Re: bullying
When I see evidence of the rise of a fascist government, my own government, it is my duty and my nature to say 'yep, looks like fascism to me.' When I hear a person express frustration at the lack of visible resistance to what is shaping up to be unchecked global military domination, the least I can do is offer my solidarity. The irony is that the chunk of geography in many ways least integrated into this system of deadly domination and exploitation is only now being PROPERLY got around to. You could say Americans have been paying for it, and it indeed they have. For example, 40 million with no health insurance. But the Europeans, the E. Asians and the oil-rich Middle East has been financing it as well. (CENTCOM in Florida was put in place back in the 70s so that the US could project power more rapidly than it could through NATO or any alliance (though it looks rather sclerotic now, which is why Rumsfeld wants to work around even it to some extent). But the idea was to project and repress all points globally outside the continental US.) So now we get this: 6. Military launches homeland defense command By Bryan Bender, Global Security Newswire A new U.S. military command responsible for North America began operating Tuesday, codifying the Pentagons new role in supporting homeland defense. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz joined Northern Command leader Air Force Gen. Ralph Eberhart to dedicate the new Northern Command, which will begin operations with an annual budget of $70 million and 582 employees in Colorado Springs, Colo., and other locations around the country. For the first time in the countrys history, a single military command will be assigned the mission of defending the continental United States and Alaska. In addition, the new command will oversee U.S. military activities in Canada, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the oceans surrounding the United States out to 500 miles. Hawaii will remain the responsibility of the U.S. Pacific Command. Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1002/100102gsn1.htm __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: walkout
But it would appear that new costs and procedures at capital's end are arising from homeland security and the phony war against terrorism: 3. Senate conferees propose cargo fees for port security By April Fulton, CongressDaily Hoping to break the logjam in a House and Senate conference on seaport security, Senate aides are circulating a proposal to impose user fees on cargo coming into and out of U.S. ports to help pay for increased costs for security equipment and personnel that ports have faced since last Sept. 11. The draft, obtained by CongressDaily, has been informally shared with House Republican aides, who had objected earlier to a more comprehensive Senate proposal on grounds it would have amounted to a tax on shippers. Senate aides have requested a formal meeting with their House counterparts to discuss the offer and said they hope to resolve the matter soon, possibly even this week. The proposal would require the Transportation secretary to develop a user fee program within six months to generate at least 75 percent of the funds needed to improve port security, or implement the Senate proposal. The Senate proposal would charge fees based on the type of cargo being carried. Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1002/100102cd2.htm CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Re: walkout
On Tuesday, October 1, 2002 at 20:43:03 (-0700) michael perelman writes: Here is a nice succint explanation from Chuck Grimes on LBO: Okay, the more realistic issue is that shipping clerks who run the computers for automated inventories and FOB manifests port-side, are at the moment, unionized under the ILWU. The PMA and shippers want to de-link these jobs from their unionization, and out-source the computer procedures to third party contractors. This outsourcing is technologically feasible since there is no concrete reason a computer monitor and database program have to be located inside the port of entry. Both can be exported anywhere in the world and the job can be performed by anybody, through remote links (with video feed). The union wants these jobs unionized no matter were they are located, and the shippers don't---for very obvious reasons. It is a whole lot cheaper to patch a live link to somewhere else and outsource the routine database entry jobs, than it is to pay ILWU wages to have these jobs done in the Port of Oakland. I've had some experience with this sort of technology, to use a poor term (it has more to do with organization of work). The problem with this explanation is that it assumes remote links do not degrade the efficiency of the job. Direct and spontaneous face-to-face human contact is the very best way to exchange information known to the universe. Put it through a video feed or conference call, and a lot gets lost. I don't know the details, but when you start placing workers in remote locations from other pieces of their work, the work will usually suffer, not to mention (perhaps) the workers (though the Indians employed to run the database might be better off). Bill
Question re. work time
G'day all, Was it here I read the other day that when Britain was moved to a 3-day week by the energy crisis of '74, they found that productivity did not decrease? If so, I'd love a cite and/or anything else that comes to mind. Potent datum, if it's true, no? Cheers, Rob.
Re: bullying
Hi Tom, In the July/August 2002 Monthly Review, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes about left organizing and Okies nearly a century ago: Between 1906 and 1917, the Wobblies and the Socialist Party won converts on a mass scale in Oklahoma. They adopted the religious evangelist techniqueindeed many evangelists were themselves converts to socialismof holding huge week-long encampments with speakers, usually near small towns. In 1915 alone, 205 of the mass encampments were held. The Socialists never won a statewide race in Oklahoma, but their percentage steadily increased from 1907 to 1914. In 1914, the Socialist candidates for governor and senator won 21 percent of the vote and they won five seats in the state legislature, along with many local offices. These phenomena were occurring in the states Indian and African-American communities as well as the white ones. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0702dunbar.htm US-style leftism is a complex thing :- Seth Sandronsky Re: bullying by Tom Walker 02 October 2002 Carrol Cox wrote, To call the Bush administration fascist is capitalist apologetics. It is also bad American history. The Bush administration's ideological extremism is as American as cherry pie. Fascism was European and too damned intellectual. The U.S. had an organized, well-financed, ideologically extreme and politically influential anti-labor, anti-democratic movement back in the days when Mussolini was still a marxist labor union organizer. It was called the National Association of Manufacturers (and its front groups like the Citizens' Industrial Associations), although it was referred to as the invisible government when the scandal broke about the extent of its power and corruption. These folks developed their own labels and slogans Americanism, The Free Enterprise System, Right to Work. Jack London's The Iron Heel (a bad novel in my opinion) was not a premonition about European fascism, it was a melodramatic extrapolation of the policies of the N.A.M. The lineage of this faction of the U.S. ruling class runs right through subsequent U.S. history: N.A.M. opposition to the Roosevelt New Deal through its American Way propaganda, the passage of Taft-Hartley after the second world war, the House Un-American Activities Committee. It has had a large presence in the Republican party throughout the 20th century, but is not identical with it. While fascism borrowed from European intellectual currents, extreme right Americanism owes more to revival tent evangelism and patent medicine shows. Tom Walker 604 255 4812 _ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
Re: Re: Re: walkout
Greetings Economists, Bill Lear writes, Bill, Direct and spontaneous face-to-face human contact is the very best way to exchange information known to the universe. Put it through a video feed or conference call, and a lot gets lost. I don't know the details, but when you start placing workers in remote locations from other pieces of their work, the work will usually suffer, not to mention (perhaps) the workers (though the Indians employed to run the database might be better off). Doyle, Well this will be debated for quite awhile I am sure. Essentially this proposes to insert an interface in communications where the interface didn't exist before. The issue being geographic location for work and not. It is not clear that face to face is superior in all circumstances at all. For example Television news work is distributed across the planet. There are many ways that distributed work happen actually. Face to Face is a labor process producing a certain kind of product. Hybrid uses of interfaces in work is likely to grow. In particular the work from making interfaces is likely to grow substantially. I am thinking of memory work. Web Services where a person accesses business activity as one moves through the landscape requires that information about a physical location be available. Suppose we extrapolate video game activity into this area, there is a vast ocean of location to be filled with interface memory. As an illustration any city street has a wealth of history about it that would be nice to know in some circumstances. Who owned this house when, when was it painted? What are the plants in the yard? Etc. Etc. This sort of work will grow because it is the exchange of memory that is the foundation of social structure. The exchange process is lost if it is face to face. We can't even begin to consider the social ramifications of structure to that until we can build the interface of memory. I agree with the ILWU that work distributed ought to be unionized. Let it be defined by the 'human' rights of the work process not the profit motives of the bosses. thanks, Doyle Saylor
RE: Re: bullying
You can say the US leadership are bullies, I agree with you. But they still rule from within the law, and with a mandate from the America people. Sure they manipulate the press as much as they can, but ultimately the press is free, and the people will search out the free press. Yes Saddam is a bully, yes the North Korean leadership are bullies they deserve to get kicked out and hope they both do. Iran seems to be a democracy, as much as the US (and more so then the UK), so I do not think it is fair to include them Bush's famous Axis of Evil comment. Bullies only understand force and force is probably what we should give them. -Original Message- From: Charles Jannuzi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 1:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:30792] Re: bullying BTW2, after Saddam (and before him, Milosevic), who will be official US Hitler du jour? should pen-l start a pool on this question? JD At this point the N. Korean leadership would admit to cattle mutilations and UFOs to avoid being singled out for vitiation by the empire. Iran is past the cult of personality of the Ayatollah K. and is in many ways more democratic than S. Arabia. But I'm pretty sure the US establishment wants to revise some history here. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
What email lists are for
Carrol Cox: Sabri, you simply have to acknowledge that a maillist post, usually a fairly hastily written first draft, and almost always rather short for the topics being covered, is not an article in a scholarly journal. It is exactly this notion that makes email lists, especially and ironically those that are geared to academia, pretty worthless in my opinion. You get the most extreme version of this at the H-Humanities site, which practically interviews you before allowing you on one of their self-aggrandizing but sterile lists. For example, I just opened up the September archives page of H-afrpol (African Politics), selected at random and which presumably would be boiling with discussions of the Ivory Coast rebellion, etc. Instead it reveals this: 2002-09-29 Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] REPLY: Film BlackHawk Down as a Teaching Resource View Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] Film BlackHawk Down as a Teaching Resource View 2002-09-10 Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] Job Annoucement. Duke University, African and African American Studies Program View Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALASIA THE PACIFIC 25th Annual Conference, View 2002-09-08 Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] Help with Ph.d. on Governance Constraints in Africa View 2002-09-07 Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] A New Film about Rwanda View 2002-09-03 Diana Rosenberg New Book: Computerization of An African University Library That's exactly 7 messages in the month of September and all fall into the category of announcements or teaching aids. Africa burns and these pedants offer help with Ph.d.'s and the appropriateness of 'Blackhawk Down' as a teaching aid. The lists at CSF are not that much better. I just unsubbed from the WSN list because it consisted of nothing but crosspostings from the bourgeois press and the infamous Nemomini. I stick with PEN-L because there are many academics here who might actually find one of my lengthier posts interesting. In fact, my contributions to Canadian Dimension, which have numbered perhaps a dozen over the past 3 years or so, were read here first and selected for publication by the editor. This is just the way I like doing things. My days of sending in a blind submission to MR or CNS, etc. are long past. The discussion over fascism here is exactly what I find useless. Carrol thinks that you can have an intelligent discussion about fascism in a paragraph or two. I have no idea how this is possible. I developed an analysis of fascism on a Marxism list in 1996 during the Pat Buchanan campaign. It amounts to 14,288 words and includes a discussion of the 18th Brumaire, Hitler's rise to power, McCarthyism, etc. I understand that for many people, especially professors and journalists, email lists are a diversion from more laborious tasks like getting their next article ready for submission but for the rest of us proles it is a way of ANALYZING SOCIETY and DEVELOPING A REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY. To do this effectively, it requires more than a one or two sentence quip. http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/fascism_and_war/fascism.htm Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
Re: Re: walkout
On Wednesday, October 2, 2002 at 06:26:52 (-0500) Bill Lear writes: ... I've had some experience with this sort of technology, to use a poor term (it has more to do with organization of work). The problem with this explanation is that it assumes remote links do not degrade the efficiency of the job. Direct and spontaneous face-to-face human contact is the very best way to exchange information known to the universe. Put it through a video feed or conference call, and a lot gets lost. I don't know the details, but when you start placing workers in remote locations from other pieces of their work, the work will usually suffer, not to mention (perhaps) the workers (though the Indians employed to run the database might be better off). By chance this morning while driving to work listening to NPR, I heard (recalling from memory) a New York City detective say that face-to-face meetings over coffee to discuss the investigation of the murder of Meir Kahane instead of working through a database, could perhaps have prevented the first World Trade Center bombing. Bill
turning Japanese?
Title: turning Japanese? New York TIMES/October 2, 2002 Japan and U.S.: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble By DAVID LEONHARDT With the American economy still sputtering and the Federal Reserve divided over whether to cut interest rates again, foreboding comparisons between the United States and Japan are gaining a renewed currency. Japan's stock market and real estate bubbles began losing air in 1990, almost exactly a decade before stocks in the United States peaked, and the country has still failed to recover fully. The Japanese market remains near an 18-year low, consumer prices are falling and the central bank has already cut interest rates to near zero, limiting its ability to lift the economy today. Few policy makers or economists expect this country to fall into the same trap, largely because the American bubble never reached the size of Japan's and American financial and political systems appear more flexible. Still, numerous signs suggest that the United States could suffer a hangover that lingers for at least a few years. Although stocks rallied yesterday, the overall market is still likely to decline this year for the third consecutive year, its longest losing streak since 1939-41. None of the American economy's three engines -- consumers, businesses or the government -- appear poised to propel the nation sharply ahead in the near future. After the economy grew at a moderate pace this summer, business spending on new factories and equipment has weakened again in recent weeks, and large retailers warned this week that their September sales were lower than expected. It takes more than a bubble to become Japan, said Adam Posen, a former Fed staff member and a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington. But, he added, there's no question that the props for keeping up growth are going away. The Fed is clearly concerned that it is flirting with danger. The risk remains small that the economy will remain in the doldrums for years but the weak demand for new goods has caused prices nearly to stop growing and presented perhaps the single biggest economic threat: deflation. If the American economy grows less than many forecasters expect, prices could begin falling and set off a dangerous chain of events similar to the one afflicting Japan. Consumers there have cut their spending, waiting for future bargains, and some are unable to pay off debts that are effectively growing more burdensome by the month. Reflecting the seriousness of the debate here, two top Fed officials dissented last week from Alan Greenspan, the chairman, and voted to reduce interest rates again. Having cut rates 11 times last year to lower the cost of borrowing, the Fed has helped prop up the economy but has yet to end the downturn altogether. I don't know at what point welcome disinflation might morph into unwelcome deflation, Robert D. McTeer, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve and one of the two dissenters, said in a speech on Monday. I don't think we're there yet. But that really doesn't much matter, Mr. McTeer added, because I do believe faster real growth is essential. Promoting faster growth will also ward off deflation, he said. In a study of the lessons to be learned from Japan's decade-long slump, Fed economists said this summer that governments should take extraordinary steps to support prices -- like deep rate cuts or new spending -- when falling prices become a serious risk. Deflation is often difficult to anticipate and far harder to end once it has started than to prevent in the first place, the study said. Mr. Greenspan and most economists say the economy is growing quickly enough to avoid deflation. Despite the draining impact of a loss of $8 trillion of stock market wealth, a sharp contraction in capital investment and, of course, the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, our economy held firm, Mr. Greenspan said last week in a speech in London. Although both countries have huge capitalist economies, Japan and the United States also differ in important ways. Equity markets, which tend to pull their money quickly from failing companies, dominate corporate finance in this country, while banks, which often must make concessions to avoid foreclosures, dominate in Japan. The United States also has a two-party political system that by design or happenstance has injected much more money into the economy recently than Japan's ruling party did at the start of its slump. Meanwhile, the Fed has cut interest rates more quickly than Japan's central bank did. Unlike the Bank of Japan, the Fed can still significantly cut its benchmark interest rate, now at 1.75 percent. The biggest similarity may be that many people in both countries came to see their own economy as recession-proof at the height of the respective booms and sent stocks to unsustainable prices as a result. In both cases, people had decided that the structure of the economy had changed fundamentally, said
important research!
Title: important research! *How you say The Onion in German?* The [Washington] Post's Style section mentions an intriguing story that recently made the rounds on CNN, ABC, and CBS: According to a World Health Organization study, women with blonde hair are dying out, because men prefer to mate with fake blondes. The story prompted Diane Sawyer to lament that she's going the way of the snail darter. The thing is, WHO says it didn't do any such study. The networks apparently picked up the reference off of a German wire service. [Of course, the reference is to a satirical story from THE ONION that was reported as fact in a Chinese newspaper.] Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: bullying
But they still rule from within the law, and with a mandate from the America people. Which laws are we talking about? Milosevic ruled from within the laws of his own country in doing some of the things he now stands internationally condemned for doing, though he also violated many, too. As for the mandate of the American people, that would depend on the functionality of 'American democracy', and that is quite doubtful. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: important research!
Devine, James wrote: *How you say The Onion in German?* The [Washington] Post's Style section mentions an intriguing story that recently made the rounds on CNN, ABC, and CBS: According to a World Health Organization study, women with blonde hair are dying out, because men prefer to mate with fake blondes. not surprising that this is untrue: retention/extinction of traits through selective mating, i would guess, would be at the control of the female. the male of the species will mate with anyone willing to mate with him ;-). also, this doesn't even make logical sense unless women too prefer to mate with dark haired men or fake blond men. even so, blondeness is a recessive gene, i would venture, so even in mating involving dark-haired couples, wouldn't there be a 1/4 (to keep the problem simple let's leave out other colours) chance that there will be a blond child (if the population is fairly heterogenous)? do i need to see a therapist for taking the post so seriously? ;-) --ravi
Re: What email lists are for
--- Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Carrol Cox: Sabri, you simply have to acknowledge that a maillist post, usually a fairly hastily written first draft, and almost always rather short for the topics being covered, is not an article in a scholarly journal. It is exactly this notion that makes email lists, especially and ironically those that are geared to academia, pretty worthless in my opinion. Perhaps that's because academia is largely sterile. Think of spontaneous, unedited e-mail lists as places to have intellectual conversations using written language. They are not necessarily good places to show academic chops (nothing makes we want to puke more than seeing someone aggrandize themselves with details of their latest accomplishment) nor great venues for scholarly exchange of the sort paraded out in academic journals. Sure, a lot of ideas get stolen on lists like this, no citation or credit given. That is why some people spectate here. But that is the nature of the internet. Because you give ideas away, explicitly people will say much of the discussion is worthless even as they plunder away. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: bullying
--- Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: whatever the functionality of of 'American democracy' is, we have to recognize that the vast majority of U.S. citizens see the country as democratic, though they usually see that democracy as flawed. The Bill of Rights is especially popular. Sure, people in the armed forces would tell you they were happy with American democracy, even though most don't even have the basic rights of citizens. Most wouldn't know they had given up those rights when they joined. Most would think they were still citizens of the democracy. But the functioning of a political system or society doesn't necessarily turn on reified opinion gathering about abstractions like 'American democracy' our founding fathers gave us and the 'Bill of Rights'. Ask people about their rights in the workplace or in their local community, and you get a far different picture. If the US experiences a prolonged recession and the usual misguided overshoot/shots in the foot in trying to deal with it, disillusionment in institutions is sure to grow. I was watching C-Span while back in the States and they had an interesting call in program where the 'objective' host read excerpts from newspapers on the coming war with Iraq and then took 'yes' or 'no' calls. All the 'no' calls sounded like they were middle aged or elderly African Americans (as far as I could tell from the accents and diction). CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Re: What email lists are for
aren't you folks generalizing a bit too much? there are semi-academic mailing lists that are extremely productive. half the protocols and technologies that you are using, to carry out this very discussion, sprang from discussions on such lists. --ravi
Re: Re: bullying
I was disappointed that my note about the real bullying of the United States degenerated into a rhetorical debate until Seth jumped in. His point about the rise of socialism in the early part of the last century was interesting, but, in fact, socialism was growing very rapidly throughout the United States and Europe. Interestingly enough, debates about humanitarian intervention destroyed the momentum of socialism in the Atlantic economies. Some socialists argued that the first world war was justified; others disagreed. Seth Sandronsky wrote: Hi Tom, In the July/August 2002 Monthly Review, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes about left organizing and Okies nearly a century ago: Between 1906 and 1917, the Wobblies and the Socialist Party won converts on a mass scale in Oklahoma. They adopted the religious evangelist techniqueindeed many evangelists were themselves converts to socialismof holding huge week-long encampments with speakers, usually near small towns. In 1915 alone, 205 of the mass encampments were held. The Socialists never won a statewide race in Oklahoma, but their percentage steadily increased from 1907 to 1914. In 1914, the Socialist candidates for governor and senator won 21 percent of the vote and they won five seats in the state legislature, along with many local offices. These phenomena were occurring in the states Indian and African-American communities as well as the white ones. full: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0702dunbar.htm US-style leftism is a complex thing :- Seth Sandronsky Re: bullying by Tom Walker 02 October 2002 Carrol Cox wrote, To call the Bush administration fascist is capitalist apologetics. It is also bad American history. The Bush administration's ideological extremism is as American as cherry pie. Fascism was European and too damned intellectual. The U.S. had an organized, well-financed, ideologically extreme and politically influential anti-labor, anti-democratic movement back in the days when Mussolini was still a marxist labor union organizer. It was called the National Association of Manufacturers (and its front groups like the Citizens' Industrial Associations), although it was referred to as the invisible government when the scandal broke about the extent of its power and corruption. These folks developed their own labels and slogans Americanism, The Free Enterprise System, Right to Work. Jack London's The Iron Heel (a bad novel in my opinion) was not a premonition about European fascism, it was a melodramatic extrapolation of the policies of the N.A.M. The lineage of this faction of the U.S. ruling class runs right through subsequent U.S. history: N.A.M. opposition to the Roosevelt New Deal through its American Way propaganda, the passage of Taft-Hartley after the second world war, the House Un-American Activities Committee. It has had a large presence in the Republican party throughout the 20th century, but is not identical with it. While fascism borrowed from European intellectual currents, extreme right Americanism owes more to revival tent evangelism and patent medicine shows. Tom Walker 604 255 4812 _ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
RE: Re: bullying
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30825] Re: bullying Charles writes: Sure, people in the armed forces would tell you they were happy with American democracy, even though most don't even have the basic rights of citizens. Most wouldn't know they had given up those rights when they joined. Most would think they were still citizens of the democracy. But the functioning of a political system or society doesn't necessarily turn on reified opinion gathering about abstractions like 'American democracy' our founding fathers gave us and the 'Bill of Rights'. I'm not the one doing the reifying. It's the people in the U.S. who do so. If the left ever wants to get anywhere, it needs to be conscious of political opinion (without kow-towing to it). The Bill of Rights wasn't given. It represents a victory of the more plebian social forces of the age (an era before the rise of the proletariat). Ask people about their rights in the workplace or in their local community, and you get a far different picture. If the US experiences a prolonged recession and the usual misguided overshoot/shots in the foot in trying to deal with it, disillusionment in institutions is sure to grow. Of course, disillusionment could be harnessed by the right-wing forces, too. Many take their disillusionment and turn it into support for _laissez-faire_. JD
re: Question re. work time
Rob asked, Was it here I read the other day that when Britain was moved to a 3-day week by the energy crisis of '74, they found that productivity did not decrease? If so, I'd love a cite and/or anything else that comes to mind. Potent datum, if it's true, no? Rob, One can't extrapolate from a short-term response to a crisis. For example, people working to a tight deadline on a project may put in many hours of overtime yet at the same time increase their hourly productivity. Besides, the question of work time is not an economic issue, it is a moral one. Hard work builds character ergo more hard work builds better character (see Hastert, 2002). Or so we're told. And told. And told. Although one could demonstrate in a three-hour seminar the feasibility of a 15-hour work week from the standpoint of productivity, one could never do it from the standpoint of morality. I use the term morality loosely (as do we all these days). I should clarify that by morality I mean fealty to the seven deadly sins* -- an expressly Satanic morality, perhaps, but the best we can do under the circumstances. Better than nothing, eh? One could compose a respectable corporate vision statement simply by expounding on the theme of each of the seven. In economic geometry terms, the deadlies could be summarized by the expression demand curve. The problem -- the moral problem -- with a shorter work week is this (there is no other way to say it): what would happen to the economy if people were to grow WEARY of sin? *Pride, Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: Re: Re: walkout
On 2 Oct 02, at 6:26, Bill Lear wrote: I've had some experience with this sort of technology, to use a poor term (it has more to do with organization of work). The problem with this explanation is that it assumes remote links do not degrade the efficiency of the job. Direct and spontaneous face-to-face human contact is the very best way to exchange information known to the universe. Put it through a video feed or conference call, and a lot gets lost. I had some experience with this a couple of months ago. A colleague from Europe needed an visa for an Asian country that his travel agent had forgotten to apply for. He was about to leave in about two weeks and had to send his passport back to Europe to have the visa added. He sent it back via UPS which promised two day delivery. The visa was added and sent back via UPS. On arriving in Winnipeg on a Thursday, it was intercepted by Canada Customs (not surprisingly) who phoned me (it was sent to my address) to make sure it was legitimate. I explained the situation to the customs clerk who notified UPS that it could be picked up and delivered. Friday, it didn't arrive and my friend was flying out the next thursday. I went to contact the local office of UPS to see where it was (computer tracing). However, there is no local office, only a 1- 800 number for a tel-centre located somewhere in Atlantic Canada who didn't have a clue about what happened to -- but promised to look into it and call me back -- which they never did. I called again the following day. Still no news and, more importantly, no way they could check where it was in Winnipeg because they had no contact with the local operation. It didn't arrive on Monday. I called again. No information. It didn't arrive on Tues -- still couldn't help. It arrived finally Wednesday -- 5 days to get across Winnipeg from the airport -- a 20 minute drive. And at no time could the distant call centre trace what happened to it because they had no contact with the local people. Nor was there any way I could because they do not have a local office -- all long distance monitoring. Needless to say, I will never use UPS again -- but the real villain of the piece was the attempt to control and monitor routing and delivery by long-distance computer/call centre operations. Just imagine what could happen if the whole west coast longshore operations were subject to such problems. Paul Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
Re: important research!
Devine, James wrote: *How you say The Onion in German?* The [Washington] Post's Style section mentions an intriguing story that recently made the rounds on CNN, ABC, and CBS: According to a World Health Organization study, women with blonde hair are dying out, because men prefer to mate with fake blondes. The story prompted Diane Sawyer to lament that she's going the way of the snail darter. The thing is, WHO says it didn't do any such study. The networks apparently picked up the reference off of a German wire service. Today's NYT has a fairly long dissection of this important story http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/02/health/02BLON.html. But, as Jeff Greenfield might intone, there's a larger point here: all those big budget network TV news departments do very little original reporting or research - they just get stuff out of newspapers and magazines or from the wires. An old friend who worked on ABC's 20/20 back in the 80s said the major activity of the production staff was combing periodicals for potential stories. In this case, Sawyer's producers got the story from a British newspaper. Doug
RE: All out on Sunday!!!
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30830] All out on Sunday!!! is there anything happening in Southern California? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 11:04 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:30830] All out on Sunday!!! Please feel free to share with others. I am happy to pass on this post from Leslie Cagan. I will be there this Sunday. Bush has not yet won. The people of this country are not supporting the war. Help make that clear. David McReynolds - On Sunday, October 6th I will join with others in what hopefully will be a massive demonstration of opposition to the drive toward war. NOT IN OUR NAME grew out of the insane and horrifying direction the so-called leaders of this nation are taking us, and the rest of the world - war against Iraq, war at any time against any country in the name of fighting terrorism, repression and racism at home. There has already been a great deal of work done on this timely and important protest, including a battle with the city for the permit. But as we all know, there is no such thing as too much organizing. I plan to do all I can to get as many people as possible to participate in the rally next Sunday. I hope you will be there - and that you too will spread the word. Below is the call for the demonstration, with the details of time and location. Please send this out to all of your email lists as soon as possible. Bring your banners and signs, bring your friends and family, bring your commitment to stopping this madness. See you on Sunday, October 6th in Central Park!! Leslie Cagan _ WAR ON THE WORLD? NOT IN OUR NAME!! Sunday, Oct. 6, 1-5 p.m. Central Park East Meadow (96th and 5th Avenue), NYC For a year the bombs have been falling on Afghanistan, and now they're preparing for full-scale war on Iraq. The U.S. has spread its troops all over the globe and has drawn up a list of over 60 countries for possible military actions. Immigrants have been rounded up for interrogation, detention and deportation. Civil liberties have been slashed, secret, military courts have been set up, and they're trying to create a nation of snitches. Right now as they prepare for their war on Iraq and other horrors, they need us passive, intimidated and silent. You wonder, when will someone step out and say NO! This is our chance! The world needs to hear from us. Our message needs to be heard everywhere, from the White House to people all over the planet. We must break ranks and resist! Together in one voice, from New York City, ground zero, we will declare to the people of the world that we are determined to oppose, resist and STOP the injustices done by our government in our name. We'll form an image of the world and take the Not in Our Name Pledge of Resistance. We'll be there - will you? Some of those who'll be in Central Park October 6 are: Cynthia McKinney; actor and spoken word artist Saul Williams; attorney Lynne Stewart; filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding); Rev. Peter Laarman, Judson Memorial Church; actor/comedian Reno; Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Harlem; poet Vinie Burroughs; Leslie Cagan; Ken Estey and many more. Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
Re: Question re. work time
Rob, I couldn't think of a cite and had missed the Pen-L post that mentioned this. I looked in a book I'd reviewed a few years ago, with a list of about 120 cites, more or less, to studies on the impact on productivity of cutting working time. None were about the 3-day week experiment you mentioned, which I'd forgotten about. The book with the citations to the studies is: The Microeconomics of the Shorter Working Week by Marcus Rubin and Ray Richardson. Avebury, in Aldershot, UK, 1997. There is also a Sydney office listed. This isn't that useful a book but it does have the bibliography, stretching back to the 1930s but mostly from the 1970s - mid '90s. Gene Rob Schaap wrote: G'day all, Was it here I read the other day that when Britain was moved to a 3-day week by the energy crisis of '74, they found that productivity did not decrease? If so, I'd love a cite and/or anything else that comes to mind. Potent datum, if it's true, no? Cheers, Rob.
Re: What email lists are for
--- ravi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: aren't you folks generalizing a bit too much? there are semi-academic mailing lists that are extremely productive. half the protocols and technologies that you are using, to carry out this very discussion, sprang from discussions on such lists. --ravi Yeah, I know. Much of the internet is simply--about the internet. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: bullying
I'm not the one doing the reifying. It's the people in the U.S. who do so. If the left ever wants to get anywhere, it needs to be conscious of political opinion (without kow-towing to it). The Bill of Rights wasn't given. It represents a victory of the more plebian social forces of the age (an era before the rise of the proletariat). Why don't you cite just one opinion poll that supports your assertion--at least that way I'll have something of substance to rip to shreds. Otherwise, I'm not even sure its our little doggies that are being wagged. By the time the Bill of Rights was written up, the course of the American Revolution was a quite conservative thing. Note, too, how quickly those rights were taken away once the new republic hit its first crisis. Michael, don't be too disappointed that it degenerated into rhetorical debate. It started when you posted. That's the nature of the beast. I will say, well, the Sandanistas stood up to the US and look what it got them--a Clash 3 disk l.p. named after them and the start of urban guerilla chic. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Re: bullying
This is not the way that we communicate here on this list. Please, cool it. On Wed, Oct 02, 2002 at 04:04:18PM -0700, Charles Jannuzi wrote: Why don't you cite just one opinion poll that supports your assertion--at least that way I'll have something of substance to rip to shreds. Otherwise, I'm not even sure its our little doggies that are being wagged. Michael, don't be too disappointed that it degenerated into rhetorical debate. It started when you posted. That's the nature of the beast. I will say, well, the Sandanistas stood up to the US and look what it got them--a Clash 3 disk l.p. named after them and the start of urban guerilla chic. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
India: debt trap?
http://www.outlookindia.com The Silent Debt Wish As the reforms rabbit turns turtle, a severe internal debt trap is bogging India down Paromita Shastri Playing ostrich comes as easily to the Indian government as gradualism in reforms. So, on September 20, when rating agency Standard Poor's downgraded its rupee debt to junk, a year after another global rating agency, Moody's, signalled a warning, New Delhi's initial reaction was to flutter its eyelashes coyly. Next morning, presumably after much consultation, finance secretary S. Narayan called the media only to crib how unjustified the SP action was. Party functionaries were livid. Said BJP's Jagadish Shettigar: Why should we go by these agencies? They are not multilateral institutions like the World Bank. This is a politically-motivated decision, aimed at putting pressure on us to satisfy mncs disheartened with the brake on oil psu disinvestment. Was AT Kearney's study political too, the exercise in which India went out of its list of most attractive destinations for fdi, slipping from the 8th to 15th position? China, by the way, tops that list, displacing the US! It's natural for a borrower to be miffed with a downgrade of its credit rating. But to shout from the rooftop saying SP doesn't know what it's talking about and that India's debt-GDP ratio has remained constant for the past three years gives rise to the uncomfortable question: doth it protest too much? Especially when on the same day, the third rating agency Fitch announced it would review its rating of BB+, same as SP's now, next month. (Moody's hasn't yet changed its rating of Ba2-speculative-since it revised outlook on rupee debt to negative a year ago.) Forget the Shettigars, the economy is increasingly getting fearfully close to an internal debt trap. The 1990-91 crisis was external and now we have enough forex reserves, but we are as badly off as then on the domestic economy front. SP's chairman John Chambers puts it eloquently: India's coalition of two dozen political parties has been unable to contain its growing budget deficit, expected to reach 6 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal. The consolidated debt of the central and state governments is estimated to exceed 80 per cent of GDP this year. That's 84 per cent of GDP in the latest budget. What SP is actually doing is to put its concerns on record. Says Paul Coughlin, head of sovereign ratings for Asia-Pacific: The central fiscal deficit is compounded by the fiscal situation of the states and enterprises like the state electricity boards. Resources going into servicing domestic debt suggest that reliability of debt service has come more under question. If you think that's overstating the problems, look at what's happening around us. In two weeks after the disinvestment brake, fiis took $53 million out of India. Recently, US ambassador Robert Blackwill tore apart our liberalisation process. The reform rabbit can become a turtle, which can become a rock, he said, ruing the excruciatingly slow pace of change. Moody's Atsi Sheth is a bit kinder: Until recently, privatisation was viewed as the highlight of the reform programme. We view the recent interruption as temporary and not surprising given the history of liberalisation in India. However, she adds, we maintain that swiftly rising debt levels reduce fiscal flexibility, as even with lower interest rates, total interest payments continue to increase. Combined interest payments accounted for less than 20 per cent of government revenue in 1990 but was over 30 per cent in 2001. That's hurting growth. At home, economists have been talking of a Hindu rate of reform for some time.Hear out Shankar Acharya, former cea and author of a comprehensive summary of India's reform process: India has the dubious privilege of being fourth from bottom in fiscal deficit ranking. The economic history of many countries as well as ours points to the unsustainability of such high debt-GDP ratios and the enormous economic toll they exact. Adds Arvind Panagariya, professor, University of Maryland: The continued large deficits and the resulting domestic debt is clearly a source of serious concern. We simply cannot risk the macro-economic instability that will eventually result from these deficits. But with the elections coming up, the future looks bleak on this front. Sure, all countries have debts, but we are different. Below are some startling facets of our debt burden, not highlighted by Narayan and Co: The fiscal deficit (new debt) is growing steadily and fast. Only two countries-Albania and Lebanon-have worse figures, and two more-Mongolia and Zimbabwe-as bad, says the latest imf study on India. In 1995-96, the consolidated fiscal deficit (CFD) of the Centre and states was 6.5 per cent of the GDP. It's now 10.5 per cent despite the government's claimed efforts to contain it. If we add just the power sector losses, it rises to 12 per cent. This CFD doesn't include the contingent liabilities
Re: India: debt trap?
Maybe Marcella Perelman will give her report from Argentina now. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: bullying
Michael You are reading far too much emotion into it. Obviously, it's a complete failure to communicate, which seems to characterize much of your list when it's the same key players as Doug Fernwood's list,including Fernwood himself. I mean, just how do you guys communicate? It looks about as pathetic as that other list. Moderate and lead discussion or shut up. If you are looking for some sort of contest to establish who is alpha eunich on your list, then you can have it to yourself. You and Fernwood and Brad Delong and the like can duke it out on each others' lists. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
Re: Re: bullying
That would be your decision. You have considerable information to contribute, but bringing disputes over from other lists poisons the discussion here. It's your choice whether you want to participate or not, but participation will require a moderation of the behavior. On Wed, Oct 02, 2002 at 07:11:27PM -0700, Charles Jannuzi wrote: Michael You are reading far too much emotion into it. Obviously, it's a complete failure to communicate, which seems to characterize much of your list when it's the same key players as Doug Fernwood's list,including Fernwood himself. I mean, just how do you guys communicate? It looks about as pathetic as that other list. Moderate and lead discussion or shut up. If you are looking for some sort of contest to establish who is alpha eunich on your list, then you can have it to yourself. You and Fernwood and Brad Delong and the like can duke it out on each others' lists. CJ __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: bullying
Michael 1. I answered your rhetorical question: it was the Sandanistas who stood up to the US. Noriega did too, and actually put together a better military campaign against US forces than Hussein. 2. Why would you go out on the list as if to say the discussion was so unfruitful since for the most part you started it and then said very little? 3. The post which you just excoriated me on list for had nothing whatsoever to do with my clashes with Fernwood. 4. Almost none of what I have posted on this list has anything whatsoever to do with my clashes with Fernwood or his immoderate behaviour toward people he doesn't like. 5. Stop reading things into my posts because you think you know me from somewhere. 6. Please direct requests for clarification about what someone meant and calls for moderation when disputes arise (though this time I don't think there was even a disupte, unless JD wants to discuss the nature of the American revolution) to individual mails OFFLIST. Thanks C Jannuzi __ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
RE: Re: India: debt trap?
Who is Marcella Perelman (or Doug Fernwood for that matter)??
Re: RE: Re: India: debt trap?
She recently contacted me from Argentina and is now on pen-l. I am hoping to have her report on conditions there. Doug Fernwood is a fiction. On Wed, Oct 02, 2002 at 10:36:12PM -0500, Forstater, Mathew wrote: Who is Marcella Perelman (or Doug Fernwood for that matter)?? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
the other bears
[The Independent] Arctic pollution causing polar bears to change sex By Charles Arthur Technology Editor 02 October 2002 Polar bears, Arctic foxes and Inuit peoples are under threat from man-made toxins such as polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) that build up in the food chain, new research reveals. Environmental and animal groups are calling for a global ban on the production of the chemicals to safeguard the future health of those groups. Some scientists believe the PCBs are leading to gender-bender polar bears in Norway and Greenland, after the discovery of a number of female bears which had both male and female sexual organs. The report, produced by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme based in Norway, said the toxins followed air and water currents from as far as Asia to the remote and fragile Arctic environments of North America, Greenland and the Svalbard islands north of Norway. Inuit in Greenland and Canada have among the world's highest exposures to certain toxic chemicals as a result of long-range transport, said the report, Arctic Pollution 2002. The toxins, including potentially cancer-causing PCBs, build up in the food chain, especially in fatty tissue such as blubber in whales and seals. Blubber, being high in energy, is a key part of the diet for polar bears and the indigenous people of the Arctic. Samantha Smith, the director of the International Arctic Program for the World Wildlife Fund, which has endorsed the study, said: Those at the top of the food chain are hit hardest, and those are polar bears and humans. Most of these chemicals come from outside the Arctic, including the southern hemisphere, and are carried by wind and water currents. Without a global ban, we can't protect indigenous peoples and wildlife in the Arctic. In a separate study, female polar bears with both male and female sexual organs were discovered in 1997 on Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 300 miles (500km) north of the Norwegian mainland. Researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute now believe the deformity may be due to PCBs and other toxins. Ms Smith said similar hermaphrodite bears had also been found on Greenland. Such instances have previously been put down to the effects of accumulated PCBs. Though they are not believed to have the same effect in humans, they are thought to be carcinogenic. Arctic foxes, seals, killer whales, harbour porpoises and birds also suffer high levels of contamination by persistent organic pollutants that damage the nervous system, development and reproduction. PCBs are chemical compounds that do not occur naturally; they were once widely used in plastics and electrical insulation and can be produced by incomplete combustion of plastics. It can take decades for them to break down. Their use is now largely banned in the West. The Arctic Monitoring Programme also said levels of organic mercury, which can harm health and even cause death, had risen alarmingly, partly due to increased burning of coal in South-east Asia. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents Inuit peoples in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia, expressed concern at the report's findings and called on Arctic governments to work together to help protect the health of indigenous people. In May, the WWF warned that polar bears could disappear from the wild within 60 years due to global warming, which it said was already causing numbers to dwindle. The pack ice, which the bears need to travel long distances for food, has been thinning as temperatures rise, leading to fears that it will eventually be too thin to let them travel. When that happens, the population of about 22,000 could die out.
the greenspan standard
[NYTimes] October 3, 2002 Oh So Quietly, Fed Ponders What Follows Greenspan By RICHARD W. STEVENSON WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - It is one of the most delicate topics in Washington: how to plan for the day when Alan Greenspan, now 76 and in his 16th year as chairman of the Federal Reserve, is no longer at the economy's helm. But it will soon be broached - albeit indirectly and heavily cloaked in the jargon of monetary policy - through a proposal championed by a new Fed governor, Ben S. Bernanke, a former Princeton economics professor. Mr. Bernanke intends to raise the issue through an otherwise arcane debate over whether the Fed should adopt a numerical target for inflation to replace its vaguely defined goal of price stability. Mr. Bernanke is one of the foremost proponents of the approach, known as inflation targeting, and in bringing it to light he is setting the stage for what could be the first broad re-examination in years of how the Fed operates. The plan has many advantages, in the view of its supporters, including making the central bank more accountable for its performance and erasing any doubts the financial markets might have about the Fed's commitment to keeping inflation under control. But its most attention-grabbing selling point is that it could be perceived as a way to bottle Mr. Greenspan's magic for the ages. There will be a vigorous debate over inflation targeting when Alan Greenspan retires, said Alan Blinder, a former Fed vice chairman who returned after his term to Princeton's economics department, where he worked alongside Mr. Bernanke. The United States has been on the Greenspan standard, and the Greenspan standard has been very successful. Since we can't stay on the Greenspan standard forever, you might want to think of a system that is not so dependent on the skills of one person. The idea is that by locking the Fed into a commitment to maintain a specified low level of inflation, it would cement the gains made under Mr. Greenspan and minimize the chances that bad policy decisions by his successor could lead to a resurgence of inflation or, for that matter, an outbreak of deflation, that is, a generalized decline in prices. The approach has drawbacks, as well. By removing much of the discretion in policy making, it could limit the Fed's ability to change its strategy as the economy evolves. During the 1990's, for example, Mr. Greenspan kept interest rates much lower than traditional economic theory suggested in the belief that the economy could grow faster than projected without generating inflation. He was right, and the benefits included millions of new jobs. More recently, some economists have suggested that the Fed should broaden rather than narrow its inflation fighting to include the potential effects of stock market and real estate bubbles on the economy rather than simply focusing on the movements in prices of basic goods and services. Not surprisingly, Mr. Greenspan is chief among the skeptics about inflation targeting. He is joined in that skepticism by another new Fed governor, Donald L. Kohn, who was previously Mr. Greenspan's top monetary policy adviser. But most of the world's other big central banks have adopted some form of inflation targeting, and the idea has considerable support in academic circles and from a few Fed officials, including J. Alfred Broaddus, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. While adopting such an approach would involve complexities ranging from the proper measurement of inflation to changing the Fed's legislative mandate, its proponents say the prospect of an eventual changing of the guard at the Fed makes this the time to consider the issue. Although his reputation has been battered somewhat by the most recent recession and the bursting of the stock market bubble, Mr. Greenspan remains an almost iconic figure outside the Fed and within. He has given no indication that he intends to leave before his current four-year term as chairman ends in June 2004. Indeed, there is considerable speculation that Mr. Greenspan would like to stay on as chairman until his separate term as a board member ends in February 2006, when he would be a month from his 80th birthday. But there has been disquiet among economists about the apparent lack of preparation for the day when Mr. Greenspan is no longer there - and in particular about the difficulty of replicating his instinctive ability to read the economy and his seat-of-the-pants style of adjusting interest rate policy accordingly. Imagine that Greenspan's successor decides to continue the monetary policy of the Greenspan era, N. Gregory Mankiw, a Harvard economist, wrote in a paper last year. How would he do it? The policy has never been fully explained. Quite the contrary: the Fed chairman is famous for being opaque. If a successor tries to emulate the Greenspan Fed, he won't have any idea how. Promoting inflation targeting is a tricky role for Mr. Bernanke, a 48-year-old monetary
Today: Launch Event: Free
The Soleil Group The Asian-American Board The Lower East Side Committee bring you a celebration of the free spirit of New York's Lower East Side. This event has been created as a means of bringing positive people together in a pleasant ambiance. Please forward this message to interested parties. Excess Wednesdays (Oct. 2nd) @ Essex Restaurant 120 Essex St. @Rivington DJs Spinfamous Daddy Dog All types of music will be delivered 6pm-8pm Half Price Drinks Party 'til Late FREE, FREE, FREE!!! RSVP: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / If you RSVPed already please do so again as we had issues with our server. - The Soleil Group is currently hiring staff. Public relations specialists, event planners, promoters, and administrative positions are available. We also host special events and celebrations of all types. Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- If you wish to be removed from this list respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Remove and your email address in the subject. --
Water war
River Runs Through Mideast Dispute Israelis Angered by Lebanon's Plan to Divert Water for Parched Hamlets Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, October 2, 2002; Page A11 WAZZANI, Lebanon -- A 22-inch pipe plunges into a spring along the Wazzani River in southern Lebanon, meant soon to siphon water for delivery to nearby hamlets and help make the parched landscape bloom. Lebanese boys leap off the pipe for a cool swim, creating an innocent-looking scene of fun under the hot Middle Eastern sun. But the Wazzani River flows from Lebanon south into Israel, and the pipe's recent appearance, along with unrelated earthworks, has prompted a round of regional tension. Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said Lebanon's plans to pump water from the Wazzani could become grounds for war because the pumping would deprive Israel of water from the river. A former Israeli water commissioner said Israel could solve the problem with a few tank shells. Lebanon's government has insisted it is well within its rights to draw water from the river. Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement whose militia controls southern Lebanon's frontier, dared Israel to interfere. Syria, one of Hezbollah's backers, promised unspecified support if the tensions erupt. Tensions are nothing new here. Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation. Since then, violence has occasionally broken out over a disputed patch of border territory known as Shebaa Farms, with Hezbollah bullets and rockets flying one way and Israeli bullets and bombs the other. full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29916-2002Oct1.html Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
All out on Sunday!!!
Please feel free to share with others. I am happy to pass on this post from Leslie Cagan. I will be there this Sunday. Bush has not yet won. The people of this country are not supporting the war. Help make that clear. David McReynolds - On Sunday, October 6th I will join with others in what hopefully will be a massive demonstration of opposition to the drive toward war. NOT IN OUR NAME grew out of the insane and horrifying direction the so-called leaders of this nation are taking us, and the rest of the world - war against Iraq, war at any time against any country in the name of fighting terrorism, repression and racism at home. There has already been a great deal of work done on this timely and important protest, including a battle with the city for the permit. But as we all know, there is no such thing as too much organizing. I plan to do all I can to get as many people as possible to participate in the rally next Sunday. I hope you will be there - and that you too will spread the word. Below is the call for the demonstration, with the details of time and location. Please send this out to all of your email lists as soon as possible. Bring your banners and signs, bring your friends and family, bring your commitment to stopping this madness. See you on Sunday, October 6th in Central Park!! Leslie Cagan _ WAR ON THE WORLD? NOT IN OUR NAME!! Sunday, Oct. 6, 1-5 p.m. Central Park East Meadow (96th and 5th Avenue), NYC For a year the bombs have been falling on Afghanistan, and now they're preparing for full-scale war on Iraq. The U.S. has spread its troops all over the globe and has drawn up a list of over 60 countries for possible military actions. Immigrants have been rounded up for interrogation, detention and deportation. Civil liberties have been slashed, secret, military courts have been set up, and they're trying to create a nation of snitches. Right now as they prepare for their war on Iraq and other horrors, they need us passive, intimidated and silent. You wonder, when will someone step out and say NO! This is our chance! The world needs to hear from us. Our message needs to be heard everywhere, from the White House to people all over the planet. We must break ranks and resist! Together in one voice, from New York City, ground zero, we will declare to the people of the world that we are determined to oppose, resist and STOP the injustices done by our government in our name. We'll form an image of the world and take the Not in Our Name Pledge of Resistance. We'll be there - will you? Some of those who'll be in Central Park October 6 are: Cynthia McKinney; actor and spoken word artist Saul Williams; attorney Lynne Stewart; filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding); Rev. Peter Laarman, Judson Memorial Church; actor/comedian Reno; Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Harlem; poet Vinie Burroughs; Leslie Cagan; Ken Estey and many more. Louis Proyect www.marxmail.org
