200.78686.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> http://www.workers.org/2009/us/swine_flu_0507/ By Hillel Cohen Published Apr 29, 2009 Fear of a swine flu pandemic is spreading much faster than the virus itself. While it?s too soon to predict how widespread and deadly this new variation of influenza virus will be, information about the likely origin of the outbreak is starting to surface. A huge factory-farm pig operation owned by U.S. corporate giant Smithfield and operated by its Mexican subsidiary, Granjas Carroll de Mexico, may have spawned this new threat to public health. Local residents from the towns of La Gloria and Perote in the Mexican state of Veracruz have been fighting the pork-breeding giant for years. Producing close to a million hogs annually, the company maintains huge lagoons of hog manure as well as open-air dumps for rotting remains of hogs that die before being slaughtered. Fumes from the hog waste foul the air for miles and residents believe that their ground water may have also been contaminated. Swarms of flies that feed on the manure are in close reach of the towns. It is well known that flies can spread avian flu by carrying material from infected bird droppings from place to place. It is possible that flies feeding on the hog manure may also be in contact with bird droppings and became the mechanism for mixing virus material from hogs, birds and humans, which is now causing the outbreak. According to reports from the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, local residents tried to block the construction of the farm as early as 2005. A year ago, several activists were arrested by Veracruz authorities, who have worked closely with Granjas Carroll to suppress opposition to the huge hog operation. Long before the swine flu outbreak made it into the international news, hundreds of La Gloria residents were complaining of severe respiratory infections, with many developing into pneumonia. Pneumonia is one of the severe complications of influenza infection. Veratect, a U.S. private company that monitors health outbreaks around the world for its subscribers, noticed the outbreak in Veracruz over a month ago and called the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). With its attention still on alleged?and non-existent?bioterrorism, the CDC ignored these calls for several weeks. The first confirmed case of the new swine flu virus was that of a young boy in La Gloria, who has since recovered. The outbreak has spread to Mexico City and other Mexican areas as well as some cases in New York, California, Texas and other locations in the U.S., as well as around the world. At this writing at least 1,500 suspected cases in Mexico have resulted in over 150 deaths. While cases in the U.S. have so far been milder, one or two suspected deaths have already been recorded. Health officials believe that the current strain of virus is a mix of genetic material from viruses that infect hogs and birds as well as humans. For almost a decade, world and U.S. health officials have focused on so-called avian or bird flu?labeled H5N1?which has spread around the world but has not ?jumped? to human populations. Although some people contracted bird flu from close proximity to poultry and water foul, no human-to-human transmission has been reported. This new swine flu is a variation of H1N1, which is much more common in human flu. It?s already clear that it is spreading by human-to-human transmission. Because the largest number of cases have come from Mexico, some right-wing commentators on the Fox network have already tried to blame Mexican immigrants for bringing the virus across the border and may use the fear over swine flu to whip up even more immigrant bashing. The fact that the U.S. cases seem to be among tourists from this country or those close to tourists has so far limited the attacks on immigrants. So far, however, relatively little attention in the big business mass media has been given to the Smithfield connection or the fact that similar huge and hazardous plants can be found in North Carolina, Utah and elsewhere. An article in Rolling Stone magazine in 2006 estimated that Smithfield alone produced 26 million TONS of animal waste a year?the byproduct of over $11 billion in sales. So-called ?free-trade? agreements like NAFTA have enabled corporate giants like Smithfield to set up their hazardous shops in Mexico with little or no regulation and at the expense of the local people. Will the corporate criminals who have profited from this environmental and public health disaster be held responsible? Cohen is a doctor of public health. Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: ww at workers.org Subscribe: wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net From Waistline2 at aol.com Fri May 1 16:55:09 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 18:55:09 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Doug Henwood on the UAW Message-ID: Job market, GDP, and the braindeadness of the UAW: _http://doughenwood.wordp ress.com/2009/05/01/radio-commentary-april-30-2009/_ (http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/radio-commentary-april-30-2009/) >> Let?s bracket all the details of this for now and focus on one thing: the United Auto Workers is likely to become a large, and perhaps controlling stockholder in two major industrial enterprises. What will it do with them? Sad to say, probably nothing. It?s likely that the courts and the government will assure that the union?s stockholdings are largely on paper, with no actual rights of ownership to be exercised. Will the UAW complain about this muzzling? Probably not. Which is a sign of just how braindead the American labor movement is.<< Comment With all due respect to Mr. Henwood, he is misinformed. The Union is not the shareholder but rather, the company that was established to administer the medical funds is the shareholder. Not the union. This company came about as the result of the 2007 contract. Again the UAW is not the holder or owner of the stock in question. ***************** On another note; from Pen-L >> according to the UAW's Gettelfinger (interviewed on US National Public Radio this a.m.), it's not the union that will own the stock but instead the fund that controls the medical insurance. Also, he said that the stock would be sold soon, because they _had_ to sell it. << -- Comment Correct. A company, with a board of directors independent of the company and the union, was set up as the result of the 2007 contract talks. The fund was established to take medical cost off the books of the company and to shed all the legacy cost of medical. Thus, all companies could claim less liabilities and less legacy cost. There was opposition to this approach in 2007 because these independent boards tend to reduce medical benefits and invest in ways beneficial to the individual board members. In the 1980 into the 1990 we had this exact same problem with Merrill Lynch putting individuals funds into the worse possible, highest cost investments and could not resolve matters until a decision was made to leave the company. Then rates were slashed 80 - 90%. In terms of the stock now owned by the "medical fund" the plan is to sell stock back to the company. Much of this is just financial manipulation designed to please Congress. The union is pathetic not because of the concessions forced on it and everyone should be aware that the union is compelled to accept concessions. President Gettelfinger is a political bum, buffoon and extremely ignorant. Not because he has signed on to concessions. Gettelfinger is the last of a generation of union leaders that takes great pride in ignorance and glory in telling anyone who will listen that he does not read books. He is the last of a line of union leaders that openly hate anything with an intellectual flavor in the union. I am not speaking in metaphor. Gettelfinger won Presidency of the UAW with the backing of previous President Steve Yochich. Steve stated publicly, several times he never reads books and has an inbred hate of intellectuals. Gettelfinger opponent was Bob King, an intellectual and long time head of the UAW organizing division. King is an attorney but came through the Ford division of the UAW working his way up from apprentice to journey man. Bob King has the ability to reorient the union, although he does in fact talk a lot. Hell, when he did his apprenticeship under my father he talked to damn much. So what. The only other time the UAW has had a truly literate President was first in the form of Leonard Woodcock - an attorney and then Dough Fraser, a self made intellectual in his own right. I was no fan of Woodcock or Doug F., who brought was the legal 9 hour day, but in a pinch it is best to have someone that can read and read real good . . .ok. Union contracts are absolutely complex document requiring a high degree of literacy and experience to unravel. Behind every single paragraph is a history and letters of understanding - legal documents, that clarify the detailed meaning of each paragraph. The day of the "hard nose" beefy armed militant union leader, with "big balls" and gumption died in the late 1960's and early 1970s. Gettelfinger comes from outside the historical center of industrial conflict, and is akin to a "country boy" (inside the union the word used is "hillbilly") making it big in the union and being to thankful to the company, viewing the benefits auto workers have fought for as a gift from the company and God. "The company and God" is not metaphor. Gettelfinger is scared to march on anyone or anything because he believes in God and country first, at the expense of the workers he suppose to represent. If the workers read he knows that sooner or later they are going to read the Communist Manifesto. Really. Against the advice of leading members of the union, Gettelfinger insisted on going to Washington to sit besides the CEO's of GM, Ford and Chrysler. This rat fink fuck knows good and well we never invite ourselves to sit with the company before a Congressional committee. Our policy for the past 50 years has been without a court order, enforced by the state, we appear before no ones inquiry and "you can go straight to hell." We did not steal or mismanage any company funds or overpay CEO's or drive Chrysler GM into the ground. In fact GM cries crocodile tears over health cost and for the past 20 years said nothing about national health care because the auto companies had established their own profit making health care centers and networks. Why did Gettelfinger to Washington to sit besides the corporate CEO's? 'Cause he felt it "was the right thing to do?" "Well, why do you feel like that brother; after all no one is sending the police or army and none of us represent or speak for the company?" "Cause I want to." That's bullshit and it weakened our hand and made is so the union was blocked from presenting the issue independent of the company. The first approach is always to demand the company open it books. How can the company pay out millions in CEO bonuses and not fund pensions and health care 100%? Opening the books is simply good politics, and not revolutionary at all. Gettelfinger is ignorant and stupid in the most personal meaning. The union movement and the working class is nothing without its intellectual detachment, which comes in all political flavors. Getting beat up and forced to accept concession is neither ignorant or pathetic. Groveling and genuflecting to the very people that are swindling us out of our accumulated medical and pension funds and doing everything in their power to literally steal and under fund pensions, makes Mr. Gettelfinger a political bum. One does not have to be socialist or a communist to be a decent union leader. One does have to learn how to read and comprehend documents and the moment. The anti-intellectualism of the union pushes us into destruction. WL. **************Join ChristianMingle.com? FREE! Meet Christian Singles in your area. Start now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221673648x1201419171/aol?redir=http://www.christianmingle.com/campaign.html%3Fcat%3Dadbuy%26 src%3Dplatforma%26adid%3Dfooter:050109%26newurl%3Dreg_path.html) From Waistline2 at aol.com Fri May 1 18:49:33 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 20:49:33 EDT Subject: [Marxism] auto sales down . . .down . . . down Message-ID: (Adds Chrysler and Hyundai figures, updates stock quotes.) U.S. vehicle sales data released Friday delivered no signs of economic recovery despite widespread hope the beleaguered auto industry would begin to see relief in April. The annual selling rate remained stuck in the low- to-mid 9 million vehicles, likely falling below 850,000 car and truck sales, according to early auto maker estimates. The drop represents a decline of 35% to 40% from a year ago. "Industrywide, April felt more like a dust bowl than a spring garden for new car sales," said Jim O'Donnell, president of BMW in North America, in a statement. Uncertainty around General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC, which entered bankruptcy protection on Thursday, helped drag sales down toward the month's end and erased a strong start to the month, auto makers said. Chrysler finished with a 48% decline for April. "I thought we were going to close much better than we did," Mark LaNeve, sales chief for GM, which reported a 33% drop. "We didn't see a significant break up or down." Meanwhile, shaky consumer confidence and high levels of joblessness offset benefits of increased credit availability, deep discounts on cars and trucks and U.S. government backing of warranties on GM and Chrysler vehicles. While auto makers said they see signs of an impending rebound, more turmoil lies ahead this spring as GM and Chrysler race to remake themselves under close watch of the U.S. government. Even so, most auto makers posted their best sales figures of the year in April. An exception was Toyota Motor Co. (TM), reporting a 42% slump from a year earlier and allowing Ford Motor Co. (F) to eclipse it in monthly sales for the first time since March 2008. Ford, the healthiest of the Detroit Three said it continued to outperform rivals with market-share gains, led last month by record sales of the Fusion sedan. Honda Motor Co. (HMC) also saw its results strengthen, posting a smaller decline of 25% for April. full: _http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200905011533DOWJONESDJONLINE000605_FORTUNE5.htm_ (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200905011533DOWJONESDJONLINE000605_FORTUNE5.htm) (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) **************Join ChristianMingle.com? FREE! Meet Christian Singles in your area. Start now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221673648x1201419171/aol?redir=http://www.christianmingle.com/campaign.html%3Fcat%3Dadbuy%26 src%3Dplatforma%26adid%3Dfooter:050109%26newurl%3Dreg_path.html) From Shacht at aol.com Fri May 1 19:27:36 2009 From: Shacht at aol.com (Shacht at aol.com) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 21:27:36 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Franklin Rosemont Message-ID: Missed the notice of death of Franklin Rosemont while I was off line due to an abundance mail. What comes to my attention on reading the note from Fidler is his comments mentioning Lamantia and Kaufman. There was nothing quite so unnerving as standing in a bookstore and hearing a voice in your ear muttering something like: "Have you heard that Wohlforth has been expelled from the Workers League..." turning around and finding Lamantia standing just a little lower, hat drawn down, face obscured. In those days, there were 1 Cochranite, 1 Johnsonite (formerly of the CP, then SWP then SUA), one Marxist Humanist and Jac Wasserman (who owned the place, "PM Bookstore),ed-SWP, ex-ISL. To hear such a comment out of the blue from an uyndetectable voice in the ether...We were such a few, such elect, with the secrets of knowledge far beyond the academic and bourgeois. That's a world long gone. Another part of it though was Bob Kaufman. He wasn't exactly "discovered" in a 3rd Street Hotel. He had been a member of the communist party - weaterfront branch, I believe - one of the most brilliant Marxists in it from what I am told. He was expelled during the fifties, disappeared, drifted, washed up on "the Beach" as they called it in those days. The telling I relate here came from Jim Kiernan, longtime activist in the Marine Cooks and Stewards in the thirties and forties. He was expelled from CP around '48 and from the SWP in '53 with Cochran. He had been Revels Cayton's second-in-command of the party fraction in the MCS. The worst part of the story was that it was Kiernan who had been Kaufman's accuser at his expulsion. This footnote, having come from a surrealist "on the Beach" may not be trustworthy. It was a matter I never asked Kiernan about before his death. George Olshausen, another old Cochranite "on the Beach" (and on the Editorial Board of American Socialist) had been Lamantia's lawyer. Alcohol weas the bane of all of us. **************Join ChristianMingle.com? FREE! Meet Christian Singles in your area. Start now! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221673648x1201419171/aol?redir=http://www.christianmingle.com/campaign.html%3Fcat%3Dadbuy%26 src%3Dplatforma%26adid%3Dfooter:050109%26newurl%3Dreg_path.html) From farmelantj at juno.com Fri May 1 20:22:53 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant) Date: Fri, 1 May 2009 22:22:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Review of Ron Aronson's *Living without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided* Message-ID: <20090501.222253.9628.4.farmelantj@juno.com> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/farmelant010509.html ____________________________________________________________ Earn a degree in Criminal Justice and work as a Police officer. Click here for more info. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTEe1Vm3nOozRxrMWFBlS6XvKzzW9Cn6vha1M2IhuaQdnluPS8aAGc/ From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 1 20:37:18 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 22:37:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Review of Ron Aronson's *Living without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided* In-Reply-To: <20090501.222253.9628.4.farmelantj@juno.com> References: <20090501.222253.9628.4.farmelantj@juno.com> Message-ID: <49FBB1DE.4040500@panix.com> Jim Farmelant wrote: > > http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/farmelant010509.html I have mixed feelings about Aronson. His book on Sartre/Camus is really great, but he once wrote an article about Trotsky in the Nation Magazine that was pretty stupid. I answered it here: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/RonaldAronson.htm From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Fri May 1 21:26:21 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 13:26:21 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Sri Lanka's camps developing like Nazi concentration camps Message-ID: <2c6145850905012026j5b70fcafw6b9d93750dff7558@mail.gmail.com> *Food parcels were thrown to people after making them run like dogs, and two children were killed in the melee in the barbed-wire camp at Menik Farm, Vavuniyaa. A 12-year-old boy on Monday and a 7-year-old boy on Tuesday were crushed to death in the melee, media sources in Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, around 300 Tamil youth from several camps in the area were forcefully taken by the Sri Lanka army, in the name of arrest, amidst protests of family members on Tuesday. Recently, 60 people have died of sickness in the camps, the sources further said. A total of 154,368 Vanni civilians are in captivity by the SLA up to Wednesday and out of them, 90, 181, were captured after 20 April.* ?The pattern is typical of the Nazi concentration camps, questioning the credibility of all the ?international guardians? who wanted the civilians to end up in camps in the name of the freedom of movement of people?, said a Tamil official in Vavuniyaa. full article: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=29218 -- "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 stuartmunckton at gmail.com Fri May 1 23:31:21 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 15:31:21 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Nazi Germany dares to hope for harmony Message-ID: <2c6145850905012231w69f48d2fvc68c2addda06bfff@mail.gmail.com> "The popular President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, says the Tigers will be routed any day now. Their defeat will give Mr Rajapaksa a rare opportunity to forge a lasting change in a deeply divided nation." Might as well read: "The popular Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, says the resistance will be routed any day now. Their defeat will give Mr Hitler a rare opportunity to forge lasting change in a deeply divided nation". Sri Lanka dares to hope for harmony - May 2, 2009 * The campaign for peace must first heal the wounds caused by 26 years of civil war, writes Matt Wade in Colombo. * IT IS not necessary to visit the front line of Sri Lanka's civil war to witness the manpower at the disposal of the army. The dusty tracks at Nilaveli - a beach resort on the north-east coast where journalists can go with a military escort - provide a glimpse of the vast military machine established to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels. Even there, about 60 kilometres from the fighting, heavily armed soldiers are stationed at half-kilometre intervals, platoons patrol the roads and recurring checkpoints, ringed by razor wire, restrict the passage of vehicles. When the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam began the bloody campaign for a separate homeland in 1983 they faced a poorly equipped army of about 6000 men. Now they confront a high-tech fighting force of more than 230,000. Sri Lanka has a much higher ratio of military personnel to population than India or even Pakistan, making it the most militarised country in a region bristling with weapons. Military spending has surged to 5 per cent of gross domestic product and soaks up about 20 per cent of the Government's budget. "In a quarter of a century it has been transformed from a country with a small parade-ground military to one of the world's best combat-prepared armies," said Iqbal Athas, a military analyst in Colombo. Sri Lanka's bloated military, one of the distortions of a 26-year civil war that has killed as many as 100,000 people, including almost 6500 over the past three months, is on the brink of achieving its goal. The popular President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, says the Tigers will be routed any day now. Their defeat will give Mr Rajapaksa a rare opportunity to forge a lasting change in a deeply divided nation. But to do that he must somehow win over the traumatised and disenchanted Tamil minority. "We have to do a lot of peace building and bridge building between our communities," said Hiranthi Wijemanne, a consultant to Sri Lanka's Commissioner General of Rehabilitation. "We are a battered nation and, frankly, it's going to be difficult." More than 200,000 internally displaced people, mostly Tamils, are living in guarded camps called "welfare villages" in the north of the country. The refugees are being screened by authorities to try to weed out Tiger fighters. Another 50,000 civilians are surviving in appalling conditions inside a small patch of land still occupied by the rebels. The Government says it aims to resettle about 80 per cent of those displaced by year's end and follow this up with spending on infrastructure and development projects. However, this will be an expensive task at a time when the economy, already lumbering under the weight of the military, has been hit by the global slump. Colombo is already in negotiation with the International Monetary Fund for a $US1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) loan to shore up to foreign reserves. By ignoring recent international appeals to stop fighting, Sri Lanka has also risked alienating some big Western donors who could normally have been relied upon to help out. Even if the Government achieves its promise of resettlement, the provision of humanitarian aid and reconstruction will not solve the political problems that have underpinned the war. The Tigers started fighting for a homeland because they believed Tamils, who make up 18 per cent of the population, had been discriminated against by a governments dominated by the majority Sinhalese. "The problems the people of the north and the east have been enduring for decades are ultimately political in nature," said Donald Steinberg of the International Crisis Group. "They require a careful, democratic and inclusive political response." Tens of thousands of Tamils who have lived in Tiger-controlled areas have in effect been cut off from the rest of the country for decades. "Those born in the north after 1983 may never have seen a Sinhalese person in their life," said Dr Wijemanne. Many cannot speak Sinhalese or English, adding to their isolation. The Tigers' tactic of eliminating their political opponents has also left the minority population with weak and divided political leadership. Bhavani Fonseka, a human rights lawyer at a Colombo think tank, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, said that in the process of winning the war, freedoms necessary for winning the peace have been badly damaged. "There is anxiety about saying anything critical against the security forces or against the Government. Anyone seen as being critical or questioning is seriously considered a traitor or a terrorist. "Many people feel what is being done is OK because it's in the name of defeating terrorism, but what they forget is that winning the war does not deal with the root causes of the conflict." Ms Fonseka said the defeat of terrorism should herald a period in which civil rights are enhanced and freedom of speech encouraged, especially for Tamils. "Instead what we are seeing in Sri Lanka is a shrinking space for dissent and alternative voice." Earlier this year there was a series of attacks on journalists, including the murder of a prominent newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga. Mano Ganesan, an outspoken Tamil politician from Colombo, fears Tamils will be more vulnerable after the defeat of the Tigers. "I think this war is being waged not only against separatist terrorism but also against Tamil political aspirations," he said. "Tamil people here were unhappy yesterday, we are unhappy today and quite frankly we feel more vulnerable than ever. I don't see any positive side for tomorrow." Mr Rajapaksa must find a way to deal with the sense of alienation that allowed the Tigers to wage such a long secessionist struggle. Having invested so much in winning the war, can Sri Lanka do what it takes to make peace? -- "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 glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Sat May 2 02:54:16 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 18:54:16 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Video of May Day march in Kathmandu Message-ID: <49FC0A38.8080004@greenleft.org.au> http://links.org.au/node/1026/18434#comment-18434 From latham_77 at iinet.net.au Sat May 2 04:22:26 2009 From: latham_77 at iinet.net.au (Chris Latham) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 18:22:26 +0800 Subject: [Marxism] query re Stuart Appleborn; Retail, Wholesale and Departmentstore Union and Jewish Labor Committee Message-ID: <49FC1EE2.5000309@iinet.net.au> I'm writing an article on the recently formed Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine. It is obviously an attempt by Zionists in the Labour movement to go on the counter-offensive against the growing popular support for Paelstine and the BDS campaign. Of the initiators I'm only familiar with Paul Howes - who is the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union (popularly referred to in Australia as Australia's Worst Union). Howes is a nothing bureaucrat who having turned renigade from the radical left in his teens has now found himself within the right wing of the Australian Labor Party, since becoming the National Secretary Howes has established himself as the union official that can be relied on to make statements in the interests of Australian monopoly capital. I am however unclear as to the exact character of the other two initiators and their organisations. These are Stuart Appleborn, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Appleborn is also President of the Jewish Labor Committee; and Michael J. Leahy, General Secretary of Community. If any list members have experience with any of these individuals or organisations that you can provide me it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance Chris From lnp3 at panix.com Sat May 2 06:14:28 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 08:14:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Profile on the disgusting Benny Morris Message-ID: <49FC3924.3060603@panix.com> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4905 Running out of Solutions By Evan R. Goldstein Posted April 2009 For Benny Morris the Israeli left isn't where it used to be. On an overcast afternoon in early April, unsmiling men with big guns and earpieces patrol the sidewalk in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in the upscale Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia. A short walk up the road on Azza Street, Benny Morris sits outside a cafe, radiating despair. "Iran is building atomic weapons at least in part -- maybe in large part -- because it intends to use them. The people there are religious fanatics," he says in a rapid staccato. "Israel is under existential threat, and that is how Israel's military and political leaders must see the situation." In a 2007 essay, Morris, a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University, imagined a "second holocaust": nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles raining down on Haifa and Tel Aviv. "A million or more Israelis ... will die immediately," he predicted. That is not the sort of language one expects from an icon of the left and an intellectual lodestar for supporters of the Palestinians. But Morris, 60, like much of the Israeli left, has grown ever more cynical about the prospects for a two-state solution and for peace. In his new book, One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict, Morris argues that the Palestinian national movement has never in fact reconciled itself to Israel's existence as a Jewish state. His shift from Oslo Accords optimist to embittered pessimist is emblematic of the disappointment and frustration that has ravaged the Israeli left since the second intifada. "Morris is a one-man microcosm of what many Israeli Jews of the Labor-Zionist strain have undergone in the past decade," says David B. Green, opinion editor at Ha'aretz's English edition. "They recognize that we're not on the verge of peace, that this conflict may not be resolvable, and that they were naive to think that was the case." Educated at Cambridge University, Morris started his career in the late 1970s as a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, at that time a left-leaning newspaper. In 1987, he published his first book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, making an international name for himself. Morris's rigorous account of how the exodus of 60 percent of Palestine's Arabs during the 1948 war was the result both of self-induced flight and forced expulsion by Jewish military forces challenged official Israeli dogma, and ultimately helped shape the intellectual and cultural climate that birthed the Oslo peace process. "Many Jews in Israel wanted to stick to the official version of events, but Morris forced them not to be so smug and self-righteous about the past," says Hebrew University historian Alexander Yakobson. Throughout the mid-1990s, Morris continued to express his hope that an honest reckoning with the history of the conflict might help reconcile Arabs and Israelis. But Morris's optimism was first shattered in 2000 when Yasir Arafat rejected Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton's two-state proposals. "Not only did they say no, but they launched a terroristic and guerrilla war against both the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and Israel itself, suggesting that they are not just after the territories but want to drive the Jews out of Palestine," Morris says. His dismay was further exacerbated when Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 failed to staunch Palestinian violence. "The moment Israel pulled out from a chunk of Arab territory, as the Arabs have always been demanding, it turned into a base for rocket attacks," fumes Morris, who went to jail for three weeks in 1987 for refusing to serve as an army reservist in the occupied territories. Now he believes that Palestinian irredentism is probably never going away. Solidly built with a thick patch of graying curly hair, the brusque and opinionated Morris has a reputation as an indelicate spokesman for his own views. In an infamous 2004 interview with Ha'aretz, he advocated confining Palestinians in "something like a cage." At the time he explained: "I know that sounds terrible. It is really cruel. But there is no choice. There is a wild animal there that has to be locked up in one way or another." (Morris later apologized.) This kind of blasphemy has alienated many of his former comrades on the left. Tom Segev, a prominent columnist, has suggested that Morris "flipped out" as a result of the suicide bombings that plagued Israel a few years ago. Historian Avi Shlaim has described Morris's embrace of the "orthodox Zionist rendition of the past" as "simplistic, selective, and self-serving." And Ilan Pappe, the most radical of the Israeli revisionist historians, has denounced Morris as a "bigoted thinker" and a "charlatan." But Morris's opinions are manifest in a very real way in Israeli politics. Consider the election results from February. The Labor party, which dominated Israeli politics until 1977 and has been the traditional home of the Zionist left, came in fourth with a meager 13 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, its worst showing in the history of the state. Meretz, the other "major" left-wing party, garnered a pathetic three seats. This latest outcome is hardly an aberration: The center-right has won every election since Barak was voted out of the prime minister's office in 2001. And reconciliation with the Palestinians is starting to seem like a dream from a bygone era, even to Morris. "Talk to any Palestinian; they don't know about the Jewish past, and Jewish suffering doesn't interest them," he says. "They believe that Jews have no legitimate right [to] be here. That belief underlines their vision that Palestine must be all Arab and must be regained by them down the road." Morris takes a sip of carrot juice and continues: "The peace camp has been tragically undermined by Arab recalcitrance. When an Israeli politician campaigns on a plan to broker a two-state solution, the Israeli public is no longer interested because they know the other side doesn't want it. So they vote for Netanyahu or someone else who speaks in terms of conflict management rather than solutions." Discredited by events, the left has fractured into various currents; but its collapse has not brought triumph for the right. To a large extent, the peace camp is a victim of its own success; its central policy -- two states for two peoples -- has become the common coin of Israeli politics. "Partition is no longer a left-wing position," Yakobson says. "There are very few rational people on the right who doubt that if the Israeli public is convinced that getting out of the West Bank will bring peace, a clear majority will support withdrawal." Pointing to the rise of the centrist Kadima party, which comprises primarily disillusioned Likudniks, Yakobson adds that its leader, Tzipi Livni, is "more forthcoming as far as concessions to the Palestinians than Yitzhak Rabin was in the early 1990s." Even Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's extreme-right foreign minister, supports a two-state solution. And it is likely that Prime Minister Netanyahu will soon bow to political reality and at least pay lip service to the two-state paradigm. (Of course, professing support for the creation of a Palestinian state is not the same as pursuing policies that make it more likely that one will come about.) But, although Morris remains a committed two-stater, voting for Meretz and Labor, he's not so sure anymore that a two-state solution is realistic: "Jewish Israeli society and Palestinian Arab society are in a different place in terms of history, culture, and values," he says. "You can see this most clearly in Muslim terrorism around the world, and their attitude towards women and intellectuals. Add to that a long history of violence and hatred over the last 100 years, not to mention different languages and a different God. It is inconceivable that a society of Jews and Arabs could function right now as one state in Palestine." Moreover, he doesn't believe that the narrow parcel of land sandwiched between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea can be partitioned along the lines proposed by Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton in 2000. "The West Bank and Gaza are not sufficient for the Palestinian's needs; they need more space to resettle the diaspora of refugees who want to come home." So Morris advocates attaching the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan -- which is today majority Palestinian -- and making that combined entity the Palestinian state. Such an arrangement, he says, has a better chance of defusing the forces of Palestinian militarism and revanchism. But won't such a scheme be fiercely opposed both by Palestinian nationalists and the monarchy of Jordan? "There are a number of large obstacles, but there are large obstacles in the path of any solution," Morris shrugs and leans back in his chair. From where he sits the Netanyahu government isn't going to push for real advances in the peace process. Not to mention that most Israelis are deeply suspicious of the Saudi initiative, which purports to offer Israel full recognition and permanent peace with the Arab states in return for a withdrawal to the 1967 border, the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and, perhaps most thorny, "an agreed, just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem. "Israel needs to get out of the Palestinians' hair," Morris says, returning to first principles. "Let them rule themselves, and give them a large enough country so that they don't feel extremely motivated to expand at Israel's expense." As a stab at optimism, such a gruff sentiment spoke only to the chastened expectations of the Israeli left -- and to the distance Morris has come over the last decade. Evan R. Goldstein is staff editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education. From epoliticus at gmail.com Sat May 2 06:19:17 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 08:19:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Did the chief minister of West Bengal personally order police to fire on protesters? Message-ID: Sanhati published a good article on the role of the CPI(M) in the police shooting of 14 persons at Nandigram (i.e., in 2007). This is now old news, but perhaps still of interest to subscribers of Marxmail. epoliticus ----- Dropping a virtual bombshell in the run-up to the second phase of Lok Sabha polls, Forward Bloc state general secretary Mr Ashoke Ghosh, today disclosed that it was chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who had ordered police to fire on Nandigram villagers on 14 March, 2007 that killed at least 14 persons and triggered an unprecedented political turmoil in the state. [...] Source: http://sanhati.com/articles/1458/ From lnp3 at panix.com Sat May 2 07:49:22 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 09:49:22 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Waterboarding is next to godliness Message-ID: <49FC4F62.7020703@panix.com> http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/30/churchgoers-more-likely-to-back-torture-survey-finds/ April 30th, 2009 Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds Posted: 01:55 PM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) ? The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis. More than half of people who attend services at least once a week ? 54 percent ? said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is ?often? or ?sometimes? justified. Only 42 percent of people who ?seldom or never? go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified ? more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did. The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small. From tcod at hotmail.com Sat May 2 10:42:44 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 16:42:44 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Jon Wiener reviews Mark Rudd memoir In-Reply-To: <49FB4618.9010304@panix.com> References: <49FB4618.9010304@panix.com> Message-ID: Yeah, a cousin of mine teaches English at that community college in Albuquerque. She says Rudd's a real nice guy, a "Sensitive New Age Guy". Some of us may recall Rudd, Ayers et.al from the New Mobe conference at Case Western Reserve Univ in July 1969 that called the Fall 1969 mass mobilizations. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From Waistline2 at aol.com Sat May 2 11:50:33 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 13:50:33 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Doug Henwood on the UAW Message-ID: In a message dated 5/2/2009 8:42:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, _juliohuato at gmail.com_ (mailto:juliohuato at gmail.com) writes: Thank you. This is informative. On May 2, 2009 3:35 AM, <_Waistline2 at aol.com_ (mailto:Waistline2 at aol.com) > wrote: Comment/Reply No problem. An earlier version of the material was written in anger and was not balanced enough in its treatment of UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. However, Gettlefinger and the heads of the Chrysler and General Motors division are heading in a direction where history is going to record them as leading the UAW into its final destruction. On the continuum of American history, with the larger content world history riveted to the rise of the industrial system, we are at a point of transition not very different from the passage from craft unionism to industrial unionism, only at a higher level. At this level - May 2009, we have the accumulated knowledge of the better part of 150 years to lean upon. What creates and drives the impulse for qualitative change in the organization of the working class are changes in the machinery of society and its corresponding shape in the organization of deployed labor. The transition from craft unionism to industrial unionism was a long drawn out historical period/curve. The period of transition lasted from roughly 1895 to the formation of the CIO - 1936/37, as the organization of the unskilled workers in heavy industry. Although the CIO was actually the organization of the unskilled white workers, its historical act was that it got the unskilled workers into the process of organization and collective defense of an important segment of labor. The blacks came later and worked their way through the system and finally the women won more than less legal status and treatment within the unionized workforce and the union itself. The union is aware that it must further shatter its own existing trade union form of organizations and complete its leap - transition, from being an organization based on an industry to an organization cutting across all trade and industry lines, reaching down into the semi-employed, under employed and permanently employed. It is this awareness that made Bob King a preferable candidate for UAW President for many of the insurgent activists in the union. King openly advocated pouring huge amounts of union funds into intense unionization campaigns and waging the struggle for unionization as a survival battle. Here is an example: Although Gettelfinger supports a single payer health care system, this support is expressed 100% within the framework of the Democratic Party rather than as a survival fight the union has to wage independent of who ever might jump on and off the bandwagon. Gettelfinger?s vision is limited to what he personally thinks is acceptable to the company and he is without working class principles. Even the damn capitalists - a huge section, are support single payer health care reform as a way to increase profits and lighten the burden on their capital. Everyone in the world agrees that we are sliding into deep economic, social and political crisis. The agreements end there. An important part of crisis is the fighting that takes place between classes. No less important is the fighting that takes place within the same class. In this regard the fighting taking place within the ruling capitalist class means that various sectarian interests of the ruling compels them to appeal to the voters - workers, for support of their programs. This in turn creates a tendency for intersection of varying class interest. The workers and their organizations are given a chance to put forth their survival issues demanding resolution, but we are never required to limit ourselves to what is acceptable to the capitalist. A single payer system of health care is such an issue. As various segments of capital appeal to our members for support to defeat their political opponents we should be mature enough to independently fight out our issues and clearly express our needs, rather than simply following whoever may be the ?new flavor of the month.? Independence means preserving our own organizations and programs independent and outside that of the capitalist even while taking part in the electoral process. Rather than simple relying on Democrats to pass legislation making it less difficult to organize new members, this is an area where we need out own independent voice; independent campaigns and investment of millions of dollars to achieve our goal of survival. To the degree that we represent the workers interest as they are employed by capital, we can never be truly independent of capital. Yet, there is no compelling law that says we have to ride together in the same car with the representative of capital, even if on specific issues there is a mutual desire to achieve the same goal as in the case of health care. Nor is there a compelling reason to be chauffeurs for the capitalist, who generally prefer their own reliable drivers. At any rate, when the book roughly titled ?The Rise and Fall of the UAW? is written by the new generation, Gettelfinger and ?others? will be charged with doing nothing to prevent the destruction of the UAW. In this regard, ?they? act no different than company CEO?s who refuse to change their product line when the market changes and end up going out of business. Gettelfinger does not deserve any support by those around him. The UAW is rapidly going out of business and must complete its leap to a non-trade basis of unionism. WL. **************Eat Great & Lose Weight FASTER! Start the South Beach Diet Online - FREE Profile! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221822996x1201398599/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213623126%3B35100424% 3Bk) From jeremy at infowells.com Sat May 2 11:53:54 2009 From: jeremy at infowells.com (Jerry Wells) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 10:53:54 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] "Vote NO to all on May 19" - California's Socialist Peace and Freedom Party Message-ID: <1241286835.4351.44.camel@pool-96-251-19-32.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net> The Peace and Freedom Party, California's only socialist party with ballot status, has posted on line the special four-page edition of THE PARTISAN, the PFP quarterly newspaper. The entire issue is devoted to detailing the reasons why ALL the propositions on the special May 19 election should be defeated. http://peaceandfreedom.org/home/articles/partisan-number-27 Vote NO on May 19! On May 19, the Governor and the Legislature are spending a lot of our money on a special election they claim will solve the states budget problems. The Peace and Freedom Party calls for a NO vote on the whole process. Vote NO on Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F. These propositions are part of a rotten deal made in Sacramento to raise taxes on the poor, cut taxes on corporations, and slash social programs. The Governor and the Legislature stole from the blind and disabled to feed the movie industry. They raised the sales tax on working people while giving huge breaks to multi-state corporations. They lowered the tax credit for children to take $1.4 billion a year from working families. The politicians now come to us and ask us to ratify their deal and lock parts of it into the State Constitution. Just say "NO". ========================================================================= In addition, one PFP candidate is running for office in the special election. Cindy Varela Henderson is an activist in Communications Workers of America, and is a former Peace and Freedom Party South State Chair and Los Angeles County Chair. She is a candidate for State Senate 26th District in the Special Runoff Election on May 19. http://peaceandfreedom.org/home/articles/partisan-number-27/486-what-do- we-need-in-a-state-budget From jacdon at earthlink.net Sat May 2 12:23:09 2009 From: jacdon at earthlink.net (JacDon) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 14:23:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] New issue of Activist Newsletter Message-ID: The May 2, 2009, Issue the ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER has just been published ????????????????? CLICK HERE TO VIEW ARTICLES: http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com ????????????????? CONTENTS 1. THE U.S. AND CUBA ? All is not as it seems in terms of the Obama Administration's intentions toward Havana, and there's much more continuity than change, but pressure on Washington from other Latin American countries might force the White House to ease up, a little. 2. Editorial: THE POWER OF LABOR ? The labor movement is weak but it may become stronger with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act if conservative Democratic Senators don't doom this progressive measure. 3. CONSERVATIVES TRY TO BLOCK LABOR'S EFCA ? Big Business and the right wing have launched an intensive campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. This article explains what's a stake and refutes Republican allegations that the legislation will "deprive workers of a secret ballot" and that an increase in union membership will lead to greater unemployment. 4. HIGH POVERTY, LOW BENEFITS ? The OECD ranks the U.S. 28th out of 30 industrialized countries in terms of its poverty rate. Turkey and Mexico are worse. 5. NEW STATISTICS FOR TROUBLED TIMES ? It's amazing how few people it took to catapult the capitalist system into a serious global economic recession that won't end soon. 6. REFLECTION ON PAST WARS ? Here's our May 16 Armed Forces Day special: comments from five U.S. generals involved in different American wars during two centuries, who upon retirement seem to have altered their belligerent tone. 7. REFLECTION ON PRESENT WARS ? Since Memorial Day May 25 often tends to glorify ongoing wars while grieving for the dead of past wars, here's what poet Bertolt Brecht has to say about war. 8. CHECK IT OUT ? Various items of interest with links to original sources. 9. CENTRIST DEMOCRATIC GROUPS VIE FOR POWER ? There are so many political centrists in Washington as a result of the Democratic capture of Congress and the White House that some of their number evidently think the town, or at least the spotlight, isn't big enough for all of them. 10. QUOTES IN THE NEWS ? Animal rights; Gaza; world water shortage; Red Cross torture report; and the 1919 general strike. 11. THE NEWS IN BRIEF ? Canada bars antiwar British parliamentarian; American cops increase Taser use; U.S. finally indicts anti-Cuba terrorist; Supreme Court rejects Mumia's appeal; increase in military domestic violence; sentence reduced for Iraqi show thrower; red and processed meat increase health risk; and jury backs Ward Churchill. 12. VENEZUELA'S MOVES TOWARD SOCIALISM ? The U.S. news media usually presents a quite toxic version of political events in Venezuela, so here's an antidote. 13. GAY RIGHTS IN LATIN AMERICA ? There have been some important advances. 14. MOSELEY: NATIONALIZE THE BANKS ? "If the big banks are 'too big to fail' they should be public," writes leftist Professor Fred Moseley. 15. KRUGMAN: MONEY FOR NOTHING ? "There?s no longer any reason to believe that the wizards of Wall Street actually contribute anything positive to society, let alone enough to justify those humongous paychecks," writes liberal economist Paul Krugman. 16. STIGLITZ: BANK RESCUE MAY FAIL ? Another well known liberal economist, and like Krugman a Nobel Prize winner, tells Bloomberg News that the Obama Administration?s bank-rescue efforts will probably fail because the programs have been designed to help Wall Street rather than create a viable financial system, 17. CHINA AT A CROSSROAD? ? Shanghai Professor Jian Junbo speculates whether China will move left or right in the near future. ????????????????? CLICK HERE TO VIEW ARTICLES: http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com ????????????????? From tcod at hotmail.com Sat May 2 13:30:40 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 19:30:40 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Muslim Vs Atlantic slave trade - comparative apocalyptics101 In-Reply-To: References: <49F84EB6.1010400@panix.com> Message-ID: Truly. In "King Leopold's Ghost" author Adam Hochschild talks about the disingenuous and racist way Arab and Muslim domestic slavery, an ancient, but relatively marginal institution, was used by European colonialists not only to justify their imperialist land grabs, but to cover for their own system of widespread commercial slavery and genocide against African people. This book focuses on the history of Belgian colonialism in the Congo which, under the cover of the most sanctimonious "Christian" humanitarian Victorian rhetoric, in reality set up a system not at all altruistic but one which was a system of human slavery and genocide which actually made the recently dismantled system of chattel slavery in the US seem tame by comparison. Ironically, part of the hyprocritical justification for this conquest was to free victims of Muslim slavery. Observers were then shocked to see some of these persons, described in the most Orwellian terms as liberated freedmen, being marched around in iron chains to build railroads and other projects. Tied in with this was the horrific episode of the "rubber terror" in which thousands were enslaved to work on rubber plantations or who had their families held hostage and sometimes mutilitated and murdered while the working members were forced to collect wild rubber vines. It is this environment that inspired Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" which formed the inspiration for "Apocalypse Now"-guys like Stanley, for example, that shot down Africans from their boats in the Congo River for sport the way Americans gunned down buffalo from trains in the same period. The German governor in Namibia (SW Africa) who oversaw an only slightly less horrific rubber terror there was Ernst Goering, the father of the Luftwaffe commander. Eventually an international movement against this set up got traction which eventually got Mark Twain involved, who as I recall wrote the essay "King Leopold's Soliloquy" denouncing it. I thought of this when viewing the first segment of "Cuba: An African Odyssey" which dealt with Lumumba and the Congo in the early 60s, showing the incredibly blatant and brazen way the Belgians and the other imperialists operated there. In particular at the independence ceremony the Belgian King, whose family made hundreds of millions from the rubber terror, talks about the great humanitarian legacy of the Belgians, assertions that are met with incredulity by the blacks present. Lumumba's speech responding to that at the time being deemed the point at which his fate is sealed-at least as far as the Belgians were concerned. _________________________________________________________________ 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 naskha3 at gmail.com Sat May 2 14:26:49 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 22:26:49 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Children_as_unlamented_victims_of_Bush?= =?windows-1252?q?=92s_war_crimes?= Message-ID: <18d70e600905021326s646260f3pf319b17938861488@mail.gmail.com> Children as Unlamented Victims of Bush?s War Crimes By Michael Haas | Information Clearing House, May 2, 2009 Torture has received the most attention among the many war crimes of the Bush administration. But those who support Bush?s pursuit of the ?war on terror? have not been impressed by recriminations over torture. Worse than torture are the murders of at least 50 prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and Guant?namo, but again the hard-hearted are unimpressed when those whom they perceive as terrorists receive illegal extrajudicial capital punishment. The case for abusing children, however, is more difficult to support. The best kept secret of the Bush?s war crimes is that thousands of children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements. Yet both Congress and the media have strangely failed to identify the very existence of child prisoners as a war crime. In the Islamic world, however, there is no such silence. Indeed, the prophet Mohammed was the first to counsel warriors not to harm innocent children. The first example of war crimes against children, which are well documented, occurred during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, when the children?s hospital in Kabul was bombed, its patients thereby murdered, contrary to the Red Cross Convention of 1864. Other children were killed as ?collateral damage? during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, contrary to the Geneva Convention ban on indiscriminate killing in wartime, though numbers of dead are unknown. During spring 2004, during the assault on Falluja, Iraq, some 300 children, including peaceful demonstrators, were killed. Their dead bodies were filmed live on al-Jazeera Television throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Full article: http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/05/children-as-unlamented-victims-of-bushs.html From tcod at hotmail.com Sat May 2 14:48:19 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 20:48:19 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Nancy Wohforth video in support of Card Check In-Reply-To: <18d70e600905021326s646260f3pf319b17938861488@mail.gmail.com> References: <18d70e600905021326s646260f3pf319b17938861488@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: trade union leader Nancy Wohlforth speaks out in support of "card check": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8V90Pi2sbc _________________________________________________________________ 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 Sat May 2 15:05:02 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 17:05:02 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Robert Duncan's "The Homosexual in Society" Message-ID: <49FCB57E.7010406@panix.com> In my review of Paul Buhle and Harvey Pekar?s ?The Beats?, I referred to Robert Duncan?s essay ?The Homosexual in Society? that appeared in Dwight Macdonald?s journal Politics in 1944. This seminal gay liberation document certainly deserves to be available on the Internet and so I have scanned it in from Duncan?s ?A Selected Prose? that was published in 1990. A word or two about Dwight Macdonald is in order. He was a Shachtmanite who eventually dropped any pretensions to Marxism and embraced a mixture of anarchism, liberalism and pacifism. He was also bitterly anti-Communist and even hooked up for a while with the CIA-backed Congress for Cultural Freedom. When the 60s radicalization began, Macdonald reverted to the radical politics of his youth to some extent and became part of a cadre of high-profile intellectuals who opposed the Vietnam War (Norman Mailer and Mary McCarthy were two other notables.) The inclusion of Duncan?s essay in Macdonald?s journal in 1944 opens up some interesting avenues for research. As far as I know, the Trotskyist movement was pretty bad on gay issues. Cannon?s group was worse than Shachtman?s?at least that is what I would suspect. If Macdonald was open-minded enough to challenge the prevailing homophobia on the left, you have to wonder what else was appearing in the pages of his magazine. Leon Trotsky supposedly once said that ?Everyone has the right to be stupid, but comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege?. This remark reportedly delighted Macdonald. I can only say that at least on the gay question, Macdonald holds up very well. Duncan?s essay anticipates many of the gay liberation themes that would be articulated after the Stonewall rebellion, despite a certain defensiveness expressed in terms of his disapproval of the ?homosexual cult? and ?camp?. Originally appeared in Politics, I, 7 (August 1944). The revisions were made in 1959. The expanded version was first published in Jimmy & Lucy?s House of ?K,? 3 (January 1985). The Homosexual in Society INTRODUCTION Seymour Krim has urged me to reprint this early essay as ?a pioneering piece,? assuring me ?that it stands and will stand on its own feet.? At the time it was printed (Politics, August 1944) it had at least the pioneering gesture, as far as I know, of being the first discussion of homosexuality which included the frank avowal that the author was himself involved; but my view was that minority associations and identifications were an evil wherever they supersede allegiance to and share in the creation of a human community good?the recognition of fellow-manhood. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/robert-duncans-the-homosexual-in-society/ From davidrail68 at yahoo.com Sat May 2 17:11:05 2009 From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 16:11:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Confidence Games and Ponzi Schemes Message-ID: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Confidence Games and Ponzi Schemes By Lynn Henderson < www.socialistviewpoint.org > The United States economy continues its plunge into the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, dragging in its wake the entire world?s financial system. What is the cause of this now world-wide economic catastrophe? Without a clear understanding of its root causes we will not be able to find a way out. Rather the crisis itself will be used to inflict even greater damage on its chief victims, working people here and around the world. The explanation initially floated by the economists, the Wall Street financial experts, Democratic and Republican politicians and the entire news media was?excesses of the deregulation movement. The lack of government regulation and oversight allowed for greedy and irresponsible actions in the major financial institutions of the country. This led to the proliferation of new risky, exotic financial instruments especially in the home mortgage sector of the economy. These new instruments lacking ?transparency? were too complicated for the market to accurately evaluate. The usually efficient, unerring, invisible hand of the free market, they explained, was unable to perform its normal functions and the economy fell into the financial crisis. This explanation of the financial melt down had certain attractive features.. It admitted to no intrinsic or systemic flaws within free market capitalism itself. Corrective action could be taken by punishing and holding to account those who had engaged in greedy, irresponsible actions and future crises would be avoided by the introduction of new government regulation and oversight. This, they also explained, would of course have to be ?responsible? regulation, so as not to curb the creative, dynamic, entrepreneurial genius of free market capitalism. But lately this explanation has been quietly set aside. For one, the idea that greed-driven, irresponsible capitalists had even an indirect role in the financial collapse cut a little too close to the bone. But an even more important consideration required abandoning this initial explanation. It politically conflicted with the chosen bipartisan solution to the crisis?massive government bailouts of banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies and all other financial institutions ?too big to fail.? Rather than being ?held to account? they were to be rewarded with the largest government subsidies in history. And the more deeply and directly they were involved in greed-driven, reckless economic behavior, the larger their bailout. And who are the principle designers and administrators of these bailout packages? Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. under the Bush administration and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, now under the Obama administration, both major architects of deregulation. Both were prominent promoters of the ?new risky, exotic financial instruments? said to be at the heart of the financial collapse. The reaction was a firestorm of anger and opposition from the U.S. population. They understand quite clearly that these bailouts and the ones to come are not for free, but will channel wealth out of the pockets of the vast majority into the coffers of the financial elite. A new explanation of the crisis more compatible with selling the bailout scam to the American middle class/working class had to be fashioned. The source of the crisis was not predatory, reckless economic actions. The new root cause was a ?crisis of confidence??especially loss of confidence in our financial institutions, which creates fear, panic and uncertainty, paralyzing normal economic activity. And confidence in these institutions can only be restored by the application of massive government bailouts. This is the line now being repeated at every level in the government and mass media. David Brooks, a regular Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times writes in his February 13th column: ?The crisis was labeled an economic crisis, but it was really a psychological crisis. It was caused by a mood of fear and uncertainty, which led consumers to not spend, bankers to not lend and entrepreneurs to not risk.? Thomas L. Friedman, another regular New York Times Op-Ed columnist, wrote as far back as November 16: ?If you are going to fight a global financial panic like this, you have to go at it with overwhelming force?an overwhelming stimulus that gets people shopping again and an overwhelming recapitalization of the banking system that gets it lending again?. Yes, that may mean rescuing some bankers who don?t deserve rescuing?. No it?s not fair. But fairness is not on the menu anymore.? The ?crisis of confidence? line is not new or original. It was used by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his first inaugural address in 1933 during the Great Depression: ?Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.? A catchy speech line, but purposely devoid of any insight into the causes of the Great Depression or our present economic crisis. The ?crisis of confidence? scenario magically shifts the source of the problem away from economic and political actions to the realm of psychological aberration. It is certainly true that there is a growing mood of fear, uncertainty, panic and loss of confidence. But these are not the causes of the economic collapse; they are responses to it?and not irrational responses. If you are a laid off worker in manufacturing with little prospect of re-employment, in a society that is shedding manufacturing jobs at an ever accelerating rate, it is not unreasonable for you to be afraid. If you are a student about to graduate with little or no hope of finding a job, feelings of uncertainty are certainly justified. If you are a white collar worker with a mortgage now larger than any possible amount you could sell your home for and fellow employees all around you are being laid off at an accelerating rate, a growing sense of panic is understandable. And there is certainly a growing lack of confidence, especially among the ruling political and financial elite. The financial collapse caught them completely flat-footed. They have little idea as to what caused it or how to stop it. The crisis has shaken them to the core, creating a growing sense of panic and demoralization. The real source of the economic crisis is insufficient consumer purchasing power to keep the U.S. economy on track. Economists calculate that approximately 80 percent of the economy is driven by consumer spending. For some 50 years now the American working class, or the media?s preferred euphemism, the American middle class, has been the target of an intense class war in which real wages and income have been relentlessly reduced. According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, real wages adjusted for inflation, from 1970 to the present have fallen more than 12 percent. This has been a one-sided class war with little effective resistance, especially from a hopelessly bureaucratized and conservatized trade union movement, which, in addition, has slavishly tied itself to one of the principle instruments of this class war, the Democratic Party. But there is an obvious contradiction here. If real wages have been falling over the last 40 years, how has the economy, at least until recently, continued to expand and profits continue to grow? This was accomplished by a number of strategies designed to offset the effect of falling real wages on consumer spending. The first of these was the simple expedient of drastically increasing the total number of hours worked. Overtime was increased, leisure time was decreased. The single wage earner family was largely eliminated. No longer did one partner work while the other, usually the female, took on the demanding job of running the home and caring for the children. More family members were put to work, working longer hours at more full and part time jobs. This is why political and economic apologists for this policy no longer wish to measure individual wage rates over time but rather ?household income.? But lately even this deceptive measure has succumbed to the pressures of this one-sided class war. Fed officials recently estimated that the median family was 3.2 percent poorer as of October 2008 than it was at the end of 2004. The number of extra hours an individual can work is limited, as is the number of additional family members that can be put to work. New additional steps had to be taken to offset the effect falling wages had on consumer spending and the economy. The next move was a massive expansion of consumer debt. The credit card industry was born. It was not so long ago that credit cards were mostly limited to business executives who did a lot of traveling. New federal legislation repealed all state usury laws and the nation was flooded with credit cards carrying 20 percent-plus interest rates, a return previously only available to Mafia loan operations. The average American family now holds seven of these cards. The banks issuing these cards made record profits and consumer debt soared to record levels. But it did mask the effects of falling real wages and produced a significant if temporary boost in consumer spending. Paralleling the encouragement of ever more consumer debt was an even more risky policy, the massive and continuous expansion of government debt. These record deficit budgets of necessity fueled inflation and one way these inflationary pressures expressed themselves was an artificial rise in the dollar value of houses. As credit cards maxed out and the size of consumer credit card debt became unsupportable, a final and particularly dangerous financial gimmick was floated. Consumers were encouraged, and driven by necessity, to take cash equity out of their inflated house value. Second mortgages, third mortgages, home equity loans, became the last desperate hope for keeping their heads above water?for meeting expenses and paying down credit card debt that was killing them with 20 percent-plus interest rates. New homebuyers were lured into predatory sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages with the assurance that housing prices would continue to rise indefinitely, allowing them to refinance and even cash out increased equity in the foreseeable future. And again this artificially propped up consumer spending. When the housing bubble burst, it triggered not just a crisis in the mortgage market but the collapse of a financial house of cards that had been building for decades. A house of cards built on the idea that you could on one hand relentlessly drive wages down and on the other hand maintain consumer spending by driving people into ever deeper debt. Household debt hit a record 133 percent of disposable personable income by the end of 2007. This represented an enormous leap from average debt loads of 90 percent just a decade earlier. Debt levels that even then were considered dangerously high. Lately we?ve heard much about ?Ponzi? schemes?Bernie Madoff, Robert Allen Stanford and many others, and no doubt many more to come. These types of operations are always a part of the so-called capitalist free market. During an acute financial crisis they become more exposed and publicly visible, especially if some of their victims are among the very wealthy. There is an old Wall Street saying, ?When the tide goes out, you see who has been swimming without a bathing suit.? But people like Bernie Madoff even with his 50-billion dollar ?Ponzi? scheme are small potatoes compared to what has been going on in the broader economy. In reality the entire U.S. economy over the last 40 years has operated as little more than a gigantic ?Ponzi? scheme. Increase profits by relentlessly driving real wages down?maintain consumer spending by a continuous expansion of debt. Like all ?Ponzi? schemes it was destined to eventually collapse. How does the ruling elite intend to face this crisis? Their public strategy has two parts. One, save the principle financial institution of U.S. capitalism with a series of ever-more massive bailouts. Two, reverse the shrinking economy and stem soaring unemployment with a stimulus plan. This strategy has no chance of success. For the capitalists, this crisis is now a crisis of excessive debt, which reached 355 percent of American gross domestic product. It cannot be solved with more debt. President Obama claims his stimulus plan will save or create four million jobs in two years. In the last four months of 2008 alone, employment fell by 1.9 million and continues to escalate. Do the math. But there is another non-public strategy. Use the crisis itself to dramatically intensify the class war against America?s middle class/working class. Use it to ?reform? so-called entitlements. Cut Social Security, Medicare and other hard won social gains. Use the crisis to drive real wages even lower. The Obama administration like Bush before it, demands that the UAW, in order to save the American auto industry, must reduce wage levels to those of nonunion workers. Obama has already made ?entitlement reform? a key goal of his administration. Obama will end up as Field Marshal of this intensified class war no matter what his present intentions may be. As head of the Democratic Party he can do no other. Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of Britain during WWII famously said in a speech in 1942, ?I have not become the King?s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.? Despite his considerable political and oratorical skills, Churchill ended up presiding over the liquidation of the British Empire. Events drove him, he did not drive events. Obama finds himself in a similar historical situation today. This class war can no longer remain a one-sided class war. The American middle class/working class will have to resist; they will have no choice. This will not be easy. They will have to abandon many dangerous illusions, not the least of which, the Obama cult and the progressive nature of the Democratic Party. They will have to forge new political and organizational institutions capable of fighting back. From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 2 17:21:02 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 19:21:02 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "Swine flu, pigs and profits" from Workers World In-Reply-To: <934200.78686.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <934200.78686.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Workers World opines: "While it's too soon to predict how widespread and deadly this new variation of influenza virus will be, information about the likely origin of the outbreak is starting to surface. A huge factory-farm pig operation owned by U.S. corporate giant Smithfield and operated by its Mexican subsidiary, Granjas Carroll de Mexico, may have spawned this new threat to public health. "Local residents from the towns of La Gloria and Perote in the Mexican state of Veracruz have been fighting the pork-breeding giant for years." Oy vey. The case for the virus having originated on these farms is close to nonexistent. There have been *no* H1N1 cases confirmed among workers or pigs at these farms. That ONE 5-year-old boy in the same town would test positive for the virus, among 400 flu cases in a recent outbreak, with all others tested (more than 50, if I remember right) coming up negative for this specific virus, does not make the case. Quite the contrary. It suggests the results of the tests on the boy are anomalous and suspicious. Could the sample have been contaminated? Mixed up or switched with some other sample? Or might little Edgar have been exposed to someone from outside the town who was carrying the virus? Or perhaps to a virus similar to the one in this outbreak, and indeed genuinely from pigs, but unable to readily infect others from a human host? Whatever you want to speculate, one thing can be asserted with an extremely high degree of scientific confidence: IF there is a "patient zero" of this epidemic, as that term has been popularized from a book and movie about the AIDS pandemic, it is NOT the pre-schooler in La Gloria. WHY? Because to be "patient zero," you have to give it to someone else, and preferably lots of someone elses. With reporters crawling ALL OVER La Gloria, no one has been able to find patients one, two, three, four or five. And those in and around the little boy's house have now all been tested. And all are negative. Edgar may have been a very early patient in this epidemic, perhaps even the EARLIEST patient, but ALL available evidence contradicts the idea that he was "patient zero" in the sense of the first or one of the earliest spreaders of the virus. Joaquin From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 2 18:07:47 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 20:07:47 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Flu epidemic mortality drops dramatically -- a tale of the undead In-Reply-To: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: The flu pandemic currently underway has produced the most startling data. Whereas the body count in Mexico had stood at 170 or more as of Tuesday, by Thursday night, after the President has ordered the whole country shut down for five days to try to slow the epidemic, authorities announced that the number of dead had dramatically increased by 50%, from 8 to 12. WAIT A MINUTE, I hear you say. How can the number of fatal cases "increase" by 50% from around 170 --the last previous official figure-- to 12, the new one? Quite simply: most if not all of the 170 have been excluded from the new count. How? By the simple expedient of not counting anyone who did not test positive for the virus in a DNA test. These tests are not easy to do or cheap. They have to be done in a specialized laboratory and take more than 24 hours once you start them. Because what is involved in a technique to "amplify" a DNA "signal," even the tiniest contamination by ONE MOLECULE will ruin the test results (even if the tester doesn't realize it). Until last week, Mexico did not have the capacity to do this test on anything like a clinical scale, and instead a few samples were sent to the CDC in Atlanta, as were all samples from throughout the United States. The aim of such testing is not to tally the total number of cases but rather the geographic spread of the disease. The number of cases instead is calculated by diagnosis, based on the symptoms and presentation of the illness as judged by a medical professional. The CDC has now sent kits to state health departments and Mexico to enable them to do their own analysis. But everywhere the infection appears to be becoming firmly established, the testing quickly falls behind the rising number of cases. Many jurisdictions in the U.S. have announced they won't --in fact can't-- test every one of even the most suspicious cases. When numbers are cited in news reports of the number of "confirmed" cases or "confirmed" dead, people need to keep in mind that the figure is COMMERCIAL and POLITICAL not *MEDICAL.* Health authorities are still keeping close track of the number of cases *diagnosed* by medical professionals. It is obvious that a decision to hide this figure from the public has been made by politicians all over. And as usual, me and my brother and sister hacks in newsrooms the world over are proving once again that not only are we a pack of whores, but a pack of INCOMPETENT whores. Joaquin From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sat May 2 18:34:31 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 10:34:31 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Nazi Germany dares to hope for harmony In-Reply-To: <908b689f0905021541r1cce83c0g9cb34fe22b19d52@mail.gmail.com> References: <908b689f0905021541r1cce83c0g9cb34fe22b19d52@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2c6145850905021734u7095c603ve6fd177d640c0a24@mail.gmail.com> This was sent ot me off-list by Ruthless Critic - (who has been unsubbed?). However I wrote this post below before I noticed it was an offlist post (I woudln't waste my time jsut repoling to Ruthless). So having written it I will put it on the list as it tries to answer some common prejudices and lies in the media on wha tis happening in Sri Lanka *** Ruthless wrote: "The popular President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, says the Tigers will be routed any day now. Their defeat will give Mr Rajapaksa a rare opportunity to forge a lasting change in a deeply divided nation." Might as well read: "The popular Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, says the resistance will be routed any day now. --- The comparison of the LTTE with "resistance against Hitler" is not valid. The LTTE is a thuggish group that has committed numerous atrocities, including against Tamils (especially Tamil Muslims). It expelled Tamil Muslims from areas it controlled, at one point -- for example. This is a war against two thuggish entities (the LTTE and the Sri Lankan military) with civilians caught in the middle. RC *** No, this is not a war between two equal groups of thugs. It is a war a between an opresser and the oppressed. The LTTE are not some *pure* resistance group. The Tigers have committed crimes at different times. They are militaristic in their approach to politics, and no doubt that goes at least someway to explaining why they have been largely defeated. That does not change anything fundamental in the situation. Whatever the problems and limitations of hte Tigers, they existence and the genuinely mass support they enjoy among the Tamil people (as indicated by election results for Tiger-aligned Tamil National Alliance in Tamil Eelam and certainly in the global diaspora support seems close to total) because of the state oppression and violent repression meted out to the Tamil *people*. That violence predates both the formation of the Tigers and the point at which the Tigers began to win serious mass support for their armed struggle for independence (1983 "Black July" anti-Tamil pograms that killed 3000 people). In fact, it is sickening to try and put an equal sign between the Sri Lankan army and an armed resistance group, which, for all its crimes, is what the LTTE remain. It is like trying to put an equal sign between the IDF and Hamas. There is one side committing genocide right now. There is one side establishing concentration camps and turning the north and est of Sri Lanka into a giant prison camp. Media are not allowed into these camps, and access by aid groups is heavily restricted. There is one side relentlessly bombing a zone it delcared a "no-fire zone" that civilians could go to. The death toll is in excess of 6500 Tamil civialians since January. that is Gaza times three. It is prerfectly fitting that the Sri Lankan military commit these atrocities with military equipment purchased from Israel. Dozens , sometimes hundreds of Tamil civilians die every day. And now there is a humanitarian crisis caused by Sri Lanka's refusal to allow adequate food and medical supplies to reach Tamil civilians they are targeting. The argument that civlians are "caught int he middle" is not true. It is the line run byt he Sri Lankan governemnt and repeated by the media and other organisations around the world. CFar from being caught "between" the Tigers and the Sri Lankan Army, the SLA is deliberately targeting them. The LTTE, after all, has declared a unilateral ceasefore. The Sri Lankans claim the Tigers keep civilaisn against their will. The Tigers claim that civlians actually flee the SLA into the territory still held by the Tigers. There is no indpednent verification oif either claim, yet the media report the Sri Lankan claim as though it is fact. But hee is somethie we know is fact - the Sri Lankans are bombing the no fire zone. That is where civlians are. They tried to deny it for a long time, but satelite photosreveal they have shelled the safe zone evidence has forced them to admit it. So,kething else we know is fact: the Sri Lankans are roudning up the Tamil captures (or "frees", in their and the media's terminology) and places them into barbed wire-encaged internment camps. There are plenty of storiesabout the nature of the camps, including accounts of seperating out the men and women and old from young. But we can just stick to the known fact that they are placing them into enclosed prison camps. These two facts are enough to suggest it is likely that Tamil civilians would not feel inclined to rush with open arms towards the Sri Lankan military. They would have reason to do what they could to avoid them. This "trapped between" rubbish is rubbish. Whatever the Tigers are doing or not doing, civilians are being targeted de;liberaly and systematically by the Sri Lankan military. Who are the Tamil Tigers? The Tamils need support We don't need to turn a blind eye to the nature of the Tigers and their mistakes and even crimes. But at a time like this, you need to be able to tell who the main aggressors are, what the source of the problem is, and having done that, chose which side you are on. For those cormades on this list capable of distinguisxhing between oppressed and oppressor, and want to add their name to opposition to the genocide, you add your name to this statement initated at the World at a Corssroads conference in Sydney. Stuart From youcanemailbenhere at yahoo.co.uk Sat May 2 19:15:19 2009 From: youcanemailbenhere at yahoo.co.uk (Ben Ben) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 01:15:19 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Marxism] Augusto Boal 1931-2009 Message-ID: <268815.71526.qm@web26305.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> > The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) > --a member of The Institute for Popular Education at the Brecht Forum-- > --founded in 1990-- > 451 West Street > New York, New York 10014 > (212) 924-1858 > toplab at toplab.org > http://www.toplab.org > > > > It is with much sadness that the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory is > passing on the news of the death of Augusto Boal, who died late last > night, May 1, of complications arising from a long-term health condition. > > TOPLAB has had a close and intimate association with Augusto for twenty > years; he was our inspiration, teacher and comrade. The members of TOPLAB > consider it a privilege to have known him and worked with him. We will > miss him immensely. > > We extend our condolences to Augusto's family: his wife Cecilia, his sons > Fabien and Julian, his grandchildren, as well to his and our colleagues > and friends in the CTO-Rio. > > We will send more details through this announcement list soon. A memorial > tribute will be held at a future date to be announced. Messages of > sympathy can be sent to Augusto's family through us at toplab at toplab.org From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 2 19:36:35 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 21:36:35 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Flu map In-Reply-To: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <94D6D7404D7A450AAB4F862058AA4C60@albanta> One of the better resources is following the flu pandemic is a map being made, apparently by volunteers, that shows the number of cases, deaths and their status -- "suspected" (in other words, where the classification as H1N1 swine flu is based on a clinical diagnosis) or "confirmed" (where virus samples from the patient have been subjected to PCR DNA testing and found to be this specific strain). A great feature is that each and every item has a source reference attached to it that pops up when you click the marker. That map is here: http://h1n1maps.com/ And here is a map of colleges and universities in the US *officially* reporting swine flu cases: I was interested to learn that Harvard's dental school had been completely shut down due to the epidemic, both the school and the clinic, and both the school of public health and the med school were shut down Thursday night but for shorter periods, with both scheduled to reopen sometime this coming week. One woulda thought that someone who spent 8 hours on Friday in a newsroom almost completely focused on the swine flue epidemic would have been exposed to the news about Harvard, but somehow I missed it. A couple of more tidbits about the epidemic. Mexican officials have been saying since last Sunday that the number of cases is tapering off. If this were *actually* true, don't you think the government would have released the figures of suspected cases and deaths in such cases, instead of trying to pull the wool over people's eyes by suddenly and without explanation switching to only talking about DNA-test-confirmed cases? And if the *substance* of saying the number of cases was winding down were *actually* true, do you think President Calderon would have ordered everything in the country except essential services to shut down? Adding further to the confusion about the spread of the epidemic is the category of "likely" or "probable" cases. These are clinically diagnosed cases for which a quicker and less expensive laboratory test have been done, and come out negative for the more common types of flu. And as if that weren't enough, scientists quoted in press reports and posts on private medical list servers say that none of the flu tests are conclusive in the negative: a positive result means you certainly DO have it, unless the sample was contaminated. But a negative result doesn't mean you certainly DON'T have it. False negatives are possible even in acute cases, and it is known that once a patient has begun to recover or received anti-viral drugs, the test is much more likely to come out negative. Unfortunately, there is nowhere near enough data carefully collected to suggest what the rate of false negatives might be, but it is believed to be significant. Joaquin From lnp3 at panix.com Sat May 2 20:09:20 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 22:09:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] William A. Price Message-ID: <49FCFCD0.5090706@panix.com> NY Times, May 2, 2009 William A. Price, Journalist Who Defied Senate Panel, Dies at 94 By WILLIAM GRIMES William A. Price, a reporter for The Daily News who took the unusual step of invoking the First Amendment, rather than the Fifth, when refusing to answer questions before a Senate panel in 1956 about his possible ties to the Communist Party, and who later won a court judgment against the F.B.I. for wiretapping his phone in the 1970s, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 94. The death was confirmed by his nephew G. Jefferson Price III. On Jan. 5, 1956, Mr. Price appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, which was investigating allegations that Communists had infiltrated newspapers, radio and television. Also appearing before the subcommittee that day were Otto Albertson, a proofreader for The New York Times; Richard O. Boyer, a contributor to The New Yorker; and Dan Mahoney, a rewrite man for The Daily Mirror. All three declined to answer any questions and invoked the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects a witness against self-incrimination. Mr. Price, in a move that seemed to confound the subcommittee, refused to take the Fifth. Instead, invoking the First Amendment?s protection of free speech and a free press, he told the subcommittee that it did not have jurisdiction to inquire into his political beliefs. Members of the subcommittee wanted to know whether he had been a member of the Communist Party and, more specifically, whether he had used the plane he owned to fly a courier for the Communist International, the organization also known as Comintern, to Latin America. His attempt to invoke the First Amendment was overruled repeatedly by Senator James O. Eastland of Mississippi, the chairman of the subcommittee. Mr. Price was later indicted for contempt of Congress, along with Alden Whitman and Robert Shelton, who were then copy editors at The Times (Mr. Whitman became a noted obituary writer and Mr. Shelton a music critic at the paper); Seymour Peck, a Sunday editor at The Times who was later its culture editor; Herman Liveright, a former program director at WDSU television in New Orleans; and Mary Knowles, a librarian in Plymouth Meeting, Mass. The others had appeared before the subcommittee on separate occasions. Mr. Price was found guilty, fined $500 and sentenced to three months in jail. His difficulties with the government did not end there. In April 1972, the F.B.I. placed a wiretap on Mr. Price?s home telephone on the suspicion that he might be in contact with fugitive members of the Weather Underground. Five years later, he filed suit against the agents who carried out the wiretaps, and in 1981 the Justice Department awarded him, and others, $10,000 in damages for the violation of their civil rights. William Addison Price grew up in Montclair, N.J., and earned a bachelor?s degree from Principia College in Elsah, Ill. He started out in the newspaper business as a part-time feature writer for The Santa Paula Chronicle in California and a sports reporter for The Springfield Sun in New Jersey. In 1940 he joined The Daily News as a copy boy. During World War II he flew air-rescue operations in the Aleutian Islands, attaining the rank of lieutenant. He emerged from the war a committed socialist. Mr. Price returned to The Daily News, where he was a reporter on the police beat. He was also pilot of the newspaper?s airplane, which was used to take aerial photographs. Later, he was assigned to cover the fledgling United Nations. He displeased his superiors by working with a team of newspaper reporters investigating the death of his cousin, George Polk, who was murdered in Greece in 1948 while pursuing stories unfavorable to the right-wing government, which was supported by the United States. His career at The Daily News came to an abrupt end the day he appeared before Senator Eastland?s subcommittee. Richard Clarke, the executive editor of The Daily News, informed him in a telegram that his conduct had ?destroyed? his ?usefulness to The News? and that he was fired. Mr. Price?s conviction, and those of seven others, were set aside by the Supreme Court in 1962 on the narrow ground that the subcommittee had not specified the subject of its inquiry. He was re-indicted and found guilty, and sentenced to 10 days? probation. Mr. Price drove a bus and did carpentry work after losing his job, but went on to write for The National Guardian, a left-wing newspaper, for which he covered social issues in New York City and the civil rights movement in the South. Beginning in the 1970s, he worked with community organizations on the Upper West Side to defend tenants? rights and stop the urban renewal plans of the city?s housing authority. He is survived by two brothers, George J. Price of Miami and Henry Price of Brooklyn. From shmage at pipeline.com Sat May 2 21:09:05 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 23:09:05 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Flu epidemic mortality drops dramatically -- a tale of the undead In-Reply-To: References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: On May 2, 2009, at 8:07 PM, Joaquin Bustelo wrote: > > These tests are not easy to do or cheap. They have to be done in a > specialized laboratory and take more than 24 hours once you start > them. > Because what is involved in a technique to "amplify" a DNA "signal," > even > the tiniest contamination by ONE MOLECULE will ruin the test results > (even > if the tester doesn't realize it). > > Until last week, Mexico did not have the capacity to do this test on > anything like a clinical scale, and instead a few samples were sent > to the > CDC in Atlanta... This sounds right...but didn't you, just one hour earlier, acquit Smithfield on the grounds that none of the many La Gloria residents, living around that hog-hell, who had been suffering from "flu-like" illnesses for the previous month, have been confirmed positive to the H1N1 virus? 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 fred.fuentes at gmail.com Sat May 2 22:54:12 2009 From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 14:54:12 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Washington_Post_attacks_Obama_for_aiding?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_=22Ch=E1vez_consolidate_an_autocracy=22?= Message-ID: *Courting Mr. Ch?vez* The Obama administration seeks to please a strongman by ignoring his crackdown on domestic opposition. Thursday, April 30, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/29/AR2009042904419_pf.html ONE OF Venezuela's most important politicians was granted asylumin Peru this week. Manuel Rosales, a former state governor who challenged Hugo Ch?vez in the 2006 presidential election and won election as mayor of Maracaibo last fall, fled the country to avoid imprisonment. He was being prosecuted on dubious corruption charges; the investigation began only after Mr. Ch?vez shouted on television that "I'm going to put you in jail, Rosales!" Mr. Rosales is one of at least seven major Ch?vez opponents, including three of the five opposition state governors, who have been imprisoned or subjected to criminal or tax investigations during the past two months. It is reasonable to ask how the Obama administration is reacting to this major new campaign against what remains of Venezuela's democracy, especially given the president's friendly handshake with Mr. Ch?vez at the Summit of the Americas two weeks ago. The answer: It isn't. The administration has maintained a deliberate silence about the persecution of the elected politicians, a dissident former defense minister and a leading journalist. Meanwhile, the State Department is lauding what it calls the "positive development " in U.S.-Venezuelan relations: Mr. Ch?vez's offer to exchange ambassadors. "We buy a lot of their oil," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. "Let's see if we can begin to turn that relationship." Ms. Clinton seems to believe that Mr. Ch?vez's escalating domestic repression shouldn't be an impediment to better relations with the United States -- an attitude in keeping with her already-stated views about such nations as China, Egypt and Turkey. She pointed out in her congressional testimony that Venezuela has been developing close relations with Iran, and that "it's a serious matter if any country in our hemisphere falls under the sway of Iran or someone else who is inimicable to our interests." "Let's try to see whether there is any opportunity to move President Ch?vez away from the influences" of Iran and others, she proposed. That's certainly a worthy goal -- and we have no objection to Mr. Obama's handshake with Mr. Ch?vez. The administration's strategy -- to open up a constructive dialogue with Venezuela and avoid being cast as Mr. Ch?vez's Yanqui foil -- is reasonable; it is also the same strategy as was tried, unsuccessfully, by the previous two administrations. What doesn't make sense is to deliberately ignore steps by Mr. Ch?vez to consolidate an autocracy. In so doing, the administration encourages Latin American governments that have shrunk from confronting the Venezuelan strongman to continue in their own silence. It sends pro-Ch?vez governments in countries such as Bolivia and Nicaragua the message that they can persecute their own domestic opponents with impunity. And it makes it more rather than less likely that Venezuela, with the help of Iran and Russia, will become a threat to the United States. Peru's democratic government is to be congratulated for its decision to offer Mr. Rosales asylum. It is shameful that the Obama administration won't say so. From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Sat May 2 23:03:35 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 22:03:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Washington_Post_attacks_Obama_for_aiding?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_=22Ch=E1vez_consolidate_an_autocracy=22?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <873990.30819.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Fred Fuentes wrote: "Peru's democratic government is to be congratulated for its decision to offer Mr. Rosales asylum." Peru?! Peru is the bastion of democracy? You're kidding, right? A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sat May 2 23:41:46 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 15:41:46 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Washington_Post_attacks_Obama_for_aiding?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_=22Ch=E1vez_consolidate_an_autocracy=22?= In-Reply-To: <873990.30819.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> References: <873990.30819.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2c6145850905022241k5a8a1ec4s8569f3ba248ff047@mail.gmail.com> 2009/5/3 milongonsinga Fred Fuentes wrote: "Peru's democratic government is to be congratulated for its decision to offer Mr. Rosales asylum." Peru?! Peru is the bastion of democracy? You're kidding, right? Fred Fuentes didn't write that. The Washington Post wrote it. Fred probably took it for granted that the post title he gave that he doesn't agree with the Washington Post. Fred translated this article by Hugo Blanco for the current issue of Green Left by legendary Peruvian revolutionary Hugo Blanco on the indigenous uprising occurring right now in the Peruvian Amazon. He also wrote two articles in current issue on how Peru were aiding the corrupt counterrevolutionary Venezuelan leader Manual Rosales evade justice. (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40855 http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40856 ) This makes it safe to assume he doesn't agree with the Post on the Peru being a model of democracy. cheers, Stuart From hartin at mail.desy.de Sun May 3 02:53:55 2009 From: hartin at mail.desy.de (Anthony Hartin) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 10:53:55 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Marxism] Hamburg Mayday report Message-ID: http://dissidentscience.blogspot.com/2009/05/manufacturing-mayday-violence.html From fred.fuentes at gmail.com Sun May 3 04:04:47 2009 From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 20:04:47 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: [GreenLeft_discussion] !!!IMPORTANT!!!- NEPAL: SUNDAY 3PM In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ben Peterson Date: Sun, May 3, 2009 at 7:28 PM Subject: [GreenLeft_discussion] !!!IMPORTANT!!!- NEPAL: SUNDAY 3PM To: GREEN LEFT DISCUSSION LIST , Maoist rev Chief of Army sacked- not accepting decision. Coalition parteners leaving government, Opposition disrupting capital, public rallies to support government, attempts to overthrown gov. http://maobadiwatch.blogspot.com/ __________________________________________________________ Looking to change your car this year? Find car news, reviews and more http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fsecure%2Dau%2Eimrworldwide%2Ecom%2Fcgi%2Dbin%2Fa%2Fci%5F450304%2Fet%5F2%2Fcg%5F801459%2Fpi%5F1004813%2Fai%5F859641&_t=762955845&_r=tig_OCT07&_m=EXT [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] __._,_.___ Messages in this topic ( 1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages Green Left Weekly depends on your support! Subscribe to Green Left Weekly! http://www.greenleft.org.au/subscribe.htm Make a donation to help Green Left Weekly continue! http://www.greenleft.org.au/fogl.htm [image: Yahoo! Groups] Change settings via the Web(Yahoo! 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Connect with others. . __,_._,___ From sabocat59 at mac.com Sun May 3 04:57:23 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 10:57:23 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Hatfield: Swine Flu Shines Bright Light On Factory Farm Practices (VIDEO) Message-ID: <182817376-1241348394-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-239889249-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> http://m.huffpost.com/top/9258/full/ Hatfield: Swine Flu Shines Bright Light On Factory Farm Practices (VIDEO) Leslie Hatfield UPDATED: 05/01/2009 As I wrote earlier this week, the virus formerly known as the swine flu (although the CDC continues to say that indeed the H1N1 strain does, as initially reported, contain swine, human and avian virus components) seems quite likely to have links to an industrial hog operation in the La Gloria community where the outbreak was believed to have started, although new information suggests that this strain of the flu may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia. As could be expected, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor and co-owner of the La Gloria facility in question, came out early last weekend denying culpability in the outbreak. With test results at the La Gloria facility painfully slow to emerge, I want to point out here that I'm not saying definitively that this flu is the result of Smithfield's practices, but I do tend to follow the reasoning of Tom Philpott of Grist, writing on the 28th:The question now becomes: Did the outbreak that started in February and killed three kids involve swine flu-or was the 4-year-old boy's infection an isolated case? If not-if the La Gloria epidemic turns out to be ground zero of the infection-could the swine-flu outbreak have originated literally in the shadows of Granjas Carroll's hog confinements, and not have some tie to intensive hog farming? That's a question that health authorities have to vigorously pursue. Today, Smithfield CEO Larry Pope sat down for an interview on CNBC to counter the rumors. From the interview: POPE: Oh. You-- in fact, our-- our team that went down even this week,they have not been allowed on the farm yet. Because they haven't-- they haven't satisfied the quarantine period. So our own executives can't go on the farm until they've satisfied a quarantine. But I tell people when you visit our farms, I'm not concerned about you. I'm concerned about the pigs. I'm concerned about you contaminating the pigs. Not the pigs contaminating you. BURNETT: And this is because pigs and humans, in terms of DN-- there--there's a lot of similarities. POPE: There are. BURNETT: That's the bottom line. So that's why diseases can go back andforth. POPE: People-- people can give it to them. They can give-- they cangive some to people on-- on occasion. But this doesn't appear to bethat case at all. It doesn't appear to be there at all. And again, it doesn't transmit through the meat. That nobody has been sickened by eating the meat is not at issue, though one could imagine why such a question would be of great importance to the head of the largest pork production company in the world. It is interesting to note that nobody has said specifically that a person could not be infected by handling raw pork from an animal that was infected. I think it's also worth noting here what Pope doesn't come right out and say -- that conditions at their facilities create such a tenuous situation for the health of these animals that they have to take these precautions (which may be preventing some of those quite-slow test results) when humans visit these facilities. Whether or not scientists pin this strain of influenza on Smithfield, the fact that factory farms are a breeding ground for infectious diseases is well documented. Hans-Gerhard Wagner, a senior officer with the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, has called the "intensive industrial farming of livestock" an "opportunity for emerging disease."Not only that, but the ecological implications of industrial agriculture are worth mentioning here as well. Interestingly enough, Jeff Tietz's 2006 Rolling Stone article, Boss Hog, is still among the best I've seen on the subject.In it, Tietz points out that a single Smithfield plant in Utah, housing a half million animals, generates more fecal waste per year than the 1.5 million people in Manhattan. He goes on to point out that companies like Smithfield are not required to treat said waste in the manner that local governments are required to treat human waste and that:The excrement of Smithfield hogs is hardly even pig sh*t: On a continuum of pollutants, it is probably closer to radioactive waste than to organic manure. The reason it is so toxic is Smithfield's efficiency. Smithfield's holding ponds -- the company calls them lagoons -- cover as much as 120,000 square feet. The area around a single slaughterhouse can contain hundreds of lagoons, some of which run thirty feet deep. The liquid in them is not brown. The interactions between the bacteria and blood and afterbirths and stillborn piglets and urine and excrement and chemicals and drugs turn the lagoons pink.Even light rains can cause lagoons to overflow; major floods have transformed entire counties into pig-sh*t bayous. To alleviate swelling lagoons, workers sometimes pump the sh*t out of them and spray the waste on surrounding fields, which results in what the industry daintily refers to as "overapplication." This can turn hundreds of acres -- thousands of football fields -- into shallow mud puddles of pig sh*t. Tree branches drip with pig sh*t.Please go to corresponding website for complete details. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From rfls12802 at blueyonder.co.uk Sun May 3 06:22:46 2009 From: rfls12802 at blueyonder.co.uk (Paul Flewers) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 13:22:46 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Pig Flu: 'There Will Be No Pandemic' -- Susil Gupta Message-ID: <002b01c9cbe9$ddc9faf0$995df0d0$@co.uk> Here's something that a friend of mine, Susil Gupta, wrote the other day on the pig flu epidemic, which might cause some debate on the list. Paul F +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Although the WHO has raised its pandemic alert level from 4 to 5 and claims that 'All of humanity is under threat' a high-mortality pandemic is unlikely -- at least not in the developed West. First some terminology and useful conceptual distinctions which often get confused under the general terms 'infectiousness' and 'virulence' -- even among epidemiologists who should be more careful. TRANSMISSIVITY is the easy with which a pathogen its transmitted between one person and another. A pathogen may be very fast moving -- but harmless. So, one need not be alarmed, though it is alarming, to hear that a disease is very infectious. The common cold is extremely infectious but not very 'virulent'. INVASIVENESS is the ease with which the pathogen enters a person's system in a way that produces harm. For example, legionella, the pathogen that causes Legionnaire's Disease, is harmless if ingested but only becomes pathogenic when inhaled -- usually in a micro-droplet produced by an air conditioning system that uses a waterfall to cool and clean air. It also tends only to affect a person with a weak immune system (old or ill people). PATHOGENICITY or 'virulence' is the harm the pathogen does once it has infected someone. There is a great deal of debate among evolutionary biologists and microbiologists about the relationship between the ease of transmission of a pathogen and the harm that it does. It is generally postulated that the higher the transmissivity and invasiveness of a pathogen, the lower its pathogenicity, because otherwise the microbial world would have never allowed higher animals to evolve! All pathogens are parasites that misuse bodily functions for their own reproduction and dispersal (infection). So microbes have vested interest in keeping its host alive and few require the host. But one can also argue, that despite our apparent dominance of the natural world, the microbial world has not allowed higher animals to evolve much. In terms of species variation and sheer biomass, microbes dominate the world many times over. Indeed, human beings and all higher animals together are just a tiny spot on the face of the microbial world -- we are a tolerated, insignificant minority of living things. There are also many examples of pathogens that kill their hosts, against their theoretical interests. The fact is that microbes, being so plentiful and resilient, don't need care about being too virulent and wiping out the human race. So, in sum, there is -- or should be -- an inverse relationship between easy transmission and the level of pathogenicity -- but it is a reasoned proposition that beset by real-world problems. THE SINGLE BUG THEORY: Simplified explanations of how infectious disease work rely heavily on the one bug, one man, one disease schema. In reality, microbial and epidemiological events are always population phenomena. There is no distinct 'swine flu' bug in the same way that lions and tigers are specific creatures. Bacteria and viruses exist as hundreds of constantly evolving genetic variations (antigenic drift) clustered around a core genetic identity. When this genetic identity has migrated far enough (antigenic shift) a new viral variant is established. Thus any particular type of virus will have variants of greater and lesser invasiveness and pathogenicity. Some microbes that are very stable needed only one lifetime vaccine to confer immunity. Viruses are generally very fast-evolving, which is why a yearly jab is necessary, and even then only covers 80%-90% of the naturally-occurring variants. As a result of these processes, as a contagion develops, its pathogenicity usually (but not always) becomes attenuated for two reasons: 1) The more pathogenic variants of the virus kill or disable their victims faster and more severely -- thus making them less available (impaired or interrupted social interaction) to transmit the infection to others. The more benign versions of the pathogen live on in the 'walking and working sick'. It pays to be nicer. 2) Since viruses are not really living organisms but bits of portable DNA, they require the DNA machinery of the human body to reproduce. Viruses that are highly pathogenic tend to interfere with bodily functions, obstructing their intra-cellular reproduction and extra-cellular transmission. Again, the more benign ones tend to be successful. THE HOST THEORY OF INFECTION: Because infectious disease phenomena are never random and always have social or human characteristics, some biologists during the late 19 Century argued that 'the microbe is nothing -- the terrain is everything". This was an extreme position against the germ theory of disease which was at first expressed in an extreme way against the old 'humours' or 'foul airs' theory of disease. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and understanding an epidemic is all about knowing what weight to give each factor. That is a difficult judgement, and one that involves looking at the evidence and analysing the situation - not something that comes easily in a panic, or based on media views! Take, for example Cholera. This is not an infectious disease (person-to-person) in the usual sense but a transmissible one (milieu to milieu). An infected person develops millions of cholera vibrio in his gut. This provokes massive diarrhoea which flushes the incubated vibrio into the sewage system. If sewage leaks into the water system (almost always the cause of a cholera epidemic) then the process starts all over again, this time with hundreds of infected people. The more pathogenic strains kill off their hosts first, the less the pathogenic ones survive longer. Slowly, immunity builds up in a population and the epidemic extinguishes itself. Well fed people and alcoholics are more resistant to cholera. The undernourished die like flies. Thus it is possible to have a rich community living uphill with a clean water supply and a down hill poor community that has a water supply contaminated by the sewage of the uphill community and its own. The high mortality rate of the down hill community is due to two non-pathogen factors, the 'terrain', in addition to the pathogen: namely malnutrition and contamination. THE CURRENT SWINE FEVER EPIDEMIC: My theory is this: A new strain of flu virus has erupted, possibly with some connection to the food industry. To protect its important national exports, the Mexican authorities have kept a lid on the ensuing minor epidemic until it burst into public view -- giving the false impression of a major medical emergency because, by then, the epidemic is well developed. Thus we have two apparently dangerous ingredients * The emergence of a new strain, where one would not expect to find it -- which is 'unusual' but no more threatening that any other flu outbreak. We did have Haitian hog flu 30 years ago! * An epidemic that appears to erupt like a thunderclap -- but only because its initial stages have been concealed, not because it will now develop exponentially. What evidence or argument backs this up? Much has been made of the intensive factory-rearing of pigs in their thousands. This is not necessarily a problem. South East Asia is the locus of constant flu incubation and development because of the close domestic contact of a few pigs, a few ducks and a few human beings in thousands of homes. Indeed, there are a dozen epidemics of bird-pig-human flu occurring in South East Asia at any one time. This provides a source of a continual infection-mutation-infection cycle between the three animals. This does not occur in mass factory farming of pigs. Five thousand people die in the UK of flu every year -- mostly the old, but not exclusively so. With a population of 111 million, and a far poorer health service and lower state of public health, we would expect to find annual flu deaths in Mexico to be at least 10,000. In addition, these deaths would not be so narrowly focused on more vulnerable populations, given that poverty creates a larger and wider mortality-susceptible population. Deaths from a brewing epidemic of a new strain of swine area easily concealed in a larger population of normal annul flu deaths. However, because the disease surveillance community is international, the news eventually filters out. Now, in the general panic, the reverse can happen: a large number of normal flu deaths are attributed to the new-strain, because the whole of the political, administrative and public health effort is now mobilised in that direction. Everyone needs to be seen erring on the side of caution, which means not being cautious about alarming and worst-case scenarios. A massive epidemic has been created where only a small one exists because what we have in reality is an administrative manipulation that has come apart. This has led to the media exaggeration of otherwise minor phenomena. So far only 12 of the 176 deaths in Mexico have been confirmed as attributable to the new strain. We should also note that: * This is what happened in the Aids epidemic. I was virtually the only person in the UK to predict there would be no generalised epidemic outside specific risk groups. * This is what happened in the CJD 'epidemic'. 100,000 cases were predicted by the Government's Chief Medical Officer. Again I was the only person in the UK to predict there would be no generalised epidemic (and still am). There have been no more than 200 cases after 25 years! If the Mexican authorities did cover up the eruption of a new-strain flu for economic reasons, they would be in very, very serious trouble with the world health authorities and with their trading partners. So it is in their interests to present the epidemic as a tsunami they were not expecting. Again, this fosters the sense of something ominous and beyond their control. So far, the Mexican authorities have not provided any account of the epidemic. Flu is a very easy epidemic to follow, because it conforms very well to mathematical modelling and has an uncomplicated and well-understood uniform transmission and disease process. With 176 claimed deaths, the Mexican authorities must have a good idea about the nature the specific outbreak by now -- but we are not being told! This smells very fishy. Of course, if new-strain cases are mixed up with normal-strain cases in the process of administrative obfuscation then it is impossible to develop a specific epidemiological picture. The great puzzling aspect of the epidemic is the very high mortality in Mexico and the low mortality everywhere else. This is where the initial cover-up comes apart. It is true that malnutrition impairs the immune system and can cause what appears to be a mortal epidemic which would be non-fatal in a healthy population. But most people in Mexico City are not undernourished to the degree that would make such a difference. And given the close relationship between Mexico and some Southern US States, there would have been a much bigger spill-over by now. This suggests that the evidence of the number of deaths is a false count. My conclusion: there will be no pandemic. Susil Gupta +++++++++ POSTSCRIPT: The Pandemic Disappearing Act Sunday, 03 May 2009 When I wrote the piece on Mexican flu I expected that it would take several weeks for the truth to emerge. I was even advised to avoid being a hostage to fortune by not declaring a non-event so early. Well, 24 hours later the pandemic story is already falling apart, and in a way that I suggested. An initial down-grading of the new-strain cases in an attempt to cover-up the eruption then led to its opposite -- an over estimation of new-strain figures. According to today's El Pais, the Mexican authorities have downgraded the fatalities from 160 to 16 confirmed cases. Other sources are reported by the BBC along similar lines. The pathogenicity of the new-strain does not appear to be greater than 'normal' flu. By any standards of flu phenomena this is not a pandemic, not even an epidemic -- just an outbreak. In a normal winter in the UK 100,000 people are infected with flu in a week. From meisner at xs4all.nl Sun May 3 06:52:06 2009 From: meisner at xs4all.nl (Jeff) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 14:52:06 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Rotterdam 1 May demo: photos Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20090503145206.044cab9c@pop.xs4all.nl> I'm just sending this link since I already have these photos posted, but there wasn't anything notable about this years anti-capitalist demo which is organized yearly with similar forces. Official attendance was 800 (smaller than many previous years) and before you get your hopes up about the Dutch working class, please realize that the numbers were dominated by organized immigrant communities, particularly Turkish communists (MKLP I think) and a sizable contingent of Tamils protesting the current genocide in Sri Lanka. Some photos posted at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~meisner/1meiRotterdam2009 From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Sun May 3 07:12:32 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 06:12:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?Washington_Post_attacks_Obama_for_aiding?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_=22Ch=E1vez_consolidate_an_autocracy=22?= In-Reply-To: <2c6145850905022241k5a8a1ec4s8569f3ba248ff047@mail.gmail.com> References: <873990.30819.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <2c6145850905022241k5a8a1ec4s8569f3ba248ff047@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <665205.64578.qm@web110407.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Apologies to Fred and thank you for clarifying, A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." ----- Original Message ---- From: Stuart Munckton To: milongonsinga at yahoo.com Sent: Saturday, May 2, 2009 10:41:46 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Washington Post attacks Obama for aiding "Ch?vez consolidate an autocracy" 2009/5/3 milongonsinga Fred Fuentes wrote: "Peru's democratic government is to be congratulated for its decision to offer Mr. Rosales asylum." Peru?! Peru is the bastion of democracy? You're kidding, right? Fred Fuentes didn't write that. The Washington Post wrote it. Fred probably took it for granted that the post title he gave that he doesn't agree with the Washington Post. Fred translated this article by Hugo Blanco for the current issue of Green Left by legendary Peruvian revolutionary Hugo Blanco on the indigenous uprising occurring right now in the Peruvian Amazon. He also wrote two articles in current issue on how Peru were aiding the corrupt counterrevolutionary Venezuelan leader Manual Rosales evade justice. (http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40855 http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40856 ) This makes it safe to assume he doesn't agree with the Post on the Peru being a model of democracy. cheers, Stuart ________________________________________________ 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/milongonsinga%40yahoo.com From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 3 07:54:34 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 09:54:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Hard times Message-ID: <49FDA21A.6090208@panix.com> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR2009050202207.htm U.S. Workers' Wages Stagnate As Firms Rush to Slash Costs By Annys Shin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 3, 2009 In December, Timothy Owner, a trombone player with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, called his landlord to tell her he might have trouble paying rent around May. He and the orchestra's 53 other full-time members, many of whom are paid less than $30,000 a year, had agreed to a month-long furlough. The furlough, which ended yesterday, was rough, Owner said. But he and other musicians acknowledged that the alternative could have been worse. "We're less unhappy if this means the orchestra will survive," he said. Across the country, workers' earnings are stagnating or, in some cases, declining. For many Americans, the setbacks are all the more troubling because they have lost so much wealth in recent months, with the value of their homes and retirement packages plummeting. Employers big and small have resorted to slashing hours and once-unthinkable wage cuts. In March, staffing agencies that work for Microsoft agreed to a 10 percent reduction in their bill rate. In April, hotel operators in New York City asked unionized waiters, housekeepers and bellhops to reopen their contract and accept wage cuts. State governments such as Indiana's have frozen pay, while others, including Maryland and California, have furloughed employees. According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, more than a third of Americans say they or someone in their household has had their hours or pay cut in the past few months. That's a nine-point increase since a similar poll was conducted in February. Wages in absolute terms -- not adjusted for inflation -- tend not to fall, even during economic downturns. In a study of the recession of the early 1990s, Yale economist Truman Bewley found that employers are loath to reduce wages because of the potential impact on morale and productivity. That's why wages are considered "sticky" -- they rarely slip. So far, there's no evidence that cuts to compensation have reversed overall wage growth. But, as in past recessions, the growth is slowing rapidly. The Labor Department's employment cost index, which tracks wages, salaries and benefits, rose in the first quarter by the smallest amount since the index began in 1982. That bodes ill for those workers trying to rebuild nest eggs depleted by the housing and stock market downturns. To boost their savings, they typically need faster income growth or lower spending, and, as Harvard University economist Lawrence Katz put it, "It is going to be a long time before we see sustained pay raises." The previous U.S. recession, in 2001, was relatively weak and didn't last the full year. But once inflation is factored in, wages actually fell, sapping workers' buying power, and didn't return to pre-recession levels until 2006, just before the economy fell into its latest funk. As a result, from 2000 to 2007, the median income of American households, when adjusted for inflation, fell by $324, according to the Commerce Department. By comparison, the current recession has already lasted 17 months and is far more severe than the last one. Wages for new hires have already fallen, according to an index compiled by the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association based in Alexandria. Temporary workers' hourly rates are shrinking, too. Joanie Ruge, senior vice president of the staffing firm Adecco Group North America, said her company's clients have shaved as much as 10 percent off their rates. In recent months, falling energy and food prices have helped Americans stretch their money. But inflation could easily erode those gains if it returns to a more normal annual rate of about 3 percent. Experts fear that wages will not keep up. Once the recession ends, economists expect, the recovery will be long and slow, with sluggish job creation. Without a tight labor market, employers won't have to compete as much for talent and workers will have less leverage to push for higher pay, experts say. "Once you knock down wage growth, it will take a substantial change in unemployment to move it again," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. "The recovery is going to be weak. I think as wage growth subsides, it is going to subside for many years." Members and employees of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra are bracing for more hard times. The orchestra has had to contend with a $1.5 billion debt. Carla Johnson, the VSO's executive director, said she noticed donations and ticket sales start to slide in 2007, before the recession officially started. After the economy took a nose dive in September, grants dried up. People who had pledged to buy season tickets reneged. Some longtime subscribers, in particular retirees living off investment income, "were so embarrassed they could barely speak to us," Johnson said. The musicians were furloughed, and the administrative staff, including Johnson, took a 20 percent pay cut. The two moves saved the VSO about $500,000. Since then, nearly everyone with the orchestra has had to make adjustments. Viola player Matthew Umlauf, the primary breadwinner for his family of four, shelved plans to buy a house in order to put more money aside in an emergency fund. Owner, the trombone player, called friends around the country in search of gigs in April to make up for his lost income. Public relations director Donna Hudgins planted a vegetable garden, while her husband, a judge who recently stepped down, went back to work as a substitute judge. He's worked every day since he retired, she said, and she has no plans to stop, either. "I'm working longer than I ever thought I would," Hudgins said. She and other VSO staff, who are not unionized, had little say in the changes. But the orchestra members, who are organized, did. They accepted the furlough knowing that the standard cost-cutting measure -- layoffs -- was not an option. A clarinet player, for instance, can't pick up the slack for a missing violinist. Orchestras everywhere are feeling the pain. Just last week, members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra volunteered to give up wage increases and other benefits in order to save the BSO $1 million. The VSO members will probably have to make further concessions during upcoming contract negotiations, Johnson said. While the musicians don't relish the idea of more financial hardship, the orchestra members said they will find some way to keep performing. "We don't stop playing because times get tough," Owner said. "We love what we do." Polling director Jon Cohen contributed to this report. From binesi at gvtel.com Sun May 3 08:03:52 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 09:03:52 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Robert Duncan's "The Homosexual in Society" In-Reply-To: <49FCB57E.7010406@panix.com> References: <49FCB57E.7010406@panix.com> Message-ID: <49FDA448.2010305@gvtel.com> Thanks to Louis for posting this piece, which was new to me. It is useful to uncover unknown or neglected pieces of the gay and left past. Duncan's article is interesting not so much for raising issues that burst forth following Stonewall (it doesn't do that nearly as much as, say, the article Christopher Phelps recently discovered by H. L Small, "Socialism and Sex," published in a Socialist discussion bulletin in 1952 [published in /New Politics,/ summer 2008]), but for what it leaves unsaid. Although it is impossible to know how aware Duncan was of gay and left history, judging from this article he knew very little, and that in itself suggests how thoroughly the early support for homosexual rights by the left (especially in Germany and England), as well as the decades-long writings and activism by homosexuals themselves, was obliterated by the Stalinist reaction and Nazism. When Duncan's article appeared, it was only ten years since Stalin reintroduced the tsarist law against homosexuality. Had he known about this early history, he would have avoided several mistaken assumptions, such as his assertion that "Almost coincident with the first declarations for homosexual rights was the growth of a cult of homosexual superiority to heterosexual values." That is untrue. Quite the opposite, in fact, as demonstrated by much of the early German gay movement, beginning with Ulrichs in the mid-nineteenth century and continuing with both the assimilationist third-sex group of Magnus Hirschfeld (the Scientific Humanitarian Committee) and the mostly bisexual pederast group Der Eigene, as well as figures like Edward Carpenter, John Henry Mackay, Edwin Bab, and many others. The tendency of some to view homosexuality as superior to heterosexuality (e.g., Stefan George, Hans Bl?her) was very much a minority phenomenon. To refer to this subset as "Zionists of homosexuality" is amusing, but hyperbolic, and unfortunate especially in view of the subsequent crimes of Zionism. He is also wrong (out of ignorance, perhaps) to say that "Among those who should understand those emotions which society condemned, one found that the group language did not allow for any feeling at all other than this self-ridicule, this 'gaiety'...." The language devised by homosexual activists during the early years was actually varied and rich, and mostly bore no relation to "self-ridicule." Even in his 1959 commentaries, Duncan shows no awareness of Mattachine or ONE. His focus is mostly on critiquing a"homosexual cult," to an extent that in places suggests internalized self-oppression. A few of his phrases are pithy and revealing, including: "To insist, not upon tolerance for a divergent sexual practice, but upon concern for the virtues of a homosexual relationship!" (This does point toward the radical outlook--now mostly gone--of the Stonewall rebels. I especially liked "The law has declared homosexuality secret, inhuman, unnatural (and why not then supernatural?)" From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 3 08:24:51 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 10:24:51 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Communist plans can backfire in India Message-ID: <49FDA933.8020203@panix.com> NY Times, May 3, 2009 Communists? Land Plan Could Backfire in India By SOMINI SENGUPTA NANDIGRAM, India ? Promising land to the landless, the Communists won Abdul Bakir Shah?s heart decades ago. Under an ambitious land reform drive, Mr. Shah, a sharecropper all his life, got title to nearly one fertile acre. His village and others like it have voted Communist since, keeping the party in power for an uninterrupted 32 years here in West Bengal State. But things went topsy-turvy two years ago. As Bengal belatedly joined India?s slow but inexorable march to capitalism, the Communist-run state government sought to scoop up this entire cluster of mud-and-thatch hamlets to make way for the construction of a multinational chemical industrial complex. The Communists, under whose leadership factory after factory had been shuttered across this state, said it was time to bring private industry and jobs back to Bengal. ?Reform or perish,? became their rallying cry. That is when the Communists lost Mr. Shah?s trust. ?We don?t have any faith in them anymore,? he said. Now, in the parliamentary elections under way, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) faces one of the toughest political fights of its long history. It is a party divided between the pull of industrial capitalism ? not unlike in China ? and its tradition of championing the rural poor. That struggle reflects much of the conflict that has bedeviled India in recent years, and bitter discord over land acquisition has broken out in many parts of the country. How the Communists perform here in their stronghold of West Bengal will, to a large extent, determine how much influence they have over the next government of India, and by extension, over the nation?s economic and foreign policy. Even though the Communists here are unabashedly capitalist, at the level of the central government they hew to more traditional ideology, blocking a slew of economic reforms and raising a ruckus over India?s deepening friendship with the United States. In the past five years, controlling one in 10 seats in India?s 543-member Parliament, they have been particularly influential. This time, they may not be, having been made vulnerable by the turn away from their old core principles. The fight for the hearts of men like Mr. Shah is at the heart of their challenge. ?Our basic constituency is the rural poor,? insisted Mohammad Salim, a veteran member of Parliament in the party. ?Their thought processes were hijacked by a powerful coterie, by big noise.? Much of that ?big noise? has come, on the one side, from the feisty political opposition leader, Mamata Banerjee, who has usurped the Communist Party rhetoric and cast herself as the savior of the rural poor. On the other side, Maoist guerrillas have begun gaining ground, particularly among indigenous people in remote, destitute corners of the state. The other day, wielding bows and arrows, hundreds of them blocked traffic in the center of the state capital, Calcutta. As Bengal?s voters went to the polls on Thursday, suspected Maoists planted bombs, ambushed a car, killing three election workers and imposed a fairly successful boycott call in pockets of the state. Acquiring the land of folks who know no other life is difficult any way. But here in Bengal, the fury is even greater than elsewhere. The land is fertile and exceptionally crowded ? with an average of 904 people in each square kilometer ? and, as Mr. Salim acknowledged, all the more coveted by those who were landless for so long. Ms. Banerjee has seized on that anxiety, and has succeeded in blocking several industrial projects that the Communists sought. A factory to build the world?s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, was forced to move out of the state. Plans for a nuclear power plant have been scrapped. The same has happened to the would-be chemical plant, which the state proposed relocating near the Sunderbans delta; that, too, has faced protests. A steel plant farther east is a target of Maoist attacks. Ms. Banerjee, for her part, once aligned with the rightist Bharatiya Janata Party, has turned herself into a friend of the have-nots. ?You used to say, ?Long live Karl Marx,? ? she said of the Communists while on the campaign stump the other day. ?Now you say, ?Long live Tata, Karl Marx, you go.? ? She promises reopening factories shuttered under the Communists. She pledges more money for those who lose land. She accuses the Communists of intimidating voters. Ms. Banerjee is often seen on television scuffling with the police at street protests. ?Today they will take your vote, tomorrow they will take your land, the third day they will ask for your daughter, your son,? she warned darkly. ?This fight is for your survival.? Her critics call her an opportunist. A Communist Party campaign billboard, in the center of Calcutta, shows a young man with a briefcase and his head hung low, and a slogan that blames Ms. Banerjee for driving jobs out of the state. Another, a cartoon, shows a portly Ms. Banerjee, holding a begging bowl and placards that read: ?No Industry,? ?No Progress,? ?No Roads.? Each party accuses the other?s cadres of murder and mayhem. Their campaign posters contain graphic images of maimed, charred bodies. Part of the problem is that Bengal, after more than 30 years of leftist leadership, remains among the country?s most destitute and dysfunctional states. It has one of the highest school drop-out rates. Nearly half the poor do not have access to public food subsidies, as they are supposed to. Land reform slowed to a crawl in the last decade. In Nandigram, discontent had piled up against the government. It exploded over its bid for the land. In the spring of 2007, at the height of the troubles, at least 14 people died in clashes between Communist Party supporters and opponents. A year later, Ms. Banerjee?s Trinamool Congress Party swept the local village council elections for the first time in more than three decades. So tense does it remain that in one hamlet, a conversation with visiting journalists nearly brought supporters of the two rival parties to blows. The people of Mr. Shah?s hamlet were all once Communists. Now, the few Communist holdouts cluster together on one side of the main road. They say they are forbidden from the tea shop on the main road. They are afraid to vote. They seethe at Ms. Banerjee for having driven a potential factory from their area. ?She just wants the poor to stay poor,? said Zahidul Mullick, who guessed his age to be around 18. He said he dropped out of school after the fifth grade and worked as a tailor, as most of the men in the hamlet do. ?Look, we are not educated,? said Halima Begum, 22, balancing a baby on her hips. ?We couldn?t work in the factory. But we could clean the houses of the people who come to work there.? Across the street, Mr. Shah said he was immediately suspicious of the proposed chemical complex. He was terrified of being displaced. For the first time in more than 30 years, he and his neighbors turned against the Communists. ?They thought the party was so strong we would do whatever they say,? said one of his neighbors, Atibul Shah, 22. His family, he said, had voted Communist for three generations. This time, he had ridden the train for two days from Mumbai, where he works in a garment factory, for the chance to vote the Communists out. From jbustelo at gmail.com Sun May 3 08:33:32 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 10:33:32 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Flu epidemic mortality drops dramatically -- a taleof the undead In-Reply-To: References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Shane Mage writes: <> I know this will sound ridiculous to most people on this list, not sharing the proclivities of the audience I have in mind, but to rational, intelligent people the ABSENCE of evidence does not, in and of itself, constitute evidence. Thus, apart from the saved sample from this ONE pre-schooler, there is NOTHING to suggest that the La Gloria outbreak was an H1N1 outbreak. For the reasons I explained, that makes the test results of this one sample the phenomenon to be investigated and accounted for, given the ABSENCE of an H1N1 virus outbreak in the locality. This is a different matter than, for example, an assertion that only 25 of the 50 tested samples were positive for swine flu, or even just 5. Then a case might be constructed based on the hypothesis that there are a large number of false negatives. But with just ONE sample testing positive, the hypothesis becomes that this one sample is anomalous: either a false positive or a unique case in the locality epidemiologically unrelated to the other cases. I have no interest in acquitting or convicting Smithfield's half-owned farm in Mexico. I DO have an interest in American leftists who are so hapless they flail about, polemical rapiers in hand, cut off their OWN heads, and then proudly hold their own heads up high, as if they were intent to prove to all and sundry that there are no brains in them. Here's the latest piece of garbage to have been deposited on this list: A piece from the bourgeois opportunist/liberal Huffington Post by Leslie Hatfield: "As I wrote earlier this week, the virus formerly known as the swine flu (although the CDC continues to say that indeed the H1N1 strain does, as initially reported, contain swine, human and avian virus components) seems quite likely to have links to an industrial hog operation in the La Gloria community where the outbreak was believed to have started, although new information suggests that this strain of the flu may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." Now, let's analyze what we're being told. First that is "seems" that H1N1 "quite likely" is going to have "links" to the hog factory. I will go further. I will assert CATEGORICALLY that the H1N1 virus is "linked" to the Rockefellers, the Vatican, the Zionist Entity and Dick Cheney. Multiple links. First, there's the fact they are ALL not just in the solar system, but on planet earth. Then there's the matter of the shared atmosphere: they're all part of a microscopically thin biosphere (speaking metaphorically, of course). And the truly damning evidence that they are bound together in the VERY SAME gravitational field. "Link" is a journalistic weasel word used to suggest not just what the writer can't prove, but would likely be sued for were it to be asserted. Unless the exact nature of the "LINK" is explicated, it means absolutely nothing. Of course, the "link" being suggested is that the pig factory is the origin of the swine flu. This is done through the weasel-phrase, "where the outbreak was believed to have started." Notice the past-tense passive voice "was believed." By whom? When? For what reason? What happened to said belief that the author refers to it in the past tense ("was believed") instead of the present ("is believed")? Then there's the following clause: "although new information suggests that this strain of the flu may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." Not to mention Canada. But what interests me in the actual PROOF left by our author that s/he doesn't have a clue what is being talked about. And that is the assertion that this strain of the flu "may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." In the sense in which origins is being used here, what is asserted is utterly nonsensical. The strain could have its origins in the United States *OR* Asia, but almost certainly NOT in both at the same time, for either the Asian-found strain originated with the Americans or vice versa: the odds that the VERY SAME virus evolved independently on two continents at the same time are the same as the proverbial gang of monkeys typing out the collected works of Shakespeare: easy enough given an infinite amount of time, quite impossible in real time. So here is where we stand: the pig farm-swine flue connection has been reduced to an apparent ("seems") possible ("quite likely") undefined association ("links"). Or it may not exist at all ("although"). Who knows? This is an entirely content free exposition. And yet someone felt it so significant that they had to share it with us here. Joaquin From binesi at gvtel.com Sun May 3 10:11:24 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 11:11:24 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Dwight Macdonald and Robert Duncan Message-ID: <49FDC22C.2080604@gvtel.com> As Louis noted, Macdonald "dropped any pretensions to Marxism," but that hardly says everything significantabout the man. For one thing, to his credit, he and his wife were among the very few Americans who offered assistance to Victor Serge when he had been abandoned by almost everyone else. For any who might not be familiar with it, I recommend Susan Weissman's biography, /Victor Serge: The Course Is Set on Hope /(Verso, 2001). Here's a good summary of Macdonald: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404704070.html I should have noted that Robert Duncan's article was cited in a note to Christopher Phelps's feature on H. S. Small's "Socialism and Sex" in /New Politics/. It is, of course, also to Macdonald's credit that he published Duncan's piece. David From craig at red-bean.com Sun May 3 12:06:40 2009 From: craig at red-bean.com (Craig Brozefsky) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 13:06:40 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] flu, as the scientists see it Message-ID: <877i0yjc27.fsf@piracy.kokonino.net> Exclusive: Interview With Head of Mexico's Top Swine Flu Lab http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/05/exclusive-inter.html Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Mexico outbreak http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a2.htm Blog post discussing the CDC classification of cases: http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/05/swine_flu_case_definitions_and.php -- Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sun May 3 12:22:10 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 14:22:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Racist Pa. jury gives killers free pass in murder of Mexican immigrant Message-ID: <71A4B563856146C0B932D5F5F2F5971C@office1pc> URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30535258/?ocid=twitter Pa. jury's verdict called 'failure of justice' Representative of victim's family outraged over acquittal The Associated Press updated 4:00 p.m. ET, Sat., May 2, 2009 POTTSVILLE, Pa. - Prosecutors called the beating death of an illegal immigrant from Mexico a hate crime, and they urged an all-white jury in Pennsylvania coal country to punish two white teenagers for their roles in the attack. Instead, the jury found the teens innocent of all serious charges, a decision that elicited cheers and claps from the defendants' families and friends - and cries of outrage from the victim's. Brandon Piekarsky, 17, was acquitted of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation, while Derrick Donchak, 19, was acquitted of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Both were convicted of simple assault late Friday following a trial in which jurors were left to sort out the facts of an epithet-filled brawl that pitted popular football players against a 25-year-old Hispanic man, Luis Ramirez, who appeared willing to fight. A representative of Ramirez's family said the jurors got it wrong. "There's been a complete failure of justice," said Gladys Limon, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who attended the trial and informed Ramirez's family of the verdict. "It's just outrageous and very difficult to understand how any juror could have had reasonable doubt." On Saturday the group's interim president, Henry Solano, called on the Justice Department to "bring justice to the Ramirez family and send a strong message that violence targeting immigrants will not be tolerated." Piekarsky's attorney declined comment on the possibility of federal charges against the teens. Prosecutors had cast Ramirez as the victim of a gang of drunken white teens motivated by a dislike of their small coal town's burgeoning Hispanic population. But the jury evidently sided with defense attorneys, who called Ramirez the aggressor and characterized the brawl as a street fight that ended tragically. Jury foreman Eric Macklin said he sympathized with Ramirez's loved ones but that the evidence pointed to an acquittal. "I feel bad for Luis's friends and family. I know they feel they haven't gotten justice," he said. The simple assault convictions carry possible one- to two-year prison sentences. Donchak was also convicted of corruption of minors and an alcohol charge, both stemming from his purchase of beer and malt liquor that he drank with his underage friends the night of the fight. Sentencing has not been scheduled. The case exposed ethnic tensions in Shenandoah, a blue-collar town of 5,000 that has lured Hispanic residents drawn by cheap housing and jobs in nearby factories and farm fields. Ramirez moved to the town about seven years ago from Iramuco, Mexico, working in a factory and picking strawberries and cherries. The 2000 U.S. Census showed that Schuylkill County's population was 96.6 percent white, with 1.1 percent of the county listed as Hispanic or Latino. The fight began late July 12 when a half-dozen teens, all Shenandoah residents who played football at Shenandoah Valley High School, were walking home from a block party and came across Ramirez and his 15-year-old girlfriend in a park. Brian Scully, 18, asked the girl, "Isn't it a little late for you to be out?" That enraged Ramirez, who began yelling in Spanish and dialing friends on his cell phone. Scully admitted to shouting ethnic slurs. The verbal sparring soon turned into a physical altercation as Ramirez and Piekarsky traded blows, though prosecutors and defense attorneys disputed who threw the first punch. Donchak then entered the fray and wound up on top of Ramirez. Prosecutors said he pummeled Ramirez, holding a small piece of metal in his fist to give his punches more power. Defense attorneys said Donchak tried to break up the fight between Piekarsky and Ramirez and denied he had a weapon. The two sides eventually went their separate ways. But Scully kept yelling at Ramirez, leading the immigrant to charge after the group. Colin Walsh, 17, then hit Ramirez, knocking him out. "Does Mr. Ramirez fit the description of an innocent soul who just happened to get picked on by a group of kids?" defense attorney Fred Fanelli asked jurors in closing arguments. "He's the only adult, and he makes some bad choices." Fanelli accused prosecutors of ignoring exculpatory evidence, including statements by two of Ramirez's friends shortly after the fight that the kicker wore white sneakers - the color Scully was wearing. Fanelli also said prosecutors offered leniency to key witnesses - including Scully and Walsh, who admitted to knocking Ramirez unconscious with a single punch to the face - giving them a strong motive to lie. Walsh pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Ramirez's civil rights and could be out of prison in four years. On the witness stand, he identified Piekarsky as the kicker. So did Scully, who told jurors he tried to kick the immigrant but missed. Scully is charged in juvenile court with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Fanelli derided the prosecution testimony as "bought and paid for." Robert Franz, the prosecutor, denied any misconduct on the part of the district attorney's office. Displaying a candid photo of Ramirez, Franz told the jurors, "He was assaulted and he was beaten, and he was killed for walking the streets of Shenandoah. He didn't deserve that." From craig at red-bean.com Sun May 3 12:44:09 2009 From: craig at red-bean.com (Craig Brozefsky) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 13:44:09 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Flu origins In-Reply-To: (Joaquin Bustelo's message of "Sun\, 3 May 2009 10\:33\:32 -0400") References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <873abmjabq.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> "Joaquin Bustelo" writes: > I have no interest in acquitting or convicting Smithfield's half-owned farm > in Mexico. I DO have an interest in American leftists who are so hapless > they flail about, polemical rapiers in hand, cut off their OWN heads, and > then proudly hold their own heads up high, as if they were intent to prove > to all and sundry that there are no brains in them. Don't forget these idiotic american leftists! http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01 Of particular interest is the link to an interview with a CDC virologists who discusses the lineage of the virus and it's origin in hog farming, but also mixing with multiple steps where pig->human tranmission occured, and then back, resulting in a mix of NA and Asian viral components. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/04/exclusive-cdc-h.html > Then there's the following clause: "although new information suggests that > this strain of the flu may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." > Not to mention Canada. But what interests me in the actual PROOF left by our > author that s/he doesn't have a clue what is being talked about. And that is > the assertion that this strain of the flu "may actually have origins in the > US as well as Asia." This is what the CDC virologists is suggesting. -- Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky From epoliticus at gmail.com Sun May 3 13:03:45 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 15:03:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The political landscape in India today is truly depressing, but all is not lost. Message-ID: After comrade Proyect posted this N.Y.T. article, I was prompted to realize that there will no doubt be an increase in the output of the U.S. commentariat upon the announcement of the outcome of the present Indian election.? (The results should be announced on May 16th.)? It is probable that most of these articles will amount to nothing but propaganda in the negative sense, although others will have the veneer of "balance" despite their pro-capitalist political agenda.? In anticipation of this state of affairs, I forward the following E.P.W. editorial (from the 18 April 2009 issue), which may be of interest to those comrades who are not acquainted with the vagaries of electoral politics in India. epoliticus ----- The political landscape in India today is truly depressing, but all is not lost. Outwardly they exude confidence ? the Congress Party?s campaign tune Jai Ho from the Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire boldly asserts, almost biblically in translation, ?Let there be victory?, while the Bharatiya Janata Party?s (BJP) self-assured Kushal Neta, Nirnayak Sarkaar (Able leader, Decisive government) projects L K Advani?s presumed image of aplomb. But beneath this veneer, there is a sense of unease bordering on nervousness among the main political parties in the run-up to the general elections, which perhaps stems from the unpredictable and shifting character of coalition politics in this fissured land. The global economic and financial crisis has severely jolted the Indian economy, adding to the prevailing gloom on the political landscape. But more importantly, slowly but steadily, the pervasive political opportunism and the sordid state of affairs in the political realm seem to have brought on popular disaffection and public cynicism of an order not witnessed before. Given that the electoral outcome is highly uncertain, the Congress Party, the BJP, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]-led left parties, have been or will be (postelections) vying to draw in the various regional and caste-based parties into their respective coalitions, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Third Front, respectively. The Congress has been, it seems, caught between two stools in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar. On the one hand, there is the imperative of retaining power at the centre, and on the other, it wants to (and, out of touch with reality, thinks it can) rebuild its moribund organisation in these two important states. Chasing this mirage, it has refused to be relegated to a minor player by its prospective electoral allies, the Samajwadi Party in UP, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in Bihar. The BJP, despite charging the Congress with being ?soft? on terrorism in order to preserve its ?Muslim vote bank?, has a lot in common with its principal adversary. Going by its manifesto, the party wants to ?strengthen the India-US strategic partnership? and ?pursue enhanced cooperation with Israel?. Indeed, in seeking to brush aside the fact that the accused in the Malegaon blasts case are Hindutva extremists, the BJP and Congress are one, for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra does not seem interested in vigorously pursuing investigation and prosecution in that case any longer. Of course, unlike the BJP, the Congress does not extol the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh?s vision of a Hindu rashtra or pass off Hindu communalism as ?nationalism?. But like the BJP, it is hoping that the electoral outcome will make it conducive for it to pursue the agenda of big business. After all, there is little difference between the two parties in how much their policies are influenced by corporate India. The BJP-led NDA, however, has been weakened by a series of defections ? the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the National Conference, and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have over the years changed sides. The formation of the Third Front began to engage the serious attention of the left parties after they withdrew support to the Congress-led UPA government in July 2008. The left, it seems, has no qualms about allying with the AIADMK, the TDP, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] or the BJD, or indeed, any of the constituents of the UPA or the NDA who might defect, like the Nationalist Congress Party or the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)]. It is amusing to find left leaders giving a puff to the ?progressive? credentials of J Jayalalithaa, hobnobbing with Chandrababu Naidu (earlier the poster boy of the World Bank group) and H D Deve Gowda, all former partners of the BJP, and wooing Mayawati who has repeatedly allied with the Hindutva party. The left has also been in touch with the JD(U), which has been a loyal member of the NDA from 1999. Its latest alliance with the BJD, which had partnered the BJP for 11 years, has now bestowed on that party a ?secular? tag, despite the BJD?s culpability for the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal. The BJD has allotted the CPI and the CPI(M) one seat each for the Lok Sabha elections and four and five, respectively, in the assembly polls, for they helped prop up the former?s government in the confidence vote on 11 March. As the country goes into the first phase of voting for elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, the political landscape is truly depressing. The post-election spectacle is of course yet to unfold when the various small parties reassess their options; perhaps the calculus may shift in favour of their striking a good bargain with the Congress or the BJP; the left may also find reason enough to re-ally with the Congress, or the possibility of a Third Front government may unfold, and this coalition may then seek the support of the Congress to get a majority vote. But why get so despondent about all this? Does not democracy, in the real sense, require freedom and equality? Can it really thrive amidst widespread poverty and deep inequality? As we go to press, the first phase of voting is underway; to speak the truth, the electorate has gone out to choose which members of the political establishment, financed and co-opted by the dominant classes, will be governing the country on behalf of those very classes. No wonder we have governments for the markets, by the markets and of the markets. Rosa Luxemburg is often remembered for her quote: ?there is no socialism without democracy?, but she also added that there can be ?no democracy without socialism?. From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 3 13:11:37 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 15:11:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Kaddish Message-ID: <49FDEC69.9010100@panix.com> In early April I received a letter from Victor, my late mom?s 94 year old long-time companion. (They did not live together nor were they intimate, but their bonds were as strong as any couple?s.) He sent me a Yahrtzeit schedule, which indicates when Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, should be said for my mother and explained: ?The enclosed [schedule] should be very clear. Your mother would be very happy if she knew you would say Kaddish over her.? The irony, of course, is that I have only decided to step foot in a temple after my mother?s death. In the past 25 years or so, she had pressured me constantly to become observant but in my own stubborn way (inherited from her), I refused. As it turned out, I had plans to do this without any prompting from Victor, as I stated not long after my mother?s death. So yesterday my wife and I went down to Temple Shaaray Tefila, a Reform Synagogue on Second Avenue and 79th Street, for 10:15 Minyan services. (A Minyan means ten, a kind of quorum for Jewish services.) I had called the temple on Thursday to check out whether you had to be a member to attend. This synagogue is in the middle of prime NYC real estate and I had a feeling that it might operate as private club. There?s a funny ?Curb Your Enthusiasm? episode when Larry David tries to get entry to a ritzy Beverly Hills Synagogue for Yom Kippur using a hawked ticket. The Shaaray Tefila receptionist said that there was no need to be a member?just show up. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/kaddish/ From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 3 13:15:41 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 15:15:41 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] From Paul Buhle on gays and the left Message-ID: <49FDED5D.8050803@panix.com> Lou, the biggest mystery about homosexuality and the Left is that it was more prevalent in the CP's larger milieu of Popular Front days particularly, than any Left organization before or since. But not discussed: don't ask, don't tell. Bettina Aptheker had a bit of a polemic in the most recent NEW POLITICS on this question, following a document and introduction by Chris Phelps. What they wrote was not so much inaccurate as missing the vast quantity of historical evidence in favor of a particular angle. The most gay union in the history of the US and perhaps elsewhere was Marine Cooks and Stewards, as noted in passing in the EAL entry. No doubt, tho no evidence that I know, on the NMU before the Cold War. As would be natural in any seafaring trade. But there was no particular secret about gay men and lesbians in, for instance, the Screenwriters Guild's left group, or among the CPers in the government workers unions and other white collar sectors, the lefty Teachers Union in NYC included. Amid the chorus of anger at Stern, it may be also noted that the SEIU of the 1980s led the way with resolutions for the AFL=CIO on gay rights and PWAs, basic positions of an emerging Left bloc that was ferociously resisted by the Kirkland-Shanker leadership (or misleadership). Was Stern a personal enthusiast for these positions or just going along with other progressives? Somebody must know. And those are my notes to usefully complicate a discussion that will defy any easy estimate. From Waistline2 at aol.com Sun May 3 13:30:36 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 15:30:36 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Doug Henwood on the UAW Message-ID: In a message dated 5/3/2009 2:18:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, _dhenwood at panix.com_ (mailto:dhenwood at panix.com) writes: More on the UAW, its murky finances, and its self-screwing: _http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/uaw-revisited/_ (http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/uaw-revisited/) >> A word on the UAW itself: this is not a poor union. As of 2006, it had assets of almost $1.3 billion, and annual receipts of $304 million. (I wish I could provide a link to the UAW?s own financial statements, but if they? re on their website, I can?t find them. I had to go to the anti-union site, UnionFacts.com, to find this basic financial info. And I learned that there that the AFL-CIO had successfully lobbied the Obama administration to loosen financial disclosure requirements for unions.) It could have easily financed serious research into a better strategic direction for the auto industry than the idiot management has been able to?cleaner cars, better modes of work organization. Its PAC spent $13 million on campaign contributions during the 2008 election cycle; it could have spent a few mil of that on campaigning for national health insurance. But they didn?t. And now they?re pretty well screwed. << Comment Yea, today is worse than 1979 when Chrysler went belly up. The UAW is better understood if looked at from the standpoint of a "business model." The UAW is all of its members, that to one degree or another elect its leaders. The uppermost leaders of the union are elected on the basis of something akin to an electoral college. That is to say, President Gettlefinger and heads of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors divisions are not directly elected by the membership. The UAW President is elected at the Constitutional Convention. Gettlefinger is akin to a CEO. The reason the union has not made national health care a national social cause of the working class, which includes UAW members is its business model and lack of foresight. Bill Gates success in the market was bound up with IBM's lack of foresight. Cisco systems success in the market is its foresight and anticipation of new markets. The UAW's uppermost leaders lack foresight and without an abrupt change in its business model have roughly 48 - 96 months of life left in it as a significant union in the life of America. The unions lack of foresight is not reducible to a personal problem. Gettlefinger is the person that manifest the social problem of change within the union. To the degree that General Motors could not and did not change its business model to keep pace with a changing market is the same degree to which the UAW is stuck in the old business model of industrial unionism. On the other hand the UAW could not exceed the boundary that is the understanding and striving of the working class as a whole. The working class as a whole is being swung around to the need for a single - government, payer health system. Huge sections of the working class are in the process of rejecting anti-communism and anti-socialism. The slow and growing rejection of anti-communism in America is very important. The fact of the matter is that no one . . . and I mean no one . . . other than the communists and socialists of all stripes and character, have the passion, imagination and fire in their belly to inspire and push our working class. This has been the case since 1890. The era of an anti-communist democratic left in America is over. The union has to be pushed from within and especially from without to change and such change will involved splitting and restructuring of the union. The odds are such that the UAW will be destroyed - as it exists, in the marketplace along the same lines that General Motors is being destroyed in the domestic market. The United Automobile Workers - UAW, needs to become "Unite All Workers" regardless of industry or economic status. And the union needs to fund a party of labor that can champion issues like national health care. Today is a great time for such a party with the Republican Party in absolute decay. WL. **************The Average US Credit Score is 692. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222376998x1201454298/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=M ay5309AvgfooterNO62) From jeremy at infowells.com Sun May 3 15:33:08 2009 From: jeremy at infowells.com (Jerry Wells) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 14:33:08 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] "The Crisis in Somalia: US-NATO Plans to Control the Indian Ocean" Message-ID: <1241386389.4499.63.camel@pool-96-251-84-229.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net> FYI- Background and analysis from Global Research: The Crisis in Somalia: US-NATO Plans to Control the Indian Ocean by Rick Rozoff Global Research, May 3, 2009 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13470 For the past seven months world news outlets have provided daily coverage on what has been described as escalating piracy off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden and attempts by international, primarily Western, military vessels to combat it. Absent from such reporting, as the exigencies of commercial news broadcasting inevitably entail, is how and why the situation in the region reached the impasse it has and what its broader significance is. From humaneco at hsph.harvard.edu Sun May 3 15:46:30 2009 From: humaneco at hsph.harvard.edu (Richard Levins) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 17:46:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Pig Flu: 'There Will Be No Pandemic' -- Susil Gupta In-Reply-To: <002b01c9cbe9$ddc9faf0$995df0d0$@co.uk> References: <002b01c9cbe9$ddc9faf0$995df0d0$@co.uk> Message-ID: <49FDD860.F29D.002C.1@hsph.harvard.edu> I would like to add something to the discussion of the evolution of pathogens. Look at it from their point of view: a pathogen needs a good meal, safety from the body's defenses, and exit to another host. These three demands may coincide or conflict. Consider where the microbe hangs out: the blood is a great place to feed (good nutrition) but is very accessible to the immune system, and provides a good exit only with the help of blood sucking vectors such as mosquitoes. The central nervous system is also rich in nutrients, relatively protected, but with no exit. The skin is poor in nutrients, safe, and with easy exit. A pathogen may juggle these selective forces in various ways or it might make the blood safe by switching antigens every few days (trypanosomes) or by knocking out the immune system (HIV). Next, what is the relation between the fitness of the pathogen and the harm it causes? Consider a diarrhea. If the pathogen adheres tightly to the intestinal wall it can reproduce there and reach high density. Or it can produce more diarrheic symptoms and escape to look for a new host. How much time it has depends on how soon the body's own or medical responses make the place dangerous, and how easy it will be to find a new host. Here is where social differences (immune compromise etc) and the seed of medical intervention, and the durability in the environment it is expelled into, and contact with new hosts in that environment, all influence the evolution of the pathogen. The generalizations that pathogens evolve toward greater or lesser virulence are not valid because of the ver different and changing contexts for natural selection in an epidemic. ========================= Richard Levins From jbustelo at gmail.com Sun May 3 17:27:48 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 19:27:48 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Fair warning: think before you post In-Reply-To: <873abmjabq.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> <873abmjabq.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> Message-ID: <3090FCFF21674ADD8A3B7D4590E1D38D@albanta> Craig Brozefsky writes: "Don't forget these idiotic american leftists! "http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-b lamed-on-industri-09-05-01 "Of particular interest is the link to an interview with a CDC virologists who discusses the lineage of the virus and it's origin in hog farming, but also mixing with multiple steps where pig->human tranmission occured, and then back, resulting in a mix of NA and Asian viral components." *? * * Excuse me if this sounds like a personal insult, but this is why I specified the AUDIENCE I have in mind is "rational, intelligent people." I should have added: who can read at an adult level. Specifically, I took up a workers world and another article that tried to establish that the pig factory near La Gloria in Mexico was the likely origin of the infection, with a nearby 5-year-old being the "patient zero" of the infection. This is viewed as "radical" journalism but in reality is simply a regurgitation of some of the countless stupidities put out by the pig press, and not just on swines and flu. Bozefsky latches on to ENTIRELY DIFFERENT pig farms and viral strains identified more than a decade ago to comment ironically, "Don't forget these idiotic American leftists," pointing to scientific articles and an interview with the (BTW Argentine) head of virology at the CDC. As if this, in any way, in the slightest, challenged or undercut what I had said. Since this list seems to be attracting a particular kind of reader, let me explain with an illustration. Someone writes an article about the countless deaths and devastating environmental damage caused by the meltdown at the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant, pointing to someone with radiation poisoning near the plant. I object, saying there have been no such deaths, no such environmental destruction and no meltdown, and what needs to be explained is the one anomalous case. Comrade Bozefsky then charges in with scads of references to Chernobyl quite seriously imagining he is not just refuting what I said, but even holding it up to ridicule. And I am certain there are those in these parts who will see it that way. Fine for them. I don't necessarily spend much time on this list anymore, as I find it unproductive and unstimulating. So I make no promises. But fair warning to people who continue to post jackass asinine articles showing that even if they don't have pig flu, they have pig-sized brains. I may well decide to call you out on it. THINK before you post, goddamit. Joaquin -----Original Message----- From: marxism-bounces+jbustelo=gmail.com at lists.econ.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-bounces+jbustelo=gmail.com at lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Craig Brozefsky Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 2:44 PM To: Joaquin Subject: Re: [Marxism] Flu origins "Joaquin Bustelo" writes: > I have no interest in acquitting or convicting Smithfield's half-owned > farm in Mexico. I DO have an interest in American leftists who are so > hapless they flail about, polemical rapiers in hand, cut off their OWN > heads, and then proudly hold their own heads up high, as if they were > intent to prove to all and sundry that there are no brains in them. Don't forget these idiotic american leftists! http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-bl amed-on-industri-09-05-01 Of particular interest is the link to an interview with a CDC virologists who discusses the lineage of the virus and it's origin in hog farming, but also mixing with multiple steps where pig->human tranmission occured, and then back, resulting in a mix of NA and Asian viral components. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/04/exclusive-cdc-h.html > Then there's the following clause: "although new information suggests > that this strain of the flu may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." > Not to mention Canada. But what interests me in the actual PROOF left > by our author that s/he doesn't have a clue what is being talked > about. And that is the assertion that this strain of the flu "may > actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." This is what the CDC virologists is suggesting. -- Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky ________________________________________________ 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/jbustelo%40gmail.com No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.287 / Virus Database: 270.12.4/2078 - Release Date: 05/02/09 14:23:00 From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 3 17:41:18 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 03 May 2009 19:41:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Swans Release: May 4, 2009 Message-ID: <49FE2B9E.8050902@panix.com> Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ May 4, 2009 *** We keep receiving messages filled with kudos. Swans, we are told, is a tiny island of sanity and original content in an ocean of wasteland (or polluted water) with the bonus that it does not carry any ads. Great! Thanks for the kudos. No ads, original content, properly edited work, food for thought... What else can you ask for? Now, it would truly be helpful if you could send us these compliments written on the back of your checks! Please, check our Donation page at http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html. *** $ $ $ $ $ Note from the Editors: Americans have apparently become bored with waterboarding, as the release of the Bush administration's torture memos left its perpetrators at large (though sticking close to home), facing neither public outrage nor presidential will to prosecute. There are bigger fish to fry, or pigs to slaughter, with the fear of swine flu immobilizing our already frozen-in-fear selves as we hold our collective breath until the economy recovers. Time to look forward, we are told, as the stock-market stats scroll endlessly under the flu-outbreak maps on the 24 hours of television news. There's no place for investigative reporting in this ever- changing environment, in which All the News That's Fit to Print is obsolete by the time it is printed. Charles Marowitz brings two related viewpoints on that matter -- one on the abandonment of professional journalism for the amorphous alternative of anything-goes twitterings from fatuous scribes whose concept of the world is defined by FaceBook and YouTube, and another on the depths of indulgent triviality that our culture has sunk to in this new era of Internet free-for-all. Bad news sells, as Gilles d'Aymery avers in his Martian Blips that cover all of the above and more analyses, economic and otherwise, that you won't read in what remains of the mainstream media. All of which leaves us even more appreciative of photojournalist Art Shay, who shares his unmatched photographic and linguistic talents and recounts some humorous brushes with royalty during his career. Not to be found in the US mainstream media is the analysis of Michael Barker, who researches the links between the population control and environmental movements and the liberal philanthropists behind both. Nor is there much reporting on the economic crisis in the rest of the world, which has Peter Byrne homesick for Bulgaria where he lived during the country's mid-1990s meltdown and experienced life to its fullest intensity. While the Times and the Post both reviewed "When Skateboards Will Be Free," Louis Proyect covers the memoir of a boy's life with his Socialist Workers Party parents from a non-mainstream perspective. Reporting from Africa, Femi Akomolafe confronts Nigeria's ironic attempt to rebrand the country with a winning slogan. And with the escalating violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan, US forces are employing imprecise predator drones as long-distance instruments of death, leading Martin Murie to suggest there is much for humans to learn from the hierarchy of the animal kingdom. In the culture corner, unlike the twitterers and bloggers who broadcast stream-of-consciousness trivia, Guido Monte painstakingly searches for just one perfect word on which his very survival depends, and Raju Peddada reflects poetically on his awe-inspiring children. In the French Corner (en Fran?ais) Marie Rennard writes about the dangers of infidelity mixed with a cravat; Simone Ali?-Daram offers a short poem; and we publish an 1825 letter from George Sand to her mother and the 1848 Communist Manifesto. Finally, we close with your letters on peak oil, nonfiction comics, lemon cars, and prosecuting torture. # # # # # http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow136.html Breaking News - Charles Marowitz http://www.swans.com/library/art15/cmarow137.html Trivia Triumphant - Charles Marowitz http://www.swans.com/library/art15/desk086.html Blips #86 - From the Martian Desk - Gilles d'Aymery http://www.swans.com/library/art15/ashay11.html My Camera Outpaces My Books In Royalties - Art Shay http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker19.html Sustainable Population - Michael Barker http://www.swans.com/library/art15/pbyrne98.html Bulgaria Unter Alles - Peter Byrne http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy54.html Sa?d Sayrafiezadeh's "When Skateboards Will Be Free" - Book Review by Louis Proyect http://www.swans.com/library/art15/femia10.html Rebranding Nigeria: An Exercise In Futility - Femi Akomolafe http://www.swans.com/library/art15/murie69.html Reaping Bodies And Hatred - Martin Murie http://www.swans.com/library/art15/gmonte67.html Melting Pot (Unending) - Multilingual Poetry by Guido Monte http://www.swans.com/library/art15/marier29.html Le noeud de l'intrigue - Nouvelle par Marie Rennard (FR) http://www.swans.com/library/art15/salie02.html Dodecasyllabe traffic - Po?me par Simone Ali?-Daram (FR) http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx131.html A madame Maurice Dupin - George Sand (FR) http://www.swans.com/library/art15/xxx130.html Manifeste du Parti Communiste - Karl Marx et Friedrich Engels (FR) http://www.swans.com/library/art15/rajup13.html Solace In Their Innocence - Poem by Raju Peddada http://www.swans.com/library/art15/letter164.html Letters to the Editor # # # # # Please, consider supporting our co-operative work financially. See http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content to its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans' Work in print format. Please contact the publisher at . Please, do not repost Swans' Work on the Web and other mailing lists: "Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. We welcome your comments and suggestions. When writing to Swans, please indicate your first and last name as well as your city and state (country) of residence. You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line. We do NOT share your E-mail address with anyone. Cordially, Gilles d'Aymery -- Swans "Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht From markalause at gmail.com Sun May 3 17:41:42 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 19:41:42 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Plans for a North American Socialist History Group Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Francis King To: William A Pelz Cc: Nina Fishman Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 8:36 AM Subject: Proposal for a North American SHS group Dear Friend, I am writing to ask if you would be interested in a new undertaking. While there are a number of worthwhile intellectual groupings in North American, there is nothing that quite compares with the Socialist History Society. So, the idea has arisen that a North American branch be organized with the aim of recruiting new members while holding activities on this side of the Atlantic. A Socialist History Society ? North America could organize meetings to coincide with established organizations like the American Historical Association or the Left Forum as well as initiating gatherings on our own. The statement of purpose of SHS-NA would incorporate that of the parent organization: The Socialist History Society was founded in 1992 . . . It is engaged in, and seeks to encourage, historical studies from a Marxist and broadly-defined left perspective. It is concerned with every aspect of human history from early social formations to the present day. It is particularly interested in the struggles of labor, women, progressive and peace movements throughout the world, as well as the movements and achievements of colonial peoples, black people, and other oppressed communities in seeking justice, human dignity and liberation. If you think this is a worthwhile endeavor, please contact me. On the other hand, if your think this would be only a distraction from your work, tell SHS treasurer Francis King (francis at socialisthistorysociety.co.uk) and we will refrain from further contact. In either case, All the best, Dr. William A. Pelz Institute of Working Class History 2335 W. Altgeld Street Chicago, Illinois 60647-2001 U.S.A. (1) 773-960-5648; e-mail: iwch at juno.com From new.wave.nw at gmail.com Sun May 3 18:29:54 2009 From: new.wave.nw at gmail.com (new wave) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 05:59:54 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Crisis in Nepal Message-ID: <5141ec810905031729w7481476du2403087484ae5f95@mail.gmail.com> Comrades, Look how our predictions on Nepal are coming true. here is the link to our articles: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/search/label/Nepal -- New Wave new-wave-nw.blogspot.com From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sun May 3 18:38:54 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 10:38:54 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal crisis as Maoists sack army chief Message-ID: <2c6145850905031738y6aab5bd9sc900b09d65e468c9@mail.gmail.com> The Maoists staked their participation in the government on sacking the insubordinate army chief - the Maoist minister for finance told tens of thousands of people at the May Day rally that they could not remain in the government in the army head wasn't sacked, but would return to the streets. Now they have done it, potentially brought down severe punishment from India, some coalition partners appear to have left government, and the army chief is refusing to accept the decision. Nepal heading itno a tumultous period as reaction and imperialism try and stop the Maoist-led push to transform the country. "Chief of Army sacked- not accepting decision. Coalition parteners leaving government, Opposition disrupting capital, public rallies to support government, attempts to overthrown gov." http://maobadiwatch.blogspot.com/ -- "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 arthur.kunkin at gmail.com Sun May 3 18:42:06 2009 From: arthur.kunkin at gmail.com (Art Kunkin) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 17:42:06 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Plans for a North American Socialist History Group In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I would be very interested in participating in a North American branch of the Socialist History Society. Please keep me informed. Thank you. Art Kunkin (artkunkin at gmail.com) On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 4:41 PM, Mark Lause wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Francis King > To: William A Pelz > Cc: Nina Fishman > Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 8:36 AM > Subject: Proposal for a North American SHS group > > > Dear Friend, > > I am writing to ask if you would be interested in a new undertaking. > While there are a number of worthwhile intellectual groupings in North > American, there is nothing that quite compares with the Socialist > History Society. So, the idea has arisen that a North American branch > be organized with the aim of recruiting new members while holding > activities on this side of the Atlantic. A Socialist History Society > ? North America could organize meetings to coincide with established > organizations like the American Historical Association or the Left > Forum as well as initiating gatherings on our own. The statement of > purpose of SHS-NA would incorporate that of the parent organization: > > The Socialist History Society was founded in 1992 . . . It is engaged > in, and seeks to encourage, historical studies from a Marxist and > broadly-defined left perspective. It is concerned with every aspect of > human history from early social formations to the present day. It is > particularly interested in the struggles of labor, women, progressive > and peace movements throughout the world, as well as the movements and > achievements of colonial peoples, black people, and other oppressed > communities in seeking justice, human dignity and liberation. > > If you think this is a worthwhile endeavor, please contact me. On the > other hand, if your think this would be only a distraction from your > work, tell SHS treasurer Francis King > (francis at socialisthistorysociety.co.uk) and we will refrain from > further contact. In either case, > > All the best, > > > Dr. William A. Pelz > Institute of Working Class History > 2335 W. Altgeld Street > Chicago, Illinois 60647-2001 U.S.A. > (1) 773-960-5648; e-mail: iwch at juno.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/artkunkin%40gmail.com > -- I can teach YOU how you MIGHT be able to stay alive, healthy and happy for 200 years or more. Seriously! A new insight into ancient science! Please see my fre-e 'Immortality & Health Blog" at artkunkin.com. My eBook is at www.alchemyrevealed. com. To "see" me, "roll-over" my name on top) From alanb1000 at yahoo.com Sun May 3 21:57:50 2009 From: alanb1000 at yahoo.com (Alan Bradley) Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 20:57:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Crisis in Nepal Message-ID: <258111.96352.qm@web53603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> From: new wave > Comrades, > > Look how our predictions on Nepal are coming true. here is the link to > our articles: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/search/label/Nepal And what uniquely brilliant predictions they are. Your mastery of the bleeding obvious leaves me in awe! Alan B Enjoy a better web experience. Upgrade to the new Internet Explorer 8 optimised for Yahoo!7. Get it now. From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sun May 3 23:49:57 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 15:49:57 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Updates on the situation in Nepal Message-ID: <2c6145850905032249s20c60bdbx5d1efc08ae1b5ce8@mail.gmail.com> http://maobadiwatch.blogspot.com/ Ben Peterson is a member of the Australian DSP currently in Nepal. Monday, May 4, 2009 UPDATE: May 4 9:30 AM Kathmandu this morning- at least for now is still in an uneasy calm. The breaking News is that late last night the President (of the Nepali Congress Party) went way outside his role as stipulated in the interim Constitution and contacted the ex-General Katawal and requested that he continue at his post. The implications of this are unclear- weather the legitimate CoAS Khadka has stepped aside or, the much more probable scenario, there are now two people claiming to be the legitimate head of the Armed Forces. It seems that there is now a dual power, with the Prime Minister being challenged (unconstitutionally) by the president. This will just further disrupt the situation and lead to further instability. The Major political parties of the UML and the MJF are still divided, and are likely to remain. However the UML has definitely left government, although with real reservations from certain key leaders. Yesterday there were clashes between Maoists and Congress Cadres, and occasionally the Congress and the police, and it is likely that the same will occur again. Today is likely to be another hectic and fast paced day- will give more details as i have them. Posted by Ben Peterson at 1:35 PM 0 comments Sunday, May 3, 2009 Ongoing Events: May 3rd 6:00PM While an uneasy haze surrounds Kathmandu, things for the moment have returned to a relative normality. Things are a little clearer now, but still things are changing at present, and especially without access to the Nepali Language news it is hard to tell exactly what is going on. To recap this morning after a final last ditch attempt at consensus- the Maoists removed the Chief of Army Staff General Katawal from his post. This has brought into the open divisions with in the government, within the Military and within many political parties. The Madheshi Peoples Rights Forum (MJF) passed a note of decent against the procedure that the Maoists used to sack Katawal. They are deeply divided about the action, and split vertically, with key leaders on both sides of the debate. The CPN(UML) boycotted the cabinet meeting after the motion to sack Katawal passed. It seems that they have left the government, but they too are split vertically, with key leaders being very vocal on both sides of the issue. It is yet to be seen for certain what stance these parties will take in the coming days, they have both had emergency meetings this afternoon. It does appear however the at least factions of the UML are teaming up with the Nepali Congress to try and create a new Government. Naturally the Nepali Congress lead the opposition to the Maoists. They have been trying to disrupt the capital and create protests all afternoon with little success. Further, the nations ceremonial President is a member of the Nepali Congress and has increasingly been trying to overstep his role. The interim Constitution clearly states that the President takes his directives from the executive- however President Ram Baran Yadav is now choosing to "consult other stake holders" before endorsing any decision on the matter. At present the risk of a Military Coup appears small (although not insignificant). The now acting Chief of Staff General Khadka appears to have consolidated control within the military. That being said EX-General Katawal was attempting to meet with his supporters in the military, and i have not seen the outcome of this meeting yet. It will however all come down to the streets. So far the NC are the only ones who have tried to call people to the streets against the decision. All after noon NC members created fires and disrupted traffic. These were counted however by the Maoists- led by the YCL, who have organised rallies across Kathmandu, and then dispersed opposition groups and removed traffic hazards, put out fires ect. Within less than 12 hours of the decision, a Maoist rally of More than 10,000 has been held in central Kathmandu, with smaller rallies elsewhere. These events are of course unlikely to be over today, and it also needs to be stressed that we are yet to see a response from the "international community". It is still essential that International watchers be on guard for the possible necessity of Solidarity actions. More as i know it. -- "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 stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sun May 3 23:52:02 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 15:52:02 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal: 'The changes don't belong to a party, but to the poor' Message-ID: <2c6145850905032252w669b927es682a9192e678329e@mail.gmail.com> http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/793/40811 Nepal: ?The changes don?t belong to a party, but to the poor? Ben Peterson, Rolpa 2 May 2009 *I recently spent a week talking to people in Rolpa, an especially underdeveloped hilly district in Nepal?s mid-western region.* It was here the ?People?s War? against the centuries-old feudal monarchy was launched by the Maoists in 1996. This struggle changed almost every aspect of Nepal?s politics and culture. The People?s War, and the 2006 mass popular uprising, brought down the monarchy. Peace agreements ended the armed struggle by the Maoist People?s Liberation Army (PLA). In elections last year to a constituent assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution for a republican system, the Maoists won the most seats. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M), with a platform for a ?New Nepal? without underdevelopment or poverty, leads a coalition government. Rolpa is incredibly impoverished. There has been no development in most people?s lifetimes. This has changed recently, as many have gained access to better drinking water and electricity. I was able to visit a new hospital in a PLA camp, which is open to the public. Although it has very basic facilities, it is better than people in the area have ever had. It is a PLA hospital, but it mostly treats the general public. Because of the central role of Rolpa in the People?s War, it was also the scene for some of the worst police and army repression and violence. I spoke to many people about their experience of the war and the situation now. Changes I met Nongna, a 26-year-old woman who was in Rolpa through the People?s War. She is a new mother. Rolpa now has many children, as the end of the war has created an atmosphere conducive to raising children. Nonga said that during the war, ?the Maoists would come and just ask for food and shelter. But when the army came, they would kill and torture people. This happened every day. ?For this reason I joined the Maoists. ?There were always problems with the police and the army. But I didn?t just join because of that. The Maoists had visions for the future, for liberation.? Nonga said that in the UCPN-M, there was more equality between men and women: ?Women are able to participate freely.? In Nepal, you can physically see the difference between women active with the Maoists and those who aren?t. Maoist women stand straight and tall, and are much more confident. They look men in the eye and interact in village life confidently. Women not active with the Maoists, or in areas where the Maoists are weaker, tend to be quieter and more reclusive. In Tila village, I met 21-year-old Dilip Mahendra, who has lived in Rolpa all his life. He said there were ?lots of changes. Electricity is here now, there is an old aged pension.? He was also hopeful about the planned youth employment scheme. Through this, the government aims to give tens of thousands of youths loans to set up tourist, agricultural and other small enterprises to kick-start development and reduce youth unemployment. Mahendra is a member of the Young Communist League, a mass organisation of Maoist youth. He said: ?The Maoists would come to my school and talk to the students. They urged all youth to unite to help develop the country. That?s why I joined.? I also spoke with a Dalit man (Dalits, or so-called untouchables, are the lowest caste in Hindu society and severely discriminated against). He told me: ?There have already been so many changes. Before the People?s War we faced many problems and discrimination. ?We would be humiliated for being Dalits, but since the Maoist movement, things have changed. Attitudes are different.? His family supports the Maoists: ?They are doing good things, they are bringing change.? While I interviewed him, locals from different castes were in his home, eating and drinking with him. This would have been impossible just a few years ago. Other groups Near a PLA base, a flag of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified-Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) was flying. The NCP-UML are a more moderate, social democratic party currently in coalition with the UCPN-M. Allegations had been made by the CPN-UML and other opponents of the Maoists that other parties are not allowed operate in Maoist strongholds. However, I met open and vocal supporters of the NCP-UML. The village was plastered with CPN-UML posters and stickers (the Maoists still won the recent by-election). I find the allegations hard to believe, especially since the local CPN-UML activists deny them. I spoke to NCP-UML supporter Kahldi Magar Pun, an old man who has lived in Ropla all his life. Asked if it was difficult to be a CPN-UML supporter during the war, he said he never experienced problems with the Maoists: ?At that time there was no police or army in my village, and when the Maoists came they would just want to talk and have some food and shelter.? He said: ?The Maoists have done well, facilities have improved. There are roads and electricity and we didn?t have that before.? I met 53-year-old Swedah Dukesi on the side of the road waiting for a bus. He is from Rukkum district, just north of Ropla, which was also a Maoist stronghold in the war. He wore a red flag badge and said he supported the CPN-UML. Asked about the war, he said: ?It was a dangerous time. The Maoists would come into the village and ask for food and shelter, talk politics and leave. The army would come and beat us, and accuse us all of being Maoists. ?The army would kill people. The army and the police were far worse than the Maoists.? I met an old woman who ran a small store. A supporter of the CPN-UML, she didn?t speak much when I tried to interview her. However, she told me: ?The changes that have happened and are happening don?t belong to any political party, they belong to the poor people. ?We are the ones who have made the sacrifices for change, and we are the ones who deserve it.? I spoke to Gaurav Sharma, a 26-year-old PLA captain from a peasant family in Rolpa. He told me he joined the Maoist movement at 15: ?Because I was still young, I wasn?t allowed to be a fighter at first. ?So I joined and became an actor and a dancer in one of the cultural troupes. It was good, I got to travel widely all across Nepal. ?Once I was older I joined the PLA. ?In the early days there was no PLA training, everyone just had to learn by doing. After a while, we got more experienced. ?As our movement grew, we also received training from people who were ex-soldiers in the British and Indian armies.? Sharma explained that PLA soldiers want to be integrated with the old Royal Nepalese Army into a new army, as the peace agreements stipulate. ?The political parties all signed agreements, but now they are trying to go back on them. ?We want the agreements implemented. Nepal needs a new national army, so we can develop the nation. ?We have no problems with most people in the army and police. More than 50% are okay. But there are those in the police and army ? the officers especially ? who are against the PLA and want to destroy it. ?We don?t want them in the new army.? ?Terrorists? One woman I met was 28-year-old Diti Thapa. She told me why she joined the Maoists: ?One day the army came to my village. My family were not Maoists, we were not a political family. But the army accused us of being Maoists anyway. ?They abused us, then they took my brother, husband and father, and shot them. And then they raped me. ?Because of them I have mental problems. I am always crying.? Some say that these aren?t political reasons for joining the movement, but nothing could be further from the truth. Thapa experienced the true politics of the old Nepal. It was a bureaucratic order with no limit to the brutality it showed to its opponents. It is also worth noting that the guns that killed her family were likely supplied by the US government. The soldiers that raped her were likely trained by the US. The US government labelled the PLA ?terrorists? during the People?s War to justify support for the brutal repression by the monarchy and its military. Because Thapa had the strength to resist this brutality, she was a ?terrorist?. If fighting against that type of brutality ? incomprehensible to any reasonable person ? means siding with ?terrorism?, then I know where I stand. [Ben Peterson is ameber of the socialist youth organisation, Resistance, currently living in Nepal. More comments from Rolpa locals can be found at his blog From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #7936 May 2009. -- "The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon May 4 00:41:14 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 16:41:14 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] What's new at Links: Nepal, May Day, Bolivia, capitalism and flu, economic crisis, Malaysia, Vietnam, Europe, Arabic, Thailand Message-ID: <49FE8E0A.4070408@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Nepal, May Day, Bolivia, capitalism and flu, economic crisis, Malaysia, Vietnam, Europe, Arabic, Thailand * * * 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/. * * * May Day, 2009: `Advance the socialist alternative!', `Together we shall restore humanity' May 1, 2009 -- Below are a number of messages to mark International Workers' Day -- May Day -- from revolutionary organisations around the world. * Read more Bolivia: Rich countries must pay their `ecological debt' Submission by *Republic of Bolivia *to the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] (AWG-LCA) April 25, 2009 -- We call on developed countries to commit to deep emission reductions in order to advance the objective of avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system and its consequences, to reflect their historical responsibility for the causes of climate change, and to respect the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities in accordance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). * Read more Mike Davis: Capitalism and the flu April 27, 2009 -- /Socialist Worker/ (USA) -- *Mike Davis*, whose 2006 book /The Monster at Our Door/ warned of the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, explains how globalised agribusiness set the stage for a frightening outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico. * Read more Former elite resists the `New Nepal' STOP PRESS -- *Ben Peterson* from Kathmandu reports on May 3, 2009, at 3pm: This morning the Maoists in government made the decision to remove General Katawal from his position of chief of army staff after his repeated political insubordination. This follows 10 days of trying to reach consensus with the other political parties, up until a final cross-party meeting this morning. Failing to achieve consenus, the goverment ordered Katawal's retirement. * Read more The political economy of crisis management in the heart of world capitalism By *Arindam Sen* May 2009 -- Do we see a faint glimmer of light at the -- still distant -- end of the tunnel?... Meanwhile, a great debate of sorts is raging over contradictory strategy options for crisis management, in the process revealing the class conflicts in US society -- both between the bourgeoisie and the working class, and among various sections of the bourgeoisie. * Read more Malaysian socialists' clenched-fist logo approved April 29, 2009 -- The Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM), having recently won a decade-long battle for recognition from Malaysia's Registrar of Societies, today announced another victory: that its logo has been approved by the Election Commission (EC). * Read more April 30: Vietnam celebrates Liberation Day *By Peter Boyle* April 30, 2009 -- Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific -- There are two unforgettable images of Vietnam's Liberation Day on April 30, 1975. The first is the image of liberation fighters entering the Independence Palace (now Reunification Palace) in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The second is the hasty evacuation by helicopter from the roof of the US embassy. Thirty-four years later Vietnam will celebrate not just the end of a 16-year war of aggression by the US, Australia and other imperialist and pro-imperialist states but also the end of the two-decade-long economic blockade that was subsequently imposed by the US on this poor and war-ravaged nation. * Read more Scottish Socialist Party: 'Little Britain' politics and the left By *Alan McCombes * April 24, 2009 -- Voters who want an isolationist Britain will be spoiled for choice in the European elections on June 4th. On the far right, the BNP and UKIP both demand an independent Britain. Left of centre parties that want British withdrawal include Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Parry and the NO2EU Yes To Democracy coalition. While these four parties promote British independence, the Free Scotland Party campaigns for an independent Scotland outside the European Union. What should be the attitude of Scottish socialists towards Europe? Should the left back British separatism? And does the NO2EU Yes To Democracy campaign represent a progressive step forward? * Read more Swine flu and a sick social system: Why the poor die and the rich sniffle / / April 27, 2009 -- /A World to Win News Service/ -- It is impossible to predict the spread, severity and consequences of the swine flu epidemic that broke out in Mexico. But influenza epidemics have occurred regularly --- with three pandemics (global epidemics) in the 20th century -- and scientists and public health authorities have known for a long time that new pandemics are inevitable. Some possible parameters and paths of development can be scientifically understood, in both the biological and social spheres. There are two separate and mainly independent factors at work. One is the nature and evolution of the disease itself, which is not caused by human activity. Although social factors -- for instance industrial pig farming -- may have played a contributing role in the appearance of this particular disease, human beings didn't invent viruses or human and animal vulnerability to them. * Read more The Flame, April-May 2009 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language supplement With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese community in Australia, /Green Left Weekly/ -- Australia's leading socialist newspaper -- is publishing a regular Arabic language supplement. The /Flame /will cover news from the Arabic-speaking world as well as news and issues from within Australia. The editor-in-chief is Soubhi Iskander, a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan. * Read more Thailand: Why have NGOs sided with the royalists, against democracy and the poor? By *Giles Ji Ungpakorn* April 27, 2009 -- In the present political crisis in Thailand, it is shocking that most Thai NGOs have disgraced themselves by siding with the ``Yellow Shirt'' elites or have remained silent in the face of the general attack on democracy. It is shocking because NGO activists started out by being on the side of the poor and the oppressed in society. To explain this situation, we must go beyond a simple explanation that relies on personal failings of individuals or suggestions that NGOs have "underlying bad intentions", or that they are "agents of imperialism". * 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 craig at red-bean.com Mon May 4 00:58:02 2009 From: craig at red-bean.com (Craig Brozefsky) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 01:58:02 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] flu origins, again In-Reply-To: <3090FCFF21674ADD8A3B7D4590E1D38D@albanta> (Joaquin Bustelo's message of "Sun\, 3 May 2009 19\:27\:48 -0400") References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> <873abmjabq.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> <3090FCFF21674ADD8A3B7D4590E1D38D@albanta> Message-ID: <87tz41iccl.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> "Joaquin Bustelo" writes: > Bozefsky latches on to ENTIRELY DIFFERENT pig farms and viral > strains identified more than a decade ago to comment ironically, > "Don't forget these idiotic American leftists," pointing to > scientific articles and an interview with the (BTW Argentine) head > of virology at the CDC. As if this, in any way, in the slightest, > challenged or undercut what I had said. I don't think the issue at hand is my ability to read, but your assumption that I was presenting that interview as evidence of the hog farm in La Gloria being the origin of this particular strain. That would be VERY odd considering both the blog article and the interview with the CDC virologist suggested the mixing likely did not occur in Mexico. Same with the other articles I posted links too less than an hour before I responded to you. Lastly, it would also be at odds with what I actually wrote in response to your comment that the WW's articles statement that the flu "may actually have origins in the US as well as Asia." was "proof" of ignorance. So let's go back to that: Of particular interest is the link to an interview with a CDC virologists who discusses the lineage of the virus and it's origin in hog farming, but also mixing with multiple steps where pig->human tranmission occured, and then back, resulting in a mix of NA and Asian viral components. So the picture being drawn here is not of some horrid bug from the shit pits of La Gloria. Rather, we have virii in several different resevoirs around the world, recombining across species barriers. In this case the majority of the virus is a NA swine variant (which already included human and avian elements) and a couple of new components from Asia. The MMWR [1] I posted in another article mentioned a patient with symptoms starting on March 17th. There is a confirmed case in California dating March 28th. This predate and coincide with the La Gloria "patient zero" onset, so the flu was already active in three locations and at this point likely going human-to-human since the US cases had no pig contact. The problem we have with going futher back than this is a limited number of samples that are subtyped, and how long non-matching samples stick around. The interview with with Mexican lab[2], that I posted earlier today, touches on this some. Apparently some of the non-matching samples in the US were retyped and matched the h1n1/2009 (swine flu) going back to late March. I don't know if there were no matches before that, or if those were the oldest samples they had. [1] http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm58d0430a2.htm [2] http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/05/exclusive-inter.html -- Sincerely, Craig Brozefsky From durable at earthlink.net Sun May 3 16:17:53 2009 From: durable at earthlink.net (Barry Brooks) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 06:17:53 +0800 Subject: [Marxism] Marx and Engels on Malthus In-Reply-To: <3090FCFF21674ADD8A3B7D4590E1D38D@albanta> References: <12376.16413.qm@web45307.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> <873abmjabq.fsf_-_@piracy.kokonino.net> <3090FCFF21674ADD8A3B7D4590E1D38D@albanta> Message-ID: <49FE1811.5030002@earthlink.net> I've been reading Marx and Engels on Malthus, trying to understand their opposition. So far all I've been able to find are: 1. The theory is not being applied to plants and animals, but only ? with its geometric progression ? to humans as against plants and animals. 2. A general increase in fertility accompanies the development of society 3. Population can not increase faster than the means of sustenance. ? the means of sustenance must exist before population can grow. 4. Malthus was not original. 3 and 4, while clearly true, provide no basis for rejecting Malthus. 1 is a valid basis for rejection of Malthus. Malthus was wrong to ignore the possibility of the green revolution, which has vastly extended the fertility of land. However, the problems resulting from that extension of fertility have grown too large to ignore... see below. 2 is doubtful because it assumes the green revolution can increase soil fertility without limit. Geometric, arithmetic, or whatever shape the curve may have is beside the point. The question is how high and how quickly can the upward trend be extended? .. see below. What other arguments against Malthus did Marx and Engels make? Barry Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization? The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse By Lester R. Brown Scientific American April 22, 2009 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages&sc=WR_20090428 One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, ... The third and perhaps most pervasive environmental threat to food security-rising surface temperature-can affect crop yields everywhere. In many countries crops are grown at or near their thermal optimum, so even a minor temperature rise during the growing season can shrink the harvest. A study published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has confirmed a rule of thumb among crop ecologists: for every rise of one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above the norm, wheat, rice and corn yields fall by 10 percent. In the past, most famously when the innovations in the use of fertilizer, irrigation and high-yield varieties of wheat and rice created the "green revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s, the response to the growing demand for food was the successful application of scientific agriculture: the technological fix. This time, regrettably, many of the most productive advances in agricultural technology have already been put into practice, and so the long-term rise in land productivity is slowing down. Between 1950 and 1990 the world's farmers increased the grain yield per acre by more than 2 percent a year, exceeding the growth of population. But since then, the annual growth in yield has slowed to slightly more than 1 percent. In some countries the yields appear to be near their practical limits, including rice yields in Japan and China. ... We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind- set. The thinking that got us into this bind will not get us out. When Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker, asked energy guru Amory Lovins about thinking outside the box, Lovins responded: "There is no box." There is no box. That is the mind-set we need if civilization is to survive. From jlevich at earthlink.net Mon May 4 05:47:45 2009 From: jlevich at earthlink.net (Jacob Levich) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 07:47:45 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Subversive Indian election officials References: Message-ID: <848A1DA0E33E428FBEF2735C87B13890@Skade> A comrade in India writes: "For some reason, contrary to the practice in the rest of the country, the election authorities in Mumbai decided to ink, not the index finger, but the middle finger. As a result, when all the politicians, officials, and Bollywood stars displayed for the press the fact that they had voted (as proof of their faith in the system), they did so by sticking out their middle fingers." See for instance the photo at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090430/ennew_afp/indiavoteentertainmentbollywood_20090430174642 An image to be cherished. Jake From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon May 4 06:01:38 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 08:01:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Sunni allies rejoin resistance; US pressured to deepen, extend occupation Message-ID: <3E3A0F5B773640CCAFC797C0B758E452@office1pc> The introductory note that follows is from Prof. Mark Jensen of the SNOW-News peace list based in Washington state. [Many of the 100,000 embers of Sunni militias who have been in the pay of the U.S. are beginning to "rejoin the insurgency" because only about 5,000 of them have been integrated into the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security services, the Times of London reported Sunday.[1] -- This "could affect President Barack Obama's pledge to withdraw all combat troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June," Ali Rifat, Hala Jaber, and Sarah Baxter said. -- The president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations said that he believes that "Iraq and the United States are going to have to adjust the timelines and leave a residual force of tens of thousands beyond 2011." --Mark] http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/8577/ IRAQ BLOODSHED RISES AS U.S. ALLIES DEFECT By Ali Rifat, Hala Jaber, and Sarah Baxter in Washington Times Online (London) May 3, 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6211364.ece Iraq is threatened by a new wave of sectarian violence as members of the "Sons of Iraq" -- the Sunni Awakening militias that were paid by the U.S. to fight Al-Qaeda -- begin to rejoin the insurgency. If the spike in violence continues, it could affect President Barack Obama's pledge to withdraw all combat troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June. All U.S. troops are due to leave the country by 2012. A leading member of the Political Council of Iraqi Resistance, which represents six Sunni militant groups, said: "The resistance has now returned to the field and is intensifying its attacks against the enemy. The number of coalition forces killed is on the rise." The increase in attacks by such groups, combined with a spate of bombings blamed on Al-Qaeda, has had a chilling effect on the streets of Iraq. More than 370 Iraqi civilians and military -- and 80 Iranian pilgrims -- lost their lives in April, making it the bloodiest month since last September. On Wednesday, five car bombs exploded in a crowded market in Sadr City, Baghdad, killing 51 people and injuring 76. Three U.S. soldiers were killed on Thursday and two more yesterday when a gunman in Iraqi army uniform opened fire near Mosul. Richard Haass, president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, who returned from a visit to Iraq last week, said: "It is obvious there are still multiple faultlines in society. In my view, Iraq and the United States are going to have to adjust the timelines and leave a residual force of tens of thousands beyond 2011." The resistance council recently issued a call to disaffected Sons of Iraq to take up arms against U.S. and Iraqi troops after the government of Nouri al-Maliki failed to integrate them into the national security forces. Many fighters have abandoned their security posts, allowing militant groups to fill the gap. Abu Omar, the leader of an Awakening militia in northern Baghdad, said more than 50 out of 175 fighters had quit. The Iraqi resistance representative claimed some militias had lost even more. "Up to half their members have resigned from the Awakening and rejoined the resistance," he said. The U.S. had been paying nearly 100,000 Sons of Iraq to participate in its security "surge," but handed over responsibility for their welfare to the Iraqi government last month. Their pay has since dried up. Only 5,000 members of the Awakening have been employed by the Iraqi security forces. Ginger Cruz, America's deputy inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, warned that disillusioned Sunnis could join forces with Al-Qaeda as well as resistance groups. "The Sons of Iraq provided a critical turning point for Iraq, so the question now becomes: what will the Iraqi government do with them?" Cruz said. "In fragile states, you need to take unemployed young men with access to weapons and give them something to do to ensure they don't turn to Al-Qaeda or other groups." The gradual emergence of the Shi'ite Maliki as an Iraqi strongman has alienated some Sunnis and corruption is worse than ever, according to Cruz. There is also growing Sunni anger about arrests of Awakening leaders, including Adil al-Mashhadani, from Baghdad, who warned recently: "There's a 50-50 chance that Awakening guys who are not very loyal to Iraq or who need to support their families will join Al-Qaeda again." Local Sunni leaders have been quitting their posts, disillusioned with the government. Khalaf Ibrahim recently resigned as leader of Huwaija council near Kirkuk in northern Iraq. "Our members have become targets for Al-Qaeda and the government security forces at the same time," he said. Haass, a critic of the Iraq war who served in the administrations of George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr., said: "Some people are hedging their bets and moving in the direction of 'alternative loyalties.'" Obama may now become a hostage to events, Haass fears. "This administration has so much on its plate in terms of foreign policy that the last thing it needs is an Iraq that unravels. If it has to do a bit more than it wanted, that could be a pretty good investment." The heavy toll of the bomb attack in Sadr City last week shocked inhabitants who had witnessed improvements in security in recent months. Aqeel Ali, a 19-year-old labourer, said: "My brother was killed in that bomb. "I left school and started work to pay for his education. He was 10 years old and I wanted him to be an engineer. I will never forget the sight of my brother's corpse, covered in blood and mud." Um Batool, a young mother whose husband died, called for the return of the Mahdi Army, a Shi'ite militia, to protect the community. "Who will feed my five daughters?" she cried. Many Iraqis believe deteriorating security may provide a pretext for the U.S. to prolong its stay in Iraq. Colonel Andrew Bacevich, a military historian who lost his son in Iraq, said the rise in casualties threatened Obama's withdrawal plans. The U.S. military, including General Jim Jones, Obama's national security adviser, wanted troops to leave the country "in a condition in which they can plausibly claim to have achieved success," he said. Iraq has already begun negotiating with the United States about exceptions to the June 30 deadline, according to press reports. In Karrada, an affluent district of Baghdad where a suicide bomber killed dozens 10 days ago, Esam Omar, 44, a father of two, said: "I fear the violence is back. Sectarian war may be the next step." The Iraqi security forces were not yet ready to assume control, he said, even if the U.S. was worried about the cost of the war. "I think American forces will have to stay here much longer. It will be shameful if the Americans leave us sinking in blood, simply to escape their economic crisis." [snip] From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 07:04:11 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 09:04:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Armenian genocide scholarship controversy Message-ID: <49FEE7CB.7030600@panix.com> http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/04/lewy Going After a Scholar's Critic May 4, 2009 Guenter Lewy, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is a scholar whose work has been praised by Turkey?s government. When the embassy of Turkey in Washington was upset over a PBS documentary on the Armenian genocide during World War I, the ambassador's statement on the program noted the work of "respected scholar Guenter Lewy, whose latest book The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide documents the incomplete historic record and excessive politicization associated with the issue." Lewy does not believe that the slaughter of Armenians during World War I was a genocide ? a position that puts him outside the consensus of scholars of genocide. Lewy?s 2005 book on the subject argues that while there were indeed many tragic deaths, there was no attempt by those in power to commit genocide, and that war was the primary cause of the deaths. In an interview two years ago, Lewy said that the book -- which was criticized by some scholars of genocide -- had been rejected by 11 publishers, including 4 university presses, before the University of Utah Press published it. Among those who joined the attacks on the book and Lewy was the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group known for its studies of hate groups -- a focus that has led the center to criticize Holocaust deniers and those who deny the attacks or bias experienced by members of various groups. Lewy featured prominently in an article published by the center last year, ?State of Denial." Now Lewy -- with backing from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund -- is seeking millions in damages from the center in a lawsuit for defamation. The lawsuit asserts a set of facts about what happened to the Armenians that differ from what many historians say. Generally, the suit characterizes the question of an Armenian genocide as open to question and debate. "Since the conclusion of World War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, an historical and legal controversy has raged over whether, in the context of war and an undeniable Armenian rebellion against the Ottoman government in favor of its enemies, the deaths of a large number of Ottoman Armenians as a result of combat, disease, starvation, exposure, and massacre constituted the crime of genocide," the suit says. "At present, those who dispute that the genocide label is apt are characteristically maligned by those who favor the genocide thesis as indistinguishable from 'Holocaust deniers' who are either bigoted against Armenians or Christians or are on the Turkish government payroll. Little solace can be derived from the fact such current intimidations mark an improvement from earlier decades. Then, those who defended the contra-genocide thesis could expect physical assaults or even assassination attempts." Some scholars fear that the suit is part of a campaign to silence those who criticize scholarship that Turkey favors. In recent months, the Turkish American group has sent letters to the presidents of Hampshire College and McGill University on campus disputes involving the Armenian genocide, suggested a willingness to become involved with disputes large and small concerning the way the Armenian genocide is discussed. Simon Payaslian, who holds an endowed chair in Armenian history and literature at Boston University, said he was not familiar with the lawsuit or its specific claims. But he sees it as part of a pattern. ?I think the pro-Turkish scholars have launched a new wave of denialist argument.? Related issues of academic freedom and academic integrity are at play, Payaslian said. Part of academic freedom should be the right of those who disagree with scholars to question their work. Payaslian said he strongly disagrees with Lewy?s book and sees its theories about the genocide as being wrong, and deserving of strong scholarly scrutiny. He said that he fears that pro-Turkish groups ?are trying to suffocate any kind of criticisms that these nationalists think is objectionable.? The lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center says of Lewy that he "bravely acted pursuant to the highest standards of scholarly integrity in his research, writing, and speaking about the fate of the Ottoman Armenians in the midst of a climate hostile to open inquiry and debate." Two quotes in the Southern Poverty Law Center article are cited as defamatory. One states: "Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide. ...? The other states: ?Lewy makes similar revisionist claims in his 2005 book The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide and in frequent lectures at university campuses across the country. ... Revisionist historians who conjure doubt about the Armenian genocide and are paid by the Turkish government provided politicians with the intellectual cover they needed to claim they were refusing to dictate history rather than caving in to a foreign government?s present-day interests.? (The article goes on to mention specific support by Turkey for research or research centers involving American scholars, but does not cite an example of Turkey providing funds to Lewy.) According to the suit, the statements "assert or imply" acts "of moral turpitude" in that they imply that Lewy "has and continues to compromise his scholarship on the fate of the Ottoman Armenians and disputes the genocide characterization of the events of 1915-1916 in exchange for money from the Government of Turkey" and that Lewy "deceives his readers and audiences when he addresses the controversy surrounding the Armenian allegation of genocide by concealing his receipt of money from the Government of Turkey." Further the suit says that the statements "individually and taken as a whole in context of the article ... are defamatory because they falsely impute to Plaintiff academic corruption, fraud and deceit. ..." As a result of the accusations, the suit says that Lewy has had his "scholarly credibility" hurt and has lost book sales and speaking engagements. "The acute stigma attached to failures to disclose the receipt of money or its equivalent that could distort academic or professional judgments finds expression in a welter of government conflict-of-interest regulations and financial disclosure standards embraced by highly respected professional publications, including the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association." The Southern Poverty Law Center declined to comment on the suit, saying that it was its policy not to discuss litigation. The issue of whether Turkish support for research in the United States comes with strings attached has been contentious in the past. Last year, a scholar who teaches at the State University of New York at Binghamton went public with his complaint that he was given a choice by Turkish officials -- after using the word "genocide" to describe what happened to the Armenians -- of either quitting his position as chair of the Institute of Turkish Studies, based at Georgetown university, with support from Turkey's government, or of seeing support for the center evaporate. (The Turkish embassy in Washington strongly denies these allegations.) Lewy's number is unlisted and his lawyer, Bruce Fein, said he is traveling. Fein said he could not answer the question of whether Lewy has ever received support from Turkey or from research entities supported by Turkey. Fein said that was "not a key fact at all" because the suit is based on the accusation that support from Turkey compromised Lewy's scholarship, which isn't the same as receiving support from Turkey. "He could have gotten $10 in tax reimbursements in Istanbul," Fein said. Asked if it wasn't odd for a lawyer to file a defamation suit focused on the alleged implications of a scholar receiving support from Turkey, without knowing if the scholar had received support from Turkey, Fein said "you can draw whatever inferences you want." ? Scott Jaschik From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 07:06:37 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 09:06:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Boston Globe kaput Message-ID: <49FEE85D.10107@panix.com> (When I lived in Boston in the early 70s, this was the paper I read everyday. It was more liberal than the NY Times and had a great comics page.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050400756.html N.Y. Times to File Notice It Will Close Boston Globe By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 4, 2009 6:19 AM The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. After down-to-the-wire negotiations did not produce millions of dollars in union concessions, the Times Co. said that it will file today a required 60-day notice of the planned shutdown under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law. The move could amount to a negotiating ploy to extract further concessions from the Globe's unions, since the notice does not require the Times Co. to close the paper after 60 days. Talks between the two sides continued early today, wire services reported, after a midnight deadline to forge an agreement came and went. The threat of a shutdown puts the unions under fierce pressure to produce additional savings; the Boston Newspaper Guild promptly called the step a "bullying" tactic by the company. Some industry observers have expressed skepticism that Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. would want his legacy to include the shuttering of the Globe, which his company bought in 1993. But the Times Co. itself is under strong financial pressure. It recently mortgaged its new Manhattan headquarters, borrowed $250 million from a Mexican billionaire at 14 percent interest, laid off 100 newsroom staffers and cut salaries by 5 percent. Globe management said in a toughly worded statement: "Filing the WARN notice is a difficult step that we would like to avoid. But, unfortunately, given the state of the negotiations, it is one we must be prepared to take." The paper's circulation dropped 14 percent in the most recent six-month period. The Globe is expected to lose $85 million this year, the company says. Boston residents have long resented the takeover of the Globe by a company based in New York, with which the region competes in sports, banking and cultural bragging rights. The notion that Boston, home to some of the country's top universities, could lose its major daily would have been unthinkable before the recent nationwide plunge in advertising revenue. That dive has triggered a wave of newspaper bankruptcies and the closing of the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A Globe shutdown would leave the city with only one daily newspaper, the tabloid Boston Herald, which has just 10 news reporters and is battling its own financial difficulties. "From the moment the Times Co. purchased The Globe in 1993, it has treated New England's largest newspaper like a cheap whore," former Globe columnist Eileen McNamara wrote last month in the Herald. "It pimped her out for profit during the booming 1990s and then pillaged her when times got tough. It closed her foreign bureaus and cheapened her coverage of everything from the fine arts to the hard sciences." McNamara, who now teaches journalism at Brandeis University, ridiculed Sulzberger as "the boy genius whose crack management skills have helped drive the parent company of two of journalism's most respected newspapers to the brink of bankruptcy." The Globe says the parent company is seeking $10 million in savings from the Newspaper Guild -- the paper's largest union -- as well as $5 million from the mailers, $2.5 million from the drivers and $2.2 million from the pressmen. Negotiations were disrupted when the Times Co. acknowledged a $4 million accounting mistake in the talks, requiring the Guild, which represents 600 editorial, advertising and office workers, to dig even deeper for savings. The Globe quoted the head of the Teamsters local, which represents the newspaper's drivers, as saying his union had come up with the $2.5 million in salary and benefit cuts demanded by the company. But the Times Co. is also said to be seeking to eliminate seniority rules and lifetime job guarantees for some union members. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon May 4 07:22:31 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 09:22:31 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] UAE top's use of nonfriendly interrogation tactics outrages US Message-ID: <3D5F99AB1A7142CC9C4F2F685C3AF081@office1pc> http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/03/torture/print.html UAE "torture" scandal and cover-up sparks outrage in U.S. How primitive and uncivilized must a country be to allow its leading officials to inflict torture with no accountability? Glenn Greenwald May. 03, 2009 As more videotapes emerge documenting the torture inflicted on numerous victims by Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a prince of the United Arab Emirates, the controversy is beginning to jeopardize the UAE's relationship with the United States, a country that absolutely loathes torture and demands real accountability for those who do it: "I have more than two hours of video footage showing Sheikh Issa's involvement in the torture of more than 25 people," wrote Texas-based lawyer Anthony Buzbee in a letter obtained by the Observer. The news of more torture videos involving Issa is another huge blow to the international image of the UAE . . . . The fresh revelations about Issa's actions will add further doubt to a pending nuclear energy deal between the UAE and the US. The deal, signed in the final days of George W Bush, is seen as vital for the UAE. It will see the US share nuclear energy expertise, fuel and technology in return for a promise to abide by non-proliferation agreements. But the deal needs to be recertified by the Obama administration and there is growing outrage in America over the tapes. Congressman James McGovern, a senior Democrat, has demanded that Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, investigate the matter and find out why US officials initially appeared to play down its significance. The U.S. is a very tolerant nation, but the one thing we simply cannot abide is when a government fails adequately to investigate allegations of torture on the part of key officials and fails to hold them accountable. That's where we draw the line. The UAE royal family claimed that they had investigated and resolved the matter and made sure that it would not happen again -- but when it comes to torture, we have made clear that such a "look-forward-not-backwards/reflection-not-retribution" mentality is morally outrageous and unacceptable -- from the UAE: The authorities in the UAE have certainly mishandled the emergence of the initial torture tape. The 2004 tape was obtained by ABC News and shown on television in the US. The UAE at first said that the matter had been privately settled between Sheikh Issa and his victim. They also added that UAE police had followed all their rules and regulations properly. But that position did not last long in the face of a wave of international revulsion at the brutality on display. The fierceness of the criticism eventually forced the UAE government to both condemn the tape and announce a new investigation. The government "unequivocally condemns the actions depicted on the video", the state-run news agency said last week. It added that a government human rights group in the Judicial Department would also now review the matter. . . . Buzbee welcomed the developments, but expressed scepticism that the investigation was genuinely motivated, because the authorities had known about the tapes for several years. "I am sceptical about whether there will be a genuine investigation, given that various officials have been aware of these issues for many years and given the fact that members of the government were actually involved in, or covered up, the torture," he said. Indeed. What kind of primitive, brutal country knows for years that its own powerful government officials participated in torture and then fails even to investigate what happened, let alone impose meaningful accountability on the torturers? The international community simply cannot tolerate acquiescence to that sort of evil. Note that the UAE apparently compensated the victims of the prince's torture, whereas the U.S. blocked -- and continues to try to block -- its own torture victims from even having a day in court. Had Issa -- who ordered these torture sessions recorded -- only looked to the U.S. for civilized and moral leadership on such matters, he almost certainly could have avoided this trouble: U.S. Says C.I.A. Destroyed 92 Tapes of Interrogations The government on Monday revealed for the first time the extent of the destruction of videotapes in 2005 by the Central Intelligence Agency, saying that agency officers destroyed 92 videotapes documenting the harsh interrogations of two Qaeda suspects in C.I.A. detention. . . . It had been previously known that officials of the agency had destroyed hundreds of hours of videotaped interrogations, but the documents filed Monday reveal the number of tapes. . . . The destroyed videotapes are thought to have depicted some of the harshest interrogation techniques used by the C.I.A. Only monsters and barbarians fail to destroy their own torture tapes. The New York Times previously reported that the highest-level White House officials -- including David Addington and Alberto Gonzales -- participated in discussions about whether to destroy those videotapes (acts which the co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission have called "obstruction of justice"), though because we need to Look Forward, Not Back, and this all happened in The Past, we don't know what was said and don't need to. Knowing that might disrupt our moment of quiet, contemplative reflection. What's most notable about the Guardian article reporting on the emergence of the new UAE torture tapes is that it contains this link to one of the new torture videos (or, to use the high editorial standards of our nation's leading newspapers: "the 'torture' videos," or "videos depicting harsh techniques which critics decry as 'torture'"): But if you actually click on the warning link, it merely takes you to a video that -- although it's dramatically entitled "Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan Torturing a man" -- shows nothing more than a tied-and-bound victim being slapped around a little bit and forced to eat some sand -- a technique that (a) nobody who has read the OLC memos could possibly find shocking, (b) would be dismissed by America's morally upstanding right-wing warriors as nothing more than a fun fraternity prank; and (c) would never qualify as "torture" as our own government defined that term, given that there's no organ failure, no permanent physical damage, and no death: It's certainly true that the first released video of the torture inflicted by Issa depicted grotesque violence -- including severe beating, culminating with running over the victim with a car. But that level of brutality also isn't exactly unknown to the U.S., as the Far Leftist score-settler, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, recently pointed out on MSNBC: We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during a course of that, both by the armed forces and CIA. [Releasing the memos] was the right thing to do. . . . There is prosecutorial discretion. We shouldn't in my view go after the CIA officers involved in this. There is a good argument in my view for reviewing the White House justice council and the Attorney General's office who okayed this. Gen. McCaffrey's point was echoed by the Hard Leftist Vengeful Partisan, Gen. Antonio Taguba: [T]here is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. . . . [T]he Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. . . . The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account. Even by official U.S. Government acknowledgments, there have been numerous deaths of detainees in U.S. custody which "were acts of criminal homicide." Independent reports make clear just how prevalent detainee death was. But anyway, enough about all that divisive partisan unpleasantness -- back to this brutal, criminal UAE prince: let's watch more of those videotapes, express our outrage on behalf of international human rights standards, and threaten the UAE that their relationship with us will suffer severely unless there is a real investigation -- not the whitewash they tried to get away with -- along with real accountability. We simply cannot, in good conscience, maintain productive relations with a country that fails to take "torture" seriously. We are, after all, the United States. -- Glenn Greenwald From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 07:53:04 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 09:53:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Review: When Skateboards Will be Free Message-ID: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> Sa?d Sayrafiezadeh's When Skateboards Will Be Free by Louis Proyect Book Review Sayrafiezadeh, Sa?d: When Skateboards Will Be Free, Dial Press, March 2009, ISBN 978-0-385-34068-7, 287 pages, $22. (Swans - May 4, 2009) When Skateboards Will Be Free is a memoir by Sa?d Sayrafiezadeh about growing up with parents who were devoted members of the Socialist Workers Party. The mother is Martha Harris, a Jew who finally leaves the party at the end of the book. The father is an Iranian math professor named Mahmoud Sayrafiezadeh, who remained a member and broke with his son over the memoir. Sa?d never became a member, a fact that does not stand in the way of him devoting 287 pages to an angry denunciation of the party. Martha and Mahmoud not only forced their political beliefs on their son but were responsible for him living in poverty. The title of the memoir derives from an incident that took place over the purchase of a skateboard that she deemed too dear at $10.99. She consoled him with the assurance that "Once the revolution comes, everyone will have a skateboard, because all skateboards will be free." Their poverty was a result of the father abandoning the family when Sa?d was 9 months old plus his mother's refusal to get better jobs, despite her college education. One can certainly understand why The New York Times and The Washington Post raved about this memoir. For the price, you get two books in one. It is a neo-Dickensian tale of childhood deprivation with the young Sa?d begging for a skateboard rather than more gruel. It is also a melodrama inspired by those 1950s Red Scare movies like My Son John but turned upside down. Now it is the son (Sa?d) who is the good American and the mom and dad ruthless fanatics. full: http://www.swans.com/library/art15/lproy54.html From lueko.willms at t-online.de Mon May 4 08:33:45 2009 From: lueko.willms at t-online.de (=?iso-8859-1?q?L=FCko_Willms?=) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 16:33:45 +0200 (MES) Subject: [Marxism] auto sales down . . .down . . . down ... and FIAT gambles to build a new international car builder In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <020.a82b0900c9fcfe49.036@lws-media.de> On Fri, 1 May 2009 20:49:33 EDT Waistline2 at aol.com wrote: > > > Uncertainty around General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC, which > entered bankruptcy protection on Thursday, helped drag sales down toward the > month's end and erased a strong start to the month, auto makers said. Chrysler > finished with a 48% decline for April. Today, Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of FIAT in Italy, is in Germany for talks about FIAT taking control of GM Europe and building out of FIAT, Chrysler, and the European (and possibly Korean and Australian) operations of General Motors a new international car maker which could compete by production numbers with Toyota and Volkswagen. Marchionne has a date with Mr. Guttenberg, the federal minister for economic affairs in Berlin, the foreign minister Steinmeier (who is also the social-democratic candidate for federal prime minister in the September federal elections) and Klaus Franz, the chairman of the Opel works council and all-european GM works council, member of the metal workers union IG Metall. Opel is the core brand of GM in Europe, and the name of the German car maker acquired by GM in 1929. GM/Opel operates three assembly plants in Germany, plus a power train and parts factory plus the 6000-strong development center in R?sselsheim, where the Opel carmaker originated from. In total GM has ten assembly plants in Europe, from Spain to Poland, plus St. Petersburg in Russia and the latest in Kazakhstan, Central Asia. Read more about Marchionnes plans in todays "Financial Times": > and > The FIAT boss is encountering quite some resistance from German politicians and trade unionists. Over the last months, Klaus Franz was dreaming loud about a revived "Opel AG" which would not take orders from Detroit, but be still linked to the GM mother company. Another company being interested in taking a stake in Opel or the whole of GM Europe is Magna, the Canadian/Austrian car parts manufacturer, which also builds cars for GM, BMW, Mercedes and other car makers in their former Steyr-Puch assembly plant in Graz, Austria. Magna's Bos Stronach had formerly tried to take control of Crysler from Daimler, but lost to a "financial investor". FIAT already had a cross-capital sharing with GM and had commonly developed power train and car platforms, but the partnership was dissolved a few years ago. Some of the common platform development and power train manufacturing remains. The big problem is that the capitalist car market actually suffers from over-capacities (in relationship to the solvent and profitable demand on the market, not the actual needs of humanity), and in order for an economic recovery requires to "cull" a large part of the worldwide car manufacturing capacities. While from the view of the capitalist market, the FIAT gamble makes more sense than any other solution, because it aims at creating _larger_ units instead of trying to go back to smaller companies with less leverage on the international capitalist market for cars, the workers solution would still be different. The best solution from the worker's standpoint would be a compulsory cartel of all car makers, throwing open their books and sharing their technical capabilites. Only such a cartel could cut the production capacity by shortening the workweek instead of throwing hundreds of thousands of workings jobless in the street and to intiate a conversion of production capacities to other needs. Yours, L?ko Willms Frankfurt, Germany -------------------------------- From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Mon May 4 09:16:20 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 08:16:20 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] California Fiscal Bait and Switch Message-ID: <49FF06C4.7020101@ecst.csuchico.edu> I'm not an expert in fiscal policy. I don't even play one on television. With that caveat, I would like to comment on the upcoming California special election. Prior to the ratification of Proposition 13 in 1978, Gov. Jerry Brown was building up a rainy day fund to prepare for fiscal emergencies. Republicans argued that the state had no right to hoard "the people's money." A number of other factors are used to explain why Californians ratified Proposition 13. The most common culprit was the Serrano decision that was supposed to break the link between local property taxes and school funding, which was intended to reduce inequalities between school districts. Many people resented having to pay property taxes to support poor or minority kids. Also, there were some scandals with County tax assessors, but my recollection was that the rainy day fund rhetoric was the loudest. Proposition 13 changed the political landscape of California. Besides limiting increases in property taxes over and above a fixed formula, this constitutional amendment required a two thirds majority of both houses of the legislature, meaning either party would be unlikely to muster enough votes to raise taxes. After a marathon of political wrangling to finally pass a very late budget, a literal handful of Republicans agreed to vote for the budget on the condition that the state put a number of awful amendments on the ballot. Bait and switch number one: Today, California's preparing to constitutionally limit spending in order to build up a rainy day fund, which I assume will be a juicy target for future tax cutters. Bait and switch number two: Another amendment will securitize the lottery, which was initially passed as a way to help fund education, given the constraints of Proposition 13. To make the lottery money more attractive to prospective bondholders, the link between the lottery and education will be broken. -- 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 lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 09:21:27 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 11:21:27 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Michael Ignatieff: Canada's Obama Message-ID: <49FF07F7.9090907@panix.com> http://www.counterpunch.org/tsao05042009.html From Midhurst14 at aol.com Mon May 4 09:28:30 2009 From: Midhurst14 at aol.com (Midhurst14 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 11:28:30 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Michael Ignatieff: Canada's Obama Message-ID: The man is an arsehole George Anthony From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 09:33:39 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 11:33:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses Message-ID: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> It is fashionable among some layers on the left to blame the workers' "low consciousness" for the lack of a genuine left alternative emerging within the labour movement internationally. This is utterly false and represents a lack of understanding of how the working class moves historically. The working class is fully aware of the situation it is in. What it requires is a leadership up to task of leading the class in its struggle to change society. full: http://www.marxist.com/consciousness-of-masses.htm From kellyr818 at roadrunner.com Mon May 4 09:43:18 2009 From: kellyr818 at roadrunner.com (bkelly) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 11:43:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] chris hedges Message-ID: <49FF0D16.7050604@roadrunner.com> Chris Hedge's comments on the Spectacle. From epoliticus at gmail.com Mon May 4 09:55:56 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 11:55:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] On Robinson Message-ID: The William I. Robinson case has made an appearance as a lead story on the FoxNews website. The headline is "Prof's E-Mail Compares Israelis to Nazis." See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518824,00.html for the full story. 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 markalause at gmail.com Mon May 4 10:06:59 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:06:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses In-Reply-To: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> References: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> Message-ID: My impression is that Christof Koch and that neurobiological interpretation of consciousness came to prominence during the heredity-as-destiny fad in American academe. The question of mass consciousness vs. leadership assumes that the latter exists somehow independently of the former. ML From Waistline2 at aol.com Mon May 4 10:33:46 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:33:46 EDT Subject: [Marxism] auto sales down . . .down . . . down ... and FIAT gambles to bu... Message-ID: >> The big problem is that the capitalist car market actually suffers from over-capacities (in relationship to the solvent and profitable demand on the market, not the actual needs of humanity), and in order for an economic recovery requires to "cull" a large part of the worldwide car manufacturing capacities. While from the view of the capitalist market, the FIAT gamble makes more sense than any other solution, because it aims at creating _larger_ units instead of trying to go back to smaller companies with less leverage on the international capitalist market for cars, the workers solution would still be different. The best solution from the worker's standpoint would be a compulsory cartel of all car makers, throwing open their books and sharing their technical capabilites. Only such a cartel could cut the production capacity by shortening the workweek instead of throwing hundreds of thousands of workings jobless in the street and to intiate a conversion of production capacities to other needs. <<< Comment Some years ago by way of discussion on this list, I was won over to viewing the issue of "over capacity" and "overproduction" as distinct but overlapping and interpenetrating moments and movement of capital. Actually, it was in discussion with the revolutionary economist Henry C.K. Liu, who insisted that a deeper movement and moment in capital was unfolding and overcapacity has to be looked and view distinct from the general cyclical crisis of capital, which are typically resolved through the destruction of productive forces. At that time he insisted a world crisis of "overcapacity" was unfolding and exacerbating the crisis of overproduction, rather than overproduction appearing as overcapacity in relationship to market demand. Overcapacity is fundamentally related to the pace of the technological revolution; the entry of the Asian producers in the market deploying improved and revolutionary productive forces and consequently one should examine the percentage of machinery and human labor deployed in the total productive forces of automotive units; in the context of distinct corporations and as an industry - (figures generously quoted over the years by comrade S. A) . Overproduction in the Marxist sense is related to the consuming capacity of wage labor or wage labor dependence upon capital for consumption, at any given moment in the movement of capital, as different capitalists strive to sell their commodities in the market. Overproduction as capitalist crisis is an expression of anarchy of production as lemon producers compete with book producers, housing and automotive producers, etc., for commodity sales. Each producers produces blindly and without regard to the limits the wage form of labor imposes on the market, seeking only that their commodities are purchased rather than that of another producer. II. During the deepening of the American automotive market in the late 1990's until 2007, new vehicle sales jumped a historic 11 - 13 million units to 16 - 17 million units, with companies only utilizing roughly 75% - 85% of their capacity word wide. Expansion of credit deepened the market while continuous revolution in the means of production combines with capitalist competition to create the permanent crisis of over capacity. Today, the crisis appearance of overproduction is simultaneously the permanent crisis of over capacity - the tremendous growth of dead labor, and "underconsumption" as an "ism" (anarchy of production). Considering the world in which we live and our country, I do support any and all calls for a "short work week" but NOT as a means to employ, or rather individual workers sharing wages in the reproduction of the capital. "30 for 40" - an old and honorable trade union demand, no longer seems appropriate to our moment of history. Today, the demand for a short work week might need to be viewed anew; as a demand for human emancipation from capital at our current stage of development of the productive forces. Today, we face a permanent and intractable glut of labor power. No one should be required to labor more than say 20 hours a week, as a condition for continuous employment or the right to remain on the books, with all the rights of seniority. The idea is a vision of a system of sovereign birth rights to socially necessary means of life. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at this stage of development of society does not require a demand for the individual to work at any particular thing; only the demand for society to answer the call and need for laboring. III. I am going to probably die with an unhealthy attitude towards the automobile and a certain bourgeois nostalgia for those old 1983 - 1989 Fleetwood Cadillacs with the crush velvet seats and power everything. There was something wondrous about these "old hogs" and leaning to the right to be close to your girl on the way to the concert or cruising the local "strip." "I love it when were cruising together. I love it, I love it I love it." Man you put Smokey on and damn . . . the magic happens! Yet, the last thing in the world America needs is more 17 million new automobiles annually. Sorry, comrade auto workers. The Greens got me, but there is still a place for the automobile in the life of our society. Every boy and girl, women and man needs to forever have an opportunity to ride away into the vastness of the beauty of America and fall in love with the one they love, uninhibited by local tradition and prejudices. Cruising is made for love. It is recognized that a new vehicle market of 17 million is absurd, with no socially useful redeeming value. The American automotive market could and probably should be reduced to about 3 - 5 million units annually the day after confirmation of the Third Edition of the American Revolution: Proletarian Revolution. I favor the emergence of a "re conversion /restoration/recycling industry" for auto. Maybe, I can get luck in 2036 and pick up a retrofitted 1985 Fleetwood for a weekend. Get my old girl and ride away being young again . . . . stopping every 30 minutes to use the rest room. :-) I do favor the communist idea of extensive evolution of industry away from single product production or as it is called "conversion" to producing other socially useful things. We might not just be experiencing a cyclical crisis of capital, but rather, a historic crisis of capital and with it the role automotive production played in the rise and fall of industrial capitalist production. WL. **************2009 3 Free CREDIT SCORES: See Your 3 Credit Scores from All 3 Bureaus FREE! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221797372x1201397989/aol?redir=https:%2F%2Fwww.freescore.com%2FOffers%2FStart%2FFreeCreditRepor tAndScore.aspx%3FID%3D91831F371F138345B53A153F49D4D872%26siteid%3De927580bf7 ) From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 10:50:46 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 12:50:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An American Icon? Message-ID: <49FF1CE6.6010009@panix.com> Counterpunch, May 4, 2009 An American Icon Working with Jack Kemp By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Jack French Kemp passed away on May 2 at 73 years of age. Kemp won many battles, but lost his fight with cancer. He had an improbable career. A bottom-tier professional football pick (203rd) who was cut from five teams, Kemp became a seven-time all-star quarterback and led the Buffalo Bills to two league championships. As a junior member of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Kemp led a revolution in economic policy. (clip) ---- NY Times, September 9, 1987 Kemp, in Honduras, Assails Latin Peace Plan By CLIFFORD D. MAY, Special to the New York Times Representative Jack F. Kemp opened a campaign today to persuade Central America's leaders that the peace plan they signed last month is in his words ''fundamentally flawed'' and ''a recipe for disaster'' in the region. Mr. Kemp, a New York Republican who is seeking his party's Presidential nomination, arrived in Honduras this morning along with more than 50 leaders of conservative groups. Accompanying the group from the United States was Adolfo Calero, a leader of the Nicaraguan contra rebels. Mr. Kemp said the trip was also intended ''to let Congress and the White House know we are not willing to relax our efforts to continue aid to the freedom fighters.'' Seeks Aid for Contras Mr. Kemp, along with Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, is the author of a bill to provide $310 million in assistance to the contras over the next 18 months. Congressional authority to provide military aid to the contra forces is due to expire Sept. 30. (clip) From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 11:33:41 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 13:33:41 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Bright Leaves Message-ID: <49FF26F5.4000401@panix.com> While not exactly a household name, Ross McElwee has a tremendous reputation in critical circles as a groundbreaking film documentarian specializing in autobiographical material about love and loss focused geographically in North Carolina, where he grew up. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/bright-leaves/ From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Mon May 4 11:34:13 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 10:34:13 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] auto sales down . . .down . . . down ... and FIAT gambles to build a new international car builder In-Reply-To: <020.a82b0900c9fcfe49.036@lws-media.de> References: <020.a82b0900c9fcfe49.036@lws-media.de> Message-ID: <20090504173412.GA917@ecst.csuchico.edu> In the US, at least, the average age of automobiles has been increasing for a while. In the absence of improvements in mass transit, demand will not stay down that long. -- 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 Mon May 4 11:47:31 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 13:47:31 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Peter Seeger concert Message-ID: <49FF2A33.6040809@panix.com> NY Times May 5, 2009 Music Review | Pete Seeger Pete Seeger Celebrates 90th With a Concert By JON CARAMANICA The celebrant who made the most noise and aroused the strongest sentiment during the celebration of Pete Seeger?s 90th birthday at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night was the one who couldn?t make it. In an updated version of the 1930s labor anthem "Which Side Are You On?" Ani DiFranco sang, "Now there?s folks in Washington that care what?s on our minds." Bruce Springsteen told of rehearsing for the recent presidential inauguration with Mr. Seeger, who had relayed the story of "We Shall Overcome," crucial to both the labor and civil rights movements. Watching the transfer of presidential power, Mr. Springsteen said, "was like, ? Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man.? It was so nice." President Obama was nowhere to be seen, but he did send a letter, praising Mr. Seeger for voicing "the hopes and dreams of everyday people." And, as was evident throughout this four-hours-plus event ? a birthday party masquerading as a fund-raiser for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a preservation charity founded by Mr. Seeger ? many have attempted to follow in that path, or at least capture some of his refracted glow. More than 40 performers gathered here to pay tribute to Mr. Seeger ? one of the lions of American folk music and, at 90, indefatigable ? who, save for a handful of exceptions, outworked them all. Here, rising to the occasion (formally called "The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders") meant more than showing up and breezily soldiering through a classic protest tune or two, as plenty of singers ? John Mellencamp, Roger McGuinn, Emmylou Harris ? gladly did, in performances that often felt dutiful, not exuberant. Some, though, shook off the oppressive nature of good intentions to create transcendent moments. Richie Havens revisited the "Freedom/Motherless Child" hybrid he performed at Woodstock 40 years ago in devastating fashion, closing with a high kick and a twirl of his guitar. Billy Bragg fiercely sang part of his revised version of "The Internationale," lyrics he wrote at Mr. Seeger?s behest and which now appear in the Industrial Workers of the World?s Little Red Songbook alongside the originals. In group settings ? most performances included several singers ? Rufus Wainwright and Abigail Washburn stood out, as did Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock and her daughter Toshi, as well as Ben Bridwell and Tyler Ramsey of Band of Horses. In one of the night?s most riveting moments, Bela Fleck and Tony Trischka played dueling banjos, closing with a clever variation on "Happy Birthday to You." In the postwar era Mr. Seeger helped popularize the banjo, which was as much an object of celebration here as Mr. Seeger himself, with at least a half dozen musicians picking at their weathered five-strings. This show?s lineup showcased folk?s topical range, if not always its emotional range. There were union songs; anti-war songs (the still-relevant "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and "Bring Them Home"); a Bob Dylan song, "Maggie?s Farm," but no Dylan; and songs about the river (lighting was strung above the stage in the shape of sails). And, as with any show of this scale, there were plenty of rough patches: awkward letdowns (Ben Harper, Michael Franti), questionable pairings (Tom Morello, barely keeping up with Mr. Springsteen on "The Ghost of Tom Joad"), and moments of overindulgence, as with Dave Matthews?s overly precious rendition of "Rye Whiskey." There was also Oscar the Grouch singing "Garbage," a reminder of Mr. Seeger?s belief that no voice should go unheard. His commitment to singalongs was refortified throughout the night, decentering the authority of those on stage in true folk style. Encouraging those in the sold-out arena to chime in with their voices, the actor Tim Robbins assured them, "Nothing would make Pete happier on his birthday." Mr. Seeger led the crowd in "Amazing Grace," calling out lines in a spooky, hole-filled, appealingly weathered voice. It was one of several brawny, moving exercises in mass vocalizing: "We Shall Overcome," "This Land Is Your Land," "Well May the World Go," "This Little Light Of Mine." (No "Kumbaya," though ? something of a relief.) Ninety years after Mr. Seeger?s birth, 50 or so years after the height of the folk music movement, 40 years after the civil rights movement, and 104 days after the swearing in of the country?s first black president, those songs no longer sound defiant or expectant, but instead matter-of-fact. From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon May 4 11:59:39 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 10:59:39 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Peter Seeger concert Message-ID: One performer who was NOT part of the concert was dangerous terrorist Silvio Rodriguez, Cuba's leading folk singer who was invited to perform but was refused a visa by the U.S. Unfortunately this aspect of the concert went unreported in the U.S., either in the NY Times article posted by Louis or on Democracy Now's 1-hour Seeger coverage this morning: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html#653244130073420739 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_BR_life_in_synch_052009 From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 12:29:17 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 14:29:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Historic suspicions Message-ID: <49FF33FD.3040704@panix.com> http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002943.html "Historic Suspicions" By: John Caruso Here's Barack Obama speaking at the recent Summit of the Americas: I think it's important to recognize, given historic suspicions, that the United States' policy should not be interference in other countries, but that also means that we can't blame the United States for every problem that arises in the hemisphere. "Historic suspicions"? Yes, I imagine the International Court of Justice decision condemning the United States for its covert war against Nicaragua might have raised Nicaraguan suspicions of U.S. interference. And I guess the report of the UN's Historical Clarification Commission for Guatemala, documenting U.S. backing of the genocidal forces the U.S. had installed in the 1954 coup, might have made the Guatemalans suspicious as well. And I suppose watching U.S. planes, helicopter gunships, and warships destroying the El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama during the 1989 invasion might also have given the Panamians some suspicions about U.S. interference. (For just one second, imagine the U.S. reaction if Germany's Angela Merkel gave a speech in Israel calling out the "historic suspicions" of Jews regarding past German "interference" in their affairs. In fairness to Obama, he did subsequently refer to "past errors, where those errors have been made," though he also said that discussion of those purported errors only rises to the level of "stale debates"; I'll leave the analogy to you.) By contrast, here's how Obama characterized Venezuela: You take a country like Venezuela -- I have great differences with Hugo Chavez on matters of economic policy and matters of foreign policy. His rhetoric directed at the United States has been inflammatory. There have been instances in which we've seen Venezuela interfere with some of the -- some of the countries that surround Venezuela in ways that I think are a source of concern. So centuries of extensively-documented U.S. intervention in Latin America can be dismissed as "historic suspicions"?but when we're talking about allegations pulled out of the collective ass of the U.S. government and leveled at an official enemy, there's no longer any need to qualify this "interference" (which any reasonable person should agree is rightly a "source of concern" to us, though Obama tried to keep this menacing threat in perspective by noting that "Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States"). And this was Obama's laugh line in response to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega's account of just a fraction of the vicious U.S. interference that produced these historic suspicions: "I am very grateful that President Ortega didn?t blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Obama said in his only direct reference to the Nicaraguan leader. ("I am very glad that Prime Minister Netanyahu didn't blame me for things that happened before I was born," Merkel said in her only direct reference to the Israeli leader.) The article also notes that Ortega "prompted a smirk from Obama when he referred to 'Yankee troops.'" Yes, what a hilarious anachronism! How amusing our victims can sometimes be! Like when the U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua would cut off men's testicles and leave them in their mouths? Hey, what's the matter, cat got your tongue? Oh, no, my mistake, you've got a mouthful of balls! Ha ha ha! Maybe Obama should have quipped, "I am very grateful that President Ortega didn't blame me for the U.S.-sponsored castrations and nun-raping that happened when I was still snorting cocaine in my youth." The laughs just never stop, do they? The smirk in question?which, as this small survey of his comments indicates, was only the most visible sign of Obama's paternalistic contempt for the banana republicans all around him and their petty obsession with the hundreds of thousands of their citizens killed by direct and indirect U.S. intervention over the years?looked something like this: [How these lesser beings disgust me!] All of which illustrates why Obama truly is a perfect representative for the U.S.A., since he is, without a doubt, one of the most unbelievably sanctimonious assholes I've ever heard. ? John Caruso From pbond at mail.ngo.za Mon May 4 12:35:22 2009 From: pbond at mail.ngo.za (Patrick Bond) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 20:35:22 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Peter Seeger concert In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <49FF356A.2030503@mail.ngo.za> And another who couldn't make it: Dennis Brutus. Here in Durban, we had a lovely tribute to Seeger. Dennis' contribution is below. (Background: Dennis has a broken rib but in his absense, this poem was read today at the local tribute to Pete Seeger at UKZN's outdoor amphitheatre, organised by Phyllis Naidoo and friends, which attracted more than 100 musical and political fans. A vast concert is being held in Madison Square Garden soon; details below. Seeger has been Dennis' friend since 1967 when they teamed up to fight apartheid. In the mid-1970s they worked against a white South African rugby team sneaked into the US for a match in Chicago which was moved to Albany; together they opposed that tour, marching in the rain. In 1984 when Dennis was targeted by the Reagan Administration as a subversive and subject to deportation, Seeger volunteered to do a benefit concert at Northeastern Univ Law School for Dennis' appeal that raised $18,000 for legal fees and saved the day. This is just one way those memories continue.) A tribute to Pete Seeger On his 90th birthday, 3 May 2009 There is joy in that voice and lilting courage in that music his message will endure, will endure will endure, will endure even while the years roll along He has sung his songs in the face of hate he has endured the storm?s bitter cold he has preached his faith, his tolerance confronting scorn he said ?Be bold, we will not be trapped or lured by gold? His voice joins a mighty chorus Arlo, Paul Robeson, Dylan and Joan and all who sing in support of Freedom: we know we are never alone we know we are never alone 2 May, 2009, Durban *** The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders A benefit concert in celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Sunday, May 3rd, 2009, 5:00 p.m. Madison Square Garden, New York, NY Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets range in price from $19.19 (the year Pete was born) to $250, with the majority of seats at $90 to honor Pete's 90th birthday. Every ticket purchased includes a one-year membership to Clearwater (new members only). Featuring.... Pete Seeger Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) Bruce Springsteen Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses) Dave Matthews Warren Haynes John Mellencamp Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet Ani DiFranco Bernice Johnson Reagon Arlo Guthrie Dar Williams B?la Fleck Eric Weissberg Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses) Guy Davis Ben Harper Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Billy Bragg John Hall Bill Nershi (String Cheese Incident) Kate & Anna McGarrigle Bruce Cockburn Larry Long Del McCoury Martha Wainwright Emmylou Harris Mike & Ruthy Merenda Joan Baez NYC Labor Chorus Keller Williams Ruby Dee Kris Kristofferson Scarlett Lee Moore Michael Franti Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) Teddy Thompson Preservation Hall Jazz Band Tom Chapin Ramblin' Jack Elliott Tom Paxton Richie Havens Tommy Sands with Moya & Fionan Roger McGuinn Tony Trischka Steve Earle Toshi Reagon Taj Mahal And the Native American Indian Cultural Alliance... Bill Miller Margo Thunderbird Casper Lomadawa Oren Lyons David Amram R. Carlos Nakai Eddie Benton Tiokasin Ghosthorse Joseph Firecrow Vernon Masayesva Joanne Shenandoah Victorio Roland Mousaa All proceeds to benefit the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater (www.clearwater.org), a non-profit organization created to defend and restore the Hudson River. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From epoliticus at gmail.com Mon May 4 12:55:51 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 14:55:51 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] On Robinson Message-ID: It was just brought to my attention that the L.A. Times also published an article on the Robinson case (on 30 April 2009). It was written by one Duke Helfand. The full article can be read at http://bit.ly/XK2hp epoliticus ----- Professor's comparison of Israelis to Nazis stirs furor The UC Santa Barbara sociologist, who is Jewish, sent images from the Holocaust and from Israel's Gaza offensive to students in his class. He has drawn denunciation and support. Controversy has erupted at UC Santa Barbara over a professor's decision to send his students an e-mail in which he compared graphic images of Jews in the Holocaust to pictures of Palestinians caught up in Israel's recent Gaza offensive. The e-mail by tenured sociology professor William I. Robinson has triggered a campus investigation and drawn accusations of anti-Semitism from two national Jewish groups, even as many students and faculty members have voiced support for him. The uproar began in January when Robinson sent his message -- titled "parallel images of Nazis and Israelis" -- to the 80 students in his sociology of globalization class. [...] From noah at noahz.org Mon May 4 13:26:57 2009 From: noah at noahz.org (Noah Zweig) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:26:57 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Students_Protest_Anti-Defamation_Leagu?= =?windows-1252?q?e=92s_Involvement_in_UCSB_Matter_=28FWD=29?= Message-ID: Here's the local newspaper's coverage of Thursday's action. Apologies for any duplication. best, ~Noah http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/01/students-protest-anti- defamation-leagues-involveme/ Yesterday, a well-dressed group of students ? most of them hailing from sociology and political science graduate programs ? descended upon UCSB?s Cheadle Hall to arrange a meeting with Chancellor Henry Yang concerning charges of anti-Semitism that have been levied by the academic senate against sociology professor William Robinson, though not without a little hiccup. Stuck in a Cheadle Hall elevator for about 20 minutes, 13 of the students had to wait until university service workers freed them before they could reunite with others in the group. Emerging from the cramped, hot compartment, sighs of relief were uttered as the temporary captives made their way across the hall toward Yang?s office and a nervous-looking secretary who was wondering what they were all doing there. The students said that their group ? the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB ? had been denied a meeting slot with Yang, as the chancellor said he had no comments on the issue. Full: http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/01/students-protest- anti-defamation-leagues-involveme/ From binesi at gvtel.com Mon May 4 13:48:26 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 14:48:26 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Review: When Skateboards Will be Free In-Reply-To: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> References: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> Message-ID: <49FF468A.1040308@gvtel.com> Here's an anecdote I'd like to throw into the mix: When I was branch organizer of the SWP in Minneapolis in the late 1960s, there was a group of foreign students who met with SWP support, though independently (for their protection as nonresidents), about once a week, to discuss Marxism and issues relating to their countries of origin. Mahmoud was one of those. Another one, from South India, has remained to this day a close friend of mine. Others were from Chile and countries I don't recall. In the early seventies, before I had quit the SWP and was working for /Intercontinental Press/, the party's international journal, Mahmoud asked to borrow my copy of Mary Renault's /The Persian Boy/. When he returned it, he told me: "Everybody in Iran is involved in such relationships" (i.e., pederastic relationships). After Ahmedinijad told the world a year or so ago that homosexuality does not exist in Iran, I thought back on this incident. Perhaps it was only a matter of terminology? But then, U.S. and European gay groups began to denounce Iran for persecution of homosexuals, yet not one of them ever mentioned that pederasty (love between men and boys) is a historic feature of Persian society (and others--e.g., the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, U.S. allies about whom the bourgeois press expunges any mention of this un-p.c. behavior, anathematized by both the ruling class and the toadying gay/lez movement). David Louis Proyect wrote: > (Swans - May 4, 2009) When Skateboards Will Be Free is a memoir by > Sa?d Sayrafiezadeh about growing up with parents who were devoted > members of the Socialist Workers Party. The mother is Martha Harris, a > Jew who finally leaves the party at the end of the book. From markalause at gmail.com Mon May 4 13:53:15 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 15:53:15 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Peter Seeger concert In-Reply-To: <49FF356A.2030503@mail.ngo.za> References: <49FF356A.2030503@mail.ngo.za> Message-ID: Happy birthday to Pete! How many radicals make it to 90 and are still so widely beloved? Of how many can it be said that their virtues so clearly eclipse their errors. ML From poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com Mon May 4 13:58:12 2009 From: poeticaleconomy at yahoo.com (Max Clark) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:58:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Marx and Engels on Malthus Message-ID: <538757.60712.qm@web45003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> The following is from?David Harvey's *Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference* (p. 145-146): 'Classical political economy frequently invoked natural scarcity and diminishing marginal returns as the root cause of crises and persistent poverty. Ricardo, for example, adopted much of what Malthus had to say about overpopulation and ecoscarcity, attributing the falling rate of profit under capitalism to diminishing returns on land (or on all resources) to the point where rent on increasingly scarce resources would absorb all profit. This prompted Marx to observe that when faced with a crisis all Ricardo could do was to take refuge in organic chemistry. Marx, of course, would have no truck with the ecoscarcity argument. Poverty and lack of well-being as well as the crisis tendencies?of capitalism had to be explained through the internal dynamics of the capitalist mode of production rather than by resource scarcities or by so-called "natural laws" of population. What Marx comes up with is a thorough explanation of the production of impoverishment, of unemployment, of misery and disease among the lower classes as?a necessary outcome of how laissez-faire free-market capitalism works, no matter what the rate of population growth. There is a specific rule of overpopulation under capitalism that relates to the need to produce an industrial reserve army, a relative surplus population, for the expansionary dynamics of a capitalist mode of production. ... Furthermore, his [Marx's] more detailed discussions on Malthus indicate that he thought there were many situations in which population dynamics might have either positive or negative relations to the reproduction of a particular mode of production. Capitalism, he argued, requires a growing population as a real foundation for capital accumulation. ... [Quote from the Grundrisse:] "In different modes of social production there are different laws of the increase of population and overpopulation. ... Thus what may be overpopulation in one stage of social production may not be so in another, and their effects may be different. The amount of overpopulation posited on the basis of a specific production is thus just as determinate as the adequate population. Overpopulation and population, taken together, are *the* population which a specific production basis can?create." The Marxist?tradition subsequently paid most attention to his [Marx's] outright rejection of the ecoscarcity arguments of Malthus and Ricardo. And it sometimes went on to draw the unwarranted implication that all forms of the overpopulation or ecoscarcity argument are merely a product of apologetic bourgeois reasoning. ...' From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 14:01:28 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 16:01:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Marx and Engels on Malthus In-Reply-To: <538757.60712.qm@web45003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <538757.60712.qm@web45003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <49FF4998.9040401@panix.com> Max Clark wrote: > The following is from David Harvey's *Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference* (p. 145-146): This is one of Harvey's weaker books, one that he even characterized as such a year or two after it was published. Here is my review: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/harvey_leibniz.htm From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Mon May 4 14:29:01 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 16:29:01 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> > > > *An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever > * > > The Independent UK: "The biggest internet revolution for a generation will > be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will understand > questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has > never managed before. The new system, Wolfram Alpha, showcased at Harvard > University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many > consider to be the internet's Holy Grail - a global store of information > that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person > does." > > http://www.truthout.org/050409O?n > > > From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Mon May 4 14:30:12 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 16:30:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Myth of Talibanistan In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905041330w7fc2096dtb40719a4fdad1ae1@mail.gmail.com> > *The Myth of Talibanistan* > > *By Pepe Escobar* > > Apocalypse Now. Run for cover. The turbans are coming. This is the state of > Pakistan today, according to the current hysteria disseminated by the Barack > Obama administration and United States corporate media - from Secretary of > State Hillary Clinton to The New York Times. > > http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22542.htm > > > From lnp3 at panix.com Mon May 4 16:41:34 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 18:41:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Latest Empire Report from Bill Blum Message-ID: <49FF6F1E.1050201@panix.com> http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer69.html From theguavatree at gmail.com Mon May 4 16:55:41 2009 From: theguavatree at gmail.com (guava tree) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 18:55:41 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Review: When Skateboards Will be Free In-Reply-To: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> References: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> Message-ID: On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: > Sa?d Sayrafiezadeh's When Skateboards Will Be Free > by Louis Proyect > Book Review > good review. His parents really screwed up in not buying him a skateboard. As most people in America know, this is probably the number one sport that will gain you instant altercations with the police. And once you have an altercation with the police you usually don't look at society in the same way. Here are some youtube videos of cops harassing and being violent with kids who are pretty young: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6AYVn2yw4 the last one gets more violent around 2:13 Usually parents don't want their children to have skateboards because they're bourgeois, or bourgeois-aspiring and don't want their children "loitering", breaking the law, hanging out with a counterculture. I wonder if any of these motives unconsciously factored into his mother's decision? As opposed to the ridiculous reason that after the revolution "skateboards will be free" so you can't have one now -- one could say the same thing about a birthday cake, but in that case, it would be obvious that *it's not about the cake* of course like most everything else skateboarding is also a business and subject to the capitalistic dynamic, but I think there is more room in the sport of skateboarding for alternative ideas about private property, power, the police to develop. this would have been even more the case in the late 70s. From epoliticus at gmail.com Mon May 4 16:58:12 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 18:58:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Rick Wolff on the U.S. Auto Industry Message-ID: The Real News interviewed Rick Wolff. You will find the links below. Part II: Unions should convert their position as owners into active participation in making decisions (see http://bit.ly/V5M3) Part III: Auto industry affects the whole society, it's too significant for private ownership (see http://bit.ly/3x7Qe1) I agree with Wolff's political conclusion, although he appears to either to gloss over the fact that the U.A.W. is not quite the legal entity that has been endowed with the Chrysler shares or is unaware of this distinction. 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 jbustelo at gmail.com Mon May 4 17:08:35 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 19:08:35 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses In-Reply-To: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> References: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> Message-ID: Louis quoted at us: "It is fashionable among some layers on the left to blame the workers' 'low consciousness' for the lack of a genuine left alternative emerging within the labour movement internationally. This is utterly false and represents a lack of understanding of how the working class moves historically. The working class is fully aware of the situation it is in. What it requires is a leadership up to task of leading the class in its struggle to change society." I take back all the nasty things I said about the list yesterday. I haven't laughed so hard since ... well, yesterday, when I watched a week's worth of Daily Shows and Colbert Reports so I could erase them and keep AT&T's DVR software from wiping out my stash of season III Kyle XY's. This article Louis has brought to our attention is the Nec plus ultra of messianic idealism, an ultimate expression of "man's search for meaning" and all that other existentialist 1960's crap [with --I'm going to say it, no matter how big a shitstorm it kicks up-- a heavy overlay of the white man's burden]. It is a desperate attempt to forestall capitulation to the wisdom of the Bard: SEYTON The queen, my lord, is dead. MACBETH She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. * * * Mark Lause makes the perfectly respectable and modest point that there is almost certainly not a complete divorce between the consciousness of the masses and the politics of its leadership. Me, everyone here knows, is going to piss and moan about being and consciousness, in an almost (I hope only "almost") vulgarly economist way, and the thought that the consciousness of the masses is not entirely unrelated to which side their bread is buttered on. From jbustelo at gmail.com Mon May 4 17:15:39 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 19:15:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Review: When Skateboards Will be Free In-Reply-To: References: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> Message-ID: Guava tree done writ: "Usually parents don't want their children to have skateboards because they're bourgeois, or bourgeois-aspiring and don't want their children 'loitering', breaking the law, hanging out with a counterculture. I wonder if any of these motives unconsciously factored into his mother's decision?" GOSH, I wish I'd known this three or four years ago. Me, I thought it was just the next stage after Yugi-Oh and before electric guitars, and it would have done wonders for my self esteem had I understood the profoundly revolutionary implications of $75 skateboard shoes, instead of going home shaking my head and saying to myself, J., you're such a pushover. If he asked for nukes you'd probably engage him on whether he wanted them on stealth bombers or MIRVed ICBM's. Joaquin From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Mon May 4 17:22:30 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 09:22:30 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal: Maoists leave government over military rule Message-ID: <2c6145850905041622s176b1fcblfeeee0d85e3f652b@mail.gmail.com> Everything is obviously up in the air and the dust will have to settle. But this sequence of events amounts to nothing less than a coup against the Maoists. It may be a "soft coup", in its way, but it is a coup. The president's authority was meant to be ceremonial - the president, from the right-wing Nepalese Congress party, broke this arrangement to directly go against the prime minister. Over what issue? The issue of whether or not the military is to under the authority of the elected government or not. The president chose not. The head of the military was sacked by the Maoists for perfectly legitimate reasons. He refused to follow government directives. He led the direct violation of the peace agreements that ended the armed conflict, particular by recruiting thousands of soldiers directly to the old royalist army and blocking moves to integrate the old army with the Maoist PLA. The army chief of staff, backed by the president, refused to recognise he had been sacked. Therefore there were two heads of the army - the one appointed by the government (with the dissent of the Moaists coalition partners) and the old chief insisting he still is chief. If the military are not acocuntable to, but are above the elected government, you don't have a democracy. You have military rule with the window dressing of an elected government. Ont his basis, the Maoists have withdrawn from government. This was exactly what they said they would do in a speecht he finance minister gave tyo a May Day rally, in which he staked the Maoist-led government on sackingthe army chief, saying if they could not do that they would "return to the streets" This is a coup - even if what happens next is completely uncertain. We can assume the Maoists wont retreat into their shell, meaning the next period is likely to be one of very intense conflict. The international left had better pay attention and figure out which side of these barricades (possibly about to become literal) they line up on. Monday, May 4, 2009 UPDATE- May 4 - 4:00PM The Maoist led government is not more. I have just come from a press conference at the Prime Ministers office where Prime Minister Prachanda was to address the nation. The Meeting was first addressed by Minister of Communications and Information, and spokesperson of the Government, Krishna Mahara. He informed those present that the just completed cabinet meeting has declared that the actions of the President in reinstating the Chief of Army Staff was illegal, and sent him a letter demanding he revoke his decision. He also informed that the cabinet meeting has also accepted the resignations that had been presented by the ministers from the UML and the Sabdhavana party. After this Prachanda addressed the Nation. He announced that he has resigned from his position as Prime Minister. This has naturally completely changed the political situation in Nepal. It seems, my early analysis would be, that this is to open it up to the opposition to try and create a government without the Maoists, which would be extremely difficult and have no political basis- apart from being "anti-Maoists". It is hard to tell at present the exact course of events, however, when i have more information i will pass it on. There again has been protests from both sides all day, which without doubt would have had some clashes. Still a situation of tremendous uncertainty. things are changing by the moment, sorry for short post... -- "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 binesi at gvtel.com Mon May 4 17:40:51 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 18:40:51 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] When Skateboards Will be Free Message-ID: <49FF7D03.4040303@gvtel.com> A few years ago, I saw an Op-Ed piece in the /New York Times /by Garrison Keillor stating that (at a time when Norway had a majority of females in the cabinet--unlike any other country on Earth) they pushed through a regulation banning use of skateboards by youths--a kind of motherhood protection of youth that could only stifle youthful exuberance. David ============================================================================ Joaquin Bustelo wrote: Guava tree done writ: "Usually parents don't want their children to have skateboards because they're bourgeois, or bourgeois-aspiring and don't want their children 'loitering', breaking the law, hanging out with a counterculture. I wonder if any of these motives unconsciously factored into his mother's decision?" GOSH, I wish I'd known this three or four years ago. Me, I thought it was just the next stage after Yugi-Oh and before electric guitars, and it would have done wonders for my self esteem had I understood the profoundly revolutionary implications of $75 skateboard shoes, instead of going home shaking my head and saying to myself, J., you're such a pushover. If he asked for nukes you'd probably engage him on whether he wanted them on stealth bombers or MIRVed ICBM's. Joaquin From jbustelo at gmail.com Mon May 4 18:32:55 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 20:32:55 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> Dennis Brasky perpetrated unto the list: > The Independent UK: "The biggest internet revolution for a generation > will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will > understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that > the web has never managed before." Dennis, you DO realize this is 100% unadulterated horseshit, don't you? If you're still not convinced, ask Jeeves. Joaquin From jbustelo at gmail.com Mon May 4 18:34:59 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 20:34:59 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] When Skateboards Will be Free In-Reply-To: <49FF7D03.4040303@gvtel.com> References: <49FF7D03.4040303@gvtel.com> Message-ID: <43A9643EC7F14223936C807D62C3F032@albanta> David: "A few years ago, I saw an Op-Ed piece in the /New York Times /by Garrison Keillor stating that (at a time when Norway had a majority of females in the cabinet--unlike any other country on Earth) they pushed through a regulation banning use of skateboards by youths--a kind of motherhood protection of youth that could only stifle youthful exuberance." Yeah. More than once I've felt -- fuck the kids joining our revolution. Let's join theirs. Joaquin From gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com Mon May 4 18:37:30 2009 From: gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com (Gary MacLennan) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 10:37:30 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses In-Reply-To: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> References: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> Message-ID: Fools rush in I suppose but this thread tempts me as yesterday I attended my first May Day rally for a number of years. I went because of my commitment to the Justice for Palestine group that I am a member of. So there I was with a handful of old comrades from the "street fighting days" staring at the working class and wondering what in the name of Jeezuss they were contemplating about the brutal reality that was closing in around them. There were a large number of people going around with t-shirts proclaiming "Kevin Rudd (Labor Prime Minister) and Anna Bligh (State Labor Premier) fighting for your jobs" No one pelted them with rocks, so there would appear to have been at least passive support for a most outrageous lie. TMeanwhile the workers guzzled their free beer and chewed on their sausages and tomato sauce. There was a totally depoliticised atmosphere -very much like your everyday barbecue - but bigger. On the margins thee were four or five leftist stall distributing literature and trying to get a discussion going about the trade union movement. One worker opined to a leftie near me that he had only come for the free beer. That provoked sad shakes of the head from my comrades. But I ventured to say about the worker after he left that he had not even come close to speaking the truth. The workers had not come in their thousands for the freebies. My best guess is that they are deeply frightened by what is happening in the economy and have reacted by holding ever closer to their party and their leaders and that is the Labor Party and Rudd and Bligh and the trade union bureaucracy. That is IMHO the workers best guess about what they should do in this crisis. Now I make no apologies to anyone for saying that the workers are wrong and very wrong to put their faith in what is incorrectly called "reformism". Class collaboration is of course the more accurate description. Like everyone or nearly everyone on the list I have spent a life time following the kind of politics which flow from that particular estimation of reformism. We have all paid a price one way or the other for that decision. Yesterday on the what used to be called the "Red Contingent" that tagged along behind the main unionist march I saw only Ian, Joe, Joyce, Carole, Rosemary & Ian still turning up of all that "delirium of the brave" from the 70s.s The question inevitably arises, "Who is to blame for our total isolation?" Well I resist strongly the temptation to blame ourselves. And let it be said without fear that it is a temptation to succumb to what is in reality self-loathing. Sure we have made mistakes - huge ones. I think of the absolutely crazy sectarian crap that passes for "party-building" and I could weep over the senseless and meaningless splits here that have continued to weaken us. But we have not made the ultimate mistake of placing our faith in capitalism and its avatars and that is precisely the mistake the workers have and are making. However things will fall apart and the workers will not be able to hold on to their illusions despite all the free beers and sausages. Then we will have our fight with this rotten system and all who sail in it. regards Gary From jbustelo at gmail.com Mon May 4 18:38:04 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 20:38:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Michael Ignatieff: Canada's Obama In-Reply-To: <49FF07F7.9090907@panix.com> References: <49FF07F7.9090907@panix.com> Message-ID: <1F3ED0BEEAF04FCCBE05B8F6AC8F0EA5@albanta> I think the mere capacity to formulate the profoundly ahistorical misunderstanding captured on the subject line pretty much disqualifies you from being taken seriously ever again. From new.wave.nw at gmail.com Mon May 4 18:52:00 2009 From: new.wave.nw at gmail.com (new wave) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 06:22:00 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal: Maoists leave government over military rule In-Reply-To: <2c6145850905041622s176b1fcblfeeee0d85e3f652b@mail.gmail.com> References: <2c6145850905041622s176b1fcblfeeee0d85e3f652b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5141ec810905041752m502eb0adhfc6a9910e40748aa@mail.gmail.com> Comrade, We had long ago predicted this destiny of Maoism in Nepal. Kindly check it on our our site: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/search/label/Nepal Editor the new wave New Delhi Cell: 9810081383 From adambrichmond at yahoo.com Mon May 4 19:54:20 2009 From: adambrichmond at yahoo.com (Adam Richmond) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 18:54:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Obama silient on AIDS Message-ID: <421371.5291.qm@web54603.mail.re2.yahoo.com> http://ga1.org/campaign/ahf_obamaonaids President Obama has been in office for 100 days, but has been totally silent on AIDS. AIDS Healthcare Foundation believes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is an urgent public health issue that must be addressed at the highest levels. The TV ad above contains a brief history of U.S. presidential responses to HIV/AIDS, and challenges President Obama to be "the change we can believe in on AIDS". In the 28-year history of AIDS, U.S. presidential action or inaction has meant the difference between life and death for millions of people. Obama's leadership is desperately needed to change the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic - a disease that continues to have a devastating effect on people in the U.S. and around the world. Urge President Obama to be the change we can all believe in on AIDS by sending an e-letter below. From binesi at gvtel.com Mon May 4 20:48:10 2009 From: binesi at gvtel.com (David Thorstad) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 21:48:10 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Obama silient [sic] on AIDS Message-ID: <49FFA8EA.1050801@gvtel.com> Adam Richmond wrote: Obama's leadership is desperately needed to change the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic - a disease that continues to have a devastating effect on people in the U.S. and around the world. Urge President Obama to be the change we can all believe in on AIDS by sending an e-letter below. ==================================================================================== Excuse me while I throw up. This is the worst kind of liberal pabulum, spreading illusions in the potential goodness of the capitalist system. Let's let Obama off the hook on this one. He is not to blame for AIDS, or for its continued spread. The whole idea of "urging" Our Savior "to be the change we can all believe in" makes me want to puke. What is this, a Marxist religious list? Gimme a break. David From elishastephens at hotmail.com Mon May 4 20:49:54 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 19:49:54 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] May Day in San Jose Message-ID: With video: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/05/may-day-in-san-jose.html Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Mon May 4 20:52:10 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 22:52:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal: Maoists leave government over military rule In-Reply-To: <5141ec810905041752m502eb0adhfc6a9910e40748aa@mail.gmail.com> References: <2c6145850905041622s176b1fcblfeeee0d85e3f652b@mail.gmail.com> <5141ec810905041752m502eb0adhfc6a9910e40748aa@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: These developments have been troubling, especially because the President is supposedly representing a Marxist-Leninist party. We'll see what happens going forward. From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Mon May 4 21:08:28 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 23:08:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Joaquin Bustelo wrote: > Dennis Brasky perpetrated unto the list: > > > The Independent UK: "The biggest internet revolution for a generation > > will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will > > understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that > > the web has never managed before." > > Dennis, you DO realize this is 100% unadulterated horseshit, don't you? > > If you're still not convinced, ask Jeeves. > > Joaquin > > > reply - I guess it would be asking too much to ACTUALLY EXPLAIN your views. From absynthe at gmail.com Mon May 4 21:11:10 2009 From: absynthe at gmail.com (chegitz guevara) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 23:11:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Nepal: Maoists leave government over military rule In-Reply-To: References: <2c6145850905041622s176b1fcblfeeee0d85e3f652b@mail.gmail.com> <5141ec810905041752m502eb0adhfc6a9910e40748aa@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: No, the President is from Nepali Congress, an opposition party. On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:52 PM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > These developments have been troubling, especially because the President is > supposedly representing a Marxist-Leninist party. ?We'll see what happens > going forward. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Mon May 4 21:15:07 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 23:15:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Two AIPAC agents walk in spy case; Palestinian activist still jailed awaiting trial Message-ID: <206E8FE7F981443DBAC4604ABE7D9DBC@office1pc> The case against the figures from AIPAC, the foreign policy lobby strongly supported to date by the rulers of both the United States and Israel, was dropped after the judge ruled that prosecution had to prove that they had knowingly damaged US national security in getting information for Israel. Taken by itself, this is a good decision. Applying this standard equitably would eliminate most espionage cases, including those such as the Rosenberg case. The whole charge that Alger Hiss spied for Russia completely dissolves into nothing if the standard was applied, even if everything Chambers accused him of is true. However, targeted whistle-blowers and people facing espionage charges who are not under the protection of the rulers can be sure that no such standard will be applied if they are prosecuted, although prospective lawyers should keep this case on file. What happened here was not justice but pure favoritism. At issue was the dispute over Israel policy that had spilled out of the halls of think tanks and lobbies, and spilled into the courts. At issue is the super-Most-Favored-Nation status that Israel has in the US political arena and foreign policy, a status that a growing minority would like to modify. Items like this are mostly worth watching for the ongoing political struggle taking place. The outcome is a victory for the more strongly pro-Israel forces like the Washington Post, and those (not at all anti-Israel, despite the hype) who want the US to play a more active role in forcing a compromise settlement with the Palestinians, thus relieving some of the pressures stemming from US warmaking in the region. Abourezk is, of course, entirely right to contrast the treatment of the two AIPAC-ites and the brutality visited on el-Irian, whose only crime has been to express views the US government would like to silence. These are contrasting examples of one kind of justice: the class and racist justice meted out by the US government. Fred Feldman May 4, 2009 http://www.counterpunch.org/abourezk05042009.html Where's the Justice at the Justice Department? The AIPAC Spy Case By JAMES G. ABOUREZK The big news last week was the defection of Republican Senator Arlen Specter to the Democrats; the bankruptcy filing of the Chrysler Corporation, and finally, the retirement of Justice David Souter from the U.S. Supreme Court. A much smaller news item competing with these sensational stories was that the U.S. Justice Department announced that it is dropping the espionage charges against two former AIPAC agents. The story was so small that it barely was a blip on the media's radar, bringing absolutely no comment on the network news and talk shows. That's known as clever public relations. Announce the bad news on a day when it won't be noticed. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman had been charged in 2005 with the crime of espionage; specifically, handing over to Israel secret information they had retrieved from Larry Franklin, who was then a policy analyst in the U.S. Defense Department, working for Douglas Feith and for Paul Wolfowitz. Franklin pleaded guilty to relaying top secret information on Iran to Rosen and Weissman, and was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison, a term he is currently serving. In the New York Times story detailing the Justice Department's decision to drop the charges against Rosen and Weissman, the prosecutors claimed that the presiding federal judge, T.S. Ellis III, had raised the bar for the prosecution to prove its case against the two to a level they did not believe they could meet. The Judge said that the prosecutors could only prevail if they could prove that Rosen and Weissman "knew that their distribution of the information would harm U.S. National Security." That was enough to make them dismiss the charges. No one in the headquarters of the Justice Department took part in the announcement, but it was made by the prosecutors themselves, presumably the U.S. Attorney in charge of prosecution. I've had some experience in court with U.S. Attorneys. What I know about how they operate is that if they don't have a case, they will bring so many charges that forces the unlucky Defendant to plead guilty to at least one or two of them. I would like to turn now the case of Sami Al-Arian, who was a college professor in Florida. Sami is a Palestinian, born in Kuwait. And why wasn't he born in Palestine like a good Palestinian should be? Because, most likely, his parents were chased out of Palestine when Israel undertook its ethnic cleansing of that land in order to create an exclusive Jewish state. Al Arian was charged in 2003 in a 50 count indictment, essentially with a plethora of terrorism charges. He waited 28 months in solitary in harsh conditions, before being tried in 2005. The trial lasted six months, with some 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations and faxes. At the end of the prosecution's case, Al Arian's lawyers rested without offering any evidence or witnesses in his defense. After 13 days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Al Arian on 8 of 17 counts, and deadlocked on the other with 10 to 2 favoring acquittal. Two of the co-defendants charged along with Al Arian were totally acquitted. Undaunted, the Justice Department prosecutors said they were considering re-trying Al Arian on the deadlocked jury charges, one of which carried a life sentence. Rather than fighting on, Al Arian agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (which is designated as a terrorist organization, but which the FBI admitted during trial had never carried out an attack outside of Israel. The United States has designated a number of Palestinian liberation groups as terrorists at the behest of Israel-groups that have never attacked the United States). Al Arian had spent years in solitary confinement awaiting his trial. As part of his plea agreement the prosecution agreed not to charge Al Arian with any other crimes, and Al Arian agreed to expedited deportation. He was, however, nearly re-charged when he refused to testify against another Palestinian organization. He went on a hunger strike, dangerous for a diabetic, but finally the prosecutors agreed that the agreement exempted him from testifying in other cases.Yet the charges have not been dropped and the government wants to strip Al-Arian of all his defenses. The judge in the case is considering a motion for dismissal based on the government's bait and switch tactics. The government is opposing this motion One would have thought that, following the jury's decision, the bar set by the jury in the Al Arian case would be so high that the prosecution would finally leave him alone. But there is apparently a difference between a Palestinian patriot and Americans spying for Israel. One group has a powerful lobby in Washington, and the other has nothing, except the urging of that powerful lobby to go after any Palestinian activist with criminal charges or anything else they can get their hands on. The question is: Can you find the justice in the Justice Department? James G. Abourezk is a lawyer practicing in South Dakota. He is a former United States senator and the author of two books, Advise and Dissent, and a co-author of Through Different Eyes. This article also runs in the current issue of Washington Report For Middle East Affairs. Abourezk can be reached at georgepatton45 at gmail.comi From markalause at gmail.com Mon May 4 21:30:37 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 23:30:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: A friend forwarded this article to me a few days ago and I followed the link, read the piece, and continued on to the comments. For a product that hasn't been released yet, this is just a lot of hype. As to whether it's "unadulterated horseshit," though, I think we'll have to wait and see.... ML From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Mon May 4 22:31:31 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 14:31:31 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Why Nepal has divided of army chief sacking Message-ID: <2c6145850905042131u393c6f46j99ad1d6b6a64f25a@mail.gmail.com> * * * http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/neil-horning-nepal-divides-over-army-chief/ * *Neil Horning, an American expert on Maoist movement, maintains a **personal blog at Neil?s Nepal* * where this post first appeared. Original title ?Why Nepal is Divided Over the Sacking of Army Chief??* *By Neil Horning* It?s not so important to ask why the Maoists are sacking the Army Chief as it is to ask why the other parties are apposing this so strongly. Three reasons: In a democracy, the Army should not be a center of power in the slightest. It is supposed to carry out the will of the elected government within the confines of the constitution. To illustrate, when Obama was elected, it was considered a novelty when he did not replace the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Thus, in assessing this development, I feel it?s not so important to ask why the Maoists are sacking the Army Chief as it is to ask why the other parties are apposing this so strongly. There a couple of reasons why this could be so. In increasing importance: *1. The Army Chief has important friends in elite circles* Even in the US it?s common to say, ?it?s not what you know. It?s who you know.? This could not be truer in Nepal. While the country has gone through tremulous upheaval recently, nepotism, corruption, and crony-ism have hardly abated. While the Nepali Congress and The UML formally apposed the Palace, their upper crust, mostly Brahmin-Chetri members ran in the same social circles with royals and royalists, dined with them, attended the same wedding receptions, ran the same civic organizations, served on the same boards, etc. All in this elite class share the goal of, to one degree or another, preserving the power of their own class-caste. These are social contacts that nearly all Maoist members severed while going underground, if they existed to begin with, and they hardly have had time to return. The Army Chief Surely has many friends within the CPN UML and NC, if not relatives (which trump all), and many favors to call in. *2. The other parties want to use the army as a power center to balance the Maoists* While social ties are important, concrete interests are paramount. The other parties, who, blinded by their own triumphalism in ?bringing the Maoists into the mainstream,? dismissed the Maoists electoral chances little more than a year ago, are terrified by the Maoists electoral gains and their subsequent political power. These fears likely reflect a genuine concern that the Maoists will abandon their embrace of multi-party democracy and return to their original goal of single party dictatorship. However, functionally equivalent and more genuinely felt, is the fear that the parties will permanently loose their dominant position in society. This would not just be through the loss of their seats, but through the reforms the Maoists have planned. It?s important to keep in mind that elites stand to lose quite a bit even if the Maoists don?t turn Nepal into a socialist/communist utopia. Nepal is not even a meritocracy yet, it still has a semi-feudal economy based on patronage. It?s pre-capitalist. Thus, even the introduction of an equal opportunity based social structure, championed by the United States and denounced by hard core reds everywhere, is highly threatening to Nepalis in the political class. They will stop at nothing to maintain their power, and the principle of civilian supremacy falls victim to this end. While some of them express the concern that the Maoists will use the army to dominate the country if it actually follows their commands, what they want is an army as a separate power center to use as check on the Maoists growing influence. Whether this is in their long term interest provided they defeat the Maoists is secondary to their immediate concerns. *3. The other parties appose army integration* * * In keeping with this theme, the mainstream parties, as well as the elites in the army, view army integration in an apocalyptic light. While integrating the PLA into the NA was agreed upon time and again in the course of peace negotiations the Non-Maoist parties made their agreements under the assumption that the Maoists could not possibly win electoral victory, and would not be in charge of implementing the integration. They counted on returning to the long standing Nepali political habit of agreeing to a demand in negotiation and then reneging on it later when the opponent is not in a position to make a challenge. They are trying to do the same now by continually insisting that Maoists combatants be ?Rehabilitated? rather than integrated, but it is they who have lost their bargaining position. Yet, Why can?t they let it happen in the first place? The Maoists don?t have more than 20,000 troops to integrate into the more than 90,000 currently in the Army. This would hardly make the army into a force at the Maoists beckon call. We return to the previous point. It?s not that the army would become the private force of the Maoists, but that it would cease to be a check on them. With at least 25 percent of troops and officers being a former Maoist partisan. The possibility of a reactionary coup (of exactly the type outlined by Kantipur Publications recently) becomes impossible. The troops needed to suppress the public would simply turn their weapons on the command. Therefore, the army would cease to be a check and social change would continue unabated. Hopefully indicated above are the reasons why these have become non-negotiable issues for both sides. At stake is the existence of either one; Whether the PLA will be integrated and protect the Maoists from a violent overturn of the will of the electorate, or whether they will be ?rehabilitated? exposing the current leadership to the whim of south Asian political militarism and the overbearing inertia of the status quo. -- "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 gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com Tue May 5 01:56:23 2009 From: gary.maclennan1 at gmail.com (Gary MacLennan) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:56:23 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] May Day in San Jose In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Great video. Thanks for sharing this, Eli. Well done to you and all your comrades. comradely regards Gary From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Tue May 5 02:12:37 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 18:12:37 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Support the people of Nepal! Solidarity statement Message-ID: <2c6145850905050112q3f71d90cn3990d452ac198d7a@mail.gmail.com> Support democracy in Nepal! Support the Nepalese people! Democratic Socialist Perspective May 5, 2009 www.dsp.org.au All supporters of democracy and social justice have reason to be concerned by the recent events in the republic of Nepal. The military high command, backed by right-wing parties tied to the country?s elite, has openly defied the authority of the elected civilian government, led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M). In response, the government sought to remove army chief of staff General Katawal, via legal and constitutional means. Katawal refused to accept his removal and the government?s decision was illegally overturned by President Ram Baran Yadav from the conservative Nepalese Congress party, whose position under the interim constitution is largely ceremonial. With their coalition partners in government refusing to support the UCPN-M, Nepal?s prime minister and UCPN-M leader Prachanda announced on May 3 that the Maoists had no choice but to resign and leave government. The removal of the Maoists from government is nothing less than a coup. It reveals the real situation in Nepal ? that despite its democratic mandate for change, the Maoist-led government is being prevented by the old elite from implementing such change. The Maoists are working to mobilise their large base of support among the poor majority for street demonstrations against this coup. The peace accords signed by various parties in 2006, on the back of a mass pro-democracy uprising, ended a decade-long armed struggle between the monarch?s army and the Maoist-led People?s Liberation Army. The accords allowed for the April 2008 constituent assembly elections in which ? against expectations ? the Maoists won the most seats, receiving over 1 million votes more than their nearest competitor. Seeking the widest possible consensus, the Maoists established a broad coalition government. However, the UCPN-M?s proposals for a peaceful and democratic pro-poor transformation of Nepal that were endorsed at the ballot box have been frustrated by opposition within the parliament, the state and even the coalition government. It is taken for granted all around the world that if the military is above the elected government and can act as it wishes, there is no democracy. The Nepalese Army is infamous for its human rights abuses, including murder, torture and rape. It has also been responsible for coups against civilian governments, and the top ranks of the army recently admitted to planning a fresh coup against the current elected government! The Maoists have simply been attempting to implement the peace accords, under which the PLA fighters could be integrated into the army to create a new, unified military. The army chiefs have refused to do this and instead recruited thousands of new, non-Maoist fighters, in violation of the accords. The right-wing elite know that if the peace agreements are implemented, the army may stop being a weapon they can use to prevent social progress. In recent years, the Nepalese people, among the world?s poorest, have achieved giant strides forward. A centuries-old feudal monarchy has been overturned and a republic declared. The Nepalese people have voted for a transformation of their nation to one based on equality and pro-people development that ends poverty. There is nothing more terrifying to the ruling classes globally than the sight of a people winning power. The right-wing forces in Nepal are counting on the support of foreign powers, especially the United States and India. Nepal?s poor majority need our solidarity. All those who believe in the principles of democracy and social justice, who believe that people should not be condemned to backbreaking poverty simply because the powerful have carved the world up among themselves, need to support the people of Nepal and insist that: * the Nepalese people must be allowed to determine their future, foreign intervention must end; * the peace accords must be upheld; and * democracy must be respected and the people?s will implemented. *The DSP is a Marxist tendency in the Australia?s Socialist Alliance * -- "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 stuartmunckton at gmail.com Tue May 5 02:30:13 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 18:30:13 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Maoists vow to shut down parliament as police break up protest Message-ID: <2c6145850905050130s774f5a09h8c2eb7cd0f44f3da@mail.gmail.com> http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/05/2009553492988894.html Police break up Nepal protest Riot police in Nepal have broken up a protest outside the president's office and detained several demonstrators a day after the country's Maoist prime minister resigned. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the prime minister, resigned after the president, Ram Baran Yadav, blocked the government's attempt to sack the country's army chief. Tuesday morning's protest in Kathmandu took place despite a ban on rallies and with a large security presence on the streets of the capital. "We are expecting trouble and are prepared to stop violence in the streets," Navin Ghimire, a home ministry official, said adding that security forces were preparing to deal with potential unrest. Maoist supporters of the prime minister say the president acted unconstitutionally and have vowed to call mass street protests on Tuesday. Amid the escalating tensions leaders of Nepal's political parties were expected to meet in a bid to form a coalition government. Maoist supporters meanwhile have vowed to shut down parliament to protest the president's action. The party has strong support in rural Nepal and is thought to be able to calls tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Kathmandu and other cities. *'Stall parliament'* "We have decided to begin mass protests ... and stall parliament until the president takes back his decision," Nath Sharma, the party spokesman, said. Officials said the president asked the prime minister to stay on in a caretaker position until a new government is formed. But Dev Gurung, a senior Maoist official, said the party was taking to the streets until the army chief was ousted. "Civilian supremacy has been violated and we are not going to tolerate this," he said, threatening a repeat of the kind of protests the Maoists used to undermine Nepal's former king. The Maoist's main rivals have sided with the president, and said they would start talks aiming to form a new government. "An all-party meeting is scheduled this afternoon [Tuesday] to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition government with the consensus of all parties," Bimalendra Nidhi, a senior leader of the opposition, said. It was unclear if the Maoists, which is the biggest group in parliament with 40 per cent of the seats, would attend the meeting. The government fired General Rookmangud Katawal, the army chief, for refusing to integrate former Maoist rebels into the regular army under the terms of a 2006 peace deal that ended a decade of civil war. But the president who is also a member of the main opposition party told the head of the army to remain in his position. "The move by the president is an attack on this infant democracy and the peace process," Dahal said, accusing the president of having taken an "unconstitutional and undemocratic decision". "The interim constitution does not give any right to the president to act as a parallel power," he said. Concerns have grown over what the dispute will mean for the peace deal, which brought the Maoists into the political mainstream and ended their bloody decade-long "people's war". *Landmark vote* The Maoists won landmark elections last year and forced the abdication of the king. Since then they have been pushing to finalise the peace process by having their former fighters incorporated into the military. But the army views the former Maoist fighters as politically indoctrinated and has refused to absorb them. Subina Shrestha, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Nepal, said the latest crisis stems from a long-running row between the government and the army. One of the main points of the peace agreement was that the 19,000 members of the Maoist's People's Liberation Army were supposed to be incorporated into the national army, but that has not happened. But the army has been against the move and has been resisting for a long time. The army also accuses the Maoists of not fulfilling their commitments to return property seized during the civil war and disband its youth wing, the Young Communist League. -- "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 sabocat59 at mac.com Tue May 5 04:38:08 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 10:38:08 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Human Rights no block to EU-Colombia Trade Talks Message-ID: <2068398165-1241520041-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-2044303726-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> "It is easier to set up a paramilitary group than it is to set up a trade union." Human rights no block to EU-Colombia talks LEIGH PHILLIPS 04.05.2009 @ 17:47 CET http://euobserver. com/9/28062/?rk=1 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Tue May 5 04:57:56 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 11:57:56 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Review: When Skateboards Will be Free In-Reply-To: <49FF468A.1040308@gvtel.com> References: <49FEF340.9090608@panix.com> <49FF468A.1040308@gvtel.com> Message-ID: ""Everybody in Iran is involved in such relationships" (i.e., pederastic relationships). After Ahmedinijad told the world a year or so ago that homosexuality does not exist in Iran, I thought back on this incident. Perhaps it was only a matter of terminology? But then, U.S. and European gay groups began to denounce Iran for persecution of homosexuals, yet not one of them ever mentioned > that pederasty (love between men and boys) is a historic feature of Persian society (and others--e.g., the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, U.S. allies about whom the bourgeois press expunges any mention of this un-p.c. behavior, anathematized by both the ruling class and the toadying gay/lez movement)." Not just Pashtun allies of the British/US - when the Taliban started to take back Helmand province from the Brits a few years back, the Commander of the Talibs in the province (who was obviously keenly aware of their reputation pre-2001) passed round a message to his men to behave themselves properly, and specifically forbade messing around with the local boys - there's a Pashtun saying, I read somewhere, that goes roughly "women for breeding, boys for pleasure." Just one of those kinds of 'love that dare not speak its name', like the fact that when the Ayatollah Khomeini was a younger man at religious school in (I think) Qom, he used to take advantage of the custom of 'temporary wives' for which the city was famous... Jon Cloke From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Tue May 5 05:06:15 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 12:06:15 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] auto sales down . . .down . . . down ... and FIAT gambles to bu... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Speaking of which, here's an excellent gallery of photos from the UK Guardian newspaper of the massive build-up of unsold car stocks from all over the UK, due to the economic crisis - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/gallery/2009/jan/16/unsold-cars?picture=341883529 Jon Cloke From pt_costello at yahoo.com Tue May 5 05:10:32 2009 From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 04:10:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Message-ID: <2851.91368.qm@web63105.mail.re1.yahoo.com> A reveiw of a new biography of Friedrich Engels Marx's right-hand man was an industrialist who liked hunting, drinking and women. Roy Hattersley savours the irony My boast that I am among the small number of people who have started to read Friedrich Engels' Anti-D?hring has to be qualified by the admission that I am also among the even smaller number of people who have not finished reading it. So I was distressed to discover, from Tristram Hunt's new biography of Engels, that what I found to be an unintelligible book is a "pacey, engaging and comprehensible explanation of the science of Marxism". Happily, Hunt's biography of Engels is clear and concise; indeed, he possesses a remarkable talent for explaining what is usually incomprehensible. That certainly includes dialectical materialism - "the critical tool for reading society's endless shifting contradictions and readiness for revolution which was Marx's definitive contribution to western thought". In The Frock-Coated Communist, Hunt is helped to make the obscure plain by the assiduous use of quotations from Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, a rewrite of Anti-D?hring that is very nearly what we now call "a popular version". In it, Engels wrote that when the means of production become state property, "the proletariat abolishes itself as a proletariat, abolishes all class distinction and class antagonism, abolishes also the State as a State". I am still not sure how the thought-process that concludes with this fantasy can be called scientific rather than utopian, but, thanks to Hunt, my greater understanding of the general theory leaves me with one firm conviction: I am pro-D?hring. History has made Engels appear the back end of the pantomime horse that produced The Communist Manifesto, with Marx at the front determining direction and speed. We learn from Hunt that although the seductive, heroic prose was pure Marx, "much of the hard intellectual grind... had been carried out by Engels". Without him, the call that "working men of all countries unite" would have been just more windy polemic. Industry and thought are what were to be expected from the author of The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, a survey that does far more than just report how the poor lived. When Engels, describing the Manchester slums, concludes that "only a physically degenerate race, robbed of all humanity, degraded, reduced morally and physically to bestiality, could feel comfortable and at home" in them, he clearly lacks the sympathy that, in later generations, motivated Charles Booth and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree. But unlike the earlier social scientists, he offered a comprehensive, if unattractive, method of righting the wrongs and, more important, an intellectually compelling analysis of how they came about. The Frock-Coated Communist brings Engels out from under Marx's shadow. That is the book's importance. Its attraction, as whoever chose the title realised, lies in the description of his origins and lifestyle. full text: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/26/frock-coated-communist-tristram-hunt From anthony.boynton at gmail.com Tue May 5 07:13:16 2009 From: anthony.boynton at gmail.com (Anthony Boynton) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 08:13:16 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Consciousness of the drunken classes Message-ID: <7b8a676d0905050613lb0e4f02xc285111e724880e8@mail.gmail.com> In the 1960's some people were into consciousness raising, today the drunken journalists seem to be into consciouness lowering. That goes for the sectarian and Shakespearean sides of the debate. Drink up From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 07:57:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 09:57:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] AIPAC targets campuses Message-ID: <4A0045D2.9050708@panix.com> Go to http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/05/aipac for embedded links Where's the SGA President? AIPAC May 5, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The theme of this year?s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference is ?relationships matter? -- the significance of which should not be lost on the 193 student government presidents the lobbying group brought here for the occasion, as Jonathan Kessler, AIPAC?s leadership development director, told them Saturday. ?Every conversation, every relationship starts somewhere.? Including the relationship with AIPAC, of course. In the wake of the war in Gaza this winter came a surge in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activism on campuses, but AIPAC, which calls itself ?America?s Pro-Israel Lobby,? has in recent years attempted to broaden its own base of support on campus, to incorporate not only the passionate pro-Israel advocates but "mainstream student leaders," as well. The organization has been paying the way for student government association presidents to come to its conference for several years now, and this year had its largest group attend, despite the conflict with final exams on many campuses. ?AIPAC is committed to maintaining and strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and we don?t take the future for granted,? Kessler said in an interview. ?For 30 years we?ve looked to identify and engage and educate the next generation of American policy makers.? "You can really start something by just reaching key people," said Jason Lifton, who's newly elected to the student government at George Washington University. "I think it's important that you reach the biggest mouths on campus." Lifton has also been involved with pro-Israel advocacy more generally, but for many if not most of the student government presidents gathered this week by AIPAC, that?s not been the case. While AIPAC didn't ask the students about their faith traditions, the sense, Kessler said, is that the vast majority of student government officers in attendance are not Jewish. Among those institutions well-represented are historically black colleges and universities and Christian colleges. ?They want to do this because the student body presidents are influential on their campus and in the community,? said Leigha Caron, the outgoing student government president at Dallas Baptist University. ?This allows them to bring some of the influential people and educate them about what AIPAC is and what they stand for. Because most of us would never know what AIPAC is unless we had this opportunity to attend.? "To really understand what the issues are is something I would never have experienced had it not been for this," said John Graves, the Student Senate President at St. Catharine College, in Kentucky. "It's more than just a free trip to D.C." Of course, the broker of knowledge here is not an especially unbiased one, and AIPAC as an organization has been subject to increasing scrutiny in recent years, including within the Jewish community -- in part because of all the power it has accrued. ?Inside the Beltway the lobby has been wildly successful at keeping policy makers and prominent individuals from criticizing Israeli policy. But academia is one place where they?ve had a lot of trouble,? said John J. Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a controversial 2007 book critical of the extent of the Israel lobby?s influence. ?The specific game, of course, is to co-opt these individuals early in their life so they are exceedingly pro-Israel over time and very reluctant to criticize Israel or the special relationship,? Mearsheimer said. "That's the goal: to 'educate' them. Please put the word 'educate' in quotes. The name of the game here is to 'educate' these important student leaders to understand Israel's position on the various controversial issues of the Middle East." J Street, a one-year-old player in the pro-Israel lobbying world that?s been depicted in the New York Times as the ?un-AIPAC,? last month announced its own outreach to college students. J Street (which calls itself ?pro-Israel, pro-peace?) is folding the campus-based Union of Progressive Zionists under its umbrella. Organizers largely declined to contrast their student outreach strategy with that of AIPAC's but said they're filling a niche that other pro-Israel advocacy organizations on campus (and there are many -- not just AIPAC) haven't. ?What we?ve seen a lot on campus is the very far right and the very far left. ... Israel can do no wrong and Israel can do no right,? said Tamara Shapiro, director of the Union of Progressive Zionists. ?We are offering a space to provide a different perspective on what it means to be pro-Israel. There isn?t really a space on campus to talk about pushing for effective Middle East diplomacy, there isn?t really a space to talk about how to approach Israel when you have concerns with some of Israel?s policies.? Kessler, of AIPAC, described the policy conference in big-tent terms, featuring high-profile Democrats and Republicans and offering an intensive, three-day graduate curriculum of sorts on Middle Eastern policy, with ?a full array of speakers representing a full array of opinions. ... If anything, I?m exposing students to a widespread sentiment and not by any means a narrow or parochial sentiment,? Kessler said. ?It?s been really important to my education,? said Daniel McClure, a University of Central Oklahoma student who, as president of the statewide student government, recruited other student leaders from his state to come to this year's AIPAC conference, which ends today. ?You can soak it up, if it?s meaningful to you, pass it on? -- as he has -- ?if not, thanks for coming.? ? Elizabeth Redden From farmelantj at juno.com Tue May 5 08:04:30 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 14:04:30 GMT Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Message-ID: <20090505.100430.28955.0@webmail09.vgs.untd.com> So what's behind the interest in the UK in Marx & Engels by people like New Labour writer Tristam Hunt or Christopher Hitchens associate, Francis Wheen? Jim F. ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Pat Costello To: farmelantj at juno.com Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 04:10:32 -0700 (PDT) A reveiw of a new biography of Friedrich Engels ____________________________________________________________ Lose up to 20 lbs in one month with a new diet. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTFoYcrGnrLHmbdNTBF3BoQ9EaBYQGX40I3xLD8g1jR3RC8UiV2uUQ/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 08:07:57 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 10:07:57 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] China, the next superpower? Message-ID: <4A00483D.3080803@panix.com> Defying the Economic Odds The World Melts Down, China Grows By Dilip Hiro In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a new world order is emerging -- with its center gravitating towards China. The statistics speak for themselves. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the world's gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by an alarming 1.3% this year. Yet, defying this global trend, China expects an annual economic growth rate of 6.5% to 8.5%. During the first quarter of 2009, the world's leading stock markets combined fell by 4.5%. In contrast, the Shanghai stock exchange index leapt by a whopping 38%. In March, car sales in China hit a record 1.1 million, surpassing the U.S. for the third month in a row. "Despite its severe impact on China's economy," said Chinese President Hu Jintao, "the current financial crisis also creates opportunity for the country." It can be argued that the present fiscal tsunami has, in fact, provided China with a chance to discard its pioneering reformer's leading guideline. "Hide your capability and bide your time" was the way former head of the Communist Party Deng Xiaoping once put it. No longer. Recognizing that its time has indeed come, Beijing has decided to play an active, interventionist role in the international financial arena. Backed by China's $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, its industrialists have gone on a global buying spree in Africa and Latin America, as well as in neighboring Russia and Kazakhstan, to lock up future energy supplies for its ravenous economy. At home, the government is investing heavily not only in major infrastructure, but also in its much neglected social safety net, its health care system, and long overlooked rural development projects -- partly to bridge the increasingly wide gap between rural and urban living standards. Among those impressed by the strides Beijing has made since launching its $585 billion stimulus package in September is the Obama administration. It views the continuing rise in China's GDP as an effective corrective to the contracting GDP of almost every other major economy on the planet, except India's. So it has stopped arguing that, by undervaluing its currency -- the yuan -- with respect to the U.S. dollar, China is making its products too cheap, thus putting competing American goods at a disadvantage in foreign markets. full: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175067/dilip_hiro_the_newest_superpower From sabocat59 at mac.com Tue May 5 08:37:19 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 14:37:19 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] FT:Swine Flu ground zero yields no clues Message-ID: <1237269024-1241534392-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1556448826-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> Financial Times - May 2, 2009 Swine flu ground zero yields no clues By Adam Thomson Until a month ago, the village of La Gloria in the cactus-filled hills of Mexico's Sierra Madre, was like any other neglected community: life was quiet, even tedious, and the biggest concern was how the harsh climate would affect the bean harvest. But since Monday, when Mexico's health minister told the world that the community of 3,000 was home to the earliest known case of swine flu, things have taken a startling turn. Days are now filled with visits by politicians, health officials and international camera crews. This week, even the state beauty queen rolled into town to hand out presents for the children. As the virus sweeps the globe - the World Health Organisation said yesterday that the number of confirmed cases had risen from 257 to 331 affecting 11 countries - La Gloria is acquiring renown as swine flu's "ground zero". In late March, residents began to complain of flu-like symptoms - headache, coughing, fever and even diarrhoea and vomiting. "It was terrible," says farmer Enrique Reyes. "Everyone was getting sick. It felt like the plague." Edgar Hern?ndez, aged five, became the first Mexican to test positive for the A/H1N1 virus when samples were sent to the US and Canada last month, yet he remains the only villager to have tested positive. Many of La Gloria's residents say that local pig farms are to blame for the virus's mysterious appearance. Granjas Carroll, a breeder 50 per cent- owned by US-based Smithfield, has 77 pig-breeding and rearing units in the region that produce about 1m animals a year, or 10 per cent of Mexico's pork consumption. Residents complain the plant produces a persistent stench and fly infestation. "The sickness is in the air. We breathe it every day," says one resident. But agricultural inspection officials say there is no swine flu virus among these pigs. Farm number 11-38, five miles from La Gloria and the nearest pig- rearing unit to the village, looks like a well-maintained prison. About 16,000 pigs live in nine barns bounded by wire fencing. All of them are healthy and have been subjected to a rigorous programme of vaccination, says Roxana Mendoza, Granjas Carroll's head veterinary surgeon. A visiting inspector from the agriculture ministry told the Financial Times: "We're happy with what we've seen." So how did Edgar, who is now fully recovered and busy wrestling with his younger brother, contract the virus? Some of La Gloria's residents say the community has a high rate of migration, which could have brought the virus from elsewhere. But Maria del Carmen Hern?ndez, Edgar's mother, says none of the family left the village in the days before her son's illness, and that no one from outsidecame to visit. "We were just here," she insists. "I don't know where the virus came from, and I don't think anyone else does, either." Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From wquimby at embarqmail.com Tue May 5 09:51:11 2009 From: wquimby at embarqmail.com (Bill Quimby) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 10:51:11 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com> There is a good video of Wolfram explaining/demoing the product at My reaction - impressive as to factual data and data analysis, but I wondered how it could handle handle questions like "How did Engels' writings reinterpret Marx's views on historical materialism?" Would it even try? - Bill Mark Lause wrote: > A friend forwarded this article to me a few days ago and I followed > the link, read the piece, and continued on to the comments. For a > product that hasn't been released yet, this is just a lot of hype. > > As to whether it's "unadulterated horseshit," though, I think we'll > have to wait and see.... > > ML > > ________________________________________________ > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/wquimby%40embarqmail.com > From epoliticus at gmail.com Tue May 5 09:09:12 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 11:09:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] IMF Board Approves Euro 12.9 Billions "Stand-By Arrangement" for Romania Message-ID: The relevant I.M.F. press release is available at http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2009/pr09148.htm & therein one can read the details of the deal. There is an apt expression for this deal: "same shit, different day." For example, the Fund persists in attempting to impose the policy of inflation targeting even though several well-known bourgeois economists have correctly expressed strong reservations about it on the basis of the evidence. It goes without saying that no Marxist can endorse such neo-colonialist economic policy. epoliticus ===== Program Summary: The IMF-supported program combines strong policy measures with sizable financial support. Key to restoring confidence is a reversal of the sharp increase in public spending, which caused a large deficit to accumulate even during a period of strong economic growth. Short-term budget cuts will be combined with fiscal policy reforms to place the public finances on a more sustainable path. The effects of the fiscal adjustment and budget reforms will be cushioned by boosting social safety net spending and safeguarding capital spending. Banking sector measures will also be implemented to ensure that banks remain sufficiently strong to weather the economic downturn. Specific program objectives include: ? Reduce the fiscal imbalance to bring the deficit back under 3 percent of GDP by 2011. ? Maintain adequate capitalization of banks and liquidity in domestic financial markets. ? Bring inflation within the target range of the National Bank of Romania (NBR) by end-2009 and maintain it there. ? Secure adequate external financing and improve confidence. Romania joined the IMF on December 15, 1972, and its quota is SDR 1.03 billion (about ?1.16 billion or US$1.54 billion). Its latest arrangement with the IMF was a Stand-By Arrangement that expired on July 6, 2006. From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Tue May 5 09:15:40 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (Michael Perelman) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 08:15:40 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <20090505.100430.28955.0@webmail09.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090505.100430.28955.0@webmail09.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <20090505151540.GA2595@ecst.csuchico.edu> Wheen, a Hitchens associate? On Tue, May 05, 2009 at 02:04:30PM +0000, farmelantj at juno.com wrote: > > So what's behind the interest in the UK > in Marx & Engels by people like New Labour > writer Tristam Hunt or Christopher Hitchens > associate, Francis Wheen? > -- 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 May 5 09:59:02 2009 From: epoliticus at gmail.com (Politicus E.) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 11:59:02 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?On_LALIT=92s_Labour_Day_Celebration?= Message-ID: The following report was published on the website of Lalit, an important political party of the left in Mauritius. Interested comrades may visit their website at http://www.lalitmauritius.org/ epoliticus ===== LALIT gathered its members, supporters and their families for a Labour Day celebration at Grand River North West in Port Louis on Friday, 1 May. The weather was idyllic, the newly renovated hall was packed, and the atmosphere was at times serious and at other moments festive. With a seamless joint-chairing by Rada Kistnasamy and Cindy Clelie, and around the theme ?Economic Crisis and Job Security?, there were inspiring speeches, moving music, camaraderie and friendship. Even the food beautifully prepared by members and their families and brought to be shared, all contributed to making the day thoroughly enjoyable. The main LALIT speech was by Ram Seegobin, who outlined how LALIT sees the economic crisis as both a difficult time for workers and also an opportunity for the working class to mobilize around and advance a program thoroughly in its favour, a program to oppose capitalism itself, as well as its State. ?It is an international struggle,? he said, ?And Labour Day is an international holiday, symbolizing the need for international struggles?. He explained how layers and layers of crisis have unfurled in Mauritius, starting with the systemic crisis triggered by the end of preferential markets for sugar and textiles, going through the food crisis, and on until the recent financial and economic crisis have hit, thus exposing the bancruptcy of capitalism itself for everyone to see. He also explained how a fine working class mobilization had been building up, symbolized by the 28 February enthusiastic trade union march with some 8,000 workers participating actively, and that it had then melted gradually into smaller and smaller demonstrations with wider and more contradictory class components. He said the leaders of the movement had, perhaps inadvertantly, led the mobilization of workers into the hands of people who are workers? class enemies. The movement is now left, by the time of the march of 25 April and their May Day rally, with a diffuse content wherein bourgeois forces like capitalists and even oligarchs who are opposed to an incineration project because they are competitors of the project-promoters participate, where right-wing parties like the PMSD and MMM send their members, and wherein even like communalist movements like the FCM send their supporters. Harish and Sarita Boodhoo were invited. MMM and PMSD leading members promised to be [and Ganoo and Allet actually were] present. All the trade union leaders sitting together for one day on a podium does not mean working class unity. Alain Ah-Vee delivered the opening speech in the name of Ledikasyon pu Travayer (Workers? Education), a co-organizer. He spoke in defense of the mother-tongues that LPT promotes, and announced for the first time, LPT?s plans to hold a Hearing later this year on the damage done in schools by suppressing the chidren?s mother-tongues, Kreol and Bhojpuri. He called on people to come forward and give evidence of their own experience. Ragini Kistnasamy gave the final speech in the name of the Muvman Liberasyon Fam (Women?s Liberation Movement). It was a tour de force, in which she linked security of employment with the need for security in women?s reproductive work, and thus with the need to decriminalize abortion. She outlined the present MLF campaign to get the 1838 anti-abortion law suspended, following the death of Marie-Noelle Derby, the photographer-journalist who tragically lost her life after an illegal abortion. She also expressed solidarity with the young woman facing charges in the Intermediate Court this Thursday. Inbetween Sadna Jumnoodoo spoke in the name of Inter-Labaz-Sindikal, a grass roots analytic and mobilizing association of union members of all the different work sectors and unions, and Vimala Lutchmee informed everyone present that the Federation of Preschool Playgroups intends to defy the outrageous interdiction by the Mauritius Qualifications Authority of their training courses. Solidarity messages from five organizations abroad and two in Mauritius were also read out. Eugene Cairncross, a WOSA member from South Africa, who was present gave a speech on the different levels of danger in the massive incinerating waste. This follows LALIT having taken a stand on the issues involved in waste incineration (See web article). The music on Labour Day was divine - going from Rajni Lallah?s solo performance of her compositions around Kaya songs and traditional music interpreted in her own style, to Mark Joseph?s unusual rendering Gerschwin?s ?Summertime? with Rajni?s exceptional accompaniment, and from a voice-only rendition of the George Moustaki?s ?La revolution permanante? by three women to the late Marie-Ann Both John?s ?Anfler? by Marlene Joseph, from Alain and Marousia and two other younger singers? version of a traditional folk-song to a fantastic ravann duo as part of a perfomance by Plaisance young people, from the CF3 brothers (one being only three, and a fine percussionist) to the roof-lifting singing of the ?Linternasyonal?. Alain Ah-Vee, now a highly skilled Taiti master, gave a particularly powerful exhibition, especially as emotion ran high because Yugo, who was his partner in the same even last year, had died young and suddenly in the intervening year. The youngest person present was a little one of less than a year, and the oldest had just turned 88 on Tuesday. And after putting order in the headquarters, people went home to the South, the North, the East and the West of the Island, to small villages, all the towns, to housing estates, and coastal villages. From farmelantj at juno.com Tue May 5 10:06:34 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 16:06:34 GMT Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Message-ID: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> That's how Wikipedia describes him. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wheen ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Michael Perelman To: farmelantj at juno.com Subject: Re: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 08:15:40 -0700 Wheen, a Hitchens associate? ____________________________________________________________ Click to learn about options trading and get the latest information. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTIzQZ2PcoCrV5hms0UX1KoRnZYKlhm7UD7cw8Cix2ZkhTytzgiX9O/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 10:10:36 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 12:10:36 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> farmelantj at juno.com wrote: > That's how Wikipedia describes him. > See: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wheen > I have Wheen's biography of Marx but have not gotten around to reading it. I suppose that I am procrastinating in light of the following excerpt from the wiki: Francis Wheen is a signatory to the Euston Manifesto and a close friend of Christopher Hitchens. In late-2005 Wheen was co-author, with journalist David Aaronovitch and blogger Oliver Kamm, of a complaint to The Guardian after it published a correction and apology for an interview with Noam Chomsky by Emma Brockes. Chomsky complained that the article suggested he denied the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.[2] The writer Diana Johnstone also complained about references to her in the interview.[3] The Guardian's then readers' editor Ian Mayes found that this had misrepresented Chomsky's position, and his judgement was upheld in May 2006 by an external ombudsman, John Willis.[4] In his report for the Guardian, Willis detailed his reasons for rejecting the argument. From schaffer at optonline.net Tue May 5 10:24:00 2009 From: schaffer at optonline.net (Les Schaffer) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 12:24:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com> Message-ID: <4A006820.2030204@optonline.net> Bill Quimby wrote: > My reaction - impressive as to factual data and data analysis comparison of google and Wolfram Alpha: http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22585/page1/ Les From tcod at hotmail.com Tue May 5 10:45:27 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 16:45:27 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: [below is an article in the NYT that skillfully deconstructs the phony academic case against Ward Churchill that too many folks on the Left bought into. Then again, many of them have a background in groups and a culture that routinely frames up political opponents on contrived trivial charges, which is what Fish exactly calls this out as having been] Ward Churchill Redux By Stanley Fish New York Times 4/6/09 Last Thursday, a jury in Denver ruled that the termination of activist-teacher Ward Churchill by the University of Colorado had been wrongful (a term of art) even though a committee of his faculty peers had found him guilty of a variety of sins. The verdict did not surprise me because I had read the committee?s report and found it less an indictment of Churchill than an example of a perfectly ordinary squabble about research methods and the handling of evidence. The accusations that fill its pages are the kind scholars regularly hurl at their polemical opponents. It?s part of the game. But in most cases, after you?ve trashed the guy?s work in a book or a review, you don?t get to fire him. Which is good, because if the standards for dismissal adopted by the Churchill committee were generally in force, hardly any of us professors would have jobs. At least two reviewers of my 2001 book ?How Milton Works? declared that my reading of ?Paradise Lost? rests on an unproven assumption that Milton repeatedly and designedly punned on the homonyms ?raised? (elevated), ?razed? (destroyed) and ?rased? (erased). I was accused of having fabricated these puns out of thin air and of building on the fabrication an interpretive house of cards that fell apart at the slightest touch of rationality and evidence. I use the criticism of my own work as an example because to talk about the many others who have been accused of incompetence, ignorance, falsification, plagiarism and worse would be bad form. And it wouldn?t prove anything much except that when academics assess one another they routinely say things like, ?Professor A obviously has not read the primary sources?; ?Professor B draws conclusions the evidence does not support?; ?Professor C engages in fanciful speculations and then pretends to build a solid case; he?s just making it up?; ?Professor D does not acknowledge that he stole his argument from Professor E who was his teacher (or his student).? The scholars who are the objects of these strictures do not seem to suffer much on account of them, in part because they can almost always point to positive reviews on the other side, in part because harsh and even scabrous judgments are understood to be more or less par for the course. And I won?t even go into the roster of big-time historians who in recent years have been charged with (and in some instances confessed to) plagiarism, distortion and downright lying. With the exception of one, these academic malfeasants are still plying their trades, receiving awards and even pontificating on television. Why, given these examples of crimes or errors apparently forgiven, did Ward Churchill lose his job (he may now regain it) when all he was accused of was playing fast and loose with the facts, fudging his sources and going from A to D in his arguments without bothering to stop at B and C? In short, standard stuff. The answer Churchill?s partisans would give (and in the end it may be the right answer) is ?politics.? After all, they say, there wouldn?t have been any special investigative committee poring over Churchill?s 12 single-author books, many edited collections and 100-plus articles had he not published an Internet essay on Sept. 12, 2001, saying that the attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon were instances of ?the chickens coming home to roost? and that those who worked and died in the towers were willing agents of the United States? ?global empire? and its malign policies and could therefore be thought of as ?little Eichmanns.? These incendiary remarks were not widely broadcast until four years later, when Bill O?Reilly and other conservative commentators brought them to the public?s attention. The reaction was immediate. Bill Owens, governor of Colorado, called university president Elizabeth Hoffman and ordered her to fire Churchill. She replied, ?You know I can?t do that.? (Not long after, she was forced to resign.) The reason she couldn?t do it is simple. A public employee cannot be fired for extramural speech of which the government (in this case Gov. Owens) disapproves. It?s unconstitutional. A public employee can be fired, however, for activities that indicate unfitness for the position he or she holds; and after flirting with the idea of a buyout, the university, aware that questions had been raised about Churchill?s scholarship, appointed a committee to review and assess his work, no doubt in the hope that something appropriately damning would be found. It was, or so the committee said. It found inaccuracies in Churchill?s account of the General Allotment Act of 1887, a piece of legislation generally considered to be a part of an extended effort to weaken the force of Native American culture. In his discussion of the act, Churchill described it as a ?eugenics code? that uses the ?Indian blood quantum requirement? to achieve its end. But there is no mention of any ?blood quantum? requirement in the text. Indeed, the act ?contained no definition of Indian whatsoever.? But then, after having established what could possibly be classified as a misrepresentation, the committee turned back in Churchill?s direction, and allowed that while the blood quantum requirement was not ?expressly? stated, there was some force to Churchill?s contention that it is ?somehow implied.? ?In this respect,? the committee continued, there ?is more truth to part of Professor Churchill?s claim? than his critics are ?prepared to credit.? Still Churchill, the committee went on to say, was factually wrong when he says of the Act that it introduced ?for the first time? the ?federal imposition of racial Indian ancestry? as a device designed to force assimilation. That happened, the committee reported, 40 years earlier. So that while Churchill gets ?the general point correct,? he ?gets the historical details wrong.? Moreover, when his errors were pointed out by another researcher in the field, Churchill simply ceased making the erroneous claims and ?offered no public retraction or correction.? The conclusion? ?Professor Churchill deliberately embellished his broad, and otherwise accurate or, at least reasonable, historic claims regarding the Allotment Act of 1887 with details for which he offered no reliable independent support.? That?s it? He didn?t verify some details and he didn?t denounce himself? There must be something else and there is. Churchill, the committee noted, argues that the U.S. army, among others, ?intentionally introduced the smallpox virus to Native American tribes,? and he claims also that circumstantial evidence implicates John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) in this outrage. The committee found that with respect to Smith, Churchill ?did not connect the dots in his proposed set of circumstantial evidence.? As for the allegation that that the army spread smallpox by knowingly distributing infected blankets, the committee found no support in written records, but notes that Native American oral traditions rehearse and pass down this story, which has at least one documented source in British General Jeffrey Amherst?s suggestion in 1763 that infected blankets be given to hostile Indians. The conclusion? ?We do not find academic misconduct with respect to his general claim that the U.S. Army deliberately spread smallpox.? In addition, the committee acknowledges that ?early accounts of what was said by Indians involved in that situation and certain native oral traditions provide some basis for [Churchill?s] interpretation.? In short, it seems for an instant that Churchill is going to be declared (relatively) innocent of the most serious charges against him. But after noting that he cited sources that do not support his argument and failed to document his assertion that up to 400,000 Indians died in the smallpox epidemic, the committee turned severe and declared, ?We therefore find by a preponderance of the evidence a pattern of deliberate academic misconduct involving falsification, fabrication, and serious deviation from accepted practices.? On the evidence of its own account the committee does not seem to have earned its ?therefore.? The question of ?accepted practices? is raised again in a particularly focused form when the committee considers the issue of Churchill?s ?ghostwriting.? On several occasions Churchill wrote essays to which others put their names and then, at a later date, he cited those essays in support of an argument he was making. The committee decided that a charge of plagiarism could not be sustained since it is not plagiarism to cite ones own work (even if it bears another?s name). That does not dispose of the issue, however, because in the committee?s view ?ghostwriting? is itself a ?form of misconduct? that fails ?to comply with established practices? and deceives readers into thinking that an author has independent authority for his assertions, when in reality the only authority he has is his own. Churchill?s response came in two parts. First he pointed out that university regulations (Colorado?s or anyone else?s) do not contain guidelines relating to ghostwriting. There seems, therefore, to be no ?established? practice for him to violate. Second, he challenged the assertion that a text he wrote cannot be properly cited as independent support for something he is writing in the present. He argued (during the committee hearing and in Works and Days, 2009) that what ghostwriters do in the academy and elsewhere is give voice to the views and conclusions of others. All the ghostwriter does is supply the prose; the ideas and contentions belong to the third party, who, if she did not agree to ?own? the sentiments, would decline to affix her name to them. Thus when the ghostwriter subsequently cites to the text of which he has been merely the midwife, he is citing not to himself but to the person to whose ideas he gave expression. ?It follows that ghostwriters are under no obligation . . . to attribute authorship to themselves when quoting/citing material they?ve ghostwritten.? Well, that?s a little tricky, but it is an argument, and one that committee members, no doubt, would have a response to. But all that means is that there would be another round of the academic back-and-forth one finds in innumerable, books, essays, symposiums, panel discussions ? all of which are routinely marked by accusations of shoddy practices and distortions of evidence, but none of which is marked by the demand that the person on the other side of the question from you be fired and drummed out of the academy. There is, as I think I?ve shown, a disconnect in the report between its often nuanced considerations of the questions raised in and by Churchill?s work, and the conclusion, announced in a parody of a judicial verdict, that he has committed crimes worthy of dismissal, if not of flogging. It is almost as if the committee members were going along happily doing what they usually do in their academic work ? considering , parsing and evaluating arguments ? and then suddenly remembering that they were there for another purpose to which they hastily turn. Oh, yes, we?re supposed to judge him; let?s say he?s guilty. I can easily imagine the entire affair being made into a teaching aid ? a casebook containing Churchill?s ?little Eichmanns? essay, the responses to it by politicians, columnists and fellow academics, assessments of Churchill?s other writings by friends and foes, the investigative committee?s report, responses to the report (one group of academics led by Eric Cheyfitz, a chaired professor at Cornell, has formally charged the committee itself with research misconduct), the trial record, the verdict, reactions to the verdict, etc. You could teach a whole course ? probably more than one ? from such a compilation and one of the questions raised in such a course would be the question I have been asking: How did a garden-variety academic quarrel about sources,evidence and documentation complete with a lot of huffing and puffing by everyone get elevated first into a review of the entire life of a tenured academic and then into a court case when that academic was terminated. How and why did it get that far? I said earlier that the answer Churchill partisans would give is ?politics.? It is also the answer the jury gave. It was the jury?s task to determine whether Churchill?s dismissal would have occurred independently of the adverse political response to his constitutionally protected statements. In the ordinary academic course of things would his writings have been subject to the extended and minute scrutiny that led to the committee?s recommendations? Had the governor not called Hoffman, had state representatives not appeared on TV to call for Churchill?s head, had commentators all over the country not vilified Churchill for his 9/11 views, would any of this have happened.? The answer seems obvious to me and it has now been given authoritative form in the jury?s verdict. Let me add (I hope it would be unnecessary) that nothing I have said should be taken either as a judgment (positive or negative) on Churchill?s work or as a questioning of the committee?s motives. I am not competent to judge Churchill?s writings and I express no view of them. And I have no doubts at all about the integrity of the committee members. They just got caught up in a circus that should have never come to town. _________________________________________________________________ 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 markalause at gmail.com Tue May 5 10:53:49 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 12:53:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: Tom, who on the left has bought into the phony academic case against Ward Churchill? I've not followed this case more closely than I've needed to decide to defend him, but I've not seen any indications of anyone on the left buying into the case against him. ML From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in Tue May 5 11:08:05 2009 From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxist front) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 22:38:05 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Marxism] May Day in Delhi Message-ID: <713004.53867.qm@web94809.mail.in2.yahoo.com> May Day in Delhi ? ? Braving the scorching Delhi heat, hundreds of workers and people from different walks of life gathered at the historic Ramlila Ground to mark the International Worker???s Day. Holding aloft the red flags and banners of various trade unions and worker???s organisation, they all marched towards the Town Hall in the centre of Old Delhi. Throughout the march communist and revolutionary slogans like :???Duniya Ke Mazdooron ek ho??? (Workers of the world unite) and ???Mai Diwas ke Shahidoon ko lal salam??? (Red Salute to the martyrs of May day) kept reverberating. ? Our organisations Janpaksh and Workers? Unity Trade Union demonstrated its solidarity with the international Working Class movement. ? ?Carrying the Red Hammer and Sickle flag, we raised the slogan Lal Jhanda Lal Salam (Red Salute to Red Flag), Sarvahara Ekta Jindabad (Long live Proletariat Unity) and Marxwad Leninwad ko Lal Salam (Red Salute to Marxism Leninism). Our slogans were well accepted by all other groups and after a while the comrades of other organisations also joined us in raising the non-sectarian revolutionary slogans. ? After traversing through the streets and by lanes of old Delhi the rally covering a total distance of 3.5 Km converged at Town Hall where it converted into a public meeting. The meeting was addressed by the leaders of various Trade unions like AICCTU, AITUC, CITU, HMS, MEC, TUCC, UTUC, AIUTUC and others. ? Comrades raised a clarion call to resist the onslaught of globalisation and intensify the struggle against the exploitation of workers and ending Capitalism. Many participants noted with concern the dwindling number of participants over the years. ? The May Day rally provides a platform where trade unions and workers? organisations representing the different Leftist trends get a chance to come together on a common platform and to discuss ways and means to forge ahead the struggle of working class. ? We at Janpaksh and Workers? Unity Trade Union sincerely wish that the coming days would witness resurgence in militant working class struggle. This would be the real tribute to the martyrs of May Day. ? Lal Salam (Red Salute) P (India) www.geocities.com/marxistfront marxistfront at yahoo.co.in "When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist." --Dom Helder Camara ***** Now surf faster and smarter ! Check out the new Firefox 3 - Yahoo! Edition http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/firefox/?fr=om_email_firefox From durable at earthlink.net Mon May 4 22:21:36 2009 From: durable at earthlink.net (Barry Brooks) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 12:21:36 +0800 Subject: [Marxism] Scotland, Wales, N. Ire report calls for end to growth Message-ID: <49FFBED0.8030305@earthlink.net> http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/prosperity-without-growth-background.html Government report calls for end to growth By Eric Doherty. ============================= http://www.republic-news.org/archive/212-repub/212_doherty.html Government report calls for end to growth By Eric Doherty ============================= "Anyone who thinks that an economy can be expanded forever, within the confines of a finite planet, is either a madman or an economist" economist Kenneth Boulding. # # # # # # # # http://www.SustainWellBeing.net Sustainability Project - 7th Generation Initiative 2799 McDonalds Corners Rd. RR #3 Lanark, Ontario K0G 1K0 phone: (613) 259-9988 e-mail: sustain5 at web.ca From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue May 5 11:33:37 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 13:33:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Nabka Remembrance in NYC - May 14th Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905051033i17057be8sa1e0d0dcc4c9ff1f@mail.gmail.com> > > > PLEASE JOIN US ON MAY 14TH > > The Israeli Declaration of Independence was made on May 14, 1948, a day > remembered by Palestinians as al-Nakba, the catastrophe. While some Jews > celebrate this day, we see it as a necessary day of reckoning and > recommitment to action in Jewish communities. > > On May 14, 2009, 61 years later, please join Rabbis Remembering the Nakba*, > Jews Say No!, and Women in Black for a ritual of remembrance, for the > violence and dispossession that began before 1948 and continues today. > > Thursday, May 14th > 7 pm > Union Square South (across from Virgin Records) > Please wear black if you can. > > *Events like this one will take place also in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston > and the Bay Area initiated by Rabbis Remembering the Nakba, an ad-hoc group > of rabbis committed to remembering and addressing the Palestinian > catastrophe of 1948. > > jewssayno at gmail.com > > > > Please also join Women in Black at Union Square beforehand for their > weekly vigil and also stop by and contribute to a nearby fundraising party > beginning at 5 P.M. (20 E. 9th Street, apartment 15B--between University > Place and 5th Avenue) to help lift the siege of Gaza. Several delegations > will be trying to enter Gaza from Egypt and Israel, and money is being > raised for playground equipment and school supplies for the children of > Gaza. > > From acpollack2 at gmail.com Tue May 5 11:52:32 2009 From: acpollack2 at gmail.com (Andrew Pollack) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 13:52:32 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Nabka Remembrance in NYC - May 14th In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905051033i17057be8sa1e0d0dcc4c9ff1f@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905051033i17057be8sa1e0d0dcc4c9ff1f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2fa1449b0905051052g655801ael8f39ce2c19735278@mail.gmail.com> The Palestinian community will be commemorating the Nakba on the 17th. See below, or www.al-awdany.org/ PS re the Gaza support mentioned by Dennis: see also http://vivapalestina.org/USconvoy.htm The various groups going to Gaza are trying to coordinate efforts. ------------------ Nakba Rally The 61st. anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. Date: Sunday, May 17th, 2009 Time: 2:00pm Location: Times Square, W 42nd st. and 7th ave. Directions: N,Q,R,S,W,1,2,3,7 to Times Square (4nd st.) More: Join Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition and Break the Siege on Gaza Coalition for the rally of the 61st. anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. From elche48 at gmail.com Tue May 5 11:54:47 2009 From: elche48 at gmail.com (Cesar "El Che" Rodriguez) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 10:54:47 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] UC-Santa Barbara faculty member goes public about ADL pressure References: Message-ID: Begin forwarded message: > UC-Santa Barbara faculty member goes public about ADL pressure > > History professor attended meeting where Abraham Foxman pushed UCSB > to act against sociology professor > > Date: May 2, 2009 > Contact: Daniel Olmos, (818) 468-8894, olmos at umail.ucsb.edu. > Alba Pe?a-Leon, (626) 665-9212, alba at umail.ucsb.edu. > > SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Harold Marcuse, associate professor of > history at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said he > attended a March 9 meeting on campus where Anti-Defamation League > National Director Abraham Foxman pressured university officials to > investigate charges of ?anti-Semitism? against sociology professor > William I. Robinson. > > Marcuse said Foxman discussed the charges against Robinson for > nearly an hour with about a dozen faculty members and university > officials, including Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael > Young and the executive dean of the College of Letters and Science, > David B. Marshall. > > ?When the meeting started, Foxman quickly launched into what I would > call a rant about what he said was an anti-Semitic email that > professor Robinson sent to his class,? Marcuse said. ?We then had an > open discussion about Foxman?s comments and the charges against > Robinson. In my recollection, that was the only thing we talked > about at the meeting. Nothing else was discussed.? > > Marcuse said the meeting lasted about an hour, from 11:30 a.m. to > 12:30 p.m. > > During Foxman?s presentation and the ensuing discussion, Foxman > demanded that Robinson be investigated for introducing materials > critical of Israeli state policies in a course on globalization in > January. > > The materials included a photo essay that Robinson forwarded to > students from the Internet and that had been circulating in the > public realm. The photos juxtaposed images of Israeli treatment of > Palestinians during the recent military invasion of Gaza with Nazi > abuses during the holocaust. Two students took offense at the images > and withdrew from the course, prompting the Anti-Defamation League > to pressure the university to investigate Robinson for ?anti- > Semitism.? > > Cynthia Silverman, director of the ADL?s Santa Barbara office, > accompanied Foxman to the meeting on campus. > > Marcuse said the meeting was organized by Leonard Wallock, associate > director of the Walter Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, > Religion, and Public Life. Wallock sent an e-mail invitation to > Marcuse on Feb. 24 to attend a luncheon with Foxman, although > Wallock didn?t mention any specific agenda items in his e-mail. > > When the meeting began, religious studies professor and Capps board > member Richard Hecht introduced Foxman. Hecht said Foxman was there > to discuss the situation of Jewish students on campus, at which > point Foxman launched into his ?rant? about the Robinson email, > Marcuse said. > > At one point, Foxman apparently thought Michael Young was the > university chancellor, Henry Yang. > > ?Foxman was talking directly to Young, chastising him that he should > have been reprimanding Robinson,? Marcuse said. ?Young had to > clarify that he was not the chancellor and that he had nothing to do > with overseeing faculty.? > > When the meeting was opened to discussion, a number of faculty > members intervened. ?One professor rose in support of Foxman,? > Marcuse said. ?He was vehemently on Foxman?s side.? > > Marcuse intervened to say that he could envision using an e-mail > like the one sent by Robinson in his own courses to examine > similarities and differences between Nazi policy in occupied Poland > and Israeli policies in Gaza. > > Eventually, Hecht intervened because it appeared Foxman was > chastising the attendees for doing nothing about Robinson, Marcuse > said. > > ?Hecht said not to blame the faculty members or Young because the > incident was being handled through normal channels,? Marcuse said. > ?That?s when the meeting broke up.? > > Marcuse?s statements contrast with the official university response > to press inquiries about the Foxman meeting. > > University spokesman Paul Desruisseaux told the Chronicle of Higher > Education that David Marshall intervened in the meeting to say an > investigation was already underway in response to two students? > complaints, and that it would be inappropriate to continue to > discuss the Robinson case. At that point, Desruisseaux said Marshall > ended discussion of the subject. > > Marcuse said many, if not most, of the meeting participants appeared > to have no knowledge of the Robinson incident prior to the event. > > Marcuse also said he didn?t recall anybody at the meeting stating > that it was ?inappropriate? to discuss the Robinson case. > > ?There was quite a bit of discussion and exchange of ideas,? Marcuse > said. ?One colleague rose in staunch support of Foxman, I made my > comments, and so did many others. It went on for awhile.? > > It?s unclear if Foxman?s pressure had any impact on university > officials. However, the Academic Senate has opened a formal > investigation of the charges against Robinson. > > For more information about the Robinson case, visit the Committee to > Defend Academic Freedom Web site at www.sb4af.wordpress.com. From naskha3 at gmail.com Tue May 5 11:57:16 2009 From: naskha3 at gmail.com (Nasir Khan) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 19:57:16 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Obama=92s_new_wars?= Message-ID: <18d70e600905051057s757c4104hb49b1fa0c17f41b5@mail.gmail.com> Obama?s new wars Rev. Richard Skaff | Global Research, May 2, 2009 It is essential to know history in order to understand the present. Nevertheless, knowing history has never precluded man from repeating it. Historically, Every American president had his war. However, in the 60?s a change of policy or doctrine occurred during the Kennedy administration. The change was geared toward the deterrence of wars of national liberations, which in turn led to the McNamara revolution and to the creation of new mobile forces that will stealthily move smoothly and swiftly across the planet in the next 50 years establishing an invisible empire. The following excerpts will clarify some of this history and will edify the reasons behind the conflicts we embarked on in the last 50 years. Brief history: Throughout the cold war era, American defense analysts believed implicitly in the proposition that military superiority was defined in terms of firepower, mobility, and other technological factors. Military doctrine is not formulated on the basis of abstract principles or unchanging laws. The armed forces of a nation are nothing more nor less than an instrument of national policy-an instrument that is, of those with the power to make that policy. In the United States, the making of foreign policy has been, for all practical purposes, the exclusive prerogative of the business elite that has dominated the Executive departments since the late nineteenth century. [5]. Of course, one cannot say that this elite constitutes a monolithic bloc with a unified policy orientation. Differences of outlook, competing short-and long-term interests, and conflicting power foci have always existed. But in the most general sense, the business community dominates the American foreign policy apparatus has shared a common interest in the continued growth of capitalism, the Open Door in world trade, and the expansion of our ?invisible empire.? [6]. For over a century, the employment of U.S. forces abroad has been governed by the principle of business expansionism; again and again. American troops have been sent to the Third World to guarantee our access to key markets and sources of raw materials, and to protect American properties from expropriation. This pattern of military intervention is graphically documented in a chronology of the ?instances of use of U.S. Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-1945,? prepared at the request of the late Senator Everett Dirksen and published in the Congressional record. Of the nearly 160 occasions on which American forces were employed abroad between 1798-1945, an overwhelming majority involved occupation of a Third World country. Full article: http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/05/obamas-new-wars-by-sudhan.html From acpollack2 at gmail.com Tue May 5 12:31:53 2009 From: acpollack2 at gmail.com (Andrew Pollack) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 14:31:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2fa1449b0905051131s4a993acfvf7fc33881410aa09@mail.gmail.com> A few years ago the creator of this new Internet tool, Stephen Wolfram, was briefly in the news after publication of his book "A New Kind of Science," a summary of the main idea of which is below, from the Wikipedia article on him (at which is a link to an article on the theory itself). Not much heard about it since that I'm aware of. Les probably has some useful insights into this. --------------------------------- From tcod at hotmail.com Tue May 5 12:43:02 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 18:43:02 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: On at least one list of former 60s activists, I've listened to people, while defending his 1st Amendment rights the way liberals defend those for Nazis, regurgitate the charges of academic dishonesty against him while generally dissin' the guy as a phony and a clown; in fact it seems I saw that attitude reflected here in a couple posts, if I'm wrong, I apologize. I certainly know where you stand. this is the same routine some of these guys pulled with the Panthers years ago. Personally I hold the guy in high regard having heard him speak in Oakland in 2003. For what its worth, the "chickens coming home to roost" statement is borrowed from Malcolm X's take on JFK's assassination. As to his tribal membership, it should be borne in mind that membership in tribes is a loaded issue, with "disenrollment" of political opponents and others being a chronic issue. The next installment of We Shall Remain will deal with these and other issues as part of a program on the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, an event much of the orthodox marxist left, except for Workers World, had little to do with and tended to disparage as "ultra-left", reflecting, for all their marxist dogmatism, what Bob Avakian correctly castigated (in this kind of context at least) as their "utter rightism". _________________________________________________________________ Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd1_052009 From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue May 5 12:48:23 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 14:48:23 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] 40 Million Nonbelievers in America? The Secret Is Almost Out In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905051148m5864c64bl3e2c76f843ebdf79@mail.gmail.com> > > > > Secularists have very quietly become one of America?s largest minorities -- > how long before they use their power? > > http://www.alternet.org/rights/139788/ > > > From absynthe at gmail.com Tue May 5 13:01:37 2009 From: absynthe at gmail.com (chegitz guevara) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 15:01:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <2851.91368.qm@web63105.mail.re1.yahoo.com> References: <2851.91368.qm@web63105.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I know Pat is quoting someone else. Personally, I found Anti-D?hring to be a pretty easy read. On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 7:10 AM, Pat Costello wrote: > > A reveiw of a new biography of Friedrich Engels > > Marx's right-hand man was an industrialist who liked hunting, drinking and women. Roy Hattersley savours the irony > > My boast that I am among the small number of people who have started to read Friedrich Engels' Anti-D?hring has to be qualified by the admission that I am also among the even smaller number of people who have not finished reading it. So I was distressed to discover, from Tristram Hunt's new biography of Engels, that what I found to be an unintelligible book is a "pacey, engaging and comprehensible explanation of the science of Marxism". From markalause at gmail.com Tue May 5 13:29:09 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 15:29:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: If they defend his rights, what and demand the restoration of his job, what's the issue? Do you require people to click their heels in agreement with him and his tactics to be politically sound? Because I most emphatically do NOT think the people killed on 9-11 bear any comparison to participants in the Nazi machine. I could elaborate on this subject (and I may have earlier on this list), but there is no connection between defending Churchill and an evaluation of his scholarship. On the simplest level, this is a contractual question. The colleges and universities wanted to hire these showboats for public relations purposes when it was trendy. But that's what Churchill was hired to do: make noise, establish a public face for diversity in his institution, etc. In my book, if someone is hired and tenured to be a showboat, the bosses don't have any damned right to change the job description, brush aside tenure, and fire them. As to whether that decision was actually academic, I wouldn't even honor by bothering to write a refutation, but saying that does not require faith in the inverse.... Ward Churchill did precisely what they hired him to do. He continued to do it and they decided to retain him. He continued to it more and they gave him tenure. It's that simple. We need to hold the bosses to their obligations and agreements. A defense of him requires no more. ML From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 13:57:27 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 15:57:27 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Wall Street Journal Message-ID: <4A009A27.2030306@panix.com> Two articles have been written lately on changes at the WSJ since Murdoch bought it: 1) Identity Crisis The Wall Street Journal steers away from what made it great By Liza Featherstone http://www.cjr.org/feature/identity_crisis.php 2) Has the 'Journal' Lost Its Soul? By Scott Sherman http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090511/sherman Since the WSJ is behind a subscriber's firewall, and is even unavailable at Columbia University, I haven't been following the paper's decline as analyzed by Featherstone and Sherman. Basically, they argue that the paper is less committed to longer, more in-depth pieces that take months to write in some cases. Although the paper's editorial page is rancid, the reporters have often been very intelligent and even on the left. I got to know Joel Millman, one of them, in the late 80s before he went to work for the WSJ. He was a free-lancer at the time who did a very good article on Tecnica for Technology Review at MIT. His father must have been some kind of old leftist since he went to Nicaragua on a Tecnica delegation himself. Here's a sample of Millman's reporting from the pre-Murdoch days: Seniors Flock to Border Towns To Horde Cheap Prescriptions By Joel Millman The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2003 http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/bordertown.htm From eindeoc at googlemail.com Tue May 5 14:04:24 2009 From: eindeoc at googlemail.com (Einde O'Callaghan) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 22:04:24 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A009BC8.1000708@googlemail.com> Louis Proyect wrote: > farmelantj at juno.com wrote: >> That's how Wikipedia describes him. >> See: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wheen >> > > I have Wheen's biography of Marx but have not gotten around to reading > it. I suppose that I am procrastinating in light of the following > excerpt from the wiki: > It is nevertheless well worth reading. Einde O'Callaghan From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 14:16:14 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 16:16:14 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Pashtuns and imperialist map-makers Message-ID: <4A009E8E.2050005@panix.com> http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/pakistans-british-drawn-borders/?hp From rholt at planeteria.net Tue May 5 14:16:10 2009 From: rholt at planeteria.net (Rod Holt) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 13:16:10 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <4A006820.2030204@optonline.net> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com> <4A006820.2030204@optonline.net> Message-ID: <4A009E8A.3090508@planeteria.net> There is obviously a difference between the Wolfram "engine" and the description of it in The Independent UK. In theory, there is a problem with any system attempting to deal with common language. All useful languages are strong enough to talk about themselves; e.g., "This sentence is False", all the various liars paradoxes, "This set contains all sets," etc. The attempts to formalize common languages to avoid the multitude of contradictions have produced, among other things, computer languages (i.e., internal programs that talk about external programs.) I use "talk about" very loosely. Since the Independent's article did imply that the Wolfram engine would understand common language, it (the article) is bullshit. --rod Les Schaffer wrote: >Bill Quimby wrote: > > >>My reaction - impressive as to factual data and data analysis >> >> > >comparison of google and Wolfram Alpha: > > http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22585/page1/ > >Les > >________________________________________________ >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/rholt%40planeteria.net > > > From meisner at xs4all.nl Tue May 5 14:24:12 2009 From: meisner at xs4all.nl (Jeff) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 22:24:12 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> At 16:45 05/05/09 +0000, you wrote: >[below is an article in the NYT (Actually this article had been posted once before. But never mind, it's worth repeating...) > that skillfully deconstructs the phony >academic case against Ward Churchill that too many folks on the Left bought >into. Like Mark, I am not aware of anyone on the anti-capitalist left who "bought into" the firing of Ward Churchill (though I am open to being surprised). >On at least one list of former 60s activists, ..... >regurgitate the charges of academic dishonesty against him while generally >dissin' the guy as a phony and a clown; I guess I'd be interested in knowing which list that is! But of course you say you are talking about "former activists" which isn't what I mean by "the left" (= current activists). Mark: > Because I >most emphatically do NOT think the people killed on 9-11 bear any >comparison to participants in the Nazi machine. That isn't exactly what he wrote. We just see references to what he wrote about "little Eichmanns" which is somewhat out of context. Ward Churchill's entire piece can be read on the link below, but when you look at what he wrote, you can see that 1) He isn't talking about ALL of the people in the WTC when it was hit (but unfortunately he doesn't bother to point out that a large portion of the people there were menial workers or just visiting); and 2) He doesn't exactly compare the stock traders to the Nazi's, but his point is that they are complicit with the war machine through their economic role, but like Eichmann didn't need to actually get their hands dirty in the process. Ward Churchill: >They did not license themselves to "target innocent civilians." > >There is simply no argument to be made that the Pentagon personnel killed on >September 11 fill that bill. The building and those inside comprised >military targets, pure and simple. As to those in the World Trade Center . . >. > >Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were >civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic >corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire ? the "mighty >engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always >been enslaved ? and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to >"ignorance" ? a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" ? counts as less >than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that >any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what >they were involved in ? and in many cases excelling at ? it was because of >their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too >busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, >arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, >conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and >rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact >any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon >the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, >I'd really be interested in hearing about it. I wouldn't have written it that way, but what he writes is not so unreasonable. You can view his entire essay here: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/s11/churchill.html - Jeff From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com Tue May 5 14:50:32 2009 From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 13:50:32 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Pashtuns and imperialist map-makers Message-ID: <4A00A698.2060904@gmail.com> Fascinating blog entry for political cartographers and historians alike. A map of pre-1937 "British India" has borders on the east with Siam/Thailand and with Iran on the West. Even those maps have the "Durand Line" quite...blurry. It is quite conceivable that had not the British "done what they did" India would of emerged as a huge country extending to those borders albeit with it's own, huge, internal contradictions thrown in (like the addition of a huge Buddhist minority in the eastern quarter of the country. More a subject for alternative history junkies than current political developments. David From durable at earthlink.net Tue May 5 01:52:55 2009 From: durable at earthlink.net (Barry Brooks) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 15:52:55 +0800 Subject: [Marxism] 40 Million Nonbelievers in America? The Secret Is Almost Out In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905051148m5864c64bl3e2c76f843ebdf79@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905051148m5864c64bl3e2c76f843ebdf79@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <49FFF057.8000007@earthlink.net> Dennis Brasky wrote: >> Secularists have very quietly become one of America?s largest minorities -- >> how long before they use their power? Facing total group rejection, the closet is full of the group. Stop Intolerance Now Join SIN ... Don't tolerate intolerance! Sin is non-secular. It has already spread worldwide. Let's call it our own. Sin will sell as well as freedom, being almost the same thing. We have begun. You're part of it. What more can we do now? Here's a slogan? SIN is the answer. Wipe-out intolerance now! WIN? Intolerance has the zeal to act, but tolerance turns the other cheek. If one must be tolerant then, at least, tattoo both lower cheeks with "kiss my ass" so turning the other cheek becomes passive intolerance. I can't help laughing at the funny hats. Barry From markalause at gmail.com Tue May 5 15:37:51 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:37:51 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> Message-ID: I'd challenge the reasonableness of any assertion that the civilian workers (ie., black or hispanic janitors) killed in the Pentagon were legitimate targets. They were the epitome of "innocent civilians" as were the people killed in the WTC. The language Churchill uses is simply the language of moralizing liberalism....deciding who is and who isn't a guilty part of that technocratic corps in the service of global nastiness. It really has nothing to do with Marxism. ML From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Tue May 5 15:38:48 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:38:48 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905051438h7dafb106pe5933033b7592de6@mail.gmail.com> > > > > > The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for > food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse > By Lester R. Brown > Scientific American > April 22, 2009 > > clip -- > > One of the toughest things for people to do is to > anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the > future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of > the time this approach works well. But sometimes it > fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by > events such as today's economic crisis. > > For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could > disintegrate probably seems preposterous. Who would not > find it hard to think seriously about such a complete > departure from what we expect of ordinary life? What > evidence could make us heed a warning so dire-and how > would we go about responding to it? We are so inured to > a long list of highly unlikely catastrophes that we are > virtually programmed to dismiss them all with a wave of > the hand: Sure, our civilization might devolve into > chaos-and Earth might collide with an asteroid, too! > > For many years I have studied global agricultural, > population, environmental and economic trends and their > interactions. The combined effects of those trends and > the political tensions they generate point to the > breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have > resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down > not only individual governments but also our global > civilization. > > I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure > to deal with the environmental declines that are > undermining the world food economy-most important, > falling water tables, eroding soils and rising > temperatures-forces me to conclude that such a collapse > is possible. > > > full --- > > < > http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages&sc=WR_20090428 > > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From wquimby at embarqmail.com Tue May 5 16:57:35 2009 From: wquimby at embarqmail.com (Bill Quimby) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 17:57:35 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> Message-ID: <4A00C45F.9010109@embarqmail.com> Are you trying to make a distinction between "complicit" workers (the stock handlers and other workers in the capitalist enterprise) and the "non-complicit" workers - the janitors, maintenance workers, restaurant staff? Yes, I often wonder about the janitors in Hussein's government buildings when our "shock and awe" hit Baghdad. But as far as the rest, it may have nothing to do with Marxism - Karl was a good guy at bottom - but it has EVERYTHING to do with Leninism and the appropriate question raised about the complicity of the bourgeoisie in the terrorism of Capitalism. But that discussion may belong to another list? - Bill Mark Lause wrote: > I'd challenge the reasonableness of any assertion that the civilian > workers (ie., black or hispanic janitors) killed in the Pentagon were > legitimate targets. They were the epitome of "innocent civilians" as > were the people killed in the WTC. > > The language Churchill uses is simply the language of moralizing > liberalism....deciding who is and who isn't a guilty part of that > technocratic corps in the service of global nastiness. > > It really has nothing to do with Marxism. > > ML > > ________________________________________________ > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > Send list submissions to: Marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/wquimby%40embarqmail.com > From markalause at gmail.com Tue May 5 16:28:30 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 18:28:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A00C45F.9010109@embarqmail.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> <4A00C45F.9010109@embarqmail.com> Message-ID: Capitalism is a horrible system that does horrible things to people. If you earn a living under capitalism, aren't you employed to participate--on whatever level--in the horribleness of it? And what that level is often has little to do with anything other than our blind dumb luck. I deplored the moralizing about this as much as I did the sickening self-righteous sentimentality of middle class twittery over the guilt of American soldiers in Vietnam...or, pretty much of the poor grunts in any army in almost any war. Capitalism is a social process. If we're all guilty, we should just blow our brains out now...apt punishment for our complicity in such an inhuman system. Or we should have the consciousness to understand social processes for what they are. That, I think, is a distinction between Marxism and this particular variant of liberalism.... ML From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue May 5 16:44:28 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 18:44:28 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com><7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2E72AA9180D74AF6B740DEAFFD7CEE07@albanta> Dennis Brasky wrote: "I guess it would be asking too much to ACTUALLY EXPLAIN your views." I didn't actually think of them as being inaccessible, but here goes: Level one: "The biggest internet revolution for a generation" is intolerable, for what The Independent and mostpeople understand by "The Internet" --the world wide web of hyperlinked pages -- is ALMOST but not quite a generation old by the commonest definition of a "generation" as 20 years. The first web page was displayed in December, 1990. The first web site did not come online until 1991. You do the math. Level two: "will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before." But "the web" was designed and engineered, with a great deal of care and thought, to NEVER be able to do that. The oh-my-god blindingly brilliant principle underneath the Internet is that the network should be as stupid as it is possible for humans to devise. This means conceptually that it is simply a mechanism for conveying batches of ones and zeroes to a specified destination. All the intelligence is OUTSIDE the actual network, hanging off the ends, so to speak, rather than INSIDE, between nodes. So what is being described shows the person describing it has no actual understanding of what the Internet is or how it works nor --most importantly-- WHY it works so well. Building intelligence INTO the Internet, as the article suggests is being done, would not improve it, it would destroy it. Level three: "software that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before." This has got to be one of the oldest promises (in a variety of forms) of computer company flacks and CEO's. That this computer is now going to work the way you do. That it will understand what you want. The TRUTH is there hasn't been a major breakthrough in software user interface design since the graphical user interface was developed in the 1970's, although arguably the core of it was already present in the first public demonstration of a mouse towards the end of the 1960's. Everything else since then have been refinements and embellishments (and often it seems mostly very closely associated with Steve Jobs. For example, what most people call "the Internet" --the world wide web-- is based on the concepts embodied in the HyperCard program for the early Macs, and the world wide web itself was designed on Jobs's NeXT computers, which he built after getting thrown out of Apple and before becoming head of Pixar. The NeXT user interface is behind a lot of Internet conventions (like single-clicking as opposed to windows-style double clicking). Level Four: The promise of computers or software that would understand everyday speech was a major aspect of the hype that accompanied the end-of-the-century Internet Bubble. Among the most notorious perps of this BS was "ask Jeeves," since reduced to ask.com. Hence the reference at the end of my post. As for my characterizing this offering as bullshit sight unseen, it comes from many years of seeing the same pattern followed by various companies and their media boosters. And the suspicion that if these guys really had what they claimed, we wouldn't be reading it written up by an ignoramus in the popular press, but by someone like Tim Berners Lee in Scientific American. And Dennis adds, "From the feedback I get offlist, I take it that there are a considerable number of comrades who loathe and detest the insufferable smugness, pomposity and sheer arrogance of Bustelo. Someone posts an interesting article to galvanize discussion, and it's called 'perpetrating onto the list'. Why don't you just break the Prozacs in half from now on." Oh gosh [blush]. Golly gee. All I can say is thank you for your kind words (and those feeding you in the back offlist). I'll try to live up to the high standard you have set for all of us. Joaquin From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 16:46:12 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 18:46:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] May Day photos from a Turkish comrade Message-ID: <4A00C1B4.4080003@panix.com> http://www.habervesaire.com/haber/1417/ From lnp3 at panix.com Tue May 5 17:03:48 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 19:03:48 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <2E72AA9180D74AF6B740DEAFFD7CEE07@albanta> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com><7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> <2E72AA9180D74AF6B740DEAFFD7CEE07@albanta> Message-ID: <4A00C5D4.5090601@panix.com> > Oh gosh [blush]. Golly gee. All I can say is thank you for your kind words > (and those feeding you in the back offlist). I'll try to live up to the high > standard you have set for all of us. > > Joaquin Actually, you might try being a little bit less confrontational and rude. In fact, your act is getting rather tiresome. From jbustelo at gmail.com Tue May 5 18:20:24 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 20:20:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? In-Reply-To: <4A009E8A.3090508@planeteria.net> References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com><4A006820.2030204@optonline.net> <4A009E8A.3090508@planeteria.net> Message-ID: <810BADA989D644FB90E252D0B2F5AE85@albanta> Rod writes: " Since the Independent's article did imply that the Wolfram engine would understand common language, it (the article) is bullshit." Yes, and apologies for my terseness yesterday but what was in my mind was NOT JUST that this is bullshit, but that this is *exactly the same, word for word* bullshit we have heard before. Like about 117 times. How can this be? Because Wolfram hires the same flacks and gets its behind licked by the same opportunist/careerist hacks that sneered at Google's primitive simplicity a decade ago or always looked down on Opera (what kind of name for a web browser is that!). They never understood the secret of Google's success, which is NOT its subtle and discerning artificial intelligence that mimics humans but rather web results designed to be NOT what an infinitely fast human would produce, but what the human would want for her or his own post-computer processing. And they never understood that the Opera web browser you download is not the one you use: the whole point to Opera is to tweak it to within half an inch of your own private vision of browser nirvana. Of course, if you DON'T HAVE such a vision, then sure, stick with Firefox. Or even Internet Explorer. In a sense, Google is similar to Opera, but without flaunting it. The beauty of Google is that its designers UNDERSTOOD the results are going to be post-processed. queries will be repeated with variations and further specifications. It is a tool for "drilling down." The list of Google results IS NOT THE END PRODUCT. The "end product" is the two, four or seven links you went to because they are seemed to be the most responsive to your concern. This new search engine --that is ALL it is, all the stuff about "understanding" ordinary language is just a reflection of the limitations and misunderstandings of the flacks in trying to translate for ordinary humans what the corporate ?ber geeks were trying to accomplish-- is (to oversimplify, given my limited experience) one that boosts database results and especially those in numeric form. If you're writing college term papers, I am sure it will be useful, and if you're a hard-data geek like me you will also like it. I will confess now, though I probably shouldn't, since I (or rather my alter-ego) did this under a confidentiality agreement, that I am ... familiar ... with the new product coming out. And my alter-ego decided not to cover it, not even to send it on to those trolling his old sci-tech beat. Me, I like it, but 99% of many audience has no use for it. And even 80% or more of a tech-gadgets show audience will be left out. As far as I could tell, the appeal here was really narrow. I think the article that Les forwarded actually reflects quite well my ... understanding [I promised not to talk about my impressions or conclusions about the version I saw] ... of the product. People like me and I suspect Les and a few others will find it useful: in one or two searches we will have what would have taken quite a bit of "drilling down" with google. At the same time, it is extremely FRUSTRATING as a search engine. It doesn't understand combinations of two, three, four or more keywords that Google does surprisingly well with. The "natural language" stuff of course is for the birds. Don't even try it. It's just a misunderstanding by the marketing and promotion folks. SOME --perhaps LOTS-- of this will have been remedied by the product's launch. The same thing Google has done, except Google has a head start of more than a decade. And from what I saw most recently, this product is STILL not ready for prime time. Even typos that google invariably suggests the right correction to stump this newcomer. Perhaps the SAME typos stumped Google in 1999, but this is 2009, and the world has moved on, even if my typing has not improved. Google is developing its own data-mining tool, a somewhat different concept but that, from my point of view, fills many of the same needs as this new search engine for numerical data fetishists like yours truly. If I had to bet on how long this thing will be out before hitting a crisis, restructuring or shutting down, I'd say 15, perhaps 18 months after a public launch. Which gives time for the inevitable version 2.0 makeover 6-12 months down the road, with the failure of that to produce the hoped-for results even more quickly then leading to the ICU. The one caveat is that in the case of such a heavily hyped hope, complete catastrophic collapse could come much sooner -- in a question of weeks. If some internet heavy hitter or hack really SLAMS the thing as it comes out, and manages to set the tone for the coverage, this thing could be toast by Independence Day. Believe me, it certainly has THAT potential. Joaquin From pt_costello at yahoo.com Tue May 5 18:28:28 2009 From: pt_costello at yahoo.com (Pat Costello) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 17:28:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman Message-ID: <558702.27333.qm@web63102.mail.re1.yahoo.com> > I have Wheen's biography of Marx but have not gotten around to reading > it. I suppose that I am procrastinating in light of the following > excerpt from the wiki: > It is nevertheless well worth reading. Einde O'Callaghan Me: I agree it is well worth reading. I enjoyed it quite a lot. The Wheen biography of Marx also won the Isaac Deutscher Prize in 1999. http://www.deutscherprize.org.uk/ From sartesian at earthlink.net Tue May 5 20:48:52 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 22:48:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Scotland, Wales, N. Ire report calls for end to growth References: <49FFBED0.8030305@earthlink.net> Message-ID: Well, they're going to get their wish. Bet you the world isn't one iota better off-- not cleaner, not greener, not one bit less pollution-- but it sure is going to be poorer. We used to say-- best way to fuck somebody up is to give them exactly what they wish for. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Brooks" To: Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 12:21 AM Subject: [Marxism] Scotland, Wales, N. Ire report calls for end to growth > > > > http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/prosperity-without-growth-background.html > > Government report calls for end to growth By Eric Doherty. > > ============================= > > http://www.republic-news.org/archive/212-repub/212_doherty.html > Government report calls for end to growth > By Eric Doherty From johnaimani at earthlink.net Tue May 5 22:21:39 2009 From: johnaimani at earthlink.net (johnaimani) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 21:21:39 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] WSJ-No Sale: Bank Wrecks New Houses Message-ID: <1B9F797E03B547C29ADCFF3E1C2486CA@D4PKYZ41> (JAI: THis from Marx: "Over-production of capital, not of individual commodities - although over-production of capital always includes over-production of commodities - is therefore simply over-accumulation of capital...How is this conflict settled and the conditions restored which correspond to the "sound" operation of capitalist production? The mode of settlement is already indicated in the very emergence of the conflict whose settlement is under discussion. It implies the withdrawal and even the partial destruction of capital..." Capital. Vol 3. Chap XV. Sec 3 at http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch15.htm ) a.. MAY 5, 2009 No Sale: Bank Wrecks New Houses By MICHAEL CORKERY http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124148169574985359.html#printMode A video of a backhoe knocking down homes in Victorville, Calif., was posted on YouTube by the founder of a Web site called Vision Victory. A Texas bank is about done demolishing 16 new and partially built houses acquired in Southern California through foreclosure, figuring it was better to knock them down than to try selling them in the depressed housing market. Guaranty Bank of Austin is wrecking the structures to provide a "safe environment" for neighbors of the abandoned housing tract in Victorville, a high-desert city about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, a bank spokesman said. Victorville city officials said the bank told them the cost of finishing the development would exceed what they could sell the homes for. The bank also faced escalating city fines as vandals and squatters took over the sprawling housing project, leaving behind graffiti and drug paraphernalia, city officials said. Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, is demolishing 16 houses at a housing development that it acquired through a foreclosure action. The bank figured it was more cost effective to wreck the houses than try to finish and sell them. WSJ's Michael Corkery reports. "It's unfortunate," said George Duran, the city's code-enforcement manager. "We would have hoped for these houses to be finished. But it's up to the owner to see what is best for them." Home prices in San Bernardino County, where Victorville is located, have fallen 60% from the housing peak in 2006, according to DataQuick, a research firm. The median new-home price in Victorville is $265,990, according to Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, a housing-research firm. Homes in the Victorville development were priced at a range of $280,00 to $350,000 in early 2008, according to Hanley Wood. Demolishing vacant houses in economically troubled, inner-city neighborhoods is common. But the demolitions in Victorville show how the housing market is weighing on lenders even in once-booming suburbs. The houses were built by a California developer less than two years ago, according to city records. Guaranty Bank has significant exposure to construction loans to home builders. Last month, its parent company, Guaranty Financial Group, was issued a "cease and desist" order by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, citing the firm's "unsafe and unsound banking practices." Many lenders, like Guaranty, have been foreclosing on home builders whose projects have gone bust. Regulators told Guaranty to come up with a plan to dispose of its foreclosed properties. But finding buyers is difficult, as home values remain under pressure. Guaranty spokesman John Wessman said only four of the 16 structures slated for demolition were "substantially complete," while the others were less than half finished and "exposed to the elements." Guaranty obtained the property through foreclosure in December 2008. The builder, Matthews Homes, couldn't be reached. A Guaranty official based in California told the Victorville newspaper, the Daily Press, that it would cost more than $1 million to finish developing the property so it could be occupied. Mr. Wessman said that official wasn't authorized to speak to reporters. He said he didn't know how much it would cost to finish the job. A demolition job of this size would likely cost more than $100,000, according to a person familiar with the matter. A video of the houses being knocked down was posted on YouTube by the founder of a Web site called Vision Victory Manifesto, which has been warning of economic disaster. He declined to give his full name for this story. Many of the appliances had been stripped out of the houses, according to the demolition company. "I was a little surprised they couldn't come up with an alternative" to demolition, said Ron Willemsen, president of Intravaia Rock & Sand Inc. of Montclair, Calif., which did the demolition. Mr. Willemsen said he would grind up much of the wood into mulch for landscaping, while some of the lumber would be sent to Mexico for construction there. Write to Michael Corkery at michael.corkery at wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3 From larrydamms at yahoo.com Tue May 5 22:24:42 2009 From: larrydamms at yahoo.com (Larry Damms) Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 21:24:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: <139296.41333.qm@web58504.mail.re3.yahoo.com> >Are you trying to make a distinction between "complicit" workers (the >stock handlers and other workers in the capitalist enterprise) and the >"non-complicit" workers - the janitors, maintenance workers, restaurant >staff? ? Watch your step. This is rubbish. My spouse works in a tall building in lower Manhattan. She has an advanced degree and makes a salary well above the US median. But she has zero decision-making control over the (rather odious) social purpose to which her?training and efforts are?put. She also works insanely long hours,?and so she's probably having a lot of surplus value vacuumed out of her (forget for a second narrow-minded?orthodoxies about "unproductive labor"). In other words, she's a decently compensated?but nonetheless exploited proletarian, just like a?US West Coast longshore worker, and she correctly regards?herself as such.?I can't say that?I admire the?culture of her peers, but that's? irrelevant.?I could say the same thing?for blue collar guys that?like?Buffalo wings and NFL football. ? Are?all US workers whose retirement income is (or was supposed to be, anyway) derived largely from 401K plans -- i.e. predicated on capitalist profits -- meritorious of being blown to smithereens? ? Don't tell me?my wife?deserves to die. By your "logic" our esteemed list moderator deserved to die when he worked for GoldmanSachs two decades ago. Objectively, you're recruiting for the class enemy. ? PS It should go without saying that none of this is meant to suggest that the witch hunt waged against Ward Churchill was anything but scurrilous. ? ? ? ? From tcod at hotmail.com Tue May 5 23:35:29 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 05:35:29 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: I'm not asking you or anyone to literally agree with his "bomb-throwing" provocative rhetoric at all, any more than I'm demanding folks do that in terms of Malcolm X and his comments on JFK and other matters or what some anarchist speaker says from soapbox. The issue I have is with those who buy into the contrived accusations against him. No, not click your heels in agreement with him, but realize that the charges against him are contrived and a cover and attempted end run around the First Amendment issue. Thus I think your comments about sanctity of contracts don't go far enough. Please read Mr. Fish's article. expressing disagreement with him is fine, but agreeing with the substance of the accusations against him-a wholesale character assassination, while formally conceding his first amendment rights doesn't really show a whole lot of solidarity. Ya know, like, communists may have rights and McCarthy went too far, but we all know what reprehensible people they really are etc. Thus I think you missed my point which I think you'd agree with. In other words, I could agree or disagree with your views, but I wouldn't say that because I saw a proofreading error in a book of yours that that means you're intellectually dishonest and should be fired v. OK, you shouldn't be fired but you're still intellectually dishonest and generally a rogue and of course my political differences have nothing to do with that assessment etc etc. Kate Coleman's book on the Panthers is a classic example of that type of pharaisical political attack designed to "demoralize the Left". It's not that they made mistakes she goes, rather the FBI was basically was right about them being a criminal gang even though the FBI went too far on occasions since we all have our constitutional rights etc etc. That's the issue, Churchill is a serious academic, not a gangster or a mafia thug who didn't get his Miranda rights read to him. > Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 15:29:09 -0400 > From: markalause at gmail.com > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux > To: tcod at hotmail.com > > If they defend his rights, what and demand the restoration of his job, > what's the issue? Do you require people to click their heels in > agreement with him and his tactics to be politically sound? Because I > most emphatically do NOT think the people killed on 9-11 bear any > comparison to participants in the Nazi machine. > > ________________________________________________ > 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/tcod%40hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From tcod at hotmail.com Tue May 5 23:40:24 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 05:40:24 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <3.0.3.32.20090505222412.03950070@pop.xs4all.nl> <4A00C45F.9010109@embarqmail.com> Message-ID: _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From fred.fuentes at gmail.com Tue May 5 23:55:00 2009 From: fred.fuentes at gmail.com (Fred Fuentes) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:55:00 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] (Video) Interview with Evo Morales about socialism and Bolivia today Message-ID: The interview is in english http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2009/05/video-interview-with-evo-morales-about.html From david at miradoiro.com Wed May 6 01:57:09 2009 From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 09:57:09 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] An Invention That Could Change the Internet Forever? References: <53a1ffe70905041329w1a039e77sd0cfd294bcbb9900@mail.gmail.com> <7ECAD31978DD4CA3B031FB714CC09A88@albanta> <53a1ffe70905042008t68cd3797yc6baef9531393204@mail.gmail.com> <4A00606F.9030004@embarqmail.com><4A006820.2030204@optonline.net><4A009E8A.3090508@planeteria.net> <810BADA989D644FB90E252D0B2F5AE85@albanta> Message-ID: <63052EC777D2447494021DC63A684BF8@Nautilus> JB, I think you're ignoring the fact that Wolfram can support this stuff with Mathematica. And that he is probably the most hubristic person I've ever read anything written by. So he probably thinks he can crack strong AI, good luck. --David. From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Wed May 6 02:30:18 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 09:30:18 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] The world's new superpower In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905051148m5864c64bl3e2c76f843ebdf79@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905051148m5864c64bl3e2c76f843ebdf79@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Harping back to an older thread, about whether China had the potential to surpass the US economically, this in the Salon is quite interesting... "The world's new superpower China keeps growing even as the global economy melts down. The U.S. may never recover its former place atop the pecking order. Dilip Hiro http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/05/china_superpower/index.html?source=newsletter From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Wed May 6 06:00:17 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 08:00:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US VP, White House staff boss, most of Congress attend AIPAC dinner Message-ID: The most overtly powerful of the foreign policy lobbies sponsored by the US ruling class, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (also sponsored publicly by the government of Israel), celebrated its continuing influence in the wake of the victory of its agents in an espionage case that basically legitimized the delivery of classified information to Israel. This represents a longstanding, if illegal, relationship between US imperialism and its most favored subordinate states. The judge insisted that passing the information was not a crime unless it was deliberately intended to harm US National Security -- a reminder that violators or alleged violators who provide information to non-allied states will not be given the same green light. The Cuban 5, for instance, who did no spying on the US government at all but on terrorist planning against Cuba in the United States, can take no heart from this ruling. The last paragraph seems like an editorial reminder by the New York Times that the US ruling class is not united in all things behind AIPAC, but it sounds rather carping than confident or assertive. Fred Feldman AT ANNUAL MEETING, PRO-ISRAEL GROUP REASSERTS CLOUT By Neil A. Lewis New York Times May 5, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/us/politics/05aipac.html WASHINGTON -- The formidable political strength of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation's major pro-Israel lobby, has been on decidedly intentional display here in the last few days. But this year, Aipac's annual conference comes after a period fraught with small anxieties for the group and its supporters. Just days ago, the Obama administration said it was seeking the dismissal of charges that two former Aipac analysts had violated an espionage statute by improperly disseminating national security information. The case against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman had raised what many in the pro-Israel community in the United States regard as an unfair, even toxic question about whether the loyalty of some American Jews to Israel matches or exceeds their loyalty to the United States. Gary Silow, a Philadelphia-area lawyer and Aipac member at the convention, said he was deeply troubled by the potential for renewed discussion of what he said was the offensive "dual loyalty" issue. In Mr. Silow's view, "the fact that they came after Aipac was what was really disturbing." Like many at the convention, Mr. Silow said he was relieved at the move for a dismissal. More than half the members of the House and Senate attended Monday night's dinner, which featured the group's "roll call" in which the lawmakers all rise. It is a conscious -- and effective -- effort to demonstrate the group's influence on Capitol Hill. Even as the charges were dismissed, the issue of Aipac's role in the capital's political life surfaced again in recent days with the disclosure that Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, had been overheard in 2005 on a government wiretap offering to help reduce the charges. Ms. Harman, who has denied she intervened in the Rosen-Weissman case, was greeted with sustained applause when she appeared on Sunday morning. The site of the conference, the Washington Convention Center, is conveniently, and symbolically, about equally close to the White House and the Capitol, the two objects of Aipac's muscular demonstration. Along with 6,000 delegates, mostly Jewish, leaders of the two branches of government have been attending the convention to offer praise for Aipac and support of Israel, both in generally unreserved language. The roster of scheduled guests from Sunday through the meeting's conclusion on Tuesday included Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker who remains an important Republican voice; and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who has longstanding ties to Israel. The group also heard from the new Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (via satellite), and the new opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, and the president, Shimon Peres (in person). Huge slides of former American presidents were displayed, and there was a murmur of disapproval when the image of Jimmy Carter appeared. Mr. Carter brokered the Camp David peace accords but has turned harshly critical of Israel since leaving office. Speeches are scrutinized closely at Aipac events. As a presidential candidate in June 2008, Barack Obama spoke to Aipac to counter whispers in the American Jewish community that he was insufficiently committed to Israel. Mr. Obama told the group that he regarded them as "friends who share my strong commitment to make sure that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, tomorrow, and forever." Mr. Obama went on to win an estimated 78 percent of the Jewish vote, a figure higher than that won four years earlier by Mr. Kerry. Many of the Aipac attendees are planning to fan out on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brace lawmakers with their views. Aipac's spokesman, Josh Block, said there were 508 appointments at Congressional offices. The conference's literature is filled with suggestions for lobbying as in "don't be late" and "be direct" in making your case. Aipac officials say the key to their success is linking their supporters across the country with their local elected lawmakers. "Relationships matter" is a slogan plastered around the convention hall. Aipac does not make political donations but encourages its members to do so. Last year, some prominent American Jews, asserting that Aipac's generally down-the-line support of Israeli policy was neither helpful to Israel nor wise, founded a counter group called J Street. J Street, which is only a tiny percentage of the size of Aipac, is vocal about supporting lawmakers who might disagree with some Israeli policies. Aipac officials have tried to treat J Street as if it were lint.W From markalause at gmail.com Wed May 6 06:27:11 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 08:27:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: Yes, Tom is correct that we agree that the academic charges against Churchill by the star chamber in Colorado were trumped up...which has never been an issue...so I don't quite understand why he's choosing to be argumentative. Certainly by chalking it up to proofreading errors, he is trivializing legitimate criticisms people have made of Churchill's work--not criticisms for which he should lose his job, but caveats as to his approach.... Tom also mistakes what's at issue here as a First Amendment question. Nobody's trying to muzzle Churchill, but to deprive him of his livelihood, in violation of their contractual agreement and obligations. There is nothing trivial to insist on holding the bosses to the contract. Academics are an insecure lot as a group and it's very easy to stir lynch mobs among them. I have been in more fights over this than I care to enumerate and was myself a target of one not that long ago. Don't trivialize the importance of a contractual agreement as the first line of defense. Most importantly, though, I think a number of people on this list misunderstands the importance of massive gas emissions in academe. Universities are safety valve institutions that allow for this kind of venting. Comparison between Churchill (or me) and Malcolm X are mistaken and silly, however superficially similar what we say might sound like.... This is also indicated in Tom's laudatory citation of Stanley Fish, who is essentially a university CEO whose career most clearly bears a comparison to those Reagan era managers who stripped assets and made their companies lean, clean and marketable. He's fully capable of blowing hot and cold, left and right, up and down...depending on the current norm of venting. I do find it hopeful that Fish has chosen to speak out on this. Let's hope it matters. ML From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 07:21:29 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 09:21:29 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Symbiotic relationship between German Zionists and Nazis Message-ID: <4A018ED9.2020700@panix.com> How Ideological Enemies Collaborated to Achieve Divergent Goals by Roderick Stackelberg Francis R. Nicosia. Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Cambridge University Press, 2008. xiv + 324 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-88392-4. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/stackelberg050509.html From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 07:42:38 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 09:42:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Mike Davis reports from Tiajuana Message-ID: <4A0193CE.4070102@panix.com> A Day Without Tourists Tijuana Versus the Plague By Mike Davis "Since everyone is dumping on Mexico these days, you might as well help me do the real thing." My friend Marcos Ramirez (aka "ERRE") isn't kidding. He's building a new house in Colonia Libertad, Tijuana's oldest and most surrealistically colorful neighborhood, and needs to dispose of some construction debris. I ride shotgun in his pickup while his younger brother Omar, a poet-artist with eyes like Che Guevara's, sprawls in the backseat. For once in a lifetime, afternoon traffic in Tijuana is unsnarled and ERRE spurs his Chevy Silverado through the Zona Rio roundabouts, past the giant statue of Father Kino and the utopian sphere of the Cultural Center, until we reach the Avenida Internacional, the long straightaway next to the corrugated steel futility of the border wall. As the road climbs the mesa, there is a jarring view of landscape disfigured by National Guard bulldozers and the endless churning of terrain by Border Patrol jeeps. But today even the brutalism of Operation Gatekeeper is ameliorated by blue skies and a tickle of a sea breeze. ERRE catches the mood and puts on a Beach Boys CD. I have a sudden inkling of what he must have been like when he was a 15-year-old outlaw skateboarder from Colonia Libertad, careening suicidally down its rutted slopes. Later, he briefly practiced law, but quickly turned away from its corruption to work for 17 years as a skilled carpenter and homebuilder in the United States. In 1997, he confounded the Border Patrol by erecting a huge Trojan Horse (two heads, facing in opposite directions) at the San Ysidro frontier. It exactly straddled the international line. Tijuaneses loved it. Since then he has created similar provocations from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Yunnan, China, attaining the kind artistic renown that usually guarantees studio space in Soho or Coyoacan. But he stubbornly prefers being, as he puts it, a "Libertarian." full: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175068/mike_davis_road_trip_in_the_plague_years From shmage at pipeline.com Wed May 6 08:16:56 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 10:16:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Nader on Single Payer Struggle In-Reply-To: <259145391.-1228376312@wfc.wfcDB.mail.democracyinaction.com> References: <259145391.-1228376312@wfc.wfcDB.mail.democracyinaction.com> Message-ID: On May 6, 2009, at 9:50 AM, Ralph Nader wrote: > Yesterday morning, eight doctors, lawyers and other activists stood > up to Senator Max Baucus. > > And the private health insurance industry. > > And the corporate liberals in Congress. > > The eight activists demanded that single payer - everybody in, > nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital - be put on the table. > > And as a result they were arrested. > > And charged with a so-called "disruption of Congress." > > The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Democracy Now > and National Public Radio all carried stories about the protest. > > C-Span carried it live. > > And it was widely disseminated on the Internet. > > Baucus crafted a hearing to kick off the health care debate in the > Senate yesterday where 15 witnesses would be at the table to discuss > health care reform. > > The insurance industry was at the table. > > The Business Roundtable was at the table. > > The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was at the table. > > Blue Cross Blue Shield was at the table. > > The Heritage Foundation was at the table. > > And corporate liberals like Andy Stern, Ron Pollack, and AARP were > at the table. > > But not one person who stood for what the majority of Americans, > doctors, nurses, and health economists want - single payer - was at > the table. > > Not one. > > When I heard about this corporate line-up last week, I called the > office of Senator Baucus. > > And politely asked that, as a matter of fairness, a single payer > doctor be allowed to testify. > > I was told - no way, Ralph. > > The deal is done. > > So, yesterday, at 10 a.m., the Baucus Eight, led by Single Payer > Action and other single payer groups, took to the Senate Finance > Committee. > > And directly and respectfully confronted a room full of corporate > lobbyists. > > And corporate controlled Senators. > > And again asked that a group of doctors who were in the room to > support Medicare for all be allowed to testify. > > The answer again - no, no, and no. > > Remember what Senator Richard Durbin said last week? > > Durbin said that the banks "own" the Congress. > > To which we might add - the health insurance industry and the drug > industry own the Senate. > > Faxing, writing, and e-mailing is not getting it done. > > Enough is enough. > > Time for action. > > This is a winnable issue. > > But the American people need to focus on 535 members of Congress. > > And get mobilized. > > Single Payer Action is at your service to get the job done. > > So, donate now -- $8, $18, $80, or $800. > > To honor the Baucus Eight - who all wore black yesterday in memory > of the more than 20,000 Americans who - according to the Institute > of Medicine - die every year from lack of health insurance. > > And to fuel a citizen action movement that will deliver single payer > to the American people - sooner not later. > > Together, we can break the corporate stranglehold on Congress. > > And deliver health care for all. > > Single payer. > > More comprehensive. More efficient. More humane. More peace of mind. > > Let's get it done. > > Onward to single payer, > > > > Ralph Nader > > PS: Remember, if you donate $100 or more by May 14, 2009, we will > send you two galvanizing books that concisely detail the case for > single payer in America. > > > > Health Care Meltdown by Robert LeBow, MD, revised and updated by Dr. > C. Rocky White - a Republican doctor so fed up with the needless > suffering caused by the insurance industry that he become a leading > advocate for single payer. > > and > > Ten Excellent Reasons for National Health Care, Edited by Mary > O'Brien and Martha Livingston. > > This two-book offer ends 11:59 p.m. May 14, 2009. > > So don't miss out. Donate now. > > We're building one million Americans strong for single payer. > > Please share this e-mail with friends and family. > > Urge them to sign up and donate at singlepayeraction.org. > > > > 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 dmozart1756 at gmail.com Wed May 6 08:24:56 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 10:24:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] a sense of comradely behavior on the list Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905060724m73532a36v684f8500842b3b8c@mail.gmail.com> Bustelo - > Oh gosh [blush]. Golly gee. All I can say is thank you for your kind words > (and those feeding you in the back offlist). I'll try to live up to the high > standard you have set for all of us. > > Joaquin Louis - >Actually, you might try being a little bit less confrontational and >rude. In fact, your act is getting rather tiresome. reply - On the one hand, Bustelo has argued over the years for a non vanguardist, more inclusive re-organization of the US left - something that I completely agree with. On the other hand, he relies upon (and he's not the only one!) the same heavy-handed sarcasm, disdain and contempt that vanguardist grouplets use against any opposition, whether within or outside of their ranks. Should such a non "Leninist" formation arise and its leadership employ such methods of discussion, it will inevitably degenerate into the holier-than-thou level of today's sects. People who are new to the left will leave - in a hurry. I'm not arguing for a "can't we all just get along" approach. Political disagreements on major issues naturally get heated and overheated - I've been just as guilty of that as anyone else. But can we bite our tongues on the arrogance and save some of that scorn for the class enemy and their accomplices?? I apologize for the crack about the Prozac - it was late and I should've slept on it. It won't happen again. Dennis Brasky From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Wed May 6 09:42:43 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 11:42:43 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Killing a worker through willfully lax safety standards is a misdemeanor In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905060842h6dbd019bu7ab2df668169e149@mail.gmail.com> > > > *Pandemic, Mostly Unacknowledged * *Death at Work in America * > > By JOANN WYPIJEWSKI > > http://counterpunch.org/wypijewski04292009.html > ** > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > > From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Wed May 6 09:45:19 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 11:45:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] =?windows-1252?q?Congo_Ignored=2C_Not_Forgotten_-_5_mil?= =?windows-1252?q?lion_dead_aren=92t_worth_two_stories_a_year?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905060845s3842d3ffv34810634e07ac6d0@mail.gmail.com> > > > > *Congo Ignored, Not Forgotten > *When 5 million dead aren?t worth two stories a year > > > http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3777 > > > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Wed May 6 09:46:03 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 11:46:03 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The Israel Boycott is Biting In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905060846p6514ae00l9877e5549629d1a@mail.gmail.com> > > > > http://counterpunch.org/hijab05012009.html > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From tcod at hotmail.com Wed May 6 09:49:00 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:49:00 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: Good, but I think Churchill was more than academic figure but a broader public figure around native rights and generally a political activist. In that regard we can look to Noam Chomsky, for example. I may be wrong and I haven't studied the case, but I believe the issue in court was whether his termination was in fact a trumped up attempt to retaliate against him for exercising his First Amendment rights by writing and talking up the "chickens come home to roost theme" around 9/11; that but for that this academic fishing expedition would not have taken place, I think that was actually in the jury instructions. We had this guy at the University of Maryland who was a physics professor back in the 70s who ended up becoming a strident and somewhat boorish Maoist who was always in the student newspaper, who ended up getting fired for various transgressions, not of which really had to do anything with his competence as a physicist. Rather it was his role as an eccentric public figure that doomed him. Unfortunately there was not enough public attention drawn to this to reverse the outcome. _________________________________________________________________ Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail?. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd1_052009 From Waistline2 at aol.com Wed May 6 10:34:36 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 12:34:36 EDT Subject: [Marxism] a sense of comradely behavior on the list Message-ID: In a message dated 5/6/2009 10:25:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, dmozart1756 at gmail.com writes: On the one hand, Bustelo has argued over the years for a non vanguardist, more inclusive re-organization of the US left - something that I completely agree with. On the other hand, he relies upon (and he's not the only one!) the same heavy-handed sarcasm, disdain and contempt that vanguardist grouplets use against any opposition, whether within or outside of their ranks. Should such a non "Leninist" formation arise and its leadership employ such methods of discussion, it will inevitably degenerate into the holier-than-thou level of today's sects. People who are new to the left will leave - in a hurry. I apologize for the crack about the Prozac - it was late and I should've slept on it. It won't happen again. Dennis Brasky Comment Concentrating on "what's wrong" rather than "who is wrong" is more interesting. Further, all individuals deviate on all issues to one degree or another, which is why discussion and debate takes place . . . . spanning decades and years. WL. **************Remember Mom this Mother's Day! Find a florist near you now. (http://yellowpages.aol.com/search?query=florist&ncid=emlcntusyelp00000006) From spalmer999 at yahoo.com Wed May 6 11:12:41 2009 From: spalmer999 at yahoo.com (Steve Palmer) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 10:12:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] U.S. Department of the Treasury Cuba Sanctions Update Message-ID: <361345.9027.qm@web80407.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Just received an email from OFAC ... but I don't see any changes yet ... U.S. Department of the Treasury Cuba Sanctions Update Wednesday, May 6, 2009 9:36 AM From: "U.S. Department of the Treasury" You are subscribed to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's notification service for Cuba Sanctions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. For more information on this specific action, please visit our Recent Actions page at http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions? From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 11:19:11 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 13:19:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Obama vs. Netanyahu and Lieberman Message-ID: <4A01C68F.90409@panix.com> Counterpunch May 6, 2009 Nice is Not Enough Obama vs. Netanyahu and Lieberman By REUVEN KAMINER Universally respected, even loved in many quarters, and still the embodiment of hope for many of the simple folk and the downtrodden, Barack Obama is not doing very well with the new government of Israel. Obama sounds well intentioned when he talks of peace in the area. But Obama, as shrewd a gentleman as he is supposed to be, is in no way prepared to handle the weird mix of arrogance and insult originating from Netanyahu and Lieberman and flooding the Israeli media. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, ignores the hints by many of the pundits that he may be embarrassing his boss, Bibi Netanyahu. Thriving on media attention, Lieberman keeps up a barrage of inanities like his statement in an interview to a Russian publication to the effect that ?the US will do what we tell it to do.? Despite his appearance as a thug and a buffoon, Lieberman has a broad geo-political agenda and even presumes to explain to Obama that Pakistan and Afghanistan and not Iran are the chief problem. Lieberman is working on his very own contribution to world security by pushing the idea of a USA-Russia alliance against the Islamic world (civilization) to be brokered by?you guessed it?Israel and its foreign minister. There are people out there who take the clash of civilizations seriously. Just what we need ? a Judeo-Christian alliance for the preservation of Western values. Lieberman is no genius but he can pick up on a racist strain in US-European thinking. Bibi is a bit more elegant, but he is following the very same scenario as his buddy. This policy must be characterized as the right wing-extremist line of the more aggressive and adventurous elements in the US administration. These forces dislike Obama?s ?moderate? style even when it is seen purely as a matter of form. They know the hard facts of imperial power and will exploit every element to wear down Obama, who has hitherto been simply unable to elaborate a coherent alternative to traditional hegemonic thinking. Israel sees itself a pioneer in the war of civilizations. From its forward position it looks back at Obama and reminds him that, in the light of the conceptual continuity of US foreign policy, respect and consideration are due to the pioneers watching the fort. Obama and the U.S. are in a particularly sensitive situation in the ME. Netanyahu has effectively scuttled the peace process, as faint and unconvincing as it was. Iran is exerting greater influence in the ME where the moderate Arab regimes are reduced to depending on Israel muscle to protect themselves from the fall out resulting from their collaborationist betrayal of the Palestinians. Odds and increasing signs on the ground indicate that the departure and the redeployment of US troops will have a destabilizing effect in Iraq. There are increasing signs that the present leadership in Baghdad might take a hike to Teheran. The US leadership has figured out it needs some secular horses in the Iraqi race and is busy trying to resurrect Sadaam Hussein?s old party. You see, this is the Middle East. Meanwhile, for the last few weeks, Bibi Netanyahu has been working overtime to kill off any chance whatsoever for any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian and the Israeli-Arab conflict. He has already demonstrated clearly and unequivocally that, when and if he deigns to be so kind to his US buddy as to agree to go back to the negotiating table, he will talk only exclusively to a waterboarded Palestinian delegation that will kiss the whip after being thoroughly inundated by a flood of new unconditional demands. Israel now demands that the Palestinians must not only recognize Israel and undertake peaceful coexistence with it, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. This recognition is to be interpreted by Israel, inter alia, as a clear renunciation of the demands for the rights of the Palestinian refugees. You see, Israel seeks closure. The plain fact of the matter is that while Obama?s advisers? limit him to bland generalities such as ?Let?s have two states,? and ?Everybody should behave well,? Lieberman and Netanyahu are hard at work. They are ostensibly reviewing their policy options, but really making sure that by issuing a slew of new demands, one more outrageous than the other, there will not be a Palestinian in sight who will dare to sit down to discuss ?Two-states.? Washington is stupefied and fails to react. Netanyahu says that Israel has just as much right to build in the occupied territories as the Palestinians and that the status of the land in the territories is ?disputed land.? Washington is stupefied and fails to react. Netanyahu wants it clear right now that Palestine will never have any sort of army, and accept all kinds of limitations regarding water and elctro-magnetic fields on its truncated sovereignty. Washington is stupefied and fails to act. Some wise guy pundit here called this new list of demands, Netanyahu?s shopping list for Obama. Obama has scheduled a full and frank discussion with Netanyahu for the 18th this month. Hillary Clinton is looking forward to hear about new developments in Israeli policy and hopes to explain to Netanyahu the danger of alienating the moderate Arab regimes. But Netanyahu is smart enough to exploit any opening given him in D.C. to present a new agenda of unlimited complications. Obama and Clinton may want to play dumb but if they allow Netanyahu to participate in shaping the agenda, they are selling the Palestinian down the river?again. Netanyahu is not without friends and connections in D.C. within the present administration which is still in the grips of the political ideas and anti-Iran hysteria of its predecessor. Making War for Peace or Making Peace for War Everybody watching Bibi here knows how he is preparing himself for the coming meeting with Obama. The war on terror he says trumps peacemaking in the region. With Ahmadinajad on the loose, how could you conceivably talk to us about concessions affecting our vital rights. First lets take out Iran and then I will have time and patience to talk with you about Palestine. The hawkish, militarist, chauvinist boss here is telling Obama, no peace with Palestine without war on Iran. Hillary Clinton was unable to understand that she was trailing far behind the discussion when she suggested that Netanyahu should desist from alienating the moderate Arab by making peace with the Palestinians. Despite the rumors that Lieberman is spitting in the soup, the Israeli-Egyptian love fest is on again. The Israeli government and the head of Egyptian intelligence, meet personally on a regular basis to work out the details of the siege and isolation of Gaza. When he has a chance, Bibi will explain to Hillary Clinton that he has the moderate Arab regimes in the palms of his hands. The moderates fear, more than anything else, political confrontation with Arabs and Muslims who have their very own ideas as to the disposition of their own oil. They, the ?moderates?, are simply too busy defending their own privileges to be bothered by the fate of Palestine. Even so, Obama and Hillary will tell Netanyahu that progress in the Palestinian talks is absolutely necessary to isolate Iran either for heavy sanctions or eventually a full sale attack. We must have peace they will explain before we can make war. Netanyahu, if it appears that he cannot really get his war (with Iran) for promising peace (with the Palestinians) will make the ?ultimate concession? and agree to renew talks with the Palestinians. Obama will fake a victory, the ?moderate? Arab countries will marvel at US diplomatic and the US will proceed on its mission to Teheran. The US will ostensibly have moved in the direction of dialogue but will brandish the Israeli sword in the face of the recalcitrant Iranians to keep them up to speed. With all this jockeying hither and thither very few bright people will be fooled into forgetting the name of the game. This region is oil country and it is the United States and it alone which wants it hands on the spigot. Iran with its reactionary regime and crude and clumsy leadership has the weird idea that it should decide how to dispose of its own oil, a crime punishable by death and invasion in the US playbook. Barack Obama Really Seems Like a Nice Guy I wish to avoid the full scale debate on the significance of the Obama presidency. Suffice it to say that even the most enthusiastic of Obama?s admirers on the left understand that he is the man responsible for tending store for the US empire and its interests. He himself has chosen to surround himself especially in foreign affairs by circles that represent continuity while he must rely on a state apparatus which honors the ?virtues? of continuity above all else. Meanwhile, the US is in full retreat in the Middle East, where Iran and its allies enjoy a spurt of prestige for their support for the forsaken Palestinians. And now South Asia is falling apart. It is worth believing that the nuclear warehouse in Pakistan is in safe hands, but nothing else is safe and no where else is the area secure. Iraq is evermore inherently unstable, and the latest news is that the US is trying to resurrect Saadam Hussein?s party in order to balance the Shi?ite predilection for friendship in Teheran. Unless it is ready to radically increase its military activity, directly or by proxy, in these regions, the US must come up with a serious shift in policy and the cosmetic stuff is just not enough. In short, the US must demonstrate a serious willingness to recognize Iran?s legitimate interests and get rid of the ?axis of evil? baggage. And now back to Bibi and his plans for war. As long as the hard line Israeli policy and the softer line US policy are supposed to advance the same goal of thwarting and obstructing Iranian influence, as long as Washington buys the Israeli propaganda that Israel is in danger of a new Auschwitz and Ahmadinajad is a new Hitler (like Nasser and Arafat figured in previous Israeli narratives), there is a danger that Israel will attack. Equivocation in DC can easily translate to Israeli provocation in Boshir. Our condemnation of the US-Israeli alliance in the ME does not mean that we have any sympathy whatsoever for the reactionary Islamic Republic and its leadership. Ahmadinajad seems totally unable to understand that his sloppy loose and crude formulations regarding Jewry and Israel are just what Bibi and Lieberman ordered. However, recent experience has shown that US intervention, direct or sponsored, will only strengthen a vicious regime, while spreading untold death and destruction among the people of Iran. Reuven Kaminer, was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1929, and he emigrated to Israel in 1951. He is a writer, political analyst, and veteran activist of the Left in Israel. His blog can be found at reuvenkaminer.com From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 11:21:25 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 13:21:25 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Scott McLemee on Hubert Harrison Message-ID: <4A01C715.6010704@panix.com> http://www.cjr.org/page_views/harrison_redux.php?page=1 From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 12:17:08 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 14:17:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Red Diaper Baby Message-ID: <4A01D424.1020101@panix.com> Not long after I posted the Robert Duncan essay on ?Homosexuality and Society? on my blog, Allen Young showed up to post a comment: "Dear Louis, One of my gay email friends brought this to my attention. Recent comment on your blog is by Giles Kotcher, a friend of mine from the NY Gay Liberation Front (early 1970s). When I tell friends about my childhood, I sometimes remark about your father?s store and especially the pickles. I think the last time we were in touch was around the time of the 'Weatherman' film. Naomi Jaffe, whom you mentioned at that time because she is in the film, has recently joined a rather extreme pro-Palestinian group of Jews who reject the right of Israel to exist. My views are different from hers on this topic, and others. So life goes on. Stay in touch." I imagine that Allen does not hold my own extreme pro-Palestinian views against me since we have had amiable email exchanges since he got in touch. Both Allen and his cousin Naomi Jaffe figure in the comic book about my life that will be published within the year unless Random House goes out of business. As will be clear from the mini-memoir by Allen that appears below, he (and Naomi as well) was a red diaper baby in the tiny village next to mine and three years ahead of me in school. Both became leading SDS?ers in the 1960s. Naomi joined the Weatherman and Allen went on to become a theoretician and activist in the gay liberation movement. In chapter one of the comic book about the unrepentant Marxist, you will find all sorts of interesting anecdotes about the Communist subculture in the Borscht Belt. In addition to the Young and Jaffe family, there was my piano teacher Henrietta Neukreug who like Allen?s parents kept copies of Soviet magazines on her living room coffee table. Sid Caesar, who got started in show business in a nearby hotel, was performing Odets plays there in the 1940s. And so on. I have a feeling that Allen?s article is a bit tougher on extremists like me than the original talk he gave at a conference on the 1960s at Eastern Connecticut University in 1994 that I attended. Whatever problems I have with his current-day political views, I have nothing but admiration for Allen?s life-long dedication to the cause, his elegant writing style, and his piquant sense of humor (his anecdote about discussing the Butcher Franco in high school lasted with me since I heard it in 1994.) Red Diaper Baby By Allen Young ?1994 by Allen Young My parents were members of the Communist Party (CP), so that makes me a ?red diaper baby.? If I had to sum up my political evolution, I could summarize it this way: I started out in the Old Left, became involved with unbridled enthusiasm in the New Left, and now just feel pretty much left out. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/red-diaper-baby/ From nchamah at gmail.com Wed May 6 12:22:58 2009 From: nchamah at gmail.com (nchamah miller) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 14:22:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] COLOMBIA -Testimonies of terror and torture Message-ID: Colombia: Testimonies of terror and torture Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists. Stephanie Peacock reports on how political activists are victimised by paramilitaries and government forces by Stephanie Peacock youth representative on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee Monday 4 May 2009 Watching people walking around the busy streets of Bogot?, going in and out of office blocks, shops and cafes, it is easy to forget that, despite Colombia's beauty and wealth of natural resources, it is a country gripped by violence. In fact, Colombia has been in the throes of an armed conflict for more than 40 years. The poverty and unrest are clear to see when you step outside the centre of the capital city. The army and police line the streets. Shantytowns line mile upon mile of hillsides where people live in constant fear and in shacks without running water or electricity. Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist: five were killed in March this year alone. There are four million displaced people. Opposition figures and human rights activists are regularly imprisoned and even killed for speaking out against the government. I recently visited Colombia as part of a Justice for Colombia delegation of parliamentarians and trade unionists. We had meetings with a wide range of people and groups across Colombian society: from trade unions, students and teachers to indigenous people, peasant farmers and human rights defenders. And we met senior members of the Colombian government, including right-wing President Alvaro Uribe. We heard terrible accounts of the brutal and unlawful tactics used to suppress opposition in the country. We listened to many testimonies of murder, torture, disappearances, imprisonment and forced displacement. These accounts were clear: these atrocities are carried out with impunity by the military and state-backed paramilitary forces. At Buen Pastor prison in Bogot?, we spoke to the women political prisoners incarcerated there. Many had been detained simply for speaking out against the government; others were held in a mass arrest to clear desirable land. Sadly, arrests and imprisonment are a risk of political involvement and many of those incarcerated have no idea when ? if at all ? they will be freed. Five university students have already been killed this year. At the National University of Colombia, many are fearful of becoming involved in the student union or the societies and clubs that we would take for granted in this country. During our visit, Hernan Polo Barrera, the leader of Sitraenal, the teachers' union, was shot dead in front of his house. His teenage daughter, who was standing with him at the time of the attack, was badly injured. We heard of the horrific killings and torture suffered by political activists, as well as ordinary people ? peasant farmers and workers. I will never forget the look on the face of one boy as he told us through tears about the death of his father who had left one morning to go to work and never returned. He was murdered by right-wing paramilitary death squads. The activities of the paramilitary forces are condoned and even actively supported by the government and army. These crimes are aggravated by the seeming immunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and the failure of the legal system to prosecute the killers and those who give them their orders. Instead of imprisoning the real criminals, the government is locking up trade unionists, members of the political opposition and human rights activists, as well as imprisoning and killing workers and peasant farmers in a bid to claim that the fight against insurgents is being won There must be an immediate end to the criminalisation of legitimate and democratic opposition in Colombia. There must be support for dialogue, a peace process and an end to extrajudicial executions carried out by the Colombian military. Until these steps are taken and while the dire human rights situation is unchanged, the British Government should withdraw all military aid and support for Colombia. Only when human and labour rights are respected in an internationally verifiable way should we contemplate returning to present levels of support. The British Government's recent announcement that it would reduce military aid to Colombia because of human rights concerns is welcome, but it does not go nearly far enough. While I was struck by the appalling state of affairs in Colombia ? including the vicious treatment meted out to trade unionists and political activists whose only crime is to stand up and speak out against injustice ? I was also touched by the strength, kindness and determination of the people we met who continue to wage a campaign for a peaceful country. They deserve the solidarity and support of progressive people in Britain and throughout the world. PRENSA RURAL - english version ----------------- From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 12:37:02 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 14:37:02 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Witch hunt at the New School Message-ID: <4A01D8CE.8030507@panix.com> http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/new-school-orders-inquiry-into-building-takeover/?hp From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 12:41:49 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 14:41:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Witch hunt at the New School In-Reply-To: <4A01D8CE.8030507@panix.com> References: <4A01D8CE.8030507@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A01D9ED.1020001@panix.com> Louis Proyect wrote: > http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/new-school-orders-inquiry-into-building-takeover/?hp > One more thing about this. Two professors named to sit on Kerrey's investigation committee, James Miller and David Howell, are both "radicals". Howell has written for the URPE journal and Miller wrote "Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago". What a couple of fuckwits. From markalause at gmail.com Wed May 6 13:06:12 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:06:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: Tom Cod wrote: "Churchill was more than academic figure but a broader public figure . . . ." This is, of course, the gist of the question. I would argue that he was hired to be such . . . to give his college a high profile . . . to present the appearance that the institution was particularly sensitive to Indian peoples . . . and, yes, to make outrageous and controversial statements. When the priorities of that system, Churchill became an embarrassment for doing and being what he had been hired, retained and tenured for doing to do and be. That they found a committee of their employees willing to sell one of their own should surprise nobody. ML From e.c.apling at btinternet.com Wed May 6 13:18:42 2009 From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 20:18:42 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <558702.27333.qm@web63102.mail.re1.yahoo.com> References: <558702.27333.qm@web63102.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2C0729883B2748B08CF866C15D37EA4C@PaddyPC> I have just been reading his biography of the left-wing independent, then Labour, sometime communist and full-time omosexual - MP first for Malden and then for Barking, oth in Essex - the latter now in Greater London. It seems to me he is a very through biography who really tries to get to the bottom of things - and knows how to interest the reader !! I will look out for more of his. Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Costello" To: Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:28 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman > >> I have Wheen's biography of Marx but have not gotten around to reading >> it. I suppose that I am procrastinating in light of the following >> excerpt from the wiki: >> > It is nevertheless well worth reading. > > Einde O'Callaghan > > > Me: I agree it is well worth reading. I enjoyed it quite a lot. > > The Wheen biography of Marx also won the Isaac Deutscher Prize in 1999. > > http://www.deutscherprize.org.uk/ > > > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/e.c.apling%40btinternet.com > From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 13:35:53 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 15:35:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Good writeup on the Jared Diamond controversy Message-ID: <4A01E699.4040408@panix.com> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10570258 Revenge of the tribesmen 4:00AM Saturday May 02, 2009 To readers of the New Yorker the story, "Vengeance is Ours," published on April 21 last year, seemed like a classic our-man-in-the-wilderness - in this case Papua New Guinea - dispatch. Written by Dr Jared Diamond, it examined a violent inter-clan blood feud in the highlands. But a year later, the "Annals of Anthropology" piece has morphed into a nightmare legal challenge for both Diamond and the New Yorker, after two tribesmen mentioned in the story, Henep Isum and Daniel Wemp, filed suit in a New York court last week, seeking US$10 million ($17.6 million) and possible punitive damages for what they allege is defamation. The lawsuit alleges the article "falsely accused plaintiffs ... of serious criminal activity and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, including murder". It is the sort of claim that makes journalists blanch. The story has been taken off the New Yorker's website, although it is still available to subscribers. A report, "Jared Diamond's Factual Collapse," posted on the self-appointed media-watcher website stinkyjournalism.org, claims the New Yorker story is inaccurate, that the magazine failed to contact indigenous people painted as "unrepentant killers, rapists and thieves," and may have endangered Wemp's life. The bombshell, which also highlights the challenge posed by new media to traditional gatekeepers, is enough to cause a collective gasp around Times Square, where the New Yorker, arguably the world's most prestigious weekly, is based. While the suit is embarrassing for the magazine - whose fact-checkers are revered as an industry standard - it could demolish the academic reputation of Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Diamond starts his piece by describing how a 1992 clan battle in the PNG highlands, which killed Wemp's "beloved paternal uncle Soll", precipitated a three-year revenge cycle that killed 29 people, plus "the sacrifice of 300 pigs" before "Daniel succeeded in discharging his responsibility" and exacted revenge. Wemp, a member of the Handa clan, allegedly sought revenge from Henep Isum who belonged to a rival clan, the Ombals. The identity of Soll's killer was kept secret but Isum was the "owner of the fight", directing the fight for the Ombal clan. Under highland code Wemp would have to kill Isum. After a skirmish, in which Diamond says Wemp was wounded by a spear, Wemp allegedly hired "over 200 men as allies." Eventually, an arrow is supposed to have cut Isum's spinal cord. "He's still alive today, 11 years later, paralysed in a wheelchair, and maybe he'll live for another 11 years," Wemp is quoted as saying. He says that sometimes he shakes Isum's hand and expresses sorrow. Diamond says he heard this tale six years later, in 2001-2002, when Wemp, then an employee of ChevronTexaco, drove the anthropologist around the highlands on a field study. Wemp's revenge tale got Diamond musing that vengeance "may not be so far from our own habits of mind as we might like to think", a hypothesis explored in his article. "While acting on vengeful feelings clearly needs to be discouraged," Diamond concludes, "acknowledging them should be not merely permitted but encouraged." Given that he is caught up in the US revenge cycle - litigation - this seems ironically prophetic. The stinkyjournalism website was founded by Rhonda Shearer, who runs a science research lab in New York. It claims to have looked into the article, to the lengths of sending three fact-checkers to the highlands of New Guinea to interview the central characters. The widow of Stephen Jay Gould, the esteemed biologist and palaeontologist who wrote best-selling science books, Shearer describes herself as a "Marcel Duchamp historian and artist" and is the director of the New York-based Art Science Research Laboratory. The stinkyjournalism report is scathing. It claims the New Yorker's fact-checkers never contacted tribesmen named by Diamond and that "dozens of tribal members and police officials deny Diamond's entire tale about the bloody Ombal and Handa war, calling it 'untrue'." It cites linguistic analysis that quotations attributed to Wemp are "fabrications". It also picks up inaccuracies; thus Isum is not an Ombal but a Henep [in PNG the first name identifies one's clan]. Perhaps most damningly the website posted photographs of a tall, bearded man, identified as Isum. Not a wheelchair in sight. Could the New Yorker be wrong? Well, yes, says Shearer. She is no stranger to journalistic exposes. Her scoops include her 2007 revelation that a so-called "Monster Pig," 477kgs of wild pork that became a US media sensation, was a far smaller domestic animal, killed in a fake hunt. As for her interest in Diamond's tale about internecine clan warfare in PNG, it all started with a komodo dragon. "The stinky journalism website investigates different articles that strike us as dubious," she says. "In this case it was a coincidence. I was investigating an article that ran in the Australian and Pacific Island newspapers, where the government of PNG accused local newspapers of perpetuating a hoax about a komodo dragon running around and scaring villagers. There was no explanation about the accusation. But there was evidence. Like a footprint." "Of the dragon?" "Of the alleged dragon." Long story short, the footprints were made by a cassowary. By then, Shearer had seen Diamond's piece [she tells me that according to his agent it was the most trafficked piece on the Boing Boing website] and sensed another scoop that would have far greater impact in New York and Los Angeles. Her initial response on reading Diamond's piece was, "how do you keep someone with likely not the best medical care alive as a paraplegic in a wheelchair in that area? We can't keep Superman [Christopher Reeve] alive in New Jersey with millions of dollars? ... It just didn't make sense." Efforts to contact Diamond and the New Yorker failed. Eventually, the magazine replied, "We stand by our story. No details are necessary." It was a red flag to a bull. Shearer was also uneasy that Wemp is the only cited source for Diamond's story, and that, while published in 2008, it was based on conversations from 2001-2002. Last July she emailed a statement from Wemp, who said he had no idea Diamond was writing a New Yorker article, to the magazine. Finally, she hired local scholars and journalists and asked them to visit the bush to try to verify Diamond's story. Shearer says the New Yorker did confirm that Diamond spoke to Wemp again in May 2006 and backdated his notes, supposedly taken in 2001-2002. She sees this as deceptive and says Diamond reconstructed events. Why, hadn't the New Yorker contacted Isum and Wemp? Given the magazine's vaunted fact-checkers, this is a good question [her website says they finally spoke with Wemp in August 2008]. She had no problem doing so and was happy to supply telephone numbers. Besides, she says, they could have contacted Wemp through the local World Wildlife Fund office, which supplies drivers like Wemp to Diamond. But the axe falls heaviest on Jared Diamond, who enjoys an international reputation as a best-selling author. The stinkyjournalism postings allege Diamond was fast and loose with the facts, jumbling information to create a composite, or even inventing material. Thus, far from Wemp apologising to Isum, the men say they never met. The website quotes Committee of Concerned Journalists founder Bill Kovach who, damningly, describes Diamond's piece as "a complicated and in many ways confusing narrative based on what appears to be casual fragments of conversations" around which are "woven assertions". It is not the first time a famous anthropologist has come under hostile fire. Margaret Mead - whose 1928 magnum opus Coming of Age in Samoa scandalised Americans by claiming Samoan girls were sexually active before marriage - was accused by New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman of being fooled by locals, who told her what she wanted to hear. But if stinkyjournalism is correct, Diamond does not appear to have been hoodwinked by his subjects, but to have succumbed to that old journalistic temptation of not letting the facts stand in the way of a good story, even if, by using Wemp's name, he allegedly put him at risk. When I rang the New Yorker to solicit their response to the allegations, the magazine was, perhaps understandingly in the litigious circumstances, reticent. "Nothing's changed since last week for us," Alexa Cassa, the magazine's PR director told me. "So we don't really have any comment other than to say we stand by our story." Anything else was off the record. I rang Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles, and left a message. He hasn't called back. Shearer has plenty to say and her website promises a $40,000 rebuttal, a hefty response even by the standards of the New Yorker - no slouch when it comes to lengthy stories. But why had this story riled her so? "The truth is unambiguously beautiful," she told me. While she concedes tight deadlines and fast-breaking stories can lead to errors, she holds publications like the New Yorker, where stories are fact-checked and time is lavished on editing, to a higher standard. Like peer-reviewed science papers, "the commitment to truth should be the same". Does she think the New Yorker betrayed its values? "I think the facts speak for themselves." Shearer's withering investigation of the New Yorker's methodology - including tracing people whom fact-checkers did call - shows news media can act as ethical watchdogs. The story also highlights possible double standards: Diamond won critical acclaim yet refused to respond to Wemp's request to "sort out this problem" as the New Yorker piece "is very sensitive in my area". It will probably be an ongoing story. Copyright ?2009, APN Holdings NZ Limited From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 13:46:21 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 15:46:21 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Economizing Message-ID: <4A01E90D.6000804@panix.com> From the excellent new website: http://www.theawl.com/ Jared Kushner, the publisher of the New York Observer, has fired the paper?s long-time cleaning woman, according to multiple sources at the paper. Who buys an (over-priced) $3.225 million two-bedroom in the same month they fire a 60-something-year-old Eastern European cleaning woman? And also, not to be too practical, but: who is taking out the trash? ?No one? is the word from inside. We assume he?ll just add the Observer?s space to a cleaning contract for some of this other buildings?just like he consolidated the back-office staff between his business. This is where I?d normally say something about how he must be a good person because he spends money on having a newspaper but I don?t have it in me right now. From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 13:58:18 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 15:58:18 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Losing my religion Message-ID: <4A01EBDA.7010200@panix.com> That's me in the corner That's me in the spotlight, I'm Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don't know if I can do it Oh no, I've said too much I haven't said enough I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try REM, "Losing My Religion" --- http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7513343&page=1 Young Americans Losing Their Religion New Research Finds Number Who Claim No Church Has Risen Sharply By DAN HARRIS May 6, 2009? New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church -- or to participate in any form of organized religion -- than their parents and grandparents. "It's a huge change," says Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted the research. Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans. Putnam calls this a "stunning development." He gave reporters a first glimpse of his data Tuesday at a conference on religion organized by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life. The research will be included in a forthcoming book, called "American Grace." This trend started in the 1990s and continues through today. It includes people in both Generation X and Y. While these young "nones" may not belong to a church, they are not necessarily atheists. "Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church," Putnam said. "They have the same attitidues and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues." Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church. This movement away from organized religion, says Putnam, may have enormous consequences for American culture and politics for years to come. "That is the future of America," he says. "Their views and their habits religiously are going to persist and have a huge effect on the future." This data is likely to reinvigorate an already heated debate about whether America is, or will continue to be, a "Christian nation." A recent Newsweek cover article, entitled "The End of Christian America" provoked responses from religious thinkers all over the spectrum. Research Finds Churchgoers More Likely to Vote Putnam, author of the book "Bowling Alone," which tracked the decline in civic and community engagement in America (exemplified by the diminution of bowling leagues), fears the reduction in religiosity could have widespread negative impacts. His research shows that people who go to church are much more likely to vote, volunteer and give to charity. However, he says, it's possible that the current spike in young people opting out of organized religion could also prove to be an opportunity for some. "America historically has been a very inventive and even entrepreneurial place in terms of religion," he says. "We're all the time inventing new religions and reinventing religions that we have. It's partly because we have a free market in religion. That is, we don't have a state church." Given that today's young "nones" probably would be in church if they didn't associate religion with far-right political views, he says, new faith groups may evolve to serve them. "Jesus said, 'Be fishers of men,'" says Putnam, "and there's this pool with a lot of fish in it and no fishermen right now." In the end, he says, this "stunning" trend of young people becoming less religious could lead to America's next great burst of religious innovation. Copyright ? 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures From jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net Wed May 6 15:16:54 2009 From: jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net (John Thornton) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 15:16:54 -0600 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A01FE46.8000409@sbcglobal.net> Mark Lause wrote: > Tom, who on the left has bought into the phony academic case against > Ward Churchill? > > I've not followed this case more closely than I've needed to decide to > defend him, but I've not seen any indications of anyone on the left > buying into the case against him. > > ML Perhaps Tom subscribes to LBO? There was more than a small amount of agreement that Churchill had done wrong with regards to the ghostwriting and the evidence for infecting the Mandan people with smallpox. Most academic leftists did not comment on the issue which was cowardly in itself. John Thornton From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 14:26:25 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 16:26:25 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A01FE46.8000409@sbcglobal.net> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <4A01FE46.8000409@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <4A01F271.1090503@panix.com> > Perhaps Tom subscribes to LBO? > There was more than a small amount of agreement that Churchill had done > wrong with regards to the ghostwriting and the evidence for infecting > the Mandan people with smallpox. > Most academic leftists did not comment on the issue which was cowardly > in itself. > > John Thornton > I was corresponding with Ward Churchill for a while after I chaired a meeting for him at the Brecht Forum in NYC. But I do think that his work on the Mandans was sloppy. The crimes against Indian people is monstrous enough without having to make stuff up. The Mandan smallpox outbreak of 1837 posted to www.marxmail.org on February 10, 2005 After having had a chance to review all of the material cited by Ward Churchill in relation to the Mandan smallpox outbreak of 1837, I am now persuaded that none of it supports his allegation that the US military conspired to infect them. In other words, the model of Lord Amherst, who did use smallpox blankets as a military weapon against American Indians in 1763, does not apply. My interest in this is not as somebody trying to defend the integrity of the Ivory Tower, since Churchill's sins pale in comparison to what I have seen around me since my undergraduate days. I am far more concerned about the impact this has on American Indian activism, because it is essential that movements for social change be beyond reproach when it comes to such matters. Our exemplar should be somebody like Howard Zinn, who despite being criticized often for matters of interpretation (see Michael Kazin's assault in the Spring 2004 Dissent), has never been challenged when it comes to matters of fact. It would appear to me that Churchill was driven to invent a conspiracy where none existed because it served his overall interpretation of the American Holocaust, to use David Stannard's term. Since he has so much invested in a comparison between Nazi Germany and the USA, he was tempted to posit the sort of conscious and deliberate extermination that took place at Auschwitz on American soil. In this scenario, smallpox blankets occupy the same place as Zyklon B. A genocide did take place, but it did not follow the same pattern as in Nazi Germany. But before I go into this, I want to turn my attention first to an article by Thomas Brown, a Lamar University sociology professor, whose debunking of Churchill on the Mandan epidemic has been circulated widely on the Internet by individuals who want to see him fired. Some of these individuals also seek to see him prosecuted for treason, which carries the death penalty. Although it is unfortunate that Thomas Brown (who would seem to be satisfied with Churchill only being prosecuted for perjury--a mere slap on the wrist by comparison) has seen fit to publish his findings during such a hysterical atmosphere, it is incumbent on the left to address these questions right now. One thing that Brown shares with Churchill is the framing of the question. For both professors, genocide involves deliberation. It would also seem to involve motive, since economic motives surely drove openly genocidal attacks on Indians in the past. When Andrew Jackson coveted land in Georgia and adjoining states for cotton production, he expelled the Cherokees in what can only be described as a genocidal attack. But for Brown, no such parallel obtained in the Dakotas in the 1830s: "What if the U.S. Army had been active in the region? Given the opportunity, would Army officers have had any motive to use biological warfare against the Mandans? Five years earlier, in 1832, Congress passed an act and appropriated funds to establish a program for vaccinating Indians on the Missouri River. Given this Congressional mandate to protect Indians from smallpox, given the lack of hostilities between the U.S. military and the Mandans or any other Plains Indians at that time, and given the military?s lack of presence in the area of the Mandans at the time, Churchill?s version of events does not seem at all plausible, even in the context of counterfactual speculation." While it is true that there was a "lack of hostilities" in the sense of Little Big Horn, etc., there were inexorable economic processes taking place that were destroying the way of life of the Plains Indians. If today we can hold capitalist corporations responsible for threatening Indians in the Amazon Rain Forest with genocide through mere profit-making, then there should be no problem looking back at the 1837 period from the same perspective. Sometimes you can kill people with Zyklon B, but you can kill just as easily by forcing them to adopt a mode of production that is inimical to their existence. "The High Plains Smallpox Epidemic of 1837-38" was written by Clyde D. Dollar for The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan., 1977). I doubt if anything more probing has been written elsewhere. Dollar rejects conspiracies and instead describes the outbreak as an epidemic that was waiting to happen. Drawing upon the journals of Francis A. Chardon, who ran the trading post at Fort Clark, Dollar describes a pathetic scene of rat infestation and hunger. In the month of May 1837, Chardon killed 108! This suggests that trading post living engendered an accumulation of trash and filth that was one of Western Civilization's dubious benefits, along with Rattus norvegicus, which came off the boat with other Europeans in 1755. The Mandan villages were also gripped by near-famine conditions, which Dollar attributes to "prolonged and promiscuous hunting of Buffalo, and other game." In other words, it should come as big as a surprise that such villages suffer from a smallpox (or cholera, etc.) outbreak as in any other country that suffers from economic dislocation and poverty. Although it would be another 30 years before the openly genocidal attacks on the Plains Indians, the 1830s were marked by the growing dependency on such peoples for goods at outposts like Fort Clark that were traded for hides. Rudolf Kurz, an employee at nearby Fort Union in the 1830s, wrote: "Now that he is acquainted with articles made of steel, such as knives, axes, rifles, etc., with tinder boxes, blankets, all sorts of materials for clothing and ornamentation, and with the taste of coffee, sugar, etc., he regards these things as indispensable to his needs; he is no longer content with his former implements, but regards ours as incomparably more comfortable to him." With the introduction of horses, the slaughter of Bison accelerated. With the sale of hides in exchange for such goods, you saw an upward spiral of hunting for trade rather than for sustenance. It also led to stepped up hostilities between different Indian groups. All this for coffee and sugar. In other words, the same exact threat that exists today with respect to people like the Yanomami existed back in the 1830s. Today, we have both the benefit of hindsight and the organized presence of groups dedicated to indigenous rights. Back in the 1830s, we had neither. We had instead a frontier capitalism that would go to any lengths to produce profits. In a December 6, 1813 letter to Alexander von Humboldt, Thomas Jefferson concluded that Indian support for Great Britain would "oblige us now to pursue them to extermination, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach." Andrew Jackson made good on that promise. The American genocide combined open and deliberate attacks of the sort Jefferson was alluding to, as well as the kind of indirect onslaught that accompanied the accumulation of capital. If we look solely for confirmation of a genocide in the first case and deny the reality of the latter, we will be no better than the David Irvings of the world. Whatever Ward Churchill's sins as a scholar, he can not be accused of this. It would be most unfortunate in the backlash attending his remarks on 9/11 that elements in the academy opportunistically seek to advance their own "revisionism" on American history. From phantasmagorias at yahoo.com Wed May 6 14:30:12 2009 From: phantasmagorias at yahoo.com (Debordagoria) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 13:30:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I've not been following this thread, but isn't it totally legitimate for a active defender of Churchill to conclude that Churchill did engage in some pretty sloppy scholarship, but that this had nothing to do with why he was actually fired? Michael D. --- On Wed, 5/6/09, John Thornton wrote: > From: John Thornton > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux > To: phantasmagorias at yahoo.com > Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 5:16 PM > Mark Lause wrote: > > Tom, who on the left has bought into the phony > academic case against > > Ward Churchill? > > > > I've not followed this case more closely than I've > needed to decide to > > defend him, but I've not seen any indications of > anyone on the left > > buying into the case against him. > > > > ML > > Perhaps Tom subscribes to LBO? > There was more than a small amount of agreement that > Churchill had done > wrong with regards to the ghostwriting and the evidence for > infecting > the Mandan people with smallpox. > Most academic leftists did not comment on the issue which > was cowardly > in itself. > > John Thornton > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/phantasmagorias%40yahoo.com > From jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net Wed May 6 15:31:09 2009 From: jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net (John Thornton) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 15:31:09 -0600 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> Message-ID: <4A02019D.3090608@sbcglobal.net> Tom Cod wrote: > On at least one list of former 60s activists, I've listened to people, while defending his 1st Amendment rights the way liberals defend those for Nazis, regurgitate the charges of academic dishonesty against him while generally dissin' the guy as a phony and a clown; in fact it seems I saw that attitude reflected here in a couple posts, if I'm wrong, I apologize. I certainly know where you stand. this is the same routine some of these guys pulled with the Panthers years ago. Personally I hold the guy in high regard having heard him speak in Oakland in 2003. For what its worth, the "chickens coming home to roost" statement is borrowed from Malcolm X's take on JFK's assassination. As to his tribal membership, it should be borne in mind that membership in tribes is a loaded issue, with "disenrollment" of political opponents and others being a chronic issue. The next installment of We Shall Remain will deal with these and other issues as part of a program on the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, an event much of the orthodox marxist left, except for Workers World, had little to do with and tended to disparage as "ultra-left", reflecting, for all their marxist dogmatism, what Bob Avakian correctly castigated (in this kind of context at least) as their "utter rightism". I think you overestimate the problem of "disenrollment" if you believe it is a chronic problem. I've disagreed with my tribe on the recent issue of not continuing de facto enrollment of the Freedmen but removing political opponents from NDN rolls is extremely rare in my view. I like Churchill personally but never considered him a scholar in the strictest sense. I always viewed his work as more geared towards popular audiences than academics. His work isn't particularly original or scholarly in my opinion. That said, it is of no less quality than other popular works by academics. The issues were exceedingly trivial and, as this author points out, many well known historians have done much much worse with no loss of job or stature. John Thornton From lnp3 at panix.com Wed May 6 14:36:06 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 16:36:06 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4A01F4B6.3040905@panix.com> Debordagoria wrote: > I've not been following this thread, but isn't it totally legitimate for a active defender of Churchill to conclude that Churchill did engage in some pretty sloppy scholarship, but that this had nothing to do with why he was actually fired? I suppose so. Who knows, if Jared Diamond had written some particularly inflammatory anti-imperialist article after 9/11, then maybe a committee would have been convened already at UCLA to investigate his ridiculous New Yorker article. From e.c.apling at btinternet.com Wed May 6 15:34:39 2009 From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 22:34:39 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <4A009BC8.1000708@googlemail.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com><4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <4A009BC8.1000708@googlemail.com> Message-ID: <92E0912EE23A4F2BABCDBFF4C9A25BB3@PaddyPC> A PS to my previous message - I should have said - in relation to the Tom Driberg biography, that, my particular interest was because I had been involved in some of the episodes described. Tom Driberg has been one of the very few MPs or other Labour politicians who had made some effort to help us during the Ilford Council Tenants Rent Strike in 1956. Some of us had entry tickets from Tom for the House of Commons debate - and we nearly got thrown out during its proceedings because of all the booing we made at other MPs. No actual mention by Francis Whelan, but he uses plenty of other examples of how a determined MP, as Tom Driberg was, can do something to help ordinary people in their struggles with the powers-that-be. For anyone in struggle it has been the experience over the last 60 years, if not longer, that the number of elected "representatives" , whatever their party label, who actually try to support those in struggle can usually be counted on the fingers of one hand. The real problem of democracy that we have to contend with is how to change this for the better !! Talk of how to achieve socialism is really far off from present realty.... First we have to win the battle of democracy - REAL representation of the people !! I feel Francis Whelan is on our side in the battle of ideas..... Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Einde O'Callaghan" To: Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:04 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman > Louis Proyect wrote: >> farmelantj at juno.com wrote: >>> That's how Wikipedia describes him. >>> See: >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wheen >>> >> >> I have Wheen's biography of Marx but have not gotten around to reading >> it. I suppose that I am procrastinating in light of the following >> excerpt from the wiki: >> > It is nevertheless well worth reading. > > Einde O'Callaghan > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/e.c.apling%40btinternet.com > From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Wed May 6 16:06:49 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:06:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Maoists say will boycott new Nepal government Message-ID: <465048.28297.qm@web110416.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Maoists say will boycott new Nepal government 4 hours ago KATHMANDU (AFP) ? The leader of Nepal's Maoists said Wednesday his party would not take part in any new government unless the president backed down in a row over the sacking of the army chief. Maoist leader Prachanda resigned as prime minister on Monday after his attempt to fire the Himalayan nation's top general, a longtime rival, was vetoed by the president, who is a member of the main opposition party. "The president made an unconstitutional move challenging the civilian authority. It was unfortunate that the president blocked the decision of elected government," Prachanda told reporters. "Before talking about the formation of a new government, the unconstitutional move by the president should be corrected. Only then will we help in the process of forming a new government," he said. The Maoists tried to sack General Rookmangud Katawal for refusing to integrate thousands of their former fighters, currently confined to UN-supervised camps, into the regular army. The integration of the ex-rebels is a key part of a 2006 peace accord that ended a decade of civil war but the army views the guerrillas as politically indoctrinated and unfit for service. The Maoists also accuse the army, traditionally a bastion of support for Nepal's elite and the ousted monarchy, of having blocked reforms -- even though the ultra-leftists won landmark elections last year. With the country now without an effective government, a group of more than 20 parties, including the Nepali Congress and the centre-left UML -- the second and third-largest in parliament -- are trying to form a new "national government". But lacking the seats in parliament, they need the ex-rebels to take part. Prachanda said this would not happen, promising to press on with a campaign of street protests. "We will continue to protest in a peaceful way in order to establish civilian supremacy in the country," he said. "I believe that the new government will again be formed under the leadership of the Maoist party once the president's decision is reversed," he added, apparently confident of coming out on top of the political crisis. Copyright ? 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. ? http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gqOxzZ6EFVtTRclFbaMb8iq0H45w ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From farmelantj at juno.com Wed May 6 16:30:30 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 18:30:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: <20090506.183031.192.0.farmelantj@juno.com> On Wed, 06 May 2009 16:26:25 -0400 Louis Proyect writes: > > > My interest in this is not as somebody trying to defend the > integrity of > the Ivory Tower, since Churchill's sins pale in comparison to what I > > have seen around me since my undergraduate days. I am far more > concerned > about the impact this has on American Indian activism, because it is > > essential that movements for social change be beyond reproach when > it > comes to such matters. Our exemplar should be somebody like Howard > Zinn, > who despite being criticized often for matters of interpretation > (see > Michael Kazin's assault in the Spring 2004 Dissent), has never been > > challenged when it comes to matters of fact. No doubt. On the other hand, nobody as far as I know has been able to challenge Norman Finkelstein on matters of fact, but that did not prevent him from being run out of the academy. And I remember the case of the historian David Abraham whose writings were concerned with providing a Marxist analysis of the rise of the Third Reich. He was run out of the historical profession for minor league sloppiness in his scholarship. Meanwhile other scholars who have engaged in wholesale falsifications of facts and who have even committed outright plagiarism continue in their posts unmolested since their views are aggreeable to the powers that be. > > It would appear to me that Churchill was driven to invent a > conspiracy > where none existed because it served his overall interpretation of > the > American Holocaust, to use David Stannard's term. Since he has so > much > invested in a comparison between Nazi Germany and the USA, he was > tempted to posit the sort of conscious and deliberate extermination > that > took place at Auschwitz on American soil. In this scenario, smallpox > > blankets occupy the same place as Zyklon B. A genocide did take > place, > but it did not follow the same pattern as in Nazi Germany. As I understand him, Churchill is very much taken with the analysis of Nazism that political philosopher Hannah Arendt presented in her writings including her *The Origins of Totalitarianism* and her *Eichmann in Jerusalem*. He seems especially interested in her "banality of evil" thesis, which features in both his work on the extermination of the American Indians as well as in his popular writings like his essay on 9-11. Jim F. ____________________________________________________________ Digital Photography - Click Now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTDvmPoEFGZaBB1pB7OkhHp0kZnBWVuW3mGmUt2WYy1SB483pHNcgo/ From jbustelo at gmail.com Wed May 6 16:32:08 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 18:32:08 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] a sense of comradely behavior on the list In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905060724m73532a36v684f8500842b3b8c@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905060724m73532a36v684f8500842b3b8c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dennis: "I'm not arguing for a "can't we all just get along" approach. Political disagreements on major issues naturally get heated and overheated - I've been just as guilty of that as anyone else. But can we bite our tongues on the arrogance and save some of that scorn for the class enemy and their accomplices?? " OK, in light of Dennis's evident good will, and the comments from Louis, who I have a great deal of respect for especially on these sorts of issues, I will *try* to dial down the overdrive a bit. Joaquin From jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net Wed May 6 17:28:49 2009 From: jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net (John Thornton) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 17:28:49 -0600 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> No, it is not totally legitimate. During what amounted to a witch hunt it was inappropriate to criticize a professor/writer for failing to uphold a higher standard than average. The ONLY thing such criticism can accomplish is to fan the flames. It is important to keep Churchill's errors in perspective. His errors were below the average error rate for academics according to the only study I have seen on academic publishing errors and fraud. During the original uproar I corresponded with Thomas Brown and he openly admitted he chose that moment to level his accusation because doing so would enhance his credibility by granting him a larger audience than he would have received absent such furor. If his accusations were leveled without the accompanying stink over the 'little Eichmann's" comment the criticism would have been seen as the non-issue it really was. That is the definition of craven opportunism. Incidentally, while I don't believe there is any hard and irrefutable evidence to support the claim that smallpox was deliberately spread among the Mandan I don't consider the idea implausible. Spreading smallpox via bedding had been known since the middle ages and the idea that blankets used by persons infected with smallpox were "accidentally" given to a disliked segment of the population whose extermination had been openly called for is a bit much to swallow. I don't know any NDN's who believe otherwise. One might argue that there was no deliberate intent to spread smallpox and instead there was nothing more than complete disregard whether a smallpox outbreak occurred but the differences between the two positions is quite small. To imagine the whole incident was just one great big Oops requires mental gymnastics to which I'm not prepared to engage. The level of proof requested is inordinately high when the incident is viewed in historical context. Remember, there is an oral history that supports the claim. John Thornton Debordagoria wrote: > I've not been following this thread, but isn't it totally legitimate for a active defender of Churchill to conclude that Churchill did engage in some pretty sloppy scholarship, but that this had nothing to do with why he was actually fired? > > Michael D. > > --- On Wed, 5/6/09, John Thornton wrote: > > >> From: John Thornton >> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux >> To: phantasmagorias at yahoo.com >> Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 5:16 PM >> Mark Lause wrote: >> >>> Tom, who on the left has bought into the phony >>> >> academic case against >> >>> Ward Churchill? >>> >>> I've not followed this case more closely than I've >>> >> needed to decide to >> >>> defend him, but I've not seen any indications of >>> >> anyone on the left >> >>> buying into the case against him. >>> >>> ML >>> >> Perhaps Tom subscribes to LBO? >> There was more than a small amount of agreement that >> Churchill had done >> wrong with regards to the ghostwriting and the evidence for >> infecting >> the Mandan people with smallpox. >> Most academic leftists did not comment on the issue which >> was cowardly >> in itself. >> >> John Thornton From perjef at optonline.net Wed May 6 16:39:56 2009 From: perjef at optonline.net (Jeffrey B. Perry) Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 18:39:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Hubert Harrison as Book Reviewer and Soapbox Orator--Articles by Scott Mclemee and Mark Naison Message-ID: <605A83C3-F388-48E4-BDF7-F59425031AF3@optonline.net> Readers may be interested in these two recent online articles on Hubert Harrison -- Scott McLemee's "Harrison Redux: The Resurrection of a Pioneering Journalist" was posted on May 6 on the Columbia Journalism Review website http://www.cjr.org/page_views/harrison_redux.php and is an excellent short-piece on Harrison as a reviewer. Mark Naison's similarly excellent "Why The Harlem Tradition of Radical Street Speaking Needs to Be Revived: The Street as a Site of Political Activism, Entrepreneurship and Community Building in African American History" was published online on May 4 at http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-harlem-tradition-of-radical-street.html The work discusses the political importance of Soapbox Orators and pays merited attention to Harrison. Jeffrey B. Perry perjef at optonline.net www.jeffreybperry.net/disc.htm From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Wed May 6 17:16:56 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 19:16:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Stanford Antiwar Alums Call for War Crimes Investigation of Condoleezza Rice In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905061616g1cc87440h6231560b56cd8e28@mail.gmail.com> > > > *Stanford Antiwar Alums Call for War Crimes Investigation of Condoleezza > Rice* > > *By Marjorie Cohn* > > During the Vietnam War, Stanford students succeeded in banning secret > military research from campus. Last weekend, 150 activist alumni and present > Stanford students targeted Condoleezza Rice for authorizing torture and > misleading Americans into the illegal Iraq War. > http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22564.htm > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com Wed May 6 17:40:22 2009 From: bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com (Bhaskar Sunkara) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 19:40:22 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] A communist and a gentleman In-Reply-To: <92E0912EE23A4F2BABCDBFF4C9A25BB3@PaddyPC> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <4A009BC8.1000708@googlemail.com> <92E0912EE23A4F2BABCDBFF4C9A25BB3@PaddyPC> Message-ID: I don't have a tremendous problem with Wheen, hopefully I get some time to read his biography of Marx this summer. I'm just now reading *The Prophet Outcast* that biography of Trotsky for the first time. From johnaimani at earthlink.net Wed May 6 18:04:53 2009 From: johnaimani at earthlink.net (johnaimani) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 17:04:53 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] WSJ-Destruction of (commodity) Capital Part 2 Message-ID: <55FE345A1B5E4945BA059A7171F7EA80@D4PKYZ41> a.. MAY 6, 2009 Deal Struck on 'Cash for Clunkers' As Part of Climate Bill, Consumers Trading In Cars Would Get Up to $4,500 By STEPHEN POWER and GREG HITT WASHINGTON -- Consumers would get vouchers for as much as $4,500 from the government to trade in their gas-guzzling cars under a compromise plan that could help advance a broad measure to combat climate change. The so-called cash-for-clunkers plan could be part of climate-change legislation being pieced together in the House. Rep. Edward Markey (D., Mass.), a co-sponsor of the climate bill, said the auto deal -- forged by Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee and endorsed by President Barack Obama -- "demonstrates how representatives from both coasts and the Rust Belt can reach agreement on difficult issues." The cash-for-clunkers plan would run for one year, offering vouchers to people who trade in vehicles with average city/highway fuel economy of less than 18 miles a gallon to buy a more-efficient new car or light truck. The proposed program would offer the maximum $4,500 voucher for people to use to buy a car that gets at least 10 more mpg or a truck that is at least five mpg more efficient. The program is designed to spur some one million purchases of new cars or trucks to support the ailing auto industry. A measure to combat climate change aims to get gas guzzlers off the road. Above, commuters clog a Los Angeles freeway in May 2007. Big hurdles remain before passage of the bigger climate measure. The legislation is mired in disagreements among lawmakers over potential costs to consumers and businesses. Republicans are stepping up attacks on the climate initiative, branding it a "national energy tax." Meanwhile, committee Democrats are haggling privately over details of the proposal to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. Mr. Obama summoned committee Democrats to the White House to urge them to intensify efforts to agree on a bill ahead of a Memorial Day deadline to ready legislation for House floor action. "The message of the meeting was, I need everybody on board, and we need to make this happen," said Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley. He added Mr. Obama wanted Democrats to move because health-care reform looms "just around the corner." Mr. Obama did not dictate specifics, participants said, but made clear he wants a bill that eases the costs imposed on consumers and businesses, creates a predictable set of rules, and addresses concerns that some regions of the country could shoulder disproportionately heavy costs. "He's giving us a lot of latitude," said Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.). "He wants us to move." Mr. Waxman's bill calls for curbing U.S. emissions by roughly 80% below 2005 levels by mid-century, by placing a cap on overall emissions and forcing companies to hold permits allowing them to emit greenhouse gases. The bill is generally silent on the degree to which companies will have to pay for those permits, and how revenue raised from selling them would be used by the government. In order to speed the bill along, Mr. Waxman is considering bypassing a key subcommittee on the Energy and Commerce panel and bringing the climate bill directly to the full committee. The chairman had hoped for a subcommittee vote, but winning consensus among subcommittee Democrats has proven difficult. Mr. Waxman said Tuesday that "no final decisions on process have been made," but that he is "consulting with members" of the committee "about the best way forward." Mr. Obama has called for using the bulk of the money raised by auctioning the permits to fund tax credits for the middle class, but lawmakers from Rust Belt and coal states are pressing him to give some permits to industries in their regions for free. Rep. Gene Green (D., Texas) said Mr. Obama's message on Tuesday was "work it out, so we can have a broad-based bill that will have Democratic support." Mr. Green is among the lawmakers leaning on Mr. Waxman to give away some permits to ease the impact on businesses, such as the oil and gas refiners in his district. As recently as March, Mr. Obama emphasized he wanted all greenhouse-gas emissions to be covered by permits that businesses would have to buy. On Tuesday, he signaled he would accept some amount of credits to be given away, said some participants in the meeting. -Jonathan Weisman contributed to this article.Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124154587078788181.html#printMode From markalause at gmail.com Wed May 6 18:05:11 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 20:05:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: The problem comes about when a scholar tries to write for a more popular audience. Other scholars can then come down on them like a ton of bricks, applying academic yardsticks to work that wasn't intended to be academic. In the best of all possible world's we'd do both without penalty, but it's a Catch-22. If they want to get you, they'll cherry-pick what they want to use. Not that long ago, a friend of mine got nailed for all sorts of academic shortcomings in the work he had written aimed at a popular readership. He was actually a librarian, and didn't have to write anything, but if you queried the local card catalogue under his name, you'd get about 150 hits for the massive amount of material he produced. On the other hand, if you had punched in the name of the dean that was going after him over academic irregularities, you would have been able to count the number of publications on one hand...if you were missing all your fingers.... Every word you put into print gives them possible grounds for attacking you. And, if you work for people who write nothing, you are always at risk of pissing them off.... Like many American institutions, academe in this country often works very hard to earn itself a collective Darwin Award. ML On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 7:28 PM, John Thornton wrote: > No, it is not totally legitimate. > During what amounted to a witch hunt it was inappropriate to criticize a > professor/writer for failing to uphold a higher standard than average. > The ONLY thing such criticism can accomplish is to fan the flames. > It is important to keep Churchill's errors in perspective. > His errors were below the average error rate for academics according to > the only study I have seen on academic publishing errors and fraud. > > During the original uproar I corresponded with Thomas Brown and he > openly admitted he chose that moment to level his accusation because > doing so would enhance his credibility by granting him a larger audience > than he would have received absent such furor. > If his accusations were leveled without the accompanying stink over the > 'little Eichmann's" comment the criticism would have been seen as the > non-issue it really was. > That is the definition of craven opportunism. > Incidentally, while I don't believe there is any hard and irrefutable > evidence to support the claim that smallpox was deliberately spread > among the Mandan I don't consider the idea implausible. > Spreading smallpox via bedding had been known since the middle ages and > the idea that blankets used by persons infected with smallpox were > "accidentally" given to a disliked segment of the population whose > extermination had been openly called for is a bit much to swallow. I > don't know any NDN's who believe otherwise. > One might argue that there was no deliberate intent to spread smallpox > and instead there was nothing more than complete disregard whether a > smallpox outbreak occurred but the differences between the two positions > is quite small. > To imagine the whole incident was just one great big Oops requires > mental gymnastics to which I'm not prepared to engage. > The level of proof requested is inordinately high when the incident is > viewed in historical context. Remember, there is an oral history that > supports the claim. > > John Thornton > > > > Debordagoria wrote: >> I've not been following this thread, but isn't it totally legitimate for a active defender of Churchill to conclude that Churchill did engage in some pretty sloppy scholarship, but that this had nothing to do with why he was actually fired? >> >> Michael D. >> >> --- On Wed, 5/6/09, John Thornton wrote: >> >> >>> From: John Thornton >>> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux >>> To: phantasmagorias at yahoo.com >>> Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 5:16 PM >>> Mark Lause wrote: >>> >>>> Tom, who on the left has bought into the phony >>>> >>> academic case against >>> >>>> Ward Churchill? >>>> >>>> I've not followed this case more closely than I've >>>> >>> needed to decide to >>> >>>> defend him, but I've not seen any indications of >>>> >>> anyone on the left >>> >>>> buying into the case against him. >>>> >>>> ML >>>> >>> Perhaps Tom subscribes to LBO? >>> There was more than a small amount of agreement that >>> Churchill had done >>> wrong with regards to the ghostwriting and the evidence for >>> infecting >>> the Mandan people with smallpox. >>> Most academic leftists did not comment on the issue which >>> was cowardly >>> in itself. >>> >>> John Thornton > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/markalause%40gmail.com > From ian at ianpace.com Wed May 6 18:40:02 2009 From: ian at ianpace.com (Ian Pace) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 01:40:02 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com><4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: I think it is important for Marxists to hold onto notions of scholarly rigour in opposition to post-modernist or functionalists relativisation of truth. Without that, we lose many weapons with which to fight the lies of our enemies (on this subject, I think Chomsky (though no Marxist) is very good). Strategies that allow for woolly or insubstantiated theories or data to be used in the interests of political expediency, or in the name of some neo-Stalinist wish to 'speak in the language of the masses' (thus avoiding nuance, complexity or anything that gets in the way of an unequivocal didactic message) will always benefit the populist right more than they will us; by legitimating such strategies we (inadvertently) strengthen their our modus operandi. And this is an issue when writing for the mass market as well (look at the relative proportions of serious progressive social history compared to glamorous soap-opera like books about the Medicis or other aristocrats in the history section of any mainstream bookshop). This is a bit general compared to the specific issue of Ward Churchill, I know; it seems like there may be some grounds for asking questions about parts of his scholarship. This should only be an issue if there is a marked difference between his own work and that of other colleagues and contemporaries. In my own academic field of musicology, there are some really shockingly low levels of scholarship, not least amongst many writing of a left-liberal or sometimes Marxist position (this may reflect simply on the near-invisibility of the subject to a wider public in a way that couldn't be said of, say, certain historical scholarship on Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia). Avoiding criticising this because of the particular politics involved does no-one any real favours; the work and arguments concerned would be very much strengthened (and less open to easy dismissal or mockery) if built upon rigorous scholarly investigation. Richard Evans's In Defence of History is very good on this subject. A moderate left Social Democrat rather than a Marxist, he is nonetheless acutely aware of many issues that equally concern us. He founds his argument on the basis that without a notion of scholarly objectivity, there is no truly rational way of making an utterly convincing case against Holocaust deniers. And I do believe his own work in discrediting David Irving on scholarly grounds (showing it to be a tissue of fabrications, lies, distortions of sources, etc.) constitutes the most powerful critique there is. Solidarity, Ian From Waistline2 at aol.com Wed May 6 19:05:27 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 21:05:27 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: In a message dated 5/6/2009 8:41:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ian at ianpace.com writes: >> I think it is important for Marxists to hold onto notions of scholarly rigour in opposition to post-modernist or functionalists relativisation of truth. Without that, we lose many weapons with which to fight the lies of our enemies (on this subject, I think Chomsky (though no Marxist) is very good). Strategies that allow for woolly or insubstantiated theories or data to be used in the interests of political expediency, or in the name of some neo-Stalinist wish to 'speak in the language of the masses' (thus avoiding nuance, complexity or anything that gets in the way of an unequivocal didactic message) will always benefit the populist right more than they will us; by legitimating such strategies we (inadvertently) strengthen their our modus operandi. And this is an issue when writing for the mass market as well (look at the relative proportions of serious progressive social history compared to glamorous soap-opera like books about the Medicis or other aristocrats in the history section of any mainstream bookshop). << Comment I disagree. The history of the communist literature world wide and in America is always towards a popular audience. I would suggest checking all the literature produced by say the SWP over the past 50 years or so. Popular explanations of capital are always in demand. Scholarly journal of Marxist thought are geared towards a more limited audience. Scholarly or theoretical journals serve a different purpose. WL. **************Big savings on Dell?s most popular laptops. Now starting at $449! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221827510x1201399090/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B214663377%3B36502382%3Bh) From lycophidion at gmail.com Wed May 6 19:19:31 2009 From: lycophidion at gmail.com (Michael Friedman) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 21:19:31 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> Don't agree with this. Not only do *we* have to be above reproach, but we have an obligation, on the one hand, to our students and, on the other, to our movements to provide evidence for our analyses and, above all, our causes that is "above reproach" and rock solid. For our students, we want to train them to be scholars who will dig up information and not invent it. For our movements, while solid evidence can be a powerful tool in our hands, fraudulent evidence *will* be exposed, sometimes by our enemies and sometimes as we, ourselves, try to build upon it. As Lou said, there is NO reason to invent things, there's enough out there. I don't know if it was sloppy scholarship or falling into the trap of having "original" scholarship in order to publish that tripped Ward up, but it is not excusable. And you have to separate the issues, because they were clearly out to get him and would have invented an excuse, if necessary. The argument about eschewing criticism because it "feeds the flames" is complete bullshit. It's one leg of the same old, tired argument against criticizing anyone in imperialism's sights. Don't criticize Mugabe, don't criticize Ahmadinejad, etc. > Message: 19 > Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 17:28:49 -0600 > From: John Thornton > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux > To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > > Message-ID: <4A021D31.3060308 at sbcglobal.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > No, it is not totally legitimate. > During what amounted to a witch hunt it was inappropriate to criticize a > professor/writer for failing to uphold a higher standard than average. > The ONLY thing such criticism can accomplish is to fan the flames. > It is important to keep Churchill's errors in perspective. > His errors were below the average error rate for academics according to > the only study I have seen on academic publishing errors and fraud. > -- Michael Friedman Ph.D. in Biology City University of New York Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics American Museum of Natural History 79th Street and Central Park West New York, NY 10024 Office: 212-313-8721 Cell: 718-812-4246 From new.wave.nw at gmail.com Wed May 6 19:42:51 2009 From: new.wave.nw at gmail.com (new wave) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 07:12:51 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Maoists support position of Trotsky against Pouplar Frontism- A victory for Trotskyists Message-ID: <5141ec810905061842p34380c11v6f3a162c0b3ccd90@mail.gmail.com> Comrade Ganeshan, The Article circulated by you- "The Spanish Revolution and the Popular Front', though presents merely a caricature of the policy advocated by Trotsky, but it is significant to find that the open support for Trotsky's line against Popular Frontism, has come this time from an activist of CPI-ML(Liberation) party, a party which proclaims Mao-Ze-Dong thought to be its official idology. This is demonstrative of the real moral and political crisis in which the cadres and activists of Stalinist and Maoist parties are finding themselves under the impact of our politics. They are gravitating towards Trotsky, but are not able to break the old shackles. However, the shallow and misplaced criticism of Trotsky for his analyisis of character of Stalinist Parties, Soviet Union and its future, made in the background of WW-II, instead of disproving the prognosis of Trotsky, only depicts the level of political understanding of the writer himself, and his good intention to sail in two boats at a time-Stalinism and Trotskyism, by performing an artificial balancing between the two. What an articulation! -- New Wave new-wave-nw.blogspot.com From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Wed May 6 19:48:06 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 11:48:06 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Ben Peterson: To My Dearest Detractors Message-ID: <2c6145850905061848v55dba056sf294d22f1b8b80ee@mail.gmail.com> http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/ben-peterson-to-my-dearest-detractors/ *On this site, a number of comments went up from opponents of the Maoist revolution who questioned Ben Peterson?s reports, insights and objectivity concerning events in Nepal.* To my dearest detractors. Some would say that this is a lopsided view. And many would say that my ?journalistic integrity? is compromised. I confess these things openly. But i only say this because if to have ?journalistic integrity? means i need to echo the lies and propaganda that is printed every day in the medias mainstream then i want no part of it. I set out to find and tell the stories of the real Nepalis, the Nepalis who live in poverty, the Nepalis who are discriminated against just because of their sex, caste, nationality or profession. I pledge now to always be lopsided- i will always carry a bias- but the bias i carry will always be towards the toiling people of the World, and to give those without a voice a chance to tell their stories- the real stories of Nepal. I have traveled widely in Nepal, I have been to Rolpa, Chitwan, Sindhapulchowk, Dang and of course Kathmandu. I have talked to people of all walks of life, from farmers, to workers, politicians and the unemployed. Men and women, Dalits, Cheteris and Bramins. I have seen the real Nepal. The real Nepal is one that is starving for change. That is why they SUPPORT the Maoists. Not because of intimidation, but because the Maoists, and only the Maoists, have gone to the people with a dream, a vision and a plan for creating a Nepal that is free from exploitation and poverty. I have looked- but could not find- the people in fear of the Maoists cadre. I have looked for but have not found the intimidation that is daily described in the Media. What i have found, without even having to look are simple people that are willing to fight for a better life. I found people increasingly angry because the old elite and the political opposition delay and derail every single attempt by the government to bring relief to the people. I have found the people who have been beaten, raped and had their families killed by the (royal) Nepal Army. (which was described as the ?National Savior? above) This is the real Nepal. The real Nepal will not be found in the pages of the Himalayan times. The Real Nepal will not be found in the tourist quarter or the cocktail circuits of Kathmandu. The real Nepal is a elegant beast that has been shackled into a system that everyday exploits, brutalizes and violates it even more. The Nepali people have had enough of this and now refuse to take it any more. The chains that restrict them are bucking under the strain of an entire people rising for something better. To those who cant see this, especially those from within the proud people of Nepal, i can only beg of you to open your eyes. You need only look as far as the women who will now look you in the eye, the dalits who can now be active in their communities and the workers with a new sense of pride in what they do, to see that the New Nepal- which is being built despite all the opposition tries to do- can be something more beautiful than we could possibly imagine. Thank you- and for your own sake- wake up to the reality you are living in. Ben Peterson -- "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 markalause at gmail.com Wed May 6 20:21:05 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 22:21:05 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I think our friend Waistline2 at aol.com misunderstood Ian's point, which was not against writing for a broader audience, but being particularly meticulous about not cutting corners. Ian's point is well-taken. Any radical going into scholarly work has to realize that they're going to have to qualitatively better, significantly more hardworking, and much more careful about what they put into print... On the other hand, this is not necessarily a bad thing politically, because we should have to have a particularly accute sense of obligation to that wider audience. ML From Waistline2 at aol.com Wed May 6 20:52:58 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 22:52:58 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: In a message dated 5/6/2009 9:20:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, _lycophidion at gmail.com_ (mailto:lycophidion at gmail.com) writes: Don't agree with this. Not only do *we* have to be above reproach, but we have an obligation, on the one hand, to our students and, on the other, to our movements to provide evidence for our analyses and, above all, our causes that is "above reproach" and rock solid. For our students, we want to train them to be scholars who will dig up information and not invent it. For our movements, while solid evidence can be a powerful tool in our hands, fraudulent evidence *will* be exposed, sometimes by our enemies and sometimes as we, ourselves, try to build upon it. As Lou said, there is NO reason to invent things, there's enough out there. I don't know if it was sloppy scholarship or falling into the trap of having "original" scholarship in order to publish that tripped Ward up, but it is not excusable. And you have to separate the issues, because they were clearly out to get him and would have invented an excuse, if necessary. The argument about eschewing criticism because it "feeds the flames" is complete bullshit. It's one leg of the same old, tired argument against criticizing anyone in imperialism's sights. Don't criticize Mugabe, don't criticize Ahmadinejad, etc.<< Comment Scholarship has its valid arena and place as literature. So does non scholarly writings. For instance it is valid to write that "capitalism steal the labor of the workers to enrich the capitalist," as popular writing. However, the capitalists do not "steal" but rather appropriate for themselves the surplus value, represented in the surplus product - (commodities created by labor), as this wage labor is bonded to capital as the production process. Communists popular literature, as does all popular literature, possess its own standard and bar of measure. Its purpose is to create pictures and general conceptual frameworks allowing the observer to see themselves and their relations with others in the system of capitalist exploitation. Such was the point of distinguishing between scholarly writings, theoretical journals and popular pamphlets and leaflets. Plagiarism for instance, is acceptable in communist popular literature and in popular pamphlets but not acceptable as scholarly writings because each different field deals with a specific arena, with different rules of conduct. I have said nothing one way or another concerning Ward Churchill, although I find nothing particularly offensive about his writings on "biological warfare against the Indians" or his post 911 comments. In the latter instance he was clearly stating an opinion about the relationship of individuals within a system of events. One can justifiably charge me with taking part in environmental destruction for building the 318 gasoline engine for 30 years, and such charge would be true. The person that works in a bomb factory cannot pretend the bombs they create are not being dropped on people in Iraq and there places. Seems to me we can draw lines of distinction between different kinds and forms of writing depending on purpose and context. We are never going to be above reproach because of our world view. We should strive to be honest and accurate in the pictures we paint. Nor should we avoid complexity but this does not require complex writings or rather "writing complexity" as in trying to stuff interpenetrating concepts into all words. Communists writings as propaganda are generally collective pursuits, geared to a particular audience and constructed to aid in realizing goals greater than the individual creativity of the writers. Sure theoretical rigor is important, but let's face it, various ideological groups and individual use different theoretical concepts. Especially within Marxism. WL. **************Big savings on Dell?s most popular laptops. Now starting at $449! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221827510x1201399090/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B214663377%3B36502382%3Bh) From absynthe at gmail.com Wed May 6 21:30:39 2009 From: absynthe at gmail.com (chegitz guevara) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 23:30:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Maoists support position of Trotsky against Pouplar Frontism- A victory for Trotskyists In-Reply-To: <5141ec810905061842p34380c11v6f3a162c0b3ccd90@mail.gmail.com> References: <5141ec810905061842p34380c11v6f3a162c0b3ccd90@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Every time New Wave posts, I want to weep. He and what ever tendency he represents are total dogmatic idealists. Rather than trying to draw lessons out of the living world, they look back to corpses dead almost seventy years, to events that are long past. Enough of zombie socialism. On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 9:42 PM, new wave wrote: > Comrade Ganeshan, > > The Article circulated by you- "The Spanish Revolution and the Popular > Front', though presents merely a caricature of the policy advocated by > Trotsky, but it is significant to find that the open support for Trotsky's > line against Popular Frontism, has come this time from an activist of > CPI-ML(Liberation) party, a party which proclaims Mao-Ze-Dong thought to be > its official idology. This is demonstrative of the real moral and political > crisis in which the cadres and activists of Stalinist and Maoist parties are > finding themselves under the impact of our politics. They are gravitating > towards Trotsky, but are not able to break the old shackles. > > However, the shallow and misplaced criticism of Trotsky for his analyisis of > character of Stalinist Parties, Soviet Union and its future, made in the > background of WW-II, instead of disproving the prognosis of Trotsky, only > depicts the level of political understanding of the writer himself, and his > good intention to sail in two boats at a time-Stalinism and Trotskyism, by > performing an artificial balancing between the two. What an articulation! > > -- > New Wave > new-wave-nw.blogspot.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/absynthe%40gmail.com > From adambrichmond at yahoo.com Wed May 6 21:54:37 2009 From: adambrichmond at yahoo.com (Adam Richmond) Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 20:54:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Maoists support position of Trotsky against Pouplar Frontism- A victory for Trotskyists In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <492815.45217.qm@web54601.mail.re2.yahoo.com> A 'victory for Trotskyists' rings hollow. It is just as hollow as saying that the victory of the socialist revolution in China, Korea, or Vietnam was a "victory" for "Trotskyism".? If anything is revealing, it is the brittle understanding of Maoism behind such a statement.? In addition what is the "trotskyism" that will inherit the "Lessons of Nepal"? Trotskyism isn't a force in Nepal, if it exists at all, at best a propaganda circle. From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Wed May 6 22:06:38 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 00:06:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Dahr Jamail: US escalates in Fallujah, opposition heats up in Baghdad Message-ID: <1CE133DF6DE64C648D1CA971C636AB89@office1pc> Two important articles. Fred http://dahrjamailiraq.com/resistance-over-fallujah-builds-up-in-baghdad Resistance over Fallujah Builds Up in Baghdad by Dahr Jamail November 8th, 2004 | Inter Press Service BAGHDAD - The anger building up in Baghdad over the imminent attack on Fallujah is a warning that U.S. forces could start off more than they can handle. The sharp increase in attacks on U..S. and allied forces has been only the most violent form of rising hostility. But it is not an extremist few that are becoming more and more strongly opposed to the occupation and now a U.S. assault on Fallujah. What Iraqi people are saying could be even more worrying to the occupation forces than the attacks. "The Fallujans should fight for their city," says Mahmoud Shakir, 80, former commander of the Iraqi police in Baghdad. "They are not terrorists, and there has been no proof of foreign fighters in Fallujah. And if there are Arabs there, they are more accepted than the Americans and coalition forces. In the name of liberty, they must fight." Shakir was deeply concerned what the results of the siege might be. "It will end in a disaster," he said at his son's home at Ramadan breakfast. "Fallujah will be completely destroyed and the people will be killed because they are asking for independence and to be rid of the Americans." Ali al-Mishidani who returned to Iraq after the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein said at the crowded al-Khulifa'a mosque in Baghdad that "the Americans did something good by getting rid of Saddam Hussein. I believe there are terrorists there who are killing Fallujans and the Americans. But there are also Fallujans there who are fighting for their houses and their honour, and it is their right to do this." His views are mild compared to those of many others in Baghdad. "The people of Fallujah have the right to fight for their city, because if the Americans are invading their city they have to defend it," said Nisan al-Samarra'i, a 55 year-old trader in the Karrada district of Baghdad. Al-Samarra'i said the bombings in Samarra were not related to the U.S. aggression in Fallujah. "I believe that the fighting in Samarra is because so many people in Samarra have been killed by the occupiers," he said. "Their family are fighting against them now because their sons have been killed by the Americans." Like many others in Baghdad he does not believe members of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi's group are working inside Fallujah. Al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian suspected to have links with al-Qaeda, and involved in several beheadings and suicide bomb attacks in Iraq. "There are accusations that al-Zarqawi is there, but nobody can prove this," he said. "Some say there are Arabs there fighting - and if that is true, it is their right to help their brothers in Fallujah to defend their city." Hamad Abdulla Raziz, an unemployed electrician doing odd jobs at a hotel in central Baghdad said the U.S.-led coalition fails to see that "we are having now to fight for our liberation against them." Many people in Baghdad express concern that the U.S. military operations in Fallujah are already leading to increasing violence around the country. Ibrahim Mikhail who drives his car as a taxi now because he is afraid to join the Iraqi police force believes that if the U.S. military would stay in their bases there would be less violence. "Why can't the U.S. Army leave our cities," he said. "If their tanks will stay off our streets and the soldiers will stop raiding our homes, people would stop attacking them, especially Fallujans." U.S. forces say al-Zarqawi is in Fallujah, "but Fallujans and now more people in Baghdad view the Americans as terrorists," he said. "An Americans attack on Fallujah will be a disaster," said Haydr Raid, a 22-year-old college student at Baghdad University. "To try to rescue the people of Fallujah from the Arab mujahideen, it is okay then to kill the civilians with the fighters?" he asked. "The Americans won't let men out of the city who want out, so they will kill them with the fighters? Is this justice?" http://www.truthout.org/050409J?n Combat Operations in Fallujah Dahr Jamail May 4, 2009 A woman gestures toward the wreckage of a car destroyed in a car bomb explosion in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Wednesday, April 29, 2009. Indicative of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq, on May 1 the US military reported the death of a Naval petty officer who was killed "on April 30 while conducting combat operations in Fallujah, Iraq." The Department of Defense report went on to explain that the sailor "was deployed with an East Coast based Navy SEAL team." That same day, the military announced the deaths of two marines "killed while conducting combat operations against enemy forces here April 30." The dateline for the latter press release is "AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq." Apparently, all is not well in Fallujah and al-Anbar province. The US military, having met the fiercest resistance throughout their occupation of Iraq in these areas, is once again conducting combat operations there. The fact that the US military has largely hung the Sahwa out to dry, exposing the 100,000 strong Sunni militia to the ire of the Maliki government for ongoing assassinations and detentions, has taken the lid off the volcano that the Sahwa were keeping from erupting. Let us remember - it was the Sahwa who kept al-Qaeda in Iraq in check, not the US military or the Iraqi military. As members of the Sahwa continue to leave their security posts due to lack of pay and being targeted by the Iraqi government, they are returning to the resistance from which most of them had emerged to join the militia. Let us also be clear about the fact that the Sahwa allied themselves with the US military so as to protect themselves from the Shia-dominated sectarian government of Prime Minister Maliki. I asked a good friend of mine in Baghdad to interview a Sahwa leader in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad a few days ago. The leader asked to be identified as Abu Ahmed. He is 40 years old, married, has four children, and had this to say, "I would like to say that the Iraqi Government, and especially Mr. Maliki, are continuing to target us. They have been doing this from the beginning, and they continue to do this against the Sahwa. The reason is because we are Sunni and the Iraqi government are a sectarian government." Abu Ahmed said he and his fellow Sahwa members support the immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces "and then we can change our government by ourselves and build a nationalist government to replace this current sectarian government." He then added, succinctly, "Our purpose is to end the occupation, end al-Qaeda, and make a new Iraq that is safe." Fate, as if to underscore his point, found rivers of blood filling the streets of Baghdad the very next day. Simultaneous bombings in largely Shiite districts of the capital city killed more than 51 people. After the bombings, residents of the areas threw shoes and stones at Iraqi soldiers who arrived at the scene, blaming the soldiers for failing to protect them. A resident, in the aftermath of the bombings, expressed his rage to a reporter while Iraqi soldiers continued shooting at innocent people, "Is that what we deserve, on top of the bombs, that they shoot at people? Is this Maliki's government? Instead of helping us evacuate the wounded, they started shooting at us. This is Maliki's government. Can you hear the shooting? They're shooting at people. People are lying underneath cars." At the end of the day, over 70 Iraqis had died, with at least 116 wounded. Underscoring the sectarian nature of the government, Baghdad security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta told reporters, "This series of bombings was supposed to be carried out on the 28th, the birthday of Saddam Hussein," referencing the former dictator executed in December 2006. Meanwhile, that same day, roadside bombs targeted US patrols in two areas of Baghdad. My Iraqi journalist friend in Baghdad, who interviewed Abu Ahmed, commented on the aftermath of the bombings that day, "The Iraqi situation is getting so much worse Mr. Dahr. So many car bombs explode in Baghdad now - it is daily. All the streets are closed today so the police and army can search every car, checking everything, and we can't move or work in this situation at all. And yet, the bombings continue nonstop." As the calendar turned to May, April was the deadliest month since September for US troops, with at least 18 dead, doubling the previous month's total. April also found the most troops killed in combat in a month so far this year. April was also the deadliest month for Iraqis in over a year. In a move strengthening US/Iraqi relations, Brig. Gen. Peter Bayer, the chief of staff for the US military's daily operations in Iraq, said that a US military raid in Kut that killed a man and woman, which had ignited tempers across the country and caused Prime Minister Maliki to demand the responsible soldiers to be handed over to Iraqi authorities, told reporters the raid was "lawful and legal," and responded to the question of whether American soldiers would appear in Iraqi courts with, "No. Absolutely not." So much for Iraqi sovereignty. On May 2, two more soldiers were killed in the northern city of Mosul, while US forces were attacked with roadside bombs in both Basra and Fallujah. Clearly, resistance against the occupation is once again nationwide, spanning from Iraq's northernmost and southernmost cities. Now that the British are pulling out of their area of control in Southern Iraq, US troops are filling the void - hence, the attack in Basra. Expect these to increase rapidly, particularly in light of events such as the Kut raid. The signs of Iraqi government attacks against Sahwa members show no sign of abating either, as that day gunmen attacked a Sahwa checkpoint in Yusufiya, injuring a Sahwa fighter. Meanwhile, Iran was shelling northern Iraq - lobbing artillery shells into suspected Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) locations there. The PJAK are supported by the US, as they have been conducting covert destabilization operations in Iran for months now. The northwestern area of Iraq that borders Turkey was not without violence either. There, Turkish forces launched an airstrike just hours after ten Turkish soldiers were killed in what was believed to be a Kurdish rebel strike in Turkey. Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq are, however, nothing new. They've been a weekly or bi-monthly occurrence for several months running now. The meat grinder that is the US occupation of Iraq is picking up speed once again. Attacks against both Iraqi civilians and US soldiers are increasing dramatically. At the time of this writing, five soldiers have been killed in the last four days, over a dozen innocent Iraqis have been slaughtered, and over a dozen have been wounded. Iraqi government attacks on the Sahwa continue, al-Qaeda is now operating largely at will, and attacks on US forces are now happening all over Iraq - including in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq. Combat operations in Fallujah. A recent UN report documenting ongoing US torturing of Iraqis in military detention facilities in Iraq. Roadside bomb attacks against US forces spanning the entire geography of the country. Iraqis being slaughtered in numbers not seen since George W. Bush still had eight months left in his second term. What has changed in Iraq? __._,_.___ From sukla.sen at gmail.com Thu May 7 01:50:10 2009 From: sukla.sen at gmail.com (Sukla Sen) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 13:20:10 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] [GreenLeft_discussion] Ben Peterson: To My Dearest Detractors In-Reply-To: <2c6145850905061848v55dba056sf294d22f1b8b80ee@mail.gmail.com> References: <2c6145850905061848v55dba056sf294d22f1b8b80ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9e2acadd0905070050s4f2a2b21gd5039d4347674329@mail.gmail.com> "I've seen Nepal, so I've all the right to lie, errr ... to cook up creative truth"! Here are two reports on Prachanda's "leaked speech". The Maoist obsession about capturing the Army is evidently not too reassuring to others. Particularly if it is kept in mind that in certain areas the CPN(UML) and NC cadres have already been served notice to leave. Prachanda has of course duly condemned such move. This has happened when he has resigned and acting as the Acting Prime Minister. So much about the "coup"! And also they swear by Maoism and openly appreciate the Shining Path of Peru. Sukla I/II. http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=4670 PLA's real strength 7-8K: Dahal 'Will capture state by all means' REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, May 5: The real strength of the Maoist People?s Liberation Army (PLA) was between 7,000 and 8,000 and not 35,000 as reported by Maoists. Video footage a conspiracy to derail peace process: Maoists YCL leave Image Channel main gate This startling revelation comes from none other than Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He said this while addressing PLA commanders and combatants at Shatikhor cantonment in Chitwan* on January 2, 2008, a video of the meeting -- in possession of Image Channel TV -- shows. Dahal said contrary to popular belief that the number of PLA had been reduced by the verification by UNMIN (United Nations Mission in Nepal), the strength was actually up. "We all know what the real strength of the PLA is: it is between 7,000 and 8,000," he said. Had we given the real figure, the number would have come down to about 4,000. But, added the chairman, the party said the number of the PLA was 35,000 and that resulted in around 20,000 verified PLA. "Did the number increase or decrease?" asked a smiling Dahal, evoking laughter around him. ***He also said that even a small number of PLA combatants? entry into the Nepal Army was enough to establish total Maoists control over the army. Our soldiers are politically awakened and they will easily dominate who just parade, referring to NA soldiers. He also said that army chief Rookmangud Katawal was thus against entry of PLA into the army.*** (Emphasis added.) This address was two months before the Constituent Assembly elections, on April 10, which had looked uncertain then due to sharp differences between the Maoist and non-Maoist parties over percentage allocation between first-past-the-post (directly elected by people) and proportional representation electoral systems. Dahal also said the party had not forsaken the ultimate goal of bidroha (revolt) and asked his men not to be swayed by compromises struck by the Maoist party with other political parties. He said party workers may be thinking that their leaders are having tea with enemies, forgetting their revolutionary agenda. But the reality is the leaders are still working for a revolution, he said. The Maoist chairman said that money that the "martyrs" in villages throughout the country and the PLA in cantonment receive will help them move ahead in their goal of total victory. The money that will go to the "martyrs? family" will help repair the party?s deteriorating relations with the common people. "We will tell them this is just a relief (of Rs 100,000) and you need to support us to get the remaining Rs 900,000," Dahal revealed his strategy of winning the CA elections. Each martyr family has been provided Rs 1,000,000. He had also said that the Maoists were not keeon on an election that they would lose. "We will not allow election that we might lose." He added that one third of the Rs 600,000,000 that was agreed to be given to the PLA cantonments would be used to further the goal of Maoists? control of the state. II. http://www.zeenews.com/news529729.html 'Videotape scandal a ploy against Nepal peace process' Kathmandu, May 07: Some Maoist combatants have been taken in custody as per the directives of the party headquarters after a controversial video of outgoing Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ''Prachanda'' addressing a training session in Shaktikhor became public. According to Nepalnews, the party has detained members of the video unit and some suspected combatants dubbing the entry of ''enemies'' in its army. The Maoist army is on to prevent similar activities in other divisions and cantonments. Meanwhile, Prachanda has dubbed videotape scandal a ploy against peace process. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday over a videotape of his lecture to PLA commanders some 16 months ago, which has caused quite an uproar in the political circle, Prachanda said his party had three tiers of armed forces - central and regional as regular armed forces and militia that numbered well over 100,000. He said what he mentioned in the tape that real strength of the PLA was 7,000 to 8,000 was only the number of the ''central regular armed force''. He argued that the broadcasting of the videotape, containing his speech in a different political situation, is a reactionary ploy to cover up the unconstitutional move of President Ram Baran Yadav and to jeopardise the peace process. He also reiterated his commitment to the peace process and constitution-drafting which will transform the country into a federal republic. Claiming that some elements have been trying to push them again towards war, Prachanda said under no circumstances would they end the peace deal to start violence again. However, Prachanda met the envoys of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, Germany, Denmark and the European Commission and representatives of the Netherlands for 45 minutes at their request. He told the envoys that the current political crisis created by the unconstitutional step of President Yadav, if corrected, could be utilized to forge a "higher level understanding between political parties and form a national consensus government." The envoys expressed worry about the warning that the Maoist cadres had issued to supporters from other parties in the districts and clashes between Maoist protesters and police. At a press meet organised following the meeting with diplomats, Prachanda expressed the party's commitment to uphold democratic principles and said directives had been issued to party cadres not to use any type of force. ANI On 5/7/09, Stuart Munckton wrote: > http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/ben-peterson-to-my-dearest-detractors/ > > *On this site, a number of comments went up from opponents of the Maoist > revolution who questioned Ben Peterson?s > reports, > insights and objectivity concerning events in Nepal.* > > To my dearest detractors. > > Some would say that this is a lopsided view. And many would say that my > ?journalistic integrity? is compromised. I confess these things openly. But > i only say this because if to have ?journalistic integrity? means i need to > echo the lies and propaganda that is printed every day in the medias > mainstream then i want no part of it. I set out to find and tell the stories > of the real Nepalis, the Nepalis who live in poverty, the Nepalis who are > discriminated against just because of their sex, caste, nationality or > profession. I pledge now to always be lopsided- i will always carry a bias- > but the bias i carry will always be towards the toiling people of the World, > and to give those without a voice a chance to tell their stories- the real > stories of Nepal. > > I have traveled widely in Nepal, I have been to Rolpa, Chitwan, > Sindhapulchowk, Dang and of course Kathmandu. I have talked to people of all > walks of life, from farmers, to workers, politicians and the unemployed. Men > and women, Dalits, Cheteris and Bramins. I have seen the real Nepal. The > real Nepal is one that is starving for change. That is why they SUPPORT the > Maoists. Not because of intimidation, but because the Maoists, and only the > Maoists, have gone to the people with a dream, a vision and a plan for > creating a Nepal that is free from exploitation and poverty. > > I have looked- but could not find- the people in fear of the Maoists cadre. > I have looked for but have not found the intimidation that is daily > described in the Media. What i have found, without even having to look are > simple people that are willing to fight for a better life. I found people > increasingly angry because the old elite and the political opposition delay > and derail every single attempt by the government to bring relief to the > people. I have found the people who have been beaten, raped and had their > families killed by the (royal) Nepal Army. (which was described as the > ?National Savior? above) > > This is the real Nepal. The real Nepal will not be found in the pages of the > Himalayan times. The Real Nepal will not be found in the tourist quarter or > the cocktail circuits of Kathmandu. The real Nepal is a elegant beast that > has been shackled into a system that everyday exploits, brutalizes and > violates it even more. The Nepali people have had enough of this and now > refuse to take it any more. The chains that restrict them are bucking under > the strain of an entire people rising for something better. > > To those who cant see this, especially those from within the proud people of > Nepal, i can only beg of you to open your eyes. You need only look as far as > the women who will now look you in the eye, the dalits who can now be active > in their communities and the workers with a new sense of pride in what they > do, to see that the New Nepal- which is being built despite all the > opposition tries to do- can be something more beautiful than we could > possibly imagine. > > Thank you- and for your own sake- wake up to the reality you are living in. > Ben Peterson > > > -- > "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 > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Green Left Weekly depends on your support! > > Subscribe to Green Left Weekly! > http://www.greenleft.org.au/subscribe.htm > > Make a donation to help Green Left Weekly continue! > http://www.greenleft.org.au/fogl.htm > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/ > > <*> Your email settings: > Individual Email | Traditional > > <*> To change settings online go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/join > (Yahoo! ID required) > > <*> To change settings via email: > mailto:GreenLeft_discussion-digest at yahoogroups.com > mailto:GreenLeft_discussion-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com > > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > GreenLeft_discussion-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com > > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Thu May 7 05:39:04 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 12:39:04 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] WSJ-Destruction of (commodity) Capital Part 2 In-Reply-To: <55FE345A1B5E4945BA059A7171F7EA80@D4PKYZ41> References: <55FE345A1B5E4945BA059A7171F7EA80@D4PKYZ41> Message-ID: As soon as a similar move was introduced here in the UK in the last budget, i.e. ?2,000 for your old car if you bought a new, fuel-efficient one, dealers started surreptitiously putting up the price of the new models, thereby wiping out any gains for the car consumer. How long do you figure it will tak US dealers to do the same? You gotta love that capitalist spirit of enterprise! Jon Cloke From J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk Thu May 7 06:12:57 2009 From: J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk (J.M.P.Cloke at lboro.ac.uk) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 13:12:57 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] The Israel Boycott is Biting In-Reply-To: <53a1ffe70905060846p6514ae00l9877e5549629d1a@mail.gmail.com> References: <53a1ffe70905060846p6514ae00l9877e5549629d1a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: For those who want to join the boycott/know more about it, visit this site http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/9 to find out what's going on in your country. -- Jon Cloke From david at miradoiro.com Thu May 7 06:32:18 2009 From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:32:18 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] The Israel Boycott is Biting References: <53a1ffe70905060846p6514ae00l9877e5549629d1a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I understand that one takes the allies one can get, but I've my doubts that ETA support is going to do much in favour of this campaign in Spain (or the Spanish state, whatever). Also the label "political prisoner" seems to be abused in this case, just as it is in the cases of people indicted in Cuba. --David. From sartesian at earthlink.net Thu May 7 06:48:25 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 08:48:25 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] BLS Release Message-ID: Interesting stuff at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.toc.htm Check out the numbers on manufacturing and durable goods manufacturing... From lnp3 at panix.com Thu May 7 07:32:24 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 09:32:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] When it comes to Marx, there's no time like the present Message-ID: <4A02E2E8.3070901@panix.com> (Go to url below for embedded links) http://books.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/04/when_it_comes_to_marx_theres_no_time_like_the_present When it comes to Marx, there's no time like the present Mon, 05/04/2009 - 6:25pm By Matt Yglesias With the world facing the most serious economic crisis in many decades, the free-market orthodoxies that have governed the United States for the past 30 years -- and proven increasingly influential abroad -- are increasingly coming under question. Under the circumstances, it's perhaps natural that we're seeing something of a resurgence of interest in the work of Karl Marx, both in the form of a recent Atlantic article by Christopher Hitchens written mostly to amuse, and in Leo Panitch's more serious take in Foreign Policy. It should be noted that there's something a bit parochial about this. In the English-speaking world in general, and in the United States in particular, there's thought to be something a bit naughty about mentioning Marx or letting slip the "s-word." But in the rest of the world, it's extremely common for the main left-of-center political party to have "socialist" or "social democratic" in its name. And while Americans mostly think of Marx's practical political influence in terms of the Soviet Union and its satellites, many democratic political parties in Western Europe can trace their origins in part back to Marxist influence. Meanwhile, the pop art depictions of Marx that accompany both articles suggest to me an intention to undermine the nominal commitment to the idea that we ought to take Marx more seriously. They suggest that to raise fundamental doubts about the capitalist enterprise is actually quite silly. Further re-enforcing this sense is the heavy emphasis currently being placed on Marx's argument that periodic financial crises were endemic to the capitalist system. At the time Marx was writing, the modern era of financial crises was quite new, and so this point was both original and by no means obvious. Subsequently, we've had more than 100 years to study the operations of capitalist financial systems and that time has proven Marx so overwhelmingly correct that the observation no longer counts as distinctively Marxian. Everyone, from followers of John Maynard Keynes to Milton Friedman's monetarists to the "Austrian School" of extreme libertarians agrees that periodic episodes of crisis are endemic to the system. This is not to take anything away from Marx, who got to the point quickly. But bringing him up only to cite him making a now-banal point seems almost as if we're exhuming the corpse in order to demonstrate to the village that it's still dead. Not to explore our doubts about capitalism, in other words, but to quiet them by making it seem as if Marx doesn't have anything to say that we don't already know. I would suggest on the contrary that there's no time like the present to learn from Marx's theory of ideology -- the idea that wealth and power have a tremendous ability to gin up self-justifying narratives. Global elites' curious passivity in the face of the growing housing bubble was an excellent example. That prices were out of line with historical trends was easy enough to see, and the fact that asset bubbles recur periodically and lead to financial crises was once well-known and then swiftly rediscovered after the bubble popped. But during the bubble years, prominent policymakers on both sides of the aisle found themselves in the grips of an extremely naive rationalism that held that there couldn't possibly be a bubble, since the market should be magically self-correcting. Naturally, nobody believes that now. And, indeed, it seems like a slightly ridiculous thing to have ever believed. Marx can be helpful in letting us understand how it ever came to be so widely believed and how it is that, to this day, the voices of a small clique of extremely wealthy financiers continue to speak so loudly in Washington. Understanding the process of ideology and self-justification can help us to dispel its power and see our way through to a better resolution of the crisis and a more just society. Unfortunately, attention to the specific issue of Marx's account of financial crises seems mostly to inspire a curious kind of passivity. "Reformist politicians who think they can do away with the inherent class inequalities and recurrent crises of capitalist society are the real romantics of our day," writes Panitch, "themselves clinging to a naive utopian vision of what the world might be." This is radicalism as conservative -- even in the midst of a great economic crisis, there's nothing we can or should do to reform the system and no concrete lessons we should learn. But of course some countries' regulatory systems are better than others at avoiding banking panics -- Canada and Spain, for example. Some countries, Sweden for example, appear to have found workable methods of resolving insolvent banks. And while no country is without some economic inequality, many countries get by with quite a bit less than we have in the United States. Re-reading Marx ought to be a spur to reform -- to cast off the illusion that policy decisions made in the interests of the few represent nothing more than neutral technical expertise -- rather than a further source of complacency. Matt Yglesias is a fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. You can read his blog here. From callmecooney at gmail.com Thu May 7 07:49:22 2009 From: callmecooney at gmail.com (brendan cooney) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 09:49:22 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Interview with Andrew Kliman Message-ID: <4A02E6E2.6040001@gmail.com> I've just posted my recent interview with Andrew Kliman on my blog. Kliman is author of "Reclaiming Marx's Capital" and is engaged in empirical research in to long term profit rates which validates Marx's theory of the falling rate of profit. Kliman discusses this theory, criticizes some of the other erroneous crisis theories floating around the Left today (Mosely, Brenner, Wolfe), and reflects on the public reception to his work on the transformation problem. http://kapitalism101.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/interview-with-andrew-kliman/ From davidrail68 at yahoo.com Thu May 7 09:55:40 2009 From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 08:55:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela's labour movement at the crossroads - Links Message-ID: <180207.50322.qm@web45314.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Venezuela's labour movement at the crossroads By Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes April 29, 2008 -- Venezuelanalysis.com -- First came the decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on April 9 to re-nationalise the Sidor steel plant?privatised by a pre-Chavez government in 1997?after a long workers' struggle. This was followed shortly by the call from Bolivarian Socialist Workers Force?s (FSBT), a faction with in the pro-Chavez National Union of Workers (UNT), to split away to form a new national federation. Two days later, labour minister Jose Ramon Rivero, a member of the FSBT, who was accused by Sidor workers of opposing their struggle, was replaced by National Assembly Vice-President and former Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) member Roberto Hernandez, now a United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) member. These events have once again brought to the fore the question of the role of workers in Venezuela?s Bolivarian Revolution, whose participation as an organised class has been sporadic at best, in this process aimed at constructing ``Socialism of the 21st Century''. http://links.org.au/node/388 From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com Thu May 7 10:24:14 2009 From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 09:24:14 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Venezuela's labour movement at the crossroads - Links, Message-ID: <4A030B2E.9030005@gmail.com> Dave, believe this article is over a year old. Lot's of time has gone by. It would be good though if the poster of the actual article updated us on the state of the labor movement in Venezuela. David From jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net Thu May 7 11:39:25 2009 From: jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net (John Thornton) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 11:39:25 -0600 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> References: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4A031CCD.3040704@sbcglobal.net> It's a question of timing. During a witch hunt the only appropriate answer to questions concerning Churchill's scholarship should be "no comment at this time". During times when a "left' author is not under attack by right-wing forces (which is most of the time) it is obviously not inappropriate to criticize. The idea that is bullshit is the idea than "we" need to be above reproach. "We" need only be human and as fallible/reliable as "them". Academic standards are not different for the left and right nor is there any reason to suppose they should be. Why you should lose sight of this obvious fact is beyond me. Such an opinion hardly enhances ones credibility. Your comparison with Mugabe and Ahmadinejad is telling. Churchill's "error" is infinitesimally small. It is the type of discussion that is normally held between academics. When it is projected into the space usually reserved for egregious errors it brings with it the assumption that some serious breach of standards has occurred. The ONLY thing that can be accomplished by criticizing Churchill at such a moment is aid to the likes of O'Reilly and other right-wing hacks who seek to stifle descent. This is true regardless of how pure ones motives may actually be in leveling their criticism. Despite your protestations criticizing Churchill at the moment the moment right-wing hacks like O'Reilly are calling for his head is an affront to standards of decency. Your rejection of this fact is as ill conceived as your idea that left academics should be held to higher standards than those on the right. Claiming Churchill "invented things" shows you do not understand the nature of the Churchill's "errors". If you understood what transpired you might feel differently but perhaps not. Maybe you can cite evidence Churchill actually fabricated? I'd love to see it. John Thornton Michael Friedman wrote: > Don't agree with this. Not only do *we* have to be above reproach, but > we have an obligation, on the one hand, to our students and, on the > other, to our movements to provide evidence for our analyses and, > above all, our causes that is "above reproach" and rock solid. For our > students, we want to train them to be scholars who will dig up > information and not invent it. For our movements, while solid evidence > can be a powerful tool in our hands, fraudulent evidence *will* be > exposed, sometimes by our enemies and sometimes as we, ourselves, try > to build upon it. As Lou said, there is NO reason to invent things, > there's enough out there. I don't know if it was sloppy scholarship or > falling into the trap of having "original" scholarship in order to > publish that tripped Ward up, but it is not excusable. And you have to > separate the issues, because they were clearly out to get him and > would have invented an excuse, if necessary. The argument about > eschewing criticism because it "feeds the flames" is complete > bullshit. It's one leg of the same old, tired argument against > criticizing anyone in imperialism's sights. Don't criticize Mugabe, > don't criticize Ahmadinejad, etc. > > > >> Message: 19 >> Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 17:28:49 -0600 >> From: John Thornton >> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux >> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition >> >> Message-ID: <4A021D31.3060308 at sbcglobal.net> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed >> >> No, it is not totally legitimate. >> During what amounted to a witch hunt it was inappropriate to criticize a >> professor/writer for failing to uphold a higher standard than average. >> The ONLY thing such criticism can accomplish is to fan the flames. >> It is important to keep Churchill's errors in perspective. >> His errors were below the average error rate for academics according to >> the only study I have seen on academic publishing errors and fraud. >> >> > > From tcod at hotmail.com Thu May 7 11:09:13 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 17:09:13 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <20090506.183031.192.0.farmelantj@juno.com> References: <20090506.183031.192.0.farmelantj@juno.com> Message-ID: and that was the context of the attacks on Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is not in academe, petty infractions alleged as a way of doing an end run around a direct assault on the substance of her views on FDR. _________________________________________________________________ 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 tcod at hotmail.com Thu May 7 11:12:06 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 17:12:06 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A01F271.1090503@panix.com> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <4A01FE46.8000409@sbcglobal.net> <4A01F271.1090503@panix.com> Message-ID: What's "LBO"? _________________________________________________________________ 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 tcod at hotmail.com Thu May 7 11:21:38 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 17:21:38 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A02019D.3090608@sbcglobal.net> References: <20090505.120634.5006.0@webmail06.vgs.untd.com> <4A0064FC.8050702@panix.com> <4A02019D.3090608@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: We've got the disenrollment issue going on right where I live in Northern Cal; it's becoming more of a problem now among the "gaming tribes" given the big money that is now at stake. For example, someone loses a close tribal election, all of a sudden dozens of his or her supporters get expelled etc. http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:0V8zfY7hBmoJ:lakeconews.com/content/view/7014/764/+disenrollement+protest+Robinson+Rancheria&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us > I think you overestimate the problem of "disenrollment" if you believe > it is a chronic problem. > I've disagreed with my tribe on the recent issue of not continuing de > facto enrollment of the Freedmen but removing political opponents from > NDN rolls is extremely rare in my view. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From tcod at hotmail.com Thu May 7 11:35:35 2009 From: tcod at hotmail.com (Tom Cod) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 17:35:35 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A01F4B6.3040905@panix.com> References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <4A01F4B6.3040905@panix.com> Message-ID: and they're still promoting Diamond's series on PBS! > I suppose so. Who knows, if Jared Diamond had written some particularly > inflammatory anti-imperialist article after 9/11, then maybe a committee > would have been convened already at UCLA to investigate his ridiculous > New Yorker article. > _________________________________________________________________ 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 markalause at gmail.com Thu May 7 11:50:40 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 13:50:40 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A031CCD.3040704@sbcglobal.net> References: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> <4A031CCD.3040704@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: I think John Thorton's missed the point--though I may have done so as well-- The point is not the standard to which we hold up Ward Churchill when he's under attack. The standard is what we must pragmatically realize will be imposed upon us by the outside. Nobody should have any illusions about that. Evaluations are arbitrary on many levels, and politics is always a consideration... ML From Waistline2 at aol.com Thu May 7 11:54:19 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 13:54:19 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: In a message dated 5/6/2009 6:33:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net writes: >> Incidentally, while I don't believe there is any hard and irrefutable evidence to support the claim that smallpox was deliberately spread among the Mandan I don't consider the idea implausible. Spreading smallpox via bedding had been known since the middle ages and the idea that blankets used by persons infected with smallpox were "accidentally" given to a disliked segment of the population whose extermination had been openly called for is a bit much to swallow. I don't know any NDN's who believe otherwise. One might argue that there was no deliberate intent to spread smallpox and instead there was nothing more than complete disregard whether a smallpox outbreak occurred but the differences between the two positions is quite small.<< John Thornton Comment I share the above sentiment and rethought the issue - again, after hearing Obama's apology for the accidental murder of Afghanistan civilians. Accidental murder. If a standard of "circumstantial evidence" was openly introduced into historical inquiry, "deliberate intent" would quickly pass from a standard where the historian had to search out the personal subjective motive of individuals, with supporting documentation and would now pivot on "result of ones actions." Results of ones actions also embraces inaction or failure to act. Seems to me that historical inquiry presupposes "circumstantial evidence" and even the board of inquiry judging Mr. Churchill's historical articulation acknowledges such. Churchill became a political football at the moment before our country realized a mass ideological and political shift - tile, favorable to his historical standpoint. His standpoint is that of the victims voice and eyes and much of America is favorable to this standpoint and seeks reconciliation. The eyes and souls of the Indian, caught in the intractable genocide from one generation to the next, remains our waking nightmare. I would dare say that everyone in America today is part of the illustrious group identified as 'little Eichmann's" for all kinds of historical reasons not limited to the Indian or New World slavery. We also carry the burden of Eastern Europe, Lain America, Ireland, Mother Russia, Soviet history, Germany, China, Vietnam and the entire world, inasmuch as America is a world country. In Mr. Churchill's case, the Indian part of who we are and whom we are becoming is particularly sensitive. This means we have not yet done enough to overcome history and heal. 'Little Eichmann's?" Is not the underlying moral imperative of the proletarian revolution to make oneself fit? To alter history by creating a new line of history that moves humanity from the systematic reproduction of 'little Eichmann's"? "Not guilty as charged" screams one section of the people, which most certainly includes some communists, socialists, Marxists and progressives. Historical narrative is not really a judgement of guilt, but rather shame. Guilt is forever as historical crime. That is why quilt is recorded. Shame is resolvable when society stops doing whatever it is doing to reproduce the shame from one generation to another. Was smallpox deliberately spread among the Mandan? Yes, without question. WL. **************Big savings on Dell?s most popular laptops. Now starting at $449! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222382499x1201454962/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B214663472%3B36502367%3Bg) From lnp3 at panix.com Thu May 7 12:01:09 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 14:01:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> <4A031CCD.3040704@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <4A0321E5.7040809@panix.com> Mark Lause wrote: > I think John Thorton's missed the point--though I may have done so as well-- > > The point is not the standard to which we hold up Ward Churchill when > he's under attack. > > The standard is what we must pragmatically realize will be imposed > upon us by the outside. Nobody should have any illusions about that. > Evaluations are arbitrary on many levels, and politics is always a > consideration... Look, the point is that "A Little Matter of Genocide" is a first-rate work of scholarship and polemics. It is marred, however, by the Mandan passage. We have to get over the idea that our standards as Marxist thinkers and writers is lower than that of bourgeois ideologists. As much as I identify with Noam Chomsky on a wide range of issues, I thought his characterization of Faurisson was inadequate. My friend Paul Buhle and Howard Zinn are also getting attacked all the time for being sloppy. Obviously the criticisms are really about the politics, not scholarly standards. Lenin was scrupulous to the nth degree in his statistical research on imperialism--that's the example we should aspire to. From elche48 at gmail.com Thu May 7 12:17:30 2009 From: elche48 at gmail.com (Cesar "El Che" Rodriguez) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 11:17:30 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: UCSB forum on academic freedom re-scheduled for May 21 References: Message-ID: <0546D957-BC54-4901-A946-D62A57711BFF@gmail.com> I know not everyone can make it, but if you can distribute this to folks who are in the Southern California area, that would be great. in solidarity. che Begin forwarded message: > From: Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB > > Date: May 6, 2009 9:07:41 PM PDT > To: Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB > Subject: UCSB forum on academic freedom re-scheduled for May 21 > Reply-To: CDAF-UCSB at googlegroups.com > > UCSB forum on academic freedom re-scheduled for May 21 > > Larger venue needed to accommodate growing public interest > > Contact: Daniel Olmos, (818) 468-8894, olmos at umail.ucsb.edu. > Alba Pe?a-Leon, (626) 665-9212, alba at umail.ucsb.edu. > > SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A May 7 forum on academic freedom at the > University of California at Santa Barbara has been re-scheduled for > May 21 to accommodate a larger audience than originally anticipated. > > Broad media coverage of the charges of anti-Semitism against UCSB > sociology professor William I. Robinson has generated more public > interest in the event, prompting the Committee to Defend Academic > Freedom (CDAF) to look for a larger venue, said CDAF co-founder and > media coordinator Yousef Baker. > > ?We?re expecting a lot of people, so we changed the location to a > bigger auditorium on campus,? Baker said. > > The forum is sponsored by CDAF, which UCSB students formed in April > after the university?s Academic Senate decided to open a formal > investigation against Robinson. > > The sociology professor introduced materials critical of Israeli > state policies in a course on globalization in January. They > included a photo essay that he forwarded to students from the > Internet and that had been circulating in the public realm. The > photos compared images of Israeli abuse against Palestinians during > the recent military invasion of Gaza with Nazi abuses during the > holocaust. Two students took offense at the images and withdrew from > the course, prompting the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to demand > that the university investigate Robinson for ?anti-Semitism.? > > A three-member panel of scholars will address the forum, Baker said. > > UCSB Law and Society Program professor Lisa Hajjar will discuss the > principles and practices of academic freedom and the university?s > obligation to them. > > Richard Falk, the UN?s special rapporteur on human rights in the > Palestinian territories and a visiting scholar on global studies at > UCSB, will talk about Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the > importance of academic freedom to ensure an open and free dialogue > about the issue. > > UCSB associate professor of sociology Geoff Raymond will discuss the > Robinson case specifically and the irregularities committed by > university officials handling charges against the professor. > > A question and answer period will follow the presentations by > panelists. > > The forum is free and open to the public. It runs from 7 to 9 p.m. > on the UCSB campus at Embarcadero Hall located at 935 Embarcadero > del Norte. > > For detailed information about the Robinson case, visit CDAF?s > online blog at www.sb4af.wordpress.com. > > For media inquiries about the forum, call Daniel Olmos at (818) > 468-8894 or Alba Pe?a-Leon at (626) 665-9212. > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB" group. > To post to this group, send email to CDAF-UCSB at googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to CDAF-UCSB+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CDAF-UCSB?hl=en > -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- > From meisner at xs4all.nl Thu May 7 12:22:44 2009 From: meisner at xs4all.nl (Jeff) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 20:22:44 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A031CCD.3040704@sbcglobal.net> References: <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> <709f342d0905061819o38e8b1f9j77ef7194e1f414e0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20090507202244.02a116b4@pop.xs4all.nl> I think John Thornton stated the closest thing I might accept as a "rule" in this regard: At 11:39 07/05/09 -0600, you wrote: >It's a question of timing. >During a witch hunt the only appropriate answer to questions concerning >Churchill's scholarship should be "no comment at this time". >During [other] times .... In other words, one must always take into account the CONTEXT of their criticisms, not just factual accuracy of what they are saying. Although I think most people on this list would recognize that wisdom, it isn't such a simple matter to always recognize/appreciate the context of a discussion (though in the case of the witch-hunt against Churchill, it was pretty stark!). This probably applies to everyone, but I know there are times I have inadvertently caused (minor) political damage through a good faith effort at accuracy, and I hope that I have learned from each case the distinction between the "art of politics" and political theory. For instance, when I see certain environmentalists protesting against GM technology (and not to start a new discussion on that topic!) and I see unscientific rants being hurled against Monsanto, I don't walk up to the TV camera to explain why the protest is wrong. But if a fascist organization were doing the exact same thing (for whatever reason) then I certainly would publicly challenge their facts as well as their political intentions! In other words, science itself is a body of knowledge, but the propagation of scientific findings often has a political effect or intent. If you simply shout out sound scientific conclusions at every point, without regard to the context, you will sometimes find yourself unwittingly helping the enemy! However I think John Thornton goes too far, or more correctly, changes the subject, when saying: >The idea that is bullshit is the idea than "we" need to be above reproach. >"We" need only be human and as fallible/reliable as "them". Well no, I really disagree. Especially concerning the social sciences and humanities. We're not talking about innocent mistakes, but whether your approach is one which should yield results which are "above reproach" versus one which reflects the power structure and its ideology. >Academic standards are not different for the left and right nor is there >any reason to suppose they should be. Among those with poor politics, I would say that there are academics whose standards/ethics are very high, especially in the physical sciences (but even there they are a minority). But as you wander into the social sciences and humanities, political influences become more and more important, and that is where you would EXPECT and in fact SEE the effect of ideology. Maybe their stated "standards" are still high, but those standards are subverted in practice by the social/political context. So scholars who perpetrated racist theories, having everything to do with slavery and colonialism, may have been acting according to THEIR high standards, but surely not ours! - Jeff From farmelantj at juno.com Thu May 7 13:31:06 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (farmelantj at juno.com) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 19:31:06 GMT Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> However, it should be noted that both Larry Tribe and Charles Ogletree, both members of the faculty of Harvard Law School, have admitted to committing plagiarism in their published works. Both men remain on the HLS faculty. Several years ago, Norman Finkelstein and Alex Cockburn charged Alan Dershowitz with having plagiarized many of the footnotes and citations in his polemical book, *The Case for Israel* from Joan Peters's earlier book, *From Time Immemorial*. Dershowitz has never admitted to committing plagiarism or even having done anything amiss. He remains on the HLS faculty. Jim F. ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Tom Cod and that was the context of the attacks on Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is not in academe, petty infractions alleged as a way of doing an end run around a direct assault on the substance of her views on FDR. ____________________________________________________________ Click here for the best streaming video solutions on the web! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTE3ArHzz1zenbpQ0z7SAZtbLHOH3LR5OXMXazNg5MPY5weUlar2jG/ From lnp3 at panix.com Thu May 7 13:33:30 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 15:33:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The KGB in America Message-ID: <4A03378A.4030908@panix.com> Red Harvest: The KGB in America By D.D. Guttenplan Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev Alger Hiss and the Battle for History by Susan Jacoby The last time I saw Alexander Vassiliev he was slumped in a seat at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. A small, fair-haired man wearing a dark suit and a black shirt, Vassiliev was an ex-KGB officer who had helped Allen Weinstein, an American historian whose Perjury (1978) convinced most Americans that Alger Hiss had indeed been a Soviet spy, to write another book. The fruit of their collaboration, The Haunted Wood (1999), was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a small arsenal of smoking guns." In The New York Review of Books, Thomas Powers declared that "anyone who wants to know what Hiss and his friends were up to can find a rich, convincing, and vivid report in The Haunted Wood." Hiss, who'd died in 1996 still protesting his innocence, was already beyond redemption. For Weinstein, the acclaim merely accelerated his rise from the comparative obscurity of the Smith College history department, via the National Endowment for Democracy, to his appointment by President George W. Bush in April 2004 as archivist of the United States. The project seemed to have brought Vassiliev only grief. Not only did Weinstein, who couldn't even read Russian, claim top billing; he used Vassiliev's findings on Hiss in a 1997 reissue of Perjury without permission. Vassiliev was so angry that he wanted to sue, and turned for advice to The Nation's Victor Navasky, well known both as a defender of Alger Hiss and as a critic of Weinstein's scholarship and ethics. Navasky replied that he was "reluctant to collaborate in any legal actions vis-?-vis Weinstein" but was curious about Vassiliev's grievance. "In my universe," Vassiliev replied in an e-mail, "the thing he did to me is called theft, and thieves get punished. I spent 2 years in the KGB archives, doing the research for The Haunted Wood. I gave up my career as a TV presenter and newspaper columnist for it. I smuggled from Russia hundreds of top secret non-declassified KGB documents, and therefore I can't return there now." But soon enough, still living in exile in London, beached by the tides of history, Vassiliev would find a new outlet for his anger. In the fall of 2000 John Lowenthal, a retired Rutgers law professor who had worked as a volunteer on the Hiss defense team, published a lengthy analysis of the latest evidence regarding Hiss in Intelligence and National Security, an obscure British quarterly. After Lowenthal posted on Amazon the portion of his review dealing with The Haunted Wood, Vassiliev decided to sue--not Lowenthal but the quarterly's British publisher, Frank Cass, and Amazon. British courts are notoriously friendly to libel plaintiffs; for one thing, the burden of proof is on the defendant. (In the United States, Vassiliev would have had to prove that Lowenthal's criticisms were untrue.) Vassiliev was so confident of an easy victory over Cass--followed by a lucrative settlement from Amazon--that he rejected repeated offers of four-figure sums (but no apology) from Cass's lawyers. The trial began on June 9, 2003. When Lowenthal called me and asked if I'd be interested in reporting on the dispute, I resisted. I'd always thought there was something vaguely comical about our elders' obsession with Alger Hiss. And after many years of working on a biography of I.F. Stone, I'd learned a great deal about the ambiguous history of American Communism. My stubbornly uninformed view was that Hiss was probably at the very least a secret Communist--I'd come across enough of those myself, including Nathaniel Weyl, who claimed to have been in the same group as Hiss in the 1930s. So why was I there in court, studying Vassiliev's posture while sitting next to Victor Navasky, who'd flown to London to testify for the defense? Because there was something deeply compelling about John Lowenthal, who informed me during a series of telephone calls that he had stopped his chemotherapy for terminal throat cancer so he could concentrate on the case. I felt I owed it to John at least to witness his day in court. full: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090525/guttenplan From marvgandall at videotron.ca Thu May 7 13:38:37 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 15:38:37 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" Message-ID: Interesting commentary on Edward Harrison's Credit Writedowns blog concerning this week's underreported launch of a $180 billion "Asian Monetary Fund" by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to counter capital flight out of the region in the wake of the current global crisis. The ADB and the notion of a separate credit facility has been resisted by the US as a potential alternative to the US-controlled International Monetary Fund. The ADB's pretensions were derided and thwarted by then deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and then Treasury assistant secretary for international affairs Tim Geithner during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. But now, says Bloomberg's Asian columnist, William Pesek, cited by Harrison, the new bailout fund based on Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean capital "takes things to another level...The pool, to be ready by year-end, largely neuters the IMF in Asia..there is little a crisis-plagued U.S. can do to stop it...its implications will travel far and wide in the fastest-growing economic region." http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/05/pesek-asia-is-de-coupling.html http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aaKSNypxRYfQ&refer=home Harrison also reproduces a long previous contribution on his blog by mutual fund manager and commentator Marshall Auerback, concerning the origins of the ADB and competing American and Asian financial interests, which is especially worth reading. Excerpts: [...] "Even prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Japanese had begun to sell the idea of creating an Asian monetary fund to provide regional liquidity. Almost as soon as the trial balloon was launched, Washington shot it down with great force, sending Lawrence Summers, then Deputy Secretary of the Treasury to the region to make sure the message was not misunderstood. In spite of the subsequent travails experienced by the region, the idea apparently died a quick death. "Or did it? When Haruhiko Kuroda, former Japanese Deputy Minister of Finance for International Affairs, took over the helm of the ADB on February 1st of this year, he quietly began to promote the idea again. Kuroda has long been a strong advocate of an Asian Monetary Fund, an idea whose time may have come, given the increasingly low esteem with which the International Monetary Fund is held, particularly in emerging Asia, which has long been the world?s major savings repository. "It?s worthwhile looking again at the history of this venture: in the spring of 1997, before the onset of the Asian financial crisis, Japan and Taiwan had offered to put up $100 billion to help their fellow Asians cope with any potential fallout which might arise in the event of a precipitous withdrawal of short-term portfolio capital from their respective economies. The idea was killed by then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Deputy Secretary Summers, both of whom saw the idea as a threat to the monopoly of the IMF over international financial crises. The US Treasury in particular did not want Japan taking the lead in this area because Japan would not have imposed the IMF?s conditions on the Asian recipients, and as a policy objective for Washington, this almost superseded the importance of restoring the region to full economic health. "We all know what happened subsequently. Instead of forestalling global economic instability, the Treasury/IMF proposals helped make further instability inevitable. "By killing off the idea of a competing Asian Monetary Fund, Rubin/Summers enabled the IMF to continue in its guise as an ostensibly ?neutral? agency, thereby facilitating the implementation of the Treasury?s agenda whenever a financial crisis which required the IMF?s intervention arose. Of course, the ?medicine? the IMF proffered had the ultimate effect of weakening pre-existing financial structures by imposing Western measures of financial restructuring, thereby giving Wall Street a huge stake in the subsequent ?reform? agenda introduced: Basle capital adequacy ratios were to be applied. Highly indebted banks and firms were to be closed. Labour laws were to be changed to make it easier to fire workers, facilitating the closures. Regulations on foreign ownership were to be lifted in order to allow foreign banks and firms to buy domestic banks and firms, injecting needed capital and skills. All of which required lots of western style restructuring and ?reform?, and who better to offer this than America?s finest investment bankers? [...] "It is understandable why Washington would continue to resist the notion of an Asian Monetary Fund. "As things stand right now, in spite of the significant contraction in bond yields since the late 1990s, western investors continue to extract huge risk premiums from the entire emerging markets universe as a quid pro quo for the provision of their capital. This is manifestly perverse, especially when one considers that the ultimate source of much of that liquidity is Asia. All of the nations of Asia continue to run large current account surpluses, the proceeds of which are funnelled back into the US Treasury market, where the savers obtain a yield of less than 5 per cent, in a country which is now the world?s largest debtor nation, suffering the twin diseases of a declining currency and higher inflation (both of which are eroding the real value of the Asian creditors? respective investments). "By contrast, even leading Asian conglomerates (whose products are readily gobbled up by the American consumer) are forced to pay several hundred basis points above the yield of Treasuries. The Western investor or banker is extracting a wholly unmerited premium, whilst the US continues to trade on its reserve currency and safe haven status to subsidise its over-consumption and perpetuate the country?s growing financial imbalances. "It?s a great deal for Washington and readily explains the Treasury?s violent opposition to an Asian Monetary Fund (or anything else that would disrupt the existing status quo, such as restrictions on capital account mobility). But must the world?s largest creditor bloc continue to act from such a position of weakness, which is more apparent than real? The aggregate net creditor position of Asia dwarfs its indebtedness. The domestic markets are rapidly maturing and will soon be in a position to replace the American consumer (who must surely retrench if the US is ultimately to come to grips with its own debt disease). "The actions by Asia?s leading policy makers suggest an implicit (albeit belated) recognition that they have been getting a raw deal from the existing global financial architecture and are taking incremental steps to redress the current imbalance. To be sure, historic rivalries, notably between China and Japan (manifesting themselves most recently over Taiwan) may slow the development of an AMF. It is also probable that the Bush administration will likely go out of its way to exacerbate this rivalry and thereby frustrate the development of competing multilateral agencies, which would invariably weaken Washington?s influence in the region. "But in spite of these periodic setbacks, the trend appears clear. The day is moving closer where an Asian Monetary Fund will become a reality. It is particularly noteworthy that the idea continues to be pushed by Japan, America?s staunchest ally in the region. Tokyo?s embrace of Washington only goes so far. Ironically, if...America ultimately repudiates existing obligations to its (largely) Asian foreign creditors, it will simply catalyse this process and likely ensure the AMF?s swift arrival, in spite of ongoing efforts to render this idea stillborn since 1997. The inexorable logic of current economic policy making may yet introduce outcomes ? such as the introduction of an Asian Monetary Fund ? completely at variance with Washington?s oft-expressed preferences to the contrary. In any event, time is definitely not on the side of the existing status quo." From markalause at gmail.com Thu May 7 13:57:11 2009 From: markalause at gmail.com (Mark Lause) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:57:11 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: Plagiarism is a very elastic term that gets stretched to cover a wide variety of practices that didn't used to be plagiarism. The notion that you are plagiarizing by repeating your own work would strike many writers and scholars of a century ago as strange. Using the same term to cover copying somebody else's work would strike them as simply nuts...which it is. On the earlier point Jeff made, I would agree in general about sticking together in the face of witchhunting, but I reject the idea of replying to aa multi-dimensional issue as simple a question of timing. There's always a witchhunt going on somewhere at some time, and a witchhunt against a single individual can stretch out for years, as it's doing in this case. ML From ian at ianpace.com Thu May 7 14:26:55 2009 From: ian at ianpace.com (Ian Pace) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 21:26:55 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> References: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <4AD6EE1C36FC4930999D6553BF32BBD6@IanPaceToshiba> Finkelstein has come up a few times in this thread. I've read most of his work, and whilst his areas are not my expertise, I think I know enough about them (not least from having read most of the writings of others both pro and contra) to say that on the whole his level of scholarship is very high indeed. His stuff on the Holocaust Industry is the most problematic in this respect; overall it seems to reveal a relative lack of real knowledge of the (huge) amount of scholarship on this area that has been undertaken in the last few decades, and he's woefully wrong when he mentions David Irving (taking some quotes of Hilberg out of context, and relying too much on the verdict of Gordon Craig (who doesn't have a detailed knowledge of particular areas) whilst ignoring plenty of other highly knowledgeable scholars on the same subjects who know that Irving's work is a fraud). He does a good job on analysing the internal contradictions in Goldhagen, but is on shakier ground when entering into the wider arena of Holocaust scholarship. What is a bigger problem in Finkelstein's work is his tendency to resort to highly charged, intemperate language which skirts around the boundaries of old clich?s - I know this isn't his intentions, but it plays so obviously into the hands of his enemies. The information he uncovers and sifts through is devastating and extremely thoroughly researched, though. Solidarity, Ian From sartesian at earthlink.net Thu May 7 14:35:49 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 16:35:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: Message-ID: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> Right. Partly. Wrong. Mostly. It's not $180 billion, it's $130 billion. China is going to provide, so the advertising reads $38.4 billion; Japan $38.4 billion; South Korea $19.2 billion. The rest is supposed to come from 20 ASEAN countries. As to how much actually gets put into the pot, and by whom, well... come on, the Chinese, Japanese, Korean capitalists are capitalists-- their governments are their agents; they promise the world, they deliver a lot less-- just like their US-European round-eye counterparts. Talk is cheap. Big talk is even cheaper. And it's not an AMF. So far, it's a liquidation fund. Seriously. To absorb the impacts of liquidations. And as for the risk premiums being paid-- they certainly exist-- but those premiums are most certainly not being paid to US banks, who seriously reduced their exposures years ago. And if they do deliver the $180 billion? So what? Does anyone thing for one second with Japanese unemployment increasing at record rates, with South Korea's economy contracting so sharply and quickly that it is running a big trade surplus as imports collapse faster than exports, with China's industrial profits declining steadily that this "new" economic alliance is going to make a bit of difference? Japan has the 4th highest poverty rate in the OECD, surpassed only by Mexico, Turkey, and the US.. India, Indonesia, South Korea report year-over-year exports declines in March and April of 33 percent. What I can't figure out is why, every time some bourgeoisie somewhere to the west of Hawaii decides to try a little bit of the old self-organized blag, some on the North American and European left can't keep from getting all chuffed and cushty over the place like something wonderful has taken place when all that has happened is that some gobshite has just puked up another bit of the dog's dinner. \----- Original Message ----- From: "Marv Gandall" To: Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 3:38 PM Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" From lnp3 at panix.com Thu May 7 14:37:15 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 16:37:15 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Jared Diamond, the New Yorker, and PNG blood feuds: part 1 Message-ID: <4A03467B.2020007@panix.com> When news about the New Yorker Magazine being sued by a Papuan New Guinean for $10 million broke on April 22nd, I was ecstatic. A year earlier the magazine had published an article by Jared Diamond about blood feuds in PNG (Papua New Guinea) that had identified Daniel Wemp, his main interviewee and former driver, as a self-confessed rapist and murderer. Wemp was not informed in advance that the magazine would identify him by name. But, more to the point, the crimes he supposedly confessed to in the article never happened. Rhonda Shearer, the widow of Stephen Jay Gould, was instrumental in setting the wheels in motion that would finally lead to the magazine and Jared Diamond being exposed. As reported in the New Zealand Herald on May 2nd, Shearer became suspicious over the reference to one of Wemp?s victims being restricted to a wheelchair as a result of Wemp?s arrow lodging in his neck: "Her initial response on reading Diamond?s piece was, 'how do you keep someone with likely not the best medical care alive as a paraplegic in a wheelchair in that area? We can?t keep Superman [Christopher Reeve] alive in New Jersey with millions of dollars? ? It just didn?t make sense.'" After she made an inquiry to the New Yorker about this and other glaring inconsistencies in the article, she was brushed off. After all, they were the New Yorker and she was just an ordinary mortal. Eventually she hired investigators, including a PNG scholar who lived in the area where the blood feud took place, and discovered that Daniel Wemp?s ?victim? was getting about on two feet with no problem. The only victims in this case unfortunately were the libeled Daniel Wemp and journalistic standards. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-magazine-and-blood-feuds-in-png-part-1/ From Paula_cerni at msn.com Thu May 7 15:06:34 2009 From: Paula_cerni at msn.com (Paula) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:06:34 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] why numbers no longer win arguments Message-ID: "Numbers used to be cold, hard and clinical - a clincher in any argument. Now look at them: fluffy, soft and left meaningless by woolly-headed thinking, says Michael Blastland in his regular column." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7978822.stm Paula From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Thu May 7 15:18:18 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:18:18 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Stanford Anti-War Alumni, Students Call for Condi War Crimes Probe Message-ID: <708343.20729.qm@web110401.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cohn060509.html ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Thu May 7 15:32:38 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:32:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] The Political Economy of the Resource Curse Message-ID: <802467.58202.qm@web110412.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://www.ids.ac.uk/download.cfm?file=wp268.pdf ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From Waistline2 at aol.com Thu May 7 15:32:43 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 17:32:43 EDT Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux Message-ID: In a message dated 5/7/2009 3:32:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, _farmelantj at juno.com_ (mailto:farmelantj at juno.com) writes: >> However, it should be noted that both Larry Tribe and Charles Ogletree, both members of the faculty of Harvard Law School, have admitted to committing plagiarism in their published works. Both men remain on the HLS faculty. Several years ago, Norman Finkelstein and Alex Cockburn charged Alan Dershowitz with having plagiarized many of the footnotes and citations in his polemical book, *The Case for Israel* from Joan Peters's earlier book, *From Time Immemorial*. Dershowitz has never admitted to committing plagiarism or even having done anything amiss. He remains on the HLS faculty. << Comment Last comment. Any and every job in America and the world requires certain quality control standards. Academia is no different, in that it has its own standards and tenure benchmarks. Plagiarism is considered cause for reprimand or dismissal, and as ML's comment points out, what is considered plagiarism changes. One should not violate the standards of their job, including academia if one is to remain employed there. The case of Ward Churchill has very little to do with violating academic standards. The reason our country has Indian studies; African American history and Women's history is the same reason we have histories of the American working class as distinct fields of study. Academic standards is 100% political. Actually, my opinion is that we would be better off without "such standards" as we have known and lived these standards for the past 200 years or more. Historical narrative is 100% partisan. The personal passion of the historian rivets their personal ideology and quest for truth. There is no such thing as a non class bias science. In is not simply a question of how science is deployed. The pathways through which science is pursued, are opened and become pathways precisely as a function of ideology, class and property. The science behind the atomic bomb "did not just happen" as the result of some individual being interested in the atom and its structures and then "accidentally" discovering how to lay waste to humanity. The result proves the intent and motivation, rather than judging one on the basis of self profession. Science has its history as the "discovery of the law systems governing processes." What the individual "see" and their method of scientific inquiry is saddled with class ideology, class interest and cultural inheritance. One always have to be told what they are looking at when peering into a microscope, and then taught how to understand what they are viewing. The standards that Mr. Churchill?s employer holds him to contain an inherent political bias or there would have been no charges leveled against him or cause for public inquiry. Universities have no abstract set of non-political, non-bias quality control standards and criteria that seek to unravel facts of history outside the realm of ideology and politics. History as historical narrative is assembled and reconstituted based on facts preserved by the ruling classes and its institutions and how the actions of individuals are shaped during a given era or time frame. Facts are partisan and partial truths. Water only runs downstream under specific conditions. General laws of processes are general and always subject to further discovery and knowing. Seeking to shift through facts based on say reports by commissioned officers reporting their activity is useless. All of human history proves that what a generation considers facts, gives way to a deeper understanding of truth and a reconstituted understanding of "facts." A discussion over whether or not the American military deliberately infested an Indian community with blankets carrying small pox, - in any historical period, strikes me as so much insanity. The insanity is the demand for one to prove intent on the part of the individual as the means to prove result. Yes, the spreading of disease as part of genocide was deliberate and conscious and the outbreak of smallpox - a previously unknown disease amongst the Indian, is the overriding evidence to be weighted rather than testimony by the very people responsible for the outbreak. Yes, such action was a conspiracy using the modern definition and criteria for the meaning of conspiracy, which does not require the individual to grasp the impact of their actions as part of a systematic series of events. Nor should the jury be diverted into examining such nonsensical issues as whether or not "conscious intention was motivating factor." The intent is proven by the result rather than how one interprets the passion of the individuals 170 years ago. Mr. Churchill does not stand above criticism or critique or having his methods investigated and challenged. Is not the issue what methods are historically valid? Mr. Churchill is not required to present a written statement from 170 years ago saying "I hereby declare it my intent and motivating to be the further killing of Indians." Is is not obvious the written evidence was destroyed and or omitted? This in itself is proof of genocidal intent and conscious effort to shape method of inquiry for hundreds of years to come. WL. **************Big savings on Dell?s most popular laptops. Now starting at $449! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222382499x1201454962/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B214663472%3B36502367%3Bg) From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Thu May 7 15:33:46 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:33:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Antonio Giustozzi, Researcher, London School of Economics and Political Science: "The New Afghan Taliban Are Waging a Real Guerrilla War" Message-ID: <814432.27764.qm@web110401.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bobin060509.html ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From davidrail68 at yahoo.com Thu May 7 15:56:01 2009 From: davidrail68 at yahoo.com (David Walsh) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 14:56:01 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] Stalin Borges article - read the bottom half Message-ID: <203266.60458.qm@web45313.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> David W. made a good point, however, the bottom half of the page has the up to date article I wanted comrades to see. It says April 30th interview,but, no year. `This year May Day is very special' By Stalin Perez and Marcos Garcia As May Day approaches once again,( I assume this means last May Day 2009 - DW) Federico Fuentes on April 30 from www.greenleft.org.au interviewed Stalin P?rez Borges (SPB), national coordinator of the National Union of Workers (UNT) and member of the editorial board of the newspaper Marea Socialista and Marcos Garcia (MG), national coordinator of the public sector federation, FENTRASEP and member also of Marea Socialista. Both are militants in the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela. How is Marea Socialista preparing for May Day? SPB: We believe that this year May Day is very special because a historic change has been produced in the country. The re-nationalisation of Sidor has changed the political map for various reasons. President Chavez understood that the nationalisation was a fair demand of the Sidor workers and the revolutionary people of Guayana and Venezuela. And the struggle, without quarter, of the workers and comrades of Sidor was an example of unity and commitment for the entire workers' movement around the country. In this manner a new opportunity has been opened; for the workers so that we can be protagonists of the first order in the changes that are necessary to be carried out; for the government to reunite with the workers and for the revolutionary process it has ignited a powerful motor and gives more strength to the famous five motors that many have spoken of recently. MG: The political change that this measure signifies has given a new boost to the working class and now the increased involvement of the workers is notable in the sense of fighting for the deepening the revolutionary process. This is why this May Day is different. For us the change that has been produced is truly historic. I don?t want to say that everything is assured. Of course not, but yes, today the conditions to achieve our demands and political objectives are much better. I can now say that in my sector in particular, the public sector, we have been injected with more energy to continue fighting for our collective contract for which we have been waiting for more than four years and we see that now this could be fulfilled soon, as well as the elections in our federation. SPB: To answer your question, in regard to how we in Marea are preparing ourselves for this historic date, I can say to you that we are internationalists and are very worried about the situation in Bolivia. It is a fact that the Bolivian bourgeois is extremely racist, and retrograde, the child of North American imperialism, and has the intention to destroy the revolutionary process in Bolivia and the government of Evo Morales using whatever type of violence. We are ready for any campaign and solidarity action to defeat the Bolivian rightwing, which is to defeat the North American rightwing and the rightwing of the entire continent. And as May Day comes around we look back to remember once again, that the 1st of May is a very important day for workers around the world. This year we commemorate 122 years since those heroic fighters, the martyrs of Chicago, were assassinated. Their crime was to demand the 8-hour day in a world in which even women and children suffered the worst slavery. They did not lower their banners, they did not capitulate and they made history. This demonstration of consistency clearly shows that when your struggle is just sooner or later you will win. The proof is that this year in Colombia, in the United Status itself, where they were assassinated, they established the 8-hour day for all public employees and those of private companies that contract with the State. Without doubt it is necessary to commemorate this date, but we in Venezuela also commemorate what we have achieved and what we are still fighting for. This May Day we are going for those victories that are still outstanding. What can you tell us about what has been achieved and what remains unresolved? MG: For us this May Day is very important and we consider it the first step to renew the struggle for the demands that the workers' movement still has not obtained. First a general increase in salaries for all workers is necessary. The basic increase announced by President Chavez every year is not enough, today we, together with many others demand a general emergency increase, higher than the indices of inflation. This is an increase that will serve to relieve millions who have not yet been able to discuss their collective contracts, their socioeconomic necessities. That is the first thing. The second is the issue of casualisation. We cannot continue tolerating these contracts; continue allowing the bosses, the national government itself and the state and municipal governments to fail to comply with the law and without any sanction. It appears that this will change with Sidor, we hope this is so. Until now, the previous minister of labour and the inspectors (of the labour ministry) did nothing to stop this. And in the case of Sidor we hope that the government understands that we cannot repeat the same failed experiences of co-management or aim to implement the same type of management they are doing in CAN TV or Electricidad de Caracas. The steel plant must have a new productive model, truly socialist. SPB: For us, the reduction of the work day is very important also. The 6-hour day can and should be established by presidential decree, this is an issue not only of work conditions, but a political issue of the highest important. We need a working class with the time to dedicate themselves to the management of affairs of state and government. That has time to participate democratically in the planning and implementation of the socialism that we want. The reduction of the work day is more time to rest and live and care for nature and our environment, it is the possibility of creating more sources of employment, with salaries that satisfy the basic food basket. And the president can do it, he has all the tools to carry it out at his hand and the workers also can win this right. For this reason we will also march on May 1, to win the reduction of the working day. Can you talk about the situation of the workers' movement, the union movement? MG: Together with the nationalisation of Sidor, another fundamental step that we won was that the president has thrown out the ex-minister of labour, as he deserved, this was a demand of the majority of workers. Jos? Ram?n Rivero dedicated himself, while he was minister, to strengthening his own union current, of course he did not achieve it, as it is not representative, neither is this phantom of a new union federation that he is proposing. The two acts, the nationalisation of Sidor and the dismissal of the minister, open up a great opportunity to overcome the dispersion of the union movement. From Marea Socialista we are calling for everyone to take the necessary steps, we call all the union currents that defend the revolutionary process to unite. To leave aside the differences that have us so divided and to put forward the points that unite us, there are many and they are very important. And this way give the workers the union organisation that they need. In this sense on May 1, we are going to march in every place, in Caracas and around the country, under these banners. We call on all the workers to take over the streets on May 1 and make it a great day of struggle. Translated by Kiraz Janicke for Venezuelanalysis.com From ian at ianpace.com Thu May 7 15:55:09 2009 From: ian at ianpace.com (Ian Pace) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 22:55:09 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4E5F556AF2CF4996B7AFEABD2D0A8E27@IanPaceToshiba> From: Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:32 PM > Actually, my opinion is that we would be better off without "such > standards" as we have known and lived these standards for the past 200 > years or > more. > > Historical narrative is 100% partisan. So the difference between a historical narrative that attempts to detail the facts, causes, processes of the Holocaust and one which denies it happened is simply a partisan difference? No way. > > The personal passion of the historian rivets their personal ideology and > quest for truth. Yes, but that doesn't mean that truth is nothing more than a product of ideology. > There is no such thing as a non class bias science. In is > not simply a question of how science is deployed. The pathways through > which > science is pursued, are opened and become pathways precisely as a > function > of ideology, class and property. The science behind the atomic bomb "did > not just happen" as the result of some individual being interested in the > atom and its structures and then "accidentally" discovering how to lay > waste > to humanity. The result proves the intent and motivation, rather than > judging one on the basis of self profession. Science has its history as > the > "discovery of the law systems governing processes." You are conflating the use, motivations and sponsorship of science with its claims to accuracy - the two things are very different. Not all science can make the same claims to objectivity (some are highly speculative), but that doesn't mean that an informed scientific decision is purely a partisan one. > > What the individual "see" and their method of scientific inquiry is > saddled with class ideology, class interest and cultural inheritance. One > always > have to be told what they are looking at when peering into a microscope, > and then taught how to understand what they are viewing. > > The standards that Mr. Churchill?s employer holds him to contain an > inherent political bias or there would have been no charges leveled > against him > or cause for public inquiry. Universities have no abstract set of > non-political, non-bias quality control standards and criteria that seek > to unravel > facts of history outside the realm of ideology and politics. History as > historical narrative is assembled and reconstituted based on facts > preserved by > the ruling classes and its institutions and how the actions of > individuals > are shaped during a given era or time frame. That's pure dogma. Certainly there is much wrong with the reality of how quality control standards and criteria are enforced, in particular whether the express principles are being followed, but that doesn't invalidate the criteria. There are more than a few historians (to say the least, and not just coming from a Marxist perspective) who are acutely aware of the ways in which surviving data presents a fragmented picture based upon what the ruling classes sought to preserve. That's one reason for devising historical methods using other sources than those which have earlier been officially 'approved'. > > Facts are partisan and partial truths. They're better than outright lies. > Water only runs downstream under > specific conditions. General laws of processes are general and always > subject > to further discovery and knowing. Do you think there's a scientist in the world who would disagree with that? > > A discussion over whether or not the American military deliberately > infested an Indian community with blankets carrying small pox, - in any > historical period, strikes me as so much insanity. The insanity is the > demand for > one to prove intent on the part of the individual as the means to prove > result. > > Yes, the spreading of disease as part of genocide was deliberate and > conscious and the outbreak of smallpox - a previously unknown disease > amongst > the Indian, is the overriding evidence to be weighted rather than > testimony > by the very people responsible for the outbreak. All you are disputing here are particular questions of method (in the sense of comparative evaluation of data) and interpretation, both ongoing issues for any serious scholars. > > Is is not obvious the written evidence was destroyed and or omitted? This > in itself is proof of genocidal intent and conscious effort to shape > method > of inquiry for hundreds of years to come. > You're starting from an a priori conclusion, and then making whichever assumptions are necessary to support it. I haven't studied this particular case in detail, as I say, but do know that the possibility that written evidence may have been destroyed or omitted is in no sense 'in itself . . . proof of genocidal intent'. Solidarity, Ian From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Thu May 7 16:06:21 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:06:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] What Happens When Angry Citizens Crash the Gates of America's CEO Class? Message-ID: <177958.14304.qm@web110411.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> http://www.alternet.org/workplace/139479/what_happens_when_angry_citizens_crash_the_gates_of_america%27s_ceo_class/ ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." From milongonsinga at yahoo.com Thu May 7 16:11:04 2009 From: milongonsinga at yahoo.com (milongonsinga) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:11:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] =?utf-8?q?Fw=3A_=5BJornalero_News=5D_NDLON_Statement_on?= =?utf-8?q?_Exchange_Between_Arpaio_and_Neo-Nazi_Supporters_and_Planned_Ex?= =?utf-8?b?cGFuc2lvbiBvZiDigJxQb3NzZeKAnSBQcm9ncmFt?= Message-ID: <442238.17315.qm@web110403.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> ? ? ?A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: admin To: marcoa at ndlon.org Sent: Thursday, May 7, 2009 12:30:57 PM Subject: [Jornalero News] NDLON Statement on Exchange Between Arpaio and Neo-Nazi Supporters and Planned Expansion of ?Posse? Program Jornalero News has posted a new item, 'NDLON Statement on Exchange Between Arpaio and Neo-Nazi Supporters and Planned Expansion of ?Posse? Program' ? (Phoenix, Arizona)??On Saturday, an estimated 4,000 people marched peacefully for six miles from the Maricopa County Sheriff Office to its ?tent city? jail to draw attention to an emerging civil rights crisis in the nation?s fifth largest city.??The march was nearly disrupted by the actions of several, well-known white supremacists who hurled racial epithets in [...] You may view the latest post at http://jornaleronews.ndlon.org/?p=322 Please read the latest news coverage on day laborers. Jornalero News is the official news blog of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Best regards, Marco Amador Communications & Technology National Day Laborer Organizing Network marcoa at ndlon.org From ian at ianpace.com Thu May 7 16:10:20 2009 From: ian at ianpace.com (Ian Pace) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 23:10:20 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: From: "Mark Lause" Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 3:21 AM > I think our friend Waistline2 at aol.com misunderstood Ian's point, which > was not against writing for a broader audience, but being particularly > meticulous about not cutting corners. > Just to clarify - that is absolutely correct. Of course not all writing should be of the type required for scholarly peer-reviewed journals, replete with massive amounts of footnotes, bibliographies, etc.; it is possible to condense such work and present it in a clear manner for a wider audience*. The type of populist writing I object to consists of unfounded assertions which seek to appeal on a more basic level, by resonating with popular prejudice, creating mystiques, and so on. *Alas the opposite frequently applies in a good deal cultural history and theory, in my experience, in which relatively straightforward arguments are drowned in a wash of jargon by writers eager to demonstrate their ability to bandy around the right fashionable buzzwords. There is some Marxist writing like this, but not so much. For this type of mystification, I don't believe a lot of the French post-structuralist and post-modernist tradition can be entirely absolved of blame. Solidarity, Ian From meisner at xs4all.nl Thu May 7 16:34:47 2009 From: meisner at xs4all.nl (Jeff) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 00:34:47 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> <20090507.153106.28245.0@webmail05.vgs.untd.com> Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.20090508003447.04ac16ac@pop.xs4all.nl> At 15:57 07/05/09 -0400, Mark wrote: > >On the earlier point Jeff made, I would agree in general about >sticking together in the face of witchhunting, but I reject the idea >of replying to aa multi-dimensional issue as simple a question of >timing. There's always a witchhunt going on somewhere at some time, >and a witchhunt against a single individual can stretch out for years, >as it's doing in this case. You make a very good point. The issue of "timing" was just me agreeing with the previous post by John Thornton which cited the importance of "timing," but he would probably agree, as I do on reflection, that it isn't just WHEN you make a criticism that might be welcomed by the enemy, but indeed WHERE and HOW. In other words, writing on this list one might criticize someone, while refraining from making the same criticism publicly. Most of the more critical statements about Ward Churchill on this list would not have just been sent for publication in the New York Times. And likewise one would try to present criticism of other socialist groups in a more friendly way than we attack the enemy (unless you're in the Spartacist league, etc.). So yes you're right, it's much more than just timing. Changing subjects, in response to WL: > There is no such thing as a non class bias science..... a function >of ideology, class and property. Alright, thanks for the lecture...... > The science behind the atomic bomb "did >not just happen" as the result of some individual being interested in the >atom and its structures Actually that IS just about exactly what DID happen! You are so dogmatic that you cite an example without even checking it out, assuming that your knowledge of Marxism is sufficient to make claims about any arbitrary historical instance which you're unfamiliar with! That just makes Marxism look stupid :-( While I think the class struggle permeates social institutions and thought, it does not do so equally between the physical sciences (where equations and experiments rule) and the social sciences which are much more affected by ideological bias and the social institutions from which ideology arises. Those of us who work in the former category are fortunate in that the content of our work is not directly subjected to ideological scrutiny. (Of course things were much worse in the time of Galileo......) - Jeff From elishastephens at hotmail.com Thu May 7 16:49:13 2009 From: elishastephens at hotmail.com (Eli Stephens) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 15:49:13 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] FTA Message-ID: 37 years after being seen in theaters for one week before it disappeared, "FTA", the story of the Jane Fonda/Donald Sutherland antiwar troupe which played to packed audiences of GIs, is out on DVD. A must-see. http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/05/left-i-at-movies-fta.html Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes with you. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009 From proletariandan at gmail.com Thu May 7 17:03:23 2009 From: proletariandan at gmail.com (Dan Russell) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 18:03:23 -0500 Subject: [Marxism] Socialism 2009 - Chicago & San Francisco Message-ID: <517f3cab0905071603v5d779ad7s2c2c4eb3fe50ad1e@mail.gmail.com> http://socialismconference.org/schedule.php I haven't seen any mention of this so I'd like to throw it out there for anyone who might be able to attend; I was at the 2007 conference before I had any real contact with the ISO and quite enjoyed it. If any comrades will be attending the Chicago conference please contact me so we can meet up and chat. The list of speakers and topics is quite extensive, including two talks by Leon Cremieux of the NPA. I'm fairly new to the ISO but from what I've seen in Chicago it is a very young and well organized group that is active in a number of different local struggles and hopefully open to playing a key role in the reformation of the left as conditions permit. Dan From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Thu May 7 17:07:30 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 09:07:30 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Stalin Borges article - read the bottom half In-Reply-To: <203266.60458.qm@web45313.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <203266.60458.qm@web45313.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2c6145850905071607p4e1f20fcv8b10dadf610a7229@mail.gmail.com> Tbis article is from 2008. I twas published in GLW then. A lot has happened in the union movement, including formation of a organisaation for unionists int he PSUV and some plans to refound a revolutioary union movement. But I don;t know enough about it to really comment. GLW will seek to have an article on recent developments in the near future. cheers, Stuart 2009/5/8 David Walsh > > David W. made a good point, however, the bottom half of the page has the up > to date article I wanted comrades to see. It says April 30th interview,but, > no year. > > `This year May Day is very special' > > By Stalin Perez and Marcos Garcia > As May Day approaches once again,( I assume this means last May Day 2009 - > DW) Federico Fuentes on April 30 from www.greenleft.org.au interviewed > Stalin P?rez Borges (SPB), national coordinator of the National Union of > Workers (UNT) and member of the editorial board of the newspaper Marea > Socialista and Marcos Garcia (MG), national coordinator of the public sector > federation, FENTRASEP and member also of Marea Socialista. Both are > militants in the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela. > How is Marea Socialista preparing for May Day? > > SPB: We believe that this year May Day is very special because a historic > change has been produced in the country. The re-nationalisation of Sidor has > changed the political map for various reasons. President Chavez understood > that the nationalisation was a fair demand of the Sidor workers and the > revolutionary people of Guayana and Venezuela. And the struggle, without > quarter, of the workers and comrades of Sidor was an example of unity and > commitment for the entire workers' movement around the country. In this > manner a new opportunity has been opened; for the workers so that we can be > protagonists of the first order in the changes that are necessary to be > carried out; for the government to reunite with the workers and for the > revolutionary process it has ignited a powerful motor and gives more > strength to the famous five motors that many have spoken of recently. > MG: The political change that this measure signifies has given a new boost > to the working class and now the increased involvement of the workers is > notable in the sense of fighting for the deepening the revolutionary > process. This is why this May Day is different. For us the change that has > been produced is truly historic. I don?t want to say that everything is > assured. Of course not, but yes, today the conditions to achieve our demands > and political objectives are much better. I can now say that in my sector in > particular, the public sector, we have been injected with more energy to > continue fighting for our collective contract for which we have been waiting > for more than four years and we see that now this could be fulfilled soon, > as well as the elections in our federation. > SPB: To answer your question, in regard to how we in Marea are preparing > ourselves for this historic date, I can say to you that we are > internationalists and are very worried about the situation in Bolivia. It is > a fact that the Bolivian bourgeois is extremely racist, and retrograde, the > child of North American imperialism, and has the intention to destroy the > revolutionary process in Bolivia and the government of Evo Morales using > whatever type of violence. > We are ready for any campaign and solidarity action to defeat the Bolivian > rightwing, which is to defeat the North American rightwing and the rightwing > of the entire continent. And as May Day comes around we look back to > remember once again, that the 1st of May is a very important day for workers > around the world. This year we commemorate 122 years since those heroic > fighters, the martyrs of Chicago, were assassinated. Their crime was to > demand the 8-hour day in a world in which even women and children suffered > the worst slavery. They did not lower their banners, they did not capitulate > and they made history. > This demonstration of consistency clearly shows that when your struggle is > just sooner or later you will win. The proof is that this year in Colombia, > in the United Status itself, where they were assassinated, they established > the 8-hour day for all public employees and those of private companies that > contract with the State. Without doubt it is necessary to commemorate this > date, but we in Venezuela also commemorate what we have achieved and what we > are still fighting for. This May Day we are going for those victories that > are still outstanding. > What can you tell us about what has been achieved and what remains > unresolved? > MG: For us this May Day is very important and we consider it the first step > to renew the struggle for the demands that the workers' movement still has > not obtained. First a general increase in salaries for all workers is > necessary. The basic increase announced by President Chavez every year is > not enough, today we, together with many others demand a general emergency > increase, higher than the indices of inflation. This is an increase that > will serve to relieve millions who have not yet been able to discuss their > collective contracts, their socioeconomic necessities. That is the first > thing. > The second is the issue of casualisation. We cannot continue tolerating > these contracts; continue allowing the bosses, the national government > itself and the state and municipal governments to fail to comply with the > law and without any sanction. It appears that this will change with Sidor, > we hope this is so. Until now, the previous minister of labour and the > inspectors (of the labour ministry) did nothing to stop this. And in the > case of Sidor we hope that the government understands that we cannot repeat > the same failed experiences of co-management or aim to implement the same > type of management they are doing in CAN TV or Electricidad de Caracas. The > steel plant must have a new productive model, truly socialist. > SPB: For us, the reduction of the work day is very important also. The > 6-hour day can and should be established by presidential decree, this is an > issue not only of work conditions, but a political issue of the highest > important. We need a working class with the time to dedicate themselves to > the management of affairs of state and government. That has time to > participate democratically in the planning and implementation of the > socialism that we want. > The reduction of the work day is more time to rest and live and care for > nature and our environment, it is the possibility of creating more sources > of employment, with salaries that satisfy the basic food basket. And the > president can do it, he has all the tools to carry it out at his hand and > the workers also can win this right. For this reason we will also march on > May 1, to win the reduction of the working day. > Can you talk about the situation of the workers' movement, the union > movement? > MG: Together with the nationalisation of Sidor, another fundamental step > that we won was that the president has thrown out the ex-minister of labour, > as he deserved, this was a demand of the majority of workers. Jos? Ram?n > Rivero dedicated himself, while he was minister, to strengthening his own > union current, of course he did not achieve it, as it is not representative, > neither is this phantom of a new union federation that he is proposing. > The two acts, the nationalisation of Sidor and the dismissal of the > minister, open up a great opportunity to overcome the dispersion of the > union movement. From Marea Socialista we are calling for everyone to take > the necessary steps, we call all the union currents that defend the > revolutionary process to unite. To leave aside the differences that have us > so divided and to put forward the points that unite us, there are many and > they are very important. And this way give the workers the union > organisation that they need. In this sense on May 1, we are going to march > in every place, in Caracas and around the country, under these banners. We > call on all the workers to take over the streets on May 1 and make it a > great day of struggle. > Translated by Kiraz Janicke for Venezuelanalysis.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/stuartmunckton%40gmail.com > -- "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 jbustelo at gmail.com Thu May 7 17:35:57 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 23:35:57 -0000 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: <4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <565662EFDE6A4C7A9A6C784E676B7513@albanta> It seems to me that Ward Churchill's (alleged) mistakes really amount to a charge of tendentious interpretation of long-ago circumstances. As for his overall accuracy and carefulness, maybe it's no good for the professoriat, but in my line of work, it may well wind up saddling you with a Pulitzer prize -- if only the politics aligned with those of the ruling class. Which in his case, they don't. Which is, of course, his real transgression. Let me illustrate with just ONE issue from my work in the last few days: the number of H1N1 (swine flu) cases. The first wave of reports were truly alarming. They suggested up to a 6% mortality rate in Mexico (NOT numbers the news media made up or even hyped or misinterpreted, but rather presented to the broader public JUST AS the Mexican authorities had presented them to us, which I think reflected a freak-out on the part of top federal Mexico City government figures. SOON, in two, three or four days, the initial panic seemed overdone. THIS flu did not have a 6% mortality rate -- it just seemed that way because we only heard about the most serious cases, the ones who were hospitalized. So the Mexican authorities, the US Government and CDC, and the WHO tried to reel it back in. The MECHANISM they chose to use was to ONLY report the cases that had been "confirmed" by expensive, laborious and time consuming testing for the virus's DNA, the supplies for which were really only assembled in usable form at the CDC's Emory Campus headquarters in this hemisphere. So Mexican H1-N1 deaths fell from 170+ to single digits, the cases from thousands to a hundred and some, etc. The needed chemicals and other supplies to do the testing of viral DNA weren't really scarce and the CDC has NOW gotten them out to most states and Western Hemisphere countries that want it. In the overwhelming majority of news accounts, including by folks who should know better, like thank-God-he's-not-going-to-be-Surgeon-General Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the number of cases the CDC (and now other labs) have confirmed through laborious DNA testing is being presented as the number of cases of H1N1 flu. THAT IS NOT RIGHT. And it is not a small matter. Quite likely the numbers were off AT LEAST by an order-of-magnitude when this was unleashed a week ago, although by now the multiplier might have dropped into the single digits. And based on the US data, it appears that the number of people who might feel compelled to seek medical treatment when they come down with this flu is a minority. For many it appears to be a sniffle/cold, if that. MANY of the very mild cases have been detected in the US. So for the last few days I've been waging the losing battle of INSISTING that at least on the news casts I am responsible for, we say that medical experts have scientifically confirmed with sophisticated and expensive DNA lab tests that 46 of the nearly 200 people who died in Mexico in the last few weeks while suffering from flu-like symptoms were, in fact, suffering from influenza A (H1N1) infections. Instead, everyone else wants to say that the number of dead in Mexico went up from 26 (on Monday) to 42 (on Wednesday) when IN FACT, no one suffering from swine-flu-like symptoms has died in Mexico --or at least Mexico City and the other major cities-- in seven days. The changing numbers reflect the slow progress in processing samples from people who died mostly in mid-April, since of course LIVE patients get priority in sample processing. What this ALSO shows is that Tamiflu is (thankfully) even more effective against this virus strain than had been originally hoped for. Although anecdotal, the number of doctors and nurses who report that their patients were feeling much better within an hour or two of their first Tamiflu dose is quite striking. It is also very effective in "preventing" the spread of the disease (in reality, in routing whatever small beachhead the virus tries to establish among those who have been exposed as the first step in a "full blown" infection). What does this have to do with Ward Churchill? IF Ward Churchill had perpetrated the falsehood that news organizations are pretty much UNIVERSALLY pushing (thanks to government manipulation) about XXX swine flu cases and XX swine flu deaths, instead of HONESTLY explaining these are not figures about how many have sickened or died, but about how many test swabs have been actually processed --and never mind adding the explanation that while the POSITIVE cases can be trusted, a NEGATIVE test result could well be false-- I'm sure his Colorado critics wouldn't have just fired him, but lynched him, a time-honored [white] American tradition. IS Ward Churchill right, is it the TRUTH, that the real intentions and significance of the North American white-settler regime dealing with native peoples in the 1830's, was genocidal? I believe he was --is-- correct on this score. Was Ward Churchill right in postulating that ONE mechanism or attack was the CONSCIOUS spreading of epidemics through blankets in 1839? I will take Louis's word for it that no, by the end of the 1830's committing genocide against indigenous peoples was so automatic and second nature to white folks that EVEN WHEN the supposed intention believed/accepted by many/all white folks was to HELP "the savages" by keeping them warm, the AUTOMATIC effect was (metaphorically speaking) to push native peoples into the gas ovens. But who is the bigger liar, or, to "dial down" the overdrive as I recently promised the comrades on the list, who has committed the larger error: the liberal academics who ABSOLVE the European colonial-settlers AND their enclave in North America of this particular count in the indictment for genocide BECAUSE IT WAS NOT INTENTIONAL, or Ward Churchill, who --seeing the actual genocide flowing from the "humanitarian help" of the white-settlers and their entity (the so-called "United States of America") AND "humanitarian help" made necessary by the dispossession of native peoples and their expulsion from their ancestral homelands -- imputes to those actions conscious intentionality, as opposed to, say, my hypothesis --based on an acceptance of Louis's conclusions-- that the mere existence in North America of the European white-settler entity was, in and of itself, inherently genocidal and inevitably lead to events like those at issue around the 1839 blankets, genocide IN FACT whether it was consciously intended or merely welcomed by white folks as a heaven-sent happy coincidence. What this says about the colonial settler POPULATION --especially in an area like what is today called "Georgia"-- I leave to the comrades on the list to answer for themselves. THAT may seem a little harsh but remember at bottom what was involved in these sorts of cases: white folks wanted to "steal" the land/habitats indigenous peoples had been living on for (almost certainly) thousands of years. I put "steal" in quotes because the idea of "owning" what Evo Morales and his friends call mama pacha --our mother the earth-- would have seemed absurd, repugnant and obscene to most indigenous societies of North America. And remember what the land stealing was for: using ownership of the land as the lynchpin in a social formation/relation that kept indigenous people from Africa (or at least those that survived being captured and transported to North America) as slaves on the colonial settler state's plantations in the South. Who is more mistaken, Ward Churchill who (let's grant for arguments sake) MISTAKENLY concluded that the genocidal effects of the actions of the white-settler regime infesting North America in the 1830's in the blanket case were INTENTIONAL, or his critics, who after CENTURIES of massacres, double-dealing, swindles, betrayals, theft, rape and looting by white folks CLAIM that just because white folks weren't fully conscious that the blankets they were giving to the Indians that were being driven from their ancestral homelands were IN FACT weapons of genocide, that these white folks "clearing the ground" for massive enslavement of African people were, therefore, in some sense "innocent." Who can be surprised that someone who comes from and identifies with the VICTIMS of these centuries of genocide, upon seeing the events of September 11, 2001, says that among those killed were "little Eichmanns," beneficiaries and CONTINUING perpetrators of genocide against the native peoples of the Americas? And ain't that the God's honest truth? That's REALLY WHY Ward Churchill got in trouble. The Eichmann thing. The Zionist thing. He had the audacity to point out the Zionist scam that Jews HAVE A COPYRIGHT OR PATENT OR LETTERS ROYAL giving them exclusive rights to being victims of genocide. That OTHERS had just as much --and even 100 times more!-- right to that mantle, obscene as the comparison sounds, but necessary to make the point because the Zionist entity in Palestine and its backers have so manipulated things. And Churchill is GUILTY of saying, and very crudely, that among those rubbed out on September 11 --not ALL of them, not even a majority, perhaps even a small minority-- were some of today's "little Eichmann's," or if one prefers to Americanize historical references, "little Custers" although the general was such a microbe among men that talking about LITTLE Custers is quite repetitively redundant. These were people who accepted, rejoiced and reveled in the wealth and privilege founded on the genocide against the Indians, the enslavement of Blacks, the dispossession of Mexico and many other crimes. And who were part, parcel, and 110% committed to the modern continuation of those crimes against humanity because it makes possible the importation of water from a specific Swiss chalet so it can be stocked in the refrigerators of the his-and-hers exercise rooms in the mansions or penthouses of filthy rich people like them. EVEN "IF" --although it most certainly DOES-- mean the death of a lot of people related to Ward Churchill, Rigoberta Menchu and Evo Morales. Not that I think that justifies, exonerates, ameliorates or lessens in any way the criminal and moral responsibility of the (mostly) Saudi bourgeois and upper-petty-bourgeois elements that planned and carried out the September 11 attack. Giving what might be viewed as their just deserts to 100 imperialists is not worth the life of one human being -- whether white office workers or Salvadorean dishwashers. And there were plenty of those kinds of people among the victims. So, to sum up, I'm not just on Ward Churchill's side "despite" his mistakes. I am also on his side, in a sense, BECAUSE of them. Granting (for argument's sake) that Churchill was factually inaccurate, there is more genuine historical TRUTH in his falsehoods than there are in the "facts" of his critics. Joaquin From chris_gauvreau at comcast.net Thu May 7 18:13:19 2009 From: chris_gauvreau at comcast.net (Christine Gauvreau) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 20:13:19 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] question for the experts on fascism Message-ID: Hi all, Here in CT we have just had an important Middle East studies professor, Norton Mezvinsky, bring Lyndon La Rouche to a campus where friends of mine do a bit of political work. Mezvinsky writes on Jewish fundamentalism with Israel Shahak and, as you can probably tell from that, has never been a man of the left. However, he is seen as a big supporter of Palestinian rights. Of course, I expect a Meerscheimer /Walt lobby perspective but all the way to LaRouche? He has offered the info that he was introduced to LaRouche by the Israeli activist Maxim Ghilan. If anyone can make political sense of this by explaining Ghilan and his milieu I would greatly appreciate it. CG From lnp3 at panix.com Thu May 7 18:25:34 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 20:25:34 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] question for the experts on fascism In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A037BFE.6030909@panix.com> Christine Gauvreau wrote: > Mezvinsky writes on Jewish fundamentalism with Israel Shahak and, as you can probably tell from that, > has never been a man of the left. I assume you mean Israel Shamir, right? Israel Shahak, an anti-Zionist who was in Bergen-Belsen as a young man, is deceased. From jbustelo at gmail.com Thu May 7 18:36:08 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 00:36:08 -0000 Subject: [Marxism] A possible interruption in my list participation In-Reply-To: <55FE345A1B5E4945BA059A7171F7EA80@D4PKYZ41> References: <55FE345A1B5E4945BA059A7171F7EA80@D4PKYZ41> Message-ID: <1E752D5915884986BCA2F6F93A18618C@albanta> At my recent checkup my doctor detected a small lump on my neck. After ultrasounds and a CT scan, it has been determined it is a small mass of tissue of unknown character on/near my tonsils (well, one of them at any rate). My doctor is urgently sending me to a specialist for evaluation for a biopsy. My understanding is that once I get into such an office in the next day or so, if it is a malignancy and surgery or other treatment is possible, it will be applied immediately, and may put me out of commission for some time. My *impression* is the radiologist that read the scan and my personal physician both think it is most likely cancer. If that turns out to be the case, I know the best wishes of all the comrades on the list will be with me; including (and I suspect especially) those of compas like S Artesian and others I have crossed swords with. I don't really need to get --and probably wouldn't see, unless it's just a false alarm-- a ton of emails with wishes for a swift recovery or, better yet, that it be nothing. So consider them sent, and greatly appreciated. As for the what is at this point just a scare --a really bad one-- I will share one thought in the hopes it might help someone else. It's going to sound like a bourgeois advertising council PSA, but it can't be helped. As I THINK I have already mentioned here, I recently quit smoking, after having started during the May 1970 student strike. I quit really FORCED to by a respiratory infection in January that made it virtually impossible to smoke. Nicotine withdrawal was driving me SO crazy that I got the patches for that reason. They were so effective in dampening the withdrawal symptoms that within a couple of days I was toying with the idea of giving quitting another go. My doctor a couple of days later gave me "happy pills" that also help diminish cravings (wellbutrin, although of course I take the cheaper generic). So it was sort of "forced" on me after having tried (unsuccessfully) several times to quit. Had I known how relatively EASY quitting would be, I would have done it long ago. The irony if I DO have cancer now is that I have not felt this well for so long (since mid-February) for many years. I sleep much better (I have sleep apnea, too) and have a ton more energy. That's REALLY when I decided to quit for good -- my cold/flu or whatever it was forced me to stop for a couple of weeks and when I was better, and could resume smoking, I FELT so much better AND the withdrawal symptoms were so well controlled that I just kept going without buying more cigs. ESPECIALLY if you're getting to the lower-energy late middle age, but at any rate generally, USE the current medical resources to quit smoking. This is NOT like trying to go cold turkey decades ago. My experience is that as soon as I got over the flu or cold, having stopped smoking I FELT better than I had in a long time. And, of course, medical science says quitting will help reduce your chances of going through a scare (or worse) like the one I'm going through right now. Just one more thought -- given that I had recently quit smoking, and that at that time there was no lump palpable to the touch on my neck -- it says to me something about the kind of person the alleged God who goes around intervening in human history and affairs all the time would be (if they existed) that I might have developed a smoking-linked cancer now, RIGHT AFTER quitting. No wonder the Cuban Indian Chief Hatuey refused baptism when he was about to be burnt at the stake because he didn't want to go to that heaven. I'm not sending this around to other lists or generally to email addresses but feel free to share it with others who might know me (or my real-life alter-ego, since as some of you know, JB is a pen name). Joaquin From new.wave.nw at gmail.com Thu May 7 20:24:11 2009 From: new.wave.nw at gmail.com (new wave) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 07:54:11 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Further On Nepal Message-ID: <5141ec810905071924x5b564122g776a6aac764448cc@mail.gmail.com> Dear Comrade Peterson, I am in reciept of both of your mails, addressed to me. Believe me, I sincerely did not take any offence to your mails. On the contrary, I appreciate the sharp tones, when it comes to political polemics. I really hate artificially toning down the criticism, for the sake of ettiquetes, which in their essence are essentially bourgoeis tenets. One must come out with positions as sharp as possible. I am very happy that you wish to collaborate and work together. Needless to mention that in taking positions with precision, we must develop deep understanding of history, though we all remain students of Marx. You had pointed out that Maoists in Nepal, do not follow the conventional path OF Maoism, thereby probably you mean the 'Chinese path'. I am not aware whether or not you have seen the book with my introduction-'The Hidden Dynamics of Chinese Revolution' containing writings and speeches of Leon Trotsky form 1925-1940, till his murder by Ramon Mercader in Mexico. Anyway, Maoism is not characterised by the tactical path it took in China, and which it has again and again adapted to different nationalist positions in different countries and at different times. We must rather characterise it by its basic postulates, which remain almost unchanged during the last century. The 'two stage theory' of revolution, collaboration with national bourgeois, which in its view is a progressive class, etc. etc. are such postulates, which run directly counter to the revolutionary Marxism. Maoists have a very special role to play in history, which has to be understood in relation to Chinese Revolution, the motherland of Maoism, before we set out for Nepal. After the bogus policies of Stalinist Comintern fomented the defeats of 1925-27, completely annihilating the revolutionary Proletariat in Shanghai and Canton, and Stalinism lost its appeal among the surviving revolutionary cadres, who more and more leaned towards Leon Trotsky, (see the letter of Chen Tu Shiu of 1928), then emerged Maoism. While preserving all basic tenets, as referred above, of the Stalinist Politics, Maoists consciously adapted to the defeats of Proletariat to further decimate the working class. CCP emerged as CPC, a party with a thoroughly changed composition, recruited from the petty bourgeois peasantry. After pushing the Chinese proletariat, which had taken power in Shanghai and Canton by crushing the flags of Quomintang under its feet, Maoists organised themselves in a bureaucratic crust over the rebellious peasantry, and turned it away from rising in revolt against the Chinese bourgeois. The zig zag journey of Maoists in China continued through 1949, where they declared China to be a republic of 'four classes' and we may see how the long march led to complete adaptation with world capitalism. The experiment was repeated in many countries thereafter, with Nepal being the latest casualty. They refused to lead the proletariat to a successful uprising when all objective conditions were mature for it in April 2006, at the high tide of revolution. They permitted the wave to pass. But the April uprising shook the Monarchy to the hilt. Maoists, rather pounced upon the concessions thrown by the Monarchy and set out to take positions in constituional regime. They fought elections, and recieved overwhelming mandate, a result of complete unrest among the people, disgruntled from the Monarchy. This was a lower point of tide, but the Maoists still instead of using it for forcible overthrow of bourgeois regime and the RNA, kept their eyes on writing constitution and thereby take the power through it and of course in collaboration with bourgoeis, instead of against it. The bourgoeis however, waited forthe high tide of mass upsurge to die down and isolate the Maoists. Collaboration is the project and pious wish of Maoists, not of bourgeois. Bourgeois is clear in its perception that the power can be kept either by itself or the proletariat. As it cannot take it directly in Nepal, where two classes still balance each other, it would take it through Stalinist CPN-UML and would ultimately take it for itself. Workers, Peasants and youth in Nepal, more and more disillusioned with the false projects of Maoists, are showing signs of being passive and inert. Maoists now are the generals without an army. Prachanda Path, the more recent and polished version of Maoist Chinese Path, has led the workers and peasants of Nepal directly to the blind turn. Power is back in the hands of bourgeois, even after an all out support by the masses for the revolution. The bogus Maoist leadership is the fountainhead of the crushing defeat. Our articles, which long ago predicted this fate of Maoists at work in Nepal, stand vindicated by the recent events. The articles werewritten when the communists around the world were cheerleading the Maoists' victories. You may find the articles here: http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/search/label/Nepal Editor 'the new wave' http://new-wave-nw.blogspot.com/ From Waistline2 at aol.com Thu May 7 20:33:40 2009 From: Waistline2 at aol.com (Waistline2 at aol.com) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 22:33:40 EDT Subject: [Marxism] A possible interruption in my list participation Message-ID: In a message dated 5/7/2009 8:36:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jbustelo at gmail.com writes: I'm not sending this around to other lists or generally to email addresses but feel free to share it with others who might know me (or my real-life alter-ego, since as some of you know, JB is a pen name). Joaquin Reply Best of luck. For what's its worth I will send out a burst of bioplasma (aura energy) just in case. Really. WL. **************Big savings on Dell?s most popular laptops. Now starting at $449! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222382499x1201454962/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B214663472%3B36502367%3Bg) From Paula_cerni at msn.com Thu May 7 20:41:31 2009 From: Paula_cerni at msn.com (Paula) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 19:41:31 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Review of Ron Aronson's *Living without God: New Directions for Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and the Undecided* In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Jim, thanks for this useful review. I haven't yet had a chance to read Aronson's book; these comments are only on the basis of your article. The weakness in Aronson's argument, if I understand it correctly, is that he presents us with a choice of 'perceptions'. Should we perceive ourselves as isolated individuals, or as interdependent people? But the way we perceive ourselves inevitably arises out of the way we actually are. The autonomy myth, like all myths, is not just a myth. It is the ideological expression of a social reality that in actual practice sets one against all. What Aronson and the New Atheists don't seem to realize is that modern religion is largely a practical response to this social fragmentation. Believers form communities and help each other through their churches and organizations - because they can't easily do it anywhere else. It's a welfare system by another name. The intellectual critique of religious 'perceptions' has been done many times already. We may update or add details to it, but it will never be enough, because religion is generated by social faults and not by faulty perceptions. (In case you missed it, here's a piece I wrote about this: http://www.stateofnature.org/atheismIsNotEnough.html). Paula From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com Thu May 7 22:54:53 2009 From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada) Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 21:54:53 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] question for the experts on fascism, Message-ID: <4A03BB1D.8010307@gmail.com> Christine's questions raised some interesting issues. Just on the Larouche angle. As you know, Larouche has been accused by many Larouche-watchers as being anti-Semitic. There is *some* truth in this. They, of course, deny this. Larouche has at times described Judaism as a "failed cult of nomadic desert monotheists" or some such thing that I had read years ago. He uses the term "Jew" in the "Woody Alan" sense as an accusation of sorts. At the same time, I've read some rather fascinating and even enlightening essays by him and his supporters glorifying the modern secular Judaism of Moses Mendelssohn, the famous German-Jewish philosopher of the 18th century. They recently wrote a glowing essay on Shalom Aleichem and the "Renaissance of Yiddish". (I have a lot time on my hands so I generally read everything and anything of interest to me). The Larouche group, formally known as the "Larouche Political Action Committee" or LPAC, takes a technically "anti-Zionist" position but it is more historical in the sense they think Zionism was a British plot (which, to a certain degree it was) because everything they oppose is based on opposition to the "The British" as the root of all evil (really, everything British is 'bad' to them). But they don't oppose the Zionist state now and, of course, the concept of the oppression of Palestinians is beyond their comprehension. D. From johnaimani at earthlink.net Thu May 7 23:17:15 2009 From: johnaimani at earthlink.net (johnaimani) Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 22:17:15 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] American Fascism (Was "NDLON Statement ") Message-ID: Phoenix. May 2nd, 2009. This is what we are up against and it will get worse. It is time that we take things seriously and deepen our commitment to struggle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpEeL4ff2g ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: admin To: marcoa at ndlon.org Sent: Thursday, May 7, 2009 12:30:57 PM Subject: [Jornalero News] NDLON Statement on Exchange Between Arpaio and Neo-Nazi Supporters and Planned Expansion of ?Posse? Program Jornalero News has posted a new item, 'NDLON Statement on Exchange Between Arpaio and Neo-Nazi Supporters and Planned Expansion of ?Posse? Program' ? (Phoenix, Arizona)??On Saturday, an estimated 4,000 people marched peacefully for six miles from the Maricopa County Sheriff Office to its ?tent city? jail to draw attention to an emerging civil rights crisis in the nation?s fifth largest city.??The march was nearly disrupted by the actions of several, well-known white supremacists who hurled racial epithets in [...] You may view the latest post at http://jornaleronews.ndlon.org/?p=322 Please read the latest news coverage on day laborers. Jornalero News is the official news blog of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Best regards, Marco Amador Communications & Technology National Day Laborer Organizing Network marcoa at ndlon.org From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Fri May 8 00:36:28 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 16:36:28 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Video on Nepal's "soft coup" and mass resistance Message-ID: <2c6145850905072336t5251079cr4a6d1e325c8e9a31@mail.gmail.com> "This is not just a Maoist movement, it is becoming a people?s movement? http://maobadiwatch.blogspot.com/2009/05/video-nepals-coup.html Video featuring Green left Weekly journalist in Kathmandu Ben Peterson, as well as ordinary people at the mass demonstrations occurring now. -- "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 sabocat59 at mac.com Fri May 8 04:31:34 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 10:31:34 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Workers form First Union at Starbucks in Latin America Message-ID: <1438605559-1241778850-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-189953209-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> For Immediate Release: IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org Workers Form First Union at Starbucks in Latin America The SWU Applauds the Efforts of Baristas in Chile and Pledges Close Cooperation New York, NY (05/05/2009)- The IWW Starbucks Workers Union has enthusiastically welcomed the first union of Starbucks workers in Latin America and has pledged support for the new endeavor.? Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors in Chile have organized for respect on the job, a dependable work schedule, and a living wage, among other issues.? Supporters of the new union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks Coffee Chile S.A., can learn more and lend support on their website http://sindicatosbux.blogspot.com/ . "Around the world, Starbucks jobs must work for hard-working baristas, not just senior executives," said Chrissy Cogswell, a Starbucks employee in Chicago and a member of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.? "The Chilean baristas have created a voice at work to make sure their contribution to the company is respected." Missteps by management at Starbucks including over expansion and lack of value on the menu have resulted in serious hardships for baristas.? Starbucks workers are facing mass layoffs and employees who manage to avoid losing their jobs are seeing their hours drastically cut. Founded in 2004, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union? is an organization of over 300 current and former baristas, bussers, and shift supervisors united for a secure work schedule and an independent voice on the job.? Through direct action, public education, and legal advocacy, the SWU organizes for a Starbucks which rewards the hard work of employees with respect and dignity.? The union has made important systemic improvements at the company and has successfully defended baristas that have been treated unfairly. The Industrial Workers of the World is a member-operated global labor union open to all working people. www.StarbucksUnion.org www.iww.org Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From david at miradoiro.com Fri May 8 05:42:28 2009 From: david at miradoiro.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?David_Pic=F3n_=C1lvarez?=) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 13:42:28 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists. Message-ID: <0226F3BA3B3D4212ADDA0EA2D1994B55@Nautilus> Some time ago on this list someone was asking about fantasy/SF with socialist leanings or implications, IIRC for a young reader. This is not exactly oriented for a young reader, but still I think the recommendations are as a whole worth considering: http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/50socialist/full/ --David. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 8 07:44:10 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:44:10 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] War criminal college president to step down Message-ID: <4A04372A.4060102@panix.com> http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/05/17750n.htm Today's News Friday, May 8, 2009 Embattled President of the New School Says He Will Step Down in 2 Years By AISHA LABI New York Bob Kerrey, president of the New School, said on Thursday that he will step down when his current term expires, in July 2011. Mr. Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator, has become a lightning rod for disputes and protests at the New York institution. Mr. Kerrey announced his decision to the New School's trustees at a board meeting on Wednesday evening. A university statement said Mr. Kerrey's intention had always been to leave when his second five-year term expired. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Kerrey said he wanted to allow the Board of Trustees enough time to choose his successor and ensure an orderly transition. "Even if you'd asked me six months ago, I would also have said then that by 2011 I will have been here ten years, and that is a good, long time." Mr. Kerrey's presidency has been marked by controversy over what critics have characterized as his high-handed administrative style. He demonstrated little affinity for the culture of academe and, critics said, tended to view the New School's faculty as an impediment to his goals. "He disliked the job so much that he didn't attend to parts of it that were really important: for example, like schmoozing with the faculty," said Jim Miller, a member of the graduate faculty and one of Mr. Kerrey's harshest critics. "Bob saw us as an obstruction, roadblocks in the path he wanted to pursue. It dawned on me at one point that maybe he thought of us as Senate staffers," Mr. Miller said. "Universities don't work like that." Handling Opposition "I think that's a fair criticism," Mr. Kerrey said when asked whether, after his years on state and national stages, he had found himself ill-suited to the intricacies of academic politics. "Coming in here with a bachelor's of science in pharmacology from a land-grant institution and from 16 years in politics didn't necessarily prepare me to lead a university," he said. "Sometimes I enjoy a fight," he added. There have been numerous opportunities, especially in the past six months, for Mr. Kerrey to indulge that propensity. In December, he announced that he would serve as acting provost following the abrupt departure of Joseph W. Westphal, who had held the post for only a few months. The faculty then overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Mr. Kerrey. Later that month, protesting students, identifying themselves as the New School in Exile, occupied university buildings. Protests again disrupted the institution last month after Mr. Kerrey failed to heed an April 1 deadline for his resignation that had been issued by the more radical of the student protesters. Mr. Kerrey's decision to call in the New York City police, who have been accused of using unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics against the protesters, further inflamed his critics. The New School board has begun an inquiry into the events surrounding the April protest and will issue its finding within the next couple of months, said the interim provost. Tim Marshall. Tensions Ease Mr. Marshall said Mr. Kerrey's announcement at the Wednesday meeting was greeted with relief. "Everybody, from all quarters, felt this was the best way forward, and a new kind of collegiality and positive energy came back into the room. It was very nice to see after a period of time when this has been absent." Mr. Miller said that Mr. Kerrey's legacy at the university?which includes music, design, and liberal-arts colleges, as well as the storied New School for Social Research?would include many accomplishments. "He inherited a mess. The New School was this kind of raggedy consortium of different academic institutions," he said. "Bob Kerrey's main vision was he wanted to take all these disparate pieces and forge a more integrated institution, and he did." Mr. Kerrey's harshest critics, however, have not backed down. "Many people are happy about the announcement but concerned about what is going to happen over the course of the next two years while he is still in office," said Chris Crews, a first year master's student in politics and a spokesman for the New School in Exile student group. "Our primary concern is that the issues that were raised about Kerrey and his leadership here don't get addressed by the board saying he is leaving in two years." Asked whether Mr. Kerrey's successor is more likely to come to the job with a background in university administration, Mr. Marshall, the interim provost, said that would probably be viewed as beneficial. Mr. Kerrey said that the main quality his successor would need to possess would be an affinity for urban life. "First and foremost, you've got to say, 'I love this city and I want to live in New York.' If you don't like noisy, crowded places with people from everywhere on earth, it's not for you," he said. "You've got to love what the New School is, which is a different kind of university, and you've have got to have all the other skills. You've got to love education, you've got to love the mission and believe in it, because if you don't, it isn't going to work." From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 8 07:47:09 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:47:09 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] GM workers will be screwed Message-ID: <4A0437DD.5090702@panix.com> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050704336.html Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas By Peter Whoriskey Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 8, 2009 The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company's new jobs will be filled by workers overseas. According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double. The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production. As a result, the long-simmering argument over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas -- normally arising between unions and private companies -- is about to engage the Obama administration. Essentially in control of the company, the president's autos task force faces an awkward choice: It can either require General Motors to keep more jobs at home, potentially raising labor costs at a company already beset with financial woes, or it can risk political fury by allowing the automaker to expand operations at lower-cost manufacturing locations. "It's an almost impossible dilemma," said former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. "GM is a global company -- so for that matter is AIG and the biggest Wall Street banks. That means that bailing them out doesn't necessarily redound to the benefit of the U.S. or American workers. "More significantly, it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?" The administration has aroused similar complaints by shepherding a merger between Chrysler and Italian automaker Fiat. But it has extracted a promise from Fiat that it will build small cars in the United States. The complaints about GM's operations portend a potentially larger argument, a political dispute led in part by the United Auto Workers. "The bottom line is GM would rather pay $2 an hour -- and it's a slippery slope downward," said Alan Reuther, the UAW's legislative director. "If GM is going to be getting government assistance, they ought to be maintaining their manufacturing footprint in the U.S. rather than going off to China, Mexico and South Korea." Labor costs in those countries are far lower. While paying a U.S. autoworker with benefits costs about $54 an hour, a South Korean worker earns about $22 an hour, a Mexican worker earns less than $10 an hour and some Chinese workers can earn as little as $3 an hour, industry sources said. On Tuesday and Wednesday, GM chief executive Fritz Henderson met with legislators and sought to ease their concerns over the overseas operations. He emphasized that the company, which is shuttering factories at home, is also canceling projects in Mexico, Russia and India. He also assured legislators that none of the figures are final, and that negotiations with the union are ongoing. "We continue to work closely with GM, UAW, and all the stakeholders to further refine and develop GM's plan," a Treasury spokesman said. The U.S. government has loaned GM $15.4 billion. But billions more are expected to be invested, and under the current plan, it will be the majority owner of the company. The company forecasts that between 2010 and 2014, as the recession recedes, its U.S. sales will rise from 2.4 million to 3.1 million. Most of that growth -- about two-thirds of it -- will occur in the United States. But about one-third of that growth will come from other countries, mostly Mexico and South Korea. Those proportions roughly reflect how GM builds the cars it sells in the United States today -- about two-thirds come from the United States and one-third from other countries. According to the figures shared with lawmakers, the percentage of GM's U.S. sales of cars built in the United States dips from 67 percent in 2009 to 61 percent in 2012. Yet the company projects that by 2014 the percentage will rebound to 66 percent. Under the viability plan, "the U.S. percentage stays roughly the same," Henderson said in an interview last week. But the union and some legislators object that the company's U.S.-funded revival should not help pay for expanding foreign operations. Moreover, they believe that planned cuts in Canadian production -- down 23 percent -- will have direct effects on U.S. jobs because the U.S. and Canadian auto industries are so intertwined. "If you are shutting down plants in this country, U.S. tax dollars should not go for building plants in other countries," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who was among those who met with Henderson. But company officials and industry analysts have long argued that, even putting aside the issue of labor costs, it makes logistical sense to build some cars in other countries, even if they are destined for sale in the United States. Take, for example, the Chevrolet Spark, a tiny car that GM sells in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. In the next few years, the company plans to send some of those cars -- which are built in Changwon -- to the United States for sale. But since only about 5 percent of the car's market will be in the United States, the manufacturing will remain in South Korea. Analysts who study the auto companies and their global operation warn against allowing political passions to obstruct GM's efficiency. "If we start making political decisions with the auto industry, we're going to be in tremendous trouble," said Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts at CSM Worldwide. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 8 07:49:39 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:49:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Leo Panitch: still a Marxist after all Message-ID: <4A043873.1080504@panix.com> http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?video?BI_Lecture_20090502_834121_LeoPanitch From marvgandall at videotron.ca Fri May 8 07:45:53 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:45:53 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: Artesian writes: > What I can't figure out is why, every time some bourgeoisie somewhere to > the > west of Hawaii decides to try a little bit of the old self-organized blag, > some on the North American and European left can't keep from getting all > chuffed and cushty over the place like something wonderful has taken place > when all that has happened is that some gobshite has just puked up another > bit of the dog's dinner. ============================= The Bloomberg columnist and the two bloggers with Wall Street backgrounds who commented on the Asian Development Bank aren't on the left of the political spectrum. Rather, they're representative of the growing body of opinion - perhaps now the consensus - within the ruling classes of the advanced capitalist countries that the US, while still hegemonic, no longer holds unchallenged sway in global affairs. The displacement of the US-controlled IMF in Asia by the ADB rightly seems to them to be another indication of how the current crisis has contributed to the erosion of US economic influence much as Iraq exposed the military limitations of the empire - developments expressed politically by the transition from the overconfident "unilateralist" Bush administration to the more realistic and accomodationist Obama one. These processes may not be of interest or seem of any significance to some on the list, but they interest me. From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 8 07:58:49 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 09:58:49 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Political Islam and historical materialism: an exchange Message-ID: <4A043A99.3020101@panix.com> http://monthlyreview.org/090330amin-khan.php http://monthlyreview.org/090330amin.php From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Fri May 8 08:23:35 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 10:23:35 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] "Guerrilla Ad Campaign Replaces 'Study in Israel' Billboards" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905080723q6325483cmb8b93e08ab031484@mail.gmail.com> > > The replacement poster took a satirical tone, reading in part: "For over > eight years, Israel has been under siege. Unarmed Palestinian children have > led the attack by crossing Israeli checkpoints, intimidating Israeli troops > and provoking gunfire. Acting with extreme restraint, Israelis have killed > no more than 1,100 children and seriously wounded only 4,000. Israeli troops > have arrested over 6,000 children, but only 80% have been tortured. . . . > With your continued support we can do better. The U.S. government gave us $5 > billion last year, but your additional contributions will help us arrest > every Palestinian child, torture 100% of detainees, and rid ourselves of the > menace of international human rights workers once and for all. In these > tough economic times, think of Israel on April 15th and give generously." > > http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ad070509.html > > > "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire* > > > From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 8 09:16:41 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 11:16:41 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: Wasn't talking about them-- they're salesman, paid to say what they say about the latest formula of the snakeoil. Was talking about those who reproduce the bullshit, uncritically, and buy the snakeoil. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marv Gandall" To: Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 9:45 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" From socialismorb at googlemail.com Fri May 8 09:48:53 2009 From: socialismorb at googlemail.com (socialismor barbarism) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 16:48:53 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Opposing Blasphemy laws Message-ID: New blasphemy law must be opposed It is shameful that so many nationalist radicals affect a concern for the de Valera constitution of 1937 simply because of the presence of articles 2 and 3 which reiterated that Ireland's territorial integrity extended to all thirty-two counties. Now that's gone, there's even less reason to profess allegiance to the constitution. The 1937 Constitution represented a perversion of the hopes of the revolutionary hopes of those who followed Connolly and who stood up for Irish freedom and socialism. Indeed, the verbalised territorial claim belied the fact that the publication of the constitution effectively admitted defeat to the partitionist agenda and concretised the southern reactionary state born of partition. The constitution also ensconced the dominant role and authority of the Catholic church in Irish society, it reinforced the domination of women, made abortion illegal, forbid divorce, set out a preference for the 'traditional' family and legalised discrimination, and even worse criminalisation, of gays and lesbians. full at: http://revolutionaryireland.blogspot.com From lnp3 at panix.com Fri May 8 13:45:50 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 15:45:50 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Jared Diamond and the New Yorker, part 2 Message-ID: <4A048BEE.10704@panix.com> While nobody but the unfortunate Professor Diamond could possibly explain how he achieved such a monumental fiction in the pages of the New Yorker Magazine, one might surmise that he was driven to tailor the facts to a conclusion that he had worked out in advance, namely that under duress ?modern state systems? devolve into bloody killing sprees such as the kind that Samuel Wemp supposedly took part in. Even when modern state societies wage war, they are not nearly as bloodthirsty as indigenous peoples such as the ones that feuded in Papua New Guinea. Diamond states ?the actual percentage of the population that died violently was on the average higher in traditional pre-state societies than it was even in Poland during the Second World War or Cambodia under Pol Pot.? So brutal and inhumane were the Papuan tribesmen to each other that when the European colonizers arrived, they submitted to their own ?pacification? happily. Finally, the blood feuds would be eliminated by the more civilized representatives of modern state societies. Despite Diamond?s carefully crafted image of himself as an enlightened ?multiculturalist?, this analysis is not that different from the ones put forward during the Victorian era. The bloody natives had to be rescued from themselves. The problem with Diamond?s case is that it rests on bogus history. He deploys Daniel Wemp as an expert witness in describing a savage tribal war that went on for years, when in fact the only fighting that took place in recent years was a rather tame affair described by Mako J. Kuwimb, one of Rhonda Shearer?s PNG consultants and a model of restraint in his debunking of Diamond?s version. The ?war? in question did not take three years and cost 29 lives, as Diamond asserts. It was instead a fight between two youths over a couple of dollars that went missing during a card game that got out of hand after one had his jaw broken. Fighting lasted for three months and only four men died. Samuel Wemp, who Diamond described as a warlord seeking revenge for his tribe, was not involved in this affair at all. Apparently, Diamond wove together some actual incidents and others that were cooked up, all the while exaggerating the severity of the conflict turning the PNG highlands into something on a par with contemporary Congo. Meanwhile, Samuel Wemp and the other participants are described as having almost as much fun killing each other as if it were a sport. You can read Mako J. Kuwimb?s entire rebuttal of Jared Diamond on the Savage Minds blog, but this one brief excerpt demonstrates that the indigenous person is every bit as civilized as the famous UCLA professor, if not more so: "The comparison between international European war and tribal fights is too farfetched. Killing of enemies are never paraded; some old men who speared their enemies told me of nightmares. Killing is not fun at all as the article seems to suggest." full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/jared-diamond-the-new-yorker-magazine-and-blood-feuds-in-png-part-2/ From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 8 14:11:17 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 16:11:17 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] numbers Message-ID: <0A195286FEAD45F490B56B9654189CEA@dmsthinkpad> Sales. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that March 2009 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices,after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $310.9 billion, down 2.4 percent (+/-0.7%) from the revised February level and were down 18.1 percent (+/-1.2%) from the March 2008 level. The February preliminary estimate was revised downward $1.2 billion or 0.4 percent. March sales of durable goods were down 3.3 percent (+/-1.2%) from last month and were down 19.6 percent (+/-1.8%) from a year ago. Sales of metals and minerals, except petroleum, were down 10.6 percent from last month and sales of electrical and electronic goods were down 5.9 percent. Sales of nondurable goods were down 1.6 percent (+/-0.7%) from last month and were down 16.9 percent (+/-1.6%) from last year. http://www2.census.gov/wholesale/pdf/mwts/currentwhl. From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Fri May 8 14:42:31 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 13:42:31 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Jared Diamond and the New Yorker Message-ID: <4A049937.3070706@ecst.csuchico.edu> I just love the leap of logic that the savages were so bloodthirsty that they welcomed the Europeans. Calling Thomas Hobbes. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com From marvgandall at videotron.ca Fri May 8 16:40:27 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 18:40:27 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: Artesian writes: > Wasn't talking about them-- they're salesman, paid to say what they say > about the latest formula of the snakeoil. Was talking about those who > reproduce the bullshit, uncritically, and buy the snakeoil. ================================== Ah, I see. How does the following text which I reproduced constitute bullshit and snakeoil? * * * "Even prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Japanese had begun to sell the idea of creating an Asian monetary fund to provide regional liquidity. Almost as soon as the trial balloon was launched, Washington shot it down with great force, sending Lawrence Summers, then Deputy Secretary of the Treasury to the region to make sure the message was not misunderstood. In spite of the subsequent travails experienced by the region, the idea apparently died a quick death. "Or did it? When Haruhiko Kuroda, former Japanese Deputy Minister of Finance for International Affairs, took over the helm of the ADB on February 1st of this year, he quietly began to promote the idea again. Kuroda has long been a strong advocate of an Asian Monetary Fund, an idea whose time may have come, given the increasingly low esteem with which the International Monetary Fund is held, particularly in emerging Asia, which has long been the world?s major savings repository. "It?s worthwhile looking again at the history of this venture: in the spring of 1997, before the onset of the Asian financial crisis, Japan and Taiwan had offered to put up $100 billion to help their fellow Asians cope with any potential fallout which might arise in the event of a precipitous withdrawal of short-term portfolio capital from their respective economies. The idea was killed by then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Deputy Secretary Summers, both of whom saw the idea as a threat to the monopoly of the IMF over international financial crises. The US Treasury in particular did not want Japan taking the lead in this area because Japan would not have imposed the IMF?s conditions on the Asian recipients, and as a policy objective for Washington, this almost superseded the importance of restoring the region to full economic health. "We all know what happened subsequently. Instead of forestalling global economic instability, the Treasury/IMF proposals helped make further instability inevitable. "By killing off the idea of a competing Asian Monetary Fund, Rubin/Summers enabled the IMF to continue in its guise as an ostensibly ?neutral? agency, thereby facilitating the implementation of the Treasury?s agenda whenever a financial crisis which required the IMF?s intervention arose. Of course, the ?medicine? the IMF proffered had the ultimate effect of weakening pre-existing financial structures by imposing Western measures of financial restructuring, thereby giving Wall Street a huge stake in the subsequent ?reform? agenda introduced: Basle capital adequacy ratios were to be applied. Highly indebted banks and firms were to be closed. Labour laws were to be changed to make it easier to fire workers, facilitating the closures. Regulations on foreign ownership were to be lifted in order to allow foreign banks and firms to buy domestic banks and firms, injecting needed capital and skills. All of which required lots of western style restructuring and ?reform?, and who better to offer this than America?s finest investment bankers? [...] "It is understandable why Washington would continue to resist the notion of an Asian Monetary Fund. "As things stand right now, in spite of the significant contraction in bond yields since the late 1990s, western investors continue to extract huge risk premiums from the entire emerging markets universe as a quid pro quo for the provision of their capital. This is manifestly perverse, especially when one considers that the ultimate source of much of that liquidity is Asia. All of the nations of Asia continue to run large current account surpluses, the proceeds of which are funnelled back into the US Treasury market, where the savers obtain a yield of less than 5 per cent, in a country which is now the world?s largest debtor nation, suffering the twin diseases of a declining currency and higher inflation (both of which are eroding the real value of the Asian creditors? respective investments). "By contrast, even leading Asian conglomerates (whose products are readily gobbled up by the American consumer) are forced to pay several hundred basis points above the yield of Treasuries. The Western investor or banker is extracting a wholly unmerited premium, whilst the US continues to trade on its reserve currency and safe haven status to subsidise its over-consumption and perpetuate the country?s growing financial imbalances. "It?s a great deal for Washington and readily explains the Treasury?s violent opposition to an Asian Monetary Fund (or anything else that would disrupt the existing status quo, such as restrictions on capital account mobility). But must the world?s largest creditor bloc continue to act from such a position of weakness, which is more apparent than real? The aggregate net creditor position of Asia dwarfs its indebtedness. The domestic markets are rapidly maturing and will soon be in a position to replace the American consumer (who must surely retrench if the US is ultimately to come to grips with its own debt disease). "The actions by Asia?s leading policy makers suggest an implicit (albeit belated) recognition that they have been getting a raw deal from the existing global financial architecture and are taking incremental steps to redress the current imbalance. To be sure, historic rivalries, notably between China and Japan (manifesting themselves most recently over Taiwan) may slow the development of an AMF. It is also probable that the Bush administration will likely go out of its way to exacerbate this rivalry and thereby frustrate the development of competing multilateral agencies, which would invariably weaken Washington?s influence in the region. "But in spite of these periodic setbacks, the trend appears clear. The day is moving closer where an Asian Monetary Fund will become a reality. It is particularly noteworthy that the idea continues to be pushed by Japan, America?s staunchest ally in the region. Tokyo?s embrace of Washington only goes so far. Ironically, if...America ultimately repudiates existing obligations to its (largely) Asian foreign creditors, it will simply catalyse this process and likely ensure the AMF?s swift arrival, in spite of ongoing efforts to render this idea stillborn since 1997. The inexorable logic of current economic policy making may yet introduce outcomes ? such as the introduction of an Asian Monetary Fund ? completely at variance with Washington?s oft-expressed preferences to the contrary. In any event, time is definitely not on the side of the existing status quo." From sartesian at earthlink.net Fri May 8 19:44:20 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 21:44:20 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: <7DABCB2672BE4170AB4F12AD47BF8017@dmsthinkpad> Marvin, What you reproduce, uncritically, is bullshit and snakeoil in that: 1. The article claims that this fund constitutes an AMF, which supposedly will act more benevolently than the IMF when in fact the fund is a liquidation fund, not a "stabilization" fund, or economic "restructuring fund." There is no evidence that the fund will even operate, much less how it will operate. 2. That this fund represents a decoupling of Asia from the US/EU/UK dominated stage of world capitalism. How anyone can look at what has gone on in the last 1.5 years and talk about decoupling is beyond comprehension. To talk about such nonsense is cognitive dissonance to the max. 3. Like the good generals of capitalism, the journalists of capital are always ready to fight, and critique the last war, or in this case the next to last war-- the Asian crisis of 1997-- as if that's what's going on today; as if the Washington Consensus represents an eternal strategy of the bourgeoisie, a holy writ, the maintenance of which is the most important thing for capital. Clearly that is not the case, and the bourgeoisie are quite capable of jettisoning yesterday's ideology when conditions so warrant. Doesn't make them any less bourgeois, any less powerful, just means they don't and won't necessarily use the IMF everywhere, although where they have used it, in Europe, they use it just like the IMF of old. 4. The snake oil is that somehow this AMF will mitigate the impacts of capitalist overproduction-- yet another example of cognitive dissonance. Look at the Korean shipyards, the container ports all across Asia, India's growth rates and capital investment, profits in China, semiconductor production, etc. etc. and tell how exactly how this AMF is going to cushion that burden. 5. The snake oil is in the bullshit that somehow the IMF destabilized, exacerbated the distress of the Asian countries in 1997, and so proper IMF or AMF policies can stabilize and resolve the problems of capitalist overproduction. 6. "Western investors continue to withdraw huge risk premiums from emerging markets"?? Really? Look at the yield curve for emerging market yields from 2004-2007. But the article doesn't examine those yields, doesn't even compare them to yields of counterparts in Europe or North America, but compares them to yields on US Treasury instruments-- stating that the emerging market instruments paid interest rates several hundred basis points above the Treasury instruments. Guess what? North American, European corporate debt instruments also pay interest rates several percentage points [100 basis points = 1 percentage point] above US Treasury debt. 7. The bullshit is in the snake oil that "the Tokyo embrace of Washington only goes so far." As if Japan is going to ally with China in a new co-prosperity sphere. Come on. Remember the 70s and the 80s when Europe and then Japan was going to replace the US? When the US was supposedly ceding its hegemony to the rising sun in the east? What happened then? Well, you had the Plaza Accords, you had Japan export capital by the shipload for investment outside the home market-- into China, Thailand, etc, and you had the sustained attack on the working class in Japan, creation of a sub-proletariat. 8. Which gets us to the bottom line: That's it bullshit to think that any decoupling or coupling makes any difference to the workers of the ASEAN countries. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marv Gandall" To: Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 6:40 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Fri May 8 20:14:14 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 12:14:14 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Indonesian left party: Support the people of Nepal, support democracy Message-ID: <2c6145850905081914x58f95917ub5e763534ca7868a@mail.gmail.com> Berdikari Online: Solidarity Statement to The People of Nepal Berdikari is the publication of Papernas, the National Liberation Party of Unity abridged translation from :http://papernas.org/berdikari/content/view/272/1/ Support Democracy in Nepal, Support Nepalese People's Struggle Against Neoliberal Imperialism Solidarity Greetings, Neoliberal imperialism has put the indonesian people under siege. But that does not mean that the Indonesian people will be absent in giving supports and solidarity to the global people's struggle against neoliberal imperialism. One of the country whose people are rising up courageously to fight neoliberal imperialism is Nepal. In that country, the oligarchy of landlords and local elites, supported by international capitalists, have been overthrown by the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (CPN-M) that is supported by the people. CPN-M took power through a democratic eletion. But since its victory, the oligarchy has always tried to destabilise the CPN-M led government. A few days ago, the conflict reached its peak as the military command - that received support from the old forces (landlords and local elits) refused to abide by the CPN-M led civilian government. In response to this subversion, the civilian government decided to discharge the Armed Forces General Staff, General Katawal, legally and constitutionally. General Katawal refused to step down and instead allied himself with the right-wing parties and conservative opposition. Prachanda's democratically elected government is in crisis. To strengthen and retain the Nepalese people's mandate for change and democracy, he announced his resignation and dismiss his government. The nepalese people are also preparing themselves by organising resistance in the streets. The Nepalese people have just started a new path in the journey towards their own future; to control and manage their own natural resource, economy, and politics. But the right-wingers and the oligarchy are worried of this change. They are afraid of losing their centuries-long privileges. Unfortunately, the Western countries that often talk about democracy and human rights have refused to acknowledge that the CPN-M government is democratically elected. CPN-M won majority votes in the last April 2008 election, and secured 120 out of 240 parliament seats. Therefore, CPN-M has a strong legitimacy to carry out the government and there is no reason to undermine it. The entire progressive forces in Indonesia must express their support to the people's struggle in Nepal. Capitalism, that have brought disaster not only to billions of people, but also the future of this planet, must be ended. Therefore, Berdikari online, as a progressive media that promote national liberation, made the statement below: 1. Stop imperialist intervention in the political conflict in Nepal; let the Nepalese people assert their independence and decide their own future; 2. Respect democracy by giving the elected government, that carries the people mandate, to work and carry out its duty; 3. Stop violence and sabotages that have victimized civilians Jakarta, 6 May 2009 -- "The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?" ? Jarvis Cocker "The basis of optimism is sheer terror" ? Oscar Wilde From sranz at iwon.com Fri May 8 20:34:07 2009 From: sranz at iwon.com (SHELDON RANZ) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 22:34:07 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] question for the experts on fascism Message-ID: <20090508223407.23698@web010.roc2.bluetie.com> Lyndon LaRouche is one of the more sophisticated neo-Nazis. Like many anti-Semites, he piggybacks on the Palestinian cause to make his bigotry seem respectable and "progressive" Dennis King, a one-time member of the Progressive Labor Party, wrote the definitive book on LaRouche. In it, he details how the "British" obsession is a thin veneer for scapegoating British or British-linked Jews like Rothschild and Warburg. Also, note that in Hebrew, the terms "Brit" and "Ish" means "covenant' and "man". "Man of the covenant" is an old way of referring to Jews. There are some anti-Zionist Jews so desperate for a wider audience that they will willfully turn a blind eye to LaRouche - Ghilan, Mezvinsky, Shahak, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------ Criminal Lawyer Criminal Lawyers - Click here. http://tagline.iwon.com/fc/FgElN2Mll5t67fqEpqPDGA3DOgStiQ6ztSAGtg1epYal2B60iELsgtOxkXm/ From suklasenp at yahoo.co.uk Fri May 8 21:09:09 2009 From: suklasenp at yahoo.co.uk (Sukla Sen) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 03:09:09 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Marxism] Nepal Updates: Some "Creative Truth" from the "Left" Message-ID: <353809.42284.qm@web23003.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Quote Unfortunately, the Western countries that often talk about democracy and human rights have refused to acknowledge that the CPN-M government is democratically elected. CPN-M won majority votes in the last April 2008 election, and secured 120 out of 240 parliament seats. Therefore, CPN-M has a strong legitimacy to carry out the government and there is no reason to undermine it. Unquote Another grand illustration of "creative truth". The CPN(M) had polled 1/3rd of votes in last election and through the complex system just lbelow 40% of seats in the newly elected Constituent Assembly cum Parliament. The elected members elected the President and the Vice President. The candidates nominated by the CPN(M) were defeated. Subsequently, through a realignment of of forces, the CPN(M) - now converted into UCPN(M) - became the leading partner of the ruling coalition. On the issue of the sack order to the Army Chief, weeks before his due retirement, the major coalition partners have deserted turning the coalition into a minority. The UCPN(M) Prime Minister then resigened citing the ground of non-cooperation by the President. He is still acting as the caretaker Prime Minister. The reason that almost all other political forces are on this particular issue ranged against the UCPN(M) flows from the apprehension that once the Maoists gain exclusive partisan control over the Army, the sack order is perceived to be an important step towards that, the Neoal would slowly but surely move towards the path followed by Pol Pot's Kampuchea. So much about "democracy"! All the parties in the parliament, except for the (rather minuscule) RPP factions - are committed to a Republican Nepal despite initial insistence by some in favour of ceremonial monarchy. The monarchy was dislodged under the impact of huge mass protests - "Jan Andolan II" - in the Kathmandu valley about three years back led by the "civil society" organisations and in which the parliamentary parties participated. The Maoists were absent as they were engaged for over a decade in virulent armed struggles against the monarchic order (mainly) in the mountainous western Nepal. They, in the first instance, rejected the abdication declaration of the King, the acceptance of which by the parliamentary parties and the "civil society" organisations led to the subsequent series of developments. They, however, pretty quickly reversed their stand and joined the mainstream of protestors. India was instrumental in bringing about rapprochement between the Maoists and the parliamentary parties. The negotiations and tug of war for forming another government are on amongst and within various parties. So are also street protests - mainly led by the Maoists. But no sign of storming the Winter Palace. Sukla On 5/9/09, Stuart Munckton wrote: > Berdikari Online: Solidarity Statement to The People of Nepal > > Berdikari is the publication of Papernas, the National Liberation Party of > Unity > > abridged translation from :http://papernas.org/berdikari/content/view/272/1/ > > > Support Democracy in Nepal, Support Nepalese People's Struggle Against > Neoliberal Imperialism > > Solidarity Greetings, > > Neoliberal imperialism has put the indonesian people under siege. But that > does not mean that the Indonesian people will be absent in giving supports > and solidarity to the global people's struggle against neoliberal > imperialism. > > One of the country whose people are rising up courageously to fight > neoliberal imperialism is Nepal. In that country, the oligarchy of landlords > and local elites, supported by international capitalists, have been > overthrown by the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (CPN-M) that is > supported by the people. CPN-M took power through a democratic eletion. But > since its victory, the oligarchy has always tried to destabilise the CPN-M > led government. > > A few days ago, the conflict reached its peak as the military command - that > received support from the old forces (landlords and local elits) refused to > abide by the CPN-M led civilian government. In response to this subversion, > the civilian government decided to discharge the Armed Forces General Staff, > General Katawal, legally and constitutionally. General Katawal refused to > step down and instead allied himself with the right-wing parties and > conservative opposition. > > Prachanda's democratically elected government is in crisis. To strengthen > and retain the Nepalese people's mandate for change and democracy, he > announced his resignation and dismiss his government. The nepalese people > are also preparing themselves by organising resistance in the streets. > > The Nepalese people have just started a new path in the journey towards > their own future; to control and manage their own natural resource, economy, > and politics. But the right-wingers and the oligarchy are worried of this > change. They are afraid of losing their centuries-long privileges. > > Unfortunately, the Western countries that often talk about democracy and > human rights have refused to acknowledge that the CPN-M government is > democratically elected. CPN-M won majority votes in the last April 2008 > election, and secured 120 out of 240 parliament seats. Therefore, CPN-M has > a strong legitimacy to carry out the government and there is no reason to > undermine it. > > The entire progressive forces in Indonesia must express their support to the > people's struggle in Nepal. Capitalism, that have brought disaster not only > to billions of people, but also the future of this planet, must be ended. > Therefore, Berdikari online, as a progressive media that promote national > liberation, made the statement below: > > 1. Stop imperialist intervention in the political conflict in Nepal; let the > Nepalese people assert their independence and decide their own future; > > 2. Respect democracy by giving the elected government, that carries the > people mandate, to work and carry out its duty; > > 3. Stop violence and sabotages that have victimized civilians > > > > Jakarta, 6 May 2009 From jlevich at earthlink.net Fri May 8 21:19:03 2009 From: jlevich at earthlink.net (Jacob Levich) Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 23:19:03 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists. References: <0226F3BA3B3D4212ADDA0EA2D1994B55@Nautilus> Message-ID: <3860E1971359436094901DF718512A30@Skade> Dear David, I was the person who posted that query, and thanks for posting this -- gave me a few good leads. Recently I very much enjoyed David Marusek's _Counting Heads_, about a future world nearing the singularity and governed by a cabal of big capitalists who keep the proles in line by pitting humans against cloned labor. Class politics is only one of many themes in a very richly imagined book, but it was of course entirely missed by the mainstream reviewers. Jake ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Pic?n ?lvarez" To: Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 7:42 AM Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists. > Some time ago on this list someone was asking about fantasy/SF with > socialist leanings or implications, IIRC for a young reader. This is not > exactly oriented for a young reader, but still I think the recommendations > are as a whole worth considering: > http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/50socialist/full/ > > --David. > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/jlevich%40earthlink.net > From michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Fri May 8 23:16:54 2009 From: michael at ecst.csuchico.edu (michael perelman) Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 22:16:54 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Are AIG employees using bailout money to pay selected off counterparties in order to get jobs with them? Message-ID: <4A0511C6.10706@ecst.csuchico.edu> http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/are_aig_fp_employees_using_bailout_cash_to_get_job.php#more -- 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 Fri May 8 23:24:50 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 01:24:50 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] US plans for war on and against Internet: how this affects Cuba Message-ID: <0B45BB62864A4D4CB4C5734193132954@office1pc> Below is an important discussion of the issues related to Cuba and the Internet, well worth reading to the end. It helps to explain some of the latest round of propaganda attacks on Cuba related to its policies with the Internet. Specifically, there is an extended discussion of blogger Yoani Sanchez, who she is, her funding and publicity sources. She has been dubbed - by the anti-Cuba media - as a major threat to the Cuban government. ===================================================== Weekend Edition May 8-10, 2009 More of the Same? Cyber Command and Cyber Dissident By ROSA MIRIAM ELIZALDE http://www.counterpunch.org/elizalde05082009.html The news is spreading fast around the globe. The Obama administration is ready to premiere a new cyber-space army. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times report that the goal of this cyber command is to secure military computer networks in the United States, networks now threatened by intrusive hackers linked to countries such as China and Russia. Public opinion is forced to swallow in a single capsule the pretext for killing the specter of a foreign enemy, as well as the details of the murder weapon (a cyber command that will watch over the planet to eventually launch into action). As Tom Burghardt finds in Global Research , the United States is using the subterfuge of cyber security as a pretext for a cyber war, a project initiated well before September 11th 2001. It began to jell by 2003, with a leaked secret document signed by Donald Rumsfeld, ex Secretary of Defense, ordering the creation of this special command. Since then, the military arsenal has been preparing to intervene servers, commit network espionage, bribe cybernetic mercenaries, criminalize navigators in the name of war, bend the arms of telecommunication companies and even launch an electronic bomb in March of 2003 in Iraq: a bomb capable of incapacitating all targeted electronic systems at once. The creation of this cyber-military is not without precedent; what is new is that the functions of this electronic war, which previously were split among ten Pentagon operations and other centers of intelligence, including the Air Force, are now under a single umbrella, thus expanding the area of operations of Bush?s ?holy war? - ?you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists?. The enemy is not limited to certain countries, but extends to corporations, groups and individuals, that are to be hunted down like rabbits within the tentacles of globalization. For reasons that have yet to be revealed, the new cyber-command is within the structure of the National Security Agency. However, in 2003 the cyber-command was introduced under the Air Force?s umbrella. It was to be given autonomy in October 2008, with an operational budget of $2,000 million for its first year. The Air Force?s General Robert Elder , who at the time was in charge of the cyber-command, explained in November of 2006 during a press conference the reason for the expansion into cyberspace: ?the cultural change lies in that we will treat the Internet as a war zone, we will concentrate on this area and will prioritize actions in cyber space?. It is evident that there is nothing new either in the cyber-command, or in the self-advertising by new Pentagon Chief who is simply following the path of his predecessors from the Bush administration. There is also nothing new in its use as offensive-weapons. The United States has employed repression and subversion for decades. It is now simply readjusting its strategy to the new information era, with the Internet as its spinal column. GET OUT OF WAY. THIS SPACE IS MINE In March 2007, USA Today reported on one of cyber-war?s favorite strategies: pirate attacks on Internet sites critical of the Bush administration. The Air Force?s Investigation Laboratory had $40 million at its disposal to address this issue. But the key to this offensive was the creation of websites and cyber-dissidents that would echo the rhetoric favored by U.S. troops and reinforce their military interventions. A year later, that same publication revealed that the Pentagon ?is creating a global network of websites in foreign languages, including a website in Arabic for Iraqis; they hire local journalists to write on any daily event that promotes US interests, and to spread a message against insurgents? . The daily added that ?news websites are part of the Pentagon?s initiative to expand ?information operations? on the Internet?. USA Today reported that some of the sites created by the Pentagon include the Iraqi site www.mawtani.com, the Balkan site www.setimes.com, and the Maghrebi site www.magharebia.com. What do all these sites have in common, according to USA Today? * They are written by local journalists who are hired to come up with stories akin to the Pentagon?s objectives * Military personnel or their contractors supervise their stories to ensure that the stories published are compatible with their purposes * The journalists are paid for their stories And of course, they are all maintained with the utmost discretion in order to conceal the website hosts and domain registries, as well as the money trail that pays for translators, journalists and technical personnel. USA Today revealed the preparation for the launch of similar sites aimed at Latin America, and in particular a website managed by the Southern Command, whose name and characteristics remain secret. Strange coincidences A simple exercise in comparison of the domains belonging to the websites discovered by USA Today, and which garnered a great deal of publicity during the first few months of 2008 yields the following results: TO SEE CHART, GO TO THE COUNTERPUNCH WEBSITE: http://www.counterpunch.org/elizalde05082009.html Although not mentioned by USA Today, another common element is that their domains are registered with the corporation GoDaddy, which provides for anonymous registrations. The corporation charges a premium for this, of course. The owner and only shareholder of this corporation is Bob Parsons, ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran. Parsons is wealthy and known to have an appetite for advocating extreme methods of interrogation for prisoners at Guantanamo . GoDaddy has an extensive track record of closing down its clients? sites without notification, and like other north American companies dedicated to the registry of domains, it may not offer its services to individuals or companies linked to countries blacklisted by the Department of Treasury?s OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control). Cuba is a sanctioned country, according to OFAC. The United States government forbids electronic commerce with any of the countries or entities on the blacklist. In fact, in March 2007, the United States? Government, ordered through OFAC the shutdown of 80 websites, belonging to a tourism operator who lives in Spain and does business in the United Kingdom. Without prior notice, the program Enom blocked 80 domain names belonging to him, including some websites exclusively dedicated to cultural exchanges, such as www.cuba-hemingway.com. Despite OFAC?s clear prohibitions relating to Cuba linked domains, GoDaddy maintains an allegedly Cuban website. It belongs to a rock group called ?Porno para Ricardo?, an openly anti-government website, that encourages users to send money to its musicians, so that they can ?purchase musical instruments.? Porno para Ricardo calls itself a Cuban website. But much like many other websites set up to spread propaganda against the Cuban government on the Internet, it is not administered on the island, its servers are not in Cuban territory, it does not use national domains, its owners do not seem to be anywhere in the Caribbean, and the sophisticated administrative tools of the web -like a paying Gateway, or the provision of an electronic system of money transfer made by credit cards- could not possibly be administered by a truly independent Cuban journalist without the support and financing of the United States government. Add to this the overwhelming publicity campaign made on behalf of this and other Cuban ?dissident? sites, especially through the Internet?s search engines. Such a campaign could not be launched and managed from Cuba, since the United States blockade against the island prevents Google from allowing it. In other words, if the United States prevents Cubans on the island from using credit cards to pay for a marketing campaign through Google?s Adwords, will the directors of the famous search engine help track the money trail that circulates through the Internet, promoting these websites and the sudden stars of global cyber dissidence? Cyber dissidents Military academicians are another important variable in the information war waged through the Internet. In order to try to turn fiction into fact, information is personalized, with images and other ?evidence? that proves that the person who makes the statement is effectively where she says she is. Military Review , the Pentagon?s official journal, has extensively analyzed the strategic importance of blogs and cyber dissidents. They put a human face on the political rhetoric designed by the U.S. military, particularly aimed at areas where the use of Internet is on the rise. As they create websites, they also create a la carte cyber dissidents. A controversial case was that of Iraqi blogger Salam Pax, who mysteriously kept writing on his anti Saddam and anti Bush blog during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. There is also evidence of suspicious cyber dissidents in Yugoslavia, China, Vietnam, Iran, and Syria With regards to Cuba, it is worth mentioning the meteoric stardom of blogger Yoani Sanchez, who meets all the conditions required by Pentagon experts. The design of her blog is based upon several falsehoods: the name of the hosting website www.desdecuba.com suggests that her Internet connection originates in Cuba. Yet, the server is in Germany and registered to somebody named Josef Biechele. Who is this man and why does the blogger never mention this generous sponsor? The website itself enjoys resources that are not available to the average blogger, let alone to a Cuban blogger, who does not have the local administrative tools necessary to host a blog and also has to battle with an extremely slow network to connect to international sites like www.blogger.com and others. The technical support provided by this particular website, which works almost exclusively for her blog, is custom-made and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The marketing strategy, through Google and other digital and traditional media, is also top of the line. The blog?s content is manipulative. The blogger tries to organize mass mobilizations through www.twitter.com, social forums, and versions of the web 2.0 which are almost unknown in Cuba, a country with a severely limited bandwidth and extremely weak Internet facilities, since Internet connection on the island is via satellite. The United States blockade prohibits has prohibited Cuba from installing a much-needed underwater telecommunications cable, and Washington has banned for years electronic commerce and access to digital technology. Consequently, those who connect to the Internet in Cuba, at the average speed of 30-40 Kbps, can barely manage to check email, and other priorities that are light years away from Yantis negativism. Who is this woman addressing then? It is obviously not a Cuban audience. Is she speaking to those outside Cuba, who are often bombarded with the type of biased discourse she favors? Is her objectivity guaranteed by the fact that she is in Cuba? She also claims to be apolitical, not committed to any system, yet the tags used to identify her blog on the Internet say that www.desdecuba.com is a ?political and independent review. It offers a different view than the one given by the Cuban government?. In her writings there are abundant references to the outdated political discourse used by the Department of State to justify including Cuba in its blacklist. Her notes are peppered with allusions to a 1950?s aesthetics, thus strengthening the stereotype of a ?Havana in ruins?, a way to show Cuba in the worst possible light. Lately, the blogger does not even seem to hide her ultra-right wing excesses, something that must certainly bother her handlers, as this is not the role she has been asked to play. Her comments now are more akin to what a digital Luis Posada Carriles would say, than those of a pacifist blogger and likely candidate to the Nobel Peace Prize. For example, in a note about ?the night of the long knives that will befall on the island?, she explicitly adheres to the ?license to kill? attitude often invoked from Miami: People waiting, with a stick or a knife under the bed for a day they can use them. Entrenched hatred against those who betrayed them, denied them a better job, or made sure their youngest child couldn?t study at the university. There are so many waiting for possible chaos to give them the time necessary for revenge, that one would wish not to have been born in this age, when one can only be a victim or victimizer, when so many yearn for the night of the long knives. (Yoani Sanchez, 25th April 2009) If we follow the logic of U.S. strategists, the face of today?s anti-Cuban discourse is the least important issue. Yoani and those will come afterwards are paving the way for the promotion of their point of view on the billion people who get their information through the Internet, including the thousands of Cuban youths and children who, thanks to the efforts to educate them in the latest digital technology, will enjoy increasing access to the Internet. The strategy of using the Internet as a tool of political intervention has been developing for at least five years, experiencing a crescendo during the past months, culminating with the recent announcement made by the Obama administration. He inherited from Bush the idea of directing funds to subversive activities against Cuba through the telecommunications arena. The fact that this is nothing new is confirmed by the note published by Paul Ritcher on 7th May 2008 in Los Angeles Times: The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the program, is trying to persuade Central European and Latin American nongovernmental groups to join U.S. organizations in applying for its grants. A chief goal, officials say, is to spend most of the $45-million budget on communications equipment, such as cell phones and Internet gear, that possibly could be smuggled into Cuba to increase its people's exposure to the outside world. Could part of these funds have been allocated to financing the disproportionate campaign of Cuban cyber dissidence? Which European institutions are receiving funding from the United States? Do the 15,000 euros given the Cuban blogger by the Spanish group Prisa come from there? Is it a coincidence that Prisa, Yoani?s main marketing agency in Europe, also owns Noticias 24, one of the most aggressive anti-Ch?vez blogs in Venezuela? Whichever the answer, it will be more of the same. The cyber command is not new, neither are the prefabricated cyber-dissidents and their webs, nor their political collaboration designed to try and destroy our government. Rosa Miriam Elizalde is a Cuban journalist who lives and works in Cuba. She edits a Cuban publication called Cubadebate, writes frequently for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, and is the author of several books, including Ch?vez Nuestro. She has twice won the Juan Gualberto G?mez Prize, Cuba's most prestigious journalism award. Notes. BURGHARDT, Tom (2009): ?The Pentagon's Cyber Command: Formidable Infrastructure arrayed against the American People?. In Global Research, April 26, 2009. Available at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13354 RUMSFELD, Donald (2003): Information Operations Roadmap, United-States National Security Archive, October 30, 2003. Available at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/info_ops_roadmap.pdf (PDF 2,3 Mb) WOOD, Sara (2006) "New Air Force Command to Fight in Cyberspace". In: American Forces Press Service. U.S. Department of Defense, November 3, 2006. MICHAELS, Jim (2007): ?U.S. Military Beefs Up Internet Arsenal?. In: USA Today, March, 28, 2007. EISLER, Peter (2008): "Pentagon launches foreign news websites". In USA Today, May 1, 2008 In June 2005, Parsons sparked controversy by writing in his blog that the methods used by the United States in Guantanamo were "incredibly soft. All detainees receive regular medical attention?. PARSONS, Bob (2005): "Close Gitmo? No Way", 19th June 2005. Available at The so-called Torricelli Law or Law of Authorization and National Defense for the fiscal year 1992, allowed the island to connect to the Internet on the condition that every megabyte would have to be hired from north American companies or their subsidiaries, with express authorization from the Treasury Department. Connections would be limited and sanctions were established -$50,000 for each violation- for those who facilitate electronic commerce or any economic benefit to the island, whether within our outside the USA, This has been rigorously enforced, and the OFAC has been expanding the ?blacklist?. In April 2004, the OFAC informed the Congress that while four of its 120 employees had been assigned to track Bin Laden?s finances, almost two dozen employees worked towards the enforcement of the embargo against Cuba. They admitted that they used the Internet as their fundamental source to track payments. By the way, in the recent announcement made by Obama, nothing has been mentioned about electronic financial transfers. In this sense, the embargo remains intact. There are numerous examples in this publication that theorize about information wars and the use of new technologies. We recommend, for example, the article "Partnering with the Iraqi media" In: Military Review, july-august 2008. Available at http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/JulAug08/DeCarvalhoEngJulAug08. pdf Luis Posada Carriles, Venezuelan citizen of Cuban origin. A self-confessed terrorist, responsible for blowing up a civilian plane, killing 73 people, and for the series of explosions in Cuban hotels during the 1990?s, which killed an Italian tourist. Posada Carriles lives in Miami. RICHTER, Paul (2008): ?Cuba USAID Program Gets Overhaul? In: Los Angeles Times. May 7, 2008. Available at http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/07/world/fg-uscuba7 ========================================= WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ "Cuba - Un Para?so bajo el bloqueo" ====================================== From ffeldman at bellatlantic.net Sat May 9 00:29:56 2009 From: ffeldman at bellatlantic.net (Fred Feldman) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 02:29:56 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] AIPAC leader fears sanctions effort is helping "delegitimize" Israel Message-ID: This is a comment on a speech made by a top AIPAC leader at the recent meeting of the quite powerful lobby sponsored by both the Israeli government and the US top political elite. Frankly, this seems to me to have been an excellent and thoughtful political speech. In contrast to the bullying rants more often favored by the AIPAC "rank and file", if you will excuse such a designation for the activists (far from all and probably today not even mostly Jewish, and certainly way far from accurately representative of sentiment in the Jewish Community) of such an elite and self-consciously elitist outfit. I was particularly struck by the basic accuracy of his appeal to the US government and ruling class to remember the importance of Israel as an outpost of the "West" in the Middle East to US interests, and especially as a warlike outpost armed to the teeth against all foes of the common interests of imperialist power and its dependent "outpost." This is basically true, and that is why today there is NO SECTION of the US ruling class which advocates a complete break with and abandonment of the state of Israel. The whole debate in the elite circles is about how to preserve the Israeli state in a way that can strengthen the hand of US imperialism in advancing its interests in the Middle East. From the US point of view, defense of Israel is part of this effort, but the part and the whole are not the same thing. I agree with the author of the comments on the speech, that the AIPAC probably hits the panic button a bit on the current success of the sanctions campaign (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions). But there is no question that it is making dents, including in the trade union field. And primitive apolitical arguments against the boycott (such as that it is awful to prevent scientists from getting together, or how can you boycott an Israeli athletic team when the kids "just want to play basketball"), such as were used against South Africa will fall flat in the end. I can understand the scientists wanting to meet with others, or the youth wanting to play basketball, but this is an argument for them to start trying to change the character of their repellent state, not an effective political argument against the boycott. I was impressed with the AIPAC leader's awareness that the boycott has to be responded to at least in part with political arguments. An opposition that responds simply by screaming that it is a "cover" for anti-Semitism or spreading around accusations of Jew-hatred like dust in a Kansas tornado will tend to run out of steam in the long run. Fred Feldman May 07, 2009 AIPAC ED fears the growing movement to sanction Israel could fundamentally change US policy towards Israel. He's right. One of the most interesting speeches given at the AIPAC Policy Conference was one that received the least media attention. AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr addressed the capacity crowd Sunday night before Newt Gingrich, and he came with a stern and clear warning - there is a growing movement to de-legitimize Israel in the eyes of its allies. He warned it's growing, it's successful and it's coming to the US. In a conference full of fire and brimstone bluster about Iran and the omnipresent threat of annihilation, when it came to this speech Kohr was exactly on the mark. Kohr moved beyond simply focusing on the familiar bogeymen of Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez and the Durban II conference, and took on what is clearly viewed as a grave threat - the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. During his rundown of the gathering storm he included "400 British academics demanded that Britain's Science Museum cancel an event highlighting the work of Israeli scientists" and an Italian "trade union calls for a boycott of Israeli products." He also included the increasing comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa. As part of this trend he mentioned Israel Apartheid Week (twice) which he explained,"Its aim, to build boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns as part of a growing global movement." He's right. More impressively, he gave real attention to this movement. Rather than attempting to simply de-legitimatize it with charges of anti-Semitism, he recognized its true motivation: "This is more than the simple spewing of hatred. This is a conscious campaign to shift policy, to transform the way Israel is treated by its friends to a state that deserves not our support, but our contempt; not our protection, but pressured to change its essential nature." And even more, he knows the movement is building steam: "No longer is this campaign confined to the ravings of the political far left or far right, but increasingly it is entering the American mainstream: an ordinary political discourse on our T.V. and radio talk shows; in the pages of our major newspapers and in countless blogs, in town hall meetings, on campuses and city squares . . . "And I want to be clearly understood here. I'm not saying that these allegations have become accepted. But they have become acceptable. More and more they are invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel. These voices are laying the predicate for a abandonment." Finally, Kohr threw down the gauntlet: "There is a battle for basic perception underway, a fight to focus the lens through which our policy makers will receive and perceive all events in Israel and the broader Middle East. And the stakes in that battle are nothing less than the survival of Israel, linked inexorably to the relationship between Israel and the United States. In this battle we are the firewall, the last rampart." Kohr said, "in the moment - we find our mission." And in many ways the threat Kohr identified was an undercurrent throughout the conference. This was seen in the effort by AIPAC to co-opt the divestment mantle by pushing divestment from Iran. Not only is this a focus in Congress, but on campuses and in municipalities as well. After Kohr's speech it was difficult to see these as anything but a diversionary tactic to keep attention on the real movement for divestment Kohr outlined growing across the world. As with almost everything at the AIPAC convention, Kohr's speech was one part theater, one part policy. I do think his presentation was a bit overblown in an effort to light a fire under his troops as they headed into battle. But he could have chosen many other topics to do that with. Kohr understands that the fight is over themes and frames and that regardless of the millions put into the AIPAC convention or the thousands of lobbyists that head off for the Hill, once the discourse shifts and Israel is a pariah, the battle is lost. He explained to the crowd: "You know, we've all heard many times Israel accused of being a Western outpost in the Middle East. To those who make that accusation I say you are right. Israel is the only democratic country in the region that looks West, that looks to the values and the vision we share of what our society, our country should aim at and aspire to. If that foundation of shared values is shaken, the rationale for the policies we pursue today will be stripped away. The reasons the United States would continue to invest nearly $3 billion in Israel's security; the willingness to stand with Israel, even alone if need be; the readiness to defend Israel's very existence,all are undermined and undone if Israel is seen to be unjust and unworthy. . . "Yes, we must lobby for the particulars --Iran sanctions, peace process principles, foreign aid --but our mission now is to do more than work our talking points. We must add context and foundational arguments that help America's leaders understand the rightness of our cause." That is the fight at hand, and it's a fight that AIPAC and others have been incredibly good at fighting. But Kohr can see the ground is shifting. And in the end, the influence AIPAC holds over the US policy towards Israel/Palestine may end up disintegrating as the myth of shared values is revealed, and more people realize that funding a "Western outpost in the Middle East" is not only no longer in our interest, but is not in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians as well. Posted by Adam Horowitz at 12:41 PM in Adam Horowitz, AIPAC 2009, BDS, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, U.S. Policy in the Mideast | Permalink TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cc8ad53ef01156f7f1414970c From n.fredman.11 at scu.edu.au Sat May 9 05:00:42 2009 From: n.fredman.11 at scu.edu.au (Nick Fredman) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 21:00:42 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists. Message-ID: Yes thanks for an interesting list, about which I'll throw in a few comments. The list has Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, which is very worthy but I recall it being quite depressing. I liked her Body of Glass more. This parallels a retelling of the Prague ghetto golem story with a post-apocalyptic cyborg story. Maybe the idea of a hi-tech kibbutz-like settlement of US Jews, which creates the cyborg to fight the corporate baddies, is a bit Zionist. Also sort of in the "post-apocalyptic besieged outpost of socialism" subgenre, and not on the list, is Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing. Some here might think the idea of a post-capitalist society in which people who appear to be Marxists are a tolerated minority among masses of hippies, freaks, and complementary medicine practitioners is highly unlikely, or even a type of hell, but I think it's set in the Bay Area, so who knows. It is pretty hippy trippy, but she's a decent writer, and when I heard her speak here circa 2002, on the anti-corporate movement, she seemed a quite sensible radical liberal. Something definitely meant to be a dystopia is Margaret Attwood's A Handmaid's Tale, about the horrific oppression of women after a military coup in the US led by a sort of Christian fascist movement (there's a decent movie of it too). Surprisingly not on this list, though it seems some SF fans don't like it when serious literary types go slumming in speculative fiction land. Anything by William Gibson is interesting, especially his evocation of urban landscapes, which he's said are influenced by Mike Davis - though maybe in the superficial way some postmodernists are influenced by Gramsci. I've just enjoyed watching HBO's True Blood, a sort of southern Gothic vampire story with lots of black humour and social and political satire (the vampires have just "come out", though spilt into separatist and integrationist factions), by Alan Ball of American Beauty and Six Feet Under. Forget the books it's based on though, utter rubbish, possibly the worst published writing I've read. You've got to beware of cross-media translations - some good stuff by William Gibson was turned into a dreadful film, Johnny Mnemonic, with possibly the worst acting I've seen on a screen (by a screaming Henry Rollins, with Ice T and Keanu Reeves not much better). From lnp3 at panix.com Sat May 9 05:43:05 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 07:43:05 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Top Dems knew about waterboarding Message-ID: <4A056C49.8090407@panix.com> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050803967.html Top Pelosi Aide Learned Of Waterboarding in 2003 By Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 9, 2009 A top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended a CIA briefing in early 2003 in which it was made clear that waterboarding and other harsh techniques were being used in the interrogation of an alleged al-Qaeda operative, according to documents the CIA released to Congress on Thursday. Pelosi has insisted that she was not directly briefed by Bush administration officials that the practice was being actively employed. But Michael Sheehy, a top Pelosi aide, was present for a classified briefing that included Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking minority member of the House intelligence committee, at which agency officials discussed the use of waterboarding on terrorism suspect Abu Zubaida. A Democratic source acknowledged yesterday that it is almost certain that Pelosi would have learned about the use of waterboarding from Sheehy. Pelosi herself acknowledged in a December 2007 statement that she was aware that Harman had learned of the waterboarding and had objected in a letter to the CIA's top counsel. "It was my understanding at that time that Congresswoman Harman filed a letter in early 2003 to the CIA to protest the use of such techniques, a protest with which I concurred," Pelosi said in the Dec. 9, 2007, statement. Precisely what Pelosi learned in classified intelligence briefings she received on interrogations has become a flash point in the battle over the effectiveness and legality of the methods used to extract information from alleged al-Qaeda operatives in the first years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Republicans have accused Pelosi and other Democrats who attended the earliest classified briefings of knowing what CIA operatives were doing and offering their support for the methods, including waterboarding. They argue that Pelosi, who served as the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee until January 2003, objected only after the use of the techniques became public several years later. "I have every belief that either she or [Harman] were told waterboarding was going on. I have no doubt that the Democratic leadership on this committee in the House knew it was going on," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), who has been the top Republican on the intelligence panel since fall 2004. Hoekstra, who requested the history of agency briefings of members of Congress, is also seeking notes made by the CIA during each briefing, documents that he said last week include "a very precise accounting of the substance of each briefing." He said those memos would detail "not only the specific information provided, but also the degree of bipartisan consensus that existed with respect to the programs in question." In a letter to Hoekstra, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the classified memos describing what was said at each briefing would be available at CIA headquarters for review by congressional staff, according to an agency official. Although the CIA did not initiate the requests for the details of its many briefings of members of Congress, beginning in September 2002, senior officials have chafed at criticism of their interrogation activities from lawmakers who, when made aware of the programs over past years, mostly did not object. One former senior agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the substance of the briefings is classified, said some lawmakers, after being told of the enhanced techniques, "questioned whether we were doing enough." The fierce debate was sparked three weeks ago by the release of Bush-era Justice Department memos that expanded the legal guidelines for CIA agents interrogating alleged al-Qaeda operatives. The new documents released to Congress by the CIA on Thursday stated that Pelosi was briefed on the "use of" harsh interrogation techniques in September 2002, although the documents do not state that waterboarding was mentioned. The absence of any description in the new documents of her being briefed on waterboarding has become a critical distinction for Pelosi. She has said that briefers discussed waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques as legal options but that they never told her such methods were being used. "We were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used. What they did tell us is that they had some . . . Office of [Legal] Counsel opinions, that they could be used, but not that they would," she told reporters on April 23. A top aide reiterated that position yesterday. "The speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002," said spokesman Brendan Daly. "The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not yet been used." Democrats contend that the issue is not what Pelosi knew and when she knew it, but the restrictive nature of the briefings during the Bush administration. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, is leading a renewed effort to expand the briefing process. In the first four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, only the four leaders of the intelligence panels were briefed on the most sensitive issues, and they were forbidden from discussing what they learned with anyone else. Pelosi's only briefing came Sept. 4, 2002, a week before the first anniversary of the attacks, and included then-Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), who at the time was chairman of the intelligence committee. Along with their chief counsels, they were the first congressional officials briefed on the interrogation tactics. Pelosi left the intelligence committee in January 2003 to become the House Democratic leader, remaining one of eight lawmakers who had the highest clearances to access classified information. Five months after the Pelosi-Goss meeting, in briefings for the new leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, the CIA "described in considerable detail . . . how the water board was used," according to the documents released Thursday. The next day, Feb. 5, 2003, Harman received a similar briefing as Pelosi's replacement as the top House intelligence committee Democrat. Harman was surprised at what she learned, particularly that intelligence officials had video of the waterboarding of Abu Zubaida and were planning on destroying it. Captured in early 2002, Abu Zubaida, whose real name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, faced months of standard interrogations before being sent to a CIA-run facility where the harsher techniques were used. Harman wrote to the CIA's general counsel on Feb. 10, 2003, to question whether the methods "are consistent with the principles and policies of the United States. Have enhanced techniques been authorized and approved by the president?" The Washington Post reported in extensive detail on Dec. 9, 2007, about the briefings that Harman and other leaders of the intelligence committees received in the first few years of the U.S. campaign against terrorism. The day of the report, Pelosi issued the statement standing by her account that she was "briefed on techniques the administration was considering using in the future" and adding that she "concurred" with Harman's protest of the tactics. Neither Pelosi nor her staff would comment on how she learned of the techniques she now considers torture, and Harman said in an interview that she "did not recall" discussing the issue with Pelosi. Sheehy was Pelosi's top aide on the intelligence committee when she served as the ranking Democrat on that panel, and he remained her top national security aide until he left the speaker's office this year. Pelosi never filed any official letter of protest, but some lawmakers said such objections to the Bush administration at that time were pointless. "I felt that it was minimally responsive," Harman said of the CIA's response to her February 2003 letter. "It didn't address the issue I asked." A bipartisan group of lawmakers says that the restrictions placed on the intelligence committee leaders -- the "Gang of Four," which included the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate panels -- limited any oversight role Congress could play. In the fall of 2005, a few other congressional leaders, including those that controlled the CIA's budget, were briefed on interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. The full House and Senate intelligence committees were not briefed on the matter until September 2006, four years after the initial Pelosi briefing. Unless the full committee is aware of such issues, Feinstein said in an interview, Congress has no power to act. "I believe in it very strongly, no equivocation at all. There must be notification for all committee members," Feinstein said. But some Republicans said Democrats are now looking to cover themselves politically for not objecting to a process that their liberal supporters oppose. "There is a protocol for who gets briefed, depending on the issue," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). "It's an open forum." Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report. From avvakum at gmail.com Sat May 9 06:13:31 2009 From: avvakum at gmail.com (Thomas Campbell) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 16:13:31 +0400 Subject: [Marxism] Russia: Riot Police Raid Leftist Seminar in Nizhny Novgorod Message-ID: In English: http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/omon-arrests-our-comrades-in-nizhny-novgorod/ In Russian: http://chtodelat-info.livejournal.com/57041.html From shemalali at yahoo.com Sat May 9 06:56:36 2009 From: shemalali at yahoo.com (Shamal A.) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 05:56:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Marxism] =?iso-8859-1?q?hi_i_want_to_know_if_Jo=E3o_Paulo_Montei?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ro_is_still_on_this_list=2E=2E=2Edear_Jo=E3o_please_respon?= =?iso-8859-1?q?d_to_this_letter_if_u_still_here?= Message-ID: <257693.7192.qm@web50303.mail.re2.yahoo.com> best regards to every one From marvgandall at videotron.ca Sat May 9 06:57:58 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 08:57:58 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad> <7DABCB2672BE4170AB4F12AD47BF8017@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: <6FA9221C86294E3EAA4F624E32B39BDC@MARV> Calm yourself. You could make the same points without getting apoplectic, which in general would probably be a good rule for you to follow. ----- Original Message ----- From: "S. Artesian" To: "Marv Gandall" Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 9:44 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" > Marvin, > > What you reproduce, uncritically, is bullshit and snakeoil in that: > From sartesian at earthlink.net Sat May 9 07:05:00 2009 From: sartesian at earthlink.net (S. Artesian) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 09:05:00 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" References: <799E9F498A854E40A1779E63A97791FA@dmsthinkpad><7DABCB2672BE4170AB4F12AD47BF8017@dmsthinkpad> <6FA9221C86294E3EAA4F624E32B39BDC@MARV> Message-ID: <82E3417209F449D9A9C6EDCC42E318FD@dmsthinkpad> Wasn't the least bit apoplectic. Not even agitated. It-- the bullshit-- is so transparent, it hardly requires any effort to see it. You asked what in the article was bullshit-- I put it in numerical order for you. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marv Gandall" To: Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 8:57 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" > Calm yourself. You could make the same points without getting apoplectic, > which in general would probably be a good rule for you to follow. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "S. Artesian" > To: "Marv Gandall" > Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 9:44 PM > Subject: Re: [Marxism] ADB initiative "neuters IMF in Asia" > > >> Marvin, >> >> What you reproduce, uncritically, is bullshit and snakeoil in that: >> > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/sartesian%40earthlink.net From marvgandall at videotron.ca Sat May 9 08:09:13 2009 From: marvgandall at videotron.ca (Marv Gandall) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 10:09:13 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Capitalism and the state (cont'd) Message-ID: <09A5597097924A4B934295967F2B62BD@MARV> Banks Won Concessions on Tests Fed Cut Billions Off Some Initial Capital-Shortfall Estimates; Tempers Flare at Wells By DAVID ENRICH, DAN FITZPATRICK and MARSHALL ECKBLAD Wall Street Journal May 9 2009 The Federal Reserve significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation's biggest banks shortly before concluding its stress tests, following two weeks of intense bargaining. In addition, according to bank and government officials, the Fed used a different measurement of bank-capital levels than analysts and investors had been expecting, resulting in much smaller capital deficits. The overall reaction to the stress tests, announced Thursday, has been generally positive. But the haggling between the government and the banks shows the sometimes-tense nature of the negotiations that occurred before the final results were made public. Government officials defended their handling of the stress tests, saying they were responsive to industry feedback while maintaining the tests' rigor. When the Fed last month informed banks of its preliminary stress-test findings, executives at corporations including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. were furious with what they viewed as the Fed's exaggerated capital holes. A senior executive at one bank fumed that the Fed's initial estimate was "mind-numbingly" large. Bank of America was "shocked" when it saw its initial figure, which was more than $50 billion, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. At least half of the banks pushed back, according to people with direct knowledge of the process. Some argued the Fed was underestimating the banks' ability to cover anticipated losses with revenue growth and aggressive cost-cutting. Others urged regulators to give them more credit for pending transactions that would thicken their capital cushions. At times, frustrations boiled over. Negotiations with Wells Fargo, where Chairman Richard Kovacevich had publicly derided the stress tests as "asinine," were particularly heated, according to people familiar with the matter. Government officials worried San Francisco-based Wells might file a lawsuit contesting the Fed's findings. The Fed ultimately accepted some of the banks' pleas, but rejected others. Shortly before the test results were unveiled Thursday, the capital shortfalls at some banks shrank, in some cases dramatically, according to people familiar with the matter. Bank of America's final gap was $33.9 billion, down from an earlier estimate of more than $50 billion, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. A Bank of America spokesman wouldn't comment on how much the previous gap was reduced, though he said it resulted from an adjustment for first-quarter results and errors made by regulators in their analysis. "It wasn't lobbying," he said. Wells Fargo's capital hole shrank to $13.7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Before adjusting for first-quarter results and other factors, the figure was $17.3 billion, according to a federal document. "In the end we agreed with the number. We didn't necessarily like the number," said Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins. He said the company was particularly unhappy with the Fed's assumptions about Wells Fargo's revenue outlook. At Fifth Third Bancorp, the Fed was preparing to tell the Cincinnati-based bank to find $2.6 billion in capital, but the final tally dropped to $1.1 billion. Fifth Third said the decline stemmed in part from regulators giving it credit for selling a part of a business line. Citigroup's capital shortfall was initially pegged at roughly $35 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The ultimate number was $5.5 billion. Executives persuaded the Fed to include the future capital-boosting impacts of pending transactions. SunTrust Banks Inc. also persuaded the Fed to significantly reduce the size of its estimated capital gap to $2.2 billion, after identifying mathematical errors in the Fed's earlier calculations, according to a person familiar with the matter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., saw a capital hole materialize at the last minute. As recently as Wednesday, PNC executives were under the impression they wouldn't need to find any new capital, according to people familiar with the matter. Thursday morning, the Fed informed PNC that it had a $600 million shortfall. Regulators said other banks also were told they needed more capital than initially projected. The Fed's findings were less severe than some experts had been bracing for. A weeklong rally in bank stocks continued Friday, with the KBW Bank Stocks index surging 10%. Investors were especially relieved by the relatively small capital holes at regional banks. Shares of Fifth Third soared 59%, while Regions Financial Corp.'s $2.5 billion deficit led to a 25% leap in its stock. With the stress tests, government officials were walking a fine line. If the regulators were too tough on banks, they risked angering their constituents and spooking markets. But if they were too soft, the tests could have lost credibility, defeating their basic confidence-building purpose. All the back-and-forth is typical of the way regulators traditionally wrap up their examinations of banks: Regulators often present preliminary findings to lenders and then give them time to respond. The process can result in changes to the regulators' initial conclusions. Some of the stress-test revisions, for instance, were made to account for the beneficial impact of the industry's strong first-quarter profits. On Friday, some analysts questioned the yardstick, known as Tier 1 common capital, that regulators chose to assess capital levels. Many experts had assumed the Fed would use a better-known metric called tangible common equity. According to Gerard Cassidy, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, the 19 banks' cumulative shortfall would have been more than $68 billion deeper if the government had used the latter metric, which accounts for unrealized losses. Federal officials said their projections reflected the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the industry. The test results showed that the 19 banks faced a total of $599 billion in losses over the next two years under the government's worst-case, Depression-like scenario. The Fed directed 10 banks to add a total of nearly $75 billion to their capital buffers to insulate themselves from potential losses. Banks pressed ahead on Friday with plans to fill their capital holes by tapping public markets. Wells Fargo raised $7.5 billion in stock through a public offering. The bank originally planned to raise $6 billion, but expanded the offering, which was valued at $22 a share, due to robust demand. Shares of Wells Fargo rallied $3.42, or 14% to $28.18. Morgan Stanley, which is facing a $1.8 billion capital hole, raised $4 billion by selling stock. Shares of Morgan rose $1.06, or 4%, to $28.20. From dmozart1756 at gmail.com Sat May 9 10:15:30 2009 From: dmozart1756 at gmail.com (Dennis Brasky) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 12:15:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Zero Hour: Calibrating the Case for Intervention in pakistan In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <53a1ffe70905090915m564043e2ncd42fc7a0817782d@mail.gmail.com> > > Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd > > Posted: 07 May 2009 07:33 AM PDT > > A reader writes: > > Do you see Pakistan as an unstable republic with nukes? If yes, is there > anything you might approve of/wish for the United States (and others) to do > to preemptively mitigate the risks that might ensue from political chaos > there? For the sake of argument, let's pretend that the US has pure motives. > > We're obviously going to hear many arguments for why "Pakistan is the one > (even if you didn't like our other interventions)," how Abdul Qadeer Khan > pals around with terrorists, > etc. > > So, it would be helpful to know what canny critics of American imperialism > see as the maximum degree of intervention that would be appropriate. > > > My response: > > > One of the largest empires the world has ever known ? complete with > second-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, capable of wiping out the > planet several times over ? disintegrated completely in the early 1990s, > breaking into a myriad of different nations, and chaotic polities, some of > which went to war with each other while others had internal wars that raged > for years. Corruption was rampant, society collapsed, death rates climbed, > birth rates plunged ? all of this, again, with a vast nuclear arsenal > looming over it all. Yet I don't recall anyone recommending any U.S. > military intervention to "preemptively mitigate the risks that might ensue > from political chaos" in the break-up of the Soviet Union, to which I was > eye-witness for a time. The only difference I can see in regard to Pakistan > is that the scale of the risk and its possible global ramifications are > actually much, much *smaller*. > > Oh, I suppose there is one other difference, of course. The Pakistanis are > Other ? dark-skinned, Asian, Muslim, etc. ? whereas most people perceived > the Soviets to be like Us ? white, European, etc. (Even though, in reality, > many of the peoples of the Soviet Union were in fact dark-skinned, Asian and > Muslim.) And thus, as Other, we must assume that a) they are so primitive, > childish and incapable that they need real people like Us to step and save > them from themselves and sort out their affairs; and b) they are so wild and > crazed that they will seize the first possible opportunity to grab those > nukes and blow up half the world. This is precisely the level of witless > prejudice that underlies -- or indeed, defines -- any argument for > "intervention" in Pakistan, of whatever degree. No matter how the argument > is tricked out with think-tank speak and the savvy tropes of *realpolitik*, > it actually goes no further than that. > > As far as unstable republics with nukes go, it is far more likely that > primitive religionists will seize the US nuclear arsenal and use it in the > Lord's service to blow up half the world, as anyone who has watched the > ever-spreading 'Christianization' of the American military will know. [Jeff > Sharlett has much to say on this point in Harper's, > and Mark Crispin Miller provides more links as well > .] > > As Juan Cole and many others have noted, > the picture now being painted of Pakistan on the verge of a Taliban takeover > is wildly off the mark, and completely ignores the reality (there's *that > *damn thing again!) of Pakistan, which, as I pointed out yesterday, > is actually filled with millions upon millions of ordinary, literate, > peace-loving people, committed to democracy and the rule of law: principles > for which they courageously risked their lives and liberties in ousting an > American-backed military tyrant *just a few months ago.* > > But now, suddenly -- because it serves the needs of a militarist empire > trapped in the worsening quagmire of another pointless, murderous, > destablizing, hate-breeding "intervention" next door -- these same > Pakistanis are being painted as a mob of barbarians who are either cravenly > capitulating to terrorists ? or becoming terrorists themselves. > > As someone who lives surrounded by people of Pakistani origin, I find this > virulent racism and dehumanization ? which is being implied and/or directly > expressed by the highest officials of our political establishment, including > the "progressive," "liberal" Obama Administration ? to be a sickening, > shameful abomination. > > I have no idea what a canny critic of American imperialism might say on the > subject, but in my own decidedly uncanny opinion, the maximum degree of > military intervention in Pakistan that would be appropriate is this: *zero. > * > ** > < > http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1758-zero-hour-calibrating-the-case-for-intervention.html > > > > > > > > From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 9 14:35:44 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 16:35:44 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Ward Churchill Redux In-Reply-To: References: <382322.34809.qm@web30108.mail.mud.yahoo.com><4A021D31.3060308@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: First, in case someone is wondering about my personal circumstances, the doctors will see me on Monday. As I mentioned to a comrade who wrote me off-list: "I'm not being seen until Monday, and although I had originally gotten the impression from my doctor that they'd grab me immediately, do a biopsy, diagnose it, and zap me with radiation or cut it out the same day, I see not this was a sort of hysterical over-reactive interpretation on my part, you know, 'Holy shit -- I probably have cancer? Get it out of there RIGHT NOW!'" Sol you will have to suffer one more weekend of "my act". Speaking of which, Ian writes: "Richard Evans's In Defence of History is very good on this subject. A moderate left Social Democrat rather than a Marxist, he is nonetheless acutely aware of many issues that equally concern us. He founds his argument on the basis that without a notion of scholarly objectivity, there is no truly rational way of making an utterly convincing case against Holocaust deniers. And I do believe his own work in discrediting David Irving on scholarly grounds (showing it to be a tissue of fabrications, lies, distortions of sources, etc.) constitutes the most powerful critique there is." "Scholarly objectivity" is extremely suspect. "Scholarly objectivity" is what allows someone to write about "Holocaust denial" without in the same breath mentioning what has happened to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and above all in the United States, and the portrayal of the fate of indigenous peoples in educational, popular and scholarly works produced by the US and its people (which are really all social products even if individually "authored.") The academic writer in the United States that is worth praising for confronting Holocaust denialism would be the one who doesn't concentrate on a David Irving but rather on just about every last high school US history book ever written, and I daresay most of the college ones, too, not to mention tens of thousands of fiction and nonfiction books, millions of articles and warehouses full of Hollywood movies and TV shows. There is, of course, a political-ideological content to all these works. And it is to create a series of legitimizing myths for the United States of America, and justify the genocide against native peoples (in case anyone asks). There is also a politico-ideological content to most writings, etc., about "The Holocaust" (capital T and capital H) in U.S. society. That content is most often, in fact, overwhelmingly, legitimization of and support to the colonial-settler Zionist entity occupying Palestine and committing genocide against the Palestinian people. For the bourgeois-Zionist ideologists, "holocaust denialism" is not just denying that Jews were massively and systematically murdered by the German variety of white European imperialism, (while the OTHER imperialist powers, who were ENTIRELY aware of what was going on, basically twiddled their thumbs). It ALSO includes challenging that this is a unique and transcendent event with which no other may be compared, and which give "the Jewish people" (although in reality the Zionist movement and its maximum political expression, the state of Israel is meant) the right to "reclaim" into an EXCLUSIVELY Jewish state lands where most of the population had abandoned Judaism for Islam and in some cases Christianity long ago. Thus, opposition to the dispossession of the Semitic Palestinian people by a settler regime dominated by what presents to the Palestinians as the latest white European colonizers becomes "anti Semitic." And the dispossession and extermination of countless native peoples in the Americas and especially in what is now the United States becomes a non-event, disappears from history. Thus you will find in a newspaper like the NY Times many MORE articles relating to "The Holocaust" (capital T capital H) than to the genocide against Indian peoples. Is that because the holocaust of the Jews is more relevant than that of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere? The New York Times, its offices and printing presses and web servers, the homes of its staff, the homes, schools, workplaces and houses of worship of its readers and advertisers, are all on land obtained through the genocidal European settler dispossession of indigenous peoples. The truth of the claim that what happened in parts of Europe for 3, or 5, or a dozen years starting more than seven decades ago is more relevant to the NY Times's audience than the processes through which today's "United States" was created as a distinct socio-economic formation and eventually a state that developed into the world's pre-eminent imperialist power over 500 years is hardly self-evident. It is, in fact, not an "objective" statement but a highly political and ideological one, AS IS ALSO the one I have counterposed to it. That is because ALL accounts of what has happened, either in the journalistic craft or by a historian, involve implicitly a host of judgments about what is important, what is relevant, what is significant. Refuting David Irving, for example, is presented as being of great importance. But why are HIS the historical lies that should receive a high priority in being refuted? Aren't there many more historical lies that need to be deal with as a higher priority, beginning with, to cite just one example, the lie that the United States invaded Cuba in 1898 to help free it from the Spanish, or, to cite another, that the United States has blockaded Cuba for almost half a century to help the Cuban people. What is considered "objective" depends ENTIRELY on what side you are one. And when one finds that there seems to be an almost complete consensus in society about something like "objective journalism," what that shows is NOT that there is such a thing, but that in the given society there is a very cohered ruling class consensus that has been successfully imposed as hegemonic in that society as a whole. Joaquin From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 9 14:38:46 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 16:38:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] The consciousness of the masses In-Reply-To: References: <49FF0AD3.5040408@panix.com> Message-ID: Gary writes: "But we have not made the ultimate mistake of placing our faith in capitalism and its avatars and that is precisely the mistake the workers have and are making. However things will fall apart and the workers will not be able to hold on to their illusions despite all the free beers and sausages. Then we will have our fight with this rotten system and all who sail in it." I think Gary has hit on a very profound insight: "But we have not made the ultimate mistake of placing our faith in capitalism and its avatars and that is precisely the mistake the workers have and are making." This is the difference between OUR movement, the movement of the Marxist intelligentsia in the "advanced" capitalist countries, and the workers movement. WE think in terms of "the ultimate mistake of placing our faith in capitalism." Most regular working people, especially those of our sort of age, think in terms of getting to retirement with a good or at least not too badly decimated pension and social security system. There will come a day when those will converge -- but that day has not yet come. IN THE MEANTIME, we should consider things like, why is there such significant ANTICAPITALIST radicalness and rebelliousness among layers of the (needless to say, petty-bourgeois or petty-bourgeoisified) intelligentsia but not among the true blue proletarians? Is it illegitimate, or wrong? Should we demand that the scribblers, the professoriat and the rest of the chattering classes instead give their wholehearted support to the likes of Bush the Lesser and Dick "Rasputin" Cheney? And even if this "radicalness" is MORE "illegitimate" than Thomas Jefferson's slave sons, should we turn our back on it, ignore it, pretend it isn't there, or even if it is there, that it is simply unworthy of our attention? Joaquin From jbustelo at gmail.com Sat May 9 14:57:52 2009 From: jbustelo at gmail.com (Joaquin Bustelo) Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 16:57:52 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck In-Reply-To: <0A195286FEAD45F490B56B9654189CEA@dmsthinkpad> References: <0A195286FEAD45F490B56B9654189CEA@dmsthinkpad> Message-ID: <68FD4EFD15D3481C9E451E5C40B7B905@albanta> [Since this article is available only behind a subscription firewall that demands all sorts of personal information and includes -- way at the bottom, after a ton of questions, where it might easily be missed -- "permission" to be spammed with the answer pre-set to "yes" and not only from this publication, but third parties, I am taking the liberty of reprinting here in toto to spare comrades having to register with this outfit.] The original is here: Merck published fake journal Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 30th April 2009 04:27 PM GMT] View comments(24) | Comment on this news story Merck paid an undisclosed sum to Elsevier to produce several volumes of a publication that had the look of a peer-reviewed medical journal, but contained only reprinted or summarized articles--most of which presented data favorable to Merck products--that appeared to act solely as marketing tools with no disclosure of company sponsorship. "I've seen no shortage of creativity emanating from the marketing departments of drug companies," Peter Lurie, deputy director of the public health research group at the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen, said, after reviewing two issues of the publication obtained by The Scientist. "But even for someone as jaded as me, this is a new wrinkle." The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, which was published by Exerpta Medica, a division of scientific publishing juggernaut Elsevier, is not indexed in the MEDLINE database, and has no website (not even a defunct one). The Scientist obtained two issues of the journal: Volume 2, Issues 1 and 2, both dated 2003. The issues contained little in the way of advertisements apart from ads for Fosamax, a Merck drug for osteoporosis, and Vioxx. (Click here and here to view PDFs of the two issues.) The claim that Merck had created a journal out of whole cloth to serve as a marketing tool was first reported by The Australian about three weeks ago. It came to light in the context of a civil suit filed by Graeme Peterson, who suffered a heart attack in 2003 while on Vioxx, against Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Australia (MSDA). In testimony provided at the trial last week, which was obtained by The Scientist, George Jelinek, an Australian physician and long-time member of the World Association of Medical Editors, reviewed four issues of the journal that were published from 2003-2004. An "average reader" (presumably a doctor) could easily mistake the publication for a "genuine" peer reviewed medical journal, he said in his testimony. "Only close inspection of the journals, along with knowledge of medical journals and publishing conventions, enabled me to determine that the Journal was not, in fact, a peer reviewed medical journal, but instead a marketing publication for MSD[A]." He also stated that four of the 21 articles featured in the first issue he reviewed referred to Fosamax. In the second issue, nine of the 29 articles related to Vioxx, and another 12 to Fosamax. All of these articles presented positive conclusions regarding the MSDA drugs. "I can understand why a pharmaceutical company would collect a number of research papers with results favourable to their products and make these available to doctors," Jelinek said at the trial. "This is straightforward marketing." Jelinek also pointed out several "review" articles that only cited one or two references. He described one of these articles as "simply a summary of an already published article," and noted that they were authored by "B&J Editorial." "It appears that 'B&J' (presumably Bone and Joint) refers to the Journal, and B&J editorial presumably to the publishers or owners as there is no editor of the journal," Jelinek said in his testimony. "This is a subtle attribution, and many readers may not realise that the paper was written by the owners or publishers of the journal, presuming that is who would write under the heading of 'editorial'." Lurie, in examining two of the issues for The Scientist, agreed that one particularly strange element of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine is that it contains "review" articles that cite just one or two references. "I've never seen anything quite like this," he said. "Reviews are usually swimming in references." For example, one article on osteoporosis labeled above the title as a "meta-analysis" cites two references -- one itself a meta-analysis. "To the jaundiced eye, [the journal] might be detected for what it is: marketing," he said. "Many doctors would fail to identify that and might be influenced by what they read." Lurie noted that the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine is akin to other publishing strategies employed by drug companies; paying for supplements to existing journals or publishing compilations of original research articles that tend to lack scientific rigor (so-called "throwaways"). "It's kissing cousin to two other tricks that the [drug] companies pull." In response to several questions about the publication posed by The Scientist, an MSDA spokesperson wrote in an email: "MSDA understood that Elsevier envisaged the complimentary publication would draw on the vast resources of Elsevier, publishers of many leading peer-reviewed journals including Lancet, Bone, Joint Bone Spine and others, to deliver novel and timely full text articles and abstracts to physicians." Many of the articles appearing in the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were in fact reprints or summaries of studies that originally appeared in other Elsevier journals. A spokesperson for Elsevier, however, told The Scientist, "I wish there was greater disclosure that it was a sponsored journal." Disclosure of Merck's funding of the journal was not mentioned anywhere in the copies of issues obtained by The Scientist. Elsevier acknowledged that Merck had sponsored the publication, but did not disclose the amount the drug company paid. In a statement emailed to The Scientist, Elsevier said that the company "does not today consider a compilation of reprinted articles a 'Journal'." "Elsevier acknowledges the concern that the journals in question didn't have the appropriate disclosures," the statement continued. "It is worth noting that project in question was produced 6 years ago and disclosure protocols have evolved since 2003. Elsevier's current disclosure policies meet the rigor and requirements of the current publishing environment." The Elsevier spokesperson said the company wasn't aware of how many copies of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were produced or how the publication was distributed in Australia, but noted that "the common practice for sponsored journals is that doctors receive them complimentary." The spokesperson added that Elsevier had no plans to look further into the matter. One of the members of Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine's "Honorary Editorial Board," Peter Brooks, a rheumatologist in Australia, said he didn't recall who asked him to serve on the board, but noted that he was on Merck's Asian Pacific and international advisory boards from the mid 1990s until about 2004, as well as the advisory boards of other pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Amgen. "You get involved in a whole bunch of things at this level," Brooks said, adding that he had put his name on "a few advertorials" for pharmaceutical companies about 10 years ago. As for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, he said, "If it would have been put to me that [the journal] was just sort of a throwaway, then I would have said 'no'" to serving on its editorial board. He said he was never paid for his role, adding that he "didn't ever get [manuscripts] to review or anything like that," while on the board, because the journal did not accept original manuscripts for review. "Having looked at one issue, it actually had some marketing studies," Brooks said. "It also had papers that were excerpted from other peer-reviewed journals. I don't think it's fair to say it was totally a marketing journal." Editor's note (April 30): This story has been updated from a previous version. From kmccook at tampabay.rr.com Sat May 9 15:17:38 2009 From: kmccook at tampabay.rr.com (kmccook at tampabay.rr.com) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 17:17:38 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck In-Reply-To: <68FD4EFD15D3481C9E451E5C40B7B905@albanta> References: <0A195286FEAD45F490B56B9654189CEA@dmsthinkpad>, <68FD4EFD15D3481C9E451E5C40B7B905@albanta> Message-ID: <4A05BAB2.21139.19D6633@kmccook.tampabay.rr.com> And there is more about that here: http://librarian.lishost.org/ On 9 May 2009 at 16:57, Joaquin Bustelo wrote: > [Since this article is available only behind a subscription firewall that > demands all sorts of personal information and includes -- way at the bottom, > after a ton of questions, where it might easily be missed -- "permission" to > be spammed with the answer pre-set to "yes" and not only from this > publication, but third parties, I am taking the liberty of reprinting here > in toto to spare comrades having to register with this outfit.] > > The original is here: > > &o_url=blog/display/55671&id=55671> > > Merck published fake journal > Posted by Bob Grant > [Entry posted at 30th April 2009 04:27 PM GMT] > View comments(24) | Comment on this news story > > Merck paid an undisclosed sum to Elsevier to produce several volumes of a > publication that had the look of a peer-reviewed medical journal, but > contained only reprinted or summarized articles--most of which presented > data favorable to Merck products--that appeared to act solely as marketing > tools with no disclosure of company sponsorship. > > "I've seen no shortage of creativity emanating from the marketing > departments of drug companies," Peter Lurie, deputy director of the public > health research group at the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen, > said, after reviewing two issues of the publication obtained by The > Scientist. "But even for someone as jaded as me, this is a new wrinkle." > > The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, which was published by > Exerpta Medica, a division of scientific publishing juggernaut Elsevier, is > not indexed in the MEDLINE database, and has no website (not even a defunct > one). The Scientist obtained two issues of the journal: Volume 2, Issues 1 > and 2, both dated 2003. The issues contained little in the way of > advertisements apart from ads for Fosamax, a Merck drug for osteoporosis, > and Vioxx. (Click here and here to view PDFs of the two issues.) > > The claim that Merck had created a journal out of whole cloth to serve as a > marketing tool was first reported by The Australian about three weeks ago. > It came to light in the context of a civil suit filed by Graeme Peterson, > who suffered a heart attack in 2003 while on Vioxx, against Merck and its > Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Australia (MSDA). > > In testimony provided at the trial last week, which was obtained by The > Scientist, George Jelinek, an Australian physician and long-time member of > the World Association of Medical Editors, reviewed four issues of the > journal that were published from 2003-2004. An "average reader" (presumably > a doctor) could easily mistake the publication for a "genuine" peer reviewed > medical journal, he said in his testimony. "Only close inspection of the > journals, along with knowledge of medical journals and publishing > conventions, enabled me to determine that the Journal was not, in fact, a > peer reviewed medical journal, but instead a marketing publication for > MSD[A]." > > He also stated that four of the 21 articles featured in the first issue he > reviewed referred to Fosamax. In the second issue, nine of the 29 articles > related to Vioxx, and another 12 to Fosamax. All of these articles presented > positive conclusions regarding the MSDA drugs. "I can understand why a > pharmaceutical company would collect a number of research papers with > results favourable to their products and make these available to doctors," > Jelinek said at the trial. "This is straightforward marketing." > > Jelinek also pointed out several "review" articles that only cited one or > two references. He described one of these articles as "simply a summary of > an already published article," and noted that they were authored by "B&J > Editorial." > > "It appears that 'B&J' (presumably Bone and Joint) refers to the Journal, > and B&J editorial presumably to the publishers or owners as there is no > editor of the journal," Jelinek said in his testimony. "This is a subtle > attribution, and many readers may not realise that the paper was written by > the owners or publishers of the journal, presuming that is who would write > under the heading of 'editorial'." > > Lurie, in examining two of the issues for The Scientist, agreed that one > particularly strange element of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint > Medicine is that it contains "review" articles that cite just one or two > references. "I've never seen anything quite like this," he said. "Reviews > are usually swimming in references." For example, one article on > osteoporosis labeled above the title as a "meta-analysis" cites two > references -- one itself a meta-analysis. "To the jaundiced eye, [the > journal] might be detected for what it is: marketing," he said. "Many > doctors would fail to identify that and might be influenced by what they > read." > > Lurie noted that the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine is akin > to other publishing strategies employed by drug companies; paying for > supplements to existing journals or publishing compilations of original > research articles that tend to lack scientific rigor (so-called > "throwaways"). "It's kissing cousin to two other tricks that the [drug] > companies pull." > > In response to several questions about the publication posed by The > Scientist, an MSDA spokesperson wrote in an email: "MSDA understood that > Elsevier envisaged the complimentary publication would draw on the vast > resources of Elsevier, publishers of many leading peer-reviewed journals > including Lancet, Bone, Joint Bone Spine and others, to deliver novel and > timely full text articles and abstracts to physicians." Many of the articles > appearing in the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were in > fact reprints or summaries of studies that originally appeared in other > Elsevier journals. > > A spokesperson for Elsevier, however, told The Scientist, "I wish there was > greater disclosure that it was a sponsored journal." Disclosure of Merck's > funding of the journal was not mentioned anywhere in the copies of issues > obtained by The Scientist. > > Elsevier acknowledged that Merck had sponsored the publication, but did not > disclose the amount the drug company paid. In a statement emailed to The > Scientist, Elsevier said that the company "does not today consider a > compilation of reprinted articles a 'Journal'." > > "Elsevier acknowledges the concern that the journals in question didn't have > the appropriate disclosures," the statement continued. "It is worth noting > that project in question was produced 6 years ago and disclosure protocols > have evolved since 2003. Elsevier's current disclosure policies meet the > rigor and requirements of the current publishing environment." > > The Elsevier spokesperson said the company wasn't aware of how many copies > of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were produced or how > the publication was distributed in Australia, but noted that "the common > practice for sponsored journals is that doctors receive them complimentary." > The spokesperson added that Elsevier had no plans to look further into the > matter. > > One of the members of Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine's > "Honorary Editorial Board," Peter Brooks, a rheumatologist in Australia, > said he didn't recall who asked him to serve on the board, but noted that he > was on Merck's Asian Pacific and international advisory boards from the mid > 1990s until about 2004, as well as the advisory boards of other > pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Amgen. "You get involved in a > whole bunch of things at this level," Brooks said, adding that he had put > his name on "a few advertorials" for pharmaceutical companies about 10 years > ago. > > As for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, he said, "If it > would have been put to me that [the journal] was just sort of a throwaway, > then I would have said 'no'" to serving on its editorial board. He said he > was never paid for his role, adding that he "didn't ever get [manuscripts] > to review or anything like that," while on the board, because the journal > did not accept original manuscripts for review. > > "Having looked at one issue, it actually had some marketing studies," Brooks > said. "It also had papers that were excerpted from other peer-reviewed > journals. I don't think it's fair to say it was totally a marketing > journal." > > Editor's note (April 30): This story has been updated from a previous > version. > > From eindeoc at googlemail.com Sat May 9 16:03:55 2009 From: eindeoc at googlemail.com (Einde O'Callaghan) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 00:03:55 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A05FDCB.70701@googlemail.com> Nick Fredman wrote: > > Something definitely meant to be a dystopia is Margaret Attwood's A > Handmaid's Tale, about the horrific oppression of women after a military > coup in the US led by a sort of Christian fascist movement (there's a decent > movie of it too). Surprisingly not on this list, though it seems some SF > fans don't like it when serious literary types go slumming in speculative > fiction land. > I don't think the author of this list, China Mieville, can be accused of that attitude - after all, one of the authors listed is Iain M. Banks, who also write "serious" literary fiction under the name Iain Banks - and Mervyn Peake is considered to be "serious" literary fiction too. > Anything by William Gibson is interesting, especially his evocation of urban > landscapes, which he's said are influenced by Mike Davis - though maybe in > the superficial way some postmodernists are influenced by Gramsci. > I particularly liked his joint alternative history book with Bruce Stirling, "The Difference Engine" - Marx as leader of the new York commune and Lord Engels in the House of Lords - and that's just the background! Einde O'Callaghan From magnoliabloomberg at gmail.com Sat May 9 17:29:22 2009 From: magnoliabloomberg at gmail.com (oscardelabosca thecatholiccat) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:29:22 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism Message-ID: I'm looking for some resources for teaching 7-11 year olds about consumerism, consumption, consumers etc. from Marxist perspective. Many thanks, Maggie -- An online community shining light into the dark reaches of deep political structures. www.deeppoliticsforum.com From dwaltersMIA at gmail.com Sat May 9 19:58:03 2009 From: dwaltersMIA at gmail.com (nada) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 18:58:03 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Fantasy and SF for socialists., Message-ID: <4A0634AB.3070909@gmail.com> The Difference Engine was also co-authored by William Gibson, the inventor of the cyber-punk genre of sci-fi (Nuronmancer, etc). The "House of Lords" was based in "meritocracy", in this alternate Earth. Thus you had a "Mary, Princess of Mathematics" and status was based on adherence to science, not blood. The alt-history is based largely on the idea that Charles Babbage's computer design, in the 1820s, actually worked, and powered by steam engines that drove these 'difference engines' based on punch cards with vast amounts of information on them. Control of these engines meant control of society. Amazingly creative concept. David From jeremy at infowells.com Sat May 9 20:23:21 2009 From: jeremy at infowells.com (Jerry Wells) Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 19:23:21 -0700 Subject: [Marxism] Global Research review: " Web of Debt": The Inner Workings of the Monetary System Message-ID: <1241922202.4313.169.camel@pool-96-251-28-50.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net> FYI: This is a first part of an extensive three part book review from Global Research that contains a lot of interesting historical material. I look forward to seeing what the "solution" will be to "a world (banking) power elite intent on gaining absolute control over the planet and its natural resources". " Web of Debt": The Inner Workings of the Monetary System A review of Ellen Brown's book by Stephen Lendman http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13510 Global Research, May 6, 2009 This is the first of several articles on Ellen Brown's superb 2007 book titled "Web of Debt," now updated in a December 2008 third edition. It tells "the shocking truth about our money system, (how it) trapped us in debt, and how we can break free." Given today's global economic crisis, it's an appropriate time to review it and urge readers to digest the entire work, easily gotten through Amazon or Brown's webofdebt.com site. Her book is a remarkable achievement - in its scope, depth, and importance. In the forward, banker/developer Reed Simpson said: "I have been a banker for most of my career, and I can report that even most bankers (don't know) what goes on behind (top echelon) closed doors....I am more familiar than most with the issues (Brown covered, and) still found it an eye-opener, a remarkable window into what is really going on....(Although many banks follow high ethical practices), corruption is also rampant, (especially) in the large money center banks, in one of which I worked." "Credible evidence (reveals) a world (banking) power elite intent on gaining absolute control over the planet and its natural resources, including its subservient human (ones)." Money is their "lifeblood," and "fear (their) weapon." Ill-used, they can "enslave nations and ensure perpetual wars and bondage." Brown exposes the scheme and offers a solution." From stuartmunckton at gmail.com Sat May 9 23:31:23 2009 From: stuartmunckton at gmail.com (Stuart Munckton) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 15:31:23 +1000 Subject: [Marxism] More than 2000 Tamils killed overnight in Sri Lankan shelling of 'safe zone' Message-ID: <2c6145850905092231l52297863n930469480d434264@mail.gmail.com> More than 2,000 civilians feared slaughtered in a single night [TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2009, 02:55 GMT] *Indiscriminate barrage of shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on the 'safety zone' starting from Saturday night to Sunday morning slaughtered more than 2,000 civilians including large number of women and children, medical sources in Vanni said quoting the injured who managed to reach the makeshift hospital. Dead bodies are scattered everywhere and 814 wounded managed to reach the makeshift hospital up to 9:25 a.m., doctors said. Every kind of lethal weapon such as the internationally banned cluster shells and shells fired from Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers and Cannons were used turning the so-called safety zone into a killing field. The SLA usually chooses weekends for its massacres to minimise international attention.* The entire family of a devoted nursing officer, Gracian Tharmarasa, has been wiped out in the shelling. Dead bodies are found in bunkers and inside the tarpaulin tents. The exact number of the killed and injured is yet to be ascertained. 257 dead bodies, including 67 that of children, have been brought to the hospital. 112 of the injured brought to the hospital were children. The makeshift hospital which is now running in junior school in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal is struggling beyond words to cope with the situation, the medical sources said. "This is the first time in history where the International Community and the UN have politically experimented such a mass killing of civilians in a single day by giving an almost open consent to a government," described a human rights professional in Colombo upon hearing the news. The large scale slaughter is believed to be a result of India prodding Colombo to finish the war before the change of government, political circles in Colombo said adding that it seems that the 'war on terror' has been translated into 'war on civilians' in the time of Obama Administration. -- "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 sabocat59 at mac.com Sun May 10 04:46:47 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 10:46:47 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck, Message-ID: <1002190286-1241952565-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1865444864-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> Since many (not all) medical doctors are just shills for the pharmaceutical industry anyway, the fact that Merck paid Elsevier to create yet another scientistic marketing tool to peddle its wares is not surprising. The drug salesmen probably use it for handouts when they make their regular rounds to pitch the newest snake oil. Back in the 19th century the cure-all tonic served a similar purpose. Its distinct advantage over the current crop is that more often than not it contained opium. So even if it did not work it you could at least get high. Oh, and even though it was addictive it was not harmful enough to kill you. Greg McDonald Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From marxistfront at yahoo.co.in Sun May 10 05:06:38 2009 From: marxistfront at yahoo.co.in (marxist front) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 16:36:38 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Marxism] The Condition of Construction Workers in the National Capital Region of Delhi Message-ID: <561522.85286.qm@web94808.mail.in2.yahoo.com> A Report by Nirman Majdoor Shakti Sangathan (NMSS), affiliated to New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), on condition of Construction Workers in the National Capital Region of Delhi. http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv14n2/construction.htm They build houses and are seen arduously and meticulously laying bricks on cement-sand mortar up to hundreds of metres in height stepping on dangerously built make-shift ladders of bamboo loosely tied by coconut ropes and risking their lives only to make somebody?s dream home come true. But what about their own life? They are condemned to live in shanty hutments just below the building which they are making. And once the building is complete they have to shift with their meagre belongings to another construction site. And again the same vicious circle moves. They can never dream of their own roof. How can they? They don?t even get the minimum wages and whatever money they get is totally insufficient to meet their daily ration. They live a life of just above stray animals. This is the sad tale of the construction workers. There are such 8.5 million workers engaged in building and other construction activities in India. They constitute the most vulnerable segment amongst the unorganised workforce in the country owing to their temporary nature of work and lack of a definite employee-employer relationship. Apart from this there is neither a fixed working hour, nor any documentation like an employee register, attendance, etc .maintained by the employers due to the temporary nature of assignment. The risk to life and limb is manifold more than that of their counterparts engaged in other organised/unorganised sectors. They do not get any proper medical facility and any statutory grievance mechanism is also totally absent for them. Whatever statutory provisions exist for them the apathetic bureaucratic machinery has made it so labyrinthine and complicated that it is beyond the limit of an ordinary worker to approach any such forum or institutional body. The indifferent attitude of the central and respective state governments has compelled the construction and building workers to live in utter exploitation and deprivation. There is no scene of the end of injustice perpetrated upon them by both their employers and the state machinery in the near future. Most of the construction workers are migrant labourers and landless labourers from U.P, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other economically weaker regions of India. A majority of them are OBC, Dalit or Scheduled tribes who come to urban centres like Delhi, Mumbai and other Metros and cities in search of either livelihood or to supplement their earnings during the lean period when their main source of employment ( agriculture and other peripheral activities associated with it) is not available in season (i.e. in non-sowing season). Full article at http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv14n2/construction.htm ? ? ? ? ? ? Lal Salam (Red Salute) P (India) www.geocities.com/marxistfront marxistfront at yahoo.co.in "When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist." --Dom Helder Camara ***** Bollywood news, movie reviews, film trailers and more! Go to http://in.movies.yahoo.com/ From pbond at mail.ngo.za Sun May 10 05:31:17 2009 From: pbond at mail.ngo.za (Patrick Bond) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 13:31:17 +0200 Subject: [Marxism] CCS Seminar: Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu on 'demise of 1652 class project', 13 May, 12:30-2pm Message-ID: <4A06BB05.4040401@mail.ngo.za> Join us at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society for a seminar, "Azania Rising: The demise of the 1652 class project", which advances alternatives to capitalist class society in Africa Speaker: Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu, CCS Date: Wednesday, 13th May Time: 12:30-2pm Venue: CCS/SDS seminar room, Memorial Tower Building Room F208 University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College Campus Queries: poonenh at ukzn.ac.za or 031-260-3195 This seminar addresses the problem of a cosmetic elite in Africa. We consider whether the Marxist construct of class remains relevant in the struggle for total liberation from the fetters of the Colonial Capitalist Mode of Production which continues to nurture white supremacist ideology and gross socio-economic disparities across the continent. Capitalism produces and reproduces itself as an antagonistic structure of class relations; it divides the population again and again into antagonistic classes. Within the material and social relations are produced and reproduced the material conditions of existence. Marxist analysis maintains that the prior distribution of the means of production distinguishes classes between the ?possessors? and the ?dispossessed?. The historical incorporation of Africa and its non-capitalist systems into an evolving capitalist mode of production has resulted in an even more complex set of class relations. The predominate mode of production in most of Africa remains the Colonial Capitalist Mode of Production. No class analysis of Africa is complete without considering this basic fact. In all regions on the continent, social class formations survive only as long as they complement Colonial relations of production. Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu is a CCS Community Scholar, in 2008 named as one of South Africa's leading 100 youth by the Mail&Guardian. From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 10 06:47:24 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 08:47:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A06CCDC.9040407@panix.com> oscardelabosca thecatholiccat wrote: > I'm looking for some resources for teaching 7-11 year olds about > consumerism, consumption, consumers etc. from Marxist perspective. Many > thanks, Maggie > Marxist literature for children: http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/children/index.htm From christopher.hutch at gmail.com Sun May 10 06:58:24 2009 From: christopher.hutch at gmail.com (Christopher Hutchinson) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 08:58:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] General Strike Comics: Scourge of the Ocean Message-ID: New comic about the Somalian "pirates"... www.GeneralStrikeComics.com It has been a minute since I've last posted to General Strike Comics. I apologize for the delay between posts, but I've been really busy working on other projects. This may last until the end of May so hopefully in June I'll be able to begin a more steady stream of comics. keep well, christopher From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 10 07:00:46 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:00:46 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Richard Lewontin on Darwin Message-ID: <4A06CFFE.30909@panix.com> NYR, Volume 56, Number 9 ? May 28, 2009 Why Darwin? By Richard C. Lewontin Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography by Janet Browne Grove, 174 pp., $13.00 (paper) The Annotated Origin: A Facsimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, annotated by James T. Costa Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 537 pp., $35.00 Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne Viking, 282 pp., $27.95 It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick by Greg Gibson FT Press, 187 pp., $24.99 When I was a student I was enjoined to reject the "Cleopatra's Nose" theory of history, so called after Pascal's remark in the Pens?es : "Cleopatra's nose: if it had been shorter, everything in the world would have changed."[1] The intent was not to dismiss biography as a way into the structuring of a historical narrative, but to reject the idea that the properties, ideas, or actions of some particular person were the necessary conditions for the unfolding of events in the world. If Josef Djugashvili had never been born, someone else could have been Stalin. full: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22694 From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 10 07:14:03 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:14:03 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Andrew Jackson: slave-owner and Indian killer Message-ID: <4A06D31B.1020805@panix.com> The New York Review of Books Volume 56, Number 9 ? May 28, 2009 Goodbye to the 'Age of Jackson'? By Daniel Howe American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham Random House, 483 pp., $30.00 Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini Palgrave Macmillan, 204 pp., $21.95 Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson by David S. Reynolds Harper, 466 pp., $29.95 Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829?1877 by Walter A. McDougall HarperPerennial, 787 pp., $19.99 (paper) During the years between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War of 1846, the United States underwent a great transformation. In 1815, at the close of the second war with Britain, the US was what we would call a "developing" country. Most people worked in agriculture, often on semisubsistence family farms, eating food they grew, their lives governed by the weather and the hours of daylight. It was the slowness and uncertainty of transportation and communications that kept their lives so primitive. Only people who lived near navigable water could readily market crops; others relied heavily on barter with their neighbors and the local storekeeper. Only luxury goods could bear the cost of long-distance transportation on land, and information from the wider world was among the most precious of luxuries. Thirty-three years later, in 1848, at the end of the war with Mexico, much had changed. The United States had become a transcontinental major power. Its expanded empire stretched from sea to sea, integrated by revolutionary innovations in transportation and communications. These included the railroad, the telegraph, the steamboat, the Erie Canal, the steam-operated printing press, and innovations in papermaking. The mechanization of agriculture had begun, with Cyrus McCormick's invention of the reaper in 1831 and John Deere's steel plow in 1837. Techniques of mass production, even more important than mechanical inventions, were starting to transform manufacturing's age-old artisan traditions. Little Bookroom / Savoir Fare London These innovations not only raised the standard of living but also fostered the growth of democracy. Improvements in communications rescued people from the tyranny of isolation. Cheaper paper, more efficient printing, and faster transportation encouraged the proliferation of newspapers and magazines. These could be distributed through the mails thanks to federal policies that multiplied small-town post offices and subsidized printed matter with low postage rates. The press in turn facilitated the development of nationwide mass political parties. Many newspapers were put out by political parties (or factions within parties) and existed more to voice a point of view than for commercial reasons. American democracy expanded as rival candidates exploited the newspapers and magazines to appeal to the nationwide public. Andrew Jackson filled his "kitchen cabinet" of informal advisers with newspapermen. By 1840, as many as four out of five qualified voters were going to the polls?a far higher level of participation than has been achieved by the expanded electorate of recent decades. Mass democracy had replaced the patrician republic created by the Founders. Since this "middle period" in American history is so interesting and important, why does it get so little attention compared with the Revolutionary era of the Founders and the time of the Civil War? Even academic historians have had little to say about it in recent years, if one may judge from the number of papers presented at meetings of the Organization of American Historians. The answer seems to have something to do with the identification of this period as "the age of Jackson" or "the Jacksonian era." Andrew Jackson has long been at the center of attention for the years from the War of 1812 to the war with Mexico. Rising to a position of political dominance in a peaceful revolution, he has seemed to personify the common man as an American hero. Over the years the identity of this "common man" has shifted. For the Progressive historians Frederick Jackson Turner and Vernon Louis Parrington in the early 1900s, the common nineteenth-century American was a frontier farmer. For the New Deal Democrat Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., he was an urban workingman. Still, Jackson could be portrayed by all three as the leader of a democratic movement. During the past half-century the records of many national heroes have come under challenge, and none more so than Andrew Jackson's. Historians noticed that Jackson, the symbol of American democracy, was an ardent white supremacist. Upon assuming the presidency in 1829, Old Hickory's highest priority was "Indian Removal": the expulsion of the Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi to designated areas west of the river. Against strong opposition, Jackson pushed his removal measure through Congress by narrow margins and then enforced it ruthlessly. Turner, Parrington, and Schlesinger all ignored Indian Removal when writing about Jackson's presidency; more recent historians could not do so. Jackson was not only a slaveholder himself but a strong defender of slavery against its contemporary critics. In 1835 abolitionists began to mail their literature to prominent Southern whites who they hoped might be open to persuasion. Jackson interpreted their action as inciting the slaves to rebellion; he expressed his loathing for the abolitionists vehemently, both in public and in private. With the President's full support, Postmaster General Amos Kendall encouraged local postmasters to censor the mails. When Congress responded with a statute mandating that mail be delivered to its addressee, Jackson's administration ignored it. Jackson's embrace of class conflict has endeared him to some liberal historians, notably Schlesinger. When vetoing the bill extending the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, Old Hickory wrote this memorable denunciation: The rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions.... But when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society?the farmers, mechanics, and laborers?who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. It should be evident that Jackson's notion of class did not pit the propertyless against capitalism, but (as the historian Richard Hofstadter long ago pointed out) rallied believers in bourgeois values to denounce government favoritism to a privileged few. Beginning with Edward Pessen's study Jacksonian America in 1969, the claim of Jackson's political movement to egalitarianism has been under serious challenge. With regard to gender, Andrew Jackson proved a staunch defender of patriarchy. "I did not come here [to Washington] to make a Cabinet for the Ladies of this place," he declared in reaction to a group of Democratic women who shunned the wife of his secretary of war, John Eaton, because of allegations that she was sexually promiscuous and that her affair with Eaton before their marriage had driven her first husband to suicide. As the scandal grew more intense, Jackson told his cabinet members that he expected them to keep their wives in line. Rather than admit the existence of a social sphere in which women exercised autonomy, Jackson then replaced his entire cabinet. As Jackson's standing in the American democratic pantheon has been shaken, public interest in the middle period of US history as a whole has diminished. Without Old Hickory as a unifying focus, no alternative intepretation of the era has yet captured the popular imagination. To be sure, efforts have been made to reconstitute the "Jacksonian" character of the time. In 1991 Charles Sellers described his vision of an evil "Market Revolution" forced upon unwilling, noncommercial farm families?a vision that resembled that of Vernon Parrington to a surprising extent. In this morality play, Jackson led the vain but heroic resistance to commercial capitalism. However, economic historians have not confirmed Sellers's celebration of subsistence farming, and have pointed out that Americans were dealing in a global market as early as colonial times. As recently as 2005, Sean Wilentz restated Schlesinger's interpretation of Jackson as the cutting edge of "the rise of American democracy." But Wilentz has moved away from the history of the nineteenth century, as did Schlesinger himself, and into the politics of the present. For the most part, both historians and the general public have found it harder and harder to regard Jackson as an authentic democratic hero. Against this historiographical background, we now have Jon Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. One can only marvel that the editor of Newsweek finds so much time and energy for historical research and writing. Like Meacham's other books, his new one is well written and reflects study of original manuscript sources. It contains more personal detail and charming anecdotes about White House life in the Jackson years than any other book since Marquis James's Andrew Jackson: Portrait of a President (1937). Meacham places himself in the mainstream of present-day American liberalism. Accordingly, he makes no effort to defend Indian Removal, justly concluding, "There is nothing redemptive about Jackson's Indian policy." Meacham is loath to admit, however, that there was a difference between the Indian policy pursued by Andrew Jackson and that of his predecessor and political opponent, John Quincy Adams. Jackson zealously pursued Indian Removal as a major goal of his administration. On the other hand, Adams tried as president to respect the Indians' treaty rights as best he could even while recognizing that the behavior of their white neighbors made this very difficult. After Jackson's inauguration, Adams saw that the Indians were likely to lose their land, but he wanted to expose the "perfidy and tyranny of which the Indians are to be made the victims." Jackson rejoiced in Indian Removal as a triumph for himself, his party, and US national interests. His instructions to the army officers who carried it out always emphasized haste and sometimes economy, but never the need for humanity, honesty, or careful planning. Adams recalled Indian Removal as "a perpetual harrow upon my feelings." Meacham's evaluations of Jackson's other policies in office vary. Arthur Schlesinger had glorified Jackson's "war" on the national bank as an attack on big business that prefigured FDR's assault on "malefactors of great wealth." Meacham adopts a more detached and judicious perspective. "On balance," he writes, it seems most reasonable to say that the nation's interests would have been best served had the Bank been reformed rather than altogether crushed, but balance was not the order of the day once Jackson decided?as he had done early on?that the Bank was a competing power center beyond his control. Meacham praises Jackson's handling of the Nullification Crisis of 1832?1833, as everyone does today, and as even the opposition party did at the time. South Carolina "nullified" two federal tariff acts when a special convention declared them null and void within that state. Jackson's credible threat of military action to enforce federal law combined with Henry Clay's famous aptitude for compromise resolved the crisis with the promise that the tariff would be gradually lowered. On the other hand, Meacham grants that Jackson's Specie Circular of 1836?which required payment for government land in gold and silver and not paper currency?nudged the country into a sharp recession that turned into a prolonged depression. In short, Meacham's verdicts on Jackson's presidential policies are mixed and restrained. Yet at the end, Meacham glorifies Jackson as a lion in the White House. He rejoices that Jackson was a strong president, and that later strong presidents?the two Roosevelts and Truman?looked back on his example with approval. Well, yes, Jackson was a strong president, but his strength was charismatic and personal rather than institutional. He did not strengthen the presidency as such; if anything, his abuses of power (such as removing the government's deposits from the national bank, in defiance of statutory law) made people fearful of the executive branch. After Jackson, there commenced a series of weak presidencies. Of his next eight successors, only one, James Knox Polk, could be considered strong, and even he served only one term. The next strong president, Lincoln, had belonged all his adult life to the party opposed to the Jacksonian Democrats (that is, first the Whigs and then the Republicans). Lincoln was certainly no disciple of Jackson's, although he cited Jackson's resistance to nullification once in a while for tactical reasons. Lincoln pursued the policies of John Quincy Adams, who shared his loathing for slavery, supported much the same program of federal aid to transportation, education, and industrialization that Lincoln enacted, and foresaw not only civil war and emancipation, but even the mechanism by which emancipation could occur?the presidential war powers. A further irony cries out for notice. Why should a liberal like Meacham celebrate a strong presidency per se? Maybe Barack Obama will be accounted a strong president. But as of now we haven't had a strong liberal Democratic president for over forty years. We have had some strong Republican presidents in that time: Reagan, Nixon until overcome by Watergate, the younger Bush until overcome by Iraq. Hasn't Meecham read Schlesinger's Imperial Presidency , which testified to the author's disillusionment with a strong executive? Robert Remini, official historian of the US House of Representatives, has devoted most of his long and prolific career to lives of Andrew Jackson and his famous contemporaries Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, and Joseph Smith. His latest book is a military biography of Jackson that appears in a series called Great Generals, edited by former NATO commander Wesley Clark. Lucid and straightforward, it will no doubt prove useful to cadets and military history buffs of all ages, and it will remind students of political history that Jackson always remained primarily a military man. Remini is a scrupulous and honest researcher who never bends his findings to his wishes. Although he much admires Jackson, Remini admits that his hero obeyed orders only when he agreed with them, committed wholesale violations of civil liberties, and owed his victories as much to luck as military skill. By my count, this is Remini's fourteenth book on Jackson. If there is anything very new in this one, he doesn't point it out. David Reynolds's ambitious book, Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson , is the work of a literary historian who has turned to the social context of literature (what literary scholars call "cultural studies") and then to history itself. Clearly he wants to remedy the lack of public interest in the middle period, a worthy goal, and to call attention to the rich diversity of America in that era. Accordingly, Reynolds writes about politics and popular culture, literature, drama, and art, and he is particularly perceptive in his comments on painting. He describes the religious movements of the day, emphasizing their multitudinous variety. Bizarre fringe groups especially engage his attention. He gathers together in one chapter "reforms, panaceas, inventions, [and] fads," including a good account of the temperance movement and some elementary history of science. Reynolds explains his approach this way: Most overviews of the period slight its bumptious, nonconformist, roistering elements, its oddities and cultural innovations?its Barnum freaks, crime-filled scandal sheets, erotic pulp novels, frontier screamers, mesmeric healers, half-mile-long paintings; its street-fighting newspaper editors, earth-rattling actors, incarcerated anarchists; its free-love communes, time-traveling clairvoyants, polygamous prophets, and table-lifting spirit-rappers?all of which created social ferment and provided fodder for energetic American literary and artistic masterpieces. Unfortunately, Reynolds never develops an interpretation of his period beyond his fascination with variety and oddity. He does not recognize the spiritual hunger that the various religions addressed, the moral earnestness of the varied reformers, or the very real differences of policy between the rival political parties. He never explains why people had such intense faith in progress, or the relationship between science and religion at the time. He presents considerable material on sex, including masturbation, prostitution, and abortion, but seems chiefly interested in the sensational aspects of the material, like the coverage in the penny press of the murder of the prostitute Helen Jewett. Reynolds makes superficiality a virtue; America, he keeps insisting, was superficial, sensational, and tawdry. While trying to break new ground, Reynolds retains the conventional sense that Andrew Jackson embodied the democracy of his period; to believe in democracy was to support Jackson politically. Accordingly, Reynolds minimizes Jackson's white supremacist policies. He represents Indian Removal as simply reflecting a consensus among whites, ignoring the powerful opposition to Jackson's expulsion program. He characterizes Jackson's censorship of antislavery mailings as a moderate measure designed to "prevent conflict over slavery"; it would be more accurate to describe it as designed to protect slavery from criticism. Only three years before the publication of Waking Giant , Reynolds published John Brown, Abolitionist , portraying the antislavery fanatic as a hero and denying that he was a terrorist, despite his murders of Southern settlers in Kansas. It is quite impossible to reconcile Reynolds's celebration of Brown's militant version of abolitionism with his defense in this book of Jackson as a racial moderate. One is left wondering whether Reynolds was attracted to Brown's career simply because of its hopeless, useless violence, and the drama of his defeat. "This period can be divided culturally into the pre-Jacksonian and Jacksonian phases," Reynolds writes. "The dividing point between the two phases occurs around 1828, the year Jackson was first elected president and became a truly symbolic, and controversial, hero of the people." Before 1828, Reynolds explains, the pre-Jacksonian writers Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper produced works under the influence of European models. After that date, American literature became more independent, reaching its enduring greatness under the leadership of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Melville. We can agree; but tying this evolution to party politics doesn't work. Cooper supported Jackson's Democratic Party, and Irving accepted office under Jackson. On the other side of the divide, Emerson and Thoreau never identified with Jacksonian democracy, while Whitman quit the Democratic Party in disgust at its proslavery position well before publishing Leaves of Grass. Hawthorne was indeed a partisan Democrat, but took his literary inspiration from Puritanism, not Jacksonianism. Melville's Ahab is a sinister embodiment of demagogy. It is surprising that Reynolds, a respected literary historian, puts forward such a simplistic political interpretation of literature. Whatever usefulness Waking Giant might possess is vitiated by a multitude of factual errors, particularly evident when Reynolds is discussing political matters. The Monroe Doctrine did not actually arise "from a quarrel with England." Andrew Jackson was not the first president to use the pocket veto. The Liberty Party was not the same as the Free Soil Party. Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was not arrested for polygamy, but for suppressing a critical newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he was mayor. Secretary of the Treasury William Duane was not "a supporter of the BUS [Bank of the United States]"; he opposed its recharter but declined to violate statutory law by removing the federal deposits from the bank in the absence of a finding that they were unsafe there. In listing Whig presidents, Reynolds includes John Tyler, who was expelled from the party, and forgets Millard Fillmore. Citations are frequently ambiguous or not supplied at all, even for remarkable assertions such as this one: "Premarital pregnancy rates fell from 30 percent in the late eighteenth century to under 10 percent by 1850." Reynolds's latest book is, accordingly, not simply a failed effort but quite unworthy of the author of such fine works as Walt Whitman's America (1995) and Faith in Fiction (1981). For a similarly broad-based work, celebrating American cultural diversity in Whitmanesque fashion and more sympathetic to Andrew Jackson than I am myself, a much better choice would be Walter A. McDougall's Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829?1877. The title is a quotation from Whitman's Leaves of Grass: "And sing me before you go the song of the throes of Democracy." McDougall has his quirky likes and dislikes, which keep a reader engaged; he has new ideas on some subjects; and he provides information that is much more reliable than Reynolds's. McDougall is not in the least intimidated by current intellectual fashions. He is more critical of Andrew Jackson for destroying the national bank of his day than for his part in expelling the Indians from east of the Mississippi. He is surprisingly critical of Lincoln, whom he accuses of alienating Virginia by a premature call for troops to suppress South Carolina's rebellion. He portrays an age in transition, when Americans too often deluded themselves with self-righteous pretensions, an age in which he finds parallels with our own, but not the simplistic ones of conventional historiography. McDougall's characteristically imaginative assessment of the two political parties of the middle period deserves quoting at length: Who were the conservatives and who were the liberals in this second party system? If one adopts twentieth-century definitions it might appear that the libertarian Democrats were the conservatives and the statist Whigs the liberals. But in the parlance of nineteenth-century Britain, where the labels originated, the reverse would be true. In regard to slavery, free-soil Whigs would appear the liberals and the Democrats supporters of a racist status quo. But in regard to workers' rights as understood later in the century, neither party was "progressive." In regard to ethnic and religious tolerance the Democrats would appear the liberals, since they embraced Catholics and immigrants. But in regard to education and social reform the reverse would be true. The only way to get a grip on the growing divide among Americans in the mid-nineteenth century is to purge our contemporary notion of the political spectrum and try instead to imagine the ambivalent anxieties of a freewheeling people with one foot in manure and the other in a telegraph office. McDougall's juxtaposition of manure and a telegraph office is an inspired metaphor for the changes of the period he treats. Andrew Jackson arrived in Washington in a carriage in 1829 and left eight years later on a train. The revolutionary consequences of new technology in transportation and communications that transformed American life during the middle period can provide a better focus for historical writing than a personality cult focused on Jackson himself. The term "Jacksonian America" is inappropriate and misleading. Jackson was a divisive figure who polarized people and whose policies as president proved as often harmful as beneficial. Taking Andrew Jackson to typify early-nineteenth-century America does a disservice to our country's history, which has many interesting aspects and admirable people outside the orbit of Jacksonian Democracy (originally the name of the Democratic Party, not a general characterization of the United States). Most Americans today consider the abolitionists heroes, though Andrew Jackson hated and feared them. Other candidates for present-day honor include DeWitt Clinton, mastermind of the Erie Canal, built by the State of New York; Horace Greeley, crusading journalist; Horace Mann, advocate of state aid to the public schools that would create a literate citizenry; Lucretia Mott, Quaker feminist; and the black polemicist David Walker. Jackson's partisan rivals the Whigs, often disparaged simply as snobs who couldn't reconcile themselves to equal rights, actually have a strong claim on our respectful attention. The Whigs (their name was the traditional one for critics of executive abuses in Anglo-American history) understood the benefits of economic development and wanted government at all levels to promote it. They, not Jackson, endorsed federal government intervention in the economy. When the stock market crashed in 1837?1839, the Whig leader, Henry Clay, declared the American people "entitled to the protecting care of a parental Government." The Democrats, led by Jackson's chosen successor Martin Van Buren, insisted that Washington observe strict laissez faire. The American experience between 1815 and 1848 did much to shape the country we live in. Social reform, religious zeal, large-scale immigration, wild swings of the business cycle, wars brought on by executive power in the face of severe moral criticism?these and other issues bear a surprising resemblance to some we face today. They can well bear reexamination by historians and citizens who seek to understand the past and its effect on the present. Such a reexamination may reorient the conventional definition of a "Jacksonian" period and provide a new perspective on the politics of that time. Who knows, today's liberals might find many of their sympathies engaged not by Jackson's Democrats but by the Whig party of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and the young Abraham Lincoln. From e.c.apling at btinternet.com Sun May 10 07:30:52 2009 From: e.c.apling at btinternet.com (Paddy Apling) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 14:30:52 +0100 Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck In-Reply-To: <68FD4EFD15D3481C9E451E5C40B7B905@albanta> References: <0A195286FEAD45F490B56B9654189CEA@dmsthinkpad> <68FD4EFD15D3481C9E451E5C40B7B905@albanta> Message-ID: <5126A3D5D32C47F1969C1261FF46DF4B@PaddyPC> I have not seem this Merck publication, but considerably doubt the implications of foul play, The Merck Index, a publication of that company that I _am_ familiar with is a highly reputable publication, which is often the most highly regarded reference source for professionals looking for the latest information on chemicals, drugs and biological materials. on a par with "Martindale". published by the Pharmaceutical Society, which is the first reference source for clinical information on pharmaceuticals. In a similar fashion the Geigy company, publishes Documenta Geigy, which is always my first reference book of Scientific Tables and information on microbiology, antibiotics and so forth - including a comprehensive coverage of statistical methods (and their perils, so often disregarded in so many scientific and governmental papers these days). My copies of these books (now rather old) came to me gratis, unlike Martindale which cost me ?159-?200 - and though, no doubt, their cost comes out of the advertising budget of those companies, their service to professionals looking quickly for reliable information is undoubted - and the information is clearly unbiased. It is merely keeping the company names in high regard among professionals that is their aim - and any bias would rapidly be recognised by professionals and be damaging to the companies' reputations. Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joaquin Bustelo" To: Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 9:57 PM Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck > [Since this article is available only behind a subscription firewall that > demands all sorts of personal information and includes -- way at the > bottom, > after a ton of questions, where it might easily be missed -- "permission" > to > be spammed with the answer pre-set to "yes" and not only from this > publication, but third parties, I am taking the liberty of reprinting here > in toto to spare comrades having to register with this outfit.] > > The original is here: > > &o_url=blog/display/55671&id=55671> > > Merck published fake journal > Posted by Bob Grant > [Entry posted at 30th April 2009 04:27 PM GMT] > View comments(24) | Comment on this news story > > Merck paid an undisclosed sum to Elsevier to produce several volumes of a > publication that had the look of a peer-reviewed medical journal, but > contained only reprinted or summarized articles--most of which presented > data favorable to Merck products--that appeared to act solely as marketing > tools with no disclosure of company sponsorship. > > "I've seen no shortage of creativity emanating from the marketing > departments of drug companies," Peter Lurie, deputy director of the public > health research group at the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen, > said, after reviewing two issues of the publication obtained by The > Scientist. "But even for someone as jaded as me, this is a new wrinkle." > > The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, which was published > by > Exerpta Medica, a division of scientific publishing juggernaut Elsevier, > is > not indexed in the MEDLINE database, and has no website (not even a > defunct > one). The Scientist obtained two issues of the journal: Volume 2, Issues 1 > and 2, both dated 2003. The issues contained little in the way of > advertisements apart from ads for Fosamax, a Merck drug for osteoporosis, > and Vioxx. (Click here and here to view PDFs of the two issues.) > > The claim that Merck had created a journal out of whole cloth to serve as > a > marketing tool was first reported by The Australian about three weeks ago. > It came to light in the context of a civil suit filed by Graeme Peterson, > who suffered a heart attack in 2003 while on Vioxx, against Merck and its > Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Australia (MSDA). > > In testimony provided at the trial last week, which was obtained by The > Scientist, George Jelinek, an Australian physician and long-time member of > the World Association of Medical Editors, reviewed four issues of the > journal that were published from 2003-2004. An "average reader" > (presumably > a doctor) could easily mistake the publication for a "genuine" peer > reviewed > medical journal, he said in his testimony. "Only close inspection of the > journals, along with knowledge of medical journals and publishing > conventions, enabled me to determine that the Journal was not, in fact, a > peer reviewed medical journal, but instead a marketing publication for > MSD[A]." > > He also stated that four of the 21 articles featured in the first issue he > reviewed referred to Fosamax. In the second issue, nine of the 29 articles > related to Vioxx, and another 12 to Fosamax. All of these articles > presented > positive conclusions regarding the MSDA drugs. "I can understand why a > pharmaceutical company would collect a number of research papers with > results favourable to their products and make these available to doctors," > Jelinek said at the trial. "This is straightforward marketing." > > Jelinek also pointed out several "review" articles that only cited one or > two references. He described one of these articles as "simply a summary of > an already published article," and noted that they were authored by "B&J > Editorial." > > "It appears that 'B&J' (presumably Bone and Joint) refers to the Journal, > and B&J editorial presumably to the publishers or owners as there is no > editor of the journal," Jelinek said in his testimony. "This is a subtle > attribution, and many readers may not realise that the paper was written > by > the owners or publishers of the journal, presuming that is who would write > under the heading of 'editorial'." > > Lurie, in examining two of the issues for The Scientist, agreed that one > particularly strange element of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint > Medicine is that it contains "review" articles that cite just one or two > references. "I've never seen anything quite like this," he said. "Reviews > are usually swimming in references." For example, one article on > osteoporosis labeled above the title as a "meta-analysis" cites two > references -- one itself a meta-analysis. "To the jaundiced eye, [the > journal] might be detected for what it is: marketing," he said. "Many > doctors would fail to identify that and might be influenced by what they > read." > > Lurie noted that the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine is > akin > to other publishing strategies employed by drug companies; paying for > supplements to existing journals or publishing compilations of original > research articles that tend to lack scientific rigor (so-called > "throwaways"). "It's kissing cousin to two other tricks that the [drug] > companies pull." > > In response to several questions about the publication posed by The > Scientist, an MSDA spokesperson wrote in an email: "MSDA understood that > Elsevier envisaged the complimentary publication would draw on the vast > resources of Elsevier, publishers of many leading peer-reviewed journals > including Lancet, Bone, Joint Bone Spine and others, to deliver novel and > timely full text articles and abstracts to physicians." Many of the > articles > appearing in the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were in > fact reprints or summaries of studies that originally appeared in other > Elsevier journals. > > A spokesperson for Elsevier, however, told The Scientist, "I wish there > was > greater disclosure that it was a sponsored journal." Disclosure of Merck's > funding of the journal was not mentioned anywhere in the copies of issues > obtained by The Scientist. > > Elsevier acknowledged that Merck had sponsored the publication, but did > not > disclose the amount the drug company paid. In a statement emailed to The > Scientist, Elsevier said that the company "does not today consider a > compilation of reprinted articles a 'Journal'." > > "Elsevier acknowledges the concern that the journals in question didn't > have > the appropriate disclosures," the statement continued. "It is worth noting > that project in question was produced 6 years ago and disclosure protocols > have evolved since 2003. Elsevier's current disclosure policies meet the > rigor and requirements of the current publishing environment." > > The Elsevier spokesperson said the company wasn't aware of how many copies > of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine were produced or > how > the publication was distributed in Australia, but noted that "the common > practice for sponsored journals is that doctors receive them > complimentary." > The spokesperson added that Elsevier had no plans to look further into the > matter. > > One of the members of Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine's > "Honorary Editorial Board," Peter Brooks, a rheumatologist in Australia, > said he didn't recall who asked him to serve on the board, but noted that > he > was on Merck's Asian Pacific and international advisory boards from the > mid > 1990s until about 2004, as well as the advisory boards of other > pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Amgen. "You get involved in > a > whole bunch of things at this level," Brooks said, adding that he had put > his name on "a few advertorials" for pharmaceutical companies about 10 > years > ago. > > As for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, he said, "If > it > would have been put to me that [the journal] was just sort of a throwaway, > then I would have said 'no'" to serving on its editorial board. He said he > was never paid for his role, adding that he "didn't ever get [manuscripts] > to review or anything like that," while on the board, because the journal > did not accept original manuscripts for review. > > "Having looked at one issue, it actually had some marketing studies," > Brooks > said. "It also had papers that were excerpted from other peer-reviewed > journals. I don't think it's fair to say it was totally a marketing > journal." > > Editor's note (April 30): This story has been updated from a previous > version. > > > > ________________________________________________ > 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/e.c.apling%40btinternet.com > From dn.rath at gmail.com Mon May 11 07:34:06 2009 From: dn.rath at gmail.com (DNRath) Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 19:04:06 +0530 Subject: [Marxism] Death of the worker in Shiracha power plant in Kutch Message-ID: <002101c9d23d$2af30f20$7901a8c0@library> Death of the worker in Shiracha power plant in Kutch S.U.C.I. DEMANDS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF SAFETY NORMS AND STRICT LABOUR LAWS, COMPENSATION AND ENQUIRY The Socialist Unity Centre of India (S.U.C.I.) Gujarat State Organising Committee expresses deep anguish over the death of the worker in Shiracha ( Near Mundra - Kutch) in the power plant of Adani Group on 7th May; falling from the top of the chimney of 228 feet height. This incident of worker's death has again exposed the absence of safety norms for the workers, and least respect for the labour laws in Gujarat by the industrialists, contractors making the whole state as the haven for ruthless exploitation of the workers in the name of development. S.U.C.I. condemns the reign of terror by the police on the aggrieved workers and registering cases of rioting on 5000 workers, who were demanding adequate compensation and justice from the company. S.U.C.I. demands adequate compensation to the family of the deceased workers, compensation to the injured, safety for the workers and the strict implementation of labour laws, a high level inquiry and action against the culprit. And withdrawal of cases against aggrieved agitating workers. S.U.C.I. will again draw the attention of the Ministry of Labour of both Central and State Governments, NHRC, and International Labour Organisation (ILO) about the working condition of workers ands flouting of all labour laws in Gujarat. Statement issued by Dwarika Nath Rath Secretary, S.U.C.I. Gujarat State Organising Committee Date- 9-5-09 From wsredden at gmail.com Sun May 10 07:38:30 2009 From: wsredden at gmail.com (Shawn Redden) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:38:30 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I use 'The Story of Stuff' - 20 minute program available online at - as an introduction to a unit on modern capitalism for high-school freshman. It's not Marxist, but it begs plenty of questions for my students and leads to excellent discussion. Solidarity, Shawn At 9:29 AM +1000 5/10/09, oscardelabosca thecatholiccat wrote: >I'm looking for some resources for teaching 7-11 year olds about >consumerism, consumption, consumers etc. from Marxist perspective. Many >thanks, Maggie From sabocat59 at mac.com Sun May 10 07:37:47 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (sabocat59 at mac.com) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 13:37:47 +0000 Subject: [Marxism] Richard Lewontin on Darwin Message-ID: <638578977-1241962825-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1226055953-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> Lewontin writes: Nevertheless he makes a good case that the current state of the human genotype makes us susceptible to physiological and developmental challenges that did not exist for our remote ancestors. The major changes from the usually minimal hunter-gatherer animal and plant diets to high-calorie sugar intakes cause great stress to our carbohydrate metabolism. In a curious contradiction of modern life, while in many human populations, for example in Africa, people are dying young from overwork and undernourishment, people in technologically advanced societies are dying at a greater age from overeating and too little physical activity. We cannot count on natural selection to deal with the problem. -------------------------------------- Talk about begging the question. Of course natural selection cannot be counted on to address the mismatch between faster rates of culture change and slower rates of biological change for a single species. The problem introduced above has everything to do with the metabolic rift and imperialism and has absolutely nothing to do with natural selection, except for the rather facile observation that natural selection is a glacially slow process in contradistinction to culture change. A "curious contradiction of modern life"? Give me a fucking break. And the pseudo-objective manner in which he phrases the "problem" leaves no doubt that the author is either totally clueless and naive or else disingenuously anti-political. In other words, a coward. Hardly makes me want to go out and buy Gibson's book. Greg McDonald Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T From farmelantj at juno.com Sun May 10 07:53:12 2009 From: farmelantj at juno.com (Jim Farmelant) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:53:12 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Andrew Jackson: slave-owner and Indian killer Message-ID: <20090510.095312.5372.0.farmelantj@juno.com> On Sun, 10 May 2009 09:14:03 -0400 Louis Proyect writes: > The New York Review of Books > Volume 56, Number 9 ? May 28, 2009 > Goodbye to the 'Age of Jackson'? > By Daniel Howe >They can > > well bear reexamination by historians and citizens who seek to > understand the past and its effect on the present. Such a > reexamination > may reorient the conventional definition of a "Jacksonian" period > and > provide a new perspective on the politics of that time. Who knows, > today's liberals might find many of their sympathies engaged not by > > Jackson's Democrats but by the Whig party of John Quincy Adams, > Henry > Clay, and the young Abraham Lincoln. > > The Whig Party, like the Democrats, was very much a mixed bag. Its Southern wing, like the Southern wing of the Democrats was pro-slavery, and in the 1850s as agitation over slavery intensified, the Whig Party disintegrated, opening the door for its eventual replacement by the Republicans, which pulled in antislavery Whigs along with many disaffected Democrats. Nevertheless, the Whigs did have many progressives, including even some proto-socialists like the newspaperman Horace Greeley, who for a time employed as foreign correspondents for his New York Tribune, both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Jim F. ____________________________________________________________ Hotel pics, info and virtual tours. Click here to book a hotel online. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTKDE0Hybt32hKV41iH2CgiImVrbc13koAgZ0HuAmq1eARG0SIJpzK/ From Karen_Saunders at wsesu.org Sun May 10 07:47:06 2009 From: Karen_Saunders at wsesu.org (Karen Saunders) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:47:06 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Try Indykids (old issues online as pdfs) and the Rethinking Schools archives, also Rethinking Globalization (published by Rethinking Schools) has some good lessons designed for 7-11 year olds. http://indykids.net/main/ http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ Here's one RS article with ideas for rewriting advertisements that would work well with 7-11 year olds, even though it was meant for high schoolers: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/rg/RGTruth.shtml another that looks at clothes, class, and consumerism, and is also adaptable for younger kids: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/21_04/love214.shtml Neither Indykids nor Rethinking Schools is strictly Marxist, but both have a left perspective, and friends and I have found that many lessons fit well with Marxist concepts and principles, while others are easily adapted. And then there's Teaching Economics As If People Mattered (published by United for a Fair Economy). The lessons in this book are designed for high school, but some colleagues and I have successfully adapted a couple of them for 9-12 year olds. Karen From Karen_Saunders at wsesu.org Sun May 10 08:01:54 2009 From: Karen_Saunders at wsesu.org (Karen Saunders) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 10:01:54 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism Message-ID: Shawn wrote about using The Story of Stuff with ninth graders. This has been used by two of my colleagues with fifth and sixth graders. The fifth graders, in particular, had a lively and thoughtful discussion about the film. Karen From lnp3 at panix.com Sun May 10 08:18:04 2009 From: lnp3 at panix.com (Louis Proyect) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 10:18:04 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Looking for information on consumerism In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4A06E21C.9030709@panix.com> NY Times, January 11, 2009 Essay Children of the Left, Unite! By CALEB CRAIN Financial behemoths have been nationalized. The government is promising to spend liberally to combat recession. There are even rumors of universal health care. Socialism is on the march! As we leave capitalism behind, the traditionalists among you may be wondering: Will they come for our children? Too late. As Julia L. Mickenberg and Philip Nel document in Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children?s Literature (New York University, $32.95), Marxist principles have been dripping steadily into the minds of American youth for more than a century. This isn?t altogether surprising. After all, most parents want their children to be far left in their early years ? to share toys, to eschew the torture of siblings, to leave a clean environment behind them, to refrain from causing the extinction of the dog, to rise above coveting and hoarding, and to view the blandishments of corporate America through a lens of harsh skepticism. But fewer parents wish for their children to carry all these virtues into adulthood. It is one thing to convince your child that no individual owns the sandbox and that it is better for all children that it is so. It is another to hope that when he grows up he will donate the family home to a workers? collective. Mickenberg, an associate professor of American studies at the University of Texas, Austin, and Nel, a professor of English at Kansas State University, have nonetheless found 44 texts that attempt to attach children to social justice permanently. As they note in an introduction, the tentacles of the left reach deep. Crockett Johnson, creator of the innocuous-seeming ?Harold and the Purple Crayon,? was an editor at The New Masses, a Communist weekly. Syd Hoff, known for ?Danny and the Dinosaur,? wrote for The Daily Worker. Environmentalism is more or less explicit in such crowd pleasers as ?The Lorax? by Dr. Seuss. In fact, so permeated is children?s literature by progressive ideals that Mickenberg and Nel were forced to narrow their scope by focusing on texts that have fallen out of print. They group their rediscoveries according to such themes as economics, unionization and respect for individual difference. A less ideological reader might be tempted to divvy them up into the categories Charming, Insufferable and Inappropriate. Let?s get Charming out of the way first. In 1939, under the pseudonym ?A. Redfield,? Hoff wrote and illustrated ?Mr. His,? a book about a portly capitalist with a top hat, a tuxedo and a droopy mustache ? like the Monopoly man but more personable. Though elsewhere Mickenberg and Nel warn against trafficking in ?the stereotype of the fat capitalist,? they?re lenient with Hoff, perhaps because the rotundity of Mr. His is so charismatic. Mr. His owns a whole town, Histown, where he lives in luxury and the workers in squalor. He gets away with it because ?there were no strikes in Histown ? and no picket lines and no unions. The newspapers, which Mr. His owned too, said that these things were wicked.? Since this is a children?s story, the workers manage to defy Mr. His despite the false consciousness foisted on them by his mass media, whereupon he temporizes by trying to foment race hatred: ?Wuxtry!? he exclaims, hawking issues of his newspaper in person. ?Blondes ? your real enemy is brunettes!? Unable to resist a villain who shouts ?Wuxtry!? I wandered off to the Internet to try to buy a copy of ?Mr. His? for my niece. None were for sale. By their reprinting, Mickenberg and Nel have rescued Mr. His from near-complete oblivion. It is not their only success. In ?The Story of Your Coat? (1946), Clara Hollos elaborates an idea from ?Das Kapital? by tracing a coat from its origins on the backs of Australian sheep through a unionized textile mill and into a department store. The writing is simple but not simplified; it reminds me of the casual but illuminating way V. S. Pritchett explains the leather trade in his memoir ?A Cab at the Door.? In Yehoshua Kaminski?s tale ?A Little Hen Goes to Brownsville? (1937), translated from the Yiddish, a chicken sets out to use her near-superhero-caliber egg-laying skills to help the Brooklyn neighborhood?s babies, which she hears are ?small and pale, thin and weak.? So unstoppable is her nutritional charity that she lays an egg in Times Square, gets arrested, pays her fine with another egg, and then pays her bus fare with yet an?other. The moral, Mickenberg and Nel infer, is that ?justice is best served by a system that is not defined by the strict and inflexible administration of a legal code.? Also, that children should not go hungry. It?s harder to say exactly what?s politically radical about Lydia Gibson?s ?Teacup Whale? (1934), in which a boy finds in a puddle a tiny whale, which his mother persistently mistakes for a polliwog, and which in time must be carted to the wharf in a truck. Does the whale represent the proletariat? Is the boy the opposite of Captain Ahab? The story is, in any case, pleasant to read, and the illustrations are lovely. As much cannot be said of the Insufferable. I hasten to say there are a lot of stinkers in children?s literature, and I suspect capitalism is responsible for more of them than socialism is. The real culprit isn?t political economics; it?s morality. There seems to be a slightly higher propensity for self-consciously virtuous books to be written by people whose personalities have been paved over by their superegos. In Oscar Saul and Lou Lantz?s insipid ?Revolt of the Beavers? (1936), for example, a rebel beaver explains his campaign to a couple of 9-year-olds thusly: ?All the beavers were very sad . . . and me too, so I said why don?t you make a club for sad beavers to become glad. So all the beavers say Yayy!? Language so insipid risks turning a sensitive 9-year-old to a life of orthodoxy if not reaction. When I was a child, I felt guilty that I was never able to read more than a few pages of a beautiful edition of Carl Sandburg?s ?Rootabaga Stories? (1922), given to my sister and me by our parents. But Mickenberg and Nel reprint a story from the book?s 1923 sequel, and I am at last set free. I didn?t read the stories because no child could ? they are stomach-churningly, almost incomprehensibly saccharine. Here, for example, is how Sandburg describes the cost of an episode of militarism: ?And the thousand golden ice tongs the sooners gave the boomers, and the thousand silver wheelbarrows the boomers gave the sooners, both with hearts and hands carved on the handles, they were long ago broken up in one of the early wars deciding pigs must be painted both pink and green with both checks and stripes.? Last but not least among Mickenberg and Nel?s selections are the Inappropriate. For all their caution about the fatness of capitalists, no warning is given that Julius Lester?s ?High John the Conqueror? (1969), a retelling of several African-?American folk tales, deploys the N-word with gusto. Another stumper is a 1954 retelling and reillustration by Walt Kelly, of ?Pogo? fame, of an episode from Lewis Carroll?s novel ?Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland.? The King of Hearts is drawn as a burly, sinister cat with the face of Senator Joseph McCarthy. To show that the McCarthy cat is evil, Kelly gives its eyes no pupils. It has a 5 o?clock shadow, and there?s hair ? fur? ? on the backs of its hands. The effect is grotesque, of a feline Tony Soprano brutalizing and carnalizing Carroll?s delicate surrealism. I imagine it would give children nightmares. As might the verses of Ned Donn?s 1934 ?Pioneer Mother Goose?: ?This bloated Pig masters Wall Street, / This little Pig owns your home; / This war-crazed Pig had your brother killed. . . .? But you can?t make an omelet without laying a few eggs, as any hen can tell you. And in the next few years, as America backs cautiously away from its laissez-faire disasters and reluctantly into an unfamiliar, communal style of politics, some of us may find ourselves wishing we had been scared with such rhymes in kindergarten instead of having had to live through them as adults. Caleb Crain has written for n+1, The New Yorker and The London Review of Books. From shmage at pipeline.com Sun May 10 09:00:24 2009 From: shmage at pipeline.com (Shane Mage) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 11:00:24 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] Elsevier created fake peer-reviewed journal for Merck, In-Reply-To: <1002190286-1241952565-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1865444864-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> References: <1002190286-1241952565-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1865444864-@bxe1213.bisx.prod.on.blackberry> Message-ID: On May 10, 2009, at 6:46 AM, sabocat59 at mac.com wrote: > > Since many (not all) medical doctors are just shills for the > pharmaceutical industry anyway, the fact that Merck paid Elsevier to > create yet another scientistic marketing tool to peddle its wares is > not surprising. > > The drug salesmen probably use it for handouts when they make their > regular rounds to pitch the newest snake oil. > > Back in the 19th century the cure-all tonic served a similar > purpose. Its distinct advantage over the current crop is that more > often than not it contained opium. So even if it did not work it you > could at least get high. Ah, but it *did* work--the expectation of results plus the opium- induced feeling of relief is itself genuinely therapeutic. As Gurdjieff** wrote, "And now listen to what that kind pharmacist there said to me further...'all that is required of any remedy is that it should be known to be a good one'." 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 **Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, Chapter XXXI (The Sixth and Last Sojourn of Beelzebub on the Planet Earth) From sabocat59 at mac.com Sun May 10 10:25:39 2009 From: sabocat59 at mac.com (Greg McDonald) Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 12:25:39 -0400 Subject: [Marxism] and Jesus Wept Message-ID: <4CB8DBC0-DAC7-4D99-A910-76C7A66A9E68@mac.com> Witness for Jesus' in Afghanistan Bagram has a thriving evangelical Christian community US soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan's predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show. Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages. In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is seen telling soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him". "The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says. "Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business." Local language Bibles The footage, shot about a year ago by Brian Hughes, a documentary maker and former member of the US military who spent several days in Bagram, was obtained by Al Jazeera's James Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively. IN VIDEO US troops urged to 'witness for Jesus' in Afghanistan More videos ... Bays also obtained from Hughes a Pashto-language copy of one of the books he picked up during a Bible study lesson he recorded at Bagram. A Pashto speaker confirmed to Bays that it was a Bible. In other footage captured at Bagram, Sergeant Jon Watt, a soldier who is set to become a military chaplain, is seen giving thanks for the work that his church in the US did in getting Bibles printed and sent to Afghanistan. "I also want to praise God because my church collected some money to get Bibles for Afghanistan. They came and sent the money out," he is heard saying during a Bible study class. It is not clear that the Bibles were distributed to Afghans, but Hughes said that none of the people he recorded in a series of sermons and Bible study classes appeared to able to speak Pashto or Dari. "They weren't talking about learning how to speak Dari or Pashto, by reading the Bible and using that as the tool for language lessons," Hughes said. "The only reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the Afghan people. And I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it ? documenting it would be important." Pentagon officials have so far not responded to a copy of the footage provided to them, but the distribution of Bibles in a place as politically sensitive as Afghanistan is bound to cause deep concern in Washington, our correspondent says. Guidelines It is not clear if the presence of the Bibles and exhortations for soldiers to be "witnesses" for Jesus continues, but they were filmed a year ago despite regulations by the US military's Central Command that expressly forbid "proselytising of