Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 7/12/15 4:01 PM, Marv Gandall via Marxism wrote: I have to assume you, Louis, Leo Panitch and other hard-nosed realists will urge the Tsipras government to sign off on these demands, and will praise its “courage” for doing so. I don't urge governments to do anything, one way or the other. I am trying to build an movement in the USA that learns from Syriza. Yes, let me repeat that. A movement that learns from Syriza. Like most left movements for the past 98 years, starting with the Bolshevik revolution, Syriza failed. This is the norm, isn't it? I have been involved with failed projects since the age of 22 when I joined the SWP to build the antiwar movement. 10 years after the Vietnamese overthrew the puppet government, it carried out reforms called 'doi moi' that differed little from the economic program of the puppets. And only 5 years after the fall of Saigon, the SWP began to turn into a cult-sect making me feel like I had wasted 11 years of my life and 10s of thousands of dollars. But I did not give up. I built an organization called Tecnica that supplied critical technical aid to the FSLN and the ANC, both of which would eventually adopt their own version of 'doi moi'. In other words, they capitulated (or sold out) on an even grander scale than Tsipras considering that they wielded state power facing not nearly as much pressure as Syriza. I am now 70 years old and have been at this thing for 48 years. What makes me continue when the rock keeps falling back on me like I was Sisyphus? I am long past the point when I expect anything different. I never had an expectations that Syriza would be victorious. Maybe the people who are howling like banshees on Benzedrine had greater hopes than me. For me the best thing about Syriza was not its leadership. When Tsipras came to the USA on a visit a couple of years ago, the first place he dropped in on was the Jerome Levy Institute at Bard College. You can imagine how much that endeared him to me. I take everything in stride. My goal is still to help build a party in the USA that can run in elections and organize protests in the streets but without the Leninist baggage that makes groups like the British SWP so detestable. I would hope that it can do better than Syriza. Perhaps the fact that it would be built in the belly of the beast would help. If an American Syriza could put a radical in the White House, I doubt that Canada could do much to drive her from office. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume, Louis Proyect via Marxism,
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 7/12/15 5:50 PM, Michael Yates via Marxism wrote: Louis, you say that the turn toward the market in Vietnam in the mid-1980s embraced an economic program similar to that of the Thieu-Ky government in power in the South at the end of the war. This seems pretty hyperbolic to me. What was the program of the last government in South Vietnam? Development through theft, corruption, and murder? Military Keynesianism? Growth through enforced urbanization? You're right. I was too hasty. The reforms were not in themselves like the puppet government's economic approach. They were more like what China attempted in the early days when the Iron Rice Bowl was still guaranteed. It took Vietnam about 15 years before it caught up to China: NY Times, Sept. 1 2012 In Vietnam, Message of Equality Is Challenged by Widening Wealth Gap By THOMAS FULLER HANOI, Vietnam — She wore a pink outfit and matching high heels as she toured the dusty construction site. Soon after To Linh Huong’s visit in April, photos that captured the moment went viral on the Internet, but not because of Ms. Huong’s sense of style. The daughter of a member of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s Politburo, the country’s most powerful political body, Ms. Huong had only days before been appointed the head of a state-owned construction company. Commentators on the Internet expressed outrage that someone so young — she is reported to be 24 — held such a senior corporate post. “Taking a little girl who just graduated from journalism school and making her the director general of a construction company is no different than making a one-legged man a soccer goalie,” read a comment on Pham Viet Dao, a popular blog by a Vietnamese writer of the same name. “Sorry to say — this is so stupid.” Like the Communist Party leaders in China, Vietnam’s political mandarins are struggling to reconcile their party’s message of social justice and equality with the realities of an elite awash in wealth and privilege. The yawning divide between rural poverty and urban wealth has become especially jarring, now that a decade of breakneck growth has come to an end, dimming the prospects for the poor and middle class to fight their way up the social ladder. “Up until now, growth has been wonderful, and to be rich was great,” said Carlyle A. Thayer, a leading expert on Vietnamese politics who has a database of Vietnamese leaders and their family members. “There’s a growing resentment, particularly among the have-nots, toward the wealthy.” Much of the ire has been focused on Vietnam’s version of crony capitalism — the close links between tycoons and top Communist Party officials. This criticism has been able to flourish partly because news of abuses has leaked out as state companies, which remain a central part of the economy, have floundered, helping precipitate Vietnam’s serious financial woes. Activists and critics have also been able to use the anonymity of the Web to skirt tight media controls that had kept many scandals out of public view. As criticism has mounted, some of the relatives of Communist Party officials have stepped back from high profile roles. Ms. Huong left her state-run company in June, three months after her appointment, and the daughter of the prime minister recently left one of her posts, at a private bank. Government officials, meanwhile, are sounding defensive. Vietnam’s president, Truong Tan Sang, issued a blunt self-criticism in a recent article in the state-run media, writing about the “failures and ineffectiveness of state-owned companies, the decay of political ideology and morality.” He also blamed the “lifestyle of a group of party members and officials” for the country’s problems. “We should be proud about what we have done,” he wrote, speaking of the economic boom under Communist leadership, “but in the eyes of our ancestors, we should also feel ashamed for our weakness and failures, which have been preventing the growth of the nation.” On the Internet and social networks, much of the anger about nepotism and poor economic management has been directed at Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who was re-elected to a five-year term last year amid the turmoil of failing state-owned companies. “People are concerned that he has too much power — they feel he needs to be reined in,” said Mr. Thayer, who is emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia. Mr. Dung’s family was the focus of a diplomatic cable in 2006, the year he became prime minister, written by Seth Winnick, who at the time was United States consul general in Ho Chi Minh City.
[Marxism] Fwd: Hugh Roberts: ideological defense attorney for a torture state | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In keeping with its pro-Assad editorial outlook, the London Review of Books gave Hugh Roberts the job of reviewing a number of books about Syria. Titled “The Hijackers”, it makes the case that the revolution was “hijacked” by jihadists from the get-go and lost its legitimacy as soon as it became “militarized”. Responding to the words of an SNC spokesperson that “nobody wants a war”, Roberts counters with “Plenty of people wanted a war”, most particularly Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Roberts has never written a single scholarly article about Syria. His specialty is Algeria and especially the brutal civil war in which the governing FLN suppressed an Islamist uprising in a sort of foreshadowing of what is taking place now in Syria. In an article for Socialist Register, Roberts faulted Noam Chomsky for believing “The Algerian government is in office because it blocked the democratic election in which it would have lost to mainly Islamic-based groups. That set off the current fighting.” Well, when the elections took place in December 1991, the Islamist FIS won 189 seats in parliament while the ruling dictatorship’s party got 16 seats. Soon afterwards, the dictatorship decided that the elections were not to its liking and began ruling by the fiat and the fist once again. Thomas Friedman saw the wisdom of the ruling party’s decision by darkly warning about the problem of “freely elected tyrants” in Algeria—those parties that admire Ayatollah Khomeini, not the goons in uniform. full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/07/12/hugh-roberts-ideological-defense-attorney-for-a-torture-state/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume, Louis Proyect via Marxism,
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Louis, you say that the turn toward the market in Vietnam in the mid-1980s embraced an economic program similar to that of the Thieu-Ky government in power in the South at the end of the war. This seems pretty hyperbolic to me. What was the program of the last government in South Vietnam? Development through theft, corruption, and murder? Military Keynesianism? Growth through enforced urbanization? _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Is this authentic?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * No, I don’t think so. The text of the letter is here: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.664694 http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.664694 It’s mainly an attack on BDS and a reminder of how loyal she’s been to Israel. What’s written below seems fabricated. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton last week penned a controversial letter to Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban, a major Jewish donor vowing to offer Israel “total” support in its next confrontation with the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers: Hillary's letter stated: “Quite frankly, Israel didn’t teach Hamas a harsh enough lesson last year. True to form, Obama was too hard on our democratic ally, and too soft on our Islamofascist foe,” reads the letter, obtained by the Guardian. “As president, I will give the Jewish state all the necessary military, diplomatic, economic and moral support it needs to truly vanquish Hamas – and if that means killing 200,000 Gazans, than so be it.” _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Is this authentic?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Granted, the rhetoric is consistent with Clinton's history, but kind of over the top for a politician/diplomat to be putting out in public. I see her playing things closer to the vest. So I vote no - not authentic. Best Wishes, - A POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 5:42 PM, jamesev...@aol.com wrote: Shocking Letter by Hillary Clinton Revealed Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton last week penned a controversial letter to Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban, a major Jewish donor vowing to offer Israel “total” support in its next confrontation with the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers: Hillary's letter stated: “Quite frankly, Israel didn’t teach Hamas a harsh enough lesson last year. True to form, Obama was too hard on our democratic ally, and too soft on our Islamofascist foe,” reads the letter, obtained by the Guardian. “As president, I will give the Jewish state all the necessary military, diplomatic, economic and moral support it needs to truly vanquish Hamas – and if that means killing 200,000 Gazans, than so be it.” “We realist Democrats understand that collateral damage is an unavoidable byproduct of the war on terror,” Clinton writes, “and me being a mother, grandmother and tireless children’s rights advocate does not mean that I will flinch even one iota in allowing Israel to obliterate every last school-cum-rocket launching pad in Gaza. Those who allow their children to be used as human shields for terrorists deserve to see them buried under one-ton bombs.” In response to outrage among liberal Democrats and human rights groups following the release of the second letter, the Clinton campaign blamed a typo: “Hillary meant to write 20,000, not 200,000.” _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/adgagneri%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Is this authentic?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * It's from an Israeli satire site, like The Onion except not funny: https://www.theisraelidaily.com/clinton-to-donor-in-next-war-i-will-let-israel-kill-20-not-just-2000-gazans -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Greece: Eurogroup meeting continues today; gov't reshuffle ahead; banking controls to last for months (5)
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * 1.a) Greece talks spill into second day as finance chiefs deadlock by Karl Stagno Navarra, Radoslav Tomek Ott Ummelas I Kathimerini, Athens, July 12 (Bloomberg) http://www.ekathimerini.com/199351/article/ekathimerini/news/greece-talks-spill-into-second-day-as-finance-chiefs-deadlock European finance ministers deadlocked over how to keep Greece in the euro, forcing emergency talks to continue Sunday and threatening to delay the infusion Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras desperately needs. With Greece running out of money and its banks shut for the past two weeks, the hardline group led by Germany signaled that the country’s debt was too great, Tsipras’s reform proposals were inadequate and, in any event, the Greeks couldn’t be trusted to keep their word. Finance ministry aides will work through the night, allowing finance chiefs to reconvene at 11 a.m. in Brussels before a leaders’ summit. “It’s still very difficult, but work is still in progress,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, told reporters after nine hours of talks that ended at midnight. “The issue of credibility and trust was discussed and also, of course, the financial issues.” The skepticism expressed by the policy makers came hours after Tsipras won overwhelming support in the Greek Parliament for a package of spending cuts, pension savings and tax increases intended to win financial aid of at least 74 billion euros ($83 billion). Among its shortcomings, the proposals failed to reflect the economic deterioration since talks collapsed and capital controls were imposed two weeks ago, according to Dijsselbloem. Their concerns were reflected by the media back home. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported a finance ministry proposal to suspend Greece from the euro area for five years. The idea was dismissed as illegal and nonsense by a European Union official who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Finnish media reported the Helsinki government flatly opposed the bailout. . . . Greece and its creditors are struggling for common ground after Tsipras missed a payment to the International Monetary Fund June 30 and allowed its second rescue package to lapse the same day. A new bailout will be Greece’s third in five years. The five-month standoff between the former communist student leader, whose party translates to Coalition of the Radical Left, and his creditors deepened the country’s economic misery. Bank withdrawals are limited to 60 euros a day, pensions have been rationed and commerce is grinding to a halt. . . . The finance chiefs also rebuffed any talk of debt relief, a step that the IMF has backed. “Debt relief is impossible,” Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble said on his way into Saturday’s meeting. . . . The schedule for the summits of both the euro area and European Union leaders will be determined by EU President Donald Tusk after meeting Dijsselbloem Sunday morning. The creditors still view the country’s reform proposals as insufficient to meet fiscal targets, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said, citing an assessment paper provided to euro area finance ministers. Tsipras faces political antagonists not just in Berlin and Brussels but within his own party. More than a dozen SYRIZA members refused to back the plan, with some of them denouncing the harsh measures it prescribes less than a week after Tsipras won an anti-austerity referendum. The prime minister said after the vote that his priority would be to complete negotiations with the creditors on a bailout deal. . . . 1.b) Creditors Skeptical Over Greece’s Willingness to Implement Reforms by Philip Chrysopoulos The Greek Reporter, July 11 http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/07/11/creditors-skeptical-over-greeces-willingness-to-implement-reforms Greece’s creditors are skeptical over the leftist government’s willingness and ability to implement the reforms required in order to grant the country a third bailout package. Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos had a hard time trying to persuade his Eurozone peers that Athens is determined to proceed with the reforms needed to save the country from bankruptcy and recover from a five-year economic crisis. However, Eurozone Finance Ministers expressed reservations whether Greece can implement reforms after several Ministers and lawmakers of the country’s coalition government essentially voted against the Greek proposals and asked Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras not to sign an agreement that includes austerity measures such as supplementary pension cuts and tax hikes. Some of them have openly expressed the opinion that Greece should leave
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Jul 12, 2015, at 2:30 PM, Hans G Ehrbar via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: Syriza thinks Greece will be the salvation or similar for Europe, which can easily be dismissed as self-serving propaganda. No, it was not; the Eurozone has to be reformed, and Greece was justified to expect that the critical situation of Greece would be considered in the framework of broader reforms. This is an illusion, Hans. If it were possible when Syriza was elected to entertain the notion that the eurozone, as presently constituted and under it’s current leadership, could be reformed, the events of the past six months have put paid to that pipedream with a vengeance. If anything, it is Syriza which has been “reformed” from a party committed to its anti-austerity Thessaloniki program to a governing party which has assured its creditors it is prepared to continue implementing the essential features of THEIR program: rolling back pension and trade union rights, privatizing important public assets, practicing fiscal restraint, and raising regressive consumption taxes. According to the Guardian, this is the list of the latest demands Syriza is being asked to accept or face expulsion from the eurozone: • Streamlining VAT • Broadening the tax base • Sustainability of pension system • Adopt a code of civil procedure • Safeguarding of legal independence for Greece ELSTAT — the statistic office • Full implementation of automatic spending cuts • Meet bank recovery and resolution directive l• Privatize electricity transmission grid • Take decisive action on non-performing loans • Ensure independence of privatization body TAIPED • De-Politicize the Greek administration • Return of officials from its creditors to Athens I have to assume you, Louis, Leo Panitch and other hard-nosed realists will urge the Tsipras government to sign off on these demands, and will praise its “courage” for doing so. I hope it rejects those demands and seeks to negotiate instead an orderly exit from the eurozone, one which sees Germany, the US and the other NATO powers agreeing in their own self-interest toease Greece’s transition to a new currency so that it doesn’t become a strategic “failed state” on Europe’s doorstep. You may well discover in the coming days, weeks, or months, that negotiating an orderly Grexit has all along been a more realistic and better option for Syriza, as its left wing has urged, than chasing the utopian dream of turning Wolfgang Schauble’s eurozone into something it cannot possibly become. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] RE Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Marv Gandall wrote: Congratulations. You now understand the position of the left critics of the Tsipras leadership (including Jim Creegan) who argued from the beginning that the government should be mobilizing and educating the people and preparing the state administration for a Grexit, rather than doggedly reinforcing illusions that a voluntary or involuntary departure from the eurozone was wholly unthinkable. Instead, Syriza’s ineffectual leadership expended precious financial resources and time prostrating itself before its creditors. The result is that it has rendered the country far more vulnerable to its predators than when it took office, and far less equipped to deal with what everyone understood was going to be a painful transition to a sovereign currency and resuscitation of the economy under public ownership if events happened to move, as they have, in that direction. Louis Proyect wrote: Making your axis of intervention based on what Syriza should have done is pointless. That is like urging Bernie Sanders to run as an independent, excoriating Hillary Clinton. That of course is what a socialist should do. I can see writing one or two articles or emails to that effect but repeating it for six months is just obnoxiously repetitive. Creegan's problem was not his ideas but his imitation of a phonograph needle stuck in a groove. I love Beethoven but who would want to listen to the first five notes of his fifth symphony repeated for hours on end. * I was baited as a Spartacist sectarian in response to the first critical remarks I made about Syriza over six months ago, not only after several iterations. It is the fact that I criticized Syriza at all that you can't stand, not any repetition of my criticisms. Your only argument against me in December was that Syriza had lots of followers, while nobody was listening to me. Maybe not. But you can bet that very few people will be listening to Alexis Tsipras for very long now, either (not to mention the people who apologized, and continue to apologize, for him). You threaten to banish me from Marxmail because I might alienate those timid souls who regard any expression of strong views as sectarian. Ban me! History has already absolved me! (Not to put too coarse a point upon it.) Jim Creegan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Marv, if you say that it was possible when Syriza was elected to entertain the notion that the eurozone, as presently constituted and under it’s current leadership, could be reformed then you agree with me. Now we know that it is impossible, but we did not know it then. I think Tsipras should recommend that the Greek Parliament turn down the conditions. The big question is: what to do instead? The timeout from the Euro is unconstitutional and should also be rejected. Facing the affronts from the Finance ministers, is the Greek public ready for socialism? I think if there is enough public support, a socialist solution would be doable, but I have no idea if Syriza can get the support. They probably don't know themselves, they have to make a wild guess. And they may be surprised how much support they have. Today the internet exists which did not exist in 1918, which can be used for a barter and gift economy. Nationalize the banks. Public transit is free already. Medical service can be made free, it will have to depend on donations of supplies. We have the example of Cuba. Food is a problem. Greece imported most of its food, but they can get fish out of the sea. And the tourists must be shielded from all this. It is a matter of honor for many Greeks to treat the tourists as guests. Tourists can be the best ambassadors. Many Greek people, 50% of the youth, are unemployed, they can be organized in work brigades. Some rich Greeks will just move away instead of fighting this. Others will stream to Greece to help, or provide help over the internet. There is already an indiegogo campaign to collect money for a Greek bailout fund. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/greek-bailout-fund#/story Are the people from the left wing Syriza parties already talking to their supporters whether this can be done? Greeks are tired of demonstrations, they actually want to do something. Things are more complex, but if lots of people solve whatever problems arise, with the help of the internet, I think a socialist solution is feasible. Am I dreaming? What do others think? Hans _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] [UCE] Kouvelakis vs. Callinicos on Syriza, Greek gov't now, looking to coming worker struggles in Greece
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * video of their discussion w/ comments from the audience on the front page of the British SWP website http://marxismfestival.org.uk Syriza in power/After the referendum: whither Greece (1 hour 15 minutes, they each speak 20 minutes, 20 minutes comments, then each 7 minutes summary) this Kouvelakis - Callincos debate/discussion is also at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1paxMRddO0M _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Marxism] FW: [SocialistProject] Bullet: Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Lenin's Tomb responds http://www.leninology.co.uk/ --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Regarding the feasibility of a transition to socialism, I think the following questions need answers (among others): (1) to what extent does the Greek government have the power to invoke a state of emergency because the banks have been closed for an extended period? Especially, how limiting are the EU treaties? Apparently Iceland has given interesting precedents. The following article seems useful: http://www.hblr.org/2012/03/eu-economic-emergency-powers/ (2) what is the role of the Greek Army today? What will Golden Dawn do? (3) Is there a mafia, organized crime, in Greece, maybe around smuggling of drugs and humans? How to deal with them? (4) If there is internal turmoil in Greece, will Greece be overrun by refugees hoping to find an entrance into the EU which is not as guarded as the other entrance ports? Can the Greek government work together with refugee NGOs to bring them into safer and better supplied areas in Europe? (5) Is it legally possible for a EU country to go over to socialism or does this violate the EU treaties? What steps would be required in the best of all cases (constitutional convention etc)? There must be literature about this. (6) How can a socialist government involve NGO's, participatory budgeting, horizontal network governance (i.e., working together internationally with other cities or ports or river deltas etc in similar conditions?) (7) How to fight corruption and maintain the highest standards so that public trust cannot be used for private gain? I am brainstorming about this because these questions are not only relevant for Greece today. More and more people all over the world, even in the USA, are looking for alternatives to capitalism, especially because of the sharpening environmental crisis. What paths can a government pursue if it gets the electoral mandate to find a radical alternative to capitalism? We may have this problem sooner than we think. Hans Ehrbar _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mary Fallon and me
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Mary is the governor of Oklahoma. She does not want to comply with the Supreme Court of the state, which ruled that the display of the 10 Commandments must be removed from state property. Her position is based on her reading of the Constitution. She explained,“You know, there are three branches of our government. You have the Supreme Court, the legislative branch and the people, the people and their ability to vote,” she explained. “So I’m hoping that we can address this issue in the legislative session and let the people of Oklahoma decide.” Unfortunately, Mary got the three branches confused. Anybody who follows political affairs knows that the three branches are Wall Street, the corporate media, and the 1%. Keep up good work, Mary. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] China's stock market crash: Heading for a great leap backwards?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Australia managed its way through the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in better shape than most countries, mostly due to two factors. The first was $83 billion in Australian government stimulus spending, the third largest in the world as a percentage of GDP, behind the US and South Korea. The second was resilient demand for iron ore and coal exports to China which came from an initial US$4 trillion in Chinese stimulus spending organised through the country’s banks. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/59456 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Jul 12, 2015, at 9:15 AM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: My position, articulated before Tsipras took office, was that the relationship of forces militated against success of any sort. Everyone understood that the relationship of forces was adverse, but not to the point it ruled out “success of any sort”. You never struck a note of this kind when you celebrated Syriza’s victory, nor in the months afterward when, in your inimitable fashion, you confidently flamed critics of the government’s supine negotiating stance, concessions to the austerity agenda of the troika, and failure to make preparations for a break with the eurozone in the event the austerity demands of the troika were unyielding. The only hope for Syriza would have been a massive European-wide movement that made its survival possible. In other words, to create something like the framework of the new Latin American left inspired by the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. No kidding. But for that to have happened, the government would have had to have had an entirely different orientation - to building a European-wide movement rather than satisfying Greece’s bloodsucking creditors. The Syriza leadership did not “inspire” a new European left along the lines of what transpired in Latin America because its tone, policies, and actions bore little resemblance to the Bolivarian movement under Chavez. You can see the sprouts of such a development in Spain, Scotland, and elsewhere but it is still too weak to make a difference. This week’s wholesale capitulation by the government to the escalating austerity demands of the eurozone powers, in which it acted in concert with the opposition, will not provide much nourishment for those sprouts. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Jul 12, 2015, at 10:15 AM, Joseph Catron via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: I broadly agree with Lou here. (Yes, somebody mark the calendar.) You fellows can parse the details however you like, but at the end of the day, the problem will always be that the Greek working class stood alone against the combined forces of global capital. They might hypothetically have had the most principled leaders and brilliant strategy in the history of revolutionary politics. That still wouldn't have given them the ingredients needed for a winning fight. As in “there is no alternative”? You think Syriza would have risked foreign intervention, civil war, a coup d’etat if they had acted in more forcefully, in accordance with the Thessaloniki program? Quite likely. Would that heightened class conflict have inspired support throughout the world? Almost certainly. With what outcome? there aren’t any certain outcomes. If this is what you fear “at the end of the day”, why support the election of a left-leaning government like Syriza? Why put the Greek masses in such potential peril? Why not re-elect Samaris’ New Democracy? Arguably, that would be the better choice. It would have cooperated with the troika and its austerity program with far less friction and damage to the Greek economy and living standards than we’ve seen over the past six months. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Red Flag reporter in Greece: Ruptures in Syriza, Greece and Europe
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Ruptures in Syriza, Greece and Europe by Colleen Bolger Red Flag (Socialist Alternative, Australia), July 12 https://redflag.org.au/article/ruptures-syriza-greece-and-europe . . . In a speech to parliament on Friday night, Tsipras argued that his proposal delivered on his mandate to make an agreement to stay in the euro currency zone. “I never asked the public for a no vote to mean a Grexit or rupture”, he said. However, for millions of people, “no” was a vote against austerity. A majority clearly do want to stay with the euro. But the question is at what cost? The fear of Grexit is real. If it transpires, the banking crisis will come to a head quickly and cripple the everyday functioning of society. There is an alternative, articulated by the Left Platform of Syriza and the far left outside of the party. Measures such as nationalising the banks and taking control of key industries could ensure stability and that immediate human need is met. However, no preparations have been made to this end. Tsipras’s insistence for the last five months that it is not an option has contributed to the fear, which is well founded, that Grexit would bring chaos. It also means that a Grexit would be more chaotic than would otherwise have been the case. . . . The two MPs, Ioanna Gaitani and Elena Psarea, from the Red Network, which is grouped around the revolutionaries in the Internationalist Workers Left, voted no in the parliamentary debate on Friday night. That was a clear stand on a fundamental question: yes or no to more austerity. According to Syriza central committee member Stathis Kouvelakis: “Seven MPs of the Left Platform abstained, including its two most prominent ministers (Panagiotis Lafazanis and Dimitris Stratoulis) … Among them Marxist economist Costas Lapavitsas and Stathis Leoutsakos, member of the political secretariat of Syriza. The four ministers will resign in the next few days. “Fifteen other MPs of the Left Platform … issued a statement explaining they will vote yes in order not to deprive the government of its majority at that stage, reject the proposed agreement as yet another austerity package and warn that they will not vote any signed agreement that includes austerity when it comes to parliament.” . . . The editorial in today's edition of Avgi, the party paper, calls for a new election to be held soon. This would allow Tsipras to increase his majority and would discipline those MPs who abstained. Elections would force a debate in the party, which would be expressed in the district nominations and potential disendorsement of MPs who refuse to hand out official party propaganda pushing the Tsipras line. It would be the most intensely politicised election held since the beginning of the crisis, coming on the back of the huge social mobilisation for the no vote and at a crossroad for Syriza itself. Alternatively, the German hardliners will win the day and push through some sort of temporary exit. In such circumstances, the demands the left have articulated with more force over the last few weeks – for bank nationalisation and other measures to prevent shortages – will be prescient. Tsipras may be forced to carry out the left’s proposals to address the social crisis. One sign of the volatility: a group of men in their 30s or 40s – a truckie, a muso, a security guard and a waiter – drinking wine guffaw that last week they were supporting Tsipras and now they’re supporting Schäuble. They want the drachma back. More seriously, they say Tsipras has been a disappointment to the 61 percent who voted, they thought, against another memorandum. It is impossible to predict what will happen in the next 48 hours, but the last 48 hours has posed a new set of tasks for the left. People who voted against austerity have watched as their victory has been turned into its opposite. Tsipras has used his prestige to force through another agreement. Building opposition to the passage of a new memorandum is urgent. If a clear stand is not taken by the left, all will be lost in the din. Right now, people are straining to hear that an alternative is still possible. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I broadly agree with Lou here. (Yes, somebody mark the calendar.) You fellows can parse the details however you like, but at the end of the day, the problem will always be that the Greek working class stood alone against the combined forces of global capital. They might hypothetically have had the most principled leaders and brilliant strategy in the history of revolutionary politics. That still wouldn't have given them the ingredients needed for a winning fight. -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Jul 12, 2015, at 7:43 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: (This article suggests to me that the real intention all along was for Syriza to be ousted… Congratulations. You now understand the position of the left critics of the Tsipras leadership (including Jim Creegan) who argued from the beginning that the government should be mobilizing and educating the people and preparing the state administration for a Grexit, rather than doggedly reinforcing illusions that a voluntary or involuntary departure from the eurozone was wholly unthinkable. Instead, Syriza’s ineffectual leadership expended precious financial resources and time prostrating itself before its creditors. The result is that it has rendered the country far more vulnerable to its predators than when it took office, and far less equipped to deal with what everyone understood was going to be a painful transition to a sovereign currency and resuscitation of the economy under public ownership if events happened to move, as they have, in that direction. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Doug Greene on Gramsci for communusts
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Both video and article at: http://links.org.au/node/4505 Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Buffettâs Warning for YOU 4 in 5 Americans arenât taking his shocking advice. Click here now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/55a246739ecd14671739dst04vuc _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (This article suggests to me that the real intention all along was for Syriza to be ousted. By escalating its demands even after Tsipras capitulated, the German bankers demonstrate that the real goal was not just austerity but austerity without Eurocommunists to administer it. They need a more reliable servant, plus the example of having a vocal but ineffectual opponent toppled.) WSJ, July 12 2015 Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume Meeting with leaders of nine EU countries outside eurozone is canceled German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble arrives for the start of a meeting on the Greek crisis in Brussels on Sunday. ENLARGE By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER and VIKTORIA DENDRINOU BRUSSELS—Crisis talks set to determine Greece’s future in the eurozone continued Sunday, with some finance ministers demanding the Greek parliament start implementing unpopular overhauls and cuts before they take a decision on new rescue loans. “It is of course getting more difficult by the hour,” Austrian Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling said as he arrived at the meeting. He said the interruption of talks overnight allowed further preparations, but warned that there was no unified position among ministers yet. Mr. Schelling said that finance ministers might present eurozone leaders with alternative proposals on whether to give Greece a new round of rescue loans. If the finance ministers fail to reach a decision, as is likely, the baton will be handed over to eurozone leaders, who will gather for an emergency summit later Sunday. Finance ministers’ reluctance to take a decision on Greece’s request for a new bailout—and thereby its future in the eurozone—despite the government’s promise to implement most of the measures demanded by creditors shows how much trust and goodwill has been eroded in recent months. Greece and its creditors—other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund—have been locked in negotiations since the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected in late January. A referendum last Sunday, in which a majority of Greeks voted against budget cuts and economic-policy overhauls the government is now backing, has raised doubts among creditors over whether they will ever be implemented even further. Ahead of the referendum, the government had campaigned against the measures. “The main obstacle to moving forward is lack of trust,” said Italy’s finance minister, Pier Carlo Padoan. He said that his country thought the conditions were in place to start negotiations on a new aid program—in contrast to others in the eurozone—and that the Greek parliament should start implementing some of the promised measures as of Monday. Slovakia’s finance minister, one of Greece’s most outspoken critics, sounded a more pessimistic note. “It’s not possible to reach a deal today,” Peter Kazimir told reporters. He said only “frontloading”—early and quick implementation of cuts and overhauls—could rebuild trust. “This is not a question about whether it’s democratic or not. This is about the economic situation,” he said. The European Union’s economic commissioner was more optimistic. “I hope that we have a deal, a good deal by the end of the day,” said Pierre Moscovici, explaining that such an agreement would allow for starting negotiations on a new rescue package. He opposed a Greek exit from the eurozone. “The future of Greece, a reformed Greece, is in the eurozone,” he said. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Riding High as He Attempts U-Turn To allow for more negotiation among the eurozone’s heads of state and government, Donald Tusk, who presides over these talks, canceled a meeting with the leaders of the nine European Union countries that aren’t part of the eurozone. That meeting had been scheduled to take place Sunday evening. The summit of eurozone leaders will go ahead as planned “and last until we conclude talks on Greece,” Mr. Tusk said in a Twitter message. Finland’s finance chief, Alexander Stubb, dismissed reports that his country had been blocking a deal. “We’re all constructively trying to find a solution to a very difficult situation,” he told journalists, while warning that the austerity measures Greece has promised to implement in return for a new bailout are “simply not enough at this stage.” “We need clear commitments, clear conditionality and clear proof that these commitments will be implemented,” he said. Austria’s Mr. Schelling raised doubts that a full new rescue deal for Greece could be completed by July 20, when Greece has to repay €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion) in bonds and €700
[Marxism] Fwd: Pope Francis: Speech at World Meeting of Popular Movements
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I would like, all the same, to propose three great tasks which demand a decisive and shared contribution from popular movements: 3.1 The first task is to put the economy at the service of peoples. Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money. Let us say NO to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth. The economy should not be a mechanism for accumulating goods, but rather the proper administration of our common home. This entails a commitment to care for that home and to the fitting distribution of its goods among all. It is not only about ensuring a supply of food or “decent sustenance”. Nor, although this is already a great step forward, is it to guarantee the three “L’s” of land, lodging and labor for which you are working. A truly communitarian economy, one might say an economy of Christian inspiration, must ensure peoples’ dignity and their “general, temporal welfare and prosperity”.[1] This includes the three “L’s”, but also access to education, health care, new technologies, artistic and cultural manifestations, communications, sports and recreation. A just economy must create the conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without want, to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during their active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow older. It is an economy where human beings, in harmony with nature, structure the entire system of production and distribution in such a way that the abilities and needs of each individual find suitable expression in social life. You, and other peoples as well, sum up this desire in a simple and beautiful expression: “to live well”. Such an economy is not only desirable and necessary, but also possible. It is no utopia or chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it. The available resources in our world, the fruit of the intergenerational labors of peoples and the gifts of creation, more than suffice for the integral development of “each man and the whole man”.[2] The problem is of another kind. There exists a system with different aims. A system which, while irresponsibly accelerating the pace of production, while using industrial and agricultural methods which damage Mother Earth in the name of “productivity”, continues to deny many millions of our brothers and sisters their most elementary economic, social and cultural rights. This system runs counter to the plan of Jesus. Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment. It is about giving to the poor and to peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching. It is a reality prior to private property. Property, especially when it affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples. And those needs are not restricted to consumption. It is not enough to let a few drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never runs over by itself. Welfare programs geared to certain emergencies can only be considered temporary responses. They will never be able to replace true inclusion, an inclusion which provides worthy, free, creative, participatory and solidary work. full: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-speech-at-world-meeting-of-popular-mo _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 7/12/15 10:28 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: You never struck a note of this kind when you celebrated Syriza’s victory, nor in the months afterward when, in your inimitable fashion, you confidently flamed critics I flamed Jim Creegan because he is a Spartacist nuisance. Btw, someone just unsubbed because he can't stand having to put up with that kind of blather: ---After trying the Marxism email list for a couple of weeks, I've decided to unsubscribe and thought I'd explain why. In short, the sectarian blather that you're constantly responding to just takes too much of my time to sort through delete. I suppose if I took the time to become familiar with the Sparts, et al. who post, I could just delete their emails without opening them, but even doing that would require more time than I can give to it, given the time I spend on my own work, etc. (I'm now near-finishing a book critiquing the education for the global economy mantra).--- It is this kind of person I am trying to attract to Marxmail, not burned out veterans of the Trotskyist movement who think that this is the place to imitate the Old Man in Coyoacan issuing communiques. In fact, I might have to throw a few people off the list just to make sure we stay on an even keel. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] 'negotiations' live
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jul/12/greek-debt-crisis-eu-leaders-meeting-cancelled-no-deal-live#block-55a29374e4b07fc6a121fc21 -- - Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University University Drive Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Home: Phone 604-689-9510 Cell: 604-789-4803 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Marv Gandall writes: The left critics of the Tsipras leadership ... argued from the beginning that the government should be mobilizing and educating the people and preparing the state administration for a Grexit, rather than doggedly reinforcing illusions ... Syriza had the mandate of ending austerity while staying in the Eurozone. Instead of saying this is impossible they made efforts to implement the mandate. They thought there was a chance of success because (a) they counted on the solidarity of other marginal countries in the EU. This solidarity existed and exists, but it was not strong enough to make a difference in the negotiations. (b) they knew, and injected into the discussion, the fact the Germany itself had been repeated beneficiary of debt relief. This fact has been noted, as much as Germany wants the world public to forget it again. (c) the Greeks are not the only ones arguing that the architecture of the Eurozone is faulty. Syriza hoped that Greece would the impetus to revise this architecture. What architectural fault? On the one hand, there is the basic fault that the Eurozone is a monetary union without a fiscal union. This was not on the table because it will take many years to remedy this. Varoufakis was referring to the following fault in the monetary sphere alone, which was also shared by the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and which arguably brought it down: If there are countries in the Eurozone which have a balance of payments deficit (Greece) then there are other countries which have a balance of payments surplus (Germany). Right now, the Euro system puts all the pressure of adjustment only on the deficit countries. What is needed is a mechanism that also forces the surplus countries to adjust. This is not only a matter of fairness, but also of pragmatism: it is much easier for the surplus countries to adjust because they have extra money, while the deficit countries have far fewer options because they are running out of money. In January, the Guardian published an article about this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/30/syriza-finance-minister-big-idea-will-germany-accept-it This is the only time I read about it in connection with the Eurozone, although this was discussed widely in connection with the breakdown of Bretton Woods. Subsequent News articles only said that Syriza thinks Greece will be the salvation or similar for Europe, which can easily be dismissed as self-serving propaganda. No, it was not; the Eurozone has to be reformed, and Greece was justified to expect that the critical situation of Greece would be considered in the framework of broader reforms. Therefore I do not think that Syriza was irresponsible. They had viable ideas how to fulfill their mandate. They could not assume that their reasonable proposals would not even be considered in the negotiations. So far, Syriza has not made big mistakes. The big question is what they will do from now on, at a time of open polarization in Europe around the Greek question. I am confident that both Tsipras and the Left Wing of Syriza know how important it is that Syriza does not splinter right now, at a moment when clear leadership is needed in Greece. Hans G Ehrbar _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Sun, Jul 12, 2015 at 10:46 AM, Marv Gandall marvga...@gmail.com wrote: You think Syriza would have risked foreign intervention, civil war, a coup d’etat if they had acted in more forcefully, in accordance with the Thessaloniki program? Quite likely. No, I mean I've recently lived in a place embargoed by global economic forces, at minimal effort to themselves, and know how easy inflicting misery on a rebellious population actually is for the masters of the universe. If the capitalists decided to really turn the screws on Greece, the resulting impoverishment would produce an actual, organic uprising quickly enough. If this is what you fear “at the end of the day”, why support the election of a left-leaning government like Syriza? Are you talking to me or Lou? I can't remember the last time I endorsed anyone in any damn elections. -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] who did in the counterculture?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159756 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greek Deal Prospects Slim as Crisis Talks Resume
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Agreed. Admittedly, Tsipras and Syriza had no leverage, no Plan B. Withdrawal from the eurozone and re-establishing of the drachma was (and still is as far as I have read) overwhelmingly opposed by about 75% of Greeks. In my opinion, where his faction went wrong was when he chose to foster illusions that the specter of a rising tide of anti austerity throughout Europe (Spain/Podemos especially) would frighten the troika into a compromise instead of patiently explaining that the enemy might make fighting austerity while staying in the eurozone impossible and to seriously entertain the idea of Grexit. The duty of leadership is to lead - Trotsky On Sun, Jul 12, 2015 at 8:36 AM, Marv Gandall via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: Congratulations. You now understand the position of the left critics of the Tsipras leadership (including Jim Creegan) who argued from the beginning that the government should be mobilizing and educating the people and preparing the state administration for a Grexit, rather than doggedly reinforcing illusions that a voluntary or involuntary departure from the eurozone was wholly unthinkable. Instead, Syriza’s ineffectual leadership expended precious financial resources and time prostrating itself before its creditors. The result is that it has rendered the country far more vulnerable to its predators than when it took office, and far less equipped to deal with what everyone understood was going to be a painful transition to a sovereign currency and resuscitation of the economy under public ownership if events happened to move, as they have, in that direction. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] FW: [SocialistProject] Bullet: Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A friend just posted this to another list and I am really fucking mad. I shouldn't be, as crises like this always bring out the worst in academic marxists; still it's hard not to fume when someone like Panitch turns the meaning of events on their head in a way that makes the job of solidarity activists 10 times harder by the confusion they've spread. Plus his cute digs at Richard Seymour (naming him only by reference to Lenin's Tomb) are just plain repulsive. On Sun, Jul 12, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Richard Fidler via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Click here to read online: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1139.php ~ T h e B u l l e t ~ A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1139 ... July 12, 2015 __ Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day Leo Panitch Did those who are already raising Lenin from his tomb to render quick judgement on Syriza's abject world-historic defeat (without saying much about what victory would look like or require) actually bother to read the rather similar plans that Syriza put forward before the referendum and that were consistently rejected by the EU and IMF Institutions? This rejection is what the referendum was about. The resounding OXI was then used by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to secure the resignation of the leading political representative of the domestic ruling class (and former Prime Minister), Antonis Samaras, and to get all the party leaders with any such claim or ambitions to speak for that class to adopt Syriza's position on the need for debt restructuring and investment funds. One might even say that if there was a class crossover involved here it was the other way around, one that looks more like what Gramsci meant by a hegemonic strategy rather than the way it is presented from the perspective of those standing on Lenin's Tomb. The virtually same formulations in Syriza's plans that were just yesterday called intransigence by mainstream media in Greece and aped by the media abroad are now presented as capitulation in order to disguise the significance of this. This is not surprising but what is surprising is the immediate acceptance of this capitulation interpretation by so much of the Western radical left from whom one might have expected a rather more sophisticated reading and less quick rush to negative judgement. Of course, the latter view is shared by many on the radical left here in Greece, including those Syriza MPs who opposed or abstained on the vote in the Greek parliament. But in doing this, they only raise the question of whether the Antarsya strategy of Grexit (which obtained less than 1 per cent of the vote in January) is any more viable today than it was then. Deal or No Deal? The real situation is this, as we await the outcome of what will in fact be a momentous day. If there is in fact some significant debt restructuring and investment funds in a deal today and this is not effectively tied to further conditionality, this would offset many times over the four year $12-billion plan for fiscal surpluses in the plan just passed by the Greek parliament. Of course, even if this is the effective outcome of this weekend's final maneouvres, this will require some political sophistication to discern, since it will be concealed somewhat so that other European leaders can disguise this from their electorates, whose attitudes the Northern and Central European labour movements have done little or nothing to change. Tsipras would need to explain this well to get people to understand the significance of the victory he -- and they with their support in the referendum -- would have pulled off. It will not be a world historic victory, for those who like such language, since it will still involve tying the revival of the Greek economy to the fate of what remains a very much capitalist Europe, but this would not mean that the Syriza government would exclude itself from the continuing struggle to challenge and change that. On the other hand, if Tsipras walks away today accepting the same conditionalities as before to debt restructuring, and without any guaranteed investment funds on top of this, then it will indeed be interesting to see where Lenin
[Marxism] FW: [SocialistProject] Bullet: Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Click here to read online: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/1139.php ~ T h e B u l l e t ~ A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1139 ... July 12, 2015 __ Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day Leo Panitch Did those who are already raising Lenin from his tomb to render quick judgement on Syriza's abject world-historic defeat (without saying much about what victory would look like or require) actually bother to read the rather similar plans that Syriza put forward before the referendum and that were consistently rejected by the EU and IMF Institutions? This rejection is what the referendum was about. The resounding OXI was then used by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to secure the resignation of the leading political representative of the domestic ruling class (and former Prime Minister), Antonis Samaras, and to get all the party leaders with any such claim or ambitions to speak for that class to adopt Syriza's position on the need for debt restructuring and investment funds. One might even say that if there was a class crossover involved here it was the other way around, one that looks more like what Gramsci meant by a hegemonic strategy rather than the way it is presented from the perspective of those standing on Lenin's Tomb. The virtually same formulations in Syriza's plans that were just yesterday called intransigence by mainstream media in Greece and aped by the media abroad are now presented as capitulation in order to disguise the significance of this. This is not surprising but what is surprising is the immediate acceptance of this capitulation interpretation by so much of the Western radical left from whom one might have expected a rather more sophisticated reading and less quick rush to negative judgement. Of course, the latter view is shared by many on the radical left here in Greece, including those Syriza MPs who opposed or abstained on the vote in the Greek parliament. But in doing this, they only raise the question of whether the Antarsya strategy of Grexit (which obtained less than 1 per cent of the vote in January) is any more viable today than it was then. Deal or No Deal? The real situation is this, as we await the outcome of what will in fact be a momentous day. If there is in fact some significant debt restructuring and investment funds in a deal today and this is not effectively tied to further conditionality, this would offset many times over the four year $12-billion plan for fiscal surpluses in the plan just passed by the Greek parliament. Of course, even if this is the effective outcome of this weekend's final maneouvres, this will require some political sophistication to discern, since it will be concealed somewhat so that other European leaders can disguise this from their electorates, whose attitudes the Northern and Central European labour movements have done little or nothing to change. Tsipras would need to explain this well to get people to understand the significance of the victory he -- and they with their support in the referendum -- would have pulled off. It will not be a world historic victory, for those who like such language, since it will still involve tying the revival of the Greek economy to the fate of what remains a very much capitalist Europe, but this would not mean that the Syriza government would exclude itself from the continuing struggle to challenge and change that. On the other hand, if Tsipras walks away today accepting the same conditionalities as before to debt restructuring, and without any guaranteed investment funds on top of this, then it will indeed be interesting to see where Lenin will take us once he is let out of his tomb, and sees that he faces yet again the sad fact that a break in the weakest link could not break the stronger links of the labour movements in Central and Northern Europe to both domestic and global capitalism. • Leo Panitch is editor of the Socialist Register and distinguished research professor at York University, Canada. He is co-author, with Sam Gindin, of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (Verso). He is currently in Athens, Greece. ~ T h e B u l l e t~ The Bullet is produced by the Socialist Project. Readers are encouraged to distribute widely. Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome. Write to i...@socialistproject.ca If you wish to subscribe: http://www.socialistproject.ca/lists/?p=subscribe The Bullet archive is available at
Re: [Marxism] [test: ignore] changed the rc.mhonarc script
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 07/12/2015 01:23 PM, Les Schaffer via Marxism wrote: marxism-bounces marxism looks good. waiting to see if mailman administration is now blocked from latest 100 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] FW: [SocialistProject] Bullet: Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This piece by Leo Panitch offers some awfully convoluted reasoning to explain why what looks like a capitulation is really brilliant strategy. Perhaps Leo has had one too many years in academe, writing long and sometimes long-winded articles. No doubt I am biased, but can anything be more boring and brain-numbing than the writings of an academic political scientist. Well, maybe those of an academic economist. Too clever by half, as they say. Richard Seymour's piece on Lenin's Tomb is just a whole lot better, with straightforward arguments, clearly written. And let me add that there are plenty of Greek commentators, including pretty good economists, who would agree with Seymour's arguments. It isn't just the sectarian left saying these things. And as Marv Gandall argued, if there is no alternative, why ever do anything at all. Why have optimism of the will, why write anything, why care. Just live for yourself, today and every day. Yesterday, I read something that really floored me. So meone said, after wondering what Syriza's critics could have expected it to do in the face of such powerful adversaries: the fucking Germans, man. Unbelievable. What is the difference between this and saying, those fucking slaveowners, man. those fucking Nazis, man. that fucking Henry Ford, man. I don't have many years left, so what follows should be taken with that in mind. But if I were a Greek pensioner, trying to live and support others on a miserably low (and soon to be lower if Tsipras has his way) retirement income, I would be inclined to try to live by the words of Emiliano Zapata, Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. It is remarkable, when one gets invested in something, how easy it is to make excuses, to turn shit into honey, to make apologies for anything, to even forget what one said just the week before. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Replace facile criticism with criticism of the facile: Guest Post from John Game on Syriza | AnotherCountry
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * https://attheinlandsea.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/replace-facile-criticism-with-criticism-of-the-facile-guest-post-from-john-game-on-syriza/ By John Game The difficulty with many (not all) of the left critiques of Syriza is not their program but the lack of evidence that their argument has a social base. This doesn’t mean that I have confidence in the Syriza leadership in all they do but it does mean that I think the difficulty is not so much that they’re holding back an insurgent consciousness so much as they reflect it (and those who like to denounce reformism ought to know that this is always an aspect of how it works). And I think that poses all sorts of difficulties. Too many of the denunciations are formalist in the sense that they imagine just being ‘logical’ and having the right ‘program’ is all. If you cannot connect your program to an actual historical movement its not really worth the paper its written on. The whole dilemma as well as miracle of Syriza today stems from the creation of radical politics at the head of a class which neo-liberalism has atomised and dispersed. The depth of the crisis in Greece allowed this form of politics to exist-this paradox has a bad as well as a good side. However I agree with what Costas (Lapavistas- ed.) has apparently said-this delays rather then ends the prospect of an exit from the Euro. In a lot of ways the basis of the development of social radicalism in this situation is hugely uneven and neccessarily paradoxical. Its not a crisis that’s over yet either for the European capitalists or for Greek Society-or for Syriza.-Ultimately I think we have to be careful about telescoping these events-expecting final denouments around every corner-one danger is that the arguments of a left frustrated by its lack of a social bases join hands with the arguments of the right-they are ‘incompetent’, ‘stupid’ or, as I heard one commentator say delightfully ‘reformist bozos’. In reality this is a round about way of attacking the existing level of consiousness of those already bearing the brunt of European capital’s depredations-far better is to talk about the political and social contradictions involved and understand that the arguments are likely to be protracted and extend over a long period-its not about persuading Tspiras what to do-its about persuading most Greeks-clearly this won’t happen on the basis of calling (or indeed believing) that they’re dumb. Importantly this is not an argument against criticism. Its an argument for good criticism rather then facile criticism. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] China Fences In Its Nomads, and an Ancient Life Withers
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (Fascinating. The Chinese government is forcing nomads into shitty settlements supposedly in order to protect the environment. I can only wonder if this fits in to John Bellamy Foster's analysis that the Chinese CP has gone Green.) NY Times, July 12 2015 China Fences In Its Nomads, and an Ancient Life Withers By ANDREW JACOBS MADOI, China — If modern material comforts are the measure of success, then Gere, a 59-year-old former yak-and-sheep herder in China’s western Qinghai Province, should be a happy man. In the two years since the Chinese government forced him to sell his livestock and move into a squat concrete house here on the windswept Tibetan plateau, Gere and his family have acquired a washing machine, a refrigerator and a color television that beams Mandarin-language historical dramas into their whitewashed living room. But Gere, who like many Tibetans uses a single name, is filled with regret. Like hundreds of thousands of pastoralists across China who have been relocated into bleak townships over the past decade, he is jobless, deeply indebted and dependent on shrinking government subsidies to buy the milk, meat and wool he once obtained from his flocks. “We don’t go hungry, but we have lost the life that our ancestors practiced for thousands of years,” he said. In what amounts to one of the most ambitious attempts made at social engineering, the Chinese government is in the final stages of a 15-year-old campaign to settle the millions of pastoralists who once roamed China’s vast borderlands. By year’s end, Beijing claims it will have moved the remaining 1.2 million herders into towns that provide access to schools, electricity and modern health care. Official news accounts of the relocation rapturously depict former nomads as grateful for salvation from primitive lives. “In merely five years, herders in Qinghai who for generations roved in search of water and grass, have transcended a millennium’s distance and taken enormous strides toward modernity,” said a front-page article in the state-run Farmers’ Daily. “The Communist Party’s preferential policies for herders are like the warm spring breeze that brightens the grassland in green and reaches into the herders’ hearts.” But the policies, based partly on the official view that grazing harms grasslands, are increasingly contentious. Ecologists in China and abroad say the scientific foundations of nomad resettlement are dubious. Anthropologists who have studied government-built relocation centers have documented chronic unemployment, alcoholism and the fraying of millenniums-old traditions. Chinese economists, citing a yawning income gap between the booming eastern provinces and impoverished far west, say government planners have yet to achieve their stated goal of boosting incomes among former pastoralists. The government has spent $3.45 billion on the most recent relocation, but most of the newly settled nomads have not fared well. Residents of cities like Beijing and Shanghai on average earn twice as much as counterparts in Tibet and Xinjiang, the western expanse that abuts Central Asia. Government figures show that the disparities have widened in recent years. Rights advocates say the relocations are often accomplished through coercion, leaving former nomads adrift in grim, isolated hamlets. In Inner Mongolia and Tibet, protests by displaced herders occur almost weekly, prompting increasingly harsh crackdowns by security forces. “The idea that herders destroy the grasslands is just an excuse to displace people that the Chinese government thinks have a backward way of life,” said Enghebatu Togochog, the director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, based in New York. “They promise good jobs and nice houses, but only later do the herders discover these things are untrue.” In Xilinhot, a coal-rich swath of Inner Mongolia, resettled nomads, many illiterate, say they were deceived into signing contracts they barely understood. Among them is Tsokhochir, 63, whose wife and three daughters were among the first 100 families to move into Xin Kang village, a collection of forlorn brick houses in the shadow of two power plants and a belching steel factory that blankets them in soot. In 2003, he says, officials forced him to sell his 20 horses and 300 sheep, and they provided him with loans to buy two milk cows imported from Australia. The family’s herd has since grown to 13, but Tsokhochir says falling milk prices and costly store-bought feed means they barely break even. An ethnic Mongolian with a deeply tanned face, Tsokhochir
[Marxism] Aid-in-Dying Laws Are Just a Start
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (Not that I have any serious illness but entering my 8th decade, I am getting reconciled with the idea that I am in the mortality zone as Tom Brokaw, now dealing with multiple myeloma, puts it. It really infuriates me that the Catholic Church pressures politicians to oppose right to die laws. I am no afraid of dying as I am of being subjected to the trauma of a long and debilitating illness that only ends with death.) NY Times Op-Ed, July 12 2015 Aid-in-Dying Laws Are Just a Start By KATY BUTLER cold March day, when she was 84 and suffering from congestive heart failure, my beautiful mother went to the garage and measured her Camry’s tailpipe, planning to buy a hose to fit it. She was grieving my father’s recent death, living alone in Connecticut with occasional visits from her three grown children in California, and suffering too much chest pain and breathlessness to weed her beloved garden. “There is a possibility for a timely escape,” she wrote in the journal I discovered after her death. “And I will take it.” She is hardly the first person to yearn to hurry death. The medieval text “Ars Moriendi” (The Art of Dying) called it “the sin of impatience.” But times have changed. As Medicare’s announcement last week of plans to reimburse doctors for end-of-life discussions shows, a once hidden conversation about medical autonomy and the downsides of life-support technologies is exploding into the wider culture. In five states, medical aid in dying is now legal, and bills permitting it have been introduced in legislatures in more than half of the other states. As with same-sex marriage and marijuana, the question may be not whether the laws will change, but when. I support freedom of choice. But after shepherding my parents through their last years, I doubt that legalizing aid in dying alone will end the current epidemic of unnecessary deathbed suffering. The way the medical system handles death is broken, and requires bigger fixes than freedom of consumer choice. Many of us will face quandaries far too nuanced to be solved by aid-in-dying laws. My parents certainly did. At the age of 79, my father suffered a devastating stroke. A year later, he was hurriedly given a pacemaker, which prolonged his worst years while doing nothing to prevent his slide into dementia and misery. When he was unable to remember the names of all his children, my mother and I tried, without success, to get his device painlessly deactivated. It was heart-rending, but in harmony with our values. My father was a stoic. While still mentally competent, he would not have chosen to end his life. But he believed in letting nature take its course. My mother and I, likewise, wanted nature to take my father from us, not an act of his or our own hands. Today, a slow, bumpy path to the grave like my father’s is common. About seven out of 10 of us now live long enough to die from chronic conditions like heart disease, emphysema, dementia, diabetes, cancer and kidney failure. Many will spend years in a “gray zone” where medical choices aren’t black and white. We will each have to decide when to allow a natural death and when to say yes to yet another medical technology that might fend off death without restoring health: implantable defibrillators, dialysis, feeding tubes, ventilators and the like. We will need brave, truthful doctors willing to discuss when to stop fighting for maximum longevity and explore, instead, what may matter more to us. Like living independently at home for as long as possible. Like forgoing treatments that are worse than the disease. Like managing pain. Like living a meaningful life despite physical limitations, and dying a good death, surrounded by one’s family. This is the province of palliative care, currently medicine’s tin-cup specialty. Its doctors integrate curative medicine, symptom management and shared decision making. Their numbers are too small to meet the need and their comparatively thin paychecks are often covered by philanthropies rather than insurance. Adequately paying them requires redirecting how Medicare money is spent. Medicare currently pays meagerly for palliative care, hospice and home nursing. It provides hospice care only to patients willing to forgo all curative treatments. But it pays oncologists a 4.3 percent markup on drugs they administer, some costing $10,000 a dose and prescribed after a cure has become a pipe dream. It will pay over $100,000 for open-heart surgery on a patient who may be too fragile to survive it. This helps explain why a quarter of Medicare payments go for treatment in the last
Re: [Marxism] [SocialistProject] Bullet: Requiem at an Empty Grave? Syriza's Momentous Day
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Andrew says: '... it's hard not to fume when someone like Panitch turns the meaning of events on their head in a way that makes the job of solidarity activists 10 times harder by the confusion they've spread.' I agree. John Passant _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] [test: ignore] changed the rc.mhonarc script
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * marxism-bounces marxism _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
