[Marxism] John Boyd 1945-2014
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Friends I have been asked by John’s family to say a few words today. I spoke at the funeral of John’s beloved son, Robert, and now I speak at the funeral of the father. I have lost a good friend, and his family have lost a good father and a good grandfather. We are all grieving and I have no words to ease that grief, especially that of his family. Grief and death are part of the human condition. We all live and we all die and there is nothing to be done about that. What is important is how we live. And I can say that John led a good life. That is what we must hold onto now. He lived and died a generous, warm hearted man. I personally could always rely upon him for love and friendship and understanding. Just before he died I told him that he was one of the very few people in this world that I could talk to about anything with an absolute sense of trust, and he thanked me for that. I first met John in 1980 when he joined the International Socialists after he moved from Mt Isa to Brisbane. This was during the reign of Bjelke-Petersen, the far right premier of Qld. There had been strong civil liberty struggles against Petersen’s attempt to ban the right to march. John led the movement against the ban on street marches in Mt Isa. Those of you who have been to Mt Isa will know how incredible an achievement it was to create a radical movement in that town. John played a key role in two struggles during his time in Mt Isa. He was prominent in the anti-uranium movement and also fought for the rights of Indigenous Australians. He played a key role in the founding of provision of Aboriginal Housing. Mt Isa was and remains a deeply racist town. Taking up the cause of the First Australians was a brave and generous thing to do and it was typical of John. During our time in the International Socialists we took up a range of struggles. These led to direct confrontation with Bjelke-Petersen’s police force. One of my favourite stories about John was of his arrest during a march in support of women’s right to access abortion. Petersen had threatened a bill which would make abortion illegal for all reasons including rape and incest. During the rally and the March that followed John was responsible for carrying an effigy of Bjelke-Petersen. I cannot recall if we were to hang or burn the effigy. In any case, John was intercepted and arrested and the effigy was confiscated, and we never saw it again. John duly turned up in court to face a ridiculous range of charges which would have cost him thousands. Just as the trial was about to begin the prosecuting officer got up and advised the court that the police were dropping the matter owing to the sudden death of the arresting officer. There was a silence which was almost broken by John’s laughter, but he managed to repress the urge. The magistrate looked at him and said “It seems, you are a very lucky man, Mr Boyd.” John got up grinning and said, “Not so, your honour, I am confident I had a very adequate defence prepared”. The magistrate replied to that, “Well, we will see you again, Mr Boyd, I have no doubt”. He was right about that, because John continued to take up many causes on behalf of those who were the victims of power. One of these causes that I know he would want me to mention was that of the Palestinians. John did great work in the Palestinian solidarity campaign in the early 80s. I still remember his outrage at the massacre of the thousands of Palestinian refugees in the camps of Sabra and Shatila in 1982. Even though John dropped out of active leftist politics when his health began to break down, he remained to the very end a man deeply committed to the emancipation of all oppressed people everywhere. He spent a life time on the side of the people and he never wavered from that. Towards the last years of his life John moved into a flat not far from me down the Ipswich Road. I used to visit him on Sundays and we would read, chat, laugh and drink together. Those were very good moments and I will remember them to the end of my own days. We read everything together – poetry, classic short stories, novels and Shakespeare. John, though, especially loved Charles Dickens’ work and so we read *Hard Times*, *Great Expectations* and had started on David *Copperfield*. One of John’s favourite books by Dickens was *A Tale of Two Cities*. It is as you know set in the French Revolution, which John had made a special study of when he studied at university. I will finish with a quotation from that book. The hero Sydney Carton has given up his life for others and he goes to his death saying “… it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” John is at rest now. And for those of us who remain, our task is to grieve
Re: [Marxism] was-putin-targeted-for-mid-air-assassination?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If route Warsaw-Moscow can be considered 'nearby'. On Sat, Aug 9, 2014 at 7:34 AM, Shane Mage via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Exclusive: Official Washington’s conventional wisdom on the Malaysia Airlines shoot-down blames Russian President Putin, but some U.S. intelligence analysts think Putin, whose plane was flying nearby, may have been the target of Ukrainian hardliners who hit the wrong plane, writes Robert Parry. http://consortiumnews.com/2014/08/08/was-putin-targeted-for-mid-air-assassination/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mnkutster%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] was-putin-targeted-for-mid-air-assassination?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This version is frequent in Russian media. That's why some anonymous 'US intelligence analysts' might really have paid some attention to it. The version is based on the fact that the routes of Putin's plane and MH17 really crossed near Warsaw. But this is bogus since route from Warsaw to Moscow is over Belarus. Why would anyone expect Putin to fly through Donbas? Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] was-putin-targeted-for-mid-air-assassination?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/9/14 12:34 AM, Shane Mage via Marxism wrote: Exclusive: Official Washington’s conventional wisdom on the Malaysia Airlines shoot-down blames Russian President Putin, but some U.S. intelligence analysts think Putin, whose plane was flying nearby, may have been the target of Ukrainian hardliners who hit the wrong plane, writes Robert Parry. http://consortiumnews.com/2014/08/08/was-putin-targeted-for-mid-air-assassination/ Shane, let me try to explain something to you. I know that it is very difficult to convince a conspiracy-monger of anything since your methodology almost precludes a serious discussion of the facts but let me try anyway. Robert Parry's reportage relies heavily on assertions such as these: Contrary to the Obama administration’s public claims blaming eastern Ukrainian rebels and Russia for the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, some U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that the rebels and Russia were likely not at fault and that it appears Ukrainian government forces were to blame, according to a source briefed on these findings. What is a intelligence analyst? Is Parry referring to an employee of the CIA? How does someone running a radical (to use the term liberally) website get a CIA agent to differ from the stated policy of his agency, namely to oppose Putin? Perhaps an intelligence analyst instead means someone who analyzes the behavior of the spooks--like Glenn Greenwald. Or perhaps it is a retired CIA agent like Ray McGovern. Who in the hell knows? That's the problem with Parry (and Seymour Hersh to a lesser degree). They ask you to accept the word of an unnamed source, unlike Brown Moses who asks you to look at physical evidence--the kind you would see in a courtroom. In cases such as this, Occam's Razor would seem to apply, which Wikipedia describes: It states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Other, more complicated solutions may ultimately prove correct, but—in the absence of certainty—the fewer assumptions that are made, the better. Nobody would blame pro-Russian separatists for shooting down a civilian jet on purpose. In wartime, accidents like this happen all the time unless you are the IDF and fire missiles at hospitals and then say whoops. The real question *Marxists* have to deal with is the relationship between Russia and Ukraine in class terms, which Lenin analogized with Britain and Ireland. From the very beginning, the Ukrainian nation has been poorly served by bourgeois leaders including Symon Petliura who hated the Bolsheviks both for offenses intended and unintended. Notwithstanding his misrule, Lenin understood that Soviet Russia was in the wrong and reversed the course of Soviet policy to favor Ukrainian self-determination. These are his words: He who undermines the unity and closest alliance between the Great-Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants is helping the Kolchaks, the Denikins, the capitalist bandits of all countries. Consequently, we Great-Russian Communists must repress with the utmost severity the slightest manifestation in our midst of Great-Russian nationalism, for such manifestations, which are a betrayal of communism in general, cause the gravest harm by dividing us from our Ukrainian comrades and thus playing into the hands of Denikin and his regime. Consequently, we Great-Russian Communists *must make concessions* [emphasis added] when there are differences with the Ukrainian Bolshevik Communists and Borotbists and these differences concern the state independence of the Ukraine, the forms of her alliance with Russia, and the national question in general. Unfortunately, Joseph Stalin's rise began to threaten Lenin's attempts to improve the relationship between Soviet Russia and oppressed nationalities. On his deathbed, Lenin struggled against Great Russian chauvinism of the type you and Robert Parry and Michel Chossudovsky are promoting under the rubric of a radicalism that has much more in common with Mulder's The truth is out there than with Karl Marx. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Robert Parry, up to his old tricks | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://louisproyect.org/2014/08/09/robert-parry-up-to-his-old-tricks/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] the new face of right wing coups in Latin Ameica
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.alternet.org/world/how-america-does-latin-american-coups-new-political-era?paging=offcurrent_page=1 Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: CCR Letter to University of Illinois Regarding Professor Steven Salaita
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18853/ccr-letter-to-university-of-illinois-regarding-pro Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: IDF Whistleblower Who Posted ‘Israeli Troops Killed Gaza Civilians in Revenge,’ Now Under Arrest
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/08/idf-whistleblower-who-posted-israeli-troops-killed-gaza-civilians-in-revenge-now-under-arrest/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: When Columbia University was on the Mussolini bandwagon | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://louisproyect.org/2014/08/09/when-columbia-university-was-on-the-mussolini-bandwagon/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] more thoughts on Gaza
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have read Richard Seymour's [Lenin's tomb blog] contributions on Gaza and they are, as one expects from Richard, extremely thought provoking. He appears to be working on a thesis about the auto-radicalizing process that is underway in Israel. As I understand it, his argument is that the logic of the Zionist project is pulling the Israeli people and government further and further to the right. They must expand their conquest and that necessitates ethnic cleansing and the practice of genocide, something the Israelis refer to as nail clipping or mowing the lawn. What is unique about the Zionist colonial settler project, is that it refuses to publicly acknowledge their sponsors -first Britain and now the USA. For the Israelis, there is supposedly no mother country. Instead, the Zionist settlers argue, that they are returning home. But the actualities of colonial conquest are there for all of us to see. Those who support Israel are increasingly uncomfortable about the ongoing massacres that that the conquest and theft of another people's land inevitably requires. Supporters of Israel would like the killing to be in the past and so easy to forget. Instead, the killing fields are there for all to see in the mediasphere. Liberals like Mary Robinson and Carter would like the Israeli war machine to stop and for two states to emerge. But the experience of imperialism in Ireland would suggest that two state solutions do not work. Whatever the case, it is clear now that the main opponents of the two-state are the Israelis themselves. Clearly their preferred option is for ethnic cleansing. What is frustrating the Israelis is continued Palestinian resistance and even on occasion successful military defiance. That in turn puts pressure on what is a reservist based army. None of whom want to die, and very few of whom enjoy the experience of encountering Arabs who shoot back. So as I read it and of course caution is needed, Israel is faced with the stark choice of giving into Hamas' demands or of marked escalation, including a possible re-occupation of Gaza. Continued bombing is eroding the power base of their main allies - Sisi, and the Kings Abdullah. More than ever Israel needs Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to acquiesce in the Zionist adventure. But cost of that acquiescence is getting ever higher. Things fall apart... comradely Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
