[Marxism] Fwd: What if the mega-rich just want rocket ships to escape the Earth they destroy? | Jess Zimmerman | Comment is free | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the latest tech billionaire to invest his 
money in spaceships: on Tuesday, he debuted his space travel company 
Blue Origin’s newest rocket. Now, those who want to cruise the galaxy 
can choose between the sleek new rocket and the stubbier model Bezos 
announced in April – or they can opt to ride with Tesla founder Elon 
Musk on a SpaceX ship, or hop on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.


At this rate, would-be space travelers will be able to choose their 
favorite tech company, find its richest guy and buy a ticket on his 
craft of choice. Why does everyone who achieves economic dominance over 
the planet immediately turn around and try to get off it?


full: 
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/16/mega-rich-rocket-ships-escape-earth


While Bezos would be appalled by Bellamy’s socialist utopian vision, he 
is something of a futurist himself. In 2000, the year of Bellamy’s 
future world, Bezos launched a space travel company called Blue Origin. 
The initial goal would be to sell thrill rides on rocket ships to rich 
bastards like him and Richard Branson, who expressed interest in a 
partnership. But ultimately, the goal would be to create “space hotels, 
amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting 
the Earth”, according to a report by Amy Martinez in the April 23, 2012 
Seattle Times.


Perhaps that colonizing project reflects a certain anxiety on Bezos’s 
part about a working class grown resentful of one percent greed, 
particularly the warehouse workers who were shocked to discover that 
their boss preferred to keep ambulances outside their workplace to carry 
heat stroke victims to the hospital rather than install air 
conditioning. After doing a cost-benefit study, ambulances were the way 
to go. Such workers might one day decide to use pitchforks on the ruling 
class and a retreat to safe ground by its members has to be considered.


One must not begrudge any decision by the descendants of Jeff Bezos or 
Donald Trump to live like kings and queens in outer space just as long 
as workers are aimed with laser weaponry to bring down any rocket ships 
bent on counter-revolution.


But the best way to think about the parting of the ways between rulers 
and ruled is Leon Trotsky’s advice in “If America should go Communist”, 
a 1934 article that surely would have won Edward Bellamy’s approval even 
if I have problems with Trotsky’s nod to advertising. If he could have 
anticipated what someone watching a baseball game on television would 
have to put up with today, he would have reconsidered his remarks. But 
the rest of it makes perfect sense, especially the last sentence:


“The American soviets would not need to resort to the drastic measures 
that circumstances have often imposed upon the Russians. In the United 
States, through the science of publicity and advertising, you have means 
for winning the support of your middle class that were beyond the reach 
of the soviets of backward Russia with its vast majority of pauperized 
and illiterate peasants.


“As to the comparatively few opponents of the soviet revolution, one can 
trust to American inventive genius. It may well be that you will take 
your unconvinced millionaires and send them to some picturesque island, 
rent-free for life, where they can do as they please.”


http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/09/bezos-tina-brown-and-the-future-of-the-washington-post/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Administration searches for new approach to aiding rebels in Syria - The Washington Post

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(I would say that the deployment of only 4 or 5 trainees means that the 
program is working since the White House is obviously happy with a 
stalemate in Syria, plus there is the added factor of so few men going 
through this program ending up willing to avoid the fight against the 
Baathist military.)



The Obama administration is moving toward major changes in its military 
train-and-equip program for the Syrian opposition after the acknowledged 
failure of efforts to create a new force of rebel fighters to combat the 
Islamic State there.


In comments that appeared to shock even many of those involved in Syria 
policy elsewhere in the government, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the head 
of the U.S. Central Command, told Congress on Wednesday that only “four 
or five” trainees from the program, a $500 million plan officially 
launched in December to prepare as many as 5,400 fighters this year, 
have ended up “in the fight” inside Syria.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/administration-searches-for-new-approach-to-aiding-rebels-in-syria/2015/09/16/938fd336-5c9e-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
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[Marxism] Fwd: Way to Go Humanity: 99% of All Birds Will Have Plastic in Them by 2050 | Alternet

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.alternet.org/environment/99-all-birds-will-have-plastic-them-2050-reports-new-study
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Re: [Marxism] a reply on "mass workers/broad" parties

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/17/15 9:42 AM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:


http://socialistworker.org/2015/09/17/where-do-socialists-belongI'm with Todd 
on this.


Make sure to click: 
http://socialistworker.org/2015/09/17/where-do-socialists-belong


Dan Russell, one of the two co-authors, was a long time Marxmail 
subscriber who unsubbed around the time I was supposedly threatening to 
beat Vivek Chibber up. Or it might have been some other offense--I can't 
remember, there are so many.


In any case, I thought Dan and his co-author were making excellent 
points while I consider Todd, who I believe is still lurking here, one 
of the more astute ISO'ers on this question. He was quite close to Camejo.


I will try to find time to stick my nose into this exchange when I get a 
chance.

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Re: [Marxism] Why it matters that Alan Kurdi was Kurdish

[Clay Claiborne via Marxism]

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Just another angle of how Assad isn't responsible - if Alayn Kurdi's
problems were a hundred years old so naturally Assad can't be responsible.

This story was written because someone saw it this tradegy a chance promote
Kurdish nationalism. It was posted to this list to deflect blame from Assad.

If Alayn wasn't Kurdish, he would be just as dead. He died because he was
Syrian.

Clay Claiborne, Director
Vietnam: American Holocaust 
Linux Beach Productions
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 581-1536

Read my blogs at the Linux Beach 


On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 12:56 AM, Stuart Munckton via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Sometimes the fate of a child is written 100 years before they are born.
> Some will view this as a reductionist approach or fatalistic, but here we
> are not talking of a divine fate, we are talking of historical forces,
> politics, power, hegemony, economic exploitation and colonialism.
>
> https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60074
>
> --
> “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
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[Marxism] the massacre will not be hashtagged

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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http://aljumhuriya.net/en/29657 

Shark Tank’s Huge Idea
Warren Buffett is worried, but you can profit. Click here.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/55fac3c49111543c428efst02duc
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Re: [Marxism] a reply on "mass workers/broad" parties

[Manuel Barrera via Marxism]

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I made the following initial reaction comment on the ISO response section to 
the article. As ISO always seems fairly sectarian in hearing from people 
outside their organization, I thought I'd share here, too:
Chretien and, likely, the ISO leadership is taking great pains to justify their 
existence as a sectarian left formation--albeit guilty about it. Most of 
Chretien's points of disagreement with the Russell/Principé article are 
"educational" in nature, that is, trying to "correct" the authors for not truly 
knowing what he--and presumably, ISO--"know" about revolutionary politics. In 
the main, Russell/Principé take issue with this very sort of thinking, that 
using the increasing ferment in the world revolutionary struggle should cease 
being a justification for all too singular focus on "revolutionary" parties 
and, rather, that actual revolutionaries can have the ability to become much 
focused, "centralized", if you will by seeking a more democratic approach to 
building "mass workers parties" and engaging in united work with the inevitable 
smaller revolutionary "currents" in and outside of the sectarian left alongside 
the pro-capitalist currents where many new activists are often led, at least 
initially, to join. 

"Dan Russell, one of the two co-authors, was a long time Marxmail "

  
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[Marxism] a reply on "mass workers/broad" parties

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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http://socialistworker.org/2015/09/17/where-do-socialists-belongI'm with Todd 
on this.

Shark Tank’s Huge Idea
Warren Buffett is worried, but you can profit. Click here.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/55fac3874f6a5438757ebst04duc
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Re: [Marxism] Recommendations for recent books on Cuba

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/17/15 2:28 PM, Glenn Kissack via Marxism wrote:


I was hoping some of you could recommend recent — written in the last
15 years -- books about Cuba. I’m looking for books that are
supportive of the Cuban revolution while not entirely uncritical.

Thanks in advance, Glenn


http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2013-July/244197.html
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[Marxism] Recommendations for recent books on Cuba

[Glenn Kissack via Marxism]

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I was hoping some of you could recommend recent — written in the last 15 years 
-- books about Cuba. I’m looking for books that are supportive of the Cuban 
revolution while not entirely uncritical.

Thanks in advance,
Glenn
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[Marxism] Fwd: The Cut | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Opening today at Lincoln Plaza in New York is “The Cut”, a film by 
Turkish director Fatih Akin that uses the Armenian genocide as a 
backdrop for a family drama that is the director’s best work by far. It 
is notable for its unstinting depiction of Turkish bestiality and is 
particularly welcome at this point given the AKP’s eagerness to resort 
to ethnic cleansing once again on the most cruel and cynical basis, 
namely to corral votes from nationalistic minded Turks for the upcoming 
election.


full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/09/17/the-cut/
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[Marxism] Journalism's Vietnam Syndrome

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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By the debunker of the myth of the spat upon GIs returning from Vietnam


http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/17/journalisms-vietnam-syndrome-thoughts-upon-brian-williamss-return-to-work/
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[Marxism] Recommendations for recent books on Cuba

[Michael Yates via Marxism]

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All from Monthly Review Press, on my watch so to speak, published since 2008:


Race in Cuba

One Day in December: Celia Sanchez and the Cuban Revolution

The Economic War Against Cuba

A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution: How the Working Class Shaped
the Guerillas’ Victory

Cuba, the Media, and the Challenge of Impartiality

Revolutionary Doctors
There are numerous essays in Monthly Review magazine as well

  
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[Marxism] Fwd: Why Isis fights | Martin Chulov | World news | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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“This will be a war against a powerful enemy,” he said. “And the Muslims 
will win. You are here on a humanitarian mission, so you can leave. But 
don’t stay long.” I did not, but over the next 18 months, in five more 
trips to northern Syria, I witnessed the relentless rise of the jihadis 
in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. They steadily captured swaths of land in 
both provinces, particularly in the countryside, imposing their will 
with an increasing ruthlessness and defying the writ of the other rebel 
units, who had their guns trained on Assad’s army, and wanted a new 
nation-state to rise from whatever was left of Syria. The jihadis saw 
Assad as part of the problem, but they had a bigger goal – and that 
meant subjugating the rebel cause. Wherever they were able, they were 
transforming the battle for Syria’s destiny from a fight against one 
type of tyranny into nihilistic chaos.


By the time another young jihadi, Abu Issa, was freed from Aleppo’s 
central prison in late 2011, the Trojan horse act that was Isis was well 
under way – fuelled by Turkey’s porous borders, the savagery of the 
Syrian regime, feckless attempts to organise opposition fighters into a 
cohesive force, and the release of militant prisoners like himself. A 
Syrian with historical links to the group’s earliest incarnation, 
al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Issa was released along with dozens of men like 
him as part of an amnesty given by Assad to Islamist detainees, which 
was touted by the regime as a reconciliation with men who had long 
fought against them.


Most of the accused al-Qaida men had been in the infamous Syrian prison 
system for many years before the uprising against Assad began. “We were 
in the worst dungeons in Syria,” said Abu Issa, who was a member of the 
various forerunners of Isis, and fought against the US army in 2004 and 
2005 before fleeing Baghdad in 2006. “If you were charged with our 
crimes, you were sent to Political Security prison, Saydnaya in Damascus 
or Air Force Intelligence in Aleppo. You could not even speak to the 
guards there. It was just brutality and fear.”


But several months before Abu Issa was released, he and a large group of 
other jihadis were moved from their isolation cells elsewhere in the 
country and flown to Aleppo’s main prison, where they enjoyed a more 
communal and comfortable life. “It was like a hotel,” he said. “We 
couldn’t believe it. There were cigarettes, blankets, anything you 
wanted. You could even get girls.” Soon the detainees were puzzled by 
another prison oddity, the arrival of university students who had been 
arrested in Aleppo for protesting against the Assad regime.


“They were kids with posters and they were being sent to prison with the 
jihadis,” he said. “One of them was a communist and he talked about his 
views to everyone. There was a guy from al-Qaida in the prison and he 
was usually very polite but he got angry with this guy. He said if he 
saw him again he would kill him.” Abu Issa and the other Islamist 
detainees soon formed the view that they had been moved to the Aleppo 
prison for a reason – to instil a harder ideological line into the 
university students, who back then were at the vanguard of the uprising 
in Syria’s largest city.


full: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/why-isis-fight-syria-iraq
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[Marxism] What Chomsky Told Me.

[Prashad, Vijay via Marxism]

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http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/17/rogue-states-and-diplomacy-a-conversation-with-noam-chomsky/

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[Marxism] The sorry state of NZ capitalism

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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NZ capital largely escaped the GFC, but growth has been sluggish ever since
the 'new right' revolution from the mid 80s to mid 90s.

The NZ ruling class has moved on from 'new right' (or neo-liberal)
economics, but haven't really found a big new idea.  Pragmatism rules and
NZ capitalism continues to bounce along the bottom.

Coming apart down under: the decay of NZ capitalist society, 1970s-1993:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/coming-apart-down-under-the-decay-of-new-zealand-capitalist-society-from-the-1970s-to-1993/


Low pay, longer hours and less social mobility - welcome to 21st century NZ
capitalism:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/low-pay-longer-hours-and-less-social-mobility/

Key's 'vision': managing the malaise of NZ capitalism:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/keys-vision-managing-the-malaise-of-new-zealand-capitalism/
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[Marxism] Irish anti-austerity groups form new party "to form a genuine leftist government"

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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http://bullhorn.nationofchange.org/irish_anti_austerity_groups_form_new_party
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[Marxism] India's rising corporate-military complex

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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A fascinating look at the rise of India's version of the
mi;itary-industrial complex:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/indias-rising-corporate-military-complex-a-critical-appraisal/
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