[Marxism] Pakistan: A Semi-Colonial Capitalist Country

[RKOB 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.
*

Pakistan: A Semi-Colonial Capitalist Country

Run by a ruling class of landlords, industrial and financial barons and 
the military officer caste and dominated by imperialism


https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/semicolonial-capitalist-country/

--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
www.rkob.net
ak...@rkob.net
Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314



---
Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Uganda's major assets to be taken over by non-imperialist power

[mkaradjis 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.
*

China to take over Uganda’s main assets over unpaid rising huge debt
https://www.africanstand.com/news/africa/east-africa/china-to-take-over-ugandas-main-assets-over-unpaid-rising-huge-debt/?fbclid=IwAR3lOmo30BfEwk_XvC9m7akgNXgQrSAZR9P3IkDn2nb4sf6DOAofOruDT_A
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[John Reimann 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.
*

Yes, it's true that there was a mass uprising in 2002 that restored Chavez
to power, but that was not the basis of his power. That basis was the mid
level military officers.

Chris writes, "This uprising did not destroy the old state apparatus, but
it did provide an impetus for attempts to build alternatives, including the
social missions and the communal councils. " Nobody denied there was a
revolutionary impulse. But impulse or desire is not identical with what
actually happened.

And even Chris comes close to admitting this when he says that the reforms
were "only partially successful". As far as the social missions, such as
the low cost food stores for the poor and the health clinics - of course
they should be defended. Nobody ever implied anything different. Both Peron
and Lazaro Cardenas instituted reforms that should be defended. The latter,
for example, carried out the nationalization of the oil industry. But that
didn't change the nature of his regime, nor does it change the nature of
the Chavez/Maduro regime.

Chris refers to the community councils. According to several people, these
were always a means of the Chavez regime exerting its influence on the
communities, and if the one that I attended was any example, it certainly
wasn't a venue for workers to exert their power.

We cannot see bonapartism as always and everywhere being the same thing.
For a time a bonapartist regime can balance on the working class. That's
what Chavez did. Of course, this has nothing whatsoever to do with
supporting Guaido or US imperialist influence in Venezuela, or anywhere
else.

John Reimann

On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 5:45 PM Chris Slee  wrote:

> John Reimann says:
>
> "I don't think it ever was a revolution. At least not in the sense of a
> mass
> uprising from below that topples a regime. In fact, Chavez came to power
> based on a layer of middle level military officers. That was his campaign
> apparatus for when he first was elected. That the majority of working class
> voters voted for him doesn't change this."
>
> Chavez came to power through an election, but after the coup on 2002 he
> was restored to power through a combination of the mass mobilisation of the
> urban poor and a rebellion in the army against the coup plotters.  This
> could be considered as a "a mass  uprising from below".
>
> This uprising did not destroy the old state apparatus, but it did provide
> an impetus for attempts to build alternatives, including the social
> missions and the communal councils.  These attempts have been only
> partially successful, but they reflect a revolutionary impulse that should
> be defended against the counter-revolution.
>
> Chris Slee
>
>
>
> --
> *From:* Marxism  on behalf of John
> Reimann via Marxism 
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 6 March 2019 6:00 AM
> *To:* Chris Slee
> *Subject:* Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela
>
>   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.
> *
>
> Rim Nelson writes: "This isn't simply a revolution under attack. This is a
> revolution deformed."
>
> I don't think it ever was a revolution. At least not in the sense of a mass
> uprising from below that topples a regime. In fact, Chavez came to power
> based on a layer of middle level military officers. That was his campaign
> apparatus for when he first was elected. That the majority of working class
> voters voted for him doesn't change this.
>
> I also agree with Gonzalez's analysis of the PSUV. It never was a working
> class party. I saw the forerunner to it when I was in Venezuela in 2005. At
> that time, you could see that the community meetings were not centers of
> mobilization for the working class. If the one I attended was any example
> (and I believe it was), they were gatherings where different elements got
> together to compete for the fruits of power. Also, even then, every
> opportunist mainstream politician around suddenly became a "chavista". As
> various socialists, including Simon Rodriguez, report, from the start the
> leadership of the PSUV was selected from the top down, with the real
> fighters being excluded.
>
> A few weeks ago, the Wall St. Journal reported on how the military command
> backs Maduro, and the WSJ is certainly no opponent of military governments!
>
> So, what do we call a government that lacks the support of the mainstream
> of its capitalist class and also isn't 

[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-Asia]: Narasimhananda on Sathaye, 'Crossing the Lines of caste: Visvamitra and the Construction of Brahmin Power in Hindu Mythology'

[Andrew Stewart 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.
*



Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 

Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: March 5, 2019 at 5:21:46 PM EST
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-Asia]:  Narasimhananda on Sathaye, 'Crossing the 
> Lines of caste: Visvamitra and the Construction of Brahmin Power in Hindu 
> Mythology'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> Adheesh A. Sathaye.  Crossing the Lines of caste: Visvamitra and the 
> Construction of Brahmin Power in Hindu Mythology.  New York  Oxford 
> University Press, 2015.  336 pp.  $36.95 (paper), ISBN 
> 978-0-19-934111-5.
> 
> Reviewed by Swami Narasimhananda (Prabuddha Bharata)
> Published on H-Asia (March, 2019)
> Commissioned by Sumit Guha
> 
> Caste Fluidity and the Cultural History of Hindu Brahmins
> 
> Caste is a constantly contested area in Indian studies. While some 
> social scientists argue that the institution of caste is a needless 
> creation by the privileged to oppress the marginalized, some 
> postcolonial thinkers argue that the caste system has its merits and 
> all the evils done in its name is because of not understanding its 
> roots and functions. Some other scholars argue that caste was meant 
> to be determined on the basis of one's occupation and qualities and 
> caste became a problem only when the practice of determining caste on 
> the basis of birth started. In politics, history, social sciences, 
> and current affairs concerning India, caste has never lost its place 
> of importance. Whether reservations in jobs and educational 
> institutions based on caste should be provided is also another 
> caste-based issue that periodically arises in India. 
> 
> Though caste is generally seen as a rigid system of social 
> stratification, particularly in India, one seldom comes across 
> studies that present caste as a matter of choice or engage with the 
> fluidity of caste. It is in this context that Adheesh A. Sathaye's 
> _Crossing the Lines of Caste_ assumes great significance. This book 
> is the result of years of painstaking research in the intersections 
> of caste and mythology, translation and Indology, and Hinduism and 
> cultural studies. It is the result of Sathaye's doctoral research and 
> we receive a glimpse of his engaging narrative when we read that this 
> "book is about a legendary king who, on his own and through years of 
> struggle, became a Brahmin" (p. xi). That king is Viśvāmitra, whose 
> fifteen legends from Sanskrit literature have been traced by Sathaye 
> through new word-for-word English translations accompanied with 
> detailed charts of the evolution of these stories, and all this is 
> available on the companion website to the book: 
> www.oup.com/us/crossingthelinesofcaste. 
> 
> The sheer amount of work and scholarship that has gone into the 
> writing of this book would easily baffle even the most erudite 
> scholar of Sanskrit texts. This is evident throughout the volume, in 
> which Sathaye provides copious quotes from the Sanskrit originals 
> along with his lucid and accessible translations. He renews the 
> long-forgotten art of glossing over texts that is quite important for 
> situating ancient Indian texts and understanding their relevance to 
> the present-day society. Sathaye positions this book as being "about 
> Viśvāmitra, the development of his mythological persona through 
> literature and performance, and the impact it has had on the cultural 
> history of Brahminhood" (p. 2). One of the many strong points of this 
> book is that Sathaye weaves a consistent and well-paced narrative 
> that is exclusively drawn from Sanskrit sources but does not cumber 
> the reader with archaic usage or jargon. 
> 
> Sathaye has done a marvelous job of bringing home the point that 
> spiritual austerities and tremendous willpower were represented as 
> enabling one to cross the boundaries of caste as imposed upon one by 
> birth. He also makes "the primary goal of this book" to uncover the 
> "historical significance" of the "deep ambivalence" and "social 
> anxieties" that come up with Viśvāmitra's appearance in Hindu myth 
> (p. 5). Sathaye situates Viśvāmitra on the "fringes of the Hindu 
> cultural imaginary as a lonesome master of ascetic practices" and as 
> the "'counter-normative figure in Hindu mythology" (p. 5). Sathaye 
> explores David Herman's concept of "storyworld," where different 
> identities are imposed on different persons in different times and 
> spaces (p. 6). Thus, every reader creates a cumulative experience of 
> the "storyworld" that varies according to one's perceptions and 
> culture. This entire process becomes a 

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[Chris Slee 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.
*

John Reimann says:

"I don't think it ever was a revolution. At least not in the sense of a mass
uprising from below that topples a regime. In fact, Chavez came to power
based on a layer of middle level military officers. That was his campaign
apparatus for when he first was elected. That the majority of working class
voters voted for him doesn't change this."

Chavez came to power through an election, but after the coup on 2002 he was 
restored to power through a combination of the mass mobilisation of the urban 
poor and a rebellion in the army against the coup plotters.  This could be 
considered as a "a mass  uprising from below".

This uprising did not destroy the old state apparatus, but it did provide an 
impetus for attempts to build alternatives, including the social missions and 
the communal councils.  These attempts have been only partially successful, but 
they reflect a revolutionary impulse that should be defended against the 
counter-revolution.

Chris Slee




From: Marxism  on behalf of John Reimann 
via Marxism 
Sent: Wednesday, 6 March 2019 6:00 AM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

  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.
*

Rim Nelson writes: "This isn't simply a revolution under attack. This is a
revolution deformed."

I don't think it ever was a revolution. At least not in the sense of a mass
uprising from below that topples a regime. In fact, Chavez came to power
based on a layer of middle level military officers. That was his campaign
apparatus for when he first was elected. That the majority of working class
voters voted for him doesn't change this.

I also agree with Gonzalez's analysis of the PSUV. It never was a working
class party. I saw the forerunner to it when I was in Venezuela in 2005. At
that time, you could see that the community meetings were not centers of
mobilization for the working class. If the one I attended was any example
(and I believe it was), they were gatherings where different elements got
together to compete for the fruits of power. Also, even then, every
opportunist mainstream politician around suddenly became a "chavista". As
various socialists, including Simon Rodriguez, report, from the start the
leadership of the PSUV was selected from the top down, with the real
fighters being excluded.

A few weeks ago, the Wall St. Journal reported on how the military command
backs Maduro, and the WSJ is certainly no opponent of military governments!

So, what do we call a government that lacks the support of the mainstream
of its capitalist class and also isn't based on the working class? What do
we call a government that balances between the classes, resting in the main
on the military? Nothing but a bonapartist regime. That for a time this
regime balanced on the working class, that it introduced major reforms for
the working class, that it had the popular support of the working class for
a time, does not change this. All that could have been said about Peron
too, after all, although he and a similar figure - Lazaro Cardenas in
Mexico - didn't rest on the military so much. But theirs too were
bonapartist governments.

What's happened is that all too much of the left has gotten caught up in
this view that whoever appears to oppose US imperialism must be supported.

John Reimann

--
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/chris_w_slee%40hotmail.com
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] France's class wars, by Serge Halimi

[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.
*

The working class was supposed to have been edged out of active 
politics, but instead France’s elites have been frightened into making 
concessions by this winter’s uprising of the yellow vests. Its 
continuing popularity suggests that it is recasting French politics.


https://mondediplo.com/2019/02/02gilets-jaunes-class-war
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] One Question Bernie Sanders - state of nature

[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.
*


One Question is a monthly series in which we ask leading thinkers to 
give a brief answer to a single question.


This month we ask:

Should the American Left unite behind Bernie Sanders?

With responses from: Doug Henwood; Judith Butler; Charlie Post; Bill 
Fletcher Jr; Zillah Eisenstein; Eric Mann; Lester Spence; Marina Sitrin; 
Eric Blanc; Juan Cruz Ferre; Eljeer Hawkins; John Bachtell; Rand Wilson 
and Peter Olney.


http://stateofnatureblog.com/one-question-bernie-sanders/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Lenin’s Theory of the National Question and its Contradictions – Кампнія Солідарності з Україною

[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.
*

https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2019/03/05/lenin-theory-of-the-national-question-and-its-contradictions/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] More from Stephen Zunes

[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.
*


With the prospects of increased U.S. military involvement in Syria, 
peace activists have been mobilizing across the country. Recognizing the 
disastrous results of recent U.S. military interventions, the suspicions 
throughout the region regarding Washington's motivations, and the lack 
of any major cohesive democratic armed force to support, there is a 
widespread understanding within the anti-war left that further 
militarization of the conflict would likely increase the suffering of 
the Syrian people.


Unfortunately, there are elements of the anti-war movement that do not 
just oppose U.S. intervention in that country's multisided civil war, 
but actually defend the brutal Syrian regime, which has been responsible 
for the vast majority of the estimated 85,000 civilian deaths.


Similar expressions of solidarity with socialist governments and 
movements during the Cold War, while at times excessive, were 
nevertheless understandable, particularly in light of Washington's 
demonization of any challenge to U.S. hegemony. By contrast, such 
support for the extraordinarily brutal Assad regime -- a family 
dictatorship rooted in the anti-leftist military wing of the Baath Party 
-- has no moral or logical basis.


Longtime peace activist Terry Burke, who worked with the Pledge of 
Resistance and the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee during the U.S.-backed 
wars in Central America in the 1980s, has called on the U.S. peace 
movement to "listen to progressive Syrian voices."


In an article in the socialist monthly In These Times, Burke observed 
the irony of how, unlike in previous anti-war movements, "that 
awareness, that sensitivity towards activists from the affected 
countries is seemingly absent today from major peace organizations 
regarding the Syrian conflict."




full: 
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/anti-war-movement-must-listen-voices-within-syrias-civil-war

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Debate regarding code Pink's visit to Iran

[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 3/5/19 2:25 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

What Zunes leaves out is the US bombing of Raqqa. Now that truly was a war
crime, a crime against humanity. But, as with the rest of the "peace and
justice" crowd, he can't zero in on this because it would really, truly
reveal the side that the US really is on.



You don't seem to get that Stephen Zunes has a far greater influence 
than your blog and that it took some guts to say what he did at a time 
when pro-Assad attitudes prevailed on the left. Trying to turn him into 
Max Blumenthal makes you look absurd.

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Debate regarding code Pink's visit to Iran

[John Reimann 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.
*

The article that Louis Proyect referred us to by Zunes is actually
extremely interesting in that it reveals the contradiction Zunes finds
himself in. As one who must maintain his reputation as a serious scholar,
he cannot just carry on with the lies of the Assad supporters. However, as
one of those "peace and justice" activists who discount the role of the
working class in history, especially in the ex-colonial world, he can't go
all the way. He reveals his orientation when he writes, "As a US citizen, I
feel a special responsibility to put my energy primarily toward exposing
and condemning war crimes committed by US forces and other forces armed by
the United States, but it doesn’t mean war crimes are any less wrong if
committed by some other government using some other countries’ weapons." Any
real socialist would take the position that as a worker, our special
responsibility is for international working class solidarity - to support
the role of and defend the working class around the world.

The fact that Zunes doesn't see it that way leads him to his most glaring
omission in that article: While he does mention US bombings elsewhere, his
main attack on US bombings are on the bombings aimed at Assad following two
of that government's chemical attacks. Any serious investigation of those
two bombings would reveal that they were just for show, that there never
was an intent to seriously weaken Assad and that at least in the one (on
the al Shayrat air field) and probably also on the second, those bombings
were coordinated with the Russian regime and therefore, indirectly with
Assad.

What Zunes leaves out is the US bombing of Raqqa. Now that truly was a war
crime, a crime against humanity. But, as with the rest of the "peace and
justice" crowd, he can't zero in on this because it would really, truly
reveal the side that the US really is on.

In sum: Zunes falls between two stools here. He cannot support Assad
because that would seriously damage his academic credentials, but he can't
go all the way because that would damage his liberal "peace and justice"
credentials. And in regard to Iran, he claims he doesn't support the
regime, but he can go all the way in his reformist, liberal position
regarding "peace" in the abstract.

If anybody would like, I can forward the letter he sent defending that
visit.

John

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Leftroots

[Ron Jacobs 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.
*

https://journal.leftroots.net/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[John Reimann 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.
*

Rim Nelson writes: "This isn't simply a revolution under attack. This is a
revolution deformed."

I don't think it ever was a revolution. At least not in the sense of a mass
uprising from below that topples a regime. In fact, Chavez came to power
based on a layer of middle level military officers. That was his campaign
apparatus for when he first was elected. That the majority of working class
voters voted for him doesn't change this.

I also agree with Gonzalez's analysis of the PSUV. It never was a working
class party. I saw the forerunner to it when I was in Venezuela in 2005. At
that time, you could see that the community meetings were not centers of
mobilization for the working class. If the one I attended was any example
(and I believe it was), they were gatherings where different elements got
together to compete for the fruits of power. Also, even then, every
opportunist mainstream politician around suddenly became a "chavista". As
various socialists, including Simon Rodriguez, report, from the start the
leadership of the PSUV was selected from the top down, with the real
fighters being excluded.

A few weeks ago, the Wall St. Journal reported on how the military command
backs Maduro, and the WSJ is certainly no opponent of military governments!

So, what do we call a government that lacks the support of the mainstream
of its capitalist class and also isn't based on the working class? What do
we call a government that balances between the classes, resting in the main
on the military? Nothing but a bonapartist regime. That for a time this
regime balanced on the working class, that it introduced major reforms for
the working class, that it had the popular support of the working class for
a time, does not change this. All that could have been said about Peron
too, after all, although he and a similar figure - Lazaro Cardenas in
Mexico - didn't rest on the military so much. But theirs too were
bonapartist governments.

What's happened is that all too much of the left has gotten caught up in
this view that whoever appears to oppose US imperialism must be supported.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Debate regarding Code Pink's visit to Iran

[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 3/5/19 12:56 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

I think the position of those like Stephen Zunes and Code Pink can be a
"learning moment". As we know, it's not that different from those on the
left who support Assad, or for that matter those who uncritically support
Maduro in Venezuela.


Except that Zunes is with us on Syria.

https://truthout.org/articles/how-syria-divides-the-left-an-interview-with-middle-east-scholar-steven-zunes/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Debate regarding Code Pink's visit to Iran

[John Reimann 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.
*

*Two months ago, myself and a group of us sent an open letter
 to Code
Pink regarding their planned visit to Iran. We got a reply
 from Medea
Benjamin, to which we replied. Since then, Code Pink did make that visit
and their reporting  on it was nothing but
a cover-up for that repressive regime. This has sparked off a debate among
some. That debate has included a letter from a Professor Stephen Zunes, who
was part of the delegation. Here is my comment trying to draw a wider
lesson from this fiasco:*

I think the position of those like Stephen Zunes and Code Pink can be a
"learning moment". As we know, it's not that different from those on the
left who support Assad, or for that matter those who uncritically support
Maduro in Venezuela. There are some real differences. For one, while the
Maduro regime is repressive, it has not descended anywhere near to the
level of Assad or even of Rouhani in Iran. Another key difference is that
in the case of Assad, US imperialism actually supports him whereas it does
not support the Venezuelan or Iranian regimes. What ties them all together
is this: Their principle ally is Russian imperialism.

What has happened to the left, including but not only the socialist left,
is that it has completely lost sight of the class struggle inside the
former colonial world. It has accepted that the working class in that part
of the world is merely the object, rather than the subject, of history.

Where did this view come from?

First of all it came from the position of the bureaucracy in the old Soviet
Union, as expressed by Stalin. For them, the working class throughout the
world was merely a pawn in the conflict between the Soviet bureaucracy and
Western, mainly US, capitalism/imperialism. The most clear expression of
this was the support that Stalin gave for the formation of the racist State
of Israel. He saw an independent Israel as weakening British imperialism;
what happened to the Palestinian people didn't matter.

In addition, we have seen the long term trend of the weakening of the
working class and its organizations, including in the US. A part of that
process has been the strengthening of the grip of a conservative and
self-serving bureaucracy over the unions. Together with the anti-Communism
that arose in the post WW II period, this tended to alienate most
socialists from the working class. The result was that they lost any real
organic connection with the working class at home, and they were all driven
together into a "left ghetto" where the ideas of Stalin tended to dominate.
Even the supporters of Trotsky allowed those ideas to enter into their
thinking. Linked to those ideas were and remain the ideas of the liberals -
that issues such as "peace" are moral abstractions. That's why Code Pink
could take that silly position of "understanding between nations" and
completely ignore class interests, the working class, or the specially
oppressed. Having taken up this abstract, moralistic position, they now are
unwilling to reconsider.

And so, the "peace and justice" advocates as well as all too many
socialists, see Russian imperialism as the only force that can stand up to
US imperialism. The working class doesn't exist as an independent force, in
their eyes. In relation to this, we have to consider that Putin is playing
a role similar to that of the old Tsar. In the latter case, the Tsar was
the leader of the "holy alliance" that sought to bring together all the
monarchist and feudal powers in Europe to combat the rise of liberal
democratic ideas. Today, Putin and his agents - especially Aleksander Dugin
- are bringing together the forces of chauvinism, xenophobia, racism,
homophobia, misogyny and reaction in general. But much of the "left"
completely ignores that role. They ignore the fact that what these bigots
mean by a "multi-polar world" is really every individual nation united
across class lines around a particular ethnic or national group, with every
other group repressed or driven out or both. They support this because it
opposes US imperialism. That it means strengthening of Russian imperialism
and/or sectarianism, that it means a disastrous weakening of the working
class as an independent force in society, doesn't matter in their view.

Code Pink's trip to Iran, which was nothing but a cover-up for that vicious
regime, is but the tip of the iceberg.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check 

Re: [Marxism] In defence of lesbian rights

[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 3/5/19 12:02 PM, Tristan Sloughter via Marxism wrote:


I am surprised/confused why Philip hasn't been banned. And Redline posts like 
this seem to be increasing in frequency.


Look, nobody agrees with Phil on this stuff so I don't even see the 
point of challenging him. Most of what appears on RedLine is 
unobjectionable, if not very worthwhile. I used to get annoyed when 
articles about Syria were posted here from RedLine since they were 
pro-Assad but I finally decided that they were as repugnant to the 
average Marxmail subscriber as the transgender articles. My advice is to 
just ignore the stuff that bothers you. Phil Ferguson has been on 
Marxmail since it started in 1998 and on the mailing lists that preceded 
it going back to 1992 or so. I value his contributions and am glad we 
have reports from New Zealand on a regular basis.


That's that.

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] In defence of lesbian rights

[Tristan Sloughter 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.
*


I am surprised/confused why Philip hasn't been banned. And Redline posts like 
this seem to be increasing in frequency. 
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] ‘Solitary’ Is an Uncommonly Powerful Memoir About Four Decades in Confinement

[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.
*

NY Times, March 5, 2019
‘Solitary’ Is an Uncommonly Powerful Memoir About Four Decades in 
Confinement

By Dwight Garner

Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of 
Transformation and Hope.

By Albert Woodfox with Leslie George.
433 pages. Grove Press. $26.

Albert Woodfox grew up poor in New Orleans’s Treme neighborhood. He 
didn’t know his father. His mother, who could not read or write, 
sometimes prostituted herself to keep food on the table for Albert and 
his siblings.


He turned to crime young. For a while his misdeeds were on the mild 
side, the sort of antics that Chuck Berry referred to in his 
autobiography as “hubcap ripping and parked-car creeping, dime-store 
clipping and window peeping.”


They got more serious. By the time he was in his teens, he was breaking 
into houses and convenience stores. He stole cars, mugged people, joined 
a gang and got a heroin habit. He once broke out of prison and, on his 
way home, appropriated a cement mixer, roaring away at 10 miles per 
hour. He was caught because he left his wallet on the dashboard.


Woodfox spends the first sections of his uncommonly powerful memoir, 
“Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of 
Transformation and Hope,” objectively detailing his young life of crime. 
This is not easy reading. What life did not give him, he was determined 
to take.


“I robbed people, scared them, threatened them, intimidated them,” he 
writes. “I stole from people who had almost nothing. My people. Black 
people. I broke into their homes and took possessions they worked hard 
for; took their wallets out of their pockets. I beat people up. I was a 
chauvinist pig.”


The first time he was sent to Angola — the notorious maximum-security 
prison farm in Louisiana, named after the plantation that once occupied 
its land — he got a tattoo from another inmate: Charles Neville, the 
musician. That was an eight-month stretch.


In 1969, when he was 22, Woodfox was sentenced to 50 years for armed 
robbery. With good behavior he expected to be released in half that time.


In various prisons he’d met members of the Black Panther Party for 
Self-Defense. They gave him books to read and a historical sense of his 
people and his past. He learned about the racial iniquities (all-white 
juries and police forces, for starters) of the American justice system.


By the time he got back to Angola, he writes, “I was a black man with a 
long prison sentence ahead of me. Inside, however, everything had 
changed. I had morals, principles and values I never had before.” He 
adds: “I would never be a criminal again.”


But on April 17, 1972, a white prison guard named Brent Miller was 
killed at Angola. Woodfox and another member of the Panthers were 
accused of the murder, despite an utter lack of evidence. A sham trial 
commenced, and they were found guilty and sentenced to life in solitary.


For a crime he did not commit, Woodfox would spend more than four 
decades in solitary confinement: 23 hours a day in a 6-by-9-foot cell. 
He recounts consistently brutal treatment by guards, rats and vermin, 
deadly heat and no way out of solitary for good behavior. His memoir is 
the story of how he survived.


The “legacy of slavery” was everywhere at Angola, Woodfox writes. When 
he arrived it was segregated. White prisoners mostly worked indoors 
while the black prisoners worked the fields, often cutting sugar cane 
under the supervision of guards with shotguns.


The prison had a rape culture. The day new inmates arrived was called 
“fresh fish day,” and sexual predators lined up to view the goods. “If 
you were raped at Angola, or what was called ‘turned out,’ your life in 
prison was virtually over,” he writes.


Woodfox was tough enough to protect himself. He later began to shield 
other men from rape on principle, often taking beatings in the process.


The heart of “Solitary” is Woodfox’s decision to “take my pain and turn 
it into compassion, and not hate.” He read legal books and began to win 
lawsuits over cruel and unusual punishment. His memoir is strewn with 
words from others he read while in prison — Nelson Mandela, James 
Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, Frederick Douglass.


He taught men to read. He organized umpteen hunger strikes. He made a 
difference in many men’s lives.


“Solitary” is a profound book about friendship. Along with Robert King 
and Herman Wallace, Woodfox became known as part of the “Angola 3.” 
These men were mostly kept separated from one another, but managed to 
remain in contact. “I didn’t know how so much loyalty and devotion could 
exist between three men,” Woodfox writes.

Re: [Marxism] In defence of lesbian rights

[Jeffrey Masko 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.
*

Not only is the piece disgusting, but it ignores the growing number of
trans folks who are choosing non-binary status. They are uncomfortable with
the notions of the feminine and masculine being restricted to bodies and
genitals exclusively, and have the right to do so. That there are damaged
and destructive individuals in every community goes without saying, but
every individual act in the trans community is in indictment on the whole.
Would we do this with other marginalized communities?

Why is it that the trans-phobic are obsessed with the assumed sexual
relations of the trans community? Straight folks seems to always define
gender and sexual identity to sex behaviors as if BDSM isn't
overwhelmingly, hetero. Trans men are far less to receive this abuse, why
is that?

Radical circles have the chance to tackle issues that are not easily
tackled, whereas the bourgeoisie dismiss it. What will we do? So how will
non-binary individuals fit into radical circles or not ?And who will decide
that?
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Bernie Sanders news: a Clinton-era Democrat makes the case for the left - Vox

[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.
*

U. Cal/Berkeley economist Brad DeLong was an ubiquitous figure on PEN-L 
15 years or so ago, generally taking the position that capitalism was 
better than capitalism. Like Steven Pinker, he argued that we had it 
better than ever, thanks to free markets and bourgeois democracy. Like 
Francis Fukuyama, he has become disillusioned in recent years, mostly 
because capitalism is sputtering. He says, "Our current bunch of 
leftists are wonderful people, as far as leftists in the past are 
concerned. They’re social democrats, they’re very strong believers in 
democracy. They’re very strong believers in fair distribution of wealth. 
They could use a little more education about what is likely to work and 
what is not. But they’re people who we’re very, very lucky to have on 
our side."


Interesting.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/4/18246381/democrats-clinton-sanders-left-brad-delong
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] John O’Neal, 78, Champion of Theater in the Deep South, Dies

[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.
*

NY Times, March 4, 2019
John O’Neal, 78, Champion of Theater in the Deep South, Dies
By Neil Genzlinger

John O’Neal, who co-founded a groundbreaking troupe that brought theater 
to black audiences in the South during the civil rights era, and who 
encouraged people to tell their own stories as well as listen to his, 
died on Feb. 14 at his home in New Orleans. He was 78.


His daughter, Wendi Moore-O’Neal, said the cause was vascular disease.

Mr. O’Neal was still in his early 20s in 1963 when he, Doris Derby and 
Gilbert Moses founded the Free Southern Theater, which presented free 
productions throughout the South. The troupe often performed in small 
towns to largely black audiences with little access to the theater.


Some of its productions emphasized black themes and characters; in one 
of the troupe’s first shows, Ossie Davis’s “Purlie Victorious,” about a 
black preacher, Mr. O’Neal played the title character. But the company 
also performed works like “Waiting for Godot.”


The idea, Mr. O’Neal explained in a 1964 interview with The New York 
Times, wasn’t merely to expose black audiences to theater; it was also 
to get them thinking about their own stories.


“We want to strengthen communication among Southern blacks and to assert 
that self-knowledge and creativity are the foundations of human 
dignity,” he said. “In the South it has been very hard for a Negro to 
look at and see anything but a distorted view of himself.”


To that end he encouraged audience discussion after the shows, a 
practice he refined over the years.


“He noticed when they would do the talkbacks that people would just kind 
of argue for their position,” his daughter said. “That meant that the 
people who talked the loudest and the longest would dominate the 
discussion. So he started timing people so that the time could be shared 
equally. And he started noticing that if people shared stories instead 
of making their argument, you wouldn’t get stuck in the conflict; you 
could actually hear the connections.”


These story circles, as he called them, became a trademark technique of 
his, both during the life of the Free Southern Theater, which disbanded 
in 1980, and with Junebug Productions, the successor arts organization 
he founded.


“Him doing theater and taking the makeup off and going out the back door 
was not his style,” Carol Bebelle, executive director of the Ashé 
Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans, who knew and worked with Mr. O’Neal 
for years, said in a telephone interview. “He really saw the audience as 
being the other part of the theatrical performance. It was: ‘We brought 
something for you. Do you have something to give to us?’ ”


Mr. O’Neal would draw inspiration from those story circles to create new 
work. As he put it, “You find the best stuff when you’re not looking for 
it.”


A Conversation with John O'NealCreditCreditVideo by Foster Bear
John Milton O’Neal Jr. was born on Sept. 25, 1940, in Mound City, Ill. 
His father was a teacher, as was his mother, Rosetta (Crenshaw) O’Neal.


In 1962 he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and English at 
Southern Illinois University. His daughter said that at the same time he 
was a student at the university, his father was obtaining a master’s 
degree there.


After Mr. O’Neal’s graduation his interest in civil rights issues took 
him to the South, where he became an organizer for the Student 
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Georgia and Mississippi. He, Mr. 
Moses (who died in 1995) and Ms. Derby started the Free Southern Theater 
in Jackson, Miss., after hatching the idea over dinner.


“We were sitting at a table, the room was blue with smoke,” Mr. O’Neal 
recalled in a short documentary film (he and Mr. Moses were smokers), 
“and Doris said: ‘Well, if theater means anything anywhere, it should 
certainly mean something here. Why don’t we start a theater?’ ”


Their original base of operation was Tougaloo College near Jackson, 
though the troupe soon moved to New Orleans. It started on a shoestring.


“On tour,” The Times wrote in 1964, “the company will travel in a used 
station wagon and a used pickup truck. The station wagon was a gift; the 
group is seeking someone to pay for the truck.”


Mr. O’Neal liked to collaborate with other writers and theater groups to 
create multicultural works, as he did on “Promise of a Love Song,” which 
interwove three love stories from different cultures and was a joint 
effort by Junebug, Roadside Theater of Appalachia and Pregones Theater, 
a Puerto Rican company based in the Bronx.


He was perhaps best known for a character he created and performed in a 
series of one-man plays: 

[Marxism] Lynch Mobs Killed Latinos Across the West. Descendants Want It Known.

[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.
*

NY Times, March 4, 2019
Lynch Mobs Killed Latinos Across the West. Descendants Want It Known.
By Simon Romero

EL PASO — Arlinda Valencia was at a funeral when an uncle told her a 
bewildering family secret: An Anglo lynch mob had killed her 
great-grandfather.


“A mixture of grief and shock overwhelmed me since this was the first I 
heard of this,” said Ms. Valencia, 66, the leader of a teachers’ union 
in El Paso. “The more I looked into it, the more stunned I was at how 
many Mexicans were lynched in this country.”


Ms. Valencia and other descendants of lynching victims are now casting 
attention on one of the grimmest campaigns of racist terror in the 
American West: the lynching of thousands of men, women and children of 
Mexican descent from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th century.


Some victims were burned alive, like Antonio Rodríguez, 20, a migrant 
worker who was hauled from a jail in Rocksprings, Tex., tied to a tree 
and set ablaze in 1910. Other mobs hanged, whipped or shot Mexicans, 
many of whom were United States citizens, sometimes drawing crowds in 
the thousands.


Lynchings have long been associated with violence against 
African-Americans in the American South, and these atrocities are 
remembered at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama. 
Lynchings of Hispanics have faded into history with less attention. 
Often, they have been portrayed as attempts to exercise justice on 
behalf of white settlers protecting their livestock or claims to land.


But a new movement is underway to uncover that neglected past. It has 
unleashed discussions about the scramble for land or mining claims that 
frequently influenced these lynchings, as well as the traces of such 
episodes in resurgent anti-Latino sentiment and the question many parts 
of the United States are confronting: Who gets to tell history?


“The conquest of the West is still simply a tale of incredible progress 
for many Americans,” said Monica Muñoz Martínez, a professor of American 
studies at Brown University who has written extensively about 
anti-Mexican violence in Texas.


“But despite the unwillingness to recognize these lynchings as a 
tragedy, or even recognize them at all, momentum is building to finally 
reckon with these events,” said Professor Muñoz Martínez, who was raised 
in Texas and is a co-founder of Refusing to Forget, a group committed to 
increasing awareness about state-sanctioned violence against Latinos in 
Texas.


Texas, which enshrined white supremacy in its 1836 constitution when 
Anglo slaveholders seceded from Mexico, had by far the most episodes of 
mob violence against people of Mexican descent, according to William D. 
Carrigan and Clive Webb, historians who have documented such cases.


Reasons given for these lynchings varied wildly, including accusations 
of cattle theft, murder, cheating at cards, refusing to play the fiddle, 
shouting “Viva Diaz!” — even witchcraft.


In 1880, a mob in Collin County in North Texas accused Refugio Ramírez, 
his wife, and their teenage daughter, María Ines, of bewitching their 
neighbors. The three of them were burned to death, according to Laura F. 
Edwards, a historian at Duke University.


In another episode in 1882, a man of Mexican descent identified as 
Augustin Agirer filed a complaint against an Anglo man who shot at his 
dog. In retaliation, Anglos tracked Mr. Agirer down and fatally shot him 
in front of his wife, The Austin Weekly Statesman reported at the time.


In 1922, a group of 10 men snatched Elias Villareal Zarate from a jail 
in Weslaco in South Texas, where he was being held for fighting with a 
white co-worker. La Prensa, a San Antonio newspaper, described how the 
mob hanged him, raising the ire of Mexican diplomats who were trying to 
curb such killings.


One of the most contentious lynching episodes anywhere in the West 
involved the ancestors of Ms. Valencia, the El Paso teachers’ union 
official. The family and several neighbors had settled in the outpost of 
Porvenir in a remote stretch of West Texas on the Rio Grande, eking out 
a quiet existence as farmers.


But on Jan. 28, 1918, a group of Anglo cattlemen, Texas Rangers and 
United States Army cavalry soldiers descended on the village as families 
slept. They seized 15 men and boys, the youngest of whom was 16, marched 
them to a bluff overlooking the river and fatally shot them at close range.


After burning Porvenir to the ground, the Rangers and ranchmen claimed, 
without offering proof, that the villagers had been thieves. They 
contended that the victims had been informants for Mexicans who had 
raided the nearby Brite Ranch 

[Marxism] The World Is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm, Study Finds

[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.
*

NY Times, Mar. 4, 2019
The World Is Losing Fish to Eat as Oceans Warm, Study Finds
By Kendra Pierre-Louis

Fish populations are declining as oceans warm, putting a key source of 
food and income at risk for millions of people around the world, 
according to new research published Thursday.


The study found that the amount of seafood that humans could sustainably 
harvest from a wide range of species shrank by 4.1 percent from 1930 to 
2010, a casualty of human-caused climate change.


“That 4 percent decline sounds small, but it’s 1.4 million metric tons 
of fish from 1930 to 2010,” said Chris Free, the lead author of the 
study, which appears in the journal Science.


Scientists have warned that global warming will put pressure on the 
world’s food supplies in coming decades. But the new findings — which 
separate the effects of warming waters from other factors, like 
overfishing — suggest that climate change is already having a serious 
impact on seafood.


Fish make up 17 percent of the global population’s intake of animal 
protein, and as much as 70 percent for people living in some coastal and 
island countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of 
the United Nations.


“Fish provide a vital source of protein for over half of the global 
population, and some 56 million people worldwide are supported in some 
way by marine fisheries,” Dr. Free said.


As the oceans have warmed, some regions have been particularly hard-hit. 
In the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Japan, fish populations 
declined by as much as 35 percent over the period of the study.


“The ecosystems in East Asia have seen some of the largest decline in 
fisheries productivity,” Dr. Free said. “And that region is home to some 
of the largest growing human populations and populations that are highly 
dependent on seafood.”


Now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa 
Barbara, Dr. Free began the research while a Ph.D. student at Rutgers 
University.


Marine life has been subjected to some of the most drastic effects of 
climate change. The oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the heat that is 
trapped by the greenhouse gases that humans pump into the atmosphere.


A study published in January, also in Science, found that ocean 
temperatures were increasing far faster than previous estimates.


Amid these changing conditions, fish are shifting where they live, in 
search of their preferred temperatures. High ocean temperatures can kill 
off both the fish themselves and the sources of food they depend on.


“Fish are like Goldilocks: They don’t like their water too hot or too 
cold,” said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the School of 
Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University and a 
co-author of the new study.


In about a quarter of the regions studied, fish had expanded their 
range. Off the Atlantic coast of the United States, sustainable catches 
of black sea bass increased by 6 percent over the study period.


Another quarter of the regions saw no significant changes in fish 
populations, like the northwest Atlantic Ocean, where Atlantic herring 
are abundant.


But half the regions did not fare as well. The northeast Atlantic Ocean 
— home to Atlantic cod, the mainstay of fish and chips — saw a 34 
percent decline in sustainable catches.


The researchers focused on sustainable catches, using a measure 
developed by the United Nations that quantifies the amount of food that 
can be repeatedly harvested from a base population of fish. “Fisheries 
are like a bank account, and we’re trying to live off the interest,” Dr. 
Pinsky said.


Several previous studies have predicted that climate change would lead 
to fewer ocean fish in the future, but the new research looked at 
historical data to determine that the declines had already begun.


“This is going to be one of those groundbreaking studies that gets cited 
over and over again,” said Trevor Branch, an associate professor at the 
University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, who 
was not involved in the study. “Most of what I’ve seen before in terms 
of climate-change impacts have been speculative, in terms of, ‘We think 
this is what’s going to happen in the future.’ This one’s different.”


The researchers used a data set of 235 fish populations located in 38 
ecological regions around the globe. The detailed data told them not 
only where the fish were but also how they reacted to environmental 
effects like changing water temperatures.


The team compared that data to records that showed how ocean 
temperatures had changed over time, broken down by the various 

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[Tim Nelson 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 Tue, 5 Mar 2019, 3:13 p.m. 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.
> *
>
> https://socialistworker.org/2019/03/04/venezuela-on-the-brink
>
> According to Gonzalez, it's just an inter-imperialist struggle. But these
> imperialisms seem to be on opposite sides, so can we at least take a
> position
> between sides? No, “there is nothing to choose between Guaidó and Maduro.”
> Nor
> should the Venezuelan army defend the country's territorial sovereignty:
> “for
> the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Venezuela’s border.” Also,
> support
> for the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution’s call for a
> referendum,
> which (not mentioned) they asked Guaidó to approve, in a meeting with him.
> And
> the international left is to be condemned for “supporting” Maduro – no
> evidence
> presented, the distinction between “defence” (against imperialism) and
> political
> support being lost on Gonzalez. Not to mention various misstatements of
> facts,
> hardly worth mentioning. Pathetic.
>
> Richard
>
>
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at:
> https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/nelsontim86%40gmail.com
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[Tim Nelson 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.
*

I have my criticisms of Mike on Latin America, but there needs to be a
clearer statement by the left of what is going wrong in Venezuela.

This isn't simply a revolution under attack. This is a revolution deformed.
That deformation, in part, is a result of pressure from the outside. One of
the results of that pressure is anti-democratic forces inside the
revolutionary movement became dominant.

Tim N

On Tue, 5 Mar 2019, 3:13 p.m. 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.
> *
>
> https://socialistworker.org/2019/03/04/venezuela-on-the-brink
>
> According to Gonzalez, it's just an inter-imperialist struggle. But these
> imperialisms seem to be on opposite sides, so can we at least take a
> position
> between sides? No, “there is nothing to choose between Guaidó and Maduro.”
> Nor
> should the Venezuelan army defend the country's territorial sovereignty:
> “for
> the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Venezuela’s border.” Also,
> support
> for the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution’s call for a
> referendum,
> which (not mentioned) they asked Guaidó to approve, in a meeting with him.
> And
> the international left is to be condemned for “supporting” Maduro – no
> evidence
> presented, the distinction between “defence” (against imperialism) and
> political
> support being lost on Gonzalez. Not to mention various misstatements of
> facts,
> hardly worth mentioning. Pathetic.
>
> Richard
>
>
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at:
> https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/nelsontim86%40gmail.com
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[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 3/5/19 9:12 AM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote:

Not to mention various misstatements of facts,
hardly worth mentioning. Pathetic.


Well, at least we have been spared Sam Farber's analysis. I guess 
Gonzalez is his understudy--the show must go on. I hope the professor 
emeritus is not ill or something. I always enjoyed reading his crap. It 
was like the "smell of napalm in the morning to me". It got my juices 
flowing.

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela

[Richard Fidler 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.
*

https://socialistworker.org/2019/03/04/venezuela-on-the-brink

According to Gonzalez, it's just an inter-imperialist struggle. But these
imperialisms seem to be on opposite sides, so can we at least take a position
between sides? No, “there is nothing to choose between Guaidó and Maduro.” Nor
should the Venezuelan army defend the country's territorial sovereignty: “for
the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Venezuela’s border.” Also, support
for the Committee for the Defense of the Constitution’s call for a referendum,
which (not mentioned) they asked Guaidó to approve, in a meeting with him. And
the international left is to be condemned for “supporting” Maduro – no evidence
presented, the distinction between “defence” (against imperialism) and political
support being lost on Gonzalez. Not to mention various misstatements of facts,
hardly worth mentioning. Pathetic.

Richard


_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Financial Imperialism: the Case of Venezuela

[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.
*

By Jack Rasmus

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/05/financial-imperialism-the-case-of-venezuela/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Anatomy of a failed coup

[Ismail Lagardien 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.
*

Would like to hear Distinguished Professors explain this. Oh and violent 
attacks on journalists, and how the crypto-fascists manipulate emotions and use 
political blackmail to get university degrees... 

WATCH: UFS student cleaning up after EFF protesters has social media users 
divided


| 
| 
| 
|  |  |

 |

 |
| 
|  | 
WATCH: UFS student cleaning up after EFF protesters has social media use...

A University of the Free State student has unwittingly opened up a big debate 
on social media after a video of h...
 |

 |

 |







Dr Ismail LagardienVisiting ProfessorWits University School of Governance

Nihil humani a me alienum puto
 

On Thursday, 28 February 2019, 14:48:48 GMT+2, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
 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.
*

Anatomy Of A Failed Coup

Venezuela Diary: January 24 – February 23, 2019
By IKE NAHEM

Hands Off Venezuela

Below is a diary, edited slightly for style and clarity, directly from 
Facebook posts of mine from January 24, 2019 through the culminating day 
— for now — of Saturday, February 23, 2019 when the US propaganda 
whirlwind and concerted campaign caught up with the political realities 
on the ground. Although I have not been a regular user of Facebook, 
resisting the entreaties of friends, in this period I found it a 
compelling vehicle to follow, speak out, and get feedback on the Trump 
Administration-led drive for a military coup and the accompanying 
propaganda build-up.

Trump and bipartisan Washington have been forced into a political 
climbdown for now, leaving the Duque and Bolsonaro governments, not to 
speak of Juan Guaidó, twisting in the wind. Unfortunately, this only 
slows down Washington’s efforts at regime change. These are fueled by 
the Venezuelan capitalist economic and financial crisis which is set to 
deepen considerably with new US sanctions and US seizures of Venezuela’s 
significant assets in the United States. Venezuela and the United States 
have broken off diplomatic relations, with Washington recognizing its 
client Guaidó as the sovereign Venezuelan government.

The month chronicled here are nevertheless a marker not only for 
Venezuela, but also for the coming period of intensifying social and 
class polarization and struggles across the Americas, including inside 
the United States.

full: http://july26coalition.org/wordpress/?p=3119
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/ilagardien%40yahoo.com  
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com