[PEN-L:5870] Re: U.S. Military and Its Domestic Effects
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: And remember Timothy McVeigh's military background? He bulldozed Iraqi corpses into mass graves, right? Doug
[PEN-L:5871] Re: Jim Devine on the Media and Golf
In a message dated 99-04-23 12:26:24 EDT, Michael Perelman writes: Golf courses employee an enormous amount of toxic materials, especially pesticides and herbicides. and all those pesticides and herbicides are now being linked to breast cancer -- breast cancer lumps have several hundred times the concentrations of pesticides as other tissue in the body. but, the american cancer society has never funded research into this issue -- all the research has been done by underfunded academics working independently. $64,000 question: why has the american cancer society ignored this independent research? Oh, well, um, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the bulk of funding for breast cancer research comes from several European chemical companies who produce -- aha, pesticides. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] p.s someplace in my mess of files I have some printed articles about this stuff if anyone is interested.
[PEN-L:5875] Speaking of shameless
Apologies to the list for inattentatively posting a personal message intended for Charles Brown.
[PEN-L:5876] Re: Re: Jim Devine on the Media and Golf
Golf is an industry and I've seen revenue estimates of between $43 billion and $60 billion a year. Some people think that it's bigger. Of the estimated 23-25 million golfers my intuitive hunch is that at least 1/4 are women and I also have a hunch that women control at least 50% or more of the consumer spending on golf. As I suggested to Mike, I don't think it would be to hard to get the golf industry to spring for a study of enviromental factors and cosumer spending in the golf industry. Although I doubt if you could sell them on a title like, Golf Course Zone of Death. Your email pal, Tom L. B.A. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 99-04-23 12:26:24 EDT, Michael Perelman writes: Golf courses employee an enormous amount of toxic materials, especially pesticides and herbicides. and all those pesticides and herbicides are now being linked to breast cancer -- breast cancer lumps have several hundred times the concentrations of pesticides as other tissue in the body. but, the american cancer society has never funded research into this issue -- all the research has been done by underfunded academics working independently. $64,000 question: why has the american cancer society ignored this independent research? Oh, well, um, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the bulk of funding for breast cancer research comes from several European chemical companies who produce -- aha, pesticides. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] p.s someplace in my mess of files I have some printed articles about this stuff if anyone is interested.
[PEN-L:5877] Re:Methodists in Yugoslavia Rattlesnake U. 30 Year Reunion Cancelled
Yesterday, when I got home from work and picked my mail up from the basket on the coffee table, I found an ominous little postcard. The card read the Rattlesnake U. 30th Reunion scheduled for this weekend has been canceled. Sorry for any inconvienece call 1-800-666-7734 the alumni office. Well, I knew this was going to happen. Being computer literate, I read the website of Mudsuck GazetteMail which is WV's largest newspaper almost everyday. This weeks front-page news was that a White Christian Identity Separatist Conference was being held in Mudsuck and that they had taken up all of the hotel and motel rooms with in a 30 mile radius of Mudsuck. So, no room at the inn for the Rattlesnakes. This was as people used to say a bummer. I was looking forward to a weekend of trick shooting, moonshine drinking and being chased by 50 some year old co-eds in the woods. Oh, well! Meanwhile there is academic trouble at Rattlesnake U. The head of the Snake Handling Department and Renowned Professor of Speaking in Tongues has decided to call it quits. This is a blow to us Rattlesnakes who are into the liberal arts and sciences. Just think of all the time the good doctor spent teaching your uncle Opie to speak in tongues. Then to make matters worse the Esteemed Professor of Reading and Writing has announced that he is taking a one year sabbatical to an island of the coast of Alaska. This may have something to do with a lack of Sears Catalogs available to his department. Getting back to Yugoslavia. The head of the Rattlesnake U. Department of Genealogy is a Yugoslavian expert. I think he is smart enough not to start any shit between the Croats and the Serbs, because that would be like starting shit down on the Tug River in WV. You could get killed in the crossfire. Because both groups got more in common with each other than they do with you! America has yet to learn this lesson. This is sort of the Kucinich-Kasich tune and let's not forget Tito was a Croat and so are Kucinich and Kasich. Stopping the bombing, calling a peace conference at a ski resort and letting the Albanians know before hand they are not going to be selling any powdered white lighting in Kosovo would be a good start. Your email pal, Tom L.
[PEN-L:5878] Israelis on Kosovo/a
from: Serbs, Kosovars, Israelis, Palestinians: The bewildering politics of Kosovo in Israel. (From SLATE, copyright 1999 Microsoft) By David Plotz ... But beneath Israelis' sympathy for Kosovars lurk more perplexing reactions that illuminate the anxieties of a state where a beleaguered ethnic minority seeks independence, the byzantine nature of Israeli electoral politics, and the enduring weight of the Holocaust in Israel--but not the weight you'd expect. Israeli doubts about Kosovo begin with Israeli doubts about Palestinians. Palestinian newspapers and leaders have compared the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo to the Palestinian "nakba" of 1948, when thousands of Palestinians fled Israel and ended up in permanent refugee camps. (This analogy has been endorsed by the likes of the Economist [!!], which called the flight of the Palestinians an unpunished ethnic cleansing.) Palestinians also claim that the West's intervention to preserve Kosovar autonomy confirms their right to independence. "We will ask the international community to intervene to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and to expel the settlers from it," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian Authority's Cabinet secretary, citing the Kosovo bombing as exemplar. Most Israelis are merely irritated with this Palestinian claim, viewing it as an unseemly attempt to exploit the Kosovo crisis and as a faulty analogy. (An Arab invasion of Israel in 1948 prompted the Palestinian flight, not an Israeli invasion of Arab territory.) But Israel's far right has taken the Palestinian claim seriously. The far right views Kosovo not as tragedy but as threat, "a dangerous precedent." Some right-wing Knesset members have called for an end to the airstrikes: If the West intervenes on behalf of an independence-seeking ethnic minority in Kosovo, one asked, "couldn't it happen here, too, in a different variation today or tomorrow?" The Serbs only exacerbate Palestinian righteousness and Israeli right-wing paranoia by calling Kosovo Serbia's "Jerusalem." If Kosovo is Jerusalem, that means that either a) Israel's hold on Jerusalem is unjustified, as Palestinians argue; or b) Serbia's hold on Kosovo is justified, as a few fringe-right Israelis are now hinting Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/JDevine.html Bombing DESTROYS human rights. US/NATO out of Serbia now!
[PEN-L:5879] Toronto anti-war demo, coalition
If in Toronto and area, please join! -- PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! Anti-war demo: 2 pm, Sunday, April 25 Starting at Liberal Party HQ, 10 St. Mary's @ Yonge (2 blocks south of Bloor, opposite the Church of Scientology) Demands: Stop the bombing! NATO out of Yugoslavia! Canada out of NATO! next meeting of Coalition Against the War in the Balkans: Wednesday, April 28 6:30 pm International Student Centre, 33 St George
[PEN-L:5882] Follow-up on Brazil
It is only an IMF myth that global capital will not invest in economies with macro policies of high inflation and low interest rates. With the growth of structured finance instruments, inflation and currency risks had not been a hindrance for "hot" capital, until July 1997. In theory, these conditions are retardants for foreign direct investment. And FDI grew at a much slower rate than opportunistic speculative investment in the equity markets in the past 2 decades. The IMF, in order to attract global capital to return to Asia, had to eat its hat and revert to low interest rate policies, after the failure of initially high interest rate conditionalities of IMF rescue packages. In fact, it is now clear that initial IMF policies exacerbated the crises in Asia, Russia and Brazil. In July 1997, when the Asian financial crises began in Thailand, the meltdowns had not been triggered by hyperinflation. They were triggered by a collapse of an over-valued Thai currency peg to the US dollar which drained foreign exchange reserves. Generally, in hindsight, it is indisputable that the conditions leading to the Asian financial crises were: unregulated global foreign exchange markets and the widespread international arbitrage on the principle of open interest parity (in banking parlance, this type of activity is known as "carry trade"); short term debts to finance long-term projects; hard currency loans for project with only local currency revenue; overvalued currencies unable to adjust to changing market values because of fixed pegs. Under these conditions, when there is a threat of currency devaluation caused by a dwindling of reserves, the whole financial house of cards collapsed in connected economies in a chain-reaction, called contagion. It then became a regional economic crises within weeks, that eventually hit Russia a year later and then Brazil in January 1999, despite efforts of the G7 to contain the contagion. In Brazil, the government was forced to allow a short, 2-day period of 9% devaluation before it threw in the towel on January 15, 1999 and suspended foreign exchange control and abandon the peg to allow the Brazilian real to free float. During the first 2 days, the government try to do a stock purchase, copying Hong Kong's example in August 1998. But it was a non-starter. Hong Kong had to use US$18 billion in 2 days to cushion the manipulation of its stock and futures markets in August 29, 1998. Brazil had only US$30 billion left by January 14, 1999 as compared to HK's US$100 billion in 1998. So, the Brazilian government decided that it was futile to even try, after some fake moves to try to spook the market. For many years, some economists have touted the myth of the indispensability of fixed exchange rates for small economies heavily dependent on external trade, like Hong Kong, or large free-trade economies facing high inflation, like Brazil. The inertia of the status quo and the lack of hard data on the uncertain effects of depegging have permitted this myth to assume the characteristics of indisputable truth. Brazil pegged its currency to the dollar as a means of fighting chronic and severe inflation. When the Real Plan was introduced in 1994, inflation was 3,000%. Hong Kong pegged its currency to the dollar in 1983 to instill confidence in the uncertain political climate following the announcement in 1982 of its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. As Hong Kong knows from first-hand experience, the penalties of an overvalued currency are injuriously high interest rates and runaway asset deflation, resulting in economic contraction that produces business failures and high unemployment, not to mention credit crunches and illiquidity that threaten potential systemic bank crises and recurring attacks on currency through manipulation of markets. Brazil, burdened historically with costly social programs that have become politically untouchable, the overvalued currency peg inflicted much pain on the economy, particularly the export sector. Both industry and labor have wanted for a long time a lower real to relieve Brazil from high (70%) interest rate and to stimulate export, even if the current low inflation of 3% will rise as a result. The recent crisis in Brazil was triggered by a moratorium on state debt payments imposed by the large and wealthy state of Minas Gerais on January 12, 1999. On January 13, Brazil devalued the real by 9%, having seen its foreign reserves dropped by more than half in the last 5 months to $31 billion. A drain of $1.8 billion from the Brazilian central bank was recorded the following day. On the morning of January 15 1999, to stop the financial hemorrhage, Brazil lifted exchange rate control entirely and allowed the real to float freely in the foreign exchange markets. Within minutes, the real fell to 1.60 to the dollar from its previous 1.32, but by day's end, settled around 1.43. By the end of the trading day on January 15, Brazil had managed to halt the
[PEN-L:5884] Trotsky, Ukrainian nationalism and Kosovobrenner@history.ucla.edu
There is widespread support for Kosovar "self-determination" among groups in the broadly defined Trotskyist tradition. In general, these groups view Milosevic and the Serbs as the latest incarnation of Stalin's Greater Russian domination over lesser nationalities. In this schema, what is required is a fight to the death against national chauvinism such as the kind Lenin began to mount against Stalin in the twilight of his life. Lenin saw Stalin's treatment of the Georgian nationality as a violation of the Bolshevism and a retreat into Czarist backwardness. He sought Trotsky's assistance in the fight, which is the subject of Moshe Lewin's "Lenin's Final Struggle." The Trotskyists see their fight against the Yugoslav "Stalinists," especially Milosevic, as squarely in this tradition. This fight is so crucial that it does not even seem to matter to some Trotskyists that their demands to "Arm the KLA" agree with those of the more bellicose members of the NATO coalition. Although I am no longer a Trotskyist, I suggest that a deeper analysis of Trotsky's writings on these sorts of questions will reveal a more dialectically nuanced understanding of the interrelationship between the self-defense needs of a socialist state and those of lesser nationalities. A review of Trotsky's treatment of "the Ukraine question", which has been taken by many Trotskyists as ideological justification for their defense of Kosovar nationalism, might suggest a completely different political imperative. The real question is whether Trotsky's call for an "Independent Soviet Ukraine" has that much in common with blanket support for Kosovar self-determination. This was not Trotsky's final word on the subject of the rights of lesser nationalities. During the Hitler-Stalin pact, territory in Eastern Europe was divided up between the two powers. This had a disorienting effect on the liberal and social democratic left, which was reflected in the positions of the Shachtman-Burnham faction in the SWP. They regarded violation of Finland's sovereignty by both Hitler and Stalin as proof that the two regimes were equally reactionary and villainous. Trotsky argued that the right to national sovereignty in such cases had to be weighed against the broader needs of socialist revolution. Self-determination in this light might be revealed not as an end in itself, but as a tactic used to advance the class-struggle under given objective conditions. I will argue that this elementary truth has been forgotten by the Trotskyist movement, which has elevated "self-determination" into a kind of universal principle, like free elections or the right to organize trade unions. For Marxists, however, there is no universal principle except the need for communism. Before examining Trotsky's writings on Ukrainian nationalism, it would be useful to review the problems of this 50 million strong nationality in the Soviet Union. Since the Ukraine was the "breadbasket" of the USSR, Stalin's war against the peasantry was felt most grievously in this republic. During the NEP, Stalin and Bukharin backed peasant capitalism while Trotsky urged rapid industrialization based on steep taxation of the wealthier peasant. From the very beginning, the so-called "scissors" phenomenon characterized the NEP. Trotsky first drew attention to this phenomenon of rising industrial prices and declining agricultural prices, which appeared graphically as an opened scissors, in the first few years of the NEP. It was attributable to the discrepancy between a shattered state-owned industrial infrastructure and a relatively thriving capitalist agricultural economy. The effect of the "scissors" was to cause the kulak to hoard farm products in an attempt to blackmail the state into cutting the prices of consumer goods. When the kulak hoarded crops, the workers went hungry and misery increased in the towns. This, in brief, was the pattern that would repeat itself until Stalin declared war on the kulaks. The peasants had discovered that holding grain was more prudent than holding money. The state authorities could not make the peasants budge. At Rostov in the Ukraine the authorities issued an order to have the peasants deliver 25% of all flour delivered to state mills at a fixed price in 1924. The state was able to collect only 1/3 of the grain. The peasants withheld the rest. Finally, Stalin took action against the peasants and sent armed detachments of Communists into the countryside to break their power. In retaliation, the peasants destroyed their livestock and grain rather than surrender them to the hated Red dictatorship. In the Ukraine such actions precipitated a terrible famine in the years 1931-32. Although the Soviet state had converted most of the large Ukrainian peasant holdings into collective farms, the peasants turned these nominally "socialist" institutions against the demands of the state. Peasants banded together to withhold produce from the state. As their resistance mounted,
[PEN-L:5886] Vietnam War Impact
I have been asked by a friend whose daughter is doing an undergrad history paper on the Vietnam War in which she is supposed to discuss the economic impact. However, in her reading to date she has found little on the economic impact and I was asked to recommend some sources. Can anyone help me out with sources suitable for a history student with no background in economics? Send replies to me directly so as not to burden the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:5887] (Fwd) THIS ATROCITY IS STILL A MYSTERY TO NATO. PERHAPS I CAN
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 17:17:28 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:THIS ATROCITY IS STILL A MYSTERY TO NATO. PERHAPS I CAN HELP... The (London) Independent17 April 1999 THIS ATROCITY IS STILL A MYSTERY TO NATO. PERHAPS I CAN HELP... By Robert Fisk When you stand at the site of a massacre, two things happen. First, you wonder about the depths of the human spirit. And then you ask yourself how many lies can be told about it. The highway of death between Prizren and Djakovica - on which the Serbs say Nato slaughtered 74 Kosovo Albanian refugees in a series of bombing raids - is no different. Only hours after I slipped on a dead man's torso near an old Turkish bridge, less than a day after I stood by the body of a young and beautiful girl - her eyes gently staring at me between half-closed lids, the bottom half of her head bathed in blood - I watched James Shea, Nato's spokesman, trying to explain yesterday why Nato still didn't know what had happened on Wednesday. All those torn and mangled bodies I had just seen - the old man ripped in half and blasted into a tree at Gradis, the smouldering skeleton with one bloody, still flesh-adhering foot over the back of a trailer at Terezick Most, the dead, naked man slouched over the steering wheel of a burnt tractor - all, apparently, were a mystery to Nato. So perhaps The Independent can help clear up this unhappy state of affairs with some evidence damning perhaps, certainly important - from the scene. But first a pause, to reflect on atrocities. The Serbs are "ethnically cleansing" Kosovo. It is a war crime. If Nato massacred the 74 Albanians, the Serbs have killed many more. On Thursday, I saw four buses in Kosovo packed with terrified Albanian women and children and old men, black curtains at the windows of the buses in an attempt to hide their presence. And at a square in the otherwise deserted town of Pozeranje, near Urosevac, I passed at least 200 pathetic Kosovo Albanians, exhausted, frightened, carrying plastic bags of clothes and battered holdalls, the old women in scarves, the young women clutching children to their bosoms, the old men wearing black berets; all were standing tightly together for protection, like animals. They were waiting for another bus, I suppose - and, not for the first time these past three weeks, I thought of other scenes, in Eastern Europe just over half a century ago. At Pozeranje, I was seeing these poor people - for a few seconds only, from a vehicle window - at the very moment of their dispossession, on the very day of their "cleansing", within hours of their arrival among the flotsam of humanity along the Serbian border 12 miles away It was a wickedness I saw, the very moment of evil. When I drove through Pozeranje again yesterday, it was empty save for four horses running lose on the main road. So why dwell on the 74 dead Kosovo Albanians whose remains have been left in such indignity along the Prizren-Djakovica road? Because the Serbs wanted us to see them? Because Nato was already embarrassed by the Serb claims of their slaughter? Because it "evens the balance" - it does not - between Serbia and its enemies? No, I suspect that the road of death and its terrible corpses is a challenge not to Nato's propaganda but to its morality. Nato, we are repeatedly told, represents "us", the good moral, decent people who oppose lies and murder. So Nato has a case to answer - for all our sakes. And the evidence lies on that awful road with its eviscerated people and its bomb craters. Nato "thinks" it bombed a tractor on a road north of Djakovica. Indeed, Nato's military spokesman would say yesterday only that is was "possibly" a tractor. Mr Shea - or "Jamie" as he enjoins us to call him - says he is still trying to find out what happened to the 74 refugees. Nato needs more time, he tells us, to assess what it bombed and did not bomb. Well perhaps I can help Jamie to speed up his enquiries. Of the four air-strike locations, I have visited the first three - at Velika Krusa, Gradis and Terzick Most - and they run consecutively from east to west along the Prizren-Djakovica road. At the third, I came across four bomb craters. I saw - and in some cases collected a number of bomb and missile parts. At Gradis, I came across part of a missile circuit board, its congealed wiring attached to a plate which contains a manufacturer's code. Yesterday's Independent carried some of this. But Nato will need the fullest possible information to trace this piece of ordnance quickly. The full code (the brackets are empty on the original) reads as follows: SCHEM 872110 ( ) 96214ASSY8721122 MSN 63341 [remaining
[PEN-L:5888] (Fwd) WINNIPEG LABOUR COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON YUGOSLAVIA
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 17:05:24 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:WINNIPEG LABOUR COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON YUGOSLAVIA WINNIPEG LABOUR COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON YUGOSLAVIA At the April 20 meeting of the Winnipeg Labour Council the following motion was passed: Be it resolved that the Winnipeg Labour Council refer the following emergency resolution to the Canadian Labour Congress convention in May 1999: Whereas the attack by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not a humanitarian solution to the conflict within Yugoslavia; it will only deepen the conflict and suffering in the Balkans, with uncontrolled and dangerous consequences for the entire world; Whereas NATO's attack on Yugoslavia violates the fundamental principles of the United Nations Organization and the Helsinki Final Act that guarantees the borders of Europe following the Second World War; Whereas NATO's demand to place a NATO occupying force in Yugoslavia was made without any legal basis; Whereas the corporate agenda has always relied on dividing workers and making them fight each other; Whereas it is never too late to negotiate a just peace; Be it resolved that the Canadian Labour Congress call on the Government of Canada to withdraw its support for the war against Yugoslavia and to support immediate peace negotiations.
[PEN-L:5890] (Fwd) STATEMENT OF CONCERNED SERBIAN ANTI-NATIONALIST CITIZENS
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 17:04:58 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:STATEMENT OF CONCERNED SERBIAN ANTI-NATIONALIST CITIZENS TO ALL CONCERNED This is a statement of the leading liberal (anti-nationalist) voices of Serbia concerning NATO aggression on Yugoslavia. You are free to translate it, publish it, post it on your Web site or circulate providing that it is in integrate form followed by all signatures. We need your help. Thank you. Concerned Yugoslav Liberals A STATEMENT OF CONCERNED SERBIAN CITIZENS As long time proponents of and activists for a democratic and anti-nationalist Serbia, who have chosen to remain in Yugoslavia during this moment of crisis and who want to see our country reintegrated into the community of world nations, we state the following: 1. We strongly condemn the NATO bombings which have hugely exacerbated violence in Kosovo and have caused the displacement of people outside and throughout Yugoslavia. We strongly condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population perpetrated by any Yugoslav forces. We strongly condemn the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) violence targeted against Serbs, moderate Albanians and other ethnic communities in Kosovo. The humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo death, grief and extreme suffering for hundreds of thousands of Albanians, Serbs and members of other ethnic communities has to be ended now. All refugees from Yugoslavia must immediately and unconditionally be allowed to return to their homes, their security and human rights guaranteed, and aid for reconstruction provided. Perpetrators of crimes against humanity whoever they are must be brought to justice. 2. The fighting between Serbian forces and the KLA has to be stopped immediately in order to start a new round of negotiations. All sides must put aside their maximalist demands There are (as in other numerous similar conflicts such as in Northern Ireland) no quick and easy solutions. We all must be prepared for a long and painstaking process of negotiation and normalization. 3. The bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO causes destruction and growing numbers of civilian victims (at least several hundred, maybe a thousand by now). The final outcome will be the destruction of the economic and cultural foundations of Yugoslav society. It must be stopped immediately. 4. The UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, the founding document of NATO, as well as the constitutions of countries such as Germany, Italy, Portugal, have been violated by this aggression. As individuals who have devoted their lives to the defense of basic democratic values, who believe in universal legal norms we are deeply concerned that NATO's violation of these norms will incapacitate all those struggling for the rule of law and human rights in this country and elsewhere in the world. 5. NATO's bombings have further destabilized the southern Balkans. If continued this conflict can escalate beyond Balkan borders and, if turned into land military operations, thousands of NATO and Yugoslav soldiers, as well as Albanian and Serbian civilians, will die in a futile war as in Vietnam. Political negotiations toward a peaceful settlement should be reopened immediately. 6. The existing regime has only been reinforced by NATO's attacks in Yugoslavia by way of natural reaction of people to rally around the flag in times of foreign aggression. We continue our opposition to the present anti-democratic and authoritarian regime, but we also emphatically oppose NATO's aggression. The democratic forces in Serbia have been weakened and the democratic reformist Government of Montenegro threatened by NATO's attacks and by the regime's subsequent proclamation of the state of war and now find themselves between NATO's hammer and the regime's anvil. 7. In dealing with the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia the leaders of the world community have in the past made numerous fatal errors. New errors are leading to an aggravation of the conflict and are removing us from the search for peaceful solutions. We appeal to all: President Milosevic, the representatives of the Kosovo Albanians, NATO, EU and US leaders to stop all violence and military activities immediately and engage in the search for a political solution. Belgrade, April 16, 1999 SIGNATURES: (ABC order) 1. Stojan Cerovic, Vreme columnist and journalist 2. Jovan Cirilov, Belgrade International Theater Festival (BITEF) selector and former director of the Yugoslav Drama Theater; Theater History Center Director 3. Sima Cirkovic, Member Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Professor, Belgrade University, Dept. of History 4. Mijat Damnjanovic, Former Professor, Belgrade University, Faculty of Political Sciencs, Center for Public Administration and Local Government (PALGO) Director 5. VojinDimitrijev, Former
[PEN-L:5891] Re: Vietnam War Impact
It would not be a burden to the list. I think that many of us would find the answers interesting. I have written else that I think that the war weakened the US economy by providing extra demand, and thereby protecting the US from competitive forces, so the many US industries were unprepared from the strong important competition that was building up. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have been asked by a friend whose daughter is doing an undergrad history paper on the Vietnam War in which she is supposed to discuss the economic impact. However, in her reading to date she has found little on the economic impact and I was asked to recommend some sources. Can anyone help me out with sources suitable for a history student with no background in economics? Send replies to me directly so as not to burden the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:5892] Re: graffitti
Jim Devine wrote: Also, graffitti turns most people off. There have to be better ways of protesting this war. Jim, I suspect if you will check back over your own experience as well as various history of the last movement (going back to its beginnings in the South in the 1950s) you will find that the expression "turns people off" is almost always a false analysis. All those who say that this that or the other thing "turns them off" are those who were hostile to begin with, would have remained hostile no matter what, but seize on some tactic which "turns them off" as an excuse for their hostility. One does not rally people to a cause with arguments. One's actions rally those who are already (knowingly or unknowingly) at least 75% convinced in advance and whether they know it or not are just looking for someone to be bold enough and public enough to sound as though if you asked them they *could* give arguments. It's true graffitti in themselves don't do much because they are anonymous and don't point to a place of public convergence. You need rallies, pickets, marches, leaflets with names and phone numbers and dates and times and places for that. You need to be prepared with non-off putting arguments when people come to you to be convinced in depth of what in some way or other they have already begun to suspect in their guts. The way I have put this in the past, and if senility and ill health holds off long enough I'll try to develop it in a decent paper, is that the left always (in the old cliche) preaches only to the converted. That it's no use preaching to the nonconverted because they won't even ever know that the preaching is going on. The belief that persuasion and argument comes first, inivitation to action second, is a prejudice of the academic world. (I'm not anti-academic. I usually use the word in a positive rather than pejorative sense, but I do have a sense of the limitations it imposes as a lifestyle.) If what we do is not to some extent off-putting no one will pay any attention. And graffitti have their place in preparing the way. Carrol
[PEN-L:5893] Re: U.S. Military and Its Domestic Effects (was Race, Gender, and
I think it is important to think of, for instance, the likely effects that the maintenance of a gigantic standing army has had on American culture, male socialization, etc. I think that socialists, as a matter of principles, should object to a gigantic and professional standing army, especially the US military with its foreign bases all over the world, firstly because of the uses to which it has been put, secondly because it misshapes many who are employed in it (both when its ideological control succeeds and when it fails). Yoshie state-making has had much to do with war-making, which has been a very male domain...so male domination of the political state has been closely related to militarism...Cynthia Enloe (I think), suggests that militarism requires excessive 'strength, bravery, and responsibility' to fulfill male social functions...Michael Hoover
[PEN-L:5894] Littleton, adolescence, and violence
Growing up is probably difficult in any society. What may be different in the United States is the lack of a stable support system. The right is probably correct in a sense when they speak of the failure of the family, but the family is part of a larger, and sick, society. Families can be rigid, unfeeling, and downright cruel, but when they work they can be an important support system, just as a neighborhoods and communities can be. Where can a young, tormented child turn? In our culture, John Wayne tells us that good guys shoot bad guys. Today, we have our first adolescent president. Even Kennedy was more mature. In a way, Clinton was in a corner. To do nothing, he knew that the Repugs would attack him for being weak. Clinton, wanting to be strong and respected, like the children of Littleton turned to bombs. Both probably felt justified with their actions. Unfortunately, our commander in chief commands more respect for his violence than the children of Littleton, although he does far more damage. In fact, he will use the tragedy of Littleton to enhance the authority of the government. If children misuse the Internet, control the Internet. If children misuse guns, control guns (although I'm not entirely against him in this respect, I do not feel that it is right to capitalize on this tragedy). I expect that our schools will enjoy more metal detectors, police, onsite cameras rather than more teachers and counselors with better pay. If our schools fail us, then we need vouchers (I expect that the voucher people will jump on this one), more reporting on standardized tests, and the like. Our adolescent president will than prance about pretending to be an adult. One final note: I prefer Bill Bradley to Gore or Clinton. At least Bradley never pretended to be anything other than he was. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:5895] Re: Vietnam War Impact
On Saturday, April 24, 1999 at 16:00:50 (-0500) [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I have been asked by a friend whose daughter is doing an undergrad history paper on the Vietnam War in which she is supposed to discuss the economic impact. However, in her reading to date she has found little on the economic impact and I was asked to recommend some sources. Can anyone help me out with sources suitable for a history student with no background in economics? Send replies to me directly so as not to burden the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Didn't Kolko discuss this somewhere? *Anatomy of a War*, perhaps, or *The Politics of War*, *Confronting the Third World*, *Century of War*, *The Roots of American Foreign Policy*? Bill
[PEN-L:5896] Re: 10's of thousands for peace in Italia
PEACE, bread and land, Bread and roses, bread and roses, All Power to the working People as a whole, Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/23/99 09:20PM Forwarded by Charles: On Thursday, 22nd April, over 600 shop stewards gathered in the Milan CGIL trade union headquarters to take part in a national assembly called by forty factory councils. The meeting called on the national leadership of the three main trade union federations (CGIL,CISL and UIL) to organise a general strike against the war. They also decided to organise a series of mass meetings in the factories on the question. What happened in the town of Massa, in Tuscany, is an indication of how the movement could develop. The official unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL, organised a four hour provincial general strike on 19th April. This was the first serious strike action called by the trade unions against the war. The national leadership seems less prepared to organise a serious movement, but the pressure could build up, especially if ground troops are sent in. The number of people on the demonstartion was 5,000. A large number of school teachers were there with a banner that had had some lines from a Bertold Brecht poem: "Among the vanquished the poor people went hungry, among the victors the poor people went hungry." Prior to the demonstration teachers and students had organised meetings in the schools on the war. Apart from the teachers there were also blue collar workers from the factories, government workers, the pensioners union, the railway workers and the workers from the marble quarries of Carrara. Significantly, there was also a delegation on the demonstration from the SIULP (the police trade union!). Charles, this is good news! In some European countries, the war against Yugoslavia may even revitalize the left! Yoshie
[PEN-L:5889] (Fwd) OTTAWA LABOUR COUNCIL SAYS NO TO U.S./NATO BOMBINGS OF
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date sent: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 17:05:32 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Sid Shniad [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:OTTAWA LABOUR COUNCIL SAYS NO TO U.S./NATO BOMBINGS OF YUGOSLAVIA Friday, 23 Apr 1999 OTTAWA LABOUR COUNCIL SAYS NO TO U.S./NATO BOMBINGS OF YUGOSLAVIA Last night at its regular meeting the delegates of the Ottawa and District Labour Council passed a motion to send to the Canadian Labour Congress the following emergency resolution on the War in Yogoslovia: Stop the bombing of Yugoslavia! Negotiate Now! Whereas: the attack by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Yugoslavia is not a humanitarian solution to the conflict within Yugoslavia; it will only deepen the conflict and suffering in the Balkans, with uncontrolled and dangerous consequences for the entire world; Whereas: NATO's attack on Yugoslavia violates the fundamental principles of the United Nations Organization and of the Helsinki Final Act that guarantees the borders of Europe following the Second World War; Whereas: NATO's demand to place a NATO occupying force in Yugoslavia was made without any legal basis; Whereas: the corporate agenda has always relied on dividing workers, and on making them fight each other; Whereas: it is never too late to negotiate a just peace; Therefore be it resolved: that the Canadian Labour Congress call on the Government of Canada to withdraw its support for the war against Yugoslavia and to support immediate peace negotiations. The Executive had unanimously reccommended acceptance, and it passed overwhelmingly. Stuart Ryan, President CAW 567
[PEN-L:5885] Re: Re: Re: bombing the media
Michael "Not-Mike" Hoover wrote: for what it's worth, the US gov't has been prohibited from carrying out assassinations and assassination attempts since Gerald Ford signed Executive Order 11095 (I think) in 1976... William Blum says that, in the American bombing attack upon Libya of 14 April 1986, the "bombs dropped on Libya took the lives of a reported 40 to 100 people, all civilians but one, and wounded another hundred or so. The French Embassy, located in a residential district, was destroyed. The dead included Qaddafi's young daughter and a teenage girl visiting from London; all of Qaddafi's other seven children as well as his wife were hospitalized, suffering from shock and various injuries." Considering the above (among other unlawful uses of force), I don't know why Bob Barr wants to submit a bill to (formally) overturn the policy. Yoshie well, I did say "for what it's worth" and I could have mentioned the above attack as a case in point... Barr, who worked for the CIA from 1971-1978, maintains that executive ban results in US deploying costly extensive force when attempting to eliminate a Qaddafi, Hussein, Milosevic, etc...he wants to rescind formal proscription and return to 'legal' assassination operations... btw, Reagan's EO 12333 permits the CIA to engage in domestic/foreign surveillance of and covert operations against US citizens...it also permits intelligence agencies to train/support local police and secretly contract for goods/services with corporations, individuals, organizations, and universities (I imagine that Barr's bill doesn't address this evil shit!) btw2, Barr has announced that he will vote in favor of Campbell's (California Repub) resolutions requiring removal of US military from Yugoslavia...anti-Clinton, no doubt, factors in but his announced reasoning is that the war is depleting resources and sapping personnel from other geographical areas...and if he can get his assassination bill passed, the first hit-team can be deployed against Milosevic... Stop US/NATO Bombing! US/NATO Out of Yugoslavia! Abolish the CIA the National Security State!...Michael "Not-Mike" Hoover
[PEN-L:5883] graffitti
For what it's worth, I saw my first anti-war graffitti today: "NATO" followed by a swastika, on the side of a fire station near here, in West Los Angeles. Too bad it uses the Nazi analogy hype. Also, graffitti turns most people off. There have to be better ways of protesting this war. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/JDevine.html Bombing DESTROYS human rights. US/NATO out of Serbia now!
[PEN-L:5881] Re: Jim Devine on the Media and Golf
Maggie Coleman wrote, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the bulk of funding for breast cancer research comes from several European chemical companies who produce -- aha, pesticides.. That, and the fact that some of them are also in pharmaceuticals, producing the chemo-therapy chemicals to treat the cancers that their pesticide chemicals cause. That's C[ancer]pitalism! regards, Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/covenant.htm
[PEN-L:5880] Re: Re: Jim Devine on the Media and Golf
Maggie's note reminds us of the importance of independent sources of information. The big agro-chemical companies are in the process of taking over departments in the universities, for example Novartis in Berkeley and Monsanto in Davis. We're heaping an enormous toxic overload on ourselves and the environment, while the public mood, at least in the upper reaches of political sphere is for more and more deregulation. Instead, we get O.J. then Monica, and now Littleton -- while forgetting that schools presently being bombed in Serbia. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: and all those pesticides and herbicides are now being linked to breast cancer -- breast cancer lumps have several hundred times the concentrations of pesticides as other tissue in the body. but, the american cancer society has never funded research into this issue -- all the research has been done by underfunded academics working independently. $64,000 question: why has the american cancer society ignored this independent research? Oh, well, um, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the bulk of funding for breast cancer research comes from several European chemical companies who produce -- aha, pesticides.. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:5874] A real cost for you, but especially for them
= While cleaning out my files -- a frequently postponed activity now proving to be unexpectedly cathartic -- I came across this undated Reuters piece. The date on the forwarding was last November 20th. With NATO's new doctrine it has been decided that the last, remotest Eskimo ice fisherman and Sahara shepherd will be allowed to share the cost of every 10-mile round trip made by Boobus americanus to pick up two items at his not-really-local convenience store. How convenient, and what an honor! Well, it's fine by me. The more enemies the better; let's get this thing over with. valis 7 days and counting REAL COST OF U.S. GASOLINE IS $15.14 PER GALLON, REPORT SAYS By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON - So you think you're getting a good deal on a tank of gasoline these days? Not so, if all the oil industry tax subsidies received from the federal and state governments and other costs that went into producing that gallon of gasoline were included in the pump price. Such external costs push the price of gasoline as high as $15.14 a gallon, according to a new report released Tuesday by the International Centre for Technology Assessment. "In reality, the external costs of using our cars are much more higher than we may realise," the Washington-based research group said in its report. The report examined more than 40 separate cost factors the group said it associated with gasoline production but aren't reflected by the price of gasoline at the pump. These external costs total up to $1.69 trillion per year, according to the report. The group points out that the federal government provides the oil industry with tax breaks to help U.S. companies compete with international producers, so gasoline remains cheap for American consumers. The Department of Energy is forecasting that the national price for regular unleaded gasoline will average $1.02 during the current quarter, the lowest price on record for any three-month period when adjusted for inflation. Tax subsidies don't end at the federal level, as the group said most state income taxes are based on oil firms' lower federal tax bills, which result in companies paying $123 million to $323 million less in state taxes. In addition to tax breaks, the federal government provides up to $114.6 billion in subsidies annually that support the extraction, production and use of petroleum, such as research and development and export financing. The federal government also spends up to $1.6 billion yearly on regulatory oversight, pollution cleanup and liability costs connected to the oil industry, the group said. In addition, U.S. Defence Department spending allocated to safeguard the world's petroleum resources totals $55 billion to $96 billion a year, according to the group. (C) Reuters Limited 1998. ___ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
[PEN-L:5869] Judy Rebick on the bombing. Bombing of TV and Radio etc.
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --D5A5C20156C1BF0B645FDDC7 Are any professional groups representing TV or Radio journalists, technicians etc. saying anything about the bombing of Serb TV and radio stations, particularly the brutal attack in downtown Belgrade? Serb short wave reported a statement of solidarity from Italian journalists who condemned the raid. Western journalists in Belgrade expressed sympathy for the families. According to the Serb short wave the CNN reporters report aired briefly but then was not repeated. There was video of the aftermath I gather. You would think that there would be outrage among journalists and reporters at what has happened even though their sympathies might be with NATO. . NATO has now specifically targeted a Belgrade power plant. With that they did not even have a fig leaf to cover their actions. They claim that they are bringing the war home to the populace and encouraging them to get rid of Milosevic. Are NATO leaders losing it or is it me? Why not really bring it home to the populace by carpet bombing? Are these trial balloons to see what if any will be the public reaction in NATO countries? We go from military installations and police stations, to bridges, to railroads, to civilian airports, a cigarette factory, a car factory protected by workers, a politician's residence, to TV stations, and to heating plants. What is next? Why not aim at schools where they no doubt teach Serb propaganda, universities, etc. etc. I post a couple of recent commentaries by Rebick. They are not that bright but even a dim light seems impressive in the overpowering gloom of most media reporting. Cheers, Ken Hanly --D5A5C20156C1BF0B645FDDC7 HTML HEADTITLECBC NEWSWORLD ONLINE - Viewpoint: Judy Rebick/TITLE/HEAD BODY BGCOLOR="#FF" TEXT="#00" LINK="#00579F" ALINK="#FF" VLINK="#7F000F" BASEFONT SIZE=3 FACE="Arial,Helvetica" TABLE BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=8 WIDTH=630TRTD ROWSPAN=2 VALIGN=top !NAVIGATION INSERT !START NAVIGATION INSERT TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH=78 TRTDA HREF="/"IMG SRC="/gfx/nav_logonw.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="110" BORDER="0" ALT="cbc news"/A/TD/TRTRTDA HREF="/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_news_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="news"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/news/indepth/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_indepth_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="indepth"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/live/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_live_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="live"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/business/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_business_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="businesss"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/programs/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_programs_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="programs"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/weather/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_weather_off.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="weather"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/viewpoint/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/nav_viewpoint_on.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="viewpoint"/A/TD/TR TRTDA HREF="/news/indepth/worldfair39/" TARGET=_topIMG SRC="/gfx/promo/nav_worldfair.gif" WIDTH="78" HEIGHT="112" BORDER="0"/A/TD/TR /TABLE !-END NAVIGATION INSERT- /TDTD VALIGN=top !---START AD-- !A HREF="adlink.html"!IMG SRC="http://newsworld.cbc.ca/gfx/bannerdir/canadian/cpi.gif" BORDER=1 WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60!/A !-- AdSpace begins -- div align="center" IFRAME MARGINWIDTH=0 HSPACE=0 VSPACE=0 FRAMEBORDER=0 SCROLLING=no BORDERCOLOR="#00" width=470 height=60 SRC="http://ads.cbc.ca/html.ng/uniqueID=0001site=testsize=1" /div SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="http://ads.cbc.ca/js.ng/Params.richmedia=yesuniqueID=site=newsworldsize=1network=tvpagepos=1" /SCRIPT /IFRAME div align="center" NOSCRIPT A HREF="http://ads.cbc.ca/click.ng/Params.richmedia=yesuniqueID=site=newsworldsize=1network=tvpagepos=1" IMG SRC=http://ads.cbc.ca/image.ng/Params.richmedia=yesuniqueID=site=newsworldsize=1network=tvpagepos=1/A /NOSCRIPT /div !-- AdSpace ends -- !END AD P !---LOGO TABLE CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0 BORDER=0 WIDTH=500 TRTDIMG SRC="/gfx/nw_title_newsworld.gif" WIDTH="217" HEIGHT="23" BORDER="0" ALT="newsworld"/TDTD ALIGN=rightFONT SIZE=1 A HREF="/viewpoint/insidezolf/index.html"IMG SRC="/gfx/icon_more.gif" HSPACE=2 BORDER=0INSIDE ZOLF/Anbsp;nbsp;nbsp; A HREF="http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/rex/index.html"IMG SRC="/gfx/icon_more.gif" HSPACE=2 BORDER=0REX MURPHY/A /FONT/TD/TR TRTD COLSPAN=2 VALIGN=topIMG SRC="/gfx/nw_title_viewpoint.gif" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT="25" BORDER="0" ALT="programs"/TD/TR/TABLE /TD/TRTRTD VALIGN=top !---CONTENT TABLE ALIGN=left HSPACE=2 WIDTH=160TRTD A HREF="/programs/sites/straight.html" IMG SRC="/programs/sites/gfx/straightfromhip_rebick.gif" WIDTH="156" HEIGHT="154" BORDER="0"BR IMG
